Carving a coat hanger from yew

Sitting beside the creek,  I brought myself some aged yew for a coat hanger.  The branch needs to have another branch forking away asymmetrically.  I split it with my bushcraft knife (Casström Sweden SFK 10). 

Shortened the fork with a saw.  

Then I added a little heart at the end to add that extra dose of whimsy 😉. 

Like so.  😉 I carved into the grain and got lucky! 

For the small radiuses it is more recomnendeable to use a Slöjd knife, because it typically has a more slender tip.  This one is my all-time favourite by some of the awesomest craftspeople I know,  Elsa and Svante Djärv . 

Bit of carving later,  I added some details.  

Now it is ready for a first oil coating and drying out completely in a bag of shavings. 

 And I earned myself another cuppa.  😉

Even though I do have to live through some pretty nasty times at the moment,  projects like that do go a long way in order to keep my resilience.  The place beside the creek wasn't too shabby either.  Don't let something like that be taken from you.  

Resilience is resistance.  

Nice and satisfying carving project: Carving a tea infusor

The other day I came across some wild bamboo that is invasive to Germany,  so out came the pocket knife.  I sawed off a section,  carved off the bark and smoothed out the rings.  With the awl I drilled two holes at the end. 

Next came some holes in the bottom. Take care not to drill too deep.  

Actually,  I did drill some holes into the sides later on, since it works a lot better.  

Then I carved a stick for a handle and to remove the tea from the infusor after use. 

Then I tried it out.  

 I made a Video of the process,  too.  

I hope that you enjoy the project as much as I did,  and I do trust you will best me! 

Take good care! 

Weird licce carving knife

Dunno if you know that feeling... you got that idea nagging at the back of your brain, but it is just too weird, so you don't get started for ages.  

Well, until you don't don't get started anymore...😜. 

That one above.  

Forged a skull  bottle opener.

But with a little marking blade on the other end. 
Little bit of ball peening, too.  

 The knife is pretty handy for woodcarving, even though it is not well suited for roughing.  Steel is 80CrV2. It would also make a nice bartender knife. I am currently thinking about adding a corkscrew.  

But for woodcarving detail work, it really shines. Not the last one I made, for sure.  

Yet another fun little carving project: Whittle a hobo clothespin

This is another beginner-friendly crafts project.  All you need is a Swiss Army knife again.  For wood, I choose hazel, because it is easy to carve when fresh and dries out to be tough and resilient, due to the long, dense grain.  You want to take a piece that is as straight as possible and with no twigs or branches.  At a right angle, drill a hole with the awl of the SAK.  Widen the hole with your little blade or by using the saw. 

I made a little Video about it on the YouTube channel: 

The hole acts as a stress relief hole. 

Using your little blade, carve a recession, Equalizer on both sides, towards the end of stick. Use the big blade to split the wood towards the relief hole. Do not forget to lock your elbows to your sides. Lightly work the blade into the end grain.  As soon as you feel the resistance of the wood go down, your stick is split.  

Now carve a tear-shaped hole towards the end of the stick. Be careful not to remove too much material from the end. 

With a scooping cut, remove the thickness at the middle of the clamp. What this does is reducing the spring resistance of the clamp. 

Add a V- or stop cut for decoration or for fixing the pin to the washing line with twine. Add another at the end to cut the clothespin from the branch. 

And just like that, you have a little helper that can also come in handy for re-closing packages. You can carve these as a beginner in just half an hour. 

 With more experience, however, you can carve one in less than ten minutes.  

For me, that is a quick and satisfying project, especially when you have little time.  

So, I hope that was halfway helpful.  Thanks for dropping by, and take good care! 

Another quick and easy carving project-whittling a mouse

The other day, a little lady came to the Slöjd meetup and asked whether I could carve a mouse. I had never done so, but we worked it out together.  And I thought I would share it with you.  You start by cutting with the saw of your SAK, one rectangular and the second diagonal to the first, but only half of the depth of the first. 

These serve as a stop cut. You can also use the blade, but the saw is a tad faster and maybe a bit safer. Take note that I left some length to the branch, the better to handle your carving. 

At the first stop cut, reduce the diametre of the stick. 

Carve a tip on that side of the cut.  That will be the snout of the mouse. Reduce the diametre of the branch behind the diagonal cut. This will become the ears and the body. 

With your saw, cut out a notch between the ears.  Be careful, because you are cutting with the grain, and the wood splits easily.  Refine the cut with the help of the little whittling blade.  

Carve the back of the body.  Refine the snout and back and saw the mouse off the branch. Refine the cut with your little whittler blade.  

 Carve the eyes and refine the snout and body.  

It is a really nice and fast project, satisfying also for kiddos.  You can of course refine the carving more, by working out the legs, or give it a more abstract form.  Make it your own! 

Shoutout to little Nele, who provided the inspiration for me to think about it! 

Hope you enjoy it, and take care! 

Baton, don't break

Course we do. We do it all. And there are a lot of knives on the market designed for exactly that. 

Which means that they are, at best a compromise. 

I am talking about batoning. Of course, the tool of choice is an axe or hatchet if you want to split wood. Even better, a froe. If you have none, you always risk breaking your belt knife, which really sucks. Or you carry around a froe with a tip and a different handle, aka Survival knife. You can find some which are really great cutters, too, no argument necessary. But fact is, batoning puts a lot of stress on a blade. 

This is how I like to do it. 

Gently tap the spine of the knife so that a crack opens. 

 Whittle a glut or wedge. 

At first, insert the glut below the edge of the blade. The knife will then be easy to remove. 

With a controlled motion, using one hand to keep the wedge in the crack, turn it towards the top. 

Split the branch with the wedge. 

Now you have two halves, e.g for whittling a spoon. 

International Hobbit day & Uncivilisation campout @Ahlhauser Hammer ironforge

 Blimey, what a weekend! We had a lot to do beforehand when organizing the event, and it was right stressful, but it all paid off. From 22nd to 25th of September we had scheduled the 1st International Hobbit Day and Uncivilisation Campout. The concept was simple: Have a good time and a lot of good food, do some bushcraft, crafting in wool, wood and steel, campfires, storytelling, hanging out with good folks, music and general fun.

 Nick had prepared an arrow target complete with a net and stuff to do some archery...

 Jonas, our "apprentice" was helping out.

 The finished arrow stand.

 It was still quite empty on Thursday, when people came from all over the place. They came from all over Germany and even Ireland to visit the event.

 This is exclusively for Gorges ;-), a gorgeous pig we prepared for the roast... turned out the spit could do with some mods still, but generally it could be made working.

 The magic troll amusing herself by watching Panda from Ireland smoking his axe ;-). Panda is one of my favourite human beings to date, even if I tend to like humans ever more and more less these days...

 The fireplace in all its beauty. Thanks to our senior blacksmith, the place was shining in the vibrant colours of flowers, and he added quite some hobbit flavour to the event, because he did not like at all all the dwarves spoiling his solitude...

 Erich brought this lovely water boiler... the original dates back to the Viking age... and the replica worked a cinch!

 Each and every morning Panda made us some lovely Irish pancakes for breakfast. In fact, we were eating the whole day through, just as it should be!

 Ben and Tina from the Westerwald enjoying their breakfast...

 ...as does Julia..

 Dr. Ilgenstein trying to save the life of licce piggy with matron Jan handing the tools...

 We stuffed the pig with dumpling dough, dried plums and apricots, celary, carrots, apples, onions, garlic and spices...

 Nick doing some physiotherapy... but alas, piggy did not actively work on its recovery...

 So we simply put it on a rod to cure in the flames.

 Kathrin and Julia were preparing dream catchers from chestnuts and wood and wool for the public which came in on Saturday.

 Jonas working on a splint for securing the pig additionally on the spit.

 Declan from Ireland (from the bonnie wee town of Ballycotton ;-)) discussing matters with Nick.

 The dreamcatchers for sale on Saturday.

 The booth of the lassies... ;-)

 ...

 Woooooool to catch your dreams.

 Socks made by Panda in naalbindning technique...

This is some lovely Viking jewelry Kathrin and Julia made from brass, copper and silver wire in Viking knit technique.

 ...

 Tina was offering tutorials in making leather pouches with the kids.

 Henning in a joyous mood... most people were relaxed and laidback, and not many quarrels in sight ;-). perfect. And I daresay a huge portion of the relaxed and laidback atmosphere is due to Henning´s intervention. He just knows a thing or two about working with people, and I cannot thank him enough for taking over this duty when my nerve failed me.

 Ben was a right pleasure to have around... dude, I´ll miss exchanging insults with you- and not meaning it. ;-)

 The ladies righteously proud of their achievement.

 Now this was an absolute highlight. On a re-enactment fair at Altena we recently met with the band "Amulett", and it turned out they were actually fond of coming, and it seems they liked it a bit...

I should say there was a friendship forged, there, beside the campfire and under the mighty oak. Look at their website to listen to some samples of their music. I found it extremely cool that there was no huge combat bagpipe that was last tuned in the factory nor a big fat drummer clothed in drumsticks in sight, and they made some actual music. I had little time to listen, but what I heard was really pleasing my ears that are a bit sore from listening to that bagpipe mayhem that´s nowadays tauted "medieval folk music". Way cool! ;-)

 Danuta enjoying the sun!

 Our new treasurer keeping an eye on financial issues. Jan really worked his arse off and even found time to persuade his granddad to come, and Mr. Diefenthal actually came to visit.

Now anyone know Bill Moran? Yeah, THAT Bill Moran, as in founder of the ABS-Bill-Moran. Now Bill Moran learned a trick or two from the "Reichsschmiedemeister" of the 3rd Reich Paul Müller. Now Mr. Diefenthal was apprentice together with this guy and thus shares the same knowledge. But while Paul Müller was a Nazi, Mr. Diefenthal was not. I had the outright privilege to talk to him, and he agreed to tell us what he knows, and I hope to be able to persuade him to make a blog post about him later on. Anyway, Jan would very much like to keep up the family tradition, and we will try our best to contribute to that!

 Julia enjoying herself...

 The campsite. The magic troll had brought our new tent, and while it was damn cold at night, I have rarely slept that much relaxation into four hours of sleep!

 Panda and Tamara, his lovely woman.

 ...and their... ahem... bunny? Bunny apparently fun himself, even if he slept most of the time. He certainly is one of the laziest hares I know.

 We partied well into the night...

 Passements by the magic troll...

 Erich enjoying a "Schlenkerla" Frankish smoked stout. That beer is one of the best I tasted, and one of the most unusual to boot. We drank gallons of it and it´s just one step short of becoming the official ironforge beer! Tina, the "landlord´s black-eyed daughter" all the while has a laughing fit. Laughing fits were easy to come by... :-)

 Henning in re-enactment attire...

 Erich shopping for honey whisky...

 ....

 Yours truly  having a sit-down and a cuppa  coffee.

 ...

 Ronja, the granddaughter of the beaming Ewald (our landowner) enjoyed the company and getting the archery and storytelling bug bad.

 Crazy Irishman being lazy... lack of potatoes, I guess ;-). (By the way, how many potatoes do you need to kill an Irishman?



---NONE---)

 On Saturday it was Jan´s birthday, and Panda made him a Pandapancakebirthdaycake...;-)

 Panda practicing his supernatural Pandapancakemaking-skills...

 ....

More axe-smoking....

 The pig was delicious...

 Erich came over with his vintage Ford van. We hid it behind the re-enactment tents, but it certainly did not deserve to be hidden.

Nick enjoying a pipe...

 ...

Pics from the camp...

 Nele watching... erm ... anyone know what became of those gummy bears? :-D

 It was a really cool weekend with really cool people. I am looking forward to next year´s events!

If you want to join in the next International Hobbit Day Event from Friday, the 22nd of September to 24th of 2017, please apply to the Ahlhauser Hammer site on facebook or at www.retzgen.de/hammer. We welcome any traditional craftsmen, bushcrafters and reenactors with the one limitation in the re-enactment camp that we want to concentrate on early, high and late medieval re-enactment (and high quality LOTR enactment) and do not want to put on a "common" LARP or MPS event, because there are enough of them around. We will also dispatch sensibly and make clear which is which.

We look forward to meeting you in person!