Mr Smith

Shiver me timbers! 'Tis a fine weapon ye have there, me hearty!

Nice work Rich! Keep 'em coming!

For those that are curious... those are "cat washing tongs". They're tongs used for giving a cat a bath. :)

Alan - I love the "students of old technology" descriptor... consider it stolen! ;-)

TIG's yer best bet. Dunno how much you know about TIG, but it's like oxy, in that you use a filler rod. My old man knows a fair bit - I'll ask him next time I see him. (In fact, he worked for Austal, when I was a little fellow)

Files, as in metalworking files, or computer files? ....I'm listening.. :)

Here we go !

G'day all! Just to let you all know, Baby Rachel Evelyn Briggs was born at 10:44 this morning, Perth time (GMT+8), weighing 9lbs, 10oz! Mother and baby doing very well - Dad feeling a bit frazzled! Will post pics soonish!

What's been done on this one is that the hole has been drilled, then the top part hammered in. That's just another way of doing it, it'll keep the ball in the right place, when you hammer it down I s'pose. I'd say there are many ways of depriving a feline of its epidermis! :)

Good idea on the shop vac KK, I'm always covered in muck after sanding, etc

Just a question with the paint.... What kind of paint is that? Did ya use stove black, or the high temp paint?

Irn - Nice tools! I like the heat shield idea! That's pinched! Ian - There's Poms and then there's Poms. Notice I used a capital 'P'? I remember there was a safari park up the road from us, with a sign out the front that read "Englishmen on bicycles admitted free!" Chin up - I suspect Dale (if that is his real name) is using it as a term of affection! :)

Nice work, Alan! A fire rake, or a poker is the traditional first project, it would seem! May I ask why there was all that hammering, though? Some sort of exercise? I'll post a picture of my first project, one day.. It doesn't look anywhere near as good :)

The scary part is that there are dozens of photos like this on the web. Blokes on scooters carrying tons of stuff. Great photo, Ferrous!

No worries Keykeeper! No apology necessary! I posted this plan up, because until the last six months or so, we had no opportunity to sell things for our own profit. In that six months or so, this simple jig has paid for itself several times over. If folks want more details on it, and want to know more, I'm only too happy to help out. I'd rather take a few minutes to answer questions, than you spend a day making a tool that doesn;t work! We had a bloke turn up at Royal Show time, some five years after buying the original spoon, with it still on their keyring. They show up, looking for the bloke who made it. On the subject of making a bigger spoon, I'm already working on it. Long story short, I brought my lunch in one day, but forgot my spoon. Necessity is the mother of invention, so they say I agree with you, mate.. let it go.. I'll have another plan for us to argue about next week :)

Thomas, Look, what you are asking is quite absurd. You are asking me to state that we have, in the city of Perth, a local historian who specialises in medieval cutlery, and further specialises in cutlery made from horseshoe nails, otherwise I'm clearly talking out of my hat. I'm not going to do any such thing. You have your 28 years of SCA experience, that's fine. You want to make vague references to "the University", that's fine too. You big Ug, me little Ug. My intention was to provide the members of this site with a tool which is both interesting, adaptable, and (possibly) lucrative. I posted it in response to a direct request for such details from another member. If you don't like the "medieval" overtones, then don't use them. Many objects sold at blacksmithing demos are passed off as "lucky", such as horseshoes, etc. Follow suit. I even gave away a bottle of slack-tub water to a lady at a demo, because she claimed it cured warts! Sell them as lucky spoons! Do whatever you like with them! I described them as "medieval" based on the best information I have. As far as I'm concerned, in the absence of any technical questions, I've exhausted the possibilities of this thread.

Thomas, I'm confused. You've corrected someone else for saying, rightly, that the 17th century was not part of the medieval period, but then you use the 19th century as an example. Then, you go on to say, that the average peasant could not afford meat, or spices, and would balk at paying a negligible amount for a cooking utensil, but then suggest that a similar item made from silver would be fine. The reason for silver knives being used, as you rightly say, is because the acids in many foods corrode iron. It is also the reason why, at fancy banquets and dinners, the ettiquette was to start from the cutlery on the outside of your place setting. The knives on the outside were silver or silver-plated and could deal with the acid. Spices being largely dry, however contain very little acid. I have no trouble accepting that horn spoons *were* used. Long story short -we've had these spoons confirmed as being authentic by local medieval historians, otherwise we wouldn't advertise them as such.

I wouldn't pay *that* much! My first thought was "they left a zero off - it should be 300lb!", but no :)

G'day all! Weighing in with my $0.02AUD... I have/had a bunch of hammer with fibreglass handles. All of them, bar none have shed their handles, whereas my wooden ones are still sitting pretty. So when I rehandled all of them, I shaped the (wooden) handle with a drawknife, then smoothed them just a *little* on the linisher, or with the roughest sheet of wet and dry I can get my hands on. I don't get *any* blisters, and my hands don't get slippery. I have another (4lb) hammer, with the handle it came with. The handle is varnished, and of course blisters and slips and all sorts. :(

Ian! These are great! Keep 'em coming!

G'day all! Here's my how-to for this week. I've managed to get a scanner than can knock out .pdf files. You'll need Adobe Acrobat to read them, but I think you'll agree, it definitely improves the detail I can show you in terms of file size. Anyway, as usual, enjoy, and please don't hesitate to pitch in with comments, etc. P.S. Glenn, your BP is still on its way (Honest!) BP0387 Draw knife from a File :) img003.pdf

FWIW, As far as I've been told, folks used these tiny spoons, because spices were scarce and therefore expensive. Carving on from horn would be a long process, compared with having one knocked out at the smithy for a groat. As for diet in that time, you only have to look at the names of various meats to get an answer. Bear in mind that the French ran England from 1066. Cow = beef (from the French boeuf) Pig = pork (from the French Porc) Sheep = mutton (from the French moutton) conversely Chicken = chicken lamb = lamb fish = fish I would suggest that, given the above, the peasants (at least in England) would have had a diet containing meat. It would have been the least land, money, and labour expensive. I would also suggest that their immune systems would have been more robust than ours, meaning that what we today would consider bad, might have been eaten with gusto

Here's some more pictures!

G'day Erik! Welcome aboard!

What an anvil is, is a solid object against which you can hit a hot metal object. Does this object fit those criteria? That's what you are asking :)