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I Forge Iron

Viking bottle opener


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8 hours ago, Jason L said:

Would a corkscrew count as a bottle opener? I would imagine it's more likely to be period accurate although I can't remember if I've ever seen a viking era corkscrew or not. Is that a thing?

I hope you realise this is all fun and games?

I mean, this is all serious and not a joke.

Go ahead, corkscrew is a bit more work.

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Oh, I'm not participating, I was just curious, that's all. My forge is down for the moment. As for making a corkscrew, I would think it would be relatively easy, relative being the operative word. Just a small piece of flat bar twisted with a point on the end. Now I've got to go look and see when the earliest corkscrew found was made and by whom lol. 

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22 hours ago, Jason L said:

I would think it would be relatively easy, relative being the operative word

That is true. Corkscrews are a bit trickier than they look. I have made several and getting a long thin taper with out burning is tricky. The taper has to be even all the way down and if it is not thin enough it will not fit into the bottle or the center will be too tight to allow that bit of cork to pass through. Then making sure you twist it in the right direction. I am real good at making them backwards. But the trickiest part is spacing between the spirals. 

If you try and make one Mark Asprey has a video on how to do it i would suggest watching. 

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My ex-wife's mom and some of her people drink wine. I am still kind of close to them and made a few corkscrews for them. But me, most of the wine i have ever drank came in a box. I do like a good beer or a well aged whiskey though. 

Latticino, i like the one on the far right. Simple and graceful. 

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Just remember that a "Mastermyr" one should look brand new; not 1000 years old in the ground.  (A common problem in SCA; folks forgetting that their stuff should look "new" as supposedly they had "recently made or purchased it...At the Medieval Technology conference at PennState a couple of decades ago; one of the presenters was covering that point while talking about the Goldsmith's house in York that they were getting stuff for.  All to look newish except for 1 cabinet that the documentation said was "inherited" so they put a generation of use on it...)
 

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Thanks, I never thought of that.  Guess I don't drink to much with tabs (not a soda drinker, but have to admit the newer Guinness cans with the marble inside work pretty darn well to give you a fairly authentic pour).

The wife thinks I should try selling these.  I think I'm too slow (at least right now) to be able to make it worthwhile.  Etsy has some for under $20.  You have got to be pretty quick to make money at that price point. 

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Those are NOT $20 bottle openers! Set the bargain opener at $29.95 and go up from there. People can but bottle openers for a couple bucks anywhere. You are selling hand forgings which people want to show off so they need to cost enough the owner can brag about it.

I've been saying this since the mid-90s. Hand forged is selling bragging rights, not the product so much. 

I've told the story before but what the hey. I took up with a blade smith and we had a booth at the state fair in 95. He was selling big knives and I was doing fast little demos folks could watch start to finish in under 10 minutes. I settled on coat hooks with a leaf for the wall plate and a twisted shank. It got to where I was knocking them out in about 7 minutes.

I had them on my little steel table priced at $9.95 ea. or sets of 4 for $34.95 and was only selling one once in a while. The blade smith kept telling me I should be charging under $4. 

He went to lunch and I turned the price card over $19.95 ea. sets of four $75.95 and I couldn't make them fast enough. I refused to sell one as a display piece but a couple times folks started bidding. When the other SOB got back he kept telling me I'd finally gotten it I was charging too much until he noticed people were handing me $20 bills and refusing the penny change.

He was not pleased and didn't sell a single very expensive BIG  knife. I cleared a couple grand.

It's the bragging rights, people want to show off and who brags about how little something cool cost? People with custom knives tell you how much they paid, it's a major part of the brag. 

Hmmm?

Frosty The Lucky.

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Sorry I fell of the earth for a week (was on holiday and my wife confiscate my phone, to much workstuff).

So a week later than promissed.

She liked the dragon from BillyBones the most. Congrats!

Everybody else. Good work. Really nice pieces. Makes my want to practice more.

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