| Untagged | 23 May 2007 3:37 AM |
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| Life in the Hinterlands by Mike Ameling | ||
Well, there's a first time for everything. And this is my first ever blog. I've only read a few before. We'll see if this "old dog" can learn a new trick.
I spent most of yesterday making 56 iron and 6 brass fish hooks - based on originals dating from the mid to late 1700's. Most were made without barbs, but all were made "blind eye" - with the end flattened/flaired instead of with a loop eye. These are for a museum tradegoods display. They wanted most without barbs as many originals were, because they allow kids to actually handle the trade goods. No barbs means that they won't get stuck in anybody - when some kids start messing around (as they so often do).
Now I have to make up some more flint strikers. I just received pictures of several early English flint strikers - dated 1590, 1620, and 1635. I love reproducing originals. And then I have to work on several from a Seneca Indian village from the mid 1600's in upstate New York. They were probably of Dutch origin received from traders out of New Amsterdam on Manhattan Island - which became New York City when the British conquered it. Just another little "footnote" during all those early economic/trade wars.
So it goes out here in the Hinterlands.
Mike - waiting for the forums to come back
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Show/Hide commentsI made an even dozen flint strikers this afternoon. 2 of the Scottish snail style, 4 of the English 1590, 4 of the English 1620 style, and 2 of the English 1635 style.
All of the English styles looked sooooo simple and easy to make. Well, so much for looks. They were all deceptively simple to look at, but more than a little complicated/tricky to replicate. I made 2 each of both of the 1590 and 1620 styles as I figured out the correct starting length of steel, where to fuller/flatten/draw out the ends, and curl/curve the ends - to get them to look right compared to the originals. Then I adjusted things and made 2 each to refine the style. Those little "tweaks" helped a lot. The first 4 are more of examples of the shape/style, the next 4 are much closer in size/shape to the pictures of the originals. And the next ones will be better still.
Now to work on some Viking era styles (more properly called the Northmen). Check out the Viking Answer Lady's web site under the Technology link for pictures of originals. www.vikinganswerlady.com
So goes life out in the Hinterlands.
Mike - that grumpy ol' German blacksmith
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I spent 7 hours of Tuesday "hacking back the wilderness" - more commonly referred to as mowing the lawn over at our Club's property. Hey, "hacking back the wilderness" sounds a whole lot more interesting than "mowing the lawn".
The Club property is an old farm place with around 20 acres of trees, brush, pasture, and pond around the buildings. We are converting the buildings into an 1870's cowboy/old west town - as time and money is available. Saloon, Hotel, Barbershop, bunkhouse, Livery, restaurant already mostly done, working on the Bank, new Marshall's Office, newspaper building, and Crib House Row. All this so that we can go there to "play" at re-creating history as it was on the frontier in the 1870's.
Unfortunately, I also picked up a nail in my pickup tire yesterday. So right away this morning I had to pull the tire and fix it - all before the rain storms got here.
Ah, well, it keeps life interesting. Now it's time to go out to the shop and ... beat up some iron. Hopefully, some of the stuff will be good enough to keep instead of just adding to the scrap pile.
So it goes out here in the Hinterlands.
Mike Ameling