Catching Up

Trip Home for Christmas

Here is our beautiful tree, decorations courtesy of Ithaca's forests.

 My nephew, Kemper, looking dapper in his winter hat

 Me, looking slightly less dapper

Quality time selfie!

 Nap time selfie!

 One of the cooler gifts I received was a hard cider brew kit. Thanks to my brother and sister-in-law.

 Day one. My first batch is a cherry/apple cider.

Day three, blow off tube soon to be removed and replaced with a breather

A Few Projects

                                   

 I bought a wine barrel.  

 I designed this bench to be made from barrel staves. one day I will probably build it too.

 I got as far as selecting my lumber and beginning to lay it out but time and Marjie put the project on hold for the time being.

I did find other creative uses for the extra staves

I sanded them down, and drilled flat bottomed holes into them to make candle holders. Not pictured are the coat hangers I also made, but didn't photograph.

A finished product.

Keith and I started an etsy store, selling axes and the like. This was my idea for a logo.

Sold this axe a few days after it went up in the store. Note the beautiful leather mask that Keith made.

Bye bye, axe. Hope you have fun at you're new home.

Picked up some new stock for the store

This is a "Black Raven" axe. the are hard to find, and highly sought after. should sell quickly once I finish cleaning her up

Vinegar bath to loosen up the rust 

 Then it's just a whole bunch o' sanding by hand.

The hammer turned out so nice, I decided to keep it.

I did all these projects on this tiny makeshift table. Note the cinder blocks, its only about 2 1/2 feet tall.

I got so sick of it, that one weekend morning I drove to Harbor Freight and got myself a nearly proper workbench. It's alright, worth the price is how I would describe it. It was a bitch to put together.

Metal workings

 Craftsman 3.5 lbs axe I found at an old hardware store.

After the first round of cleaning.

 Nice, new handle, note the grain is impeccable.

 Decided to try painting the handle, ala "Bestmade" axes.

I think it came out pretty well.

It's something of a tradition now, that when I'm working on an edged tool, I cut my hand.

 My pops liked my finished axe so well, he gave me his old pickaxe to clean up.

 I decided to do something a little different though.

Okay, maybe a lot different.

 Since my dad probably doesn't have alot of mining in his future, but he does love to have bonfires, I thought he could use a pickaroon more.

 The tradition lives on! This was actually pretty scary, my angle grinder bounced, while cutting off one of the forks of the pick, and landed right in my palm. Remind me to write a thank you note to the "Condor" glove company.

 I think it looks pretty cool!

 Quick coat of paint for some rust protection.

 That bastard is a beast! Sharp as hell and every bit as functional as it is pretty!

Mandatory in-shop selfies.

 This next project has been going on for about 6 months, Turning another old file into a draw knife.

Heated up the tang to red hot and actually burnt it through this scrap piece of cherry to make the first handle. That's all the further this is as of now.