Wooden Measuring Spoon

Tags

carving, carving knife, coffee spoon, spoon, sugar spoon, wood spoon, woodcarving

I carved this little elongated spoon the other day.  I have been calling it a coffee spoon as that is the function it has been used for.  Again the wood is probably not the best, but I have had a hard time finding some wood that is more suited for spoons.

Overall it was a fun little spoon to make.  It only took me about 30-40 minutes to carve.  I chopped out the profile with a small hatchet and then carved the rest with a Mora 120 short blade knife and a Mora spoon knife.  Then I coated it with walnut oil as usual.

Dave

Purse Net made with a Net Needle

Tags

blacksmith, hand forged spike, net making, net needle, purse net, small game, survival situation

Here is a purse net that I made with the net needle from my last post.  I made this net from #18 nylon twine.  It has a 1″ brass ring on each side.  These give you something to start and end the netting on.  They also provide a loop for the tightening cords to cinch the net down around the small game you are going after.  I also hand forged a spike to be used for staking it into the ground.

Here is the net in its deployed position.  This is the way the net would be laid over a rabbit hole.

The net stretched out.

Detail of the brass loop and the way the net is attached to it.

There you have it.  A net that could be used for catching small game.  When rolled up, these nets are pretty small and do not weigh very much.  You could easily throw it into your pack for catching small game in a bushcraft role or a survival situation.  I guess it is popular for Brit’s to go after rabbits with these nets.  From the video’s I have seen, they are very successful at it.

Overall this net took me about two hours or so.  Not bad considering that I double knotted every knot and it was my first attempt at making a purse net.

I hope that you enjoyed the little write up.  If you have questions or if you just enjoyed this post, please leave a comment.  I would enjoy hearing from you.

Dave

Net Needle

Tags

net, net making, net needle, nylon cord, red oak

I recently became interested in net making.  All that you really need to make nets is a net needle and a gauge board.  The gauge board is a simple piece of wood that makes the specific mesh size of the net.  The ones I have been using are just a board that is 1.5″ x 6″ and about 1/8″ thick.  I have been using a needle that I made pretty quick that is a little small so I decided to make a better one.

This one is 1 inch wide and 9 inches long.  It is also just 1/8″ think and made from red oak.  These are made to wind the cord around so that it acts as a bobbin holding the cord and allowing you to thread it through the net as you go.

Dave

Green Woodworking, by Drew Langsner

Tags

axe, book, chair, Drew Langsner, froe, Green Woodworking, handcrafting wood, knife, log

I received a copy of Drew Langsner’s book entitled Green Woodworking for Christmas from my wife.  I have spent some time reading through it and find it is a good reference for green woodworking.  If you are new to this craft I would highly recommend this book.

While this book is out of print you still can get used copies from places like Amazon.com.  This copy is in pretty good condition other than the dust cover.  I ended up taping the dust cover back together.  It may not be the prettiest thing around, but it is still functional for keeping the books hardbound cover clean.

In this book, Langsner goes into detail about various tools and methods for green woodworking.  The book is broken down into three parts.  “Part One” contains two short chapters which talk about what green woodworking is, and how it relates to different cultures.  “Part Three” has a chapter on different profiles of people Langsner has met in the craft of green woodworking.  There are also plans for a shaving horse and directions for making bark seats under this section.

The section that is of the most interest to myself is “Part Two”.  In this section there are eight chapters that deal with materials, knife-work, hewing, riving, shaving, boring, bending, and joinery.  These chapters give a good foundation for the tools required for green woodworking and their usage.  At the end of each chapter there is a project that will put the tools and techniques that you learned to use.  This is helpful because not only do you read about the techniques, but you also get a chance to try them out on a project that is outlined in detail.

Overall I would say that this is a well thought out book.  I personally think that if you are interested in green woodworking, you should have a copy of Drew Langsners Green Woodworking on your bookshelf.

Dave

Beam Hooks

Tags

beam hook, blacksmithing, forge, forging, hook, log cabins, metal work, pole barns, post hook

I made these beam hooks a little while back.  Some people call them post hooks as well.  Regardless, the reason behind their name is that they were traditionally used by hammering them into beams or posts in buildings.  A lot of the old homes of the time were either timer framed or log construction, so these hooks could just be hammered into any place where they were needed.  This saved the blacksmith from having to make nails to mount them.  In the modern world they tend to get used in pole barns or log cabins.  People will often hammer them into trees to hand things in their yards.

I made these from 3/8″ round stock.  Then I hammered them into a square shape and drew out the ends.  One has a single twist while the other has a double.

Simple Wooden Mallet

Tags

john alexander, shaving horse, wooden mallet

I have often thought that a wooden mallet would be useful around the shop.  One of the things I plan on making in the near future is some furniture.  I am interested in trying my hand at making chairs in the style that John Alexander has made popular in his book entitled “Make a Chair from a Tree”.

One tool that I will need to build these chairs is a shaving horse.  I figured that when I build the shaving horse that I could use a steel hammer to install the legs and so forth, but I would rather have a more traditional tool for the job.  So I decided that a wooden mallet is something that I should build first.

A simple wooden mallet can be made from just two pieces of wood.  Not only is this style of wooden mallet simple to build but it can be made in a short amount of time.

You need a section of log 4 to 6 inches in diameter and about 6 to 8 inches long for the mallet head.  The bark could be left on or removed.  I chose to remove the bark and chamfer the edges of the striking surfaces to help reduce chipping.

Drill a hole in the center of the mallet head to take a handle.  In my case I drilled the hole with a hand brace and 1″ bit.  Then you can carve a suitable handle that will fit the hole tightly.

All that is left to do is to drive the handle into the mallet head.  I made it so that the handle was a tight fit and therefore did not use glue.  You could use glue though if you like.  Another method of assembly is to allow the handle to dry and install it into a green mallet head.  Then when the head dries it will shrink tight around the handle.

There you have it.  A simple wooden mallet that can be made in a short period of time with just a few materials.

Dave

Where is winter?

Tags

Alaska, cold, north, snow, winter, winter snow

Argg…  This winter is pretty much non-existent.   We have had snow a few times but other than that it just keeps warming up into the upper 30′s and 40′s and then melting off.  For me this is a big let down because I love winter and snow.  My wife and I recently moved to lower forty-eight from Alaska so this is especially hard for us.  After just a few short years we are longing for home and feel like it is time to start thinking about moving further north.    Oh north, will you welcome us back?

Homemade Froe

Tags

angle grinder, froe, leaf spring, mallet, metal work, riving, splitting, tools

Lately I have been in need of a froe for some of the woodworking I have been doing.  I have looked around for them on the internet and while you can still find a few companies selling them, they are not cheap.  Being the crafty type of person that I am, I decided that I would just take the time to make my own.

So what is a froe?  Well, since you asked, here is the definition from Wikipedia:

“A froe (or frow) is a tool for cleaving wood by splitting it along the grain. It is an L-shaped tool, used by hammering one edge of its blade into the end of a piece of wood in the direction of the grain, then twisting the blade in the wood by rotating the haft (handle). A froe uses the haft as a lever to multiply the force upon the blade, allowing wood to be torn apart with remarkably little force applied to the haft. By twisting one way or the other the direction of the split may be guided.”

So, a froe used in combination with a wooden mallet can split logs into useful things such as planks, wooden shingles, stave’s, or kindling.  The thing that I will most often need it for will be to split stave’s from logs.  These can then be made into things such as spoons, tool handles, spindles, etc.

A member from the BCUSA forum was kind enough to send me a chunk of leaf spring to make one from.  Here is the leaf spring as I received it.

First thing I did was take a flap sanding disk on my angle grinder to clean off the rust.  I then laid out the profile that I wanted for the end.

Next I cut the profile with a cut off wheel in the angle grinder.

After cutting the blade to the profile I wanted, I put the flap sander back on the grinder and rounded over the edges.

Then I spent a fair bit of time using a grinding wheel on the angle grinder to profile the edge.  I was shooting for what I thought might be about 30 degrees as that is the angle Drew Langster suggested in his book, “Green Woodworking”.

If you look closely you will see that I removed the bushing that was in the eye in the previous picture.  I did this so that when I install the handle, the eye will spring out a bit allowing it to grip the handle tightly.

Just for kicks, I put a bevel gauge on it set to 30 degrees, and whammo I was exactly 30 deg.  That was some good eyeball work.

All that was left to do was to make a quick handle so that I could start using it.  At some point I will make a longer one, but for now this will work.

That is it.  Overall it probably took about two hours to do the entire thing.  Next I need to make a large mallet for striking it with and away I go.

Thanks for looking, and let me know what you guys think.

Dave