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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

I made this one so that it would fit nice into an Altoids tin.  It fits my hand pretty well this size too.

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

Dave

First I will discuss the hammers that I use.  The three on the left are cross peen hammers with the larger one being a 3lb, and the other two being 2 lbs.  I use the short-handled 2lb cross peen the most.  The four hammers on the right side are ball peen hammers with two being 2lb, one being 16 oz, and the little one weighing in at 8 oz.

And here are a few tongs for holding the hot steel.  The two on the left are Off Center Chainmaker V-bit Tongs in two sizes which work well for holding round or square stock.  The one on the right is a Peddinghaus Wolf Jaw tong for general purpose work.  I really could use a few more tongs.  I have started making a few pairs that I need to finish one of these days.

Soap stone is a good way to layout and mark steel.  Here I laid out a steel striker for a flint and steel kit.  Being able to layout something on the anvil is a nice way to see how things are progressing as you forge.  It also serves as what I call the blacksmiths blackboard.

So there you have it.  Those are some of the basic tools you can use to get started doing some blacksmithing work.   More or less you can get started blacksmithing for little money if you are willing to scrounge and build some of your own equipment.

The most costly piece of tooling is the anvil.  The collector market has really driven up the price on good anvils.  Why someone would want to collect anvils is a mystery to me, but I have seen images of guys that have garages full of them that just sit there not being used. This is a bit of a sore spot as you might be able to see, because it makes it hard for those of us that want to use these tool to make something useful have to either work really hard to find a deal or fork out a lot of money to get them.

To get around having to compete with the collector, you can also use any large chunk of steel until you can find a proper anvil.  A lot of people start out with a section of railroad track.  In fact some of the first work I did blacksmithing was on an anvil that my Dad made from a piece of railroad track.

The nice thing about blacksmithing is that you can slowly add tools as you find them.  Also you can make most of your tools if you have the knowledge.  Tools that are often made by the blacksmith are tongs, hammers, punches, and other cutting tools.  So if you get the basic set up you can start making the tools that you might need but do not have the money for at the moment.

Good luck and as always, if there are any questions I would be glad to answer them.

Dave