Hi everyone – I have what is called in the Technology biz a “Vintage” package with my hosting provider and I was getting memory errors logging in to create new posts, put up pictures and what not. I got part way through moving to a new plan on GoDaddy (which is excellent) but that is a giant pain in the tail since I have stuff reaching back to the early 1990’s on my site. Fortunately while fighting to move things, I was finally able to stumble my way to re-configure the memory on my existing site – so we will shall see how it works out!
What has been going on since my last post? A lot, COVID of course and ton a change at my job. I had to create a timeline of the last 4 years at work the other day for a business re-org and I realized that me and my team have had a major strategy change, project, re-org or some other big event pretty much every 4 months for the past several years – the longest stretch of moving straight towards a goal was 9 months – oooofff. But all good – great bunch of people. So I will skip all the boring bits and let you know what is going on now that is fun
My Dad changed things up and got a new mower. The old John Deere tractor was having a hard time with the lawn, which has been getting lumpier and lumpier with odd off slopes developing. It was a bit top heavy and unstable feeling. We looked at getting a landscaping company to come in but they wanted $900.00 per WEEK just to mow around the house and along the driveway (not including the fields across the pond). At that price, a different mower started looking pretty cheap. We looked around and got a commercial grade Z-Trak John Deere (lower end of the scale, but had the beefier chassis for bashing against the occasional rock – as one does find in Carlisle 🙂
This is basically what it looks like – you steer with the two bars. Once you sit down, you fold them in and then push or pull to go forward or back or spin in place. My Dad says its like riding a horse – gentle. I wouldn’t know since I am afraid of horses – LOL. It does a great job and is super fun to use.
Yesterday my Dad and I went down to the Robbins Museum (aligned with the Massachusetts Archeology Society) and donated a whole car load of Geo-Archeology equipment. Think things to take core samples, sift things, bag things up and what not. This was equipment my Dad had accumulated over a number of years while doing things with the Society and people in the community. I won’t try and trace all the different things that drew him into this branch – but one of the things is pretty neat and interesting to the lay person. When I was in London for work a number of years ago, I stumbled on the Museum of London (aka – covering the history of the City of London). They specialize in Roman period and earlier – basically the period prior to existing written history. It is super – highly recommended. I picked up this book Seahenge: a quest for life and death in Bronze Age Britain On the cover it is about the discovery of a wooden “Henge” (think Stone Henge) that was uncovered along the coast after a big storm washed away some dunes. It apparently was a big deal in Britain when it was discovered and made exciting because it was wooden in a now exposed marine environment – Archeology in Rush, news at 11 tonight, don’t miss it !
That was mildly interesting but most of the book was about techniques used and for that, the author focused on prior sites to use as examples and it was absolutely fascinating when he got into how they analyze soil. The amount of information they are able to determine by examining pollen is amazing. What I found super interesting is that on one site, they examined the ground and were able to determine that wooden posts had been set in the ground, and that they had been shaped with flint stone tools and they could identify with such accuracy the shape of the posts, they could calculate the shape of the stone tools used on the post. Later in the dig, after cataloging the theoretical shapes of the tools used – they actually found them and the shape and size were exact matches. Wow.
Needless to say this was ground breaking techniques that are not being used in New England.
the point of donating the tools is that we are not doing much of that stuff any more and the Archeology Society needs help with things that members can participate in without having a PhD or certification. Driving a 3/4 inch wide pipe into the ground and getting a core sample usually doesn’t require a permit from the State for an official dig and is actually the cutting edge way to do things instead of Indiana Jones pick and shovel stuff!
Here are some pictures of the equipment my Dad donated – not a full inventory since there was a lot variations on the themes here. Basically all methods for gathering, handling and storing samples.
The Robbins Museum was a very interesting museum – it has the largest collection of Native American artifacts in New England and possibly the United States (that gets a bit vague). Here is their website and YouTube channel in case you want to check them out.
I won’t bore you with every photo of what they have on display but here is a bit of an example – a very neat place!
That’s all for this weekend – fingers crossed this is all working again and I can get back into a regular cadence – I have missed it! Waving to everyone virtually 🙂
It was a long, hot and wet summer this year – but fall has finally arrived.
I have been working pretty much every weekend for so many weeks now that I cannot really remember – definitely stretching back into September. A big project at work that took me down to New York, which was interesting and I had the opportunity to meet up with my new department and my peers in person. Made a live, on stage, presentation to all the senior leadership of technology of the parent Bank – which was stressful since I was presenting the technology of the group I had just joined 5 weeks before to people who were asking detailed questions. Fortunately my new boss was on stage with me and it went well – but it was a pretty long hour or so!
I got a chance to visit Ground Zero and the Oculus (the new memorial/PATH train station) since it was directly across the street from my hotel. By the way, how is it that the Hilton Millenium directly downtown doesn’t have a WiFi internet system except in lobby (which also doesn’t work)?.
I found the site a very excellent combination of memorial and bustling life moving forward. They have struck an excellent balance. I didn’t have time to visit the museum itself but it is supposed to be very, very, very good. I really liked the Oculus – it is a building that is getting USED but also helps you think.
map of the grounds at Ground Zero
Ground Zero
The Freedom Tower – which is a bit of silly name, but an interesting building. Downtown NYC, out of my hotel room window, September 2018
The Oculus at Ground Zero – a very interesting place. It manages to be a place of remembrance while simultaneously be about commerce and bustling moving forward daily life. I got a very good vibe from it all
East entrance to the Oculus
Finally – a bit of a shot of the Farm Stand near my house – all dressed and bustling with harvest energy!
and I almost forgot – here is the final installed stone work that marks the permanent maximum extent of my lawn
As part of my terms and conditions still outstanding, I need to mark off with some sort of permanent markers the maximum edges of “lawn” which is essentially where the siltation barriers were. This is totally fine as it is swamp cabbage land on the other side!
My Dad and I enlisted our friend Jic Davis to help as he has a lot of experience with stone and stone work. My thought was to make some stone posts out of granite in the same way the Colonials did it – keep true to the site!
As it turns out, he was very gracious and not only showed me how to work the stone, but he let me use his tools AND gave to me some granite. Thank you Jic!
Two weeks ago, we went over to his house and picked the top two stones off his stone pile and used his loader/forklift to move them onto his gravel driveway out of the sun (it was VERY hot and humid). Then using his electric hammer drill, I drilled 1/2 inch holes around 8 inches apart and placed ‘pins & feathers’ in the holes. Pins and Feathers are the traditional way to split stone – essentially you have a spike (the pin) and place it in the hole. On each side, you place iron/steel strips- the idea is that as you drive down the spike, they slide along the strips and there is a spreading pressure you exert on the stone – since stone resists compression very well, but not tension/expansion, it is possible to split the stone. You need to have a feel for the grain of the stone and as Jic pointed out, the rock was being VERY cooperative that day.
Things worked out great, I was able to split the rocks into exactly the size and shape needed to mark the boundaries. It was super fun. Thank you Jic!!!
I have photos below AND also Jic took some movies of the drilling (with Slo-Mo) and tapping away at the rock
Jic’s house
Jic’s outdoor work area
Jic Davis very, very graciously donated the top two blocks of stone from his stone pile to me. We used the loader to move the rock into the shade – it was REALLY hot out there!
Hammer drilling. Medium pressure is important so you don’t burn the nose of the drill bit
holes drilled, ready for driving the pins and feathers
first split off already accomplished – bottom left you can see the block. Jic taught me the trick of dragging the hammer on the edge of the stone and it knocks off the super sharp stuff – less of a chance to cut yourself later
stone loaded up into the back of my Subaru. Somewhere north of 400 lbs worth
Jeff, Meghan, Mason and Owen left to go back to Scotts Valley on Friday (today is a rainy Sunday morning). We had a GREAT time and I hope they did as well.
Unfortunately the subsidiary that I work for is in the midst of a 5 way merger and things are extremely busy and time sensitive leading up to our next phase on August 1st – so I was not able to take any time off beyond the weekend to hang out. But we did have the opportunity to see each other each night and on the weekend we got some time to play Dungeons & Dragons with Mason and Jeff hosted a party at my house on Sunday which went super well. The Muldowney’s came, Chris Fielding and his kids, the Collins’ (both Massachusetts and Maryland set), Scott Johnstone, Craig First, the Richardsons (my neighbors), friends of Chris and Mary Collins from down in Maryland and Ben (a friend of Meghan’s from California who is living in New England at the moment). Probably missing some folks too!
Quite a successful party – food was good, conversation was good and the zillion kids all had a great time doing gymnastics, blowing bubbles with commercial and hand made bubble machines and of course, getting Kimbles ice cream !!
A drawing by nephew Owen – who is four years old. Neat!
Party at Pages Brook house
My sister in law, Meghan and her friend Ben from California who happens to be in New England at the moment. Serendipity !
A picture of the pier at Scripps Oceanographic Institute in La Jolla/UC San Diego over Meghan’s head
Yesterday, my Dad and I went up to Brentwood New Hampshire to Highland Hardwoods to look at speciality hardwood for building the first shepherd’s hut. With the frame done, now I need to finalize the design of the structure itself, get the materials and start building. I was thinking of using oak 4×4 beams for a post and beam construction – but I may fall back to local Concord Lumber construction grade pine. Highland Hardwoods was not what I was expecting – it was more of a traditional lumber warehouse – which I suppose makes sense since the majority of their wood is locally sourced and used in construction. What I am used to is MacBeath Hardwood in Berkeley California who ship in wood from all over the world and it is a spice shop of exotic smells in their warehouse. Some thinking is needed for this project, but as Dad pointed out, I also have projects like a coffee table or two, a media center for the TV and other projects – Highland should be able to do the job for me !
My Dad and I looking at wood
Red Oak
More Red Oak
more, more Red Oak – lol
White Oak this time
Red Oak planks
more thicknesses of Red Oak planks
Spanish Cedar – this wood kind of kept drawing me back – it has a subtle and interesting smell and texture
Highland Hardwoods showroom – a live edge (ie – not squared off) slab turned into a steel and wood bench – kind of neat
Had a great time with family and I hope they had fun too !
July has arrived and it is HOT but some cool stuff has been happening here
My parent’s and I have been pulling my house into final order as prep for Meghan, Jeff, Mason and Owen arriving and spending time here in Carlisle. They are going to stay at my house while I stay at my parents. All the stuff that was on my plan for ‘eventually’ is actually happening and it is GOOD. Art is being hung up, furniture is being used, books are being unpacked from boxes and put up on shelves.
http://www.carlisleohd.org/ (click here for the newly revamped website with great photos – definitely capture the feel of OHD)
Good morning all – this year’s Old Home Day in Carlisle was a bit cold and damp with occasional showers, but definitely not rained out. Old Home Day is a traditional celebration in some of the smaller New England towns and was created as a way for families to get together and celebrate Independence but also recognize the realities of life – that a lot of folks feel tied to the town they grew up in, but don’t live there any longer. So Old Home Day is offset from the 4th of July and allows people to celebrate the 4th where they live, but still come Home to “their” town. An excerpt of the history of Carlisle’s Old Home Day (researched by Al Peckham) is below – taken from the Old Home Day website
ORIGINS OF OLD HOME DAY Researched and written by Al Peckham
At the annual town meeting 85 years ago, on February 1, 1909, Article 15, “To see if the Town will vote to raise and appropriate the sum of one hundred dollars for Old Home Week and to appoint an Old Home Week Committee to act thereon.” The article failed to pass.But in 1912 the first old home celebration was held for one day on July 31, 1912, according to Ruth Wilkins Hollis’ record, “It was a beautiful summer day, with the Town Flag flying on the Common and the Soldiers’ Monument in the Square decorated with flags and flowers.”
That was 82 years ago. The next year a Carlisle Old Home Day Association was formed. Held annually until 1915, the fifth event was held four years later after World War I on September 1, 1919, including a reception for Carlisle soldiers and sailors returning from war service. The parade that day included most of the twenty World War I veterans and a few Civil War veterans. …..
If you do a Google search on Old Home Day you get smattering of town events and some hits for Old Home Week. Carlisle is definitely in a select few who have a celebration like this. I personally think it is a LOT of fun
This year, like every year, there are lots and lots of kids and many kid events – we saw a portable rope bridge, live music and the traditional midway. I got a very good cheeseburger and chips from the Boy Scouts (a very efficiently run BBQ setup – well done guys!) and when we got there, things were winding down.
My parents both entered art work in the Art/Craft show and my Dad won the Best In Show prize – HUZZAH !! This is actually a pretty big achievement considering the quality of work on display in the amatuer categories and the really, really talented professional artists who had pieces there (including Maris Platais – who is amazing and internationally known https://www.mysticseaport.org/artists/platais-maris/ ) I have two pieces by Maris and they are really nice. We had a celebratory clinking of the glasses during juice and cookie time before dinner – ha!
My Dad’s show winner is a large wood sculpture carved in Elm wood – left over from tree’s that died due to Dutch Elm Disease. As related to me, this was his first large sculpture attempt and I remember as a very little kid the care and effort that went into the final smoothing of the wood using tool steel scrapers. He also entered in a bronze and stone sculpture and a polished walnut sculpture – both of which demonstrate mathematical topology concepts
My Mom entered several quilted wall hangings which are great as well. As of a month or so ago, my Mom has sold every piece of fabric art that was displayed at the Carlisle Artisans – a double HUZZAH !!
A memorable Old Home Day for sure and good times had by all
Best In Show! My Dad’s first large sculpture, made of Elm wood. Normally located in our living room. Also on show were two abstract sculptures – pounded bronze and stone, and walnut wood – both mathematical modeling of topology
Best In Show
My Mom’s quilting that was entered as well
First prize! And quilting ideas clearly !!
7th and 8th grade art. The lion drawing was one of two Peoples Choice awards. Absolutely fantastic artwork on display.
This photography really caught my eye
Carlisle’s art scene
A hermit crab water color painting. Professional Adult category
Kayaks and canoes on a misty river. Adult Professional category
The second of two Peoples Choice Awards if I recall properly. “Under African Skies” Diorama. Absolutely amazing detail. For a size perspective, look at the pictures of my Dad’s wood sculpture – this is in the background
A very, very nice small painting by Maris Platais, entered in the Adult Professional category. I have two of his pieces that I purchased via the Carlisle Artisans and he is REALLY good. This is very nice – my photo is at an odd angle and really doesn’t do it justice compared to what it looks like in person
Its been a bit since my last update – mostly because work has been taking up a lot of my mental energy. Our 3 way merger has evolved now into a 5 way merger and the time frames have not changed (actually compressed a bit) – that is not leaving a lot of left over brain cells for the weekend. But this week was not too bad and I have coffee in hand and I thought I would capture what has been happening since the snow disappeared?
First off – my Dad and I have been working diligently to de-clutter and organize his workshop. We have gotten rid of some things that were no longer needed and have come up with new organizational schemes for materials and tools – so we are utilizing the existing space much better. We moved the electric welder over to my shop (still need to put that back together at some point), added a lot of eye hooks in the ceiling as a mount point for a new and really slick chain fall hoist from a firm in Japan – it is totally sweet. You can lift several hundred pounds with just finger tip pressure pulling on the chain and it is very easy to control. It makes moving around some of the new sheet metal tools my Dad has bought very easy. Below is a picture of the kind of stuff we are doing – getting things organized has made it a lot more pleasant to be in the shop along with the new lighting and heating system too – it means it is getting used several hours a day vs a few hours per year!
A new materials handling cart that Dad and I modified from a fairly basic unit. We added locking pins so the blue arms don’t pull out, a base and the fibre board separators
Sticking with that theme – one set of shepherd’s hut wheels has been converted by one of the crack welders at Leo Cavelier’s (actually Cavelier Welding now) into the frame of a hut and they delivered it. I decided to do one hut at a time to capture lesson’s learned and have one less thing to deal with at a time. It came out really, really well and looks super neat. I am working out the framing design now
Cast Iron wheels for two Shepherds Huts – out of the snow!
First shepherds hut frame complete and delivered. REALLY well done up by the pro welder at Cavelier Welding in Acton
Skipping backward in time, Tenley came out during the snow to visit Carlisle – I was super busy at work and didn’t get to take much time off (brain has short circuited – I can’t remember now – I must have taken a day off??). Regardless, that was super fun and we unpacked my artwork – some of which I had packed away for 10 years plus and had forgotten about. We did layouts and her expert color eye was put to good use deciding what should go where – thank you Tenley! (last weekend we actually hung things up 🙂 Oh and the furniture I ordered arrived too – two pull out sleeper sofas and a rocking chair. All very nice looking and comfortable
One of two new couches, arrived and installed. Tenley helped with the art layout design
The new rocking chair – perfect for curling up with a good book
the initial layout of couch #1 and the rocking chair
Over the Memorial Day Weekend, my niece Margaret walked her graduation for her Masters degree in Leadership from Saint Mary’s College (she still has to defend her thesis this summer – apparently that is their standard structure – they have an offsite in Santa Cruz designed into all and everything). CONGRATULATIONS MARGARET !
It went very well, with her mitre board decorated with “One Degree Hotter” – which was very appropriate since it was HOT. Even in the early morning, the sun was blasting us – we only lasted till a few minutes after Margaret got her diploma and then we left. Over half of the guests were clustered in the shade under the trees on the walk way up to the graduation field – barely able to see but cooler – so we were not the only ones feeling it! We went off to the Lafayette Park Hotel to freshen up and attend the reception in the Library that Tenley set up. It was very nice and I had a lot of interesting conversations with folks.
Early morning sun was blasting us – we, along with more than 50% of the crowd, didn’t last through the whole ceremony
Photos after Grad School graduation (Margaret got a degree in Leadership). Roomates Nico & Sherri
Boyfriend Nick and Margaret – with her stilts that she called “shoes” – grin
From graduation, I drove down to visit Jeff, Meghan, Mason and Owen (the Scott’s Valley Fohls!) in their new house. Man, it is totally great! The house is older, so it has the kind of quirks a 100 year old house will pick up but there is tons of light, the neighbors are nice, really nice family outdoor space on the decks and room for outside stuff on the lawn. Plus the barn is super cool and adaptable to what ever without being too fussy
I arrived on Sunday, so we went to Roaring Camp Railroad on Monday (Memorial Day) to ride the steam trains through the redwood forest and they were also having a huge US Civil War re-enactment with probably 300 re-enactors. It was super neat. We rode the steam train up the mountain, where a group of teenagers re-enacted a skirmish between the Confederate and Union forces. Man where they having fun and they were so, so into the interpretive process – once their battle was over, they rushed up asked everyone on the train what kind of questions they had. They wrapped it up with a competitive volley competition – where each side fired a volley to see who could be the most in sync. I was very impressed – both were good, but definitely the kids being the Confederates were better – they were spot on. It occured to me that since the Confederates “lost” the skirmish, putting the more disciplined kids onto that side was probably planned out – it takes more organization and discipline to act out losing!
There was also good food – we had hot dogs of course ! Then there was time to watch some Blacksmith demonstrations (the Blacksmith was very good at explaining what he was doing to the kids and I bought a steel dinosaur for Owen and steel 6 side die for Mason). They have a print shop which I briefly visited – it was pretty neat. But then they had the big battle which started with the artillery blasting at each other from long range and quickly escalated to back and forth infantry battles. Surrenders, lightning raids, rescues gone wrong – they had it all. Over the course of about 40 minutes they battled back and forth (I noticed more than one “dead” soldier managing to die with their hat over their face to avoid sunburn). At the end, only the two wounded flag bearers were alive and they marched off the field together. A sobering and very well done interpretive battle – they wrapped things up with a lot of explaining what we had just seen – it was very well done
Regarding the trains – the steam locomotive is super interesting – it is all wheel drive, with geared bevel gears on each wheel truck and a super short wheelbase to allow it to make tight turns and go up steep inclines. We went up a 9 degree slope at one time which is one of the steepest, if not the absolute steepest, inclines in North America (anything steeper becomes usually a cogwheel rail system). The locomotive is a Shay design (named after the designer) and a lot of thinking went into it – all the drive equipment is on the right hand side of the locomotive – so all the steam pistons, drive shafts, gears etc… is right there and easy to service. They told us they have a Heisler locomotive and to repair a cracked gear they had to take the entire train apart – since the drive line runs through the center of the train. According to the conductor, who was explaining things as we went along, the expectation was that the locomotives were essentially viewed as disposable and would only last 10 years in the field – when they broke down, often they would be shunted off to a siding and abandoned. But because the Shay design was so easy to work on, they continued to be maintained and so the majority of the logging locomotives that are still around in North America are the Shay design. Here is a link to the official history of the Camp and their locomotives
I am not sure why Youtube picked the frame below to use as the ‘splash’ – because the video is about the family eating lunch at a picnic table and only at the end does a quick pan around the area -weird.
Here are some of the photos – somehow I was not in the same place as Mason and Meghan most of the day – sorry for the lack of photos there!
Riding the train. We ended up in two cars because of some other families belief that they needed 3 seats for every butt “oh – someone is sitting here….” but it worked out fine
Earplugs are for the Civil War skirmish re-enactment at the top of the mountain
the steel dinosaur and 6 sided die I purchased from the Blacksmith at Roaring Camp – the blue dice are commercial Dungeons and Dragons dice that were just lying around
One of the two Union Army artillery batteries for the main re-enactment battle. These guns are big – the smoke cloud/smoke ring they shot off was at least 70 feet and a very, very heavy thump in the chest
The opening march out of the Confederate and Union infantry, with a re-enactment guide in the foreground making sure the spectators stayed in place.
Finally – what have I done recently? well I finished a coffee table that I made out of the wrecked rear mag wheel from Skip Barber’s Formula 5000 car and I fixed the broken side table that I have had hanging around for long time – it now stands fully upright and can support a cocktail again without spilling. I forgot to take pictures – so I will have to do that and post them at a later time
Spring is taking its sweet time showing up in Carlisle this year – it is not particularly unusual for things to be snowy, cold or unsettled in March – but this year we have had 3 Nor’Easters in the first 10 days of the month and a near miss on a fourth. Right now it is changing back and forth between snow and rain this morning (Sunday) – but nothing should come of it.
The 2nd storm was problematic – a LOT of heavy wet snow that came down overnight and stuck literally like glue to the trees. I was out at 5:15am trying to clear the driveway of downed limbs with my ax (which took over an hour to chop and haul stuff away). As the sun came up, some breeze started stirring up and it was like fireworks going off in the woods – about every 30 seconds you could hear a limb or a tree exploding and coming down. On the trees that were still whole and just bent over the driveway, I whacked what I could with my ax (with the leather sheath on it) or pulled on them to shake the snow off – it was very difficult – the snow was glued on.
So – lots of trees down, lots of heavy snow. lots of firewood available soon 🙂
My work has been getting very crazy – so apologies for my handful of regular readers for the lack of updates. We have been working on a 3 way internal merger of subsidiaries. 10 days ago we added another 2 – so we are doing a five way smash together/tease it apart all at the same time. I have been telling folks at work – if you like working on projects, this is project management Valhalla – work, work, work everywhere you can see!
March 8th storm – pictures of the Granary Burial Ground near Boston Common
March 8th – Granary Burial Ground
the March 13/14th storm – about the same snow level, but HEAVY and on the coast, very windy
A shot from my bedroom at the one tree that came down in the storm on 3/13/2018. This is the only tree that came close to my house – it did not hit fortunately
Outside the Granary Burial Ground in Boston looking towards the common
Photo by Susan Stumpf
Copied from https://carlislemosquito.org/
Photo by Susan Stumpf
Copied from https://carlislemosquito.org/
February 4th at my parent’s house – capturing the small amount of new snow
Pre-dawn light on February 10, 2018 at my parent’s house – the Shepherd’s Hut wheels have arrived from the UK – safe and sound
Good morning – we are going through a spring thaw here in New England – it got up to the high 40’s yesterday and for the next week, it is supposed to bounce around from the 20’s to the high 50’s – I suppose based on how the jetstream fluctuates – a little to the west and the warm air from the south will get sucked up along the coast – a little to the east and that action will be out to sea and we will have the arctic down-draft instead. A few dozen miles probably will make a big difference – so we shall see what we actually get. There is about 3 or 4 inches of snow on the ground except for the banks of the pond which have southern exposure and have pretty much melted off due to solar gain.
My eBay vise arrived in excellent condition – the seller very helpfully took it apart for shipping and did an excellent job packing/protecting it. It is up in my Dad’s shop next to the wood stove till I have a place to mount it – we are actively trying to get my shop de-cluttered now that the first workbench is complete. Maybe today we will get the drill press assembled and off the floor.
My Dad has gotten a lot of ideas around doing things with sheet metal and has purchased a number of new tools – the most recent one is a rotary shear (think REALLY powerful can opener style). Pictures below of some of the recent purchases. I am interested in trying them out !
The eBay purchased vise arrived in very nice condition. Footwear gives you a sense of scale. The main bit is probably about 45 pounds in weight.
In the foreground, two new sheet metal shearing machines my Dad has just purchased. The shears with the arm mounted is something he already had. In the background is a new vise from Capri which looks VERY nice. I might get one too!
Last night we watched a DVD that was a Christmas gift — “From Ore to Axe” which is a film by Ken Koons and is not only really interesting, but has really high production values considering about 5 guys and an iron ore sniffing dog made it. Basically, these smiths have been experimenting for about 10 years to recover the techniques for finding iron bearing rocks, building a furnace out of clay, creating charcoal and converting the ore into iron and then something useful. They are really good at it now and really show you the whole process. In the movie, they take you through the entire process from rocks found in the woods to making a Hudson’s Bay Axe style axe from Vancouver, British Columbia (the link here takes you to Best Made – I have one of their Hudson’s Bay axes and love it).
There are a lot of videos on YouTube about the blacksmithing parts and it turns out there are also at least a fair amount on the smelting of the ore – but I have to say, Ken Koons and team make it really, really clear in terms of why they are doing things the way that the do and how to do it – that clearly comes from a LOT of practice.
Lee Sauder is one of the blacksmiths in the video and he has extensive information on his website, sculpture for sale and what not – it is very interesting
I started to dig around on YouTube this morning about smelting iron ore and found there is a group in England who are taking a scholarly approach and writing papers, books and what not – the Wealden Iron Research Group . It may not be true – but based on the results in the video below – you get the impression that the Lee Sauder/Ken Koons team have really been DOING IT while the team in the UK has figured out how to do it and done it a few times – but more to be able to write it up rather than actually get really good – both are adding to the current record of information in different ways!
Out of the Weald, the secret Weald,
Men sent in ancient years,
The horse-shoes red at Flodden Field
The arrows at Poitiers!”
from Puck’s Song, Rudyard Kipling
Iron was made in the Weald from pre-Roman times until the beginning of the 19th century. Its legacy is recalled by a host of place names, such as Minepit Wood and Forge Lane, by the hammer and furnace ponds which survive in the landscape, and by the cast-iron graveslabs and firebacks that can be seen, respectively, in Wealden churches and farmhouses. During the first part of the Roman occupation, and again, in the 16th and early-17th centuries, the Weald was the most important iron-producing region in the British Isles. Over 800 iron-making sites have been identified in the Weald, and more are discovered each year. Since 1968 when it was established, much of this work has been carried out by the Wealden Iron Research Group (WIRG).
Their next publication is going to be a book (Adventure in Iron
by Brian G. Awty) that in part, looks at early blast furnaces –
“The blast furnace and its spread from Namur to northern France, England and North America,1450-1640; a technological, political and genealogical investigation.
This remarkable piece of scholarship, the result of more than 20 years’ research in British and continental archives, traces the spread of iron-making through the families of the skilled personnel who operated the furnaces and forges from late-medieval Belgium via northern France and Britain to colonial America”
He is a leather worker and windsor chair maker – with 46k subscribers to his YouTube channel and lot of very interesting videos on leather working, old farm implements and what not. Its amazing what you can find on YouTube!
Somehow or other, I imagined that I had put this information up on my blog before this but as I was writing out my other post of today about blacksmith vises and my future mobile blacksmith forge, I realized that I had not done it yet.
Ok – some background.
The problem – I need some space to store things that should not be in the carport, under the house or inside my shop. Wood shed kinds of things like gasoline and other flammables, wood cutter stuff etc… but I don’t have a good place to build a shed. Tom McGillvray always says I spend far too much time looking for the end or the edge of the internet – meaning I find a lot of offbeat things. I was looking at arctic sledges one night when I realized that I don’t have to have a building – that is attached to the ground – I just need something that will shelter things and having it mobile would be useful. Why not build a shed on top ofa movable platform?
Here are some pictures I thought were interesting and useful. I bought a LOT of reprints of old books on wagon, sleigh and carriage designs – which are interesting but not super useful because they all just assume that the blacksmith will take care of all the dirty mechanical bits and never actually describe how to design/build those parts! I actually found someone in Canada who makes modern sledges out of iron and oak and sent them an email – but they never responded.
Then I had a further thoughts (in case you are wondering – this has been percolating in my head for something like the last 2 years). A sledge is great, has very good ground pressure dispersion – but it is not very easy to move unless there is snow on the ground or you have a big tractor/team of horses. So I started thinking about wheels – iron wheels so you don’t have to worry about keeping tires pumped up. This led me to Shepherd’s Huts after some more google work – some nice shots below.
Shepherd Hut blending into the scene – click on this photo to actually see this clearly
detail of the undercarriage of a wooden framed shepherds hut – Blackdown Shepherds Huts
Shepherd’s Huts are a European thing but mostly seem to be British – they are huts for shepherds (duh) that get moved around and have basic amenities like a wood stove, a couple of beds and furniture – a place for the shepherds to be without camping on the ground. My not so brilliant brainwave was that this would work as a true shed as well. The key bits are the frame and the the mechanical stuff like the steerable front wheels and the wheels/axles themselves. Turns out you absolutely cannot find cast iron wheels in North America except as mixed odd lot eBay items. But there is quite an industry in the UK that makes Shepherd’s Huts for garden use and what not. I found a few that also will sell you the piece parts – in particular Blackdown Shepherd’s Huts and Tithe Barn Shepherds Huts
I ended up liking the piece parts that Tithe Barn offers the best and I contacted them. They were SUPER nice and helpful both via email and over the phone. They work closely with a local blacksmith and also a small family owned casting foundry. When I contacted them, they said shipping to the US was not a problem and they have been getting more and more international orders lately. They suggested that I buy TWO because the neighbors will want one when I get it finished – I laughed because I had already decided to buy two – one for a storage shed, the other as a mobile blacksmith shop (another thing that needs outdoor space instead of being inside my workshop). I figured that if I was going to have a pallet of iron bits shipped from the UK to the US, I might as well pay for the shipping only once and pulled the trigger on wheels for two huts, their associated matched axle bits and plans for their steel chassis (which I will either weld up or contract out (hopefully contract out since if I do it, it will take me forever!). Either Leo Cavalier’s shop or Alan Carpenito (who has moved out of town but is an incredible welder)
I think what I am going to do is to have the storage shed built with one or more ramps so I can move in mowing equipment/snow blowers etc… The blacksmith forge will have a very robust frame with sides that either swing away or up for rain protection. My Dad and I are looking on I-Beam structures and hoists – so you can easily offload heavy things like anvils to the ground and then back up into the hut when it is not in use?
Design thoughts are not complete – so good fun is being had chatting about it all.
Recent Comments