Tool repair and Tool Make

I have all these projects that can't be shown. Expect a deluge after Christmas. I'll space them out. Meanwhile, with the house I got a wooden box with a partially carved lid. Inside were a bunch of cheapish carving tools. Now, sometimes these asiatic wonders are actually good steel; it is all roulette. But I paid nothing for them, so will they take an edge?
Yes, they will. Left to right, two tools from the microforge and Taig lathe -- more later. The third tool is microforged, from an oddly shaped thing in the box. It is now a V-gouge. It was quite difficult to make; getting a V shape into metal is not trivial. Furthermore, little pieces like Number three have no heat capacity. You get, as in baseball, three strikes and then you have to reheat. But eventually I did it. Further and furthermore, a propane torch will not get metal up to yellow heat, which all my books say you should do. I have to make do with "boiled carrot" -- bright orange. I may just try MAPP gas, although it is relatively expensive.

Anyway, all Numbers 4, 5, and 6 from the left needed was a good sharpening. I do this early in the morning, while I am still half asleep. That way it is soothing, rather than tedious.

On the far right is a knife made by Averky (there is a post, somewhere in here, about this episode). Taking advantage of a tool handle without a tool, I put a handle on it and le voilá, as the French say. I also did the edge for him. To his credit, he did a lot of the work. I think we tempered too hard. In the winter, I don't usually get kids. Too bad, in a way.

And so we come to the microforged tools. Both are made from a someone's junked screwdriver. I cut it in half and made a cold chisel out of one half and a pin punch out of the other. The cold chisel was forged; the pin punch I turned down on the Taig lathe, with some trouble because the piece was whippy. I couldn't do the job between centers because it was too short. I am only sorry I didn't take pictures, but I was much too absorbed to grab the camera, which was one meter away from the work. When you make tools out of scrap steel, you should make sure the steel is hardenable. Heat up to boiled carrot red, plunge in cold water (quench). If a file will skitter off it, it's hardenable. If the file cuts it, it's mild steel, no good for tools.

Making one's own tools is very, very satisfying. All you need is a scrap heap. Unfortunately the modern enviro craze has led to the demise of the good old junkyard. Too bad. However, plenty of people cast off perfectly good pieces of brass, copper and steel. You can make many a tool out of old valve springs, for example. Brass is harder to find lying about. I need a nice piece of 5 mm brass, about 26 mm long. Hmmmm....

Navajo Runner: Finito!

When last we heard of the Navajo ruglet, we were down to the steel rod. Taking a deep breath, I pulled it out. Time to finish up. We have lost all traces of shed, so the last Navajo trick is in hand. In the picture I am applying "finishing rows".

With the needle you go under one pair and over the next, left to right; coming back over and under the same pair. This is tedious; I got hand cramp about 5 mm from the top. As you can see, I use bright orange for warps. The objective is to make the orange color disappear. Eventually...
We finish. No orange, except for some added "corrective warps" where I missed sewing on to the stick. We can now take the piece off the loom. We must also tie the corner knots. We join the vertical and horizontal edges in the traditional corner (square) knot. If it doesen't have this it isn't Navajo.
You can see the upper-edge knots above. The lower ones get tied off when I get it off the loom. You have to unsew the cords that attach the edges to the sticks. But it is done! I'm pleased with it. It "waists" a little (pulled in towards the middle. My bible assures me that this is a feature, not a bug. It is the first piece I've made that I really, really like.

Next we will do "diamond twill" from the book. But I will give the loom a rest for a bit. My hands hurt!

The return of the Navajo loom

With the coming of spring, my Navajo loom goes into hibernation; I suppose estivation is a better word. But it is now winter and time to dig it out. You can go back to previous posts to see where it was. The first job was to finish the diagonal stripes. This took some doing but I did it.
The stripes are done. The heddle stick has been removed. It no longer works. The shed stick is still in place. Now it is time to weave up to the top. We keep the shed stick (the white piece of round plastic) in place as long as possible. This allows us easily go left-to-right; it is all blunt needle work, but just push it through the shed. The opposite way is much harder. You have to go in front of the front warps and around the back warps. No shortcucts in a Navajo loom. In a modern loom, of course, you have cloth "beams" that allow you to weave forever. But a Navajo loom is fixed-length. We deal with it. Takes us five minutes or less left-to-right (the way I weave) and about ten minutes to go back.
You can see the loops of the needle as I go back. I have replaced the plastic shed stick by a thinner shed stick. This allows me to go a few centimeters higher. Anything to preserve at least one shed! We're getting there....
This afternoon, I replaced the thin shed stick by a steel rod. Not very Navajo, but effective. Thanks to Rachel Brown's book. We are about done. After this it's weave all the way to the top, two-by-two. Remove rod and weave under two warps, over two warps. End game for sure.

You could always leave fringes at the end. No true Dineh weaver would even think of this. I may not be Dineh, but I respect tradition. To the top we will go., cost what it may.

First Snow!

Very exciting. Also kinda late. But you knew it was coming, didn't you? This is Alaska, after all.
Very exciting. There is just enough to ski on. One centimeter. So out come the skis. My aching back is grateful. Walking is hard on my back. I could wish for a bit more snow, but all I have to do is be patient.

More moose antics

Got my batteries recharged and into the camera. Here is a moose called Forage, because he (or she, probably he because no offspring). He was trying to mow my lawn.
We must encourage Forage. After all, he could replace my lawnmower. Alas, moose don't go for grass. This is why you don't put hay out for them; they can't digest it.

On the other hand, there is no question about this guy:
Definitely the proverbial bull moose. I hope his rack falls off somewhere on my property. No name for Guy yet. Gotta be a repeat customer for that. Curiously, Guy was not alone. He had a companion, most unusual since bulls are solo creatures. The companion was ready for anything (in fact he kept charging Guy, who kept him at antler's length. You could almost hear him saying "go away, small fry!").

Classic moose defensive posture. Front legs spread, ears up and forward, general unfriendly posture. Get too near, he'll kick you to death. This, in fact, may be Forage. I was discombobulated by battery failure and can't remember the details.

The pictures are a little blurry. Sorry about that. Night was falling, and I did not have time to rig a tripod. Much less to turn off flash (useless at 30 meters or so). But blurry is better than none, say I, and publish the pix anyway.

Multitude of Moose

There have been so many moose nosing around the yard that I'm beginning to lose track. Unfortunately my camera has chosen this very moment, with an unprecedented moose event, to run out of batteries. Electronics, you have to love them. I am recharging as we post. But I can't even get yesterday's pix off the camera.

The unprecedented event, by the way, is a big bull, rack and all, accompanied by a Junior moose. I've never seen that! Bulls are usually loners. The exception is Ricky and Racky. Maybe the pictures will come out, maybe not. The Nikon God will decide. Stay tuned...

Pot of Gold?

The other day I was returning from my daily walk when I spied a lovely rainbow. I walked 20 meters forward, to clear the ugly power lines, and it had faded in that little time! But I snapped it anyway.

Legend, presumably Irish, says that there's a pot of gold at the end of that rainbow. Nonsense, of course! But not in Willow. The town of Willow owes its existence to gold. Gold was found in Willow creek around the turn of the 19th century, and the town grew around the mining operations. Now, the claims are panned out and the town is a shadow of its once-booming self. This is true for almost every town in Alaska, including Juneau, the state capital.

But there is still gold in Willow creek. Not in commercial quantities! But you could probably turn up a nugget or two, or at least some flakes, if you knew where to pan. And how to pan. So there probably is some gold under that rainbow, if not a whole pot.