Charles dP

I’ve only tried forging bronze once and failed. Mine also crumbled on the 2nd or 3rd heat. If I remember correctly my research after indicated that I should have annealed (softened) the bronze after every heat by quenching it (i.e. heat, beat, quench, repeat). I may be wrong so hopefully somebody can confirm either way. I just had a look on YouTube and there appears to be some hits on forging bronze. Have you had a look there?

That sorted it. Thanks Jake

My harvest has been terrible this year so I gave in and bought some jalapeños. 4 jars fermenting (still waiting for the mason-jar caps to arrive). Onion , jalapeño and garlic in all. One has apple, one carrot, one tomato and one just more jalapeños. My normal jars are currently sitting with kimchi and sauerkraut in. I also put in a batch of gherkins to ferment (first time) and turned a year old mash into some sauce

Thanks Kevin. Wow, how thin do you want it?

Cool. Thanks Niels. Why have we all got a shield and a waving hand on our picture now? I’d try it except I’m worried someone is going to think I waved goodbye before blocking them

I think that’s where autocorrect got me. I was spelling it the way Alan did and it went for the wrong option.

Awesome photo. Just to get this straight: you’ve been a member 11 years, this is your first post and it is a photo of an owl?

I’ll blame autocorrect for that one.

Nice. Just the last few days I’ve made a batch of kimchi, sauerkraut and pineapple-cider. Busy turning a ferment into a tobacco-sauce style, well, sauce (currently steeping in vinegar). Tomorrow I’ve got to make a chilli relish. This year’s crop has been disappointing. Too hot and dry (yes, in England )

That is some gorgeous work Kevin. Good to see you are still at it. Could you perhaps please share some vital statistics? Thanks.

and fixed the R on your keyboard?

Thanks Gazz. I’ll have a browse and see what I can learn before joining. I have just discovered that the Z prefix means that the bayonet would have been issued without a rifle to e.g. medical corps, musician, artillery operator, etc. Thanks Alan. That is where I started my search and is a very useful site.

Hi everyone On a mini break in Swanage I spoiled myself and bought an M1866 Chassepot bayonet in a little maritime antique store. I have done a bit of digging and come up with the following: There is no engraving along the spine so this was not made by one of the four big state arms manufacturers but by a contracting company. Unfortunately this also makes the year and place of manufacture difficult to tell. Though there are a few small chips on the curved edge, the blade has not been sharpened so it may never have been actually issued to a unit. There is an obvious serial number on the left of the guard which looks like z0 507(3?). There appears to be a second serial number on the right guard so it may have been captured and re-issued by the Germans during the Franco-Prussian war of 1870-1871 as many were. The second serial number is very shallow and difficult to see/photograph. It looks like it may be 2R14.52?4 At the base of the blade on the left is an stamp which looks like an upside down P (upside down relative to all the other stamps I have seen) There is no frog (just 2 dents) or serial number on the scabbard so it is impossible to tell if this originally came with the bayonet. There is a small five-pointed star on the quillion (which may be an inspection mark) and signs of another lower down which has been mostly worn away So that is my present to myself. Does anyone know more about these bayonets and could they please shed some more light on this? A promising dead link for French bayonet serial numbers I found on greatwarforum.org is http://www.old-smithy.info/bayonets/HTNL DOCUMNETS/1866_chassepot.htm may have had some info, but, even correcting the typos it is still dead. Anyone perhaps have an alternative link? Thanks, CdP

Hi all Broke the proverbial COVID-ice this week by going to the Jurassic Coast for a few days. I thought I’d share some holiday snaps of this gorgeous part of the U.K. This is where we stayed; the Victorian resort town of Swanage as seen from a hike to the “Old Harry Rocks” The rocks are chalk outcroppings that are left over from a causeway that used to link the Isle of Wight to the rest of the U.K. but has been eroded away by the sea over time. Lulworth Cove Warbarrow Bay… …and as seen from friends’ boat. I should have got photos of the rock striations of the cliffs but alas… next time. There are also a lot of old forts and castle ruins in the area but we just didn’t have enough time to see it all this time.

And there is that slippery slope; right there