What did you do in your shop today?

[Jeroen Zuiderwijk]

And I ended one of my projects prematurely One for the scrap pile.

[Alan Longmire]

Ouch!  

[Alan Longmire]

Did a little engraving...

 

[Garry Keown]

surface grinder attachment arrived for my self made grinder but the stand of from tool arm to belt was 20mm out so have just got an arm made with the needed 20mm extra standoff so the belt lines up with the wheel. i just have to drill some holes and fit the new arm to it now and it is ready to go to work.

Edited May 30, 2022 by Garry Keown

[Bill Schmalhofer]

Spent 6 hours consolidating 4 hearth steel pucks with mixed results from crumbling mess to a beautiful bar of steel.

 

[Garry Keown]

I got the surface grinder attachment I bought a couple of weeks back sorted today. It comes with a tool arm that has the wheel with a 20mm stand off from the tool arm byut my belt runs at 40mm from the tool arm so an arm with an extra 20mm stand off was added an no extra cost. Very pleased with the tool.

 

[Gerhard Gerber]

Been wanting to do this for years, finally the time has arrived.
Ordered the steel plate cut to the right size and busy welding on feet and a rim so it fits nicely on my old 2-plate camping gas stove, was my bachelor everything-stove for many years.

Plan is to use it for what we call a chinese braai, not sure if that's a thing anywhere else.

Can be used for steaks as well, but those taste better over Camelthorn coals 

[Alan Longmire]

Nice!  Around here we call those flat tops, or just griddles.  Once the steel plate gets some seasoning to it, nothing better for making Philly cheese steaks.  To save you the trouble of looking that up, you take about half a kilo of thin-sliced beef, about 2 or 3mm thick, and equal amounts to the meat (by size of pile) of chopped onions and green peppers.  Splash some grease on the flat top and throw the lot into a pile in the middle. Use a thick spatula (or one of your cleavers!) to chop it into shreds while it cooks, stirring it up until the beef is done and the veggies show some dark spots, then add cheese in large amounts.  Something that melts well and isn't greasy.  Once that's all blended in, scrape the lot into a large split roll that's been grilled face down.  Add some salt and pepper, yum!  If you want to get fancy, throw some mushrooms into the mix.  You can add mayonnaise, but never mustard or ketchup, and certainly not lettuce!  

[Gerhard Gerber]

15 hours ago, Alan Longmire said:

Nice!  Around here we call those flat tops, or just griddles.  Once the steel plate gets some seasoning to it, nothing better for making Philly cheese steaks.  To save you the trouble of looking that up, you take about half a kilo of thin-sliced beef, about 2 or 3mm thick, and equal amounts to the meat (by size of pile) of chopped onions and green peppers.  Splash some grease on the flat top and throw the lot into a pile in the middle. Use a thick spatula (or one of your cleavers!) to chop it into shreds while it cooks, stirring it up until the beef is done and the veggies show some dark spots, then add cheese in large amounts.  Something that melts well and isn't greasy.  Once that's all blended in, scrape the lot into a large split roll that's been grilled face down.  Add some salt and pepper, yum!  If you want to get fancy, throw some mushrooms into the mix.  You can add mayonnaise, but never mustard or ketchup, and certainly not lettuce!  

Only heard that mentioned in movies, now I have a recipe, means, motive and opportunity! 

[Charles dP]

18 hours ago, Gerhard Gerber said:

Been wanting to do this for years, finally the time has arrived.
Ordered the steel plate cut to the right size and busy welding on feet and a rim so it fits nicely on my old 2-plate camping gas stove, was my bachelor everything-stove for many years.

Plan is to use it for what we call a chinese braai, not sure if that's a thing anywhere else.

Can be used for steaks as well, but those taste better over Camelthorn coals 

Growing up we had one similar though a bit larger and more ‘purpose made’ (read cobbled together from square pipe, sheet and bar). It ran off a Cadac bottle (the SA one with the built-in regulator). There were 2 plates; one plain and the other had dividers to separate people’s portions for a Chinese braai. Worked well as I recall. This one should be sweet.

[Gerhard Gerber]

2 hours ago, Charles dP said:

Growing up we had one similar though a bit larger and more ‘purpose made’ (read cobbled together from square pipe, sheet and bar). It ran off a Cadac bottle (the SA one with the built-in regulator). There were 2 plates; one plain and the other had dividers to separate people’s portions for a Chinese braai. Worked well as I recall. This one should be sweet.

I'm afraid this might be a one-at-a-time Chinese braai, but that's fine, supposed to be a social thing 
Memories........Spatzle fried in lemon&herb butter, minimum beef, pork, chicken and game, some more than once with different marinades......can't wait 

 

Thanks to my crappy welding lots of grinding will be required, just hope my 'rona replace is done by the weekend 

[Doug Webster]

I finished up a mushroom hunting knife with red canvas liner and Yew scales from a 140 year old tree.  The scales have 160 growth rings from end to end. When making the sheath, I tried heating it up in the microwave for 15 seconds. That was a really bad idea. 

[Alan Longmire]

Pretty knife, though!

[Charles dP]

7 hours ago, Gerhard Gerber said:

I'm afraid this might be a one-at-a-time Chinese braai, but that's fine, supposed to be a social thing 
Memories........Spatzle fried in lemon&herb butter, minimum beef, pork, chicken and game, some more than once with different marinades......can't wait 

 

Thanks to my crappy welding lots of grinding will be required, just hope my 'rona replace is done by the weekend 

Yup, gotta have different combos though I’ve never tried spatzle before. Meat, veg, rice, sauce/marinade. Turns out my brother now has the thing. The burners are simply a small hole in the ‘gas-frame’ with some more tubing over and a bit filed away on 2 sides before it was welded on (for the venturi).

 

[dragoncutlery]

Tried my hand at a viking era cooking thingy aparently something similar was still around in more colonial times but solid not spiral ........also made me re think setting up my shop specifically for knives  seemed like everything was in the way at one point or another might be the 5ft starting length or my walls are just to close together 

[Brian Dougherty]

On 6/7/2022 at 11:09 AM, Gerhard Gerber said:

Been wanting to do this for years, finally the time has arrived.
Ordered the steel plate cut to the right size and busy welding on feet and a rim so it fits nicely on my old 2-plate camping gas stove, was my bachelor everything-stove for many years.

Plan is to use it for what we call a chinese braai, not sure if that's a thing anywhere else.

Can be used for steaks as well, but those taste better over Camelthorn coals 

 

Hmm, I think I need to up my game a bit...

...at least I wasn't eating cold pizza.

 

 

[Jeroen Zuiderwijk]

Today I used my drawplate for the first time. I got one years back, just in case. I needed some bronze rod just under 2mm thick, and I only had 2.4mm. The first attempt was quite a struggle and took several hours. Having a headache and not slept well in two weeks didn't help either. Ok, so yeah, annealing between each pass helps as does being able to pull at full strength without the vise moving allover the place Second attempt went smooth and fast. And quiet. This time I didn't hammer the end thinner, but filed it instead. Not only much quieter, so I can do it in the evening while everyone sleeps upstairs, it's faster and cleaner too.

 

While not a difficult thing to learn, it's great to suddenly realize that I can make metal wire at any thickness that I need (up to a certain point). It's a nice rush to experience learning a new skill set

 

First bit of bronze has already been turned into the spring/pin of a fibula. The other one will be used for the second fibula. At the top the original wire for comparison.

Edited June 15, 2022 by Jeroen Zuiderwijk

[Joshua States]

Some pretty cool stuff happening around here

 

[Gerhard Gerber]

I can't find the post this relates to, so I'm setting the record straight here.....
Recently stumbled over a video of one of those extremely wide cleavers with the all-belly edge being used to take apart a pig, I now fully understand the usefulness of the thing I called BS on.

I was already convinced when somebody mentioned the goal of these is a clean cut that leaves no flaps, seeing it done was a revelation.

On 6/15/2022 at 4:58 AM, Joshua States said:

Some pretty cool stuff happening around here

 

Like always  

[Jaron Martindale]

Recently finished a knife for a firefighter friend who I've known since he was like 5 years old, working on trying to dial in the sheath this morning and thought I'd try to be a little more artsy than fartsy(for once) with a picture.

80CrV2 with Copper pins and micarta handle

 

here's a couple more cause I like the succulents

 

[Gerhard Gerber]

@Jaron Martindale that is a bloody cool knife, can't recall seeing a similar take on the tanto, love the swedge.

Thanks also the the wood-lookingest micarta I've ever seen, what type is it?

I have mixed feelings about the hamon (who doesn't like a hamon? ), it hides the lines of the blade a bit.

 

[Jaron Martindale]

19 minutes ago, Gerhard Gerber said:

that is a bloody cool knife

This made my day, Thank You!!

The micarta is just a block I picked up from Blade Show West a few years back when they still came to Portland,OR, so I'm not sure what kind it is..The layers are real wavy and look close-knit, so maybe..linen or a tight burlap.? I took a shine to the block because it was cut differently from usual, so each layer was visible on the face side of the block.
I agree about the Hamon hiding the lines of the knife, but I have to say I was grateful for it this time because I couldn't get the lines are crisp as I had hoped..

[Jaron Martindale]

Put a handle on another knife.  This one is more utilitarian with a decent convex edge.  The handles are Ironwood with Copper pins and a "Hyper-Glow" lanyard hole.

The name of the game here was "Truck Knife"

 

And a picture to show the initial concept sketch.  Remember kids: don't throw away or erase any sketches

[Martin Tiney]

Not going to get in the shop for a few months, had an accident @work on Wednesday. mangled my right hand, damage to trigger finger tendon and massive loss of skin and tissue was taken to hospital via Air ambulance, two opps in and a third on Tuesday scheduled chopper piolet took my photo while I was being off loaded 

[Jeroen Zuiderwijk]

15 minutes ago, Martin Tiney said:

Not going to get in the shop for a few months, had an accident @work on Wednesday. mangled my right hand, damage to trigger finger tendon and massive loss of skin and tissue was taken to hospital via Air ambulance, two opps in and a third on Tuesday scheduled chopper piolet took my photo while I was being off loaded 

 

Yikes! I hope it heels well.

 

I just lost one other project, which is much less bad. An early bronze age sword that I went to finish the hilt I had burned a slot in. Apparently this project got eaten. I'm really hoping the rest of my wood supply is not affected, or my house and shed Ash wood which still had the bark on it. Apparently woodworms really like that. Anyway, hilt is lost, and the blade is not going that great either, so I'm scrapping this project. That's one positive thing of having had very little time in recent years, that I don't want to waste any of it on projects that won't turn out as nice as I'd like. Scrap and move to the next. Plenty of things left to do, and if not it's casting and/or forging again.