Joke of All Trades

Here is the final product of last year's pair of blades, ground from mid-20th century tool steel files. The first was used to make my 2nd century Germanic war knife, blunted for combat. This one was to be sharp. The blade is shaped in the style of a "broken back" seax, which were common to Saxon territories during 9th-11th centuries (and, by extension, some Viking territories as well). However, the profile of this blade is somewhat anachronistic-- seaxes typically did not have an edge parallel to its spine, and instead typically widened toward the tip. Thus, with the anachronism of the blade, I decided an anachronistic handle would be okay too. I found a log of Eastern Red Cedar one day during a hike, and took it home. This type of wood is a brilliant purple color at its heart, but it fades over time as exposed to light and oxygen. I decided this would be my handle, and that I would experiment to see if I could preserve the color longterm. I carved the grip by hand, becau...

I've been piecing this project together for a long time. I think it's finally done. This is a bailey-style fort made using stuff around the house. It's modular with a fully playable interior. The structure is made of the cardboard insert, covered in bbq skewers, stained. The ground is plaster covered in flock. The tower is made from an empty candle glass piece, the top of the tower is a small tea lamp, all covered in stained swizzle sticks. The floor is a pizza box base with swizzle stick flooring, stained lighter than the exterior and with a few printed rugs added. The walls were made with Legos, lined on the interior with more swizzle sticks and covered on the outside with flocked plaster. The spiral staircase in the center was made with some wood bits I had laying around. The center beam was a piece of an old project that already had a spiral pattern carved into it, so I repurposed it. The top ans bottom are 40mm bases, and the stairs are swizzle sticks. A tea light can ...

Something a little different! This little project was a gift for my father. When he was in the service in the 70s, he had a 4-cylinder Jeep which he and a friend completely rebuilt in their garage. A few years ago, he managed to find the same year and body of jeep-- a 1975 CJ5-- and it's become his pride and joy. I'm a Jeeper, too, and I love my 2016 JKU, so I know how attached we get to these vehicles. I decided to make him a miniature model of his jeep. The model isnt perfect-- using Hot Wheels or Matchbox cars means sometimes you're going to get cartoony designs and weird proportions, a I went with a TJ body style because it looked more like the CJs than the CJ style models did. 😄 At some point I'd like to do a true 1/64 scale model of both our Jeeps, but for now I think this will do! Jeep wave! ✌  

The lights are on in the workshop for the first time in months, and the laughter is returning! Life without the madness of crafting is too dull for me. Just getting back into it, I decided to do some crafting from scratch! Here is some wattle fencing, which was very common in the early medieval period, often used around gardens or farms. Made from sticks and twigs of various size, hot glued on craft sticks, then flocked and sealed. All for the low price of zero. The campfire and fireplace are 3d printed, and are the first things I've painted in some time. I've never attempted to paint any kind of static heat, but I went for the "hot embers" look and I'm pretty happy with it. The eggs make me hungry. 🍳