Recent content by Jjja

A friend mentioned that his grandfather used to use flattened surfaces of cuttlefish bones to strop tool blades. I posted this on British blades yesterday as I was on the hunt for anyone else who had heard of this. I will try it out when I get some next time I visit the beach. Jjj

I now have a bundle of bog myrtle which is fresh and fragrant. I will try to extract some wax/oil over the next week or so and let you know how I get on. Harvested a few days ago from the isle of Arran, what a fantastic place, highly recommended! Jjj

Kelly kettle? They do smallish stainless steel ones and they are great. Jjj

Nice work, where did you get the bamboo from? I've wanted to try working with bamboo but not sure where to get it from. Jjj

Simon, details for the photos: 1st pic F6.3 30s exp 2nd pic F6.3 10s exp 3rd pic F3.5 6s exp I had the chance to experiment a bit as the show went on for at least three hours. But it did go down to -25ish and the camera (D90 with 18-200 lens) did go into error and stop working. Jjj

Took these when in Saariselka, Finnish Lapland on the 15th of Feb. Hope you like them. I can't help thinking how lucky I was: 4 days in Lapland and only one clear evening and I saw this. JJJ [/IMG] [/IMG]

I have drilled out the centre of a kuksa before with regular drill bits but have toyed with the idea of using a bigger Forstner bit too. I have also put water in the bowl of the kuksa to try too soften the grain. It works but only to relatively shallow depths within the wood. I have done this...

Thanks toddy, the bits I have just tested were the brown buds and after a while in boiling water I got precisely nothing. So I will try again later in the year when the plants are a bit more alive! I seem to recall that the leaves are fragrant when crushed so I will do some experiments. The wax...

Hello all, just joined today and have a question: I have been reading in woodland crafts in Britain by H.L.Edlin that the brown shoots of bog myrtle can be washed in warm salted water to extract wax for candles. Has anyone out there tried this and how did you get on? Have tried the usual google...