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Shame in a way it's only the male dominated trades which were represented for obvious reasons. No *cough* Seamstress for example.

Traditional craft pedant mode on- sharing for interest: A barker stripped oak tress of bark using barking irons and various other tools, to supply tanners as you say. But an entirely independant trade. Pitman is a classic- the bloke on the lower end of a pitsaw who spent their life ripping...

Go for it, it's a very simple process. And you can leave out the nitrates, just like we've done for the vast majority of meat curing history.

Cost effective? Mine costs half the price of purchasing bacon of comparable quality, and takes little time on the scheme of things although I don't factor that in. I use only salt for curing, and freeze in small portions in glass containers.

I make my own too- buy chunks from a fairly local farm (not certified organic but as good as) and cure with salt then smoke if I can be bothered. Not very much effort and far far cheaper than quality shop bought stuff. Mine never touches plastic either.

Various interesting things are in progress in Europe involving solar on railways- we'll see what it comes to. I wasn't suggesting roofs being used for private/business gain, more that any new builds with suitable orientation ought to have panels and small scale grid connections rather than...

I still haven't seen good arguments against siting solar panels along railway lines with suitable aspects, or research into the number of agricultural/industrial roofs which are nude...

And ever more UK farmland disappearing to housing, solar panels, 'rewilding', with an ever increasing population. Sit back and watch the attempts to increase yields by even more unsustainable and fragile/vulnerable methods.

And the vast majority of that is utterly dependant on artificial fertilisers, roughly 40% made here and the bulk of the other 60% from Eastern Europe. Massively energy intensive to produce and transport. The US imports enormous quantities from Russia ($1.3 billion last year), if that cuts cut...

I thought damsels in distress were supposed to let down their hair in order to be rescued?

A bit of pointless bling does help encourage spontaneous purchases! Always used to buff up the stuff for my stall at events.

Fittness for purpose. A purely splitting tool such as a froe or splitting maul shouldn't be sharp enough to cut skin- it will just catch and dig in where a blunter blade won't. When I used to forge froes I would grind a bevel then deliberately blunt. An overly sharp edge would also be a...

Swann-Morton skin graft blades are pretty keen as they come. A bit difficult to answer, how do you define 'sharp'? It depends on tool geometry for starters- A very thin blade with a very low bevel angle is going to to be 'sharper', but useless for anything other than cutting paper. And you're...

Agreed- I've made a living using old British edge tools, everything from delicate carving gouges to hewing axes. Also used a vintage Gransfors axe- no better or worse. Two things at play here- steel quality/correct heat treatment, and correct weight/design of tool and handle for intended use...

I wash up under my running cold tap, no hot water here. Belfast sink and lead pipe out into the ditch. No mains drainage in my hamlet, and water on a fixed rate of £180 a year- in dry weather in summer the veg gets watered 24/7 in rotation.

Mine was given me by a (ex land army) neighbour, who inherited it... Used in the Welsh valleys with plenty of age to it! @Silverclaws2 Aluminium quickly forms a skin of aluminium oxide, which is inert. The issue is when this is abraded, or removed by acidic food. Anodising is a way of...

Both have a strong following. I prefer Duossal as you can use a stainless scourer if needs be, a bit more durable and likely to last forever. It's a bit heavier- but Trangias are not exactly a lightweight setup anyway. As mentioned, there are plenty of Trangia sized good looking well made...

Spot on Toddy, an excellent post, same goes for 'the state of the world today'. Human nature doesn't change much. Technology does allow humans to do stupid things faster though.

No, shan't. I know that aluminium is highly reactive, and there have been some slight doubts about it's safety within the body when ingested. If you choose to put your trust in funded science fair enough, please don't be demeaning when I choose not to. The fact the kettle in this post managed...

Probably a separate discussion, but I can't stand the Victorian hangover we have with euphemisms around death. Especially the internet era term 'passing' which sounds like a bowel movement. What's wrong with the truth? I'm going to die. My loved ones are going to die. We're all going to die...