A bit of what I've been doing

[Dave Budd]

I've never been a big poster on forums (or fora), mostly because I can't be bothered with repeating myself or just posting meaningless one liners that don't actually contribute to the thread. Recently though, I've been thinking that I really should make more of an effort to interact with my friends here that I don't see often enough and aren't necessarily on Faceboob (I'm also rubbish at posting there, but I do comment a bit more often).

So I am hereby promising, to try, to post a little something every day. Not always a full on thread like this, but actually converse in other people's thread Without spamming them and having to say my 2p's worth like some I notice

So for starters, here is what I've been up to the last few weeks. I've been trying to get some stock together for the coming year, but then other things get in the way and I haven't got as far as I wanted. I always work in batches, so I will make a few adze, or blades, or shovels at a time; this time I have been working on bigger batches and while more efficient is not so much fun. In addition to this lot, I've been working on bigger batches of historical spoon carving hooks, twca hooks and a couple of dozen specialist bodkins for a cane weaving school in London. Oh and trying to do some of the woodland management between downpours.

Bowl carving adze heads, along with some pictures of the heat treating process taken by a visitor on the day.

american visit4[/url] by buddknives, on Flickr[/IMG] american visit4 by buddknives, on Flickr
american visit9 by buddknives, on Flickr
bowl adze jan by buddknives, on Flickr


A large Roman cleaver come kitchen knife, it's almost 5" wide this thing!
roman cleaver by buddknives, on Flickr

Some hook tools for turning bowls on a lathe, arranged artistically as rays of the Sun (or a sphincter as has just been pointed out to me)
bowl hooks jan by buddknives, on Flickr

And lastly, some Anglo Saxon T-shaped broad axes, used for hewing beams and planks as in boat building. The smallest one has a cutting edge of 24cm. I was quite pleased with how these turned out, for a first attempt. I'll have to make some more of these now, maybe a large Goosewing too
t axe9 by buddknives, on Flickr
t axe8 by buddknives, on Flickr
t axe7 by buddknives, on Flickr


So having caused you to read a load of waffle and wait while some silly big pictures load, that's me back on the forum proper and being sociable from behind my screen, on my own in the middle of the woods in Devon

 

[Kepis]

Excellent, those adze's look dead handy

 

[Broch]

Nearly didn't post in case I was criticized

But, for my 2p's worth, I particularly like those adze heads. Don't fancy uploading a video on shaping them do you?
I know what you mean about the woodland management; our wood is very steep and just keeping upright is a problem in the wet we've had.

Oh, sorry, was that too much?

 

[Toddy]

Nice haul

Good to see you Dave you've clearly been busy, and it's an interesting expansion to the repertoire too.
Cheers for the write up and photos

My tuppence ha'penny worth ....the forum thrives on conversation, but I've been trying to take on board the whole Like button thingie. I still think it's a uriney poor excuse for saying a few words, but well, the world moves on.

atb,
M

 

[Toddy]

Excellent, those adze's look dead handy

I thought that too; I'd like to see some of the boat building ones in use as well.

M

 

[Fadcode]

My few bobs worth,(we always spent heavily up in Liverpool), excellent work there,love the shapes and quality,your heat treating oven or thingy looks a little close to the shed, love to see how it was made etc,

 

[Dreadhead]

Those axes are something else mate!

Sent from my HTC One M9 using Tapatalk

 

[Muddypaws]

Lovely collection of shiny sharp things! As Kepis said, those adzes look really handy, and I love the hooked bowl turning tools. That has given me some useful inspiration as I will have to make something similar for working on my pole lathe.

 

[John Fenna]

It all looks good enough to justify a bit of quiet from you

 

[Dave Budd]

cheers folks

I'm busier than ever and the range of tools that I make has been growing like made over the last couple of years. Most recently I've been making lots for tailors. Lots of pinking irons and awls, one of my projects over the next couple of weeks is to make some cutters for producing button moulds. In fact I've a list of about 200 things that I would like to make pinned up on my workshop wall, I might get through some of them this year!

 

[Stew]

Good to hear you're sufficiently busy!

 

[Mesquite]

Superb work as usual Dave

As for the T axes, they could star in a film they're that good

 

[CLEM]

Grand work, I like the look of em all especially those Anglo Saxon axes

 

[Stew]

My few bobs worth,(we always spent heavily up in Liverpool), excellent work there,love the shapes and quality,your heat treating oven or thingy looks a little close to the shed, love to see how it was made etc,

If I may, the oven is a Don Fogg style heat treat forge. Essentially it's the oil drum lined with a relatively small layer insulating wool which leaves a large space inside. The burner combined with the large space keeps the forge at a steady heat that can be dialled into a temperature.

 

[Fadcode]

Thanks for the Info Stew.

 

[Dave Budd]

in addition to what Stew said. I scaled the ovens down a little because the Fogg forge was designed for swords and I rarely do anything that large. These were made from sections of 500mm stainless ducting from a commercial kitchen refitter, so volume is about a third of the Foggs. If you scale down too far, the controls get very twitchy. It is much easier to keep a stable temperature in a large volume than a small one, so having thin insulation helps to bleed the heat out and make it easier to maintain temperatures The bottom one holds stable within 3 degrees C from about 300 to 1200C and the top one within 2C from 180 to 280C.

As for too close to the walls, not at all. The hot drum is nearly a foot away and on thin metal brackets to prevent the posts getting warm. When it's running at 900C you can almost touch the outside of the drum. Also, I am checking on it every 10 or 20 minutes, so it's not like it's unattended!

 

[Paddytray]

Quality work Dave .

 

[forginhill]

Fine work!....Real pleasure to see all of it.

 

[Hunkyfunkster]

Those adze (adzes? Adzi?) are beautiful to look at. I bet they work well. Some great items there, Sir. Good job