“I spend perhaps an inordinate amount of time looking at images of axes. There’s just something about them. I think that axes will never go out of fashion, nor will they cease to be useful in their multitude of functions. Over the hundreds of thousands of years they have been in use by humankind, any number of styles, shapes, and sizes have been made to perform a variety of splitting, chopping, and shaping work. It’s the sheer variety, and the craftsmanship that I am most attracted to, I think. Of course I love using them, too, probably more than any other hand tool.
To celebrate the axe and the people who continue to make them, here is a selection of 26 modern day (steel) axes made by a variety of craftspeople that are beautiful, functional, and swoon-worthy.…”
-Ziggy
Click here.
From Cheryl Long, Editor, The Mother Earth News
See also “Ziggy’s Cob Cottage,” pp.110-113, Tiny Homes: Simple Shelter
“Just ran across this video. Some pretty amazing joinery here. No idea where this is…”
Mackey Smith, Pure Salvage
I turn off the music on a lot of YouTube videos; often it’s just distracting.
-LK
Greetings Lloyd-follow your blog every day.…One of the other sites I follow is Cape Falcon Kayak, a gentleman who runs an off the grid organic farm as well as teaching skin on frame kayak construction. He just posted a seasaonal update for Winter 2014 that includes 2 videos, one showing the construction of his small japanese style house, the second showing the farm, off the grid construction and how they operate. Worth checking out and sharing on your site. The foraging sections and photography are also very good if you have the time to peruse. Thanks again for taking the time to run the blog, and looking forward to the new book. -David Stoll
Click here.
“Lloyd, I was trying to figure out what to make my son for Christmas, and saw your post on Indian Clubs. Off I went on Google….and what a discovery! If Amazon’s sold out, then I’m gonna make some! I got digging in the lumber pile this morning and found some dry Douglas Fir 4×4, and had this pair of 2 pounders buffed up by mid-afternoon. The big challenge in turning these is to make the second one exactly like the first.
I’ve been doing a bit of boogie with them to the shop radio , make sure there’s swinging room for sure, and I feel ENERGIZED! Maybe I should read the operator’s manual?
Behind the clubs on Santa’s workbench you can see a new pair of Xantho-cypress salad forks, some 90″ Sitka spoon oars ready for collars, and a couple of experimental Yuloh pivots for the catboat, one Locust and one Rock Maple dipped in cuprinol. Godfrey will know what that’s all about.
~david shipway
sutil point (Cortes Island, BC)”
(David is one of the featured builders in Builders Of the Pacific Coast.)
From Godfrey Stevens/Steve Rankin
“Eric Hollenbeck is a master woodworker who owns and operates the Blue Ox Millworks in Eureka, CA. The Ox is a lovely short film about Hollenbeck directed by Ben Proudfoot…”
Sent by Kevin Kelly.
Also see: https://www.blueoxmill.com/
“Eric Hollenbeck, his family and staff welcome you to the Blue Ox Millworks, where the craftsmanship tools and techniques of the last century are utilized to produce authentic custom millwork for private homes and commercial buildings throughout the United States. …”
“Hi Lloyd I saw this and thought of you, it’s a great film about a simple life with ace music.
-Robin”
Film by Amit Schwachter
“Simply Yoav is a short documentary about a young man who lives a unique way of life.
Yoav lives in a structure called “yurt” and tries to maintain as naturalistic a life as possible.
I followed Yoav for a few days around his home and tried to capture his ‘life style’ in a day.…”
Day at the beach Yesterday I walked a few miles along the coast, carrying my wetsuit, surf mat and fins in a backpack. I’ve had the mat for over a year and never used it. It was sunny, the ocean glassy, surf 3-4 feet, but breaking straight across. Suited up — gotta bite the bullet sometime — and hit the water. Two surfers out, getting creamed each time they got up…When I got out, surf had jumped to 4-6′, breaking kah-wump with big thick lips…Bottom line: surfing a mat ain’t as easy as I thought, or as easy as it looks. I had a hard time getting in the right place at the right time. I did get one ride, but also got pounded a couple of times. But you know, at my age, I ain’t complainin, just getting in the water always generates chi…On the way back, there were these rock sculptures, hadn’t been there a few hours earlier.
Tiny Homes On The Move is moving, albeit slowly. Rick has been working over a month, doing Photoshop work on the 1,000+ photos, many of which need resuscitation; on some of these he’s performing minor miracles, bringing out lacking color, depth and sharpness…I had a sort of breakthrough Friday when I cancelled a planned kayak adventure to Drake’s Estero and stayed here and got the intro and credits pages done, had been putting off for weeks. Now that everything is laid out, we will spend a month or so making corrections, and coming up with a cover.
Half Acre Homestead: I’m doing a presentation on tools Friday here at Commonweal.
Click here. Anonymous has left a new comment on your post “diy-crafted-seattle-micro-apartment:”
70 DIY tips, thought you might enjoy, from Popular Mechanics: https://www.popularmechanics.com/home/skills/know-your-stuff-the-110-best-diy-tips-ever#slide-1
“Hole in One
Enlarged screw holes can be quickly repaired, we said in March 1972, by filling the hole with a wooden golf tee. Use a hacksaw to saw the tee flush with the wood’s surface, then sand and finish.”
