Knife-making and [no] glacier hiking...
We were slightly nervous about the knife-making activity, especially when we happened to be the only participants and Steve, the guy who would be showing us how to make our knives, insisted on showing us his throwing axes before we started. Luckily it turned out Steve wasn't a maniac nut-job and didn't intend on hacking us up at the first opportunity. I think his wide, Robyn, is a calming influence...
When he showed us what we'd be working with - a steel bar and a few gash pieces of wood - I honestly didn't really hold much hope of creating anything worth writing about but we started hammering away gamely anyway. Gradually, the steel bar became slightly pointed at one end and thinner on one side than the other. A great start we were assured. It turned out that the length I had made the blade would produce a fearsome weapon worthy of any self-respecting slasher movie villain. Nice. Anyway, after the battering we gave the steel, it was generously and strategically applied to a grinder. Then we made a start on the handle - and I was impressed with Trace's power saw work - I thought that Steve would surely lose a finger, but somehow all 10 digits made it though unscathed.
So we spent the next few hours gradually shaping the blades and handles on a variety of machines whilst drinking tea and hot chocolate respectively. Every now and again we'd look up and see that we were being watched by a horse, dog, duck or chicken. All rather surreal...
Every now and again, just when we thought we'd done a pretty good job, Steve would have a quick look at our handiwork and give it an extra tweak on one of the machines (probably reversing all the terrible mistakes we'd just made) usually creating an impressive shower of sparks.
At the end of the day we emerged on the other side of our experience with a couple of rather impressive looking blades - a his and hers if you will... The knives are even more impressive when you consider what they started off life as:
While we were at Steve and Robyn's house we had a minor drama as it seemed like their dog had dragged in some poor unfortunate animal which had been killed by the notorious poison, 1080. 1080 is used to try to kill off possums which are a real pest here, but there have been several pets killed by it because they eat the dead possums and end up poisoned themselves. Once an animal gets dosed by 1080, the only hope is to make it sick before the poison is able to enter its system - otherwise there's no cure. Luckily, however the dog pulled through - although we were all rather nervous for a while.
Steve also showed us his incredible jade collection. Jade occurs naturally here and sometimes washes up on the beach! He's spent years picking up jade pebbles and now has quite a collection. He showed us the entire collection and it covered most of his living room. Before we left, he actually gave us a small piece of jade to keep.
Steve and Robyn were such wonderful people and the knives we made were so impressive looking I can't help recommending them to anyone going anywhere near Barrytown.
When he showed us what we'd be working with - a steel bar and a few gash pieces of wood - I honestly didn't really hold much hope of creating anything worth writing about but we started hammering away gamely anyway. Gradually, the steel bar became slightly pointed at one end and thinner on one side than the other. A great start we were assured. It turned out that the length I had made the blade would produce a fearsome weapon worthy of any self-respecting slasher movie villain. Nice. Anyway, after the battering we gave the steel, it was generously and strategically applied to a grinder. Then we made a start on the handle - and I was impressed with Trace's power saw work - I thought that Steve would surely lose a finger, but somehow all 10 digits made it though unscathed.
So we spent the next few hours gradually shaping the blades and handles on a variety of machines whilst drinking tea and hot chocolate respectively. Every now and again we'd look up and see that we were being watched by a horse, dog, duck or chicken. All rather surreal...
Every now and again, just when we thought we'd done a pretty good job, Steve would have a quick look at our handiwork and give it an extra tweak on one of the machines (probably reversing all the terrible mistakes we'd just made) usually creating an impressive shower of sparks.
At the end of the day we emerged on the other side of our experience with a couple of rather impressive looking blades - a his and hers if you will... The knives are even more impressive when you consider what they started off life as:
While we were at Steve and Robyn's house we had a minor drama as it seemed like their dog had dragged in some poor unfortunate animal which had been killed by the notorious poison, 1080. 1080 is used to try to kill off possums which are a real pest here, but there have been several pets killed by it because they eat the dead possums and end up poisoned themselves. Once an animal gets dosed by 1080, the only hope is to make it sick before the poison is able to enter its system - otherwise there's no cure. Luckily, however the dog pulled through - although we were all rather nervous for a while.
Steve also showed us his incredible jade collection. Jade occurs naturally here and sometimes washes up on the beach! He's spent years picking up jade pebbles and now has quite a collection. He showed us the entire collection and it covered most of his living room. Before we left, he actually gave us a small piece of jade to keep.
Steve and Robyn were such wonderful people and the knives we made were so impressive looking I can't help recommending them to anyone going anywhere near Barrytown.
posted by Iff at
2:31 am
1 Comments:
His wide Robyn?? Do you get to keep them knives? Very impressive!!
By
Lib, At
1:51 pm
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