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An Unexpected Journey: A Newbie's Walk In Wet Shaving
- Thread starter Blade-meister
- Start date
Driving home Friday we saw a sign for an estate sale. Now I've been picking through this house's curb trash since the family started going through the old 1800's house. Sadly a lot of good stuff went into the dumpster they had and before I could catch someone to ask permission to dumpster dive the thing got rained on last fall. We as a family decided to go Saturday to see what was available. Wow! prices were not set in the "We need to empty the house" zone and very high in my opinion. In the house I saw a beautiful old strop, but they wanted $25 for it and that was too much money for me. In the barn I several mess kits but they wanted $15 - $20 each for them which is I guess retail, but if you've read my journal for any length of time you know I'm searching for the bargain. I've always wanted a compact mess kit for survival purposes so as I was looking, behold way behind an old tool box I found one without a price. I asked the first family member I found if they'd take $5 for it and they said "yes." So here it is.
This is the mess kit all packaged up for carry. I really like the set-up of this one compared to the modern stuff out there.
I spent some time cleaning it up because I am going to actually use it. What's in it you ask? Well here it is unpacked:
It contains a food plate/bowl type container, a frying pan, a drinking cup, and a small pail type container with lid. The strap the holds everything together becomes the handle for the frying pan. Other than some dents in the cup and the previous owner scratching his name on most of the pieces, it's in pretty great shape for $5. When in a survival situation, having a pail to gather water then boil it is a life changer, and it has a pail handle too. Granted, the size is quite small, but without it how would one gather and boil water to drink? The pail is also useful for gathering food items you might find. Run into a patch of great blueberries or blackberries and now you can fill up that container to take with you AND eat your fill. Catch a fish and now you have a pan to cook it in. Having a plate/bowl type container is super handy as well allowing you to eat in relative comfort. I'll just forge a small fork and spoon to go in the kit and it will be all set. Or, let's say you find some nice dry tinder to start your fire, you could store it in there for a rainy day when dry tinder is just not there. I love this kit and it's exactly what I was looking for........keep it simple..............
So many of you were waiting for the final results from the knife being in the electrolysis tank @CVargo @Fightingillini22 @Graybeard57 @Fenster @MarkB @dangerousdon ..............Well, several hours of the process did remove a great deal of the rust, but more work COULD be done. If this were an important artifact from say a battle site or a historical site the archeologists would spend hours painstakingly picking away at the remaining rust but it's really not that kind of artifact and I've got it as far as I want to take it. I'm impressed with the results with a knife as far gone as it was.
Before:
After:
Before:
After:
I think this after picture gives you the best idea of how much crusty rust junk was taken away in the electrolysis process. You can clearly see several blades are folded into this knife.
Before:
After:
Here's the bottom of the knife. Sorry, only an after picture on this view.
It was a great test piece so that I can see what to do and not to do with something more historic and important that I find.
This is the mess kit all packaged up for carry. I really like the set-up of this one compared to the modern stuff out there.
I spent some time cleaning it up because I am going to actually use it. What's in it you ask? Well here it is unpacked:
It contains a food plate/bowl type container, a frying pan, a drinking cup, and a small pail type container with lid. The strap the holds everything together becomes the handle for the frying pan. Other than some dents in the cup and the previous owner scratching his name on most of the pieces, it's in pretty great shape for $5. When in a survival situation, having a pail to gather water then boil it is a life changer, and it has a pail handle too. Granted, the size is quite small, but without it how would one gather and boil water to drink? The pail is also useful for gathering food items you might find. Run into a patch of great blueberries or blackberries and now you can fill up that container to take with you AND eat your fill. Catch a fish and now you have a pan to cook it in. Having a plate/bowl type container is super handy as well allowing you to eat in relative comfort. I'll just forge a small fork and spoon to go in the kit and it will be all set. Or, let's say you find some nice dry tinder to start your fire, you could store it in there for a rainy day when dry tinder is just not there. I love this kit and it's exactly what I was looking for........keep it simple..............
So many of you were waiting for the final results from the knife being in the electrolysis tank @CVargo @Fightingillini22 @Graybeard57 @Fenster @MarkB @dangerousdon ..............Well, several hours of the process did remove a great deal of the rust, but more work COULD be done. If this were an important artifact from say a battle site or a historical site the archeologists would spend hours painstakingly picking away at the remaining rust but it's really not that kind of artifact and I've got it as far as I want to take it. I'm impressed with the results with a knife as far gone as it was.
Before:
After:
Before:
After:
I think this after picture gives you the best idea of how much crusty rust junk was taken away in the electrolysis process. You can clearly see several blades are folded into this knife.
Before:
After:
Here's the bottom of the knife. Sorry, only an after picture on this view.
It was a great test piece so that I can see what to do and not to do with something more historic and important that I find.
That reminds me of the mess kits the Boy Scouts used when I was young. Not fancy, but totally functional. It's a shame the pocketknife wasn't restorable to its original state. I love old pocketknives. Your electrolysis bath is brilliant in its simplicity and effectiveness.
Yes, I think these were used by the Boy Scouts at some point due to there being several and the previous owner feeling the need to scratch his name on his kit.
I love old knives in all their forms. It's a shame this one was too far gone. I could have kept going and got my dental picks to work on it, but in the end I accomplished my goal to see if the electrolysis tank worked and to do a positive ID on it being a knife. Before the treatment it looked like a pretty crusty rusty blob and now most can see that it's an old pocket knife.
When I was a kid, I found an old pocket knife in the ashes of a burned-out grocery store. Like yours, it wasn't salvageable, but I remember being delighted with its discovery.
I've always felt that inside every man, there is a need to discover new things. I've seen men who have no hobbies and do nothing in their free time but watch TV and it makes me wonder if they are too far gone. I gotta believe no man is too far gone to just get a wild hair and go out and find something. That old crusty knife was lost and in the ground many years until I found it and brought it out of it's slow fade into nothing. Now, that knife is something again. It tells a little story of sorts.
I've been walking my trails and man it feels good to have my normal breath about me. I don't get winded walking up the hills and feel dang near normal. I'm ready to get out and get some stuff done! One trail I haven't shown is the Indian trail that sits above the old turnpike road that's on my property. It was the main Indian route for a long time and the first explorers of the region no doubt walked this same trail. I've metal detected it and found nothing colonial or from the era where it would have been used prior to the road. It's fast become my favorite trail to walk. It's a gentle slope, shaded, and beautiful. There was a time that snowmobiles used it, so I find really old beer cans with the metal detector.
Here's the base heading up hill. I cleared it this spring. I strategically left trees in the middle to discourage snowmobiles from trespassing to use it. I can just imagine some Indians making their way along the trail with huge old growth forest surrounding the trail. To the left is the old turnpike and further left is the current paved road. The trail curves right at the end there and goes up hill more.
Here's the top of the trail where it curves up to the place where I'm taking this picture. Above and to the right of this spot I have a Tulip Poplar that I'm hewing into a timber. It was going to be used at the cabin, but I think I'll pop it on Craig's List and sell it. People are looking for this sort of thing these days in their build projects. I sure wish I could take my house, land and cabin with me when we move next year but COVID showed me that it's too much land to manage if one of us is down. My poor wife has been doing 4 hours of mowing / weed whacking the trails. I've begun weed whacking again and will start mowing next week hopefully. It's hard work to keep the trails open, cut fallen trees, and do your own lawn. I think when I retire that I won't want to be tied up managing a woods so we will be looking for something smaller where I can have one nice trail to maintain and 6 acres of woods or so.
Sometimes things just get pushed to the back burner when you are busy or down for the count. I just got around to checking the trail camera pictures from the winter months. I scan them for suspicious activity, but all the rest is something I look through later. I found some interesting pictures:
I've seen a pair of red foxes running our trails and here is one in hot pursuit of something. I'm guessing he was rabbit hunting.
Then there's this mountain man out with his 1948 Mossberg 152 .22 and his axe in a shoulder sheath. Looks familiar, oh yeah, that's me
Believe it or not, that's winter camo I have on but the trail camera is off on it's color interpretations. Neat thing about this .22 is that the front part of the stock folds down so you have a fore-grip. They did this to accommodate the boys coming home from WWII who liked the Thompson machine guns they were using. Sometimes the old guns are the best guns. It shoots as straight as anyone can ask for out of a rifle that is that old.
Out for a snow show trip on the trails. I sure will miss snowshoe weather when we move south next year. Breaking trail in deep snow is hard work in snowshoes and this year we got a lot of snow. Below is a picture of the cabin with all that snow.
The cabin is 3 feet off the ground in the back and a good 4 + feet in the front. When we got the blizzard in December snow measured about an inch below the bottom of the cabin in the front.
I've seen a pair of red foxes running our trails and here is one in hot pursuit of something. I'm guessing he was rabbit hunting.
Then there's this mountain man out with his 1948 Mossberg 152 .22 and his axe in a shoulder sheath. Looks familiar, oh yeah, that's me
Believe it or not, that's winter camo I have on but the trail camera is off on it's color interpretations. Neat thing about this .22 is that the front part of the stock folds down so you have a fore-grip. They did this to accommodate the boys coming home from WWII who liked the Thompson machine guns they were using. Sometimes the old guns are the best guns. It shoots as straight as anyone can ask for out of a rifle that is that old.Out for a snow show trip on the trails. I sure will miss snowshoe weather when we move south next year. Breaking trail in deep snow is hard work in snowshoes and this year we got a lot of snow. Below is a picture of the cabin with all that snow.
The cabin is 3 feet off the ground in the back and a good 4 + feet in the front. When we got the blizzard in December snow measured about an inch below the bottom of the cabin in the front.
Mike, you've done an amazing job building your cabin and managing your woods. Your love and respect for the outdoors is evident in all that you do. 
Mike, you've done an amazing job building your cabin and managing your woods. Your love and respect for the outdoors is evident in all that you do.
Thanks Bruce! It sure will be hard to leave behind when we move south, but I'd like to think that someone can buy our property and woods and finish what I started. The inside needs to be finished and a stove put in it. I do love the woods. I have favorite trees and favorite places and they would be virtually unknown if there were not trails.
Here are a few honorable mentions from the trail cameras:
I'm sure the right buyer will come along when you are ready to sell. Wish I could do it myself.
That piece of property is gorgeous! So much beautiful landscape and wildlife. It really is a dream. Just about anyone would be sad to see it go.
Sometimes while out walking I quietly wonder why I'd leave it, but I think things will be better for us in the end down south. I look at the young men up here in the north, and few of them seem motivated to work. If my daughters are going to find solid young men someday, I think they stand the best chance down south.
It was our dream and we will be sad to leave it. I sunk a lot of me into the cabin and land. I planted a nice oak tree I named Bruce that I will never see grow, but Bruce will start a forest of oaks there that will long outlast my time here on earth.
I came across a great quote a few days ago:
Fate Whispers to the Warrior
"You Cannot Withstand the Storm"
The Warrior Whispers Back
"I am the storm"
Whatever you are facing today, be the warrior and be the storm and lean into the wind. If they say you cannot win, die trying or prove them wrong.
I had a unique opportunity to metal detect my grandpa's property. We know the owners who bought it years ago so I asked and they said I could come up and metal detect it. I studied old aerial photos of the place and found that the wagons and such used to parked at a hitching post area further over than the present driveway. My first target was an early 1900's Winchester pocket knife with the largest blade open and antler handle scales. It was obvious it was laid down doing something and lost. Lots more things to show once I get them cleaned up and pictures taken. This was just a teaser..........................
What was weird was that when us boys would play up there as kids, I'd look up and see him watching us out a window and enjoying it. I kept thinking I'd look up and see him looking one of the windows. We only lived a quarter mile down the road, so we saw him quite a bit and used to ride our Apollo racer bikes up there pretending we were CHIPS officers. I had to be Larry because my old brother always had to be Ponch. We had construction helmets and everything as we road side by side up and down the side of the road playing CHIPS or Big Valley in which case our bikes became horses. Some of you have no clue what shows I'm talking about I'm sure
Anyways................more to come with pictures soon.
What was weird was that when us boys would play up there as kids, I'd look up and see him watching us out a window and enjoying it. I kept thinking I'd look up and see him looking one of the windows. We only lived a quarter mile down the road, so we saw him quite a bit and used to ride our Apollo racer bikes up there pretending we were CHIPS officers. I had to be Larry because my old brother always had to be Ponch. We had construction helmets and everything as we road side by side up and down the side of the road playing CHIPS or Big Valley in which case our bikes became horses. Some of you have no clue what shows I'm talking about I'm sure
Anyways................more to come with pictures soon.
My mom would call Eric Estrada “chiclet teeth” because his pearly whites smile was so big. Ponch was my hero!
I've been promising metal detecting pictures for a bit now so I decided to make good and do some show and tell. First though, on the shaving home front, I had really great shaves this week. I went for BBS on Sunday last week and did a little too much so the whole week I was applying next to no pressure and man my shaves were great. So I got to thinking about how much pressure I was unknowingly doing and I think it creeps up on you. I believe I was putting more and more pressure as the months ticked by. My Variant has enough weight so that you don't really need much applied pressure to get a great shave. I will say that I'm DFS+ in my trouble areas and BBS everywhere else.
Ok onto the good stuff! 2 weeks ago I went to my grandfather's house to metal detect. It's been hit before my my uncle and my Dad, so I had to think outside the box. I pulled up old aerial photos from the 1930's and was able to see where the driveway used to be and the general path between the house and the barn. I decided to hit the area between the house and the barn. There are literally 7 square nails to every foot of yard space so that means a lot of digging. Square nails ring up high on my metal detector so you have to dig them. Here are my finds for the day:
The pocket knife was my very first target and I was so surprised to see it in the hole when I dug my plug. Quite obviously someone was using this knife in the early 1900's and set it down but lost it. Probably skinning the day's trapping harvest or fishing harvest. Nearest I can tell it's a Winchester pocket knife from the early 1900's. Right above the knife is what remains from an old pocket watch. Pocket watches were in use for a long time so this thing could be from the 1900's or 1800's. I think it's very cool looking and plan to clean it all up and mount it on a nice piece of wood with some quote about time. To the right of the watch is a Junior G-Man badge from a radio show for kids that was popular in the 1930's. That was my favorite find of the day. It's missing the top part which I believe got melted and is clumped up on the back side. How about that, I was deputized as a G-Man! Above the badge is a tiny "D" buckle that went to clothing or even a shoe. The coins from top to bottom are: 1944 Wheat Cent, 2003 Jefferson Nickel, 1976 Canadian Penny, and a 1978 Lincoln Memorial Penny. No doubt there are more coins there and I plan on making a return trip. The change was lost by my grandfather, so that's pretty cool to think about. Of course I also had a huge pile of trash that's the normal thing when metal detecting. I show the finds, but you dig a lot of nothing in between them.
Here's a close-up picture of the badge:
So today I had a spare couple of hours so I decided to check out the area around one of the upper trails on my property. Woods detecting is pretty cool because you hear nothing for long periods of time and then when you do get a signal, you dig it. Most of the signals I dig in the woods I would ignore around a house. As I was walking the dog the other day I pass by this big rock that's just kinda out of place so I got to thinking that maybe there was a stash of some kind there from the 1800's. So off I went. Sure enough, I got to the big rock and there was a coin like signal in the area behind the rock. Ok, so maybe someone sat on the rock and a coin fell out? I dig down, and the signal pinpointed right in the middle of the root. I'm down 8 inches now and I work my finger in this crevice and out pops an old rifle shell. Cool, but not a coin. So I continued down the path and found some neat stuff along the way.
From left to right:
One would think that this was a broken horse shoe, but it's really just half of a set of Ox shoes. Oxen have a strange hoof sorta like a deer so their shoes had to be put on in two pieces. This one was thrown while the ox was doing something because it still has a nail in it. When I researched the land, I found a listing of one of the previous owners in the 1800's who owned sheep and oxen so no doubt this came off one of his oxen. The whole woods area now was once farmed from the 1800's through the 1950's. Perhaps I wasn't the first person to use that trail! The small broken pieces are a copper rim to something. The long square nail was a surprise because it wasn't only 2 inches below the soil just like the ox shoe. I think this nail was a dropped one. Perhaps it was used as a pin for a latch or a gate or something. Both the nail and the ox shoe will go in the electrolysis tank to see what we have. The thing up in the top right corner is some sort of hook. I think it goes to horse or ox tackle, but it needs a bath in the electrolysis tank as well. The shell casings are as follows from left to right: First two are Remington UMC 32 WCF which could have been for a lever action rifle or a pistol and date from early to mid 1900's I think. The next two longer casings are 30-30 Winchester Super Speed and Super X rifle shells that probably went to a 30-30 lever action rifle. I'll tell you, someone who hunted this land loved their lever action rifles. The last shorter casing is a handgun size and has F C 5 4 stamped around the outside. I don't have any info on that one yet. The smallest ones on top are .22 casings. The silver one rang up really high like a silver coin, but it's a Peters HV. The other one has an "H" stamped on it which was made by Winchester. All these casings are old which is kinda cool. I'm saving all the casings I find and will be mounting them on a nice board some day. Might as well do something with them since I dug them all up.
I'll post pictures of the cleaned up stuff after they sit in the electrolysis tank for a few days. It's pretty cool to save history like this.
Ok onto the good stuff! 2 weeks ago I went to my grandfather's house to metal detect. It's been hit before my my uncle and my Dad, so I had to think outside the box. I pulled up old aerial photos from the 1930's and was able to see where the driveway used to be and the general path between the house and the barn. I decided to hit the area between the house and the barn. There are literally 7 square nails to every foot of yard space so that means a lot of digging. Square nails ring up high on my metal detector so you have to dig them. Here are my finds for the day:
The pocket knife was my very first target and I was so surprised to see it in the hole when I dug my plug. Quite obviously someone was using this knife in the early 1900's and set it down but lost it. Probably skinning the day's trapping harvest or fishing harvest. Nearest I can tell it's a Winchester pocket knife from the early 1900's. Right above the knife is what remains from an old pocket watch. Pocket watches were in use for a long time so this thing could be from the 1900's or 1800's. I think it's very cool looking and plan to clean it all up and mount it on a nice piece of wood with some quote about time. To the right of the watch is a Junior G-Man badge from a radio show for kids that was popular in the 1930's. That was my favorite find of the day. It's missing the top part which I believe got melted and is clumped up on the back side. How about that, I was deputized as a G-Man! Above the badge is a tiny "D" buckle that went to clothing or even a shoe. The coins from top to bottom are: 1944 Wheat Cent, 2003 Jefferson Nickel, 1976 Canadian Penny, and a 1978 Lincoln Memorial Penny. No doubt there are more coins there and I plan on making a return trip. The change was lost by my grandfather, so that's pretty cool to think about. Of course I also had a huge pile of trash that's the normal thing when metal detecting. I show the finds, but you dig a lot of nothing in between them.
Here's a close-up picture of the badge:
So today I had a spare couple of hours so I decided to check out the area around one of the upper trails on my property. Woods detecting is pretty cool because you hear nothing for long periods of time and then when you do get a signal, you dig it. Most of the signals I dig in the woods I would ignore around a house. As I was walking the dog the other day I pass by this big rock that's just kinda out of place so I got to thinking that maybe there was a stash of some kind there from the 1800's. So off I went. Sure enough, I got to the big rock and there was a coin like signal in the area behind the rock. Ok, so maybe someone sat on the rock and a coin fell out? I dig down, and the signal pinpointed right in the middle of the root. I'm down 8 inches now and I work my finger in this crevice and out pops an old rifle shell. Cool, but not a coin. So I continued down the path and found some neat stuff along the way.
From left to right:
One would think that this was a broken horse shoe, but it's really just half of a set of Ox shoes. Oxen have a strange hoof sorta like a deer so their shoes had to be put on in two pieces. This one was thrown while the ox was doing something because it still has a nail in it. When I researched the land, I found a listing of one of the previous owners in the 1800's who owned sheep and oxen so no doubt this came off one of his oxen. The whole woods area now was once farmed from the 1800's through the 1950's. Perhaps I wasn't the first person to use that trail! The small broken pieces are a copper rim to something. The long square nail was a surprise because it wasn't only 2 inches below the soil just like the ox shoe. I think this nail was a dropped one. Perhaps it was used as a pin for a latch or a gate or something. Both the nail and the ox shoe will go in the electrolysis tank to see what we have. The thing up in the top right corner is some sort of hook. I think it goes to horse or ox tackle, but it needs a bath in the electrolysis tank as well. The shell casings are as follows from left to right: First two are Remington UMC 32 WCF which could have been for a lever action rifle or a pistol and date from early to mid 1900's I think. The next two longer casings are 30-30 Winchester Super Speed and Super X rifle shells that probably went to a 30-30 lever action rifle. I'll tell you, someone who hunted this land loved their lever action rifles. The last shorter casing is a handgun size and has F C 5 4 stamped around the outside. I don't have any info on that one yet. The smallest ones on top are .22 casings. The silver one rang up really high like a silver coin, but it's a Peters HV. The other one has an "H" stamped on it which was made by Winchester. All these casings are old which is kinda cool. I'm saving all the casings I find and will be mounting them on a nice board some day. Might as well do something with them since I dug them all up.
I'll post pictures of the cleaned up stuff after they sit in the electrolysis tank for a few days. It's pretty cool to save history like this.
So as many know, I've been on this journey to perfect the shower shave. The benefits are in the time savings and the wet environment. I think I've been shaving in the shower exclusively for a couple of years now or close to it. I primarily use Williams Mug soap due to the cost savings and treat myself to something good once a week. Fast forward to last week, and we rant out of propane due to a mix-up from the gas company. They were replacing our outside tank and said we had enough. So, facing a cold shower I decided to shave outside the shower like I used to do and like most everyone here does. I must say, I'm not getting as good of a shave in the shower. It's adequate and certainly does save time, but man those cold water shaves outside the shower are much better. I may just have to start treating myself to more of them by getting up a little earlier.
In the metal detecting department, I cleaned up some of those finds in the electrolysis tank so here's a picture (scroll up to see the before picture):
Some of the markings from where the shoe was fit to the ox's hoof are visible on the opposite side. The thicker part went toward the back and the thinner part toward the front. This one dates solidly to the early 1800's. The hook in the right corner turned out to be a part of the horse tack for a working horse. No for sure date on it because similar pieces were used for a couple of hundred years, but probably another 1800's piece. The square nail turned out great and it the largest I've seen, so it deserved to be restored somewhat to a preservable state. The rifle casing in the middle is one I found in my yard last night. It's a Lake City Ammunition 30-06 military round made in 1957. There are markings on the headstamp (end where the firing pin hits the primer and opposite of the bullet end) told the story. All the times I've covered my yard and two nights ago I found 2 more quarters and a spill of 2 pennies. It just goes to show you that no spot is completely striped of coins.
A few weeks ago I was in another spot in my yard and found this crank to the grates of an old coal stove. I didn't take a picture of it before the electrolysis tank, but trust me, the handle was just a round clump of rust along with the square end. It will become a handle to a door someday in my shop or some other place where it works.
The holes in the handle were to keep it cool enough to touch. I think it would look cool as a way to open the door to a shop from the inside. More time in the tank could help it, but I'd had enough of the process and called it good enough.
In the metal detecting department, I cleaned up some of those finds in the electrolysis tank so here's a picture (scroll up to see the before picture):
Some of the markings from where the shoe was fit to the ox's hoof are visible on the opposite side. The thicker part went toward the back and the thinner part toward the front. This one dates solidly to the early 1800's. The hook in the right corner turned out to be a part of the horse tack for a working horse. No for sure date on it because similar pieces were used for a couple of hundred years, but probably another 1800's piece. The square nail turned out great and it the largest I've seen, so it deserved to be restored somewhat to a preservable state. The rifle casing in the middle is one I found in my yard last night. It's a Lake City Ammunition 30-06 military round made in 1957. There are markings on the headstamp (end where the firing pin hits the primer and opposite of the bullet end) told the story. All the times I've covered my yard and two nights ago I found 2 more quarters and a spill of 2 pennies. It just goes to show you that no spot is completely striped of coins.
A few weeks ago I was in another spot in my yard and found this crank to the grates of an old coal stove. I didn't take a picture of it before the electrolysis tank, but trust me, the handle was just a round clump of rust along with the square end. It will become a handle to a door someday in my shop or some other place where it works.
The holes in the handle were to keep it cool enough to touch. I think it would look cool as a way to open the door to a shop from the inside. More time in the tank could help it, but I'd had enough of the process and called it good enough.