I guess it depends which one you are
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An Unexpected Journey: A Newbie's Walk In Wet Shaving
- Thread starter Blade-meister
- Start date
Boy have I been MIA lately here. It's the final push to finish home improvements so we can get our house on the market and move to AL. Looks like we will be listing it this weekend. When you live somewhere and don't intend on moving until you are too old to stay, you accumulate things that you wouldn't save if you knew you were moving 
The great thing about living in the sticks is that I've been burning wood stuff and getting rid of it that way if I can't find someone to give it away to. The housing market is crazy and we'll probably sell our house in a few weeks if not sooner. I've had not time for fun or hobbies so nothing ultra cool to report really. Packed up the forge and forging equipment last night, so there won't be any forging until I land and get settled in AL.
Tired and sick of doing home improvement projects, but we hope the extra effort will help us put our best foot forward. I wish I'd done this kind of move in my 20's, feeling a little too old to be selling, buying and packing up and moving.
The great thing about living in the sticks is that I've been burning wood stuff and getting rid of it that way if I can't find someone to give it away to. The housing market is crazy and we'll probably sell our house in a few weeks if not sooner. I've had not time for fun or hobbies so nothing ultra cool to report really. Packed up the forge and forging equipment last night, so there won't be any forging until I land and get settled in AL.Tired and sick of doing home improvement projects, but we hope the extra effort will help us put our best foot forward. I wish I'd done this kind of move in my 20's, feeling a little too old to be selling, buying and packing up and moving.
Good luck on the home sale and the move! And you’re never too old to bribe friends with pizza to help out!
No problem with bribing friends up here with pizza and beverages, it's the AL part I'm worried about. I'll be a yankee down there so I don't know if the neighbors will take pity on me when the see me trying to get an anvil off the truck
I won't know anyone down there and I'm sure when they see my NY plates they'll tend to think I'm one of those northern types even though I have more in common with southern folks than I do with folks up here if you get my drift. Thanks Chris. We look forward to becoming southern people and shedding our northern skin somewhere at the NY/PA border. We are really ready for a change.
Keep at it man...you are so close. It's hard work but it will pay off in dividends real soon!
Amazing how much work someone will do for such a small price. The timing can be important, as I learned once when I broke out the beverages before all the heavy furniture had been moved. Better to save the beverages till after all the heavy lifting has been done.
I wouldn’t worry. Everywhere has Alabama parts and vice versa.No problem with bribing friends up here with pizza and beverages, it's the AL part I'm worried about. I'll be a yankee down there so I don't know if the neighbors will take pity on me when the see me trying to get an anvil off the truck
Thanks Chris. We look forward to becoming southern people and shedding our northern skin somewhere at the NY/PA border. We are really ready for a change.
Well you kinda know me, LOL!No problem with bribing friends up here with pizza and beverages, it's the AL part I'm worried about. I'll be a yankee down there so I don't know if the neighbors will take pity on me when the see me trying to get an anvil off the truck
Thanks Chris. We look forward to becoming southern people and shedding our northern skin somewhere at the NY/PA border. We are really ready for a change.
True, but it might be al little drive for you to Gadsden from your place. I'll tell you this, after the winter we've had dealing with snow, sleet, ice, and did I say ice......well I told my driveway this afternoon that I wouldn't miss it after spending 3 hours out there getting it clear. I had to do an extra good job because we have showings the next couple of days. Think snow blow, then shovel, then broom it off with a big farm broom. Yeah, I pretty much hated it and won't miss the snow when we land in Sweet Home Alabama
I got my head stoved in at a Phenix City bar.
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Mmmmm... could explain some things.
I haven't had much time to do many of my hobbies. A failed closing in NY and AL set us back, but we sold the house again up here in NY and soon will be able to look again in AL. As I was packing I found this old meat cleaver that a close friend of mine gave me to see about putting a new handle on it. As I began to look at it closer I realized that this is a hand forged cleaver of some considerable age. My friend is Italian and this was his grandfather who may have brought it with him when he came to America. Nobody in the family knows for sure if this was something bought here or if it traveled from Italy to America. I told him that it should be retired and restored as a piece of history. Prior to me getting my hands on it, it was used on his small homestead farm carrying out the execution of many chickens and ducks. It would lay in the dirt, out in the rain and snow, and has generally been abused, but not to excess. Since I'm moving soon I decided to do the restore on this as a parting gift to my friend. I wish I'd taken a before picture, but the whole thing was very rusty - crusty rusty, and the handle was in several rattling pieces but still together somehow. This is what I believe to be a through-tang construction that sees the end of the tang peened over the butt end of the handle to hold the handle tight. Much of what I see in the design almost looks medieval and European. The hole at the top of the cleaver was punched when the blade was hot.
So.......rolling up my sleeves I removed the rust and crust (and probably bits of duck and chicken necks!) but was able to preserve the story of the patina the best I could do. Electrolysis would have made the blade look grey and new, but what a tragedy that would have been to remove all that. I was able to stabilize the handle and glue it / clamp it back together. When I do this, I like to put the glue deep in the cracks so that the cracks are still there telling the story of the piece. I had to cold peen the tang gently to tighten up the butt cap. Stabilizing the front choil-like guard was done with jamming toothpick into the gaps until they were solid and breaking them off - rattle gone! The handle saw some polish with a paper bag and a light coat of Danish oil to protect it for a lifetime. I didn't sharpen it because it's still pretty dang sharp! My friend intend to now display the cleaver below his grandfather's picture. I suspect @ShawnF would just add the cleaver to his collection of Friday the 13th memorabilia I will say, this would make a heck of a horror film prop!
So.......rolling up my sleeves I removed the rust and crust (and probably bits of duck and chicken necks!) but was able to preserve the story of the patina the best I could do. Electrolysis would have made the blade look grey and new, but what a tragedy that would have been to remove all that. I was able to stabilize the handle and glue it / clamp it back together. When I do this, I like to put the glue deep in the cracks so that the cracks are still there telling the story of the piece. I had to cold peen the tang gently to tighten up the butt cap. Stabilizing the front choil-like guard was done with jamming toothpick into the gaps until they were solid and breaking them off - rattle gone! The handle saw some polish with a paper bag and a light coat of Danish oil to protect it for a lifetime. I didn't sharpen it because it's still pretty dang sharp! My friend intend to now display the cleaver below his grandfather's picture. I suspect @ShawnF would just add the cleaver to his collection of Friday the 13th memorabilia
I will say, this would make a heck of a horror film prop!
Are you still in NY?
Yup, still in NY and we are scheduled to get 6-10 inches of snow tonight into tomorrow
We are hoping to land in AL by the end of May. It was our goal to land there sooner so we wouldn't be unpacking as the heat and humidity was ramping up.
Best wishes with the move, the market is a bear. Hopefully moving from NY to AL the cost of living is more affordable.
Beautiful restoration work, much like I’d do. Preserving history the best you could was the best thing you could have done for this beautiful clever. Great job!
Beautiful restoration work, much like I’d do. Preserving history the best you could was the best thing you could have done for this beautiful clever. Great job!
The biggest thing we are excited about is the cost of gas is a lot less and we can get plastic bags at the store again. In NY, they've banned plastic bags so if you stop by the store for milk, eggs, & bread you are fumbling and juggling the stuff out to your car if you don't happen to have those reusable bags handy. I remember bagging groceries in high school we were told to give customers PLASTIC bags to save the trees being cut for all the paper bags and now it's the plastic bags that are the environmental enemy.
Yes, even with coins I find metal detecting, sometimes you can only do so much with them. A few weeks ago I found an 1868 2 cent piece, but one side was too corroded to make anything out but the reverse side I could make out the date and some of the details with some restoration work. If I'd taken it any further (electrolysis or heavy abrasion) I could have lost what was there. I found it by the road so I think the road salt was not kind on the copper coin all these years it was in the ground.
Yup, as a buyer it reminds me of this movie scene:
I hear in Mississippi they bag using burlap sacks. Probably just a vicious rumor.
I know in Alabama they have a saying "Thank God for Mississippi!" Apparently Mississippi makes AL look wealthy is what I was told. I'm just a Yankee hoping to convert to a Southerner, so what do I know right now.