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An Unexpected Journey: A Newbie's Walk In Wet Shaving

Blade-meister said:
Had a beautiful shave this morning on a Feather blade that is at it's end of use life for me. I skipped shaving yesterday and dug out the MW soap for this morning's shave. Man that's nice to shave after skipping a day! I'd love to do that every week, but I have being that scratchy. Otherwise, the Williams soap has been straight par in performance with my daily shower shaves. I think it's safe to say, if I was a traveling man and needed a short shave routine, I'd pack my favorite razor, Williams mug soap, and do the shower shaves.

On the personal side of things, I went last week and collected the things a flintknapping friend left me in his will. Sad to go through his stuff, but I felt blessed to receive it. In his tools and things I spotted the below hatchet:

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For those who know anything about axes, Swedish steel is some of the best in the world. This Sandvik axe head was made pre-1960's in Sweden by a forge that's been going since the 1800's. The head was not drop forged because you can still see the power hammer marks where they defined the area below the eye. The handle on this little lady is all wrong. I HATE curved handles with fawn foot ends. The head is too heavy for such a short handle so I made my own handle out of hickory using my newly made shave horse. Before that I cleaned up the head with a wire cup brush on the angle grinder and some dental tools to pick out all that orange paint from the forge scale pits and the stamped letters / numbers. The poll end was also badly mushroomed from abuse. You should never strike the poll end of an axe with a sledge! That's what they make metal, plastic, & wood wedges for. I ground the poll back to a gentle profile, flap disked it, and then put cut bluing agents on it so I didn't have a bright shiny poll. So far, I've got the haft done and need to cut the kerf, wedge it, and then put a final finish on it. I'll post pictures when it's done. With the longer handle I made, it's got more of a belt axe / tomahawk look to it and I've fallen in love with it. I can see a should belt sheath being made for it in the near future so it can come with me whenever I'm in the woods.

I also finished clearing the old stage coach turnpike on my property. Mike's Pike is open! We drove down it for the first time and it's very nice to be able to drive on my property to get to the cabin instead of driving on the road. Here are pictures:

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Here's a picture of some trees I'm hand hewing just for fun and exercise. I made a mess out of that log learning what I was doing and plan on going back to correct it shortly to clean it up a bit. Learning to use a broad axe is not as easy as one might think.

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Historical research showed that the old stage coach route followed right below the old Indian trail, and here's a picture of the Indian trail right above the stage coach route. I still have to clear it and it was used as a snowmobile trail for decades so it's probably been widened in places. Picture below:

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I find keeping busy allows me to stay healthy through all this COVID-19 stuff. My government agency is talking about furloughs and lay-offs presently. I'm hoping to weather that coming storm because nobody can do what I do. I'd probably make more on unemployment with the level of compensation they are offering and I think that's the idea behind kicking the can on down the road.
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What a fascinating post! I can't wait to see the after-photos of the axe. There's some land in my family between Nashville and Chattanooga that one of my ancestors was granted by the government for his participation in the war of 1812. It is undeveloped, but there is an Indian trail and stagecoach road that is still discernable for a stretch. It is very cool that you have those and what a great job clearing you did!

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fhalden said:
What a fascinating post! I can't wait to see the after-photos of the axe. There's some land in my family between Nashville and Chattanooga that one of my ancestors was granted by the government for his participation in the war of 1812. It is undeveloped, but there is an Indian trail and stagecoach road that is still discernable for a stretch. It is very cool that you have those and what a great job clearing you did!

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Thanks! Indian trails are not too hard to find. I once found an early map online that showed the old Indian trials and found out that the trail behind my parents house that ran the river was an Indian trail. We always just thought it was a game trail. Run a metal detector over your stretch of the trail and you might be surprised what you'd find. I plan on doing that along mine.
 
Graybeard57 said:
Fascinating post. Dental tools on an axehead? You are a master craftsman! I love the historical significance of your camp.
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Yeah that's pretty picky isn't it? Could resist! I just knew that every time I looked at that axehead that those little pits with orange in them would bother me. I'm thinking of making a shoulder strapped sheath like this one for the finished belt axe.

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It would really honor my flintknapping brother who died and left me the axe and a nicely tanned deer skin among the pile of things I brought home from his house last week. The whole set-up would be courtesy of the things he willed to me. I think he'd like that and every time I'm in the woods with it slung over my shoulder I'd think of him. People live on that way even when they have passed on.
 
Blade-meister said:
People live on that way even when they have passed on.
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They do. I was taught by my parents to always be courteous and respectful, to stick to my opinions but not be disagreeable about it. On the occasional times someone has commented on my demeanor I always say, "I blame my parents for that." It's my way of honoring them.
 
Graybeard57 said:
They do. I was taught by my parents to always be courteous and respectful, to stick to my opinions but not be disagreeable about it. On the occasional times someone has commented on my demeanor I always say, "I blame my parents for that." It's my way of honoring them.
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In my workshop I have tools from both grandfathers and tools from craftsman I never knew. My moulding planes had names stamped on them as they often do and I had my uncle look them up on Ancestry so that I knew the man whose tool I am now the temporary caretaker of. I like to think of the ones who came before me and made a living with the tools I now have. I did some brass tack clinching on a leather pouch as a warm up for a knife sheath I'm making a guy I know. I used my great, great, second relative's shoe cobbler's tack hammer to clinch those brash tacks. I thought of him and how many pairs of shoes he made with that hammer to feed his family. I regret not knowing the past owners of tools I have like my anvil and many of the blacksmithing tools I own.

Another episode of Deep Thinking, brought to you by Blade-Meister :LOL:
 
I have some personal updates.....I now working in China....just kidding :LOL:

I finally got that Sandvik belt axe finished. I'm pleased with how it came out, but my honing skills are still not up to par. I can shave fingernails but not hair. I think my mammoth hair is just too tough. Here she is all cleaned up and with a handle I made on my shave horse with a draw knife:

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If you scroll up through my journal you'll see the before picture and I think it's not a proper belt axe with the handle length it was meant to have.

It's also been about 4 years since I'd been out to look for arrowheads in the field do to the hip being bad and then having hip replacement surgery. We got some good rain Friday here so I woke up Saturday morning wondering if the new hip could take sloshing through the muddy plowed fields. Only one way to find out! I hit one of my favorite fields close by and was just hoping to find something. They plowed this field for the first time in 23 years about 8 or 9 years ago and I was the only one in there for several years. That first year I found 40 or so arrowheads, but since then they've gone to no till plowing with just a big rake so the artifacts are not very plentiful there. In the way of education, I call them arrowheads to people who know little about the subject, but really most projectile points that are found were used as dart points on a 6 foot shaft propelled by a handheld device called an atlatl. Most "spear points" people find were used as knives and not spears. The bow and arrow is actually a recent invention.

Anyways, here are some insitu pictures of 2 of my finds. I like to take pictures of the point in the ground before I pluck it out of the dirt.

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This was the first find of the morning and I was really thankful to be out and able to look. It's most likely a Lamoka or Vestal point dating back 3,500 - 2,500 B.C. What I love best about looking for artifacts is that my hand was the first to touch that point since the ancient one's hand who lost it or cast it aside. Not a bad start. It's made from our native NY Onondaga chert.

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Above was my second find, another Lamoka point. I found these two point within 15 minutes of each other. Once out of the dirt, this is the perfect text book example of a Lamoka point. Then this renegade bird was squawking up a storm and I actually turned to the bird and said "Dude, what is up with you!" It was hopping around fluffing out it's feathers and causing a ruckus.

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This bird wouldn't leave me alone and the further I got down the row in the field the more it started getting closer and crazier. I thought maybe it's young were around, but I saw no little birds hanging around and at this time of the year they'd be in a nest of some sort. I took about 10 more steps and found this.

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Danged if I've ever seen anything like this but this bird made a nest on the dirt in a plowed field! I've heard this bird's call before, but have no idea what kind of bird it is and why it would choose such a bad spot for a nest. All said, I found a few more broken points, some scraping tools for hides, and the a probably drilled pendant. One of the broken points is made from Rhyolite from central PA, so that was either traded for or the people came up the rivers from PA. Another of the broken points shows evidence of being burned in the fire so it's likely that point was still in the game animal when they roasted it and the point fell in the fire. There's a broken drill section there too. I also found remnants of 1800's pottery telling me that the natives weren't the only ones living there. It was so nice to get out and enjoy something that would cause me so much pain prior to the hip replacement.

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I love this hobby, and from time to time people give me artifacts that have been in a shoe box or cigar box that they don't want. I take them all and though most are not significant, I like to look at them and study them. It's better than seeing them sold at garage sale or thrown away. I've heard of widows just tossing collections in the trash. So, if you have arrowheads or artifacts hanging around that you want to send to a good home, I'm the guy! I appreciate all historic things in nature, but especially Indian artifacts. My one rule is that if someone gives me something that has significant monetary value (all artifacts have information value!), I let them know and give it back if they want it. I had a fellow at my old church once come up to me and show me a spectacular "arrowhead" his mother found on the family farm in Ohio as a little girl. It had some damage to it but had a lot of value. I informed him of the value and told him I'd buy it from him someday if he decided to sell it. I'm like an orphanage for old tools and all things of old.
 
GearNoir said:
Great post Mike! Beautiful finish up on the axe...and way cool finds!
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Yeah, I'm really in love with that belt axe. I'm looking forward to taking it out in the woods and testing it out on some different survival type uses. I may have to adjust my honing to get it to perform how I want it too.

Galaktus said:
Very interesting post! Great read
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Thanks!

BarberDave said:
Mike that is just some "Bobby-Dazzler" Finds!
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I sure was happy to take all those artifacts home. Now others can look at them and appreciate them instead of them just sitting in the dirt waiting for the no-till rake to break them in two.

On a side note editorial, anyone else getting some minor facial irritation from all this mask wearing? I'm having great shaves, but when I have to wear that mask it does create some redness & irritation. I don't use the cloth ones because they don't offer me any protection. If I'm mandated to wear mine, it might as well offer me some protection so I wear my N95 at work.

Got myself a temp check too at the door this morning on my weekly trek into the office for a few hours to say hello to my office, gather work, and come home. I told the security guard at the door that I voluntarily surrender my 4th Amendment rights and will choose to allow him to take my temperature. Get this, he said when I signed up to work for the government that I signed a waiver. I told him I'm pretty sure I'd remember signing a waiver of my constitutional rights. I'd sign NDA's all day, but dang if they'd sneak a total suspension of constitutional rights on a form somewhere without me reading it :LOL: We both laughed a little nervously because we talk all the time, but I was serious, I'm choosing to comply because I need a paycheck. Not meaning to get political so I'll stop there.
 
Nice work on the axe and awesome finds!

I didn't realize most old points like those were atlatl points. That's pretty cool. I've been wanting to try an atlatl for quite a while but haven't gotten around to it. They look like they'd be fun to use.
 
uacowboy said:
Nice work on the axe and awesome finds!

I didn't realize most old points like those were atlatl points. That's pretty cool. I've been wanting to try an atlatl for quite a while but haven't gotten around to it. They look like they'd be fun to use.
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I've had an atlatl for years and the darts broke to it so I always planned on making replacements but never did. My flintknapping friend passed away and he left me 7 really nice darts so I'll be straightening them out and dusting off the atlatl soon. Atlatl's are not hard to make, it's the darts that can be tricky. There's a balance there between flex, tip weight, and length. You want some flex because that stores up energy and launches the dart, but if the tip weight is too high there will be too much flex. You can launch a dart 100 yards without much effort. The one big knap-in I attend here in NY has a contest where they launch darts across the gorge and that's a long way. Easy to see how the atlatl was a game changer for our ancient ancestors vs. the hand thrown spear. Yup, most smaller points you find are dart points unless they fall within know types that have been dated to the bow & arrow time period. Really, in my opinion, the bow and arrow is not as powerful a weapon system as the atlatl & dart. The reason the bow came into use was the growing forests and less movement. Thick vegetation makes atlatl use more difficult and as game became keen to the motion required to launch a dart they began to jump quicker. The bow requires a lot less movement, and is much easier to load and launch not to mention you can have 12 arrows in a quiver on your back but can't really carry 12 darts effectively and stealthly. It's like the trade off we get by using an AR-15 that can have 30 rounds vs. a 50 cal muzzleloader. Less power in the AR, but dang handy to have 30 rounds you can fire in less than 30 seconds if needed.

ShawnF said:
That bird is called a "Killdeer". They build their nests in fields. If you watch them when they start throwing a fit they will act wounded. This is because you are close to the nest and they are trying to lead you away from it.
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Ha! Great minds think alike! Last night I had some time so I found the same info on the Killdeer bird. I did think the bird was wounded at first and then realized it was just an act of some kind. Pretty amazing little bird.
 
I've been pretty offline lately, just been busy.

On the shaving front, the only great thing to note is that I finally got my wife off canned shaving cream and she's using William's Mug soap with a brush. She's loving it and I'm loving the savings of kissing the Venus cartridge refills goodbye. She can't believe the difference using a DE and shaving soap.

On the personal side I've been busy...........like a cat in a litter box. Out at the cabin I had a lot of brush piles from tree trimming and getting the forest in a healthy place. Trees were cut down to make way for the cabin and those were largely just pitched beside the road in because we though we could tear a cabin down in a day and rebuild it (OK @ShawnF I hear you saying "We! You have a mouse in your pocket!) Yes, I foolishly thought we could do it not realizing the magnitude of the project. Anyways, I have an SUV but no trailer hitch or trailer. What would any self respecting mountain man in training do? I went to the history books. Dang, pioneers built log hauling sleds with broad axes and pinned them together with wood pegs. I thought.....hmmm, I could do that. I picked out two logs hanging around and got to hewing. Actually I started with a chainsaw thinking I'd make it faster but quickly switched to broad axes and it went much faster with the old tools. They pulled their sleds with horses. I bet they wish they had a horse team like I have. I pegged the whole affair together with oak pegs I made on my shaving horse. I did add modern screws on a few of the cross members because they started to crack slightly when I pounded the pins home. They weren't needed really, but it's tough to shed modern confidence in modern hardware.

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It worked flawlessly for two full days of log and brush hauling. You'd think it would feel like it's dragging, but it just glides right over the ground effortlessly. I'm super happy with how it has performed. We had a huge bon fire that was so hot I had to make an 8ft poker stick to manage it!

A few personal items I made were fun things I've been wanting to try. I made a mountain man neck pouch to test out some clinching techniques with an old piece of boot leather that I need to make a knife sheath for a customer. It would have been used for pipe tobacco most likely or personal items of a small nature or perhaps money. The beads on it are real ones from the 1800's or older. The necklace has been a long time in the making gents. Bear claws are hard to come by and expensive to buy, so it been 10 years of trading to acquire all 23 bear claws you see in this necklace. It makes a quite a statement and would have been worn by warriors of old. I decided to build it with all the materials available to the ancient ones. There's a mixture of legally harvested grizzly and black bear claws.

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Probably the best project I finished was the below hand hewed bench. My girls helped me and I supervised them each making their own leg to go on it as well as them wedging and gluing that leg in. They loved using my big wooden mallet and the palm sander. They helped sand the top too. This tree was struck by lightening in 2015. The strike split it in half. It was too big to handle to make into anything you wanted to move around so I hand hewed the face, sides and backs with my broad axes. It is some of the hardest maple I've ever worked. I could have hewed it smoother, but I wanted to leave as much of the hewing marks as I could. We all signed the bottom of it.

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