Last weekend was the Rare breed show at the Weald & Downland open air museum. The show is only one day but I decided to go down on Saturday and demonstrate as well to avoid the mad rush on Sunday morning. I'm glad I did as I had plenty of time to set up and a steady stream of interested visitors throughout the day. In many ways I enjoy these days more as there is more time to spend with visitors and less of an hectic feel but still a sense of anticipation of the show to come.
The weather was unseasonably cold and rather windy, so no sunny photos but the working collection of hand machines in the woodyard caught my eye. In the background is a monster bandsaw with the band running right around the smaller wheels whilst the large wheel is hand turned. I'm not sure of the other tools but I think one is morticer (chisel on a swinging weight) and a drill.
And there is the timber crane itself. With its massive post and jib you automatically expect it to need an enginer but it runs very smoothly and evenly by hand to lift large logs from the wagons across to either the racksaw or the sawpit.
In the evening the wind died down and I spent some time preparing blanks for the show day, just enough that I can spend as much time on the lathe as the demonstrating needs, and to speed up making replacement items as I don't tend to keep any stock. My german bottle opening hammer came into its own - I forget the name but the translation is something along the lines of 'friday after work hammer' which comes with a bottle opener instead of a claw.
Had a very busy show day, after a downpour first thing in the morning the rain stayed away though the wind was gale force. I spent the whole day tied to the lathe with rounders bat's being the top seller of the weekend. Then it was time to packup before the wind blew my shelter away though at least it was in the dry. As a result I had no time to see the show and totally failed to take any photographs of the show itself, except for this one of a half completed barn roof which caught my eye in the morning.
I also failed to sell any of my new shaving bags - though I came close on occasionk, and have managed to barter one for half a dozen free range eggs. Not dispirited though as the weather forced me to keep them under cover and I feel that they will start to sell soon.
My friends Robert and Carol were working in the forge next to me on Sunday. I took this photograph of a giant pair of log tongs as a record for Robert so that he can make another pair to the same design.
No comments:
Post a Comment