The End of Radio Silence

  In the old days of cool movies the leader of the intrepid band of heroes would call for 'radio silence' as the closed in on their target.  My silence's reason  hasn't been as dramatic.  For the first time since I started this blog January 29-2011, 885 blogs ago I took a couple of weeks holiday. For the first time since this all began I didn't look for anything to post while away on holiday.

  Yesterday we got home from three weeks in Sweden visiting our kids and grand kids. If I had been looking for blog things I would have talked about the three wooden spatulas that I whittled from fire wood at the kids cottage. Don't let limited tools keep you from wood workings. I used a fixed blade Mora 511 sheath knife,

carbon steel, delivered razor sharp and currently
on a sales deal of 3 for $15.00 Cdn in Sweden. Yes, I bought a few.

 the small blade on my Swiss Army knife 

I have owned and lost more of these knives that I care to remember. But...always replace them.

and a bit of sand paper to make two small spatulas for the little girls play kitchen and a full sized one for their Mommy's kitchen.

  I also wandered through every tool and hardware store I could find. I really liked the Bauhaus in Uppsala, it has a large selection of wood working tools.

  For me the highlight of the trip, after my daughter-in-law defending her Phd thesis and being awarded her degree by the medical faculty at Uppsala University was a trip to Mora Sweden to see the Dala horse factory 

all made and painted by hand in the factory in Musnas, near Mora.

was the stop in Musnas to buy a horse and some knives from a Mora/Frost knife clearance store.

the yellow handles knives were destined for Iceland
fishermen but the deal fell through. I got the knives for 30 SEK ($4.55 Cdn)
each. The blades are stout and very sharp, the handles will be replaced. The red knife is a Mora 511 and the blade a single bevel chisel knife. 

These four kitchen knives cost 50 SEK each, ($7.59 Cdn).
 Also very stout and very sharp, used in Iceland to clean fish.

 Northern Sweden looks like a giant plantation forest and much of their world is wood. Houses have wooden siding instead of vinyl and most of them are painted red or yellow.

 

  Anyway, we are back home, unpacked and trying to catch up on things.  It is nice to travel, it is great to see the grand kids, but it is nice to come home too.

cheers, ianw

Hello from Sweden.

  For the next two weeks I will be blogging from Sweden. This week Eva and I are staying in Uppsala, Sweden's fourth largest city and oldest University town.  Today's blog features a video I picked up this evening as we are relaxing from a busy day visiting the cathedral and a couple of museums.  I'll have some photos of neat wooden doors and floors for a later blog.

  Today's video is Matthias Wandel building tool holders for the wall in front of the his bench.

Making wall tool holders.

   Check out the system he uses for sizing the holders, I love it when the best method is the simplest.

  If you are planning to build a wall holder you should use that as a chance review your screwdrivers and maybe get some quality replacements, that set you got as a prize for buying gas each week probably should be demoted to paint can openers. Just saying, I am old enough to remember when service stations gave out gifts to encourage your business.

  Uppsala is nice, clean, pleasant and civilized. I am a big fan.

Uppsala Cathedral seem from the River Fryis

Making a Spoon the Viking Way

http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-make-a-wooden-spoon-the-viking-way/#step1



This summer, that is if summer ever arrives I want to try and make a spoon like this.  I will find  hunk of firewood someplace and give it a good.
If it happens; weather, time and motivation considered I'll keep you all posted.

Lapstrake Boat in Stockholm

     Last November my wife Eva and I went to Sweden to visit our children.  We spent four days in Stockholm, possibly one of the nicest cities in the world and certainly one of the nicest I have ever visited.  Stockholm is made up of many islands of various sizes and so boats are everywhere.  There were both working and pleasure boats tied up virtually everywhere you looked.  One thing I loved was the number of wooden boats of all types. 

    The photo is of a rough and ready dory style boat being made from some nasty looking softwood using the lapstrake method of construction.  I am told that they lay the tar and paint on very thick and the wood swells enough that the boats works just fine.