Did the first cuts on the crotches and one small log I still had laying about from having dangerous trees removed a last year and after this years cyclone knocked a few more over. Crotches are a mixture of Bloodwood, stringy bark and ice cream bean tree. I think the log is red satin ash.

With Halloween the next big event to prepare for at the Caboolture Historical Village, I started with forging a batch of wizards wands.

I must have been transported to an alternate reality, Littleproud and co complaining that scientists were not consulted...

Found this at the local cheapy shop today. Expensive and 2 ply, so it is as useful as he is!

Australian Political Cartoonist Matt Golding's offer today is a corker ...

Knocked up some "J" and "S" hooks to go on the table next Saturday. J hooks made from 150mm lengths of 8mm rod. S hooks made from 350mm lengths of 10mm square bar.

Been a few years since I made any cow bells. I thought I would make a couple for the table on the Caboolture historical Villages heritage day stall. Made from 1.5mm plate. Final weights 560 and 570g, so fairly consistent. One high note and 1 low note. Made for a 40mm leather collar.

What I have been up to this week. Cloak rack , Bloodwood cookie with leaf hooks Cobras made from files fire tool rack, faux log backing, leaf hooks.

Originally published in April 2020 when the US of A topped 1 million covid infections. It goes to show, something's do change, it is measles they are world leaders in these days...

"Swooping Dragon" My entry for the 2025 Melbourne Blacksmith Festivals 150mm challenge. The premise is starting with 150mm of 20mm square steel bar and 150mm 12mm round copper bar, see what you can create.

Be very very quiet, I am hunting rats!

Working on a batch of leaf hooks. Got the tops done apart from the screw holes. Just need to round the shafts and form the hooks.

Upgraded the house battery from 12.8 to to 19.2kw today. That should make it extremely rare for me to have to pay those scum sucking pigs for any grid power, and considerably lower my carbon footprint, given I live in a state that still generates well over 60% of its power from burning coal.

oh dear, how sad, never mind... 🤣 johnmenadue.com/post/2025/04... johnmenadue.com

Borrowed my fathers little log splitter a week or two back. Today was the first day fine enough to give it go. I had some string bark, blood wood and lemon scented gum rounds I had cut a few weeks back ready to process, so worked my way through those today.

Lighting the forge with flint and steel. The char cloth catches the spark and smoulders and is put in the pine cone. The pine cone has more charcloth in between the "petals" The forced air flow forces rapid smouldering of the char cloth, building heat until the pine cone catches fire.

I light my forge with traditional techniques, usually flint and steel. For that i need a supply of char cloth, I made a batch this morning. There are little squares of cotton cloth in the tin, applying heat in an oxygen free atmosphere "chars" the material producing char cloth.

Mark Lynch, one of my favourite cartoonists.

Had a friend come over for a forge day today. I did some work on stock for the blacksmiths stall on Heritage day at the Caboolture Historical Village, which I am told will be in May this year. A couple of simple spanner BBQ forks and a few S hooks.

And i am done, the batch of 32 feather hooks is completed.

Working on a large batch of Feather hooks. Made from 25mm angle iron, blanks cut out on the bandsaw, flattened, forged and textured. Half complete, half to go.

A trial run of the donated forge at the Hist. Village today. It is working, not as good as the similar model we already have, but good enough to produce work! I was getting a cold spot in the centre. I could see the air holes were very big. So I blocked the centre hole. Then it worked very well.

More possum antics. A hot pursuit!

Possum antics at my place. See a bit of the fight lower right, mostly on sound track.

Celebrated Australia Day at the Caboolture Historical Village . We had blacksmithing demos going on half hourly and ran a stall from the Smithy to raise funds for the Village, selling items we had made. We made 680 dollars.

I installed riser blocks under my 200kg anvil, giving an extra 100mm height at the anvil face. They were made from 100mm square tube, 4mm wall thickness. I welded them in pairs, and bolted them to the old feet with 16mm bolts. Total weight of the anvil and the stand went from 255kg to 270kg.

I saw this on YouTube - seems to reflect your comment. NB - a bit sweary youtu.be/R3XO_ee9VeY?...

Mark Lynch - one of my favourite cartoonists

Bit warm here today.

I've had these rivets for ages, but not used them. I actually want to paint this coat rack, so I thought these might give a nice unobtrusive look. I'm very impressed with the results. I will definitely not let them languish in the back of the drawer any longer!

Finished the table numbers for the historical village I volunteer at. The Wagon wheel is their chosen symbol for the village in case you didn't guess. Yes the new number 9 is just waiting for the glue to set...

I came back from the break to see that the rat catcher at the Caboolture Historical Village forge has a new coat. For reference, that table top is 1100mm.

I wanted to have a go at forging a fire place blower. First attempt (top) involved trying to bell out the end of the pipe to make a mouth piece. While it did technically work, is was underwhelming at best . Second attempt (bottom) involved making a mouthpiece and welding it on. Much better result.

Nothing quite as Australian as that post Christmas breakfast of left over turkey, pork, various salads and an iced vovo hot cross bun with a smear of butter...

My wife always does a fantastic job for Christmas!

Got to love solar with battery storage. Fired up the two big aircons and the dishwasher all at once - using a swag of power, not paying the scum sucking pigs of a power company a red cent for it!

Marathon effort from the old auto hacksaw today, cutting all the blanks to make "wagon wheel" table numbers for the Caboolture Historical Village café. The thick wall 90mm pipe made it work hard. The thicker pieces will be quartered and will be the stands to hold the wheel vertical.

Finished up a coat rack and made some file snakes today.

Its christmas, time to watch my special 30th anniversary Christmas edition of Diehard again!

Bah Humbug to City of Moreton Bay Mayor Flannery and councillors. What a wonderful christmas present for the homeless. People lose their homes and now you are going to make them give up their pets as well? www.9news.com.au/national/que...

Doing some more work for stock for our Australia Day stall at the Caboolture historical village today. Started half a dozen S hooks, got the taper one end. Then I got the business ends of a couple of fire rakes and three toasting forks done. Pretty oppressive humidity again!

Finished off the fire pokers I started the other day. Mixing up the handle and tip designs a bit, rather than making three the same. At 600mm long these are more aimed at indoor fire places rather than outdoor fire pits.

Well that was another comfortable night in the swamp - not!

The book section of a local opp shop. Most books cost 2 or 3 dollars.

Proud father moment tonight - a trip into the big smoke and sitting up in the boonies watching my daughter receive her master's degree at the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition centre.

Got to love the blokes at the Shovel! theshovel.com.au/2024/12/08/u...

1st christmas part of the season. Putting on the Ritz, even got my blacksmiths dress ring out for the occasion!