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Rust Prevention

I have been reading up on rust prevention and one name that comes up over and over is Ballistol. Apart from keeping Prussian guns clean and rust free, there are those who use it on leather, wood, goats, people, old records, and planes.

Here are a few links: Woodnet discussion on Ballistol.

The [...]

Two Layer Milk Paint

Here is a method for producing a durable, weather resistant, and lovely milk paint. The secret is PH. Anionic and Cationic layers will cross link and draw to each other. Since wood is acid, first you start with the base coating. Alkali will tend to draw in and bond to acid. Then when the [...]

Original Tool Tote Revisited

I am posting this to preserve for myself what I did to make it. This tool tote, is closely based on Kit Africa’s Hexagonal Tool Tote in Taunton’s Toolbox Book by Jim Tolpin.

I picked up the book, saw the tote and then had to have the book. I fell in love with the [...]

Poisonous Plants

Nature has made me a hypocrite. And I am a better person for it. We often take stands that on the surface seem right, but with understanding, are fairly weak.

My ideal was to have no toxic plants in my yard and garden. Ignore the fact that that would mean eliminating and fighting a [...]

Old formulas are not always the best.

I love to mix my own paint from scratch. Especially from old traditional recipes. It is interesting what you can come up with.

Here is a link to the project Gutenberg publication of The Ordnance Instructions for the United States Navy. This is the 1866 fourth edition.

In it are recipes for all [...]