Toolmaking Art

I prefer to avoid pesticides, at times however I want crops and plants I love are being destroyed. One of the safer pesticides to use is soap.
Additionally I would rather add potassium to my crops, than sodium.    Most soap these days is made from Sodium Hydroxide, it is cheaper and makes a harder [...]

Here is a bowl of goop.  Below it  is a blade I used the goop on.  The blade was painted with the stuff, and then heated to a nice cherry red for about 15 minutes. Then it was quenched  in safflower oil.

I had to put a cover on the oil, the oil caught [...]

Lately a good friend of mine has been tutoring me on top end steel.   My blacksmithing experience is mostly limited to mystery metal,  OFS and O1.    He has widened my eyes to the amazing world of technologically advanced steels.   There are stainless steels out there, that hold fine edges with a tenacity that is fairly [...]

One of the tools I use regularly is glue.    It pays to know as much about this stuff as you can.  After squandering a fortune on wood and forming it into a useful shape, it is really lame to have the glue joints go bad.
One big isssue is that glue may prevent you from being [...]

I garden a bit differently than most. Most of my garden is in pots. I do this primarily to conserve water. It also allows for easy weeding, plant isolation, and soil experimentation. Gardening in pots allows me to garden under trees. In my area, willow shade will reduce the brunt [...]