Interesting...

  Watching the show "Worst Jobs in History" hosted by Tony Robinson (Baldric of Black Adder).  One of the jobs they just showed was something that I was interested in trying sometime.  They were showing the historical method of creating charcoal.  Charcoal, to give a more precise definition, is wood that has had moisture cooked out of it without actually burning the wood.  Charcoal burns much hotter and cleaner than wood.  Charcoal was the primary fuel for blacksmiths until fairly recent history.
  For economic reasons, most smiths today use either coal (which converts to coke in the forge) or propane.  I would like to try charcoal someday just to say that I have tried it.  A pet project somewhere down the road would actually be to make some charcoal.
  The process is fairly simple but it takes about 100 hours of constant attention.  Wood is stacked on end in a circle.  The circle is about 10-20 feet in diameter and about 5 feet high.  This pile of wood is covered with sod.  The center of the pile is lit on fire and allowed to slowly burn.  Very high degree of care must be taken to not allow the fire through the sod.  When a hole breaks through on the sod, it is immediately covered to keep the fire from getting enough air.  At the end of the process, there is a big pile of charcoal in the center.
  Another job on the show was guys that looked for bog iron.  Bog iron is a source of iron ore that can be smelted to extract the iron.  The way it is found is that you wade through a bog.  You take a thin, long stick and poke into the bog.  When you hit something, you dig and pull out a grapefruit sized lump of the bog iron.

Glad it didn't happen last week...

  I fired up the forge for the first time since finishing the chest(other than a quick demo I did on Saturday.)  Work has kept me busy and I expect to have very little free time next week.  Anyway, I was just messing around on the forge and threw out my back.  I have a spot which routinely has some problems but its a little worse than normal.  I actually had difficulty cleaning up because my back was so bad.

  I think I will take somewhat of a break to give my back a chance to rest.  Besides, like I said, I expect to be very busy because of work this week.  I think the next thing that I want to do is make a stand for my swage block.  The swage block (pronounced swedge) is a big hunk of metal with different shapes in it.  It is used to shape metal into things like spoons...  I've had to use the swage on the ground.  My bad back today reminded me that its not a good way to work.

RIP Paw Paw Wilson...  I didn't really know you but you were always helpful.

Tic, tic, tic...

  So, I've been mulling over in my head what project to do next.  I have a few small projects that I need to take care of.  I need to make 20 to 30 portable holes.  Fairly simple other than the number required.  I also need to make a brazier (an iron container for campfires.)

  Well, I think I may push for the clock again.  I know that I still have a lot to learn but the chest taught me that if I try something enough times, I can get it.  I may have to end up making parts 3, 4 or more times but I figure its one of the best ways that I learn.  I am not real good about trying simple stuff over and over.  I prefer to just jump into the fire and learn.

  So this weekend I am going to look at the few frame pieces I made last year.  If they are acceptable, I may keep them.  I'm expecting that after the experience with the chest that my expectations of quality have been elevated.

Chest pic...

  I will have to take a few more pics but this gives a frontal view of the mastermyr chest.

Tired, sore but happy...

  I completed the chest at about 8pm on Friday and spent the rest of the evening finishing my documentation on the chest.  I'm pretty happy with the results but will probably remake the wooden part of the chest down the road.  There are several reasons for this.  The first, primary reason is that during the attachment of some of the hardware, I accidentally opened up some of the joinery and this caused some parts to end up a little off.  The next reason is that the part of the chest I am least happy with is the nails.  I made two primary mistakes with them.  The heads are not as nicely domed as I would like.  Also, I should have softened the nails a bit before putting them in the wood.  Because of not softening the nails, I was not able to cleat them properly.  Finally, I found a technique for the pegs that should make the chest significantly stronger.

  Overall, the chest was pretty well received and it was nice seeing the reactions of the people who knew of the original chest.  It actually did amaze me how many people knew of the Mastermyr chest and recognized my reproduction of it.

  I will post a final picture of my reproduction when I get home.  Since I'm at work, I don't have access to any of my pictures.

  Now, whatever shall I do for my next project???

Getting damn close...

  I started out the day attaching all of the pieces of the lock together.  Up till now, everything has just been sitting in place but not attached.  This took me much longer than expected due to a problem I had getting one of the parts properly secured.  By the time I got all of the parts on the lock, it had started to rain.  So, I decided to go ahead and oil some of the parts as that is pretty easy to do.

  When the rain finally let up, I started to fit the lock to the front of the chest.  This involved cutting out some wood where it would interfere with the lock.  So, after cutting the wood I drilled the holes for the nails.  If I had attempted to just drive the nails, the oak would have split.  Oak is very prone to splitting anyway and these nails are fairly thick.  So, I was able to get the lock into the front panel.  The nails are cleated (bent over).



  I decided to go ahead and do the glue up of the chest.  This is done using woodworker's glue, mortise and tenon, and wooden pegs.  I was thinking of using hide glue but because of my lack of experience with it, I didn't want to learn to use it on this project.  Here is a pic of the chest as it looks now.  Tomorrow, I will clean it up, get the lid to sit smooth, attach the hinges and the front clasps, oil and be done...

Finally,

  Tonight, the lock is pretty much done.  It took 3 attempts at the spring to get it right.  The main thing that I was doing wrong was simply not making the spring long enough and thin enough.  Until I made it longer, there was not enough flexibility.  Tomorrow, I will clean up the lock, mainly removing some minor surface rust, put it together and oil it to rust protect it.  This is a view of the lock with the spring held in place by vice grips.



The spring is at the top.  Towards the right side, the spring comes in contact with a piece of metal on top of the slide.  When the key is inserted and rotated, it pushes the spring out of the way allowing the slide to move.  This is a view from the bottom of the slide showing the holes where the key pushes through.  The spring is visible as the shiny metal through the holes.



So, a complete rundown of what's left...

Parts permanently attached to lock plate.  About 1 1/2 hours.
Fitting lock to chest, 1 hour. (this involves fine tuning of the hole cut for the lock on front of chest)
Glue up of chest, 1 hour.
Completion of clasps on front of chest, another 1 1/2 hours.
Placing hinges and clasps on chest, 1 hour. (not actually attached.)
Multiple coats of oil to chest, 1 hour.
Cooking oil onto all hardware, 1 1/2 hours.
Attaching of all hardware. 2 hours.
Touch up of chest finish.  1/2 hour.

I may have to make some more nails but I can do those pretty quickly now.

So, tomorrow is the hard push for completion.  I do not want to plan on going to Friday.  I want Friday as an "in case" day.  The chest should be ready for judging on Saturday.