New News

I feel the title of this blog should be “And Now For Something Completely Different”. This last week I was continuing to work on several projects at once. To give updates and news on all of them is as follows:

  1. Finished an Arm-guard.

    The Arm-guard was a secret gift for Grimmsfield 12th night. It was a arm-guard for Ernestine Nwani. This is a picture of the finished artwork before the buttons and cords were added. Final pictures to come.

2. Finished the top of a pouch.

Finished the cutting and dying of the top of Ernie’s pouch. I ran out of time before the party to finish the soft bottom. That will be done in the near future.

3. Finished Decorating My Arm-Guard

Finished the cutting and dying of a new arm-guard for myself. Still need to add the buttons and the Cord.

4. Cut, Dyed, & Began Sewing a Leather Bottle

Began sewing a leather wrap for a square bottle. I still need to shape the top of the leather to fit on the neck of the bottle and finish sewing.

5. Worked on 3 different Jewelry Pieces.

Did more work on three pieces of jewelry I am working on. Still just working on the cutting at this point.

6. Spun a skein of yarn.

Sunday and Monday ended up to cold to work at the forge, so I decided to get the spinning wheel out. A while ago I purchased a bag of Teeswater top roving from The Woolery. This was sold to me as a heritage breed wool. I have always been interested in the different type of sheep in existence and the wool they produce.

7. Kimchi Update.

First batch came out with the proper texture and taste, but way to hot. Attempted a 2nd batch with everything doubled except the red pepper. The halving of the red pepper did nothing to the heat of the finished product. I had my neighbor, Mr. Oh, who is from Korea, he imminently told me the problem was that I was using inferior pepper flakes. He said they tasted like they were from China and not Korea. I told him they were purchased in a Korean market and were made for Kimchi. He was emphatic that they were not Korean Red pepper. All heat no flavor! When I returned home, I looked carefully at the package and sure enough, the “Korean” Kimchi red pepper flakes were made in China. The next day I asked him where he got his red pepper from and was informed that his family sent it to him from Korea. His wife took pity on me and gave me what she said was much better pepper flakes. So Kimchi take 3 is in the future.

Misc A&S

Very busy at A&S this weekend. Finishing and starting projects. An outline of work first, then details below.

Saturday:

  1. Finished one set of Puttees hooks to give to their Highnesses for largess.

  2. Started forging period nails.

  3. Forged a bad hoof pick

  4. Forged another skewer

More on these below.

Sunday:

  1. Started a leather bottle project for a friend.

  2. Started an armguard for myself.

  3. Started an armguard for a friend.

  4. Started a pouch for a friend

  5. Forged a very period ( ;-) ) paper towel holder.

Details of Saturday’s projects:

  1. Puttees hooks. These are from the casting I did last week. The wax that I cast these from is beginning to show signs of age. Not sure how many more sets I will get out of them. The polishing went smoothly and I was able to work some detail in where the cast did not come out well.

  2. Forging nails. I have begun a 1000 nail challenge. I am doing this for a few reasons. To start, I wanted some nails for finishing some medieval woodworking projects. Secondly, in forging 1000 nails I hope to improve my hammer and heat management skills, and third, I will always have something to work on in the forge( see notes below). I will be working on them in batches of at least 12 at a time. Of my first dozen, I think I have 7 working nails. Of these I am not sure I will even want to use 1/2 of them on a project I care about. As this was my first attempt, I feel like I at least have a grasp of the process. The next forging will show me how much of it stuck.

  3. Bad hoof pick. Poorly done and will be thrown away. This is what happens when I want to do something , but I do not have a plan in place. When I came home Saturday night, I just wanted to forge, not make anything specific, just wanted time at the forge. Without a focus and a plan of action, I fumbled around trying to decide what to do and ended up half assing this piece. I need to go into the forge with a plan of action and not just wing it. I might hang this piece on the wall of my forge to remind me of this. It is bad work in so many ways.

  4. Skewer: After botching the hoof pick I decided to get my sh*t together and work smart. This skewer is made from 1/4 in round stock and came out pretty well. I still need to do more research on skewers and their use in the medieval kitchen.

5. Paper towel holder. When my wife and I first moved into Grimmsfield, the lack of a paper towel rack in the kitchen. I quickly bought an inexpensive plastic holder and jammed it on the wall for the time being. That was years ago and I have hated that paper towel rack ever sense. I finally decided to do something about it. My wife and I looked through the Internet at how others had solved the paper towel rack conundrum. After deciding on a style, I set to work. It was not to be a copy of a piece, but an amalgamation of several we had found. This presented several more problems then I anticipated and the final results were less the satisfactory to me, My wife likes it and therefore it was installed. But I hope to redo this with a better design in mind. I am not happy with the proportions and flow of lines and the general look of the piece. I feel better pre-planning could have improved the looks greatly.

Kimchi adventures

And now for something completely different…….

My first attempt at making kimchi. My eldest daughter loves kimchi, but most commercial stuff contains sugar and my daughter must keep away. So, time to learn to make kimchi.

Step 1: Gather the ingredients.

1 Napa cabbage

1 bunch spring onions

1 daikon radish

1 2 in. Piece ginger

1 clove garlic

sea salt

korean red pepper

salt shrimp

fish sauce


The process:

Step 1:

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Add 1 cup sea salt to 1/2 gallon warm water and stir to dissolve.

Shred and core the Napa cabbage.

Place the cabbage in the water and weight it down to keep it submerged.

Allow to sit for 2 to 3 hours.

 
 

Step 2:

Combine 1/4 cup salt shrimp, 1 head of garlic, 1 two in. Piece of ginger, 1 tablespoon fish sauce in a blender or food processor and create a paste.

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Step 3:

Cut the diakon into 1 inch straws and place them in a mixing bowl. Add to this the spring onions after they have been cut into 1 inch pieces. To this add 1 cup of Korean pepper flake, 1 tablespoon of sea salt, and the paste made in step 2.

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Step 4:

Once the cabbage has finished soaking, pour out the brine and rinse the cabbage thoroughly. Then combine with the onion/garlic/ pepper mix. Once all of the cabbage has been coated with the mixture, pack it as tightly into a container as possible.

 
 

Step 5 and beyond:

Once the jar has been packed it is set in a cool dry location to ferment for 3 days, then placed in the refrigerator for another 2 days. From there the only step left is to consume it! More on these steps as they become available.