Happy Yule and a Merry Christmas

I hope everyone has a calm and mellow Holiday.  I hope all the stuff I made that was purchased for Christmas gifts goes over well.  Thanks to everyone who help me get this enterprise up and running.  Eat way too much and enjoy yourself, I plan to.

Saturday Night Not Spent At The Bar

I've been trying to find a design of bottle opener that I find pleasing to my eyes.  I think there will be a lot of proto-types on this project.

Here is a close up of a cloak pin made with square stock and hammered to give it some light catching facets.

A fat man with a beard has been working in his shop and it's not Santa

I was toasty warm in the shop today and got a few Xmas presents done today.  Here are a couple:

The shop hasn't burnt down so I guess the stove install was a SUCCESS and other news

First off,  I'll be at the Christkindl tomorrow at TJ's in Mahtowa, MN.  It's supposed to run from 10 AM til 2 PM.  That's DEC 6 2014.

It was warm enough in the shop that I couldn't see my breath with the stove and the forge going.  Only one clothing layer was needed after the hammering commenced.  The H2O quench bucket finally thawed out.  That made things a little easier e.g.

HBI MKI Bottle Opener

It starts out as a 3/16 x 1 piece of  HR flat. It's heavier duty than I expected.  I think it has possibilities for use in hand to hand combat.

It's been a bit chilly here

Hopefully tomorrow I'll have the wood stove up and running in the shop.  Much fun cutting holes in the roof and mucking about with stove pipe.  It was -15 F with a -30 F windchill the other day.  That makes grabbing a bit of iron rather unpleasant in an unheated shop.  You can feel the cold even through the gloves.  I guess that balances out the fact that I only had to run the AC 7 days during the whole summer.  Time to put on another layer of woolly goodness and buck up.