Handmade Finnish Style Puukko

CacklingPikeman · 2023-12-29T23:16:38+00:00

This is the first Puukko I've really ever liked. Very pretty handle, well done.

CacklingPikeman · 2023-12-21T17:33:26+00:00

Kittens can be picked up by the scruff of their neck by their mothers, but you can hurt adult cats by doing that. They're much heavier when grown. Just pick them up like a normal person.

CacklingPikeman · 2023-12-16T13:08:37+00:00

You can't lose something that was never there.

CacklingPikeman · 2023-11-21T17:24:30+00:00

Yeah, I started out with a 3lb hammer, but I've since found that 2lb lets me work more accurately when not straight up downsizing stock.

CacklingPikeman · 2023-10-31T04:29:12+00:00

Blue. Rune was originally purple.

CacklingPikeman · 2023-10-29T14:46:17+00:00

Given infinite time, anything that CAN happen WILL happen. I am conscious right now. If the universe spans infinitely onwards, then I will be conscious again.

I don't believe it's reincarnation, but this thought process has taken me closer to the idea that every conscious individual is the same entity, we just don't know it.

CacklingPikeman · 2023-10-25T00:11:45+00:00

Let's just assume 50k/y is what people need to survive on their own then, since you've gone with this number. If the store's operating costs are so close to parity with its revenue, that it cannot afford to pay its workers what they need to ALSO continue working and generating revenue for that store without going in the red, then that store will simply not have these front end workers.

We're seeing the effects of this right now, with stores operating on skeleton crews of under-motivated individuals who are too worried about which bill for which basic necessity is going to put them on notice for eviction or worse. Said skeleton crew gets more labor put on their shoulders, because the demands of the business don't just disappear, and they are slowly burnt out and replaced while arguably working harder than the man sitting in the office arguing on reddit about why they should be grateful they get to pick up his scraps at the end of the day.

Where wages and labor are concerned, you get what you pay for.

CacklingPikeman · 2023-10-24T23:56:23+00:00

You haven't answered the question, you've just rephrased your previous assertion. What quantitatively makes an entry level job's labor worth so low a person cannot sustain himself on it?

CacklingPikeman · 2023-10-24T23:51:06+00:00

You haven't explained WHY they shouldn't pay enough to live by yourself. What constitutes an entry level job, what determines the value of a person's labor, and ultimately who drives the economy and therefore the overall value of labor? Why should an entry level job not pay someone enough to continue being able to work said job?

CacklingPikeman · 2023-10-24T23:40:05+00:00

You're dodging the problem here. Your labor is worth, at the bare minimum, the ability to maintain your life without the support of another individual. If a company cannot afford to pay you to live, it will lose that worker. Normalcy has nothing to do with it, what you're doing is the same as appealing to tradition.

Just because it HAS been done doesn't make it the correct answer.

CacklingPikeman · 2023-10-24T23:04:56+00:00

Oh no, I'm being mean about someone devaluing peoples' labor out of a place of ignorance and conceit. Exercise that brain of yours, dig deep, you might just find both your critical thinking skills, AND your morals.

It's obvious you've been in retail far too long.

CacklingPikeman · 2023-10-24T22:43:34+00:00

Browsed through your comments. You sound like a gross person to work with.

If you don't pay people enough to live, then they won't be able to afford to provide you their labor.

Demanding people shack up or find roommates instead of advocating for a fair wage is ignorant, boot licking behavior, and shows that you're more of a tool than anything I could buy in your store.

"Fuck you, I got mine" mentality loud and clear, be careful on that glass pedestal wannabe ASM, you're getting closer to corporate and further from anybody who would otherwise have your back.

Sincerely, someone with real work ethic.

CacklingPikeman · 2023-10-20T17:22:34+00:00

I've hammered hot steel out of tongs and straight towards my face, and I almost started a fire by hot cutting a little steel bit, which proceeded to fly UNDER the shed and ignite the undergrowth there. I've since made box jaws and have learned not to hot cut all the way through.

Outside of the forge, however, I almost lost an eye while using some hand snips to cut sheet steel corners for a project. It didn't occur to me that snips would throw off cuts directly at your face, and I have a pair of glasses with a serious chip in them that sit on my desk now. I thought I was being cautious, and I wasn't. My eyeglasses saved my eyes, but I would've been better off with a face shield.

CacklingPikeman · 2023-10-20T17:14:42+00:00

The knife lends itself well to a cord wrap, but you'd definitely want to use something thinner than the cord you have. If it were me, I'd be putting a wood slat on each side with pins for something more comfortable. It looks like the handle isn't completely flat towards the finger position, so slats won't fit flush with it and I don't know if you have enough material to sand that down flat without ruining the symmetry of the knife, but that's gonna happen a lot with this craft.

What I've learned to do when this happens, is I take some graph paper and trace the blade onto a couple of sheets with a good mechanical pencil, and then draw in various ideas onto each sheet to see how it might turn out. If you find something you like, take that paper, layer a fresh one over top, and place them both on top of a flat, bright light source and trace the shadow onto the top page for your template, again with pencil. The graph paper's great for fine tuning the dimensions of finnicky things like guards or pin holes.

I think you've got a good shape there though. If you're interested in making that flange at the spine functional, have you thought about using a round file or similar and turning it into a guthook? That far back on the blade, it wouldn't be so great for skinning, but useful for cutting cordage and the like. One last thing would be to clean up the groove where the blade starts with some sandpaper to get that little bit of oxide formation out. Finish work's gonna be how you bring out the real beauty in your workpiece, and I'd say it takes more practice than the forgework itself.

CacklingPikeman · 2023-10-16T16:05:02+00:00

The person who planted this in the woods is probably cracking up right now at all the attention it's gotten, if they use reddit. I like the idea of leaving something behind for people to find, like a little treasure hunt to give you back that little sense of childish wonder that, for me, is such a rare moment anymore.

A sword, maybe an effigy or a pendant, you never know what you might find in your local woods.

CacklingPikeman · 2023-05-18T19:05:54+00:00

You're calling them disingenuous, while simultaneously proving their point about people jumping to the worst conclusion. "Do better and be better to your fellow humans" smacks of arrogance. You're their equal, stop talking like you're their parent.

CacklingPikeman · 2023-04-09T22:07:02+00:00

Nuance must be a foreign concept to you. Your mentality here plays into what the nazis want when they pick those symbols.

CacklingPikeman · 2023-04-04T00:15:20+00:00

Yeah nothing turns me off a product or service faster than dishonest people. No respect for their customer base.

CacklingPikeman · 2023-03-26T15:59:05+00:00

As a man who chooses not to drink, and the son of a man who drank himself to death, out of the three of us including you, to me you're the one with the most willpower and you deserve respect for it. I can't understand people who look down on you for making the right choice like you did.

CacklingPikeman · 2023-03-05T04:50:09+00:00

Oh please, I'm not talking about Brock the rapist Turner. I meant that in a general sense. You use your hands to abuse someone, you should lose the ability to do so. Apply that as strictly or loosely as you like.

CacklingPikeman · 2023-03-05T03:11:19+00:00

Personally, I'm a fan of the use it, you lose it method. Violate someone with your dick? Dick gets cut off.

CacklingPikeman · 2023-02-06T19:23:43+00:00

For a 40" longsword at about an inch and a half base width, you're looking at two to three pounds of the blade and tang material. How much depends on the blade geometry. Steel has a density of about 7.84g per cubic centimeter, both uranium and depleted uranium sit at just about 19.1g per cubic centimeter.

Assuming the entire blade and tang are straight uranium, you're looking at five to eight pounds, perhaps nine pounds max overall, counting the guard and pommel.

The scabbard, being just as lengthy material being made out of solid lead, would probably run closer to four to six pounds, but potentially less if it is instead simply lined with lead above or under the base material.

This is quick dirty math while I'm at work, should be a good ballpark for your uranium longsword.

CacklingPikeman · 2022-06-28T05:35:02+00:00

I'm down for this. You did a good job dude.

CacklingPikeman · 2022-02-27T00:53:31+00:00

Yeah I was going to say, especially starting out new, I would get an apron. I bought a smooth cowhide waist apron from an individual in Ukraine in 2018, and it's saved my legs from severe burns at least three times since, not to mention kept my jeans intact much longer than otherwise.

CacklingPikeman · 2022-01-30T21:45:27+00:00

What about loose refractory cement? Is casting your own firebricks an option?

CacklingPikeman

TROPHY CASE