Annual Westcoast trip Barrytown knife making - part two

  This is a studied look of concentration!!  His knife turned out just fine!!  And it is hard work so we had a decent lunch as well!!














Cutting of the excess steel and getting the blade ready for some serious grinding!!  This almost was more hard work then the forging part for some of our scouts!  You could also tell those who live in Dad's garage and who does not!!






ah yess - here you can see Nic being brave and closing his eyes and hoping like heck he won't get hit!!  Luckily for him - he did not need emergency surgery!!

Sir G.H. was mightily please with his efforts!! Although KEEN observers will note the cheating - one axe sticks to the wall on the handle alone!!   Bet you he could not replicate same throw even if he got paid for it!!








One last time for a decent swing!!  Teamwork at its best!! Wonder if we can get one like this build near our Scout hall!!  Would be kind of fun!!
Even better if there is a swimming pool at the front for a decent JUMP in . . .        ^^

All fun comes to an end and here the youth can bee seen polishing the knives. Now such is my repudation for cutting fingers that Steve now takes the edge right of during this process and then later adds it back on.  He has three standards of sharp -
1 -sharp,
2 -extreme and
3 -religious -  (as in Jesus Christ this I S  sharp - Steve's words) Naturally everyone asked for a number 3!!

Here the edge is being added back on!  Sparks are flying - indicating a reasonably hard steel !!


















All in a days work - now do they not look really beautiful???  Magnificent species and all HAND made!!  not many places in the world where you can do this!!   www.barrytownknifemaking.com

check out their website!!

17,000 knife's later this never fails to impress and these guys certainly had no problemo posing with their new hardware!!










A picture says a thousand words!!  Wonder what
Nic was thinking, with that wicked grin on his face!! Maybe I need to sit down with Brodie and have THAT talk with him about bear-etiquette  :)














I tossed this pic in because it is so quintessential New Zealand.  This inquisitive Weka decided to make of with my Stave, and he nearly succeeded too.  There are plenty of stories from trampers who leave their boots outside the tramp huts overnight - only to have to search for them over a large area the following morning!!



We decided to give Shantytown a visit - and naturally all had to test their gold panning skills!! AMAZINGLY all  found some nuggets in their pans!! Wow!! How lucky can you get!!!
While there we inquired  about their education program- we may come here next year and do a full immersion program.  Could be fun!!

Another successful Westcoast trip camp concluded!!