Wooden Grindstone Frame

Finally finished my grindstone setup for my blacksmithing demonstrations. I loosely copied the design from the one built by the Dominy’s (see attached picture).

The frame is white oak with drawbore mortice and tenon joinery. The frame is really solid and I’m surprised how easily the wheel rotates on the wooden bearings. The weight of the stone creates quite a bit of centrifugal force so once the stone is turning very little effort is needed to keep it going.

The handle is detachable and like the Dominy’s it is held on with a wooden thumb screw. The only part left to make is the water trough. I had a lot of overly complicated ideas for this, but I think I will keep it simple and just hollow out a log.       

Timber Frame Workshop Build on Youtube

A few weeks ago I stumbled upon a great channel on YouTube called Mr. Chickadee. Mr. Chickadee is chronicling the building of a timber frame work shop using period hand tools. This guy is a great craftsman and I recommend watching his videos. You won’t be disappointed!

Rope Bed

Sorry, I haven't posted anything in awhile, but life has kept me quite busy. My latest project is a rope bed for the Dederman Cabin in Norfolk, Nebraska. The cabin already had a rope bed, but this bed will be used to let visitors experience what it’s like to lie down in one.

I wanted to make a bed that was similar to what an early settler could have made with materials available on the frontier. I was going to copy the bed from the attached 1888 Solomon Butcher photo, but I settled on a slightly updated design using mortice and tenons instead of nails to hold it together. I also used only the bare basic tool that any pioneering family would have had. I used a crosscut saw, brace and bit, ax, foreplane, some chisels, and some basic layout tools like a square and some marking gauges. I did use a mortise chisel, I doubt most people would have had one, but I did so I used it.

The bed came out really nice and is plenty sturdy. It has to be to stand up to the use it will get from kids plopping in and out of it. My wife liked it a little too much and placed a quilt on it that she had made. Now she wants one for in the house.