Norwegian Open-Hearth Farm House

Last night I came across this excellent film on YouTube from the Norwegian Folk Museum. The film documents the reconstruction of an open-hearth farmhouse in Norway from circa 1650.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d4746vgMS-w

Period correct tools are used throughout the construction and the craftsmanship is incredible! What I found particularly interesting was the manner in which the builders moved and placed the heavy logs. This video is definitely worth watching.

Forge Cart Made With Pipe Fittings

I recently purchased a gas forge and needed a cart to place it on. I couldn’t find anything locally or online that I liked so I decided to build the cart myself. Since I didn’t want to place the forge on a wooden stand I needed to come up with a way of making a stand out of metal that didn’t require welding. The easiest although not necessarily economical method was to build the cart out of ¾ inch pipe fittings.

The build was pretty straightforward and with the exception of drilling the holes through the 1/8^th inch top was easy and only took about an hour. The nice thing about using pipe fittings is that it’s easy to level the cart legs by simply screwing the pipe with the wheels on it in or out.

Some people will probably wonder why I purchased a gas forge since I already have a coal forge. I will continue to use both. I got into to blacksmithing to make hardware for the tools and furniture I make. I have found that if I only need a few items like a bolt or nails the coal forge can be a pain because it takes a while to build up a good fire and short projects tend to waste coal (the nearest place I have to buy coal is about 2 hours away). With a gas forge, all I have to do is turn a valve and I have fire. The gas forge also uses propane which I can buy in my town.  

Farmhouse Table

I haven’t posted anything in a long time so I thought I would show a picture of a country farmhouse table I made for a benefit for my kids' school.

The table is 72” x 48” with 3.5” tapered legs. The table and benches are built from construction grade lumber. Since the wood found at my local box store is complete trash I only used wood purchased from there to build the aprons and legs of the table and benches. I laminated the legs to make them more stable and sturdy.  After giving up trying to find usable lumber at my local box store, I happened upon a small contractor supply business in my town that had great quality pine lumber. Lumber from there cost a bit more but I was able to get nice straight boards with no wane to construct the top of the table and benches.  

This was a fun project and I hope to make more tables to sell.