Digging Tools
I went to this incredible antique store by my place. I picked up this draw knife and two different styles of Pulaski heads, and a few other rusty bits for the blacksmith shop.
Here are the Pulaski Heads. The top one is stamped with FSS and was used in wild-land firefighting. The one below is a bit more obscure and I didn't get to far in the way of research. I soaked them in a bin of vinegar for a few days and then washed them up and used the wire wheel on my grinder.
Started off with some hatchet work to get the rough shape.
Moved on to the draw knife, which is supper fun to use. Too bad the workbench I have is not anchored down...that would make it a lot easier. This is black locust which is really hard wood and invasive, which I had collected by the river.
To prevent it from cracking as it seasons, I put some wood glue on the ends.
I cut three large branches of black locust. Then I tried to rig them up on my bike rack...that was a some trip biking back up the hill. Anyway, none of them were large enough in diameter to fit a double-bit head, so I grabbed this hickory handle at ACE. I ran it through my forge to char it up for some visual interest.
Root Hook Project
I did some work in the forge to make a couple of "chopsticks" for repoting. I sketched up a few ideas and got working on two. One is drawned out and tapered waiting for some feedback, as it will be a gift, This one is a multi-function tool. Half chopstick and half root hook. It is about 8 inches long.
