Is it sharp yet?

Forgive me, I am extremely sick and I admit to be really rambling.

My family has long been creative, on both sides of the family. My father was amazing with what he could do, which included hand carved wood, silver work to make jewelry (stone pieces in the silver work), cabochon work in making jewelry. Dad used common current tools, but he also used chisels and such which had belong to his family.

My mother could draw, and her sewing was amazing. She also had a talent to design flower arrangements. My elder brother, I really don’t know, he keeps away from the rest of us. My younger brother is a graduate of the Colorado School of Art. His art is amazing, including helping our eldest niece with animations for a children’s book she wrote. Kev is amazing with his cartoon work and the absolute greatest he has done is intricate Celtic knotwork in large canvases. Besides writing, I do make jewelry and I had more than 30 years as a photographer, for the police department and in private life. I have done painting on wood and ceramics, which were also so from my mom and grandparents.

Many of the items is now made on a machine, taking the work of humans not as necessary, therefore you see real talents become forgotten talent.

My grandmothers taught me to crochet (Grandma Young) and to knit (Grandma Schertz. They were extremely good cooks/bakers.

One of the things that always surprises me is the ability to make such amazing art with nothing like what we have available these days. The strength to carve in any of the areas, absolutely astounds me. Using only different types of chisels and different mallots which were made from different such as wood, stone, metals (depending on what the artist is working on).  

The artisans had to have had extremely strong arms and hands, striking the chisels on stones, metal, and more. Look at the men who were blacksmiths. It would be much better to have such a strong person on your side in a fight.

I have watched my father when he was working with stones and wood. I have seen him work with leather. He also had an old “machine- but is a large press to make metal items. It was always fun to play with. It was also extremely hard work and required someone strong to work with it.

Can you imagine, in the 15 and 16^th centuries, how difficult would have been to keep the tools as sharp as required? How did they make the marble items so smooth and delicate?

There were several ways to sharpen the blade. A whetstone was used as a portable stone  which swordsmen kept in these stones were Eused with water or an oil which lubricated. Another method was grinding wheels. These wheels were larger, the wheels were made of abrasive stone. Such were mounted on pulley systems. The use of a crank or water power. As the world continued to change, the ability to make the blades sharper changed dramatically.  The types of grit made a huge difference. Each man who ran a forge had little specialties to make their mark on their craft. Remember the movie with Kevin Costner and our beloved Alan Rickman as the sheriff of Nottingham? When the sheriff stabs his cousin, and says “aren’t you glad I didn’t use a spoon?” If your blades aren’t sharp, the person getting injured are in misery.

This is one of my dad’s hand carved wooden wall plaque. It is around 8×11. All hand done.

Ok, I have to go to sleep. I have been sick this week and am fighting a migraine. Take care and hopefully the next time I post, I will be back on top in my mind.