The Druid Grove

by **Crow** » 21 Feb 2005, 20:25

Notice: Please post your craft works for the current Eisteddfod here:

by **frank** » 19 Mar 2005, 19:23

A sgian dubh is the kind of knife you wear with a kilt, tucked into your stocking. This could easily be an athame, if one is more religiously inclined. Either way, it's definitely a druidic piece.

Size: 7.75 inches (20 cm)
blade: damascus steel
handle: mistletoe with white stones and a thin brass guard barely visible in the image.

Yes you read that right: the handle is a mistletoe stem. I found a mistletoe "bush" knocked down in a storm, and I thought the main branch would make an interesting knife handle. The stones were found while hiking in various places, and reminded me of the white berries that mistletoes produce in the fall. I purchased the blade, rather than forging it myself.

Enjoy!

Frank

by **Beith** » 19 Mar 2005, 19:47

hi Frank - what a beautiful work because you have kept the natural state and shape of the mistlebush branch unworked in the handle. It's lovely.

The scian dhubh (or sgian dubh) is the blackhandled knife in scots and irish tradition. I found a note on it recently that carrying a black handled knife is a protection from being led astray by fairies, when out in the dark. I guess you'll be ok if that is tucked into your stocking!
Beith

by **Seeker** » 19 Mar 2005, 22:11

Wow Frank! This is a beautiful piece! I am mesmerized by the handle...what a unique way to use mistletoe. Bravo on your creativity.

by **forestmonk3966** » 20 Mar 2005, 01:20

A very nice piece,Frank. I like the natural flow of the grip and the white stone's are a nice touch, the blade speak's for it's self.

I'm a little turned off by the glue showing( I know how messy glue can be) and the lack of a bolster tho.a thin bit of brass shaped to the grip would have been a nice transition between the grip and blade.

still, a nice piece.well done!

by **frank** » 20 Mar 2005, 01:33

Hi Forestmonk,

I'm hoping you post your athame soon. The glue was a problem--you can't see it in this view, but to get the glue off, I would have had to take the bark off with it, which was far uglier. I experimented in a few tiny patches and decided that the glue around the stones would have to stay. That's one of the problems with using a whole stem as opposed to a piece of wood, especially when it's something as brittle as mistletoe. Mistletoe wood is also bright yellow, which makes the glued region look much bigger than it actually is.

As for the bolster, part of that is the style of the sgian dubh. Many of the ones I've seen are without bolsters, and that's basically what I did here.

by **forestmonk3966** » 20 Mar 2005, 02:32

Hi Frank;

I'm hoping to get my submission posted within a few day's. providing I can figure out how to get it done.

Glue is alway's a messy thing to deal with, so I sympathize.but you mite be surpised how little glue is acctualy needed in such case's.I certainly didn't get it right at first,that's for sure. your right, taking any bark off would have been tragic,there's no way to fix that and make it look right,that I know of.

as far as the bolster goes,your right again, many of the sgian dubh didn't have one because most were made by common folk for every day use.it was only the one's made by cutler's that did have them, for the most part,and were expensive.

regardless,I still think it's a nice piece.well done.

by **frank** » 20 Mar 2005, 04:05

Hi Forestmonk,

What I did was to open an free account at http://www.photobucket.com. You can upload your images there.

Once you have the image online, simply copy the url on that site, and paste it here, using the following script: "[img]url[/img]" (type everything inside the quote marks, which are there to tell the computer not to interpret that as an instruction)

Frank

by **Jeb** » 20 Mar 2005, 05:22

Tafl Board - Entry

Some of you may have seen this in its unfinished state. I finally got around to completing it.

The solid padouk board is 34cm square and 6cm thick. The 9x9 grid on it was carved in a manner similar to one found in the archaeological record... with rough "x"s for the throne and escape squares. The king is solid brass and is meant to stand out from the rest of the pieces (as a good king should! :grin:

)

For more info (rules and websites) on tafl click here.

Thanks to ImageShack for Free Image Hosting

The Notebooks of Azrienoch · by **Azrienoch** » 20 Mar 2005, 05:34

I really don't know what to say... these are both simply beautiful.

by **Lily** » 20 Mar 2005, 11:14

Golden Sickle - Entry

The mythical golden sickle of the druids - although historically unclear, I decided to cast one anyway.

(size: about 5 cm)

This is a sand cast in bronze; it was cast last Beltaine, on the full moon (which some people consider the correct time to celebrate Beltaine) - during that evening's lunar eclipse. It is more a pendant than an actual cutting implement, although the "blade" is sharp enough.

by **Kat Lady** » 20 Mar 2005, 16:31

Wow! Beautiful work Jeb and Lily. Such craftsmanship!
Hey Crow: this is going to be a tough one again!

by **Crow** » 20 Mar 2005, 16:38

Yes it is, but I'm sure everyone will be awestruck if Billy Joe Bob submits his runic branding irons, like he hinted that he might.
Great job everybody!

:raven:

by **Lily** » 20 Mar 2005, 16:54

I absolutely adore the knife, Frank! The mistletoe is very fitting, and the blade.... I just love damascene steel...

by **frank** » 20 Mar 2005, 17:07

Thanks! I keep wishing I had the facilities (and ability) to do more direct metal working myself. That sand-cast sickle's nice, and I've wanted to do some bronze work myself.

I had to look up the tafl rules too, of course. This is a fun thread!

Frank

by **Mey** » 20 Mar 2005, 18:17

ENTRY

Cucumber salad

1 cucumber
1/2 red onion
1,5 cm fresh ginger
juice of 1/2 lemon
2 teaspoons creamcheese

Cut the cucumber and onion in small pieces and put them in a bowl
Put the ginger and the lemon juice in a mortar and grind it with the pestle. When you have this nice light yellow pulp add the creamcheese and mix it.
Put the dressing over the cucumber and onion and you'll have a lovely salad that goes along greatly with spicy food.

I had it this evening along with Chinese food. Delicious!

by **MaiaElan** » 21 Mar 2005, 07:15

hmnhmnhmnmnm yum :-D

by **forestmonk3966** » 21 Mar 2005, 16:17

Fire Dagger;

I built this piece back in 95.the Dagger/Athame is hand forged from a steel band off a very old stone grain silo that I scavenged from a long abandond farnstead a few mile's from my home. aparently the barn had burned down causing the silo to fall. pretty sad really.

The Dagger is about 13 inches long over all. the grip is gun metal black intertwined with nickle silver wire and the pomel is quartz.it's hard to see in the pic(sorry, these are the best one's) but there is a pentagram with a little filagrie on ether side of it engraved in the in the centre of the quillion(cross gard) and the blade is colored,yellow at the base that gragually fade's to blue at the point..

The display stand is ,again,hand forged from bit's of Iron scavenged at the farmstead. the base is square to represent the four physical element's and the "being" eminating from it is the spirit aspect. the "fire spirit" hold's the dagger in it's hand's,as you can see.

Blessing's,
Don

PS.. thank you ,Frank. for the info on Photobucket.com.