Dave loves it too!

Floyd wore it in its leather belt sheath to church the day after I made it. It got the old ladie's attention until Mom showed them it was a toy... LOL, it rides convincingly...

J

Amazing work!! innovative and impressive

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Careful, the Nostrils Famous Grammarian will
be after you for that 'apostrophe S'.....

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That's >>> Nostril's <<<!!!! Note the little dingy thingy goes before the "s" because there is possession involved.

(Sigh... A never ending crusade I wage! For EVER trying to preserve the English language...)

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So than you change it back to ...your's....Really?

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A couple of small fixed blade utility knives.

5" and 5.5" overall length, 2" Wharncliffe blades, desert ironwood handles (Thanks DD!), brass rivets. 5160 spring steel, hand forged and filed.

Prototype effort:






The final product (a gift):





J

My 3 year old son likes "Mighty Machines" (construction equipment. He calls'em that because it's the name of a kids show he watches, about them).

I like to make each kid a gift each year. Homemade stuff is far more "in the spirit" than the latest Chinese blow-molded Wally-World special.

We were watching an ancient (Pre-war?) Disney Christmas special the other night, and out of Santa's sack crawled a wooden steam shovel. Inspired, to the basement I went.

This one's in pine with maple boom and bucket, mostly doweled construction. Two levers protrude from the house roof, one controls the boom, the other the dipper stick/bucket. The bucket bottom has a brass spring-latch to allow the load to be dumped. The levers will lock in the "up" position, by way of cutouts in their tracks.



bucket spring catch










Took 2 full days of work. Finished in raw linseed oil.

J

That's AWESOME Jason... Not only the "home made" aspects relative to Christmas, but also the love invested... I hope these treasures are well taken care of by the recipients.

I myself would appreciate them being used/played with, but not broken. Some "personality" added to your work. A source for great memories for later years.

Do you come up with the design yourself? Or work off some plans?

CC,

Thanks! A few pages back here, there's an F1 race car I made for his first Christmas too. It's still makin' laps of the living room, a few more dents, yellowed some, but still lookin' good. I like "honest wear" too.

I'm a CAD operator in "real life", but I started from scratch, no plans. Just cut out the main boom pieces, and made everything else fit that, working loosely from a photo of a real power shovel. It's a big pile of "TLAR" (That Looks About Right). Most of my projects are that way, guided by gut and aesthetics.

Sometimes it even works out.

J