Fort at #4

It was a beautiful day for a visit to the Fort.

You all would have had a chuckle if you had seen me.

Remember the movie True Grit with John Wayne and Glen Campbell? Mattie Ross wore a black hat. That is the hat I felt I was wearing yesterday. Except mine didn’t have a tie strap. I kept waiting for it to fly away in the wind.

This was topped with a white linen vest, about four inches too small across the belly and 2 across the chest. But it looked period.

That was over a linen shirt. The shoulders of which were a little tight.

Black pants finished the look.

I had planned to do some spinning. I didn’t. I spent most of the day talking to people and learning and finding things that need to be fixed.

My primary learning goal was to observe and ask questions about how linen is made. They didn’t have anybody in the weaving room.

I did find a very knowledgeable lady, but she had knowledge but not skill.

A bit later, I managed to get one of the interpreters to actual show me how it was done. It is an interesting process. There are some specialized tools that are needed for the processing. I don’t have them, I think I can make them.

We bought a bound of flax seed from some monks a few years go. I think we might plant it this coming spring. Maybe at the fort.

Subsequently, I ended up talking to guests. I do not have the skill to disengage when I am done. So many interactions lasted to long.

Tomorrow’s post will be about some feedback I got from an Australian farmer who was there when they took the guns.

My daughter spent several years working for a corporation where she didn’t feel her skills were appreciated. One of her coworkers did not interact well with her.

When she changed positions and is in a new team, with a new chain of command, she was exposed to some people that she described as having “quiet competence”.

Ally came to me with a sickle. Told me it needed to be sharpened. I found some sharpening stones and did so.

I’m sitting out in the courtyard for the light on a capped well. The director took pictures.

Seems that there is a skill to sharpening, which I have been working on, but which I didn’t have on my list.

So I got another, “He just sharpened it, amazing.”

All in all, I had a good time. My bad knee hurts, but that’s a good hurt. I was outside most of the day. I meet people.

The only thing that would have enhanced it would have been if there was live fire involved.

I’m up at the Fort with Ally and my wife. They are having a show and tell.

She picked out the garb to wear, and I have my black felt hat.

Originally, I intended to do some wood working, but that is currently on hold until I get some raw lumber.

The lathe needs bracing before it can be put into use. We could just use 2x4s, but that wouldn’t look very nice.

My goal is to bring up a 4 or 5 foot length of Oak from the woods. It will be heavy.

That will be fed through my bandsaw to make some rough blanks. The blanks will be taken up to the fort to be hand planed and turned into braces.

So… What will I be doing up there today?

I will be combing wool and spinning it. I have my wheel up there to use, but it is likely I’ll be using something a little older. Some 100+ years older than mine.

I am also hoping to learn how to process flax into fibers for spinning. It is an example of something I have knowledge of but no skill.

The next project is to make an inkle loom. My fine felt hat is too boring, even for me. I want a hat band. That requires me to make a hat band.

To make the hat band, I will need some sort of loom. I’ve decided to use an inkle loom. I could spend dollars to buy one, instead I plan to make it.

There will be some shortcuts used. The intent is to use the modern jointer, plainer, and lathe to make the components, but we will be starting from a log in the woods.

The threads for the hat band? Those are what I will be spinning. My wife will be dying some of the thread, I will have to decide on colors.

I hope that some of you make it out to the Fort this weekend.

I like to learn new things. My goal is to be able to fix anything at The Fort At #4. A large part of that is learning how to turn wood.

This is not as difficult as it could be because I have experience with a metal lathe. The concepts are similar, but very different.

In metal working, we look at the type of metal, the amount of metal we want to remove, and the speed at which we wish to do it. This informs us of the type of tool to use.

Steel likes larger nose radius than aluminum. The chip breakers are different, the rake is different. The cutter shape defines speeds and feeds. What tool I pick is dependent on what I am doing.

In wood turning, there are two major types, “spindle” and “bowl”. A spindle is a long, round thing. Think of round legs on chairs, or the spindles in the back of a chair. Round chair rungs. All of those are spindle turnings.

Bowl turning is just about would it sounds like. You are carving out wood from the center of a round, thick piece of wood. The difference is grain orientation.

In spindle turning, the grain is oriented end to end. In bowl turning, it is side to side.

When cutting the outside of a spindle, you are always cutting away the along the grain. The easy way. In bowl turning, you are cutting side grain, then end grain, then back again.

The tools are different. A bowl gouge and a spindle gouge have different shapes and different sturdiness.

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The Fort has been trying to recover from the lack of visitors during covid. It is also working with volunteers that know much about their area of interest, but not so much about other parts.

Consider power transmission. We have been working with power transmission since ancient Roman times. What is power transmission? It is how you transmit movement from one place to another.

In the modern era, we will convert running water, high heat or a dozen other things into electricity. That electricity is then transmitted over wires to a motor. At the motor, the power is converted back to motion.

Another part of the transmission of power, is the simpler physical transmission. Consider a water wheel. The wheel rides on an axle. The axle sits in bearings. When the wheel turns, the shaft turns. Anything attached to that shaft will also turn, doing work.

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So back in May, I spent 8 days and 7 nights at the Fort at No. 4 up in Charlestown, NH. I was there for a number of reasons. First, they needed someone to do a cooking demo for a few school groups going through, and that’s entirely my wheelhouse. Second, there was a Rendezvous going on (sort of an 18th century “con”) and they wanted people in the Fort. Third, and perhaps most important, I wanted to teach myself how to bake in a beehive oven.

The Fort is a wonderful and very magical place. It does have running water in the bathrooms (cold only, and only in the summer), and the bathrooms are set up outhouse style (you have to go out of the fort to a small two stall privy to use them). There is electricity in some of the buildings, but when I’m there I rarely use it other than to charge my phone (which I do in a staff room that is not open to the public, during the day when I’m not using it). I do use the fridge in the staff room for keeping food from going off, but only because there is no root cellar there for me to keep things in. If there was, I probably wouldn’t use the staff room at all.

So, in spending a week at the Fort, I learned a number of things about myself. First and foremost, my stress level went down tremendously when I wasn’t reading FaceBook and the news. About the end of the third day, living in a one room cabin and sleeping on a rope bed began to feel like the “new normal” and I settled in very nicely. The rope bed has a lovely, fluffy down feather tick mattress, over which I laid my sheepskins so that the pin feathers didn’t prick my bottom while sleeping. It was still a bit chilly in Charlestown during the evenings, so I was happy to have the warmth of the fireplace radiating beside my bed. If I had wanted, I could have kept the fire going all night, but I didn’t see the point. The residual heat from the beehive oven actually kept it quite dry and comfortable (outside was a bit moist and cool). I learned that sleeping on the rope bed, my shoulder ceases hurting almost entirely… but my hips go out of whack instead and I must pinch a nerve. Apparently I should spend a every other night flipping between my bed and a rope bed to get the best sleep possible. LOL!

I learned that you get up early because there’s light, and you go to bed early (for me at least, because I’m a night owl usually) because there isn’t light. The cabin I’m in is lit entirely by the hearth and candles. I have a large candelabra, several smaller candle stands, and a few lanterns. Most nights, I burned a single candle and not much more, because there didn’t seem much point. The one night I was attempting to finish a sewing project, I actually lit up six candles in the candelabra, and that was enough light to allow me to complete my work. It was interesting, seeing the way my body adjusted when I cut out electric light from my life.

The entire time I was there, I dressed as a Fort dweller. I wore a petticoat (a skirt) or two depending on the temperature, and a bedgown (which is a type of blouse that ties or pins closed), a chemise that covered my elbows but not my lower arms, and a frilly cap that covered most of my hair. I wore an apron the entire time, partly to keep my bedgown closed and partly because much of what I was doing was dirty.

I cleaned the house I was staying in. I swept at least twice a day, and always found more dust. It’s a hazard of burning wood – the ash gets everywhere. I washed dishes in the dry sink, with water heated over the fire in a tin kettle. I cooked over the fire in cast iron pots and a spider (basically a frying pan on legs, that allows you to cook over the coals). If I didn’t make a fire, I didn’t eat cooked food, so I made a fire every day. I carted my water in from elsewhere in the Fort. I washed myself in the evenings over a bucket in front of the fire.

I think the most striking thing I learned was that it’s really hard to stay clean when you’re living like that. We are absolutely, completely spoiled by showers. I spent almost 45 minutes each night, cleaning myself from top to bottom. I didn’t wash my hair with soap every night, but I did wet it down and scrub my scalp with a washcloth. I used soap on all the “important bits” every day. I made sure to thoroughly clean my feet at least once a day, and always before bed. It took a long time, and sometimes I didn’t feel like doing it, but I always felt better after my evening “spitz bath.” Still, when AWA came to pick me up from the Fort after my week, I noted he drove home with the windows open. I cannot tell you the filth that came off me when I showered at home. It was startling, because I really thought I was pretty clean the whole time. I’d made a point of it! But the bottom of the tub told a different story.

I did well learning my beehive oven use. I have now baked about ten or twelve loaves of bread and several pies in the beehive oven, and am comfortable with the use of it. I learned how to close certain windows while bringing the oven up to temperature, because otherwise the wind would whip the smoke down from the chimney and right back into the cabin. I discovered that it doesn’t matter how many windows you close at night, mosquitoes will find their way down the short, straight chimney to eat you. Might as well leave the window open for a nice breeze.

While I was there, I collected all my hardwood ash. It’s my intention to use it to create lye in the autumn, so that I can then make both clothes washing soap (which is sort of soupy and mushy) and body washing soap (which can be in bar form). I hope to make two batches of bar soap, for comparison… one batch made with my homemade lye, and one made with commercially purchased lye designed for modern soap making. My sister makes soap, both lye and other types, and I’ve helped a number of times, so I figure between the two of us we can probably do a great “compare and contrast” for the Fort patrons.

The profound thing I discovered about myself, is that when I am at the Fort and away from the modern hustle and bustle, I am more quiet, more peaceful, and less klutzy. I tend to rush around from task to task, overly busy at all times when I’m at home. I have so much to do between taking care of the house and cooking and kids, writing books, planning events, marketing, helping out AWA with the blog, and the dozen other things I do every day. When I rush, I do stupid stuff, like trip and fall, or cut myself with knives. At the Fort, the pace was just much slower. I had as much or more work to do, honestly, but there was no rush. Part of it was that I was by myself for the majority of the time (school groups and other people were only during open hours, from 10am to 3pm generally). But part of it was just that I knew what needed doing, and I did it. There was no rush. I just had to move along at an even pace, and I did. No trips and falls. No cutting myself. I did get one splinter, but it got dealt with and I was fine.

There’s so much to be learned by doing things “the old fashioned way.” I like doing it because I love taking those old recipes (whether for food, or soap, or whatever) and trying them out. Every time I do something, I learn new stuff, about myself, and about history. Yes, it’s good for learning how to live without modern machinery. But it’s also just good for the soul, in my opinion. Doing things with your hands, getting more in touch with the world we live in, breathing in fresh air and allowing your circadian rhythms to sync up… it’s all good.

The Fort was designed to teach adults and children about the history of the French and Indian War, and about the colonization of New Hampshire. Perhaps it’s also teaching us about how to live, going forward into our future. I think we’ve lost a lot of knowledge that we used to have. Those people who lived in the original Fort were not stupid. They did amazing things, and without the machinery and computing power that we “cheat” with today. We’ve lost some of that drive. It’s time we got it back.

I’m not entirely sure how to go about injecting that drive into today’s youth, but it’s something I think must be done, and as quickly as possible. My own kids are a mixed bag. I will say that the one who spent the most time “visiting the past” with me is the one with the most insane drive for success and internal motivation. I think that’s something to keep in mind. Allowing children to actually DO things, instead of just reading them or watching them in a video, gives them the opportunity to invest themselves. In order to become a successful person, you have to fail. Without failure,  you don’t learn to work as hard. You don’t learn that … that thing which made America such an amazing place when it was founded. People flocked here because with hard work and effort, with blood, sweat, and tears, you could better yourself and your family. That’s not America today, though.

We need more children learning trades, learning to put their personal sweat equity into the work they’re doing. We need more adults teaching it, and yes, pushing it. The stigma of going into the trades should be eradicated, and instead, the plumbers, carpenters, welders, electricians, HVAC folks, and all the others, should be elevated and celebrated. They are the ones carrying us forward, for the most part.

Yesterday, I went up to the Fort at #4 to pick up Allyson and to play with the Lathe.

This time I took my chisels and was better prepared. I also took along some grease.

With a bit of patience, I got the lathe belted back up. About that time, Allyson arrived. She took on the task of pumping.

Since I brought up some grease, I was prepared to liberate some wear points. But, I was so excited, I just didn’t.

It took us a few tries, but we finally go things moving, and I was able to make chips. The squarish thing is slowly becoming round.

I checked the drive, and it was getting warm/hot. I stopped to get some grease into place. That seemed to have made a difference.

With that, I could try, try again. I could get it spinning. I can’t keep it spinning as I lose coordination. But for the time it is spinning, I was able to make wood chips.

I hope you notice the 2A shirt and the Kimber 1911 on my right hip.

I’ve been enjoying visiting the Fort. Hagar is a volunteer interpreter there.

The first time I visited the Fort, Hagar showed me around. As we moved from room to room, I noticed that some artifacts were damaged or missing parts.

One of the artifacts I noticed was missing some spindles and toppers. This is not an issue if you have a wood turning lathe.

They did have a treadle lathe. I received permission to use it from Bill. Once I had his permission, he told me that the belt wasn’t hooked up.

I told him I knew and then proceeded to get it belted up. He sat and watched. I now know that the belt hasn’t been on the lathe in years.

Then I found out why, as soon as I started trying to treadle, the belt came off the big wheel in the joists. In addition to not staying on, the wheel had massive wobble from side to side.

Bill explained that it was unlikely to work because the driven wheel, on the lathe, wasn’t flat. I explained to him that it was crowned on purpose and that the reason the belt comes off the drive wheel/fly wheel is because it wasn’t crowned.

After talking to the acting director and Bill some more, I received permission to take the wheel home to work on it.

I was intending to pick it up a week ago last Friday, when I took Hagar to the fort. They didn’t have it down, so I couldn’t take it home.

When I asked to pick up the wheel this last Friday, they told me that the really didn’t want it gone during the upcoming High Land games. When I explained I wanted to pick it up on Friday, so I could bring it back on Sunday, things moved.

They had the wheel down and ready for pickup on Wed. I picked it up on Friday and brought it home.

It took some work, but by that night I was able to get the wheel mounted on the back side of my lathe.

This involved squaring the end of a one-inch piece of round stock. I messed up the first attempt, but got it right the second time.

The Blue Haired Fairie helped me get it onto the lathe. It isn’t that it is just heavy, it is awkward as well. 44 inches in one diameter.

Once it was up and running, I moved on to crowning the wheel.

The belt sander wasn’t where I wanted it to be, so I used an angle grinder with a flapping disk. This worked, but not well. It bounced so it was making rippling waves on the surface of the wheel.

In addition, the wheel was out of round about a 1/4 inch, maybe more. Not happy making.

I called it a night.

On Saturday, I decided to turn it round and then to crown it. Except I don’t have a single spindle turning tool. I’ve got metal working tools, I don’t have wood turning tools.

I got my best chisel. A mortising chisel, or it might be a registration chisel. It is for squaring up the corners of pockets.

I created a make shift freestanding tool rest. Spun the wheel up to 40 RPM and started cutting. It was slow-going. I was learning how to cut. Sometimes it was working ok, sometimes it was not. I was experimenting with angles and other possibilities.

The problem was that the tool rest was not rigid enough. Every time the chisel took a bite, the tool rest would flex out of the way. I could not move the chisel smoothly from side to side.

With the RPM being so slow, every move had to be slow, to allow the wheel to spin all the way around.

At the end of about 4 hours, I called it a day. The wheel was “good enough, maybe”.

Overnight, I had a different idea, instead of using the out feed table directly, I was going to clamp a piece of metal to the out feed table to act as the physical rest.

This still kept me close enough to center line, and the new tool rest allowed me to more easily move the chisel from side to side.

I also ran the lathe up to 135 RPM. This took me to 1500 SFM. A better cutting speed than 460 Feet Per Minute.

In short order, I had sawdust and shavings coming off everywhere. I am pleased to report that the wheel is mostly true now. It also has a 5-degree crown.

When I arrived, they let me in to unload. Then got the truck out of there as there were still patrons going around.

When I got back to the joiners shop, Bill was talking to a group. We waited for them to leave. I showed Bill how the drive crank should only go into the hub in one orientation. I drove the wedge in on the “free” side, checked the wiggle. There was none.

We discussed how to get the wheel back in the rafters, he made the sage decision to get help.

He was soon back with Tom to give us an assist.

So there are three old men, about to lift 100+ pounds, into the rafters to hang. That thing is awkward.

The first attempt failed. The belt didn’t stay in place. We reset.

On the second lift, we got it up and the crank side was resting in the axle support. I quickly moved the offside axle support into place, screwed on the wood adjustment nut, and we had the wheel up.

We had to do a little manipulation to get it to seat properly, but that was easy.

With the wheel up, we worked together to guide the belt up and over. The belt was now on the drive flywheel.

I putt the driven wheel in place, and we carefully moved the belt onto the driven wheel.

With that done, I started checking the tracking. It wasn’t looking good, the belt would rapidly move to the edge and start to come off.

I adjusted the tracking and in a few minutes, we had the belt tracking.

With that, it was time to attach the treadle.

Bill connected the drive rod to the crank. I attached the drive rod to the treadle.

We were ready to go.

Yes, it spun! It took a little bit, and it didn’t want to keep spinning, but it is spinning.

With a bit of work, we got the workpiece in place, as well as the tail stock and tool rest.

While Bill was working on attaching the treadle rod to the crank, I had sharpened the chisel I had found.

With Bill in charge of motive power, I started making chips.

IT WORKS!

I knew it should work, but this was the first time I have crowned a pulley. In addition to having added the crown, cutting the wheel round and attaching the crank correctly solved the issue of the wheel wobble and the horrible sounds the drive system was making.