Pennsic Craftiness
Kumihimo Braid, on my PhotostreamSo, whilst at Pennsic, I took a couple classes that produced tangible objects.
The first was an intro to Kumihimo - a Japanese style of cord braiding. It seems very interesting, but the intro class just covered how to do a very, very simple pattern on a cardboard circle. There's not a lot of Kumihimo instruction online - it seems to be one of the few areas where internet users actually respect intellectual property rights - but it's quickly becoming apparent that the cardboard circle approach is highly limited. Naturally, with my tendency toward diving into things, my first thought was on how to build a small, cheap marudai to play around on. I managed to convince myself not to mess with a takadai for a good long while, and I've mostly convinced myself to lay off the marduai for a while. I could make something small and effective our of cardboard laminated together, or a wastebin, or... yeah, not going there.
A Knifelike Object, on my Photostream
The other, more complicated class was on making a Viking seax - a single-edged knife. We went from bar stock, to hot-cutting the flats, then banging out the knives themselves. I did pretty well at making flats out of the bar. Shaping the knife, less so. Still, I managed something with a fairly straight edge, and an OK clip on the back. Overdid the length on the clip, and the stick-tang is about 3 times as wide as I wanted, but we were rotating forge time among dozens of people, and the knifelike thing you see there was the result of 9 hours hanging around the forge. I had to leave eventually.
At any rate, I get the idea now, I can grind that into a semblance of knifedom, given equipment. Then, eh, maybe I'll wrap some cord around the tang-cum-handle and call it a day. And since I'm lucky enough to know a smith or two, at some point I might start again and get it right. For my first time swinging a hammer, and having to wait and rotate, I think I did OK. Later I can make something I'd actually consider wearing.