Vintage Barber shaving mug
A great flea market find. A silver coated metal barber shaving mug, another good reason to get rid of the beard and celebrate a good straight razor shave.
Learn to forge with mastersmith Tom Carstens Degerndorf:
Saturday we attended with some friends a workshop by blacksmith Tom Carstens in Bavaria – Degerndorf. The forge shows Tom´s passion for his profession in every detail. The old hammers, anvils, the restored and still used pressure hammers (Golem II) or the dragon in the forge. He uses the old tools but also new technology to be efficient.
With a small group of only 4 he had time for everyone of us through all the course. The basics of blacksmithing envolved through the day. We made a fireplace poker and shovel and the last object was a archaic knife.
On the way back to lake constance the workshop didn´t let us go and this morning plans to create a place to continue to forge/blacksmith are in progress.
Thanks Tom for your time and sharing your knowledge. We really can recommend Tom to everyone who want´s to have an intro into forging but also want to improve his skills.
He does workshops for kids as well.
A short movie found on Youtube showing Tom Carstens.
Im glad last weekend Manfred from Feinschmuck gave me an article in the newspaper to read about Robert Kaufmann. At his website, about the first words you read “Die schönsten Messer der Welt” (the most beautiful knifes of the world). That´s a ambitious statement and I think it is true. Unfortunately I could not visit him by now but I definitely have to see him for a chat, to see his knifes / works, take some photos and even ask him to craft a knife for me. The most difficult task is to just choose – only one knife.
Here a video about Robert Kaufmann in german.
(Copyright of the images by Robert Kaufmann)
When I first saw this place, I could not believe it to find such experts when it comes to metal in such a low profile place (speaking from the house before I entered the workshop). Down to earth guys who can do anything within a short time out of metal when you really need it. We had to get some special bolds out of V2A with 24 hours, no problem the brothers said, knowing that it was an emergency. The next day I got my camera with me to take some images I want to share with you. Machines all about 30 years + and you really feel they have been working with them daily – and will not change them for a CNC version in their life.