Pig Candy

It's the knifemaker's birthday and since the inventory has been packed up to go to the show tomorrow, the knifemaker and the knifemaker's dad are happily working on custom work and innovating some new ideas in the workshop while enjoying the knifemaker's birthday present - pig candy.

Only done on rare occasions as a treat, for obvious reasons, this batch of pig candy was a special challenge since the knifemaker's aunt did not have the conveniences of her kitchen or her regular stash of FFA bacon. She produced a batch of pig candy in her hotel room with a microwave, a fork, paper towels, and a saucer...a testament to her culinary skills? Perhaps. A testament to her German stubbornness to pursue a task until arriving as success (a personal skill for which friends and family alike celebrate for, and grumble about), most likely.

Pig candy is brown sugar/cayenne pepper bacon cooked until the sugar caramelizes to hard candy. Initially it is sweet but then has a back flavor of hot spice. The knifemaker's aunt got this from a novel by Lise Funderburg called Pig Candy - a story about taking her father back to his childhood home before he dies. Enjoying the candied skin of an outdoor roasted Cuban pig, then an oven ham, then finally candied strips of bacon is all part of this amazing story of doing what can be done to show someone compassion and love. 

The knifemaker has been talking about pig candy since his aunt's arrival and how the uncle had eaten it all at Christmas before he got a second piece. Just to be sure he gets plenty in the future (not as a daily treat, mind you!), the knifemaker and his lady friend have been given the recipe. Here it is for your enjoyment too:

As thick and as lean bacon as you can find (the knifemaker's aunt buys the fundraiser FFA bacon from her students in the fall, then freezes it for future use)
Brown Sugar
Ground cayenne pepper
A dash or two of cinnamon

Cut the bacon into half strips (so it's easier to manage)
Cut off large end pieces of fat (the knifemaker's aunt uses scissors - makes it much easier)
Mix up the sugar/cayenne/cinnamon mixture in a large bowl (more or less cayenne to taste)
Cook bacon until it is almost crisp
Take the bacon from the pan into the mixture and toss so the hot fat soaks up the sugar-ness
Place the pieces on a piece of parchment on a cookie sheet and sprinkle with a little more mixture
Bake at about 375 or 400 until the sugar is bubbly
Take out and place on cooling rack until the liquid sugar hardens

Eat. Then go for a 30 minute walk to work down the blood sugar spike that is sure to happen.

Yum!

Other Metalworking in the Shop

Since the knifemaker's aunt's project so far has involved nail knives, there hasn't been much discussion about other metalworking products.

Blacksmithing involves much more than knives as many intuitively know. Metalworking is massaging metal into all kinds of shapes with the use of heat and force. For example, railroad spikes used to make the railroad spike knives can also be elongated, twisted, and made into steak turners.  The long handle makes flipping a steak on a grill quite easy. The twisted area is done much the same way as the knife handle but when twisted in two directions at the middle adds a decorative flair. Notice how the end of the spike is retained in both instances.

 Another example of using materials to a different end involves the cut nails the knifemaker's aunt used to make her nail knives. Imagine two cut nails at right angles to each other so one is hammered into a wall. When the other is forged to a curve, there is a hanging hook. Pretty handy...much as forging, twisting, and curving any metal strip would be as shown by the S hook. It only takes a small bit of imagination to figure out ways to use hooks around the house, barn, or garage!

 

Boxing Up for the Show

The Gatlinburg Craftsmen Fair is this weekend; set up is Wednesday. All inventory is being inspected and boxed. Finishing touches are being done to several dozen horseshoe knives and 3 custom orders. The knifemaker's aunt's thumb was rubbed raw yesterday so forging blades is out which is probably good because boxes needed to be constructed.

One box, 17 seconds...sometimes less. 250 boxes. Who knew such hidden talent such as 'box whispering' existed among her teacherly skills? That Master's degree in middle school gifted education certainly pays off when met with origami-like tasks! Boxes and boxes stacked the showroom, were labeled, and crated for the trip from Pigeon Forge to Gatlinburg.

The Finished Product

With the polishing and buffing done, the nails look shiny and are sharp. Because they are handmade, each one has personal appeal.

Once they were all done, the knifemaker's lady friend wiped them down for smudges and checked for imperfections before slipping each one into a sheath the knifemaker's aunt made.

Tomorrow the process continues and hopefully gets faster and more productive.

Rockin' and Rolling!

With each day, the toggle gets darker and darker,
a sign of work being done and education continuing.

Indeed, there was rockin' and rolling in the shop today. All hands are on deck preparing for the upcoming show. The knifemaker built forges, the knifemaker's dad polished and buffed commission orders, and the knifemaker's lady friend punched holes into sheaths. Because the knifemaker's aunt knows enough now to get on the nail knives with only minimal guidance, she forged 14 nails on her own before arm muscles began to spasm -- a vast improvement from the 9 eek-ed out the first day that had to be re-done not only once but in some cases twice. Today's forging episode only took about an hour whereas the first day was many, many hours -- 3rd time lucky! Her hammering abilities have certainly passed the tap-tap-tap stage witnessed earlier.

Once forged, she moved on to profiling and then the preliminary grinding. At each stage, the knifemaker's aunt asked the knifemaker's dad for critique. With small tweaks, her technique improved. Eventually the tray of nails was delivered to dad for the polishing/buffing stage. As you will remember, the knifemaker's dad shoots the evil eye toward anyone who suggests that stage should be part of the learning process. The knifemaker's aunt may watch but is not allowed on the machines. She is grateful to be relieved of the final stage since the machines run at such a high speed and one mis-handle or hesitant action can send a sharpened blade flying.

Reflection: It is clear the efficiency of each stage makes less work for the steps that follow. Sloppy forging means more work profiling. Inconsistent profiling means more time and energy spent shaping at the grinding stage. A poor grind means more time spent polishing (a tighter grinding process) and buffing (sharpening). The knifemaker's dad spent more time than usual with the first batch of nails...something he expected because it was a new skill for a beginner. With each batch, however, he should spent less and less time.

Dirty work. Gratifying, but dirty. A blister formed within an earlier blister - a scientific oddity maybe but something this blog will be saved from having to see. A good sweep up finished the knifemaker's aunt's job for today. Tomorrow?  More nails in the forge, and more technique improvement!

Forging More Nails

With no classes today, the knifemaker's aunt is ready to forge more nails. Remember, third time lucky! This will be her 3rd time at the forge for an extended work period. She's going to rock and roll!

Source: jonoh.tumbler.com

110 Sheaths Ready

Yesterday, the knifemaker's aunt finished sewing all 110 nail knife sheaths. Originally, this experiment was to see if customers preferred color over natural leather sheaths. However, a combination of events produce too many variables for a true collection of data. The independent variables (the size and shape of the sheath) stayed consistent. However, the dependent variable, which should have only been the color, became plural -- too many variables to make conclusions: the texture of the leather, the type of stitching, the stitch design, the color of the stitching. With all the dependent variables at once, there is no way to conclusively determine why a customer would buy one over another!

**sigh*

However, now with better understand of what needs to be done, a better experiment can be set up. The next go round the knifemaker's aunt will use the same thickness and texture (smooth) of the leather already being used. The sheath sewing vendor already used can be brought into the plan so those skills are consistent. In the end, it will be the same sheath as the natural-colored ones but in one color - teal/turquoise which seems to be a universally preferred color. The old girl has a roll of exactly the right leather in one of her studios back at home!  **ugh!!*