Also, i don't know if it comes across in that photo, but that is the arm that i use to test axes for proper sharpness. I bought/sharpened so many axes recently, that there is really almost no hair left.

It only looks weird if i put it next to my other arm. So i guess i will just have to keep the pair separate until the shit grows back.

Ark? Not yet. I have some other things to do first. I live on kind of a hill anyhow. I have a little more time than the rest of the suckas.

It did not occur to me, but that may be because I am missing a lot of hair on the ol' arms myself. Though, that is from hucking 20 or so firework mortars for lack of a proper tube last summer just before I left for this godforsaken hellhole. Because, ya know. I am a real smart guy.

Took a hydrometer reading of the wine and its clocking at a gravity of 0.994 which from the start gravity pulls up a respectable 13.5% ABV. I performed a taste test too. Currently like a red Cava I guess. It will become more dry as the finings and stabiliser go in along with some extract. If its still clocking the same value tonight I'm going to rack it into the 2nd vessel to remove the sediment and then I can degas it. Motherfucking booze n shit.

Now, is this some sort of broadaxe? I am curious. How long's the handle?

That's my froe, bro.

Handle that came with it is about 22". That seems to be a good length, though i have seen longer and shorter. Should depend somewhat on what size tree one aims to be riving in a general sense.

How does one riv a thing, anyhow?

One smackes a wedge into the end of a tree/log that had been careful suspended in a riving brake. Once a split has begun, one hammiz in the froe into it wif a bigass mallet. A combination of malleting and twisting of the froe handle rives the wood along the grain in a more or less straight line(one controls the direction of the split by where one supports the log in the brake, and which direction one twists the handle.)

As an example, watch this boss, boss this tree bit around:

Damn. That is some fine work. You have a fine-ass plank there. It seems to separate quite nicely.

The main trick of the froe, is in fact that it is meant to be done to green woods(i.e. woods just cut and not yet seasoned/kilned/etc'd).

The trick of green woodworking, is that one has to know how and how much the specific tree- and grain-type is likely to shrink once it goes to the point where it stabilizes, moisture-wise(which is an amount always less than the amount of water that is found in a living tree, but how much less being a factor of specific environment/location, and specific tree variety, and specific grain density(i.e. how close the rings are)).

But that is why the froe works. The green wood is wayyyyyyy easier to boss around than the type of wood that has dried out.

It is fascinating(to me) though, how woodstuff was once done just about opposite to how we do it now. Nowadays we kiln dry the shit into oblivion and the best lumber is the type that will never change dimension. In the olde dayes, they just accepted that wood would change shape, a tradoff acceptable because of how much easier green wood was to cut and shape, and built their processes and joinery so that when the green wood naturally shrank, it would just pull all of the joints that were built, tighter and make a more solid construction.

Haha. I am only just now getting to this. And... there isn't anything wrong with it?

Well, the reverb didn't work. But some contact cleaner and unplug/replug cleaning action sussed that out.

But yeah, this shit seems to work fine. Channel switching, all the knobs, it actually looks clean inside. Really clean for an old marshall.

Loud as hell.

I kind of really like the gain channel. Haven't messed with it too much, but i generally agree with the amount of fuzz on tap. A solid amount more than a normal 800. Which is the amount more than a normal 800 that i am into.

And the clean channel sounds righteous cranked out.

Even the reverb sounds pretty good. Actually seems kind of surfy on ten.

I guess i am going to have to run it at volume for a while and see if anything pops up, but as it stands at the moment, i am currently guessing that it might have been suffering from something like a bad cord or a bad guitar jack or something...

Shit really was built better/sturdier back in the day. Just from observing old buildings I can tell. How many houses from, say, 1980 will still be standing in 2100? (Assuming humans don't destroy the planet before then.)

Yeah, from the pictures it seems to be in very good condition, especially for a map that's been out of production for 20+ years.

It's an 800; I would expect it to be loud as all hell, in a way the 900s/2000s aren't, quite. And it should be a proper spring 'verb in that thing, so surfy doesn't surprise me. The channel switching 800s have a diode clipping boost IIRC much like the 900s. How do you think the voicing compares to a normal single-channel 800?

The 2205s/2210s are, I think, a bit of a sleeper in the Marshall line. And you can probably score 'em for a lot less than the more "desirable" 2203s/2204s.

In a general sense, it seems to have more low end and general mass to it, meaning something lower middsy i think. Though it is hard to say without a "normal" one here to compare more directly and the last proper 800 i played being a few years back now.

Of course, this could also have just as much to do with the fact that most of the 800s that i have personally met have been 50w.

But i could totally rock this thing. It is less shardy than my own amp, but it is a flavor that i could quite easily work with just the same. And i do like the much better/louder/tighter low end it has, compared to my smallmap. Makes it more fun to play violent stuff on the onesies.

HAHAHAHAHAHA.

I wasn't going to get one of these, but this one came up cheapcheap.



Holy shit, it is gigantic. The photos actually make it look small. In person, it is completely ridiculous. Heavy as balls too.

Now to see if it will clean up enough and sharpen properly enough to one day see use.

Looks like it could do some damage. Rust makes it look more menacing

That thing is fucking awesome.

That is what i want to use as the drum machine for my one man band.

I personally find them scarier when they look like they are still in fine operating order. This one's edge is way dull, i wonder if it was being used as decoration, or if it was just sitting in a dark corner of a barn for the last hundred or so yrs.

The blade face is 12" long, and it weighs about 9 pounds. All cleaned up, with a razor sharp edge, and a handle, it will easily become the silliest thing that i currently own.

But. It was only like $30. And in decent shape/working condition, one usually can't find this size for much less than $150. Usually the sub-$80 ones are extremely pitted rusty, and won't really be good for anything more than wall hanging or something.

I actually think this one can come back and be good.

None of which changes the fact, that i have absolutely no need for such a thing at the moment. Whereas the two smaller ones(the larger of which is especially useful and is not that small either) are very useful to me for all kinds of shit as pre-planing flatteners and rough shapers, this massive one is really only meant to be used on full tree timber for making beams and shit. Which actually, i would love to do, but i of course currently possess neither the land, nor the trees for.

Usually a hewing axe will have a kind of shortish handle.

But usually not quite this short:



I have seen some with stubby handles like this before, but now that i have tried it, i don't know why the fuck anyone would want it like this. IMO, the thing needs more length to counterbalance the head a little bit. With a short handle it is very difficult to be accurate and very tiring to use.

The main reason i went this way was that i don't have any more ash that is longer, unless i cut something down.

Oh well. I will definitely need to make a longer handle though. I might have some maple branches around that might work.