David de Groot 𓆉 @dadegroot@mastodon.social

Aww, custom emoji don’t work in polls. :-(

Hello new followers!

In case you're wondering who the hell you're following, I'm from Australia (I assure you, we do exist).

I work with computers, take photos, cook and blacksmith, amongst other things.

Content here tends to be mostly cooking and blacksmithing and tech stuff, while @david@photog.social is where I put photos (also @david@pixelfed.social when I remember).

Politically I'm left-aligned. If you're right-wing, anti-vaxx or a conspiracy theorist, you're in the wrong place.

#introduction #greeting

Knocked out a quick handle for a small paring knife I've been working on, this afternoon. It's in the vice waiting for the epoxy to set before I can continue sanding.
It's not going to be particularly fancy, but should be serviceable.

Well I *was* going to be cat-sitting for the next couple of days as my daughter toodled down to Tassie for a quick holiday, but now we have a 3 day lockdown from 4pm today, and they *were* leaving tomorrow. But clearly won't be able to now.

Ah the joys of attempting travel in a pandemic :(

New #fruitloaf fresh from the oven. Long ferment on this one (20hrs or so in the fridge).

Fruit is apricot and mixed peel. Spices are star anise, white pepper, ginger and mace.

#breadPosting #bread #pane

I admit, English has no equivalent of the "gna" italian (or the spanish ña) sound, but really it's not that hard to learn, and in no way sounds like "nee".

I could imagine someone speaking English could say bolona, but it still ends in an a, not a y.

Everytime I see that silly meme that says "How come pony and bologna rhyme but..."

I am a) confused, then b) angry.

Pony and Bologna DO NOT RHYME.

Pony is pronounced P oh nee
Bologna is Bol on ña

How people from NE of the USA managed to screw that up so badly, I just do not know.

#rant #language

I also had leftover egg from the egg wash for the pie, so I made little custard tarts.

#food #tart #dessert

I had leftover roast pork, so of course that means a roast pork and butter bean pie with sautèed broccolini is in order.

#food #dinner #pie

Last part of the feasting set commission, a traditional blacksmith’s knife. Suitable for lower status personas that couldn’t afford to go to a cutler or bladesmith. This one is made from an old file and hardened to over 65HRC out of the quench, and has been tempered back to around 58HRC to give it a bit of toughness.

#blacksmith #knife

As part of the feasting set commission I have, this is the 2nd piece, a medieval stye fork. Forks in the medieval period were relatively slow to catch on in Europe (they were a thing in the eastern Roman Empire, in Constantinople for quite some time).

This one is a simple two prong fork made from a piece of coil spring. I'm not worried about taste of the metal in this one, since unlike a spoon, you generally don't put a lot of the fork in your mouth.

#blacksmith #cutlery #fork #forchetta

Today’s find at work, a brand new, still in wrapper, iPod Touch 16Gb from about 2007.

I ask you, is there anything better than broccolini sautéed in butter with garlic and chilli?

#food

Fired up the forge this morning. I don’t think I’ve made my shoulder/elbow worse, but I’ll see in the coming days.

Anyway, a work colleague has joined the SCA and needs some utensils, so I started by making a spoon.

Smaller than a soup spoon but bigger than a teaspoon so should prove ok as an all-rounder.

Since eating off carbon steel isn’t great (tastes funny), I opted for stainless, even if it isn’t period.

#blacksmith #cutlery #spoon

Well it’s definitely pretty, but the cherry portion is very dense.