In our efforts to reduce our impact upon the planet, we use a lot of hand-tools at Wurruk’an- chisels, knives, handsaws, hoes. As some of you might know, we also practice many of the crafts (spoon-making has been our latest craze), including basket-making and baking, spoon carving and wood-working. The wonderful thing about blacksmithing is that, with a bit of creativity, you can produce almost all of the tools needed for these crafts.

Forging tools for basket-making

Because spoon making and willow basket making are two things that I plan to do a lot of this winter, I made a collection of all of the tools for both of these crafts, including bodkins, awls, rapping irons, shop knives, carving knives, crook knives, several froes, a fid and a carving gouge.

From left to right: Two basketry shop knives, a bodkin, a fid (for threading willow through gaps in the weave), a rapping iron with commander, a froe, a crook knife for carving spoons, a palm gouge, also for carving spoons

I also made some fun mug-hooks, a toilet-roll holder and a dinner bell. All of these tools and ornaments were made using discarded reinforcing bar, railroad spikes, leaf spring and coiled suspension springs from cars and trucks, almost all sourced from the local tip-shop!

The new Wurruk’an dinner bell

In order to create a good cutting edge, some of the tools needed to be hardened by heating to around 800 degrees C (the point at which steel is no longer magnetic), then being plunged into a tin of vegetable oil. Due to their relatively high carbon content, coil springs and leaf springs are perfect for this.

Hardening a bowl-turning tool by quenching in oil