# Never whine that you don't have enough tools or equipment.



## NeilYeag (Aug 15, 2019)

This guy lives about 10 kilometers from my place. I knew about him but never visited till this weekend. He said he is 78 and been doing this for about 50 years. Although now he says some days he does not work, because he is "kind of tired". Needless to say no power tools at all, just forge, anvil, hammer and some files. 

These knives are specifically made for dispatching pigs...




He makes the saya's from Teak



An Ingenious use of concrete pipes for bellows:




His anvil and stake tool. He told me the anvil used to be bigger!


 


A shot of the "bellows"




Forge:




A view of the shop, his tool box is to the right and in the front center you can see his quench tank:

Reactions: Like 1 | Great Post 6 | Way Cool 17 | Sincere 1


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## William Tanner (Aug 15, 2019)

Wow, how interesting. My shop is looking pretty comfy and and well-tooled. Thanks for posting this.


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## Eric Rorabaugh (Aug 16, 2019)

That is simply amazing. The work one can do with the simplest things..

Reactions: Agree 2


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## FranklinWorkshops (Aug 16, 2019)

I am always amazed by the resourcefulness of people. With little money or access to equipment, they figure out how to get the job done. Lots of sweat equity involved. Thanks for sharing these photos. Those knives look serious.

Reactions: Agree 3


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## barry richardson (Aug 16, 2019)

Cool pics and story Neil, thanks for posting!

Reactions: Thank You! 1


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## Echoashtoreth (Aug 16, 2019)

Amazing! I will never forget on my first trip to China i saw a table saw powered by a bicycle.... in an industrial complex in Beijing! I so wanted a pic but was told it would be rude while they were working so i didnt and we never walked past it again - probably bc he knew i wanted a picture!


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## TimR (Aug 16, 2019)

Echoashtoreth said:


> Amazing! I will never forget on my first trip to China i saw a table saw powered by a bicycle.... in an industrial complex in Beijing! I so wanted a pic but was told it would be rude while they were working so i didnt and we never walked past it again - probably bc he knew i wanted a picture!


China, outside Ningbo at a power plant where I was working...leading up to the plant was hundreds of acres of rice paddies...during harvest, they'd take the rice, hull and all, pile it up on road leading into the plant, trucks coming in and out would break the hull away, they'd then take shovel fulls toss into air, the hull would fly off and the rice would fall to the road.  I skipped on having rice during meals.

Reactions: Like 2 | Great Post 1 | Funny 1


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## DKMD (Aug 16, 2019)

That’s fantastic! I love the ingenuity. I also love the fact that he took the time to add all of the decorative tooling on knives with such a practical purpose.


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## SubVet10 (Aug 16, 2019)

Where there is a will there is a way. Thanks for the share! 
no excuses!!

Reactions: Agree 2


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## NeilYeag (Aug 18, 2019)

DKMD said:


> That’s fantastic! I love the ingenuity. I also love the fact that he took the time to add all of the decorative tooling on knives with such a practical purpose.



Yes, me too, he actually chases the design element on each one, I saw some of his tooling for that but did not take a pic. It is interesting that the patterns are pretty consistent knife to knife and they are on both sides. He also has some on the spine of the knife. I asked him about the patterns and he said "it makes the pigs happy when they go"! Ha. 

So lesson as always, look around at your shop and your processes, is there a simpler way to do things?

Reactions: Like 2 | Sincere 1


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## NeilYeag (Aug 18, 2019)

TimR said:


> China, outside Ningbo at a power plant where I was working...leading up to the plant was hundreds of acres of rice paddies...during harvest, they'd take the rice, hull and all, pile it up on road leading into the plant, trucks coming in and out would break the hull away, they'd then take shovel fulls toss into air, the hull would fly off and the rice would fall to the road.  I skipped on having rice during meals.



Interesting here they use the roads as drying areas during harvest season, but only to spread the rice out on a tarp to dry. No one runs over it! But man do you have to be careful driving up country during harvest. Come around a corner and all of sudden the lane is completely blocked with rice.


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## NeilYeag (Aug 18, 2019)

FranklinWorkshops said:


> I am always amazed by the resourcefulness of people. With little money or access to equipment, they figure out how to get the job done. Lots of sweat equity involved. Thanks for sharing these photos. Those knives look serious.



I got to tell you years ago, on my birthday I decided to throw a big party for the village. So what the heck I say i am going to buy a couple of pigs and have a pig roast. These things were beasts over 100 kilos each. The guys come early in the morning, and a bunch of ladies to help with the butchering. The main dude takes the first pig, and proceeds to dispatch it by bashing it in the head with a sledge hammer!!!!!! I don't know what I was expecting and I am not generally squeemish, but I got to tell you this pretty much freaked me out. I did knot know about the pig stickers at that time, but certainly that should be more humane. Needless to say, all my parties now, I just go to the butcher and buy everything already prepared! 

This is the helpers getting everything prepared.

Reactions: Like 1 | Way Cool 4


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## Echoashtoreth (Aug 19, 2019)

Asian countries always amaze me... from the fact that every brick for the Great Wall was carried by man to modern day guys on rickety trikes stacked 10 ft high w cargo tooling thru rush hour traffic like a big rig....

Reactions: Great Post 1


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## NeilYeag (Aug 23, 2019)

Yep you see the bike guys every where. And yes the Great Wall is Amazing.


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## FranklinWorkshops (Aug 23, 2019)

NeilYeag said:


> I got to tell you years ago, on my birthday I decided to throw a big party for the village. So what the heck I say i am going to buy a couple of pigs and have a pig roast. These things were beasts over 100 kilos each. The guys come early in the morning, and a bunch of ladies to help with the butchering. The main dude takes the first pig, and proceeds to dispatch it by bashing it in the head with a sledge hammer!!!!!! I don't know what I was expecting and I am not generally squeemish, but I got to tell you this pretty much freaked me out. I did knot know about the pig stickers at that time, but certainly that should be more humane. Needless to say, all my parties now, I just go to the butcher and buy everything already prepared!
> 
> This is the helpers getting everything prepared.
> View attachment 170386


As a child in the early 1950s, I remember going to my grandfather's house for pig killing. After the first hard frost, he and the neighbors would kill several pigs about the same size you describe or maybe a bit larger. They used a rifle to shoot them between the eyes. In my mind, those memories are still vivid.


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## Strider (Sep 22, 2019)

Great post and story!
Here, in the Balkans, kolinje or pig slaughter if you will, happens in a month or so. It is a dying tradition, but mainly because people are leaving for the city. However the knives they use are so worn out by scythe sharpening stones that they loose the profile, the belly and look like kards (persian daggers) more and more. Generations of use seen in the sharpening streaks.

However I don't find it humane. The European union doesn't as well. One shot to the head and call it done. No running aroind, squealing and squirting blood. Some things need to change.


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