1000th soddie thread?

I contacted Gene when I saw his sodbuster on another forum and he put me on the list. I gotta tell you-seeing the pics of this knife is getting me excited for my turn!!!
 
After my little rust mishap (which didn't bother me in the least) with my Case CV Soddie, I decided to order a Queen in D2. Jacknife was right.... I'm damned with no hope of return:eek: ;) :D
 
(I always have this notion that pile side has something to do with hair and skin as in pelts but I don't know why.)


I always had the notion that the "pile side" was in reference to the displays -- the knife rests on "pile", IOW, wool or felt or something soft, but always showing the maker's mark on the side facing the customer.
 
Here are a few “action” shots of Gene Ingram’s incredible SodBuster……plus a tongue-in-cheek story from my action packed weekend.:D



Instead of an outdoor adventure I spent one of my days working in the yard, cutting the grass and scraping out the mulch from under the Honda’s plastic deck is just one of those mundane tasks….it just does not seem fair sometimes…..

However, what is a SodBuster without busting some Sod?

sodsodbuster7156je9.jpg


Mowing the lawn in a gentle rain shower is a rather unique Seattle experience. Cool and refreshing it can be, but sometimes a few minutes alone with camera and a few tools can make up for the rather mundane aspect of the lawn cutting.

Here I gathered up my favorite hot water boilers and decided to make a cup of tea with the new Ingram SodBuster in the staring role. The large Kelly I picked up from Lee Valley about a year ago and it has ridden around in my Emergency kit in the trunk of my car. I had never gotten around to burning it in….an essential to remove machining grease and sealant. So now was as good a time as any. I had to prune out some dead wood in an ornamental plant so I saved off some pencil sized sticks plus some thumb sized ones for tea making…all cut with my Felco pruners. With a paper of gunpowder, my large Kelly filled, and SodBuster at the ready, I got started.

teakelly7025ow3.jpg


First a couple of fuzz sticks.

teafuzz7030fq4.jpg


Then some powered cedar bark scrapped with the SodBuster.

teacedar7031wx6.jpg


And some fine shavings of the cedar, the powdered cedar and shaving usually work quite well catching firesteel sparks.

teacedar27034jm8.jpg
 
A folding knife presents some challenges to use of a firesteel. I generally like to use the knife spine for scraping, but in this case having an Ingram sharp blade fold back is not a good idea, so I used the square corner at base of the knife blade behind the grind plunge. Realistically using the flat metal scraper that comes with the firesteel might have been a more logical choice, but then this tea brewup would not have had the necessary adventure that only the use of a fine custom knife can bring to backyard brewups.

teafiresteel7049qk6.jpg


Blow the spark up into flame.

teaflame7052kn0.jpg


And transfer on a rare and valuable piece of birch bark (stolen from my neighbor’s tree) to the Kelly fire pan.

teaflame7054ay5.jpg


A few minutes later the Kelly is boiling furiously and ready for brewup.

teaboil7099kx8.jpg


Actually this water plus two more boilups needed to be discarded to get rid of the Kelly sealant and other goop…but for illustration purposes this is….well sort of gritty Imperial gunpowder tea.

teapour7143ht3.jpg
 
Well done, Schwert. I'm sure Gene would be proud that his knife was so well loved and used.
 
Great write up Schwert.:thumbup: Here on the East side of WA we don't get near the rain, but I have mowed in the rain. Why..... my wife told me to;) :o
 
Back
Top