How I chose Fiddleback Forge

Fiddleback

Fiddleback

Knifemaker
Moderator
Knifemaker / Craftsman / Service Provider
Joined
Oct 19, 2005
Messages
19,805
The name Fiddleback Forge came about as somewhat of a public service idea. You see the Brown Recluse spider is under-recognized IMO, and way more dangerous than the easily recognized Black Widow. And way more prevalent. Add to that the fact that the spider is southern, and that I ran into them daily during my boyhood summers on my grandfather's farm, and there you have it. Literally, in the sheds and barns on the family place you can find dozens of Brown Recluses in a half an hour.

So thats how I chose it. I wanted to help folks recognize it, I liked it because it was southern, and I had a lot of encounters (no bites) with it when I was a boy. :D

brown_recluse1-vi.jpg


brown_recluse_cu-vi.jpg


brownrecluse02-vi.jpg


l_reclusabrown2-vi.jpg


Spider1-vi.jpg
 
Last edited:
A brother of a guy that works at my site was bitten by one nearly a year ago. They couldn't eliminate the infection caused by the poison and now he's knocking on deaths door. Those suckers are wicked.
 
Very cool Andy. I like it when businesses have a name with substance and background.

fivefold said:
A brother of a guy that works at my site was bitten by one nearly a year ago. They couldn't eliminate the infection caused by the poison and now he's knocking on deaths door. Those suckers are wicked.
Click to expand...

:eek:Sorry to hear about your coworker's brother. That is awful.
 
I think it's a great name. According to a lot of native american beliefs, we all have animal totems that travel with us from time to time. Some of them walk/fly/crawl with us for specific times to teach us specific things. Some stay with us our entire lives. Personally, I am often visited by spiders and hawks.

There are also supposedly things in our lives called "shadow totems". These are basically the embodiment of what we fear. Overcoming and dealing with these things that fill us dread are suppose to empower us. I can see how a childhood of close run ins with BR spiders inspire you not to be such a fan of the little creepy things. You might be facing your "fears" this way, bro. Good on ya:thumbup::D

Me, I scared to death of wasps. I nearly panic around them. I'm not allergic or anything...they just scare the hell out of me:p
 
Steely_Gunz said:
Me, I scared to death of wasps. I nearly panic around them. I'm not allergic or anything...they just scare the hell out of me:p
Click to expand...

Growing up, my younger sister was scared of them as well. Literally every time one got in the house, she got stung. Don't know why, but if you saw one and didn't kill it immediately it would find her, wherever she was, and sting her. Amazingly, she got into beekeeping (for a short time) not long after that.
 
I have a bunch of pics I intended to upload. But for some reason, Fotki was having trouble with that silly Java applet. I'll upload them later if my computer, or Fotki will behave.

Oh, I'm scared of them. My grandad saved the wood that got damaged during ice storms while he lived on the farm. There are sheds with walnut in them. Almost every board has a spider on it. You should see me drop a board and run if the spider runs at me rather than jumping the other way.
 
if you want to see the damage they can do google images brown recluse spider bites jeez
 
Steely_Gunz said:
There are also supposedly things in our lives called "shadow totems". These are basically the embodiment of what we fear. Overcoming and dealing with these things that fill us dread are suppose to empower us. I can see how a childhood of close run ins with BR spiders inspire you not to be such a fan of the little creepy things. You might be facing your "fears" this way, bro. Good on ya:thumbup::D
Click to expand...

So you're saying Andy's Batman? NICE! Never ran into a brown recluse, but in my more wreckless years, one nice summer day I was walking through some woods with a young lady after we had smoked some stuff we shouldn't have and there was a massive black widow hatch going on. Hundreds, maybe thousands of babies everywhere. And that trail was way overgrown. There was some bad mojo in those woods. I had just read The Hobbit and LOTR, too, so thoughts of Mirkwood and Shelob were fresh in my head. Freaked me out.
 
trolling old threads amazed at how much your work has evolved and improved. Saw this and figured it was interesting enough to dredge back up
 
When I posted the post before yours Swonut, I had been full time for 8 days. lol
 
Nice piece of history here! Thanks for dredging it up. ;)
 
Brown recluse are very misunderstood. I have a problem with them at my house. Neighbors (whole 4-5 block really) have a lot too. I have two small children and we were totally freaked out upon seeing them a number of times when we fist moved in about 3.5 years ago. ...They seldom bite humans and some statistics demonstrate that a lot of people are actually unaffected by the bite. some mildly and of course some react quite poorly. I have spoken with pest management companies and the consensus I have received is if you bomb your house, you kill the good spiders that prey on brown recluse as well. They will come back stronger than before.

As I said my wife HATES Spiders, but there is one web in the corner of the basement that produces dried brown recluse "husks" as its base with much frequency. she leaves that spider alone! ;-) Thankfully we have had no issues and we keep laundry, linens, blankets and comforters off the floor. My wife checks her shoes. So far so good. We do put glue traps out. I ought to take a picture of some.


l live in the Kansas City area.

Fun stuff and thanks for digging this up.

-Woody
 
Last edited:
While I knew about the brown recluse already, I still don't get the link to the name Fiddleback Forge.
 
Hate the stupid things. I've got a scar on my left shin from a Brown Recluse bite. Luckily it did minimal damage.
 
True Story, After my grand dad died. I inherited a 1966 Ford Galaxy convertible. Was in July 1993, hot as all get out, and this car had no air except the pull vents. So after about 2 hours of working on the car to get it started, It finally cranked. Everything was manual in this car including the windows and they hadn't been rolled down in God knows when. So I jump in and take off down the road. After about a mile or so I'm burning up. I reach down and pull the knobs to open the thru vents and brown recluses start flying out of the vents. Mostly babies. I freak out lock up the brakes, jump out while the car is still in gear. I strip down to my underwear in like .09 seconds and then watch the Galaxy roll into a ditch. Still has the dents today. I still have dreams about this today.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top