TV screens

here are a couple of pics of my recent haul of TV screen glass...



just a tip for anyone collecting this stuff - if they are still in the TV itself, take care! i broke a few screens up (via lump hammer) which were pretty flat without problems, then came to a fairly curved one and it totally exploded! luckily i was wearing goggles, but shards went *everywhere* and i could easily have bled to death! exercise caution and cover major arteries

and here are a couple of axes i made from them..





The top one in the first pic was the first i made - it was just a practice piece really, i knapped it much more easily than i expected, i think the fact that it was a slab made it much easier. i didnt manage to get rid of all the flat surface but was chuffed all the same and was keen to haft it to explore the process. i just used a piece of hazel left over from a walking stick - crappy wood for this kind of tool due to it's brittleness but i didnt want to waste any of my tougher woods on a first attempt. i carved a slot in the shaft using little chisels, knife and file, making sure the axe head wedged into the top and bottom of the slot rather than the sides, to prevent it from bursting, and sealed it in with pine glue, repeatedly re-melted and pushed in. i have not bound it as i dont have any long sinew, and as there was not enough axehead poking out of the back to make it worthwhile, or so i reckoned.

the other one was my second, and i used a sturdy piece of ash instead, hafted in the same way.

i have made another head too, which was going to be longer so it could be more tomahawk like - i got rid of nearly all the flat surface and was starting to get the hang of thinning with flakes going past the middle but broke it a bit and had to make it shorter



sadly i'm out of pine sap now so couldnt haft it

Very nice, I wonder if it would chop down a tree.

Also useful advice about the curved glass, I saw the the day two old tv sets dumped on a priece of grass at the side of the road and though I may go back for them if they're still there on saturday.

i reckon they could handle softer saplings, but i believe that the blade wouldnt last so long. They would be jolly good for chopping up noisy neighbours though!

i like the look of your stash of flint in the pic, i also notice you are using nut wood, nut is a native uk tree that i use to light my friction fires with. i think nut would of been used more than we think.

i use hazel for spindles with bow drill too, it's my favourite for that along with crack willow. i wouldnt recommend it for an axe though, as it's liable to break when you bend it unless green - its great for spears and sticks when straightened with heat though and can take a fair bit of pressure.

the flint came from that place in suffolk that you linked - it's a hell of a journey from our way though, maybe 12 hours with wrong turnings, food and a flint stop.

on the subject of hazel, looks up "pimps, faggots and benders" on woodlands.tv - worth checking out about uses of hazel as well as for the awesome title

http://www.woodlands.co.uk/tv/2009/01/pimps-faggots-and-benders/

Well I got some TV screen glass yesterday. This is going to sound really crazy but I just realised I lived two doors along from a TV repair shop for the last year. Anyway a bit up the road is an overgrown grassy area where a house should be but none there. It seem Mr TV repeir man uses it has his own personal dump. So I had a quick scout around and found 3 TV tubes, one already broken I nabbed a couple of chunks from and two unbroken.

A reminder to anyone wanting to use TV glass.

A gentle tap with a hammer on the end of the pointy bit of the TV tube, just enough to let the vacuum out, and off you go.