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Things to do while waiting for your mead...

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jkane said:
Sorry for being late to this thread.

The sealant you are looking for that can handle hot liquids is called Envirotex Lite. It is a 2 part epoxy that is food safe. I use it on my horns and to seal my plastic conical fermenters. Ace hardware sells it locally. I buy it online myself.
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Well thank you so very much for the information, I think I'm gonna make a stop by my local ace on my way home from work tonight, for whatever reason I could not find the info I was seeking before now (teh intranets had failed me). I was at the point of giving up searching and using some beeswax (not that I won't on at least one of my horns)

Now my only question to you about this product, how do you usually set it up to dry? and do you coat both inside and out with it? since its a pour on type of epoxy I can guess it be simple enough to pour it into the horn and back out a couple times to get a even layer on the inside, but if you do use it on the outside, how do you stop stuff from getting sealed to the horn from drying?

Though I got plenty of time, I still haven't finalized the design for my first carving (unless you count the Skyrim one, which will consist of the dragon symbol on one side and the poem in draconic on the other). But once again thank you for the resin info!

As for other stuff I've been doing waiting for my meads, besides planning more of coarse, is reading The Compleat Meadmaker (finally!). Also picked up a mini r/c helicopter (makes me feel like a little kid again!) and have been terrorizing my animals with it, and soon co-workers once I get the control down. And am planning a trip to tour/tasting at the Rabbit's Foot Meadery, it is way closer to my work than I thought, so trying to get a group of co-workers together then find out a time we can go!
 
My method for curing horns is after using the bleach to eat away the inside gunk overnight, let it sit for three to four days with vinegar, then again with mint dentur tablets. Really tightens it up, cleans everything out, and gets them smelling nice. A final couple of days can be used with a salt water soak if it's just not getting the smells completely out. (Make sure you run your finger as far down into the horn as possible after the bleach and vinegar baths, if you feel anything 'slimy', the horn isn't clean yet and you need to keep cleaning it with the bleach and vinegar.) Finally, get a good stout ale or a strong spirit and let that soak into the horn for another couple of days to finish curing it.

As for sealant, I forget what it's called, but it's food safe salad bowl/cutting board sealer. It's made to soak into/cover up wooden surfaces that are going to be around a lot of bacteria, and it's clear so it's a LOT prettier than brewers pitch (which is another meathod, and it's normally a black or brown thick paint type product you have to be very certain you cover everything with).

I've made all of mine and my guy's drinking horns, and they haven't failed me yet!

As for what I do to kill time between batches...well, obviously I make horns, I also bead jewelry, am learning wood carving (mjolnir!), bake, and spend way too muh time snuggling my fur babies (plus one spikey butt baby).
 
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Well, yesterday we got ourselves knocked about in armour at a tournament... now I'm about to go do some sewing... been meaning to get to that for years... two trunks of fabric and I haven't removed anything from either of them for any serious project since before I got married in '09! This week it's making fantasy armour in the shop in preparation for the Toronto Fan Expo show.

School starting already? Gack. There oughtta be a law about not starting school till AFTER Labour Day weekend!! Craziness! Harrumph!

Soyala, I'd be interested if you can dig up the name of that sealant... I treat my cutting boards and wooden kitchen stuff with tung oil. My horn was cleaned before I got it and I have no idea what they did so I beeswaxed it. And what kind of critters do you have? I'm guessing a hedgehog? :)
 
I'd like to get a horn for my son one day--since he's living in Norway now he really ought to have one, doncha think?!

;D

And CG? We end mid-May, so I don't mind the early start a'tall. :)
 
wildoates said:
I'd like to get a horn for my son one day--since he's living in Norway now he really ought to have one, doncha think?!

;D

And CG? We end mid-May, so I don't mind the early start a'tall. :)
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Heh, it would be fitting to have a horn.

Well, when you put it that way... here, we run from the day after Labour day right until end of June (that's elementary, high schools have exams starting early June so they're usually finished mid-to-late June)... plus or minus a week, some school boards have started starting and finishing a week early. I think you still have fewer school days than I did :) lucky you!
 
It's called Behelen Salad Bowl Finish...literally. It's a type of tung oil varnish, and if you do it just like the directions tell you it finishes smooth, hard, water resistant, and the acidity of alcohol (or salad dressings) doesn't affect it. It cures a lot faster than straight tung oil, is a lot more user friendly, takes fewer coats, and can be applied with a paintbrush. I love it!

As for my critters, two dogs, a half dog (my mom's chihuahua, I don't give it full dog status), two cats, a turtle, and yep, my albino hedgehog.

And everyone I know is either already back in school or starting tomorrow and most of them still go till June! You're lucky wildoats! On a seperate note, http://www.heathenhorns.com/ these are good horn people. They'd probably ship wherever you want, and their carving is amazing! I know Tyr's Helm Tribe personally (have raised horns and shared mead with them several times) and they are good folk.
 
Soyala_Amaya said:
And everyone I know is either already back in school or starting tomorrow and most of them still go till June! You're lucky wildoats! On a seperate note, http://www.heathenhorns.com/ these are good horn people. They'd probably ship wherever you want, and their carving is amazing! I know Tyr's Helm Tribe personally (have raised horns and shared mead with them several times) and they are good folk.
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Very small world, then again the Heathen world is pretty small. We probably have a friend in common. :) I'm a horn carver as well, though I use only beeswax - not into chemicals. You can see my work at http://www.facebook.com/#!/yggdrasilsbranches.
 
Hmmmm...heathenhorn, eh? Wonder if I can find a Christianhorn. :)

Our school year used to be longer, but with furloughs it's much shorter, and unfortunately so is my paycheck. It's been a rough couple o' years, that's for sure.

Much of my summer was playing around with dollhouse miniatures, although I don't have a dollhouse and never have had a dollhouse. For some reason the minis really intrigue me, though. I've a studio that's a mess--if I could stay with one expensive hobby it'd be fine, but I have several. And I can't sell the mead.

:)
 
I gave up the dollhouse when I moved out of my parents' house but the furniture, cutlery and all the stuff is all packed neatly away in boxes (model car boxes, the models are assembled and in another box :p), I figure one of these years when I have a bigger house for all my stupid hobbies, I'll construct a dollhouse for the furniture...In the meantime, my hubby and I have embarked upon assembling and painting Warhammer miniatures, I love doing the terrain, it's akin to model railroad terrain...
 
wildoates said:
Hmmmm...heathenhorn, eh? Wonder if I can find a Christianhorn. :)

:)
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Probably, just cover it with crosses instead.;) I've got to get a pic up on my facebook of the Ethiopian cross I picked up while over there, you'd love it. Very Catholic and ornate, but a little exotic and wild too. I love religious thingymabobs. :)
 
I loved looking at the photos of your trip that you posted on FB, Alan...I'll probably never go there, as there are loads of places I'd rather go first, but unlike most people, I LOVE looking at other people's travellogs. :) One of the reasons why I shy away from the Nordic heathen images is because they look way too much like all the white supremacist tats my nephew has scratched all over his body, and that just gives me the creeps. Ew. donotlike

CG, I've always wanted a dollhouse, never could afford it. I just made a floor for a dollhouse room in a mid-19th century monster of a house--the one room's floor was 14 X 24 inches. I couldn't believe how much the lady was willing to pay for the FLOOR of ONE room out of NINE in that house. She said she'll send photos when she gets the floor installed, I'll post here when she does.

Now I really need to head for my bed, gotta get rested for the first day of school. I hope I sleep, usually don't, but I'll try. :)
 
As always, gotmeaders are a wealth of information and resourcefulness! Thenks for the hornylinks. Wild, they could use your skills in the Thorne Rooms! I've always been enchanted by tinythings...I DO love having a sewing machine...
 
wildoates said:
One of the reasons why I shy away from the Nordic heathen images is because they look way too much like all the white supremacist tats my nephew has scratched all over his body, and that just gives me the creeps. Ew. donotlike.
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I know, I feel the same way often - it really bugs me how those goofs have appropriated so many nice symbols (swastika, iron cross, hammer of Thor) and made them into symbols of hate.
 
Agreed.

If I got my son a horn I'd want it carved with something to give homage to his American heritage, stranded in Oslo for love as he is. :)
 
I can understand where you're coming from wildoats, and the kindred I am Friends with does often have to deal with...less enlightened people when they see pictures of some of our ceremonies. For example, for midsummer we burned a sunwheel with a fyrfolt on it. The fyrfolt rune was derived from the image of Thor swinging his hammer around and around to battle the jotuns, but anyone today would look at it and go "OMG! Swastika!"

We are Northern Folk Re-constructionists, and don't feel like we should have to sweep a symbol of strength, love, and honor under the rug because someone else did something stupid with it.

My little rant over, Jeff does custom work and I've seen him do all sorts of weird things because it amused him at the time. (A wizard's staff that had a solar powered lightening ball on top for our Gothi for example) He would probably work with you even if the image wasn't Heathen related, as long as you were polite about what you were asking for.
 
Soyala_Amaya said:
I can understand where you're coming from wildoats, and the kindred I am Friends with does often have to deal with...less enlightened people when they see pictures of some of our ceremonies. For example, for midsummer we burned a sunwheel with a fyrfolt on it. The fyrfolt rune was derived from the image of Thor swinging his hammer around and around to battle the jotuns, but anyone today would look at it and go "OMG! Swastika!"
This is a theory by Davidson, there is no concrete evidence to say that is how the fylfot was developed. It could mean the four seasons, it could be a associated with the Bronze Age sunwheel, or it could be anything. The symbol itself falls across most ancient peoples, so you really can't say with certainty that it is derived from Mjolinir.
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With the "swastika" I've become unsure whether cultures shared this symbol early on, or whether it was simply reinvented over and over because it's a simple and pleasing symbol. You have it as the fylfolt in Northern Europe, you have it in India (who are closely related to the Europeans but I believe this symbol came around there long after the split, and wouldn't have shown up in Europe until many many centuries after that) - and I even saw it on churches in Ethiopia, but they say it's nothing to do with anything, it's just a cross made to look fancy to them, and that only dates back about 900 years.

Totally neat if all 3 made it up independantly, and not really that unlikely given it's simplicity and geometric-goodness.

Then the Nazi's went and made it a symbol of evil of course... :(
 
Dance nekkid. Unlike Terry Bradshaw (Failure to Launch), I dream big. I'm not just going to have a nekkid room.... Someday I'll have a Nekkid Meadery!

*streaks the thread*

*runs through the pole beans, through the fruits and vegetables,
nekkid as a jay bird.*
 
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