Thursday, June 6, 2013

Jayhawkin' Part II

The second stop along the way on our Jayhawkin' trip was the Amana Colonies.  The Missus and I had been there once before quite a few years back and she wanted to stop again. Since I went to the Motorcycle Museum, the Amana Colonies seemed like a pretty good trade. Basically the Colonies are a place to shop and eat. Lots of handmade items there - in fact I've got a fillet knife that I bought there from the last trip. The knife maker still has a shop to sell his wares but he's no longer located in the big building behind the woolen mill that was a blacksmith and tinsmith shop if I remember correctly.

The food there is fantastic for someone other than a vegan. If you go there with a group, get your grub family style and they just keep bringing the side dishes until you can't stuff anymore in. We ate at the Ox Yoke Inn and they had a new menu that had a couple of vegetarian meals on it. I had a rice dish that was very good.


This is right across from where we stayed while in the Colonies. The bus in the photo was from South Dakota. It had a bunch of young people on it but didn't stay long - thank goodness! We stopped for a cup of Joe on the way home at a Micky D's and there was a bus full of high schoolers that was just leaving when we got there. Gave me the heeby-jeebies just to be around them. 


They've also got a brewery and a sawmill there. I did the brewery tour the last time I was there. They make some really good beer but I passed this time. Actually I walked past and went down by the railroad tracks to check out the old depot and the sawmill. I struck up a conversation with the guy at the sawmill and ended up with a really nice cherry 4x4. I was looking for a piece of maple to make a couple of Indian clubs but the biggest piece he had was 3x3.  He said the cherry had been sitting around for quite awhile so he just gave it to me. Sweet! I think part of his generosity might have been because they were thinking they might have to move everything to higher ground for fear of flooding. A few years back the water got about two feet deep in the shop. There was already a lot of standing water and more rain was being forecast. Now I need to see if I can sneak back in to the high school woodshop one of these days and get access to a wood lathe.

I also picked up another saw while I was in Kansas. I assumed it was a rip saw but after getting it home and looking at it, it might just be some kind of heavy duty saw. It's a Disston, so it was a good saw prior to the neglect it's suffered. I'll give it to Surly and he can check it out. If he wants to play with it, OK. If not, it'll make a fine wall hanging in the woodshop.

Next stop Kansas.

4 comments:

Surly said...

Looks decent, the tote is kind of dry but maybe salvage-able. Appears to be a fairly early one,Ill have to see the medallion but probably late 19 th cent. The horn on top has some wear. Looks like it wasn't resharpened much. It has the original graduated teeth. finer at toe, coarse at heel. Plate has some rust...if its not pitted too bad could be a decent user. Don't do anything to the plate! There's a special technique for cleaning up the blades. On the left side down at the heel, is there a number stamp?

Shop Teacher Bob said...

I scraped off a little of the rust and you can see a "5". The blade measures a bit over 28" long and 7-1/2" high. I won't fiddle with it at all. Next time our paths cross, you can take it home with you.

Surly said...

Yep, if it's 5 ppi and 28" on the plate it was originally filed rip. Of the 30 or so saws I have - not one of them is filed rip. Some of them may have been from new but certainly not now.

Surly said...

Oh, and that tote was mostly offered on rip saws, not hand saws.