A hike to Schmiedefest @Krenzer Hammer crafts fair

 Last Saturday I met with Natalie and little Jonas to go on a foraging hike to the legendary crafts fair @ Krenzer hammer. (www.krenzer-hammer.de). We had an early start and were greeted by a snail and a bear family...

 ...and another snail.

 We had decided to take the small one foraging and collected a lot of herbs and ´shrooms for dinner. Jonas had a lot of fun climbing crosscountry on trails seldom trodden...

 ...spot the metalhead... ;-) Jonas forged with me on Highland Games Wuppertal and dropped by on Friday for the first time and joined in wit gusto. And it was a joy to have him around... he is a weird, but very intelligent kid that has fun doing things few kids of his age have.

 We came by some rock carvings where I told a dwarf tale... which he did not believe any... or did he? ;-)

 Did I mention this is a metalhead? ;-)

 Also it was really cool to have Natalie around with her bad humour and sarcastic remarks...

 I blurred this pic on purpose... for I don´t like duck faces any ... ;-)

There were a lot of wonders, big and small, by the trailside..

 Fairy rings...

 Oh so green was the moss...

 And trees by the crags standing guard...

 ...

 Along the murky stream we came to the Krenzer ironforge where the fair took place.

 And there it was I met Manfred and Rolf again... which came as no surprise. Manfred had a lot of really cool knife designs on display again...

 Top: Damascus blade with giraffe bone handle,

 the one below stag and a modified Karesuando blade.

 Manfred...

 This one is made from an old HSS saw blade with Micarta handle...

 ..in a somewhat unusual Kydex sheath with leather.

 Rolf was working doing leather designs witrh kids and adults alike...

 ...and Ruben from Ahlhauser Hammer was getting the knifemaking bug...

 We also met with Julia, Nick and Kathrin and had somewhat of a chat, before we went on our merry way to the ironforge. Unfortunately, the three of them did not care to join us. I suspect more than just a bit of scheming and plotting going on on their part, but as is, I am a paranoid bastard, cannot help it any and I refuse to make this my problem. So, off to Ahlhauser Hammer ironforge for the old foodie we went. It was raining hard then. Thiemo, Natalies boyfriend called what he should bring from the grocer´s and we decided to meet at the ironforge.

 There it was that Jonas unwrapped a piece of steel his brother found near the vicinity of a Solingen Burg smithy, and we probed it. Sorry for the bad pics, but there´s a structure in it and spark analysis showed roundabout 0,6-1,00 % carbon-it might as well be a piece of damascus...

Be this as it may ;-), we made a stew from the treasures we had found and some additions from the grocery store...

 Natalie doing some stunted Yoga... ;-)

 Jonas being off his rocker for joy of the steel we probed.. Idaresay we spoiled this kid a bit... he does not like veggies but ate two bowls of stew with no meat whatsoever in it, and I should say that mummy had a hard time convincing him not to take this iron rod to bed with him... ;-) but as his father came to fetch him, I daresay he was not THAT angry with us... ;-) so to say... ;-).

 Thiemo and Jonas. Folks, you´re good company.

 We sat by the fireside, we adults had a beer, and we talked and dreamed and laughed the night away.

Poifecc! ;-D