First Pour! A Trip to See A friend Day 1 - Hamar , Norway

in #freedom6 years ago

Hamar , Norway.


Here You Will See What someone Can learn After Just 2 Years of quitting the "Norm", create your own work and go off grid. He pays 1000kr a month for rent, the only real cost he has to pay.


It was so nice just to move again. We took the train in the morning and left Oslo heading to Hamar where I'd swap trains to another place.

Since in Norway, I use the trains sometimes just for short rides across Oslo and people always expect me to pay for my dogs. Usually I tell them that I refuse to pay and that I will get off at the next stop voluntarily, and then just wait for the next train and take that one. I have this way of hiding the dogs by telling them to go under the seat on longer trips, and then I rest my loaded rucksack and that seat next to me and lean the rucksack onto the back of the chair in front, so the floor is covered from view and the ticket man cant see the dogs. It worked as usual! There was a bit of a delay and then we swapped train and had 20 mins which was perfect to stretch the legs and to get a coffee and smoke break, and found a roll of black sacks just there where I sat to relax, always handy are blacksacks!

I was off to go see a friend who I met last year when he came visited the neighbor squat at the workshop. He now lives in a cabin since a while and helps out on a newly forming Permarculture farm 6 km away.
He also has at the farm, a blacksmiths workshop and has done a year at blacksmith school for a year and now just learns from blacksmiths on Pootube, and lets say this- He is a very motivated guy. He says its just ADHD but I call it energy and creativity!

His cabin, it was made by workers many moons ago who lived there and worked on the nearby farm next door.

Ill stay here for a few days I really needed to be reminded of what I really love to do- explore the world and learn self-sustainable knowledge, I haven't really seen anywhere apart from Oslo. There's some work that needs helping hands, fencing and some other bits to do and the air is fresh.

There is still a lot of snow on the ground and its minus 2 in the night, but its so peaceful here.. you hear nothing but wind in the far away trees. I had no idea of what kind of people my friend lives around but I was relieved when I realized that they were also freaks which was a pleasant surprise. Nothing worse than going to visit someone and they live with "normal" straight edge people. He came and picked me up from the train station and we drove back to his cabin. It was only midday , and he suggested we went to the farm because he had to let the chickens out at least. The farm is 6km away from his cabin and he has a vehicle form a friend to use for now. On the way there he said he had bought and old traditional 2 wheeled tractor. He described it but I couldn't picture it but anyway soon we got to the part where the van couldn't go further because it had no oil tank shield underneath and so we started to walk to his tractor that we would use to get the rest of the way to the farm.

This beauty can swap the trailer for different things like a plough for example!


Fresh Air! Tree's & Space!


We rocked up to the farm, parked the beast and went straight to the workshop. There's enough room for 2 people to work at the same time which is awesome. Two anvils, A Forge and 2 stations with a vice there and also his made a Self Burning Rocket-Burner which is a charcoal maker. Wanna see some pics of the Workshop?!




Yeh Yeh, beautiful as it was, we soon realized though that we didn't bring any supply's with us, I thought the farm was near but realized that with the workshop there, we would stay here for the whole day and evening. Before then doing anything we had to go back to the cabin to get supply's

Back on the beast up the track to the van, take the van back to the cabin, and start over again! Everything goes much better in any workshop if you can smoke a joint whilst creating!

Back at the workshop, take 2!

Lets have a tour firstly..
So many cool things that he has already made, and he is now very happy that he will soon make a whole axe, and not just the handle for an axe and it wont be long before he hopes to have an income from selling handmade axes.
I haven't got the first idea about it but he obviously does! He has made lots of knives for skinning and hunting, metal hooks that are designed to be banged into a solid wooden cabin wall, toilet roll holder in the compost toilet and recently he got a welding machine and learnt how to weld metals.



Here's a huge charcoal maker, designed using the rocket theory that self burns of of the gas from the heated wood before it turns to charcoal.

I had suggested before I came that we can melt silver and repour it and I had just seen one video on pootube of a guy heating silver and pouring it into a wooden template to make a bar. How hard could that be then , the guy used a blow torch and we had a blacksmith workshop to use. My friend hadn't thought about silver before as he is well away with everything else possible, but by the time we were finished he said to me "that was really fun!" I think he will soon fall sick with Stackitus

I thought I would only be making templates the first day,but we ended up doing multiple pours, trying different ideas for templates. I asked him if he had a pourer (I have no clue on the names neither did he of the equipment used, but he didn't have one- but he could make one! - Oh a Crusible!!! 20 mins later, voila there was a small Crucible that we could melt silver in.

Stages of its manisfestings..

Nuts welded on so we could hang it..

Then it was welded so it held water.

He laughed at the template I had spend ages on after showing me the Dremel Tool, when I'd used a chisel, saying that it would just engulf into flames - and of course it wood! Freedom is to experiment without fear in a way so these first 3 coins were the first sacrifice!
Whilst he was making the crusible, I started to bend the cheap coins and as they wouldn't fit in the proposed crucible thingy they so they had to be bent in half. Here's the first lot for the crucible.


The first wooden template

First Attempt.. Before you can pour you have to Melt!

First we tried this setup (left), thinking we could hang the silver holder into the burn chamber so it swung inside held by metal hooks through the welded on nuts (Below), and then to hang on the edge of the square chimney part so it hung inside


It was a fail. There wasn't enough heat concentrating onto the holder with the bent coins inside. We tossed the hot metal burn chamber (literally into a pile of snow..) And next the crusible got put on the coal embers in the middle of the fan.

Second Attempt..

Yep, that's hot alright, 3 coins so 60g, very melted inside

After the silver was boiling, I poured it into the wooden template.. Of course this was well gypsy and did burn the wood a lot and no video or pics of this as I was the cameraman!
My mate was starting to get it I think,because he was know also fully concentrating on the "melting silver idea". I had brought clay with me that I got from a hobby shop in Oslo, and then decided to try pouring (using the silver from the last pour) into wet clay, using the same piece of wood I layed a thin layer of clay inside it (which just left clay stuck to the silver). Heres what I made and left to dry, this will work and ill try this one first the next time I go visit.

Meanwhile..

behind me there was some forging going on, and another guy had passed by and ended up swinging a sledge hammer on the anvil. It was time to step it up a notch with the templates and before I knew what was going on he decided to forge a metal pouring mold! Oh yeh!


I had still only used 3 coins at this point, so now was time to do the rest - This is my first (well it was the 3rd, but ha no pictures, no evidence!) REAL Silver Pour!

The end result after we all had a go at pouring was this Below. The one that's stamped was payment to the blacksmith and poured by himself. He did admit that he would be using his payment for soldering in the future, but we talked about Copper also, and he will at some point be forging with this aswell.

The sun was setting and we were starving, and I was so exited to go see the local dumpsters and see what they through out just after closing time.. Sure enough there was 5 pork fillets, 3 racks of ribs, 6 cooked whole chickens still warm and a packet of beef minced meat.
Check out for part two, I'm hoping to be able to upload the videos of this all before part 2! Ive spent hours trying to upload some but its because im not on real internet , its on my phone. A price to pay of being on prepay. Ill try it again when im in the city.

The next day we drank beer, ate meat and then got productive.. Viking style! I made my own stamp for stamping metals also for the next time I visit.

There are many vids that were ment to be linked in with this post and I hope to edit them in when I go to the city next! Hope you enjoyed regardless 😲


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Awesome trip and story! I would pay a good amount of Steem to ride on that tractor vehicle.

My friend in his old life style was on the pc 24/7 and can write html etc already, I told him about steemit and he must just be anti computers now as it nearly ruined his life! hahahahaha Never say never though!

I cant wait for a world where most people accept STEEM! Thats going to be SICK!

Im really having troubles to upload vids, and also to get torguardvpn.. looks like its a job for wifi lol
Glad you enjoyed it man, the next day was just as fun and ill get on with that post tomorrow!

HELLO! I'm back. Good to see that you've been busy as usual!

Hi! Just in time for spring/summer! Great that your still on Steemit :) what you been doing?

I was never the best at keeping blogs or social media updated =p but I'll always pop in! <3 steemit

Great story. Smithys have always fascinated me and I'd love to do it if I had any muscles or could wield a hammer without hitting myself. Or maybe it's the other way around, that i'd get those things if I tried smithing. There's something so alchemic about changing lumps of metal into beautiful objects and then there is the fascination of the fire too. Been waiting for this story, great to read it, cheers.

Im starting the second part already but have to start working and finding the new summer rythum with work and its guitar playing temperature and street bumming weather! Its a shame I refuse to take photos on any device that has internet connection so I have a cheap digital camera and cant really get the pics off it whilst on the road etc.. id love to do more blogs of being a street musician ! Thanks and im glad you liked it :)

Ah no worries!!!!

What a great story and a really cool experience! I have always wanted to go off the grid to some degree and may be making the first steps later this year. Thanks for the post @movingman! I cant wait to read the next installment!

Hi! What does Maybe mean?! And why later?! Hihi , only joking that was english humour shinng through in written text form :)
If you ever think you have something you need to wait for, let me know, and maybe there's a shortcut to it from an alternative angle! I did a post the otherday before this one, on how easy it can be to live for free or at least cheaper, thus being a bit more free to work less if we need less to live.
Nice that your here! This is the first time ever in my whole life that im "blogging" and its only so people like yourself see that people are already living off grid and that you should come join us!

I have to wait for some things out of my control to fall into place before I can make the first steps. I will check out your other post for more insight. Thanks @movingman

These photos are fierce. And making tools instead of buying is priceless, my 12-year-old son spends hours outside making tools. I can't wait to tell him about the melted silver. It's nice to know that more men are taking back the ways of living that feel most innate to them.

My dad is 70 and still does these types of projects. He spent his working years painting submarines above and below water. He came home smelling of paint and hard work, and he loved it. Nostalgia.

Hi @missnikkiann! Im very nearly finished the second part also , but time for sleep now! Thanks for your comment, I completely agree to you on that- making tools is part of being truly selfsustainable and priceless!
These kind of things will be non existing knowledge in the future, like most things we once knew.
Hope you had a nice day, welcome to Steemit! Big Love!

Yes bro!! This place of your friends rocks! Looks like you had a lot of fun, i love his sense of ingenuity. Nice skip find too 😉
Happy Beltaine brother wishing you Abundant
Blessings 😊

oh yes man , in Norway there are places in the middle of nowhere for a few grand! Squatters paradise here mate :) its definatly nice and alot of things planned for the place also!

big love dude!

Thats amazing mate, keep me posted 😊

Great post. Very interesting process and end result. I guess soon you can mint you own silver coins, or make some jewelry!

You mention a blacksmith school that your friend went to. Was that in Norway ? Details welcomed.

Yeh I really enjoyed it! It was new for him aswell! Ill ask him about that school. There was another guy i knew who also did a year at one, ill find out 😊 im doing the next part when i made a stamp for future pourings.. Making coins would be nice! But difficult at a guess

This is very inspirational to try alternative living. I like how the silver holds the unique shape of the wood.

Yeh its one way to go alternative 😂

It gives me new ideas!

I want to hear them!!

I mainly meant it's new to me! So it's inspiring I want to try some of the things you do

Just take a rucksack and a sleeping bag, a tent for real luxury, a tarp if your sensible, some good boots and a big smile and go stand on a busy road and stick ya thumb out!

Let the adventure begin!

edit: On the side of a busy road :)

It sounds like a good time to me! That used to be a popular thing to do here on the railroads. Travel in the boxcars from town to town

oh no, they were all repoured many times and finally all in the metal mould :)

Oh ok cool!

Definatly not so pure as we got the odd bit of charcoal in there sometimes lol

Lol well, well you can always purify it again later. The great thing about metal!

What a great story and a fun day!!! that black smith shop looks like tons of fun! but be careful pouring silver is addictive!! Thanks for sharing and we will definitely be looking for the videos!

I CANT UPLOAD THE VIIIIIIDS NOoOoOOOOoooOOOo!!!

Nice to meet you Dixie! ill be check out your work when im not about to go to bed :) i will upload them somehow hahahahaha..
Thanks for dropping by! big love!

Glad to see people getting off 'norm'!! - Appreciate the story. (not that I read it all...)

G'day in Norway @movingman. My boy does this smelting stuff at a fire GE made in his shed for w/ends, to be busy at something so his wife asks less of him :-)
The uploading can be done on a prepaid phone. But it does use a bit if data. Here in QLD vf have a w/e special offer to pre-paid so I get 4GB for AU$7. I have an app converter/movie maker, so can upload to youtu.be.com, then from utube transfer to my steemit. I have not done it alot, but you can find four videos on my blog called Nurringginnini, of Waldy teaching spirit dance to whitefellas. My Brother Ian in UK used to help out around the free festivals and tree festivals, and one bloke he introduced me to in Ipswich as a Uni student had hand-built a Saxon village. So if you can find that on www. It is in Suffolk or possibly Essex. Historic Saxon Village or something, my memory not quite as young as it was. Here, in Caboolture, every year for past twenty plus, a Mediaeval Festival is held at Abbeville by the Museum on the school grounds. At that w/e there are many forges, sword-makers, Danish and Viking camps with lots of 'how to' stuff going on. Again, look it up on Google. Be well. Following. Keep on keeping on. 😇
Resteemed.

Hi man! I'm trying to upload to d.tube, what's YouTube? Oh yeh that old website soon to be dead like Facebook 😂 thanks for the Resteem! Where is caboolture?!

Caboolture is 50km north of Brisbane. If you haven't a large atlas, then on the map of Australia, the easternmost point is The head at Byron Bay just east of Mount Warning. Run your finger north about approx 200km and on north end of Moreton Bay is an Island called Bribie. The large one of a string of isles in Moreton Bay around the mouth of Brisbane river. The north end of Bribie is opposite a town at south end of the Sunshine Coast called Caloundra, and the south end of Bribie is opposite a town called Redcliffe, at the point of a peninsular, where the Bee Gees became the band we know of, having emigrated as children to there. Caboolture is 26km west of Woorim that is on the east coast of Bribie, and diagonally 31km from Redcliffe, slightly north inland.
As to D.tube, it became very complicated, and I'm not a computer fan, so I found youtube sufficient. I didn't open my library within utube, but posted the link in steemit.
(Nurringginnini.)

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Good post @movingman

I Upvoted And Followed you. do The same for me and we could help each other Earn.

I lost the the words to describe how great your post @movingman

Find em again and you could get an upvote...

@steem881 you're on the @abusereports naughty list!
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