Sunday, March 2, 2014

Doing Things In The Old Fashioned Way

One of the other activities going on in Confederation Park during Winterlude involved demonstrations of old fashioned woodworking by an Ottawa Valley outfit called the Kettle Brothers. There were several of them about on the weekends, demonstrating old toys, showing off woodcrafting skills, and talking about maple syrup tapping. 


Beneath this large pot of water, branding irons were placed in the fire pit to heat up.


And then they were applied to blocks of wood for the public passing by.


The symbols come out nicely.


This bench stood nearby, with wood shavings around it from earlier demonstrations.





30 comments:

  1. Always glad to see woodworkers at work... as I am one. Only I don't have any branding irons ! (Yet.)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Those are definitely beautiful. When I saw the kettle, I thought something was cooking...

    ReplyDelete
  3. Also a good excuse for a warm fire. :-)

    ReplyDelete
  4. Always interesting to see the way things were tackled in days gone by!

    ReplyDelete
  5. I love watching these types of demonstrations.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Stuart: my dad would find this fascinating. He could have gone into carpentry.

    Bibi: something was!

    Revrunner: indeed!

    Grace: yes it is.

    Gill: so do I.

    ReplyDelete
  7. I thought this was going to be about maple syrup!
    Jane x

    ReplyDelete
  8. how very cool! i love the name, the kettle boys. :)

    ReplyDelete
  9. Always nice to take a 'trip' back... but I like it right here the day after. hahahaha

    ReplyDelete
  10. This looks like fun! I would have enjoyed the old fashioned toy demonstration.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Wonderful shots of this demonstation, William.
    We burned figures into wood with a magnifying-glass when I was a kid.

    ReplyDelete
  12. That's fantastic, I wish I could have been there!

    ReplyDelete
  13. Demonstrations like this at outdoor venues often show off craftsmanship that slowly seems to be dying off, which is unfortunate. Many of the older ways are truly more beautiful than any automated productions.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Very cool! I love the amazed faces of the kids in the background of the second photo.

    ReplyDelete
  15. @Luis: thanks!

    @Jose: thank you!

    @Jane and Chris: well, there is maple syrup to come!

    @TexWisGirl: it's a good name.

    @Birdman: yes, there are drawbacks to the old fashioned way of life.

    @Sharon: I should have photographed some of them

    @Jan: that's something I never did.

    @Ciel: I think the same thing when I see shots of your area.

    @Beatrice: it's true, you find these less and less.

    @Carla: thank you!

    ReplyDelete
  16. That works so well as a decorating method!

    ReplyDelete
  17. That would be fascinating to watch!

    ReplyDelete
  18. That's really neat to see all those brands in the wood.

    ReplyDelete
  19. How interesting William! My grandkids would be fascinated with this.

    ReplyDelete
  20. My husband would have really enjoyed that. He was a finish carpenter. You should have seen the mantels, fire places, stairs, etc., that he built.

    ReplyDelete
  21. @RedPat: it really does!

    @Inna: I think so!

    @EG: it was. I like that sort of thing.

    @Denise: it's so rare to see something like that going on.

    @Krisztina: thanks!

    @Lois: lots of kids were!

    @Mari: my dad could have done carpentry; he's always liked woodworking, so he'd have enjoyed this.

    ReplyDelete
  22. Fascinating. I do like wood burning. My late husband loved working in the fire--as he called it. He was a farrier for awhile and hand made the horse shoes. In the fire as it were. MB

    ReplyDelete
  23. Interesting! That's something you don't see very often.

    ReplyDelete
  24. That is really cool! My father was a carpenter and your post brought back memories of the smell of the different woods and the saw dust. Thank you for the trip back in time.

    ReplyDelete
  25. Love these demonstrations but sure am glad I don't have to do any of this work!

    ReplyDelete
  26. @MB: the smell of wood burning's a pleasant one... most of the time.

    @Linda: not usually, but something like this, it fits.

    @Nita: saw dust is another good smell.

    @Cheryl: I wouldn't know how to do this stuff!

    ReplyDelete