Rough-Forged Traveler's Celt Test Piece
- Thread starter FortyTwoBlades
- Start date
- Joined
- Mar 8, 2008
- Messages
- 25,491
Wouldn't be much good as a floor scraper. The edge isn't flat. 
- Joined
- Apr 12, 2006
- Messages
- 2,506
Went back and looked at the pics again. Your comments about the angles are more obvious now. Thanks!
- Joined
- Nov 25, 2006
- Messages
- 7,036
Well it looks far more useful as an ice spud, for ice fishing etc., than would be an axe. Axes can't get through thick ice as the shaft will hit the ice edge, unless you make a monster hole. And axes have you closer to flying shards shooting back in your face.
- Joined
- Mar 8, 2008
- Messages
- 25,491
The test piece is in the hands of a traditional craftsman friend of mine right now and yesterday he was using it to process some cedar for a project.
- Joined
- Feb 15, 2017
- Messages
- 935
How is it different than a socket chisel?
- Joined
- Mar 8, 2008
- Messages
- 25,491
On most fronts, really. It has a chisel bevel and can be used as a very large one, but they diverge there. The blade is proportionally shorter, tapered like a wedge, has a rounded square socket to prevent turning on the handle when used as an axe or adze, has a curved edge...it's sort of a hybrid of Bronze age socket axes, German-style socketed splitting wedges, Japanese-style adzes, and a bark spud...among various other influences.
Now that this thread has been in play for a couple of weeks I see that that sympathetic and/or armchair responders are trying to invent uses for this gizmo. Bark spud, billet splitter, emergency carver, floor scraper, garden hoe...... This in itself is instructive. Unless it's gas or cordless powered there isn't much out there that can re-invent the woodworker's, gardener, hobbyist or weekend survival warrior's wheel. TV star Bare Grills markets miracle survival tools too but (very likely) retreats to the comfort of a 5 star hotel room with WiFi access after every shoot. A SAK, BIC lighter and all sorts of utility hatchets can easily replicate whatever it is you're dreaming of that a traveller's Celt might be able to do, beyond padding your wallet.
- Joined
- Mar 8, 2008
- Messages
- 25,491
Wow, dude...really? I'm actually getting these made up mostly for friends of mine, and I assure you that they easily have as much woods knowhow as yourself if not quite a bit more. Mountains more of it than I do. They're accomplished traditional craftsmen and wilderness skills instructors. And they're really excited about it. It's not some gizmo--it's a compact tool able to be used for a wide range of tasks. I get it--it's different and if it's not some classic North American axe you're going to call it horrible junk. But you don't need to talk down everything that isn't to your tastes. Not sure what you think a BIC has to do with the tool, and it's in a whole different ballpark than conventional hatchets or knives.
Gawd forbid I should share the development of the tool with people.
As I said before you're to be commended for being a tireless self promoter. Myself wouldn't head off into the woods with bulky dunnage in a backpack, except maybe a cast iron frypan. Please ask of these 'traditional craftsmen' and 'wilderness skills instructors' to assist in showing off the supreme wonders of this awesome gizmo.Wow, dude...really? I'm actually getting these made up mostly for friends of mine, and I assure you that they easily have as much woods knowhow as yourself if not quite a bit more. Mountains more of it than I do. They're accomplished traditional craftsmen and wilderness skills instructors. And they're really excited about it. It's not some gizmo--it's a compact tool able to be used for a wide range of tasks. I get it--it's different and if it's not some classic North American axe you're going to call it horrible junk. But you don't need to talk down everything that isn't to your tastes. Not sure what you think a BIC has to do with the tool, and it's in a whole different ballpark than conventional hatchets or knives.
Gawd forbid I should share the development of the tool with people.
- Joined
- Mar 8, 2008
- Messages
- 25,491
That's why, as I noted earlier, that it's currently in the hands of one of those individuals.
I'm no self-promoter. I just care about what I do and share what I'm working on with folks here on the forum. I was a member long before I started my business, and it's an extension of my passion for edged tools, but I'm not calling myself some sort of expert woodsman or genius or whatever. If anything, as a business major I'm more aware than most of the fact that the edged tool market is not the place to be if you want to make big bucks, so to imply that I'm trying to line my pockets by sharing what's mostly a private project is spurious at best and absurd at worst.
If you'd like to give constructive, meaningful criticism of problems you see with it for its intended context of use, I actively welcome the feedback. And if you'd prefer to simply express your distaste for the tool, there are ways to do so politely.
- Joined
- Feb 1, 2012
- Messages
- 13,727
I don't thinnk I would ever use something like this as a one-tool-does-it-all survival tool but I still think it would be fun to play with and see how mannt ways I could handle it for different uses.
Don't thinkof it as a tool. Think of it as a toy. Have fun with it.
Don't thinkof it as a tool. Think of it as a toy. Have fun with it.
- Joined
- Mar 8, 2008
- Messages
- 25,491
It's certainly no toy, but you have more of the right mindset about it. It's not meant to be a "one tool does it all" so much as a "one tool does a lot extra". It's not going to replace a knife. It's not going to replace a dedicated axe as a felling or survival tool. Its job is to assist in more long-term "survival" (aka primitive living) crafting tasks while minimizing how many dedicated tools you'd need to have on-hand. It's small enough to be readily packable, and hefty enough to do serious work. It makes carrying capability a lot easier. Hence the name. Compare to carrying a separate, dedicated wedge, chisel, slick, spud, hewing hatchet, adze, etc. plus the (mostly) unique functions as a "carving spade", as I'm calling it. You normally wouldn't be able to hoof all that around very easily.
Dick Proenneke was already a skilled, experienced and wizened tradesman 60 years ago when he went off into the Alaska wilderness with only essential hand tools. If ever there was a talented improviser and survivalist he proved he was one. But I have a hard time imagining how cheerfully he'd have adapted to a fanciful Celt tool were he deprived of the implements he was used to. No offence but hobbyist implements should never be compared to or confused with well-proven tools.
- Joined
- Mar 8, 2008
- Messages
- 25,491
Dick Proenneke had a pretty substantial bevy of hand tools, but he wasn't hoofing them around all at once regularly, either. And I didn't say that the Traveler's Celt was intended to be a replacement for dedicated tools. Rather, it allows one to perform some of the tasks performed by those tools in circumstances that would make carrying all of them difficult. There are, quite naturally, functional sacrifices made in each particular use in order to allow it to cover so many areas.
- Joined
- Sep 3, 2014
- Messages
- 3,741
"It isn't enough that I simply lack an interest in your dumb tool, I must also take a giant crap on both it and the fact that you posted it."
The "tireless self promoter" stated up front that there were maybe 12 of these being made and that their eager owners have already spoken for them. These are not available and not being mass produced. He isn't trying to convince anybody to buy one. You continue to characterize Ben as some sort of late night gizmo hawker with a crappy tool looking for a fool to buy it. That is obviously not the case, so why do you keep pushing that point?
When this thread started I saw it as a simple case of a real enthusiast wanting to share something that excited him with a community that supposedly shares his interest in edged tools. I'm not a buyer for a tool like this, but I still find the thread interesting. Why does it have to be more complicated than that?
Aren't we as a group supposed to be promoting and appraising 'real' tools and refusing to stand around mute while 'flavour of the month' gizmos and fashionable junk are being flaunted? Were you (jb) to believe you'd created something truly useful I can pretty much guarantee you'd have field tested it thoroughly before proffering it forth into the court of public opinion. 42 made the swell-headed mistake of not even bothering to do that.
- Joined
- Mar 8, 2008
- Messages
- 25,491
If I were your father I'd be ashamed of your flagrant lack of decorum. I'm sorry your imagination isn't flexible enough to envision the use of this tool, but unless you have constructive criticism to offer, I really don't much care what you think. You're not among the intended user group for these, and for a reason. It may come as a surprise to you, but not everyone lives in the same environment and does the same work as you do.
I posted it here so that folks could see how the project has progressed, and intend on sharing more images as development continues. I've used the prototype for my own tasks a fair amount, but it's kind of hard to take photos of yourself while both hands are occupied.
I had an old immigrant Portuguese workie on a construction job site tell me (If I were your father.... ) almost the same thing 50 years ago. He hadn't been able to master English over the course of 20 years but he jealously knew that the enthusiastic but naive young kid, that he'd hoped to intimidate with such a derogatory line, was destined for bigger things. Please tell me this isn't you.