A sensible answer to the subtitle I think could be summed up in a word, convenience. It’s a dangerous trap and a road to decline but there is little hope of offering a convincing alternative. Still, I will persist.
My shovel was in bad shape when I first picked it up but still, had initially been well made using the techniques established from the times those ancestors found out metals could be manipulated to make effective implements of work. So even in its worn condition, became my tool of choice for watering until the point when things got really bad and an intervention unavoidable since I couldn’t accept the pathetic replacement forms on offer in the shops.
The first step was to cut out the area of deficiency and add on new material of a similar composition, a cannibalization of another old shovel.
“It can’t be done” says my good neighbor. In fact it can but there were preliminary steps necessary. Because the shovel had obviously been tempered the condition had to be reversed in order to make the material compatible with available remedies, the welding machine. Heating the old parts to red hot and letting them air cool takes the temper out and instigates conditions for a successful weld
With that weld cleaned up we then had to return the renewed blade to its functional condition of hardness so it would be less prone to bend and able to be reasonably sharpened. This posed the difficulty that the mindset of convenience has generated of a condition of limited means. In an accommodating improvisation we used a torch, then a burner but neither could reheat the blade of the shovel sufficiently to get it hardened.
So with no proper means at hand I did go for supplies and was surprised I could find wood charcoal even if it was being promoted under false premises of superiority as “Oak”. (We understand that needle wood, particularly spruce, is the more suitable but this’ll get some exposure in future posting-ups).
The ultimate improvisation, lacking anything like a forge, heating in the wood stove. In the end it was accommodating enough to maybe provide something like an acceptable result for a hardening and annealing treatment.
And to my surprise the treatment results are pleasing - so far - and my beloved shovel has been giving me the pleasure I had so fervently sought to retain along with providing hope and motivation for reestablishing a smoother road ahead
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