Vic Dupont

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since Jul 29, 2023
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Recent posts by Vic Dupont

Hi guys,


I just started winnowing my wheat.

I realise that most of it has its husk still attached to the seed.

I tried rubbing it between my hands a little bit. It doesn't seem to have much effect.

Does anyone know what to do in such a situation?

From what I read, it seems I could soak it, but the problem is that I would then have to dry it before I could grind it, I guess.

Thanks in advance for the help!
Thanks for the swift reply!

Theoretically that shouldn't be the case, I bought the seeds a year before to a local farmer, when he sold them to me I'm pretty sure they were well isolated. When I harvested last year, I also was pretty careful to keep them separated.
Thanks a lot guys!

I'll start a new thread about threshing, because I have constraints to specify, and also to explain the difficulties I've had until now.

As for the initial points of this discussion, I'd like to share my impression and my remaining question.

1) Apparently solved: bending stems

By now it seems pretty clear that the yield is ok, and the bending was not a problem in itself.

Two other elements make me pretty convinced that it was not due to sunlight but to overfertilization.

The first element is that sunlight was unequal on the field. Some parts got more sunlight during winter, some parts more during the spring and early summer, and some were in between, but I don't see any difference across the field. I am thinking that if sunlight was the issue, I would have seen a difference, at least at the end of spring.

The second element is that I read that one should not amend the soil with compost more than half a kilogram per square meter, because otherwise the soil is too light and the roots cannot grab hold, which makes the plants bend over. I didn't add compost but sheep manure, but still, I think I added way more than half a kilo per square meter. I think I emptied a wheel barrel every 4 square meters.

So I am under the impression that this is the explanation for bending plants.

2. Remaining question: heterogeneity

I thus feel confident that I understand why plants were bending, but I still have no idea why the field was so heterogenous. Some plants were a lot taller than others, some dried way earlier than others, etc.

Do you have any idea what could have caused this?

Thanks a lot again very much for the help!
Thanks a lot for the swift and helpful reply!

I'll try it with the flat face of the hammer then.

Thanks again very much!
5 months ago
Hi guys!

I found this peening anvil in my family's house. It was probably used last in the 50s, before tractors arrived, and it was most certainly used by people who mowed large areas to cut hay for milk cows, which is the main activity here.

The thing is, I don't know whether I should use it as a narrow anvil, thus using the flat end of the hammer, or whether I should use it as a flat anvil, using the pointed end of the cross peen hammer.

It is narrow in a strict sense, but it's not really curved. It's not totally flat either, but I find it more flat than round.

What do you think?

5 months ago
Thanks a lot for the replies guys!

I harvested it. I haven't winnowed it yet, so I can't tell the exact output, but at first sight it looks like a decent yield, I am very optimistic.

So it seems you were right.

I did not observe much predation by birds or anything, which is kind of surprising in the middle of the forest.

What was a problem though, was for threshing. I had a very hard time because of the flexibility of the stems. I'll start a new discussion on that topic, because it's my second year and I still haven't found a good way to thresh.

Thanks again very much for your help!
Thanks a lot for the reply and for all the help!
5 months ago
@Joseph Lofthouse thanks a lot for the reply!

I realise my question was not clear. I meant what kind of surface area are you able to sow with a planting stick? I am asking because I am afraid it would be way too slow to sow the kind of area I am aiming for, around 200 m2, or 2000 square feet.

Thanks again very much for your help!
Thanks a lot for the replies guys!

I'll tackle each topic one by one.

1. Wear of the cinder block

Regarding wear of the cinder block, I am attaching a picture of how it looks now. There's no grove. The ups and downs of the block are still there, it's only at the sub-millimeter scale that the surface is smooth.

I'm pretty sure it's still solid, I'm just wondering whether the smooth surface would make it less adhesive to mortar or something.

I take it from your answers that I couldn't do that eternally, but in the present situation, is this block still useable for construction?

2. Efficiency of this technique

Regarding efficiency of this technique, yes I dream of having a hand operated grinding wheel. It's just that I don't have one right now, and I mistakenly thought that grinding into a chisel would be pretty quick. Turned out it took a lot longer than I expected, but it's also because I had to learn a few things to be more efficient.

The result is still pretty good. I am happy with it.

After making my chisel I also used the cinder block to flatten our whetstone, which I had damaged when I used it to make my first chisel.

3. Using a nail as chisel

Regarding bendability of this new chisel, I feel like it will be ok. It's a very fat nail, and it seems pretty rigid. I don't think it's a standard one. At no point did it show the slightest bending.

I would think it's probably true for most nails that they would be too soft to use as chisels, but I think the one I used was special. I am not even sure it was a nail actually.

Regarding its brittleness, I have to say that I plan to use it on wood only, not on metal. Thus I was thinking that if it's good enough to be used as a nail between a hammer and wood without breaking, it would be fine to use as a chisel between a hammer and wood too.

What do you think?

6 months ago