Crazy Useful
Your Guide to Natural resources, products, and cottage industries
Tag: featured
Word of the Day: Strake
A strake is a section of iron laid around the rim of a wooden cart of wagon wheel. The purpose of the strake is to protect the wooden rim from damage. The manufacture of the strake is the domain of the blacksmith, where the… Continue Reading “Word of the Day: Strake”
Word of the Day: Coppice
A coppice (also known as a copse) is a thicket of small trees and shrubs, typically those whose slender trunks and branches (or withies) are cut periodically for a variety of uses. The word also refers to a tree’s ability to regrow shoots from… Continue Reading “Word of the Day: Coppice”
Word of the Day: Bloomery
A bloomery is the earliest form of furnace used to smelt iron from its ore. The bloomery produces a spongy mass of mixed iron and slag called a “bloom,” which is then repeatedly reheated and hammered to get rid of the slag and produce… Continue Reading “Word of the Day: Bloomery”
Word of the Day: Yelm
“Yelming” is part of the thatcher’s trade: to yelm is to prepare the gathered straw, sorting it by size, laying it out flat, and in some techniques, dampening it with water. According to James Arnold in his amazing book The Shell Book of Country… Continue Reading “Word of the Day: Yelm”
Word of the Day: Propolis
Propolis, also called bee glue, is an aromatic reddish substance collected by honeybees from tree buds and bark, consisting of a mixture of tree resins, balsams, and waxes which are altered by the bees’ own secretions, esp. saliva and beeswax, and used by them… Continue Reading “Word of the Day: Propolis”
Word of the Day: Ashlar
An ashlar is a large stone hewn to square sides, for use in building or laying pavement. It also refers to the particular method of stone masonry called ashlar or ashlar-work, which makes use of hewn stones, often made to a specific proportion, as… Continue Reading “Word of the Day: Ashlar”
Word of the Day: Fuller
A fuller’s job is to “full” raw wool; that is, to remove the lanolin and other greasy impurities from the fibers to whiten it and prepare it for spinning and weaving. In the European tradition, this usually done through the use of fuller’s earth… Continue Reading “Word of the Day: Fuller”
Available now:
Crazy Useful Things: A Dictionary of Natural Resources and Their Products
This is the book that started it all, available now on Amazon.
