Nice Things

[Mr Black]

Bit late to the party. Some lovely stuff on show

 

i bought this artwork off a mate of mine. A fabulous illustrator who drew under the name of Dry British (his Instagram account is still live. Check out his stuff). He very sadly passed away early last year following injuries from a very nasty cycling accident.

 

 

[Mr Black]

This picture of me was taken by a photographer called Rebecca Lewis who was going out with my mate at the time. Shes quite well known for photographing subcultures. She was commissioned by Intersection magazine to photograph a low rider convention/show in Bristol and I got the chance to tag along. A great weekend.

 

[Double 0 Soul]

1971 Curver Rotobar, Space age drinks table, designed and manufactured in the Netherlands

.

 

[Mr Black]

Couple of nice gifts from the missis...

 

1950 Singer 201 that I was given for my 50th birthday, and an old tool chest. From what I understand, these are things that woodwork apprentices would have to make as part of them becoming a qualified carpenter. 
 

not sure if that’s actually true, but it’s a nice story. 
 

the vase was picked up in an antiques arcade in Margate. I can’t remember who it’s made by, but I’ve always thought it’s a perfect mix of ugly and beautiful.

Edited January 30, 2021 by Mr Black

[Mr Black]

That’s lovely Neal. As is the sideboard.

[MJF9]

Top stuff gents.
The sideboard and anglepoise are lovely OO.

Edited January 30, 2021 by MJF9

[JDelage]

4 hours ago, Duke Mantee said:

My orishigane - will happily shred the flesh from your fingers. Hand cut/hammered tin plated copper sheet

What is that? I know the term "orishigane" as the artisanal steel used for traditional Japanese sword. Maybe it's the same transliteration from different ideograms...

[JDelage]

(Sorry, double tap...)

Edited January 30, 2021 by JDelage

[Double 0 Soul]

1 hour ago, Mr Black said:

Couple of nice gifts from the missis...an old tool chest. From what I understand, these are things that woodwork apprentices would have to make as part of them becoming a qualified carpenter.  not sure if that’s actually true, but it’s a nice story. 

 

This is true Martin, what's known as an 'apprentice piece' usually when one finishes an apprenticeship you use the skills you've acquired to make your own tool box/chest.

By the time i finished my apprenticeship i'd already inherited 2 tool chests and a bench box which were both apprentce pieces themselves so i made a set of chisels in a glass fronted presentation box as my apprentice piece using high speed steel planer blades from an old Wadkin which i re-ground and beveled.

Having never used the chisels (i didn't want to fuck them up) around 10yrs ago i donated them as part of the the Hawley Collection

Edited January 30, 2021 by Double 0 Soul

[Duke Mantee]

45 minutes ago, JDelage said:

What is that? I know the term "orishigane" as the artisanal steel used for traditional Japanese sword. Maybe it's the same transliteration from different ideograms...

Sorry typo, or autocorrect or wevs ... I hadn’t noticed - oroshigane (or oroshiki) ... a grater for root veg.

[Double 0 Soul]

A very charming little tin of perophone/gramaphone needles from the 1940's

Under the tape it says... 'All British Steel Needles for All Disc Talking Machines'

.

Everything involving greyhounds and/or records are Nice Things...surely

[Hendsch]

One of my other hobbies that I spend way to much money on is cycling. I just got these White Industries cranks last week, and they are an utter sight to behold... CNCd from a solid block of aluminum in Petaluma California. The craftsmanship is like no other bike part I own, it certainly is a very nice thing, almost don’t want to put it on my bike...

[smoothsailor]

Beautifull Hendsch, if you decide to put on your bike, what bike is it.

it even turns your bike in a more “nice thing”

[Double 0 Soul]

9 hours ago, Hendsch said:

One of my other hobbies that I spend way to much money on is cycling. I just got these White Industries cranks last week, and they are an utter sight to behold... CNCd from a solid block of aluminum in Petaluma California. The craftsmanship is like no other bike part I own, it certainly is a very nice thing, almost don’t want to put it on my bike...

Back in the 90's i had super tricked out GT, to the extent that the only thing left of the original bike was the frame, i had a White Industries rear hub (Pace on the front) which was just a work of art, there was a small button which put it into glide mode so if you didn't like the clicking from the ratchet, the button would engage a roller clutch so it would coast silently...completely unnecessary but typically over engineered White Industries...

I had these Roox cranks, they were a pain in the arse cleaning the dirt out of the machined slots but they looked great

 

[bartlebyyphonics]

sharpening today, so to share...

a goko gyuto and oshishi nakiri

and a pairing that I use most of all: an old [sheffield steel] sabatier with said nakiri

my no frills stone set up [400, 1000-3000 combiner's block, 5000, 8000]

the nakiri nashiji finish in close up

and in resonance with @persco_'s excellent fujiwara earlier in the thread, a close up of a nashiji finish yanagiba by same maker

and [terrible lighting] the yanagiba with its sibling; a usuba kamagata profile in kasumi finish - also a teruyasu fujiwara product... 

plus some-one mentioned forks? two favourites... a charity shop find, and an old habitat one saved from death by dishwashing at an in-laws...

Edited February 6, 2021 by bartlebyyphonics

[persco_]

31 minutes ago, bartlebyyphonics said:

sharpening today, so to share...

and in resonance with @persco_'s excellent fujiwara earlier in the thread, a close up of a nashiji finish yanagiba by same maker

 

Great collection. I'm waiting for a Fujiwara 150mm Nakiri to come back in stock. I love his knives.

[Double 0 Soul]

1 hour ago, bartlebyyphonics said:

sharpening today, so to share...

and a pairing that I use most of all: an old [sheffield steel] sabatier with said nakiri

My Mrs has what looks like the identical knife^ but ive just had a look and its actually a made in France 'Sabatier K Jeune' which she bought when she was working over there, there is another makers mark on the blade which is hard to read after decades of sharpening on a steel, a bunch of grapes and a crown. It holds a really nice edge.

Edited February 6, 2021 by Double 0 Soul

[Hendsch]

8 hours ago, smoothsailor said:

Beautifull Hendsch, if you decide to put on your bike, what bike is it.

it even turns your bike in a more “nice thing”

The bike is also a very nice thing... bespoke all road/gravel bike made for me by a good friend of mine.

here it is photographed by John Prolly of the Radavist. The new cranks should fit in better with the overall build. Was never a fan of the ultra modern Shimano cranks on this bike...

@Double 0 Soul I remember those Roox cranks! I grew up in Marin county (birthplace of mountain biking) so there was always tons of niche parts that you couldn’t get in the rest of the US slapped onto equally niche bikes. I had a pair of Kooka cranks on a Bontrager Race Lite, bit over kill for a kid in middle school...

[Double 0 Soul]

My that is a beauty! @Hendsch

Some from our stable.. (less so since i had my commuter stolen)

My kids first trike which i sold and instantly regretted it

16" 2013 Sunday Li'll Spark, Odyssey components

FlyBikes, Electron

 The boy's Norco 4.3

My mid-skool (2000) Made in USA FAB Stage One, all period Hope, Race Face, Brooklyn Machine Works, Middleburn, Azonics, Easton, Atomic Labs ect

Columbus-Condor/Surly/SimWorks 26er flat bar road/gravel bike

..just waiting for EMS to come back online and i'll replace the aluminium stem with a steel SimWorks Tomboy from Circles..

Edited February 6, 2021 by Double 0 Soul

[bartlebyyphonics]

2 hours ago, persco_ said:

Great collection. I'm waiting for a Fujiwara 150mm Nakiri to come back in stock. I love his knives.

thank you: getting the right nakiri can be a little like the search for the perfect 5 pocket jean, an endless search ... my ultimate would be a shigefusa but not sure volume of use could justify the price... extremely impressed with the oshishi fwiw; a hefty weight, not a wee laser, but v.v.easy to resharpen ... (the goko is the thinner blade and a bit more fiddly to sharpen even though is white steel which is supposed to sharpen up quicker... ) - have used takeo murata knives for a long time too: excellent for the price, but the rust factor has driven me back to stainless cladding in my laziness [fujiwara is the pioneer of san-mai stainless if I remember right?]

1 hour ago, Double 0 Soul said:

My Mrs has what looks like the identical knife^ but ive just had a look and its actually a made in France 'Sabatier K Jeune' which she bought when she was working over there, there is another makers mark on the blade which is hard to read after decades of sharpening on a steel, a bunch of grapes and a crown. It holds a really nice edge.

nice, would love to see it: sabatier's name got used by a whole load of companies! the one I have is part of a gifted block; the only survivor [although most of the others go blunt in seconds; this carver is a neat shape and stays very keen indeed...] - k sabatier can be found in the uk here - a fraction of the price of japanese knives for sure... found out about antique NOS 50s/60s stock of sabatier nogent chefs knives; but think larger ones are long gone now... but smaller ones still available... the elegant profile of french knives are what the Japanese non-traditional knives attempted to replicate / fuse with the larger width and lack of bolster iirc... this is one of the most sabatier-esque profile gyuto I know of...

[Hendsch]

@Double 0 Soul here’s my current stable. It’s been drastically cut back in the last few weeks...

Yeti ARC-X turned single speed cyclocross bike with the help of rear Eno  White Industries hub to tighten the chain.

 

Unknown 90’s steel road bike that I bought at Brick Lane bikes when I was living in London back in 2008. It has Carbon Tubular wheels, also laced up to White Industries hubs...

Edited February 6, 2021 by Hendsch

[fre-co]

22 hours ago, Hendsch said:

One of my other hobbies that I spend way to much money on is cycling. I just got these White Industries cranks last week, and they are an utter sight to behold... CNCd from a solid block of aluminum in Petaluma California. The craftsmanship is like no other bike part I own, it certainly is a very nice thing, almost don’t want to put it on my bike...

I’ve been to Petaluma on my west coast road trip. Lovely town 

[Duke Mantee]

On 1/30/2021 at 6:56 PM, Mr Black said:

Bit late to the party. Some lovely stuff on show

 

i bought this artwork off a mate of mine. A fabulous illustrator who drew under the name of Dry British (his Instagram account is still live. Check out his stuff). He very sadly passed away early last year following injuries from a very nasty cycling accident.

 

 

I much prefer this over the Vladimir Tretchikoff original

[Double 0 Soul]

She's really let herself go on the Mark Denton interps..

[Duke Mantee]

Strange how some pieces of original work become so popular they then become a point of ridicule - I’m pretty sure a Monty Python had a go too 

Edited February 7, 2021 by Duke Mantee

[Double 0 Soul]

When i was a kid ther was an urban legend that the popular 'Crying Boy' portraits were cursed and if you hung one on your wall your house would catch fire, the only thing to survive the blaze would be said paintings... years later i heard on Radio4 that they were painted with a fire retardent varnish so there was some grain of truth to the story.

[Dr_Heech]

One of my nicest things.

This oil lamp belonged to my Granmother (1917-2000) and l can certainly remember it as a child when we used to have all the power cuts back in the 70's.

It's not a rare or valuable object, l think they were made in their 1000's between the late 1920's and early 50's, but l like its' honesty and its' beauty nonetheless. 

For me though it is the colour, size and simplicity of the lamp that qualify it as a nice thing; lt is practical, well made and can still be a shining light of hope in dark times. Stay strong everyone. 

 

 

Edited February 13, 2021 by Dr_Heech
Spelling!

[Double 0 Soul]

That is a lovely little thing Chaz! it's certainly got a lot of charm.

My nan and grandad didn't own anything of value, what they did have is now in my folks attic but it's shit they kept away from me, crockery and such so i have no connection to it, when they died (in their 80's when i was a teenager) all their "worthless" stuff got chucked down the shoot on the landing of the council owned flats where they lived.

I would give my right arm for their wrought iron toasting fork which i used to use for making hot buttered toast, sat on the hearth in front of their open fire in their old back to back terrace house, their wooden back scratcher, which was a hand carved into the end of a stick and their spice* jar, which was always full of humbugs and other old folk type sweets, it was probably just an old biscuit tin but i would love to own it.

*Old folks in the north called sweets spice (some still do) numerous explanations as to why on Sheff Forum non allude to those sweaty gaunt looking folks who sleeze around behind the cathedral asking "Do you want to buy some spice?"

Edited February 8, 2021 by Double 0 Soul

[Maynard Friedman]

It is a lovely lamp, perhaps a genie will appear if you rub it?

I look forward to the Spice Girls reunion gig at Sheffield Cathedral! 

[Duke Mantee]

Our cloche we use for bread making. First pic is a catalogue pic of how it was. I think it is a nice thing now ...