It’s back to adventures and places with me but this time in a super socially distant manner in which I am inviting no one to come with me!
With that said, there are activities or places you can go on your own, don’t be scared. It can be fun to try out things by yourself.
This time, I’m making a knife out of rebar at Tombalek. Tombalek is at 7 Mandai Link #10-22 , Mandai Connection BLOCK B, Singapore 728653 at the time of this post. If you see that sign, you’re at the right location.
It’s at Block B so turn left all the way and walk to the lift. Once at the lift click the 10th storey and walk to your left, you will see a carpark to your right and to the left again finally you’ll see wooden pallets and tools.
Tada, you’ll find yourself at Tombalek. Also no, I didn’t get to ask if Tombalek was a pun on the wrong spelling of Terbalik. They have woodworking classes besides metalworking ones and some are skillsfuture claimable so check Tombalek out yourself.
I was early so I got to around the workshop to see the finished items of what their classes have to offer.
What I was here for was a 1 day class at making a rebar knife. Rebar is a material that’s apparently ‘soft’ and easy for us beginners to learn with.
Goggles and a glove was provided for safety but you need to wear covered shoes since this is a workshop. Do dress appropriately.
Tiffany blue hammer. I laugh since it’s no diamond but it’s hard enough.
Fortunately for us students, it was a cold rainy day. That meant that the heat wasn’t as sweltering as it could be on a typical day and being near a forge is hot.
We learned how to make a keychain knife before making the ‘actual’ knife and this was a form we needed to hammer out, out of a piece of rebar. We did get to use the power hammer which is propelled by air.
Think of a sewing machine with those foot pedals to increase the speed, now imagine that with a hammer.
After that we had to manually hammer the shape out too.
Alright, I got a vague knife shape and if you can see it, the instructor has markered out where I should grind it to make it look like an actual knife!
There’s an actual shape of it now. To think it started out with a a rod looking piece of metal.
There was more grinding and then polishing and sharpening but behold!
My knife! I’m calling it SafeEntry because of this whole… season. Yes, SafeEntry the rebar knife.
Since you made it to the end you can also watch the whole post but here, tips about this whole workshop:
- Warm up your arms or at least your dominant hand/arm you’re going to use to hammer the metal. It is going to get tiring/aching.
- Drink lots of water and have a sandwich or two in your bag, bring 2 bottles of water at the very least, it really can get hot and you shouldn’t get dehydrated.
- Never touch the metal that’s being forged, just keep using the tongs and hammer and definitely have covered shoes. It really gets hot. Am I emphasizing enough how hot things can get here? It might look ‘cold’ but it’s actually hot.
- Be patient, it takes time for the metal to move were you want it to go to be shaped.
Other wise, have fun! Listen to the instructor carefully, these things can get dangerous like any craft work with tools.
Did I have fun? YES I DID. And wow, a piece of bar into a polished knife, that is amazing.
And if I were ever isekai-ed into a fantasy setting, I know that being a blacksmith is not for me because THERE IS SO MUCH SKILL INVOLVED, I will just stick to duchesses or villainess-es instead.
That’s it for this episode of #SarahNoJio let’s see where I end up next time.
