How it’s made

How-To: Make a metal cracker

How-To: Make a metal cracker

New York artist Herbert Hoover, aka Makers Market seller Snacks & Bones, presents a tutorial on how to cast your favorite Saltineâ„¢-type cracker in shiny pewter. Hoover’s iconic, numbered crackers are sold in Art-o-Mat vending machines around the country, and the Cracker Tracker collects photos of crackers and their proud owners from around the world. If you don’t have the tools or the time to make your own, and you can’t find a nearby Art-o-Mat, Hoover will gladly sell you one online for $15.

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How-To: Make traditional Hawaiian shark-tooth weapons

How-To: Make traditional Hawaiian shark-tooth weapons

OK, so it’s not actually a tutorial–it’s a chapter from Oakland martial arts instructor Sid Campbell’s 2006 Warrior Arts and Weapons of Ancient Hawaii that’s freely available in its entirety on Google Books. I found Campbell’s book after seeing one of these lei o mano, as I think they are called, in a Discovery channel program. Before hiking to the library to check it out I thought, what the heck, I’ll see how much is available on gBooks, and was surprised to find that the chapter on shark-tooth weapons, which goes into great detail about the various traditional methods of preparing the teeth and attaching them to the handle, is all there. Thanks to Mr. Campbell and his publisher. If you’re into it, please consider buying the book.

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Lego ship in a glass bottle

Lego ship in a glass bottle

Not to be confused with this Lego ship in a Lego bottle. Something very like this stunt has actually been on my personal to-do list for about six months now (well, I was gonna build a Lego spaceship in a glass bottle), but I kept putting it off. “Jeremy Moody built the first Lego ship inside a bottle!” is the headline over at Brothers Brick. Oh, that stings! [Thanks, Rachel!]

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Smooth-carved vessels, other forms from brick and mortar

Smooth-carved vessels, other forms from brick and mortar

This bowl is actually carved from a block of normal bricks joined with mortar. Even though it looks lathe-turned, I can’t imagine that a slab of conventional brick masonry would hold together during turning, even if you could find a lathe that was able to turn it. Maybe it could be done at extremely low speed? Suffice to say I’m very curious about their process, and other examples on this page lead me to suspect it involves a CNC mill and/or a shop full of very dedicated craftspeople. [via Dude Craft]

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