Female complications, day 30 The doors.

It's good that for most people in Thrymheim, work noise and some strange sounds from my workshop has become a part of daily life, so I don't have to worry about people reacting to it or really disturbing me just due to curiosity. Most always knock on the door, because it's not uncommon that I'm doing something secret most shouldn't see, but it's practical that I can have Ciara as an extra 'guard' downstairs while she's operating the lens machine and engraving. Ciara just loves being the one I trust when I do secret jobs, and doesn't even ask what I'm actually building up in the attic that is secret, because the way she sees it, not knowing makes it easier for her to keep it a secret. If she doesn't know exactly what I've done, she can't accidentally reveal it either. But she understands that it's not just building shelves since I asked her to not come up, or let anyone even in to the workshop.

I've deliberately put off making some shelves up here, complaining a bit about the lack of space and mess, so the cover is to make shelves the way I want them. So it's easy to make the hole in the wall for Iselin's door, and get the door in place. I don't think anyone suspected anything like this, not even Iselin. As long as I don't install the automatic locking system, I can easily do the rest of the work from the attic side and use a narrow hook to open the door through its steel frame, since I haven't clad the whole door. It won't be perfect, but good enough, especially as I camouflaged the door gaps a bit more. I'll eventually need to make the hole in the wall into Iselin's room and modify the back of her wardrobe and so on, but it feels wrong to do it in her room without talking to her first.

The shelves I build also turn out well. It's so damn handy to be able to get good planks sawn and planed in the right dimensions.

I was absolutely right that Iselin wanted to help with this. When I showed her what I've built so far and what the plan is, Iselin was overjoyed. So with her behind the locked door in her room, we finished the rest.

It's a bit cramped between her loom and the wardrobe, but enough space to open the wardrobe doors. To open the 'Narnia door', she use a flat special key on the key ring she always carries, and pushes it into a narrow hidden slot on the left side. It clicks when the latch is released, and she can push in part of the back of the wardrobe, which is hinged on the right side, take out the key and enter. The wardrobe door has a weight-on-a-string to automatically closed and lock, but relatively light weight so it doesn't slam shut with a bang. Once in the small space, she can close the wardrobe door behind her, but its easy to just grab the latch and open if she wants too return. The space is not completely dark. Internal walls in Thrymheim are horizontal log walls, where each log has a recess on the underside to follow the top of the log underneath, and we've recessed the bottom a bit more on a couple of the logs closest to the floor. So it lets in some light and air, and the eyes adjusted pretty quickly. To continue on to the workshop attic, she just use the spring loaded handle which unlatch the security door, which can be gently and almost silently pushed open, and go out into my workshop attic. The security door also has weight-on-a-string to automatically lock, but it too is fairly quiet as the latches are on the inside and is dampened by the thickness of the door. A couple of small antler horn inlays and suitably placed leather avoid any sharp metal to metal noise.

Jane would probably be slightly jealous that Iselin has a secret passageway that is in a wardrobe. If this had been for Jane, it would have been fun to install fake pine branches or paint the walls to look like that.

We make a small peephole for the attic using a natural knot hole in the wood. By pulling the wooden plug out from the inside, it is possible to look in the reflection of the brass vessel on the shelf outside, so she can see if anyone is up in my workshop attic before she opens. It's a similar system to the secret doors in the dining room and library. The decorative ornament on one of the shelves in the dining room is for the mirror so you can see if someone is perpendicular to the side and at the dining room table before opening. Over there, there are also brass listening tubes with funnels and we could install one here too, but that feels rather unnecessary. Maybe in the future. For now, the knot hole peep is enough and she'll have to keep the brass vessel clean and mirror like by herself. I teach Iselin how to keep the mechanisms lubricated and dust-free so everything works and is quiet.

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There has been a lot of kissing, hugging and just touching while we have been working, and while cleaning up we have another make-out session. This is actually a special day as it's the last day of our 'honey month', where Iselin and I drink from the same cup of honey mead, and even Iselin is so tired of it because of the repetition no matter what food we've eaten, but it feels good that we did it. I'm not looking forward to the fact that Kari will definitely want to do the same tradition, but it's a small discomfort that I'm happy to endure to not disappoint Kari.

Olafr's work on improving the vertical lathe and building the milling machine is progressing. Olafr finds it amusing how much iron and steel will be in the mill, and how incredibly valuable it would be if he made swords of it instead. Neither the lathe or mill is entirely made in crucible steel, not because of cost, but simply saving work, as crucible steel is a chore for that first slow forging to make it malleable, and a lot of the frame stuff on the machines can be normal iron and thus save time and work. But Olafr now also knows how 'easy' it is to make crucible steel, especially with the hydro powered blower and machinery we have, and that crucible steel doesn't actually cost much as it's just extra cost for the crucible and charcoal, so he really like using it. He likes working with steel, and the more he works it, the better he becomes, and he knows I only really care about the end result. Until he recently learned how to make it, every scrap of steel was so valuable, but now he can pretty much use it for whatever he wants. He really like that. That I've been so open with everything about metals. alloys, forging and such to him, has made him completely open up to me about anything he knows about it. Deep forging and craft secrets he probably only taught his son and apprentice. Of course I feel honoured about that, and it's not bad for Olafr either as he have an outside view about what it might do and be used for.

I honestly think Olafr could forge a pretty good katana, since he have talked about folding iron in different directions and many times, and sketched how to make a U or II shape in one type of iron-carbon, and forge in a bar of another iron-carbon grade to get a good edge, and he knows how to use mud-clay to do selective heat treatment and such. He just haven't know why the metal reacts as it does, and what truly changes, and of course he is limited in what blade and weapon designs are common here. Why make a curved single edge sword when you can make a symmetric double edged sword? Since I won't really care about any hobby project he will make, and he is free to use the machines and for such outside normal working hours, he is likely to do quite a lot of experimentation and hobby projects in the future. He is very curious about different kinds of blade weapons human master craftsmen have done, and discussing why they did it that way, how and what benefit it has. It's no wonder he likes to do complicated metalworking machinery, steam machinery and strange thunder weapon mechanisms, because he is learning a lot, getting new challenges and trying new things, and gets to test himself and his mastery compared to what human master did. All while having the most excellent forge and equipment, best metals, and incredibly comfortable living conditions and good food.

No-one doubt that Olafr is very happy and pleased with his new life.

Olafr is almost finished with the stripper pole and its brackets. Probably another day. It has been a low priority work getting work done a little now and then, as I said there was no need to hurry. Iselin's door was more of a priority as I wanted to get it done before our honey month was over.

I would really like to have my own foundry up and running now. We should take a trip to Borgarsandr and see if Digraldi's apprentice wants to get a job here, and buy everything needed. It will take time before he can move here anyway. We need to buy more metals and other things from my merchant empire. I wish I could just order stuff over a telephone or message and have it delivered.

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