Hollywood movies, RPGs, and Dungeons and Dragons campaigns are all full of flaming torches. They’re a typical source of light in scenarios where electrical solutions simply aren’t available. [Wesley Treat] decided to build a rather attractive ceremonial torch of his own design, showing off his impressive crafting skills in the process.
The build starts with a foam simulacra that helps [Wesley] rough out the general shape of the torch. It’s a little shorter and stubbier than an Olympic torch might be, for reference. The main body of the torch is then hewn out of stout wooden blocks with the aid of a bandsaw with a nifty angle-adjustable cutting bed. A torch was then used to heat and bend steel strip to make an attractive and heat-resistant flame shroud to sit on top. A wad of fuel-soaked material installed inside the shroud serves as the actual flaming compoment.
[Wesley] built the torch for the Maker Burn at Maker Camp in upstate New York. It did a plenty good job of helping burn down the giant scrap wood jackalope sculpture built for the event. We do love the fire and the flames around these parts. Video after the break.
Is Maker Burn more family-friendly than that flooded out desert gathering?
Definitely friendly enough, but not focused on children. Makers coming for the weekend bring kids sometimes, but kids younger than 13/14 end up not having enough to be entertained.
Kids visiting with their parents just observing (but not actively participating) – tend to do well for the Saturday events.
It may not meet your definition of family-friendly (and that’s ok!) but if you’re relying on secondhand info about what happens at Burning Man to determine that it’s not, I think you’d be surprised to discover that families with kids do actually go there and have a good (and generally safe) time! I mean, I wouldn’t recommend leaving your kids unsupervised with a bunch of strangers there, but I wouldn’t leave them unsupervised with strangers at the mall either…
Of course, I imagine fewer families had a fun time there this weekend than in previous years…
(also, I haven’t been, but Maker Burn, and the Catskill Maker Camp, are presumably way more “family friendly” in the conventional sense. The event is focused on people making cool things and sharing skills, and as far as I can tell there’s a comparative lack of drugs, nudity, all-night dance parties, and caustic playa dust. You can even stay in a hotel.
Daytime is certainly more family friendly at catskills maker camp. Nighttime, well it’s too cold in Oct to shed clothes :rofl:
No, it’s where they burn makers. Makers, Please don’t go!! Sarc/
I genuinely laughed out loud when I came to the line “A torch was then used to heat and bend steel strip”. The matter-of-fact phrasing immediately struck me with a vision of those scissors and knives sold in plastic clamshells that you can’t open unless you *already have* scissors or a knife.
I know tools have been used to make versions of themselves from the time someone first bashed two rocks together in the stone age all the way to the idea of a 3d printer that can print more 3d printers, and a torch that can bend metal is a totally different animal anyway, but there’s still something both funny and compelling about it. And since the creator named his youtube video “using a torch to make a torch” I guess I’m not the only one who thinks so!
I thought about this too as I reached for my mallet to hammer my new (larger) mallet together. I decided to be good and just whack it on the concrete floor instead.