Sap? if so i like it! VERY DIFFERENT take on a submission tool. also.....curious about the chainmail sleeves.....full shirt?
I made 2 brackets today to mount Emergency Shut Off switches/boxes for the main winch that will be pulling 10,000' of cable and a inspection float robot thru a mountain pipe line. The panic Stop switches are on either side of the massive winch (700 lbs) so the Operators can shut down instantly the pull if required. took over 6 days to spool all the thin (3/32" ?? thick) cable onto the winch drum. Deeeeeeeep reduction gear box not helping.
sort-of a bastardized sap/blackjack hybrid, only 4 oz weights in the ends, but with the kevlar mower belt core, it gives a pretty good thump. probably gonna make more with heavier weights. the chainmaille is just a bracelet. my shirt's only half done...
^ one of my old bouncer buddies used to wear UnderArmour shirt, then chainmail, then a custom made kevlar long sleeve shirt. He worked in a crappy bar in a crappy part of town. Said that combo saved his life more times than he could count.
Lots and lots of hooks! And I still have a few needing made, so I'll be right back at it in a few minutes.
Made coffee this morning, a London broil sandwich for lunch and fresh from the garden collard greens for dinner
The JRE sheath that came with my Fiddleback Pro Duke had a missed stitch, and while functionally not a major problem, it does (did) pose a risk of snagging. These sheaths are mass produced, die cut, glued together and stitched on a machine. That said, the quality of the leather, and overall design is solid. For the money, they're some of the best I've seen. A quick email to Fiddleback, just to let them know about the problem, and I have a brand new sheath inbound free of charge. So, being a leatherworker, I decided to see about fixing up the original sheath. Here it is in its original condition. A close up of the missed stitch. Making progress, slowly pulling the stitching using a broken saddle needle. I don't have any pictures of the stitching process, but I decided to use a heavy, dark brown, braided waxed synthetic thread. Whenever I hand stitch leather, and often canvas, I use what's called a saddle stitch. It's an incredibly strong, durable stitch, but takes a lot of time to do as it requires that you use two needles, and thread each needle through the same hole on opposite sides. If or when one side of a machine stitch wears out, or breaks, it completely lets loose. With a saddle stitch, if one side of the stitching breaks, the other side holds fast. Example: All stitching completed. Here's a close up of the finished stitching, with a length of the thread used laying on top. Over the years, you become fairly accurate with your estimations of thread needed to complete a stitch. For this one, I measured out about three double arm lengths, just over 8 feet. Upon finishing, I had roughly 16" on each end. Just enough to firmly grasp and pull taught, with room for the eye of the needle to wear through the thread at the end if needed. Perfect. After this came hotwaxing. I use liquefied bee's wax, a heat gun, paintbrush etc to slowly melt the wax into the leather. I don't just apply a thin layer on top, I completely saturate the fibers until I can see it soak through to the inside, and then I take a small foam brush and thoughtfully wax the inside as well. Pure bees waxed leather is insanely durable, long lasting, and completely waterproof. You basically turn leather into waxy micarta. As a testament to this, there is a leather fire fighting water bucket on display at The Museum of London from the year 1666, still very much intact. This bucket was originally treated with pure beeswax. As the liquid bees wax begins to cool down and harden, it's possible to essentially wet-form your sheath in a very quick manor, sort of like forming a kydex sheath. I simply don heavy leather work gloves, insert my knife to the desired position (making sure it's not too far down, poking into the welt), and begin to mold it with my hands as it cools and hardens. Once it's mostly in place, I rub it down with a paper towel to remove most all excess wax, remove the knife once and remove excess wax inside, reinsert the knife, reform it once more, and then I place it in the freezer to completely cool down. This is the final result. Notice the change in color relative to the thread. *Pay no heed to the masking tape, it's just there to help gauge depth* The fit is damn near perfect, snaps like kydex without being difficult to remove or replace, and it's completely water proof and highly durable. The weight of the sheath before waxing was 5.1oz, but after waxing, it's weighing in at 7.2oz. It absorbed 2.1oz of pure bees wax.
Thanks. No dye, that's just wax. Regular natural veg tan leather goes a nice dark brown with just wax, a bit darker than the sheath was originally. So waxing an already dark leather just makes it that much darker.
A prototype wax stove that can be used as an emergency heat source, a cooker/water boiler, a source of hot flame and fuel for starting a fire, and its extinguishable, re-usable, and re-loadable. Pocket sized.
hook knife case for my mora 162. cut basswood blocks, dremel routed the outline of the knife, sanded, and ****tily stained. i used an old dowel for a hinge to allow the box to swing open and close. lastly to keep the box shut while not in use, i drilled out a cavity for a spent .38 special casing. leather cord with stopper knot to ease pulling the lock pin out.
rehandled a Cold Steel hawk with a short length of douglas fir fatwood. fatwood hawk, for chopping fatwood. (and emergency kindling )
No where near as fancy as some of the leather work I have seen here but it my latest, I still have to finish the edge, add Ferro Rod loop and stitch and she will be ready to ship out.
I made a stand to hold these frames, that I made, to hold these knives, that I made....for a table display.