Leather Strop Making

Making a Leather Strop

My Old Leather Strop was getting a little worn so I decided that it was time to make a new one. My old one was 1 inch wide by 6 inches long. It was a handy small size and worked well but for my new one I wanted to make something a little bigger. 

After scrounging around in the hardwood bin I found a nice piece of Mahogany that would work great for the strop. 

 I played around a little with the shape and eventually came up with a paddle shape that had a handle on the end. I used a paint can to make the radius transition between the wide and narrow portion of the strop. 

 Then off to the band saw to cut it to size. 

 Here is a Tip: If you are going to counter sink a hole in wood. Do the countersink first then drill the hole. This will create a clean countersink and avoid the chatter and rough edges. 

 Here is the clean countersunk hole complete. 

 I decided that I wanted one side of the strop with the rough side out and one with the flesh smooth side out. I will charge the rough side with compound and leave the flesh side bare for final stropping. 

 A little contact cement to bond the leather to the strop. 

Here is the completed strop all that needs to be done is to charge it with compound and it will be ready to sharpen, knives, chisels, plane irons, gouges, etc. 

Vineyard Update

March Vineyard Update

The vines are all pruned back and are currently dormant. They are waiting for spring to come and they will wake up and push new buds that will eventually produce lots of leaves and hopefully lots of great quality Syrah grapes.

 There is not a lot going on in the vineyard at this time of year. If we continue to get rain I will have to put some effort into weed control. But for now things are pretty quiet.

Once the buds show up the work starts. But for now it is a quiet time in the Vineyard.

Knife Sheath

Making a Knife Sheath.

After making my first knife it was time to make a knife sheath for it. I am left handed and always wanted to carry my  knife on my left hip. So I decided that this was the perfect opportunity to make that happen. 

First step was to create a pattern. I had an idea of the shape that I wanted but have never made a sheath like this before. So I decided to leave the material long on one side and trim it to size once I bonded and stitched the two pieces together. 

Here you can see the pattern that I made out of thin cardboard sitting on the leather prior to cutting. 

 Here is the pattern of the sheath and the rand that will protect the stitching prior to the first bonding step. 

 Here I am bonding the rand in place prior to wet forming. I use Boston Clips to hold the leather in place during the bonding.

 In preparation for wet forming I cover the blade with tape and cover the whole knife in plastic wrap to protect the wood finish from the moisture. 

 After I wet formed and bonded the leather. I punched holes for the stitching. 

 Here I am starting the stitching. I prefer to use a double needle "saddle stitch" because it makes a stronger and more reliable joint. 

 Once it was all formed and stitched I added a little embellishment, nothing too fancy just some subtle lines and a stamp. 

 Here is the finished sheath. It still needs to be oiled and treated. 

 I am quite happy with how it turned out. 

Fishing with my Son

A Morning Fishing with my Son

On Saturday I decided that it had been too long since the last time I was fishing and that I wanted to go on Sunday. I asked my Son if he wanted to go and I was pleasantly surprised when he did.

Off to the lake we headed at 6:00AM, it was a blistery 28 degrees when we left. As we launched the boat I used a towel to remove the ice from my seat. But that soon was forgotten when we hit the water.

The boat has not been in the water in about a year so there were a few issues with getting it started and a few small issues when we were on the water but we got it sorted out and were soon trolling.

We trolled into a small bay and very quickly we had a fish on. My son reeled it in and as I tried to net it the fish came off. It was about a 14" Trout and it got us really excited.

 Here is a picture of my son pulling in the first fish wearing my old parka and his Charmander hat. For those that don't know Charmander is a Pokemon. 

It was a beautiful day on the lake, as clear as can be and the water was smooth without any wind. A little cold but we soon acclimated to it. 

 The fishing was not as good as I hoped, we hooked another fish, a 15" Trout and were able to land this one. My son decided that he would feel better if we released it so back in the lake it went.

It was not a trip of big bags or great photos of fish. But I would rather have a nice day with my Son than a pile of fish any day!

Flashback Friday

Royal Deeside Stalking 2013

I was looking through a few photos the other day and I stumbled across photos from my Deer Stalking trip in 2013. My goal on that trip was to Stalk the traditional way with the Garron (The Highland Name for the Pony) used for Deer extraction. I spent lots of time researching and calling Estates to find one that still used the Pony. 

Unfortunately, times are changing and the Pony is being replaced by the mechanized Argo for extraction. Call me old fashioned but I much prefer the sound of hoofs treading across the heather to the sound and smell of a diesel engine. 

Today this Estate no longer uses the Pony (Garron) as the Argo is more cost effective. Personally I think that they are making a mistake. 

Anyway here are a few pictures of the Ponies (Garrons). 

 Here are a few pictures of my first stag of the trip.  Dan the Ponyman is taking the pony down the bottom of the glen. 

 I asked if I could lead the Pony for a little while and reluctantly they let me. 

 This is the way you should end a day Stalking, walking down the Glen behind a Pony laden with a Stag! 

 Here is my last Stag of the trip getting loaded on the Pony. The scenery was truly breathtaking and a wonderful way to end the trip. 

Getting everything secured. 

 

 Turning the Pony around to head down the hill. 

 The walk out, again this is the way you should end a Stalk

The Ponyman and his Pony on the final stretch to the larder. 

Again call me old fashioned, but give me some warm Tweed, a Highland Glen, a Stag, and a Highland Pony and I am a very happy man!

Leatherwork Tools

Organizing my Leather Working Tools

I need to make a knife sheath for the knife that I built in a previous blog post and I decided that before I start it was time to do a little organizing of my leather working tools. I built a box to hold all my leather working tools but it has been getting a little cluttered. 

So I decided to take some of the scrap leather that I have saved from previous projects and make tool holders for some of the tools that have been floating around the leather work box. 

Specifically my punches and needles. 

Here you can see my new punch holder (with ruler attachment), and my needle holder. 

 And neatly tucked away in the box

Not too bad for a few pieces of scrap leather and an evening of stitching leather on the living room floor with the family.

Automatic Clay Thrower Upgrade

Upgrading the Clay Thrower

One day I got to thinking about how great it would be to be able to use my clay thrower by myself. It would be nice to practice and work on my shooting skills without having to rely on someone to throw the pigeons for me.  I guess the other option is to get more friends, but this seemed easier. I have an automatic thrower but I still need someone to push the button to throw the birds. 

So I decided to build a circuit that would accept the input from a remote, wait a specific period of time and then launch the pigeon. This would give me the ability to press the button, then get into a shooting stance and get the shotgun ready before the pigeon launches.

I did a little research online and found that I could get an Arduino embedded processor for about $12, a remote transmitter and receiver for about $6, and a relay to switch the thrower for about $7. So off to Amazon I went and ordered a few components. 

My original plan was to have the buttons do different things. I wanted one configuration to wait 5 seconds after the button press and then launch the pigeon and the second button to wait 5 seconds after the button press then launch a pigeon, then wait 3 seconds and launch a second pigeon. 

The problem that I had was that the $6 remote that I bought had a problem with it. All of the buttons switched all of the switches. So I was not able to have the two configurations.  I guess when you make something for $6 the quality control is not that great. 

So, off to amazon I went and bought another remote. 

Here is my system wired up with the new remote receiver and mounted in the enclosure. In this case is the Arduino Processor, the Wireless Receiver for the Remote, and a Relay Board that will switch the Thrower.

I had a toggle switch with a MIL Spec arming cover laying around for years. I decided that this was the prefect project to use it on. It adds a little bit of cool factor. 

The Arduino processor is configurable with a psudo "C" code that is written on a PC and then uploaded via a USB port to the Processor. 

I have been an Engineer for over 20 years, but I have never written a line of code. I read a few tutorials online and stole some code from the Arduino example code and cobbled together the code to do what I wanted the Arduino to do. 

Button A = When A Button is pressed, wait 5 seconds and then switch the thrower for 1.3 seconds (Time needed to throw the pigeon and reset the thrower). This should throw one Pigeon

Button B = When B Button is pressed, wait 5 seconds and then switch the thrower for 1.3 seconds (Time needed to throw the pigeon and reset the thrower), wait an additional 5 seconds and then switch the thrower for 1.3 seconds (Time needed to throw the pigeon and reset the thrower). This should throw 2 Pigeons.

Here is my system, The Thrower, Battery, and My Controller. 

 Here is a close up of my switch, and the enclosure. 

 Here is a video of the thrower working. 

Button A = When A Button is pressed, wait 5 seconds and then switch the thrower for 1.3 seconds (Time needed to throw the pigeon and reset the thrower). This should throw one Pigeon

Button B = When B Button is pressed, wait 5 seconds and then switch the thrower for 1.3 seconds (Time needed to throw the pigeon and reset the thrower), wait an additional 5 seconds and then switch the thrower for 1.3 seconds (Time needed to throw the pigeon and reset the thrower). This should throw 2 Pigeons.

I guess I no longer have an excuse for my poor shooting skills.