Mulesaw

In order to celebrate that it is finally weekend, I decided to spend the evening on board making a diamond awl from bit and pieces I could find. The steel is from an old needle gun (rust picking gun) The ferrule is a small piece of copper pipe. The handle is turned from an old lignum vitae cringle from the rigging. First I filed the diamond shape in the needle. It is steel that is just annealed so much that I can work it. I didn't want to harden it anymore, because I have earlier tried that with the result that it became too brittle, and I haven't really got any good ways of annealing it properly out here (I don't want to get into bad standing by the galley department by using their oven). If it will become a problem in the future, I'll just try to harden it while it is mounted on the handle. The handle was turned in the lathe, and the ferrule was hand formed over a small die that I had turned for the same purpose. Now I just need to get home and see if it works as I imagined. Old cringle made out of lignum vitae. Turning the basic shape of the handle. Getting ready to mount the steel and the ferrule. The finished awl. The awl itself is 3 mm thick (approximately 1/8") The ferrule should have been a bit closer to the handle, but it was my first experiment with this type of formed ferrule. The little imperfection on the handle is left on purpose to acknowledge that it is made out of an old worn piece of equipment.

That looks like a good setup. I haven't thought about using an old PC power supply, but I think that I'll copy your idea on that one instead of using the large battery charger at home. As I have understood it, using sodium carbonate and regular steel/iron as a cathode, will be the safest method. the gas emitted is CO2, and the end solution will be something that you can use to spread on your lawn, and it will help against moss growing, I think you can buy iron vitriol (might not be the correct name in English), in gardening centers, and that is what will eventually be in the tank. Some people use stainless steel as a cathode, but then you'll get a bit of chromium in the solution which supposedly isn't quite as good for the environment.

looking good!

If you are going to do the electrolysis, I think you need to be careful not to let the brass part of the handle touch the water/soda solution. I think it might damage the brass before removing any rust.

If you want to do the electrolysis rust removing, here's what I have tried with success: Mix water and soda (natrium carbonate) in a bucket Put a piece of metal in the bottom of the container where you will be doing the electrolysis. I use an old piece of steel netting. Connect the positive terminal from a car battery or a battery charger to the metal in the bottom of the container. Pour in the water/soda mixture Suspend the rusted item in the mixture, it must not touch the metal in the bottom. Connect the negative terminal from the battery or the charger to the rusted item. After a bit of time (depending on voltage, concentration of the system etc), you will see bubbles and something like a layer forming on the surface above the rusted item. I let it sit for a day or so. Then remove the electrical connections and take the de-rusted piece out of the solution. There will be a black layer on the surface that I normally remove with a scotch brite pad. Note that some electronic type battery chargers won't work, presumably because they can't see any voltage at all and hence won't start. (I bought a charger from Lidl that did just that). I have also de-rusted plane irons by immersing them in regular household vinegar over the night. Again the rust turns into a black powder that is removed with a scotch brite pad. For smaller items such as a knife blade, I'd go with the vinegar. I doubt that any of the epoxies such as Belzona or Wencon etc. will work for sharpening. I have used them for repairing worn shafts that would sit in a bearing, or pitted pump housings, but they are not metal, so I would leave the pittings and look at them as character of that particular knife. Bgrds Jonas

My saddle on my motorcycle is made of veg tan leather that has only been treated with neatsfoot oil. That has held up for the last 27 years so far. I have reapplied some oil to the saddle every now and then, but that is all. I think the colour of the sheath is dyed brown from the tannery, but I am pretty sure that it too has been given some oil over the years. Normally the leather stuff on our ship would get either tallow or something called lanopro wire oil. But that is just what we use here. Brgds Jonas

I'd go for pure neatsfoot oil. I just checked with our bosun, and here's a picture of his sheath. It is a nice touch to make room for a marlinspike in the side, and the D-ring for securing the knife and the marlinspike when working aloft.

Nothing like a successful experiment :-)

It might take a bit of a different approach to cut out your templates compared to masonite. A fine toothed jigsaw or a fretsaw might be needed. Good luck with your quest!

After replacing a zipper in our son's riding boots just using a regular sewing machine, I purchased an old Singer 29K51 patcher to make it a bit easier to do. I told my son that if any of his friends needed to have a zipper replaced in their boots, I'd be happy to try to do it. And I guestimated on a price including a zipper. The zippers on riding boots take a lot of beating, and new boots are expensive plus needs to be broken in before they are really comfortable. So a lot of riders will gladly pay to have the zipper replaced instead of investing in new boots. Depending on the make and model of the boot it takes between one hour to two hours to replace a zipper. I charge a fixed amount for the job and I provide the zipper, that way I don't end up with some weird zipper that doesn't work very well. After repairing a few boots, someone asked my son if I could repair horse blankets as well, and he immediately said yes. I looked into it, and since the blankets were washed and clean, it wasn't difficult to do the repairs on them. I had to purchase a bit of hardware to replace what might be missing. The patcher excels in those repairs, and though only a few of the blankets actually sport leather straps for closing, it is still a nice an doable job. It is just a hobby business for me, but I like to repair stuff and word gets around in the local horse community, so in my small business, I have managed to pay for two old patchers, a bunch of hardware and extra zippers, sewing thread etc. and still have a decent overall profit. I occasionally have a few repair jobs on leather equipment like headstalls and saddles, but boot repairs is a great way to start. I try to repair the boots within a day or two which is really appreciated by the riders compared to sending the boots away and having to wait a couple of weeks to get it done. When they come to pick up the boots I always make sure to tell them that I repair horse blankets too, and since the boots will likely last for a couple of years again before the zipper will be worn out once more, having a steady work of horse blankets is nice. So if you have an old patcher standing idle, I'd suggest buying a couple of zippers and try to contact some of the riders of your local horse club and let them know that you can replace a worn out zipper. I have only needed two lengths of zippers so far: 40 and 45 cm (15.75" and 17.75").

I'm not sure about the price, but I had a transparent protection plate to put under my office chair a couple of years back. It was not brittle and I think that might be better for your templates than regular masonite. Here's a link for one that Ikea is selling (it's the Norwegian Ikea page). https://www.ikea.com/no/no/p/kolon-gulvbeskytter-44881100/ It is smaller than a masonite plate, and more expensive, but if it would hold up better I guess it might be worth trying. Brgds Jonas

Looking good!

Thanks for the nice comments. @Dwight I can see that you Case knife has been used a lot :-) . There is a certain character in a tool that has done some real work, so I hope that when I see those boys again that there will be few telltales that they have actually used the tools. I didn't bring my travel leather tool kit with me this time which was obviously a mistake, especially since two of our new volunteers have already started making marlinspikes. They asked me the firsta day that I got back if it was possible to make those, (one of the regular crew had told them that I didn't mind helping in such a project). Brgds Jonas

Last time on board, I helped our volunteers make marlinspikes. the basic form was the same, but each made the head of the marlinspike according to his/her own idea. some were made with wood and one made a pressed leather head, and one chose for a fancy brass/copper head. I had brought with me a small set of leather working tools, just so that I could make the breast collar for my son's horse while I stayed at the quarantine hotel, and for some reason We ended up talking a bit about working leather. The volunteers are sort of 19-22 years old and neither of them had done any leatherwork earlier on. I explained how they could make a sheath - and one guy tried it. It was an instant success, so the rest of them also wanted to make sheaths. The first volunteer then asked me if it was possible to make a sheath for his knife as well? And I explained that it was certainly possible. So I helped him turn a Sam Browne button on the metal lathe, and he used that for the closing mechanism. A sheath for a pocket knife was made too. One other guy also made a sheath for his knife, and he did a really nice job, also since he had seen me polish the edges, so he ended up doing the same as well. All in all I managed to introduce leatherworking for a bunch of youngsters and they were happy with their own results and rightfully proud of what they made. Laurids' and Simon's marlinspikes Simon's sheath for his pocket knife. Aske's marlinspike and knife sheaths Fancy head of marlinspike Secured for working in the rigging

I'd say that the workmanship looks best on the upper dark holster. Here are my thoughts on the two compared to each other: The sewing looks to be more consistent on the dark holster in that that the lines seem "straighter" and the distance to the edge is more even compared to the light holster. On the light holster, a lot of the sewing is too near to the edge on the top of the holster, compared to what it is on the lower part of it. The holes for the belt loops look better on the dark holster. The light holster have some issues with the rounded ends of the strap holes. most notably on the upper hole. On the light holster, the reinforcement piece has got a nice little "peak" that I think looks good. But due to the stitching not having a hole at the same spot, the stitching sort of blurs this little detail. Maybe the peak should have been a smidge higher, and then there should have been a stitching hole exactly in line with the peak. That way the stitching would have accentuated the shape of the reinforcement piece. Carvings or no carvings is a matter of personal taste, just like the colour of the leather. So any opinion on that would just be my personal opinion and that is not really constructive criticism. But all that said, I still think the holsters are looking good, and the most important thing is that they hold the gun they were designed to do. Brgds Jonas

This really made my day :-) The only one I can think of was a coworker who once told me that - If you can't do anything else, you can always be a bad example.

I didn't know that there was a special tool for making round reins. The round parts that I have made, I have made by wrapping the leather round a small piece, then done some hidden saddlestitching through the side. Right now one halter is missing since my wife's horse decided to ditch his in the mud somewhere. I guess I'll have to make a new one at some point. Brgds Jonas

Nice and clean looking halter. I like it when the throat latch (or whatever the name of it is) is made as a round piece.

Done, Good luck :-) brgds Jonas

Hi Søren, I live on the island of Mors in the northwest of Jutland. So far from Copenhagen, but close to.. hmmm nothing really :-) Cheers Jonas

You are really moving forward on this project! Thyregod green is a nice colour. I just thought of Reseda green since most of my woodworking machines are that colour. I think it used to be sort of a standard machine colour for e.g. tablesaws and bandsaws etc. Brgds Jonas

I think that Laederiet has got all you'll need. They haven't marked out stuff for BDSM, but I guess it is mainly D-rings and carabiners etc. They also have lockable buckles. https://www.laederiet.dk/produkter/98-seletoejsspaender/4142-dbrullespaende/ That could probably be used too. I have rarely looked for hardware for bags since I do mostly equine stuff, but they have a ton of different hardware. May I suggest that your order their physical catalogue, somehow I find it easier to browse through a paper catalogue compared to do it on the computer. It is free of charge if you order anything from them, you can also pick it up if you visit their store, but right now due to the pandemic, the store is closed for visitors.

Beautiful work. I really like the round detail of the closing hasp. it looks great combined with the leather covered rivet you added.

I would start out making a leather halter. The easiest and cheapest way to do that in my experience is to either find an old halter in the stable that has a broken carabiner. You buy a new carabiner and then you simply copy that halter 1:1 using leather instead of the nylon webbing and reusing all the old pieces of hardware on the halter. Most of the cheap everyday halters are made out of 25 mm nylon straps (webbing), so you would be well under way if you got yourself some 25 mm leather straps. If you can't find a broken halter in the stable (or if you don't have access to a stable, then just buy a new cheap halter and do the same, in that case you have all the necessary hardware on hand, and you have a live functioning model so you can se how it should be put together. Most people in the horse world I know uses a nylon halter for everyday use like getting the horse to and from the paddocks, and then when it is time for some competition you put on a nice leather halter. https://www.horze.dk/grimer/horze-howard-grime/22244.html#color=RBBR https://www.horze.dk/grimer/horze-basic-grime/22239.html#color=BL The first link would make a nice halter project, and the buckles for the neck strap would work just as well in leather. the second link is cheaper but the neck buckle might not work that well for leather. Depending on if your daughter has got any friends with horses, or does riding herself etc. I would suggest making a size of halter that would fit any horse that she may know and hopefully have access to. If she has got a friend that has a pony, well then buying and making a pony size would be ideal, there is a special sense of pride in seeing a horse wearing something that you have made, and it will be equally frustrating to have made a really nice halter size X full, just to realize that no one within 3 hours drive has got a Clydesdale, a Suffolk Punch or a Shire that you could try the piece out on. Good look and have fun.

Laederiet.dk also has a lot of hardware, I have bought from them several times and I like them. They are not super cheap, but the service is great. It also depends on what type of hardware you are looking for? Is it for saddles or belts or bags etc? I haven't bought anything from Pethardware or Abbey, so I don't know about those.