Search the Community

This time on board I decided to make a marlinspike for myself. And a sheath for it as well. The marlinspike is turned on the lathe from an old steel bolt for fastening the cylinder head to the main engine. It is just shy of 12". The ball end is 1.25" in diameter, and the body tapers from 19/32" to 1/4" right at the tip. In addition to being conical, the body gradually becomes oval nearing the tip of the marlinspike. A D-ring of bronze was silver soldered in place in the shaft, and I made a similar D-ring that could be mounted on the sheath so that the safety lanyard can attach directly to the sheath. There are different rules on different ship regarding the safety lanyard. Some ships require the lanyard to end around your belt only, but others will allow you to fasten it to such a D-ring. The sheath is made with a flat back. A wedge shaped piece of leather was sewn on it for two reasons. First it would move the marlinspike a bit outwards, which in my thinking will cause it to clear the hip of the wearer just a bit. Second - it would give a backing rabbet for the round outer part to register to. The outer part was cut wedge shaped, so that the sheath tapers in thickness as well as in width all the way. I sewed it on using diagonal through stitches (or whatever they are called). Entry on the side and out through the back. After sewing the sheath, I wanted to trim the little bit of surplus leather along the sides, but due to crappy weather and bad illumination of the workplace, one side messed up a bit. I had to redo a couple of stitches, and it doesn't look quite as nice as I had imagined. But with a bit of wear and tear it will look all right I think.

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