Well, I’ve put the wood carving project away for a while. I’m going to have to wait until I get some more wood before I attempt to improve on my diabolical efforts of carving wood spirits.

I did get a kind message from Dave from Woodwosecarving . He offered assistance and I think I’m going to need it!

Over the last few weeks I’ve been collecting a few leather working bits and bobs. My first attempt at leather working was to try and make a sheath for the EKA Nordic W11.

I generally copied the design of the sheath that came with the knife, but I wanted to add a firesteel holder and dangler belt loop. So I duly cut out the bits. I nearly forgot the welt  but luckily remembered before I started sewing it all together.

I used the edge beveller to er… bevel the edges. Perhaps I should have done this later.

I then made a groove with this adjustable groove making thingy. This enabled me to use a smart-looking wheel whatsit. This makes an indent in the leather to assist in making holes for the stitching.

After wetting the leather, I used some embossing stamps and tools to make a pattern.

I then folded over the sheath, added the welt and the firesteel holder. It was difficult to hold it all together and perhaps I should have made the holes first or used glue to hold it together. In the end I used a couple of bulldog clips to clamp the edges while I made the holes.

I then stitched it together using pre-waxed thread and two needles. Apparently this is called double-stitch or saddle stitch. I’m not showing you the back of the sheath because I made a mistake and missed a hole. It looks crap but it’s doing it’s job.

I trimmed up the edges (perhaps now was the time to use the edge beveller) and after wetting the edges again, I used a metal spoon to smooth them out.

I made a dangler belt loop and fixed it to the sheath with leather thong. I used a cool but expensive multi-punch hole maker to punch out the holes.

I’ve decided that the stuff I will wear myself (if it’s good enough of course) will be dyed a tan colour to keep it all consistent. I thought it would be an idea to bring out the embossing with antique finish paste. I read this in a book. The idea is to give the leatherwork an old, distressed look (like its owner).

I re-wet the leather and shaped the sheath around the knife . This is called wet-forming and should make the knife fit snugly in the sheath. This should perhaps be done before the dyeing. I’m going to have to get a list from someone to tell me what order is best to do things.

After leaving it over night to dry naturally, I rubbed it gently with some sandpaper and polished and waxed the sheath to give it a little waterproofing . I will buy some natural polish later to shine it up a touch.

I’m quite pleased with the result and had great fun doing it. I made lots of mistakes and certainly I could have done a few things differently but not bad for a first attempt. Better than the wood spirits anyway!

I’m getting irritable. Twitchy, moody and irritable. There’s talk of Birch tapping. The sun has been out. The temperature is up and the catkins are drooping in their fresh green finery. I even heard a lawn-mower going a few days ago. And I’m still sitting here with a cast on! Is it really 128 days (a third of a year) since the original Achilles Tendon Injury?

I am forbidden to put any weight on this last cast under any circumstances. The last time when my foot was manoeuvred into the “neutral” or flat position I was given a shoe and I was allowed to wander around. Not this time.

Well, the good news is that there’s only one more week to go. Next Friday I will have the final cast removed. The consultant warned me that I will be going back into the Aircast for a while, but at least it will be weight-bearing and I will be mobile again. I suspect I will be able to take it off every now and again to build up the muscles around the injury. I agree that this time I’ve got to be ultra cautious and for a month or so the Aircast will be staying on when I go on any trip to the woods.

Of course I’m glad that this is coming to an end. So is my bank manager. I’ve spent a small fortune on leather-making stuff! Mind you if it wasn’t for the injury I wouldn’t have discovered it or had the opportunity to practice.

So far I’ve made a sheath for my EKA W11, a laplander saw holder, a large possible pouch (in a sporran style) an axe holder and a notebook cover. They could all be improved especially the stitching.

I’ve called this series “Antique Oak”. I’ll now move on and produce something in a different style. Not sure what yet. The Badger print embossing tool was kindly manufactured by Jim (Kerne) over at BCUK.

Thanks for the visit.

Pablo.

Although I have a few bits of the most up to date textiles and plastics in some of my kit I still prefer leather, wool and wood. Not only are they functional in a traditional way but they are also aesthetically pleasing and come within the ethos of the what I like to consider is the spirit of bushcraft and wilderness living.

There are a couple of drawbacks with using these materials though. Firstly, they tend to be heavier than modern plastics and fibres and fabrics, which is why I don’t really use them a great deal when going light or when tracking. The second drawback is that they take a little bit of breaking-in and maintaining.

Every six months or so I give my wood and leather an overhaul usually in spring and autumn. This is in addition to the more regular chore of ensuring that after each excursion, blades and axes are wiped down and sharpened and any leather and wood is likewise wiped down and clean.

For the natural woods i.e. axe handles and handles of knives I use a very fine sandpaper and gently rub the surface of the wood. I like to keep the grubby patina on the wood so I don’t rub too hard. I then give the handle a thin coating of boiled linseed oil.

Some people prefer other oil coatings such as Danish oil and they use a piece of wire wool to knead the oil into the wood. If you use linseed oil it’s important that it isn’t applied too thickly or it will take too long to dry and the handle will become slippery and dangerous to use (especially when the hand is sweating or during wet weather).

I don’t tend to do much else with the handle as it should be well maintained from new. As soon as I buy an axe I soak the head in a bucket of anti-freeze for 72 hours. This will forever seal the axe head on to the handle. The water will make the wood swell and the anti-freeze will make it stay swollen.

A tip I learnt was to remember this little ditty for applying linseed oil to new axes handles:

“Once a day for a week, once a week for a month, once a month for a year and once a year for life.”

If you follow this then a little annual maintenance is all that’s needed. I use a coating of walnut oil for any wooden spoons I use. This is the only oil I really trust for use with or near food stuffs.

Many folk apply renaissance wax to their blades. I tend not to do this, but I do check to make sure carbon blades aren’t rusting. If I’m not going to use a blade for a while, I’ll coat it in a thin layer of oil before returning to a dry sheath.

You can’t beat giving leather items a good polish, especially leather footwear. Boots made completely of leather aren’t really in vogue nowadays, however I still use a pair of Rogue Rangers and Bison tracker boots both of which are leather. After cleaning them and giving them a polish I gently warm up the leather in the sun (or on a radiator) and apply a bit of leather wax. Finally, I apply a coat of dubbin.

The dubbin works for leather sheaths and pouches as well. It puts back a little moisture and nourishment back in the leather and provides a degree of protection against moisture and water.

I believe that wood and leather are there for a purpose and not purely for show, but it doesn’t do any harm to shine up your kit and make an effort to maintain it now and again. I’ve found that you will be rewarded by the effort.

All the best,

Pablo.

With the promise of a much needed down-pour, I decided to stay around the cave this weekend and not go to the woods. Mrs P christened it the cave because it’s so cold in winter and (allegedly) I’m too mean to put the heating on.

I wandered over to the badger sett on Saturday morning and trimmed back the undergrowth. I wondered how the badgers would react but I thought I would try. The trouble is, if I left it there’s no way I would be able to see them until the autumn. I spent a little time looking around the entrance studying some of the badger hair which was there in abundance.

They certainly knew something was wrong when I went to the sett in the evening. It wasn’t until 9 o’clock when they made an appearance. The first out was the female adult. She was very skittish and kept darting back into the sett. The boar wasn’t so bothered. He came out and went straight down the embankment and started foraging in the field. A white/grey badger bottom was all that was presented to the camera!

I thought I would leave them to it. I’ll leave it for a few days until I visit again. On the way back I was distracted by the Barn owl quartering the field. I followed him for a good twenty minutes in the Land Rover, watching him work hard, flying at low level and then suddenly stopping to hover for a while over potential prey. In that time, I didn’t see him catch anything.

The much needed rain came on Sunday morning. I was determined to clean up my studio and clear the floor of camo and bushcraft kit, but I got distracted by an idea to make a small pouch for my SAK. At the moment the SAK resides in an Opinel pouch. It’s a good fit but it really needs a dangler system as it digs in when I’m wearing a backpack. I enjoyed listening to the heavy rain whilst working away on the leather.

It wasn’t long until I’d knocked something up. I wasn’t too pleased about the embossing, but it’s at least functional.

Mmmmm… I still didn’t get round to cleaning my room!

Thanks for the visit.

The start of the bank holiday saw me in my studio finishing off the leather sheath for my new leatherman.

I bought the leatherman at the Gathering. There was a certain amount of head scratching as I tried to tried to duplicate the nylon case and its sleeve for the extra bit drivers. I also wanted a space for a small fire steel and some tiny tweezers to extract splinters which I know I will miss from the Swiss Army Knife.

After a few weeks I’ll do a comparison between the two. The sheath didn’t turn out too bad. The stitching still isn’t straight yet, but at least it’s reasonably strong. The sheath is designed to go horizontally on the belt.

On Sunday I went into Poor Park woods. I saw all the usual suspects including a fox, which I was pleased about. Rob, the ex-gamekeeper, likes to keep the foxes down which I know is necessary, but I like to see a few about. This was a sign that they were still in the neighbourhood.

The harvest has been safely gathered in and the fields are already ploughed in readiness for planting the spring crops.

I saw the fallow herd but only at a distance. They were all together this time and I counted about 15 animals including five or six fawns. I’d only seen two fawns on previous occasions. A Muntjac paid me a visit as I set up the hammock. I could hear him but not see him. I climbed into the hammock and promptly dozed off in the afternoon sun.

Today I mooched about in Park Woods. These are  my small local woods. I’ve been so busy this year that I’ve hardly visited this narrow strip of woodland. I seemed to have missed a whole season in these woods and I was amazed that now, at the end of summer, coupled with the recent dry spell, the undergrowth of tall nettles had literally been vanquished. The secret clearing was almost transparent and I could nearly see through to the south side from the northern edge.

I pinged a few arrows with the Samick bow to keep in practice, but gave up when one rebounded off a long log. I spent a good 20 minutes looking for it and, as usual, realised that you should always look farther than you think to find that missing arrow!

The dried bed of a usually large puddle showed up some good badger tracks.

The blackberries were out and I noticed a few gnawed hazelnuts on the ground.

As I came out of the woods, the heat hit me as I walked towards the car. Autumn might be just around the corner but summer wasn’t done yet.

Thanks for the visit.

Pablo.