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  • Come along to the amazing Summer Moot (21st July - 2nd August), a festival of bushcrafting and camping in a beautiful woodland PLEASE CLICK HERE for more information.
  1. ESpy

    Leather gouge alternative?

    DIY ;) http://www.homestead.com/beknivessite2/leathergouges.html This is a fairly simple project taking next to no tools, which is nice. As for stitch marking - rather than just using the ruler, if you get a pair of dividers it'll make layout a bit faster.
  2. ESpy

    Sussex New Year Meet

    Would have liked to have made it, but unfortunately I'm off skiing. Given this is my first time, I'll probably spend most of my time sitting down in the snow (or maybe making a snow hole?).
  3. ESpy

    Help I cant Dye!

    First off, make sure your leather is clean. Degrease it with some isopropanol too. Then, you have a couple of choices: 1) Dip dye. Immerse the entire item in dye, gets a very even deep coat, but uses a lot of dye. 2) Spray. Use an airbrush or some sort of sprayer, mist it over. Not...
  4. ESpy

    CRK Mountaineer 1

    I'm sure I've said it before somewhere, but I really, really despise Compeed plasters. The last time I used them it was in relatively warm conditions (35-40C) and the blasted things dissolved to goo on my feet rather than do any actual good. As far as mini torches goes, the Fenix range...
  5. ESpy

    Walking with an air rifle in public?

    The last time I had to walk around in public with an air rifle, I carried it in a nondescript plastic gun case. *I* thought it was obvious what I had, but everyone who asked me assumed it was a snooker cue...
  6. ESpy

    Scrimshaw (Teach me how!)

    Stepping briskly away from the pun, here's a couple more links on techniques: http://www.gustavus.com/heidi/scrim.html http://www.marinearts.com/Pages/scrimshaw_technique.htm http://www.scrimshaw.com/id12.html http://www.lahainascrimshaw.com/history.html (lousy layout under Firefox)...
  7. ESpy

    ESpy's request: salmonskin

    Now I've finally had time to read this, it's about time I said thank-you! This has raised even more questions, I'm afraid - how long should the skins be in the tanning solutions? Given the size of a salmon, is the quantity of brains really enough to do a whole skin? How many egg yolks to a...
  8. ESpy

    Reindeer Leather.

    Only just noticed that bit... I have a lot of info on Western bootmaking (including a fairly full treatise on the subject), the only thing that has scuppered me to date is availability of lasts. Short of reproducing a foot (with the correct heel lift) in e.g. pine, I really don't know enough...
  9. ESpy

    Scrimshaw (Teach me how!)

    Seaxy, isn't it?
  10. ESpy

    Scrimshaw (Teach me how!)

    A quick jaunt to Siberia, a good shovel and you're away :) I haven't yet found a UK supplier that provided terribly good examples of mammoth ivory. There's a guy by the name of Bob Hergert over at http://www.scrimshander.com - he has some details (and also a very good DVD). From what I've...
  11. ESpy

    Scrimshaw (Teach me how!)

    Plastic teaspoons are a nice cheap source for scrimshaw material - and recyclable too. Essentially, all you need is a needle (preferably in a handle) and a tube of black oil paint. Incise, coat with paint, wipe off the excess leaving paint in the recesses. I use stipple (on the rare occasions...
  12. ESpy

    BB help needed

    Flipping 'eck! We got the same times on both posts!
  13. ESpy

    BB help needed

    Done! Added a post on the end.
  14. ESpy

    Striker Knife

    I've made the odd one or two, yes. Tend to go for a slightly wider blade than that, and sometimes put twists into the handle (which makes them prettier but less useful as strikers).
  15. ESpy

    Blade-Tech Sharpener

    They're not something I'd use on a decent knife - they work by tearing steel off at a far larger rate than even a coarse stone, resulting in rapid wear of the blade & invariably a burred edge. They're the sort of thing I use on shears & the like.
  16. ESpy

    want to start bushcraft, wheres a good place to start

    Er... I might have a couple of crates of the stuff somewhere... :D
  17. ESpy

    Wet forming a sheath HELP

    Excellent news! Glad you like it. That dye is probably the most even black you'll find, even compared against the oil dyes that Fiebings produce - and it won't rub off.
  18. ESpy

    Parangs

    Cheers for that Bod, that gives me a few ideas... What sort of thickness spine do those tend to have? And are any of them concave/convex along the length of the blade?
  19. ESpy

    Reindeer Leather.

    I'd be very interested in hearing more about tanning salmon skin in particular. Could I interest you in starting a thread in the DIY & Traditional Crafts about it?
  20. ESpy

    Reindeer Leather.

    The salmon leather is incredible - I just need to come up with an excuse, um, application for it. Ostrich I'd want for inlays.