Draw knife chest protector (possibly overkill...)

[tombear]

A while back the eldest, on seeing me trying to disembowel myself while using a draw knife on my reclaimed wood draw horse ( with the wonky back leg as perhaps i shouldn't have let a 13 year old drill the mounting hole ). knitted me a oblong of butted chain armour using steel split washers from the hardware shop. This has sat around for several years while I proceeded to very nearly maim myself. So yesterday I finally started on making a backing and harness, of sorts so i can actually use it..

The backing is 21" x 10" of 5mm veg tan which I've treated on the outside with hot beeswax rubbed in with a spoon under a hair dryer. There wasn't enough length in the biggest piece of suitable leather I have left to make integral straps at the top so I sewed on a couple of pieces of 1 1/8th" wide leather to hold the ex 1937 Pat' brass buckles I used. I filed the straps a bit thinner on the inside where they go around the buckles to make sure whatever straps I fit will be able to pass through. I used 1mm linen thread waxed by running it through a block of, well, wax for all the sewing.

I then, after marking out, punched a series of holes 1/2" apart all around, that was a pain as by then it was after a reasonable hour to be hammering so i used some plier like punches and by the end my hand was quite sore.

The most time consuming part was however fixing the chain to the backing. Starting at the top I ran some heavy, very strong butchers string from the back, through the top line of rings and back through the leather at the opposite corner. using a large eyed sailmakers needle I then proceeded to go through each of the punched holes in turn, over the string on the outside between the chain links and back through the same hole, pulling everything tight as I went along. The links have rounded edges and the string has proved to be very abrasion resistant in the past. We'll see how it goes anyway.

I did the bottom next and then the sides.

Next I will rig a padded neck strap. I'm tempted to use a spare Berghaus side pocket conversion into a small back pack strap ( the army copied them for the PLCE bergan ) but I'll have a root through the box of various straps, yokes and bits of webbing to see if anything more suitable is there.

I'm desperately short of buckles so rather than make one from scratch as i should have I used a roll pin one that wasn't perfect for the job but will do and can be replaced easily enough in the future. I'm also out of belt leather, well, belt leather that's long enough to go around me, so sewed a flat D ring ( not sure what the proper name is) that at a later date I can sew a belt end around but which for the time being I can slip a normal belt through and either punch a extra hole in near the buckle end of the belt to make a short loop with a long tail or just use the buckle as a toggle to stop the thing being pulled through.

I'm in two minds weather to back the whole thing with glued on felt, probably not as I tend to wear thick shirts anyway.

Anyroad house work to do so that's all for now.

ATB

Tom

 

[Muddypaws]

Nice work! But it probably is a little bit overkill. Still, if it makes you (or your nearest and dearest) feel safer when using the drawknife then it is going to do a good job.

 

[tombear]

Yeah, the 5mm leather, especially if Id completely immersed it in the hot beeswax would have been enough, maybe with a couple of strips of reinforcing. Still, he'd gone to the trouble of making it and I can always make a H shaped leather harness to fit norms and they could us it as part of a Mad Max type fancy dress costume, rubber tyre shoulder pads bolted to a biker jacket sort of thing.

It will get used as intended as well, If any one laughs I can hit them with it!

It reminds me I need to replace the perished plastic bits on the German chain mail butchers glove I got on a flea, now that's had a lot of used but the red plastic straps that the presstuds are fitted to hold it closed have gone brittle and broken up. I hang them from a beam in front of a window when not in use, D'oh! Easy enough to replace with leather.

ATB

Tom

 

[Robson Valley]

Excellent. I predict that the layer of leather will be warmer (as you work) than you expect.
I can't see the need to back the leather and make it any heavier than it must be, right now.

Just don't get feeling immortal and get loose and sloppy with the draw knife.
Those and carving adzes are the makings of really bad news.

Is the metal loose enough that you can pick out the wood chips and splinters?

I'll predict also that a slip and you hit that armour and the edge on your draw knife will need repairs!

I, to, wear a chest-protecting bib apron. Reclaimed suitcase canvas. Ordinary apron design.
I like wood carving with the typical crooked knives used here in the Pacific Northwest.
Pull strokes, sometime a blade digs in, give it an extra tug and whack! I take a curved edge in the chest, right through a good shirt.
The canvas has done well as a protector.
The pencil pockets are horizontal near the top edge and the junk pockets are on the body side at the bottom.
They work = no dust or chips.

 

[snappingturtle]

Your going to end up looking like some crazed nut from a horror film so I'm all for it, make sure you answer you door often as possible with said amour on, Ho and some kind of leather face / gas mask

 

[tombear]

Well cheers for using a future tense....

I do have a arctic warfare face mask thing which looks decidedly pervey and that, with the chest protector, a replica of a Roman loin cloth and a pair of foundry clogs and a couple of longseax should have the desired effect on any burglar....

Anyroad, today I picked up a suitable leather belt which I unpicked and sewed back on the D ring and since the buckle I'd taken off was stronger and shinier than the one I'd already fitted I swapped that in with the loop thing.

I added a couple more holes to the end and i'll add some more when i've seen where they need to go for norms.

I'm not going anywhere tomorrow so I'll find a yoke to go on it then.

ATB

Tom

 

[tombear]

Been out enjoying myself in the sun so its taken until today to finish the harness. I back stitched with thick linen a tube of medium thick soft canvas, turned it inside out and then cut a strip of old karrimat to just fit and pulled that into the tube with a looong pair of tweezers leaving about a inch and a half empty at both ends. The hems I folded in and saddle stitched together. I wetted the lot and allowed it to dry stretching every thing tight. I then cut a couple of straps from the 5mm veg tan, and a couple of oblongs of thinner stuff to back it with and marked out where I wanted the stitches to be with a big 4 to the inch punch. Rather than get the boot wax on the canvas I pre waxed the 4 leather bits and and buffed off what wasn't absorbed under the hair dryer. I then saddle stitched through the strap, both layers of canvas and the thin backing leather with waxed 1mm.linen thread..

We fitted it to the chest piece and shortened then trimmed the straps so it just fits over my big fat head.

I was delighted to find that the waist belt (gut belt would be more accurate) takes nearly all of the weight when standing and since my girth expands when I bend, all of the weight when I am sat, so much so that I can bob my head forward and the neck strap isn't in contact at all!

Rather than fake a photo of it in use ( I haven't really got any need to use the draw horse and knives at this very moment and won't have until I've sawn some hawthorn and sycamore to rough size, so you will have to wait for a action shot. I, of course, look a complete ------- in it but that's never stopped me wearing owt in the past.

ATB

Tom