Well, I managed to continue the trend of splitting the head on my needle, but unlike everyone else I split it in two places completely removing the top. Oops
I decided that instead of repairing it, I'd use my knowledge gained from the first one and make my second even better. I'd agree with everyone else that it was a good project for getting to grips with some different cuts and some lateral thinking about how to avoid cutting against the grain and getting a nice finish.
I made mine from some Lime that I picked up on-line for learning to whittle and carve and it was a dream even though it was as dried and seasoned as a really dried and seasoned thing. The only tools I used were my Svord Peasant Knife Mini and my Large Pick Knife from Ben Orford. I begun by splitting a width of wood off the Lime block by driving the Svord through it, tapping the back of the blade into the block with a big old bit of branch I had lying about. I then continued with the basic shaping with the Svord until I had all of the rough cutting done. I moved on to the Orford Pick Knife to clean up the rougher cuts in the corners as its nice thin point allowed for good clean cross grain cuts. Once I'd finished I tried my best to remove any large tool marks from the flat surfaces, clearing off and raised areas or raggedness from wayward against the grain cuts. I then used the back of my knife to burnish over the tool marks that remained around the threading area to smooth it all out.
Once finished I was so pleased with how it turned out I couldn't resist trying to sign my piece. I liked the idea of using runic characters as freehand carving anything with a curve seemed beyond me, so I transliterated my last name into Elder Futhark and used that as a signature. I'm unsure if this is how runic characters are supposed to be used - each character appears to have it's own meaning? - so if anyone has any better ideas, please feel free to correct me!
Anyways, enough babble; on with the finished result!
I apologise for the quality of the picture, I took it on my way out of the house this morning and I've done my best to rescue a reasonable picture from my phone's terrible low light camera. I'm quite happy with how it turned out, but I doubt it'd be much use as an actual net needle as the proportions are all wrong, but as a carving project it was great. I might try and make another at a more appropriate size and try out some net knots and see how I get on - I might even try for a hammock!
Mike