Mors' try-stick

[Mesquite]

I was going through some pictures and found these pics that I'd forgotten about.

It's a try stick carved by the great man himself. I took them when I attended a course with him 2 1/2 years ago.

When I have some spare time I think I'll give it a go

 

[Whittler Kev]

Nice vid here of Mor's butterfly cut and usage
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q5bUdRq_9Nk

 

[Laurentius]

Ecky thump, without a decent carpenters square 'ow is 'e gonna know 'is square is square, some kinda high funtioning mason mebee?

 

[Retired Member southey]

That is ace, what a fantastic joint,

 

[superc0ntra]

Now I know what I'll be doing this weekend....

 

[Minotaur]

I found this thread quite annoying as nobody has said what magazine you are talking about, what the plans look like & it was only until I could see a picture (the 1st one had a broken link) that I knew what you were all talking about. Perhaps it would be better to give a bit more detail in the opening post for things like this, as a lot of readers will probably be in the same position as me, wondering what was being talked about..

I can see what you mean about the skill level required, as some of those notches are amazing & i would find then quite hard to do on a workbench. This seems be be several levels up from carving a spoon, which is a daunting enough task for newbies. Time I got myself a spoon knife & got started on this wood carving stuff.

I think the point is to practice the basics to make things like spoon caving easier.

This has some nice close up images.

 

[Waldganger]

well I made a chicken

 

[BOD]

Phew doing a trystick is easy. Doing the videos and text is killing!

Well here is Mors’s nock for the trystick. Useful for reels, pegs etc.

Got my camera girl to video this. She got kind of stressed part way when her mum started asking why the cat was in the garbage and her attention wandered.




The video isn’t all that clear so I added some pics after she left. Make a vertical stop cut on each side of the stick. Use a baton or hand

Cut an oblique cut down to the stop cut .

Widen and deepen as needed on both sides

Make another two stop cuts at 90 degrees to each other further up the stick. Widen and deepen as needed.

Push tip of blade into V as deep as needed (at least half way) on both sides

Go back to first pair of cuts. Push blade carefully down to end of the stop cut and lever up carefully so split runs to the second pair of stop cuts. Do for both sides.

Press down on tip of stick and push blade into the V notch in either of the second pair of stop cuts. End of stick should break off cleanly.

Cut peg (in this case to desired length) and tidy up if that way inclined

Use peg

 

[MSkiba]

had a quick google coudnt find it.

what is the purpose of such stick?

 

[Retired Member southey]

to practise different cuts and techniques when carving simple but efficient joints/knocks and butts.

 

[shaggystu]

could someone enlighten me about the "butterfly cut"? i'm guessing that it's the one that's shaped like......erm......a bow tie
there's a link to a youtube vid but youtube tells me that i'm using an outdated browser (which pleases me no end!) i'm consumed with curiosity and starting to go a little mad trying to work out what a butterfly cut could be used for, please help.

cheers

stuart

 

[Whittler Kev]

could someone enlighten me about the "butterfly cut"? i'm guessing that it's the one that's shaped like......erm......a bow tie
there's a link to a youtube vid but youtube tells me that i'm using an outdated browser (which pleases me no end!) i'm consumed with curiosity and starting to go a little mad trying to work out what a butterfly cut could be used for, please help.

cheers

stuart

The pages 116 to 128 of the Bush Craft book cover why you need the different cuts .
The butterfly cut is on P128 - Interlocking notches used with weak lashing materials

 

[Retired Member southey]

forth pic down on Mesquite's post at the top of page to, on the right hand side, if you make two butterfly cuts in two sticks/logs, then rotate one through 90o you then knock the together and the fit into each others cuts to make a joint, look fantastically simple but i bet it's bloody strong.

 

[shaggystu]

thanks chaps

stuart

 

[shaggystu]

...... Interlocking notches used with weak lashing materials

......look fantastically simple but i bet it's bloody strong.

i've just had a bash at one of these joints and i'm impressed, as stated this is a fantastically simpe joint (looking at the time of my last post it's taken me half an hour including making tea and rolling fags) but bloody strong. absolutely perfect for using with weak lashings.

i'm glad i learned this one, i can see me using it again and again.

cheers

stuart

 

[shaggystu]

so after having a try at the butterfly joint yesterday i was left with a fair bit of uncarved stick, i thought i'd try a few of the various cuts that i've seen on other folks try-sticks.

firstly a close up of the butterfly joint

my try-stick(s)

sorry about the poor quality pics, i'm not much of a photographer i'm afraid.

cheers

stuart

 

[Retired Member southey]

I really like that joint, so simple and effective, nice work there Stuart.

 

[shaggystu]

I really like that joint, so simple and effective, nice work there Stuart.

sorry southey, missed this somehow at the time. that "butterfly joint" is pretty amazing to be honest, i thought it might be good enough to temporarily hold two sticks together whilst you lashed them or similar, but was really surprised by how well they hold just with friction, and as a bonus, it's actually really easy to carve.

cheers

stuart

 

[troyka]

Hi, anyone know of some online instructions for a try stick? and can i do one with a Swiss army knife?

 

[Kepis]

Hi, anyone know of some online instructions for a try stick? and can i do one with a Swiss army knife?

i covered a lot of the cuts etc on my bloggy blog http://kepisbushcraft.blogspot.com/2011/05/mors-kochanski-try-sticks-cut-names.html, you can use any knife you like