My Covid-19 and later projects

John Fenna

Lifetime Member & Maker
Oct 7, 2006
23,306
3,089
67
Pembrokeshire
Project 63
A knife handle for a friend.
One of the ladies I work with has a repro "Iron Age" knife and it has been in a shocking state since I first saw it years ago ... so with time on my hands I offered to fix it ...
The blade was bent , notched and blunt, the handle string and a bit of antler that used to stay on but fell off all the time now, the tang was rusted and ... well - I could go on...
I replaced the fore end of the handle with a mix of Red Deer antler, horn and leather and glued everything with resin/charcoal dust glue, cleaned up and tried to sharpen the blade (without a full regrind and reheat treating it will never be good!). I did not "over finish it so that it looks a "used tool" in her costume kit. Good enough for site work -DSCF0004.JPGDSCF0005.JPGDSCF0006.JPGDSCF0007.JPG I hope she likes it!
 
Project 63
A knife handle for a friend.
One of the ladies I work with has a repro "Iron Age" knife and it has been in a shocking state since I first saw it years ago ... so with time on my hands I offered to fix it ...
The blade was bent , notched and blunt, the handle string and a bit of antler that used to stay on but fell off all the time now, the tang was rusted and ... well - I could go on...
I replaced the fore end of the handle with a mix of Red Deer antler, horn and leather and glued everything with resin/charcoal dust glue, cleaned up and tried to sharpen the blade (without a full regrind and reheat treating it will never be good!). I did not "over finish it so that it looks a "used tool" in her costume kit. Good enough for site work -View attachment 76195View attachment 76196View attachment 76197View attachment 76198 I hope she likes it!
Very nice John. Good to see you've kept the manufacture authentic too.
I think she'll love it!
 
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John Fenna

Lifetime Member & Maker
Oct 7, 2006
23,306
3,089
67
Pembrokeshire
Project 64
I had some tools to give handles ... a hand forged adze and hand forged hammer for work, an old Entrenching tool (WW2?) needed a tomahawk style handle and spare and my throwing/general duties hawk needed a spare handle. The E tool needed regrinding but the rest of the work was all shaping wood, making wooden wedges and rescuing a couple of metal wedges from an old broken hammer (kept just for "in case" :) )
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John Fenna

Lifetime Member & Maker
Oct 7, 2006
23,306
3,089
67
Pembrokeshire
Project 65
Refurb and test mini projects.
My long suffering sewing machine died and I had to replace it - I bought a Necchi NM2000 from Aldi as the closest to the old one I had and it needed trying out ...
At the same time I decided to make a new belt case for my camera and a carry cover for the entrenching tool ... and I found a good daysack in a charity shop for £2.50 and it needed refurbing...
All that was wrong with the pack was that someone had shortened the lower shoulder straps and the side compression straps and the waist belt - and then sewed more webbing on to lengthen them again! Naturally the joins would not pass through the buckles ... so I trimmed everything short and replaced the straps with webbing and buckles I had by - in my pile of "that will be useful one day" bits. No sewing was needed on this mini project.
The E-tool cover was made with bits from the same source and is designed to carry the tool either "flat-packed" hanging from a belt or pack, or "Ready for use" on ice-ax loops on a pack, while the camera case used the same material source and some velcro I have had for years after finding a roll in a skipDSCF0001.JPGDSCF0002.JPGDSCF0003.JPGDSCF0004.JPGDSCF0005.JPGDSCF0006.JPGDSCF0007.JPGDSCF0008.JPG...
The machine has held up brilliantly coping well with up to 3 layers of MOD spec webbing and 2 layers of heavy duty fabric :)
 

Mesquite

It is what it is.
Mar 5, 2008
28,216
3,196
63
~Hemel Hempstead~
The machine has held up brilliantly coping well with up to 3 layers of MOD spec webbing and 2 layers of heavy duty fabric :)
Nice work there John.

Glad to hear the new machine turned out alright, sadly I had to cancel getting one as our shower pump died and I needed to get a replacement one :(
 

John Fenna

Lifetime Member & Maker
Oct 7, 2006
23,306
3,089
67
Pembrokeshire
It is a good machine and very like the old one - but different enough to have caused errors due to me forgetting the new machine has different ways of choosing what stitch you want and how to mod the stitch length/width etc ....
I will try not to drop this one...
 
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Laurentius

Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
Aug 13, 2009
2,536
701
Knowhere
What wood do you use for the handles? It's one of the things I enjoy doing, fitting new handles to old tools.
 

John Fenna

Lifetime Member & Maker
Oct 7, 2006
23,306
3,089
67
Pembrokeshire
Project 67
Danish Poly Cotton trousers
Well - this is really more machine practice to get used to my new machine and it's quirks ... I actually have plenty of trousers...
I used my usual (home made) pattern but the fabric is some I got from The Prepper Shop - Danish Military Olive 67/33 Cotton Poly fabric 1.5m wide ... and only £3.47 per meter! Very affordable and I knew that even if I fouled everything up I would not be too badly out of pocket...
I had some issues - the fabric is quite "soft" and moves under the machine a fair bit... and it frays very easily and quickly! The photos make the fit look a bit strange but that is because of my strange pose and the way the new (summer weight) trousers hang up on the thermals and blanket wool shirt (home made a while back) I am also wearing.
Overall I am fairly happy with the trousers, the fabric and my new machine ... but it was a steep learning curve with a fair few resewn seams!
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John Fenna

Lifetime Member & Maker
Oct 7, 2006
23,306
3,089
67
Pembrokeshire
Project 68
Stuff sacks
As I make a pair of custom cargo pants a commercial pair die on me ... but rather than waste them I turned the legs - and cargo pockets - into a variation of the trad "tube" DSCF0001.JPG trouser leg stuff sacks :)
 
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BCUK Shop

We have a a number of knives, T-Shirts and other items for sale.

SHOP HERE