Chris Clinton

Applying for Sand Badge!

https://permies.com/wiki/124801/pep-dimensional-woodworking/PEP-BB-dimensional-sand-siding#2868577

https://permies.com/wiki/124803/pep-dimensional-woodworking/Simple-open-toolbox-PEP-BB#3744121

https://permies.com/wiki/60/99526/pep-dimensional-woodworking/sign-PEP-BB-dimensional-sand#3746332

I have a lot of shorter offcuts and such of this 100 year old true dimension old growth pine I salvaged from an old house to use on my pole barn build. It's mostly heart pine and therefore rot resistant and I have long thought I'd make birdhouses out of it. This was the first attempt which brought up some issues. In the future I'll have to deal with the cupping in the old wood better as when I screwed them together it would want to crack, and also it's rather heavy. This was pretty much the design for blue birds in the book pictured. It has a double roof with wide overhang, drip edge kerfs, and the corners nipped off the floor for mitigating water intrusion. I gave it some linseed oil on the exterior for added protection and mounted on an old power pole, the odd wooden bits below it are the remnants of a weird trellis I made in the past.

Making brown rice again, this time on the gas stove. This is how I most often cook large amounts of rice, a similar method to cooking pasta. Fill a stock pot 2/3 or so with water and bring to a boil. Once boiling add the rice (here two cups) and cook with the lid on (cock lid if necessary) for 30 minutes. Turn off stove and immediately strain rice in to a colander and then return to the pot. Let sit for 20 minutes with the lid on to finish cooking with the residual heat/steam and it's ready. Perfect brown rice every time and no need to measure anything.

I like seeing the experimentation going on with the tannins and glue. If I wasn't so busy I'd enjoy playing around too. In the Skillcult video I posted above he brings up formaldehyde as making glues waterproof. That would lead me down the line of experimenting with seeing what effect wood vinegar/liquid smoke/pyroligneous acid would have on the glues. The aldehydes in smoke play the protein cross-linking (tanning) role in making buckskin, assuming that is still an up to date assessment. Just wanted to throw out that direction of inquiry. Didn't see anything in Dawidowsky  about it, but saw a reference in making elastic glue water resistant by the addition of even a small amount of caoutchouc (latex).

I got a huge amount out of Steve Solomon's Gardening When it Counts early in my journey.

here's where it got on my radar, Steven Edholm of Skillcult making glue for a knife mod experiment

I think other powders work in pitch glues, I've seen various recipes (some shellac based) with brick dust or stone powder. Chalk powder or maybe even very fine sawdust might give a more neutral color.

If dairy isn't beyond the pale then you could look into casein glue, which isn't hard to make. Other recipes for pitch glue that dont have wax but things like powdered charcoal to reduce brittleness might be worth playing with too. Latex sources that you could forage would be super interesting to play with. Wheat paste might do the trick too.

You might want to peruse the book Glue Gelatine Isinglass Cements and Pastes by Dawidowsky from 1884.

I wanted to make chicken and rice with a stew hen I got from a farmers market peer. Figured I should start these bbs so made the rice in the crockpot. 2 cups of brown rice covered with 4+ cups of hot chicken broth from said hen, some bay leaves, salt and spices too. yum yum

I wanted to make a sheath or mask for the hatchet I recently rehandled for the make a handle bb but the belt loop requirement lead me to grab a different hatchet for this bb. I also would echo the detraction from that requirement as I don't like the uneven weight of anything but the smallest hatchet and can't really imagine anyone particularly wanting to carry any axe that way for much time at all. Also the only real universally applicable sheath pattern is the one shaped like an envelope with a hole in the bottom which the entire length of the handle must pass through. I find that pattern clunky and unappealing. I wonder if the edge protection and belt attachments were two separate pieces if that would still meet the bb requirements, I've seen that style and think it would be a less cumbersome way to go.

Anyway, I chose to make a mask for the lightest hatchet I had that needed one that also had enough material on the poll to allow for the two-strap style I devised. I used bark tanned cow hide that I tanned myself, this piece came from the belly area so wasn't overly thick. I did the usual process of tracing the hatchet and making a paper pattern and then transferring that to the leather. Once cut out I spent some time dressing the leather with neatsfoot oil and softening it to a more pliable condition. A welt was also cut out to be stitched in between the folded layers where the edge goes in the sheath, this is what protects the stitches from being cut. I had to re-punch some holes and the welt got a bit chewed up but in the end it still looks fine if you don't look too closely. I'm pretty amateur and haven't done leatherwork for a year or two though maybe I was just sloppy. I also made a groove for the stitches on the front and back edge before punching which was a mistake, the back edge should be grooved after punching so it's aligned and neat. Four holes were punched in the back and cut between them to make the slots for a belt to pass through. I waxed linen thread with beeswax and stitched with two needles, going through each hole with both needles and pulling tight, I forget what that stitch is called but it's commonplace for this task. I punched holes and set down the snaps similarly to how one would a rivet. A little clean up trimming and edge burnishing and it was all done.