Kevin Olson

Kevin Olson wrote:Another thread which is "full of win" on the subject of homemade freight sleighs is this one, on the DooTalk forum:
https://www.dootalk.com/threads/boggan-building.611265/

Users Quebcnewf (starting about post #78) and Red Rooster (the OP) have some great insights on functional freight sleds in northern temperate or sub-arctic conditions.

I just became aware recently of a version of the Harrington Harbour style freight sleighs which is commercially available for those in Canada.  Unfortunately, as of yet, no dealers in the US.  I have no idea what the prices are (if you have to ask...).

https://www.karyon.ca/karyon-xtreme-toboggan/

I've attached their PDF brochure.

Chuck Porter profiled these in a video on his YT channel:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7SV8l-GGT2o
He seems to be quite the fan.

Though these sleds use a sheet of polyethylene (possibly HDPE, but more likely UHMW for reduced brittle failure in cold temperatures, though they don't specify) for the main structure, not skis, the various reconfigurable load attachments may still be helpful when considering how best to set up your own multi-use freight sled.  The tandem KAR1223 variant with swiveling log bunks, as shown on the second page of the brochure would, I suspect, allow for rigging the second unit as a "jeep", as is done for long log trailers in the PNW.  It might even be possible to rig a stinger or, failing that, a cross reach steering system so that the second unit more closely follows the track of the first, rather than "cutting the corner".  This could facilitate hauling long logs and timbers for your cabin, pole structure or timber framed barn project.

I did just score a shelf worn Shappel Jet ice fishing sled for $15 from the local hardware store.  It had gotten a bit scuffed up in their basement, and the original label had fallen off, so they had aggressively marked it down to get it out the door.  I would have peeled the label off anyway, and I figured I could scuff it up better than that(!) - likely on the first outing - so it came home with me.  I had to give them $12 for a length of 3/8" rope to pull it.  It's smaller than the Pelican brand sled I already had (probably could really only fit one small square bale of hay), but for the price...  The drop-in bunks plan with cross reaches, to which I alluded up thread, may now be even closer to fruition.  One advantage of these thermoformed tub-style of ice fishing sleds is that they are basically miniature jon boats, and will float in overflow or open water, if there isn't too much weight in them and you haven't punched a bunch of unsealed holes through them to mount stuff.

I still haven't officially decided on repurposing any of the several pairs of ragged skis in my quiver to implement the OP's version, however...

The Nabateans, as a whole, had mastered means of diverting, collecting and storing the water from the occasional gully-washer rain events to which those deserts are prone.  Not that they were the only ones in that region to have done so - the Tanakh is replete with references, similes and analogies to desert water courses, cisterns, catch basins and the like - but by Roman times the Nabateans seem to have pretty well perfected the technology, enabling use of overland caravan shortcuts in support of their far flung trading empire.

I'll try to locate some references, within my vast horde of stuff, or provide some links.

YouTube user Michygoss has used a Skymule ropeway system to lower construction supplies from the road landing to her cliff top cabin build site.  She has some videos on her channel on installation, use and rejiggering of the setup.  At the moment, I think she has taken it down.

The manufacturer's website is here:
https://www.wyssenseilbahnen.com/en/plantation-cableway-small-cableway/plantation-cableway-skymule/

They also make a heavier duty ropeway system for construction (https://www.wyssenseilbahnen.com/en/construction-skyline-cranes/), but this one is intended for lighter use (agricultural), probably more appropriate to small scale landholder use.

I don't have one, and haven't used one, but made a mental note that it looked like a handy gizmo for Michele, and my brother has a lot of sidehill land, so it might be helpful for him, too.  I would think it could be set up pretty easily with a capstan winch for the haulback line.

Carla Burke wrote:

Mine (1 small 1a but larger) are pretty much identical to this one, and the hooks are essentially proportioned the same. I was at first a tad frustrated by not being able to get more size options, then in using them, realized they were fine as they were and more sizes would just be more fiddly, while not necessarily improving the results:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/397513023945

They came with rubber bands, but the frame just cut right through those, the first time I tried to use them. A few minutes with a metal file to smooth out the edges is very helpful. And I bought some appropriately sized, covered hair ties, for better protection of the fabric in repairing.

Thanks for the recommendation/sanity check.  And for the reminder to check the edges of the stamping for burrs and flash.

Carla Burke wrote:Interesting ideas! I think the rotating needle bar would need to be awfully small, which in turn (heehee) could make it pretty delicate and prone to breakage. But having & using a speed loom, I can attest, on large projects, a tiny needle *could* make the job much easier. On small projects however, I think it would be too fiddly for me to mess with.

Yes, I suspect that's true, but sometimes I can barely contain my impulse to needlessly complicate what is already a perfectly acceptable solution to a problem!  Given that most darning jobs are a couple of inches/few centimeters wide, the juice probably isn't worth the squeeze.  Picking through the warp threads with a darning needle shuttle is simple enough, in this case.

I presently need to mend the elbow of a shirt (well, more jobs that that are in the queue, but it needs urgent attention - a stitch in time, etc.).  I may darn it, or I may try to do something more akin to invisible mending (but visible, because I don't have a swatch to use to effect the repair, and the shirt is also showing significant wear elsewhere, so such fanciness as invisible mending is unwarranted, but it still might be a good test bed on which to hone my skills - not much downside risk attends such a venture).  I'll probably tackle this before any Speedweve style darning loom would arrive in my edge-of-nowhere location, but I think I'll still order one to add to the quiver.

To that end, does anyone have a recommendation on the minimum or maximum number of hooks (i.e. widths) which are practical for general mending use?

Do these all generally have a similar gauge/spacing of hooks, irrespective of manufacturer?

Are the "extended play" obround platforms helpful/functional (e.g. does the elastic band - or twine, once the elastic perishes - secure the cloth well enough along the side of the oval)?  I can imagine that a long tear might be more easily mended with the long version.  I've seen that some of these kits offer both round and extended platforms, or a choice of either one, from new, and some makes offer the extended length platform as a separate item.

Similarly, I noticed that some of these have a "handle" which can socket into the back of the platform.  Has anyone found this to be useful, and under what circumstances?

Has anyone tried to make a DIY Speedweve (maybe using spare knitting machine hooks, or bending hooks out of high tensile fence wire, or whatever)?  I can imagine a couple of approaches to this which might be workable.

I also wanted to thank the OP for the intro to a Speedweve mending loom.  I'd had no prior acquaintance.  Where was one of these things when I was a kid and my mother was teaching me to mend and darn?  I mostly had a burned out light bulb, over which to work.  Just having the rubber band clamping do-hickey to keep the fabric taut and flat would have been a godsend!

Now, the engineer in me is contemplating how to make a version a bit more like a rigid heddle loom, which would more easily allow warp manipulation for weaves other than straight tabby weaves.  Maybe two or more lengths of hooks?  I guess there are always lease sticks.  Maybe there's a version of Matteo Salusso's tubular rigid heddle which would work, or one of the sort having a square cross-section bar heddle and kerfed slots for the warps on alternating diagonals of the section.  I don't recall the name of the second sort (old age creeping up?), but rotating the heddle back and forth by 90 degrees alternately raises and lowers the warps to for sheds.

On edit: maybe this is just a "heddle bar".  A good write-up on making a wooden one can be found here:
https://blog.vintagetoolpatch.com/2025/05/25/loom-heddle.html

Whether that makes any sense for a darning loom, that's another question entirely!

Another rabbit hole, down which to fall!

Carla Burke wrote:Nicely done, Kevin!

Thanks for your vote of confidence!

If nothing else, it did provide a good break between snow scooping, roof shoveling and ice dam chipping spells on Saturday (a change is as good as a rest), and kept me sociably awake yesterday evening after a long day of physical labor.

I did try a couple of other approaches to this mending job, including half-hitching each pair of warp strands to its neighboring strands (using a latch hook - not very secure, and left a fringe) in sequence, and square knotting adjacent warp strands together to secure the weft (which would have left a fringe - also using the latch hook, because the strands were too short to use fingers), but I eventually settled on this approach.  I think it will be more secure in the long run, a bit tidier and more workman like, and there was enough looseness in the weave to facilitate it.

I don't know if I'll try to use my old Standard Rotary sewing machine (usually reserved for abusive jobs like mending backpacking tents, backpacks and work pants), or if I'll try to use a Speedy Stitcher (a lock stitch sewing awl - usually used for mending boots, heavy tarps or tents, and the like) when I turn the edge.  Double needle by hand is another possibility, since the pack of Boye yarn needles I had laying around have a pair of each size of needle.  I don't think I have a ball ended needle for either the sewing machine or the Speedy Stitchers (I have a dueling brace, one bought new, the other found cheaply at a used tool store).  So, maybe the double needle technique will be best.

Whichever method I choose, I'll post a follow-up.  Not that what I do is the very paragon of virtue (as I said, I'm not a fiber arts guy), but it may  - at the very least - give someone else an idea of what they don't wish to do!

This seems like the right place for this little foray into mending - definitely a "not clothes" mending project.

One of our cotton bathroom rugs (probably from Walmart or Target or some other price-conscious outlet) had begun to fray badly on the end.  This is because:  the warps were simply cut (but not worked in); after which, the end was turned under and sewn, with a single run of lock stitch.  Not so robust, even if these rugs only get shaken out and washed (air dried), but never vacuumed with the carpet attachment.

So, I worked the (doubled) warp strands back in, under 5 weft shots.  I pulled the half of them that would have been on the "right" or show side to the back.  I plan to turn the end and stitch it down to contain the warp ends.

As you can probably see, the ends were too short to thread before passing the yarn needle under the wefts, so I had to fish the needle part way through, then thread the warps through the eye.  I used a bared "twistie" wire (bread bag twist) to make a needle threader to get the warp yarns through the eye (barely discernible in a couple of the pics).  For those warps which were on the right side, I had to repeat the process of post-threading the needle to pull them through to the back.

It's not yet turned and stitched, and I may need to do something with the selvedge warps, but I did mock up the finished product by "pinning" it with the yarn needle as a quick test, and I think I can manage the loose ends.  But that will need to wait for another day, since it's half past 11 and I spent a good bit of the day cleaning snow off roofs, some am fairly well tuckered out.  I think it's OK to use in the AM.

I'm not a fiber arts guy, per se, but needs must!

Be aware, there are a couple of pages missing from the scan (there's only one page between numbered pages 90 and 94, but I can't tell which 2 page numbers are AWOL).  I would assume this was merely an oversight (stuck together pages or whatever) when the scan was made and the PDF compiled.

If ever I come across a paper copy, I'll scan the pages which are MIA and post them.  They may be relevant to the "Modifications" section (which includes cook stoves), but I infer that they may more likely pertain to installation, including (I would imagine) things like structural support and setbacks.  Since these details are likely to be generally relevant, irrespective of what sort of masonry heater one constructs, I think the missing pages should be publicly available.  I thought I'd found a copy at a reasonable price on Amazon, but the sale was cancelled after the transaction was completed, so I assume either someone beat me to the punch on another sale platform (or bricks-n-mortar) or someone's inventory system showed a non-existent book.  Either way, I'll keep looking.  I'm old fashioned, but I really do prefer a dead trees book to the digital sort.  Unfortunately, it seems that the preponderance of stuff I am looking for is only available digitally.

I guess could also ping Michele (Albie's partner) from his website and ask her.  She may be able to help with the missing pages.  Maybe I'll do that, and post up any positive updates.

OK, back to snow removal and roof clearing (we are on pace for a record year, here)...

For any who are interested, a PDF of "Finnish Fireplaces" by Heikki Hyytiainen and Albie Barden (with translation by Aila Rapeli) is available for free download from Albie Barden's (of Maine Wood Heat) blog site:
https://www.albiebarden.com/albie-bardens-blog


This book has been long out of print and has had very limited availability on the used market from the usual suspects.

"Finnish Fireplaces" is a survey of historic and modern (as of the 1980s, that is!) Finnish masonry heaters, most of which feature some form of fireplace, whether open or with operable doors.  Some are of the contraflow design, others merely having smoke chambers (and heat accumulators) above the fireboxes.  Some designs shown also offer black ovens or cook tops, and a couple of cook stove designs are reminiscent of the Cabin Stove from Firespeaking or Matt Walker's cook stoves.

Even if you are sold on the rockety type of masonry stoves, this is a good reference (though I am still nosing through it, so may be offering a hasty endorsement).

Many thanks to Albie for making this difficult-to-find reference available!