Passion is as passion does

Its been a while since I have posted anything out here on this blog.  Its been a busy few months, a new job, more travel, the start of baseball season.  I'm out of town now actually, sitting in a hotel room for the 7th night in a row, missing my family, missing my dog, and my home.  It happens, the things you go through to provide for your family sometimes cost more than anyone realizes.

I drove to Darwin, MN over the weekend.  I had some down time and thought I would do a little sight seeing.  Darwin, MN has a population of about 350 people.  It is a small place, really small.  I saw a bar, one restaurant, and a big ball of string.  For all it lacks in size, the ball of twine on the one small street more than makes up for it.

It's housed in a gazebo walled in by huge panels of plexiglass sheeting.  It is made of bailing twine and it fills the inside of the gazebo almost completely.

What makes this ball of twine most impressive is that it was made by one man over the course of 29 years.  The story is that he worked on it for 4 hours a day, every day during that time span.  He started it in his barn and then when it got too big to manage he moved it outside.  He put it up on jack stands to be able to keep the ball formed properly.  

What does this post have to do with spoon carving or wood working?  It shows what you can complete when you are passionate about a project.  Working on something 4 hours a day for 29 years shows just how passionate Mr. Johnson was.  This project probably controlled his life.  It probably consumed him.  Can you even imagine?  What is your twine ball?  What project consumes you?  Is it carving a spoon or making a chair?  Is it hiking or making bracelets out of paracord?  Perhaps we don't all need to go to the lengths that Mr. Johnson did, but if nothing else we can take from him the following thought.  He didn't make this ball of twine in one day.  Not even in six months or six years.  He worked hard on it, focused on it, and ended up making something truly great.  I learned something on Sunday.  I learned that I need to find my ball of twine and start rolling.

Please go make something with your hands.  Please.  You will be surprised at how much fun it is.

DIY Paracord Fid or Paracord needle

With my renewed interest in all things paracord, I have been looking at Turks Head knots, specifically the long versions that are used for wrapping things like tool handles.  I've found several tutorials online for making them, but almost all of them say that having a paracord fid or needle would be a tremendous help.  A fid is essentially a needle that you attach to the working end of your paracord and use it to thread the paracord through tight spaces, small loops, and knots that you can't just push the cord through with your fingers.  For example, when you are tying the shark jawbone bracelet and you get down near the end it becomes quite difficult to get the cord through the middle two strands.  A paracord needle makes it an easy job.  You can buy them online from a variety of vendors, they aren't even that expensive.  You can make them yourself, though, with just a little effort and a few dollars.

I found a tutorial online on how to make them, and after a quick trip to the local Home Improvement Warehouse I was back at home with the materials I needed for this simple project.  Click on the pictures to see a larger size.

Total cost was about $2.00.  The extension isn't required and cost me 80 cents, so in reality I could have made the 2 inch fid for about a dollar.  I found these in the specialty fasteners section at Lowes.  They are called threaded posts.  It is a two piece product the post itself and then a cap or end that gets threaded on to complete the fastener.  You don't need the cap.  You just need the post.  First step is to remove the flat head.  There are several ways to do this, but I just used my rotary tool with a cut off wheel attached.

I wrapped the post in an old piece of cloth and held it with a pair of pliers while removing the end.  Make sure to put on a pair of safety goggles.  You don't want aluminum shavings in your eye!  Now you just need to round over the cut end of the post.  You don't want too fine a point, but you want it to be sharp enough to fit through small holes in your paracord projects.  I just wrapped the end in electrical tape and chucked it in my drill.  I clamped an old file to my bench and slowly filed the cut end into a point.

Again, just keep your safety glasses on.  Take your time, and keep stopping to check your progress.  I had to turn the file around to even out the tip, but it only took a few minutes to get it close enough.  I then used the 220 grit sanding block in the picture to make the point smooth and even.  That's it!  I think the whole process took about 15 minutes maybe?  That included me looking for my safety glasses and the cut off wheel for my rotary tool.

Attaching your paracord to the needle is a little tricky but not really that big of a deal.  I cut the end of my cord at an angle and then melt it with a lighter.  I found that having a nice bit of melted plastic in a pointed knob shape at the end of the cord makes for a really tight fit.  Fit the melted end into the end of the needle and screw it on.  The threads will catch the cord and hold it tight.

Thanks for reading.  If you have any comments or questions post them here and I'll do my best to answer.  Go make something with your hands!  I promise you, its a wonderful feeling.

My Dad and a Shark Jaw Bone Bracelet

I'm going to power through this post the best I can.  Its a personal one, and frankly I've been struggling over posting it.  You see, my dad is sick.  Not a cold, not the flu, but something called Frontotemporal degeneration or FTD for short.  Its a disease that causes the brain to degenerate, getting progressively worse until the patient is unable to do much of anything.  There is no cure, there is no way to slow down the disease, and your only recourse is to sit and watch it slowly take its toll.

Its funny how you think of silly things that in the grand scheme of things aren't that important, but are important to you on a personal level.  For example, my dad is a loud breather.  I remember watching him concentrate on something and hearing him breathe.  Fast forward 30 years, and my wife tells me that I am a loud breather as well.  Every time she tells me that, I smile a little and think of my dad.

Last winter, I remember sitting in the kitchen watching him try to light a fire with matches.  The motor control was already starting to go, and he was fumbling around trying to get it lit.  It was painful to watch, and now he is having trouble holding a spoon, or doing even the most basic tasks.  You can see the impact that the disease is having, and it breaks your heart.  If you knew my dad when he was younger, it would be all the more depressing.  Picture a man who could throw a 100 pound bag of feed over one shoulder and a young boy (me) over the other and walk uphill in the snow in the dark to the house.  Picture a man who would mow his yard, with a push mower, on the hottest day of the year, come in the house, drink a huge glass of cold coffee and then go up and work in the garden until dark.  Picture a man with a broken leg, who decided to put hardwood floors in the house and maintain a full garden while in a full leg cast.

Nothing stopped him, and after a while you got the feeling that nothing ever would.  Once he got an idea into his head, it got done.  He would obsess over it, worry over it, and keep working on it until he figured it out.  

That man is gone now, he is nothing but a shadow of his former self.  I know I am not the only son who has a father with FTD.  I'm just another person in the sad group of people who have been touched in some way by this horrible disease.  My brother has started a grass roots fundraiser to donate money for research.  He asked me if I would make a few bracelets that he could auction off or sell outright and donate the money to his charity.  Here is what I came up with.

I've made this type before, its called the Shark Jaw Bone.  Red, white, and black are the colors of the Association for Frontotemporal Degeneration.  Click the link if you want to donate.  If you want a bracelet like this send me an email and we can figure out how to get a donation in your name to the charity in exchange for this handmade item.  If you want something in a different color, we can talk about that too.

I didn't come up with this design, and I don't feel right just posting it and not giving credit where credit is due.  I saw it on a video from J.D. Lenzen.  He's on Youtube, and knows more about tying paracord than anyone I know.  In the meantime, here is an in process picture that I took while making this bracelet.  You should be able to figure out how to tie it if you look close.

Just remember, the inside color always crosses first.   Go make something with your hands.  Trust me, no matter what it is, it always makes you feel great inside when you do it yourself.

550 Paracord bracelets

I don't know if it is the fact that the kids are going back to school or because my son has started football again, but I have been feeling the need to make stuff.  Maybe its because I am finally waking up from my summer of not doing much of anything.  The days are getting just a tiny bit cooler, its still in the 90s out there, but when it was close to 100 almost all summer long, you can feel the difference.

I have been wearing a black paracord bracelet for over a year.  I put it on last summer when a good friend of mine lost his battle with cancer.  After having a run in with skin cancer two years ago myself, this bracelet reminds me that some aren't as lucky as I was.

This post isn't supposed to be about cancer though, its about making a paracord bracelet.  Well, three of them actually.

The one at the top is something called the Piranha or Shark Jaw Bone weave.  It looks like shark's teeth to me.  As you can see in the picture, it is also reversible.  I made mine with a curved buckle though, so the blue side is the outside.  JD from Tying it all Together has a tutorial on making this bracelet, but honestly if you can tie a cobra stitch you can tie this one.  I need to make one for my sister-in-law soon, and when I do, I'll take some pictures of the construction.

The bottom two bracelets are from a tutorial that I watched on youtube from a guy named Chaotic Thinking.  He calls it the Solomon's heart.  As you can see, the stitches sort of look like a row of  hearts.

Blue and yellow?  Those are my 7 year old's school colors and my 11 year old's football team colors.  They are heading back to school next week.  I guess I'll wear the top one for the next 9 months or so.

Making stuff with your hands doesn't need to be a lot of work, but it sure is rewarding.  Go make something!  Trust me, its's great!

Whizzer or buzzer, I call it fun!

Kepis over at Kepis Bushcraft posted about a toy that he made a few days ago, and it really hit home for me.  I remember getting buttons out of a coffee can that my mother kept in her sewing room.  It was some huge nondescript can, filled with random buttons that she collected and then used on the clothing that she sewed.  I'd dump them out on the floor in a huge pile, and dig through them looking for a large button that I could use to make a toy very similar to what Kepis posted about a few days ago.

I don't have a huge can of buttons at my disposal, so I headed out into the garage and found a piece of seasoned maple.

I grabbed my froe and split it in half, right through the pith along an existing crack in the end of the log.  I split one half into quarters and found a piece that I thought I could make into a board.

 

 

I put it on my shave horse and trimmed one of the quarters into a small board.  Yes, I know that my draw knife needs to be touched up a bit, please don't remind me.  I seriously need to go over every one of my tools and get them back into shape.

I used a saw to cut off a piece of the board and thinned it up a bit with my carving knife.  I could have made it thinner I think.  I might even go back out and trim it up some more, but at the time I just wanted to play with my new toy.

I sharpened both ends of the block and drilled two holes near the center.  Again, I need to adjust the spacing on the holes, they aren't quite at the center.

Obviously I need to do some tuning, but I was really happy.  I think it took me 45 minutes to make this toy.  I came in the house, grabbed some yarn, doubled it and then passed the ends through the holes in the whizzer.  I tied the ends together with a simple overhand knot and I was off and running.  It makes a great buzzing sound, like a miniature bull roarer.  You can vary the pitch by increasing or decreasing the speed.  I'm going to do some work on it and see if I can get a louder sound out of it.  In the mean time, I am having fun just playing with it.

Oh, that pipe in the background?  Yeah.  It's a piece of schedule 40 1 inch PVC pipe.  I'm making a bow.  You know, because I need more projects!  Thanks Kepis, you reminded me of something that I haven't thought of in over 30 years.  You also gave me a fun little project to do.  Happy carving everyone, go out and make something with your hands!

Alcohol Stove Round Two

I talked about burner location briefly in my last post, but I think it bears mentioning again.  There is an issue with using the bottom of a soda can as your burner.  The rounded edge ends up smothering the flames when you place your pot right on top of the stove.  I think it will work great if I had a pot stand that raised the pot an inch or so over the stove.  I've got an idea for a pot stand that I can make, once I get it made, I'll do another burn test on the first stove and see what I think.  I am sure that it will do much better with a stand.

That is another post though, for now, lets talk about my new stove!  The biggest difference here was that I put the jets on the side of the stove, forcing the flame to curl up and around to reach the pot.  I had watched a few videos on the subject and in cases where you plan to put the pot directly on the stove, the side jet arrangement just seems to work much better.

I took my dremel tool and gave it a quick buff with a wire wheel to remove all of the paint.  I filled it with 40 mL (1.25 ounces) of denatured alcohol and fired it up.  We had a little breeze blowing last night during my test and I did not have a windscreen available.  You can see from the picture below, the impact of the breeze on the burn.

I had a nice consistent flame pattern though, with the flames curling up around the edge of the stove nicely.  I let it burn for 30 seconds and then gently put my GSI cup on top of the stove.  To be honest, the pot doesn't feel very stable to me on top of the stove.  It works though, and if you are interested in going ultra-light, this is certainly a workable stove design.

It took about 6 minutes to bring the 2 cups of water in my GSI cup to a strong rolling boil.  Six minutes is defintely within my tolerances.  I used almost all of the alcohol, but seeing as how 1.25 ounces of alcohol doesn't weigh much, I don't think its a big deal.  With a lid and perhaps a wind screen to block out some of the breeze I could have achieved a quicker boil time.

You can see in the picture above that some of the flames are coming up around the sides of the pot.  This means that I am losing heat.  One solution that I can think of is to make a smaller diameter stove.  It just so happens that I have soem 8 ounce V8 Fusion drink cans at the house.  Stove 3 is already in the works!

I cleaned out the garage today, took a trip to the dump, and really did some much needed organization.  If I have been reading the look in my wife's eye the right way, she would much rather I cut up aluminum cans some place other than where we eat our dinner.  I also broke oyt my bike and went for a quick ride.  Let me tell you, there is nothing like huffing and puffing like a steam locomotive to make you realize how out of shape you are.  I need to do it every day I guess.  I'll leave you with that image in your mind.  Go make something with your hands, its great!

Alcohol Stove, burn test and thoughts

So last night, armed with my trusty bottle of HEET, a box of matches, a Stainless Steel GSI cup, a coffee mug, a tea bag and some tap water, I set out to perform my first burn test of my new soda can stove.  I'd never used a soda can stove and wasn't really sure what to expect here.  I poured in about two tablespoons of fuel and fired it up.  After about 30 seconds or so, it primed and I got the bloom that I was looking for.

As you can see, I had flame coming out of the jet holes as well as the center.  I let it burn this way for a bit.  I think I could have used a bit more fuel, but as this was just a test burn I wasn't too concerned.  I got out my trusty GSI cup and set it on top of the stove.

The GSI cup didn't fit as well as I thought it would.  The bottom of the GSI cup has a slight curve, and I think it keeps it from sitting perfectly level and flat.  I ran out of fuel before I got to a boil as well.  The water was hot enough to make my cup of tea though.  I think I could have gotten it to a boil, but I will say that it wasn't heating up very fast.  It got hot enough for the entire bottom of the cup to be covered with bubbles.

I think I need to make stove 2.0 and change a few things.  I also think I might create a pot stand as well.  I need to change the position of the jets and maybe use a drill to make the holes more uniform.  I've got another design in mind, I plan on working on it in the coming days.  I'll post an update when I have more data.