antagonizer

Mostly it had to do with the length of my lathe, but also it's a thin hardwood cane that will flex and chatter when being turned. If you think you can get away with doing it all in one shot, go for it.

Well done on the hat. I like how you did the simulated 'wear' on it. Really gives it character.

That's a bit trickier. First thing I'd do is rent a steam cleaner with a wand and try and extract as much dirt as possible. When I pulled up the canvas, there was LOTS of sand and grit that had worked its way through the fibers so it'll be pretty intensive. Second is hole patching and re-gluing. You can, generally, take small patches of fabric from hidden places to repair any holes in the surface. Look under the lid where it folds around the edge. Use a hide glue, if you can get your hands on any as liquid glues will saturate the cloth and may leave blotches. Finally, you'd normally paint or dye as the canvas was, indeed, originally painted, but since you're trying to save the lettering, it may be better just to seal it after. You can try and color match if you need to do spot repairs, bu…

That's a bit trickier. First thing I'd do is rent a steam cleaner with a wand and try and extract as much dirt as possible. When I pulled up the canvas, there was LOTS of sand and grit that had worked its way through the fibers so it'll be pretty intensive. Second is hole patching and re-gluing. You can, generally, take small patches of fabric from hidden places to repair any holes in the surface. Look under the lid where it folds around the edge. Use a hide glue, if you can get your hands on any as liquid glues will saturate the cloth and may leave blotches. Finally, you'd normally paint or dye as the canvas was, indeed, originally painted, but since you're trying to save the lettering, it may be better just to seal it after. You can try and color match if you need to do spot repairs, but a simple wax sealant would be the best way to go. Don't use a lacquer or varnish as it'll flex and crack. A waxed linen will seal the trunk from moisture, and protect it from dirt. Other than these tips, it's a 'play it by ear' project. It's trickier than removing the fabric, but it can be done, and you'll need to improvise as you go.

Contact cement and patience. You'll have to remove your structural strips, (The cardboard on mine) and if you can't, you'll need to get skilled at tucking it under with a scraper.

No I haven't. I've replaced the coconut with shea butter tho. It's a pretty good upgrade to the recipe.

It should work just fine. Castor oil is very thick, much like the coconut oil at room temp, so a 1to1 replacement of ingredients would be good. You can also use shea butter in the mix, tho you'd have to add oil to compensate for the density of it. It's a great conditioner, just make sure it's well melted otherwise it'll be gritty in the mix.

Sand the finished side if you want your glue to adhere properly. It needs a rough surface to stick. You should also stick with leather glue and avoid things like contact cement or epoxy. They harden and crack over time. Proper glue, and surface prep goes a long way.

I could be wrong, but I don't think you can buy the paper for the edging. It's a kind of compressed cardboard that I can only assume is waxed, or impregnated with a lacquer. I actually just finished another trunk for my mother's birthday that most of the edging was damaged and I simply replaced it all with 2-3oz leather that I aged with some black and yellow dye lightly sprayed in strategic markings. Then I roughed it up a bit to give it more age. With the old wood it looks great.

Thank you. The mallet actually came from the camping section of the hardware store. Its used for driving tent stakes in.

Gotta say I love the design. Bringing some artistry to a simple mallet deserves respect and trust me I'm hard to impress. Big thumbs up.

The question of whether it's worth it is dependent on how much work you're willing to put into it. If you want a quickie restoration then probably not, but if you're willing to bury your heart and soul into it, then I'd say go ahead. In my opinion though, that's an amazing find and I'd totally blow the next month bringing it back to life.

I'm glad it worked for you. If you look at the labels on commercial polishes, they're filled with chemicals that, though they may condition better in the short term, can break down leather over the long term, or make it impossible to strip next time you need to do a major cleaning. And ya...I'm hooked on the smell too. Mix it a bit thicker and you get a good lip balm. lol

Belts stretch unevenly with use. Adding an adjustable tracking system lets you tune it on the fly.

Ya but where's the fun in buying them? lol

When facing the front it runs from top to bottom so that the belt is traveling down. An old belt sander has plenty of power, if you can make it work. I'd be curious to see your finished work.

I could be wrong, but I'm not sure if there's enough power in a treadmill motor. You never know tho, until you build it. Make sure you post it here when you're done so I can see it.

You can buy brass wire brushes which won't stain the metal, tho they are infinitely softer and will mean more work. The better option would be using something like brasso after to clean up with. That should bring the brass shine back.

Believe it or not, the material they most often use on the edges is a cardboard material. Of the dozen or so trunks I've been asked to do for people, I haven't seen one that was actually leather, tho refurbing as such would seriously improve the quality and look of the trunk. I have an ible for beeswax polish that you should look up since I'm not a fan of commercial products.It's cheap and easy to make and, if you mess with the ratios of wax to oils, you can control the thickness of it which will translate into a glossier to more matte finish.

Sorry I took so long to respond. The narrow edge is for the crown as it tapers upwards. If you were to make them even, you'd end up with more of a tophat design.

Ya, after the fact I didn't like the screw I used. Something brass and decorative would have looked nicer with the wood choices, but done is done. I don't like going back on work.

Check with your local Tandy. You won't find the pieces cut out for you, except for the straps and some of the hardware, but you can acquire the leather to cut them yourself, plus the stain and finisher. If you're lucky, you can recover some of the old pieces and use them as a template for the new ones, like I did, and if not, have fun designing them yourself.

No, that's why you cool as you grind. Think about it in the same way a metal lathe, or tile cutter use water/cooling fluid to prevent thermal failure from cutting by constantly hosing down the work piece.

Yes, I'm using cascade to refer to the thermal runaway; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_cascadeBut you aren't "resetting" it. You're shorting it, and I'm referring specifically to the protection circuit, not the battery. However, the tolerances between the +- are small enough that you could end up shorting them while doing this.

I really feel like you should know this stuff if you're posting this kind of info. Here's a good link to learn about battery protection; http://batteryuniversity.com/learn/article/bu_304b_making_lithium_ion_safe

That's not how lithium batteries work. They have a constant amperage (usually around 2A for Samsung type laptop batteries) and a pulse amperage which is usually around 5A which can be sustained for, on average, around 30-60 seconds or so. It all depends on the load you put on them. Throw a 2ohm resistor on them, and your fine, but drop that to .5, and you're drawing 8A where your battery will cascade. What you're doing, is shorting the "protection" circuit to revive the battery, and if if you mess up, (which is pretty easy to do), you could end up causing a dead short. In other words, there is no more protection when you do this. Do it wrong, just once, and you're holding a bomb.

Please don't do this. I've witnessed to many batteries cascade from people accidentally shorting them, and too many fingers almost get blown off, in my time. When lithiums die, recycle them. New ones aren't expensive anyway.

Very cool and well done. I especially like your clamping solution.

Wow, great form! I call that 'American style' with the dip in the crown. Same way I make mine.

True 'outback style'. Awesome!

That tooling is as cool as heck. Beautiful.

A 3'x3' piece should be more than enough.

The canvas was badly rotten and had to be removed. Replacing it would have complicated the project far to much as I would have needed to remove and replace the strips that enclose the trunk as well. That would mean un-clinching hundreds of tacks and there's no guarantee I could rescue the strips. It was far easier to cut the canvas away around them and not disturb their construction. Plus, I like the wood finish.

That would definitely help things, but as you get into the rhythm, you won't really need it.

Make it a bit thicker, with a higher ratio of solids to liquids. It's actually good for helping set your dye so that it doesn't bleed. Just be aware it will darken your leather a bit so if you're going to seal with it, use a lighter dye than you want your finished product to be. Also, you can replace the coconut with shea butter. I find it softens new leather much better.

That style of broadhead was once called a 'trade point'. Early European settlers would often trade them for animal skins and supplies as they were still primarily using chert for native arrowheads. They were slightly different having notches in the tang in order to be tied on, and didn't have drill holes in them, but they're essentially the same. Anyway, thought you'd be interested in the history. Nice reproduction BTW. Very cleanly made.

You'd think a B# would be better. LOL pun (B-sharp). Anyway, I'll try this. Darn clever.

Altering you skid fins was an interesting idea, but the water is too dense, which is why your speed suffered. The minute the water resistance on them decreased from lift, they suffered reduced drag, which is why you flew out of control when you chopped them down. Try adding canards to your boat and utilize the air to 'push' the boat down, rather than trying to 'pull' it down. Loved the vids btw. Had a crowdsource video feel to them but showed your process in a fantastic way.

The bait was usually octopus which was wrapped around the limb with the barb. That's the limb that the fish would try and 'swallow'. The bottom bar would prevent it from opening its mouth enough to get off of the barb. I considered taking a pic of it loaded up, but that means I'd need to buy an octopus, so I figured it'd be easier to visualize.

I live inland so there's nothing big enough to catch with it. I've seen ones like it being used on Haida Gwaii tho.

Bear grease or other animal fat work the best...or rather they're the traditional solutions but they basically create a barrier against the wood getting waterlogged and the bindings swelling and loosening.

Thank you. I wasn't sure people would be interested as bows, axes, knives and spears are the normal re-creations so I'm glad people can appreciate some of the less weapon based 'art' lithic cultures created. I have a drive full of pics from projects I've done and this gives me the inspiration to post them, even if only a few folks will enjoy them.

More often than not it was octopus that was used as bait, at least as far as I know, but that was specifically for halibut. It definitely could be used for other large species, as long as you know what their bait food is.

It's sunk to the bottom, and floats around 24" from the floor. Octopus is wrapped around the top limb so it appears to the halibut it's catching it mid-swim. When it puts its mouth over the limb to eat it, the barb prevents it from pulling back. The bottom board is to prevent the halibut from having room to clear the barb and get free. Then the fisherman just comes back the next day and collects his line of hooks and fish.

They would use octopus to bait it by wrapping it around the top limb. A half dozen of these hooks were strung on a long-line and sunk using stones where the lighter density wood, on the top limb would cause it to float upright. The fish would try and eat the octopus by engulfing the top limb, but wouldn't be able to pull away because of the barb. Then the fisherman had to simply pull in the long-line and harvest his catch. It was low energy fishing that yielded high energy food. I honestly give this kind of energy rich food gathering credit for why west coast native cultures practiced more art forms than inland cultures. Less effort gathering food meant they could spend time carving huge poles, or building intricately detailed and carved buildings.

I have an Inuit harpoon that I carved. It was mostly used for seal, or narwhal, but could often be used for larger game.

I'm honored, thank you.

Thanks my friend. And your plane instructable is inspirational. I was going to spend a mint on few edge and contour planes, but realized, when I saw it, that I could adapt your work to making myself a set. It's an elegant design.

Make the belt 2" longer than you need. Slice the ends on matching angles, then use a skiver to bevel the bottom 1" edge of one end, and the top 1" of the other so that you can bond them together. Then sand the seam flat. Leather glue has amazing strength, and is flexible, so it won't break apart. Just make sure you slow down the motor. Probably shouldn't go higher than 800rpm at absolute max