Modern Anachronist

Handle wrap experiments

Or more messing about with Paracord.

Adding a comfortable grip to wooden handles.

The pink is a common whipping (ABOK 3442).

The yellow is a French whipping (ABOK 3450).

Both of these are much better whipping knots than tool handles. With the common whipping, the wrap isn’t round because the cords under the wrap make it oblong.

The half hitches in the French whipping make it uncomfortable to hold, in my opinion. If the whipping was tied on a line, the half hitches would lay better in the hollows between the yarns. Some folks like that ridge, but it never seems to fit my hand. It does look nice though.

The West County Whipping (ABOK 3548) makes a nicer handle (again, in my opinion) because it is symmetrical. The half knots on each side mean it isn’t round, but it is symmetrical.

Now here’s where I went a bit off the rails. Since the West County Whipping ends with a square knot, why not begin with a square knot and add some visual interest?

Terrible colors, but they make the pattern easily visible

The West County Whipping is just a half a square knot on each side (left over right, flip 180 degrees, repeat)), so even if you struggle with the square knot, you should be able to handle this one.

Shiny!

Spent less than 10 minutes cleaning up the drill press table – shiny!

Spent a few minutes experimenting on the drill press today.

The drill press table isn’t crusty & rusty exactly, but it’s definitely seen better days.

8 Strand Herringbone Braid exploration.

I like the 8 strand herringbone braid because it’s unique in appearance, easy to produce, and easy to customize.

First off, it has a square cross section. Most things made from cordage are either flat like the Solomon Bar (cobra stitch) or round like the snake knot.

Secondly, because you are working with 8 strands, there are a lot of ways to play with your colors.

Embellishing the cobra stitch/ Solomon’s bar.

Transform the classic paracord cobra stitch into a vibrant accessory with creative color combinations and unique knotting variations.

All the cool paracord kids call it the cobra stitch. Ashley calls it the Solomon Bar (ABOK 2496). In any case, it’s simple & fast to tie and makes a great sized lanyard or bracelet.

But it’s boring AF. So I had to see about making it fancy.

Band saw cabinet build

I’m going to try to document this build a bit more thoroughly than I did with the drill press cabinet.

Step one is to cut the main pieces out. I may be crazy, but I’m not stupid enough to try to wrangle a sheet of 3/4” plywood onto my portable table saw.

I use a circular saw to cut the pieces slightly oversized out of the 4×8 sheet. Then over to the table saw to cut them to the exact size.

Make sure you keep track of which parts are which.

Adding cradle vise to the drill press

So I wanted to be able to safely drill into the end of a piece of round stock, but couldn’t figure out a decent way to hold my work that kept my fingers away from sharp steel bits spinning at high speeds.

Then I went to Harbor Freight and found this cradle vice.

But now I need to be able to secure the vice to the drill press table and the hole on the vice don’t line up with the holes on the table at all.

I mean, I can bolt the vice down, but it won’t line up with the bit.
AT ALL!

A piece of 3/4 plywood will allow me to put holes anywhere I want to, so I grab a a scrap and cut it to match the table.

Free Lathe

There’s tons of old tools sitting in people’s basements & garages. Tools that granddad or dad used to use, but that the current generation doesn’t have time or space for. Once people learn that you enjoy restoring and using old tools, they start being offered to you, as most people would rather see their tools being used than collecting dust & turning to rust.

A buddy of mine is retiring and moving into a condo. Last week at a party he asked me if I wanted his grandfather’s lathe.