Analog Periphery

On God

2009-12-29T03:00:00.000-08:00

Pretty summarizes my perspective on the subject.

"... it makes your believe that you are less than what you can be; as long as you can blame everything on some unseen deity, you don't ever have to be responsible for your own behavior."

FOLLOW THAT TRUCK!

2009-12-21T20:09:00.001-08:00

I was trying to figure out how to pull up to that baby with my thermos out the window and do my version of aerial refueling.

Review: Wenger Clipper AT

2009-12-20T06:00:00.000-08:00

The Wenger Clipper AT (Airline Travel) is a unique keychain multi tool. It is the only multi tool that has a set of nail clippers. Many people have nail clippers on their keychain, and Wenger offers you the option to carry a set of clippers that has some other useful tools.

The Clipper AT is approved for airline travel. It has no knife. The clipper has the following tools:

1. Tweezers
2. Toothpick
3. Eyeglass screwdriver
4. Nail file and cleaner
5. Scissors
6. Nail clippers.

The eyeglass screwdriver is a handy little tool. The scissors are micro serrated. The nail clipper works decently for it's size and is a unique offering for a keychain tool. The only negative to this tool is that it may be a little bulky to put on your keychain.

The Clipper AT is interesting tool that serves a niche. If you like having a set of nail clippers on your keychain, you should check out this tool.

Review: Leatherman Mini Tool

2009-11-15T07:11:00.000-08:00

The Leatherman Mini tool has been discontinued. It's an odd missing link between the full-sized Leatherman and their smaller Juice line.

tools:

Pliers/wire cutters
knife
bottle opener
can opener
file/flathead screwdriver

The Mini's only practical use is the ability to carry around a set of pliers in a really small package.

Lessons from FM 23-35, 1971 edition

2009-11-08T07:00:00.000-08:00

FM 23-35 is the army manual for pistols and revolvers. The older manuals (my 1971 copy, for example) gives instructions for detailing stripping the 1911 pistol. If you're a 1911 fan then you need to get a vintage copy of FM 23-35 just for the detail stripping guide.

The current version of FM 23-35 does not give detail stripping instructions for the current service pistol, The M9. Perhaps more was expected of the average soldier "back in the day".

An interesting lesson in this book are field expedient methods for cleaning your pistol. Out of bore cleaner? Dissolve 1/4 pound soap (what kind, I'm not sure.. probably castile according to M) into one gallon of water.

No gun oil? Engine oil, SAE 10, can be used but it will cause sluggish operation in cold weather. Not the best option, but it could work in a pinch.

Grant Cunningham on firearms lubrication (interesting that Dexron-type Automatic Transmission Fluid makes a great lubricant.. and works better than motor oil)

Evaluating Osage

2009-11-01T08:17:00.000-08:00

When evaluating an osage stave, I look at a few things. Some of them are:

Earlywood-Latewood ratio
Ring size
Straightness and free of knots
Color

Earlywood-Latewood ratio

What really matters with Osage is the earlywood/latewood ratio. Latewood is the dark colored, more dense wood. Earlywood is essentially the less-dense sapwood. Separating each growth ring of latewood is a band of earlywood. In the picture below you can see the darker latewood and the lighter earlywood. The earlywood seems to be composed of light yellow dots which eventually form a thin band separating the latewood rings.

Is there a clear definition between each rings and the sapwood? Or does the earlywood seem to muddy into the latewood? If the earlywood bands are fuzzy and ill-defined.. then you'll have problems. This piece has a good earlywood-latewood ratio.

Ring size

Thicker rings offer more safety in unbacked bows, and it's easier to chase a ring. Thinner rings can yield a more dense piece of osage (more layers=more dense) but really thin rings are harder to chase and can be unsafe in an unbacked bow. A thin-ringed piece of Osage full of knots would probably need a backing. Thin rings on a straight and clean stave could be unbacked, if you chased the ring without taking away too much wood off the back ring. The wood, your skill and ability, will tell you how to handle each piece of osage.

Straightness and free of knots

Osage is crooked stuff. Bow wood from osage is a rarity. Ideally you try to find the straightest and cleanest piece possible. Often you have to contend with knots and sometimes a bow blank may need to be straightened to heat. Your skill and ability will tell you how much character in a stave you can handle.

Color

I'm not too big on this. It's been postulated that darker osage is more dense than the light-yellow stuff. That could be true, but such differences seem imperceptible with the design I use on osage.

This post has covered evaluating a stave. Evaluating a tree for harvesting into bow stavese is a subject for another post.

Bow in Progress, part 3

2009-10-31T07:00:00.001-07:00

Previously

The arrow rest is made from a piece of broken arrow, or a hardwood dowel. I rasp it flat on side and then attach it to the side of the bow with 2-ton epoxy. Once dried I taper it with a rasp.

Handmade Osage Oven Stick

2009-10-18T12:32:00.000-07:00

I made this for M. It's an oven stick. You can use it to pull out the rack on a hot oven and push it back in. No burned hands. The oven sticks that I've seen are little more than wooden rulers with notches cut into them. I figured an oven stick should be thicker, more substantial, and have a better grip. I could make a better one and it wouldn't cost me anything.

I took a scrap piece of osage and began carving away with the drawknife. I used a hacksaw and chainsaw file to shape the notches As you can see, it' s not perfectly straight. As with making bows, I decided to follow the grain. By following the grain you get a stronger tool. The grain will take you to interesting places and you get something unique. As you can see, a slight dip in the grain worked perfectly as it gave a spot for the thumb to rest.

Pull the rack out.

Push the rack in.

I finished the oven stick by applying a coat of olive oil. The hot temperatures of an oven would scorch off a polyurethane finish. Olive oil is more durable with heat and can be re-applied when needed. Besides, tools used around food should be finished with something food safe.

I've got some oak and maple trees in the yard that drop branches occasionally. Also, with yearly trim trimming I should get a good supply of scrap wood to make oven sticks of other little kitchen utensils with. Maybe I've got the the beginnings of a side business.

Bow in Progress.. part 2

2009-09-26T07:27:00.001-07:00

Previously.

99% done.

The difference between the last time and now was about this much wood.

As you get closer to finishing a bow, the more critical wood removal gets. You need to take off less wood to get the same results.

The left limb has that that wavy area of the grain which results in that area of the limb being slightly forward of the bow's handle. It can be seen here when a yellow line is drawn from that area on the left to the limb on the right. As you can see, the limbs are not exactly parallel to each other. That makes tillering a bit tricky.

In the end I wound up with a rectangular cross section and a tiller very much like what I usually do. My hopes for a hybrid design didn't happen with this bow. In the end, my hands defaulted to the design I know best.

At 64" , it's a short bow for my 30" draw length. The bow seems to be holding up to it pretty well and I'll give credit to Osage for that. If you was a bow shorter than than the ideal, then osage would be the wood to try it with.

The next step will be to sand and finish the bow, then apply an arrow shelf/rest, and cane handle wrap.

wow..oh my

2009-09-24T16:14:00.000-07:00

This is quite a find. Utterly fascinating.

The UK's largest haul of Anglo-Saxon treasure has been discovered buried beneath a field in Staffordshire.

Experts say the collection of 1,500 gold and silver pieces, which may date to the 7th Century, is unparalleled in size and worth "a seven figure sum".

Leslie Webster, former keeper at the British Museum's Department of Prehistory and Europe, said: "This is going to alter our perceptions of Anglo-Saxon England as radically, if not more so, as the Sutton Hoo discoveries.

more pictures .

Bow in Progress

2009-09-19T08:33:00.000-07:00

Here is an osage bow in progress. It's a short one: 64" for my 30" draw. The belly is a hybrid of rectangular and rounded belly. I'm trying for a tiller profile that is also a hybrid of stiff handle and bend-through-the handle, so this short bow handle my long draw.

Now lets take a look at what I see:

The two red arrows are pointing to wavy area of the grain which can give the illusion of a stiff or weak spot. Stiff areas are blue. Yellow areas are slightly stiff spots needing correction. The limb on the left is also slightly more stiff. Once I get the those yellow areas corrected, that limb should be bending about as much as the limb on the right.

Charles E. Grayson

2009-08-17T14:10:00.000-07:00

I just found out Dr Grayson passed away this May.

Obiturary

Grayson Archery Collection

Selfbow Backing Materials

2009-08-12T16:29:00.000-07:00

A selfbow is technically a bow made of one piece of wood. When a selfbow is backed, it becomes a backed bow. When it’s backed with wood or bamboo, it becomes a composite bow. Nomenclature aside, there are times when a selfbow needs a backing. Usually this is when the back is violated to such a degree that splinter would raise. In some cases, like wooden composite bows, a backing is needed to help induce a reflexed shape into the bow.

There are many backing options. The following are my thoughts on these materials. Be warned, I have my preferences and admitted bias.

Air

My favorite backing. A bow without a backing can also be made in less time than a backed bow, and you don’t have to worry about worry about glue failure.

Rawhide

Rawhide works and works well. Unlike wood or bamboo backings, rawhide can be applied to a finished bow because there is no need to flatten/de-crown the back. Rawhide is easy to apply, if a bit messy. Rawhide backing is best done outdoors if you value your marriage.

To apply rawhide, do as follows: Soak the rawhide in water for about an hour, then wipe of the excess water. Coat the bow’s back in Tite Bond II or III. Lay the rawhide on the bow’s back (glue will squish out everywhere). Secure the rawhide on the bow by wrapping string around the bows’s tips and handles, and pull the rawhide smooth and tight (more glue will squish out). You can also secure the rawhide by wrapping the bow with an ace bandage. Don’t wrap too tight or you’ll starve the glue joint. Finally coat the rawhide with a layer of glue and let the whole mess dry completely. Trim off the excess rawhide from the bow’s edges. Sand the rawhide smooth and you are done. Rawhide can also be dyed with leather or shoe dye.

Where to get rawhide? Many traditional archery vendors carry rawhide in pre-cut strips, ready to use. You can also buy a large rawhide chew bone and that will have enough rawhide back one bow. I’ve backed a bow with a rawhide chew bone and it worked fine. The rawhide is thick on chew bones so you’ll have to thin it down once you apply it on the bow.

Wood

Wood makes a great backing. The best wood for backing, in my opinion, is hickory. Hickory backings have to be thin, about 1/8th of an inch. Any thicker and the hickory can overpower the belly wood. Sometimes hickory is not best option on soft woods. Other woods can work if they are very strong in tension. Wood backing is applied most successfully to board stock and glued with Urac-185 or something of similar quality. Other bowyers have applied wood backing with Tite Bond III with success. My preference is for Urac, though.

Bamboo

The primitive version of fiberglass backing, or fibergrass as some of us jokingly call it. Bamboo makes a superb backing. For a real glimpse into the art of bamboo backing, check out Dean Torges DVD, “Hunting the Bamboo Backed Bow”.

Sinew

Sinew is a great option for making a short bow capable of talking on a long draw weight. It’s also appropriate for recurves. Sinew is elastic, and imparts a certain amount of extra springiness to a bow. Unfortunately, sinew on longer bows adds too much mass to the limbs and you lose any inherited benefits to sinewing. Sinew is not a magic bullet for bows. Sinew works great for the right design but can turn a bow into a dog if applied to the wrong bow.

Sinew needs an animal based hide glue for the best results. Knox gelatin (the kind in the grocery store) makes an excellent hide glue. Though others have used Tite Bond on sinew and reported successful results. My thoughts on it are that sinew needs to form a matrix with the glue and that can’t be done when the glue is not animal based. Sinew is stretchy and Tite Bond is not. Sinew can maintain its stretchiness/elasticity when it hide glue is used.

Field Expedient Methods

Leather
I’ve tried it and the bow broke. Leather may work for slight violations in the back fibers, but it’s not 100% reliable as a backing. Rawhide is a better choice. Leather can be glued with Tite Bond II or III.

Paper
Other have used grocery bags and stiff paper for backings with success. My bows broke with paper backings. Others have reported success. My preference is for something more stout. After all, it’s said that a bow at full draw is 9/10ths broke. Would you trust paper to hold that last 1/10th together? Paper can be glued with Tite Bond II or III.

Cloth
Linen and denim have been used for backings. I’d suggest you find the thickest denim possible. I tried thin denim once and it broke. Perhaps two layers of thick denim would have worked better. Cloth can be glued with Tite Bond II or III.

Final thoughts

I’ve made bamboo and wood backed bows those bows that I like very much. I’ve used rawhide to back a questionable bow and save it from possible destruction. I’ve tried my hand at sinew, paper, denim, linen, and leather to varying degrees of success. I prefer a bow without backing, and I’ll design a bow with that consideration.

References: The Traditional Bowyer's Bible, Volume 1.

Hi-Powers

2009-08-09T06:48:00.000-07:00

Canadian workers at the Inglis factory assembling Hi-powers during WWII.

This could be a Monty Python skit..

Measuring Relative Humidity

2009-07-26T06:50:00.000-07:00

Previously.

Recently I used my limited woodworking skills to fix a sticky door. When the humidity is around 55-65%, the door closes smoothly. When the humidity rises to 70% or more, the door sticks.

It's another example of how one can use their environment to judge the RH around them. Bowyers can measure the moisture content of wood with moisture meters (I don't), and they can check their RH with hygrometers (I do). But in the absence of those tools, you still have your senses and powers of observation.

How is your wood behaving? How does it smell, feel, or react to your tools? How is it behaving on the tiller? Those things will indicate how wet/dry your bow i s. Your senses can tell you if your environment is too wet for successfully drying wood. My sticky door tells me the RH is hovering around 70% and my hygrometers confirm that. That's not great for drying wood. Fortunately, my wood is already dry and the RH averages out to 55-65% over the long term. But such information can be valuable depending on the stage of the bow's construction.

A good rule of thumb: Bows are like people; if it's too humid/hot/cold for you, then it's probably too humid/hot/cold for them.

Cops behaving badly

2009-07-24T16:16:00.000-07:00

Tased in the taint!

"If you move again, I'm going to stick this Taser up your (expletive) and pull the trigger," one of the officers said. "Now, do you feel this in your (expletive)? — I'm going to Tase your (expletive) if you move again."

Police violated the department's use-of-force policy when the officers Tasered the man once in the back before he was handcuffed, and then in the buttocks after he was handcuffed,

"Officer No. 3 punctuated his offensive speech language by pushing the Taser between the complainant's buttocks and against his anal and genital areas," Murphy wrote. "Such speech combined with these actions was especially offensive."

File this one under: Kindly remove the jackboot from my neck

The Webley Fosbery auotmatic revolver in action

2009-07-15T19:30:00.000-07:00

I mentioned the Webley Fosbery in a early post. Out of curiosity, I found this video of the weapon in action. Pretty fascinating.

As the narrator says, the Webley Fosbery answers a question that no one asked.

Book Review: "Shop Class as Soulcraft" by Michael B. Crawford.

2009-07-07T04:34:00.000-07:00

I read an essay by Mathew Crawford and was intrigued by his new book, “Shop Class as Soulcraft. Crawford is philosopher, holds a PhD, and is a motorcycle mechanic. I’m not a manual trades guy. I fix what I can, do a little woodworking, and make bows.

But my father was an auto mechanic by trade. He also had a genius about most things mechanical. He’d get a gleam in his eye when something broke. I remember many weekends where my dad was either under a hood, behind a washing machine, under a sink, buried behind a furnace, or on his back pulling out the guts of a dishwasher. When wasn’t my dad lodged inside a machine?.

I suppose some looked down on him; grease stained, a mediocre student in high school, no college, and he went to trade school. But a guy who can fix the dishwasher, get the furnace going in the dead of winter, and get the car back on the road is a valuable asset to society. I was intrigued with a book that sought to give proper perspective and appreciation to the manual trades.

Society has been conditioned to look down on the manual trades. Remember all the jokes about shop class and those who went to it? Imagine the horror many parents would feel if their child elected to go to a trade school over college. The parents, and society would ask, “What went wrong?” and view that child as somehow failing in life.. or at least not living up to their potential. Is it right to view the manual trades as a lesser path? Mathew B. Crawford answers that question.

“Soulcraft” defends the value of the manual trades. This book is also an exploration into how many professions have been reduced to component tasks, with each worker doing one part of that task (“The Separation of Thinking from Doing”). The first job sector to be given this treatment was the assembly line and mass production. Now the same thing has happened with office work. Job roles have been reduced to component parts, and each office worker does a part of the process with little knowledge of the entire process itself. Rigid rules and “work processes” have replaced individual professional judgment.

The book criticizes the current theories driving corporate culture and “scientific” management and how those theories have resulted in, quite bluntly, a stupid workforce.

Crawford asserts that corporate managers have become masters of Soviet-era doublespeak while playing the role of pseudo-counselors as they make employees jump through the hoops of “team builders”. Employee coaching sessions focus more on the employee’s personality than their actual work.

Crawford goes on to write that all this has been done as the current theories of corporate management have claimed that a new “knowledge economy” is where success may be found; an economy where the “knowledge work” is the most satisfying (financially and mentally) of career paths. But all too often those who work in the office feel dissatisfied, unchallenged, and pigeonholed into a culture that is completely and totally counter-intuitive to common sense, rationality, and reason.

The manual trades, according to "Soulcraft," are rooted in rationality and reason. They require logical thought and skill. The manual trades offer intellectual stimulation and utterly quantifiable results (it’s either fixed or it isn’t). There is no need for abstractions, corporate psychobabble, or personality contests.

Is the book a total repudiation of white collar work? Not at all. It attacks the idiocies of “scientific” management and the current trends of corporate culture. It highlights the dangers of “The Separation of Thinking from Doing”. It points out that the manual trades, by and large, are immune to this. The manual trades can’t be dumbed down or outsourced. The author does this without mystifying the manual trades and the craftsman. Crawford does not entertain mystique. I think the book serves as a reminder to the positive aspects of the manual trades, and as a warning to what is wrong with the current theories of work management.

I enjoyed “Shop Class as Soulcraft” on several levels. I enjoyed it’s criticisms of the state of work. I appreciated Crawford’s putting the manual trades into a more dignified perspective. On a personal level, I can hear my dad when Crawford writes about how a mechanic thinks when diagnosing a problem.

Coffee, what can't you do?

2009-07-01T04:15:00.000-07:00

An extract from coffee can inhibit the bacteria that lead to bad breath, scientists have discovered

Canada's "Rosie the Riveter"

2009-06-28T06:00:00.000-07:00

Veronica Foster, aka "Ronnie, the Bren Gun Girl" made Bren guns at the Inglis factory in Canada during WWII. She posed for some wartime propaganda posters.

I'll take the Bren over a rivet gun.

Fully automatic and shoots a .303 I;m not sure if that is fun or punishment.

Speaking of Bren guns, here is one from "Lock, Stock, and two smoking barrels":

Osage darkens with age

2009-06-13T06:11:00.000-07:00

More specifically, osage darkens with exposure to light. In this picture, you see a new osage kids bow compared to a bow I made years ago. Both bows started off lemon-yellow in color. The bow on the right has been sitting indoors, exposed to average amounts of sunlight (but not direct sunlight), and has 6 coats of Minwax Helmsman spar urethane with IV inhibitors. As you can see, the UV inhibitors in the urethane have not stopped the darkening process, but have probably slowed it down a bit. Eventually, the wood will darken to a deep purple/black.

For those of us who make osage bows, part of the allure is that the woods darkens with age. It develops its own patina as time progresses and looks better with age.

Retro fun

2009-06-10T03:00:00.000-07:00

Not as awesome as Star Wars/Airwolf, but still entertaining.

Redwood bowl... 50 cents

2009-06-06T13:11:00.000-07:00

M, the boy, and I went for a walk last night. We encountered a woman getting yard sale signs ready. She was quite gregarious, so we decided to swing by Saturday morning to check out her wares.

And I saw this:

And I turned it over:

Redwood? Maybe it is. Underneath the dark finish, the wood is a brownish-red. A product of the redwood forests may not be redwood. But for 50 cents, it would make a dandy bowl to hold my wallet, keys, and other items. I cleaned it up and sanded it lightly with 600 grit paper. I wanted to keep the dings, nicks, and scratches. It's good wabi-sabi. A few coats of satin urethane finished it up.

Damn Dirty Birds!

2009-05-28T18:34:00.000-07:00

Researchers have found that rooks, a member of the crow family, are capable of using and making tools despite not doing so in the wild.

"This finding is remarkable because rooks do not appear to use tools in the wild, yet they rival habitual tools users such as chimpanzees and New Caledonian crows when tested in captivity," said Chris Bird, the lead author of the study.

First rock and sticks, and then it'll be bows and arrows. Before long we'll all be trapped in a net telling a bird to get it's stinking dirty talons off of us.

Osage Kid's Bow, Part 4

2009-05-17T09:00:00.000-07:00

Previously, Part 3.

I finished the bow. Maximum draw length is 22”. Weight at 21” is 15#.

Kids’ bows, especially osage ones, will have disproportionally thinner limbs compared to their full sized counterparts. This stave also had a little bit of character to it. The rises and dips on the belly and back, combined with the thinness of the limbs, made tillering a little difficult.

The top limb looks to have a stiff spot in the middle-third of the limb. This limb had quite a bit waves in the grain which made tillering tricky. It got to a certain point where it simply refused to bend anymore. If I continued to scrap away, I'd run a risk of making that portion of the limb too thin. Sometimes you just have to stop scraping.

The belly of the bow is flattened, but the corners are very much rounded. There pin knot on the edge of the limb that had me concerned because there was a violation of the growth ring. The bow has held up just fine. On a full-poundage adult bow, I would have wrapped this area with nylon serving material and soaked it in glue for insurance. The second picture has the violation highlighted in blue to show you you where it is:

I hadn't done a leather handle in quite some time because rattan is my favored grip material. Rattan would be too thick for a handle this size, so some old furniture leather was used.

The crack that was filled with super glue goes straight through the limb. It's holding up fine. It's good that it runs with the grain and is located at the tips, instead of a working part of the limb.

I sprayed 4 coats of minwax gloss helmsman on it. I’m not a fan of spray urethanes, but this time the finish sprayed evenly.

This bow will make a good bow for a child until about the age of 10 or so, or whenever their draw length exceeds 22". If you make bows, you should have a kids' bow laying around. You never know who might need it.