Sailmakers Roping Palms. For Sale!

How Do All ;-)

These Sailmakers Roping palms were hand made my myself using only the highest quality materials. 

A Sailmakers Roping palm is used for sewing the bolt ropes on to the perimeter of a traditional sail, it is also used for sewing on heavy chafing gear of leather to the sail and for sewing in grommets and rings to the sail. The palm is also used for adding seizings, and putting palm and needle whippings onto ropes.

(Palm #2)

These palms are made with heavy leather and natural rawhide and are lined with plush goats skin. the dimpled iron (needle plate or eye) is machined from solid brass and the whole palm is hand stitched.

(Palm #2)

Once made, the palm is softened in in water and then shaped to the hand, where it takes on its Kidney Bean shape, and then worn until dry, after which the palm will be set in the perfect shape for good, or until you soften it to reshape it.

(Palm #2)

These palms have seen very little use and would make a great addition to any Knot Tyers Ditty Bag.

(Palm #2)

The palms will need soaking for a couple of hours in room temp water then placed into a plastic bag for several hours until pliable, then the palms can be shaped, stretched and moulded to suit your hand. 

There is a new, long length of heavily waxed rayon twine joining the ends of the palms so you can secure the palm at the right size for your hand.

(Palm #2)

Now the business end of the deal!

The price for this item is £22.50

Postage is £3.95 Royal Mail, First Class Recorded in the mainland UK.

All other destinations will be sent by "airsure" or "international signed for" if the service is available for your location, please contact me for an accurate shipping quote if outside the UK, as shipping costs may vary considerably depending on location.

Contact Me: knotty (dot) bear (at) gmail (dot) com

These items are also available to buy via my

Etsy Store 

You can also view my other items for sale here:

My Work For Sale.

Thanks for looking.

Take care,

Barry ;-)

(Palm #1) Now SOLD

Knife/Tool Lanyard. For Sale!

How Do All ;-)

A knife / tool lanyard would have been used by a rigger, sailor or any craftsman working at height to attach their tools to their harness, belt, tool bag or other object to save loosing the tool should it be dropped, also possible saving injury or damage to persons and property below.

This knife / tool lanyard is made up from several complex sinnets and lanyard knots, the material is 1.25mm Polypropylene.

Please note: the knife pictured with this lanyard is not included with this sale, however if you like to buy the knife please contact me.

The total length of the lanyard is 725mm (not including Knife)

  Starting from the top loop: This is a six strand round sinnet, followed by a fully tucked Mathew Walker knot, then a strand Star Knot.

 Next is a sinnet of over two crowning, followed by a complex spiral crown sinnet, next a multi strand square crown sinnet.

Next comes a, over six under six lanyard knot, followed by a twelve strand complex solid sinnet.

Next comes a neat Gaucho knot style lanyard knot followed by an eight strand square 

sinnet.

Next a diamond lanyard knot followed by a six strand round sinnet.

Lastly a fully tucked Mathew walker and a four strand round sinnet attachment loop.

Now the business end of the deal!

The price for this item is £110.00 

Postage is £6.95 Royal Mail Special Delivery in the mainland UK.

All other destinations will be sent by "airsure" or "international signed for" if the service is available for your location, please contact me for an accurate shipping quote if outside the UK, as shipping costs may vary considerably depending on location.

Contact Me: knotty (dot) bear (at) gmail (dot) com

This item is also available to buy via my

Etsy Store 

You can also view my other items for sale here:
My Work For Sale.

Thanks for looking.

Take care,

Barry ;-)

Cotton Chest Beckets. For Sale!

How Do All ;-)

I am selling what is probably one of the most beautiful pairs of Sea Chest Beckets you may have ever laid eyes on!

The price of these Beckets is in no way a true reflection of the many hours of work involved to create such a work, they are for me, priceless!

The core of the beckets are a selvagee strop, marled, parcelled, and a puddening of canvas applied, this is then served with Tarred Marline before being covered. 

The Eyes are ringbolt hitched in cotton, the legs are of needle hitching in cotton and the bails are 8 strand x 5 ply coach whipping in cotton.

 The bolt is of 3 strand hemp, wormed, parcelled and served , this is covered with a leather chafing piece and 4 pinked leather washers, the ends of the bolt are finished of with painted, canvas covered manrope knots.

 The finish is hand mixed, natural, Bleached Shellac.

Approx size of each Becket: 

height 260mm x width 155mm.

 Small and large Turk’s-Head knots in flax finish the covering.

These Beckets were featured in the pages of Knotting Matters #80 & #100 (the magazine of the International Guild of Knot Tyers)

The wood cleats are of Lignum Vitae, they have pilot holes drilled and also come with screws for fixing, but if you wish you could fix the cleats in the traditional way using copper rivets, (the cleats would need drilling through to do this.

Now the business end of the deal!

For this unique, one off and completely unrepeatable work of art I am asking a kings ransom of £1,750.00

Postage is (contact me for a quote) Royal Mail Special Delivery in the mainland UK.

All other destinations will be sent by "airsure" or "international signed for" if the service is available for your location, please contact me for an accurate shipping quote if outside the UK, as shipping costs may vary considerably depending on location.

Contact Me: knotty (dot) bear (at) gmail (dot) com

You can see more of my Chest Beckets here:

Chest Beckets

Thanks for looking.

Take care,

Barry ;-)

Fluo Ditty Bag, For Sale!

SOLD!

How Do All ;-)
Yup' you heard right! I am selling my pride and joy Ditty Bag.

My Very Own Fluo Ditty Bag is now up for grabs!

The bag is in excellent condition and has never been used in anger, this bag has only ever come out of storage for display purposes!

Please see below for all the details of the bag, and pictures:

 The body of the bag is made from 12oz cotton Duck, and is 300mm x 175mm. the canvas is fully hand seamed and the base has a double seam for durability.

The grip is of Flax and UV reactive cord, and contains; overhand Spanish hitching, wide single strand Gaucho knots and single strand Mathew Walker knots. The hanging loop is 6 strand round braid.

 The slider is a Pineapple knot, and the toggle on the base is covered with Pineapple knots.

 There are 6 hand stitched grommet eyelets around the top of the bag, through which the spliced lanyard legs are buttoned with small Pineapple knot buttons.

The bag can be converted to a shoulder bag by buttoning the double ball toggle on the base of the bag through the hanging loop on the end of the lanyard. 

This bag was featured on the cover and in the pages of Knotting Matters 104.

I was the first person to be presented the Ditty Bag Trophy, in memory of the late Gary Sessions at the joint IGKT & IGKT-NAB meeting at the New Bedford Whaling Museum, Massachusetts in 2009, pictured here with the Ditty Bag Trophy and my Fluo Ditty Bag. An article appeared in KM 105 with pictures.

Below you can see the effect that Ultra Violet light has on the UV reactive cord and also the twine used for seaming the bag and putting in the  eyelets.

 The effect of the black light on the UV reactive cord and seaming twine is mind blowing when seen in the flesh.

The single strand Gaucho Knots ane braided directly to the lanyard,

 Close up of the  Pineapple knot used to close the bag.

Now the business end of the deal!

For this unique, one off and completely unrepeatable work of art I am asking a kings ransom of £395.00

Postage is £7.55 Royal Mail Special Delivery in the mainland UK.

& £23.00 USA. for a custom postage quote for other countries please contact me.

Contact Me: knotty (dot) bear (at) gmail (dot) com

I will not be making any more Ditty Bags ever again, so this is the last chance to own one of these much sought after hand crafted items!

You can see more of my Canvas Work here:

Canvas Work

Thanks for looking.

Take care,

Barry ;-)

Knotsam & Jetsam.

How Do All ;-)

Nothing much happening at the moment, so just to fill some space, here is a few pictures of a new key lanyard I just made.

When I used to cycle on one of those strange upright bike contraptions, I used to like having my keys to hand, attached to the outside of my rucksack so I did not have to take my bag off to get the keys out and open the gate and back door. 

The buttoned end of the lanyard was attached to the D ring on the shoulder strap, and the keys sat in the side pole pocket. 

Though I ride a proper bike now and don't need to wear the pack, I still like to carry a nice bit of knot work with me ;-)

The end of the lanyard has a 4 strand round sinnet eye which attaches to the key fob, followed by an 8 strands square sinnet. then a split button hole of two 4 strand round sinnets, a short 8 strand square sinnet and a fancy complex button knot.

The cord used is 2mm diameter. and the dragon fly brooch is an optional extra! (really just there for some pretty in the photos ;-)

The key fob is my old trusty double ender! made from scrap recycled, UV reactive Diabolo string.

Lanyard is about 650mm total length.

An 8 strand square sinnet bracelet in 1mm line with a complex button knot.

An old Mothers day gift which I stole back to get a picture, a complex crown knot button, Sunflower ABOK #900 in 3 mm cord, fully stiffened, also with one of my Dragonfly brooches.

A selection of my Dragonfly brooches, in 2mm line, fully stiffened, with a brooch pin incorporated into the knot work, much neater than gluing it on the back.

Thank you for looking.

Take care,

Barry ;-)

Ply-Split Braided Linen Belt #2.

Ply-Split Braided Linen Belt #2.

(Note: the colours of this belt are Cobalt Blue and Citrus Green, but due to the light the green colour looks washed out in the photos! however; the last photo here taken during the making shows the correct colours) 

Made with my own hand made Linen cords, total length 1100mm including buckle, width 42mm.
The buckle is a stainless steel roller buckle.

The braid is a 24 strand, 4 section SCOT (single course oblique twining) braid, a 6 strand, 2 section SCOT braid keeper loop, and the end of the belt is finished with a 2 section SCOT braid.

A perfec fit! also shown with one of my conquistadors braid belt loop watch straps, I hate wearing a watch on my wrist.

Close up showing the buckle detail, the SCOT (single course oblique twining)  keeper loop, which is spliced in to the belt itself, and the tip of the belt, of which the ends are all spliced back into the belt braid.

The belt can be pierced at any point along its length by pushing the prong through the braid. When you decide to change the length the old hole will close up with a simple wiggle of the braid.

Showing the very neat edge of the braid created by the Ply-Splitting process.

(This picture shows the correct colours of the belt)

Showing the Braiding process in progress, using one of my hand made Grip Fids, several strands are first split with the tool and then a single cord pulled back through. This process is repeated well over 1000 times in the making of this belt.

You can see more of my Ply Split work here:

Ply-Split Braiding

Thanks for looking.

Take care,

Barry ;-)

Shekere / Sekere

Shekere / Sekere.

A few weeks ago I found a Shekere in a charity shop in Eton whilst out shopping in Windsor.

It was pretty grubby and the netting was a nice shade of nicotine and coffee brown, with the long ends of the net hanging in a frayed mess, urgh! 

But as I am interested in all things to do with net making, no matter how tatty looking I had to have it for interests sake. 

I only paid £2.00 for this item so in any state it was a real bargain.

(note: all pictures are of the refurbished Shekere, as I forgot to photograph it in its original state)

I took off the beaded skirt and soaked it in a concentrated stain remover for a few hours and then poured off the almost black liquid. I then soaked it over night in a strong biological washing liquid solution and gave it a  thorough rinsing.

The net came out a bright white just like new, and the beads also looked just like new.

I scrubbed the Gourd body with a mildly abrasive but non scratch citrus cleaner and the Gourd turned from a coffee stained brown to a nice orange brown colour. I also sanded the top of the opening smooth and straight as this had just been left ragged by the maker. 

There was a marble stuffed into the top of the opening which took an age and some ingenuity to remove without damaging the neck of the Gourd, and then also some loose debris inside which was left from the the Gourd not being cleaned out was removed.

It was amazing what a difference this made to the tone and resonance of the gourd which was actually quite good for its 8" diameter and small opening.

I polished the Gourd body with a quality wax polish, though I could have also oiled it with Danish oil or similar, some people use a Polyurethane coating on the outside but I think it looks too unnatural and plastic, just like the beads, but they seem to be the best thing for the job.

I replaced the netting, and decided to finish the bottom of the net off with an extra row of meshes and an adjustable cord rather than the long tail of knotted cords as was original, the tone of the gourd seemed to be dampened with the long tails when hitting the bottom with the heal of the hand, you can use either method and each has a slightly different playing style.

I could have completely replaced the net with my own but for the sake of it the original net was fine, if a little unevenly tied in a coupe of places, and for £2.00 I am not complaining as I have a nice little instrument now, which also sounds pretty good for its size.

Take care,

Barry ;-)