Posted on 01/03/2020 8:07:28 AM PST by DUMBGRUNT
Just checkin’ in to see if your copy of Marlinspike has arrived. If so, I wouldn’t be surprised if you haven’t already woven up a mat or two. :) Anyway, hope it meets your expectations when it finally comes.
With the two books you’ve already purchased, plus Ashley, you’d have what in my mind are the big three in knots, enough to keep any man busy (and happy!) for a lifetime, at least that’s true for an old coot like me. A younger man with phenomenal concentration,, maybe not. Cheers!
First I had to put in some time with the snowblower, so the mailman could drop it off.
And I like it!
Having spent way too much time working with internet instructions by someone TOO familiar and they fail to notice a small but necessary step and I waste an hour or more...
A common problem.
The best part is that the author is also the illustrator and understands what needs to be communicated.
I started thinking one like:
https://www.edelrid.de/en/sports/knowledge/ropemat.php
Then I saw the cover of Marlinspike Sailor, there it was!
Now I see it on page 41.
In the meantime, I warmed up the lathe and some nice oak fids.
Printed templates and practice, practice, practice on a light braided line before going to 50 meters of 11mm.
When I have the time I' I'll read Marlinspike cover to cover, lots of good information. A small fraction of Encyclopedia of Knots and Fancy Ropework. Now I'm deciding between circular or oval.
Found my most favored old rope, many memories, a forty-foot fall on an overhang.
A first ascent that a friend and I put up in the '80s. Last year our son was climbing in the same area and a fellow climber gave him a photocopy of an out of print book on the area climbs.
My climbing partner and I are listed with the first ascent in an actual hardcover book! This would have been fun to brag on; forty years ago!
Soon I will have a nice rope mat and the story with it!
"A younger man with phenomenal concentration,, maybe not."
As a septuagenarian, that leaves me out!
My plan is to enlist #1 Son to assist, but he has many irons in the fire, so I will practice on.
Thank you again!
PS:
An old friend says it is best to acquire new skills to avoid becoming stuck in a rut.
Speaking of mats, I bought this a week ago. I don't know what I'm doing buying another knot book. I already have a shelf full of them that I've barely cracked the cover on. But a couple of things sold me: First, he said in the forward it was his intention to teach readers how combine knots together to make other even more useful things. Second... 20 mats! Sixty projects total. He also has a little section on marlinspikes, fids, heaving boards (which I had never heard of), etc., many of which it appears he makes himself.
I always wanted to make bellropes, dog leashes, key fobs, etc. Even though I don't have a bell, don't need a bell, and don't ever plan to buy a bell, I've seen some very cool bellropes and wouldn't mind making one. And if I absolutely have to, I'll buy a doggone bell to go with it! It's all decorative anyhoo.
Anyway, I hate to recommend another book, especially one I've spent so little time with. But... 20 mats and other projects, AND it supposedly teaches you how to think about combining knots intelligently to make other things... What can you lose, especially if you can find a good used copy for a good price? I apologize. I won't keep doing this to you!
Liked the Edelrid site. Love the rope. Beautiful stuff. Can you imagine what the old timers would've thought of today's hi-tech ropes?
A lathe, too? You're a man of many talents!
That's a wise old friend you have there.
Des Pawson’s Knot Craft and Rope Mats
Looks interesting, but I now have a set direction, that said I thought a look at the library might be fun.
Not high on the list for libraries?
I can request it from my local library...
Google has a Kindle version with some previews and I noticed half dozen references to the constrictor knot?
“I’ve seen some very cool bellropes and wouldn’t mind making one.”
My sister the artist works in that direction, mostly tapestry, textile arts, macrame...even sold some for thousands $$$.
The dealer keeps HALF! And she puts in hundreds of hours.
Happy ending, she became a creative director for an ad agency, an artist managing artist, must have been good at it, paid well.
A good thought, maybe I can get her interested in my project.
I need all the help I can get.
” Can you imagine what the old timers would’ve thought of today’s hi-tech ropes?”
In the 1981 printing of Marlinspike, he addresses some of the newer products and calls them superior. Pg 115.
A puzzle you might enjoy:
https://www.ringofsaturn.com/games/stringandringpuzzle.php
I have sprung this puzzle on many, many friends and coworkers. In fifty plus years only TWO solved it quickly.
An old aunt of mine and a very sharp fellow student.
At work, a group of a dozen graduate engineers/PEs requested the solution after a few days.
I too had asked for the solution after a few nights.
Not surprised. It's the first knot he covers and he's hugely impressed by it, because of the number of uses it has and probably also because of the number of ways to tie it, midrope, endrope, etc. Browsing through his projects, I noticed several that used the constrictor as a tool to help make the object in question. Need to close up a burlap bag full of coffee beans quickly and securely? The constrictor knot is your boy. That's what my first knot book said. :)
Cool website: https://www.animatedknots.com
First saw the string and ring puzzle when I was 14yo or so. Solved it within a couple of minutes with a whole slew of witnesses looking on. They all thought I was a genius. What I didn't tell them was I couldn't solve it the next day to save my life. Just got lucky the first time.
Bread ties to the rescue!
As I was washing my old climbing rope in the whirlpool tub, weeping, wailing, gnashing of teeth!
My wife announced that water was dripping from the ceiling below, NOT GOOD.
For a hundred-year-old house, there are two approaches; cash and credit cards or tools and learn how to use them. I like tools.
A cartridge on the Chicago Faucet fill valve failed, and I had just installed it in 1987! It seems like last week?
Oh yes, the bread ties.
My sister the artist said she used different color bread ties to hold some of her macrame projects.
Very helpful.
Lacking a collection of bread ties but having a spool of Cat 5 handy. I striped some out, and I get 8 different colors.
Making the fid, I thought it was going to be too large? 22 X diameter.
Works like a champ.
Practicing with different types of rope, braided polyester, 11mm climbing, and a laid polypropylene.
The polypropylene is easiest to work with, so that is my practice line.
I can make them tight and I can slack them out but adjusting the bights to keep them symmetrical, not yet.
Thinking about a pegboard to keep(?) the bights even???
Back in the whirlpool, I have about a quarter-inch of silt from the first washing, time to do it again.
Current objective, a carrick mat center with a sewn spiral perimeter.
This could take a while.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.