Tersely Pertinent

We are a fairly tight bunch here on The Cage.

We have people we like, those we lust after, those we despise with great passion.

But we are a community.   

Now I get it:  People come and go.    Sometimes we all need time away from the lifestyle or just the online presence.  

But still.  There are a few who's name, when it appears on the screen, just brings a smile to our lips.

There is one I miss seeing.   Someone who I would never stand a chance with but brings a glow to everything they write.

I looked for their profile and can not find it.   I can't find any of my (very few) messages we exchanged.     

Now the blog rules say I can't mention their name, but we all know them.

I mean, they did mention they baked.

Alot, it would seem.

If anyone is in contact with them, please tell them they are missed.

Here are the My latest works:

The Twins

Black Pain (Top) is a 1.5 inch Hardwood handle with my yak hide falls

Scarlet Sting (Bottom) is a 1.25 inch Oak handle with buckskin falls

Just got done putting the

Heat Shrink top on the handle 

of my purple flogger.

So going to let it set a couple of hours 

before putting it a stress test 

So, I took some time off

from making things to go to

a local toy fair

Picked up this bad boy

for a total sum of

$10

Nice heft 

Solid impact 

Well, my Leather order finally showed:

So I spent this morning cutting out some falls:

That shit was tiring 

Going to wait awhile til I start the gluing 

Then I get to do it all over again with the scarlet 

Oh joy

I hit Lowe's yesterday and found this:

Four feet of 2 inch Hardwood 

Coolest thing is, it only cost me 10 bucks!

But, as I was afraid of, it was a bit too big for me to take

At least, in my grip 

The good news is: I do have a lathe!

So this morning I set off to see what I can do

I cut off a hunk :

And turned it for a bit 

(Sorry!  I was so interested in working on it, I forgot to take pics)

After cutting the cap off and sanding it

This is the result: 

My problem is now how to stain it. 

The original idea was to use a solid black stain with a built-in polyurethane but now I am thinking of using a medium brown stain I use for my cutting boards 

Then, what color falls?

With the black stain, I was going to use the new red Buckskin I have coming in

But with the brown stain, I wonder if the Black Elk would not be a better choice 

What do you all think?

For the width of a flogger handle, that is.

The ones I got going now are 1.25 (or one and a quarter) inches.    I think the next one(s) I want to try will be either 1.5 (inch and a half) or a full blown 2 inches.   

Problem is I am not sure people can get their hands around 2 inches and feel comfortable.   Guess a trip to Lowe's is in order tomorrow.

So here is the finished Product:

When conceiving the idea for these flogger, I wanted to try using a heat shrinking wire covering for

the area at the top handle where the falls attach.

I figured it would be easier to use than trying to get one of the hollowed caps to slide down

Here is what it looks like before heat was applied:

And After:

Now the problem was I don't know if I didn't used enough heat or if my hairdryer 

wasn't up to the task.   It was tight, but not real tight.   

So I ended up putting some superglue on it and let it set awhile.

After after giving it a stress test, here is the final product:

The only real issue I have with it all is it is a very light flogger with only 17 falls

When I finally find a Testor, I guess I will see how well it works

So the handles are finished.   Though the purple and mahogany ones took longer than I expected. 

I think I put the second coat of stain on too soon, since they are oil based as opposed

to the scarlet one, which is water based.

I ordered my new buckskin hides. Though I don't know when they will arrive, since they haven't shipped yet.

But I have left over Moose, so I cut some falls for the mahogany handle:

Got buzy attaching them to the handle.

Cut 26 falls, but only really got 17 of them glued on when I ran out of room.

But it looks fairly nice I think:

Takes 72 hours for the glue to fully cure. 

So it won't be til Monday when I can do a final bit of covering 

where the falls attach to the handle.   

Will be interesting to see if it works

As you may remember, I recently bought and semi restored a small wood lathe.  

This week new chisels arrived, so I spent this morning working on some new handles for floggers.

As you can see, it makes a good deal of sawdust.   Lathe dust?   Whatever.

What you are looking at is 1.25 inch Oak dowel where I reduced about an inch of it to .5 inch or so.

So I did three of them to see how they would turn out, this being my first time

(Wood Lathe Virgin, wouldn't you know)

Yes, I realize they are not uniform but, you know, first time.

So I cut the caps off and sanded them down to make them useable and ready for stain

Used the new Purple stain, as well as my favorite Red, and a Dark Brown 

I didn't stain the "necks" due to the fact that is where I am going to glue the falls.

My plan is order some Dark Purple and Dark Red Buckskin for the correlating handels.  The Brown one will get more Moose I used on the Copper handled flogger awhile back.

Tomorrow will be polycoating with a full gloss and the fall attachment.

Stay Tuned for Final Product!