Tersely Pertinent

Here is a Quicky Flogger:

While looking at dowels in Lowe's

I found an 7 inch replacement leg for furniture 

Don't really know what the wood is (Birch, maybe?)

But it was a good feel and thought it would take stain fairly well

My own real question was how to attach the falls to it

So I came up with this idea:

I removed the screw and used a hole saw to cut in a grove to set a chunk of my copper pipe in

Simple wood glue adhered the inch or so pipe to the handle

I then stained the handle with a new waterbased walnut mimwax. 

the birch, or whatever, took the stain fairly well:

I wanted some brown falls to go with the color of the handle, so I chose a piece of what is

probably fake leather and stripped it down

More than likely being vinyl, the falls are very light and don't see 

to have much impact

But time will tell when I get someone to test it out

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