This is going to be a rather long post. But it does include pictures, so sit back and enjoy the ride:
I made a new Toy!
So when I showed off the new handle for the redo of the handle for my BearClaw, Fluffypoppet (you can blame her for this) somewhat challenged me to make something stiffer than the leather base. And after some thought, I decided a paddle would work with the claws and fur. So I bought some parts and went down to my work area and puttered around.
The first step was choosing the paddle. I tried to have one custom made but the manufacturer never got back to me, so I looked around and found these on Amazon:
Perfectly acceptable but I did not make sure of the size before paying for them :
Cei La Vie.... I went ahead with my project just the same.
Attaching the screws for the claws was somewhat tough. My original plan was to drill and set in some hanger bolts, but the claws are 3mm screws. You can't find 3mm hanger bolts here in the US. A dear friend of mine down in Australia (Sincourable is such a dear) found some on Amazon UK but I didn't want to pay that kind of shipping).
So I went through a number of adhesives to glue the screw to the edge of the paddle:
After a number of tries, I found that simple superglue worked the best. Hot gluing, spray and wood glue all failed the tests of pressure on wood, my own chest and spanking against my hand. So added the rest of the screws to my test paddle:
I sanded and wiped them down and then went with a solid black stain with a polyurethane self coat on one and simple black paint on the other:
As you can see from the photo, the black stain didn't come out so well, so I went to the test paddle and coated it with a spray polyurethane:
After that properly dried, I cut some fake rabbit fur (I thought about using real fur, but just could not bring myself to do it):
and using the spray adhesive, attached it to the paddle:
Now fully dried, here is the final product! Anyone who wants to be a testor for it, please let me know!
