Dear All
I have just posted some more photographs on my album: http://uk.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/glenys_chew/album?.dir=c1e1&.src=ph&store=&prodid=&.done=http%3A//uk.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph//my_photos I do hope these links work ok - I can never tell whether or not I’ve accidentally given you the wrong link.
Anyway - they’re all catalogued to show how I repaired our brass-effect bedstead after two years wear and tear (more tear than wear, and definitely more climbing than bouncing) by our younger children.
I did one to show my husband what I was trying to explain would look so much nicer than jubilee clips which would spoil the lacquer. Or what’s left of it. He was so impressed he let me do the rest of the bed. The grand total is 20 whipping points. I hope to finish the bed-head by the weekend.
When we can get the photos off my daughter’s mobile, I’ll post the disappointing experiment in making a mobile phone strap with pedigree cow hitches, which was swiftly reworked as the much nicer doubled cow hitch pictured after the bedstead.
Regards
Glenys Chew
Nice that you made it part of the design/decor and symmetrical from side to side.
Any strategies for if it starts to stretch some? Like weaving a 1" slat thru on the points with blind sides?
Or binding around each binding point perpendicular to the lay with constrictors. This will bend outer turns to leverage them tighter against the resistance of the host bars/spars whipping is mounted on for mending/reinforcing etc. But a dual effect can be had; if bars/spars are close enough to each other; by A)tightening the binding as before and B)spreading the bars/spars apart slightly into the bindings. Especially on round host mount of bar/spar; where the circumferences only touch at 1 point flatly, as opposed to 2 beams being bound and touching at many points.
i used some 1/8" cord tied in a Constrictor by street light for a hot water hose clamp on my truck, after cutting the rotten end off; while broke down on the highway at 4am, alone on the way to a funeral. Couldn’t find hose clamp at next few stops; so copped an attitude and drove ~800 more miles; then around town for a week. But changed it before coming back home.
i guess i’ll leave the part about the 20 whipping points on the bed post alone!
Dear TreeSpyder
:-[ :-[ :-[
I never even thought about other possible readings of that sentence! Oh well, another lesson learned - run them past a friend of mine who thinks faster than I do when I’m having a bad day.
My eyes glazed over a bit at the question on reinforcing it in case it stretches. The basic answer is: take it off, put new stuff on. “Ah’m just a simple home-maker, sah, and ain’t never been eddicated in syentiffik stuff.” ;D
I do hope, however, possibly in September, to take a course on how to take decent photos with our digital camera. Everytime I try to close-up on something I get fuzzy results.
Regards,
Glenys Chew
The whippings look very nice. This would also be a good application of a Turks Head. Something with more leads than bights. It is more time consuming than whipping, but less apt to slip, or turn on the smooth metalwork. Most Turks Heads are tied in hand, or on a tool, and then slipped over the work. If you wanted to use a Turks Head tool, it would have to be able to wrap around the pipes, and then be able to be slipped out from under the knot before it is tightened up. If you want to attempt something like this, I can help you make a tool.
Pat
Dear Pat
Thank you. I’m not sure that I have the expertise (nor, with my 3 year old, the leisure!), but I am certainly interested in knowing how to do it ready for the time that I can do it. Learning Turks Heads is one of the knots I’m aiming for before the end of the year. I’m just struggling with Manropes at the moment.
I have done flat THs on a photocopy on a board, with embroidery silks, which I then framed and gave to friends. I did start to do one round a bottle, but it got put to the back of the cupboard for lack of having enough hours to get one complete circuit done without mistakes, before I can put it down and carry on with it another time.
I also did a simple one as a bracelet for my teenage daughter, in round elastic cord.
The main problem would be the ‘split’ nature of the curlicues. I thought Common Whipping would work best because it could be easily extended. How would a TH work for that?
Regards
Glenys Chew
Glenys,
I use the cardboard tube at the center of a roll of toilet paper as a mandrell, and then tape a paper grid to it. There are some sample grids posted at the Knot Heads website. http://www.khww.net/readarticle.php?article_id=49 Check out the file “Small Turks Heads”. Typically, the tube is stuffed with newspaper to hold small nails where the grey doughnuts are. In your case,with a polished surface to protect, you would have to cut the tube to the correct length and cut a double V notch in the end to hold the line instead of a nail. (This would also be a good idea if teaching youngsters, so they don’t have sharp nails or pins to play with). Since you are going around a object that does not have an end to slid the tube off, you will have to split the length of the tube.
You will probably need a grid that I have not posted for a long skinny Turks Head. You can design your own grid with a ruler, colored pencils and piece of paper, or I will draw one up for you. I just need to know how many leads and bights you are looking for, and I can e-mail you a Word document.
Pat
Hi Pat, sorry about the delay in answering, we had half-term holiday here, and I was away half of the week, followed on Saturday by 4 hours at Morecambe Bay, which meant 2 hours on the sand, and 2 hours in the mudflats when the tide went out past the sands, and I ended up with a total of 8 washloads. Plus, I don’t have the computer on on Sundays 
I am trying to put together a drawing of how I understand this will work, which I will upload to my Yahoo album in a couple of days. I’m still puzzled as to how a TH can hold together what is sort of an ‘X’ shape.
Regards
Glenys Chew
The Turks Head can only be used where the tubes run parrallel to each other. The same as a whipping, it will bind two parrallel pipes together. Where the pipes cross in an “X”, I’m afraid I can’t offer a Turks Head solution. In Boy Scouts, I saw a tower get built with only wooden poles and rope, and wherever there were two poles crossing, there was a knot employed. I forget the name of the knot, I’m sure it has one. It was similar to a whipping, where the poles are lashed to each other, and then the line is wrapped around the whole knot to tighten it all in.
Can anybody help me with the name of this lashing knot, or and Ashley reference? I don’t have Ashley at hand.
Pat
Hi Pat and Glenys,
If the two pieces are crossing, then use can be made of the square lashing or the diagonal lashing, both of which are in your information, Glenys, about pioneering badges. Use of either depends on the angle made - square lashing for when the poles are at right angles to each other and diagonal lashing when they are at an acute angle to each other (like an X). Your repair seems to be good using whipping as you have done Glenys - just be sure that when it comes loose that you perhaps add some frapping turns to tighten the original whipping turns (frapping is literally wrapping the turns at right angles to pull them tighter together). Because the frame parts of the bed appear to be in a flat plane the frapping turns would be like the second set of turns made when making a monkey’s fist. Hope this helps!
SR