Gadgets and secret ingredients.

General Discussion
1

Hey up, all.

Now then.
Over the weekend, I got tore into the flat sennet Turk Heads ABOK1379 and 1380, (four styles in all), using 8mm sashcord and a small Swedish fid. It probably was not the best of material to use, smooth it aint, but its all I had at hand.

A few things arose from this little exercise, on which, I am looking to the cognescenti, for a drag-out.

In the process, it came clear to me, that I had a 'ell of a time following the correct lead,unless, I close formed and reduced looseness ,to a minimum. O’course, this meant I was using the fid to open up.

Seemed to me, that in such cases, a hollow-ended fid would,ve been much a better tool, with which to follow the lead. No force required.
So I looked up in Des,s catalogue and it appeared that sets of these things are available, but I,m going to have a thrash at making my own…bit o’tube, or summat, should do the trick.

I.d be interested if anyone has tackled such a D.I.Y project.

Overall, the tying sessions were not initially easy, until I discovered the secret ingredient that I,ve never seen mentioned on Forum.
Bad language and cursing, in liberal amounts, preferably at full volume!. Helped enormously ;D

Another thing, about yon Turks head flat sennit bands, they,re very nice to look at, but was there ever a practical use for them? anyone?

Aside, regarding the use of hair for real fine work…this is summat I,ve never heard of…hair?..for me, 8mm is fine work ;D…but , wait a minute, you,re right, for as I dimly recall, the Victorians used to weave lockets of hair around the edges of minature portraits of their loved 'uns…dunno where I remembered this from…(Forsyth Saga, probably.)

Oh, and fendering and matting, well, TBH I haven,t done any sort of fendering for over 40 years, mebbe its time to re-start…but I do still, do the odd mat. The last one, was a (nearly) oval mat, done in 10mm tarred nylon, I think, …it is still stinking the place up, summat rotten. Or, as I prefer, “authentic presence”

One day, I will get my head around this business of posting photo,s, not that I have much to photo.
According to my son, the last time I got got deep into the workings of computer(changing fonts or something) I accidently caused a major shift in weather patterns!

Sorry for the ramble; age y’know.

Ahh’l sithee

Walrus the Yorkie

2

Hi Walrus,
The tool of choice for a job like this depends on your preference. I often use a gripfid, this is a hollow fid with slightly closed tip that grips your sting. If you want I can e-mail you the instructions as Stuart Grainger wrote them.
An other tool is a threaded needle.
This looks like the point of a knitting needle, and can indeed be made out of an old, hollow knitting needle. You can make the treading with a screw. Better are the brass one that are for sale. Some people even have stainless steel ones. (A friendly lathe user made them!)

One friendly request:
I know English is your home language, and you will understand when someone else shortens a few words or changes a few letters. Many people here have a different first language, for them it is harder to understand words when they are not written as in the dictionary.
Can you please spell as good as is given to you?

Willeke

3

Ahh poor Willeke - sometimes we forget that English is not your first language as you write it so well ;D.

Right, Mr Walrus - do you by any chance live anywhere near Leeds? There is a very active Leeds branch of the Guild in Armley. Have a look at the Branches section of the site for contact details.

Lesley

4

Hi Walrus,
Tube needles are easy to make but mayhaps you need to back up in your quest. Or not. If you must have tubies go to any shop that sells tube. Arrows, plumbing, hobbie, et al. Get the tube, mash flat the end and rub the point on the wall of your cell until a point has been made. Thrust a wood screw or machine screw into the open end and make some less than perfect threads. But I think this is the smallest of a help in tieing a THK knot. Tube needles are great fun and folks actually sell them! Well blessings on the merchants. I don’t want you to save your pence and hope you buy or make tube needles.. but I hope you work with the THK’s a bit more (for your own fun and entertainment) before you get a bunch of “tubies”. But that said in my less than humble opion this is not the first tool I’d look for. Even if you must have a needle then find the tube and mash the end flat and glue the working end into the tube. Need not have noggy internal threads. None the less I use tube needles with internal threads and all that and I use them… but just suggest it is far from the tool that you need as I worked for 40 years or so with out them and my THK’s were mostly O.K.

5

Reading Roy’s reply I though about the ‘tool’ I use most, sticky tape.
If you wind sticky tape on the end of your string, it stiffens enough to tread it through the braid.
If the tape you use is not sturdy enough go for a different brand. If you apply the tape ‘right’ the tip of the tape sticks out before the string, the first 2 or 3 cm (inch) is taped strongly, farther back it gets thinner and less stiff.

Willeke