Wilderness shirt

I have designed a new wilderness shirt, which a friend has now made for me.

The material is worsted wool, with leather sewn across the shoulders and around the collar.  I have also sewn leather along the bottom edge of the two breast pockets.  The buttons I have made from Moose horn.

The back of the shirt is longer, so that it covers my backside.

The shirt has a poly-cotton lining to reduce wind penetrating.

There is a leather baffle in the front to also reduce cold air penetrating inside.

I am very pleased with the end result and it is incredibly warm.  A belt warn over the shirt, around the waist helps to hold in warm air.

Reindeer horn ice fishing rod

This will be my last post for a week or so as I am heading off to England for a few days (weather in England permitting).

I had the idea to make an ice fishing rod out of Reindeer horn, and after searching through my pile of horn, I found the ideal piece.  Having cut off the two ends of the horn, this is what I was left with

After a couple of hours work, this is how it looks now

I have started doing some basic engraving on the handle

I will be testing it when I return from England!

A new knife

I have just completed a new knife to go with my new kåsa

I have used the same wood in the middle section as I made the kåsa from.  I makings are caused by a tree fungus that was in the tree

The darker wood is from a Sallow root bur

I have used sheath leather and3 pieces of Moose horn to make the end of the knife

 

Tin thread armbands

Chaffinch started arriving back here yesterday after migrating south in early November.

Many people here wear tin thread armbands traditionally made by the Saami people from Reindeer leather, Reindeer horn and a silver and tin alloy thread.  Here is the first one I made

I began making the bracelet by doing a three strand braid with six strands of tin thread and three strands of cotton thread.

Once completed I stitched the braid to a piece of leather.

I stitched the edges of the leather together to form a tube, incorporating a leather loop and reindeer horn button as fasteners for the bracelet.

I cut small slits at either end of another piece of leather and inserted the leather tube through the slits, so that the loop and button protruded from the ends.

I stitched the edges of the leather together to form another tube.

Here is the completed armband

I have also made one for Emma using black leather and six strands of tin thread.

Reindeer horn knife and sheath

For the first time I have lost a series of pictures I took while making this knife

but I do have pictures of making the design on the handle and constructing the sheath.

Teres designed a scene for me and I drew it onto the knife in pencil.  I then used a small craft knife to cut into the horn following the pencil design

I used a pencil eraser to remove the drawing and then rubbed a small amount of charcoal into the cuts to reveal the pattern.

To make the sheath I first cut the piece of horn in half

I drew around the blade and then used a small file to remove horn on both halves, until the knife blade sat comfortably inside.  I glued the two halves together and then shaped.

After soaking the Lapp leather I wrapped foil around the knife handle to prevent the leather colour running into the handle and then wrapped the leather around and stitched the two edges together

Here is the completed sheath

I will explain about the design on the sheath next time.

5 days at the cabin in April 2010 – Part 4

I spent some time making a Reindeer horn knife sheath

and this little vice proved to be a very useful addition in my backpack.

My neighbours Anita and Gillis were at their cabin and this was a good opportunity for me to practice my Swedish.  Gillis spent a lot of time ice fishing so I went with him to try and pick up some tricks and tips

and although he had been catching fish before I joined him…he caught nothing once I was with him!!

They loaned me a pair of snowshoes Gillis had made to get around in the forest and I find them very good to use.

It was only while staying at the cabin that I realised it is already still light at 11pm light again at 3am.  And of course as the days get longer and warmer, the mosquitoes will soon appear!

Buffalo horn ring

I had some pieces of buffalo horn left over after making my knife handle, so decided to make a ring for my finger.

I experimented with both flint and my knife blade to work the horn into a ring. The piece on the right of the picture is how the horn looked when I started.

To decorate the ring I etched my first name in Morse Code, filled the etchings with fine talcum powder and applied a coat of oil.