I made these back in the fall of 2023, but was not able to finish painting them until Spring, and wasn’t able to try them out until Pennsic (and get photos), so here we are. These are metal hooks meant to hang the lanterns I made a four years ago from the camp walls I made six or so years ago. The problem is that the canvas roofs of the pavilions hang down over the walls for a fair distance. The past couple of years, I have tied twine to the ring at the top of each lantern, then hung the twine from the metal frame of the pavilion. The meant that the lanterns were hanging against the walls, which I found to be less that optimal. The hooks clip onto the tops of the walls, hang down to below the bottom edge of the canvas, and then extend far enough so that the lanterns hang straight.
The basic shape of the lantern hook
Clipped to the wall and hung with a lantern
Pull down the canvas to complete installation
I made these by buying 1/2″x1/8″ welding steel bars from the hardware store, then bending each bar to shape using metal bending jaws in my bench vise. because of the length of the material, I had to bend the bars off center so that they would not hit the beam of the vise. This caused racking in the vise, so I tried to bend two bars at once to balance things out. This bent the beam on my light duty vise so that it is now useless, It’s OK, that was a good excuse to buy a heavy duty vise to replace it.
I also tried using aluminum bar to make it easier to bend, but the aluminum does not stand up to sharp bends as well and sometimes just breaks. I painted the steel bars black to protect them from rusting (I hope).
These stayed up for 2 weeks at Pennsic without incident, and the lanterns didn’t fall off even in the severe rain storms that we had. Success! They joined the lanterns in the 6 lantern storage box that I built 4 years ago.
I made four Japanese-style sawhorses several years ago, but I realized recently that I had no way to transport them except to toss the pieces into the trunk of my car or pile them in a wagon. Then, some friends of mine moved away and gifted me with a pile of lumber they had been using as storage shelving. I spent a few days at the 51st Pennsic War medieval event constructing this 26″x16″x11.25″ crate using only hand tools, as a demo of Japanese style woodworking.
Sawhorse Crate from Pine 1-by-12
I used a ryoba nokogiri saw to do all the cutting of the pieces from the boards, and some of the joinery. I used oire nomi chisels and a mawashibiki saw to cut the remainder of the joinery and the handle cut-outs. A yotsume kiri gimlet came in handy for pilot holes so that the wood didn’t split when I drove in the nails with a genno tsuchi hammer.
Contrary to common belief, Japanese carpenters would not have used fancy joinery without nails to construct such a simple workman’s item. That kind of specialty carpentry was mostly used for devotional items or religious buildings. They probably would have used forged nails instead of wire nails, but I don’t have any of those handy. The big chunky box joints are seen a lot in shipping and storage boxes.
The linen bag holds the wedges and pegs that hold the horses together when assembled. I wrapped the handle cut-outs with some of this great palm rope from Hida Tools. I call it a crate instead of a box because there’s actually an opening in the floor because I just used two pieces of 1-by-12, leaving a 2-inch gap in the middle. This should let the sawdust and shavings out.
The completed box plus sawhorse parts is pretty heavy, so I have to store it on a lower shelf instead of storing the loose pieces on the highest shelf in the garage. I might try to figure out a packing pattern for only one horse’s worth of pieces, then make 2 of those for the other 2 horses.
To commemorate the 35th anniversary of his knighting, I also made a jinmaku camp curtain (“windscreen”) for our friend Sir Maghnus.
It is the standard length (5 yards) and height (72 inches), but instead of the Kaminari colors of black over red, it’s white over blue and the white “chief” is invected like his arms. It took a while to do the scalloping, so I don’t recommend doing it “just because”. It’s a nice touch for a special anniversary, though.
Our good friend, and the head of our household, Sir Maghnus an Chnoic na n’Iora is this year celebrating the 35th anniversary of his knighting at Pennsic. A military leader in medieval Japan with this level of seniority would have a jinbaori “camp coat” to wear over his armor so that he would be more visible and identifiable. I have been “planning” for some time to make one for him eventually, and this anniversary year really kicked my planning into execution.
Jinbaori from the front
The main body of the jinbaori is royal blue felt lined in navy blue linen. The collar lining is some “dragon and phoenix” silk brocade from the stash of Mistress Achren, who passed away some time ago. The “clouds” in chief are white felt. The whole thing is rather large, about 40 inches wide, because it is meant to be worn on top of armor.
Jinbaori front detail
The chest closure and “hold open” loops are some decorative chain, gold chain being one of the symbols of a Knight in the SCA. The buttons are actually extra buttons I purchased as spares for a very early piece of garb of mine. Since I never needed the replacements, they were available for this project.
Jinbaori from the back
Here’s the view from the back, showing more felt embellishment. The “clouds” at the top are of a piece with the front. The “hill of squirrels” motif at the bottom is more felt, this time using black felt pieces on the white to create the vair pattern. This is his heraldic arms, and such display of heraldry is common on jinbaori.
Jinbaori back detail
Attaching all those pieces of black felt was something of a pain, but I was able to sew continuously along the zig-zag edges of the pieces to reduce the labor significantly. While materials like felt don’t seem very Japanese, the “rules” of Japanese clothing seem to go largely out the window with jinbaori. These were intended to be showy and look as expensive and impressive as possible.
The completed project is quite large, heavy, overly warm, and probably somewhat fragile. I doubt it can ever be cleaned, so it probably won’t see very much wear. It should make a great display piece, and will really make him look quite impressive if he ever gets a chance to wear it in court.
I’m actually very happy with the way this came out. I was mostly just winging it when it came to construction, so I’m glad it came together at all.
Every year at Pennsic, the Kingdoms in the SCA trade gift baskets. This year, my Kingdom is gifting the Crown of the East Kingdom with a basket of goodies that they can use during their reign or give out as largesse themselves. I decided to chip in with some of my stock of illustrated scroll blanks and some fresh medallion cord braids in East Kingdom colors.
9-strand Marudai Shigeuchi
9-strand Sankakudai Shigeuchi
9-strand Shigeuchidai Shigeuchi
7-Strand Sankakudai
9-strand Shigeuchidai Shigeuchi
7-Strand Sankakudai
These were all in violet and gold silk lace-weight yarn, with multiple ends of yarn per strand. These braids enabled me to practice some new techniques and on some new equipment, so it was totally worth it.
Due to a confluence of funds and enthusiasm, I came up with the idea of making a new entry gate for the Debatable Lands camp at Pennsic. The camp had a gate, and there wasn’t anything particularly wrong with it, , but given that the Debatable Lands just celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of it’s founding, I felt a shiny new gate was in order. It has actually been more than ten years since I made a camp gate, so I was able to apply what I have learned regarding complexity of design and total project weight, and minimize those vital factors.
Pennsic Camp Gate for the Debatable Lands
The vertical posts are four 8-foot pine 4by4s. They are untrimmed, but they have 3.5-inch slots cut in them to mate with the horizontal members. The horizontal members are 4-foot lengths of pine 2by4, and they have 3.5-inch notches cut at each end to mate with the slots in the vertical posts. The simple joinery increases rigidity and makes sure each horizontal member is in the right place. The lower members are at a good height for use as hand rails or butt rests.
The front top panel is an 8-foot 1by12 that has been crenelated using 5 pieces cut from a 6-foot 1by10. Battens on the reverse secure the crenelations and assure that the panel is aligned properly to the vertical posts. I painted the “Debatable Lands” part myself. The back top panel is an 8-foot 1by10. It is currently not decorated, but that’s plenty of room for an inspirational motto. “Salve Accolens” would be reasonable, but I decided to let others decide what goes there. The two top panels are really the only thing connecting the sides, but they are tall (wide) enough that I’m hoping that will be fine.
The two decorative side panels in the front are 6-foot 1by10s. Owen Tegg painted the lettering, and it is amazing. They say “Fifty Years” in honor of our anniversary, but they can be replaced or repainted easily in the future. It will be a shame to see all that ornate lettering go, though. I wanted to leave a lot of room for creativity from year to year. Since they are just flat panels, anybody can make new ones if they want, and attach them to the gate once it is up.
There is another 4-foot long piece of 2by4 that runs from front to back between the top panels. This provides a little more stability, but its real purpose is to serve as a peak for the awning. The awning is just a long canvas drop cloth from the hardware store. It should provide a little shade from the midday sun and a little shelter from light weather, but I don’t imagine it is waterproof.
All the wood pieces are stained and polyurethaned. A quart of polyurethane was just enough to coat all the pieces and seal the ends. The gate is assembled using regular 3-inch long construction screws.
Given the current price of construction lumber, this whole project (including hardware) cost around $400. I had a lot of help cutting, decorating, and assembling this gate. Thank you Brandubh, Turleough, Aaron, Catalina, Niall, Owen, Forveleth (who would have helped but did not get a chance), and to the officers of the Barony for approving this passion project in the first place. I hope the Barony likes our new gate!
The funding for this and other passion projects was available because a member of our local group passed away suddenly at the age of 33, and his family asked that memorial donations be made in his name to the Barony. Ronan took tremendous pride in the Barony and loved spending time in the Pennsic camp with his friends. He would have loved helping with this project, and I hope having it up at the front of camp would have made him happy.
I picked up some small-ish thin pieces of mystery tropical wood from a friend, and I had a pile of surplus from the Storage Trays for Tama project, so I decided to make some small lidded boxes to give away. I started this back last fall, but they sat in the garage waiting for another slice of time I could devote to completing them. The largest of these has an 8″ by 8″ lid on a 5″ tall body, so they are mostly too small for storage but a great size for gifts.
Three small lidded boxes from mystery wood
The mystery wood boxes are finished with salad bowl oil finish, so you could use them as bento boxes, but since I can’t guarantee that they are water-tight or that the wood is not poisonous, I would not recommend it. This wood is only about quarter-inch thick, so the proportions are attractive. I decided how to use the pieces by stacking up all the wood by size and then moving down through the stack making lids and then boxes to match. All the cutting was on the band saw, then glued and pinned together. Unless the pin deflects inside the wood and pokes out, this method is fast.
Three small lidded boxes from pine
These are all made from half-inch pine, and finished with a variety of shellac techniques that I wanted to try. I think my favorite one is the rightmost one in the photo. I started with a really dilute cut of light amber shellac to give the wood a little more color, then top-coated with a thin coat of blonde shellac.
Anyway, I already have plans to fill one of the boxes with braids and add it to a gift basket that our SCA Kingdom is putting together for another Kingdom. In any case, the pile of surplus wood is a little bit smaller than it was, so success.
After giving up on Canon four years ago, I have mostly made do with my phone’s camera for travel snapshots and project images. While the camera on my phone is reasonably capable, it lacks a few modes I used to rely on, and the shallow optical range makes it pretty bad at macro photography. I need to be able to capture high-quality pictures of braid structures, so this was becoming a problem. Searching around for compact cameras that take good macro photos, I found the Olympus OM System TG-7. I wound up finding a package deal on NewEgg that included a bunch of off-brand accessories like filters and lenses, so I didn’t even have to go into a store to buy it.
The front of the TG-7
The back of the TG-7
Look: buttons, knobs, and switches! Look: metal body for durability! Look: a real lens and a way to attach accessory lenses! Look: a way to attach a beefy wrist strap! It has built-in Bluetooth and WiFi so that I can transfer images to my phone and thence to the world without wires! It can charge over USB-C, so I don’t need more than one charging cable!
My image tests have been very pleasing so far, and the macro lenses I bought enable you to zoom in really close. It’s easy to switch modes and change settings. I can record video with it. The phone app also works as a remote monitor and shutter activator. Of course, the photos above were taken with my phone camera. Anyway, it has been a few years since I bought a new camera and I am having fun playing with the new toy.
Hey, do you remember that movie from 1999 where the characters are in a simulation and they don’t realize it? No, not that one. That one’s The Matrix. I mean the other one. No, not that one. That’s eXistenZ. I mean the other other one. I’m talking about The Thirteenth Floor.
Now, at the end of the movie there’s a newspaper on the kitchen counter, and OK, so you’re releasing your movie in 1999 you probably wouldn’t be able to predict that newspapers will be mostly dead, but you should be able to “predict” that June 21st would not be a Monday.
June 21st was a Monday in 1999, or maybe it’s a clue that… nah.
A friend of mine wanted a sturdy stool for shooting archery while seated. Another friend of mine gifted me with some surplus curly maple. I wanted to have fun making another stool, but I don’t really need more seating in the house. I love it when a plan comes together.
I glued up three pieces of the maple. then cut the round top on a band saw using my circle jig. Then, I cut the round through-mortises using a forstner bit.
From the remaining maple, I cut three legs using the band saw, then sawed off the corners to make octagonal legs. I roughed out the tenons on the band saw, then rounded them down by hand with a microplane rasp.
I rounded over the edges of the seat with a router, then all four pieces went through several stages of sanding. Once assembled, I wedged the legs in place. Then, I trimmed off the tops of the tenons using a ryoba hand saw. More sanding, then a few coats of General Finishes “Salad Bowl” finish which I wanted to try out.
