I just got back from a camping-trip in Kansas. Along the 19 hour drive home, I noticed ticks on my dog so I quickly stopped at a Wal-Mart for some tick meds and called my vet to have him checked over. By the time I had him tick-cleaned, and stool-checked and blood-checked, my vet bill was 1/2 of my ...

It really can be quite inexpensive as the major cost would be your weapons (sword, axe, bow, knife). After that it is just materials as most of us prefer to make our own. Time is a big factor. I haunt swap meets, yard sales and thrift stores for good deals. *I found some bolts of wool-blend at a swa...

Re the Chinese arrows. I have bought a number of shafts from China, almost all of some exotic wood from Indonesia. They shoot well and my only problem is that when you order 11/32" shaft from China, they send you the closest metric which is too large or too small for Western heads. Same with th...

I admit I am not very skilled in its use. Sharpening knives is something I've always had some difficulty with, for one reason or another. Seems straightforward, but I always seem to screw it up somehow. As mentioned, the key is to keep a decent and consistent angle of the knife to the stone. Here i...

Those stones are beautiful and some day I will get one. But for now, here is an inexpensive alternative. This is a dual-sided whetstone that I found in the sporting goods store for maybe a couple bucks. It is not as good as the ones described above but will do for now. Step one is to SLOWLY drill a ...

Although I love leather, I am too lazy to care for it as I should. So I tend to make my kit rolls out of canvas as I have a large bolt on hand and they can be easily sewn as I lounge on the couch in the evening. Whenever I have to sew something, I use the scraps and make bags and rolls etc to use up...

I love the design as they look like horn and have a decent shaped grip.
But how are they mounted?
Are they hollow like a plastic nock to be glued onto a tapered shaft or are they flat to be glued into a notch in the shaft?

When it comes to dying cloth, dye light color first. then tie knots and dye a slightly darker color. The knots will protect the light color from darkening. It is easy to make a light green dark but impossible to make a dark green light. Maybe you can 'paint' branches and such with a paintbrush dippe...

I finished the wool cloak last night and had a friend come over to take some pics. It was dark and she wasn't much of a photographer but these will do. This is the half-cloak on the floor. http://rick-johnsons-writings.webs.com/mer305.jpg http://rick-johnsons-writings.webs.com/mer306.jpg The cloth i...

Moved from "Cloaks- help with design" A few years ago I was at the Swap Meet and saw, in a corner of a booth, some cloth bolts that looked interesting. I asked if I could see them and they felt like heavy wool. The seller said that they were a wool-blend that she had bought back in 1970 or...

Original post moved to "SOFT KIT" under "My New Wool Cloak" The best idea that I can suggest is to work on making the cloak comfortable first, then work on making it look Period. The first cloak I made was from scrap cloth (polyester) that I made to learn how to make the thing. O...

When I try to register, it gives me a black screen and asks me to answer the question which I cannot see.

Yes, but remember all the movies have the stables and workshops and such along the inside of the wall and ALL are thatched so they can be set on fire or break the hero's fall? But then, somehow, that moat always manages to vanish between the time the army arrives and the time the army attacks. I am ...

People who collect herbs know to collect roots at night when they are swollen from taking fluid from the leaves. Then flowers in the early am when the fluids flow from the roots into the flowers to open. Leaves during the day when they are filled and collecting sun. Trees also talk to each other. Th...

http://www.amazon.com/Opinel-No8-Carbon-Pocket-Knife/dp/B002SCUO04/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1463876245&sr=8-1&keywords=opinel+8 My daughter took two knives with her to The Gambia while with the Peace Corps. One was an old Stainless Steel pocket knife from my USAF days in 1970, the other wa...