Middle Earth Ranger Forum

Finally finished! This is a little project I've been working on in fits and starts for some time, and now thanks to Udwin's kolrosing (THANK YOU) it's finally ready to use!
The finish is intentionally a bit rustic - I didn't want to mimic a lovely piece of courtly sewing that would never be tossed casually in a bag for a jaunt in the woodlands. At the same time, I wanted to communicate a bit more domesticity in its origin than a chunky leather pouch of tools. I'd originally intended to design the closure button myself, but as it happens a gentleman a town over is still casting pewter buttons from an 18th c. mold in his barn: this one felt delightfully hobbity to me.

The patterns on the tools come primarily from the floral motifs on the Numenorean carpet, with a bit of influence from Melian's sigil in elven heraldry. The tree and bird on the case itself are inspired by Tolkien's own similar drawing:
Despite the Numenorean influence in the motifs, the whole doesn't *feel* as Dunedain to me as I'd originally intended: there's too much of a rustic folk art vibe to it. The shadow of that older nobler people is still in the art though: I think of it as something that might have been turned out in the Breelands perhaps, or a farmhouse creation of the latter Third Age.


As you can see, I've not gotten my beeswax in there, and the needles are in a rather sloppy scrap of wool. For the latter I intend to embroider a small needle book or the like. I'm considering repurposing the bone thread holder for my sewing beeswax by just filling the center portion, which will carry more than enough wax for typical use and keep it nice and clean and out of the way. I'd then get a couple small reels or winders for my thread.

So far so good!

Looking good! I'm curious, did those scissors come with handles forged that way or are they reworked from a standard pair like most of us carry? Neat project all around.

Turned out very nice.

I second Ursus' question.

Thanks guys!

Yes, the scissors are the standard Chinese snips we've all been using for ages: my husband tweaked the handles for me.
The process did adversely affect function I'm afraid: they seem to align just fine, they just don't cut as well as they used to, even though he didn't go anywhere near the blades when reforging the handle loops. Still, I like them.

Glad to see my decorations in context - this came together Spectacularly! And the mod on the scissors is nothing short of brilliant, excellent tweak to defarberize them. May have to consider doing something similar to my pairs.

Thats an awesome little kit!