Middle Earth Ranger Forum

The DelTin sword and my Elven Hunting knife, both. I still need to make and apply ferules and grip for the knife, then make a wood-core sheath. The two new sheaths will include Elven decoration, although subtle, mostly tooling in the leather covers. No gems, none of that. Possible a Ranger star.

I've chosen to make the grey cloak and the grey cowled hood separate. It adds a lot of flexibility. Sometimes the cowled hood is more than enough for comfort. The cloak, being effectively a rectangle or trapezoid, can double as a blanket. Ought to really. I like flexibility in my kit.

Getting close to some Winter patrols, aye.

The lyre, and the harp 'Dream Song'. The former is simply dealing with metal strings settling in; I switched from 'gut' to metal for the louder voice. The harp has them too...although they are brass, and it is getting Gondorean and Numenorean decorative treatments.

There is water in the air, the weather will turn, and soon. By tonight, I am thinking. Currently the sun is out and She is bright and clear. Nandalad is sleepy in the warm sunshine and the advancing Winter. Randiromar is snug and full of activity.

Eledhwen
Randiromar, Nandalad.

___________________________

A bit of fun. I really am working on the sword and knife, as well as the hood and cloak. I am also contemplating some gaiters, or uppers, for my boots.

There is plenty of flat surfaces on the Del Tin pommel for engraving. Just a thought.

I noticed that, I did indeed.

Cool! I can't wait to see what you come up with!

I've been meaning to remake my own cloak along Greg's pattern at some point: just so much to do!
For the time being my own suits quite well enough.

Replacing your harp strings with bronze sounds interesting - your existing harp will handle them? Neat!
I'm hoping sometime this year to get back into small harps, it's been so long.

You mentioned once upon a time a harp bag/carrier you made: my any chance can you talk more about that some time?

Hmmmm It seems everyone has the same idea at the moment, I'm currently working on a shorter wool cloak to a similar pattern to Greg's as well

The cloak I am using is just a rectangle.I must have missed Greg's cloak, I haven't seen it.

Mine is just a double layer of wool, rectangular, held closed with a penannular or other kind of brooch, and a separate cowled hood. it has no neck indent or hole, being a simple rectangle. More flexibility in use, I have found. I have three half circle cloaks, no neck indent or hole, that are hooded, the rest are all separates, although those tend to be blue or blue patterned because Harper-Bard. The semi-circular cloaks are Gaulish-Roman to at least the 1st Century BCE.

I do have one full circle cloak, double layers of wool. The outer is a tight woven brown, the inner a looser weave beige color. That thing is so warm...and it is voluminous. I can sit with my lass and hide her in it completely. Runs down to my ankles. Nice deep hood. I've worn it for many an event just sitting about, and sometimes for walks in the town. It is in no way suitable for use in the bush, being very heavy and very bulky. Damn, it is warm though. Sometimes we use it as a bed cover in the Winter.

Eledhwen

Elleth: The bag for the harp hasn't been completed as I have found the making of it rather challenging. It needs to fit close and yet still allow the instrument to be easily removed and inserted, and it needs to repel water and other things, and be padded. For me, a complex mixture of thing. The two lyres, on the other hand, are very simple and I'll get pics of those as soon as I can. I currently have the Tartessian (Numenorean) lyre I had photos of here, and the Angle-Saxon lyre I haven't taken any photos of at all. The one has ten strings, the other six. Those two have steel strings. Dreamsong has brass. Cyfnos Cann has phosphor bronze. The rest have either folk gut, or nylon.

I shall try to get them all photographed here soon.

Eledhwen

Sounds like you have some great projects coming down the pipe! Can't wait to see the knife all finished up especially.

Is there a link to Greg's cloak?

He covered it in a MERS article a year (or two?!) back:

http://budgetauthenticity.org/mers/MERSv1-4Winter17.pdf

and more details in this thread:
http://middleearthrangers.org/forum/vie ... =32&t=3665

Elleth wrote:He covered it in a MERS article a year (or two?!) back:

http://budgetauthenticity.org/mers/MERSv1-4Winter17.pdf

and more details in this thread:
http://middleearthrangers.org/forum/vie ... =32&t=3665

Awesome, Elleth...thanks!

I take it that it's basically the Bocksten Bog man cloak; this is the site where I first discovered it: http://www.personal.utulsa.edu/~marc-ca ... kclok.html

Yes!

I know that general pattern has come up numerous times over the last several years in the "soft kit" forum. Caedmon had some good observations on tailoring and piecing them, as I recall. Also, I've a vague memory of a youTube video that goes into the subtleties of the design - ah! here it is -


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OrPbq0-laFM

This thread goes into better detail on the actual cloak construction and design. The newsletter article talks more about how the cloak's design and use fits pretty much all of Tolkien's descriptions of cloaks worn by Rangers and/or travellers...but the cloak pictured isn't as good an example as the one in the later thread. Use each together for these purposes, rather than taking each as a completed whole.