28/07/2009 by Paul Carpenter.

I don’t know what it is, but these last few years as soon as I mentioned the thought of walking in the cairngorms, days or even weeks of fine to nice weather turn to hell on earth. Maybe it cause I’m getting old but the excitement of walking up into strong wind and driving rain just does’nt excite me as much as it used to, it did not seem to please the dog much either, so ended up cutting the walk short and spending the extra time in caledonian forest instead.

The cairngorn walk started from the bottom of tram station where we walked up a very nice pathed path to just below the cairn gorm summit from where I decided that a detour along the ridge above coire an sneachde was appropriate. Mosty this was after feeling the full force of the wind, but also the really well used path along the ridge was more visible through the cloud not forgetting the fact that I’ve walked it countless time before. Descended the ridge just before the fiacail buttress then made our way back to the car. Along the way we saw a few reindeer which the dog quite nicely took no interest in and another odd plant shown below which I still don’t know the name of, if any body knows I’d be interested in hearing. - just found it - bog asphodel.

Despite what I said about the weather eariler, I do prefer the cairngorms when the weather sets in, not only because it keeps people away but once on top the swirling of the clouds reveal some great scenes sometimes, not counting the fact that a cloudy day on ben macdui could also bring the big grey man - an illussion really but pretty scary the first time you see it or yourself.

Second mini walk was from the west end of loch morlich following a forestry track east in a circular route. There was some great views, especially on the higher track we used to return to the car and I’m sure the dog apprechiated the lack of wind and a flat surface to walk on. The woodland itself is typical of the woodland I walk around the moray area (the large exception being culbin) with the tree’s mainly towering over a field of heather and blaeberry shrubs - at this time of year the berrys are ripe and they make excellent jam but are just as good eaten raw striaght from the plant - saves carrying around a lunch box!

Over all it was a great day and even the climb up did not feel to bad, except for the wind, but if you’ve walked the cairngorms or any mountains - you kinda of get used to that.

paul

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23/07/2009 by Paul Carpenter.

Got a few examples below of where I have used different materials to achieve a variety of textured and asfectic looks.

First I will discuss the differeance I found between buffalo and the long cow horn - The cow was alot softer and lighter in weight, plus like the long buffalo horn they are hollow until about 10 inches from the ends. Unlike the buffalo which has no distinct differing layers, the cow has a white outer which is easily scraped away with a knife and then finially with 120 - 300 grit sandpaper (useing high grade paper is best because of the softness of the horns material) under this layer is a much thinner translucent layer which comes up to a very nice sheen once polished - the buffalo being of much harder material should be sanded with 80 grit upwards to first get rid of the grooves.

The methods I use to carve or smooth these materials is discussed in the http://blog.mtn-m.co.uk/__oneclick_uploads/2009/06/knapped-steel-knife-and-buffalo-horn-handle.pdf tutorial. The only differance with these horns was that I used an electric plain sander fixed into my vice using like a belt or disc sander - saved alot of time and in some cases produced a better finish.

The sambar stag horn is much denser then deer stag antler and has a much smaller amount of soft interior - all I did with this was clear out debris from within its folds and polish, then drilled ahole to take the knife tang.

The buffalo sheath was cut to shape then sanded with 60 - 120 - 320 grit paper followed by the polishing materials - lastly it was drilled with a long wood bit (8mm) to take the knife - you may notice the hole created at the bottom of it where I misjudged the depth the bit had gone in, it was a mistake but later thought that it was proabaly a good idea to allow any water to escape instead of rust the blade.

The cow horn as discussed eariler was scraped then sanded and polished - these are quite inexpensive horns to buy but for a job like this you really need to be able to pick them yourself as I was able to from http://www.highlandhorn.com/shop.asp. The hole part way up it was put in using a dremel grinding bit then smoothed with the sand paper.

Both of these items are going to have leather straps sewn on around their circumferance to act as belt holders (for the knife) and two loops placed top and bottom of the cow horn quiver to take the straps needed to go over the shoulder. I will probably post these once finished but thought that others may be interested in these initial and uncommon uses for horn.

Paul

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14/07/2009 by Paul Carpenter.

Finally got round to writing this tutorial, had planned to spend the week basking under the hot summer sun but I guess it had other plans!!!!

This is a PDF tutorial taking you through the stages of making a bullwhip my way - I say my way as I am in all due respect still a beginner at making these even after 1 1/2 years and my methods do differ from the pro’s.

This Making a 6 foot cowhide bullwhip PDF is over 6.5mb, contains a wealth of photo’s and is 36 pages long and as always, I hope it helps someone achieve a goal.

photo below is of bullwhip made for the tutorial

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