Bestest Buddy

back in 2011 we met a little entity known as 'mango's pup', and on the drive home with this kicking and squirming little fuzz ball this little chap got the name Rosa.

We'd decided that our current pooch Bella needed a buddy to hang out and play with, and... Rosa was that buddy.

 

Involved in everything, even when asleep...

And the sweetest, most genuine puppy face that always drew notice and a comment.

Rosa, like all borders, was a bundle of energy.  Although she absolutely hates water  (beach, river, bath... anything bigger than a water bowl) was happy to roll in the mud and look incredibly pleased with herself.

Suffice to say that Bella disliked Rosa, and Rosa luuuuuved Bella. Many a half assed 'grrrrrr' from Bella (a very introverted little chap) but when we weren't watching we noticed they got along. Funny lil beings.

Two beautiful girls, though chalk and cheese in personalities...

While Bella wasn't exactly 'clingy' she was happy to plonk down beside you and share space. Rosa on the other hand would get up and move if you sat down beside her (little b....  :D)  after giving you a look.

But on a(n extremely rare) occasion she'd want some attention and come over for a pat or for a scritch-scratch on her tail.

Rosa was a SUPER fluffy dude.  Her coat had some of everything from neat n tidy, to fluffy, to flat, to curly, to fuzzy, to woolly, and big fluffy bouffance pantaloons (fuzzy back legs).

In this pics the girls would hang out... on opposite ends of their sofa, but there's enough room for everyone.

Rose was always... well frankly, a little piggy wig and would hoe into Bella's tucker if she left it unattended.

And she loved chomping on a carrot or anything interesting...  ooooooh lamb shanks, YES PLEASE!!

On one occasion we went to a zoo and saw a wombat display and I was shocked at the similarities between Rosa's chonky rear profile and the wombat!

She knew what she liked.

And did I mention, stubborn (if funny)...

[a story...]

when she was young she did 'something naughty' and tried running past me when i was rousing at her, she hit the brick doorway and put a big cut over her eye... of course my heart melted... poor thing, what have you done dumb dumb!!  "i'm running!!"

In 20... 20  or there abouts Rosa had a medical 'event'. One day I noticed her 'dragging' herself around in the garage.  We took her to a vet, thence the major vet hospital and found that a disk had popped in her back, blocked her nerves and paralyzed her back legs and tail.

I was distraught and had no idea what to do but my partner (thank you) was adamant that we'd do all we could to fix it.  And for that i'm truly grateful.

So scans, surgery and a bunch of professional care later we'd got back a shaved, scarred and barely waddling/limping poodle back.

an aside:  i always called her a 'poodle' because she pooped so much (yep gross)... cos she ate so damn much... cos she was a little piggy (did i mention)  :D

[an aside...]

rosa would scarf down her own dinner then try to hoe into bella's tucker.  so i'd shut the garage door and take rosa out the front for an amble to leave bella in some peace and quiet to dine in her own time  = post-dinner rituals and funny times.

anywho, so because she was a stubborn lil b and we were told to make her take it easy, she immediately jumped up onto the couch (her couch)... and so i got her a playpen to stop her doing stupid things [doggy jail!! oh noooooooo!!].

i was happy to sleep downstairs and look after her during her recovery and on the nice days take her out to the backyard for some fresh air, some grass, and blue sky.  a bit of nature cures everything, no?

water therapy was obviously a minor nightmare that we forced her through (the trauma!!). but she got a really stylish blue terry-towelling number from the experience. and she eventually she got her mobility back which was suuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuch a blessing (and an extra 5+ year of cheer).

even in the hospital she was a bright and positive soul.  [i don't know why i'm here but i'm going to kick it's ass and get through it. always. love ya. yhay!]

i started working from home (even before covid) and my secretary helped me out so much... 

we went for many breakie walks and there was always a hefty Rosa tax...

and even during covid we would sit out the out the back of the local cafe and it felt like the secretary and i kept the cafe afloat. [bacon! is! my! favourite!]

during this time i got 'winter pink nose'  which appears to do nothing but make my nose pink...

and i abided in unlimited patience... ... ... [sigh, you humans]

so fast forward to 2025... we've been through... a lot.  beautiful Bella had passed during this period.

suffice so say that i firmly believe that this lil champion saved my life. i was exceptionally low and my responsibility more than anything to this little soul kept me keeping on when i did felt i could not.

i loved making birthday cakes for her, layers of mince with egg, bacon and cheese, candles of carrot sticks with cheese flames. the small things maybe, hahaha...

didn't stop her trying to inhale the whole things.  my lil lamb ALWAYS loved her tucker.

my mum took these pics of my buddy during the last couple of years. always a beautiful girl.

over the last few months/weeks her mobility deteriorated rapidly.  she walked soooo slowly when we went for smellabouts... then took soooo long to get herself standing (did i mention also sooooo very stubborn... i'll get there god damn it)...  then her front end started collapsing...

:(

but she was in an environment where she was loved and hung out in a super green backyard, blue skies, frequent pats and chats...  we love you buddy.

last night she could not pick herself up and ended up dragging herself around again during the night, and i'll save the details but her back end wasn't capable of doing what the front end required.... [deepest of sighs]

we went to the vet and he (a very kind soul, as are all vets i've encountered are) said we can keep her keeping on to an extent for 'weeks to months'...

[sigh]

then last night at 3:30, after spending a day sitting by her side and chatting to her almost constantly (rosa falsetto:  'please shut up'),  i picked her up and carried her to my car.

we went to the vet (another different but empathetic vet) and the vet said (paraphrase) "she'd not looking good."

...

...

i took my buddy. my best friend, and the person who got me through some dark days, to the place of her journey's end.

she trusted me to get her through the pain and complications of life...

and i said "yes, she needs to pass on."

...

twice i've said that... it does not get easier.  it gets harder.

...

i had my hand under her head as it slumped the last time. i had my hand on her ribs as it stopped moving up and down.  i had her fuzzy body against my tee shirt and felt her body heat start to dissipate.

i felt... so guilty, so inadequate... to someone who had helped me to carry on no matter what.  someone who had loved me unconditionally, though i always gave her some bacon (the rosa tax) for her efforts.

i have never done something so hard as what i had agree to there, to my best friend. to say (regardless of tear) yes, go ahead. 

i can rationalize, that her limited mobility and existential fret was unconscionable...

...

...

i would give her sunrise after sunrise...  steak night after steak night...  limitless walkies...  as many pats and scratches as she could possibly bear. 

but...

her time was concluded as time moves forward for all of us.  her anxiety and discomfort swayed my decision and i hope she realised my words and decisions were made from a position of love. 

without question the hardest thing i've ever had to do in my life. bar none. 

bar none.  i will not expand.

i loved this little soul unconditionally. as much as any soul i've very met.

[my jack nicholson impersonation, hahahaha] 

thank you rosa posa.

i am numb with your passing. my tears seem unlimited.  that you are no longer here amongst us with your happy demeanour.

i had an acquaintance say they could never do this again... and i understand so completely.  dogs are... capable of projecting and inducing profound love.

i feel i have let you down. but know i loved you soooo much. my bestest buddy.  you made my life so much better. thank you. soooo much gratitude my fuzzy lil one.

good bye rosa posa. love you. love you.

side story (post-bella):  during covid we went for daily walks to a local cafe. we'd sit out the back and eat egg and bacon rolls. good times.

associated story:  this same cafe (post covid) got a new owner.  they had the best hamburger i've ever had.  NOTE THAT DOWN cos i keep a list.  anyways, we often went for breakie walks, and got pancakes with bacon... no prize for guessing where the bacon went.  similarly, if i got a meatball sub i ended up with a salad roll.

09/01/2011   -   23/02/2025

nowhere near long enough lil friend.

Hobby - Wood Work - Fairbairn Sykes

Recently I learned something.  It was something I wasn't expecting to learn and it showed me that;  a) sometimes things aren't always as they instinctively feel they should be,  b) people of yore did know what they were doing,  c) sometimes physically dealing with an object or place is invaluable to your perception.

nebulous?  you betcha.

So in my recent spate of woodworking events I had cut out three blanks for yari tips.  I made up one of them as documented in a prior post, and I pretty much swore off making up the other two.

I decided for an unknown reason that I wouldn't mind making one up as a modern fighting knife.  My teacher here has a wood bowie knife that someone whipped up for him.  Not a huge fan of that style myself but I do happen to like these instead...

The Fairbairn Skyes dagger/fighting knife as made famous by the WWII Brit Commandos.

With that in mind I quickly chopped down a yari blank and started shaping...

No way that thing's turning into a yari tip now!

I didn't have a specific methodology planned, but it wasn't difficult to rough out a silhouette, then the topology.

Bada bing, bada boom one Fairbairn Sykes 'tanto' ready for training.  It's not perfect by any means but it's an arts and crafts project just for the sake of it, and turned out as good as I had hoped for.

I found dimensions/lengths on the interwebs and freehanded an approximation of the shape onto the blank. While I really like the blade shape of this dagger, I was less sure about the handle shape, preferring a more cylindrically/fat shape like the usa M7 bayonette.  But I'd committed to the project and it turned out relatively FS in spirit, though chunkier because it's wood obviously.

Anyways, so this lead to my revelation. I had assumed that the round, quite thin/tapered handle might be... somewhat unwieldy, or hard to get a solid, locking grip.  At least from my default position dealing with sageo wrapped tsuka (handles) in the Japanese style it seemed very spartan.

With the piece done I spent a while just carrying it around, handling it and working out how it worked. Turns out that the design is quite cunning.

In my experience with Japanese blade weapons we generally grip the handle strongly with the ring and pinky fingers, leaving the middle and pointer fingers to direct and nuance the blade,  i.e. we do not grip it like a hammer.  The shape of the FS dagger thins down right where the strong fingers wrap around, which I thought was really cool - well done Fairbairn... or Sykes... whoever did the handle.

The top fingers can adjust above, and the thumb can either wrap around for a 'slashing' grip, or press against the guard for a 'thrusting' grip.  If I have to make one critique the handle is like 1/2 an inch shorter than is ideally comfortable for my hand (it was made matching the specs for blade and overall length) but it is still a very functional fit.

Similarly when the dagger is taken in the 'reverse' or 'dagger' grip the index finger and thumb can tightly wrap the end of the dagger - the other fingers less tight. This would help minimize the change of the hand sliding along the handle and thence the fingers up onto the blade. Bloody brilliant.

So there you go.  If I'd not made the physical item I'd still be thinking, "I like it, but the handle looks dumb."

Until next time...

Hobby - Wood Work - Mon

Just a really quick something something...

All of the wooden weapons I've made have my symbol/icon/signature on them.

For recent pieces I've just engraved it on the item itself.  In prior eras I embedded a chit in the handle and engraved on that... just cos.

This symbol is referred to as a 'Mon' in (historical) Japanese culture.

Mine is a simple/stylized ant, and my workshop name is 'shiro-ari' or white ant - in probably mangled Japanese.

I chose this because my technique is largely centred around the sanding or gradual scraping or grinding of the piece to get the shape.   Unlike many wood techniques that do more planing or cutting (there's a difference).  I end up with a lot of wood dust... like a white ant  hahaha.

That's it.

Until next time...

Hobby - Wood Work - Bokken Making Process... The Hard Way.

No, I'm not making new ones...

No, wait, it turns out I totally am, or at least I'm making one.

I was just intending to write down my process, just for fun, noting that I didn't have pictures of the making process as my previously makings were done in the pre-smart phone era.

There's nothing special or secret about any of it anyway.  It's mainly just work that would be classified as simple and tedious, though there's some creativity and artistic eye involved at times which made it worthwhile for me.

1)  Start with a block of decent wood. No cracks, divots, funky gnarls or knot holes etc. Obviously it needs to have the length and breadth for the pattern and needs to be about 30mm thick. 

As mentioned elsewhere I really liked NT ironwood for this, but the NSW spotted gum should work. I know of people who have used jarrah or purple heart even. Anything with a dense, tight grain is usually acceptable,  which leads to it having a good weight as well.  Most 'modern' commercial bokken are made out of 'white oak' or 'red oak' which does the job well enough, and I'm guessing they're used because of availability and also the wood is less likely to have imperfections, and definitely less hidden cracks or gum deposits than Australian native wood.

2)  Draw on the profile outline (drawing around a bokken you have works just fine if you like the shape), then cut out the profile to roughly the right shape - cut wide/outside the outline rather than into/inside the outline. In my previous era of making I used an electric jigsaw for this, and this was the only time I used an electric tool in the process (before I received the block doesn't count). NT Ironwood sometimes used up 2 or 3 blades due to the resilience of the wood. It's bloody hard stuff.

This piece was made out of Blackbutt, because that's what I had - this project was also an experimental exercise to see how this wood faired.  Now, post-process, I think it's not as dense as I'd like. It has nice grain and isn't super-splintery. Just not my number one choice, and I wouldn't feel comfortable about making them for other people.

The piece of wood I had was smaller than I could use for a regular bokken (too narrow) so I decided to free-hand a 'chissai-katana' version.

3)  I now have the 'blank' for the piece. Put it in a bench vice and using a plane (just a handheld jackplane) cut down the blank to the drawn-on template shape.

For this project I used an electric plane, and then the belt sander to grind to the outline.

And then drew on the front centre-line and rear bevel shaping. 

4)  From there I use the plane (or a rasp works) to start paring down the curves of the cross section.  The piece will be all curves, so we need to start taking off the corners of the block.  On the front edge this is easy enough and a jack planes is still suitable.  For the rear face and 'spine' it's probably better to use a spokeshave (or rasp).

This is the spokeshave I have historically used.  I picked it up by chance at a little independent tool shop I happened to walk by one day. It was really good for the task given that it allowed greater (perhaps perceived) curve handling than a flat-bottomed plane (even better than the 'standard' european spoke shave types).

I would typically also take the edges off the handle portion of the piece, but leaving enough flat sections to keep it manageable for gripping firmly in the vice.

For this project I used a rasp, and coarse grit sandpaper to rough out the shape.

5)  So now I have a basically 'chunky' bokken shaped piece. A curvy club.  I would normally give the entire piece a quick parse over with coarse grit sand paper at this stage (40grit) just to start feeling the curvature within the weapon.  Normally the template I used had some wastage built into the outline so there was the capacity to slowly grind down the shape without worrying about it being too spindly as a result.  This is the last of the 'planing' steps.

So now the piece has a basic silhouette and also a basic cross-section.

6)  I then use a metal template to start cutting out the 'maximum cross section'.

This is a matter of using metal scrapers and coarse sandpaper to nibble the blade down to the maximum shape it needs to be, starting at the tip and moving all the way down the blade section. Grind and scrape carefully until the blade just fits into the metal template.  Any shiny points where there is too much material shows where to grind away on the next parse.  This is tedious but gets a consistent 'blank', from where the artistic stuff can start.

The metal scrapers are just metal plates with a sharp edge, that can be used to scrape away ribbons of wood - the opposite of planes. And for sandpaper I use sanding belts from belt sanders chopped into sections which have a nice solid backing so they don't break up like actual paper sheets do/can.

By the end of this process I will have a piece that had a very bokken-like shape, though still too chunky.

For this project I actually alternated between 40grit paper and using the edge of an actual stanley knife as my scraper.  The blades are sharp, and when dulled I could just replace them rather than need to sharpen anything.  Here we can see that the process is scraping, not whittling or cutting. 

The template slides down the blade until it binds, then more material is taken off. This probably took me four sessions (4 nights for an hour or two depending on how enthusiastic I was, it was quite meditative) to get all the way down.

Here we can see the process marked by the shaped blade toward the tip, and the ridge where the template no longer goes.  As I was working I soon found out that the piece was excessively wide all the way along, so I planned down a couple of millimetres off the sides.

7)  The next steps are all 'by eye', and I switch between several things going on at once.

   i)  taper the sides of the blade. So on the sides I'll use the scraper and sandpaper to create greater width toward the handle, and narrower width blade toward the tip.  A 'standard' process might involve doing 10 scrapes along 3/4 of the length (from the 'tip-ward' end), 10 more scrapes from 1/2 the length, and 10 more scrapes on the final 1/4 of the length. Repeat with sandpaper. This provides a wedge aspect when viewed from the top and the blade is narrower toward the tip.

  ii)  make sure the curve of the front of the blade is flowing nicely. start getting out any flat spots or divots as best as possible.

  iii)  also make sure the cross section of the blade is curved suitable. taking out material on the sides means the curvature will narrow (usually toward the tip) so take off material to keep the rounded parts flowing with continuous proportion... I know what I mean  :)

 iv)  also make sure the back cross section of the blade is curving proportionally.  The actual 'spine' which is flat should remain the same but the angled trailing edge/back of the blade is still curved and needs to flow in the same manner as the front.

This portion of the process normally takes the most time, but requires continual assessment of the piece, and removing material gradually... cos you can't put it back on if you stuff up.  It's probably the most enjoyable part for me and a chance to just zen out in the work.

By the end of the process you should pretty much have close to the final shape of the bokken.

Once the 'blade' section is done I'd then flip the piece in the vice and shape the handle too.  This is more or less just a basic oval cross section. perhaps slightly narrower to the front.  It's often a case of do some work on it then see how it feels in the hands.

8)  I would then switch to finer grade sandpaper, probably 120grit or maybe 240grit and look at refining the shape of the blade, specifically looking to make the curves as 'continuous curvy' as possible. After that I'd have another crack at the handle to get that feeling nice too.

9)  Kind of a sub-step in the shaping but I'd then look at the back of the handle/spine of the blade and cut an edge where the tsuba (hand guard) sits.  This is really just a matter of carefully, bringing the spine to a crisp finish point where the handle starts.  It'd probably also spend a little time reviewing the spine and trailing edge of the blade as this can get overlooked a little when concentrating on the front of the blade. The lines should be fairly straight with the spine tapering gently toward the blade tip.

And that's about it for the main/hard/time consuming parts.  You theoretically have a finished bokken right there with all the correct shapes, curves and features.  But of course there's finishing to be done to make bothering to use that painful wood worth the effort.

9b)  I think (from memory) that at this point I normally cut in my little signature block on the handle. This is a matter of cutting out the cocobola rectangle, then cutting in a divot onto the handle with a chisel and trying not to rip out edges and ruin the piece after all that effort.  once the block is ready, glue it in, wait for the glue to dry, have a well deserved break, drink a beer, wonder if being covered in this much wood dust is all worth the effort...

Once the block is set then use sand paper to shape it back to the handle's profile.

10)  From there I'd start looking at the finish - using finer and finer grades of sandpaper to make all parts of the surface smoother and smoother.  From memory I'd use 400grit, then 800grit and finally 1200grit.

By this stage the piece should look pretty mint.  There should be no cracks or divots or splinter points when you run the blade across your hand.

For this project   I didn't bother with pics of the shaping process but suffice to say... it happened.  I got the piece to a shape I was happy enough with, and then finished the surface with 240grit, 400grit and 600grit.

11) From there I use my burnishing block (below), to rub/press/compress the surface to a shiny and smooth finish.

There's nothing fancy about the block. It's just an off cut of ironwood.  Shaped a little over time to give different edges if required.

A fairly firm pressure is required for burnishing, but it's far from strenuous. Perhaps give it a second parse if you feel like it.  It helps to have good light, sunlight works, to make sure the surface is shiny all over the piece.

12)  I normally put my signature on the piece about now, using just a hand held engraver.  Then refinish (1200grit and burnish) that section to clean it up.

13) Finally... I (historically) had some length of material that I soaked or wet with linseed oil.  I wrapped these around the entire piece, wrapped it in (probably) plastic bags to keep the oil contained, and set the piece aside for a couple of days to (hopefully) soak up some of the oil.  the wraps weren't dripping with oil by any means, so the plastic bags just stopped it getting oil on anything it was sitting on.  My understanding is that the harder/smoother the surface the less oil is inclined to just soak right into the grain, hence leaving it sit and allowing it to penetrate the grain as best as possible.

Really you could (and I do this now) just oil the surface and let it dry for a couple of hours. The burnishing means the oil isn't really required in order to end up with a nice finish, though the oil does tend to bring out the grain just that little bit more.  The oil's mainly there to help combat hand grime soaking into the surface - which is not such a big issue with these darker woods anyway tbh.

13.5)  After appropriate soaking time, unwrap, wipe off all the excess oil and you're done.

TADA!  You now have one overly complicated, time consuming bokken.

Obviously the effort is very much (or more) about the process, as much as it is about having the final product.

11-13)  Summary results for the new piece.

The wood did not burnish well. It's a little too porous compared with the Spotted Gum even, and while it does shine a little bit... it's no Ironwood.

I do like the grain of it, and after finishing and a taste of linseed oil it actually turned out nice. Not sure how fit for purpose it's going to be... only training use is going to reveal that.

This shows a before and after compared to the other half of the stick the bokken came from.

As usual... no desire what so ever to make any more of these, but it was enjoyable enough at the time.

[update 2024-08-12]

On a whim I made a tsuba (hand guard) from some rock maple. Turned out as well as I'd hoped.

I did pin it with a bamboo skewer through the front and back (of where the blade sits) as it's a relatively fragile piece and a decent knock would probably split it in two without some extra structural support.

We generally don't block or take strikes on the tsuba - if there's deflecting going on it's in the handle-most section of the blade itself.  If you have a blade against the tsuba something has generally gone wrong.

Anyway just a fun project to occupy the mind and hands.

[update 2024-08-13]

Ok, I probably went overboard.  Oh well...

Until next time...