SEARCH Travels With LD

Wednesday, December 16, 2009 - Brantley Lake State Park, Carlsbad NM

Traveler's leather kitchen knife roll, December 16, 2009
Traveler's leather kitchen knife roll, December 16, 2009

Boy, can I procrastinate! "X" commissioned me to design a Christmas present for "A" way last summer and I finally finished it and shipped it today (FedEx, don't fail me now!).

She wanted to present him with a custom fitted leather knife roll for the favorite kitchen knives he travels with. Most knife rolls on the market do a lousy job of separating and protecting the blades from nicking one another and I wanted something better. This turned out to be a tricky assignment and it took me forever to come up with a design that satisfied me.

I set up a new group of pages to describe some of my leatherworking projects - the first up being Traveler's Leather Kitchen Knife Roll about this knife roll.

Night camp

Site 42 - Brantley Lake State Park, Carlsbad NM

Rice Toss

After the dinner our hosts conducted us to the beach. Among the presents was a large supply rice for the fleet. It was put up in straw sacks or bales containing about 125 pounds each. By the pile stood a company of athletes or gymnasts chosen from the peasantry for their strength and size and trained for the service and entertainment of the court. At a signal from their leader, who was himself a giant of muscle and fat, a sort of human Jumbo, they began transporting the rice to the boats. It was more frolic than work. Some of thembore a bale on each hand above their heads, some would carry two laid crosswise on the shoulders and head, while others performed dextrous feats of tossing, catching, balancing them, or turning somersaults with them. I saw one nimble Titan fasten his talons in a sack, throw it down on the sand still keeping his hold, turn a somersault over it, throw it over him as he revolved, and come down sitting on the beach with the sack in his lap. Beat that who can. If you imagine it "as easy as preaching," try it the next time in a gymnasium. But let me advise you, first make your will.

The Logbook of the Captains Clerk, John J. Sewell, Lakeside Press, 1995 pg 256

more...