Barber Pole Turks Head Bottle Opener

Hope the New Year finds every one well. It's been busy here in southern Maine with a dumping of snow, back to work, back to school for the kids, a new Homebrewing Kit and the like. I've spent most evenings since my return from visiting the family for the holidays cross country skiing which has been very enjoyable. As the snow has gotten more crunchy I finally sat down with some string.

This is a business promotional bottle opener I picked up at an open house recently. As far as business promotion widgets go, it's of fairly good quality and made of stainless steel. Around it is tied a variation of a barber pole turks head. If you poke around the web you can find some very complicated and impressive versions of the barber pole turks heads. This version is tied as a standing turks head, using 1 strand for each bight with 8 strands total- I simply zip tied the stands to the bottle opener rather than monkeying with a mandrel (I rarely use mandrels). When the initial helix of strands was made, all I did was alternate the colors and started tucking each end in the same pattern from one end to the other. There are a couple tutorials on Knot Heads World Wide for barber pole turks heads using only two stands. They can be found here and here.

Walking Stick with Turks Head Loop Hanger

 It's been a really busy month with real life issues and I haven't had much time for knots.  I've been working on this walking stick for a friend in the margins for the past month and I am glad to have it finished.  The stick itself is made of red oak, and it is treated with a rubbing oil.  It's always nice to do 4 or 5 coats of spar varnish on a walking stick, but the oil is much faster as all you have to do is wipe the stick down and let it sit for a few days to achieve a decent finish.

For the top of the stick I integrated a turks head loop using the same technique I used for the flashlight thumb loop I made a while back.  The person for whom I made this stick spends extensive time on a boat, and I thought it would be a nice feature to be able to hang the stick up and hence the loop. The loop is also handy for hanging the stick on a coat rack.  I will definitely be incorporating loops into future walking sticks as it has worked out well.

The larger knot is a standing, or multistrand turks head tied using a technique from the Ashley Book of Knots, numbers 1284 through 1289.  While it is very satisfying tying a large turks head using a single strand using tools such as the grid maker found on the KHWW site, I often find it much simpler to use the standing method from Ashley- I tied this knot without the use of a mandrel, simply using zip ties at the top and bottom to anchor the strands.   The strands do not get as twisted as they do for a running, or single strand turks head.  Small nails or another anchor method can be used with this method which may result in a more even layout. This technique does take some patience and organization because with 8 strands it looks like spaghetti at the start. Enjoy.

Umbrella Handle Tying Process Photo

I found this photograph that I took of my umbrella handle project that I thought folks might find interesting.  To get to this point in the process I first taped the extreme ends of the handle with one row of adhesive tape to keep things from slipping.  Then I tied six strands around the handle at the tip of the umbrella and spiraled them around until I got to the other end and made the second constrictor.  Then the end covering was made and the lines were feed through opposite the spiral.  All six strands were worked thorough, which is about where this photo was taken.  The strands were then walled and feed back through to double the knot.  My advice on this tie would be to take ones time and fair the knot as you go.  Also, you want it to be snug, but not necessarily tight.  If you make the knot too tight it gets very difficult to snug down the subsequent passes.  The other trick in this case was to keep the knot "open" on the outside of the cane shape and closed on the "inside" of the cane.  On top of that the end sections had to be closed enough that the tape did not show.

Umbrella Handle

This is a cane shaped umbrella handle that I covered using a method directly from the "The Monkey's Fist and other Knot Coverings" chapter of the Ashley Book of knots.  To do this knot, I took six strands and wrapped them in a helix around the handle, lashing the strands to the handle at the knot ends.  Then using the pattern from Ashley, I created the basic knot to create the end covering.  From there the turks head pattern is created by weaving through the helix with the stands.  This method is also covered in the "Turks Head" section of Ashley.  At the base of the umbrella the strands are walled and brought back through to create a second pass on the knot.  Because of the corner on the cane shape, the crosses are closed on the inside of the curve and open on the outside of the curve.  All twelve strands were cut and tucked to finish the knot.

Turks Head Knife

I use a paring knife to cut string when I am knotting.  If find a paring knife useful for getting in close to make a final cut at the end of a tie.  Instead of constantly raiding the kitchen drawers, I bought a knife to use specifically for knot work.  Of course, I couldn't just leave it plain.  The handle is a turks head tied with 4 stands which lead to a 4 bight turks head.  I doubled the black, and then traced the red in through.  The red is all one strand traced through.  I wanted some kind of blade cover, mostly just in case my son or dogs get into the knot tools.  All I did was triple over a stiff piece of cardboard, straight whip it and then tie a 4 lead by 3 bight turks head at each end. The blade cover probably won't last forever, but is functional.  There is a string led from the blade cover so I can tie it off as an additional safety.  I left the handle end eye opening.  Perhaps I'll get to tying a lanyard for it at some point.