Fire place chompers

Here is the handle that I recently completed on a set of fireplace "chomper"  or log tongs.  I completed this handle using overhand grafting, using alternate pairs of colored string which were bound to the top of the handle. The top of the handle are finished off using 6L x 5B turks heads which were expanded from 4L x 3B turks heads.  I left the end uncovered just because my hearth is made of brick and I thought that the iron ball on the end my hold up better than a covering knot.

Floating Key Chain

This is a floating key chain I came up with- I took a cork from a wine bottle, poked a hole in it and ran a lanyard line through.  I then tied a 6 lead by 5 bight turks head in black around the cork.  I then tied a knife lanyard knot and then a simple overhand knot tied very tight to make the key ring attachment.  I'll have to try the same kind of key chain wrapping the cork completely including the ends.  I do like having the exposed cork as I think it is interesting.  This was not an easy piece of work to photograph- I ended up using a phone picture rather than a camera picture.  I'm sure if I fiddled with the camera for a couple hours I could have figured it out, but the phone picture turned out okay (could be better).

Bottle Opener

This is the bottle opener that I have been working on for the last week.  I bought a combination bottle/paint can opener and cut the paint can opener off.  Next I drilled a hole in a piece of 1 inch diameter dowel and inserted the bottle opener.  The dowel was wrapped in adhesive tape to help keep the string from slipping around.  The blue portion is 3 strand ring bolt hitching, also know as cockscombing.  The ends of the ring bolt hitching is covered with 6 lead by 5 bight turks heads.  The turks heads were tied by first tying 4 lead by 3 bight turks heads and then enlarging them.