Thursday, July 12, 2018

If you give a mouse a cookie… (with weapons!)


As I’m sure most of you have figured out by now, I have been making a bow. Now that the bow is done, I obviously need a string to go with it. Matteo (Lucaroni) taught me how to do this. 

The steps are fairly simple, if a bit waxy. First, you use piece of wood with a bunch of different nails on it to measure out the string (which is covered in a sticky wax). This measuring stick sets the pieces off from one another by a bit less than half a centimeter. This helps when you are making the loops that you need to string the bow. 
The funny little device 


The correct way to use it to measure your string (I found this when I googled "double ended Flemish bow string"- that is the particular style of string that Matteo and I did)

The string consists of two main "strings" which are wrapped around themselves and each other. Before starting the loop, the first thing you have to do is wax a portion of the end of the string. How long this section is depends on how big the loop needs to be; mine had to be quite small, so the section was relatively short- about four inches would be my guess. 

When making the loop, you start twisting at the end of the loop that has a longer "tail". I'm really sorry, but this is stupidly hard to describe. You twist the strings on themselves in one direction, and the strings on each other in the other direction. You use clamps to hold the string in place as you twist it, and you try to keep it as tight as you can. Oddly enough, no matter how sticky the wax you put on the string feels, as soon as you start working with the waxy strings, they become impossible to manage. When the twisted together strings are long enough (in my case five centimeters), you join the "tails" together and twist them upon themselves and each other.

Once you have made both loops this way (making sure to twist in the same direction), the rest of the twisting is simply a matter of holding one end still and twisting the other end, much as if you were playing with a hair tie.

Next step is stretching. To do this, Matteo and I played tug-o-war with the string. I'm sure there are other ways of doing this if you are working on your own. After that, we strung the bow and messed with it for a while. Then we twisted the string (because it had stretched quite a bit) and stretched it some more. We did this over and over again. Now while I'm at home, I have to come up with some sort of rig to stretch out the string. Theoretically, I could leave the bow strung, but that would bend the bow that I worked so hard on and damage it. 

How we ended up rigging the string to stretch it

Once the string is stretched I will have to do the "serving". I have no clue as to what it is called in English, but it is an area in the middle of the string that is reinforced by another string wrapped around the outside. Clearly we can't do this before the string has stretched out all the way, because as it stretches, it gets thinner. However, I can describe how to do this because I have had to redo it on my other bow. You make the serving using a little string dispenser that helps keeps the string lined up with no gaps in it. You flip the device over the string until your reinforced section is a couple of inches long; unfortunately, I don't remember exactly how long. 

After that, the only thing left to do is to add the "punto d'incocco"; this is where you put the arrow on to the string and it must hold your arrow at a right angle to the string while the arrow is resting on the arrow rest. This is done by using a little instrument to check the angle and then you use the same instrument that you used for the "serving" to make a small marking on the string. After that, the only thing you need in order to shoot are appropriate arrows! 
A bit of the finished string
The string has a natural stop to keep it from sliding down the bow- the loop won't fit over the knot 

Ciao,

Florence

Tuesday, July 10, 2018

Last Day in England (for now)

Our second day with Jeremy involved the obviously required trip to the Darlington Railroad Museum. Housed in the old North Street Station, it was a small-but-informative space. Truthfully, there was plenty to see in there, and our brains were full before we'd exhausted every panel.

Since we'd already toured Jeremy's worksite, we decided not to go back for the open house (ironic, since we'd scheduled our trip around said open house), but instead went for lunch. Then it was time for us to hit the road!



The locomotive that created Darlington's boom




A coal car

Within 80 years, they'd developed this version

The wood inlay is lovely, despite this space's utilitarian nature
This was a new one on me that I found adorable. See explanation below.


Outside of the station

Michael and I wanted to milk every bit of delight out of our visit, so we went back via the Yorkshire Moors. A different national park, it offered less-cultivated landscape. At one point, we just HAD to get out of the car to do a tiny bit of hiking, in search of the ever-elusive top of the hill. In any case, we enjoyed the view!







We also stopped in Helmsley. Clearly a touristy town, it was a real chocolate-box village. As it happened, they had the "steam rally" for which we'd been seeing signs and wondering what that entailed. On display were lots of old (gas-powered) tractors and a steam locomotive that operated on the street! There was also a steam tractor providing rides to willing guests.









 



We ended up at Stansted around 9 p.m. and spent the night in the airport hotel, taking the early flight out. We were greeted by sunflower fields in full bloom!

Love,

Alexandra




Monday, July 9, 2018

Sweet Darlington

Our next day in the Dales was another long one! We left Kettlewell using a cross-dales route rather than the motorway, and it didn't disappoint: full of lovely view, lots of animals, and even a family of hedgehogs!

Look at that cute face!
 First stop: a small town that had a shop specializing in locally spun wools. They didn't disappoint. Plus, it was market day, meaning fresh raspberries and strawberries! While we were waiting, it was the perfect opportunity for tea al fresco.







The presumed mother was across the street and down the road,
but didn't really want to have her photo taken


Views from the car



 



Next stop: Thirsk. Perhaps unknown to American readers, Thirsk is the actual town where James Herriott (real name: Alfred Wight) was a vet. We had the chance to see his house, which was very, very different from the space as it was depicted in the BBC production of his books. There were obviously a ton of difficulties with recreating the scenes in the house as it actually was, but it was really interesting to see the choices that were made for filming purposes.

The "Herriott" formal dining room,
usually used as the reception area for the veterinary practice
Complete with Tricki-Woo!

The living room, also largely unused


Looking up the stairs

The dispensary was little more than a closet.

Note the microscope and balance


You can just picture the draftiness in the winter

The examining room

The family dining room/living room;
this was the only warm room during the winter months

The kitchen was huge!



the ironing board was an iron + towel

Daily accounting

this shows what a rambling place it was! 
The outside of the Works
Progress!
After that, it was time to leave for Darlington to see Jeremy! We went to the factory, where we were greeted by the front-office staff and Jeremy's supervisor, Ian. It turns out that Ian is a well-known person in the field of historical machining/painting/machine restoration, and was the person who restored a locomotive for The Railway Children! It was a treat to meet him and Jeremy's colleague Steve, a retiree who volunteers twice a week and has been extremely helpful in teaching Jeremy some of his machining skills.




This piece has taken 40-50 hours so far
and was machined from a cylindrical blank

These are the drawings for the piece above.


pretty nameplate!

Ian formed that 2" tubing around the edge
using only heat and his eyes to get the 3-D curvature
A quick visit of his bachelor pad, then wandering around town. Darlington is really sweet, although Jeremy reports a rather too-active pub (read "drink-to-excess" in this context) scene. Dinner in one of the quieter pubs in the market square, then dessert at our hotel.
View from Jeremy's room



Market square

This church dates to the 1300s

And another day gone!

Love,

Alexandra