CaptainBeaky

Now that's gone, cheer yourself up by searching for Cegga, and Owen Bush, and have a drool at some of their axes

All of them!With the exception of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, of course (may you be touched by his noodly appendage).

He does make them pretty, doesn't he? Proper handsome, that one is.

And finally... If you've got this far, thanks for looking. More thanks to Daf and Gordon for the walnut. You may note that there are no photos of my practice attempts at working the walnut - I have drawn a decent veil over these... At some stage, I will have to re-do the chequering on the pistol grip where I had to remove the damaged wood, but that is for another day. Total spend, excluding the gun, is about £40.

OK, some photos, if anyone's interested Apologies for the poor quality of some of the photos - some were a bit of an afterthought, and all were taken with my phone! The stock was in rather poor condition: multiple contusions along both sides of the lower edge . Top of left cheek cracked away and repaired badly - the wood used appears to be ash, and the gaps were filled in with red Hermetite sealant. Yes, seriously! Close-up of damage to edges of stock Dotted lines show position and length of cracks in the head of the stock: Left cheek with old oil finish removed - the ash sticks out like a sore thumb. Removing all the oil, grease and dirt made the cracks even more obvious, and bigger than I first thought: There was a crack running two-thirds the length of the fore end as well. And there's more... Fore end iron stripped and cleaned... ... and re-assembled, and the cracks glued up. After two weeks in the turpentine bath: Right stock cheek pinned and epoxied, with the old repair to the left cheek removed. New piece of walnut glued and pinned in place, held down with earthing tape while the glue sets. Good stuff this tape - slightly stretchy, so it's easy to build up the clamping pressure gradually. And set, prior to removing the tape residue and shaping the new piece. And shaped to the original profile. OK, my attempt at matching the grain was a bit off the mark, but I'm learning this as I go along! Fitted to the action - again, I'm not entirely happy with the fit along the vertical surface: But the profile from the top looks OK A piece of horn from the Box of Useful Items became a pistol grip cap - cut to size: And fitted and blended in, also removing the damage from the bottom of the pistol grip. Must re-do the chequering as well. The white marks on the bottom of the cap is figuring within the horn. Re-finishing started - after one coat of oil.

If an axe won't shave hairs off your arm, it's blunt! (splitters and mauls excepted).

These are gorgeous! Mine is the longer working version, also by Mr Nilsson. Takes a razor edge, and for any tree under 6"diameter, it's faster than using a chainsaw once you've fueled and oiled up the motorised version Wouldn't even think of throwing it, mind...

I have run my Surf on and off with various veg oils for the last 8 years and 60k miles - WVO and SVO. WVO gets filtered through a 25 micron bag filter and washed with water to remove acidic oxidation residues. So far, so good...

Hi, johno

Loads here (also Kent as above). Noisy beggars, and displace a lot of the indigenous finches, as they occupy the same (ish) niche, and are bigger and more aggressive. Had a sparrowhawk take one in the garden the other year - bright green feathers all over the shop!

Nikwax paste wax - excellent. Mink oil - pretty good, but tends to soften leather slightly. Don't use neatsfoot on your boots - it will soften them into unwearability! Great for stuff like straps and belts and tack, which needs to be flexible and waterproof, NOT so for boots.

Paracord store is part of the Bushcraft store.

www.theparacordstore.co.ukSells 1000 ft reels at a decent price.

I've always put down English as my nationality on forms - never been picked up on it yet I'm not Welsh, and have as much Swedish as Scots ancestry, so English is probably closest.

M2 Essential doesn't have the Comfortech stock - might be one of these.

I don't think anyone is suggesting or implying that they can do the job better - more a case of disappointment that a good job done is being let down by poorly conceived tabloid-ish publicity. Illegal firearms (the sawn-off, submachine guns, if that's what they were, not deacs) off the street and out of the hands of scrotes - great. Publishing a trophy photo including starting pistols and airguns, all described as illegal firearms - not so great. Tends to lose you some sympathy and support from a law-abiding section of the community who could reasonably be expected to be right behind the aims of Trident, but are rather touchy about this sort of "All Guns Are Evil" publicity. I do realise that you can't necessarily control what the papers actually print, but the material released could be better chosen.

Working tomorrow, Sunday and Monday :(

Anyone see the big splash article in the Evening Standard? "London Gangs Exploit Law To Get Guns". Easily down to their usual standard! Calling Browning HiPower and Webley mk6 "antique which you can buy legally". Sheesh! Plus a spokesman for NABIS saying "you are entitled to walk down the street with a antique weapon capable of firing real bullets" - as before, disingenuous. Intent immediately makes it OffWep - loading it, or even having ammunition for it stops it being classed as an antique. Plus, "he warns that as the centenary of the First World War passes, more modern weapons such as automatic pistols will become classified as antiques and legal to own." If he works for NABIS, he really ought to know better. And finally, before I explode all over the screen: "Campaigners say the Act fails to define'antique', but leaves it to the police and courts to define" Spherical objects! The Act defines it quite carefully; the police don't get to define the law, and in this case the courts don't need to. And.... breathe....

Ok, need to build a recoil-absorbing mount: there are some good examples to copy down at the museum in Woolwich... Now there's a thought

Because they are being disingenuous? "Tractor output has been increased by 150% in the last year" Public servants are not supposed to tell porkies to said public.

Surely a punt gun is a section 2 shotgun - smooth bore, less than 2" bore (I hope!) and more than 24" barrel, so you shouldn't have any conditions on the license. You could even shoot clays with one, assuming you are, in fact, the Incredible Hulk...

Tighter chokes do tighten the pattern with steel, but because steel doesn't compress going through the choke, the same constriction has a greater effect.Full choke was originally designated as such because that was the point (40 thou) at which a tighter constriction gave no further tightening of the pattern. The same point occurs with steel at around 20 thou, hence the differing constrictions of steel-rated chokes. Shooting steel through a 40 thou choke would put a lot of strain on the barrel, for no improvement in pattern (and quite possibly a worse pattern due to slamming the shot together too hard). My MP153 has steel rated chokes, and according to the figures in the manual, the full choke has a constriction of just over 20 thou, or half choke in old money. Important note: The above is based on a lot of reading, and a fair understanding of the behaviour of materials under stress. Some or all (or less) may not be entirely consistent with reality! I should perhaps preface it with a IMSEO (in my somewhat educated opinion) P

Are your permissions approved for that calibre? Are T-rex's on the General License?

The lignum vitae looks lighter than I expected. What's it like to work with?

That's come out nicely