messenger bag

remember those buttons i made a while back? well, they have finally been applied to this messenger bag that i made for my friend sarah. a large part of the (laughably long) delay on this project was finding a supplier for the metal strap hardware. most online suppliers require minimum orders in the hundreds as they are set up to work with producers, while most fabric stores, even nice ones like stonemountain and britex have very limited, very overpriced and somewhat sad selections. the solution was a retailer out of oregon called strapworks. still, that only got me the brass slides.

i ended up fabricating this little hook out of a scrap of sheet brass. it acts as a quick connector for the secondary strap that keeps the bag on your back when riding a bike.

more, including pictures of a cat, below!

tap handles

ever since my brother tom's wedding two summers ago (for which tom and his good friend derek brewed all the beer and for which i made some sweet scrap mahogany tap handles), derek has occasionally reminded me that he wouldn't mind having his own set of handmade tap handles. we finally sat down and figured out what he would like and i spent a little time on the lathe whipping them up:

the darker is walnut, collected and milled by my dad at some point before i was born. the lighter is mulberry from california urban lumber- my favorite/possibly only source for locally salvaged hardwood lumber.

more below!

the lathe

the lathe has seen a lot of use lately, as the huge pile of chips and dust would suggest. have i told you how great the lathe is? it is great. though it is not the most utilitarian (tablesaw, perhaps?) or versatile (have to go with the bandsaw) power tool in the shop, i think it is still my favorite. oh, it also is probably the most dangerous, too.