peds

These edges are being abused in a most despicable way. I feel sorry for them. If they survive cleaning this salvaged floor, they'll have an easier retirement to look forward to.

No argument from me, I always used stones for my knives back when I was cooking, nothing beats it. And I'm using a stone on these chisels whenever I can be arsed, but I need something quick and dirty (and efficient) for these or I'd spend as much time sharpening them as scraping the floor tiles. Which really isn't an option, seeing as we are 900 down, 5000 to go. There we are... nearly 15m² of reclaimed teak floor, scrubbed and scraped and ready for action. Only another 80m² to go.

They all look much of a muchness to be honest, I suppose I'll just take the plunge with what's in budget and available the quickest.

Thanks for the recommendation, I'm just looking at suppliers in Ireland, found one for 70 euro. Is there anything that pushes it above this 8" grinder from Screwfix do you reckon? Reviews seem fine, 400w motor instead of the 210 in the Clarke. Titan TTB521GRB 200mm Brushless Electric Bench Grinder 240V | Bench Grinders | Screwfix.ie WWW.SCREWFIX.IE Order online at Screwfix.ie. Powerful, cast aluminium bench grinder with adjustable tool rests and eye shields...

Morning chaps, Looking for a bench grinder for sharpening chisels and the like, but it'd be handy to be big enough to tickle an axe every now and then as well. There's some cheapo versions available on Screwfix, are those good enough or is it worth forking out for something fancier? Can anyone recommend a decent bit of kit? Scraping my teak floor tiles isn't kind to them...

I do climb trees, but only occasional cowboy weekend work. Nothing like the heavy hitters on here, and anyway, trees here on the west coast of Ireland are only about 4 metres tall. Sometimes even a ladder seems overkill. But most of my ropework I learned in the French Alps. Static, semi-static, dynamic, it's all the same, your overhand will bite. It isn't a slipknot with a fiddlestick we are talking about here, like those weird canyoneers are fond of.

Because it isn't complicated enough. Because humans are timid, flighty creatures who need to believe that there's as complex an answer as possible behind keeping them alive. Why settle for the quickest solution available when you could add a load of padding and window dressing and vajazzle to inflate our sense of value. Of course, you have to have faith in a knot that's keeping you from hitting the ground, and it's just possible that it'll notice if you don't believe in it and come apart. You can't blame it, we all get like that sometimes. But I've spent enough time in my life dangling over hundreds of metres of cold air and jagged granite to learn to trust a simple overhand.

It doesn't matter where you learn it, a shit knot is a shit knot no matter what environment it gets tied in, and I say of course only because you clearly know your onions and, of the two knots in question, you choose to use the one that doesn't have a proven track record for occasional fatalities. Let me be clear on this, there is absolutely nothing wrong with a flemish bend, and if it works for you, great, carry on. Just don't accidentally tie a flat 8 one day when you've got other things on your mind. Whoops! Can we just imagine, for a second, a flemish tied in the very middle of a pair of 30m ropes, with four 15m tails coming out of it (sorry, that's a lot of rethreading, I know)... that knot is now both a flemish bend AND a flat 8, one of which is great for joining two ropes, one of which is potentially fatal. But it's the same knot. Once again: if you can identify which of the two knots is the one you want, that is, with the force going through the knot instead of across it, then great, work away. Personally, I have chosen to dispense with this decision altogether, use a knot that is bomb proof, easy to identify, and quite possibly the simplest knot to tie in the history of mankind, ever, and I enthusiastically recommend any novices I happen to be sharing rope chat with to do the same thing. I don't want to sound like a prick here, I really don't, but the ambiguity between the flemish and the flat 8 continues to kill people, and it's an important discussion to have.

God, I'd hope not. This simple wee fella here... Is what appears in most people's minds when they are joining two ropes with an overhand. That's what Google images says, so that's basically the word of God. Edit to add To illustrate the point, all 4 of the strands coming out of the overhand pictured above are safe to put a load on (bit short, those tails, but still). If that were retied as either a flemish or a flat 8, then half of the strands, 2 out of the 4, would be dangerous to put a load on, depending on which strand you've got poking out of which hole. Of course, if you want the OG knot to join two ropes, with all the bells and whistles and weighting every single strand, should the mood take you, you want to tie them into a double alpine butterfly.

Well the flat figure 8 is, of course. It occasionally claims the odd new death every now and again, as far as I understand. And all it takes is a little easy ambiguity over the orientation of one of the two ropes between the flat and the flemish for a catastrophe to occur, whereas you have to be a major simpleton to f*ck up tying an overhand, where it doesn't matter if they are end to end or parallel or whatever. It's just... simpler. Listen, tie whatever knots you want, but on paper, there's a clear winner in the contest.

To join two ropes? You mean a flemish bend or a flat figure 8? One of them is great, and one of them kills people, and explaining the difference between the two isn't worth the hassle when there's a better, quicker, and safer knot already available. You can tie a dozen EDKs before you've even rethreaded you second 8.

Yeah I knew you were really, but then you go and do this... There's just this weird suspicion and historic opposition among various Anglo-American circles to the good old overhand, popular over on the continent for decades, which eventually brought about the charming alternative name of the European Death Knot. It's perplexing, because it's just demonstrably a better knot for the situation than any of the alternatives, unless you are joining two ropes of a significantly different diameter, in which case you might throw a pair of fishermen together. ...and sometimes it's tricky to tell when people are still genuinely opposed to it, and not just leaning hard into the irony.

Ropes can also be used in other environments. (Luckily, the helicopter carried us and our ropes up the hill on the day pictured above, but that's a rare luxury. Now, an individual can carry a single 300m rope up a hill, but it's far easier to split the weight with two friends and just do a hundred each.) Edit to add... and on this day, the action was about 170m down, needing 2 independent rope systems of a pair of hundreds each, plus another 50 for the edge man, plus another 50 for tying the anchors together. 500m total of string used, with a few more bags lying around just in case.

I think I was supposed to be a bunch of grapes originally, if memory serves. Didn't really work with multi coloured balloons though, so the costume naturally transformed as the evening progressed. Anyway, half of the house roof is felted. It's like swimming through treacle because apparently some of our design choices aren't entirely conventional, but we are getting there.

No but that sounds like great fun. Night navigation and search exercise with the mountain rescue team.

Turned pretty wintry on the west coast of Ireland.

From Bill Bryson's A Short History of Nearly Everything

Yeah it can be less hassle, doesn't answer the question though, really. Sometimes I need 300m of rope length, I'm not going to drag 300m around, I'm tying together 3x100m.

Anyway, I don't mind getting little fruity, as I am all man. As proven by the following photograph.

Ireland. It's definitely something we'd have in writing anyway, we've learned that a few times so far during the build. Well the scaffold we've got up isn't cheap, we are already looking at 2 weeks extra rental for it, minimum. Thanks for the advice guys, the situation is fluid and ongoing, I'll keep you posted.

Well, I can't say for sure, but the roofer I've got coming in used to work for the same crowd and left to focus on his own business mostly as a result of shenanigans like this. So, new question, I've been chatting to the fitters and I've offered to pay their costs for the remaining 2 days they say it'll take, and I'll tell the company that I'll just knock it off their final invoice if it isn't sorted by the end of today. What legal legs does this have, do you think?

I can't tell you. Want his mobile number, you can ask him yourself?

It's between them and their boss of course, but it's fairly standard for trades of that nature to travel a fair bit wherever the work takes them. The guy I have coming to do the roof is a similar drive as well, he's worked it into his quote I'm sure. We offered them an apartment for them free of charge during that big freeze back in December, didn't get their head office involved just offered it to them straight up. My beef is definitely with the office here, not the fitters. Might go and camp out on their lawn, see what turns up.

Yep, the fitters are. The company base is 30 minutes up the road, but the fitters employed for this job are way up the other end of the country, a 2 hour drive away, both ways, every day. I'd be asking for petrol money for that one. Dunno but it sounds incredible, I'd love to get involved.

Hey, I resent that. I'm not a vegan, I'm plant-based. I'll try and backdate a few updates though, cheers. That's not a bad idea actually, I will indeed stick it right back up in the attic, safe and sound in a quiet corner. It could be the spirit of the house. Well, here's a quick question for you all to consider, while I'm sat here watching no work being done... what happens when the two guys who have been putting your house together for the last month stop showing up because their employer hasn't paid them? Head office won't pay travel costs because the work is "local" to them... after a 150km drive...