Tuesday, October 17, 2017

Slide number 1



October  1970?

Time to make: unknown

Finishing: 1.5 hour


Design: unknown








I'm often asked about my first neckerchief slide so I wanted to take this time to talk about it. Sometime in the late 60's or early 70's, as a young Scout, I saw a picture of a Turks head somewhere. Now I'm not sure where I saw it (Scout handbook, Field book, Boy's Life, World Book Encyclopedia  or somewhere else) but I figured out from the picture and description how to tie the knot. Tied from some spare clothes line I found in our basement, I must have kept going until I ran out of line. (Four wraps in some places and three in other places.) I wanted to harden the slide because it was very loose so I coated with some old fashion shellac my Grandfather had in the basement. The shellac was old, thick and dark but it was still absorbed by the cotton cord. It took a couple of days to dry and I have worn it a good many times since then.

Since that time I tied a good many Turks Head slide using everything from leather to paracord (and even a few boot laces in between).  In fact, every year I tie a Turks Head for each of the Webelos crossovers that joins our Troop and in a different color. Just some of the ones I've tied...


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