Slide of the Month Extra: Leather stamping-Bear Paw

 

May 2025

Time to print: 1 hour

Time to make: .5 hours

Finishing: .5

Original design:  Bill Macfarlane

Initial 3D print: Viking Bear Paw by Kenny Reniff

veg 

A friend of mine and fellow Wood Badge patrol member was complaining why I wasn't doing more Bear slides. (Yes I'm a good ole Bear.) So Ron, this one is for us. 

The bear paw here has four claws and represents the four of us in the Bear patrol who had a great time at NE-II-192 Wood Badge.  

The process of creating this slide uses a piece of tooling "veg tan" leather, a 3D printed stamp, and a method of pressing the stamp into the leather. I started by editing the Viking Bear Paw in Tinkercad to add the letters to the final stamp. 

After 3D printing the stamp, I cut a piece of leather to size based on the size of the stamp. I dampened the leather, placed the stamp on the leather, and squeezed the two of them together. Now there are many methods to do this like an arbor press, H-frame press, or C-clamp (G-clamp) home made press I found on the Scout Woggles Facebook page by Julian Ashcroft. After letting the leather dry, I treated the leather with Fiebing's Tan Vintage Gel and polished the leather with a soft cloth. Lastly, I stitched the ends together with waxed string to form a loop. 

This was a very cool method and I'll probably be making more leather slides in the future.

Slide of the Month: State

May 2025

Time to make: 2 hours

Finishing: 1 hour

 
Boy's Life: April 1984, page  71

 August 1994, page 48

 
Original design:  Bill Andrews         Jeff Springer

It's not the first time I've seen a slide idea repeated in Slide of the Month but maybe the first time I've given credit to both contributors.  Massachusetts, like many states, is a loaded with area with their own regional flavor. From Boston to where dragons live (insert Harry Potter reference here) there is a lot to do and see here.

Carved from a piece of maple, I liked the challenge of cutting the shape of Massachusetts into the wood because of the intricate detail of the outline. With the state raised above the base and ready for finishing, I had a hard time trying to decide what to put on this slide.  A Red Socks emblem (I'm a Mets fan), Mt Greylock,  Basketball Hall of Fame... to many choices so I went with a representation of the state flag. 

I used flat white spray paint to paint the background, a paint pen to outline the state and water slide paper to do the lettering.