In my never ending quest for the next project, to prevent me from working on existing projects, I decided I needed a Gourd Canteen. Because you know, just because. Anyway, I found and ordered a few possible victims off the interweb and got busy. I selected one from the bunch that was not the best (in case I screwed it up) but not the worst (in case it turned out OK and usable). I cut off the stem and measured my selected cork stopper. I had found several suitable and unsuitable corks at a couple local thrift stores. Man, people will collect and donate most anything (and then I come along and buy most anything). I found a close but slightly undersize drill and got busy, first with a group of smaller and then progressively larger bits. Dumping out the contents yielded a ton (well, almost) of seeds. If viable they may lead to next year’s project. Anyway, along with the seeds I poked out all the Gourd guts I could before throwing a handful of hardware (large & small nuts, bolts, pointy screws) inside.
Then the real fun began, shake the Gourd, shake I say. Shake to the left, shake to the right, shake your Goard all ‘round. Shake while walking around the yard, shake while watching TV, shake, shake, shake. Much shaking later, (did I mention shaking?) dump the hardware and powdered Gourd guts out. Repeat until no more powder comes out and the inside looks pretty clean. You do know what the inside of clean Gourd looks like right? Yeah, me neither. Once satisfied with the internal condition, set Gourd in the Sun while you heat some Bees Wax. Hopefully you have an “in” with a friendly local Bee Keeper who likes you enough to save you some nice, clean, minimally processed wax. Luckily a buddy’s wife keeps Bees and he mentioned to her I would like to have wax (and Honey), so I have wax (and Honey).
As it turned out, I needn’t have worried about pre-heating the Gourd because IT GOT REAL DANG HOT when I dumped the melted wax inside. Like almost too hot to handle with bare hands hot. Put in the stopper and shake the Gourd, actually just slowly spin it around throughly coating the interior, cork and all. My Goard soaked up all of my first batch of wax so I hit it again, and got most of the second batch back out so I guess it got pretty much coated the first time. The cork and neck got nicely coated as well. Being satisfied with the results I made a leather strap and tied on a thong to hang it from my belt. I still need to make a toggle to tie on the thong that I can just tuck under, or over my belt. Anyway, here it is:
Then the real fun began, shake the Gourd, shake I say. Shake to the left, shake to the right, shake your Goard all ‘round. Shake while walking around the yard, shake while watching TV, shake, shake, shake. Much shaking later, (did I mention shaking?) dump the hardware and powdered Gourd guts out. Repeat until no more powder comes out and the inside looks pretty clean. You do know what the inside of clean Gourd looks like right? Yeah, me neither. Once satisfied with the internal condition, set Gourd in the Sun while you heat some Bees Wax. Hopefully you have an “in” with a friendly local Bee Keeper who likes you enough to save you some nice, clean, minimally processed wax. Luckily a buddy’s wife keeps Bees and he mentioned to her I would like to have wax (and Honey), so I have wax (and Honey).
As it turned out, I needn’t have worried about pre-heating the Gourd because IT GOT REAL DANG HOT when I dumped the melted wax inside. Like almost too hot to handle with bare hands hot. Put in the stopper and shake the Gourd, actually just slowly spin it around throughly coating the interior, cork and all. My Goard soaked up all of my first batch of wax so I hit it again, and got most of the second batch back out so I guess it got pretty much coated the first time. The cork and neck got nicely coated as well. Being satisfied with the results I made a leather strap and tied on a thong to hang it from my belt. I still need to make a toggle to tie on the thong that I can just tuck under, or over my belt. Anyway, here it is:
Good job.
It goes like this you make one take it along on your wonderings, your friend sees it and before you know it you're turning out gourd canteens for those you travel with.
