SOMETHING TO BE PROUD OF

Leather work and plaiting has been a hobby of Ross Jenkins for 35 years now, adding whip making over the past 12 years after doing a course with Dean Williams (son of RM Williams) . 

Around 8 years ago he traveled to Glen Innes for the Northern NSW Plaiting Championships. He was very fortunate to meet three plaiters there who have helped him immensely.

Chris Barr, who undoubtedly would have to be one of the best plaiters in Australia, with the ability to plait 72 strands of leather that are only ½ mm wide.

Maurice Dohan, from the far North Coast of NSW,  is well known and respected for the Red hide Work Whips he plaits. 

 John McMaster’s  ability and help has also been invaluable.

His 20 years of living in Scone, gave Ross the opportunity to complete a 4 year course at the local TAFE, which covered Saddles, Horse Gear and Whip making. 

All of these items are so much a part of life on the land.

Whip 
Awarded 2^nd Prize at this year’s Sydney Royal Easter Show. It is a two tone Brandy & Black Kangaroo Hide Whip, 5’9”long, 20 plait handle and 20 plait thong which took approx. 3 weeks to complete from the planning to the finished article.

 Knife Pouch
 Is a 28 plait top section and 18 plait bottom, with a gaucho knot keeper and is sown together with a single cardover  round braid. From start to finish took about 1 week to complete. The Pouch was also  Highly Comended at the Royal  Easter Show this year. This was a very pleasing result as the section entered was Any Plaited Articled, which covered a vast number of items including bridles, halters & fobs.

 

 Riding Crop 
 Received a Highly Commended award at the Sydney Royal Easter Show. It’s a 12 plait Whiskey & Fern Green Kangaroo hide crop and is something he has always wanted to do. He was extremely happy with this result as in this section you are competing against bull and coach whips as well. The crop took approximately 1 week to complete

 We encourage our members to bring to the shed & show the boys something they have made in the past & are proud of, so John Mills brought this model  pressure blaster in to show us .

It is a scale model of a 150hp Pressure Blaster working at 15,000psi using 12 gallons/min. & used to cut concrete & clean drains.

To make this unit he used 4 tyres from a toy, sheets of modelling polystyrene,  balsa wood. copper wire,  also a broken rear light & indicator. He made the other parts he needed on his home lathe.

The scale was determined by the size of the toy tyres & took about 4 months to make as the parts became available. He also re-made some components that did not look right. 

Above is the actual machine the model is based on.

 It has since been painted completely black.