Its March the first and back in the early Seventies I would have peered out of my window longingly for the Spring weather on its way.
The object of my longing was to be able to work in the family out-house without freezing to death.
What was I working on I hear you ask [or maybe not].
The answer is Oriental weaponry. As a young teenager I was obsessed with Martial Arts and its weapons!
The sorts of things I made were for example Japanese Katanas out of carpet edgers. The handles were two pieces of wood with the metal edger plate sandwiched between them by way of screws. A proper project sword!
Tonfas were another wooden project. Shapes pieces of plywood were nailed to lengths of brush handle. In fact brush handles were part of many of my creations particularly Okinawan Nunchakus and Chinese shafted spears and tridents.
The most dangerous things I made were shurikens. I cut these from biscuit tin lids and threw them against the wooden fence, where they cut deep into the wood. I was careful to stick to fence shurikining and not veer from there.
Some of my most effective items were long Japanese horse bows made from curved bamboos. Producing the arrows was really satisfying as most ancient Japanese arrowheads had devices like whistles and forks. Mostly I put a table tennis ball on arrows though because me and my mates loved to shoot them at each other across the garden. Don't panic, we were draped in armour made from carpet and chicken wire!
Oh how I loved to make those oriental things in our old out-house, probably more than I did using them. By way of homage I still have a hand made shuriken in my own home now, which I regularly throw against the shed for old time's sake. The thwack as it hits the wood is a sound I still adore!
Did you make stuff in the shed readers?
Here's an old snap of my cellar full of home made weapons and some from Mum's catalogue too!
