19 February 2014, 12:11
I learned another expensive lesson this week, Whilst I keep all my assorted cutlery gear from knives , bayonets and swords, clean, dry and lightly oiled I screwed up with my expensive Wakazashi.
I looked after the blade well, rarely touching it with my hands unless wearing cotton gloves, but out of a misguided sense of care I stored in in the airing cupboard upstairs.
I inspected it the other day for the first time in god knows how long and the manta ray skin wrapping on the handle had dried out and bloody disintegrated, Talk about dumb NR, I was spitting tacks.
I've rewrapped it not with natural materials but with rubberised stretch wrap self amalgamating tape which wont dry out ( I hope) and is very grippy.
I'm finding far to many defective items of kit that have decayed because I did not store them wisely, after fighting off Meningitis last month I've got time on my hands to go through much of my kit. its amazing how quick some gear goes off. For example to new unused tarps I bought two years ago that I accidentally left on a shelf and put heavy boxes of gear on to of have both cracked along the folded seams rendering them useless.
I looked after the blade well, rarely touching it with my hands unless wearing cotton gloves, but out of a misguided sense of care I stored in in the airing cupboard upstairs.
I inspected it the other day for the first time in god knows how long and the manta ray skin wrapping on the handle had dried out and bloody disintegrated, Talk about dumb NR, I was spitting tacks.
I've rewrapped it not with natural materials but with rubberised stretch wrap self amalgamating tape which wont dry out ( I hope) and is very grippy.
I'm finding far to many defective items of kit that have decayed because I did not store them wisely, after fighting off Meningitis last month I've got time on my hands to go through much of my kit. its amazing how quick some gear goes off. For example to new unused tarps I bought two years ago that I accidentally left on a shelf and put heavy boxes of gear on to of have both cracked along the folded seams rendering them useless.