Practically all of the knowledge of ropework and knots the Sailor had accumulated could go into the making of a single pair of Beckets.
A Sailor would spend many hours of his spare time aboard ship making a pair of fancy Chest Beckets to adorn his sea chest.
His chest was his one private place where he could keep his few treasured possessions.
140 year old Chest Beckets, Refurbished for a customers.
For more info and pictures see my post here.
After refurbishment.
Before Refurbishment.
The beckets along with the chest and cleats.
Cotton Chest Beckets.
The core of the beckets are a selvagee strop, marled, parcelled, and a puddening of canvas applied, this is then served with Tarred Marline before being covered.
The Eyes are ringbolt hitched in cotton, the legs are of needle hitching in cotton and the bails are 8 strand x 5 ply coach whipping in cotton.
Small and large Turk’s-Head knots in flax finish the covering.
The bolt is of 3 strand hemp, wormed, parcelled and served , this is covered with a leather chafing piece and 4 pinked leather washers, the ends of the bolt are finished of with painted, canvas covered manrope knots.
The wood cleats are of Lignum Vitae, they have pilot holes drilled and also come with screws for fixing, but if you wish you could fix the cleats in the traditional way using copper rivets, (the cleats would need drilling through to do this.
The finish is hand mixed, natural, Bleached Shellac.
Approx size of each Becket:
height 260mm x width 155mm.
These Beckets were featured in the pages of Knotting Matters #80 & #100 (the magazine of the International Guild of Knot Tyers)
My Dad’s Flax Chest Beckets.
About time I gave him something a bit special ;-)
The core is a selvagee strop, marled, parcelled, and a puddening of canvas applied, this is then served before being covered.
Eyes are ringbolt hitched in cotton, legs are of needle hitching in flax, bails are of double crowning in flax,
Small Turk’s-Head knots in cotton and large two colour Herringbone knots finish the covering.
The bolt is of 4 strand hemp, wormed, parcelled and served , this is covered with a leather chafing piece and 4 pinked leather washers, finished of with doubled crowned diamond knots.
The cleats are solid Mahogany.
The finish is hand mixed, natural, Bleached Shellac.
Approx size of each Becket:
height 270mm x width 160mm.
Featured in the pages of Knotting Matters # 94
Charles Hamel’s Tarred Nylon
Doorknocker Becket.
The core is a selvagee strop, marled, parcelled, and a puddening of canvas applied, this is then served before being covered.
Eyes are ringbolt hitched, legs are of needle hitching, bails are 8 strand x 5 ply coach whipping.
Small and large Turk’s-Head knots finish the covering.
The bolt is 8 strands of tarred nylon over a nylon core, parcelled and served , this is covered with a leather chafing piece and 4 pinked leather washers, finished off with 8 strand star knots and a small button knot in the centre of each star.
The cleat is solid Mahogany.
The finish is hand mixed, natural Shellac.
Approx size of Becket:
height 265mm x width 155mm.
Featured on the front cover of Knotting Matters # 89
Fred’s Doorknocker.
The core is a spliced strop, wormed, parcelled, and a puddening of canvas applied, this is then served before being covered.
The covering is tarred Nylon.
Eyes are ringbolt hitched, legs are of needle hitching, bails are 8 strand x 5 ply coach whipping.
Small and large Turk’s-Head knots finish the covering.
The bolt is 8 strands of tarred Nylon over a nylon core, parcelled and served , this is covered with a leather chafing piece, 4 pinked leather washers and finished off with 6 strand Globe knots.
There are no cleats pictured here as Fred wanted to make his own.
The finish is hand mixed, natural Shellac.
This Becket is made smaller than normal to bring it closer to the size of a standard metal doorknocker.
Approx size of Becket:
height 175mm x width 151mm.
Featured in the pages of Knotting Matters # 94
