Brandon Petzborn
Delta Empire ( whoever he is, just because he puts in the “ting” on the cymbal bell ,that I think should be there , in his cover of War Ensemble)

Dave Lombardo
Josh Freese
The guy off the first Machine Head album
Paul Bostaph
The guy from QOTSA

Try that snd then give it a WARM not hot iron. Makes a huge difference in my experience.

@DrJ,
Are you washing it in pure soap ( the 39p for 4 bars in lidl stuff is perfect), then reproofing with Nikwax? Did mine about 3 years ago, rain still beads off it except in high wear areas like cuffs.

Gonna have to disagree with anyone bigging up goretex over Paramo. Had many goretex jackets until i bought the Paramo, and they cant touch it.
Bought a Helly Hansen Odin Mountain Jacket, for the bike.At the time , maybe even now, it was top of the range and over £300 , maybe more. I bought it from a Helly Hansen store. Well the thing leaked from day one and then, the hood fell off. Raised the issue with Helly Hansen customer services, who wouldnt budge on sorting it, despite it being bought at one of their stores and only being 9 months old.
Kicked up a bit of a fuss until, eventually, they agreed to pay half the price of the repair,as long as I paid postage to tbeir repairer of choice.
P ostage was £10 or so, price of the repair was £18, so helly hansen paid £9, i paid £19 for their lifetime warranty repair. Threw it in tbe bin not long afterwards as it leaked hideously. Contrast this with Param o who sorted some worn zips out for free when I sent the jacket for a reproof ( before I discovered nikwax and soap) . I have never forgotten their respective attitudes. Couple this with the bombproof construction and superior performance, and Im sticking with Paramo, fashion be damned.

Worked with one seriously weird bloke, who ended up on the register. Used to drive around with no trousers or kegs on habitually. Got done for standing stark bollock naked in a tree in a public park.
Same fella had an equally weird wife. No kids, so adopted a load of hamsters instead. As small pets do, these died fairly quickly, so had epic back garden funerals for each of their fur children.
Thing is, after a month or so of grieving, the hurt wasnt healing, so they both had “one last photo” of themselves, with their decaying surrogate offspring. This photo was laminated and kept in his work locker, along with tons of sheets of laminated hardcore porn.

Another boy I worked with was a high -functioning heroin addict, and would openly chase the dragon in the workshop and think nothing of it, leaving his burnt foil around everywhere. Drugs squad raided his locker eventually, found nowt.
That boy was charming and hilarious as well as being one of the most godawful scummy beings i had ever met. We all loved him.

I bought a Paramo Halcon in Aviemore about 15 years ago. That jacket has been all round the cold places of the planet I have visited, as cold as -40 and it performed marvellously.
It has been by far he most waterproof jacket I have ever owned, waaay better than the overpriced Rab and Helly Hansen I bought. Just give it a wash in nikwax or plain soap every now and then, works a treat.
I notice you say you want to use it for photography. Wildlife photograohy? The Paramo material is very quiet in use, no rustles.
Zips and vents everywhere, which is just as well cos it doesnt get used after April, far too warm for the sunnier months. Enough pockets for your needs.
Only things I have issue with is the degree of insulation, these things are warm in use. The other is to be aware of what material your base layer is made of. Wearing a polyester type base layer, I have on more than one occasion shot little lightning bolts out of my fingertips due to static.
If mine died today , I’d buy another tomorrow.

Havent eaten meat for 10 years plus, and before that I had long spells of being meat free. Tried going full veggie but had to relent, my body was falling to bits as I was training very hard at that time.
Been mostly pescatarian for 10 years plus,but I was eating lots of fish years before that too.
Regardless of any of the other factors like ethics, environment, etc, I have noticed that my digestive system has become accustomed to dealing with a mostly fish diet. If for any length of time I go without fish, I notice a definite difference in my digestion. Makes sense really that my biome has become adapted to process mostly fish as its the majority protein source it has experienced for over 20 years.
Just something to think about, no recommendations either way here.

Seen these online earlier. Uk made too.
https://www.originalkettlebell.com/
No experience of using them so not a recommendation, but they seem to have addressed some problems i find with other kettlebells I have used.

@geomickb,
They sell them through ebay store, seller is chris10370.
I bought two 28kg bells for less than £150 from memory, cant remember if that included postage , dont think so.
Got used plenty during first shutdown, then the second one, then everyday in the gym, and now again.
Kept me sane, so earned their keep.

I bought some, British made ones, from East Coast Castings . Very happy with them, but to be fair they are just a lump of cast iron which you throw about.
They are unpainted so if you dont want them to go rusty , which they will as soon as sweat touches them, clear coat or paint them.
Might not be to everyones taste but I’d rather pay the going rate and support British jobs than support foreign jobs with the same cash.

Something I got into whilst rowing is listening to podcasts, which I download from Spotify. No idea why, but the conversation takes me away from the rowing far better than music.
Anybody got any recommendations for podcasts, by the way?

Bought a second hand Model D Concept 2 for £250 from a gym which had gone bust a few years before this Covid bollocks. Eventually had to put a new monitor on it , so thats another 100 odd on top of that.
But, the rower I bought was low mileage from a womens gym, so for less than £400 i got a nearly new Concept 2. Its getting a hammering since the gyms closed.
Maybe , with things the way they are, gyms will be going bust? Keep an eye out on ebay and word of mouth , might be worthwhile.

The Uvex ones with the black arms.
Best anti-fog performance I have ever used, especially when wearing a face mask.

Im afraid I have nothing to offer of any use here, just wanted to know if anyone else misread this title and thought it was about Turin Shrouds? Asking for a mate, like.

I bow to your superior knowledge, @grum, I just sharpen them for him. Whatever they are though, I was impressed.

I know nothing of cooking knife brands, but my mate in work brings me his cooking knives to sharpen for him every year, just before Xmas. Sabatier ,he tells me. They hold a wicked sharp edge, literally razor sharp (my left arm is bald now) , and when they come back to me after a year of hard use (he is a bit of a foodie), they arent in bad shape at all.
These are old but are obviously made of decent steel. In contrast , he brought me a knife made of some so called wonder stainless , cant remember what it was, lots of cr and numbers and vanadium and nickel. Thing wouldnt even take a razor sharp edge.

Over Lockdown ( March to about August) we were forced to do our 37 hours over 3 days, so the Company could save money on gas for the furnaces, electricity for the air compressors, etc. It was entirely a win situation for them, no benefits at all for us, forced on to 12 hour shifts with no monetary compensation, except for an hours pay (worked 3×12 hrs, got paid our contracted 37). Flexibility was required in these trying times, apparently.
Funny thing is, even though we couldnt go anywhere or do anything, after the initial tantrums, we actually quite enjoyed it, it was like having a week off every week, you could actually start and finish a job without having to hand over to someone who might misunderstand and bugger it up.
The result of all this flexibility was that the Company ripped out the gas furnaces and sent them to Germany at the earliest date they could, having had the gas savings, the electricity savings and the standard -rate labour .
Point Im trying to make is that, as long as its you calling the shots, go for it, but if its the employer demanding this or suggesting this, be very suspicious as to the motives behind it.

Top man, @swdan, ill have a good at look at that now.

I live on the Welsh coast, where windy and wet weather is the default position. Air temperatures and sea temperatures are pretty high here compared to rest of UK, but the amount of people who comment on how cold it is here whilst visiting is striking. I think its definitely the case that the moisture in the air and the damp environment is sucking all the heat from the body. I think the constant damp is worse too.
Hate hot weather, so our getaways are always to cold countries, Norway ,Canada, Poland, etc. We never feel as cold there in -30 or whatever as we do in , say, 3c and pissing down ,like it does at home. Im convinced its to do with the moisture content of the air.

Buffalo special 6 from 20 odd years ago gets my vote, thing is mental warm when new, its only really been wearable since it started losing its pile a bit due to repeated washings.
The Buffalo is pretty rain resistant and very wind resistant but will wet through eventually, but still magically keeps you warm and dries pretty quickly. I wear mine over bare skin as layering it is too much heat for me.
If its waterproof and warm you want, I can recommend a Paramo jacket I bought in Aviemore in 2004. That thing has been out all day and night in -45 cold in the Canadian Rockies with not that much layers on underneath and kept me toasty. Far too warm to wear usually in the UK, does a mega job of keeping you dry in winter rain though. Beats the shit out of all the goretex jackets I have had.
For a decent , drizzle proof down jacket, I have been wearing a Berghaus Hydrodown thing. I have been out in the minus weather we have had lately, pr obably down to -2 or -3, with just a t shirt underneath, as well as hiking up mountains with the zips open, best of both worlds, but definitely not for sustained rain.

Got a 26 year old, a 15 year old and a 14 year old.
Mate, no difference between 2 and 3 in my experience. Cant for the life of me think why youre not 100% on a third child yet, it is, with luck, on its way now. By far the biggest change in life is going from 0 to 1 child, not 2 to 3.
This isnt a dig, we all have different lives, but if youre thinking about the change it will make to your life, forget about it, that change was made the second you had number 1.
The only advise I would give is look out for the middle child. As neither the first born or the baby, they can get overlooked by relatives easily. As a middle child myself I can confirm first hand that this can occur.
Congratulations though!

Became a DE razor convert as of this morning, courtesy of my oldest daughter and her lovely gift of a Gillete razor and blades.
The idea of launching used disposables after a single use ( it can take up to 4 razors to shave my face and head) has bugged me for a while. The shave with this razor is way more comfortable, but not quite as close as with, say , one of those multiblade thingies ( I had no usual brand).
I usually just lob the end bits of a soap bar into the dish and shave with that. Any recommendations for blades, etc for a really close shave? The blades I have are Russian-made and quite well finished.

Gnusmas,
Are you in Carmarthen? I live in Neath area and am looking right now at an unused Candy fridge freezer in my kitchen. Its grubby, got kiddy stickers on it but it 100% works, or at least it did when I unplugged it a few months ago. Yours for the asking mate.
If you know a mate with a van you can come fetch it whenever.

Dont think they ‘ve been mentioned yet, but Hey!Hello! brought out two absolutely amazing albums which no one heard.

I see both sides down here.
I am one who loves to be out in the woods with my dog off the lead, he’s only a little Westie so he doesnt wander far from me. As soon as I hear the bike riders I call him close and wave at the riders to slow down. Without fail, every time I have done this the riders have slowed down and signalled to their mates behind to slow down too, like normal decent human beings. A quick “cheers , mate” and a nod of the helmet back. Normal decency.
However, I also know the boys/men who go around in gangs of 6 or 7 bombing along the roads on their Huskies and KTMs and they flat out dont give a shit. They take pride in beating the helicopters in a chase. Arseholes.
The state of the trails and paths after theyve been chewing them up is terrible, especially when theyre ripping all the loam up and leaving clay and rocks exposed, which due to the pisstaking amount of rain we have ruins the paths and trails forever unless remedial work is done.
My argument is that there is so much idle forestry in South Wales, why have they got to target one of the only purpose built facilities and wreck it?
I got no time at all for that segment of society. The decent, helmet nodding types are just decent folk following their noisy hobby though.

So density is key here, I’m taking from this? I had a quick look at guitar forums but they were going into the realms of marble and titanium blocks and going off on tangents so binned that as a resource.
To be fair, they look pretty straightforward to make, which is why I was asking if there is some sort of secret , dark art to it or if it really is just a block of something heavy with some tapped holes in it.
This gets made on break times and slack periods in work, and this fella doesnt have £50 to spend on brass blocks when I have a big chunk of it stashed safely with his name on, hence why he is making his own guitars. Thanks for all the replies so far though, those videos were especially helpful.

So what you’re looking for is recommendations for 1/4″ hex bit holders, to hold your screwdriving bits, and some square drive adapters for your sockets.
You say you bought a twinset, would that be a combi drill with a keyless chuck, and an impact driver with a hex drive?

I like the magnetic hex holders to put in the keyless chuck, they hold the bits nice and secure when you turn the driver upside down, etc.
The ones with the revolving sleeve are useful too.
Anything chrome vanadium from a reputable brand like dewalt, makita, etc would do the trick I would think.

For drill bits, I would always go for cobalt bits, with the 135 degree angle. They are much tougher than the High Speed Steel bits, especially if you are drilling out high tensile bolts / stainless steel and other difficult materials. Only problem will be resharpening them when they eventually dull, they need to be sharpened by someone who knows what theyre doing, they might need web thinning.

As far as sockets go, I bought a set of Halfords Professionals to work on my Land Rovers when I was 18. Still got them now, good as new but missing a few items. As a heads up, identical spanners can be bought online to the Halfords Pro range, but they are stamped Draper. I think thats who makes the Halfords range. I have both in daily use, nothing to choose between the two.

Good point!

@nparker,
Thats very useful, thanks for that info, I will definitely pass it on! Can’t believe people would stoop so low, but I did talk to a farmer recently who had a bull stolen. He reckons it was cut up and sold black market. How do you steal a bull who doesnt want to be stolen?

They only came out yesterday, I have some photos but no idea on how to post them on here.
I dont know anything about breeding dogs, but I will definitely pass on the interest to the dogs owner, jamj1974.

Really?
Google tells me average litter size is 5 or 6, and 15 is considered very large, according to PDSA.

If you like texture on the blade, put it over something solid when its red hot and give it a few belts with a ball pein hammer.
Or, you could do something like this once youve hardened it:

We used to do it as apprentices to tart our tools up with using lapping paste and dowelling.

One went past me in the fast lane on the way to work on Friday. Looks lovely in the flesh, but what’s a Defender doing in the fast lane?

Did it die due to honey fungus? If it did, there may be black streaks through the wood, I remember a woodturner telling me that they are prized , called spalted wood? I could be wrong here mind.

I wouldnt want a tree which died of honey fungus knocking about my garden if I had other trees mind. Unlike some fungus, I dont think its fussy as to whether it attacks living or dead material. It killed my apricot and cherry trees and I’m still livid.

If we are talking about crash protection, i had a some mates who wer e in one which aquaplaned whilst towing a trailer full of canoes. Every one inside had serious injuries, one died.
My own experience was a drunk driver who rammed into me at a crossroads one boxing day. He slammed into the big steel wheel and the beefy axle it was attached to. His citroen was absolutely trashed, bonnet crumpled , bumper off, the works. I had a bit of crappy citroen plastic stuck in my wheel and went about my day as normal.

I have put a fridge through the side of a Landrover panel by going around a roundabout. Big ugly gash in the soft birmabright panel. No worries though, fixed it with someone holding a sledgehammer against it and hitting it flat from the outside. Apart from the paint being marked you could never tell.
What I’m saying then is they are decent utility vehicles but terrible town cars. How they became popular for non-farming families I’ll never know.
Could really use a HCPU right now though.

The witch or Sweeney Todd.
Two massive, massive disappointments.

But…if you do buy one, get a Wolf variant. Dont know why, but driving them and a normal 110 was like night and day.

Massively overhyped, overpriced and undeservingly loved. I had a series 3 88″ and an arctic spec , LHD 110 , and the 88″ blew up whilst ragging it at 53mph, and the 110 was too hot to drive in tbe UK so I sold it for next to nothing.
Best 4×4 i ever had was either my Isuzu TF (Vauxhall Brava), but not practical for you, or my beloved 1998 Grand Cherokee which I should never have sold. That vehicle sounds perfect for what you need. You could pick one up for a few £k, and have all that money left to spend on fuel, youre going to need it.
Oh, and if you buy one, do yourself a favour and get the crank sensor dine first as last. Major PITA job and an inevitability.