Category: Uncategorized

The Berry Amendment mandates that the Defense Department gives preference to items made in the United States out of domestic materials when purchasing fabric products (and others).

In the case of webbing and buckles, that means that not only does the product need to be made in the U.S.A. but all of the raw materials must be made here. Nylon fiber, raw plastics for buckles, dyes, the list goes on. Once a manufacture has their raw materials they must be converted to a finished product in the United States.

Some products are easy to source. Most of the plastic buckles that we purchase from American Cord & Webbing (ACW) are Berry Compliant. Webbing is more difficult. Polypropylene webbing is for the most part imported. Manufacturers will import nylon fiber and convert it in to webbing in the US. That product is not Berry Compliant since the fiber is imported. It can be labeled as Made in the USA which only requires that the majority of the cost is based in the USA.

All of this started in 1941 by Representative Ellis Yarnall Berry and it has been amended several times since then. In 2009 Congressman Larry Kissell brought similar requirements for textile and apparel products purchased by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

• If your customer is asking for Berry Compliant products they should come with a Certificate of Compliance.
• Made in the U.S.A. is not a guarantee that the product is Berry Compliant.
• If your supplier does not know about Berry Compliance it is doubtful that their products make the grade.
• Expect to pay more for Berry Compliant products, especially webbing.
• You might run in to minimum order quantities greater than for non-Berry products.

Seems we have a mask thief at Straps to Go.

Yup, our boat show Husky found a mask that fits and immediately put it on. Now if we can get our shop cat to follow his lead that would be something.

Our sewing machines are not designed for working with light fabrics but they are easier to use than a home machine. Automatic thread trimming and back tracking rather than doing it all manually.

The big question is when we get to work in the morning will our Husky have made a bunch of masks and if so will they all be in purple and gold, University of Washington’s Husky colors?

COVID-19 has kept us pretty well isolated. The good news is we can walk to work and live in a beautiful area. The other day a neighbor had a leaky sink. Wow, a reason to do something a little different.

First I had to convince the owner of the leak that I should be able to fix it. When I was really young I remember that my dad was in the plumbing business. That was enough to get the “job”.

This got me thinking, what if my memory was incorrect? Brought up Google and checked for Denny’s House of Plumbing. If figured that there might be something but wasn’t expecting much. It had been in the early 1950’s after all.

They are still in business! A third generation business which in itself is amazing. I contacted them and a response was rapidly sent back. Yes the current owner knew my dad and my memories from the early 50’s were correct.

While this is interesting, coupled with a recent experience while on jury duty the rapid response to my email is atypical for a plumber.

I was called for jury duty but had an appointment with a plumber at the same time. A call to the court to get excused was met with the clerk saying “your got a plumber to schedule an appointment?” I was immediately excused.

So if you are in Marin County and need a plumber, give Denny’s a call. 1-415-479-1655 or http://dennyshouseofplumbing.com/

I was able to fix the leaking sink but think my time is better spent in the strap world.

Until recently DIY stood for Death In Yard, our yard was not a safe place for our feathered friends. We live in a pine forest and have a window wall which was being struck by fast moving birds daily. It wasn’t nice and we knew something had to be done.

We had tried everything we could think of. Streamers outside. Large cardboard stars hanging inside. Nothing worked. Finally we found a web site, www.birdsavers.com that had a DIY way to help.

Parachute cord is easy to come by, just head down to our shop. However we have a serious wind issue so we actually used some left over black elastic cord. This was coupled with a restraint at the bottom of the windows so that the cords would not get blown around and tangled (we had that problem with our streamers).

Just a cedar 1×4 both at the top and bottom of the windows was all it took. Actually that isn’t quite true- our grandson drilled all the holes and is now an expert with the cordless drill!

Here you can see the top of our windows along with the “enticing” reflections that used to draw the birds in. Yes, used to draw the birds in! Fingers crossed, after a week we have not had a single bird strike. The yard is full and the bird air traffic control is working overtime but the BirdSavers are living up to their name.

As you can see in the last image we did not install them on the upper two windows. I don’t like heights and getting the first two levels done was all the ladder work I could handle. If necessary we have the parts but so far I have been allowed to stay on terra firma. You know the old saying, the more firma, the less terra.

Footman’s Loops, Webbing Guides, Tie Down Eye Straps- whatever you call them they are a useful way to connect webbing to a rigid surface.

We stock the following options:
1″ webbing size in stainless steel, white nylon and black nylon
1½” webbing size in black nylon
2″ webbing size in stainless steel

Those that we stock are designed to be used with #10 fasteners (which are not included). If you need dimensions go to our site and search for “footman”. Choose your option and the detail page will have a full set of dimensions.

Now for the $64,000.00 question; where did the name “footman’s loop” originate?

Google, Bing, DuckDuckGo and other search engines are no help. Neither is Wikipedia. This must be one of the few topics not yet addressed on the internet.

Here is my guess-
Wikipedia says that “footmen” were attendants who ran beside or behind the carriages of aristocrats. Carriages often had mountains of luggage strapped to the back, most likely with leather. A low, flat loop would be useful in securing the load. That’s my guess.

When searching, the entry for “footman” in the Merriam-Webster dictionary caught my eye.
Recent Examples on the Web 
Nowhere is this more on display than in Thane’s Aunt Mabel, an aging widow who devours footmen (and any other attractive, available men in her vicinity) for breakfast.

This brings on a whole new question- what is the proper side dish when one devours a footman?

Boarding your transit train you find it’s standing room only and you need to hang on to a hand strap. Is it clean? Who knows.

Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) polled their riders in March 2020 regarding the use of “Personal Hand Straps” and here are the results:
“BART’s Twitter poll asking riders their opinion about personal hand straps was available for voting until 2 pm Sunday. The final results are in: with 4,082 total votes on Twitter, 74.9% of the voters said yes to the personal hand strap idea. Other feedback from Facebook and Instagram showed similar levels of support for the personal hand strap.”

We started thinking about making a personal hand strap but two issues kept creeping in to our conversations.
1. How does one remove it without touching the grab rail?
2. How does one disinfect the strap after use?
Without solving those issues, using a personal strap would not be an improvement over just grabbing on to the bar with your bare hand.

After some testing we found that a simple loop sewn to the top of the strap would allow a user to disengage the strap without touching the grab rail.

Solving the second issue was easier. We turned to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and learned that immersing the strap in a bleach solution would do the job. A bit more research and we knew that polypropylene webbing would not be harmed by a room temperature bleach bath. The same is true for the polyester thread used in sewing these straps.

The end result is our Personal Hand Strap, an economical way to keep your mudhooks (one of my father’s favorite phrases) off of the grab bars.

Resources:
BART Survey scroll down to the March 16, 2020 posting

CDC Bleach Solution

You just paid good money for a new tree, the last thing you want to do is to kill it!

It’s springtime in Cle Elum and that means trips to the nursery hunting for that special tree. This time of year also means wind, lots of wind so when you plant that new find you don’t want it blowing over that afternoon. So we use tree straps to protect the tree and provide a way to secure it upright, safe from the wind.

Tree straps need to be tied to a stake, post or other secure object to do their job. Jute twin has one feature your trees will love, it rots.

Why is rotting good?

Because some times we forget to remove tree straps and as we all know, trees grow both in height and circumference. Eventually a tree strap secured with wire or synthetic twine will girdle the tree.

So rotting, or as the manufacturers catalog says being biodegradable, is a fantastic feature for use in the garden.

Other admirable features of jute include:

• inexpensive
• soft and holds knots well
• it’s a natural fiber- not plastic
• our 1/2# spools are easy to handle
• good UV resistance