Josephine
Who remembers the old style heavy rattan carpet beaters in that vaguely Celtic knot shape? None of you, you're all too young, but we remember, try as we might to forget. Every Tuesday, Mother used to drag the rug out into the back lane, throw it over a clothesline and beat the living dust and fibre out of it. As often as not, a small, slow moving child would be unwittingly trapped beneath it.
This is our heartfelt homage to that homely device. Why Josephine? Because that's how the knot is known in polite seafaring circles, if such things exist. If you're interested, it's actually a two dimensional, three part, four bight Turk's Head. And that's how our small Josephine got started.
After many years, the clamour of popular demand took its toll. We endured tearful phone calls from strangers at three in the morning, the paparazzi were camped on the lawn, peering in at all the doors and windows, and every day there were more scurrilous stories in the gutter press. Finally, when it got to the point that the kids were being tormented at school - by the teachers! - we gave in, and introduced a scaled up version of our popular Josephine paddle.
This is it. This time, the deep, swirly Celtic markings are left by three passes of firm 5mm round leather lace, increasing the face width from 2.5" to around 4.5", and the overall length to around 12".