During puzzle hunts, I run around wearing a bandolier to hold my pencils jauntily across my chest. Pencils don't weigh much, but they weigh something. Thus, I put a counterweight on the back of my bandolier; without that, the bandolier would hold my pencils not-so-jauntily beside my belly. At first, I used a padlock as my counterweight because I had one handy. But sitting on a padlock is uncomfortable. I swapped out the lock for a diving weight—basically a strong cloth bag full of lead shot. This was much more comfortable for sitting on, but didn't match the bandolier. Usually, it was covered up under a shirt, but it wasn't always. And when it was visible, it was pretty visible: an out-of-place bright yellow little bag bouncing around on my back. Unacceptable!
Today, I put together a new counterweight. This one is more subtle.
Instead of bright yellow cloth, it uses the same green cloth as the bandolier itself. For weight, I used some of the lead shot from the diving weight. I stitched up the sides of the cloth to keep the contents from escaping. At first, I was keeping my stitches really close together, close enough to keep any lead shot from escaping. But that seemed dicey. Lead shot feels kinda rough. Would the lead abrade the thread? How finely was I going to have to stitch to made a strong seam? I needed a new plan.
So I laid out a length of duck tape. I poured out lead shot onto one half of the length of tape, then folded the tape over. Now instead of wanting to rub around, the lead shot stayed lodged in the tape's adhesive. I put the folded tape between two pieces of bandolier cloth and stitched up the sides. This went quickly; I didn't need to be mister super-careful seamster. (When I let the needle pass through the duck tape, it picked up adhesive and was darned tough to pull through the cloth. Thus, I learned to carefully avoid pushing the needle through the tape.) As with the bright yellow bag, I used safety pins to attach the new weight to the bandolier. I guess I'll find out how well it works in WarTron.
