What other niche hobbies are you all into?

[ryinzana]

Wetshaving, whether it be with straights or DE is definitely a niche hobby (although one that seems to be getting more popular!). Figured I'd ask what other niche hobbies you all are into, whether it be unique collectibles/art/sports/cars/writing/photography/etc related.

Me, I enjoy fountain pens despite having horrible handwriting and cooking.

 

[Macfrommichigan]

Like wearing funny clothes?

I like to dress up in rubber pants and wave a stick in the air. It is called fly fishing, tho I have never caught a fly, and remarkedly few fish, actually.

Like to wear aprons and wave knives. Sometimes that is called cooking.

 

[les24preludes]

Like wearing funny clothes? I like to dress up in rubber pants and wave a stick in the air. It is called fly fishing, tho I have never caught a fly, and remarkedly few fish, actually. Like to wear aprons and wave knives. Sometimes that is called cooking.

I once took up fly fishing. The only thing I ever caught was a bat. Yes, a bat. No..... they don't swim in water.... As I was hopelessly flailing around trying to do a cast the hook and line flew behind me and skewered a passing bat. That was the total catch of my fly fishing days. I'm told it's a noble art.....

 

[GaryTha]

I'd like to get a boar hair brush similar to what Fuller brush used to sell.

 

[Macfrommichigan]

A bat on a five weight can put up a fight, probably.

I did hook a 15 pound salmon on an eight weight once, but within a minute he broke the tippet.

 

[ryinzana]

I once took up fly fishing. The only thing I ever caught was a bat. Yes, a bat. No..... they don't swim in water.... As I was hopelessly flailing around trying to do a cast the hook and line flew behind me and skewered a passing bat. That was the total catch of my fly fishing days. I'm told it's a noble art.....

In a way that’s really impressive!

 

[les24preludes]

In a way that’s really impressive!

That's what I thought! The bat didn't turn back into a vampire, though. That would have been really impressive.

 

[John Rose]

I build (typically by sewing spinnaker cloth) and fly kites.

An FF04A Flowform:

Those tails are 22.86 m (75') long (from front of white segment to end of black tip).
Sending one these up is like being next to a Shuttle launch.
A closeup look:

2.5 m long by 2 m wide.
The front ends of the 8 cells are wide open.
I fly it on 100 or 250 pound braided Dacron line, depending on the wind.

A Brazilian fighter kite, scaled up about 1.5 x normal size to make it less twitchy.
Great for when the wind is erratic, and not too strong, say 4-10 km/h.
The extended spine is 48" long.

It has an RCAF roundel.

An "Urban Ninja" glider kite, for when the wind is 0-5 km/h.
Wingspan 1.36 m.
I fly it on 20 lb. Dacron fly backing line.

SWMBO taking it for a spin:

A Dunton-Taylor Box Delta, approx 73" wingspan.
Originally designed for vertical sprint racing, it's a dependable flyer that you can stake out and leave.

 

[ryinzana]

I build (typically by sewing spinnaker cloth) and fly kites.

An FF04A Flowform:

Those tails are 22.86 m (75') long (from front of white segment to end of black tip).
Sending one these up is like being next to a Shuttle launch.
A closeup look:

2.5 m long by 2 m wide.
The front ends of the 8 cells are wide open.
I fly it on 100 or 250 pound braided Dacron line, depending on the wind.

A Brazilian fighter kite, scaled up about 1.5 x normal size to make it less twitchy.
Great for when the wind is erratic, and not too strong, say 4-10 km/h.
The extended spine is 48" long.

It has an RCAF roundel.

An "Urban Ninja" glider kite, for when the wind is 0-5 km/h.
Wingspan 1.36 m.
I fly it on 20 lb. Dacron fly backing line.

SWMBO taking it for a spin:

A Dunton-Taylor Box Delta, approx 73" wingspan.
Originally designed for vertical sprint racing, it's a dependable flyer that you can stake out and leave.

These are so cool! My son is finally getting to the age where we can take him out and he can fly a kite with a little help. My in-laws are not far from the beach, so I can see heading down there a few evenings this summer.

 

[EB Newfarm]

Awesome kites! Just read a book called Virgil Wander where there is a character who builds and flies kites a lot and is an interesting person. It seems irresistible to want to fly a kite!

I like:
fountain pens
mechanical watches
fly tying and fly fishing
collecting vintage ice axes (I used to climb)
Cooking and reading about cooking
Fat biking
I would like to be a photographer...

 

[ryinzana]

Awesome kites! Just read a book called Virgil Wander where there is a character who builds and flies kites a lot and is an interesting person. It seems irresistible to want to fly a kite!

I like:
fountain pens
mechanical watches
fly tying and fly fishing
collecting vintage ice axes (I used to climb)
Cooking and reading about cooking
Fat biking
I would like to be a photographer...

Sounds like you stay busy. I used to collect automatic/mechanical watches as well (usually more budget pieces like vintage Seiko chronographs and the like), but at one point I pared my collection down to one watch. I’ve been collecting digital ABC watches lately though as I just find them incredibly useful/fun. Any interesting pieces in your collection?

 

[ajkel64]

I like mechanical clocks and watches, golf clubs, certain series of books. I like fountain pens but I don't collect them like I would like to. I would like to get into wood turning at some point but I don't have a lather yet. My dad has one that I will finish up with.

 

[Basil]

Besides wetshaving I also enjoy archery, fountain pens/notebooks, my bike I like camping and the outdoors so I’ve got some axes and hammocks and other outdoorsy stuff lol. I also like watches but I only have one which is also a seiko. Also pretend to be a photographer in my spare time too.

 

[Frozenshades]

I'm not a huge collector but do my enjoy fountain pens. I pop into the Nib section on here sometimes.

I collect pins and have a couple hundred or so from all over the world. I'm partial to a few and it's hard to pick an absolute favorite, but one I'm particularly fond of was given to me by a member of the Olympic Committee when I was in Salt Lake on a ski trip a year before the winter games were held there.

I'm also a diver, and counting the days until my next dive trip.

 

[DocPapi]

Not much time to really dive into what I would enjoy, but for now I'm mostly into:

• Guns/shooting - have done some antelope hunting and prairie dog shooting, but mostly handgun shooting and competitions. Used to really enjoy IDPA, but the nearest club was a two hour drive, and when life got busy, that went away.
• Camping and day hikes with my wife. We don't go as often as I would like. It's too dang hot for six months out of the year here in north TX, but the rest of the year we go a couple of times a month, whenever I cna break away from work.
• Books - lots of history/biography and fiction, in addition to professional reading. A few years ago I picked out a list of about 35-40 Pulitzer Prize winners and finalists that looked interesting, and I've been working my way through them ever since. The list doesn't seem to grow shorter, because I keep adding others to it that come to my attention. For example, one of the three volumes of Edmund Morris' trilogy about Teddy Roosevelt won the Pultizer, but how can you not read the others?

I'm about 3-4 years away from retirement, and one of the first things I would like to do when I'm not at the University's beck and call is a long distance hike or two. I would love to do the John Muir Trail, and maybe the whole Pacific Crest Trail. The Camino de Santiago de Compostela is another dream of mine, and it would also give me a chance to rebuild my Spanish.

 

[The Count of Merkur Cristo]

Ryan:
I'm into the three (3), C's of life...cooking, cognac and cigars.

"It's called a hobby...whenever your habits cost money" Popular Proverb

 

[Leverspro]

Roast coffee. I have a one pound gas coffee roaster and enjoy buying green coffee from different parts of the world and making espresso on a vintage Italian lever espresso machine.

 

[Steinmetzify]

Interesting to me how many of us like similar things.

For me it’s:

Rigid motorcycles; usually racked out Yammy XS650s but occasionally an older Harley.

Porsches; I’m a 964 fan from way back.

Books; I’m a voracious reader, everything from any type of history to Richard Kadrey and Sandman Slim to cop fiction to Heinlein and Zelazny.

Dabble with photography.

Dabble more seriously with writing.

Music; I’m a guitarist that once in a while plays bass. Mostly downtuned sludge/doom metal but some faster thrash stuff too.

I also write orchestral stuff using Kontakt for some commercials and indie video games.

Most recently I took up DE shaving, cause you know. It’s cheaper than dope.

Sort of...

 

[Toothpick]

Scroll saw I guess?...although I haven’t messed with it in over a month.

 

[John Rose]

1. These are so cool! My son is finally getting to the age where we can take him out and he can fly a kite with a little help. My in-laws are not far from the beach, so I can see heading down there a few evenings this summer.

Well, thanks!
Some tips for kids and kites:

1. Don't buy a kite that tries to look like anything other than a kite. Avoid square-rigged pirate ships, 3D dragons, birds, butterflies, etc. The worst I've ever tried to fly looked like Darth Vader's Tie Fighter. It was bridled wrong, not very aerodynamic, and exploded on contact with the ground.
   
2. Let out lots of line, say, minimum 200 feet for one of those standard plastic deltas. You must let it get above ground turbulence. Ten feet of line on a kite will become a "cat on a leash".
3. You should not need to run to launch a kite.
   
4. Some cheap plastic kites can be very good flyers with a wide wind range.
5. Paradoxically, very young kids are easily bored by kites that fly themselves. They want to be the agency that makes the kite go up, so they'll run with it, sometimes in tight circles, ignoring any awareness of wind direction. I fact, a plastic single-use grocery bag with the handles tied to 10' of string may provide just as much amusement.

Scroll saw I guess?...although I haven’t messed with it in over a month.

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Verra nice!
Some of those pieces (cowboys, horse's head, lighthouse) would look even more awesome as part of a screen door.