ricky racer
Well-Known Member
I think every one of us have wished we could rest our knees against a flat pad instead of the curved tree. I wear knee pads and have no problem with them but it always seems like you have to keep tension on your legs to keep them together against the tree. Sometimes the knee pads tend to rotate a bit on your legs and have to be straightened out from time to time. I've seen where guys have taken a pad and attached it to the tree but again, they always have a curved surface and over hours on stand it tends to wear on you.
I decided to see if I could make a flat pad to use against the tree when sitting. I hunt both leaning and sitting but probably spend more time sitting than leaning. My first thought was to create a fixed flat pad that would be rigidly mounted to the tree. The more I thought about it the more I got to thinking that a rigid fixed pad might not be the best and that it might hinder the maneuverability afforded by the saddle. That lead me to trying to come up with a rigid backed knee pad that would pivot around the tree to a degree.
My first attempt was to use 1/4" hard board for a backing but it broke. What ever I chose had to be light weight but rigid. I was digging around my shop and found some corrugated material but I have no idea where it came from. It looks like corrugated sign board but the face and back is a plastic coated very thin aluminum with a plastic corrugation between. The material is very light and very rigid. I cut out a piece 8" x 11" which seemed like a reasonable size. I picked up a foam pad from our local Rural King store for under $5 to use for the padding.
I drilled 2 holes close together to cut out a slot about an inch wide and about an inch and a half long. I used a file to smooth out and clean out the slot. For an attachment point for the strap I used an old aluminum arrow shaft.
To accommodate the arrow shaft I cut a v notch in the foam pad and used contact cement to glue the two pieces together.
I decided to see if I could make a flat pad to use against the tree when sitting. I hunt both leaning and sitting but probably spend more time sitting than leaning. My first thought was to create a fixed flat pad that would be rigidly mounted to the tree. The more I thought about it the more I got to thinking that a rigid fixed pad might not be the best and that it might hinder the maneuverability afforded by the saddle. That lead me to trying to come up with a rigid backed knee pad that would pivot around the tree to a degree.
My first attempt was to use 1/4" hard board for a backing but it broke. What ever I chose had to be light weight but rigid. I was digging around my shop and found some corrugated material but I have no idea where it came from. It looks like corrugated sign board but the face and back is a plastic coated very thin aluminum with a plastic corrugation between. The material is very light and very rigid. I cut out a piece 8" x 11" which seemed like a reasonable size. I picked up a foam pad from our local Rural King store for under $5 to use for the padding.
I drilled 2 holes close together to cut out a slot about an inch wide and about an inch and a half long. I used a file to smooth out and clean out the slot. For an attachment point for the strap I used an old aluminum arrow shaft.
To accommodate the arrow shaft I cut a v notch in the foam pad and used contact cement to glue the two pieces together.
