Woodworking Weekend. 08-29-09

year 9, Week 33, Day One (week 503)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
08-29-09 Saturday

87 degrees and no wind, high humidity in the morning, then 95 degrees, light breeze, dry air in the afternoon. Blue sky with lots of puffs all day long. Late in the afternoon, some tower clouds started rising to the south. This weather report was brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach Department Of Tourism.

The cat was in a bad mood in the morning, which is sweet and cuddly compared to what he was like this time last year. In the afternoon, he really wanted attention and company. He got some but not as much as he wanted.
For those who don’t know or remember, The cat, Beggar, was born in Mom’s yard In June of 2003. The mother cat sort of belonged to the neighbor. He was the second litter she had in Mom’s yard. Even as a little kitten, he had an attitude. You picked him up and he would fight you. The others of the litter were loving. The neighbor eventually found homes for the mother cat and the kittens, but Kept Beggar. We called him Beggar because he would come over and beg food from Kitty Kat, who had adopted mom at the same time as the momma’s first litter, but was of a different mother. Beggar would beg for food and later, pushed Kitty Kat away and eat his food.
Beggar later adopted Mom’s yard. He still was a wild creature. In October two years ago, I was the only one who could really handle Beggar. I would give him some food and he would let me pet him six times before he swatted at me. I could pick him up and he did not bite me just tried to push away from me. I got the idea to feed him a few grains of food, pet him his six times, then wait for him to calm down, then pet him again. After a time, he found he liked being petted. Last year, Mom started petting his tail when he wrapped it around her leg. Soon she was petting him. Together, we have worked on him, increasing how we handle him and he has found he loved the attention.
Right now, He is like a good cat, in a really bad mood. He does not strike with a claw, but will wave a paw in the air if you push your luck. Usually though, he now just gets up or just looks at us to get us to stop what we were doing at that moment.

Today, I had two main projects I wanted to work on. One of them, a beer stein I want to make, was left at home so I could not work on that. I had thought I left it at Mom’s house.
The other project was a bird bowl I started last week. More on that later.

A couple weeks ago, I had tried to make a three armed candlestick and messed up on my mounting system. I decided to glue a block on the end of the board and added thin boards to the side to reinforce it. I was to make a new tenon for the chuck to grab onto.
The chuck is a fitting on the lathe that opens and closes something like a chuck on a drill, but is about four inches in diameter and can grab around two inches small. The tenon on the wood is where wood is cut to a size that the chuck can grab onto, with the face of the jaws against a shoulder to reduce wobble.
One rule of wood is that when you grab the wood, one can think of a hand full of straws. When you grab them by the end, they are not going anywhere and can be held quite strong. If you grab them by the side though, they will come apart easy. Wood is made up of fibers that run up and down through the trunk. If you grab the wood from the end, it will resist breaking. One has to use more care to grab them by the side, where the bond between the fibers is weak.
Not thinking, I glued the block onto my work piece sideways. What happened was that when I started working on the piece of wood at the opposite end, the block broke, popping cleanly off because of the side grain. It happened to me twice, then I decided to work on a different project.
I will go to “Plan C” tomorrow, I think.

My bird bowls are decorative bowls made from the side of the wood so that the edge looks something like a saddle. I leave a “saucer” on the bottom, part of which I carve away to make the feet. I then carve a head, depending on what kind of bird, and sometimes a tail too.
In the case of the bird bowl I am making now, I decided to make it a duck. My dad had carved a duck head long ago to go on a cane but never did anything with it. I got the duck head and use it as a pattern for my duck heads. Since this bowl is a bit small, I shrunk the head a little. I made the mistake of not making the bill quite long enough, but it still looks pretty good.
The hardest part is fitting the base of the head to the bowl so they meet well. I have never gotten it exactly right. What I did, though, was to place sandpaper onto the bowl surface and slide the head back and forth over the surface, so it will somewhat follow the curve. I also used a strip grinder to hollow out the inside of the mating surface so the main contact is the outside edges.
What makes it difficult is that the bowl has a curve around the circumference, and it also has a curve from top to bottom. You really need to get the piece in the right position when one is sanding so the exact top to bottom curve is matched, and keep it square and straight so the exact side to side curve is matched. If I had a lot of wood, I would turn another piece to the same diameter and then place sandpaper over the surface and sand the base of the head to match in a few minutes. I don’t have that much wood, and don’t have that much time, and don’t have the gumption to even try that. I also might not fit the curve right.
Anyway, I have it closer than on most heads I have done.
Tomorrow, I will sand the bowl more to clear up bad workmanship when I made it, and sand the head so it is nice and smooth. I will then attach the head to the bowl so I can start the finishing project.
I got some buttons that are black on the outside, has a dark grey ring, then brown on the inside. They are quite passable eyes for my birds. I am going to set these eyes in while I am at it. I have to decide whether I will use the natural wood color for the head, or paint it to look like something different. I will see.

We went out for lunch at around one, and did some running around. We got back home near four, which was time to clean up and pack up. We had gone shopping while we were out. We stopped at a dollar store and they had the gloves I use for carving protection, at a dollar a pair. These have the cloth tops and leather palm and finger. The gloves won’t stop a knife, but what cuts get through will be a bloody nick, rather than a split tendon. I wear a cotton gardening glove inside for additional protection and for comfort. Dollar a piece is not bad. I also got a two dollar pipe that I want to carve for fun. It is cheap enough to destroy.

The bird bowl is my main project, but I may work on other projects too.
I will see what I actually do tomorrow.



year 9, Week 33, Day Two (week 503)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
08-30-09 Sunday

95 degrees, blue sky with tall puffs, light breeze, sun in the morning, the clouds blocked the sun later in the afternoon. Some grey towers to the south.
This weather report is brought to you by the City Of Pompano Department of Tourism.

I got to Mom's house later in the morning than I planned. I petted the cat and then settled down with all my equipment around me. I shaped the mating surface for the head onto the bowl a lot more. This is the best I have done, and it is not up to a quality I had hoped it would be. I did not feel like I had the time to make it perfect.
I then sanded heavily on the bowl and on the head, trying to make it as good as I can for the time I had to work. I got rid of a number of things that would bother me later.

When I had the head the way I wanted it, I drilled the holes larger for the buttons I am using as eyes. It took a lot of fitting and measuring. When I had them right, I glued them in place, then glued the head onto the bowl. I have some clean up work form the gluing, but the bowl looks pretty good. I have hours of finishing to do and have to decide whether to paint the head or use it the natural color.

I looked at other projects I could work on, but decided I would spend my time on this duck.
I worked a bit after lunch, but closed up quite early.

I am not sure what I will be working on next week. I will go to visit the antique shop on Friday and see how things are going there. I have had some of my work on display since December. I have not sold anything, and doubt I actually will sell anything, but my chances of selling something is better in the shop than in my closet.
I don't know what else I will work on. One project is to make a hobby horse (stick with a horse head on it) for my grand nephew from a horse had my brother started making a rocking horse from, but he has gotten too big for it.
I do want to do some wood turning and might try another bird bowl from the other piece of wood that this duck is from. I would like to do a WOOD-DUCK with the crest on the head. The bowl does not matter, The bowl becomes what I choose to make it. I need to locate some pictures of a wood duck, print it up, so I can copy it into wood.
I rearranged my office and might be able to get a printer operating now. Will have to see.

I will see what happens over the next week
and what I actually do next weekend.