(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
03-23-19 Saturday
Mostly sunny, with lots of clouds. 56 degrees early morning and 80 late afternoon. This weather report is brought to you by The City Of Pompano Beach Department Of Tourism.
The turning club was pretty good. We will have a different site next month.
There was a five minute demonstration on safety, something they started to do this time. The explanation was on how most of us never lock the tail stock in place when we work. Instead we crank it tight and later have to tighten it again. He said that the vibrations and the direction of the spin will cause the tail stock to loosen and the piece we are working with will come loose and possibly fly off.
The main demonstration was on turning off center work. He glued two different pieces of wood together, and mounted them on an angle in the lathe. The drive center near one corner, and the tail stock near the opposite corner. He then turned the piece partly round, created a tenon and then mounted it on the chuck and made them a taper. He did not finish the turning as the lathe had no power for some reason. He showed the end result with one he finished previously. The top on one had the dark wood, the other had the light wood on top, and the joint between the two pieces of wood was on an angle to the piece.
He said that you buy plastic or rubber bungs at hardware store and drill the inside to fit the bung, drill some tiny holes on top and you have a salt and pepper shaker that is easily discernible.
I had stopped at mom’s during the week and got the knives somewhat finished to show off at the turning club. I included pictures of the knives at a couple steps. I also had the goblet and little vase. The goblet had fallen and the stem broke. I glued the stem back together and hoped for the best. It stayed together and you could not see the joint.
We figured out that the wood was Mango. That is from mom’s neighbor’s tree.
Saturday
I grabbed a file I had laying around and made a new pair of knives. It did not take much time to make the blades. All I remember from the past was that making the blade was a whole lot of work and a real struggle. This pair came out of the file real quick. I went through six handles trying to get the knives right. The last two, I used some pressure treated two by two to make the handles. I did do a couple things right this time. I made both tenons that go into the handle a lot smaller. I also ground them so they were offset. The edge is farther away from the tang than I did before. Being smaller, they should not split as easily, but they still did. The knives went in on an angle, tipped, the holes were not quite as big or long as they needed to be, I also figured out that this black walnut is not as strong as they should be such as when I first got them so just a little pressure would crack them.
The knives I showed at the club were not sharpened yet. I sharpened them and so they could be used. The same for the new blades I made.
I figured something out about sharpening kitchen knives. There is usually a bevel at the very edge and one has to get that nice and clean and even. Once you do that, you have a nice sharp knife.
I brought over a bunch of my kitchen knives. I used the grinder on some, then used the sanding disk on the lathe to flatten the grind and get the blades into shape. I then sat down and used a heavy grind stone to rough a couple, but mostly used my diamond plate sharpening stone to get the blades to shape before running them on the strop. They were all nice and sharp. I then went and got mom’s kitchen knives and gave them the same treatment. One knife she was using was really dull. No edge at all. Now they are all really sharp.
I had forgotten about some cleavers I have. One is really heavy but dull as an actor talking science. The bevel to the edge was rounded. I had tried to sharpen this thing several times and failed. I have used one of those knife sharpening things and it was too thick. By hand, there was just too much metal to remove.
I put the big cleaver to the grinder and removed the roundness. I then put it to the sanding disk on the lathe. That is really sturdy sand paper. The grit is really hard and is well glued on. It did a really nice job on the knife blades. I got the cleaver edge well and then sat and worked it on the diamond stone. It really needs a lot more work, but this is the first time it has been sharp in likely a couple owners back. I think I got it at a yard sale.
As I was pushing my lathe back into place, mom noticed that one of the blocks holding the wheels was moving differently than the lathe was going. I will have to deal with that tomorrow.
I will see what I do tomorrow.
Year 19, Week 11, Day two (week 1001)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
03-24-19 Sunday
I moved the lathe and one of the blocks holding the wheels came off. I removed everything from the lathe, including the motor, tool rest and tail stock. All the tools, all the wood. It was now fairly light. I drilled new holes and moved the bolts holding the blocks on both ends and screwed them in again. One bolt broke so I found a long screw and used that. They are on for now. I then reloaded the lathe.
The motor is held in place by a single bolt to a fitting that slides in the ways of the lathe bed. The tightness of that bolt dictates how difficult it is to loosen the head to move it, rotate it, or take it off and especially how tight it is when locked down. You don’t want the motor to move away from the work. Something big and fast could be a real disaster.
I had downloaded the instructions on the lathe a while back and it gave a specific torque setting to go by. If you don’t have a torque wrench, you move it a quarter turn and see how that works. I used to have two torque wrenches, but the pointer bars on both were bent so they would not move as required.
When putting the motor on the lathe, I turned that nut a quarter turn. When it was on, It took a lot of pressure to lock it down, but it is not going to move. An eighth turn likely would have done it. That is one problem I thought I was having when working and that is now solved.
In the evening, I was getting ready to slice up a pork loin into steaks. I had a knife laying in the bottom of the sink as I was washing off the roast before taking it to the slicer to make into steaks. My finger lightly brushed the edge of the blade. It was a very tiny cut but it bled nicely. That knife is really sharp. I did well. This is one problem with having sharp knives laying around. They have to be set to the side properly before you do something else. I took care of the cut before I handled the meat again. It is nice to have a really sharp knife to work with.
I am using the last meat slicer I bought and it works really nice. Being stainless steel, I later disassembled the slicer and stuck the whole thing in the dishwasher to clean up. Only the motor does not go in, which is why I like this kind of slicer.
I have a lot of projects in mind but will have to see which I work on next week.
1416
knives on pictures, one pictures shows the knifes still attached, the other separated.
a close up of the two new knives. with one of my old ones.
salt and pepper shaker. made with two attached pieces of wood and set into lathe on an angle.
two new blades with handles.
the four new blades. the second from the bottom will be more a utility blade unless I get into chip carving.
top knife is the last pointed knife I ever made.
the second from the top is a knife Dad made.
the third from the top is one of my later knives. that handle is BISHOPS WOOD.
four new knives. third from the bottom is pressure treated wood. I seemed to be missing the other one.
second from the bottom was the one I broke and I will use that most likely for utility cutting.
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