(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
04-13-19 Saturday
78 degrees early morning, 83 in the afternoon. Mixed clouds through the day but mostly sunny. This weather report is brought to you by The Pompano Beach Department Of Tourism.
Mom wanted to talk to the people at the library book sale to find out why they were not accepting books at this time. We ran part of our yard sale route to get there. It appears they were swamped with books and were taking a break until May to sell off the stock they have.
Over the decades Mom had collected hundreds of travel books for use by her painting classes to go by. She only has a couple students and they are not doing that kind of painting. She has not touched theses books in years so she is looking to pass them on. She was given leads to a couple places and will have to check that out later. I would love to get the books but I don’t have a place for them and I am not in a position to look at them. They would be nice after I retire but that might be a couple years from now to forever, before I get there.
We hit several yard sales, only a couple of them hand some good stuff. I got a set of Forstner bits that were lightly used, a small ratchet set, a “Swiss army” pocket knife with like 10 blades, and a few other things I really did not need. My idea of the ratchet set was to have that out back. I needed it a couple weeks ago. And could not figure out where the several dozen sets we have collected were.
On a lark this week, I searched my place and found some pocket knives I had once sharpened for carving and a couple straight razors. I examined them once I got out back. One razor has a couple some chips on the blade near the handle. It had the box it came in but the handle is broken. A little glue would fix it nicely, or make wooden handle covers, depending on the mood. The other razor is almost sharp enough to shave with. Not quite but almost. It could be used for carving but I decided the edge is really too delicate for wood. Most of the knives need some honing and stopping to get them sharp enough to carve with. Every one of them is sharp enough to cut fingers, though.
The key to using these pocket knives for carving is that it takes some pressure to move the blade closed once they are out. There are cuts where you end up with a little pressure on the back of the blade and you don’t want it to close on your fingers.
I dug into the shed and found some platter blanks. One had been attacked by bugs. I tossed that. I took one that was mostly rounded, did a little clean up on the bandsaw to finish the rounding job as a couple spots were too big to spin on the lathe. I mounted it on the lathe and decided to make it into a bowl. It is two inches thick and near eleven inches in diameter and wanted to see what I could come up with. I started turning it and quickly saw some signs of bug holes. Since this was an experiment, I decided continue with it. I kept shaving wood until I got it down to the depth I wanted.
I was rounding the outside edge and was standing behind the motor of the lathe, shaving the backside of the bowl trying to clean up the curve I was after. I saw something zip away from me, and an instant later saw light through the platter, that is referred to as a ghost as you think you can see through the piece. I instantly turned the lathe off. About a third of the bowl was gone. I was reminded that this is one reason you don’t stand directly in line with the piece you are working on. I hunted for the other piece. I knew which way it went but could not spot where it ended up. I looked high, low, in the plants, behind plants.
Then I happened to glance through the fence and saw it on the other side of the fence in the dirt. I figured it had to have bounced off the neighbor’s wall. The five foot tall fence was about 30 feet away and the piece cleared that. I am glad no one was in the way, especially me, and that nothing was damaged. If it hit, it would have hurt. I was lucky that time.
Recently I made a vase that had knots that resembled eyes. I decided I would erase my pencil lines and try to do the face right.
I learned long ago that when you sand away pencil lines, you must tip the piece so the dust falls OFF the wood. The pencil dust the sandpaper lifts up and lands back on the wood and settles in. It takes a whole lot more sanding to remove it as it keeps landing again in the same places. Only dust that attached to the wood is scraped off . By tipping the piece so the dust falls off, the pencil work disappears quickly. Of course, since I was sanding the piece, I had to give it more sanding. Which improved it. I really need to improve my tool handling and tool sharpening to reduce the tear out that I have had to deal with on this piece.
I will see what I do tomorrow.
Year 19, Week 14, Day two (week 1004)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
04-14-19 Sunday
76 degrees early morning, 83 in the afternoon. Mixed clouds through the day but mostly sunny. This weather report is brought to you by The Pompano Beach Department Of Tourism.
I decided to try to make another bowl. There was a splintered piece of wood on one side and I really should have cut that off. A quick cut and it would have solved the design problem it caused.
Instead, after hollowing out the inside of the bowl, I kept modifying the edge to remove the splinter until I ended up with an outside shape I was not wanting. It was not horrible enough to toss. I cleaned it up, sanded it and decided that was good enough.
My brother and I talked about videos we saw. I had sent him some interesting ones this week. When on Facebook, some wood working or fabricating videos show up and I will save their links and later view them before I send them to my brother. It is cool how they create something out of very little, and they work.
One was a dowel maker just made up of drill holes in a piece of wood. The guy drilled a main hole, then inset some shallower holes overlapping it. The edge of the overlapping holes becomes the cutter for the dowel maker. He chucks the piece of wood in his drill and spins it into the dowel cutter and ends up with a nice dowel. He sands it while on the drill and ends up with a good dowel in whatever wood you happen to want to work with. Not just pine. If you are working with an exotic wood and need dowels, this dowel maker will do it.
I have seen many other dowel makers and this one seems to be the nicest. You simply have to drill a hole into the metal plate (backed with a block of wood) the diameter you want the dowel to be.
We also discussed a wooden drill-press a guy build. What I loved was the technique of getting it straight and true. It used a regular drill for the power but he had screws that pushed the drill in one direction or another and using a square, he was able to lock it in place exactly square.
When I made knives last month, one knife was just not right. The tang was not long enough and my method of locking it in place was not working. The bade was from end of a blade that I broke.
I ground the tenon just a little longer and a little narrower, losing a bit more blade length. That is not a problem, though. I then sanded the end of the handle on the disk sander till I was past the worst of the damage from previous attempts to install it. I then drilled a tiny hole which was smaller than the tang and then drilled a slightly bigger hole just shallow enough to get the blade started. I took a small hammer, set the tip of the blade (squared off tip) and rapping on the end of the handle, I drove the blade in. I used the vice to turn it slightly so it was square to the handle and finished driving it in. I now think it will hold now. As long as the blade holds, it will be a good knife.
I cleaned up and left early. I had to go home and make out forms for my Texas. I would rather pay Idaho or Arizona, but they insist I pay my Texas.
I have a turning club this week. I will see what goes on.
1596
the broken bowl. the part the flew was quite big. I had the lathe going fast.
the select ion of knives and razors I have.
bottom of the second bowl I made
top of the bowl.
this shows how the razors are made and how they are designed to be sharpened and stropped. Just a tiny bit of the edge is actually on the leather. this is how they get such fine cutting edges
the edge is delicate but ultra sharp and it takes limited skill to sharpen them..
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