Year 21, Week 18, Day One (week 1112)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
05-29-21 Saturday
72 as the early morning low. 78 when I got outside, 86 as the high. between a few clouds and fair with nice breezes most of the day. This weather report is brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach Department Of Tourism.
I worked on a convertible ornament. I cut in for the seat and “daylighted the rear window rail. Not bad. I had already created the back rail and the window on the bandsaw, with a space between them. I used a small dremel bit to cut down to create the seat, then cut down farther for the leg area. I do not have a steering wheel and won’t add one. These are representative. I’m not trying to get them exact. With all my vehicles, I have no idea what brand they are. I am just making them.
I added varnish to my latest teapot. I lightly sanded it with 400 grit, mainly to remove any nibs, and then sprayed it all over. It is now looking good. One more coat should do it. It should have a nice finish on it when done. The outside is the raw wood one finds under the bark, which is a nice effect.
I had a “banana” bowl that I had varnished years ago, then sanded all the varnish off as it was a really bad finishing job. I needed a special bit for the dremel and almost emptied it out, found the bit I was after. I rearranged everything and put new sandpaper on the sanding drums. I also replaced the disks on my cutting bits. When I put everything away, and had sanded and varnished the banana bowl. I was done. It is not looking good, but it is better. Whenever you use power, no matter how careful you are, you are going to get scores and scratches and it takes work to remove them. This is a wood that loves to hang onto scratches. Just when you think you got all of them, you find more. I remember why I hate sanding.....
I like the wrecker I had made. I might make the rest of the pickup trucks into wreckers. I do know I will need two dozen of the ornament vehicles since there are different designs of them. I will see what my mood says later.
When the mangos fall off the tree, you hear them go through the leaves and then a solid thud on the lawn. I was talking to a friend in the back yard of my mom’s neighbor and a large mango fell right near me. My friend said it almost hit me. He said he got bopped by one a couple days ago.
Year 21, Week 18, Day two (week 1112)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
05-30-21 Sunday
74 as the early morning low, I stopped some place for the morning before going to Mom's. 79 when I finally got outside, 86 as the high. . This weather report is brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach Department Of Tourism.
After I gassed up, I stopped at a yard sale. I was not looking for any as usually Sundays don’t have yard sales. I picked up a bag of like eight insulated travel tumblers. These are the big ones. Then I picked up some landscape fabric. He said he would sell the fabric to me, then said he was going to give it to me. I insisted he take two bucks. Mom was happy when I showed it to her. She had used fabric under her gravel in her front planters.
My brother and I sat outside and talked. And other than a little sanding on a banana bowl, having spotted some bad spots, I did nothing. Mom came out and started reminiscing about her travels around the country, the tourist sites she visited all over the country. She said she would go to the visitor centers when she entered the state and find out all the stuff she could go and see. They slept in the car, and then van, so meeting hotel reservations were not a problem and they usually stayed in KOA camp grounds. We finished at about four, which is far longer than my brother usually stays here.
I had forgotten, but today was my brother’s birthday. (My birthday is in a week or so) Mom gave both of us gift cards to Lows. Dan gave me a gift card for Harbor Freight (we celebrate out birthdays the same day). I gave him and his daughter each a set of pillowcases.
Year 21, Week 18, Day two (week 1112)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
05-30-21 Sunday
76 as the low, high of 84, which was near the temps when I got outside. This weather report is brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach Department of Tourism.
On a lark, not really wanting to work, I grabbed a nail a couple hammers and started pounding. A sledge hammer was my anvil. I used a light hammer and simply tapped on the nail, flattening it out. I would flip it in different directions. I flattened the nail head and formed it into part of the piece I was making. Once I got it sufficiently flat, I started tapping on one side to make it like a wedge, for the blade edge. The metal moves as you pound it and the blade started curving. The thinner the edge was, the more curve there was because the metal spread not only back to edge, but also side to side. And the side spread causes the whole thing to bend.
I was not using heat, just pounding on it. It took a while but the results was fun. As I worked, I remembered things I had been told or heard in videos. When you hit the metal with the hammer, you can control some of the movement of the metal by pulling or pushing the hammer on impact. That helps the direction the metal will move. Since this blade was single edge, in spite of my pulling the metal as I hit it, it still spread to the side and curved the whole thing.
Not long ago, I saw a video where a guy did this, but he was heating it like a real blacksmith. I did not look at it close enough on how he added the groove down the center. That was partly where the idea of making a tiny sword out of a nail came from.
After I had the blade about the way I wanted it, I took a small piece of wood, drilled it and stuck it on the end of the sword as the handle.
I might try this again. I did not use any heat, but just pounded on it. It is rough, but it was a good test of the concept. I remembered a lot of the things I heard about blacksmithing such as how to move the hammer to draw metal out. It would have been easier if I was using a torch to heat it up but decided to try it this way first. I did use the grinder mainly to clean it up. If I worked more with the hammer, I could have made it so it did not need as much grinding, but I was doing it fast to get it done.
Of course, If I made it a double edged blade, there would be no curve. I would likely use a bigger nail for that.
I made banana ice cream this morning. I took eight bananas, half a bag of semi sweet chocolate chips. I ran the chocolate chips through the food processor to make them in to powder and chunks. I then added the bananas and processed them together. I then scooped them into two mini loaf pans with plastic wrap as a liner. I then put them in the freezer.
Most times, I just sliced the icecream into patties and ate them that way. I got some paper lolly pop sticks at the craft store and tomorrow I will force the sticks into them, and then slice them into popsicles.
Will see what happens next weekend
1399
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