Week 506 woodworking diary

year 9, Week 36, Day One (week 506)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
09-19-09 Saturday

90 degrees, nice breeze, mostly cloudy with some blue sky, and once or twice had some sun. Palm Beach county got some good rain by the looks of the clouds to the north of us.
This weather report was brought to you by the city Of Pompano Beach Department Of Tourism.

I spent the week getting my duck bowl presentable. I used a rub on method of applying wipe-on varnish for the first three coats. This is where you dampen a rag and rub it all over the piece until it dries. After that, I applied spray varnish. I ended up with some drips but did not have time to clean them up. Weekend after next, which will be in next month, I will take the duck bowl to the Antique shop. Till then, I have some sanding to remove the drips, and then giving it more coats of varnish. It does look better than I normally do, because it is shiny.

The turning club meeting was pretty good. They had four lathes running. Each person was showing how to do different ornaments. One was doing decorative disks, showing how to use texturing tools on the disk to spice it up. A second was showing how to do hollow ball ornaments with long finials. A third was doing hollow bird house ornaments. A forth was doing hollow cage style ornaments.
On the last, I had done some of those several years ago, following what I saw in a taped demonstration I checked out from the club. I found at the time that I did not have the skills to get good results. I learned a few tricks on how to do it right, not that I can get the same results.
I brought my ornaments and separated those made with some help from the lathe, and those that were purely carved. It dawned on me that I had several of the very first turnings I had ever done. Some bells and a show man with a santa bag in it.
The club meeting was pretty good.

Today, Mom and I visited some yard sales (tag sales in some parts of the country). At the last one, I picked up a pair of wooden swans. They were assembled, wings and necks added onto the body. Something said I had to copy them.

I spent quite a bit of time today petting the kitty. He was in a really sweet mood, Most of the time, I would pet him about five, ten minutes, but the last time, I petted him fifteen minutes. Just think, two years ago, If you tried to pet him over six times, you got hit by two sets of claws. I think I ruined him....

The swans I am making are smaller than the swans I picked up. I make my carved ornaments out of two by twos. I made one of each ornament first. One swan has the head looking up. The second one has the neck curled so it is looking straight. When I was done with the first two, I decided the one looking up needed a longer neck to have the right appearance.
I have them mostly done. some touch ups to do. I then made two more blanks of each swan.
In my design, I cut the side view first on the band saw, getting the neck and wings, along with the body cut, a silhouette. I could use a scroll saw but did not want to bother bringing them out. The band saw does well enough since most of the real work is done with knife and dremmel.
Because of the design of the swan, I laid the swan face down, divided the thickness in thirds, and made two cuts down the neck and wings, just stopping at the top of the tail. With that cut, I get three pieces of the head and wing. I remove the two outside pieces of the head, and remove the inside piece of the wing. In the blanks I made, I did not remove the inner piece of the wing.

I have decided I will make owls, and swans as three of my Christmas ornaments. I have not decided what my fourth one should be. I will go through the chess book I picked up to see what the best idea might be. A hammer might be a choice though something like a character would be better. I do a dozen of each ornament each year. Last year, I only made one set, reindeer.
I have to make replacements for some of my more popular ornaments. Christmas trees have always been popular.


I am not sure what I will work on tomorrow. I would love to turn something. I have projects half done that need to be finished. I would like to turn something brand new. I should do more of these ornaments to get a good head start on the year. I always try to get started very early in the year, but never really get anywhere till this time or later.
I have heard it will get very chilly tonight, down in the 70s. Burrrr!!! better put another blanket on the bed.

I will see what I actually will do tomorrow.


year 9, Week 36, Day Two (week 506)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
09-20-09 Sunday

94 degrees, blue sky with lots of big puffs, really high wisps, sun during parts of the day. Nice breeze was enough to not need a fan. We never got the cold weather I heard about on the radio. Since it was a palm Beach station, they likely would get colder anyway.
This Weather report was brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach Department Of Tourism.

The cat was "loving" all day long. I petted him for several stretches during the day and he was mostly happy to lay between my feet and let me stroke his back all day long.

My first project was to make some blanks of the swans I started yesterday. I had already cut the wood to length, but had to cut the shapes out to work with. In wood carving, it is usually best to remove the worst of the wood with some other tool like a band saw, so you can spend more of your time actually carving the finished project, not removing excess wood. There are times where I will carve straight from the stick, but for these ornaments, the less time removing wood, the better.
I bandsawed the basic shape. I ran the bandsaw from the head down to the body in two slits. the idea is that I get three wings, three heads. I cut off the two outside heads, and remove the middle wing, and I have a blank that is unquestionably a swan.
I now have the blanks all ready for carving. I just have to sit and shape.

I looked at my big wood, and decided to work on a project I had already started. I have the start of what is supposed to be a beer stein. I had not removed the tenons yet. I re-mounted it in the lathe. When ever you take a piece off the lathe, it will never go back on exactly balanced. there will always be a slight wobble. I removed the wobble from the outside first, improving the finish. I then worked on the inside, removing the wobble inside, and squaring the bottom, making the whole insides cleaner. I finally removed the tenon, giving it a flat bottom.
I then mounted the lid and refinished that. It is so much better than before. It will still take some sanding, but nothing like it was going to do. I love these periods where everything works right.
I then addressed the handle. It was cut from a two-by piece of mahogany. I sanded the mating surface so it is very close to what is needed for a perfect fit. I then decided the handle itself was too wide. I checked the thickness at the thickest point where the user holds the handle. I then marked it to that thickness over the entire thing. I then drew flairs where it mates to the cup. I then cut it on the bandsaw. the top is flat, so I put that down on the table and pushed it through the blade, thinning the handle except where it flares out to meet the cup. It looks good.
My next project is to work out the mechanism to lift the lid with the thumb. I will have to shape the top of the handle to make it all work perfectly. Some other day.


My brother had to stop at a job before coming up. when he arrived, I had him look at my fordum power tool. This is like a dremmel, except it is more powerful, heavier, and uses a foot switch for speed control. The bits are mounted at the end of a flexible shaft.
My problem is that it is running only in one direction, backwards. My brother said I need to see about buying a switch for it and he will replace it for me.
I do have a flexible shaft for the dremmel, but seldom use it. I don't really gain much on weight or size of the parts in my hand, and I don't have a foot switch to control the speeds.

For next week, I likely will work on my Christmas Ornaments. I will also work on several projects I have in process right now. I have no idea what else I will do. I would love to do something new.

I will see what I actually do next weekend.