(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
01-03-10 Sunday,
46 degree lows, 62 degree highs, all three days. Friday was strong winds, Saturday was mostly clear and sunny, Sunday started sunny and warmed to 50 by nine, 63 by noon, then clouds came over and temperatures plummeted to 60 again. by three.
Being below the 56 degree frost temperature here in South Florida, The days have not been warm enough to melt the ice that has formed on the canals. Today it was thick enough that I took some short cuts to Mom's house, driving on some of the thick ice on the canals to bypass some lights and traffic.
The highest natural point of land is a prehistoric sand dune in the middle of the inhabited county. It is 29 feet above sea level. the flat surrounding land is 17 feet above sea level. I think it is about ten feet above sea level where I am, several miles away.
Each winter, when it gets cold enough, glaciers wake up and start extending from the top of the natural high point, and work their way across the land in order to drop ice bergs into the sea. It is always a bother since the glaciers block the roads going north and south. One has to drive over to the beach to get around them.
It is going to be down to 39 in a day or so, and the lows won't be above the mid fifties all week long. Those glaciers might actually reach the ocean this time. By then, though, the ocean will have frozen so solidly that one can drive on the ice to get around the glaciers.
This weather report is brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach Department of Tourism.
I spent all day Friday and Saturday, working on my mom's new computer. Her old one was making some worrying sounds, so she decided to get a replacement. there were times I fought that computer tooth and nail, but I wore it down. Mom needs one adapter and she will be ready to swap computers. I now have some understanding of Windows 7. It has all the problems of Vista, without the ease of use of XP. in essence, they change a couple things that should have never been changed.
Today, I did some computer work, but was able to go out and make sawdust. I had gotten the idea of doing the saddle style bowls for ducklings. These would be small bowls, narrow and high. I thought it was a brilliant idea. I have found that I either don't have the right raw materials, or I am fairly incompetent. Last week, I tried two attempts using cedar, just to explore the concept. Today, I used Dade county Slash Pine for two of the attempts, and sea Grape for the second two attempts.
My first attempt started all right. I was hollowing the bowl out when the tool knocked off the wings. I had not gone too deep, so I cut the edge flat and then made it into a tiny bowl.
My second attempt got deeper before I lost the wings. that one got tossed.
I then switched to Sea grape. I had cut a piece in half and started turning. I suddenly realized that I cut the pieces too short. I changed plans immediately and made it into a goblet. I was cutting in the stem of the goblet. It was going to be really short. There was a worm hole that just happened to go right near the base of the bowl. I had just cut past the worm hole when the stem broke. I have two choices with this piece. One is to carve it into a flower. Two is to make a stem and base of a different kind of wood I will see what I decide later.
My fourth attempt was also in sea grape. It was getting late. I got the bowl almost made, and saw some problems. I decided to stop and decide next week how to handle the piece. It is sometimes best to hold on finishing a project if there is a problem, and return to it later when the mind is fresh.
Duck bowl in Rosewood. Head added to a saddle bowl. Foot turned as saucer, then carved to shape.
To make the saddle bowls I am making for the bird bowls, you turn the wood from the side, rather than the ends. The ends of the wood is spinning around in the air like a propeller.
You gently and carefully apply the cutting tools to the flying ends, rounding them as they fly by.
There are many kinds of bowls that can be made this way. A banana bowl is where it is really long and fairly flat The bird bowls are fairly short and high. The bowls are not round, as the natural edge of the sides of the wood is not as long as the ends.
The bottom bowled so the bark stops near the bottom but not all the way to the bottom. For my bird bowls, I turn what amounts to a platter on the bottom, which I will later carve to be come the foot. The outer edge is angled up so the toes will end up raised.
Once the outside is nicely shaped, possibly finished, One then turns to the inside. Some wood workers will sand and apply final finish to the outside before they start hollowing. I got out of that very quickly when tool slippage and the wood slipping in the chuck (developing a wobble), got me out of that.
Duck bowls, showing different bowl designs of bowls
Bowls are in Sea grape.
When you look at your arm, you will see that it curves in diameter along the length. The wood you are about to work on is the same way. when you start turning. you will see a shadow of the wood, as there is a lot of air between the pieces of spinning wood. As you have found when working on the outside, there is a lot of tool bouncing. addressing the wood slowly, holding the tool firmly to the tool rest will keep the bouncing down.
AS you cut away the top of the curve, especially as you get towards the end of the wood, the bark is cut away. You follow the curve of the outside. Because of the air between passes of the wood, you will be able to see the distance between the outside of the bowl and the cutting tool. I use a Bowl Gouge most of the time. The center of the piece becomes all solid wood to be cut. I try to leave the tail stock up against the wood as long as possible, forming a post since the wood is less likely to do something wrong when held tight in place. Of course, one finally has to pull the tail stock away to finish the piece and that is usually when I run into trouble.
Bowl done in Rosewood
Rooster bowl, see foot and saddle bowl.
Head and tail carved and added afterwords
The wood is cut away on the sides, leaving a thin natural edge. The shape ends up being like a saddle, the center of the wood is high, and the sides are low.
Next week, I have loads of projects. I am not sure what I will work on. I have a lot of projects and some need a lot of attention. I need to make some wooden fruit. I need to carve on my flower vase. I want to be successful on the bowls for the ducklings. I have some ornaments to make. I have no idea what I will actually want to work on..
I will see what I do next week.
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