(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
08-09-14 Saturday
86 degrees at nine, 95 degrees at one, patchy clouds that faded out to blue sky just past half way above us. Sunny all morning until about three. Thunder burster hit at about five thirty. It was calm in the morning and the winds started picking up in the afternoon. This weather report is brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach Department of Tourism.
After breakfast we hit a few yard sales. Pickings were not spectacular. There was a number of things that would be nice to have but I would absolutely never use.
At One yard sale, I picked up a twelve inch square by heavy two inch think block of Teak. The guy said he got them as cut-offs from a friend’s project. He used some in his own project and these were the last of them. It happened that he sold two earlier in the day so I got the last one. Now I have to figure out what to do with it. I have a problem of where I don’t want to waste really good wood so I will wait until I have the right project, which tends to be forever.....
At another yard sale, I picked up some little books. A small five book desk set of dictionary/thesaurus/spelling dictionary/ and so on. I handed that off to my new dad. I also got some famous quote booklets.
12" square by thick 2" TEAK
Later in the day I went “yard sailing” at a local dollar store. I got some things I needed and some goodies too.
After we got home, Mom decided to “trim” one of her trees. This Clerodendron had escaped the pot and went into the ground and has been going crazy. I dug out my Craftsman Saws-all and mom told me where to cut. I would then pull the branches out from the tangle of other branches. Mom would move them out of the way.
After we butchered the tree, I trimmed the branches into manageable sizes and mom took them out front. I kept a couple pieces of “trunk” where the largest was a little over two and a half inches across. I stuck them into the shed to dry. This is a soft wood. We had a number of branches split while working with them.
When we were done, I was wore out, sore, and soaking. That is a little tree. I can fit my hands around the actual trunk. All the branches that we cut expanded out from the trunk and wove in and out as they rushed to the sky. Most were less than a finger or thumb thickness
The remains of the tree.
cut branches pulled out of the way
Craftsman Saws-all. I like using this more than a chain saw when cutting wood.
The trimmings finally at the street.
The pieces I kept to turn into sawdust.....
I laid down for what was supposed to be a quick nap and woke three hours later. That killed he rest of the day.
Tomorrow I am hoping to do some wood working.
I will see what I actually do tomorrow.
Year 15, Week 29, Day Two (week 726)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
08-10-14 Sunday
94 degrees at noon, 96 degrees at three. Blue sky to the east, patching clouds to the west, the clouds faded out directly above me. Sunny all day. Nice breeze, but I ran the stand fan anyway. That helped a lot.
Last week, someone pointed out a web site in another language that had where they made crochet hooks out of tooth brushes. My browser translated the page but the pictures told the whole the story in detail and the text added nearly nothing to it. Of course I have a bunch of tooth brushes that have not been tossed yet.
The idea of using tooth brushes is that the handles are already comfortable to the hand. Instead of drilling the handle and inserting, gluing the crochet hook inside the handle, one can use the neck of the brush for the crochet hook.
I brought the tooth brushes with me so I decided to give the idea a try. My brushes were rubberized plastic. It takes a different technique to work that then the more brittle plastics.
The brushes I started with.
The bristles removed.
I took the five tooth brushes I had and sliced off the bristles. On the first tooth brush, I decided to round the slightly rectangular profile. Using a Dremmel, caving knife and lots of different grits of sand paper, I shaped the first tooth brush. The others were slightly more round and I decided not to care as much about the shape.
completed hook and original toothbrush. Note the rings on the shaft that I had to remove.
I had two tooth brushes that had ribbing just before the end. The tests with the first tooth brush crochet hook told me that the more shaft you have the better. I carved off the ribbing trying to make it close to the same diameter as the beginning. It was slightly tapered. After I finished each hook, I gave them a test. They actually work.
Now my work is sloppier than I would like. With a round rod, it really does not matter where the gap of the hook is. I will need to work with these to see if the next ones I do will be better on an angle to the way you hold the hooks or not.
These hooks need more clean up, adjustments, and polishing to be perfect them, but they are usable. For those who know hook sizes, these are about J to L sizes.
To make perfect crochet hooks out of them, I would need to work out the best way to mount them in the lathe and make the shaft longer and remove the taper they added to it. I am thinking that would be more effort than it is worth.
I will test them out some more. Emery cloth or some sort of scrubber should clean them up more. Filing and sanding will help shape them more. I used them to test a stitch I was curious about and while they are rough, they do work all right. Of course, the more they are used, the more polished they will end up being.
Finished crochet hooks
I was looking at the ladle I worked on last week. I decided that the walls are too thick. I have a choice of making the inside bigger, or making the outside smaller. What I am thinking to do is to adjust the shape of the outside so it is nicer, then work with the inside with grinding, knife and chisel to make ti match the outside with a thinner wall.
Because I had a late start today, I did not have time to deal with it. Hopefully I will work with it next weekend.
I will see what I do next weekend.
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