Year 18, Week 06, Day One (week 946)

Year 18, Week 06, Day One (week 946)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
02-24-18 Saturday

72 morning low, 79 afternoon high, nice breeze, threats of dots of showers that did not come into our area, scattered fast moving tiny herds of clouds heading west all day long. This weather report is brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach Department of Tourism.

Before my foot infection, I was not in the best physical condition. I could never walk a marathon, let alone a mile or two. During the infection, I did no distance walking and there were times where I would think twice about crossing the room twice because I forgot something. Because of this, I am working on recovery of any walking distance. What has helped is one of my favorite grocery store rearranged everything and Now I have to walk most all the isles to find what I need. 
This morning, my legs were a little laggard. I did the yard sale drive route and stopped at quite a few yard sales, and skipped some also. My legs felt heavy as I got out of the truck. It will take a while to get back into shape, if you remember that round IS a shape.....
There is a lot of decorative items, and kitchen items today. A few times I had to talk myself out of getting them. One guy had things won or gifted from one of the local casinos. The one thing I fought myself over was a cast iron griddle that fit into a space in a large cutting board. I would have loved to have gotten it, but like a lot of my cast iron, I would never use it.

Later in the day, Mom was killing weeds in the back yard. They come up between the pavers and in the mulch walks. I came out and dug through various areas of the back yard. I found a stick of my two-by-two whitewood carving wood. I had to cut some pieces from it. I knew there had to be a handsaw in mom’s garage so I squeezed in there (loaded with stuff that is supposed to be under the awning) and found a dovetail saw. 
I must tell you that I have a rule of NEVER using a hand saw when power was available, which means NEVER using a handsaw. Well, I was in the mood to get something done and figured that finding a hand saw would be a whole lot faster than getting to a buried saws-all or moving things around to get the band saw plugged in. 
A dovetail saw has really fine teeth. It is a finishing saw where you want clean cuts, no tear out. This saw also had a rusty blade panel. 
A proper saw should be shiny, where you can see the reflection of the work in it. You line up the reflection with the edge you see and it is straight. Also a clean shiny blade will produce no friction to increase the effort of cutting. 
I have not used a handsaw for anything in like two years. I lined up the blade roughly by eye and started cutting. I got partly down and turned the piece so I was working with a fresh side, using the existing cut as a guide. Of course, my cut was not straight. I got part way down and turned it one more time before cutting all the way through. I then cut two more pieces off, each between nine inches and a foot long. I had to stop for a moment twice on the last cut to give my arm a chance to straighten out before cutting again. I had decided only to cut three pieces and that was enough sawing. About twenty minutes later, mom said she could have gotten me a brand new, little used Saws-all that I gave her in exchange for a light one she had. I have two somewhere in the shed, I think. I was done cutting.
I don’t spend much time standing so I was on my feet long enough. I figured I had really accomplished something. I actually touched wood and made a tiny bit of saw dust.

Tomorrow, I am hoping to start carving. I have some designs for ornaments to explore. 

I will see what I do tomorrow.


Year 18, Week 06, Day Two (week 946)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
02-25-18 Sunday

73 early morning, 78 late afternoon. Mostly blue sky with some puffs moving around. A breeze made it really nice. This weather report is brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach Department of Tourism. 

I got to Mom’s late and my brother was already there. We had a great lunch, with everything tasting better than expected. Conversation was good too.

After lunch I grabbed my carving kit and went out back. My brother followed me. We are still in winter so much of the area that would be under the awning is in shade, which is nice. We sat and I tried to carve a rocking horse. I turned the wood on a 45 degree angle so to give me the most distance of wood to work with. The head was in the corner, the runners were in the lower angles. I knew what I needed to have but as I worked, I quickly saw it was not going to work as planned. I kept carving. I nearly shaved off the piece from the stick when It was time to stop. It has no resemblance to a horse. I think I can make it a laying cat or laying dog with a little bit of work, but not a rocking horse. This shape wood will never make a horse. Proportions are wrong unless I make the horse a lot smaller. 

My knives were started from files, grinding away the teeth and then shaping them. The back of the blade is comfortably thick. When carving, I will move my hand onto the back of the blade to use the point, or back at the handle to use the long edge. When done right, you will not hold the sharp edge. This style allows you to place pressure where needed, and have control where needed. 
There are times when you want to shave a large area. There are times when you want to dig in, or shave inside something. The length of my blades give you more options on h ow to use the knife. The wedge shaped end is great for removing wood in valleys and holes. 
The first time I made one of these flat ended knives, I had a file and cut it apart and made a long knife that had somewhat of a point. I then took the short end and just made it sharp, keeping the end flat. I did not want to make it shorter by reducing the end. When I used that knife, I found I loved the flat end. It worked great and was less likely to stab through carving gloves. 
We had metal mesh, Kevlar “cut proof” gloves, and they had the problem that sharp knife points will go through them, even if the blade edge would not cut them. The flat point turned out to be safer, though it would cut on the edge on the end, but had limited penetration. 
Of course, paying attention to where skin is comparted to the blade makes a difference. If the blade is flying into the air, you are doing it wrong. I know, I did it wrong a few times, such as when I cut a couple tendons in my left index finger. If that hand was able to actually do something useful other than holding, it would be a problem.....

My nephew called and my brother put him on speaker phone and we had a very good three way conversation. That made the session a lot more fun.
I was really happy that my hands knew how to work the knife and remove the right wood. I did not develop any spots that might become a blister. My hands were not stressed from the work. Even though the shape did not look like what it was supposed to be, it was a very successful session.  The nice thing about carving is that I don’t need a lot of space and don’t need to pull out a whole lot of equipment to work. Out of the stuff in my basket, I just needed a knife and a strop to do my work. 

I will say because I was not wearing a carving glove for protection of my hands, I put a little more concentration on where my fingers were at any time. It was not a carving that depended on my hands being in the way for any particular cut. I will have to figure out where my leather gardening gloves are, which is what I usually use as carving gloves. Nicks in gloves are better than nicks on fingers.

I hope to do some more carving next week. It is a little heady to have some form of production of any kind. 

On the scarf I am making, I am on the second to last row on the width. I will then have to work the ends and can then call it finished. I am trying to figure out what to do next. I don’t want to do dishcloths, which is in cotton. I don’t want to do another scarf. Not many people to give them to down here. I won’t do anything bigger than a scarf. Too much work. I will come up with something small that can be done all over the place. 

I will see what I do next week. 
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the rusty saw and the weathered stick of wood.

one side view. looks nothing like a rocking horse

opposite side view

partial front view

another partial front view. I think I can make this into a laying dog or cat.

handle of knife beside it holding it on the angle

Year 18, Week 05, Day One (week 945)

Year 18, Week 05, Day One (week 945)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
02-17-18 Saturday

73 degrees early morning, 81 high, blue skies all day long, light breeze, just enough to remove some of the heat. This weather report is brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach Department of Tourism. 

After breakfast, I made my yard sail run. At one yard sale, a woman had all sorts of the fantasy swords. I considered a pair of Japanese katanas but decided I would not use them even on display. I have some swords but haven’t looked at them for a year. More swords would not be a good idea. I then saw a dragon letter opener. The next thing I knew, my wallet was lighter and I was climbing into the truck with a new dragon. 
At another yard sale, I did not recognize the people or the location until I saw some wooden faced teddy bears. I instantly recognized the place from a year or two ago. These teddy bears were collector items. I could not afford the price they were asking last time. This time, they were priced to find them a new home. Two of them leaped into my arms begging me to take them home. One had a puppy attached to it and the puppy licked my face so much I had to bring them home. I only adopted the boy with the puppy and a girl. The others looked sad but I reminded them that they were still at a home. 
There were other yard sales, but they had nothing I absolutely had to have. 


Year 18, Week 05, Day Two (week 945)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
02-18-18 Sunday

Blue sky 73 early morning 79 late afternoon, a light breeze makes it nice. I see I have to work a little to get used to the heat again, the way I like to be for the summer wood working. This weather report is brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach Department of Tourism.

I got to Mom’s earlier than planned. We had some time before we were going to go out for lunch, so I went out back. I located my carving basket, nestled in the still full shed. The awning is still not up. 
I had planned on some carving, but I think my carving wood is in the back of the shed. Instead, I empted my carving basket and started the process of sharpening my blades. 
While they were protected for the most part, every blade still had surface rust on them. Not completely, mostly in spots. Some blades were in better condition than others. 
I started with 100 grit sand paper, then some finer sand paper, Some spots needed more muscle. I had an abrasive wheel but decided not to dig out a drill or dremmel and used it to scrape the worst of the rust off. 
Once the steel was clean, I then used diamond hones to reshape and recondition the blade and the edge. I used a 260 grit and a 360 grit plate, then I used a leather strop to fine tune the blades.

My knives are designed so they are laid flat against the stone and rubbed. The taper of the blade goes right down to the edge. I designed them this way so I will get the angle of the edge right every single times. The edge is delicate, but the angle will be consistent each time I work the blade. It is recommended to have a sharper angle at the edge so the edge will be strong, but I could never do the same angle twice, even in the same sharpening. 

When using a sharpening stone, It is suggested to slide the edge into the stone like you are trying to shave a slice off. Basically grind with the edge leading.
The main purpose of using the grind stones is to straighten the edge, get rid of nicks and chips so the blade edge is straight and even. Once the edge is in condition, one should never need to use a grind stone until you get chips and nicks in the blade again.

My final step is to use the leather strop. When you sharpen a blade, you end up with “a wire” on the edge. It will sometimes curl away from the last surface you stoned. By dragging the edge of the blade across the leather strop (or a steel for some types of knives such as kitchen knives) the leather will straighten the wire until it is a clean straight cutting edge. 
Once the edge is ready, you can start carving,. Each time you set your knife down, when you pick itt up again, give it a few strokes on the strop and keep carving and a grind stone won’t need to be used for several carvings. 

I have some chisels. I went over their edges also. I seldom use these but have them anyway. They are not really carving chisels. They are for like cleaning joints.
I also have a Scorp set. A scorp is a side facing chisel. It is pulled by the fingers into the wood rather than pushed on the end of the handle. 
Rounded blades are tougher to sharpen than flat ones. I mainly touched on them before putting them away. 

I was surprised there were no paints in the carving basket, then I remembered I removed the paints so I could paint my Christmas cards. Some of the stuff in the basket (such as a stack of skewers) will go someplace else but for now it will be all right in the basket. 

I will tell you that a dull carving knife is sharp. They love fingers. With one of the knives, I took some sandpapers and ran it down the blade with the edge aiming at my thumb. My thumb got nicked and it bled nicely. I bandaged it for about an hour while I was working and when I was done with my work, I removed the bandage and it no longer bled. The bleeding kept the rust out of the wound. 
After the nick, I made sure I kept track of where the edge and my skin were in comparison to each other.

While I did not accomplish much today, I got something done in the direction of wood working. Now I need to figure out where my carving wood is and get to work. 

After the Chinese Buffet, I feel like a pig, and want to just sleep my meal off. 

Will see what happens next weekend. 
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My scorp set. I broke the handle of the bottom one so I replaced it.

These side-pull chisels. have advantages and disadvantages to center push chisles. 

My chisel set. the second from the top as a curved blade and I have used that the most.

these are my knives. The blue knife on top was made by my dad. I used to make my knives like his.

carving gloves do not stop that nice sharp point on the end.

the bottom blade was one of the last I made without a flat end.

the middle two blades are what I make now. the flat end acts like a chisel. they do not poke through gloves as easily.

I also make them long as it gives me more options of cuts on the work, close to the handle for shaving, out on the end to dig.

dragon letter opener

wooden faced teddy bear girl 

wooden faced teddy bear with puppy

close up of puppy 

Year 18, Week 04, Day One (week 944)

Year 18, Week 04, Day One (week 944)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
02-10-18 Saturday

76 degrees early morning 83 degrees late afternoon, some light showers zipping past from the south, but not around long enough to warrant opening an umbrella, but slow enough to get you wet. These died down quickly as the day went on. This weather report is brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach Department Of Tourism.

The awning of the work area is still not repaired Parts were being made but the time had not been available to do it. My lathe is still in storage. I have not touched it. I have not touched the knife either. I should sit outside and make some wood chips and work on ornaments for next year. I have many ideas of what I could do.

One family member is ill so I have spent all my spare time with them, giving the care givers support. That has eliminated ANY spare time I normally would have. 
My feet are healed but I have to get back into condition again. One of my favorite grocery stores relocated absolutely everything in the “dry good” isles. I’ve walked the entire store just to get a concept of where I might find something. I do not like the arrangement but won’t stop going to the store. It is good exercise to walk all the isles as it is one of the superstores.  I do walk a couple other stores but they are smaller ones so it is not any real exercise. 

About the only crafts I have worked on is crochet. I am about two rows of finishing a scarf. It is in yarn given to me for Christmas. 

The South Florida Renaissance fair is starting this month. I would love to go to it but I am not in any condition to walk the distance from parking to the gate, let alone inside the fair. In the years I used to go to the fairs, I would walk it quickly first, to see what venders were there as you get to know them after many visits. After that, I would go one more time around, at minimum, with the idea of really looking at everything. They have some great crafts. I was never one to sit and watch the shows and I never made it a day. That was a problem back in the 80s when I was heavily in photography. I have a tendency of going and going until I can go no more, before stopping.   I never wanted to rest, but instead to see what was around the corner. That does not work in my condition right now. 

The weather has not been great for yard sailing. Morning showers or early rains dissuade people going through the effort of dragging all the stuff out. The yard sales I have visited over the past month has not had much that needed to come home with me. The only thing I can mention of any worth was a pair of metal saw horses that I picked up last month, and a pair of bongos with carrying case. I have not picked up more than about ten dollars of small stuff over the past month, and that would be stretching things. 
Most of the stuff that were really interesting, was stuff I had no place for. Also, a lot of the really interesting stuff that was really interesting was stuff I already have too many of. 

I entirely missed the Wood Turning Club meeting last week. I realized it was that week two days later when I received an E-mail about it. I will miss this month’s meeting as it is on a day I already have scheduled. They had problems with the meeting site and had to postpone it to the week later and on the wrong day for me.

I need to get back to wood working. I am itching to get started but life has gotten ahead of me. 

I will see what happens with the next post, since these have not been weekly as of late.
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