In My "Spare" Time: 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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