In My "Spare" Time: Year 18, Week 39 , Day One (week 977)

Year 18, Week 39 , Day One (week 977)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
09-29-18 Saturday

78 early morning, 90 after noon, lots of blue sky, some clouds, a little bit of a shower very early morning, but not over us. Our normal summer pattern is where showers build up parallel to the ocean, then either come east heading to sea, or head west over the Everglades. This week we had two days of the summer pattern where they headed west, Most of the time this month, we had dots of showers coming in off the ocean. Sometimes it is just a few dots here and there, but other times it is an army of them marching past. This weather report is brought to you by The Pompano Beach Department Of Tourism.

This month would have been my Dad’s 101th birthday. This would also have been my new dad’s 87th birthday.

After breakfast, we headed to a church that has many “yard” sales. It is in a separate room. There were several items I had to dodge as they lunged for me, but none tackled me and forced me to buy them, so I got away empty handed.
We stopped at a yard sale on the way home. Oh that was so tempting. I saw a bookshelf , some bar stools and a couple small items but somehow left without them. That was partly because mom was driving and she does not have much room in her car, and partly because I would have to figure out where to put them. She looked at a pair of metal “bar stools” that she considered getting for plant stands, but decided against it. Wow, I did not buy anything!!!!

At home, I dug out my carving stuff. I did a serious search for tools to work with. There was nothing in view, and what was in view could never be reached without moving a whole lot of stuff. I did find a sharp saw. I already had a small dull rusty fine tooth saw I found last week. I had and set up on the work bench. I get crochet newsletters in E-mail. I saw a pattern for a gingerbread house. I only looked at the picture and thought maybe I could give that a try as a design. During breakfast, I did a quick sketch, figuring out how to do my saw cuts to speed the project. I did not have the band saw, saws-all, or really any other power to do any cutting.
I took a two by two stick of white pine that is a couple years old. I quickly found that the sharp saw had difficulty getting started, so I used the dull saw to get the groove started, then switched to the sharp saw. I removed the pieces, then had to make more cuts to correct inaccurate cuts.
I learned something very important. Using a handsaw requires skill. It is one thing to make a cut. That takes some effort. But to make an accurate cut, is something else. It turned out to be a skill that has to be developed. I cut a groove around the bottom of the roof to create eves, and had to redo it farther down because of another mistake.
I saw a video of a guy carving a bowl with an hand Adz. He said that if you are starting out, you will likely only cut for about fifteen minutes before your arm gives out. It will take a while to develop the endurance to cut like he did, which was a good portion of the bowl before he had to take a break.
The same is with hand saws. There is a whole bunch of techniques one has to develop, such as holding it up straight up and down (one problem I had), not bending it (another problem), cutting straight on your line (again another problem I had), making efficient strokes, just to name a few mistakes I fought.
One corner of the peak of t he roof ended up lower than the other because I had my angle wrong in every way.. Mom likes that effect . The bottom of the house is not square or straight, tipping from one corner t o the other. It is hard to cut “slivers” of wood off to square something up. This is end grain which the knife fights with a passion.
I started carving, removing the wood from the body of the house to create the overhang. Once I got it deep enough, I then carved in the windows and doors. My hands know how to carve. I can see the shapes, and know what cuts to do, but there are some skills I have to relearn. It is mostly dealing with “feathers” where the wood where it did not cut cleanly. I am not wearing carving gloves right now so I made sure I gave thought to how my left hand is holding the work, making sure nothing is in any pathway the knife could go.
I did forget about one thing. On the hand holding the knife, I put my thumb against the work to get leverage. I have a few nicks on my thumb where the knife touched it. More like paper cuts, than anything. Have to concentrate on where my thumb is.
Anyway, I ended up with reasonable results when I was done. It showed me that if I can cut the blanks out fast, these will be good ornaments to make. Painting will make all the difference in the world. Also, if I can make blanks fast, I could take more time in carving decorations into the houses. I might be able to make some ornaments this year. I will be able to get into wood working again.

I ran the plane on the black walnut sticks in an attempt to make drum sticks. The plane is too gentle for hogging wood off the stick. I need something that will dig in deeper. I will dabble in it a bit more until I can find the tool I really need.

Will see what I do tomorrow.

Year 18, Week 39, Day two (week 977)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
09-30-18 Sunday

78 early morning, 90 after noon, lots of blue sky, some clouds, a few dots on radar but that is farther south and in the morning.

We had a period where the sun was in our eyes in the morning. It is not quite directly in our eyes right now, though that could have been because of clouds over the ocean.
At noon, I got outside with my tools and started carving on an idea that mom gave me. She suggested a tea pot as an ornament. Again I used hand saws to do the cuts. I had a better idea of what I had to do. I cut a chunk off the whitewood stick, on an angle again!! And then put the chunk in the vice with the corner sticking out and cut off one corner, and then the opposite corner. I then put those two “flats” (a comment on my cutting) and started shaping the other two corners. One of the corners had a piece sticking up on the end where it broke off rather than cut, so I decided that would be the spout. It was a tiny bit higher than the rest of it. I shaped the bottom. I flipped it around and cut the top and bottom for the handle. I then set it up and cut down on each side of the corners so there would be a narrow spout and handle. I put the saw to the spout to slice it down, but being end grain, I decided it would be safer to use the knife and carve it away.
I took to carving it, rounding the bottom some, and knocking off what corners were on the body, and shaping the handle and spout. I had a lot of mistakes and it turned into a coffee pot, rather than a tea pot. It needs a lot of work, but proved the concept of the design.
Like the gingerbread house yesterday, cutting the blanks quickly will make the job easier and faster. Usually when I make ornaments, I aim at having a dozen of each. I try to sell some (wood and tool money), and then give others as gifts. These two designs are do-able.
I’ve wanted to make rocking horses for several years now. I figured out that it will have to be roughed out on the scroll saw, the legs and body as separate pieces, then glued together, rounded and detailed with the knife. The scroll saws are buried in Mom’s garage.
It really did not take too much time to make this, as sloppy as it was. It is common for me to rough out the ornaments, then spend a different session cleaning them up and fine tuning them, so this is not bad. Mom called us for lunch. When I came out later, the shade I was in, was gone. I do miss the awning. Maybe we will get the frame rebuilt after hurricane season.

I am happy I accomplished SOMETHING. If I get serious next weekend, I should spend my time cutting blanks. It would only take about an hour if I used the band saw, but that is buried. If I do the handsaw, it could take several weekends to make enough to just sit and carve. I can see that the carved Christmas balls I thought about would be too much work by hand.

I will see what I accomplish next weekend.

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