In My "Spare" Time: Year 19, Week 13, Day One (week 1003)

Year 19, Week 13, Day One (week 1003)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
04-06-19 Saturday

73, early morning 83 late afternoon. High feathers early morning, becoming lower and more solid late in the day, mostly sunny during the day. Light breeze was almost unnoticeable. This weather report is brought to you by The City of Pompano Beach Department of Tourism.

Mom was doing something else not involving me, so after breakfast, I decided to do some yard sales. I usually head North on the west side of US-1 before heading south on the other side. Today I decided to head South first, running my route backwards. I am glad I did. There was a bicycle event and they were heading south as I was heading North. If I had followed my normal route, I would have been traveling at about 18 mph rather than 25 mph and not being able to pass any bikes. Makes a big difference. I heard it was a 100 mile bike race.
Other than one sale I found very early that only had furniture, which was high quality furniture better than anything I or mom had, I only found yard sales as I was heading south on the way back home.
One had clothing. Not my size nor my style. One had some tools and I picked up a large glass lid for a pot, a set of six used router bits and a fillet knife. I can’t sing but I still got all of them for a song. The last yard sale had craft supplies. I should have bought more than I did. I picked up a leather punch set. I thought I would have a use for them. There were beads, buttons, a whole set of crafting scissors for creating decorative edges (wish I had gotten them), and paper for scrap booking. I hated to walk out with just one thing but I did it.

I got out back of mom’s house and decided to take the piece of pine I rounded last week and my plan was to make it into a tea pot I saw in a magazine. I tried drilling the hole for the spout, using a really long drill bit. It would not go in, and I finally gave up. I looked at the shape I had already where I had removed some wood for the throat and rounding the bottom and creating a neck and liked the knots so I decided to make it a vase.
I mounted the block on the chuck after I made a tenon and hollowed it out. When I got far enough, I decided it being thick would not be a problem. I sanded “it pretty good.” I removed the tenon and only had a little stub when I took it off the lathe. I used my knife to carve off the stub, then used a small sanding disk on a drill to shave away any sign of the stub.
I looked at the “finished” piece. It has some tear out showing where my tool techniques are not good (it is even harder to have good tool techniques on soft wood). It is a lot thicker than I intended. I then realized it was demanding to be carved. Later I was looking at it again and saw that two small knots would be good eyes for a face. I will give it even more thought.

I looked at my knives with their new sheaths. The sheathes are just square blocks of wood and decided to make them smaller. I and used each knife to shave some of their own block down. They were not doing great on the wood. I then did one of my old blades and it ate at the wood in comparison. I checked that knife on other types of wood the sheathes were made of and learned it was the only really sharp knife I have.
I took the blocks to the bandsaw and removed most of the wood. The blade side was straight and somewhat level. The back side I did at an angle and rounded it at the end. After the bandsaw work, I went to the disk sander and sanded the sheaths to the final shape. They are smaller and it is easier to see which side the blade goes in.
Several of the new knife handles need correction to feel right and even more sanding but that will be for another time.
I sharpened some of the knives better. They are not perfect yet.

That was a pretty good day of small projects. It is fun to have some results.

I will see what I do tomorrow.

Year 19, Week 13, Day two (week 1003)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
04-07-19 Sunday

77 early morning 84 as the high, few clouds early morning, building up as the day wore on. Mostly sunny and light breeze. This weather report is brought to you by The City of Pompano Beach Department of Tourism.

Mom is still involved in something and was not around.

My brother and niece showed up. We sat out back. I showed them the vase and we talked about videos I sent my brother, and videos he’s seen other places. While we were doing that, I was sharpening my knives even more. One knife had a slightly loose blade. I sanded the blade so it would be sharp. I blued a spot on the blade (don’t do that!!!). I saw the blade was loose and I touched the blade with my finger. I have a nice blister on my finger as it was hot. After it cooled, I sanded the knife end of the handle back so much of the slot and other things on the edge were now gone, and I drove the blade in again. Now it is tight and I doubt it will move for a while.
Some of these knifes have multiple angles on the sides rather than a single angle over the entire piece. I still did not get them all with a single slope from back to the edge , but they are all much better than they were.
I sharpened each knife until they can shave a little bit of hair on my arm. They are not true razor sharp, but they can remove some hair. When dull, they scrape the skin but do not touch the hair. They are sharp enough to work with. Now if I do things right, I should give it a few touches on the stone, then on the leather strop when I sit down and carve with them. They will become a nice blade.
I sharpened a chisel and I looked at some SCORPS I have. Scorps are chisels where the cutting edge is turned at a 90 degree so you pull them with your fingers through the wood like a knife. They do need work but are not too bad. I never got them to work really well for me. I usually only use them for a few minor fixes where the knife cannot remove the wood right (more likely caused by carver’s bad technique)
The Scorps are kept in a roll pouch where there are pockets for the scorps and you roll it up to protect them and tie it. I found another pocket knife that I sharpened to be a carving knife. I seem to remember having like four or five of knives like this, but have no idea where they might be.

Chisels and knives operate differently. Knives are pulled sideways while chizels are pushed from the end. They have different effects on how the wood cuts. With the knife, when you want to create a valley in the wood, you basically V cut the wood with the bottom of the angles meeting at one spot and same depth. If you over cut, you end up with what can be called FEATHERING, where the wood ends up as attached strips, like feathers.
Chisels, on the other hand, cut and lift the wood up as it cuts, leaving clean smooth wood behind it. Most carvers use chisels. The problem is you need a good number of chisels to get all the effects you need. You have to have several chisels of different radii, several width straight, several angles of V chisels. It does not take long to end up with a very large number of chisels one has to know when to use.
A knife, on the other hand, basically has a cutting edge and some form of point. You can shave, slice, V-cut, bore, with just one tool. You just have to know how to get it to do the job you are after. You can have specialty carving knives or one can use a stiff pocket knife to carve. I’ve made my own carving knives (recently too) that will do everything I want to do and made them quite cheaply. Making a chisel takes more skill and better material than the needed for knife.

A note on sharpening knives. I get the best results by applying a twist on the knife when working it on the stone, with the pressure toward the edge, if the side has any rounding at all. It will make the edge the concentration of the grinding pressure.

We talked more than doing anything while my brother was there.

Mom’s neighbor has a table that he wanted to put on wheels. I have some ball-bearing wheels I picked up from Harbor Freight, so we tipped it upside down. The people working in the house during remodeling had said that it was broken. We did not know how, though. When we turned it upside down one of the two sections beneath it, came off. I cleaned glue on the edge of the support section, and then globbed glue on both surfaces and set the section back in place, tapping the nails back in again.
I then found screws at about the right length (long enough to go into the table top but not long enough to go all the way through) and drove them into the connection in some more places between nails. I should have added screws to the support on the other side but decided to leave it as is. This table now moves easier than it should, but he is willing to will live with that. About that time I was wore out. It was about time to head home.

I will see what I do next week.

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