year 9, Week 48, Day One (week 518) (January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.) 12-12-09 Saturday 82 degrees, solid clouds in the morning. someone broke them so we had some sunshine and blue sky, then someone fixed the clouds so it became unbroken again. The clouds were pregnant with rain in the morning, but not yet to term. Another Seattle morning. After the sun, we had some dots of rain come through at around noon. One was about six blocks across and a bit later one was three blocks across. I left before a freight train of showers came on shore. Most of the three county area never got a drip of rain.
This weather report was brought to you by the City Of Pompano Department of tourism.
I took my ornaments to work this week. My boss saw two candy canes, which I had last week, and decided he had to have them. I told him that for ten bucks more, He could get two more. I sell them at ten bucks a piece, four for thirty bucks. He took two trees. I have to make more trees now. I only have one left.
I also had them on display at the restaurant we go to on Saturdays. two people showed interest, but they would "be back" next week.
I started this year with a total of 103 ornaments. These represent most of what I have made over the years. I have one sleigh and four bells from the very first year I did these ornaments. I have a lot of some year's stuff, and little of other year's stuff. I try to make more of what goes quickly.
I started these in 2003. Dad had a tiny CRAFTSMAN lathe. We saw an article about making bells, Christmas trees and snow men on a lathe. I tried making them, but the lathe would run a bit, then die. Run a bit then die. This was in like June or July.
It dawned on me that I could make them by hand. I had a bunch of each of them made, added a sleigh which was more a bandsaw project, and decided I could make a dozen of each of them.
I had most of them made when it dawned on me that this was 48 pieces!!! I had only been carving for three years. This was a major project. I got them done by December, and found I had to make more trees and snowmen. They have always been what was most popular.
I have tried to do four ornaments a year every year, I have not been able to do it every time. Some years I have made one or two. This year, my swans looking up, my swans looking down, and my owls are my three ornaments and I am not finished making the whole dozen of each. With the owls, I have made a design change in them, but since I don't have many made, it works out.
I turned in the race car and it was run. I saw some video of some of the other cars going. They sent out loads of smoke. They could not run in the parking lots, so they ran them in a tennis court. They crossed two courts, corner to corner, through a gate. The fencing around it did not help much. One guy put the jet engine in a toy car. It hit the fence and was demolished. They had two runs. Only three cars were left after the second run. Mine was one of them. There is a nice gouge in the front of the car where it hit the chain link fence and a link dug in. And here, we were worried about distance and speed, not structurally sound. Glad we over-engineered the thing. I got the car back with two of the rocket engines. She was to get her grades Friday.
Mom had a yard sale today. I helped her set up in the morning, then helped her get the stuff under cover when the showers came through around noon. We were going to set up again, but the big puddle in her driveway was not a good thing to have, so we put everything away.
Beggar pretended to be a cat most all day long. I don't know what got into him. He swatted at my hand once, but no claws. He was just saying "stop." Otherwise, he let me pet him all over.
My first project was to make some blanks of owls. I started with one piece of wood and it hates me. This is my second attempt with this wood. The corners chipped off instantly and became utterly useless for what I am making.
I dug out a twelve in wide two inch think plank of Yellow pine I have, and cut about seven inches off the end. I then measured the thickness and drew lines down the length at that distance to make squares. I then cut the squares.
Last week, My brother replaced our blade in the Band Saw and adjusted it some. What a difference a good blade makes. The blade ate the wood as fast as I fed it in. The other blade, before I damaged it by trying to cut a screw, was not this aggressive. It sure makes a difference in long cuts.
Getting things adjusted properly with sharp blades, makes the difference all the way through the project. The dull blades were burning the wood. I had to sand the edges to get rid of the burnt surface.
I went out front and carved on the owl blanks I made. They are looking good but need more work. I broke the wing tip off my second owl, so I had to glue that back on. I then went to the third owl and carved.
The previous owls were supposed to be horned owl and they just looked weird. One had the effect of being a professor, so I realized that they needed a miter, the flat hats that they wear in college. These are made with a square block on top their heads. I tip them so the front is high and the back is low, and disk sand them until it is flat on that angle. I then have to cut the underside to match the top angle. It looks better than they did. I might do some with the miter being level.
I am gifting some cast iron frying pans I have. One of them had a thick gunk built up on the outside. I tried burning the gunk off but that was not good for my stove or my place.
At Mom's house, I tried lacquer thinner and other than possibly making the baked on oils hard, it did nothing. Mom made me try to scrape it off. In two sessions, I got the pans a whole lot cleaner. That is hard work.
At a yard sale two weeks ago, I saw what I needed. It was a wheel that fits in your drill and has metal bits sticking out. you spin the thing and the bits will scrape off the surface. That would have been nice to have, but I did not have access to one. Dad had one but there is no way I could get close to where it might be, if it were there.
I stood with the pans in a vice, and a putty knife in my hand, scraping in all angles to get the baked on crud to chip off. I did wonders, but it sure was a lot of work. I did all four pans.
Mom is to place the pans into the oven and set the oven to clean, for me. this will burn off the excess crud on the pans so I can start clean. That is the best way to gift them.
I told her that it still might send out smoke signals, but it won't be a novel.
Tomorrow, I will make some more owl blanks, and then finish the ones I worked on today. Possibly carving the ones I make tomorrow too. I also have swans to carve if I get tired of the owls.
I will see what I really do Tomorrow.
year 9, Week 48, Day Two (week 518) (January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.) 12-13-09 Sunday 81 degrees, mostly blue sky with thin white puffs all over the place, mostly to the north of me. I don't remember any time there was no sun today. Barely noticed the light breeze. The dry air felt cool, even though it was temps that was sometimes hot in the summer.
This weather report is brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach Department of Tourism.
My first project was to take some expanding foam insulation and spray it into the sea urchin shells I got. This is to give them some strength. I was worried about the foam breaking the shell, so I kept sticking a skewer into the hole and gathering some of the foam, from the center of the shell, that stuck to the skewer. This will reduce the breakage of the shells.
I then took both my bowl gouges, and my thin parting tool, and my skew chisel, and sharpened them.
When you sharpen your tools the grinder puts a concave grind in it. When you run the tool on a sharpening stone like when you just want to touch up the edge, only the base of the grind and the edge touch the stone. the edge becomes sharper and cleaner.
I had been using the stone on my bowl gouges and had ground off most of the cove so I added it back in all over again.
I then took a stick of Black Walnut and quartered it. I then took one of the quarters and made it into a finial that was nearly the entire length of the stick. This is the bottom finial for one of the sea urchin shells. I have to make a top finial, and then a bunch of finials for the remaining shells. I am happy that this finial was a whole lot longer than I had done in a long time. I usually break them. Part of it might be that the wood was stronger than what I normally use.
My next project was to make some blanks for some owls. I make these on the lathe to remove the worst of the wood and, since the owl is rounded somewhat, It saves a lot of cutting by rounding what needs to be rounded. I made one owl and was parting it off. The wood cracked when the wood got too thin, and the stick bent, It swung up and caught my hand against the tool rest and took a nick out of my skin at the base of the little finger. The wood clattered to the ground.
I made one more of the owls with no problems. The third owl was still on the stick and I was going to quickly cut out a fourth owl. The tool caught on the wood, the thinned wood at the base of the sixth owl broke and the stick hit my hand again, this time about a finger width up the finger from the first ouch.
My brother had already arrived, so I decided six blanks was enough for today. It was also lunch time.
After lunch, I cleaned up the turning mess. When working with small stuff like these blanks and finials, they don't make much sawdust.
I sat down and first went through the owls I made yesterday, finishing the cuts and cleaning them up. They went fast. I then took the three I made today and carved them. That went quickly. I got them the way I liked them.
I dug out the dremmel and put on one of my wheel style grinding bits on. I put it flat on the head where the eyes were and created circles of the eyes. These look like glasses or just the big owl eyes. I also dremmeled a dimple in the center of the eye for the pupal.
When the owls were done, I took out a marker and filled in the eye and the circles around the eye. I considered using a marker for the miter hats, which needed to be black. Instead, I dug out the black paint and painted them. I set them to dry.
When I got home, the paint was dried. I touched them with the knife to remove a bit of slop, then used a marker to touch up little flaws in the black. I signed the owls and have given them a coat of varnish. Tomorrow, I will add the eye hooks and they will be done.
Center owl is what I used as a pattern for the rest of these owls. Mom stuck the pans I cleaned up yesterday, into her oven and set the oven to clean. The pans are cleaned completely. She found a lot of rust on the bottom of the oven and everywhere she set the pans left rust. I cleaned them up when I got home and have started the process of seasoning the pans. It won't be right, since I don't have an oven that can hold them, but they won't rust when I am done. They will be an excellent gift.
Next weekend should be more ornaments. I have a bunch of stuff that has to be shipped and my ornaments will be part of what will be going. as presents. I will need extras by the time I am done. All of these were supposed to be done at the beginning of the month.
I have to paint my Christmas cards this week. Got to get them done. I have the design, just have to apply myself to the project. I paint the cards en-mass. I take one color and apply it to a dozen or more cards, every place I think they need to be. When that dries, I take the next color and put that everywhere it needs to be. I keep doing this until all the cards are done. There are always differences between the cards, but there is a lot of similarity to them.
I will see what I actually do next weekend.
