Friday Morning

  The day began with a crash. A large glass vase filled with pine cones crashed to the floor and exploded into about a million transparent shards.  We have been very lucky in the nine years that we've been hosting grandchildren, this morning was the first notable damage.  So before coffee I was picking up the mess and vacuuming up the microscopic bits of glass.

  The cleaning fell to me because Eva was busy.

I know its not wood, but it wants to be.

  This morning Eva is creating a two layer wedding cake that is to look like pieces of birch tree.  The cake is maple flavour and the icing is vegan butter cream and fondant. There is more time involved in decorating the cake than in baking it, including the time in the oven. Pretty much like a shop project.  Building something is much quicker than sanding and finishing it.

  In the shop: 

  The board games are done for the wedding party.  Miranda and William games, with folding legs. 

  What else did I do in the shop in the last couple  of days.  As my back has been giving me trouble the last couple of weeks my shop time is limited to several short stays per day.  One day this week I spent the time sharpening tools.  I have a Work Sharp  system for chisels and narrow plane irons. For knives and gouges I use ceramic stones and the 'scary sharp' system.  I have found that honing with a strop will keep a blade going for a very long time, if you don't let it get too bad.

  I spend a couple of hours this week on house cleaning as well.  I have two tool cupboards that are open.  Without doors the cupboards gradually fill with dust, and all the containers on the shelves fill too.  I took the container boxes and jars down and emptied them out.  While doing this I threw out bunches of short pencils, bits of chalk, string, wire etc. etc. I find that while I am working on a project I do not stop to evaluate weather the small somethings are worth keeping or should be tossed out.   I put the thing back were it came from and leave the deciding to later, sometime later is much later, much much later and the deciding doesn't get done at all. Well, this week I did some deciding.

  What follows are graphic photographs of places and spaces in my shop that still require attention. If you are a sensitive soul, avert your eyes.  I am struggling to over come my wood addiction. ( supplemented and augmented by my disorganized nature ).

my small bench has become a dumping ground, again.
 the planes and chisels need a better storage space.

off cuts of plywood, such a mess.

another pile of 'stuff' and a box of
sand paper bits. 

more wood, scraps and off cuts.

In the back ground is the dowel rack in the window, a beginning.
One tool cabinet in on the wall,  I should rebuild it.

  I am working toward making this a better work space.  I now have less time in the shop and so hate to waste that limited time.  Before I could putter around in a mess and not care about lost time, I really hate lost time now.  I guess there is a bright side to back trouble??

  School starts next week.  The kids return home.  Things return to normal, whatever that is.

  Enjoy the final summer weekend folks.

  

cheers, ianw

  

A New Year's Thing?

  January is often a time for resolutions and promises.  Many shop folks resolve to clean and organize their shops for the new year. I resolve to clean and organize my shop several times a year and occasionally desperation or frustration drives me to do it.  Our annual furnace service happened this morning and on Saturday an electrician is coming to do some wiring in the shop too.  I therefore had to clean up things a bit for these fellows to have working space. 

  The other thing that I do in January is gather up small repair jobs and knock them off.  A job that has been hanging around my Mother's kitchen is her mid-sized kitchen knife.

  You can see the broken section on the blade, I suspect my Mom tried to hack a frozen bone. Bone - 1, knife - 0.  I brought it home today and set about saving the knife.  I used a wet grinder to  reshape the blade and roughly grind its bevels.

   The wet stone grinder leaves things very rough, but it is quick and there is no chance of over heating the steel.  After the shape and basic bevel is formed one enters into the world of "sharpening". There are many methods to choose from when doing your final sharpening, and I am not wholly committed to any one of them. Chisels and plane blades I usually sharpen on my Work Sharp, but certainly Tormek is another excellent choice.  When the blades are too wide for my Work Sharp I have the jigs and sand paper to use the Scary Sharp method too.  I echo the calls of many experts when I say, find what works for you and stay with it until you get good at it. There are no real short cuts.
 
   I sharpen my knife blades free hand.  I learned from my Father before I had much hair on my arms to prove my work.  I have found that hand sharpening can be a bit hit and miss, there are days when I just can't get it right so I have to give up and try again another day.
  

  Today was an 'on'day. After a bit of time with a 1000 grit water stone, a 4000 grit ceramic stone and a leather strop the knife was able to cut paper thin slices of cherry tomato and shave my arm too. When I brought this knife home I left Mom a replacement  so she wouldn't be tool less.  She said if I could repair the old knife she would like to take it to the community kitchen where she volunteers but would be afraid the knife would get lost in the general chaos of their busy kitchen.  After I got the knife sharpened I used my engraver to grind her name into the blade. Now it should be easy for the knife to get home with its owner.

  I suggest that every tool person have an engraver, and not to leave home with out clearly marked tools.  Even if your work site is honest, marked tools make clearing up at the end of the day quicker for everyone.  

  Another repair is to the coffee machine stand I built a few years ago.   The stand needed to be repainted and I will be making new boxes for storage underneath.

  It will be nice to get this looking good in the kitchen again.  Wood is amazing but does need a bit of attention now and then. 

  The last bit of maintenance I did today was sharpen my pencil sharpening knife.

 This knife was made for me by my Father, 25 years ago, probably more. It will sharpen to a razor's edge with little effort.  A special tool like this is owed the effort.

cheers, ianw

An Inspired Portable Sharpening System

  As I have said many times many ways, Merry Christmas to you, no no, that is not what I said, that is what the radio just said in the back ground. 

   It is after supper, I have spent the day in the shop, mostly making small repairs to kids toys and working on a big Christmas gift.  Now it is time to relax, do a blog or two and have a cool beverage.  My policy is absolutely no sharp tools, or motorcycles mixed with cool beverage time. It is safer to blog and beverage, I can edit out the errors and the keyboard almost never cuts my fingers.

Portable Sharpening System

   Dan's Shop is a blog that I follow regularly because it has shown me good ideas and I like and respect what he has to say.  His most recent blog entry relates to sharpening.  Dan uses the Scary Sharp System, a system that I have used in the past and found very effective. I also use my Worksharp and have found it great for chisels.

   Regardless of what system you use, sharp tools are vital to success and having sharp tools on a work site can be a challenge so a portable system like Dan's Scary Sharp is a good idea.

  The availabily of  Quality fine grit sandpaper  makes a portable Scary Sharp system a very good idea.