Carved Forks and Finished Spoon

 I finished a couple  for salad forks and my fancy spoon while waiting for glue to dry and dust to settle.  Also I seem to have been busy with other stuff and out of the shop for a few days.

  

  Again I used poplar for the forks. This particular piece of wood has the green and white two tone grain colour that makes poplar unpopular with furniture makers but poplar with me.  The wood has good strength and straight grain but.....the  colour is not neutral,( it even stains strangely)

  I included these forks to encourage beginners. Below are the tools that I used after the basic shape was cut out on the band saw, a coping saw would work as well, only slower.  The fancy spoon is now finish sanded and ready to be sealed. I may stain it first since it isn't really meant to  be a cooking tool just an ornament.      

 

  

The straight bladed draw knife, or push knife is another tool for quickly removing wood.  A good basic carving knife like the one in the middle would do the job too. I used two palm chisels, a straight chisel and a shallow gouge. As you can see I saved money on the knife and the gouge by buying them without handles. There is a point where the beauty of the handle is more ascetic than helpful.  The tiny palm plane is also nice to have but....not necessary, an ordinary block plane would do the work fine.   

These are my two most used hand sanding finishing tools.  Once I am done carving I do plenty of sanding.  I use 80 grit to refine shapes and work my way through to 600 grit for a touch that is silky smooth.  I used dozens of bits of sand paper about the size of a business card. The wine cork makes a good backer for sanding curves.  The other thing is a home made flap wheel using nut and bolt.  I load the bolt with pieces of sand paper and drive it with my cordless drill. 

  I haven't decided what legs to put on the plant stand.  I have a dresser that needs attention and that has taken some attention in the shop.  I've been puzzling on a sander that keeps letting the sand paper slip loose,  I've been designing and painting Easter cards for my grand kids, and so I have filled up my time, outside the shop too.  It is great to have the free time and resources to putter around with many different things.

  cheers ianw

Shop Jig

   I recently saw a video on making a hand sanding jig that used sanding belts.  I have a belt sander as well as a variety of other sanders, and at first didn't think much about making a jig.
   As I was doing some shop clean up I came across my small collection of-

  broken sanding belts. I've used these belt for a variety of things over the years and still have six left. Should I throw them away...or make a jig to get use from the belts?

  Went back to the video, decided what suited my needs best and made my own version.

  I started with a piece of 2 x 4 and planed the faces smooth and ripped it to width.

  Since the belts are broken I didn't need to develop a method for tightening the belt on the wood block.  I just used thumb tacks on the least useful end of the block. Now I have a 150 grit sanding block with a wedge shaped end to get into small places.  I will use a crape block to clean the sanding belt  as I use it and so will get many, many uses from this simple, useful jig.

  Last week I saw a cool cat silhouette, it was cut from pine and had been very artfully painted. I borrowed the piece for a hour and made a pattern for my future use, I think I better paint this cat pattern red like my other jigs.

  At this time I don't plan to make a cat but having a pattern like this at hand enables me to make something in a hurry for a Grand Daughter to paint.  Over the years I have been collecting patterns for arts and crafts and this latest pattern makes me think it is time to gather the items together and see what I've got.  Fear not..the organizing bug has not beset me, I'm too old be begin organizing now.

cheers Ian

Who me! ?

 I'd never do that.