The Award for the Best Supporting Craft Material goes to Wood

  My wife is a talented and creative person in the kitchen and glass studio.  Most recently Eva completed a glass sculpture of a cedar ( cedrus) tree.

  As the tree neared completion the question of where and how to mount it came forward.  I had in a back cupboard a piece of walnut that caught my eye in a cut off bin at a wood show, at least five years ago.  Some shops have no extra wood laying about without purpose, my shop has too much wood laying about with no assigned purpose, but sometimes a random piece of wood is just what the doctor ordered.

  To make the sculpture stand on its own I had to set the four glass sections into slots in the wood.  I began by tracing the glass base, each piece was a different length and width. I drilled out sections of the slots and then cut the rest of the slot with a coping saw.  Once the slots were cut I cleaned them up with needle files, rasps and a 1/4 inch chisel.  A coping saw is a good little tool to have in your shop for a job like this.  After the wood work was done I sanded the board to 600 grit and gave it two coats of spray vanish and a coat of wax. 

  A unique piece of glass sculpture reserves an unique base to finish it off.

  

note: measurements in centimetres. 

   The other knock off I am doing while hanging out with our grandchildren this weekend is a puzzle.  There bird cut outs are wood burned and will get a frame  17.5 by 19.5 cm. It is a surprising  challenge to fit all the pieces back into the frame.  My grandson likes to do puzzles. 

  It is great when a wood shop can provide support and entertainment for other people as well as pleasure for me.

cheers, ianw

  

Maple Knife Handle, by hand, mostly.

the yellow handles knives were destined for Iceland
fishermen but the deal fell through. I got the knives for 30 SEK ($4.55 Cdn)
each. The blades are stout and very sharp, the handles will be replaced.  

  I brought those knives home from Sweden last spring and have finally got around to making  a replacement handle.

  Don't get me wrong, the yellow plastic handle is excellent and probably easier to hold on to when wet than my maple handle. After all Frost/Mora are world class knife makers.  But, the handle is yellow plastic, its just not pleasing to my eye.

  The first stage of the process was to grind the plastic handle off.  I used my angle grinder and a course abrasive disk, easy and quick.  Every shop needs a 4 1/2 inch angle grinder. 

  Once I cleared the plastic away I drew a design for the handle, by tracing the blade and drawing around it.

  I picked maple for this handle. I picked a board twice as long as I needed. First I ripped the board in half, the length of the handle. Then I cut the rough shape of the handle on the band saw.  This let me cut both halves of the handle as though I had stacked them for cutting, with the uncut end providing plenty of support.

   Once I got the rough shape cut I used my dremel tool  to hollow out half the thickness of the blade on each side of the handle.  When the blade fit tightly into the hollows I glued the blade in and the sides on with contact cement.  I know there are plenty of new high tech epoxy style glues out there but....contact cement has never let me down.  You just have to give it the time it needs to set.  As the blade is inset into the handle I am not concerned that it will wiggle.

  After I finished with the Dremel  I settled in to watch a Youtube series on Queen Jane of England. ( reign 10 July 1553 - 19 July 1553).  I know that I spent a little over three hours shaping the handle with rasps, files and sand paper.  Three episodes plus coffee drinking time. I sanded the handle to 600 grit.  It was so smooth it felt soft.  

  

   That is the chaos of my work space as I shaped and sanded, if you look closely you can see the knife in the middle of the photo with green tape on the blade.  I think that a belt sander could have done the job 3 or 4 times quicker, but I didn't feel like the noise or aggression that comes from power tools this time.

  

   I finished the handle with two coats of orange shellac.  Maple is so close grained and so hard that I didn't even try to stain it, the stain just sits on top.  Old style maple furniture if usually finished with tinted varnish.   I picked orange shellac because it has a old style traditional colour and feel to it.

  The handle is a bit rustic and probably too small for most tastes but I quite like how it fits my hand.

  I have few more of these blades. My plan is for the next knife handle  be made from walnut or some other dark wood.  The handle will be a bit longer and more round with a hole in it for a leather thong too.   I am also thinking of drilling the blade to put in a couple of brass rivets, more the the look of things than any other reason. 

   I should gather together the knives that I have put handles onto.  I think I am getting better. Maybe in a coming post. 

cheers, ianw

Shop Tip

  Lately I have spend a fair amount of time in my shop and haven't really done anything....or so it seems.
  I have been making little cut outs for Tova to paint and put in her garden. I have been working on a method to keep a wall hanging from curling on the edges and I've been planning a couple of more involved things.  Planning for me means some drawings and sometimes prototypes and just generally mucking around. None of this is a shop tip.

  The shop tip relates to drill bits.

  Get or make a drill bit index. I am sure that most of those bit sizes are seldom used but at the end of every project I can put the used bits back in the index and KNOW where they will be for next time. This drill index came from my grand father's shop via my father's garage workshop.  If you buy an index you can spend a little or a bunch but having drill bits organised is worth the expense and effort. 

  The second part of this drill bit tip is:

  When I break or lose a drill bit I buy 2 or 3 replacements especially the smaller size.  Why so many?  Clearly the bit I broke was one that I use, sometimes often, example 1/8" and 1/16".  It is a pain if the bit you need breaks Sunday evening while you are finishing off a project.  I have a box above my bench with an assortment of regularly used bits so that I am never stalled in mid-project.

  Another update. 

  In December 2011 I assembled a wooden clock kit for my wife as a Christmas gift. For several years the clock worked fine in winter and not at all in summer.   Seasonal performance was expected with the huge variation in humidity we experience here, but the clock didn't work last winter at all.  I decided to dedicate the necessary time to fixing it last week, after the chaos of the holidays. I made a couple of spacers from thin wood and greased an axle with bee's wax and fiddled with the pendulum for an hour or so and now it is working again.  More pleasing still is that the clock has worked unfailingly for over a week.  

  Back to the shop. I have another fish to finish and a knife handle to make as well as a cabinet to hang.

cheers ianw  

  

Quiet Shop Time

  I have spent several happy and quiet hours in my shop the last two days. I am not really a wood carver but I do like to make craft projects that involve some basic shaping of the wood after it comes from the band saw or scroll saw.

1/4 inch oak six inch lizard

                           
  I've cut another lizard and a couple of fish to be painted. Since my grand daughter is an avid fisher person I decided to give the fish a more fish like shape after I cut them on the band saw. 

   You can see my latest lizard clamped into my version of the moxon vise. 

  You can see fish blanks  beside the heavy shaping tools. My initial shaping is done with a chisel, push knife and small plane.  Those tools knock off the edge of the spruce fish shapes. 

Fine shaping tools. 

  I have a drawer full of files of all shapes and sizes, as well as knives.

  These fish are being done with hand tools once the rough shaping is done by band saw. Occasionally I just get into a Zen frame of mind and feel like working wood and listening to music and pod casts.  I could wind out these fish in minutes with power sanders but I am just not in  hurry right now.

cheers ianw

Quick Little Things.

  There are few things as satisfying as getting hugs and smiles from Grand children.  When ever I am asked " Opa can you make me a ........."  I always say yes.  Sometimes the time spent making the thing is more than the time spent playing with it.  Sometimes the toy becomes a part of their lives.  You can never know what attention each project will receive.

  As my Swedish grand daughters were leaving a few days ago one noticed scroll saw lizard fridge magnets. Today I spent a while in the shop making her a lizard.

  As simple as this lizard was I still used several tools.  I started with my band saw, then I finished the cutting on my scroll saw.  After the wood was cut to shape it needed to be filed and sanded smooth.  I glued the button eyes on with a hot glue gun.  I was asked to make some lizards that could be painted, of course, that is what Opa's do.

  This morning the blanket box I refinished for my biggest grand daughter went home to her bed room.  At breakfast time this morning, in a flash,  I decided that the lid on the blanket box was too heavy and closed too easily and I feared for her fingers.  At breakfast I a brain wave.

safety donuts 

  

  When Clara gets older and more careful she can take the donuts away.  For now Opa can sleep comfortably.  This was a zoom down stairs, grab a bit of wood and go to the band saw.   It is great to have a workshop. 

  And just in passing,  yesterday Kieran and I made a mountain from paper mache and a train station from plywood.  Kieran's designs are getting more complicated all the time and he is drawing better plans all the time.  It is great to have a workshop. 

cheers ianw

  

   

Happy New Year.

 The last of our family visitors left yesterday and I just got an email telling me they arrived home, safe and tired. Happy New Year, a couple of days late. The week or so has been filled with family and friends and not much shop time.

  Today I was back in my shop for a bit, of mostly clean-up.  All of the jobs done in the last three weeks were in a rush to get ready for Christmas and many of the bits and pieces just got pilled onto the nearest available flat surface. (Not very efficient, of professional, but...)

  Today's blog is about keeping your eyes open when you are out and around.  On November 24th I blogged a photo of the blanket box I picked up on the side of the road.  I had burned the heavy paint off the box and sanded it in preparation for stain and varnish.

  I would say that the result was pretty good, Rustic, but still pretty good. I had an extended debate with myself and my wife about stain colour.  Initially I was thinking something colourful and child like, orange, red or pink, but cooler heads prevailed.  This blanket box is solid pine and may well last my Grand daughter years and years, and pink may not be the best decor colour down the road. 

 Who ever built this box did a very good and solid job. All I had to do was burn the paint off and then sand, and sand and sand.  First I used an orbital sander to remove the last of the paint and rough spots but I finished with a 1/3 sheet finishing sander.  Larger flat panels can be smoothed and flatten with the larger surface better, in my opinion.

  The only thing I added to this blanket box was an additional floor of aromatic cedar.  I cut 1/4 inch by 3 inch pieces of cedar and glued them onto the pine bottom.  The tools boxes are holding the thin cedar down while the glue sets.

  Now the stored items will smell nice and be in a moth resistant environment.  My Grand daughter is only six, but one day she will have lovely things in silk and cashmere and other flavours of cloth favoured by moths. 

  

  It is amazing what you can gather up when you are aware as you travel about. This next item did not come for free, it cost $15.00 at a thrift store.  Just before the holiday I dropped off a couple of bags of clothes are our local thrift store and decided to look in and see what they had for sale. Usually we just drop things at the appropriate door and don't stop in.

  I picked up a Grand Daughter clock.

 It is 60 inches tall and needs a couple of small repairs to its case work.  In the store the sign said $15.00- decorative only.  

  I figured if the works were shot, who cares. The face was worth more than $15.00.  I liked the hinges too, so I paid the money and brought the clock home.  I discovered all that was necessary was to replace the battery and it runs fine, and chimes too. The pendulum, which is ornamental only,  was in the bottom box of the clock case with the instructions on how to set and run the electric works.  With a little bit of fussing this clock will be a good as new. 

  If you are aware of what is out there and have a few bucks in your pocket you can save good things for the future.

  It might be a good New Year's resolution. Be a Maker, a Saver and a Doer.  

cheers, ianw