An Atypical Week.

  This week there were family things to cause stress and upset schedules but they have been resolved and life returns to what passes for normal.

  I found an interesting You Tube video to share:

DIY Concrete and Wood Table

   The project is interesting and the quality of the video production is quite high.  I could see trying a project where there was a concrete element to it. I think a patio table might be a natural for a combined effort.

  My  bench is filled with glued up 3/4 oak.  Many of the pieces that I cut out for the kneeling chair are to be 1 1/4 inch thick so we had to rough up, then glue pieces together to get that thickness.  Once the glue is set David and I will square up the boards and plane them to the require thickness. 

  We used nearly every strong clamp in my shop.

  I'm also working away on my pickle tray thing. I have discovered several thing about this project.  I am able to clear wood with a carving gouge quite easily in the dry, dry oak by going cross grain. 

 I have gouges in three sizes and so begin with the smallest chisel which leaves obvious marks but is easiest to use without a mallet. The middle size chisel lets me flatten thing somewhat and the widest chisels can make things pretty smooth as you can see in the photo.  With sharp chisels of the correct size much of this carving task can be done without a mallet.

  The other thing that I've learned from this project is that this is  learner piece.  In the past I've used band saws and grinders and Dremels etc to make thse olive trays. The commitment to  learning hand tools is newly developing thing .  

  Clearly carving this project is slower than using power tools and at least in this case the end product won't be as good as my previous trays.  However this is a sustainable working method.  One can't assume that one will always have a large well equipped power tool shop at hand.

    cheers, ianw

from Eva's Garden