Spoons - Kolrosing

  Having recently acquired a second hooked knife and enough practice to get the best from those knives I've been carving wooden spoons.  The spoon on the right is poplar, a very straight grained wood that is soft for a 'hard' wood.   

  The spoon of the left is bass wood. Neither of these spoons are meant as cooking tools. I guess they could be used as 'spoon rests' on a kitchen counter or maybe as serving spoons for potato salad or the like.

  I carved these as idle time killers and to experiment with carving/adding design detail to the handles.   A while ago I watched a You Tube video on Kolrosing, and decided I would like to give it a try. 

  As you can see my initial efforts are crude when compared with the craftsman on the video, but Rome wasn't decorated in a day.

  It is always fun to try something new.  As is often the case, the internet has a host of useful information on this traditional wood craft.

cheers, ianw

March Break in Ontario

  Last week was March Break for our school age grandchildren. After nearly two years of off and on visiting we were able to have a proper multi day visit.  When an eleven year old and a thirteen year old visit it changes the routine of the house, dramatically. In a good, though tiring way.

  Our Grandson arrived with a plan in his mind to make a Venator Class B Star Destroyer. There were pictures on the internet and that was all we had to work with.

the red cargo doors slide apart to reveal an actual 

cargo space designed as a pencil case.

Yes, this is actually a pencil case. And on the rear end

there is a small drawer for erasers and a sharpener.

  Kieran has plenty of experience making models from kits. This was the first time that a model was designed and constructed from scratch.

  We first drew up a plan.  That was a fairly involved task since the Star Destroyer was not just a skin but a three dimensional creation with usable  inner space.  

  After the drawing stage we had to decide what was made from wood, for strength and what was foam core, for lightness.

  Then, four hours of drawing, cutting and forming the pieces.  To put this together we used 5 sticks of glue in the hot glue gun, and two sheets of foam core. K did nearly all of the marking and cutting with very little help from me.  I showed him how to best use his work space, and how to cut safely with a utility knife but was mostly just there for moral support.

  Once the shell was finished the whole thing was covered in papier-mache. A day to dry and then paint, both spray paint, (his first time) and lots of poster paint details.

  My Grand daughter spend several hours making doll house furniture with Eva. They make bed and tables and lamps, the sort of thing a doll house that will be home to a family of dinosaurs

 needs.   

  Altogether a really good week's workshop time.

  My work shop is a power tool/hand tool shop. I pick the method or mix and match according to the situation. Carving spoons is a prime example of that. In my garage yesterday I found a piece of poplar under the stairs. The wood was badly cracked so only useful for firewood or...a spoon.  In this case, I split the log with a axe and mallet, then used my jointer to flatten the face, rather then doing it with a hatchet and planes. Also, I used my band  saw to cut out the rough shape of the spoon.  That is brute work with an axe so I often choose the power solution. The initial stages work well with power tools, it gets the heavy work done quickly leaving quiet hand tools to finish the spoon.

  The next stage is all hand tools. The draw knife is perfect for shaping the handle and the hooked knives hollow out the bowl.  My rasps further refine the outside outside shape. Over the course of the project I use various other shop knives but the hook knives are only used to carve spoons.

  With just a couple of hours of causal work the stout spoon is ready to be sanded. I am leaning toward stout porridge stirring spoons lately.

 

You can see that the spoon has a crack right through. A couple of treatments with CA glue and once sanded it will look fine. 

 I have had a request for salad spoon and forks. I take requests.

cheers ianw  

spring is just around the corner. sigh.

Making Dust

 Before Christmas I began work on this live edge coffee table:

 It got sorted out enough to use over the holiday but now it returns to the shop for more work and the epoxy crack filling.

  The table was smooth (ish) but not very flat. It dips down in the centre and is high on the long outside edges. There is as much as 1/4 inch of material in places to be removed before serious finishing.  The tool for removing that much wood is a plane, power makes it faster and easier. All the big names make a power planer, traditionally the tool has two 3 1/2 inch blades, spinning 20,000+ rpm.

 My power planer is not from a 'big' name.  I bought it at a wood show out of a clearance bin for $10.00.  It is too short, has an incredibly fussy two stage safety switch and appalling ergonomics, I would not recommend this tool to anyone, unless it was $10.00.  I can see why it was being heavily discounted and cleared.  If it quits working I will replace it promptly with a Makita, Bosch, DeWalt, Porter Cable or what ever.  I do not endorse or necessarily agree with everything said in the fore going article, but it is a place to begin your enquiries if you are thinking about getting a power plane.  I would never use a tool like this for fine work, but it is great for hogging material away and for smoothing rough end grain as long as you pay very close attention, it can plough a divot.

  When my Father quit woodworking I got some of his tools. My Dad only ever bought the heaviest most robust tools. He either (and often) did without or bought a tool with a lifetime's use in mind.  The 7 inch grinder I inherited weighs as much as a summer cottage. I have never replaced the 24 grit disk that came with it but.....man oh man it clears material nearly as fast as it makes my back ache.

   This grinder is a Sears Craftsman from 35 years ago.  That was when Craftsmen tools were a serious tool supplier. I can fill the air in my shop with a blinding dust storm in no time with this beast. If it quit I would replace it too, a 3 1/2 inch grinder is for other things. 

  Lucky thing I have a fairly large air filter in my shop.

cheers ianw

   

And we're Back

 Travel restrictions have been eased somewhat and Eva and I were able to get away for much of February. What with packing and planning, returning and recovering, no blogs for a month. I always find it takes me a couple of days to re-adjust to home routines. 

  So yesterday I officially finished unpacking. Always when I am away I come home with a small repair project or two.  This time I had to fix the broken arm on my sun glasses. I had carelessly thrown the sun glasses into my shoulder bag and the arm snapped.

  The repair was easy, because I had a couple of special items in my shop.  First I "super" glued the arm together with two small pieces of plastic to support the repair while the glue set. Then, and this is the clever part, I covered the repair with heat shrink tubing and used my heat gun to shrink in down tight. I opted for the contrasting colour because I am a style maven,.......and my black tubing wasn't big enough.

  Another job that I came home was my travel shoulder bag developed a hole in it. Not a big hole, but enough for coins to fall through.  I like this bag, it is light, bright and has a solid zipper pocket for pass ports etc.  Anyway, as a shop job I turned it inside out and lined it with Duct Tape. I guess I will have to replace this bag eventually, but not today.

  I didn't post any blogs while away but....I did think a big about wood. This tree is in a botanical garden in Ponta Delgada, Sao Maguel Island Azores . It is an Australian Banyan Tree  

  The garden has several species trees including Kauri trees and Norfolk Island Pines  as well as bamboo and other flowering shrubs. The Borges Garden is right in town, a short walk from the Mall. It is comforting to observe that there are almost NO initials carved into the tree. 

   I came home to a little job that I hadn't been able to finish before we left.  My wife's friend had some plaster casts that were made some years ago by her father.  She decided to they should be mounted and seen, rather than live in a box in her closet.  

  This is one of those jobs that is easy, but has many steps and stages. To begin one of the plaques has a very rough, uneven back.  To glue it to the oak board meant that I had first to fill and smooth the back. That is why it took so long, the plaster had to set, hard.  Waiting for glue, plaster, varnish etc to dry it not labour but it does take time.  I glued the animal heads to the board, weighted them down and let the glue dry, for a couple of days.

  I really like doing small 'one off' things in the shop.  Get task, solve a problem and move on.  I worked in a factory with a small production line as a teenager and it inspired me to go back to school. I still like variety in my work.

 Before I took off in February I tried to revive another old toy.

Unfortunately, this toy had been neglected for too long. This little dozer was a childhood toy of mine, so fifty-eight or so years old. It had drifted into dead space at my parent's house and lived there for years.. When it resurfaced only one of the motors ran, amazingly. 

  

 Each track had it own motor and I was hopeful that with a little patience and solder it could be fixed. Once I got it apart the rust had pretty much eaten the gears and a portion of one motor.  The repair was beyond me.  The happy ending was that with the motors removed it became a usable push toy, and the blade still goes up and down as it moves. 

  There is a YouTube channel called Rescue and  Restore, old metal  toy trucks are returned to their former glory. It inspired me to try and save some toys.  If you are a tinkerer give it a look.

  Well, spring is coming they claim, didn't feel much like it today.

cheers ianw