What Do You Need To Do Basic Woodworking?

   Lets imagine that you are a 20 - 40 something with a decent place to live and a few (very few) extra dollars to spend on improving your home, lifestyle and gift giving.  If you are a little bit patient  and slightly handy you can create many things  for reasonable amounts of money and time.  

  Often people send beginners out into the world with a shopping list of tools and equipment.  A basic set of tools needs to measure, cut, smooth and assemble.  There are dozens of tools both hand powered and electric that will do those things, these tools range from economical and generally useful to wildly expensive and extremely specialized.  To prove the vast scope of the tool world, look at something as fundamental as the hammer, there are hammers of every size and shape used for general and specialized tasks.  I don't anyone needs them all. I've done lots of woodworking for many years and only have five or six different hammers. 

  So, my suggestion is to buy the tools you need to complete the task at hand.  You may find that you are perfectly happy making small wooden crafts and so never need big, costly tools. If your wood working is done in support of other hobbies, eg. making picture frames, flower boxes, raised beds or children's toys you do not need to invest heavily in space or tools and can still get a very satisfying result.   

  I have over time, followed the "task first- tool next" theory and in 40 years gathered up a very full workshop of tools.  Those tools have provided years of rewarding pleasure and distraction for me. This method also helps insure that you don't  spent money and discovered you really don't enjoy making things from wood.  Not everyone does, no shame. Nearly all my tools were acquired as and when they were needed to  complete some project or other.  My joiner, planner and bandsaw were purchased to make building larger pieces of furniture easier. I have a good selection of hand planes, saws, chisels and knives used when making small things like spoons.

  Christmas is coming soon.  Much of the virtue of home wood projects is the ease with which the final finish can be adjusted. You can buy basic wooden shelves, bookends, candle holders, and boxes, and all the tools you need are smoothing and finishing tools. (hand or power driven).  

  A personalized gift, finished by hand and coloured to match the receiver's taste is more meaningful than just ordering something ....and having it shipped to their house.

  In the next blog I am going to talk about some the options available to help adjust and personalize projects.

cheers ianw

   

Wood shop = Repair Shop

 There is great satisfaction in making new things, trying new techniques and expressing one's creative spirit. Wood and related products are excellent mediums for all those things.  However, a wood shop also is a great place to reuse and repair.

  Currently my shop space is filled with several repair/renew projects.  I started the garden benches a while ago and I am waiting an opportunity to sand blast the ends.

  I am renewing and finishing a doll house.

  This doll house is from a kit and a friend gave it to me to finish and then give away.  It seems the original building lost interest about 7/8 of the way through.  It needed little things, like, all the edges were razor sharp, there was lots of fiddly sanding to do. (a good time for needle files.) I had to paint and attach the external fire place covering and there is lots of detail painting yet to do.

 As my wife was putting the yard to bed a couple of repairs came into the shop. The most interesting is a big red fish.

  This fish is made from a piece of construction 2 x 10, that had seem better days. The dowel that stuck out the bottom rotted away and the top fin and the tail fin are broken off. There is little that is special about this bit of garden statuary, other than I worked on it with Grand Kids. Is it worth fixing, or.....just make something new for the garden. I guess I will have to decide. My first impulse is to repair, but...maybe replace makes as much sense.

  Once I started this blog I began to doubt the fish's future, before I wrote the blog I was sure I would repair it.  Interesting how writing things down effects your thinking. 

  Christmas is right around the corner, if you are planning to make gifts, you better get on it.

cheers ianw

    

   

Beaver Craft Wood Carving Tools

 

beavercrafttools.com

  I ordered a chip carving knife blade from Beaver Craft Tools recently. It did take a while for the blade to arrive in the mail, but...considering the mess in Ukraine it arrived in an acceptable time.  I bought the blade because I have been revisiting Chip Carving and the knife is different and uses an different technique.  Something new is always worth exploring, I think.

   I bought the blade without handle for a couple of reasons, I am cheap and can make my own handle being the major one.  The other reason, a blade can be shipped through the mail in a flat bubble wrap envelop fast and easy.

   Fitting handles to knife blades is quite simple now that the available glues are soooooo good.  The sides of the handle are cedar with a hardwood slice in the middle into which the blade is fitted.

  The handle is over sized in all dimensions so that there is plenty of scope for custom shaping.  For things like this I let the glue dry over night to be sure it is set and curing. 

  

  The final knife has a fairly short handle and the front of the handle is wrapped in cotton soaked with 'super glue'.  The cotton cord allowed a post assembly taper to be added. I have wondered about how hard and long wearing 'super duper glue' would be, so this is an experiment.

  The knife blade arrived very sharp and in a timely manner even given the current situation in Ukraine.  I will now have to use the knife for a couple of projects and see if an Old Dog can wants to learn a new trick.

cheers ianw

Getting Ready for Christmas

   As a general rule I don't endorse or promote products.  I usually say what I have to work with and sometimes share links to the tools used on TheToolStore.ca website. In this case I was sent Wood Maxx screws to try out since I use lots of self taping screws in my shop projects. Usually I drill  a pilot hole even when using self taping screws.  Anyway, I set out to do a project that would require a bunch of screws to check out this new to me product. 

note: No pilot holes were used in the course of this project.

Recycling, reusing and crafting are all the rage currently and I love to reuse skid wood. Usually a project using purposed wood adds extra steps and effort.  Not this time. The rustic nature of the wood was a bonus rather than a liability.

I  gathered together a few mixed boards from my skid wood stash, laid them out on my work table and set to work.  I gave all the boards a basic sand to 120 grit, making sure that all the nails were removed of course.  Since then will probably be moved about several times being decorated etc, I sanded all the edges to reduce the possibility of splinters. 

  This is one of two trees destined to adorn the entrance to our home this coming holiday season. I screwed the two trees together with the Wood Maxx screws, quickly and easily.  I liked the screws better than drywall screws both because they are #2 Robertson ( square ) drive and as #8 a better screw for this job.

  After I screwed the trees together I gave them two heavy coats of deck sealer so they will endure for a couple of seasons at least.  Now, we are thinking about  the nature of the decorations.  The plan is for the  trees to feature all natural ornamentation, we will have to see how the plan works out. 

  This is another rustic project that can be made with found wood, a couple of tools and almost no experience. Go For It.

cheers ianw