Welcome to November

   To begin the blog I have two videos to share. 

   I have followed Rob Cosman for years. He and I worked booths at wood working shows a few years ago and Rob is one of the best know and respected wood workers in Canada.  His blog 'best woodworking tips and tricks 2020' is great, he speaks from long experience.

 Laura Kampf is a wood worker from Koln Germany who seems to be able to turn her hand to both wood and metal work.  Her video showing a new way to glue up a table top is great.  I am planning to copy her example on a smaller scale soon.

 What have I been doing? Making an over engineered  pencil sharpener.

  I embedded  a trim plane into a piece of oak and then made the oak board into the top of a box

  using a wooden hinge.

  This pencil sharpener can plane a wood pencil to a very, very sharp point, or a long point, or what ever you decide and the box underneath catches the shavings. It is like sharpening with a knife or chisel but without the mess.   There is nothing special about the project other than the wooden hinge.  I got the idea from an ad that showed up in my Facebook account awhile ago. Mine is not hand finished brass but....it will work as well.  If I made another one it would be easier and nicer, but not brass.

 The other project is a beginning on Christmas gifts.

 I sewed a 16 page book with  hand painted cover from nixed media paper.  A grand daughter will be able to draw, colour or even paint their own little book. I try and keep my grand children supplied with decent paper for their art.  It is always good to recycle office paper but it is best used for shopping lists not art.

cheers ianw

  

Cutting Boards



detail of the board



    A couple of posts ago I said that I liked to build to a purpose.  That means that I like to make things that people find useful.  Cutting boards are useful and so much nicer than plastic or bamboo for China.



  Making a cutting board is not terribly challenging but oddly they can be satisfying.  Let me explain why I find gluing three or four pieces of wood together, sanding them smooth and waxing the final product so satisfying: 

  First; is is time in the wood shop, anytime in the shop is Good time.

 

 Second; it is wood, often really nice hardwood with an interesting grain.  Wood is lovely stuff  with which to work.  It feels nice to the touch and smells good.

 

 Third; making a cutting board is a chance to try new router bits, or clamping techniques or practise with card scrappers or hand planes.

  Fourth; when it is done it is before your eyes in the kitchens of your family and friends reminding you of how good your life really is.

 

   Today's cutting boards were on a shelf waiting for my attention so today, as the spring sun shine streamed into my work space I scrapped and sanded and fussed away until I had two very nice little projects.

  Over the course of finishing them I used a new router bit, (a 15 degree camfer bit, it is OK. I think it would be better on thinner stock). I used my old Stanley hand plane with the replaced blade as suggested by Rob Cosman, wow it works great.  Finally I got organized and made a box to go on the bottom deck of my router table so that everything is easier to access. ( My plan now is to make a custom cabinet for the router table)

elm and oak and maple

oat and roasted ash