A Live Edge Bowl

  First a photograph showing the two tools from the last blog. The large sander is more than twice the weight of the 4 1/2 angle grinder.  However it spins slower and is not inclined to burn the wood.

   The current project is designed to feature the worm tunnels that were under the bark.  Since this round of ash is nearly three inches think I decided to make it to a bowl.

   The first thing I did was trace the shape onto a scrap piece of  plywood and screw the round onto the plywood. 

  This way I can clamp the project to the work table in the garage and use my arbortech  turbo plane tool to wear away the inside of the bowl

    This is actually the quick part of the job.  Once the bowl's insides are roughed out it will take some time to sand everything smooth.

  To finish the inside I will use every sort of sander in my shop, next post : met the sanders.

cheers, ianw

Lots of Things Drying

  At this moment in my shop there are things drying and small project stacked up. I am making some small projects for a coming event at our church and the impending Rockton World's Fair .  Our church is having a 'food fair' as a fund raising event in a couple of weeks and I am not going to contribute food, but kitchen accessories. I have made a serving board and three cheese boards.

   The cheese boards are ash wood rounds that I planed and finished with food grade oil. This set of rounds I flatten differently that previously.  The rounds are only about ten inches across and so I used my 12' Planer to flatten them.  I very slowly lowered the blades and took extra small bites as I planed the end grain of the ash.  The result is good but....I think I will have to replace the planer blades sooner than I'd planned.  

   Going to the food fair as well is a turned bowl I made a while ago from maple stair treads. Maple is hard but slightly boring looking wood. 

  I also made and wood burned a tea box.  I felt like working on a small hand tool project and after planing the wood down and edge gluing it I set about making a nice little box.  There is a special satisfaction in beginning a project with a piece of very average stud grade lumber and ending with a small finely fitted project.

  The little oak caddie for the three glass bottle with the turned wooden tops is also for the church. Projects like this are made in factories over seas by the ten thousand.  Mine however is one of a kind, with three up cycled bottles and their three different turned lids.  If some one realizes the unique nature of the tops they'll find a use for the bottles, it no one realizes that the three lids are different wood and hand turned, they don't really deserve them.

  It is nice to be at a point in my life where I no longer have to explain or promote.  I just make stuff I like and let it go at that.

  I have a piece of furniture to make and I have a door knob that I plan to turn in the next while.  My big projects right now are paintings for competition at the fair. Painting is nice, it is a quiet pass time, which serves as a relief from the noises in the shop.