Long Spoon, and Another Cedar Project

 You don't know you need a long spoon until you get one and then wonder how you lived without it. Big pots of chilli, stew and simmering fruit all need a long spoon to reach deep into the pot's corners while keeping your hands happy and safe. 

  This one is walnut, finished with Hemp Oil. I shaped the spoon mostly with knives after roughing it out on the band saw.  Hollowing out the bowl of the spoon is a job for my Dremel Tool. I like using walnut for spoons because it is fairly hard and yet it is easy to get a glass smooth finish.

  We have several hand made spoons in the kitchen drawers now and it is surprising how often it is better to have a slightly longer, or stouter spoon at hand.

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  I have been working away with my found cedar. Yesterday another project emerged that suits found cedar.  This time I cut the strips on the table saw, I am leaning toward hand tools, but haven't fallen in totally. 

BOOT CLIPS revisited. 2014 March first visit.

  Winter has arrived and so it is tall boot season. 

  The boot clip is like a extra large clothes peg.  It keeps soft boots from flopping over, taking too much space by the door or in the closet.

   The design is two long pieces with a spacer in between. Once I got the boards cut into strips I used my hand planes to clean up and smooth the wood and a shop knife and files to round various edges. 

jack and smoothing plane.

  I think cedar is the perfect wood for these holders and it planes nicely. I'm making 6,  almost no noise and lovely shavings.  I have a Anant Jack plane with an up graded blade and a Veritas low angle smoother. (thanks Santa)  For a couple of years I was the Canadian Importer of Anant planes.  I always frond them to be good general carpentry tools.

  Time to think about some more quick Christmas gifts from the shop.

cheers ianw

  

Found Wood Project

 The other day I picked up wood on the side of the road.  Usually the wood lays around until a project comes along.  This time I was inspired to use some of the wood right away.

  I decided to make a corner flower box to sit on our deck.    Preparing the the wood did require some edge trimming but not much else.  

Several of the boards had 45 degree ends and so I decided to use the already cut wood.  I used a combination of Kreg Pocket Holes and screws to put it together.  The were a few rotten spots  I had to work around but I like the result.

  I cut the mitre using my sliding mitre saw and measured the lengths I needed  once I fit the corners.  This found lumber is cedar and nice to work with.  In the fore front of the photo is my try square.  This try square is from my late Grandfather's wood shop. I'm not sentimental but....I could never replace Grampa's square.

   I think I will paint or stain the project, after it gets a little bit of sanding.  It will look nice on the corner of the deck with flowers next summer.

 cheers, ianw

    

summer flowers

Why Wood, again.

  If you've read many of my blogs you know that I have a deep and abiding love of wood.  Wood is beautiful to see, smell and touch.  It also is a material that is easy and cost effective to shape and form as well as a sturdy building material. Know what else? When wood is properly cared for it has a much longer life than most 'low maintenance' materials.  

  What brought this whole thing on was three flower boxes from our back patio.

  In these three boxes live seasonal plants from our living room from late spring 'til late Autumn.  Two of the boxes are cedar and the small one is cedar with oak corners. These boxes have lived outside year round for many years.

 

    First each box needed to be brushed firmly with a wire brush and then the bug bits cleared out from inside.  There was even the beginnings of a wasp's nest in one of the boxes. A couple of the boards needed to be re-nailed and there were screws to tighten but...with a good coat of Flecto Danish Oil the boxes are as good as new and ready for several more years.  Have you noticed how quickly plastic flower pots and boxes become brittle and useless?  I have.

  

  This tin reminds me of a shop tip I want to share.  Whenever I go to the Re-Store, or any place that sells paint and finishes (big box store included) I check to see that they are selling cheap.  I seldom pay more than a couple of bucks a gallon for my utility latex paint.  I use the grossest  purples and greenish greys you can imagine for base coats or to seal the ends on boards.  Why use full price paint when it is going to be covered later or cut away.  Also when I see anything like this danish oil on super clearance I buy it to stain/treat things that live outside.  I have one more part tin on my shelf so I need to actively look out for some more product.  

  That is another bonus to wood.  With careful consideration, it can be a cheap as well as satisfying medium in which to work.

  To go along with my 'I love wood theme', here is a photo showing some of my wife's current set of kitchen tools for souping, stewing and mixing stuff.

  Looking at this I am reminded that  we've got several spreaders that I made and my grand daughters all have scaled down tools too.  Once the cheap plastic handles break on silicon spatulas I replace those handles as well.

  I have a tonne of tools that I have gathered up over time but.....there is lots if interesting and satisfying wood working possible with a few tools and heart felt desire. Nothing feels better on a wet cold day than mixing your home made soup with a spoon you made yourself.

 cheers,

ianw

sturdy veggie soup.

  

 

Train is Done....

  Over the past few weeks I have not been very active in my shop.  In the cool of the evening I putter around for a bit but mostly my energy is spent in the garden, on the motorcycle and/or trying to stay cool.
  That doesn't mean that there has been nothing going on. Last week my buddy with the crazy truck,

  helped me bring home six oak pew backs from our church.  The wooden pews are being replaced by much more comfortable chairs.

  I now have six pieces of oak 10 feet by 2 feet by 3/4 inch.  This wood has been cured for fifty years so I have no concern about cracking.  What I will do with all the wonderful wood, I haven't decided yet but what a wind fall for my shop.

  Also I finished off a smaller project.

 Two serious coats of Minwax wood hardener and my envelop knife is ready for prime time.

 The biggest project that has been drifting around my shop was the train shaped planters.

  The engine is 22 inches long and 8 inches wide, as is the freight car that 

will follow the coal tender.  The coal tender is 11 inches long.  I am pleased with most aspects of this build, except the wheels.  Or more accurately the way that the wheels attach to the cars.

  If I were to make another version of this I would still use cedar, (good for the out doors and my favourite wood with which to work.)  The process of glue and dowels I would keep too.  If all else fails this project won't have rust streaks showing .  Since the wheels are just for show I would have made them from thinner material and created a more light weight under carriage.  

  I think the planters will do okay in varnished wood this season but will need to be painted in the future and a good paint job will make for more of a train look.

  Cut out and waiting are bed pieces for my Grand daughter's stuffy, Bella Bunny.  When they get here later today she and I'll assemble the bed for Bella. I love grand children making things,

cheers, ianw

   

Two Weeks away from the Shop

 So for two weeks I haven't posted anything.  That does not mean that I have been sitting in the shade drinking Mint Juleps. Well, in fact I had a Mint Julep last Thursday evening, oh my goodness it went down smoothly. It was an evening of decadence, I also ate four different kinds of home made ice cream/sherbet.  My host, the ice cream maker, recommended "The Perfect Scoop" as his ice recipe book. I have it on order from our local library.

  What else?  I spent a week riding my motorcycle around Muskoka and the Haliburtion HIghlands in fabulous weather. I can not recommend those regions of Ontario highly enough. My family is from Bracebridge, though I've never lived there and so can not claim to be perfectly objective.  As a foot note there is an excellent bakery in Dwight Ontario called Erika's, outstanding donuts. 

  Anyway, what else?  Gardening, it's a jungle out there, and we love it.  

  Wood working, well, whittling while enjoying quiet evenings on Lake of Bays.

  That is my Mora 511 carbon steel knife and the two projects that I whittled while sitting on the porch after my rides.  I found a piece of dry white cedar and went with the grain .  All I needed aside from the knife was a sheet of 80 grit and a sheet of 150 grit sand paper.  My grand daughters found the two ended spoon a bit odd but it was inspired by 'the daily spoon' My plan for the wooden knife is to make it into a letter opener knife by chemically hardening the blade with epoxy or something similar. I still get some snail mail. 

  Otherwise I have  just been puttering around and enjoying the summer weather,  that has finally arrived. 

   

How To Build A Wooden Boat. 

  One day I am going to have a reason to make a boat like this. One day.

  I hope you are enjoying your summer and are out in the fresh air and sunshine whenever possible.

cheers ianw

Balance Bike Plan and Finished Project

  Last week I posted a couple of videos showing how to make a balance/glide bike.   Since then a link showed up on my Pinterest account here is an actual plan for a bike.

    Today I began the process of applying coats of shellac, sanding and varnish to the small three drawer storage cabinet.

  The drawers are about 8 inches square with aromatic cedar ends, plywood sides and bottom. The body of the box is white cedar and the top is maple and mahogany.  This entire project was made from materials available in my shop.  The top was cut down from boards I edge glued for another project years ago.  I never throw anything away and on this project it paid off.

cheers, ianw

So I built another box

  If we are being honest nearly everything we build in our woodworking shop is a box, unless you are Izzy Swan, then you build a t-rex. I set out to make this particular box to fill a small organizational need in our kitchen/dining room.

 As I was making this project I encountered a few things that I wanted to share with my reading public.

  I decided to use the sides from this wine bottle box and my Bessey Duo Clamp did a very good job of pushing the sides apart without cracking the wood.

  When I got to the assembly stage there are Bessey clamps again. This box has no metal fasteners, just Weldbond glue and sufficient clamping time.

  The ends of my box are aromatic cedar, I love the colour and the grain of this wood. An FYI it can be very brittle. Initially I was going to cut the dados by hand but the wood was breaking out uncontrollably when I used my chisel to make a 1/4 inch dado. The better option was to use my sliding mitre saw for this cut.  

  I cut my left index finger working on my table saw a couple of seasons ago and resolved (and promised my wife) that I would leave the guard on the table saw and use other tools when the guard got in the way.  I have only taken the guard off my saw twice to use my stacked dado set, I get along fine with my router table, mitre saw and other tools 99% of the time.

  Part of the reason I wanted to make the box was to try my Red Neck Polissior. Cedar looks great with a wax finish.

There it is, ugly,wrapped in Duct tape 

and ready to use.

  Well, it didn't get used because I found a source of quality broom corn and my wife had an inspiration to replace the hose clamps holding the broom corn.

 The clamps are replaced my zip ties. The ties are spread out to fit between my fingers and all the lumps are on one side. 

 The end result is a box to go on the island between our kitchen and dining room to hold all the stray papers and magazines that collect there.

  The cedar polished up great with the polissoir and bee's wax. I will continue to experiment with this finishing method but so far I like the result and zero drying time.

 cheers, ianw