Lumber Prepared

  Recently a brought home five of my late father's wrist watches.  None of the watches are collector's items to anyone but me but they over filled the available storage, so it is time to make myself a  decent jewellery box. 

   I decided I wanted to make a box from elm and to my surprise my huge pile of elm has shrunk to just a few boards.  A couple of years ago I bought a pick up truck full of ends from a hardwood flooring manufacturer.  It looked like I would have oak and elm for the rest of my life. Not the case, it is time to look around for another super deal on hard wood 'shorts' .

  I re-sawed the boards to 5/8 and the thin slices left  I planed down to use as drawer fronts for the box.  This job was important enough that I even replaced my band saw blade.  Actually I had kinked the previous blade cutting up the cherry branches. 

  The plan is a box 12x14x9, more of less.  These pieces of wood need to be planed flat and sanded before being cut to size. The box will have three drawers made from 1/4 plywood. I think that should accommodate all the stuff I own and then some.

  But not today.  Today is day one of a motorcycle trip, I'll be home Sunday. 

  I will ride carefully,  I never drink and ride and neither should you.

cheers ianw

                      Roll on Summer!

Elm has Character

    Elm is also strong, heavy, prone to splitters and looks good with a clear finish.

   I have been trying to get some exercise to help with my waist (waste) line and to ease my back pain issues.  My doctor says walking is the best option and so I have been walking, not enough, but some.  Walking with a straight back and erect posture tends not to bother my back much at all so I have been walking with a hiking pole rather than a cane lately.

   My hiking pole is green and aluminium and when I looked around I found that wooden hiking poles are crazy over priced and pretty basic wood working. 

  

    As they used to say in "the six million dollar man" we have the technology, my technology is in my basement.

   This morning I started out with a 48 inch piece of elm that I jointed and planed before marking out the potential hiking pole, walking stick. 

  The first stop after the flattening was the band saw.  I have used a Viking Blade in my saw for more than 2 years and it is still cutting acceptably.  The next time I take on a big re-saw project I will replace the blade, but for now it is fine.  Once I finished on the saw, I just put my head down and sanded, and sanded and sanded.

  If I make another stick I will use my hand planes to get the basic, rounding shape and then sand things smooth if necessary. I skipped the hand planes this time because I was too lazy to figure out a good clamping arrangement, but as is so often the case the short cut turned out to be the long way 'round.

   Once the stick got a coat of Minwax Tung oil it looked pretty good.

    I even took the stick for a "test walk" today, it preformed up to expectations.