Prairie tree ornaments become a future project

A recent article in The Daily Record opened up a new interest - scroll sawn prairie tree Christmas ornaments. The ornaments by Glenn Tschantz of Orrville, Ohio, are three dimensional and involve a lot of fret work. Most popular after the Civil War, they have a delicate and detailed Victorian look. I found a book at Border's, Holiday Ornaments for the Scroll Saw, by Rick and Karen Longabaugh, owners of The Berry Basket Collection. Full of over 300 patterns, it appears many are three dimensional and ornate like the ones produced by Mr. Tschantz. They certainly will be a step up from my present scroll saw work.

I made some simpler ornaments this year that were featured in a project article in Wood magazine, November, 2007. I stacked two pieces of thin plywood together with a layer of copper in between. I turned the metal picture into the front of a Christmas card to each of my relatives. They each got a matching wooden ornament. Four of the seven designs are included in this picture. They are cut from 1/4" baltic birch plywood and finished with a satin polyurethane spray finish.

I'll look forward to trying some of the more complicated designs to decorate our own tree next year.

Vase saved from the scrap pile becomes "Resurrected Vase"

I spent most of Thursday and all day Friday in the workshop. I had some clean-up work to do in the workshop after finishing all the screwdrivers and pens from earlier in the week. I also cut wood blanks for two letter openers and turned some additional bottle stoppers.

But I wanted first to try two bowl blanks, a cherry and a mahogany. And, I decided to try to save a turned vase that I thought I had messed up too badly. One bowl was turned and the vase repaired by a late lunch. After a short break I turned the mahogany bowl and then polished all three. For these three items I am applying a coat of SealCoat prior to the polishing.

I call this the "Resurrected Vase" since I actually pulled it from the firewood pile and was able to correct my previous turning mistakes. It is made from cherry and has an inlay band. It is called a "split vase" since the inlay strip hides the cut made to hollow out the vase. See my previous post on the Woodcraft class where I learned to make the vase.

This whole time is a gift from my wife, Mary Lou. She thinks I worked so hard getting the Christmas presents done that I should get some time for myself in the shop. While I admit that today I am feeling less pressure to get things done, the last two times in the shop have both been very enjoyable. What really made this time nice was that Mary Lou joined me on Thursday evening and Friday.

Friday I returned to the shop with several goals. First I wanted to turn one final screw driver to use the last 4-in-1 kit. Then I wanted to turn the additional bottle stoppers. So far, drilling larger holes and inserting the brass insert into the bottle stopper wood blank has worked well. I have several more pieces of cocobolo, bicote, thuya burl, and a glue-up of morado and curly maple. That let me clean up the pen turning supplies and clear of my work bench.

I’ve done a lot of turning in the space of one week. I am really learning to use the 1/2" SpindleMaster to almost eliminate the need for sanding.
I am beginning to get excited about the prospect of the turning class in North Carolina which comes up at the end of January. Right now I would like more guided practice, help on better tool control, and some design and project ideas.

My goals for the immediate future would be to complete the finish on the cherry cabinet, assemble the veneered lidded box, and assemble my sharpening center cabinet. That would clear up one section of the garage and almost allow two cars to actually park inside in the winter!

I won the "Battle of the Bottlestoppers"

Bottle stoppers and I have had a difficult relationship over the last months. While I had turned several stoppers several months ago, I have had nothing but trouble since then. I bought some stopper kits from a different source that turned out to have a different size thread. Then I purchased some brass inserts from Lowe's which turned out to be totally wrong for the task. I ended up with a small box of stoppers all with the wrong size or wrong type of insert in the wood.

Well this last trip to the wood shop was a positive one. I was able to use the style and size of insert that I needed for the Woodcraft kits. Essentially, in order to make things work I had to ignore the recommendations that come with the inserts. Because of the hardness of the wood I was using - Cocobolo, Jabota, Maple, etc - I had to increase the size of the hole for the insert - the recommended hole for the insert is 3/8" while the outside diameter of the threads on the insert is 1/2". So somewhere in that remaining 1/8" was a happy medium - large enough to not strip the threads off the insert yet small enough to allow the threads to bite into wood.

This is a picture of one of the successful stoppers. It is maple with an Ohio state quarter embedded in the top. I turned and polished three stoppers to send as Christmas gifts. The second used a blue plastic to which I added a clear jewel on the top. The third was a beautiful cocobolo wood with a dark stone insert. I still have several kits to try with other wood and decoration combinations. It's nice to find the correct methods to make these.

European pen kits

The latest trip to the wood shop was to work on making some pen kits. I had two Cigar pen kits to complete and ten European pen kits (pictured left) to start.

I used wood blanks that I had in my left-overs to do the two cigar pens. But for the European pens I used rosewood blanks and thuya burl blanks that I had purchased at Berea Hardwoods in Cleveland.

There have always been two times in the process of making the pens when disaster strikes. The first is when drilling the hole in the wood blank for the brass tube. Some woods and plastics tend to break in the last half inch. The other time is when turning. If the wood fragments or the glue is not coated over all the brass tubing, the wood will shatter while turning - again usually just as you are about to finish!

Well, I experienced these disasters a couple of times. But I had prepared more wood blanks than I would actually need so I was able to complete the turnings for all of the pens. Both pens seem to look better with darker woods; however, the burl and plastic samples are attractive.

Now will come the really fun part. I am going to finish each of the pens using the Beall wood buffing system. I have really enjoyed the feel and look of turnings when I use the tripoli, white diamond, and carnauba wax with the buffing wheels. Can't wait to see the pens with that smooth and gleaming finish.

My next turning time will turn some bottle stopper kits - some really nice chromed kits from Berea Hardwoods and some "cheapie" plastic ones from a craft store. In either case, the finish should be first class.

Turning handles

I got to spend parts of three days in my wood shop. I completed several screw driver handles and three "spurtles" as well as clean up the workshop and prep it for my next visit.
I used the screw driver handle pattern from an October, 2006 American Woodworker and some 4-in-1 kits from Rockler for this project. The pattern is a hefty handle that should provide for an excellent grip. I made several out of maple, one cherry, and one paduak. The paduak and maple handles are shown in the picture.
I used the same handle pattern to make several spurtles. Now I just have to find relatives or friends who make enough oatmeal to use one. I do think they would make effective stirrers and would not damage the finish on the pot.
I used the Beall Wood Buff System to finish the turnings. The system uses three cloth wheels - "The all-flannel tripoli buff will level out the finish and remove any scratches, the flannel/cotton mix white diamond buff takes out any remaining small scratches and begins to polish, and the all-cotton carnauba wax buff yields a high gloss polish, similar to a lacquer finish." It is an amazing transformation to watch. The finish just invites you to pick up the handle and feel how smooth it is. I can't wait to try this on some other turnings.
Finally, after several frustrated attempts with brass inserts for bottle stoppers, I contacted the instructor at Woodcraft in Bedford Heights who gave me some hints to adapt the hole size for various hardnesses of wood. So, I'll have to try that project again.
Bowls and bottle stoppers are my next projects for Christmas gifts.

Culling old woodworking magazines

I have saved all of the issues of the various wood magazines that I have subscribed to over the years. They now fill a large storage cabinet and overflow onto the table top. Any useful reference articles or projects that appealed to me were copied and put in notebooks. While most of the magazines are neatly arranged by date and magazine title, I have never referred to them after filing them for information or ideas unless I was disposing of older issues. So, I have decided there is little value in saving the entire magazines.
I am culling through issues from the 1990's and coming to an understanding of why the accumulated magazines are unused. As I look through the magazines I am noticing how many projects are out-dated, e.g. media centers for deep televisions, and how repetitious the projects are - hundreds of plans for Adirondack chairs and saw horses. Plus, it is really time consuming to leaf through an entire magazine hoping to find a particular reference. So, after culling several years of two magazines I have a stack of articles about an inch high that I believe are worth saving. A much more usable pile of information.
I am pleased to get rid of this burden but, as I get closer to more current issues, I am sensing I will have more difficulty making the call to save or throw out. But, in the short term, at least now I will be able to store all of the magazines in the cabinet.

My grandson the woodturner

Friday my grandson, wife, and I went to our lake house and spent some time in the woodshop. I had previously written about the idea of making a spurtle as an introductory woodturning project for my grandson. He seemed interested and so we set up the mini-lathe and gave him his first lessons.
I was surprised and pleased to see how he enjoyed the project. He seemed to understand the mystery of seeing what finished project was hidden inside the raw stock. I was impressed with his ease at learning how to use the tools and his natural carefulness in following new methods.
His tasks were to round a square maple spindle with a roughing gouge, then to use calipers to determine the thickness at several points. Then he used a parting tool to set the depths at four places along the spindle. We were removing a lot of wood to reduce the spindle in size so, instead of just removing the waste quickly with a roughing gouge, he used a spindle gouge to practice making beads and coves.

The spurtle appears to have evolved into a straight dowel-shaped implement with a handle area and a stirring area. Other than that, there are numerous examples of spurtles that look quite different one from another. So, the tool that evolved was Dylan's unique design.
Once he was finished turning it, we polished the wood. It is now ready to make a trip to Colorado and stir some delicious oatmeal or soup.
We will have one more day at the lake house. If he is interested in more wood turning, I do have a couple 4-in-1 screw driver kits that might be another turning project for him to try.

Spurtle

My grandson, Dylan, from Colorado is arriving today to spend a week with us in Ohio. I had been working on several wood working projects that he and I might do while he was here. I even made one project that my son, Eric, and my grandson could do together -make race cars - but I think my son has other plans.
What I did find that I think might be a good introduction for Dylan to wood turning is a spurtle. It involves turning a maple spindle into a thin, foot-long kitchen utensil. Although most of the samples I have seen include a definite handle section and a slightly tapering stirring section, there really are no rules. If he can learn to use a roughing gouge to make the stock round and a spindle gouge to make some combination of beads and coves, he should be able to make a spurtle. I bought two three-foot lengths of maple so that we can try making a spurtle. We'll see if Dylan is interested in this kind of a project.
The utensil is said to come from Scottish and northern European cultures and evolved into its present shape as an effective tool to stir oatmeal, porridge, or soups. It is also popular today since the wooden utensil does not scratch the surfaces of the pans.

What's more fun than raking leaves?

This weekend, most of the trees in my yard decided to drop their leaves. Of course, this came just days after I had cleared all the leaves from the house and the yard. My neighbor and I were standing out in the yard talking when the maple tree decided to rain bright, yellow leaves down on us. It was like a yellow blizzard and covered the ground with leaves in seconds. It was a disheartening experience to say the least.

So, when "the dump" occurred, did I rush out to clean them up again? No, I retreated to the workshop to clean up several old planes. Seems perfectly sensible to me - let the leaves for another day.

Actually what turned out to be more fun than raking leaves was cleaning and adjusting a couple of planes. Over the last several years I have bought several old planes at auctions. My intention was to clean them up and learn to use them. They have set untouched for a long time and I decided to try working with one.

I had just watched a Podcast from Woodsmith which reviewed how to recondition and maintain older wood planes. I learned a lot about dismantling the planes and cleaning the various parts. I had previously taken a class in sharpening plane blades. So with all this knowledge but no previous experience, I chose a Sargent plane to be my first. I took the plane completely apart, used several grades of sand paper to work to flatten the base of the plane, used the same sand paper to flatten the back of the plane and create the 25 degree bevel. I had some success in using WD40 to clean the parts. Since my workshop is in an unheated garage next to a lake, I have two sources of moisture to attack metal in my shop. The WD-40 will hopefully help prevent rust on the plane surfaces.

Putting the plane back together seemed simple enough and I was feeling rather smug until I realized I had installed the blade upside down. After making that correction and adjusting the plane, I was producing some nice, light shavings on a scrap of cherry. It was a nice learning experience and I am looking forward to working on a few of the other planes still waiting for attention.

I didn't spend the whole afternoon fixing one plane. I did move on to work on two different projects.

I drilled and set brass inserts in 11 bottle stopper blanks - four cocobolo, four bicote, and three acrylic. I also trimmed and sanded the box lid I have been working on. The picture shows the bird's eye maple veneer lid with mahogany edging and paduak splines.

Lidded box - version 2

I copied a spline jig that I found on the Internet. I did add two clamps to hold the frame in the jig and a miter slot key to keep the jig in line. All the pieces are 3/4 Baltic birch with the exception of two hardwood braces and the miter slot key. The changes that I made make it easier to use clamps to hold the frame thereby eliminating the dangerous practice of holding it with your hand. The cuts are also more accurate with the miter key (although the spline placement is limited to 3/8" from the edge).

I used the spline jig to add paduak splines to my box lid. The saw cuts are approximately 1/8" thick and set to almost the depth of the corner angle. The paduak grain runs across the miter giving the miter a lot of extra strength. The coloration of the paduak should be an orange/yellow hue to compliment both the darker mahogany and the lighter bird's eye maple.

At the same time I trimmed the dividers for the box interior and put the first coat of wipe on poly on the box bottom and dividers. Next visit I can trim the paduak splines and apply the first coat of finish.

More Christmas present ideas

One of the neatest gifts would be a Hock Plane Kit #KF150. It includes all the material to make a bench plane including a Hock blade, one of the finest blades on the market. The kit is $98.50. Your order by phone at (888)282-5233 or download an order form from their web site.

Rockler is offering free shipping through 12/31/08. The promotion code is U9006 for my customer number of 8629597. A couple of items from their catalogue that I would like are Painter's Pyramids #24162 at $6.99, pair of bench dogs #33523 at $22.49, or a set of Cool Blocks #25997 at $14.99.


Along the line of buying items that I need for projects, here are four items that I would like to incorporate into my new work bench. The three are from Lee Valley. A large front vise #70G08.02,$76.00, a shoulder vise screw #70G01.51, $32.00, or a pair of square bench dogs #05G02.01, $38.50.

More cleanup and progress on projects

I've been back to the work shop twice since my last post. The continuing cleanup and organization is helping me make some progress on several projects. Here's a view of the storage section that separates the workshop from the car parking area.

My first attempt at veneering was a bust! The veneer seemed to form into high ridges at the seam in the middle and all over each piece. I don't know why it happened. For my second attempt I decided to do one side at a time and to use a plywood caul to spread the pressure more evenly over the veneer. This seemed to work well as my second try was very nice looking. I have now glued the second side and have it in the vacuum press.

I used a model that a fellow wood worker posted on the web to build a spline jig for the table saw. I added a miter track runner and two clamps to the model to make it even more efficient. It is now ready to use whenever I have the box lid completed.

I have also made four holders for quilter's plastic rulers. One was specifically requested by a Tree City Quilter and the other three will be given to that organization to auction or sell. These were made of mahogany and ranged from 14" to 10" long.
While I was sanding these rulers, I decided to make some progress on a cherry chest that has been sitting half done for a year. I planed and sanded one drawer box and its door front in preparation for putting on the first coat of sealer.

Finally, I also put cherry edging around the sharpening station counter top. It is clamped and drying now. The next steps will be to chamfer the edges and add the miter track. I have the case work cut but not dadoed and have the face frame pieces cut to raw dimensions. I should make some substantial progress on that on my next visit.

Suggestions to Santa Claus

Most of the people who give me Christmas gifts have no idea what to buy me for my shop. In past years my wife has purchased a major shop machine (lathe, joiner, Leigh jig, etc). One of those machines and a few small catalogue items and my Christmas was complete. Now I am at a stage where I really don't need any more machines. So I will start a list of some smaller, but not necessarily inexpensive, wood working items that I would enjoy having.

#1 on my list is a good low-angle block plane.

Woodcraft sells Groz block planes. They have a heavy cast iron body, accurately ground surfaces, lateral adjustment levers, and black enamel finish.
The Low Angle Plane has a 1-3/8" iron set at 12° and an adjustable
Groz Low Angle Block Plane, catalogue #146074 Price:$27.50. They can be ordered directly from http://www.woodcraft.com/

The other example of this same kind of low angle block plane is made by Lie-Nielsen. This is said to be the best brand of planes available - and the price suggests that they are right.

They feature sturdy ductile cast iron bodies and 1-3/8" by 1/8" thick blades.
The surface ground body is perfectly flat and a movable shoe allows precise, easy control of the mouth opening for adaptation to the work at hand.
The bronze cap iron comfortably fits the hand and is tensioned with a 1-1/2" brass spin wheel. The low angle iron is set at 12-1/2º. Low Angle Adjustable Mouth Block Plane These can be purchased through Woodcraft or directly from the maker at http://www.lie-nielsen.com/catalog.php?grp=1221. It is significantly cheaper to buy this plane from Lie-Nielsen

Finally, another superior brand is Veritas from Lee Valley. This unit is slightly more in cost, $145.00, catalogue number 05P22.01

I would be grateful to Santa for any one of these. Don't feel too trapped because I will make other suggestions of other gifts later.

Big time shop cleanup and reorganization

This weekend I spent all day Saturday and half of Sunday in my work shop cleaning, reorganizing, moving, installing - everything to get the shop to a state that it is enjoyable to work in.

I finally trimmed all of the cherry bowl blanks I salvaged from the neighbor's fallen cherry tree. Now I will store them for awhile. This picture shows all the blanks loaded and ready to go into the basement storage room. Each of the blanks is coated with Anchor Seal - a waxy liquid that protects the end grain from drying too quickly. Most of the blanks are in the 5" to 6 1/2" range with two that are 9" blanks. At least one of the finished bowls will have to go back to our neighbor as a thank you for letting me have the wood and as a reminder of the tree that fell during our visit from Hurricane Ike.

I did a tremendous amount of moving equipment around, putting a new butcher block counter top on one of my work benches and creating a second workbench for my sanding equipment. The place still looks messy but I think I have things headed toward neatness and ease of use. More pictures of the shop next week.

The only wood working that I did this weekend was to do my first veneering. I had purchased but never used a unit that uses a hand pump to create the vacuum. Since I had been to a class recently that glossed rather quickly over veneering, I wanted to try out the unit that I had. The veneer on both sides is taped to the plywood. There is a plastic mesh sleeve that covers the work piece and all of this is sealed inside a heavy plastic bag. The hand pump quickly removes the air and puts pressure on the work piece to help adhere the veneer to the plywood. The piece is the lid panel for a box. The panel is veneered with bird's eye maple on both sides of 1/4" plywood. The insert will sit in a frame of mahogany. It will be next week before I can return to check out the veneering to see if it is ready for installation in the mahogany frame. More pictures on this later.

Box Making 1, 2, and 3

I completed a Woodcraft three part Box Making class last night. I brought home a semi-completed box that I built over the three classes. We made a box with a veneered panel - one side mahogany and the other side walnut - mahogany lid frame and box sides, and walnut splines.
Each of the three classes was from 6:30PM to 9:00PM. The first night we concentrated on the lid. The instructor, Mike Novak, covered veneering the panel, and we cut the dado in the lid for the panel, sized the panel and glued the box lid together. The second night we installed splines in the corners of the lid, cut dovetails in the box sides, and sized and cut the box bottom. The final night we used hand planes to remove the excess wood on the splines and the dovetail ends and planed the box and lid tops and bottoms. We also cut and installed dividers for the interior of the box.
I did learn new things and did some things for the first time. I have used my own Leigh dovetail jig to make many boxes and drawers but I had never added splines to mitered corners and had never used the different planes in so many ways.
At the same time I left the class with some mixed feelings. I wanted to learn to use veneer and not just talk about it but I realize that it would have been a time consuming step to actually do within the class. I disliked the mixture of mitered corners for the lid and through dovetail corners for the box but I accept that the real purpose of this class is to acquaint people with various woodworking methods and to sell merchandise. I came home with a box that I really don't want to finish because I am assuming that the mixture of mahogany and walnut will not be pleasing but I hope I am wrong.
My wife, Mary Lou, strongly suggests that I finish the box and not let it sit undone. What I decided to do was remake the lid with a combination of woods that I think would be more pleasing. I am intending to use birds eye maple on both the top and bottom of the lid panel instead of the walnut/mahogany. I will then complete the box, put on a finish, and add the hinges.
I know a lot of my dissatisfaction comes from the issues above but are also influenced by two time issues. This class had seven participants and every step became a "do your thing and then wait" for six others to do theirs. There was entirely too much time wasted. The second time issue for me was the drive. I spent almost exactly the same amount of time going to and from each class as I spent in class. I have usually enjoyed the Woodcraft classes from this same instructor and others but I think I learned that the class structure and time are important considerations in taking a class in the future.

It's back!

My Sorby Spindlemaster gouge arrived in the mail. What a beautiful job they did in restoring the honed bevel that I had mistakenly sharpened away. All in all it was an easy experience: Sorby responded to my emails the same day and graciously agreed to repair my gouge at no charge if I paid the shipping costs. They confirmed the receipt of my gouge and contacted me directly for the credit card information. My costs to ship to Sorby was significantly under $10. Their costs to me for shipping back to me came to $32.
Two important conclusions: even with the shipping costs I paid about half the cost of a new gouge and if was nice to deal with a company that helped a "newbie" learn a valuable lesson about sharpening.

Turned wood hats

Keim Lumber had a demonstrator at their Charm Days sale this past weekend. Powermatic Lathes sponsored the appearance of JoHannes Michelson.
My brother, Ronnie, was visiting from Texas and we went to see what turned out to be the last half hour of a three hour demonstration. JoHannes turned a hat made of red maple and added a decorated band using ebony and to color the banding.
Michelson's website contains an extensive photo gallery of the steps he uses to turn a complete hat. He uses some unique adaptations (a fluorescent bulb attached through the head stock to illuminate the interior of the hat while he makes the finishing cuts on the top of the hat. He is certainly an accomplished turner who can easily turn while answering questions from the audience. He enjoyed poking fun at some of the mistakes he has made while he has been hat-making. It was an enjoyable and inspiring experience for me. I appreciated seeing him in action and was challenged by his skills to try more on my own turning.

Turning Cigar Pens

I bought ten Woodcraft #147158 cigar pen kits to make for Christmas presents. I have completed seven and have three to go. Each pen is from a different type of wood so the pens take on a very different look even though they are all the same shape.

I had one failure due to attaching the pen pieces in the wrong order. The first six successful pens are pictured at the left. The woods from left to right are walnut, yellowheart, purpleheart, koa, rosewood, and sugi.

The kits appear to be quality pieces with a gold finish. The instructions leave a little to be desired. Woodcraft encloses generic instructions for pen turning and then a sheet specifically for the cigar pen with instructions for mounting the bushings on the mandrel and then for assembling the various components. Some specific diagrams would be helpful since some of the generic diagrams are confusing.

I'll finish the last three pens and then return to bowl turning. My inventory of bowl blanks has mushroomed with the addition of the recent cherry green wood.

British firm repairs my mistakes

I took my three skews and one Sorby Spindlemaster to a sharpening class at Woodcraft. Sharpening is, admittedly, something I knew nothing about. And it seems that as I try to learn how to sharpen, I am discovering that I was making all kinds of mistakes.

I had these three skews but had never learned to properly sharpen or use them. After learning how to set up the skew attachment for the Wolverine Sharpening System, I was able to get a good edge on all three. We also spent some time in using the skews. So I think I can safely use and sharpen the skews in my shop.

The Sorby Spindlemaster was a different story. I had used the tool successfully and tried to sharpen it. Unfortunately, it is a tool that is not to be ground, but honed only. I essentially was taking away all the good attributes of the tool by what I did. The sharpening class instructor said, "The best thing to do is see if Sorby will repair it."

So, I found the email address for Sorby, a British company, and sent them an inquiry yesterday - a Sunday afternoon. Later that same day I received an email from "Clive" at Sorby offering to repair my tool. They said, "We are happy to re-hone your Spindlemaster free of charge as a service to you. All we ask is you cover the cost of shipping both ways.
If you can package it very securely with the cutting edge well guarded and ship to our address and for the attention of Lindsey Reynolds."

Robert Sorby
Athol road
Sheffield
England
S8 0PA

What a nice gesture on their part.

So my class was a success: I learned to sharpen skews, I had a lessen in their use, I learned to not grind on a Spindlemaster, and I learned there is a charitable maker of quality lathe tools. Not a bad learning experience.

Cherry Logs to Bowl Blanks

Today Mary Lou and I transformed five pieces of cherry log into a bunch of various size bowl blanks. It took about an hour to process all the pieces with me cutting and Mary Lou packaging the bowl blanks in paper or plastic bags until I can get them to the wood shop.

My chain saw had a work out handling the size of these logs but we should have several large and medium size bowl blanks. Tomorrow we will take them to the wood shop and begin the next step in the process: cutting them round on the band saw and setting the center for turning. I will probably have to wait until this weekend to actually turn the bowl blanks to their rough shape.

Since this was my first attempt at converting green logs into bowl blanks I don't know exactly how to rate what I did today. It seemed like I had some trouble getting the chain saw cuts to line up with previous cuts. I will see how that impacts the turning process.

Check out all the photos of this step in my web album.

Tree to logs to bowls?

Yesterday we had the remnants of Hurricane Ike come raging through our area. It was an afternoon and evening of very high winds which caused a lot of electrical outages and tree damage. My neighbor lost a cherry tree that fell into another neighbor's yard and garden. Another neighbor helped cut the tree into pieces that could be moved around to the front of the house for disposal. I was fortunate enough to be offered several pieces of the trunk of the tree.

I got five log sections to be my first efforts at cutting bowl blanks. They are 10 to 16 inches long by 12 to 16 inches in diameter. Later this week I will make my first attempts at cutting them into bowl blanks.

Rockler store closes: the good and the bad

Next weekend the Cleveland area Rockler store will close it's doors. I have been going there for the last ten years or so and will miss the convenience of picking up something quickly. The only national vendor for woodworking supplies in the Cleveland area will be Woodcraft. Although they are very similar in many ways, the Rockler store tended to have more hardware items in stock. My closest Rockler store will be in Columbus Ohio, so I imagine I will be using the Rockler catalogue for most of my purchases from them.

The good part is the 50% off everything in the store. I made two sweeps through the store. When I returned to the car after the first purchase I remarked to my wife, "I could have spent another hundred dollars easily." And the love of my life uttered these golden words in response, "Well why don't you go back in and get what you want. This won't happen again." So I did.

I bought a 6 foot birch work bench top, several turning tools, some sand paper, some inlays, and a few bits. The turning wood blanks had been pretty well picked over and what was left was the really expensive pieces (even at 50% off) and the pieces with cracks.

Bottle Stoppers

I think I am making a regular, predictable journey through the beginning stages of being a wood turner. First came pens, then some spindle turning, a start at bowl turning, and now, bottle stoppers.


I started with a kit from Woodcraft that included a 1/4" X 20 mandrel and several chrome stopper bottoms. The first ones were simple efforts but inspired me to try some different brands of stoppers.


My initial designs came from an October, 1996 issue of Wood magazine but most of those designs had very pointed tops and would have caused injuries when used as a stopper. My second set of stopper supplies, including ornaments for the top of the stopper, came from The Woodturners Catalog.

There the confusion started since the new stoppers used a larger thread or a wooden dowel. Each required some changes from the original methods. I created a mandrel from a bolt and nut to hold the larger threaded stoppers.

When I look at the series of stoppers I can readily see the value of drawing a design on paper before starting to turn on wood. The turnings seem to have progressed from unbalanced and haphazard to a more unified design. My favorites are the two shown in the accompanying picture (at twelve o'clock and three o'clock). I like the ornamentation on the top of the stoppers.

From the beginning my wife and I have struggled while trying to figure the true usefulness of these stoppers. First, when we open a bottle of wine, we usually finish it -meaning no need for a stopper. Second, when we try to use one of the stoppers on a tall bottle of wine, we can't find a spot in the refrigerator to accommodate that tall of a bottle. So, these may be neat things to make and useful to give as gifts, but not likely to be an oft-used item

Tool sharpening

I have signed up to retake a lathe tool sharpening class. The first time I took this class I was too new to the hobby and I didn't ask many questions that I should have asked. I am retaking the class with a little more experience and the knowledge that I need to get some questions answered so that I sharpen my lathe tools correctly.

I knew that I needed to retake this class when someone looked at a parting tool that I had "sharpened" and exclaimed a little too loudly and a little too publicly, "This is the poorest sharpened tool I have ever seen. It is TOTALLY wrong!" Well, I now know how to sharpen a parting tool correctly. I need to learn enough in this sharpening class to feel as ready to sharpen some of the other tools, like a skew and some of the miniature tools that I have.

I have a Wolverine Sharpening System with a slow speed grinder. I have found a web site that appears to explain how to use the system's various attachments. Now I just need the class.

Split Turned Vases

I attended a class, "Split Turned Vases" at Woodcraft in Cleveland. I had no idea what a split turned vase would be but I signed up for the course to experience something new in turning. This was labeled an intermediate class and I was also unsure at what level I would describe my abilities - I was sensing it might be a stretch to call my turning skills intermediate.

It was a class of four turners scheduled to last from 9:30 until 5:30. We had an hour for lunch and were done by 4:30 but this also included some time to shop in the Woodcraft store!

You can see the three pages of instruction sheets for this project at my web album. We completed a cherry vase with a 3/8" inlay.

The basic approach of this project is to cut a rounded blank into two sections with a lip similar to a box lip. The unique instructions are to hollow out the top and bottom sections with a round nose scraper instead of hollowing tools or a bowl gouge. You then glue the two sections back together, make a recess for the inlay over the top of the glue line, and attach the inlay strip. Then you finish the top, cut off the chuck section, and drill an access hole in the top. The finish we used was two coats of Armor Seal buffed with 320 grit in between coats followed by two applications of Crystal Clear wax.

It is a relatively easy project that makes a really nice gift.

Tea Light Holders

One of the simpler projects we did at the wood turning week at Cedar Lakes was making tea lights. Using a 5 inch circle of 1 inch think walnut, I made a wooden holder for a tea light. Using the screw chuck, we mounted the wood and detailed the bottom of the light incorporating the foot and the tenon for the chuck jaws into the design. Turning the blank over and holding it with the jaws of the chuck, we drilled a 1 1/4 inch hole for the tea light. Then the top was tapered to the edge to create the appearance that the circle of wood was floating above the table surface. At the workshop we sealed the wood and put on several coats of Deft spray finish.

The walnut holder on the far left is the one that looks the best to my eye. The cherry holder on the right is a little too thick and appears heavier and less delicate.

When I got home a cut a number of 5" mahogany blanks to try to replicate the shape and appearance of the walnut holder. These might be one of the projects I have ready for my grandson to try when he visits this fall.

Understanding ogee

After the initial simpler projects at the wood turning class, the instructor gave us a bowl blank of spalted maple and said, "Make a bowl with a simple ogee shape." Well, since I didn't really know what a "simple ogee shape" was, and, typically male, thought it beneath me to ask, what I produced has a somewhat rounded shape but not a good ogee shape.

Although I liked the bowl and the instructor made a nice correction to my squared-off rim, I wanted to learn what ogee really meant and how to make a pleasing formed bowl.

A quick look in Wikipedia led me to understand that an ogee shape is a convex curve followed by a concave curve. When I looked at my spalted maple bowl, it had the convex curve but a very, very small concave curve.

What I also wanted to understand was the proper proportion of the two curves in relation to the entire bowl shape. I found a nice article on good design and the "Golden Mean" which gave me a lot of direction. That lead me to draw out a bowl with the appropriate ogee curve in proportion to those design principles.

I then produced a walnut bowl that matched those dimensions. Using the drawing as a guide helped me conceptualize the design ideas. I'm glad I did the research to fill in my missing knowledge because it will help me on the next bowl.

I had to use some purchased bowl blanks which are a little shallower than would be ideal. But the difference is only slight and I still ended up with a nice salad bowl size piece. I will now try to duplicate the size and shape in order to have sets for salad bowls at our house.

A week of turning

Background: My wife, Mary Lou, and I signed up for our first Elderhostel activity. We chose craft activities at Cedar Lakes Center in Ripley, West Virginia. Mary Lou has been to that Center for many years for week long quilting sessions. This was my first visit and I had been forewarned that the facilities could be rather plain and the food more equivalent to school cafeteria food. Mary Lou signed up for a session to make a "Carolina Lily" quilted wallhanging. I signed up for a week of woodturning. Neither of us were familiar with our instructors.

I was totally happy with my experience. Cedar Lakes is run by the West Virginia Department of Education and serves as an outdoor education, recreation, and craft instruction facility for both school children, community groups and groups such as Elderhostel. I came home totally worn out but also relaxed and really pleased with the progress in turning that I had made. Meeting and working with eight other turners, some new to turning but several very accomplished, helped to add to my enjoyment.

My class was taught by a professional woodturner, Joe Smith, who has taught several wood turning classes at Cedar Hills. He gave us a series of turning projects from simple to more demanding. Joe was an encouraging and challenging instructor with a delightful sense of humor. This picture is a maple burl bowl that I turned and finished.

Over the next several posts I will talk about some of the projects and show some pictures of my work. However, a complete webalbum is embedded in the side column which will let you see a series of 49 pictures from this experience. For a full set to pictures of Cedar Lakes, my instructor and classmates, and some of our projects, use this address at Kodak Galleries.
This experience leaves me excited to return to the lathe and practice more bowl turning.

More unfinished projects are completed

It has been an eventful but unproductive few months for this woodworker. February included a trip to Key West for a week at the beautiful Heron House on Simonton Street. Right outside our room was a beautiful rain garden. We had a relaxing week although Mary Lou continued to have some intestinal problems which didn't seem to respond to treatment.

After our return to Ohio Mary Lou ended up in the hospital and had surgery. We have been consumed with dealing with the impact of this surgery and the changes in our lives for the next few months.

Anyway, we began going back to the lake house a few weeks ago and I had the time and energy to complete a few of the unfinished projects I had hanging. I applied spray finish to three Tic-Tac-Toe game boards and to the bodies of two potpourri holders. The tops of the potpourri holders are plywood with a scroll sawn design that was spray painted with a copper finish paint. The tops look rather subdued and more attractive than the plain birch plywood would have looked with a clear finish. The sides are walnut with an arched base to create the illusion of feet at the corners.

The Tic-Tac-Toe boards are also walnut. I used the Rockler bit to make the depressions for the marbles and a stencil kit from Rockler to make the grid lines on the top. I used black pain to accentuate the grid lines and then again used the Helmsman spray finish. Three of the boards are walnut and one is maple.

I intend to package all of these projects to be give-aways to visitors and friends.

I also took a lathe tool sharpening class at Woodcraft. I learned a lot of new things to do and several old techniques to change. I bought the correct wheel for my slow speed grinder so I now have two different grit wheels to use with my Wolverine Sharpening System. I built a new base for the grinder and now have a convenient and thorough system to keep my tools sharp as a turn.

Finally, I signed up for an Elderhostel week at Ripley WV, Cedar Lake Conference Center, in August. It will be a full week of turning classes. I have never taken such an extensive class so I am interested to find out what it will be like.

Logs to Bowls - Woodcraft class

I attended the "Logs to Bowls" class yesterday at the Bedford Heights, Ohio, Woodcraft store. It was taught by Harry Robinette, a store employee and accomplished wood turner. Six students spent the morning learning the processing of logs into good turning stock for bowls and vases. After lunch we each were given a section of freshly cut cherry to turn into a bowl. It was my first such green wood experience and a good training session in the use of a finger nail bowl gouge. Four hours just flew by and we had to hurry to actually get a finish on the bowls by 5:30 when it was time to leave.

I had an excellent time and produced an "almost excellent" bowl. I had done an really good job on the outside of the bowl and put it into the chuck to clear the inside. I had actually made good progress in establishing the wall of the bowl and getting the depth close to the finished bottom when disaster struck - two deep gouges that were too deep to turn out. So, if you look closely at the left interior side of the bowl you can see one of the two "decorative accents" that I added!
I learned a lot to improve how I turn in general, how I apply finish, and how to use the bowl gouge. I am now anxious to get to some of the bowl blanks I have sitting in my shop.

OT - My Lucky Day

Apparently, yesterday was my lucky day. I was at home to allow the cable company to change my modem and add phone service to my cable service. As an incentive for customers to bundle cable, Internet, and phone services, our cable company was having a contest. The customer received a scratch-off card which gave them a discount off their cable bill. There were several hundred $25 cards but only one $1000, two $500's, and two $400. I don't know who was more amazed at our winning $400, Mary Lou or myself. But we will be getting free cable-Internet-phone service for about the next four months!

That was only the beginning of my lucky day. I went from winning a $400 credit to passing a big test.

Since I retired I have been wanting to find some volunteer work that gave me a chance to give back to my community but that didn't get me involved in situations similar to my past career. I applied for and completed the course to become a Tax Aide for the AARP Foundation program which provides free tax help to people. (Last year over 32,000 volunteers helped over 2,000,000 customers nationwide) In order to actually become certified to do this work, I needed to attend training and pass a certification exam. Today, I handed in my exam answer sheet and found out I had passed the basic, intermediate and advanced sections of the test. I received a long sleeve denim shirt with the AARP Foundation Tax Aide logo on it. That will be my Tax Aide "uniform" when I actually start my volunteer work on Monday, February 4.

What a lucky day.

Tic-tac-toe and Last Man Games

One of my older, half done projects was a group of games and puzzles. I had made several "Cube in a cube" puzzles from American Woodworker magazine, September 2007. They were completed and ready to be given as gifts.

I also had several items from Rockler to make "Tic-tac-toe" and "Last Man" games using marbles. I had templates to guide a drill bit to drill the depressions for the marbles for each game as well as templates to add the lines.

As I used the drill bit I felt the depressions became less clean. By the time I got to making two Last Man games on pieces of cherry, the depressions were really looking sloppy. I was disappointed in the quality of the bit.

Instead of using a pencil to mark the lines for Tic-tac-toe using the Rockler template, I routed a small groove in the wood, painted it black, and sanded the edges for a clean line. The three Tic-tac-toe boards that I did in walnut looked the best of all the games.

I would have to say I was generally disappointed with the Rockler projects. The appearance of the finished project truly depends upon the quality of the depressions made by the Rockler bit and, in this project, those depressions went from just OK to poor. At a cost of $20 for the bit and $32.00 for the drilling and drawing templates, it is a real disappointment.

Move 'em on out!

We have had several days of beautiful weather - warm temperatures, blue skies, and light breezes. What doesn't fit with that description? We are talking about early January in northern Ohio where cold temperatures, grey, cloudy skies, and frigid winds are the norm.

But I was lucky enough to be able to spend those days in my wood shop. Since my shop is in a garage with inadequate heat, this weekend was a golden invitation to be comfortable while get moving on some projects.

I installed three rebuilt pegboard panels - two over my work bench and one beside my bandsaw. With those installed I was able to rehang all the tools that had covered my workbench.

I have two sets of goals this year in my workshop. One is to clear away a lot of old, half-done projects or pieces and parts from previous projects that I was keeping around to use up the extra supplies. The other goal is to complete a list of brand new projects of furniture, shop jigs, lathe projects, and gifts. Today's efforts were all to clear out some of the old projects.

By coincidence I was looking through this list of old projects this morning and coming to two conclusions. First, I was listing some projects that I realized I really did not want to do anymore. They were probably old and half-done because I did not like the project and it would really not be fun even if I finished it. So, my first conclusion was just drop that project. If I am doing this for fun why am I holding onto projects that obviously were not fun to do?

Also, there were projects that just seemed to mushroom from one or two to six to eight because I had the spare parts. I had completed a few in the past but still had enough supplies to make a few more. This kept mushrooming and I was beginning to feel I would never get the project done. For these I just set an arbitrary number and decided when I hit that number I was going to stop no matter what supplies were left.

Those two decisions seemed to liberate me. I was no longer anticipating having to work on projects I really didn't enjoy and I was seeing an end to what was beginning to feel like a production job. With that done I really moved to the remaining items and started having some fun on a warm day in January.

OT - New Year's Resolutions - Books

I recently published my list of wood working projects I wanted to complete during 2008. That was only one of several resolutions that I made and shared with my wife. One of those additional goals was to read at least 36 books during 2008.

I learned this year that reading is one of those things I do easily when I am in a good frame of mine. It is also one of those activities I abandon quickly when I get depressed or overly anxious. Over the last 3 years I have kept a list of the books I have read. My best year was 35 books in 2006. This past year was about 10 less - and a good barometer for a stress-filled year.

Additionally I have watched as my son, Eric, set and achieved a goal of 52 books during 2007. As of the last night of 2007 he was working on the 52nd book! I hope he reports today that he made it.

Anyway, my goal for 2008 is to read at least 36 books. One better than my previous best. I am starting this year with City Adrift . It is a compilation of journalists' investigative reports on various aspects of Hurrican Katrina's impact upon New Orleans.

I have several best seller books on reserve at the library and a couple 2007 left overs on my bookshelf to get me started.