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.