Sunday, April 15, 2018

Overflowing!

Still organizing all the tools I have inherited from my Dad. Lots of good things. My little tiny shop is overflowing with stuff now. I thought for the longest time I had a good size work bench. Not so anymore. I think I need to build another bench to put some of the tools I have to keep below my bench so that they may be on top of something.

I am most excited to have a bench top band saw and a bench top drill press. These are things not just for carving but for everyday use in my shop.

I also have picked out what I am going to make on the scroll saw for the  NC State Fair this year. I want to get started on it this week as I want it done early so then I can maybe work on carving something for the Fair? That would be great if I could do that this year!

I am on the hunt for my third straight Blue Ribbon in scroll saw work. This year I am going with a Charles Dearing pattern of a lion roaring. I decided this year to use a solid piece of 1/4" cherry I found at Klingspor's! The frame I will make out of Yellowheart wood.

I am nervous about the cherry wood as this will take some time to cut and I usually do these out of plywood. With plywood I don't have to worry about the board warping. So with the cherry I will have to spend many hours out there and not spread it out over too much time. This will be not as many cuts as The Bully but still looks to be over 700.

What my crowded shop kind of looks like


Thanks for looking!
Jim

Sunday, April 1, 2018

Carving

Well I have started to try my hand at carving. I was thinking about carving for about 2 months and I was wondering what tools would I need. Could I just power carve with my Dremel? What knifes if any should I buy? What Dremel tips should I use if using the Dremel? Starting down a new path with new tools requiring new skills is always daunting!

Well  3 weeks ago my father passed away. He was a carver and pretty good at it. Well he had many many tools for carving. I have those carving  tools now. Just this past weekend I decided to try and create something from his tools. So while doing yard work this past Saturday I found a somewhat good branch laying in my yard and I said "Self, it is time to carve this into something with those tools you have!"

I am a scroller as you can tell if you have been following or if you look at my other projects I have done. I am decent at that as I have won two Blue Ribbons and a White Ribbon at the NC State Fair over the past three years. Carving is something I never really talked to my dad about other then to see what he had created and all the ribbons he had won over the years. So now I get to learn by doing and talking to others that carve. Guess I am going to be looking for events around me to learn as much as I can.

So to start I picked up a book from the library and and figured I would try my hand at it. So this is not finished there is still some stuff to do and it is rather crude but it is my first carving. Nothing spectacular just a plain simple spreader. It is still raw unfinished wood. There is some more sanding and fine tuning. Since this is my first piece it will never have that polished look that I do hope to have some day. But it is a start.

This is a supposed to be a spreader.



Anyway I took off the bark on the handle since the bark was coming off anyway. Once I get this as finished as I feel it will be. Hopefully I won't keep trying to make it right and then I break it. I'll dip it into some mineral oil for a good food safe finish. It might never actually get used with food but at least it will be safe to do so.

The funny thing which I now understand that as I was going through his garage I kept finding first aid kits all over. I found 3 first aid kits filled with band aids and other such things for minor cuts and scrapes. Well not being all the experienced with knives I managed to nick my thumb joint. Nothing major just a very small cut.  I think I just discovered what that bandage looking tape is for now. You wrap your thumb in it to protect your self from cuts, Since at times you are cutting towards your thumb holding the knife.

Anyway thanks for looking!
Jim