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- Feb 28, 2011
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I don't have beautiful pictures of new things, but I wanted to give you a few updates and a few pictures from my shop. Like a WIP, sort of...
I still have not moved all my wood to one place, but the last time I estimated it, I had approx. seven 11-gallon bins full of wood, a lot of it already precut into sizes I use for handles. That should last me approximately until 2038 :rolleyes2: So, At this time really want to work with what I have for a while. In the past, people often wantd a specific wood - the one I didn't have - and then I went and bought some, and while I was at it, I bought a dozen so I would have some in the future. That's one of the reasons I actually managed to loose money when making custom handles. :cookoo: I also want to focus more on the local woods, and fade out some others. So, this here is hopefully the last wood order for a while, these came in a few days ago:
By apicius9 at 2011-03-26
This is all from the BIg Island of hawaii. Unfortunately, a few of them are not as dry as I had hoped, so most of them will have to sit for a few more months to dry out enough so that I can send them in for stabilizing. Fortunately, they dry reasonably fast because they are already cut, and many of the woods are very light before stabilizing. The woods in the picture are dark koa root pieces (these are dry), all others are spalted: signature tree, royal poinciana, mango root, and Norfolk pine. To dry faster, I stack them up in anairy place and run a fan as much as can:
By apicius9 at 2011-03-26
I actually should use small wood pieces between them, so that they get air from all sides. Decadent as I am, I may use koa pieces for that - the guy I share my space with maks picture frames, and he has tons of leftover small pieces around.
So, today I spent a whole day in the shop - well, until back pain drove me out - after a longer break. I have a busy semester, I teach two very work intensive courses and my students are really smart this year, so I actually have to work harder to challenge them a bit. Anyway, I am trying to work on my order list, add a few handle designs that I would like to try out, and I still have the 'off-the-shelf-handles' for Dave to work on. Today, I prepared a total of approx. 35 handles to be epoxied together this weekend. Most pieces had been cut before, today I squared them and predrilled them, tomorrow I do some fine-tuning, roughen the surfaces, clean them up and glue them together. This is what's waiting for me tomorrow:
By apicius9 at 2011-03-26
There are about ten more that are as good as done (orders from loooong ago), and I have about 20 more on my order list. So, this will be a very busy April... The other ones want to work on during the week are the handles for Dave. These are very rough cut, I started with the octagon sides, but they need to be sanded further down (many are still too big) and cut too length. The only thing that ns really different from the 'normal ones' that make is that I spend less time hand-sanding and I don't apply any finish on the (which stabilized wood doesn;' need anyway).
By apicius9 at 2011-03-26
Finally, this is my shelf with stabilized blanks:
By apicius9 at 2011-03-26
I am actually running low with a few of the 'standard woods' like koa, so I will send in a box for stabilizing this week. That's usually around $350 per box, so thanks to everyone who picked up a handle during my recent sale - this is where your money is going, more wood, stabilizing cost, a new set of drills, and new sanding belts. It never ends...
That's it for now, :bye:
Aloha,
Stefan
P.S. Too tired for manual spell check, gotta download the program eventually...
I still have not moved all my wood to one place, but the last time I estimated it, I had approx. seven 11-gallon bins full of wood, a lot of it already precut into sizes I use for handles. That should last me approximately until 2038 :rolleyes2: So, At this time really want to work with what I have for a while. In the past, people often wantd a specific wood - the one I didn't have - and then I went and bought some, and while I was at it, I bought a dozen so I would have some in the future. That's one of the reasons I actually managed to loose money when making custom handles. :cookoo: I also want to focus more on the local woods, and fade out some others. So, this here is hopefully the last wood order for a while, these came in a few days ago:
By apicius9 at 2011-03-26
This is all from the BIg Island of hawaii. Unfortunately, a few of them are not as dry as I had hoped, so most of them will have to sit for a few more months to dry out enough so that I can send them in for stabilizing. Fortunately, they dry reasonably fast because they are already cut, and many of the woods are very light before stabilizing. The woods in the picture are dark koa root pieces (these are dry), all others are spalted: signature tree, royal poinciana, mango root, and Norfolk pine. To dry faster, I stack them up in anairy place and run a fan as much as can:
By apicius9 at 2011-03-26
I actually should use small wood pieces between them, so that they get air from all sides. Decadent as I am, I may use koa pieces for that - the guy I share my space with maks picture frames, and he has tons of leftover small pieces around.
So, today I spent a whole day in the shop - well, until back pain drove me out - after a longer break. I have a busy semester, I teach two very work intensive courses and my students are really smart this year, so I actually have to work harder to challenge them a bit. Anyway, I am trying to work on my order list, add a few handle designs that I would like to try out, and I still have the 'off-the-shelf-handles' for Dave to work on. Today, I prepared a total of approx. 35 handles to be epoxied together this weekend. Most pieces had been cut before, today I squared them and predrilled them, tomorrow I do some fine-tuning, roughen the surfaces, clean them up and glue them together. This is what's waiting for me tomorrow:
By apicius9 at 2011-03-26
There are about ten more that are as good as done (orders from loooong ago), and I have about 20 more on my order list. So, this will be a very busy April... The other ones want to work on during the week are the handles for Dave. These are very rough cut, I started with the octagon sides, but they need to be sanded further down (many are still too big) and cut too length. The only thing that ns really different from the 'normal ones' that make is that I spend less time hand-sanding and I don't apply any finish on the (which stabilized wood doesn;' need anyway).
By apicius9 at 2011-03-26
Finally, this is my shelf with stabilized blanks:
By apicius9 at 2011-03-26
I am actually running low with a few of the 'standard woods' like koa, so I will send in a box for stabilizing this week. That's usually around $350 per box, so thanks to everyone who picked up a handle during my recent sale - this is where your money is going, more wood, stabilizing cost, a new set of drills, and new sanding belts. It never ends...
That's it for now, :bye:
Aloha,
Stefan
P.S. Too tired for manual spell check, gotta download the program eventually...
I had wanted to do a WIP for a while, just documenting how I get from a piece of wood to a handle. Maybe I remember that in the next round.... Also wanted to make a list of the woods I have.
