Plans ideas

Hi,
After I finished the bowl session today I took out the spoon and took a long look at it and did a little carving and discovered that my carving tools probably wouldnt cut soft butter so its time to stop and sharpen everything up. Heres some photos:

Here is the spoon blank from last night. Note that its squarish in shape. I like my spoons to be more rounded so Im going to shape the bowl a little bit:


I have a gouge that I very much like using for the exterior surfaces of spoons and other things and here is a photo of it. Poor thing is as dull as a tool can get and still be considered a tool:


I also have a small draw knife that Im partial too. Same dulled edge...gee I wonder who owns these tools...?

 Here is the bowl after several fruitless minutes trying to shape it. I might have done better had a bitten off the corners with my teeth:


I have a number of carving tools that have curved cutting surfaces that cant be sharpened on a grinding wheel or a flat sharpening stone. A wood carver in England named Sean Hellman has a really good video on sharpening a hook knife, which I have. The video shows a very simple method for sharpening  and Im going to post a link to his blog so you can see it too: http://seanhellman.blogspot.com/2012/02/sharpening-mora-164-hook-knife-and-how.html.

Ok, Im going to sharpen everything tomorrow and continue on with the spoon. Thanks for dropping by and Ill see you soon.

VW

Hi Everyone,

I had a little spare time this afternoon and we all know that I cant resist working in the wood shop even its only for 5 minutes. So I decided to finish sanding the square and the ash plates.

Here we go:

Here is the finished ash plate. Ive sanded it to 400 grit and polished the surface with 0000 steel wool. Its ready for oiling at this point:


I love oil finishes. They make wood look so beautiful and you can feel the wood with your hands when its finished. There isnt a layer between you and the wooden object. I like to use Tried and True varnish oil. Its linseed oil with a dryer added to it. Linseed oil  finishes are an old time type of a finish but the bad part about them is that it can take several weeks to a month for the finish to dry and cure. The dryer in this cut that down to about 24-36 hours.

The trick to using this is to use this product at room temperature (since its so cold here I keep it in my house. I dont think storing at really low temps is good for this), and to apply multiple thin coats of oil with at least 36 hours of drying time between coats of oil. This product is the consistency and color of honey so it doesnt take a lot to oil something.

The surface should be free of all wood dust and so should your hands. You should only rub in enough to barely wet the surface and then set it aside for about an hour. If after an hour there is any wet spots on the surface, you should take a clean cloth and gently rub that away and then let your item dry:



Ok, time to oil. This is always my favorite part of any project.

Drum Roll!!

Here is a photo of the ash plate with half of the surface oiled and the other half still un oiled:



 And here is a photo of the cumaru plate:



Im going to let both just sit for an hour and then Ill take another look at them and if they need it, Ill rub down the surface to take away any excess oil.

The walnut plate has some tear out and that is going to have to be sanding completely away before I do the finish sanding and oiling. I will take pictures and post them in a day or two when thats done.

All of the plates will get two coats of oil and Ill post finish photos before I mail them off.

VW