My Neighbor's Maple Tree

Sadly, I didn't get to the wood soon enough, and my neighbor and his son were only intent on removing an eyesore and not chainsawing bowl blanks for me. I wasn't home, I was at work, or I'd have helped and been able to reduce the eyesore into more usable chunks (blanks) and gotten them out of the sun sooner. But anyway, I was able to salvage some that is not checked and cracked beyond use. This is one of them.

This is the first "green" wood I have ever turned, and as everyone says, it was a pleasure to work. With disclaimers. First there is the problem of getting it dry without major shape changes or additional cracking and checking. Not having the luxury of a lot of spare time, I first turned the general outside shape of the bowl. I soaked it by brush with a solution called Pentacryl, which is, in my opinion cost prohibitive. At $20 or so a quart, and the amounts needed to effectively treat it, it just didn't seem to fill the bill. I followed the directions exactly though, let as much soak in as possible, wrapped it in a damp rag, put it in a cool, dry space and waited for my next day off to rough out the inside. What I found the next week was akin to the inside of a bachelor's refrigerator or a culture medium. What a mess.

As luck would have it though, I stumbled on a better, cheaper solution. It is referred to by my friends at Sawmill Creek as a DNA soak. No, no, not that kind of DNA, this is denatured alchohol. The blank is soaked for several hours to overnight after roughing out, then wrapped tightly, only on the outside with a paper bag and then left upside down on a rack to dry. In theory the alchohol replaces the water in the wood when it is soaked, and after about about a five or six day drying cycle, it is ready to finish turn. The theory behind wrapping only the outside with the paper sack and taping it tightly is that it allows the inside to dry faster than the outside, thus compressing the fibers on the outside making it impossible for them to crack. It works beautifully! At least on this first attempt. I think the worms that inhabitted the blank left too.

Needless to say, I am very, very happy with the otcome. Spalted wood, by my eye, is stunning in it's patterns and creates an eyecatching effect, without the need for any other embelishments or decorations.

I've always been a big fan of simplicity.

An Old Book

Af alwayf, firft the background.

Before you read this, sit for just a moment and try to remember your earliest childhood memory. Can you remember things which happened to you when your were four years old? Three? Or even two?

I have memories of trips taken on steam locomotives to New York City when I was two and a half years old. Clear memories of Yankee Stadium, and staying at the Dixie Hotel. I remember certain events when I was three years old. One of these events was going on a car trip to Springfield, Ohio with my mother and father and grandparents. It was for a get together of my grandfather's family the night before the funeral of his uncle. I was told to be on my good behavior. Polite, in another words. I still vividly remember the house and all the relatives gathered around a huge dining room table. I can remember all the wood in the house too. There were massive mantles, huge wooden paneled doors, and one which slid into the wall. The house smelled like old people. You know the smell. After the "meeting" we all went down in the basement and Grandpa and mom carried things out to the trunk of grandpas Ford. One of the items was a small chest or trunk. Not a big trunk, more like what I thought was the size of a treasure chest. I distinctly remember asking my mother what was in it. She said memories.

The trunk was more or less forgotten about until I was about twenty five or so. My grandfather passed away and we cleaned out all his belongings and found space for them as we could. The trunk resurfaced and was stored in mom's attic. We went through it then, and I was reminded of the importance of it's contents. I was told then that it was to stay in the family.

In 1995 my mother fell ill and moved in with us here. Her house was sold, the house I grew up in, and all the contents of importance came north with me.No easy task. The trunk resurfaced again. It wasn't until about six years ago when I became computer literate, and interested in family history, that I began scanning and copying old photographs, documents, researching family history and wondering how in the hell I'd come into possession of that old book. I mean, I know how I got it, where it had come from, but just how did I come into possession of it? I researched it some, and found some information about, and even tried to read it. I never got very far. Shakespeare gave me headaches in high school and this simply, as far as I was concerned was just unreadable. What with the language and oh yes the religious subject matter. Never been big on religion.

Some of the other contents of the trunk were interesting, too.

There are handwritten manuscripts from great uncle Calvin about the family's roots in Pennsylvania and later around Wheeling, West Virginia, and Zanesville, Ohio, which were founded and settled by my ancestors. I am related to among others, Zane Grey, Tecumseh and Betty Zane.

But back to the book. That is, after all, what the post is about. I have learned over the years that Thomas Shepard was a pastor at the Church of Christ in Cambridge, was one of the "founders" of Harvard, but more importantly, He was the son in law of your man Thomas Hooker. That's why I was so taken aback when I started reading your blog and YOU started following mine.

Fate is really an odd thing, and oh yef, it really if a fmall world!

p.s. If you would like to contact me about the book with questions or dialogue, I would really enjoy hearing from you. I am at 1950.model@gmail.com. and look forward to hearing from you.

The True Story of Wishbone

This post has nothing to do with woodworking, it is the follow up to a prior promise of an explanation for the wishbone reference in an earlier post.

First the background.

About six or seven years ago, pardon me, but I'm absolutely horrible with dates and time, my daughter remarried. I already had one granddaughter, Kaitlin, from her first marriage. She is almost thirteen now, for reference.

About five years ago, on Christmas day, Kaitlin and I partook in a family tradition. A tradition of several years, anyway. As per tradition the wishbone from the Thanksgiving turkey is saved to dry out for that quick snap after Christmas dinner. I made my wish and she made hers. Now in my own defense, let me say that I'm not at all superstitious, but I do believe in two opportunities for wishes. Wishbones and falling stars. And this wishbone snap was won by myself. When she asked 'what did you wish for', I told her that it was bad luck to tell your wishes, and that she would just have to wait to find out. One other thing which might be be noted now, is that I do believe that, in order for any of these wishes to come true, they must not be in the least bit selfish. You must always wish for the best for someone else, no winning lottery tickets or Porsches.

Late in January next year.

My wife and daughter, Wendi, work together for the same hospital, seperated by two floors. I can't remember now whether I'd picked her up from work, or whether it was after she'd gotten home, but my wife, Kathy, informed me rather nonchalantly, That Wendi was preggers. If you are asleep by now, wake up, because now it gets interesting. Without much pause, I picked up the cell phone and called Kaitlin and asked her if she remembered the Christmas last year wishbone. She said she did, and I gloated that wishbone wishes DID come true, and I had gotten mine. That I'd wished for a grandson. She asked why I'd wished for THAT, and I told her: "So I would have someone to go fishing with. She told me, "Papa, I'll go fishing with you anytime!"

Needless to say there was much disbelief on everone elses' part, but that was EXACTLY what I'd wished for. When Wendi poo-pooed it, all I could say was wait till a little later, and when it's a boy, maybe you'll have a little more faith in your old man. And remember too, it was me who told you Kaitlin was going to be a girl early on. (I dreamed it.) After the ultrasound, everyone changed their tune.

That's him, Richard Jonathon, RJ for short, Wishbone as I call him, at the top. He's named after his Dad and I.

Needless to say when Christmas wishbones are snapped now, there are a lot of requests and warnings. The other side note to this story is that when Wishbone is old enough to ask that 'where did I come from question', everyone was told just to have him call his papa. I'll explain it.

Turkeys.

Now for the tease for the next post, for my one and only follower:

I have something I think you'll be VERY interested in. It involves a first edition (I think), of a seventeeth century piece of what I believe is English literature(?) If seventeeth century is 1649, I'll be alright.

I'll have to ask you to do some research and some splainin' because I can't make head nor tails of it, and I've not been able to find much information about it on the web. It is of a religious nature, and ought to be right up your PHD alley.

Does Thomas Shepard ring any bells?

Back in the Old Rut

Let time slip away again.

I didn't realize it's been two months since the last post. Wish I had more to post, but I'm happy to just report that I'm back among the American workforce.

I'm still delivering fuel to the motoring public, but now it's gas instead of diesel, so I don't have the eternal stink to deal with. There are other benefits as well, and I am far happier than with the last situation, with the exception of the longer commute and the longer hours. I just wish I could say that the extra income will allow more shop time, projects and supplies, but that time thing never seems to work out. 

Seems you can have time or money, but never both.

On a sweeter note, I did manage to score what I think will be some beautiful turning stock. It is from an ornamental maple tree, which died a natural death several years ago. It has some spalting and a lot of crotch wood, which should make some great bowls, boxes and possibly hollow vessels. I'm really excited about the possibilities. All I have to do is get it stabilized and dried out without checking.

 

Too much time on my hands...

   I've been on the national unemployment list for one month last Wednesday, and I guess my brother in law is right. I have too much time on my hands. I have been enjoying it too. 

   For the last 10 years or so, I have averaged working about 50 to 55 hours a week, and up until a year ago, worked just about every holiday and holiday eve. When I did get a day off it was usually spent doing family things and chores. The vacations went by fast also. They were always spent camping or doing "house" things like remodeling the kitchen. There was not always a lot of extra shop time to spend on those little tool projects just for yourself. 

   I've always admired wooden mallets in catalogues, but could never bring myself to buy one. I always figured 'hell, I could make one of those myself'. Well sure enough, I was right. I have had an extra piece of hickory laying around since the kitchen remodel, for which I built a roll around island for extra counter space for holiday hosting. I was bored this week and one of the library books I had, had a plan for a mallet. The hickory seemed perfect. I made one pretty much to the size called for, and didn't realize until the handle was installed, how really big it was. It was more like a mace than a mallet. So back to the drawing board and a little downsizing later, and I had a second mallet of a more reasonable size. 

   All I have to do now is find something that needs whacked. Maybe I'll build a timber frame dog house.

 

Just like the book & magazine...almost.

As promised, she's right side up now, with vices and finish, just not finished yet. The other monstrosity is not gone yet, either, but it will be soon.

I spent the last two days installing the end vise and making and installing the leg vise. I was very pleasantly surprised by the holding power of the leg vise, especially with the addition of a leather

face.

I was disappointed in my installation of the end vise. I had visualized the jaws being flush with the end of the bench, but it did not work out that way. All in all, I don't think it makes that much difference. I had the opportunity to use the bench some in making the leg vise, (is this workbench masturbation ?) and so far I love it.

The photo is a little "Woodworking Magazine", but what the hell, that WAS the inspiration.

And the leg vise...complete with turned handle of oak and cherry.

Today's work list is the shelf underneath and then its on to making the boxes for the center of the top, and finding a home for the old monstrosity...

(Oh yeah, I neglected to mention that so far the total cash

 outlay is about $96.00, not counting time, labor & aspirin.)

New Years Surprises, Revelations & Resolutions

The holidays are over, the tree is down, the family room and life in general are back to normal this morning. And what a great Christmas it was. Several of the high points were being able to surprise the Mrs with a gift, (that is rare), and being able to find a "wishbone" necklace to give my daughter. The wishbone reference is a long story involving my grandson and a Christmas wish from several years ago. It is better saved for a later post.

On the subject of surprises, I had an odd one this morning.

To give a little background, one of my best "tool" acquisitions was five years ago, November last. I decided I wanted to get into wood turning and after about six months or so of research, daydreaming and planning, I purchased a Oneway 12/36 lathe. I went all the way with accessories including a bed extension to enable me to turn longer pieces, with the plan being to build Shaker rockers and chairs. I also was very much interested in turning bowls, segmented pieces and parts for furniture. All has gone well and although I don't consider myself "accomplished" yet, the learning has been without incident. I have made several things that I am really proud of (pictured above) and have the wood stored to build a set of dining room chairs and a trestle table.

This is the surprise. One of the things I promised myself when I got the lathe was to keep a journal of the learning progress. I would keep a record of the things I had learned, the mistakes I had made and in general how to repeat things I had done "right".

This morning, I fetched that journal into the house to look it over and found I had not made an entry since March of 2004! Now, I knew I had been remiss, and not used it like I had planned, but I had no idea it had been THAT long. After thinking about it for a minute or so, I realized that I have not turned anything in six months or better also. I'm sort of ashamed.

So here are my New Years' resolutions: Not only am I going to be more diligent in keeping notes, I'm going to try to be more organized in other areas as well. I'm going to clean up the shop and reorganize things to have more sensible storage. I'm going to finally build a workbench more suited to hand tool work, and use more hand tools. I'm (by God) going to learn to use handplanes without shredding every piece of wood they come in contact with. I'm going to get on with the projects I have planned in the back of my head and do more planning on paper, than in the back of my head.  And finally, I' going to get rid of the things I tend to save for no earthly reason other than I can't bear to throw them out. (OCD rears it's ugly rear end.) This one resolution alone will get me enough space for the Laguna 16" band saw I plan to purchase in the spring. All noble promises, so wish me luck.