Troubles

So recently I unloaded the kiln and then reloaded it with a fresh load. That took pretty much a very long day! And I am drowning in wood again. The new load seems to be shedding a lot more water than is typical. I am pretty sure that all the slabs are air dried 2 yrs, so I am not really sure why this is. I probably have two if not three more loads to do still this fall. The next one will be more big yellow cedar slabs, the one after that will be arbutus! I am looking forward to that one.

I spent a ton of time recently getting my chainsaws all tuned up and the chains sharpened and the rakers set. I also purchased a proper Granberg Alaska mill to replace one of my homebrew mills. Went to the beach last week to check everything out for the new milling season. Cut up a small Deodar cedar log quite successfully.

It was a gorgeous day to be milling at the beach!

Also have made some progress on the Japanese toolbox. Made a couple mortices for sliding dovetails on the lid. Very close to having this one finished!

Dreams do Come True

Felt like I got a lot done recently for a change!

I secured new (additional) one car garage space about a mile away. It has power and a high ceiling. I'll use it for more longer term storage of machinery restoration projects. I might be forced to put the big bandsaw there since it is the only place I have presently with a high enough ceiling. I am quite excited by this space, and how it solves some of my storage problems!

I spent the better part of an entire day unloading the most recent batch of gently dried locally harvested lovingly chainsawed magnificent slabs (!) from the kiln, then reloading the kiln up with the next batch. This time it is 5 slabs of Deodar cedar, 5 slabs of elm, and 2 short but wide and thick slabs of maple, shwon below. I had forgotten how much physical work it is move these slabs around.

Also made some progress on the Japanese toolbox. Finished the fox wedged tenons which secure the handle assembly. Trimming them led to some gouging, so I am presently working with my plane to remove these marks. I have also started on the lid, shown below in place with the battens held on by double sided sticky tape!

Am looking forward to getting this box completed and spending some time this fall on shop projects.

It's Been Slower Than Usual Recently

So I decided to post up a few pictures of things that I like. Mostly pictures with some kind of interesting design, all taken by me unless otherwise noted.

This one is a cabinet handle by Mira Nakashima made from a little piece of burl.

(Not taken by me, found on line.)

Karate-do Goju-ryu Shoreikan Nidan Certificate

Fabulous dinner wines for a charity dinner one evening.

Fiat Multipla Van in the Fiat museum

Chair made from a block of wood, Pininfarina Studio.

Krka Park Croatia

Curved Platter in a shop in Costa Rica

Was in California for a week and on the drive home stopped in Ft Bragg to visit the College of the Redwoods Woodworking school. Went in and chatted with the instructor and some of the students, they were just starting their second week of the nine month program. Looks like a great place!

Box Finished, but Not Done!

Well I did some prefinishing on the box. Several coats of shellac on the inside/bottom, and Tried and True varnish for the outside. I prefinished everything except the outside faces where the through tenons will show. I will do those with Tried and True after assembly and trimming the mortices.

Then I dry assembled the box, next step will be to do the "glue up" which will consist of gluing all the wedges into the tenons. I think there are 30 tenons, so 60 wedges. It will be a process!

Some people don't care for Tried and True as it takes a while to dry, but I find it works well when applied in very (extremely!) thin coats with a couple days between coats. I love its total non-toxicity, no metal driers or other bad stuff in it as other BLO products have. (I'm still looking for 99+% pure ethanol or propanol to dissolve my shellac flakes in so I can get away from the additives in shellac reducer!)

Meanwhile, I decided to start kilning the slabs which I had milled in the winter of 2010/2011. They now have nearly two full summers of air drying. I would normally wait until early October before putting wood in the kiln as August and September are the best (driest) months here for air drying. But I have so much wood that has to go through the kiln that I figured I better get started now or I'll still be doing it in January!

I put in some alder, spalted maple, yellow cedar and Deodar cedar, all of which I have found to be pretty well behaved in the kiln. I also put in a few pieces of cherry and one slab of beech, which I have not had such good kilning success with in the past.Fingers crossed this time.

The yellow cedar I had originally milled to 8' 6" long, I don't know why I do that as the kiln can only accommodate 8' lengths! Rather than cut them down to fit in the kiln I decided for the better ones to just clean up the edges and store them in the garage. 13" wide, 3" thick and 8' 6" long quartersawn old growth yellow cedar. They are some pretty fine planks I must say!

Box Prrrrroggrrresssssss

Things have definitely slowed down here for the summer. Must be the stifling heat - it was 24 degrees here today, I don't know if I can stand much more of that extreme weather!

The Japanese box suffered a setback several weeks ago when it lost a battle with the router. Fortunately the damage was contained to one corner of one of the side pieces, but it still required that I cut out the damaged piece and glue on a new one.

I was reasonably happy with the grain match, but the colour match was not what I had hoped for. I think the patch piece being freshly cut will need some time to oxidize in the air so it will darken and hopefully match the rest of the side piece.

Now I have all the router work done, all the edges have been eased, and the box is ready for finish and glue up. I think I will prefinish the inside with shellac and the outside with Tried and True oil.

Wood, wood everywhere, and not a . . .

I dropped by the woodlot at the beach today. Not sure why I even bothered, just to torture myself I guess. Since the wood pickings were a bit slim this past winter, of course now that it is summer and the beach is closed to chainsawing, there is a fantastic selection of wood to be had.

It appears that some eager beaver(s) who got there before me marked all the biggest and clearest pieces of Port Orford (D2, D8) cedar and Monterey (D1, D3, D4) cypress. There was also some deodar cedar (X). The Port Orford pieces were at least 2 feet in diameter.

Japanese Chisels - Tapping Out

I took a break today from the Japanese box to shower some TLC on my Japanese chisels. Three of the larger ones had never had their backs flattened properly. Mainly because it was way too tedious, but also because I rarely use the larger sizes.

After some token flattening on my new coarse diamond stone, I realized that the leading edge of the bottom on these chisels was curved up to such an extent that what was needed was to tap the front of the chisels with a hammer. I gather this is a fairly common set up activity among Japanese chisel owners.

I won't get into the details of the operation, a google search will yield plenty of information. My own observations are that is should be called 'bashing out' rather than tapping out as it takes way more force to get the steel to move than tapping would provide. I wound up using a carpenter's hammer on a piece of railway track to get one to move! Further, a caution that the leading edge will chip if you are careless and hit it directly.

Anyways, now my Japanese chisels are all flat and sharp and ready to go! That only took all day.