Waiting for nice weather... but not idling about
Just so you know - I don't laze around and eat bon bons when I am not working on my kayak.
I still work on my woodworking tool handling skills. At the moment I am working on using a chisel, some small carving tools that I got from my father, and a collection of small carving tools that Alex has accumulated through the years. Oh, yeah, and a power tool or two.
First attempt at carving: [it's supposed to be a photo of a celtic circle done in cherry -don't do either if you have experience with wood or carving. I wonder where the photo went.]
Second attempt at carving:
I started this a few weeks ago... it is made from a soft maple and MUCH easier to work with. I still don't really know how to carve wood properly, but I do know how to do it safely. And now I have a rotary tool (or two) to work with. Alex's dremel is more powerful than mine, and wow, with the burr bit I can take a pretty good amount of wood away rather quickly. Almost too quickly. I use my little dremel to finesse some of the "carving" and when I want to do detail work I go back to using my hand tools. I really enjoy the quiet labor of the sharp carving tools. I have also learned the necessity of stropping a tool to keep it sharp. I suppose Alex will make me sharpen the tools eventually... but thankfully, for now, he is the sharpener in the family.
Noses are hard! Maybe I should have started by making a clay model - that would have given me a clue to three-dimensional work.
Sigh.
Next time maybe.
I still work on my woodworking tool handling skills. At the moment I am working on using a chisel, some small carving tools that I got from my father, and a collection of small carving tools that Alex has accumulated through the years. Oh, yeah, and a power tool or two.
First attempt at carving: [it's supposed to be a photo of a celtic circle done in cherry -don't do either if you have experience with wood or carving. I wonder where the photo went.]
I started this several years ago when Alex and I were working on building a new fireplace mantel for the living room. Made out of cherry. It's beautiful. The mantel - not the celtic knot above. I really did not have a clue how hard cherry is to carve! I'm afraid I did abandon it... intending to finish it someday. Like when I got some powerful rotary tools to attack it with. I'm looking forward to using the dremel on this baby.
Second attempt at carving:
I started this a few weeks ago... it is made from a soft maple and MUCH easier to work with. I still don't really know how to carve wood properly, but I do know how to do it safely. And now I have a rotary tool (or two) to work with. Alex's dremel is more powerful than mine, and wow, with the burr bit I can take a pretty good amount of wood away rather quickly. Almost too quickly. I use my little dremel to finesse some of the "carving" and when I want to do detail work I go back to using my hand tools. I really enjoy the quiet labor of the sharp carving tools. I have also learned the necessity of stropping a tool to keep it sharp. I suppose Alex will make me sharpen the tools eventually... but thankfully, for now, he is the sharpener in the family.
Noses are hard! Maybe I should have started by making a clay model - that would have given me a clue to three-dimensional work.
Sigh.
Next time maybe.
Comments
Post a Comment