Who knew that Bolt-action pens would be a hot item? I sold all of my first set, and my second set
and about half of my third J Deer
antler is pretty popular here, and I’ve added an optional dear head pocket clip
too. In a hunting community like this
one, people are practically chomping at the bit.
I also carved my first pipe out of aged and dried
briar. I guess a lot of people stain
them to make them dark, but I left it natural. It was a fun little project, but,
as usual, forgot to take pictures. These
pictures are courtesy of www.johnzeuliphotography.com/ .
My wife and I collaborated on our first clock – I can’t say
I had to do much: Some wood, her laser cutter, a little sanding, drilling a
hole, and installing the mechanism. But
it looks pretty cool.
I also turned a nice little bowl out of figured maple. I tried a spalted piece first, but it split
along the spalting L I am not very proficient at bowls yet, and
need a couple of accessories to get the inside right, but I’ll get there. Eventually.
So I worked in Manzanita next.
Manzanita has lots of gaps, which I filled with powdered Turquoise, and
powdered Copper – I think it went pretty well.
I enjoyed it enough that I bought 4 more pieces to turn: Osage orange, Lacewood, Honduras Rosewood,
and Chechen. Erica really likes this shape so I haven’t branched out much. Unfortunately I can’t make anything
particularly large – 5 inches in diameter is probably about my limit.
Knifewise, I don’t feel like I’ve made much progress. I quenched and tempered a tanto (tried the clay technique to make a fancier
hamon) but didn’t seen much development in the polishing process. With the judicious application of acid, I
discovered that the hamon – though present- was really close to the edge. I tried again with the other Tanto, and
managed to pull it back just about the right amount, not to fancy, but a nice
wavy line. The little hunter – which was
a lot thicker, managed a little bit of a line towards the point, but not much
along the edge – but I did have some issues with the clay falling off. More practice is needed.
I also just received another rusty stockman’s pocket knife
to clean up (see Autumn, Crazy Horse, Uncle Jed and Rust (2011)). I intend to have a little fun with it once I
have it moving again. It’s not too old
(scales are plastic), but it doesn’t take too much to get a knife all rusty and
full of crud.
As I mentioned a few years back in “Pictures from the lathe
(2009)” some people think its offensive to clean up a knife. Removing character is one thing, but
restoring function – to my mind- is another.
It’s interesting to see how knives survive the years, but when
“character” destroys the knife for all practical purposes, some of the
character needs to go. We’ll see if I can fix this one without breaking it like
the last stockman. To date, it is making
progress, but not there yet.
Oh yeah, I also made a couple letter openers – One in
Ancient Kauri, another in Maple – it was supposed to be birdseye, but
apparently I missed all the eyes. Oh
well.
But none of that is REALLY news…