What did you do in your shop today?

Wife at daughters supporting her running the Boston marathon on mon so spend the afternoon catching up on some backlog work for the folks that gave us the black locust tree. Simple footed utility bowl just followed the growth rings and sanded to 600, will complete next time.


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Things from the last few days. Starting to restock after a craft fair last weekend. Sold 20 of these Ruth Niles bottle openers and her pull tab opener.

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The squatty things in front, also from Ruth, are for pounding chicken, meat, garlic, etc. One has a flat bottom the other has short spikes. Wood on those is from @Jonkou

Also mixed 2 dozen tins of mineral oil, beeswax, carnauba wax. Sold 20 of those at the craft fair. Next show first weekend in December.

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Back from a week in Maine, so got a little time in the shop this afternoon.
Turned my 1st turkey call striker....one piece.... from pine....just to get my setup and do the layout. Might be a bit hard to get the rod an even thickness and a nice taper on the top end.
Think I have some maple and cherry to use....maybe find some hickory too.
 
Things from the last few days. Starting to restock after a craft fair last weekend. Sold 20 of these Ruth Niles bottle openers and her pull tab opener.

View attachment 217252

The squatty things in front, also from Ruth, are for pounding chicken, meat, garlic, etc. One has a flat bottom the other has short spikes. Wood on those is from @Jonkou
Good looking group Tom.
 
Finished bowl from 8542 above this morn. Started my next project, friends maple and locust trees had too be cut down. She has many childhood memories at the beach house with them and asked me to make some bowls for the family. Unfortunately wasn’t there to get the wood my way when the trees were cut and the crew diced them up into manageable hand carry pieces to get it off the property. She saved a few of the pieces for me and was able to salvage a family size and enough small ones to go around. This will be fun.

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Finished bowl from 8542 above this morn. Started my next project, friends maple and locust trees had too be cut down. She has many childhood memories at the beach house with them and asked me to make some bowls for the family. Unfortunately wasn’t there to get the wood my way when the trees were cut and the crew diced them up into manageable hand carry pieces to get it off the property. She saved a few of the pieces for me and was able to salvage a family size and enough small ones to go around. This will be fun.

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I love the shapes of your bowls. I always end up making mine too blocky looking. Awesome deed you're doing!
 
Went for a motorcycle ride in the woods earlier in the week. Stopped at an older logging landing site. Picked up a piece of wood, ~3' long....4" diam., maybe maple?
Brought it home thinking of a bowl. Cut a chunk off, dried it pretty good in a microwave. Started cracking, so 'design change' ensued and I split it.
The start.....
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And what I ended up with.....
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2.75", 1.25" high.
I'm guessing that's what spalting is? It's what I hoped for when I picked up the piece.
More of an experiment than anything, but sometimes it comes out OK!
 
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2.75", 1.25" high.
I'm guessing that's what spalting is? It's what I hoped for when I picked up the piece.
More of an experiment than anything, but sometimes it comes out OK!

Catching spalted wood at just the right time is both an art and a lot of luck. You want the fungus to digest the wood. so there’s lots of colors and dark lines, but not so much the is wood too soft to cut smoothly. Must have been fun carrying a 3ft log back on a motorcycle. That’s a true wood-aholic in the making.

For what it’s worth, it’s easy to get tear out in some spalted woods but the results can be worth the effort. The best way that I’ve found to get rid of the end grain tear out is to have a freshly sharpened bowl gouge and make extremely light passes until the tear out is gone. I try to make each pass like it’s my last finish pass. If the wood still wants to tear out then I will lightly spray it with a soapy water mix to lubricate the wood. Sometimes I just have to resort to using my 60 grit gouge (aka course sandpaper).
 
Things from the last few days. Starting to restock after a craft fair last weekend. Sold 20 of these Ruth Niles bottle openers and her pull tab opener.

View attachment 217252

The squatty things in front, also from Ruth, are for pounding chicken, meat, garlic, etc. One has a flat bottom the other has short spikes. Wood on those is from @Jonkou

Also mixed 2 dozen tins of mineral oil, beeswax, carnauba wax. Sold 20 of those at the craft fair. Next show first weekend in December.

View attachment 217253

View attachment 217254
Nice stuff Tom! sounds like you're doing well at the shows, show season is just starting here, you got me motivated to look around for one to get into!
 
Nice stuff Tom! sounds like you're doing well at the shows, show season is just starting here, you got me motivated to look around for one to get into!
I only do 2 a year Barry, one first weekend in October and one first weekend in December. Both were canceled last year. Far fewer vendors were at this October venue but it seemed folks were hungry to get out and wander. Because the show is a consignment one and you can't stand by your display, they don't want many high priced items, especially smaller ones that could be pocketed. Most everything I had was between $30 and $60 with a few higher priced bowls and end grain cutting boards. The shelves were nearly bare when I went to pick up after the show. Now I'm scrambling for items to have for December.

Good luck, Barry, I think you will find things move quickly.
 
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