What did you do in your shop today?

Continued playing with some walnut. About 10“ diameter. Unfortunately, got it too thin before I got all the inside smoothed out. This one may need some gesso on the inside if I can't stand it out when dry. Or, it may just end up in the burn pile.

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I rendered lard. (Yes, seriously!)

Wednesday we picked up half a pig from the butchers. We opted to get the fat too, so we could render lard. We chose not to get the fat on the last half a pig we got and later wished we had. While the smell isn't strong, didn't want anyone complaining about it. So I set up the roaster in the garage since I wasn't going to be in the shop today. Was also very thankful that it came from the butcher already ground, so I didn't have to mess with grinding it or cutting it up. Got almost 10 pints!
 
My son and I set out to put African Blackwood handles on a set of steak knives. We didn't get very far before we had a little problem. 4 stitches.

As always, accidents happen when doing something that you shouldn't when impatient or tired, like using a very sharp knife to separate two pieces taped together with strong 2-sided tape instead of a flathead screwdriver. It could have been much worse. When your young & hard-headed there are some lessons that you have to learn the hard way and hope that it doesn't cause too much harm.

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Ouch! Glad it was not worse! Seems all of us have to go through such a learning process, unfortunately. Situational awareness we learn with respect for the tools we use as woodworkers. Chuck
 
Did you use fishing line or common sewing thread? For something like that, we'd just use Crazy glue and a splint on the finger to limit the bending at the joint.
 
I took him to the local urgent care. Lol!
That works tooo..... Are they standard or dissoluble stitches? If he's an active kid, I'd still glue part of it, from the finger over the knuckle but stop short of the end. That allows infection a release if needed.
 
He's an active 28-year old. Still in college and working remodeling construction. He knew better than to do what caused the stitches.

There are 4 stitches that will need to be removed in 10 days. Some glue also. My wife volunteered to remove them when the time comes. She's an RN but wants no part of putting in stitches. She doesn't mind removing them.
 
Well .. if you will play with sharp things or spinning lumps of wood ... you might end up with bits of your body missing or damaged ... I would not recommend sanding bowls with bits carved out of the rim by hand when spinning on the lathe ... personal experience. And yes .. it did hurt and now, 12 months in, I think it's a permanent disfigurement !



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Blowing bubbles on the lathe. Quick way to speed up drying on hollow forms.

 
Have been posting some spalted Maple for sale recently and decided I might as well start making a few bowls too. Cut some more blanks today and this one is 13" by a little more than 4" deep. Cored out a 10" before I quit for the day. Has a bark inclusion on the rim (10" core), so won't be quite as deep as I would have liked. Anyway, some pretty colors. Almost salmon color on some of the wood.

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Have been posting some spalted Maple for sale recently and decided I might as well start making a few bowls too. Cut some more blanks today and this one is 13" by a little more than 4" deep. Cored out a 10" before I quit for the day. Has a bark inclusion on the rim (10" core), so won't be quite as deep as I would have liked. Anyway, some pretty colors. Almost salmon color on some of the wood.

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Keep the notch in the rim as a utensil holder.
 
Well, not the best day but I did get one pen completed. Went to shop to work on a 2 piece fountain pen per my buddy’s request and blew out 2 DIW pen blanks trying to drill them. Really bummed….valuable stuff. That was only one of the two pieces on both blanks. So, not to be deterred I drilled one of the leftover pieces and made a Wall Street II.

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