Curley redwood? (1/2)

Curley redwood? (2/2)

Paul M. in San Diego

>And here is another picture after a few minutes with Mr. Scraper, and a gentle kiss from Miss Mineral Spirits. Yowza! I tried to use a sharp plane on this, but that just isn't gonna happen. This soft wood with wild grain needs a scaper.

Spectacular!

Chris Knight

>

You gravy lickin dog...

Scott Burr Ben Lomond,CA

>You! I live in them mountains and I've never... Scott, highly pissed in the big trees and drolling, but not too bad, still have some tiger striped stuff waiting for...

You scored great find!

I'm curious

Ellis Walentine

>...about your scraper comment. I've always found that a sharp plane does a better job on softwood than a scraper. Can you elaborate?

Nice figure, by the way!

Ellis Walentine

Wow! Beautiful.

Alice Frampton, UK

>

One of the best....

Steve Kubien

>gloats I've ever heard. That's fantastic!

Steve Kubien

Re: Curley redwood? (2/2)

William Duffield on the Cohansey

>I've seen lots of curly redwood, but none that spectacular. You have a real treasure there. Redwood is really soft, and I don't think it would be suitable for a desk top, unless you put a sheet of glass over it. Adam's challenge doesn't include making the glass, does it?

Re: Curley redwood? (2/2)

R.J.Whelan

>Paul ... I've done several pieces and redwood and have seen this type of grain before - never this spectacular though. When you put a finish on it be sure the finish has UV inhibitors as this material is very "photosensitive" - the light areas go dark and partially obscure the wonderful grain pattern ... rj

Re: I'm curious

Paul M. in San Diego

>Hi Ellis,

The grain rises and dives through this wood at quite steep angles. Wherever it starts to dive down, it tears out rather than planes. There are some significant tearouts from whatever machine milled this (probably >20 years ago). And there are a few more in there from my attempts. I agree that planes usually work better on softwood, but this is not like any other softwood that I've ever seen.

Re: Curley redwood? (2/2)

Paul M. in San Diego

>Hi William,

I'll test out a scrap to see if it will hold up to a little writing after a couple coats of short-oil varnish. You have a great point that I had not thought out properly. I'm not planning on a real heavy-duty type of desk, but I also wouldn't want to use this wood on something that would look trashed in a short time. But then again, I don't want to be like my friend's friend and wait for the perfect project and never get to use it!

Re: Curley redwood? (1/2)

Mike Lietzow

>That's some fine looking redwood Paul (and pretty challenging-looking too!). I think it was a piece of redwood that I had on hand when you were demonstrating preparation of a card scraper in my gar^h^h...err...shop. Unfortunately, as of this coming Saturday, I will no longer be a fellow SD County woodorker. The tools/shop are all packed up for a 40 mile move north to Orange County (and I just recently joined SDFWA!).

Any central to south O.C. hand tool users out there who can tolerate an enthusiastic (but not very skilled) woodworker please consider this an invitation to stop by and practice woodorking or discuss classic handtools. The fridge is always stocked with Guiness and sodee-pop.

Cheers,

Mike (who, while packing a box with tools, learned that pair a Starrett dividers can do some damage right quickly when not shown the proper respect)

Re: Curley redwood? (1/2)

Paul M. in San Diego

>Hi Mike,

You know how I preached that you should enroll in Palomar College to take some WW classes and get your fine coll^H^H^H^H assortment of tools put to use?

Well, Fullerton college will be a bit north of you, so just sign up there and start butchering some wood. Them purdy tools looked mighty hungry when I saw them. They do need to eat wood regularly or they get quite bitter. The dividers biting you are just the start!

I'm glad that you and your wife picked *ONE* location. You both had hellish commutes before, so I hope this will be better!

-- Paul M.

Re: Curley redwood? (1/2) *LINK*

Mike Lietzow

>"You know how I preached that you should enroll in Palomar College to take some WW classes and get your fine coll^H^H^H^H assortment of tools put to use?"

You were, of course, absolutely right. Unfortunatley, I was never able to take advantage of the first rate training they offer. The last few years have been transitional but I should be able to start a more normal schedule now so my tools can finally become users again (not that they were used much by me but they carry the skills of many long-gone craftsmen in them). And I'll have a nice area to put a shave horse so that may be my first project. I have a long way to go before I can even approach the craftmanship in your table published in the SDFWA Newsletter (very nice!) so I'll be pestering W.C. with a lot of naive questions while I get up to speed.

Cheers,

Mike


Paul's table (on page 7)