>Here's the shave I was working on at the Halton Furniture Maker Society Hands-On session last week.
The body is some really nasty cocobolo. Awful stuff. Smelly, splintery, full of grit, hard on tools, and absolutely beautiful.
The finish is wax. First I sanded to 600 grit. I really hate sanding this stuff, it stinks. Then I buffed with some LV green CrO2 on a wheel, waxed it and buffed some more. Wow, it came out so smooth and glossy, I can understand why people like to make tool handles outta this stuff.
Darrell
Wood Hoarder, Blade Sharpener, and Occasional Tool User
What tools did you use to make it? Are you happy with the performance?
I want to make one as well but it'll have to be another day. Actually, I wish they sold a smaller blade around 2 1/2" wide as I find the current offering a bit wide. After all, my stones are only 2 1/2" wide.
>splintery? never noticed it was to obad in that department. there are far worse. well not grit but it will dull tools fast. though you wnat bad for the desert ironwood is the worst. but it does look nice for sure.
>It's funny you mention about the smell. I was unpleasantly surprised by the smell. I also resawed some cocobolo. it was my first time working with the stuff. I was thinking the exact same thing--stinky. After cutting to length on my wwII blade, the end grain was so glassy smooth--very beautiful stuff. But despite having a vac port right on top the saw blade (and through my dust mask), I could still smell the stuff. I was extra cautious because I've heard of lots of people having allergic reactions to the cocobolo. I used a dust mask, had my dc on right at the source, my air cleaner was on full blast, and immediately after I was done with the cuts, I left the shop to let all the dust settle down. That's probably being too cautious, but I had a friend that made three-four guitars with it with no problems, but then on the last try started noticing a really intense rash on his hands and skin.
Very nice work. I can see why you neanderthals can get really into toolmaking. It sure is a lot of fun.
>To each his own I believe. Anyway, I kind of like the way it smells, but it does make my eyes water copiously and stuffs up my sinuses after a 2 second exposure. I dress like an astronaut every time I have to do anything with the stuff.
What tools did I use? Normally I would be using my own stuff, but Fred (another HFMS member) was hosting the sessions, so I used some of his tools. There's some rather precise drilling required and my rickety old post drill would have scared off the other shave makers, what with all the play in the shaft. So we used Fred's electrickery powered drill press. Most of the other guys also used the drill press for running the tap in straight, but I just chucked the tap in a brace and cranked it in. It's easy to keep the tap straight on with a brace because it's so long.
Fred let us use his LN crosscut tenon saw to cut the throat, but I declined, and used a dull crappy junk saw. I didn't want to mangle the teeth on something nice and/or sharp with that cocobolo. We used Fred's Laguna bandsaur for roughing out the body shape, and a selection of chisels, scrapers, rasps and files for the details and smoothing. We used my home made floats a bit too, as they work well on hard woods, especially end grain.
Check out the LV web site, they have the entire instruction manual for this shave kit online. They offer lots of options for the various steps, using tablesaur jigs, or routahs, as well as hand tool methods.
As far as how my shave works, I don't know. The little bit of playing around I did shows promise, but until I start my next windsor chair I won't really know...
Darrell
Wood Hoarder, Blade Sharpener, and Occasional Tool User
>the smell is not bad but it is strong and can get to you. though it does not bother me. now brazilian rosewood does. you wnat stink try desert ironwood. smells like a dead animal.
>Steve, where would you get a piece of desert ironwood big enough to make a small shave? I have some carvings made of the stuff, but I doubt if LOML would appreciate my cutting one up for a spokeshave;-)
>That's my impression, too. At first, it didn't bother me at all, but every time I turn it, I sneeze and cry more than the last time. No rash yet, but I figure eventually I won't be able to use it anymore.
There's lots of kinds of stinkier wood out there, some of it lots stinkier. My latest experience with Lauan (a mixed bag of Shorea species, a.k.a. Philippine mahogany)lumber core plywood just about ran everyone out of the shop. It smelled like spoiled milk already processed by an infant. Curiously, the previous batch of the "same" stuff didn't smell bad at all, but caused everyone in the shop to start coughing and sneezing as soon as we started cutting it. Another obnoxious plywood is Paraply, or guatambu, from Paraguay.
>Be careful. I turned a nice pen out of Cocobolo and then waited a few weeks to see if allergy developed. Had no problems, so I turned another. Rash came up next day and lasted eight weeks. Woke me up in the middle of the night. Triple dose of antihistimines. Full body rash. Nasty, nasty stuff.
