What new skill have you learned?

Re: What new skill have you learned?

Dan Donaldson

>Can't say lately as I haven't really learned a new skill lately. (maybe because I haven't built much of anything lately ;-)

However, since this is a hobby for me, I almost never make more than one of anything. I try to pick things to build that have some feature or process that I have never done before. Keeps life interesting. (and keeps the fireplace fed ;-))

Re: What new skill have you learned?

Bruce, a MN Galoot

>And the neat part of building something that employs a new technique, is that it probably requires a NEW TOOL!

Bruce

Re: What new skill have you learned?

Jack Guzman

>Well,I just learned to do web frames for casework with drawers.Like everything else I learn I'll probably start making alot of things with web frames until a new thing catches my attention.---Jack

Re: What new skill have you learned?

Alan Bierbaum, near Denver, CO

>"What new skill have you learned that excites you? What are you gonna do with it?"

Not exactly a "new" skill, however:

I need a new bed (mattress is now on the new carpet) and will have to have 4 turned legs. I can't buy the legs in the style that I want. I chucked up a piece of scrap in my lathe (electron powered - no pole lathe here), grabbed the tools and found out that a 4 year layoff was almost like learning a new skill (the tools are wielded by hand). The picture is of a 1 1/4" sq scrap of maple for my "first" trial to see if I could remember what to do and to see if the lathe still ran after sitting for 4 years.

New surface treatments

Bob Hackett

>I`m learning that something other than flat,polished wood is very exciting.

Small scrub planes,leaf planes,gouges and even hammers and other metal working tools have a signature that can take things to a whole different level and place.

A side road to this will be a series of boxes with sliding lids that use the natural surface of the figured wood as the top.It` nice to see birdseye and curl in 3D on one surface and 2D on the polished interior.

David Barnett`s post on burnishing has really got me looking forward to trying some new things in that direction.

All this departure from the norm has really renewed my appreciation for a simple wax finish.No finish at all seems a good choice more and more too.

It`s really nice to stop being so serious and just play.I`ve found I like the finished pieces more,LOML does too.

Mainely,Bob

All this departure from the norm...

Adam Cherubini

>"All this departure from the norm..."

Is this some clever double entendre Bob?

I guess it would have been too obvious had you written;

"All this departure from the Norm..."

Adam

Re: What new skill have you learned?

William Duffield, on the Cohansey

>Even us old pros (whatever that means :^) keep refining our skills, if only in little bits and pieces. Last weekend, I spent a lot of time learning some very rudimentary stuff about glassblowing. I talked with and watched a woodturner who knows quite a bit about making blocks and molds, used by glassblowers for shaping the molten glass. Maybe the next one I try to make, or restore, will turn out better than my last feeble attempt.

My mother is visiting. It's her first time on the Cohansey since she came here for my wedding, in 1974, and her first time in my shop, so I figured I would demonstrate some reproduction, turning, and carving techniques for her.

Tuesday, I picked something "simple", a flame finial right off of a 1790 tall case clock that happened to be close at hand. Quite a bit later, I had turned and carved a pretty close copy.

The original, top left, is in West Indies mahogany. The copy, my first flame finial, still unfinished, is in walnut. The ball's too small, the flame's too big, and there are some minor problems with the cove and bead details, too, but it's pretty close.

What will I do with this skill? Well, that should be obvious. What to do with the finial is the more pressing question, since the clock still has all three of its originals. I'll glue a dowel and a cork on the bottom end, and it will be a wine finial, for the "end of the wine". I have turned several of these stoppers, as gifts for friends who appreciate period furniture, and several more finials for beds, clocks, etc., but this is the first one with carving on the turning.

Great job.

Victor Parisian

>That is so nicely made. I'd love to be at that level. how did you go about carving the flutes in the top?

I get it Adam.

Bob Hackett

>You really should consider joining Coop`s reading group.We could use a mind like yours.

MB

Re: Great job.

William Duffield, on the Cohansey

>First, I turned a jalapeña-shaped flame. Then, with the lathe still turning, I marked the major diameter with a pencil. With a pair of dividers, still on the lathe, but with the lathe stopped, I stepped off the equator, adjusting the dividers until I had five about equal steps. Using the original as a guide for the angle, I drew a diagonal line through each of the five points. At the tip, I drew a short vertical line that would have intersected the points, if I had extended it far enough. At the bottom, I drew five semicircles, centered on the points. I guess I could have drawn another line around the turning down there and then drawn the semicircles with a compas, but it's not really necessay, since the gouge controls the curvature of the bottom of the flute. I then connected all the pertinent points, freehand. All this was done on the lathe, with my hand resting on the toolrest. Then, I took it to the bench, and using a gouge (I think I used a Pfeil half inch, #11 Swiss pattern, but that would vary, depending on the size of the finial), I made a spiral cut in between each pair of lines. This took several cuts, working towards both ends, of course. After that, I kept deepening and widening each channel, with quite a few cuts, until I got all the way to the lines I had drawn. I'm still smoothing the flutes, with scrapers and sand paper.

You might find it funny to see how rough the original was. Of course, the finials on a clock or bed are eight feet in the air, so you can't see the facets left by the carving gouges or evenby the turning tools. Also, the flutes on the bottom half of the sphere are only cut on the front and side, where they can be seen from the floor. These flutes don't really have to be exactly the same width, because you can't see the variations. For a silly wine finial, however, if the average maleducated customer is going to make a positive purchase decision, it had better look and feel as smooth and regular as the cheapest mass produced injection molded plastic stopper from IKEA.

Another note, about flame rotation direction: When looking at the front of the clock, usually the flames on the center and right finials spiral upwards in a clockwise direction, like these two, while the left finial spirals in the opposite direction.

Re: What new skill have you learned?

David Barnett - Venice, Florida

>Well, that's an interesting question, so I'll share what I've been doing (or what I've been trying to do) to keep from lapsing even further into early senility. As you've noted, acquiring skills are often project directed, and as William Duffield has noted, sharpening one's skills can be iterative over longish intervals (Glass blowing, huh? I cast. Either's a career in itself). None of the skill domains I'm working in right now are entirely novel to me but I'm pushing into new territory in each, and as my 'proclivities' the last few years have been more multimedia than not, I find myself flitting (but always recycling) from one project to another, trying to integrate differing materials and techniques on a variety of scales: tall wood, metal, and cast glass lighting, a large bronze exterior wall sundial (the pattern will be in mahogany), a half-shell design with a post-modern nod to Botticelli (and my first foray into public sculpture). Smaller luminaires of wood, metal and pâte de verre (in an amalgam of styles that I diplomatically call 'transitional' when pressed), and some very shallow and delicate organic furniture carving for a pearwood pendulum clock (after Guimard, but somewhat more austere), and at the smallest scale, several pieces of wood and gold jewelry, and wood and stainless steel rings and bracelets (most I make Hellenist and Etruscan woven chain ).

Well, the skills I need to develop in hybrid pieces such as I'm doing lately seem to involve shaping and finishing when assemblies of different materials are conjoined. I like smooth transitions from one material to another. Where metal adjoins wood (or stone, or glass) I require transitions so smooth that they are not easily sensed with the fingertips. One should feel only a slight change in temperature and tactile drag scanning the polished surfaces (my pieces invite touching). I've acheived this in smaller pieces, such as jewelry and varied objets d'art, but on a larger scale this is challenging, requiring that I perpetually invent new ways to present abrasives, such as jigging and specially shaped laps, to get what I'm after as each material responds so differently to surface refining processes.

As for purely woodworking (well, as pure as it gets for me), I've currently got a jones for bleaching and for very light woods. Hell, I'll even bleach holly. But I'm currently trying to learn to produce a pale oyster grey with the palest vague pinking marbling in mahogany. If I ever get it right it'll be used for a traditionally-sized goban (not kaya this time). I'll be making the stones (pâte de verre, not shell and slate) and carving the bowls, too. I've been thinking inlaid rose metal lines, but I'm considering cable mokume gane, as well. Not exactly 'purist', heh.

My major influences the last few years are architect Louis Sullivan (his 'electolier' in the National Farmers Bank, Owatonna, Minnesota -- http://www.tape.net/~gerry/sullivan/owatonna/bank16.jpg -- just blows me away). I constantly draw inspiration from Hector Guimard's work, both his architecture and furniture. And Charles & Margaret Mackintosh's tea rooms and the Glasgow School of Art library never lose their freshness. Then there's the Secessionists, the PDV of Gabriel Argy-Rousseau, the early Greek goldsmiths, Daniel Brush, and my absolute favorite, Rene Lalique (his jewelery/bijouterie).

I'm trying some new directions in turning (small scale on the Taig lathe), again with combined materials, which can be fairly discouraging at times when I hit a softer material and 'dig in' a bit, but it's worth the effort, and I've developed a few new tools. I love that little Tiag lathe (which I use for metals, wood, and even gem carving). I'm always trying to improve my engraving and stone setting skills, too, although I've had a recent setback (I woke up three weeks ago nearly three-quarters blind in my right eye), which may improve over the next year or so. One thing for sure, I have a newfound appreciation for what binocular vision I retain. Sorry to be so long-winded (as always), but I'm wearing an eyepatch for several hours a day to retrain my brain as I'm right-eye dominant. One thing I can do during that time is play piano (which means pretending I'm Lennie Tristano or Bill Evans... yeah, right). The other thing I can do (obviously) is type.

My Efforts are VERY Mundane

Bob Hutchins in central TX

>compared to the earlier posts, but I'm not embarrassed by being ignorant and untalented (0:) and certainly not inhibited.

I picked up a piece of leather scrap at a big flea market a few months ago to use as a strop when sharpening. Had some extra and it looked to be about enough to make a holster for a pistol that belonged to my Dad.

Being inspired by Bob Smalser's excellent instruction on leatherworking, I decided I needed a model to use to form the wet leather around. Soooo, I traced the pistol on a piece of 1x4 with appropriate reference lines and cut out the profile. I then used a dremel to carve down close to the actual shape. I cut and split and pared a piece of closet rod to simulate the cylinder and expoxied it in place and Bob's yer uncle!

I've about got the paper pattern like I want it now. Next I'll soak and fit the leather around the model before making the final cuts. Haven't acquired the tools to lay out a stitch pattern so I'll probably just take it to a local boot repair shop and have them sew it.

If it turns out presentably, I'll take a few photos and ask Mr. Smalser to critique the process and results.

Carving the model was a new experience and I was surprised that I came close to replicating the original in style, looks, etc. without having read or been instructed in the 'how to's'.

BobH, just plain ole Bob.

Errata and corrections

David Barnett - Venice, Florida

>Yeah, they may be minor, and Lord knows I try not to reread what I write, much less edit, as I have a compulsion (among many) to amend, and worse, append.

'Hellenic', of course (not 'Hellenist').

And 'pinking'? Shear(sic) lunacy. 'Pink'. Just plain 'pink'.

I left out the parenthetical explanation that a 'goban' is a very thick wooden board for the game "go". Sorry.

And then there's 'electolier', which should've been 'electrolier'.

Way too much coffee, not nearly enough Prozac, I suppose.

Re: My Efforts are VERY Mundane

David Barnett - Venice, Florida

>That holster's gonna be sweet. While this time, as you said, you may want to have the local boot guy stitch things up (probably more than one local boot guy where you live -- no dearth of cordwainers in TX), you might want to take up hand saddle stitching for your next project. To me, it's a truly fun 'skill', useful (you can make holsters for tools, too, you know), takes nothing fancy in the way of tools: you probably have all but one or two already, and goes pretty quickly once you get the hang of it. Making a stitching pony is a one evening project (you really don't need one but they're cool). Try to find an old copy of "The Art of Hand Sewing Leather" by Al Stohlman" and Bob's your... oh, you said that.

Joining stone and metal

Bob Hackett

>There`s a female sculptor who`s name escapes me that makes pieces from layers of stone and aluminum that you may find interesting.The layers appear to be seamless.

If you`re at all interested I`ll wade thru my long list of stone favorites(I try never to edit them either) in an effort to find her site or at least her name.

MB

Re: What new skill have you learned?

Stephen Kirk in Quakertown PA

>Due to me not planning ahead of time that the legs I was making for a wine cabinet that need tapers would be too thick for my table saw (3" thicks legs, and with my tapering jig, I only have about 2" of blade left for cutting), so I decided to give a try at hand sawing the tapers. Laying them out was no problem, but getting a kerf started at the angle I wanted was a bit more difficult. I (tried) to cut just outside my line, but I seemed to have the back side of cut wander away from the line, while the front stayed good. After I rough cut them, I turned to my little block plane (Stanley - new), and an old #6 smoother that was my great grandfathers, to clean up the faces and bring them down to the lines. I've got some more work to do there, and my sides aren't quite square to each other, so that'll take a bit of effort. I had to take a break while I re-sharpen my plane blades. I also discovered that my plane blades were not square, so I'm trying to correct that too. Oh, and my handsaw was a bit dull, which could have explained how hard the cutting was, and why the blade was wandering on me a bit.

However (and to wrap up this long post), I was suprised at how easy it all actually was, and I wonder how much easier it would have been if my tools were in good working order first. Live and learn, I guess. Now I'll square up those plane blades, and send my saw out for sharpening (I really don't feel like trying to sharpen crosscut saws).

So, a little job turned into lots of learning for me.

Re: What new skill have you learned?

Ernie Miller

>I have done very little over the summer. in fact you would have to draw a line on the floor to even tell if I have moved. But I will give you the short list of what you people have tought me. Hardening and tempering O1 tool steel I like that it opens up lots of posabilities. Hand cut dove tails if I'm ever put in a mental instution let that be the thing I do all day long. Sharpening Saws, blades every thing. planing, Design? I have learned alot but I think I need held back for another year or two just to get it right. There are two other things that I don't know if I should mention or not but Procrastionation I get so many ideas and never have the time to do them. and the last is Rust collecting Don't wait for the best to come along buy all of it that is cheap and tell every one you are just a user. (The right project just hasn't came along yet to use it on).

Re: What new skill have you learned?

Dave Anderson Chester,NH

>Nicely done Sir William. As for the proportions,I think yours are better than the original. The flame on the original is too short and looks stubby and squat and doesn't flow all that well. One thing I always evaluate when looking over period pieces in a museum is how the details fit together. Sometimes the finest pieces have inconsistencies or the craftsman had an area where he wasn't as comfortalbe working.

Re: Great job.

Stephen Kirk in Quakertown PA

>That is really interesting. I've always wondered how you'd even layout something like that. It is neat to see how many old pieces had incomplete sections because you were never expected to see them.

Thanks for the explanation.

Really nice

Ron in Kokomo

>

Been there sort of

Ron in Kokomo

>I did this a few years ago with juts a jack, jointer, and smoother. Amazing at how quickly it goes after layout is done.

Re: Joining stone and metal

David Barnett - Venice, Florida

>"If you`re at all interested I`ll wade thru my long list of stone favorites(I try never to edit them either) in an effort to find her site or at least her name."

Bob, I'd like that very much, indeed. I've flirted with pouring aluminum over stone slabs in refractory forms but personal health and safety concerns, and no doubt a few zoning restrictions, have held me back. But now that I'm next door to Sarasota (where there's an art bronze foundry and a helpful industrial aluminum caster who gives me Petrobond to play with), I'm again thinking big.

I`ll second Dave on proportioning.

Bob Hackett

>Your finial looks more in scale overall.

AFA the turned details,perhaps what you need is a set of micro tools for these type of projects.A tiny homemade round skew would work for beads and grooves but you`d still need a small gouge for the coves.

MB

Krenov cabinetry

bill tindall

>I can't say this learning is nearly completed but I'm along the way enough to make a credible attempt. PICS to follow when the finish is on. I don't stop learning; just keep moving the bar higher or in a different direction.

What a departure from the traditional cabinetry I have practiced. Build the door and then fit the case to it. Radical, but it can result in a perfect door fit no matter the state of the complex door. Knife hinges, Krenov rub catches, dowel construction, precision of fit better than I have previously attempted to achieve. The whole affair has demanded care beyond what I was willing to offer when I was building things because they were needed. A big change has occured now that I can build what I want rather than what I need.

I'll be back in the 18th century for the next piece, for a change of pace.