End of Project Sharpening....

I had to get to it sometime. and I have been putting it off for several days, but tonight I finally resharpened all my chisels and put them away. You might not find this as a big deal, but, you see, I hate sharpening! Its time consuming and frustrating from time to time. I only damaged two chisels seriously this project, so regrinding the was not too bad. Most of the other chisels I just had to touch up. Someone on WCI asked me about my sharpening set up so I took a few pics of what I usually do. I use a belt sander for the sharpening part. Assuming the chisels does not have to be reground, I just lightly touch it up on the bevel side. Then I strop it on a piece of leather to remove the burr. Then a quick buff with the wheel mounted on the drill. Quick and easy. I use a piece of scrap wood to test out the sharpness after. Now all the chisels are polished, and ready for the next big thing in their wall mounted case. Hope everyone has a great Friday!

Chip chip chiping away!

I worked a little on the carving tonight, at least until I couldn't feel my toes. About an hour and a half I would say. As you can imagine, I did not get very far. but that is ok because every little chip helps and it will eventually get warmer. I wanted to show some people just what chisels I have been using during each step of the process. Basically these are my rough out chisels. It's surprising how far you can get with just these! But eventually you will need to add a few more as we go along. For now, this is all I have been using. Just a side note....has anyone been using google search for anything? We have had to reboot the computer three times over the last two months because we keep getting a "virus" off of google. ( virus, Trojan, worm, what ever they are called.) It basically redirects you to a different web page other than the one you are searching for. Eventually it sends you to a "web virus removal" page and won't let you go anywhere else. For this reason..I'm now a Yahoo man! I'm liking it so far. Yahoo has a lot of similar tools you can use. Anyway, Just wanted to throw that out there to see if anyone else has been having problems. ( Oh we have the McAfee total protection...Which didn't DO SQUAT! except tell us "yep! You got one.....hahaha!" It's suppose to STOP you from downloading any viruses or at least warn you before you do. ) Sorry for the Rant.. have a great rest of the week.

Wood Elf Carving Day 12. My new favorite chisel!

So this is what takes so long in making a good carving great...Tonight I worked on putting more details in. It's actually quite fun! Though rather time consuming cleaning up those edges and undercutting all those leaves. My new favorite chisel is this Phiel Short bend that I purchased well before Christmas. It was discounted on clearance! It is my new favorite chisel because it allows me to get super cramped places that my normal straight chisels can't. You may be able to see the difference in the cape as I went up and down the folds and set the creases even deeper than before. As I said before, It takes time and I went around the skirt up the cloak and down the right arm. There is still much more to do. Tomorrow we'll be going out of town, so that Friday deadline I set for myself previously is looking pretty optimistic. We'll keep ya posted.

Tree carving day 2

Well here's what you can do in about 8 hours with the help of a chainsaw. I have to admit that I think I got pretty far on her tonight. If my arm didn't feel like it was going to fall off, I probably would still be working on her. She probably is not very sexy at the moment, and it would be pointless to describe what is going on in my head. But you'll just have to keep following to see the progression. It helps to keep the chisels sharp, and I'm very happy with the Phiel ones I got at Woodcraft. They hold their edge the best of all those old ones of Grandpa's.

Chisel Cabinet part 2 Finished! Oh! HAPPY NEW YEAR!

I just finished the cabinet, and no it's not going to win any prizes for design or beauty. The doors close, and if I had used better lumber, taken the time to square things up, etc. It may have turned out fancier, but it still functions and I'm happy with that. Besides, at a later date, I can always rebuild it with better materials now that I have the design down. Case in point of the "oh crap!" moments was when I assembled the doors upside down. I decided that, other than the cosmetic imperfection, it should function well enough and I didn't need to take it apart. Aside from that, I now have a nice safe and out of the way place to store my chisels where they are easy to get at. Tomorrow will be spent rearranging my shop stuff that was displaced. Oh! And as of the writing of this post, the new year is officially been new for 3 full hours! ( eastern time) Happy new YEAR! May 2010 bring you all the best! By the way, A Cat update...Rashi seems to be doing better though she is not out of the woods yet. At least she can sleep without looking like she is going to die. Hopefully the antibiotics that she frequently spits out at us are making it inside and doing their job. We'll keep you updated!

Sharpening the fun

Tonight was spent sharpening my chisels, including the new ones I just got for Christmas. As previously posted, I just LOVE sharpening.....( sarcasm hint here) I have been putting it off since the tree carving was complete, and several of my favorite chisels had some serious damage that had to be reground and resharpened. After finally finishing that, I came to the conclusion that I need to make a better storage area for them if I want to keep them sharp and stop having them roll around in a cloth carry case. So tomorrow, I plan on starting my next project to make a wall case that will hold all my chisels safely and out of harms way. I can't wait to get started... Oh and to top it off. Westminster with the Way you Look Tonight. Enjoy!

Day After Christmas...

Just a quick post about what I was up to and how my Christmas went. Well, Pretty good! I got a couple of chisels and a new tool. You may remember the "frustration" I had when I tried to take change my oil ( having never done it by myself before, might I add..) Because I did not have a tool that would remove the old oil filter. Well, my brother-in-law ( the family mechanic) made sure that was not going to happen again. They went all out for the expensive one! As previously posted, I got my chisels from Woodcraft. A V-tool and a #5 gouge. I can't wait to use them. As for the rest of the night, I have been working on cleaning the house after the holidays, and building another two tables for Cheryl. I didn't get as far as I had hoped tonight, but tomorrow should go faster. Oh! And Monday I'm planning on turning a couple of Maple branches that fell during the October wind storm into some usable lumber! So Andy! If you are reading this....Here is my plan...

Tree Carving Day 9, Things are looking pretty good!

Lots of pics tonight! It has been raining pretty steady lately, so I decided I would try to get her inside tonight. But before I did, I tried to take off as much waste timber as possible. In addition, I decided that I would actually make her a 360 degree carving. Something I have not yet attempted on a scale this large. She just doesn't look right if I leave all that wood and bark on her back. I may regret this later, but for now, I think it might be the right decision. Anyway. With the chainsaw in hand I hashed out a few more shallow cuts to chip out with the straight chisel. Oh! By the way! The Swiss chisel I bought from woodcraft is AWESOME! It plows through the toughest areas and has not chipped yet. The metal it is made of must be on par with the two construction chisels that I use. I don't want to talk bad about Grandpa's chisels, but I think they are some type of cast iron. They "chip" instead of dull as I use them. I'll keep them around for light duty, but for now, I think I'm going to start slowly replacing them with the Swiss ones ( as the money allows, of coarse) Oh! Quick note, even thought they brag that they are factory sharpened, It's a good idea to sharpen them when you get them home. It makes a BIG difference! Getting back, She is now inside where it is warm and dry. I didn't really want to be out side when the snow started to fly. ( it already snowed here yesterday, but it didn't last long. I'm hoping at this point that I won't need the chainsaw anymore and can just work on cleaning her up a bit. her hair needs some work and so does her backside. Perhaps I'll enter her in the Woodcraft carving contest after all!

The Frustration of carving green timber

Well, Along with the joy has to come some sorrow right? I'd love to tell everyone that this is a joyous event spending countless hours chipping away at a large project. However, There are a few small frustrating parts that are just a bear to work with. Namely knots and dense layers of wood around any crotch. I have a couple of small examples here, but mostly the entire area around the cat is REALLY hard! Now you might say,"So what? It is wood after all, And Oak to boot!" Well, here is where the sorrow comes in. This is what it does to my ancient chisels, I go in shallow, I go in without the mallet, is doesn't seem to matter. This is really a job of power tools, but even they get clogged up or blunted. It was getting pretty bad because I would constantly have to file/grind down Grandpa's chisels and I'm afraid that I might just grind them down to nothing! Well, the good news is that today we went to woodcraft and I got a new #9 gouge that is hopefully strong enough to take those knots a little better. I'm still not going to whack away at them with reckless abandon, but at least there is lots of metal to resharpen if anything goes wrong. Plus a new chisel will take a little pressure off the other three I have!