Every year my woodturning club has a gift exchange, and a potluck dinner. Quite
a popular holiday get together for the members and their wives. This year I
decided to give  number of gifts, all are of course handmade. For every gift I
give, I get one in exchange, all are turned objects. All are wrapped so you
don’t know what it is. You get a raffle ticket as you enter for each gift you
bring.

Last year I gave a couple of my burnishing tools as my gift offering. They were
very well received. I guess no one else has thought of this. So this year I am
giving more of them. And an awl that I made from a scrap screwdriver.

  https://picasaweb.google.com/102358420595488787966/XmasGiftExchange?a
uthuser=0&feat=directlink">https://picasaweb.google.com/102358420595488787966/Xm
asGiftExchange?authuser=0&feat=directlink

These are pretty easy to make. I just put a ferrule on a handle and drill a hole
for the actual metal burnisher to fit into. The very first ones I made had a
long metal burnisher sticking out of the handle, but with use I found that it is
not necessary. An inch is plenty.

If you don’t have a suitable piece of metal, just grind off most of the spiral
part of a high speed drill bit, and stick the spiral part into the handle. The
shank does the burnishing.

So what does a woodturner want with a scraper burnisher? After you grind a
turning scraper, you burnish the edge and get a really fine scraper edge which
gives you a very nice finished surface on your turning. Also  good for a cabinet
scraper.

I made everything from what would have otherwise been scrap. My wife fell in
love with the one with a cocobolo handle. I told her she could have it if she
would start woodturning. That went over like a lead balloon.
------------------------------------------------------------------------

>From: James Thompson
>I made everything from what would have otherwise been scrap. My wife fell in
love with the >one with a cocobolo handle. I told her she could have it if she
would start woodturning. That >went over like a lead balloon.
------------------------------------------------------------------------

Those are beautiful James.
I had never thought of burnishing the edge on a turning scraper. I’ll have to
try it.

Perhaps a cocobolo handle on something she uses every day?
Not knowing her hobbies I can’t really guess what that might be. For Lydia a pen
might be nice.
I’ve been lucky in that she has a fondness for small boxes. Every one I’ve made,
and some were pretty rough, has been gratefully accepted. It’s gotten to the
point that she expects to have choice of any that come home from the flea market
with tools in them.
Life is all about finding common ground.

Well, the truth is that she falls in love with most of the pretty things I make.
We have closets full of these things, not to mention a mess of boxes filled with
them as well. She will not hear of selling any of it, but it’s ok for gift
exchanges.

Remember, I have been retired for most of 27 years, and doing this stuff pretty
regularly. It gets to be  lot of stuff. Almost as big a mess as my oldtools
accumulation. But at least I am making a small effort to put some stuff on FMM
each month. Which reminds me….


On Nov 21, 2014, at 11:51 AM, David Nighswander  wrote:

> >From: James Thompson
> >I made everything from what would have otherwise been scrap. My wife fell in
love with the >one with a cocobolo handle. I told her she could have it if she
would start woodturning. That >went over like a lead balloon.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> Those are beautiful James.
> I had never thought of burnishing the edge on a turning scraper. I’ll have to
try it.
> 
> Perhaps a cocobolo handle on something she uses every day?
> Not knowing her hobbies I can’t really guess what that might be. For Lydia a
pen might be nice.
> I’ve been lucky in that she has a fondness for small boxes. Every one I’ve
made, and some were pretty rough, has been gratefully accepted. It’s gotten to
the point that she expects to have choice of any that come home from the flea
market with tools in them.
> Life is all about finding common ground.

> So this year I am giving more of them. And an awl that I made from a
> scrap screwdriver.

Every one of those is a beauty.  Very pretty work.

Mike in Sacto