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Recent Bios FAQ

174946 isderf@a... 2007‑12‑05 Bio Update Long and windy...
Well it's been a good while since I last sent any emails. Moved houses,
changed jobs, busy busy...

It's not that I haven't gotten any projects done, I just simply been so
busy making things, I haven't had the time to update ya'll with emails.
Which I feel bad about cause 90% of my ideas are ideas from the people
here. I'll try to do better this year :)

I've been reading alot of books from the library recently on woodworking,
blacksmithing, lathes and old timer stuff (One of the few things I can do
when the kids don't want to play in the garage but require my presence)

Lets see, still working at getting the hand tool thing down.
- Got the sharpening down (despite trying to crack my waterstones)
- I have gotten better at planing
- Been practicing hand cut mortises and tenons
- Teaching classes on Saw Sharpening
- Watching videos from Christopher Schwartz (Course, Medium, Fine, once
explained...all I could think was: that's so simple how did I not notice
it before. Thanks Chris)

Lets see projects completed this year.
- Constructed a router plane of cherry, ground out 2 blades for it.
- Made a sharpening bench.
- Finally made myself a wooden coping saw. 
- Completed a spokeshave (in Apple, man I love that wood) I got for a
present. Almost completed the second one too...but it's shelved for now.
- Finished a Maple 'Side' table (rock maple was a bad idea for a first
table, you'd think the name would of scared me)
- Made a Walnut spoon, that was cool, now just need to make like 30 more
for all the relatives that now want one...
- Complete five of those mason jar thingys that you put candy in and slide
the stick in and out to get the candy, (hrm...horrible description) for a
friend. She traded me an old Army chest for them, ready made tool chest,
how do you pass that up.
- Made my daughter (3) a bench out of an Oak Pallet, heavy heavy pallet,
probably a good 150 lbs. the bench is 5 feet long and 20 inches
high...I'll just replace the legs as she grows. The pallet didnt' want to
release it's nails on one side so, I cut around them to get the right
lengths, planed the 3 non-nail sides and then assembled the bench with the
nails countersunk into the bottom of the top. Then while boring out the
blind mortises for the legs, I was so careful to avoid the nails with my
brace and bit, got to the last hole to drill an hear the nasty metal on
metal sound, pulling out the only good 1 inch bit I had, it had completely
stripped both spurs from it. GAH. Finished it up, and promised myself next
time to use the corded drill with a $1 bit from the borg.
- Sewed up a tool roll from canvas bags given by John Pesut by hand meant
to post it when everyone was griping about sewing, then our laptop
crashed. Pics will be forthcoming...didn't take more then 4-6 hours and
that's with my 'just learned hand stitching from the internet' skills.
- I've since built a block set with base for my children (1 and 3) so it's
mostly finished in drool.
- I also made a cherry fishing rod for them complete with wooden fish.
- Completed a Hock plane kit for the local Woodcraft to display. Ron's
kits are fantabulous, took 2 days to make a working plane. And it would of
been 2-3 hours if you didn't have to wait for glue to dry. My only gripe
is that I did have to trim the wedge a slight bit, and that wasn't
mentioned in the video provided by Rev Ron (constructive criticism :) (No
affiliation blah blah, but if your hesitating for any reason buy the kit)
- Built a bungee lathe, now attempting to blacksmith myself some lathe
tools. Didn't really think the build a lathe thing though, got it all
together, and I'm staring at it, got a piece of wood chucked into it,
looking thinking...and I finally realize uh...I haven't got a single lathe
tool in my shop, so sharpened up an outchannel gouge and roughed in a
shape, then tried using an older chisel as a skew...yep need to blacksmith
some files into hopefully useable tools.

And then somewhere in there I attempted to cut my middle finger of my left
hand off with a drawknife. The feeling is starting to come back now and
it's only been 6 months.

Winter is setting in, so while I might get time in the garage, it's
generally too cold for more then an hour at a time.
Thanks out to the Porch for all your ideas and your running commentary on
subjects so diverse. It's always an interesting read.

Pictures and commentary will be forthcoming on my projects, once I get
Dreamweaver talking to my webserver.

Isaac Howard
Sitting, Thinking...trying to come up with an insanely awesome
Galootaclaus gift.

"You can say any foolish thing to a dog, and the dog will give you this
look that
says, "My God, you're right! I never would've thought of that!"
               Dave Barry
Hence the reason I talk to my dog alot...

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Recent Bios FAQ