It's that special time of year in the South when the outdoors beckon and nature "teases" with alternating days of gentle warmth and the last vestiges of cold. The daffodils have put on their early show, as well as the forsythia and Bradford pear trees, while the dogwood and azalea are preparing for their stage entrance. We have bleeding heart in our garden which is like the "trumpeter" of Spring .... emerging from the ground and offering it's pink blossoms in what seems like a matter of days... Following closely behind, the hosta starts to emerge from the ground And the Dogwoods prepare to join the azaleas in their floral display Besides the urge to go outside and "play...
On my December 4, 2017 blog post titled “My Best Finishing Tip for Hardwoods” I closed with my “Key Storage Tip” which had worked for me in the past. Well now I’m here to add to that tip. If there’s one thing I’ve learned from woodworking it’s to never think you have it all figured out, in other words, remain teachable!My key storage tip worked well for me until I got down to my can being about half empty, then I discovered that no matter how well I had sealed the can I was getting a film on the top of my finish. After doing some research and once again relying on the expertise of other woodworkers I found that...
One of the alternatives we offer to our “end grain” cutting boards is a slightly less expensive but equally durable “edge grain” board. As the term indicates, these boards use a different portion of the wood (edge) for your cutting surface. Although these boards do not possess the same qualities of end grain they do offer some distinct advantages. First you get a far different grain pattern from the edge of a piece of wood than you do from the end. (Below notice end grain top left, edge grain middle and lower left) Second, because less of the wood “fibers” are exposed, edge grain boards tend to hold their color longer than end grain. This can be particularly rewarding when...
We had been looking forward to our vacation for a couple months and when the time finally arrived to prepare for our trip we had one major obstacle to contend with: Hurricane Irma. Planning a vacation to Florida in the month of September is always risky since it is hurricane season, however we’ve done it before so we thought it worth doing again. Hurricane Irma was not just a threatening storm, it was billed as the largest and most dangerous storm to our hit our land in any of our lifetime. After watching the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey and all the damage that storm did to Texas, this was not something to be taken lightly. So we had a serious...
I’ve been a lathe owner for a little less than a year so I am in no way qualifying myself as an expert. That said, I have created several salt and pepper mills and chess pieces that have received high compliments so I am an active lathe user. Like many of my “turning” friends I started by purchasing a rather inexpensive 12” lathe from Harbor Freight. If you have about $80 to spend (even less with a HF coupon) and want to see if turning is your thing, I highly recommend this route. I burned this lathe out after a few months trying to drill center holes in my ginders. So, after a few weeks of pondering and...
