Thread: Makin' Shavings / Turner's Projects.

Clever design for a steak knife block Jerry. Thanks for posting.

I like that Jerry! I suppose you made the slots before you glued it together?

Very nice idea for a good set of French knives. And nice choices for the contrast Jerry.
Laguiole knives keep a terrific serrated edge.

The walnut was refurbished 5/8" boards. So i had to cut them to 15 degree and pair up two pieces to make 30 degrees. Then the Oak was cut to 30 degrees and i cut the slots in the Oak.

After glueing it together 3 times because of not getting the parts straight i ended up slipping a wood dowel in the middle as it kept wanting to not stay tight together in the middle. Big rubber bands to hold it together and 24hr dry time.

In the end I won.

Originally Posted by MikeB52

Very nice idea for a good set of French knives. And nice choices for the contrast Jerry.
Laguiole knives keep a terrific serrated edge.

Yeah. No they don't. Not anymore. Nowadays the "Laguiole" brand is mostly held by a Parisian that sells licences to companies that import cheap chinese products.
Every time you buy a "Laguiole", you're hurting the actual production in the village of Laguiole that has been fighting to overturn, with mixed results.

Jerry, I'm truly flabbergasted by your skills.
I mean, I'm barely at the starting line, but at least I can see that.

After I broke a cheap wood lathe (overly cheap, don't buy the Lidl Parkside wood lathe, which is the same as that one), I've been frantically selling stuff to buy something... Meaty (750W on triphased engine). It should be here soon hopefully.

I made these pens for a couple i know in CA. Just gifts for out of the blue...

Alright, so I've turned my first badger out of boxwood.
Really it was beginner's luck, and I'm lacking a lot of the tools to make quality badgers (chuck, drill chuck, bandsaw...)

I still have boxwood on hand, and a lot of it, but I want to be a bit more skilled before I go on working with it.
And being in a region famed for its walnuts, I've saved some branches from this year's pruning. But for now they are not dry enough.

So while I'm working my scales and arpeggios, it's pruned branches from the garden, logs from the firewood stash, and other construction pine cuttings.

Not being satisfied by my early skills (particulary with the skew), I've spent litteral hours on Youtube learning mostly from Richard Raffan.
Spent the morning on bead and coves rods (two of them), to work my cuts essentially.

Then, this afternoon, I tried to raise the bar a bit.

The aim was to try my hand at a reading pointer (I have a 7 years old, useful tool), since the minister of finances hand might be greased by crochet hooks in the future.
Dunno which wood. Might be linden, might be ash, might be plane, who cares, it's free and mistake-friendly.

Spindle turned, with a skew and an spindle gouge.
Happy ? Well at least mostly I knew what I was doing this time, and I might be close to a 3,5/4 mm crochet hook at the point, so mostly yes.
Satisfied ? Heck no, not yet.
My V-Cuts are messy, I can see at least one unsupported cut, but I see progress.
My beads and coves are far sharper, and overall I am far more precise.
And now I love working with the skew, even if my slicing cuts are not entirely satisfying. (like apparently a lot of people, I was intimidated at first because it would be catch after catch)

In a few months, and a bit of training on boxwood and yew, I should be able to work on these ebony and pink ivory blanks I bought far too early (but pink ivory is so hard to find)

You have a good start. Richard makes it all look easy. Myself i prefer the gouge not the skew. Practice practice. Richard raften and two other guys always do vids of how they like to make the same item. The guy from a different country (cant remember his name) is damn good. The three of these guys are good to watch to see the differences.

Watch your drying wood. Its not hard to end up with lots of splits and cracks so try to prepare your blanks. Youtube vids.