Thread: What are you working on?

Originally Posted by 32t

I like the smell of cedar and I assume you sealed it but it made me think of sleeping in a cedar chest.

That would be a little much!

It's amazing how some smells can take you back in time. Way back in the late 40's or early 50's my parental grandparents bought a wooden display box from the local Safeway Store when it was closing to open a newer and much bigger one (it would be the one that I remembered shopping with my Granny as a small boy).

Anyway it was about 6 ft long and 4'x4' square. It was painted a light green with black trim.

My grandfather made a simple pine board lid for it and that's where they stored their woolen blankets in--along with Mothballs.

20 years or better after the house had been abandoned and had really deteriorated I opened that chest and the smell of those mothballs brought back so many memories of that home.

Roy-They say smell is the most powerful evoker of memory. When I smell buttermilk cornbread in the oven, I am instantly transported back decades to my grandmother's kitchen. I still make her simple recipe, and feel that connection every time. When I taught creative writing, I would sometimes use smells as a catalyst for writing, having students blind sniff things like an alcohol swab, fraser fir Christmas tree trimmings, cinnamon, etc., and then just free-write.

In other news, I found the 3 nice blades I had torn the house apart looking for. They were in an obvious place (in retrospect) beside the side door in my shop.

Bad news: I just broke my 2nd and last set of red mallee burl scales, again right at a sort of "fault line" in the wood figure. These were approaching final finish, and had shaped up beautifully in the .020" G10 scale liners (which seem plenty strong). That was my backup set. I don't think I'll be doing any more unless maybe I try an epoxy finish on them. That stuff seems too fragile at razor scale thickness-sometimes the universe battles you to a draw. Plan C now?

Sorry to hear it. Well, you learned something. Thats always a good thing.

Well Aaron, from the looks of all the wood in the pictures you posted, I don't think that you will have any problems finding a piece of stock for some new scales.

It is a bummer to lose so much time and effort.

Pete <:-}

Originally Posted by petercp4e

Well Aaron, from the looks of all the wood in the pictures you posted, I don't think that you will have any problems finding a piece of stock for some new scales.

It is a bummer to lose so much time and effort.

Pete <:-}

Yeah, I'm not hurting for exotic woods, Pete. My local connections keep expanding: fine woodworker friends will give me their cut-offs that are too small for them to use any more of. And I'm not someone who gives up easily. I may just try to do an epoxy pour over those scales-you can't see the split until you bend them a bit-maybe epoxy will take care of that?

And Jerry, if you peruse my posts over the years (cuz maybe you're having trouble falling asleep!), I am always trying to learn new techniques and learn from my mistakes. So all good on the learning front.

edit to add: After a few minutes' thought, I think I'm going to try the epoxy on both of the split mallee burl sets. I just need to read up on the technique for a bit here first-that should make the wild grain in them pop! (if it works)

Okay, here's the epoxy "fix" on one of the red mallee burl sets:

I used the set-up I put together when I was trying to make homemade paua acrylic laminate scales (then wisely just got the ALVS sheets instead!). It's a lot more even on top than my lousy pic indicates, and I took my time to make sure I got all the edges coated, but I do have some bumps and ridges around the perimeters. Masking tape on the inside flats, with excess razored off.

I'm hoping that if I just leave them in this box with the flaps closed for a few days against dust that I can very carefully even out those bumps on grinding belts once the expoxy is super-hard, then finish with micro-mesh? I assume that cured epoxy is way harder than acrylic as far as sanding and final polishing.

We'll see if this worked after full cure when I try to pin up around a wedge (which I'll keep at a shallow angle to minimized bending). I'll report my success or failure in a few days. If it works on this set, I'll do it to the 1st set I screwed up for 2 saves-we'll see. SHD

I hope it works out. Those scales look gorgeous.

Originally Posted by ScoutHikerDad

Okay, here's the epoxy "fix" on one of the red mallee burl sets:

I used the set-up I put together when I was trying to make homemade paua acrylic laminate scales (then wisely just got the ALVS sheets instead!). It's a lot more even on top than my lousy pic indicates, and I took my time to make sure I got all the edges coated, but I do have some bumps and ridges around the perimeters. Masking tape on the inside flats, with excess razored off.

I'm hoping that if I just leave them in this box with the flaps closed for a few days against dust that I can very carefully even out those bumps on grinding belts once the expoxy is super-hard, then finish with micro-mesh? I assume that cured epoxy is way harder than acrylic as far as sanding and final polishing.

We'll see if this worked after full cure when I try to pin up around a wedge (which I'll keep at a shallow angle to minimized bending). I'll report my success or failure in a few days. If it works on this set, I'll do it to the 1st set I screwed up for 2 saves-we'll see. SHD

Outstanding! Glad you were able to save those.

Just finished cleaning up this grooming kit that I picked up for next to nothing. It's a nifty little set that I'm sure my Dad could get some use out of.

That is nice!! Thank
~Richard