They are not for spanking the spread.

These are butter paddles. Wille included them in the book, so I made some out of fresh birch. A very satisfying little project, and they turn out to be really useful. In a why-have-I-never-seen-one-of-these-before sort of way. Seriously, you will not use a table knife for butter again unless forced to. One caution: you *may* start putting more butter on your bread.

A simple bookshelf

So, with little brother moving out, the older boys moved into their own room.  Like all other members of the family, they have plenty of books.  So I needed to build a bookshelf.  This very simple one took about two hours to make. 

the front view

a side view - see how the shelves slant slightly to the back.

the final product in its current home.  This is also the cleanest place in the room.

Swedish dough bowl

You know how the last 5% of a project takes 90% of the time? At least for me. I finally sanded the dough bowl and got some Linseed oil on it. Enjoy the high quality pictures.

Two itty fitties

These were fast and fun.  Just cut them out of nice pine on the scroll saw then carved them a little with my x-acto knife and chisels.  I am going to paint them some bright pretty colors.

Wise words from Wille

"At one time, the kitchen was the room that was kept the warmest, and it was there that people spent the most time, making and repairing things.  The women carded wool, spun yarn, wove and knitted.  The men made utensils and other implements for the household and the farm.  For the most part, this sort of close, familial productivity is a thing of the past.  Because of the modern, sterile and well-polished standards of today's homes, making dust and shavings or putting a chopping block in the middle of the floor is not acceptable.  Woodworkers are not allowed to practice their craft in the house, only in the garage or basement.
Those who work with fiber and fabric are allowed to practice their craft in the home and to enjoy the company of others at the same time.  Why shouldn't the woodworker who carves be able (to) pursue his interest likewise?  To use a knife and ax, you don't need a special place to house yourself.  The ax requires a chopping block, but it doesn't take much room.  Why not carve on the living-room sofa?  I do that often.  I also feel that carvers should be able to take their work with them when they visit friends or sit in public places.  I even carve when I am traveling on the train."
-Wille Sundqvist

I was happy to learn from this that making wood shavings inside is more than something I enjoy, it is my heritage.  My gratitude to this wise Swede.

You should read this book.

Swedish Carving Techniques by Wille Sundqvist.  The book is out of print, and copies for sale on Amazon are incredibly expensive, but through the magic of interlibrary loan, I have a copy for a few weeks.  I understand why so many people have recommended it.  He covers tools, techniques, materials, and the writing is really enjoyable to read.  There is a video that his son Jogge recorded that is a companion to the book, and it (the DVD) is available from Amazon.  There is more to be said about this, and I have some spoons and a bowl that I am working on, so I will follow this with pictures.

A finished bench

A couple years ago, I bought an old door with plans to turn it into a bench. I can now say that the door has become a bench and the thing is finished. It is finished, but not done. I stained it and put polyurethane on it, but I still need to upholster the seat. The pictures do not look nearly as good as the actual bench.

From Oliver Cowdery

I was just reading about the restoration of the Aaronic priesthood, and came across Oliver Cowdery's description of John the Baptist's visit. Part of what he wrote really struck me, especially when thinking of current world conditions.
"Man may deceive his fellow man; deception may follow deception, and the children of the wicked one may have power to seduce the foolish and untaught, till naught but fiction feeds the many, and the fruit of falsehood carries in its current the giddy to the grave, but one touch with the finger of his love, yes, one ray of glory from the upper world, or one word from the mouth of the Savior, from the bosom of eternity, strikes it all into insignificance, and blots it forever from the mind!"

About that Ironwood...

This is how I used the smaller piece of the ironwood that I showed earlier. It is just finished up, and has one coat of linseed oil so far.

Desert Ironwood

The most exciting gift I got for Christmas is some Desert Ironwood. My cousin located some on private land, and with the blessing of the property owner, we harvested some off a big, gnarly, uprooted old trunk of tree. Harvested sounds so professional. In reality, we busted chunks off with an axe and a trailer hitch. Hey, it is what we had on hand. Since we were both there on vacation, the tool scrounging continued as we broke it down into luggage sized pieces. I opted for a hacksaw, not wishing to destroy the nicer saws that we had access to. We did break one blade, but it was overall not too bad. Sectioning it at home, I have the benefit of a good vise on a stable workbench, so cutting is much easier. I still used a coarse hacksaw blade, because I prefer being able to throw away dull blades to sharpening them. With wood this hard, blades dull quickly. These pictures show outside and inside, with cut surfaces cleaned up with a rasp, and wetted to show the grain better.

Just look at the handles

It is a teensy bit embarrassing to see how much attention I have been giving to knives lately. I guess I have a tendency to obsess over one thing at a time. Here are another couple of knives- one made from a kit and the other from scraps of wood and metal.
This is the kit knife. The handle is made of Dymondwood- a laminated, resin impregnated wood veneer product. I do not recall the species of wood it is (supposed to be). A great material for a knife handle, because it is stable and moisture resistant, and it doesn't look bad. I put some butcher block oil on it to make it shine, even though finishing it is not necessary.
This little guy started out as a really cheap backsaw from Home Depot. I did not have very high hopes for this, I mostly just wanted to try making a knife from scratch. I cut the metal with a cold chisel and shaped the blade with a bench grinder and sandpaper. The handle is a scrap of black walnut, and the brass pins are not pins at all, but brass machine screws. I made it and tried it out in the kitchen, and it works like a champ. As a reward for faithful service, I finally finished it with (you guessed it) butcher block oil.

Mostly concerning the wood

My problem hasn't been that I haven't had any projects going, it is that they weren't strictly about wood. This photo is of a knife that I rehandled with hickory. The wood is from a sledgehammer handle. It is beautifully tough and not bad to look at, either. I finished it with butcher block oil until it shines.

I want a refund

Hey Laughter, I want my money back! A mere two years after it was made, the spoon gets a chip. I knew I should have bought Chinese.

"Within this Wooden O"

My wooden O in front of my small Shakespeare section.

The reason I make spoons.

This summer has been busy for us. We discovered that if you make fireweed jelly and raspberry jam, you should use the same spoon for both. You can then have a beautiful color like this:

It is a well-loved spoon. The jam is good, too.

Things I have made, part 11

My new hat rack rocks!

Things I have made, part 10

So, about a week ago I really wanted to make something. But the thing I wanted to make needed a band saw, and I broke my band saw blade a while ago. Because I couldn't go to the store to get a band saw blade, I was very bummed. Then I realized that I could sew something! So I got out a rectangle-shaped scrap and made a pillow and a pillow case. The pillow is inside the pillow case shown above. The photos show the front and back.

No wood, just words this time

But what great words they are. From Judge Learned Hand, one of our most respected American jurists. (And what a great name, too, huh? His brother was also a judge, and his name was Augustus.) These words are from a 4th of July address entitled The Spirit of Liberty:

I often wonder whether we do not rest our hopes too much upon constitutions, upon laws and upon courts. These are false hopes; believe me, these are false hopes. Liberty lies in the hearts of men and women; when it dies there, no constitution, no law, no court can even do much to help it. While it lies there it needs no constitution, no law, no court to save it.

Amen, Brother L. Amen.

Things I have made, part 9

Made out of better-than-average pine, finished with wax. I designed it to be simple to make and cut it with my scroll saw. I took these pictures before I gave them away because I have a tendency to lose my patterns.

Now every chair is a work chair!

I have a comfy chair by the fireplace. Not only that, it is leather and totally manly. The only problem is that it was only good for sitting in and reading, or dozing off. I needed versatility, or else sitting there would be unmitigated pleasure. Thank goodness I decided to make this lap desk! The top is 5/8 inch plywood and used to be a cabinet door, and the cushion is a pillowcase filled with foam beads and stapled in place. The paint job is not what I hoped for, as the fresh red paint caused the ancient existing paint to bubble up and crack, but it is functional. Now instead of just enjoying my sweet chair by the fireplace, I can get some work done!