Good things I have discovered with the Internet recently - part 2

Computer users like other things have cliques. PC or MAC, IOS 7 or Windows 20xx etc. In the early days there was a subculture of Amstrad PC8256 owners. I had one of these great machines that had built in word processing software and a dedicated printer, but sadly proprietary software that ended up like dozens of other non Microsoft/apple products.

Luckily I could see the writing on the wall and sold it to a bloke who used to be a mate and finally bought a real Dos based XT computer.

The point of the story....

I am learning about woodturning and have been amazed to discover the woodturners equivalent of Linux (but probably not Amstrad) - pen turning.

Yes -  I had seen the odd bit of wood turned into something nice in souvenir shops and the like, but it is much more than that. I recently went to the Working with Wood Show in Melbourne and had a very interesting time, but what struck me the most was the amount of interest and products supporting the turning of wood and acrylic pens.

This is a huge subset of woodturning that has just amazed me - there are thousands of pen turners out there doing some amazingly beautiful work.

If you don't know anything about this then do a quick google search and check it out. I bought some of the basic tools required but I am not sure I want to get into this myself (my first turning was 600mm across) as it could be one of those crack type orgasm hobbies - you know - once you start you can't stop!

But the supply of timber blanks got me interested. I have made a few tentative inquiries and pleased to report that I have been sending wooden pen blanks all over the countryside by the box full.

I have Fijian Mahogany and Beefwood blanks ready to go.

Fijian Mahogany 

Beefwood

Give us a call if you are interested in them, they are also for sale on ebay and I will be on the lookout for more interesting featured timber to cut into blanks.

One of my customers has a great set of videos on the whole process of pen turning and can supply everything you need to get started.

Resurrecting two old chisels

I found these two old inch and a half chisels in a box of stuff I bought at a garage sale a few weeks ago.

With my newfound interest in woodwork, I thought I would do these two up and they could be the start of getting together a 'fine' collection of good tools rather than the pile of stuff that currently exists.

As you can see they are in a pretty sorry state:

One has had its yellow hard plastic handle smashed while the other has been converted to a cold chisel with a metal pipe handle which appears to have had the shite bashed out of it.

I managed to extract the handles without too much damage and wire brushed the blades. One is a Titan chisel while the other has no discernible markings.

I located a nice piece of ironbark and have started turning them down into two handles. The ironbark is pretty hard on my turning tools although my new carbide tip roughing tool still makes mincemeat out of roughing to round.

I am lucky enough to have an older Woodfast wood lathe which I picked up on the bay of E from a high school workshop in the Dandenongs. It is an oldy but a goody and will probably do everything I need from a lathe.

Still need to trim the ends

I also used my new (to me) Hercus lathe to turn down some brass tube into ferrules - for both ends.

Got a bit carried away with a  taper on the ferrules, but they should fit easier.

You can also see the wire brushed chisel which is still showing a bit of pitting but I have not spent to much time cleaning that up yet.

I have been learning a bit lately about sharpening and grinding of hand tools from UOY (University of U-Tube) and have been using my slow rotating white wet stone grinder to slowly grind away the chainsaw looking blade edge.  I need to keep an eye out for a good piece of marble that I can use as a flat surface, but until then the cast iron band saw table is doing a great job.

to be continued.......