Wednesday, January 23, 2008

Twenty million

Well a desperate plea "please stop making tools, or at least leave them out of your blog" can only result in one thing really, can't it?


For my friend Lee's benefit. He's newly returned to the madness that is woodworking with wild claims that there'll be no more time spent on making tools or workshop gadgets. He thinks to make lots of furniture instead, forsooth. Hah! Not a challenge to be resisted, methinks. So I haven't. ;-)


Anyway, should anyone care, I used a split dowel method of holding the blade - boxwood in this case. It's too short really (one of the 20 million things), plus ideally the blade width and dowel diameter should match up a bit more, but it was a narrow jigsaw blade. Heigh ho, you live and sometimes learn. Wood is padauk - which split on me again. Grr. Yet another of the 20 million...


Opted for a ball rather than an acorn; not keen on pointy things on the end of other pointy things. Besides I wouldn't want anyone to mistake it for one of Dave Jeske's Blue Spruce knives, would I? Hah! Fat chance...

Meanwhile, as I was replacing the envelope that guards the corner of the doormat from the, erm, "deposits" of the parrots (who like to sit on the door handles above), it occurred to me it'd be nice to add a little ovolo corner decoration (poorly executed, but I was using wallpaper scissors...).


Apparently, in one man's opinion, this could be viewed as bordering on the obsessive. I didn't think so, but on reflection... What say you?

Whatever you do say (be nice), say it quick or it'll be stuck in limbo until Monday. The blog will remain mute now probably until Tuesday - enjoy the peace and quiet!

5 comments:

  1. And why shouldn't the parrots have ovolo corners on their latrine? Very classy in my view and, I am sure, entirely in keeping with their status.......

    Cheers;)

    Paul Chapman

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  2. It just may be that you are experiencing the same 'evolution' that craftsman of the past experienced. That is in doing something, making a tool for example, they decorated them just for the pleasure of it. So simple everyday tools became unique and ornate.

    Then again I may be full of the same thing that your parrots are leaving on that fancy piece of paper.

    Peter Tremblay

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  3. You are a bad girl to lay such temptation before a mere mortal! Have you no sense of ethics for the recovering toolaholic?

    I can feel the ground falling away beneath my feet! I can't deny it's a good feeling though - there's a definite rush to be had from this slippery slope.

    You may now picture the scene as a mad born again wood-butcher, driven insane by your taunts, skips off into the distance with an overflowing box of scraps leaving a trail behind him. Just wondering whether the next tool should be a marking knife or a new cutting gauge.

    La-la-la La-la-la (to the tune of Vindaloo by Keith Allen and whoever it was)

    Cheers!

    You-Know-Who, sitting in a darkened room and looking for medication

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  4. Al - very tasty little knife. I can see I'm going to have to make myself one of these. I've often wondered what the little round bits were for at near the ferule...now I know! (assume that they are epoxied to the blade?) May use a bit of ebony and box for my knife - Rob

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  5. Paul and Peter (will Mary be along in a mo'?), I like your theories a good deal, although I'm shielding the parrots from the idea that they have a classy status or I'll never get any peace...

    "Anon", I have no scruples at all when it comes to The Slope - I have to suffer so why shouldn't everyone else? ;)

    Rob, saw your knife - proper job.

    ReplyDelete

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