I picked up a couple of new finishes today. I have never been one to spend much time on finishes but as I move towards projects that are more suited to natural finishes I thought I’d try a few. The two I bought today are very similar:

Clapham’s Beeswax Salad Bowl Finish
This easy-to-use finish is safe for salad bowls, cutting boards, cheese boards, etc.
It is a blend of two food-safe materials, beeswax and mineral oil. After a thin coat is applied, the item can be used immediately or left overnight and buffed to a low sheen.
Continue reading 'Beeswax Based Finishes'

1. There’s no difference between rubbing the finish into the wood or letting it sit on top of the wood and giving it time to soak in.

2. Boiled Linseed Oil is not boiled at all, it’s not even heated. Metallic driers are now added to raw linseed oil to speed up the curing process.

3. To square up a cabinet or box for gluing or assembly clamp a speed square in the corner. This will bring it square.

4. To make your own downdraft table cut a piece of pegboard 12″ X 24″, make a shadowbox frame with 1X6’s and nail the pegboard to the frame. Cut a 4″ diameter in one end and install a plastic dust collection fitting into it. Cover the bottom with ‘masonite’ or 1/4″ plywood. Hook up your dust collector and start sanding.

5. By sanding the first coat of your finish level and smooth all additional coats will look better. The mineral soap in sanding sealers produces a fine white powder that doesn’t clog up sand paper, thus making it easier to sand. By sanding the sanding sealer smooth and level the next coat of varnish or lacquer should go on much smoother.

These are just a few tips that I picked up over this past week. They come from a variety of sources including books, magazines, newsletters, online and from personal experience.

There are more Woodworking Tips and Tidbits located here.

Back to the shop…

The final woodturning seminar in this woodturning weekend series was with Steve Kennard and called ‘What’s in a Box: The Art of Steven Kennard’.

Steven Kennard is a juried member of the Nova Scotia Designer Crafts Council. He exhibits his work in many galleries including Del Mano Gallery in Los Angeles. His work is in private collections around the world, including China and Korea and all over Europe, Scandinavia and North America.
Continue reading 'What’s In A Box With Steven Kennard'

This months meeting of the Nova Woodturner’s Guild was held at Lee Valley and was the awards ceremony of the 2007 Woodturning Competition.

The Nova Woodturner’s Guild Woodturning Competition is held each year with the People’s Choice award being the Warman Castle Memorial trophy. The trophy is in memory of Warman Castle, who was a longtime member of the NWG and passed away a few years ago.

There were a total of 54 entries this year and all of them were astounding! Here, have a look:
Continue reading '2007 NWG Woodturning Competition'

Today I went to the third in a series of seminars co-produced by Lee Valley and the Nova Woodturner’s Association called Turning Green Wood with Stephen Zwirling.

This seminar offered information on turning green wood, harvesting the wood, moisture content, turning techniques and how to deal with shrinkage.

Continue reading 'Turning Green Wood With Zwirling'

This evening I went to a special presentation featuring the work of John Macnab.

John’s work consists of huge spiral pieces that remind one of unicorn horns or cornucopias. During this lecture, he discussed his work and showed a slide show demonstrating his technique and unique vision.

John has had to create his own tools to overcome the challenges of these pieces, some as large as 25 feet long!

Continue reading 'John Macnab Sculpture Artist'

Kicking off three days of woodturning seminars at Lee Valley, in conjunction with the Nova Woodturner’s Guild, was a seminar on Shear Cutting with Don Moore.

Originally from Montreal, Don Moore is a 25-year resident of Nova Scotia and has been turning wood since 1994. He has developed an innovative approach which has taken his one-of-a-kind sculptures into the art world. His work has won several provincial and national awards and his sculptures can be found in Germany, Japan, England, New Zealand, the United States, and across Canada. Don has served for six years on the standards committee of the Nova Scotia Designer Crafts Council where he is a juried member. He is also founding member and past vice-president of the Nova Scotia Woodturner’s Guild. He has designed, developed and produces various woodturning accessories and tools.

Don lives in a 100-year-old farmhouse on a 450-acre woodlot in the small country village of Upper Kennetcook, where he gives instruction in woodturning at his shop and works on his 450 acre woodlot.

Don discussed and demonstrated shear-scraping techniques while working on end grain. Tearout being the problem when turning endgrain. He also discussed finishes and how to get a quality finish on your piece.

Here are some tips gained:
Continue reading 'Shearing Seminar With Don Moore'

You should always saw with the widest blade possible for a particular cut. However, when cutting circles be aware that the width of the blade will determine the smallest radius that you will be able to cut. The smaller the blade width the smaller/tighter the radius.

Here is a list of different bandsaw blade widths and the minimum cut radius for each:

Back to the shop…

I finally got around to creating a circle cutting jig for the bandsaw today. This was spurred on by my recent purchase of a couple of bowl blocks that I needed to cut round.

Continue reading 'Bandsaw Circle Cutting Jig'

1. You’re wasting your time if you sand past 220 grit if you plan on using a film finish like varnish or shellac. Anymore than that and the small scratches are filled in by the finish.

2. To tell if the entire surface of a board that you ran through your thickness planer is flat scribble on it with chalk and run it through your planer until all the chalk is removed.

3. Use the eraser ends of pencils to make great guides for running small stock through a bandsaw.

4. Use rare earth magnets to keep your tool accessories handy like the drill press key, bandsaw wrench, etc.

5. To saw wide boards on your table saw turn your miter gauge around so that the miter gauge head is in front of the board instead of behind it. It also helps to add a longer faceboard to the miter gauge.

These are just a few tips that I picked up over this past week. They come from a variety of sources including books, magazines, newsletters, online and from personal experience.

There are more Woodworking Tips and Tidbits located here.

Back to the shop…