I recently attended a day long seminar at Lee Valley on sharpening plane blades.

Since I bought the LV Bench Plane a few months ago I have been using it occasionally and I knew that I would soon have to sharpen it. I also came across an old Record Smoothing Plane that I acquired a few years ago from my father-in-law that needed a fair amount of TLC to make useable. This was a great opportunity to get some hands-on instruction on how to sharpen and tune up these planes.

The instructor for the seminar was Jay Perry. Jay has taught at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design for over 20 years and now teaches woodworking classes at the Nova Scotia Centre of Craft and Design. His woodworking interests include making musical instruments, woodworking for the theatre and, of course, planes. He is also a member of the Atlantic Woodworkers Association.

Jay obviously knows his planes! He is not a collector per se though he owns a lot of them. He buys them, restores them and then uses them. Here is a photo of a few of his planes that he brought in:

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I came across an 8 foot piece of 3/4″ square piece of Maple the other day and the first thing that came to my mind was - spurtles!

A spurtle is a Scottish kitchen utensil dating from around the 15th century that is used for stirring oatmeal and soups. Since we have oatmeal for breakfast quite regularly I thought it would be a fun project to turn one (notice that I said ‘turn one’).

Shortly after I turned the one spurtle my wife’s family was over for Thanksgiving dinner. My wife showed the spurtle to them and since none of them knew what it was she asked them to guess. Their suggestions included a drumstick, a small bat, a magic wand and a conductor’s baton! Once they found out what it was used for they all wanted one.

With Christmas coming these will make them great gifts. Since I still had lots of wood and they were so fun and quick to make I turned another half dozen of them.

Here’s a closer view of the ends of the spurtles:

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The Nova Woodturners Guild members met at Halifax Specialty Hardwoods for this month’s meeting last night. There were over 30 members in attendance for this popular annual visit and everyone had a great time!

Most of us got there early to get a bit of shopping in before the meeting, and shopping we did! And no wonder! Darrell Vallis and Cheryl Borden, brother and sister owner/operator of Halifax Specialty Hardwoods, have done a fine job on their shop. They offer a great selection of both local and exotic quality hardwoods. They also offer burls, pen blanks and bowl blanks in a variety of species. This, combined with the reasonable prices and their helpful and friendly service, makes their shop a favorite among local woodworkers.

The fact that everyone was there early also gave the opportunity to do a lot of chatting. Like the shopping, there was a lot of it! The air was filled with great conversation and laughter.

The meeting began with a Show and Tell of some of the beautiful works of several members. There were bowls in a variety of sizes, Christmas ornaments, hollow vessels and pens. Here are a few photos:

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What an exciting day! I just got home from attending a hands-on seminar at Lee Valley where I learned how to turn a pepper mill!

Pepper mills are well used utensils in our kitchen. We have a couple on the counter by the stove area and one on the kitchen table. These are of the plastic (yechh!) variety and my wife and I felt, (well, actually she did) that they should be replaced. I mean, after all…

This one stands just over 8″ tall, made of Walnut and it is finished with Shellawax. It feels comfortable in the hand for both my wife and I and makes an nice addition to our home.

The class was taught by Stephen Zwerling, whom I had taken several seminars with before including my Beginning Woodturning Course a year ago (the one that started it all! :)). Stephen is a founding member of the Nova Woodturner’s Guild and a professional woodturner. He creates both functional and decorative wood turnings including bowls and thin-walled vessels and, of course, pepper mills.

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Last night’s meeting of the Atlantic Woodworkers Association was an absolute blast! We were entertained, yes, thoroughly entertained, by paint and finish master Jim White.

Jim is the owner/operator of Lake City Paint here in Dartmouth, NS and well known for his frequent guest appearances on CBC’s Maritime Noon call-in talk show. Jim’s vast knowledge about painting and finishing comes from having spent 30 years working with James F. Lahey Ltd., one of the oldest and trusted painting companies in Nova Scotia, as well as working for himself.

Jim’s presentation was on the art of ‘wood graining’. Wood graining, also known as “faux bois” (false wood), became very popular in the 19th century where, because of economic reasons, the natural look of rare woods were replicated in cheaper woods. Because of low labor costs in those days this was far less expensive than using the rare woods.

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Here is a plate that I recently turned out of a piece of Fiddleback Maple.

Fiddleback refers to the effect that shows as you change the angle of light on the wood. You will see bands of light and dark that will change as you move the wood, the light will turn dark and the dark will turn light giving the illusion of waves. Fiddleback is often used synonymously with Curly though Fiddleback is considered to have tighter striping.

Unfortunately the photo doesn’t show the Fiddleback very well.

The plate is 7″ diameter and a bit less than a 1/4″ thick. It’s finished with the EEE Cream and Shellawax combo.

Here are a couple of more photos:

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As you traverse the great plains of life you acquire small mementos along the journey. These little tokens are kept to remind you of the blissful times. As they accumulate you realize that you require a special place for them to be stored, a place for safe-keeping, a place that they are easily accessed, to remember or to share their tales.

To this end I recently created ‘Gentle Safari’, a small box made out of African Zebrawood and Ebony.

It features a drop-in ebony lid that has been accented with three, almost parallel, Zebrawood strips that gives the sense that they will meet at some point in the distance. The bottom is also accented with a strip of ebony. The ebony base raises the piece almost 3/8 of an inch, elevating it with a hint of shadow. The sides are African Zebrawood.

It stands almost 3″ tall and is 4 1/2″ square. It is finished with wipe-on poly and lightly sanded between each coat to give it a velvety touch.

Here are some more photos:

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