Here’s a couple of tool handles that I recently turned. One was for a marking knife and the other was for a scraper burnisher.

Several months ago I ordered the hardware kits for these tools from Czeck Edge Hand Tools. Shortly after ordering I realized a mistake in my shipping info and sent them off an email Almost immediately I received a reply from owner Bob Zajicek who confirmed my address change. He also made me aware of the Pattern Pilot style of marking knife that was so new it hadn’t been listed on their website yet. The Pattern Pilot uses a medium sized blade which would be better suited for my general use and it was on special, cheaper than the one I was going to order! Bob offered to change my order and refund the difference. In fact, he said, “I’ll take care of it personally”. Hey, I was sold! It’s not often that one receives service like this.

Upon receipt I was quickly impressed with the quality of the hardware kits. The marking knife kit features a precision ground sword point blade of heat treated O-1 tool steel 1/16″ thick X 3/8″ wide X 2″ long. A satin polished machined bronze ferrule is also included. The kit comes with complete instructions and a pair of extra point guards.

The completed knife is 8″ in overall length with a 6″ handle. It is 5/8″ maximum diameter and it is made out Olivewood.

Here are a few more photos of the Pattern Pilot marking knife:

Continue reading 'A Marking Knife And Scraper Burnisher'

I was able to find some time to make a few more wine stoppers recently. This is one of the nice things about doing these little projects. There is very little setup and they don’t require much time to turn. They’re a great project if you only have an hour here or an hour there.

Something else I like about making these is that you get to work with some different woods without it costing a lot of money. When the wood is polished up and attached to the silver base they make for an elegant looking product.

Here’s a few closeups of these stoppers, starting with one made of Pau Rosa, one made of Maple and one made of Cocobolo:

Continue reading 'A Few More Wine Stoppers'

The focus of this month’s meeting of the Nova Woodturners Guild was a journey into the mysterious world of pricing and marketing of craft items. The guest speakers were members Don Moore and Stephen Zwerling who both gave us lots of important and thought provoking ideas for selling our woodturned products.

The meeting opened with an acknowledgement and a big round of applause for Rona, ‘The Canadian How-To People’ for opening their doors to us and allowing us to hold our future meetings here. This was followed by a short business session that included a club financial report and club website update.

From there, Don Moore took the floor and gave us a great review of the marketing options available to us. He interspersed his presentation with hints, tips and information gained through his own experience as a professional seller of art and craft.

Don spoke about many of the different avenues to sell our wares including craft shows, galleries, auctions, agents, collectors and cooperatives. Another very viable option that he mentioned was networking through associations. With each of these options he included an overview of the things to look for. For example, when checking out a craft show look at the floor layout, the displays, your competition, talk to the vendors and even the customers. Then ask yourself, “Is the floor layout conducive to maximum sales?”, “Are the displays of the quality and/or type that you are seeking?”, “Is there a lot of competition?”, Is there no competition?”, “Are the vendors happy with the results?”, “Are the customers enjoying the shopping experience?” “Do you want your products displayed here?”

Continue reading 'NWG – Marketing And Pricing Our Wares'

I made a trip to Moncton, New Brunswick this past weekend to attend the 8th Annual Moncton Woodworking Show. Since the cancellation of the Halifax show a couple of years ago this has become an annual trip for me… and always a rewarding one too. Of course, by that I mean that I always find a way to reward myself with a little something (or two) when I get there!

I arrived just as Vic Tesolin, editor of Canadian Woodworking magazine, was beginning his seminar on ‘Tuning a Smoothing Plane’. He gave us a short and sweet version of the key adjustments that need to be made before using a smoothing plane. He also covered the set-up of a smoother and the proper planing technique for effective hand planing, including the proper stance.

Vic also had a booth here at the show where he was willing to answer any woodworking questions that you might have and to give more in depth explanation of the plane.

Continue reading 'The Moncton Wood Show 2009'