Post by admin on Mar 25, 2010 15:41:25 GMT -6
Fellas,
This morning I caught a nice little break from some personal stuff going on, and I took the chance to head off the to shop and perhaps make shavings of some sort. I've got some cherry round stock, bark on, I've been saving for a future whirly project, so I figured I'd mount up a piece in the lathe and see what it looked like inside. I've been saving it for a year, so as you might imagine, there's some serious anticipation to see what it looks like.
I had already split the log into four quarters, and for a moment I contemplated just mounting it as it was and just turning off the bark and corners. But, that vibes the lathe pretty badly, and it makes a dreadful racket. What the situation called for; a drawknife.
But mine was dull.... Mounted up my whetstone in the vise and took the blade to the rock. The smell of oil in the morning! The blade had last seen a substantial amount of seasoned oak, and I'll admit, it was dull as the back of a spoon.
I took my small stone (it's actually 2/3 of a 1" x 4" x 1/4", it broke but the bigger piece still works) and went to the blade with it, much like a person playing a fiddle. Yes, it looks rather stupid, but it's the way I was taught as a tyke, hold the drawknife like a fiddle and pull the stone over the edge like a bow.
Yaknow, for a dull drawknife, it was still about four times sharper than I thought it was! I discovered this when I let my pinkie finger drop and slide ever so slightly sideways across the edge, thus removing a perfectly round piece of flesh about 1/8" across right off the outside of my pinkie!
YOWWWCCCCCHHHH!
Lesson of the day, even if it's too dull to cut wood, it's probably plenty sharp to cut skin!
Welp, My typing is about half a click slower since I use my right pinkie to push "shift", and it is very tender.
And, yesterday, I had a forstner bit get away from me and walk up my left arm (thankfully, it was very superficial, only a couple pretty good nicks, one scared the snot out of me as it was right over the little vein on the inside of my wrist...)
Be careful of sharp objects, sometimes they get mad and BITE. Seriously fellas, stay on your toes, I'd sorta let my guard down some, and fortunately, I had a forstner in a drill get away from me, then a minor woopsie on a drawknife. I could have had a miswhack on the tablesaw just as simply.
This morning I caught a nice little break from some personal stuff going on, and I took the chance to head off the to shop and perhaps make shavings of some sort. I've got some cherry round stock, bark on, I've been saving for a future whirly project, so I figured I'd mount up a piece in the lathe and see what it looked like inside. I've been saving it for a year, so as you might imagine, there's some serious anticipation to see what it looks like.
I had already split the log into four quarters, and for a moment I contemplated just mounting it as it was and just turning off the bark and corners. But, that vibes the lathe pretty badly, and it makes a dreadful racket. What the situation called for; a drawknife.
But mine was dull.... Mounted up my whetstone in the vise and took the blade to the rock. The smell of oil in the morning! The blade had last seen a substantial amount of seasoned oak, and I'll admit, it was dull as the back of a spoon.
I took my small stone (it's actually 2/3 of a 1" x 4" x 1/4", it broke but the bigger piece still works) and went to the blade with it, much like a person playing a fiddle. Yes, it looks rather stupid, but it's the way I was taught as a tyke, hold the drawknife like a fiddle and pull the stone over the edge like a bow.
Yaknow, for a dull drawknife, it was still about four times sharper than I thought it was! I discovered this when I let my pinkie finger drop and slide ever so slightly sideways across the edge, thus removing a perfectly round piece of flesh about 1/8" across right off the outside of my pinkie!
YOWWWCCCCCHHHH!
Lesson of the day, even if it's too dull to cut wood, it's probably plenty sharp to cut skin!
Welp, My typing is about half a click slower since I use my right pinkie to push "shift", and it is very tender.
And, yesterday, I had a forstner bit get away from me and walk up my left arm (thankfully, it was very superficial, only a couple pretty good nicks, one scared the snot out of me as it was right over the little vein on the inside of my wrist...)
Be careful of sharp objects, sometimes they get mad and BITE. Seriously fellas, stay on your toes, I'd sorta let my guard down some, and fortunately, I had a forstner in a drill get away from me, then a minor woopsie on a drawknife. I could have had a miswhack on the tablesaw just as simply.
