Rough Wood

I worked the Harry Potter angle for Halloween. Yeah, that’s me.

People have told me that I look like him for years, and I had an occasion to change up my costume this year. I bought the robe, a tie and some glasses. I considered buying the wand. After shopping around I saw that most of them are really cheapo plastic things, the others expensive and overkill for something that would only see the light of day once a year.

Now, I’m no Harry Potter geek, but steps had to be taken. I mean really, a woodworker bringing more plastic into the world, plastic that’s molded and shaped to look like wood. That’s just crazy.

So I decided to make one. During a work crunch. With a $15 set of cheap carving tools that I had originally bought to carve pumpkins.

Questionable judgment aside, it turned out reasonably well for my first carving project. I used some thick avocado dowel that I had bought for something else. I sat on the floor in my office and started hacking away during renders. Unfortunately I didn’t get any shots of the process. I only had a little time to stop and tinker, and just dove in. I referenced photos of props to get the size and general shape of the thing. The original design involved 2 different woods, so there was some delineation to imply.

I learned a lot about carving in those hours of chopping at this rod of avocado. Most importantly, that I was afraid of the grain. I have spent so much energy and effort avoiding tear-out in unsupported grain while working on furniture and other construction-type projects that I spent several hours trying to not carve. I nibbled little hints of twists and and tweaks in the supposedly knotty old wood that made up the handle. I was satisfied enough at the time, but looking at it the next day, I realized that I had made a wooden version of the cheapo plastic wands…

So I got cocky the next day, as it seemed at the time, and just started going at it. I dug deeper and deeper into the wood. I felt reckless and irresponsible; I was crossing the streams.

But it looked a lot better.

After a few more hours I had a much better approximation of the 2 woods that were used in the original wand design. As I erased the tiny scribbles that I had sheepishly scratched into the wood before, I began to feel happier with the results. It was not a work of art by any stretch, but at least it was deliberate.

Now, here’s what I got really wrong. This was also my first time using shellac, and as an experiment I counted on the shellac for the coloration. I knew better, but was in a hurry and powered through it. So I had to use a lot of shellac. The result? Two different colors, neither of which is quite right, and a lot of shine. I will knock it down some day, and might even refinish it with some stain. Also, I have to give The Woodshop Widget another shout, because I was able to mix very small amounts of shellac for this small project. Good times.

As for the potential refinish, I feel like I’m a few steps ahead, having gone through the process in the first place, so I’ll see how much energy I have when Halloween rolls around next year and I dust it off.

I’ve been putting finish on my first cutting board. It was made by hand from about 12 strips of scrap cherry that I scavenged from a local fine furniture shop. In keeping with my interest in using natural materials when possible, I originally attempted to finish/season it with a butcher block conditioner. As it was all done by hand, and it was my first attempt, there were some cracks to fill. I filled them with epoxy and sanded for what seemed like hours. 20 gummy sanding discs later, I had a flat board again.

This time I opted to use an oil-based “salad bowl finish” and demoted the board to being an over-engineered food serving board. I don’t want that much epoxy touching my food every day, see. Maybe I’m paranoid, but everyone has a thing. I decided to seal the epoxy off with something more like  a shell, since it won’t be seeing regular chopping action.

Enter oil.

I made my first mallet recently, also using cherry. It was finished with a water-based finish called PolyWhey. It’s nice and durable stuff, but the mineral oil / beeswax conditioner really made the cutting board assert itself. The thinned varnish was even more amazing. The side grain on the edges of the board seemed to dance. I felt like I could see about 1/8″ into the grain. The “cat’s eye” stared at me for the first time, and I was hooked. I could not sleep that night; the grain was so beautiful that it literally haunted me.

Image courtesy of Wikipedia

I’m still trying to find a place in my life for this toxic muck, but I won’t forget that first deep understanding of chatoyancy and the hold that it has over me. Here’s a clip of some curly cherry with the same finish. So yummy.