The big yardscaping push after extensive travel is winding down to the “ongoing maintenance” of summertime, when the living ain’t exactly easy trying to keep three or four acres of hillside under control. The grass was so deep here it took three back-to-back-to-back mowings to get it under control, some even required using the DR brush mower.
I am hoping we are now down to a routine weekly mowing, but even then it takes two or three days to get it all done.
One of the unexpected tasks on our return was to rebuild the split rail fences alongside the driveway. While we were gone there was such severe weather that sections were blown over, and if one section of stacked split rail fence goes down you pretty much have to restack the whole length.
I made a couple rookie mistakes on the photos. First, I did not take a “Before” picture of the split rail fence all falled down, and 2) I forgot to check the camera settings which had been adjusted to reflect much different light conditions of a different project.
Sigh
I am trying to get caught up enough to begin erecting the greenhouse by the end of next week. Wish me luck.
Not too long ago I needed to do some precision layout on brass stock for making some specialty squares and patterns for assembling the Roentgenesque parquetry units for the tool cabinet. (Those projects will be on these pages shortly.) Try as I might I could not find my bottle of Dykem, the standard layout dye for the metal working trade since the days of the Mayflower. So being in the hinterlands on a Saturday afternoon, I made my own.
The starting point, not too surprisingly, was a dilute solution of lemon shellac (given the amount I needed it turns out to have been way too much). I started with a deposit of the shellac flour adequate to cover the bottom of the bottle fully.
I then filled the bottle with ethanol to dissolve the shellac. To this I added some Trans Tints until the chromatic intensity got to where I wanted.
And with that, I was done. The bottle I now have will certainly last me long into the afterlife, I should have only made about 1/10th as much.
I am certain that as soon as I complete these projects my original bottle of Dykem will be in plain sight.
PS We are finally back to Shangri-la after three weeks of time with the family. L’il T is just a gas. Once we get the yard dealt with (literally knee deep) I’ll be resuming my “normal” routine.
My longtime pal Ripplin’John sent me photos of his latest project en route to an MFA (at our age John, what were you thinkin’?). Seriously, I am immensely proud that we are friends, my circle of close friends is actually quite small, and of his artistic and technical accomplishments while exploring the realm of artistically integrating wood and metal. Some time ago I gave him a copy of the Matthew Boulton book and is now going to town.
This “lunch box” employs classic boullework techniques, right down to the engraving. In his own words,
I changed the normal procedure somewhat. I printed the drawing on PNP paper and then transferred it to a brass blank slightly larger than the size of the sides. After engraving the brass, I assembled the packet with shop-made veneer and cut out the pieces as needed. Doing it this way meant that I was engraving much larger pieces of brass. Holding the very small pieces after cut out would have been pretty tough.
Each assembly was then glued to another piece of veneer before gluing to the box. This was done to ensure that a failure of the glue up on one side would not wreck the whole piece.
The corners, finial and cheese crackers are cast bronze.
Well done, sir. You can tell him so in person at Handworks where he will be helping me in my booth.
A couple weeks ago I had a terrific three days teaching “Shellac Finishing” to members of the Howard County (MD) Woodworker’s Guild. A good time was had by all, but alas I left my camera behind so I have no pics to chare.
My teaching calendar for the remainder of the year is as follows:
May 20 The H.O. Studley Tool Cabinet and Workbench banquet presentation for the Annual Meeting of the Early American Industries Association, Staunton VA
June 19-21 Historic Woodfinishing 3-day workshop for the regional chapter of the Society of American Period Furniture Makers, at the Barn
July 17-19 Historic Woodfinishing 3-day workshop at Wood & Shop, Earlysville VA
August 21-23 Introduction to Parquetry 3-day workshop at Wood & Shop, Earlysville VA
For as long as I can remember I’ve been wearing carpenter pants with a side pocket (for a while my favorite jeans from Bailey’s had them on both sides!), into which fit perfectly the best little flashlights I ever used. These were machined aluminum case Ozark Trails flashlights, one of the proprietary brands from WalMart. The first crack in this edifice was when WM discontinued this particular line of flashlights in favor of lesser but presumably more profitable models. (I can only imagine Sam Walton spinning in his grave at the thought of what a malevolent entity his empire has become) The old ones were robust almost to the point of indestructability, a determination at which I arrived when I drove over one in my truck and it emerged functionally unscathed, although a little scratched. It took a lickin’ and kept on tickin’.
But then came the inexorable tyranny of, to quote the inestimable David Bowie, “F-f-f-fashion.” With the emergent ubiquity of “smart” phones (I think they have uses but on balance make the populace stoopider) the narrow confines of side pockets, originally configured for a folding carpenter’s rule, grew in size to accommodate these surveillance devices most American now carry. What, you thought their purpose was communication? Now, that’s funny!
Anyway, the newer larger side pockets were ill suited for my small flashlight as the flashlight just sorta wallowed around inside the bigger pockets, falling out whenever the opportunity arose. Like whenever I sat down in my recliner or in a car. I cannot recount the number of times I had to retrieve my flashlight from one of these locations.
This frustration led me to search for a new flashlight that fit the larger side pocket a little more better. There are lots of options on-line but I generally like to purchase items after I can examine them in person. Durning a recent trip to the hardware store I found a DieHard brand flashlight whose configuration fit the requirements perfectly. It was a bit more expensive than its predecessor, maybe, ($35 2023 dollars vs. $15 2005 dollars) but fit the new side pocket size perfectly and was touted as a better, brighter tool. I plunked down my money and started carrying it a couple months ago.
The real bolt-of-lightning occurred shortly thereafter, when I remembered just before bedtime that I maybe left the glue cooking on the coffee cup warmer and rather than fuss about it all night long I walked up to the barn to check it out (I had turned it off but had no clear memory of the event, a phenomenon that rears its ugly head periodically as I approach 70). As I headed up, then back down, I turned on the new flashlight and WOW I was accompanied by a wall of light in the rural darkness. My old flashlight was 150 lumens and the new one is 1000. Just wow.
The new flashlight also appears to be a solid aluminum case, but I’ll only be able to confirm its robustness when/if I drive over it and it keeps on tickin’.
My Every Day Carry inventory has now been upgraded.
The folks over at Townsend’s posted this a few days ago. You just might enjoy it a much as i did (I am a slappy for their videos). Definitely not necessarily the way I do things, but a lot of fun nonetheless.
My heart aches and my rage consumes me. I find myself rereading Psalm 69, especially verses 22-28.
Remember the names and faces of these victims, killed a week ago by a psychopath who chose to murder them.
William Kinney, 9; Evelyn Dieckhaus, 9; Hallie Scruggs, 9
Cynthia Peak, 61; Katherine Koonce, 60; Mike Hill, 61
Remember her name or forget her name, whatever is your disposition.
She chose to murder innocents.
She is not a victim nor a mascot, she was a fiend.
She chose to murder innocents.
I offer two thoughts for the day.
A useful description for insanity is the inability to recognize or comply with reality. — Thomas Szasz
My spiritual gift is that I don’t care what you think about anything. — Mollie Hemingway.
If these sentiments offend you, sit down and shut up. Go somewhere else. You are part of the problem. I have no interest in what you have to say.
She is neither a victim nor a mascot.
She chose to murder innocents.
Remember them and pray for their families to find comfort. And pray that my burning anger towards evil remains a consuming fire, and that I never become complacent.
When not traveling for family/grandparenting activities I have settled into a not-very-interesting-for-blogging round robin routine in the barn. Depending on my mood as much as anything else I rotate between the tasks of cleaning and rearranging the barn spaces to reduce my footprint, tinkering with my formulation for Tordonshell, editing sections of the next Roubo volume (Michele is 2-1/2 manuscripts ahead of me, she can translate faster than I can edit and revise), working on the finishing book, editing Gragg video, and working at the bench, mostly on the parquetry and fittings for my tool cabinet. It is all in the “grind it out” category and is not particularly inspiring. There are many weeks I will get to the end and realize that nothing happened in the shop all week that anyone would be interested in.
I’ll work on one thing for an hour or two or three, then move on to a dissimilar activity to keep the juices flowing. If I am sitting down, I make sure the next activity involves standing up and/or moving. One recent adventure involved moving three 300-pound+ workbenches from the fourth floor down to the main floor for my upcoming Woodfinishing workshop (given the ongoing correspondence with my insurance agency this is almost certainly my final workshop hosting event; I will be transitioning the barn from being a business location to being a hobby shop. The in$urance premium implication$ are $taggering for having people here for workshop$. $taggering.)
Like I said, not particularly interesting for the blog but it certainly gobbles up my days.
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