Indonesia - Hi! How are ya!

Quick shout out to Indonesia for stopping by the blog.  Hope to see you again!

Cepat berteriak ke Indonesia untuk mampir blog. Harapan untuk melihat Anda lagi!

Drying time, Humidity and the Oven

Drying Fast and slow.

When applying finishes, you want a clean, smooth wood surface in order to get a glass like finish on the item ou are making.

Most finishes are evaporative - which means that they need to dry by something in them evaporating into the atmosphere.  Like wall paint.  Put it on wet, then water evaporates and it is then dry.

So there are factors that either slow or speed this process.  One of the is humidity if there more water in the air, the slower that the finish will dry. 

It's humid in the summer.  It's humid when it rains.  Cool and rainy is possibly the longest wait for the finish to dry. 

Waiting is not my personal forte.  AND, in waiting your finish is wet a lot longer.  Like when the furnace kicks on for the first time in the Fall and throws dust around.  Dust LOVES finishes.  It Looks for them.  Dust will get in your finish.  Cat hair, dog hair, feathers, and dust will get in your finish. 

So, in order to get the finish to evaporate you can put pieces in the oven.  And turn on the light.  The humidity is very low.  The light bulb raises the temp to about 90F.  Perfect.  No dust, warm and dry.  Perfect to let a piece set overnight.  I walk away. 

Now, once in an apartment I started the oven and successfully burned up the directions.  I look in the oven now before turning it on. EVERY time.   Always.

Until the afternoon Eric decided to pre-heat the oven.  And didn't look.  Shellac burned up pretty quickly.  The finishes had to be dragged off and redone from the beginning.  Finishing takes 4 days to accomplish on one piece.  4 days gone.  4 Days.  GONE.

NOW - we have a system.  See below:  Lol.

Best Supplier of Wood

Let's take a moment to consider our wood.  Yes, we do use wood from our own property.  We have used Apple and Maple and are waiting for the Willow to dry out.

One of our favorite wood suppliers is NC Wood.  We get a lot of spalted and ambrosia turning blanks from Gary at NC Woods.

Not only do they have exceptional wood but they have just about the best customer service around.

You can visit their ebay shop at http://stores.ebay.com/NCWood or their new website at http://www.ncwood.biz/Ambrosia-Maple_c7.htm?%20%20coupon=Ambrosia25.

So, if you looking for some great wood give them a visit. 

btw - I don't have a referral interest in recommending this great company.

Thanks for stopping by!  Leave a comment if you have any questions or just want to chat :)

Paint the Rainbow!

Tops and their finished look

After matching the tops and their handles with color, then at least two coats of shellac.  In between each coat you have to sand the layers to make sure there aren't any bumps.

Shellac is frowned upon currently because it reacts to water.  Think about the white rings on your grandmother's table.  BUT and this is HUGE shellac as a base coat provides great build or depth of color in the finish. 

What does that mean?  Depth of finish creates more refractive light to see the wood.  Or, it looks better. 

We use a poly as a top coat to protect against water and many other solvents like alcohol.  Solvents - dissolve finish.  Shellac is based in alcohol so if rubbing alcohol spills on it - it gets gooey and smudgey and basically ruins your day.

The is the bare handle                                                 Handle with color on it

 

 

 

In the last photo you can see how the colors blend into the bowl and look like a matching piece.  Some of the intensity is lost with applying another coat of shellac, snading that down with 600 grit sand paper and proceeding with the poly coats of finish. 

 

 

 

 

Color; what to do when you parts don't match

Color.  Sometimes we need to adjust the color.

In making Handles for shave bowls, sometimes we have to use regular maple instead of spalted.  Luckily, we have a source in Maine that rescues wood from a toy manufacturing plant and we can take those scraps in still make a wooden handle that is still up cycled from wood that could potentially end up in the trash.

The only "problem" is that the wood is light maple without any spalting.

So, the non color of the handle is much lighter than the bottom and would look hinkey.  In several handles are quite different than the bowls' lids:

The next posts will describe different ways to even out the color and it will produce handles that beautifully match the bowls and their tops.

Hello to the rest of the world!

Привет! Через статистика есть немало русских зрителей. Это слишком круто! Добро пожаловать, и я надеюсь, что вы оставить записку, чтобы поздороваться. Если Google Translate делает ошибки, прости меня.

Salut! Grâce à des statistiques il ya un bon peu de téléspectateurs français. C'est trop cool! Bienvenue et j'espère que vous laissez une note pour dire bonjour. Si google translate fait des erreurs, pardonnez-moi.

Hallo! Durch die Statistik Es gibt durchaus ein paar deutsche Zuschauer. Das ist zu cool! Willkommen und ich hoffe, Sie lassen eine Notiz Hallo zu sagen. Wenn Google Translate macht Fehler, vergib mir.

Hej! Genom statistiken finns en hel del svenska tittare. Det är för cool! Välkommen och jag hoppas du lämnar ett meddelande att säga hej. Om Google Translate gör fel, förlåt mig.

Cześć! Poprzez statystyki są sporo polskich widzów. To jest zbyt cool! Witamy i mam nadzieję zostawić notatkę się przywitać. Jeśli Google Translate popełnia błędy, wybacz mi.

Hi!  Through the stats there are quite a few American viewers.  That is too cool!  Welcome and I hope you leave a note to say hello.  If google translate makes errors, forgive me. 

From Rough to Round

Now that we have an approximate shape that is circular we can mount it on the lathe for the rounding out parts.

This is the blank mounted on the lathe.  You can see here one of the vertical cuts to remove the corner went a little too deep.  It's okay.  There is enough wood to make minor adjustments while it is on the lathe.

Eric at the lathe making the first passes.

Eric is at the lathe rounding and shaping.  Notice the tool rest this is where a turner rests their tools to ensure an even cut. 

This is the very roughed out bowl.  Now we can see the cool shapes and colors that will be part of the bowl.

Round and Round we go!

I am sure you have imagined we continue to process of making corners rounded. 

Just like before, the vertical cuts are made to make the excess wood easier to remove without the chance of it cracking or splitting off in unwanted ways.

This is the blank after the second corner.

As the excess is cut away, the grain and color patterns begin to appear.

The third corner is trimmed up.

The Fourth Corner is exactly the same process.  Once the rough circle has taken shape, we have to take it to the lathe for mounting and final rounding out.  More in the next post! 

From Block to Bowl

Or from square peg to round holder

I thought it would be nice to include you all in "the process".  Of course, wood starts out as a tree.  We're not going back that far.  We have an awesome source for turning blanks (fancy phrase for blocks of wood).  If you are in the market for blanks Gary at NC Woods is the best.  Great guy, great wood.  The website is http://www.ncwood.biz/.  They also have an ebay store.  I can recommend them without hesitation.  And no, I'm not shilling for them.

So, your blank starts out life as a block of wood.  In this case it is an Ambrosia Maple (Ambrosia explaination in previous posts) Maple, a nice tree.

Am = Ambrosia Green= lots of water

Curly = pattern in the grain possibly curly

The blank is marked with a circle to provide a guide for getting the edges off.  We then use the band saw to saw into the wood on the horizontal plane.  Cutting off the corners could be tricky.  The wood has the potential of cracking and splitting in unwanted places.  Thus resulting in sad faces.  Sure one could think that it would be nice to smoke meat on the grill with a nice maple, but well we fall in love with each piece as it takes shape. 

More tomorrow.  It is too much fun for one day :)  Thanks for checking in.  I would love to hear from you.

How to bring your Treasure Home

Some thing I haven't mentioned yet is how to bring home a Wooden Treasure. 

Etsy is where we  have our shop.  It's called Lovgren & Daughter.  This may not be breaking news.

Etsy's About Statement is: "Our mission is to empower people to change the way the global economy works. We see a world in which very-very small businesses have much-much more sway in shaping the economy, local living economies are thriving everywhere, and people value authorship and provenance as much as price and convenience. We are bringing heart to commerce and making the world more fair, more sustainable, and more fun."

Etsy provides a platform by which sellers can put their work, their art, the special pieces of yourself out into the web.  It is economical and a vibrant, supportive community of artists. 

In my personal experience, Etsians ROCK!  Fellow creaters can lift you up when your spirits are down, give advice, share another view, make suggestions when you are stuck creatively and share a cup of coffee. 

There are amazing artists and crafters.  One of my favorite woodworkers is: 

Jerry's Wood Works
He makes amazing beer tap handles.  This one is in purpleheart.  He does custom orders and you won't believe what he can do.

His shop is also on Etsy.  He also makes personalized drum sticks.

If you would like to find Lovgren & Daughter on Etsy follow this link:

http://www.etsy.com/shop/LovgrenandDaughter.  We also have a FB page if you would like to "Like" us.  We will be your friend.  Really.  Oh and we won't post 85 times a day.  It's annoying to receive them - I think so too.  Maybe once a week.  Just to say Hi :)

All the Colors of the Rainbow

Pigments and Dyes

In coloring wood there are two striking differences.  Above is the turquoise dyed pen. 

PIGMENTS are large flat particles.  They lay together on the surface of wood (or the wall) and completely cover whatever is underneath them.  The best way to think about pigments is that they are scales on a fish or shingles on the roof.  They cover.  Paint uses pigments to re-color something.  If the original "bleeds through" or the new color streaks this is considered poor quality.

DYES are much different than pigments.  They are most often used in Stains to color without losing the variations in grain.  Dyes are teeny tiny, itsy, bitsy and  are translucent.  You can see the grain and other differences in the wood and still have the color.

The RED block underneath the pen is an example of a dye applied to the surface.  We can also use a DYE based in alcohol to permeate the wood under intense pressure.  That looks very similar but we can turn the piece of wood that has been dyed and the color goes all the way through.

Exempalary pictures in tomorrow as they are on a different computer.

Wish Book has arrived! Cataloge heaven!

Holiday Wish List ensues...

IT came earlier this week.  "It" is the Dictum, GmbH catalog.  It is beautiful to behold. 

Here we have a conprehensive catalog of every knife, tool and accessory for your woodworking or serious craft want. 

Where else can you find for purchase an OBSIDIAN KNIFE?

Okay, it's 450Euro.  That's a lot in this economy but

it is just about the coolest thing I have seen.  And to those nay sayers, why go back to the stone edge?  Cuz it's as sharp as a scalpel.  And it's a ROCK!
I did mention that I was a geek, right?  Ok, just checking.

 These elegant Bonsai shears.  That work and look so amazing.  The beauty in functional design.  Sigh.

Bow parts.  Cello, violin, bow parts.  Seriously.  

Now, I don't need or make anything with these things.  I don't need a scalpel sharp knife.  I don't have any Bonsai trees.  I don't pay a stringed instrument.

But I do look for a good price on Olive wood, and other exotic woods.  Keep in mind that you need to deduct the VAT tax (which is approx 15%) and shipping is easily twice what it is for US shipping and it does take more time to ship from Germany.  But this catalog is too cool.  They have also have a great website:   http://www.mehr-als-werkzeug.de/page/homepage.htm .  The website is in English too.  I am not an affiliate of theirs, nor do I recieve any compensation from them, in any way. 

They ROCK.  Check it out.  At very least, it's facinating.

Badger, Badger, Badger

Badger Brush

"So, is the Badger brush, like, Badger-Badger or is it something like Badger?"

I was asked this question this week when I was talking to a customer.  At first I was surprised.  What on Earth?  Of course it's <<real>> badger.  But it got me to thinking. 

Why are our brushes so much cheaper than very large brand names?  The large name spends a lot of money on their marketing blitz.  They have been doing it for years.  The have stand alone brick and mortar stores in New York City  (the most expensive real estate in the country).  Bless their hearts.  They have CEO, CFO all the way down to the sales staff on the floor; the barbers in the shops.  Everyone needs to get paid.  I hope they do.  I hope they have great benefits and awesome pensions.  To finance these things drives the cost of each item up. 

Here's what we do without: salaries, benefits, making enough money to cover the costs of manufacture, and profits - we get a lot of satisfaction.  We love them,  we love the wood.  I love the finishes that bring out the beauty of the wood.  Eric loves the tool and learning new and better ways to use them.

Name something you love to do.  Name something you do that doesn't make you money.  Scrapbooking? Shiny antique cars?  Retro cookie har collecting?  Excellent!  And you do it now even though you aren't paid for it.  It's the same thing and once you've made something for friends and family...where do you go but outside your circle. In our case, we started a shop on Etsy.

Then we found an amazing resource from China.  99% of all badger brushes are made in China.  They still have a large badger population.  Badgers interfere with a farmer's fields.  Farmers who need their crops to survive.  Now they can earn money by killing pests. And having found a resource we can buy directly from China.  Directly from tiny business to tiny tiny business.  Across the world.  Across the world!  That is cool enough to do it by itself!

So we get our brushes at a good price and since we do not have expensive expenses, we don't charge as much as the big names.  This is where I am not good at capitalism.  I wouldn't feel right charging a zillion percent mark-up.  I also am not worried about funding pensions and shareholder return on investment.  Frankly, the big business idea could not be more unappealing.  I went to business school.  It was painful.  Not my thing. 

So, are our Badger Brushes are Badger-Badger.  I think this explains why they are cheaper than the large company's similar brushes.  Pure Badger Hair Shave Brushes, Really.

And ps have nothing to do with the meme.  

Ambrosia the little beetle that creates beauty

Ambrosia

(Not the fluffy dessert) - Not at all

If a tree falls in the woods and there is no one there to harvest it - do the bugs make a sound? 

I would imagine that there is a at least a crunching as the beetles dig their way in to make a home.  In our case, she is an Ambrosia Beetle and she carries with her a fungi that dissolves the wood and makes it extra yummy fungi to eat.  Now if it gets too crowded a bunch grab some fungi and off they go to a new tree.

This log shows a lot of beetle and fungi action.  Normally, you don't see this much.  More often than not, it's streaks. 



It's a visual double entendre having the mushroom on top.  These things make the geek in me very happy.

The dessert with whipped cream and madarian oranges is very tasty but different. 

Woodworkers who have allergies should take care in working with these woods as fungi spores may still be present and they should follow good shop practice and wear a respirator. 

Shave Bowl

Here is a Shave Bowl in Spalted Maple.  Spalting is a biological process that effects wood.  But what does that mean?  It means that the wood is felled and sits around.  For furniture making and use of structural wood it is not a good idea.  It changes the density and strength of the wood.  For small objects and decorative purposes it is fine to use.

To get down to the nitty gritty, spalting is created from fungi that start to decompose the wood.  The particular species of fungi create different effects.  One type will set up boundary lines and others in conjunction will change the colors within the lines. 

This log has several types of fungi and insects working on the wood.  Before finding uses for these woods they were considered waste wood. Not even good for burning. Such incredible beauty lies within a log or branch, you just need to know where to look for it.

 
This shaving bowl has dramatic lines and beautiful coloring.  It is one of a kind.  Each bowl is one of a kind. Each piece of wood has a different set of lines, areas of dramatic color and natural rarity.  This particular bowl went to his new home today.  I will miss him.

As crazy as it sounds, I am in love with these woods.  They are extraordinary gifts.  

Shave Brushes

Shave Brushes - Men, Men Men, Manly Men

Shave Brushes are Brushes with which one applies a lathering soap to enhance the shave.


Yeah Yeah Yeah.  It makes a difference HOW you get the soap on?!  Couldn't be THAT different. 


IT IS,THAT Different.  REALLY.


A good shave brush starts out in life as a piece of wood for the handle and a brush knot.  The TYPE of brush knot also makes a difference.  There are Boar Bristle Brushes you can buy in a drug store.  They are vaguely better than using regular Shave Foam. 


BADGER BRUSHES are the instruments of a fine shave.  We offer two types Best (or Mixed Badger) and Silvertip.  Silvertip is the Rolls Royce of Badger Brushes.


With a brush one creates circles in the shave bowl in circular motions.  These circular motions create air inside the soap which makes a lather.  As you apply the lather to your face in gentle circular motions again, it softens your beard and helps each hair stand up to be ready for shaving.


We offer the two types so that even within a budget you can get an excellent shave.

The Silvertip with a Walnut Handle

 The Best Badger with a Walnut Handle

Shave brushes have been recently seen on the AMC show "Mad Men" and A&E show "Longmire".

First Finish Layer - How does it look?

Here is the sanded piece with 1 coat of thinned shellac.

The exposure (brightness) is really turned up.  In person, the void looks simply like a dark spot.  This is our goal :).

Why choose shellac for the first finish coats?  That's easy.  It adds to the depth of the color of the finish layers.  Layers?  Why Layers?  Funny you should ask.  Layers are the part of the finish that 1) protects the wood from the environment 2) Enhances the color of the piece. 3) Increases the light that is bounced along the surface of the piece which enhances the color.

After the shellac comes the Poly finish.  Poly being the hardest and durable finish there is.  But poly can yellow after 50 years.  So it's a trade off.  In a Chair poly would keep everything very nicely.  Realistically  will you have your pen?  I hope so.  I believe in keeping things.  Passing them along for your children to sort out.  So, questions? Comments? Snarky rhetoric?  Let me know in comments.  Thanks Kristin

Maple Spalt Filled and Sanded

Here's the patch after being sanded.  And yes, it is lighter than the surrounding lines once the shellac is added as the first layer of finish it will darken as you will see in the next posting.  I sand with 300 grit sand paper at this stage.

In sand paper the higher number, the finer the sand paper.  So, 60 grit is extremely course and 600 grit is super fine.  For large scrapes a lower number is fine.  For finishing, I believe the finer the better.  After this I will sand in 600 grit.  After the first layer of finish 600 again.  One of the contingencies is once the first layer of finish is applied, the grain will robably be raised and feel like a course peach fuzz.  Not appealing in something you are going to hold in your hand for the next 10 years.  Once the first layer is sanded and the second layer is placed, 600 may be too course and I will either go to a 1400 grit or to steel wool.  The steel wool is called "4 Aught" which means "OOOO" (four zeros) of steel wool.  You can get this unsoapy steel wool at any hardware or home improvement store.      

Yup; Un-soapy steel wool.  You can't use the kitchen kind.  It isn't pretty.  Of course I have tried it thinking it wouldn't really make a difference.  It does.  It is course and now particles of siap smashed into the finish.  Don't do it.  Well, I wouldn't advise you to do it.  You can see if you want.  But you will probably have to sand off the finish you've put on and loose hours if not a whole day.    

Filling the Void and Finish

One of favorite types of wood to work with is a hardwood that has spalted.  Through the natural processes of breaking down the tree, fungi create lines and different textures with the wood.

One of the challenges is when a piece comes out due to the fragile nature of this wood.  Once the finish layers have been added, they are stable.  We of course, if there is a problem would replace a pen that had trouble later.

The section highlighted in the oval is where some of the wood came out.  In order to make a stable repair, we need to fill the void.  I prefer a water based filler like Wunderfill which you can get through Rockler's catalog.

This fill like many others comes in predetermined wood colors.  I have never had one that really matched well with whatever I was working on and end up modifying them in some way.  With this fill material, one can add water to make a slurry or a consistency like really thick gravy.  Once it is sloppy I had pigments to adjust the color to most closely resemble the area adjacent to it.

I work in the pigment and then press into the area that needs it.  Pigments are available from many different sources.  I get mine through a fine art supply company that way you have the most control over the color.

You can see on the right is a color called "Vine Black"  and on the left is an "Ivory Black".  Some where in the middle of these two blacks is the color with which to fill.  I am balancing the darkest color of the spalt lines with the color of the surrounding wood which is a nice brown beige. 

Now comes the waiting for the fill to dry.  You can figure on 24 hours before being ready to sand down.  It the patch feels cool in your hand then get it some more time. If you sand too early you will make mud on the sandpaper and have to re-do it.  The patch also will dry faster in a low humidity environment.  During a hot and humid summer it may take longer. 

In the end, I enjoy working on having a great finish.  A lot of people find it tedious and boring and try to get through it as quickly as possible.  There are even those who finish their pens with CA glue as the finish.  Which is fine for them but I prefer to finish  like a piece of fine furniture one that will both wear well and last long.

Here is the actual blank we saw in http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=5277249808446304421#editor/target=post;postID=2348605354702953844

Turned and Finished in Letter Opener form. 

http://www.etsy.com/shop/LovgrenandDaughter

Laminates Glueing up and Yipes! Stripes!

Some of the items we make are from laminate wood.  Laminating is process in which you take several layers of thinly cut wood.  Each piece of wood is then coated with glue and compressed until the glue is dry.  We call this laminate the “bendel’s” after retailer whose signature logo is brown and white stripes.



 You can see on the end grain how the glue squishes out.  This edge is later cut off to make it square (give it a flat surface)

On the long end you can see how it will look after it is cut.

This is how it looks after finishing and assembling the pen parts.

The Lathe and the Mandrels

This is the lathe.  After the piece of wood has been placed on the mandrel (metal stick between two points) is spins really fast.  During the spinning, one shapes the wood with various lethal looking tools.

Some are for making curves or spindels others are for gently shaping.  Kinda cool looking and extremely sharp edges.

 These are several mandrels after they have come off the lathe.  They have some shellac applied to seal the wood.  This is the stage before finish and assembly into their letter openers or pen hardware.

Wood From the Beginning

Woodworking:  The First Steps

How do you start in woodworking?  The easy answer is you start with wood.  Or you can start with loving trees.  I started with trees years ago when my bedroom window looked out on to a large sugar maple in the hinterlands of New York State.  It turned the most amazing colors in the fall and was an excellent place to climb for me and my friends.

I also love of the smell freshly cut wood.  Whether it is intended for building or burning; wood is still important. It smells like all things fresh and new.  It also holds the promise of newly crafted objects.  It was a staple of life in the country.  My Dad, Eric, was always building something, a new deck, rustic clapboards for the house, or hand cut dovetails for a drawer.  He cut trees to create firewood which kept our house warm and toasty in the winter.  All was good when you could smell the first wood fire of the Fall.  The house would be warm and cozy after running around all day in the chilly air and damp leaves.

I think I am one of the few people who can fall asleep to the “comforting” sound of a circular saw.   

Every project we do starts with the wood, the color, the grain, its quirks and secrets.  I will write more on the different types, applications, and species of trees in the following posts.  Glad to have you stop by!  Do you have a have a favorite tree?  Type of tree? Type of wood?  Let’s discuss!