Wet Shaving Soap Bowl Scuttle

In working with spalted wood there are times we get voids.  Voids are usually places where the wood has broken down to eat into the wood. Many time it is a branch which the fungus and bacteria follow into the tree.

One of the challenges we face is how to approach the problem.  Bowls with holes make you no friends.

We decided to try filling the hole with a combination of clear epoxy and mother of pearl flakes. 

Here is the custom bowl we did for a customer in Maple with mother of pearl.

                                        

 

Here you can see the mother of pearl which has filled in to match the top and the bottom.  First we turn the bowl and them add the filler after the shape is finished and before the finishing coats go on.

 



 

Here it is from a little bit of a different angle.

Here is what the mother of pearl fill looks like inside the bowl.  

 

 

 

Our customer liked the Lilac Wood handle so he had some choices.  The lilac handles are on the left,  the two on the are maple.  They are dry fit (not anchored into the top yet).

 

Here's the maple handle on the top.



      Here is a lilac handle on the top.

 

 

This is the bowl after the handle is secured and the rest finished with the marine quality varnish.  Ahh the varnish...it is my love/hate relationship.  It is simply the best.  It is imported from Holland and is used on luxury yachts and boats.  It however, takes its time to dry and sometimes in cool weather it takes a couple of days.  But it can also move from a liquid to a gel form overnight for no reason. 

Here is a close up of the customers name in ruins.  It is a straight one-to-one translation in the major futhark. 

 

Here is the finished bowl with engraving.



 

 

 

 

 



Waves of Grain

We have new decorative bowl made of Mahogany. We are still putting the final coats of finish on it now. . We took some of the musical instrument grade mahogany and laminated it together. Laminating is actually when you glue boards together to make a thickness that suits your needs. In this case, we alternated the grain patterns so that you can see them flow cross currently as your eye travels up the bowl. . This bowl started out as a shave bowl, it was rather large for a shave bowl but in cutting it down we would have lost the gentle form that compliments the grain. . We hope you like it as much as we do. It will be available in our Etsy shop: Lovgren & Daughter in a few days.

Spring!

Ahh the beauty of Spring whe the air is sweet and the outdoors welcomes in the new season. As a Tree Hugger, It is the sweet smell of the maples, the grape hyacinth and tulips that draws me outside. My heart belongs to the woods of my younger days. They were full of maple and pine and beaver dams and quiet. You could sit and wait for the beavers to glide noiselessly through the ponds they created. Spring came slowly to the stream deep in the woods. Ice sheets and burms dripped, dripped, dripped into a raging stream only to wash themselves away to a trickle or oatmeal mud as the summer marched in. So, welcome Spring and the memories of springs long ago lived. Hello, the sap is running and the old wood lilacs are in bloom.

Magic Mushrooms and their Piney Friends

the same mushrooms we are familiar with from Alice in Wonderland and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory are the bright red ones. In our part of North America we don't have those naturally occurring. We do have a variation which is a lighter color with an orangey peachy top. They start out as little bumps. Then they look like a stalk and deflated top. Here's one I found wandering over some pine tree roots. . Later the mushroom raises it's top and grows a bit more about 6 inches. They are really beautiful. Since it grows on the roots of pine trees, I'm thinking the pine trees are about at the end of their lives. Well played, Mother Nature.

Spalting in the buff

We use a lot of spalted wood. Wood that goes through a biological process once it has fallen or has been cut. Hurricane Sandy did a lot of natural re-decoration even up the hills of PA. So, you have wood and you have some wood that has been "maturing", readying itself to return to the soil. To break down the cellulose in wood, we rely on fungi, bacteria and insects to help move a tree into entropy. The come in and eat and feed and breakdown those tough cell walls. The fungi also grow in very different shapes and have of different types all up and down the genus. . and bless these natural processes in their infinite combination that can recycle lumber and create such beauty. Thanks Mother Nature - good job, we rely on you!

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 :)

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. 

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. 

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

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!