Another Happy Customer
I truly enjoy making people smile with their woodworking projects completed. Thanks for choosing my workshop to complete your mudroom space. All solid oak, hand picked and crafted to fit your space.
CNC life along….
Yesterday I spent time in the workshop to learn more skills for CNC projects. I realized I truly need name tags for Scratchmark woodworking when I attend local events. So here we go new name tag made from birch and carved with both my logo and name.
Bandsaw Work
Today I put in a few hours with new species. Canary, Jatoba, and Rosewood. 52 new blanks ready to rough out.
Sanding Time…
I hope you are enjoying your next adventure and learning new things. I got to spend time in the workshop finishing multiple spoons. A few tips I learned along the way.
Preparation is key to a successful process. Make sure you have good ventilation, a clean workspace, proper eye and lung protection before starting. This will keep you safe and allow you to proceed with the process uninterrupted.
Full face respirator
Noise cancelling earbuds
Vacuum system near the sander
Good lighting
All sanding papers in arms reach
All tools and pieces in arms reach
Place to dispose of my waste
After getting setup it’s a matter of getting a good rhythm and never stop moving the piece.
Time for Carving
Got to try doing some video with the phone today. Fun to see the results and how “fast” I can carve bowls.
New Oak Carvings
New large bowls coming soon. I can’t wait to start the videos process with these bowls. I’m excited to share some time lapse and process work. Stay tuned.
New Oak Blanks
Hello friends. Just picked up a new load of wood rounds that look amazing. It’s hard to describe how much I enjoy being able to help friends clear land out and also pick up some quality raw materials. I’m hoping to get into a huge hemlock on their property soon but the pile to cut through will take a few months.
Let me know if there is a wood species you really love and I’ll start searching.
Happy Holidays.
Respirator safety in the workshop
Used the clean air respirator setup today. Full face protection as well as air filtration.
worth every penny.
Rechargeable battery to power tue fan back pack.
Protects both my eyes and airway from harmful dusts
the ventilation system keeps my face cool and the lens from fogging up.
Lasts up to 8 hours on a charge _(so far)
Great peripheral vision. Large enough to allow for full visibility.
Can wear my normal glasses
Should I oil my wood utensils
This comes down to a few parameters. Wood species, longevity, and preference
There are many species of wood that are oily. Teak, mahogany, bamboo, and ipa are a few woods that have an excessive amount of oil in the surface. Other species like oak, cherry and pine are drier woods and require oiling to protect the wood structures from the harsh washing required for wood utensils and cutting boards
Preference is simply about how you want your wood to look. If you like a nice shiny finish then oiling is important, if not then leave them to dry out.
Lastly is longevity of your wood utensils A little oil goes a long way to helping your utensils last years as well as preventing food particles from soaking into your wood.
Personally, I have always found wood to look better when oiled. For this reason I use the following guidelines for oiling.
Once a day for a week, once a week for a month, and once a month from that point on.
Mineral oil, olive oil (highly used utensils) or a good nut oil work great to build a solid surface and create a beautiful sheen.
How to make a wooden bowl?
There are a few tools I use for bowl making. I don’t personally use a lathe. I like freeform bowls that have more natural curves and show off the grain of the wood.
To carve bowls I use a series of carbide discs attached to an angle grinder along with an aggressive disc that removes the bulk of the waste wood.
An arbortech disc is how I remove heavy material. The arbotech tool has carbide teeth that will scrape through the wood. This forms the rough shape of the bowl quickly. Once I get the form to shape I like I’ll move to carbide sanding discs to refine the curves and prepare the surface for sanding.
Sanding from 60 -220 takes the longest to ensure a quality surface. The lowest grit (60) gets the surface smooth and ensures a quality final shape. The higher grits are used to work the surface to a higher sheen. The higher the grit the shinier the surface.
Once the wood has been sanded to the final product it important to seal the wood. I use sanding sealer for this to harden the wood fibers. Sanding sealer soaks into the wood and protects it from moisture. If the wood is a high oil fiber like teak or ipa sanding sealer isn’t required.
The next step is to wet the wood which raises the grain before a final sanding to the desired sheen.
Finally a good oil is needed to seal the surface and protect the wood. I use natural oils for this so the bowl can be used with food for consumption. Walnut, mineral, or even olive oil can be used for this purpose.
What is the best wood for a bowl?
Wood grain, color, tones and contrasts create variation for wood bowls. The hardness can also be a factor. When deciding on the best wood it’s important to take a few things into account.
Allergies, aesthetics, use, and availability are the factors I would use.
The best thing is to search for local wood species that match your color pallet. Grain, tones, and color fall from reds through dark browns with a variety in between. Once can even find blue tones when the weather is cold and pines fall with the right bacteria present
Size is also a factor to decide on a species as many of our woods are found fallen or after tree work.
Wood can be tricky if you have allergies. Nut woods can give the same reactions to people with allergies.
Most people stick with fruit woods for using to eat as they have the least reactivity.
Today I threw on some headphones and carved spoons and a few bowls out of cherry, oak, rosewood and black walnut.
The dust from black walnut always irritates my eyes even with protection. The results are beautiful but the process is tricky.
Most woods when used for decoration will not cause problems but when used for cooking be aware wood can cause an allergic reaction
If you have a wood species you want to see let me know I can source it locally.
Just Start…. Woodworking
It all starts with an idea. Maybe it was on a hike through the woods, or a memory from childhood. During a fitful sleep or watching nature passing the time. Once that idea has formed it’s time to get to work.
My first project was a scrap piece of lumber in my parents garage. I was excited to use a wood burner to make a present for my grandmother. It was rough and I knew so little but it was a piece of art in her eyes.
From that moment on I found any excuse to work with my hands tearing things apart, using a flathead screw driver as a chisel, or smashing things with a hammer to create a shape.
I didn’t understand passion or patience but knew I would always build things with my hands.
Fast forward 30+ years and I have enough knowledge to be dangerous and enough skills to be capable. It doesn’t happen overnight but if I think back it feels like yesterday that I was in that garage making that first piece of art.