Thread: Christmas Ornament Exchange

Chipping Away sells a leather belt for that machine: Ultimate Power Sharpener Archives - ChippingAway
(about half way down the page)

Even with the slower speed, you need to be extremely careful to not burn your blade. I suggest having a container of water right next to the machine. Sharpen/hone for 3 seconds max, then dunk in the water. Repeat... If the tip of the blade turns blue, it's history - you've just lost all temper in the tip of the blade. I've done this a couple of times... The last time was on my Bütz detail knife that had had the tip broken off of three times. The tip is very flexible because it's so thin and narrow, so bending fatigue eventually gets to it. Anyway, I was grinding the back down to give me a new tip, and held it about a half second too long against the sanding belt and instant blue on the end 3/8 inch of the blade. Just received my replacement a couple of days ago and spent an hour getting to close to sharp. This particular knife Buy Butz Detail Knife at Woodcraft.com is my go-to knife for eyes and very fine detail, but it is NOT sharp when it arrives. I don't know of any videos that illustrate the way I sharpen, but basically, I used my small hard Arkansas stone with a drop of oil on it and slowly ground down the steel adjacent to the cutting edge to get rid of any bevel. I have no idea what the grit is on the Arkansas stone, but I suspect it's on the order of 2000-4000 grit. Once I had it down to where it would actually cut wood, I switched to my cardboard strop and spent several minutes stropping the blade. It's now sharp enough to use, but still not quite up to my standards... Over the next few weeks, frequent stropping will get it where I want it.

For any power sharpening system for carving knives and gouges, slow speed is essential. The fine edges and points will overheat almost instantly with a standard-speed motor. And by "slow speed", I mean around 1000 rpm or less. Just my opinion...

Claude

Brilliant ! your story of fortitude is inspiring . It is best to drill a small pilot hole when you are putting in a threaded eye in BTW. just a little smaller than the threads.
Sharpening - To add to Claudes wise words of extreme caution on power sharpening, I would like to add that power sharpening a folding knife is very dangerous because of the risk of the blade closing & damaging or even removing fingers from the holding hand! Take this seriously as the direction of the belt is the same as the blade closure .
Personally I just use bench stones of various grades then to enhance the edge & keep it going on a hand strop for months , years even. Power sharpening I find is not as accurate (lack of experience maybe ?) , not necessary & very risky to the tools welfare, No thanks!
I also find the few minutes taken every 15mins or so is a nice punctuation to have a think about where I am going with the carving next.
Oh yes , I'd forgot I'd shown the owl ,the Blackthorn is more orangey in colour than a burgundy tone & has a much tighter woodgrain too.
I'm not familiar with Nancy Tuttle ,she's obviously very skilled a carver but there's something about the facial expressions that I'm not sure about ? Maybe I do like them ? oh no I don't think I do ! Oh she is very good ! I don't think I,m necesserily MEANT to like them , but as you say her work does fascinate somehow.
Cheers Mike

We should discuss sharpening in the Sharpening Forum. Start with a 1/2" skew. Square that off and create a 1/12 stop chisel with a 20 degree included bevel.
Poor Claude! He lives in the south, using water as coolant. No, no, no. Step out the door at 53N and scoop up a bowl of snow. Done.

I've not given much thought to carving Christmas ornaments. I admire them, I buy them, but carving? No.
A long time ago, when my kids were babies, I started buying them each an ornament, each year.
Seems to be harder and harder to find unique things each year, what with grandchildren needing a collection, as well.
Need not be too terribly sophisticated (I'll buy from a 10-yr old in a craft fair!)

Tomorrow is a clay/pottery workshop that might result in ornaments hand made by the old man! We shall see.

Brian: make some of these. Great way to use up scraps of wood. I use 25mm x 25mm x 100mm or 18mm x 18mm x 75mm scraps to make these. Take about half-hour to one hour each, depending on how much talking I do at carving club... My wife likes to tie a pair of these to the top of Christmas presents as a bit of lagniappe. I see them on trees year after year. Most popular are the zig-zag hats - but I do several different styles, depending on how I feel at the moment... This summer, I showed my carving club how to make these and several are doing so. Our oldest member is 94 and he's making one for each of his grand-children and great-grandchildren.

Claude

il_570xN.410930874_qmwb.jpg

Originally Posted by ClaudeF

Chipping Away sells a leather belt for that machine: Ultimate Power Sharpener Archives - ChippingAway
(about half way down the page)

Even with the slower speed, you need to be extremely careful to not burn your blade. I suggest having a container of water right next to the machine. Sharpen/hone for 3 seconds max, then dunk in the water. Repeat... If the tip of the blade turns blue, it's history - you've just lost all temper in the tip of the blade. I've done this a couple of times... The last time was on my Bütz detail knife that had had the tip broken off of three times. The tip is very flexible because it's so thin and narrow, so bending fatigue eventually gets to it. Anyway, I was grinding the back down to give me a new tip, and held it about a half second too long against the sanding belt and instant blue on the end 3/8 inch of the blade. Just received my replacement a couple of days ago and spent an hour getting to close to sharp. This particular knife Buy Butz Detail Knife at Woodcraft.com is my go-to knife for eyes and very fine detail, but it is NOT sharp when it arrives. I don't know of any videos that illustrate the way I sharpen, but basically, I used my small hard Arkansas stone with a drop of oil on it and slowly ground down the steel adjacent to the cutting edge to get rid of any bevel. I have no idea what the grit is on the Arkansas stone, but I suspect it's on the order of 2000-4000 grit. Once I had it down to where it would actually cut wood, I switched to my cardboard strop and spent several minutes stropping the blade. It's now sharp enough to use, but still not quite up to my standards... Over the next few weeks, frequent stropping will get it where I want it.

For any power sharpening system for carving knives and gouges, slow speed is essential. The fine edges and points will overheat almost instantly with a standard-speed motor. And by "slow speed", I mean around 1000 rpm or less. Just my opinion...

Claude

At the moment I don't have a leather belt for it but Lee valley sells them also. I probably won't get one though because I currently use it to sharpen my turning chisels so it has sandpaper on it.image.jpg
The reason why I brought up the subject was because I 'thought' these belt sanders were for sharpening both chisels and knives. Sure enough after purchasing a carving magazine, there on the second page is a belt sander like mine with the leather belt being used for honing.
I'm not at a level where I could confidently sharpen using this method nor do I think I ever will be. I've currently got a couple of rocks and strops and compounds. Every once in a while I practice sharpening but I've managed to keep my knives sharp so I suppose I'm learning something. I'd much rather learn slowly but surely than quickly.
Here is a pic of my various stones and strops.
image.jpg


Thanks Claude
That was great info.

Originally Posted by Mike the knife

Brilliant ! your story of fortitude is inspiring . It is best to drill a small pilot hole when you are putting in a threaded eye in BTW. just a little smaller than the threads.
Sharpening - To add to Claudes wise words of extreme caution on power sharpening, I would like to add that power sharpening a folding knife is very dangerous because of the risk of the blade closing & damaging or even removing fingers from the holding hand! Take this seriously as the direction of the belt is the same as the blade closure .
Personally I just use bench stones of various grades then to enhance the edge & keep it going on a hand strop for months , years even. Power sharpening I find is not as accurate (lack of experience maybe ?) , not necessary & very risky to the tools welfare, No thanks!
I also find the few minutes taken every 15mins or so is a nice punctuation to have a think about where I am going with the carving next.
Oh yes , I'd forgot I'd shown the owl ,the Blackthorn is more orangey in colour than a burgundy tone & has a much tighter woodgrain too.
I'm not familiar with Nancy Tuttle ,she's obviously very skilled a carver but there's something about the facial expressions that I'm not sure about ? Maybe I do like them ? oh no I don't think I do ! Oh she is very good ! I don't think I,m necesserily MEANT to like them , but as you say her work does fascinate somehow.
Cheers Mike

Hey Mike
Oddly enough I did drill a hole for the eye hook screw but perhaps it wasn't deep enough. I'm used to using these at the end of a turned stick so I already have the hole from the lathe. It works out perfectly and they never break off.
Btw....... The hole for the tail was about 6 mm


I'm not going to be power sharpening any knives any time soon but probably won't ever power sharpen a fold up knife. Regular knives are dangerous enough but a fold up knife is even riskier. Don't worry Mike; that's not going to happen. We discussed this exact topic in another conversation some months back.
In fact the reason I purchased the Tom Ellis knives is because I didn't want to practice sharpening on my new expensive CASE knife but I knew if a started carving with it that it would need sharpening so I just put it away for later when I had some experience under my belt.
I'm with you in that stone or strop sharpening manually is the way to go.


And YES you did show the beautiful owl you made from the blackthorn. I thought it was more burgundy colour.
Anyway Bubinga to me is almost like your blackthorn is to you. It's so hard and dense yet is forgivable. That last fork had tung oil on it which changes the colour some. Here's a pic of the wood in its natural colour. It's gorgeous.image.jpg

It must be more exciting for you because blackthorns is domestic in your area whereas Bubinga isn't. It's an imported wood.
We don't really have any domestic woods like that. Spalted maple is pretty exciting but it has its own issues as well.


Regarding Nancy Tuttles work;
I didn't think you'd like her subject matter. It's far too dark and scary for you.
What I thought you would appreciate is the fact that she works through intuition. She picks up a piece of wood and just carves whatever comes to mind. You once stated that this is how you like to work at times. Just pick up a piece of wood and and intuitively carve whatever comes to mind and let that force move through you. I thought her work was a great example of just that.

Thinking about this again I'm even more impressed than I was that you even finished it at !
I understand that you like Bubinga but quite honestly it is a VERY difficult & unsuitable wood to carve, it has a coarse , loose grain & it's interlocked ! It's very prone to splitting , & although it finishes very well with cabinet making /turning tools it is a dog to hand tool finish cleanly !
Carving can be a whole lot less frustrating & flowing than you know yet , I promise you !
I would suggest that you perhaps avoid the spalted maple for now too as the spalting introduces areas of different hardness which can make things more difficult.
More than just the working properties, carvers usually prefer not to use a heavily figured wood a it spoils & distorts the perception of the sculptural shapes you have worked so long to uncover , especially at this small size.
I would suggest that after you have got your tools literally razor sharp you try out some Basswood , you have no idea of how good you might be if you managed to get through the Bubinga trial first carving !
Mike

YES! Bingo! Bubinga is exceptionally hard to carve. That's what I was saying. Because I'm so used to working with exceptionally hard woods, finding time to just chill out and carve using some reasonably softer woods like poplar was pure joy. Bubinga is very hard but it's not nearly as difficult to do as Wenge or Pau Ferro. Wenge image.jpghas tough, coarse grain pattern that's challenging every time. These are the woods I've got to use because it's for a business. image.jpg Most of these are done with power carving but the final stages require some knife work, like in between the prongs. It's cutting wood in a concave manner so was dulling down my blades.
Committing to an ornament exchange was the best thing that I did to push myself in the right direction. Once I started carving poplar I understood the pure joy that most of you carvers experience. I remember you first suggesting I carve a piece of basswood and popular was the closest I've had to it. Then I discover that poplar is in the same genus as cottonwood and it's a very favourable wood to carve for many. Now that I've tasted what real carving can be like , I definitely want some more sooooo I've picked out a project along with a nicely dried piece of basswood and I'm going to go for it. In fact, I've picked a few which I'll work on alternatively like a did with the ornaments. One being a relief and one being an ' in the round.' . This will also be my first time using a pattern so it will be interesting following instructions. I considered posting pics of my projects but I don't want to set myself up like that. I'd rather surprise myself so I can come back and surprise you all.


THIS is why I'm sooo excited at the moment because I'm finally experiencing real carving enjoyment where I'm just totally absorbed in the present moment. It brings about such contentment and memorable experiences.


The spalted maple is very unpredictable wood for sure. Spalt, after all , is a process of decay, usually resulting from disease which includes insect burrowing all of which doesn't make consistent stable grain pattern. There definitely are softer parts throughout from this entire process. Even when we spalt our own it's a hit or miss. The last custom spalted maple fork we did, had to be remade 4 times due to this very factor but that was an unusual ratio. It's not usually that bad and much of it is due to the shape of the item being made. Two many insect holes and it's basically useless. CA can only do so much.


I'm not the sole creator of these. Most of the bulk carving has been carved by my significant other. I do the final carving , added detailing or embellishments and finish them but some of them I do from start to finish.
Its enjoyable work but it's not the ' get lost in your work' kind of experience and that's what I'm after.


I also think I'll past on the turning sharpening tool because I think I'd run into problems like you both mentioned. Too fast- too hot- Not good. Besides which I enjoy the manual sharpening for all the same reasons that I love manual carving.
Cheers
Nikki

I agree with Mike. For carving wood with knife and gouge, basswood is hard to beat... You should be able to find kiln-dried basswood all over the place in Ontario. Most any lumber yard should have it. You can also likely find air-dried basswood at most lumber mills in the area; some of their off-cuts should be very cheap, as the only use most sawmills have for the offcuts is making chipboard or burning... If you really want to carve wood with a beautiful grain, look for some butternut Butternut | The Wood Database - Lumber Identification (Hardwoods) It grows in Southern Ontario... Yet another wood that is a good carving wood is American Chestnut American Chestnut | The Wood Database - Lumber Identification (Hardwoods) although it's hard to find.

Claude

Thanks guys,
its not from a lack of basswood that I' haven't manually carved any. It's because it was the wood I used to do my first rose carving and I wasn't particularly too fond of it. It's so darn FUZZY!!!!
Heres a stash of basswood. Plus the area we live in is loaded with basswood. image.jpg I've got a big chunk of it drying outside that I scooped image.jpg

Now that I'm learning to manually carve I'm going to try some of this wood again. After all, I can always paint it. Right?
Butternut I'd love to carve.,In a couple I've weeks I'm going to the Burlington imported wood place to get some..
It'll be worth the drive. I'll check out the chestnut while I'm there.
Thanks Claude

Originally Posted by ClaudeF

Brian: make some of these. Great way to use up scraps of wood. I use 25mm x 25mm x 100mm or 18mm x 18mm x 75mm scraps to make these. Take about half-hour to one hour each, depending on how much talking I do at carving club... My wife likes to tie a pair of these to the top of Christmas presents as a bit of lagniappe. I see them on trees year after year. Most popular are the zig-zag hats - but I do several different styles, depending on how I feel at the moment... This summer, I showed my carving club how to make these and several are doing so. Our oldest member is 94 and he's making one for each of his grand-children and great-grandchildren.

Claude

il_570xN.410930874_qmwb.jpg

And I think it's priceless that you still make these for your grandkids. What a sure way to put a smile on their faces. Christmas ornament making is going to be my 'go to' thing to make this coming here because there's a great functional use for a handcarved item and they are small enough to make and store away.

Originally Posted by Spiritwolfe

Thanks guys,
its not from a lack of basswood that I' haven't manually carved any. It's because it was the wood I used to do my first rose carving and I wasn't particularly too fond of it. It's so darn FUZZY!!!!

I totally agree about the fuzzy aspect, when power carving basswood. Most carvers prefer harder woods, such as tupelo, maple, etc. I have power carved basswood, but only to the rough out stage - then I switch to knife/gouge for the rest. You have a good carving knife, so take a 1 inch by 1 inch by 4 inch piece of basswood and carve one of the Santa ornaments i posted above. You'll enjoy the process (Hint: I put the nose on a corner)...

Claude

I have done and run off to the Dark Side.

Did a clay/pottery workshop today and spent all afternoon making clay Christmas ornaments which will be fired this week.
Then some acrylic paints. Snowflakes ( like I don't have enough in my yard already), some birds and some holly leaves with berries.

Originally Posted by ClaudeF

I totally agree about the fuzzy aspect, when power carving basswood. Most carvers prefer harder woods, such as tupelo, maple, etc. I have power carved basswood, but only to the rough out stage - then I switch to knife/gouge for the rest. You have a good carving knife, so take a 1 inch by 1 inch by 4 inch piece of basswood and carve one of the Santa ornaments i posted above. You'll enjoy the process (Hint: I put the nose on a corner)...

Claude

Right. Right. This makes a LOT of sense Claude. Just do rough out with power tools and then use the knives.
Well no wonder you always look like you're having fun; because you probably are.
Ive picked out two projects that I'm doing. One is a simple in the round relief carving and the other is a more challenging in the round project and they are both being done in very dry basswood. Yayyyyy
Im going to have so much fun.


Thanks Mr. Clause

Soubds like fun RV