Peanut butter and cheese whiz jars

For me the repurposing is as follows: I will be making an old time tool box tote, sized to hold 10 large peanut butter jars (2 rows of 5).  These will be used to hold all of my various sized dowels.  Maybe even some biscuits, if I ever decide to get that technologically advanced. 

I use aniline dyes.  In my opinion there’s nothing better, but that’s for another blog.  My problem is, that they keep changing the packaging.  Making it impossible to make one storage device to hold all of the dyes.  So my fix is Cheez Whiz jars.   I’m glad I love the stuff.  They come with a rubber gasket and are made of glass, making them both clear and air tight. 

Where do ideas like this come from?
My grandfather used to have hundreds of baby food jars nailed to the underside of 2x4s all over the garage.  They were filled with nuts, bolts, this and thats.  Why is it that our grandfolks would repurpose everything and never throw anything away.  But we seem to think that I would have to go buy special jars to hold all of these things, instead of simply using what the grocery store was kind enough to give me along with the food I paid for.  This is one of the many lessons I learned from my grandfolks.  Hopefully some of you out there are young enough to learn the lesson from me.  Yeah trash is trash, but there’ s no reason to throw away perfectly good stuff just because “it has the wrong name painted on it”.  

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How to distinguish Red Oak vs. White Oak?

#1 Way to do this: read the sign over the stack in the store

#2 Color: Red Oak is red, with some white streaks.  White Oak has a yellowish grey tinge to it, with white streaks. 

#3 White Oak is heavier

#4 Now that we have all of the “DUH” answer out of the way, here is a neat trick.

Find a smoker.  They can blow smoke into the end grain of White Oak and it will travel down the veins and arteries of the wood.  I have had it travel up to 3 feet through White Oak.  Red Oak, the veins and arteries tend to be more clogged and I’ve never had it travel more than 5 inches.  So when you find the squirrely piece that really could be a little too heavy be Red or maybe too dark to be White, find a smoker.  This is a sure fire way to tell.  

No animals were harmed in the writing of this post!

What is Liquid Hide We’ve all heard of horses going to the glue factory. But what part of the horse did they actually make into glue. Sorry folks, no it’s not the whole horse. There were actually three glues made from a horse.

Number 1: the least common, blood glue.
 This had a weak holding power and was typically used for either a stain (being washed off after application and leaving only a stain) or for very temporary holdings (the way we would use tape today).

Number 2: actually used the skin of the horse.
This was a reasonably usable glue. It was able to be made in large quantities, for obvious reasons, and it had a decent amount of holding power. But it was commonly used for jigs and fixtures and other things that you knew you’d be taking apart in a few days for weeks.

Number 3: the liquid hide we actually think of, when it’s referred to, is actually not made of the whole hide it is only made of the snout and the soft pad under the hoof of the horses foot.
This obviously meaning you don’t get to make as much from any particular horse. This is the stuff that we hear about, that held very well, started with an initial tack, would hold for decades and like all the others was reversible with nothing more than steam. All three of these glues are made in the same fashion. Basically they throw the parts into a big pot and boil it until everything turns into mush and then boil it down a little more until it gets a little bit of thickness too it. Then it’s dried out completely into flakes, broken up and sold. To use it, you put it in a pot with a little bit of water and re-boil it, returning it to its former goo. Simple stuff, simply works, really stinky to make.

Islands in motion

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Islands - Finished Jewelry Box!

A one of a kind hand-made, heart-shaped jewelry box.  This custom made, large ring box is turned from a Manzanita burl (number 5 on the wood density scale). This is the only piece I make that starts with a chain saw and ends with a high gloss.

The piece was first turned on a lathe. The natural voids have all been hollowed and then lined in pure silver. The voids were then filled with a resin colored to an off white/ pearlescent to achieve the cloud effect.



The entire piece was then hollowed by hand before finishing.



 
A custom made silver heart with 5 Garnets was then inset into the top.

NO FEAR!

YEAH RIGHT!...try TERRIFIED!

Well I finally went and did it. I went and entered a contest. Many may not see this as a big deal - a lot of people enter contests, and I'm working on my Masters project so I'm supposed to be good, right?...uh huh

Let's back up 30 yrs ago when I started this....as a kid I was told don't bother it's not worth it...so I didn't - EVER , until now. Then I didn't just enter any old contest either. Not being one to ever go 1/2 way, I entered the LA County Fair. One of the largest county fairs in the country!

What a way to start huh?...all or nothing!....well I'm still telling all of you about it, so I didn't come in last place, lol.

What I entered was a hand plane...

Not just any old hand plane mind you...it was obviously hand made by me (contest rules after all) but it was also made for my masters project. It was 1/2 of a matched pair. A standard angle (the other is a low angle but otherwise the same) 22" smoothing plane. With Jatoba scales on the sides (the low angle uses Jara)and as the "body of the handle as well as accents on the forward knob. The main body is fiddle back maple and the sole is made of Lignum Vitali.




With the physical description out of the way....It's not just 1 plane...as a matched set they make a total of 10 hand planes! 5 per body. consisting of a European style smoothing plane, a European stile scraper plane, a pull style Japanese smoothing plane (remove the knob and handle),a pull style Japanese scraping plane (remove the knob and handle), and a shooting plane if i put both knobs onti the side if 1 plane. all of this made ergonomically to MY personal body style and size.

I have about 60 board feet of olive tree almost dry (just a few more months) just waiting for this plane to be done to begin, in earnest, the masters project.

So I had to get this plane done early in order to enter it as once its used its not eligible to enter into the fair and I can't wait another year....this project is already taking years! I can't purposely set it back by a full year.....Besides while I did not take the best of show....I would have had to wait a whole year more to tell all of you that ...




I DID win the BLUE RIBBON AND JURORS CHOICE!....not bad for a first try :)