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Hi, all,
It took me forever to get to this post. In fact, I'm posting a little pre-maturely, but the weather has made my workspace very unpleasant, my joint pain is bad enough that woodworking is too hard, and the way things have been going, who knows what might pop-up next.
To expand: I've been working mostly on a cane /stick from a cedar branch taken from a tree in my garden that is slowly dying by being shaded out by neighbor trees. Its been decades since I planted it, and I can't quite recall, but I believe it is a cultivar of Eastern White Cedar. I've been messing w. it since late August.
Along the way, I was cleaning and restoring a house I inherited so my daughter and son-in-law would have a place to live when they moved back into this area. Way more dirt and grime than I expected, boxes and boxes of papers and personal effects to sort thru, etc. Just finished that about 12 days ago.
Bought a car that was "new to me." After a few days of OK performance, the idle began to fail, and then the engine began stalling at random. Only took 5 trips to various services centers, and hours of wasted time, and I'm still not certain it will work right.
Received a letter from the state asking for repayment of medical benefits my father received in his last months, or show that there were no assets to reclaim. Into the piles of paper (not all saved) and more trips to the lawyers' office.
Upgraded my computer OS, and it wouldn't recognize either of my old digital cameras, and I had to figure out how to avoid using the photo organizer that the system insisted be used instead of the older software I know how to use. Only took an hour of searching and teeth grinding in frustration.
So, finally, to the point.
The cedar stick is pretty close to completion. I have the grip area carved to where I want it, scraped, sanded, burnished, oiled and waxed. The rest of the shaft is about 90% scraped and sanded, so only 4 -5 hours more work, unless I decide I want to fill some of the knot holes (earlier attempts were not good, and I cut the plugging material out.)
The pics are as follows. A close up of the top detail, which can be used as a thumb grip. Two shots of knot features where the grip flares out into the shaft. A comparison of the stick next to my wife's store bought metal cane. You should be able to see the difference between the upper finished areas and the lower partially finished. A close up of a feature near to finish. Another shot of less finished area, taken without a flash, showing somewhat the wood looks like under cold cloudy natural light.
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I mentioned to an old friend who is a fine woodworker, house builder and restorer, I was carving some cedar. He said he loved working w. cedar for the color, and aroma, (He once built almost an entire house completely out of cedar) but that he really would not like to carve it all that much. He was quite right. The grain is long, and very irregular. Twisty, w. very soft sap wood and semi hard heart wood and fully hard heartwood, interspersed w. knots.
I have one more, larger branch yet to go, so the practice on this one will be well spent, because I've learned enough from this one that I think I might be able to manage some detail in the next.
It took me forever to get to this post. In fact, I'm posting a little pre-maturely, but the weather has made my workspace very unpleasant, my joint pain is bad enough that woodworking is too hard, and the way things have been going, who knows what might pop-up next.
To expand: I've been working mostly on a cane /stick from a cedar branch taken from a tree in my garden that is slowly dying by being shaded out by neighbor trees. Its been decades since I planted it, and I can't quite recall, but I believe it is a cultivar of Eastern White Cedar. I've been messing w. it since late August.
Along the way, I was cleaning and restoring a house I inherited so my daughter and son-in-law would have a place to live when they moved back into this area. Way more dirt and grime than I expected, boxes and boxes of papers and personal effects to sort thru, etc. Just finished that about 12 days ago.
Bought a car that was "new to me." After a few days of OK performance, the idle began to fail, and then the engine began stalling at random. Only took 5 trips to various services centers, and hours of wasted time, and I'm still not certain it will work right.
Received a letter from the state asking for repayment of medical benefits my father received in his last months, or show that there were no assets to reclaim. Into the piles of paper (not all saved) and more trips to the lawyers' office.
Upgraded my computer OS, and it wouldn't recognize either of my old digital cameras, and I had to figure out how to avoid using the photo organizer that the system insisted be used instead of the older software I know how to use. Only took an hour of searching and teeth grinding in frustration.
So, finally, to the point.
The cedar stick is pretty close to completion. I have the grip area carved to where I want it, scraped, sanded, burnished, oiled and waxed. The rest of the shaft is about 90% scraped and sanded, so only 4 -5 hours more work, unless I decide I want to fill some of the knot holes (earlier attempts were not good, and I cut the plugging material out.)
The pics are as follows. A close up of the top detail, which can be used as a thumb grip. Two shots of knot features where the grip flares out into the shaft. A comparison of the stick next to my wife's store bought metal cane. You should be able to see the difference between the upper finished areas and the lower partially finished. A close up of a feature near to finish. Another shot of less finished area, taken without a flash, showing somewhat the wood looks like under cold cloudy natural light.
I mentioned to an old friend who is a fine woodworker, house builder and restorer, I was carving some cedar. He said he loved working w. cedar for the color, and aroma, (He once built almost an entire house completely out of cedar) but that he really would not like to carve it all that much. He was quite right. The grain is long, and very irregular. Twisty, w. very soft sap wood and semi hard heart wood and fully hard heartwood, interspersed w. knots.
I have one more, larger branch yet to go, so the practice on this one will be well spent, because I've learned enough from this one that I think I might be able to manage some detail in the next.
