Remember these planes are used for rough work and don’t need to be as sharp as your smoothing plane so don’t agonize over the perfectly symetrical curve or hone the bevel to 8000 grit. These irons will take a beating so should be honed to a 35 degree bevel at least so that the edge stands up to the pressure you will put it under.

I also drop a little edition of Tales from the Hoarde into this week’s episode and show off some beautiful spalted curly maple turning squares with which I am contemplating Mother’s day gifts.

Finally the blog of the week is Evenfall Woodworks. You have to get over there and check out the Woodworks Library. This have over 175 books on woodworking all from the early 1900s. It is illuminating to say the least to read through some of this literature.

Enjoy the show!

Click To Play

The blog of the week is Philsville

Click To Play

The blog of the week is Fresh Shaving run my Muddler Mike at http://freshshavings.blogspot.com Don’t forget to get your entries in for next week’s pen giveaway sponsored by Penn State Industries.

As always send me an email if you have any questions at shannon@rogersfinewoodworking.com or leave a comment here on the blog.

Click To Play

Don’t forget your entries for the pen of the month giveaway next week. I’ll be giving away a Penn State Majestic Jr. kit complete with drill bits, bushings, barrel trimmer sleeves, and a stabilized spalted Tamarind blank.

Send me an email to shannon@rogersfinewoodworking.com and let me know you want to be in the drawing.

Topics:

World of Woodworking Online Game (listen up Warcraft!)
New Dust Collector
New microphone
Craft show preparations
The Way of the Galoot new podcast!
Cutting miters
Scraping glue
Fitting a panel to a groove
Tales from the Hoarde vol. 5

For those not familar with the Hoarde series, check out volume 1 through 4 here on the blog. Just look in the wood stash category to find them all.

Click To Play

Amboyna is great for turning. It has a pleasant aroma when you turn although I am sure that the dust is not good for you to breath like most tropical exotics. Not that any wood dust is good to breath, but I recommend a respirator when working with this stuff. Like any burl you need to be careful when working with it because of the wild grain patterns it can be unpredictable under the tools. Take light cuts and enjoy the constantly changing appearance of the wood as you shape it. In several instances I have been surprised as different colors appear on the surface when I have it spinning on the lathe. I made a pen out of this once that as I was turning the nib end, suddenly a yellow streak appeared near the middle of the blank. It was completely isolated and different from everything around it. Pure magic!

In my experience the highly figured woods look better when used sparingly. As you can see by these above shots there is a lot going on here and to use large amounts of it may be overkill. I have saved this particular block for last because of it’s larger dimensions, there may be uses for it beyond simple turnings. I could see some veneer cuts from this or even a small box made from it. Whatever I do, I would want to make sure I don’t lose the overall effect of all this swirling grain.

So let me hear your thoughts. What should I do with this treasure exposed from the vault of wood hedonism?

Narra grows in Malaysia and all around the ring of fire. It’s heartwood smells of roses and the burl is otherwise known as Amboyna. This is the king of burls and I have a few pieces of that that I might pull out in a future month too. Narra has been used for several home remedies as well and is known to combat tumors. Honey is made from the flowers and the wood itself is termite resistant.

This last point I really believe because this stuff is hard. The grain is really tight and it cuts and turns extremely well. I have several pieces that I acquired from a custom pool cue maker. All of my pieces are 3″ square and around 36″ long. I was very fortunate that the pieces I found are quartersawn and have some quilting figure.

These pieces are big enough that I can use them as box parts, but also could make some beautiful bookmatched panels for a door or box lid. Up until now I have only used it for turning. I find that the figure is so intense in these pieces that using smaller pieces have greater effect. I have turned several bottle stoppers and recently completed this kaleidescope.

This stuff holds up really well and forms some very sharp beads and coves. I experienced no tear out on this piece at all and was shocked by the sheen it took on just by sanding to a high grit. It does actually smell of roses while you are turning too so working with it is truly a delight for the senses.

So with every installment of The Hoard, I welcome your ideas and suggestions to help me put this beautiful example to work. Also since Narra is native to the Malaysian area and Borneo specifically maybe my fellow blogger, Eric, can hook us all up with some roadside scraps. I’ll take 20 or 30 board feet!

This is a 5x5x14 inch block of Grenadillo. It has been waxed hence the sheen to it. I have had this piece for almost two years and still am not sure what to do with it due to it’s odd size. At first glance it would make good turning stock, but I almost think that would be wasteful and veneer might be a better fate. Besides with it being so heavy and large, I am almost scared to chuck this baby up and set it spinning at high speed!

Grenadillo or Granadillo is a tropical hardwood in the Rosewood Dalbergia family from Central America. It is closely related to Cocobolo and is also called Nicaraguan Rosewood. It is very heavy, very hard, and has a tight interlocking grain. In other words all the same properties of Cocobolo. It’s primary uses are in cutlery handles and musical instruments as well as decorative inlays. Supply is limited and therefore very expensive. I feel very blessed to have this piece in my collection.

So what to do with this beautiful piece of hardwood? I have considered cutting it into smaller blocks for lathe work like pens or bottle stoppers, but I would still like to keep some of the width for slicing veneers for box lids. If I do any turning with it, I hope it goes without saying that a respirator is a necessity because the dust is very irritating. I even like to wear long sleeves as the dust has been known to cause a rash.

I really like the slice of sapwood in the corner of this piece too and that could make an interesting book match. Here is a closeup of the grain.

You have to admit that this is some beautiful and interesting wood. You can see why I have been hoarding it for a while and afraid to do something with it. Help me out, give me courage and direction so I can transform this piece into something even more beautiful.

I thought this might make a good post on typical spindle turning. Let me warn you though that there is nothing typical about Lignum Vitae. This stuff is ridiculously hard!! I must have hit the Tormek about 3 different times while turning this mallet.

Anyway, after cutting the block to an approximate length leaving about 1 inch on either end for mounting in the lathe, I marked the centers. Then I seated the drive center on one end with a good knock from a plastic tipped hammer.

Then I mounted the block in the lathe. You don’t need to apply too much pressure on the other end with the tail stock. Many people tighten this too much and it can damage the bearings on your head stock. I slide the tail stock close, lock it in place, and screw the live center over until it touches and then about 1/2 turn more to seat the piece. Just make sure you seat the tail stock on the center mark.

With the diameter of this piece being over 3 inches and the length just over 12″ I dropped the speed down to 1200 RPM. Using a 1″ roughing gouge I turned the whole block into a cylinder. Then I used a pencil to mark out the transition dimensions on the blank where the mallet tapers, transitions to the handle, the handle flares, and then finally terminates.

Using a 1/4 parting tool, I reduced the thickness at each point to my desired diameter using my Galbert caliper. The back to the roughing gouge I formed the gentle taper of the mallet head.

With the curves of this piece being so gentle I actually use the roughing gouge to do all the shaping with the exception of the sharp taper from the mallet head to the handle. Here I used a 1/2 spindle gouge.

Finally, I used my parting tool again to define the ends of the mallet but kept the material thick enough to support the sanding and finishing. I worked from 150 grit up to 400 grit and then put a single coat of shellawax on the mallet and it was good to go.

During the final parting from the lathe I did taper slightly inward forming a slight concavity on both ends. This allows the mallet to stand on it’s end on the bench without rocking.

With about 30 minutes of work I now have a carving mallet to last through the ages!

So if we dig through the turning stash we come up with this beauty:

This piece of Lignum has that beautiful green cast to it and wonderful straight grain. Take a look at the end grain and you can see how tightly interlocked it is.

So my thoughts since I am just discovering carving are to turn this into a carver’s mallet. The blank is 3 inches square and 16 inches long. I would love to hear any other ideas about this beautiful piece, but if there are no disagreements then I will look to make this mallet sometime in the next month. So until the next “Hoard” installment, let me hear what’s in your wood pile.

So I started trimming, and trimming, and trimming. My wife came out back and said to me, “wow I like the extra light back here, why don’t we get rid of one of those bushes on both sides of the house.” I grumbled and moaned about how much work that would be, but it was wasted breath. I have to admit that she was right and with two of them gone we still have a lot of privacy, but more sunlight filters through into the side yards. (hopefully she won’t read this post because she’ll never let me hear the end of it)

Anyway, as I got down to the trunk of these 40+ year of old Yews, I notice how thick they were. My woodworker’s brain started wondering what kind of lumber I might glean from this. So I cut out a few 20″ long pieces and took them to the shop. After some runs through the bandsaw and some sealer for the ends, this is what I came up with.

Real pretty reddish/cherry color for the heart wood. Obviously this is still wet so I expect the color to lighten over time. The grain is really tight though. If nothing else, these will make some pens with a story behind them.

Anyone out there have any experience with Japanese Yew? I would love to hear about it.

The gist of her message is don’t be afraid to start that project with that prized piece of stock you have lying around the shop. We all hoard these beautiful pieces with the intention of building something stunning from them, but more often than not this magnificent wood lays around for years because we haven’t found the perfect project or we are just down right scared to cut into it.

I am one of these woodworkers. I have a pretty indecent collection of beautiful wood. While it is not the size of David Marks wood shed, considering I have only been in the craft around 5 years, it is indecent how much wood I have in my collection. Call me selfish but I want to use my wood and I would rather leave behind heirloom furniture than heirloom rough sawn lumber!

So here is what I am going to do. Starting here and once a month in some future posts I am going to open my shop and expose my hoarded treasure to the world. I want to hear from my readers suggestion on what to do with this rare and one of a kind wood that I have lying about. I already have some ideas but I would love to hear what y’all think. Maybe some encouragement and ideas will help me to set the wheels in motion to turn my nostalgia into feng shui.

So here is the first foray into my stash:

These are a few pieces of Ziracote that I picked up a few years ago on ebay. I had just turned a few pens out of Ziracote and I really liked the look of it. I added some Mineral Spirits to pull out some of the color. It is really dry in my shop now so it was evaporating quickly, but you can get a feel for the look without the spirits as well. Each one of these pieces is 1 1/4 thick and vary from 2″ to 4″ wide. They are 12″ to 18″ long. I think they might make a some pretty stunning box lids or book matched together for some cool veneer.

Here is a closer look at some of the figure:

I think that whatever I use it for it should be used sparingly. There is so much going on here that it would overpower any piece if used en masse.

I would love to hear what my readers think of these pieces and what ideas are out there for the uses. This is just the tip of the iceberg for my stash so I hope everyone stays tuned for some future peeks into “The Hoard”.