Preface: I live in San Jose, California - the city
described as a place with no There there.

The definition of an optimist is - One who, when place
in a room full of horse manure, will assume there's
a pony in there somewhere and then spend hours
trying to find it.

I'm an optimistic woodworker. Give me a piece of
wood and I'll look for the pony hidden in it. So, being
one who will try finding Something in Anything wood
I've once again turned something into nothing.

The Something in this case was a 10" 5x7 oval branch of
a deodor cedar that had been sitting for several years.
Whoever cut it didn't undercut the branch first so it had
splintered a bit - and deep splintered to boot. But it was
cedar - and free.

Bandsawed to get most of the bark off and get an
approximately hexagonal blank to turn - splinters and
all included.

Got it round and CN glued the cracks and splits as bess
I could, waited an hour then went hunting for sound wood
with a roughing gouge followed by a skew. Rough, skew,
check for sound wood. Nope. Rough, skew, check for
sound wood. Kept this up 'til I was approaching No. 2
pencil size before giving up. Never found sound wood.

Like dirt from a hole, turning seems to create far more
shavings than could possibly be in the origianl piece of
wood.

But the optimist in me notes that I've got a hell of
a supply of cedar chips for a Sh*t Load of sachets!
Not as aromatic as Spanish cedar but close enough.

Now I must sharpen the roughing gouge and skew,
THEN try the next chunk of wood in my "Gotta Be
A Pony In This One" pile. Maybe I should play the
lottery instead. Nah.

With time, does this Pony In There Somewhere thing
wear off?

charlie b

On 25/09/2006 1:40 PM, charlie b wrote:

With time, does this Pony In There Somewhere thing
wear off?

I dunno, but if you ever successfully turn a Pony, I'd sure love to see
the pics!

Not me! If my daughter ever saw pictures of a pony on the lathe, I'd never
hear the end of it. Even if it was a stubby.
______
God bless and safe turning
Darrell Feltmate
Truro, NS, Canada
www.aroundthewoods.com
"Doug Payne" wrote in message
...
On 25/09/2006 1:40 PM, charlie b wrote:

With time, does this Pony In There Somewhere thing
wear off?

I dunno, but if you ever successfully turn a Pony, I'd sure love to see
the pics!

Incidentally, it takes more than ten years for the thing to wear off. Let
you know about fifteen in another 5 :-)
______
God bless and safe turning
Darrell Feltmate
Truro, NS, Canada
www.aroundthewoods.com
"Doug Payne" wrote in message
...
On 25/09/2006 1:40 PM, charlie b wrote:

With time, does this Pony In There Somewhere thing
wear off?

I dunno, but if you ever successfully turn a Pony, I'd sure love to see
the pics!

"Darrell Feltmate" wrote in message
news:MPXRg.35660$cz3.2480@edtnps82...
Incidentally, it takes more than ten years for the thing to wear off. Let
you know about fifteen in another 5 :-)

Looking a bit farther out, I can say that 25 still finds you in the basement
trying to make art out of a piece of the firewood you had stacked for
winter.

On days when I set up the crockpot, I often don't get upstairs until SWMBO
gets home.

Darrell Feltmate wrote
Incidentally, it takes more than ten years for the thing to wear off. Let
you know about fifteen in another 5 :-)
George wrote:
Looking a bit farther out, I can say that 25 still finds you in the basement
trying to make art out of a piece of the firewood you had stacked for
winter.
On days when I set up the crockpot, I often don't get upstairs until SWMBO
gets home.

After 20 I'm guessing it takes about 5 minutes after they throw dirt in
your face.
I'll let ya know.
Dave Leader
--
Volunteer at Claude Moore Colonial Farm (National Park)
http://www.1771.org
American Association of Woodturners
http://www.woodturner.org
Capital Area Woodturners
http://www.capwoodturners.org/
PATINA
http://www.patinatools.org
M-WTCA - Mid-West Tool Collectors Assoc
http://www.mwtca.org/

On Mon, 25 Sep 2006 16:51:17 -0400, Doug Payne wrote:

On 25/09/2006 1:40 PM, charlie b wrote:

With time, does this Pony In There Somewhere thing
wear off?

I dunno, but if you ever successfully turn a Pony, I'd sure love to see
the pics!

Very good.... why didn't I say that? *lol*

Mac

https://home.comcast.net/~mac.davis
https://home.comcast.net/~mac.davis/wood_stuff.htm

On Mon, 25 Sep 2006 10:40:51 -0700, charlie b wrote:

snip?

With time, does this Pony In There Somewhere thing
wear off?

charlie b

That's sort of like asking if the fun of presents on Christmas morning wears
off, Charlie.... totally an individual thing, IMO..

I've done pretty much what you describe several times and had fun doing it... I
get to the point where I KNOW it's not going to be a turning and just have fun
and get some practice...
For me, it's more about the joy of turning than the end result..
Mac

https://home.comcast.net/~mac.davis
https://home.comcast.net/~mac.davis/wood_stuff.htm