Musing while staring at my clunk of the day: People keep asking to see
my keeper bowls (afters), but I just keep on turning discards (befores).
I try to deny or justify my clunks by including them in my 'Shabby Chic
Series' as they pile up on my shop shelves. I don't need helpful
critique, I need solace and the taste of vanilla. Bet I could get it too
if I could only post a pic to one of the upper class picture groups.

It wouldn't matter that my bowls have feet 7/8's the size of the top and
are festooned with screw holes; that the walls are straight and thick
and the widest diameter is exactly half way up the sides; that the rims
vary in width and slant down and out; that the inside bears no relation
to the outside, and is scalloped with rough spots at the opposing end
grain with a dome in dead center. Like I said, none of that really
matters. Forms with Golden ratios as found on fine hog troughs bedamned.
Somebody would surely brag on my bowl, and I'd be glad of it and quite
proud too.

My bowls are sanded to 60 grit and are burnished til the fibers lie as
flat as a cornfield in a hurricane. They are covered with enough coats
of hi-gloss varnish for the ugly glow of the grain to disappear, and the
surface to shine with all the lovely patina of fine old plastic. Yes
indeed, I would look forward to certain accolades.

Each bowl in my shabby chic series sports machined carvings of buzzards
roosting in kudzu. All done in pleasingly garish colors. Although the
art isn't as fine, they superficially look a little like Wal Mart's
Spring collection of ceramic ash trays. If I only could post a pic,
surely praise and thanksgiving would come my way, and I wouldn't care if
it was a knee-kick response.

Drats! I forgot, there will be no Nirvana in my shop. Even if I did have
a digital camera, Web-Tv wouldn't recognize it, so I'm doomed to slog on
with my series.

Guess I'll stay with this tacky narrative newsgroup and forgo the joys
of my work being "really liked". Maybe I'll upgrade to a pic-group next
week, but don't get your hopes up. Arch

p.s. To pic-group friends who cross-lurk, I'm just kidding. I do enjoy
the pictures.

Fortiter,

Well said, SWMBO won't let me though any discards out either.


Arch wrote:
Musing while staring at my clunk of the day: People keep asking to see
my keeper bowls (afters), but I just keep on turning discards (befores).
I try to deny or justify my clunks by including them in my 'Shabby Chic
Series' as they pile up on my shop shelves. I don't need helpful
critique, I need solace and the taste of vanilla. Bet I could get it too
if I could only post a pic to one of the upper class picture groups.

It wouldn't matter that my bowls have feet 7/8's the size of the top and
are festooned with screw holes; that the walls are straight and thick
and the widest diameter is exactly half way up the sides; that the rims
vary in width and slant down and out; that the inside bears no relation
to the outside, and is scalloped with rough spots at the opposing end
grain with a dome in dead center. Like I said, none of that really
matters. Forms with Golden ratios as found on fine hog troughs bedamned.
Somebody would surely brag on my bowl, and I'd be glad of it and quite
proud too.

My bowls are sanded to 60 grit and are burnished til the fibers lie as
flat as a cornfield in a hurricane. They are covered with enough coats
of hi-gloss varnish for the ugly glow of the grain to disappear, and the
surface to shine with all the lovely patina of fine old plastic. Yes
indeed, I would look forward to certain accolades.

Each bowl in my shabby chic series sports machined carvings of buzzards
roosting in kudzu. All done in pleasingly garish colors. Although the
art isn't as fine, they superficially look a little like Wal Mart's
Spring collection of ceramic ash trays. If I only could post a pic,
surely praise and thanksgiving would come my way, and I wouldn't care if
it was a knee-kick response.

Drats! I forgot, there will be no Nirvana in my shop. Even if I did have
a digital camera, Web-Tv wouldn't recognize it, so I'm doomed to slog on
with my series.

Guess I'll stay with this tacky narrative newsgroup and forgo the joys
of my work being "really liked". Maybe I'll upgrade to a pic-group next
week, but don't get your hopes up. Arch

p.s. To pic-group friends who cross-lurk, I'm just kidding. I do enjoy
the pictures.

Fortiter,

For best results from sanding - start sanding at 120 or 180, then go to 220,
320 and 400 - you will be amazed at the difference! Starting at 60 does 2
things - changes the form that you made and puts a whole lot of scratches in
the surface that will take you longer to get out than if you started at a
higher grit. Just my humble opinion...

Ray



"--Shiva--" wrote in message
...
I am in the process of making 16 small salad bowls right now out
of soft maple..
inch and 3/4 tall, tad over 6" across, tapered sides (30
degree?)
are they all alike? no.. is SWMBO happy with them? YES...
start sanding at 60- quit sat 220.. or 150-depending on how
smooth the grain is with the 60... gotta LOVE soft maple..



ALSO, a mini gloat....

place was a commercial manufacturing plant- did 'knick knack'
type things.. and got out of that part of the business, and was
selling off odd lots of cut wood...

I bought some soft maple, S4S, 7/8 by 1.5 by 19" sized
I think I am going to make LOTS of things...
bought almost 2,000 pieces.. figures out to about 8 cents a
board foot

--Shiva--

Arch

I have been to the pic group - it is often better when we use our
imagination!
Although I like to look at pictures - too!
Ray


"Arch" wrote in message
...
Musing while staring at my clunk of the day: People keep asking to see
my keeper bowls (afters), but I just keep on turning discards (befores).
I try to deny or justify my clunks by including them in my 'Shabby Chic
Series' as they pile up on my shop shelves. I don't need helpful
critique, I need solace and the taste of vanilla. Bet I could get it too
if I could only post a pic to one of the upper class picture groups.

It wouldn't matter that my bowls have feet 7/8's the size of the top and
are festooned with screw holes; that the walls are straight and thick
and the widest diameter is exactly half way up the sides; that the rims
vary in width and slant down and out; that the inside bears no relation
to the outside, and is scalloped with rough spots at the opposing end
grain with a dome in dead center. Like I said, none of that really
matters. Forms with Golden ratios as found on fine hog troughs bedamned.
Somebody would surely brag on my bowl, and I'd be glad of it and quite
proud too.

My bowls are sanded to 60 grit and are burnished til the fibers lie as
flat as a cornfield in a hurricane. They are covered with enough coats
of hi-gloss varnish for the ugly glow of the grain to disappear, and the
surface to shine with all the lovely patina of fine old plastic. Yes
indeed, I would look forward to certain accolades.

Each bowl in my shabby chic series sports machined carvings of buzzards
roosting in kudzu. All done in pleasingly garish colors. Although the
art isn't as fine, they superficially look a little like Wal Mart's
Spring collection of ceramic ash trays. If I only could post a pic,
surely praise and thanksgiving would come my way, and I wouldn't care if
it was a knee-kick response.

Drats! I forgot, there will be no Nirvana in my shop. Even if I did have
a digital camera, Web-Tv wouldn't recognize it, so I'm doomed to slog on
with my series.

Guess I'll stay with this tacky narrative newsgroup and forgo the joys
of my work being "really liked". Maybe I'll upgrade to a pic-group next
week, but don't get your hopes up. Arch

p.s. To pic-group friends who cross-lurk, I'm just kidding. I do enjoy
the pictures.

Fortiter,

Try sanding with a flex shaft. You rest the hand on the toolrest, touch the
hard-back sandpaper to the piece as it rotates, and nothing gets sanded out
of round.

Good observation about coarser grits actually taking more time overall than
starting with a finer grit. It's also species-dependant, with softer woods
cleaning up faster because they've not hardened by heating with the finer
grit you're using to get out those coarse marks.

Since I use the method I do, I am able to vary the angle of sanding in a way
that makes things go faster. For initial sanding on any grit, I sand from
10:30-1:30 on the disk, so that the action is across the grain. I then
change to 8:00-10:00 to minimize those scratches before the next finer grit,
which initially goes across the scratches, of course.

"Ray Sandusky" wrote in message
...
For best results from sanding - start sanding at 120 or 180, then go to
220,
320 and 400 - you will be amazed at the difference! Starting at 60 does 2
things - changes the form that you made and puts a whole lot of scratches
in
the surface that will take you longer to get out than if you started at a
higher grit. Just my humble opinion...