Member postings for Toothy

Derek it is surprising what lurks under a layer or two of paint.

Hi Derek,

Yes and No. The workroom has and is slowly reverting to a store room

I have carved a few minor items and am now trying to carve bone. This is very different to carving wood as most of the "cutting" is done with a scraper. Scrapers are sharpened at +-80 - 85 degs.

I'll post a photo or two later.

Derek you have done this exactly as I used to work (paid salary) and try to follow every day.

Look always to see how an imperfect job can be turned around into something better/equally good/different. As a dentist (in the times of steam) every job didn't go well but from the patient's point of view they always HAD to be perfect. If you have flu catchup on your reading, if you have a broken leg do something seated etc.

I prefer the 'rescued' piece

Hi Brian. I agree with Derek and your wife. Thankfully we don't all like the same things. It does really look good though. I may even sign on again later to see the follow ups.

Toothy

Hi All, Its about 2yrs since I was last on line and didn't know about this festival.

As I live about 5hrs drive away (500km) I might just have decided to attend.

Toothy

Hi Guys, Having decide that we need to downsize, I have started getting rid of between 33 and 43 yrs worth of magazines. These include Practical Woodworking, TWW, Various DIY mags, 4 x professional journals, 2x Homemakers mags and a birding mag. Still to come a local Geographic mag and National Geographic from the '70s until 2011. Carving and Wildfowl Carving have been reprieved for now

A local school will get the NG mags the rest have gone to recycling.

If I had been in the UK I know most could have found new homes.

Hi John

The best and usually cheap too is orange oil. Get from a pharmacy etc

Hi Derek

A very nice name plate.

Lettering is realy neat, soon you will be able to start a new profession as a sign writer

Toothy

Good advice given here

A friend recently bought a Stanley (UK made) block plane and it took nearly 4 hrs of fettling to make decently usable

Ron I still use my grandads bailey No 4 - probably well over 70yrs by now. He died when I was born and my late dad inherited it and now I have it.

Hi Richard

I too have not had Firefox crash on me but then IE didn't either. IE is seldom used since I got Firefox.

Very nice box. Hope the flies like it

Edited By Toothy on 10/03/2012 15:01:14

Hi Derek

This is a great website. I have Tom's book and can reccomend it highly. One wont go wrong following his teaching. As to the hand tools used, the following is a selection:

Since these were taken the collection has grown. My latest is a 60deg V of 2mm width. Sorry no photo yet.

Edited By Toothy on 20/02/2012 12:57:37

Hi

How to make sanding drums/points for use in a Dremel or similar minigrinder. I have a chuck fitted to my Dremel to allow the use of non standard diameter shafts.

Drum Sander.

Materials needed for the drum sander: 3 / 3.2mm shaft 50mm long; dowel 19mm diam x 15mm long; emery cloth +- 47mm x 15mm; adhesive

Drums: 3M foambacked abrasive pads (medium, fine & superfine); contact adhesive

Method: use a good dose of common sense and follow these abbreviated steps.

Mandrel

1. Fit shaft to the centre of the dowel
2. Turn dowel down to barrel shape. 15mm in middle and 14mm at ends.
3. Glue emery cloth to dowel to complete the mandrel.

Drums

1. Mark the sheet of abrasive into 45 x 15mm strips
2. Cut the strips and keep same grade together
3. Glue the ends of the strips to form a drum 15mm long and circumference 45mm. don’t be stingy with the glue, the foam absorbs it and a poor joint at 5000 rpm can give a nasty surprise.

Note: I turned my mandrel using the pillar drill and a file. My shaft (3mm welding rod) is epoxied into the dowel. The emery cloth is glued on with contact adhesive. Don’t use at speeds above 10 000 rpm or the drum may come off due to centrifugal forces, 5 000 rpm is quite sufficient.

Sanding points.

Use the same principles as above

Shaft: 1: plastic shaft from an earbud or round tooth pick, 2: bamboo from kebab skewer.

Abrasive: use a cloth backed abrasive e.g. J weight. Finer grades work best.

Notes: Using a wood or plastic shaft allows one to cut off the worn out end. Coarse grades wear out too quickly to be of any use.

Other photos in the album

enjoy

Hi Derek

I use a variety of tools for these small carvings. As retired dentist my starting point is a rotary bit of one or other sort. Dental burs, dental lab acrylic trimmers, Karbide Kutzalls and other (Chinese ?) bits. These are used for roughing out right the way through to fine detailing. A selection of hand tools are also used - these I make myself as they are not available to buy anywhere. The steel used for these is O1 tool steel (DO1 in the UK). I shall post a short summary later on these - shapes and sizes etc. if anyone is interested. I also make my own sanding drums for use with the Dremel. These vary in diameter from +- 2 mm - 12mm. Apart from the above, holes are drilled with a cordless drill, cutting out is done with a bandsaw ( the scrollsaw actually works better).

The whole carving can be done with hand tools including the "furring" (for which I made a 2mm V tool but tha'ts another story) but preferred the Dremel.

The eyes, amber seed beads,  were turned using the cordless drill and a diamond sharpening stone having been fused with a pencil torch onto a piece of thin wire .

If you would like i'll see if I can post picture of the sort of tools used.

Edited By Toothy on 18/02/2012 16:32:43

Thanks Derek, glad you like my effort

Hi Derek

Don't know how to put photos into the thread

Photos are in the album "amber-eyed-netsuke"

Enjoy

Recently I read a book called "The Hare with Amber Eyes" and this prompted me to carve my own amber eyed hare. The book is well worth reading especially for those who might have forgotten what WW2 was all about.

The series of photos was taken over Dec'11 to Feb'12.

The wood used is KAMMASSI or Knysna Box,

Eyes are amber seed beads fused to wire anchors,

Finish is sanding sealer with the first coat stained,

Sizse L: 70mm; H: 46mm; W:30.

NB: the Himotoshi (holes) for the cord and my insignia on underside.