Afternoon, all
New member here in Western NC with interests in a few things. Started blacksmithing/knifemaking a couple years ago. I do both forging and stock removal knives. Wont call myself a knifemaker just yet, but making knife-ish objects has been fun. Put a small 10x10 shed on my property as the workshop and then built a lean to 10x10 forge area. Also have a 100 yard shooting range set up there at my work area so I can throw some lead when I need a break.
Recently tore down the lean to and going to put in a 14x22 shed up there and move the rest of my tools up there. In the mean time, I decided I wanted to try my hand at wood turning and so picked up a Nova 2 benchtop lathe about 3 weeks ago with high hopes of turning out nice resin/burl things. Those hopes diminished on my first bowl. I had studied videos and felt confident in my first bowl. Problem is, I started out with East Indian Rosewood for my first project and didnt even have a bowl gouge. I was unknowingly using a roughing gouge (and using it exactly backwards of how it should have been used while wondering why I kept 'catching'). Despite all that the bowl did turn out almost like a bowl and now houses sugar packets at my coffee bar.
After going back to the drawing board and realizing I needed a bowl gouge, I got a Hurricane bowl gouge and tried it again. This time on African Mahogany (was ok to turn), Canary wood (fairly easy) and Black Palm (a nightmare). This was yesterday.
I'm still fighting with the tools, rather than making them work for me and it seems that each time I research, I keep finding this site so I figured I'd sign up.
Been a fun process to learn and looking forward to learning more. Next buys will be a pressure pot and 'other' pot so I can stabilize wood and remove bubbles from resin things. Will do this after my new workshop is put in this Winter. In the meantime, I'll be practicing on turning and finishing up a few knives that I have on the bench. This is all just a hobby for me. I've had several requests to sell knives and I just cant bring myself to do it. Perhaps will be my retirement gig if I ever get decent at it. Till then, will just have fun with it all!
New member here in Western NC with interests in a few things. Started blacksmithing/knifemaking a couple years ago. I do both forging and stock removal knives. Wont call myself a knifemaker just yet, but making knife-ish objects has been fun. Put a small 10x10 shed on my property as the workshop and then built a lean to 10x10 forge area. Also have a 100 yard shooting range set up there at my work area so I can throw some lead when I need a break.
Recently tore down the lean to and going to put in a 14x22 shed up there and move the rest of my tools up there. In the mean time, I decided I wanted to try my hand at wood turning and so picked up a Nova 2 benchtop lathe about 3 weeks ago with high hopes of turning out nice resin/burl things. Those hopes diminished on my first bowl. I had studied videos and felt confident in my first bowl. Problem is, I started out with East Indian Rosewood for my first project and didnt even have a bowl gouge. I was unknowingly using a roughing gouge (and using it exactly backwards of how it should have been used while wondering why I kept 'catching'). Despite all that the bowl did turn out almost like a bowl and now houses sugar packets at my coffee bar.
After going back to the drawing board and realizing I needed a bowl gouge, I got a Hurricane bowl gouge and tried it again. This time on African Mahogany (was ok to turn), Canary wood (fairly easy) and Black Palm (a nightmare). This was yesterday.
I'm still fighting with the tools, rather than making them work for me and it seems that each time I research, I keep finding this site so I figured I'd sign up.
Been a fun process to learn and looking forward to learning more. Next buys will be a pressure pot and 'other' pot so I can stabilize wood and remove bubbles from resin things. Will do this after my new workshop is put in this Winter. In the meantime, I'll be practicing on turning and finishing up a few knives that I have on the bench. This is all just a hobby for me. I've had several requests to sell knives and I just cant bring myself to do it. Perhaps will be my retirement gig if I ever get decent at it. Till then, will just have fun with it all!