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For my first try at seeing if I should keep on with my wants or shuck the whole idea I downloaded this picture and enlarged it to be about 10 inches across... owning no carving knives since my knuckles won't take that kind of pressure I decided to order a few bits for the Dremel I acquired in 1992 after my son died...He had used it to work on his model train scenery so I figured it still had a few miles left. I glued the pattern on the wood and started what I realized almost in the first day , this was for me. A few reasons, carving don't take a lot of wood or supplies. And a person can sit while grinding away so this would be better on my bad back. You can see I left the pattern on and started grinding away at the wood...Something I realized right away, now one will know when and if I make mistakes like when a person makes a picture frame and the miter joints don't match up!! My kind of carving does need a scroll saw which I already had so my carving business started of with a bang.. not a profitable one, pleasurable might be the right word. I did finish this first carving and maw said thats good to go....I never could understand that lady..

This will be my next commissioned piece. Due to uncontrollable circumstances, a gal and her family were raised by their grandparents. She took a picture of the house they were raised in and had it transferred onto canvas. This plaque will hang below the canvas picture of the house they were raised in. I asked she take a picture of it once it is in place - I will share when I get it.

next will be my kind of carving also my favorite kind of woodworking. This is parts of three different patterns to come up with this size thingy.... Just finished scroll sawing the outside of this pattern. Its 1 1/2" maple and it sure does strain the saw. I think I will be inserting a few names somewhere in or on it.

In 2018 our church choir made a pilgrimage to Italy and actually had to opportunity to sing at a Papal Mass (means attended by the Pope). We also sang at several other basilicas and even held a concert for the people of Rome. It was a most rewarding experience. While there, we had several professional pictures taken, but they were kind of a weird size and my wife and I could not find an appropriate frame to display these pictures - so I decided to make one myself out of a slab of Buckeye I had, incorporating my chip-carving. Here is the start - pretty much cut to size, just playing with what I will carve into the face of the frame:

Here is the start of a simple little project. Seems they had an Anger Management course at work for the Supervisors. Well, from what I hear the instructor made mention that if you get angry, rather than saying you PI$$ED me off, you should say - you tinkled me off. Well I guess one of the Supervisors laughed so hard she almost wet herself - she continued for like 15 minutes laughing hysterically. Her staff asked me if I could carve a simple sign for her office that said: "you tinkled me off". I needed to do just a tad more than that - so I designed this simple plaque and started carving. Thought I would share

Here is one of my relief carvings. The pattern was graciously given to me by a carver in Canada. It is the first relief carving I did. The pattern is a station of the cross "when Jesus meets His Mother".

Doing nothing this morning I thought I would compare Amazon and Wood Carvers Supply with the same 1/8"bits I use all the time since Woodcarvers supply has the original numbers beside their numbers in their catalog.. These pictured on the left side of the page are the ones I use most ll the time... the 1/4" bits are too big for getting into tight places but some are okay for starting the process. I think I ordered these in the middle of 2015 so they have lasted through all my clocks and still look like new once I get them out of the bottle of lacquer thinner and clean them up with a real fine bristle brush.. The second set of numbers and letters are the ones Amazon uses like the T-18D and T-14D and you have to be careful for they also have other numbers and letters added here and there so the prices will vary up so be aware . These pictures here are of a light grey with no color added. I did order more different kinds but only use the 4 numbers circled so I spent money on some not necessary in my carving... When looking at Amazon they do have the second set of numbers but not all the bits are available for sale. The number RS-34E is listed for 25.50 at Amazon where Woodworkers Supply has it for 14.50. I had to keep looking for Amazon has lots of identifying letters and numbers close with all kinds of prices so be aware. Some of their items are fine grit where all these woodworkers supply numbers are course grit.. Some of the exact number bits are the same price as each supplier but if there is any difference, Amazon is higher. The machined cut carbide bits are good for some places but the real course models will dig fox holes before you can blink your eyes.. so change out the bits before a screw up can't be repaired. The finer cut models will make a smoother surface on the wood than the nugget type bits. These Saburr and also Nugget brand are long lasting and clean up good. When first starting I like to use the 2" Carbide Nugget brand wheel which has to use a 1/4" shaft so I have to switch to my air tools for the first wood removal.. This is on page # 3 of the Woodworkers Supply catalog. I just mentioned this because anytime I go to Amazon I just assume their prices will be cheaper than anyone else but that's not the case when comparing these exact items!!!

Here are the walking sticks I completed for my wife and I. Hers has a queen topper, I have a king!

I was approached by a gal at work asking if I could make a custom cane for her father who needs to use one, but refuses to. I gathered some information from her about her father: 1) he was an avid cb'er - handle was night hawk 747 2) he loves fishing 3) he is a man of God (a minister) 4) his name is Sam 5) his favorite bible verse is Philippians 4:16, and..... 6) he loves the "fish" symbol With that information I proceeded to layout a customized cane for Minister Sam i am extremely glad to hear he refuses to leave home without it and he is excited that the cane initiates many conversation providing him the opportunity to preach the Word of God. Some of the pictures are before the cleanup after staining. I lightly sand the piece to cleanup the areas where the stain got onto the surface.

I have just about filled up both sides of mt practice block. I can see some progress but not doing anything I'd be willing to put my name on just yet. This is one of my early efforts. I had done maybe 10 sets by this time. Still pretty rough. This one is a iittle better and to my eye I can see some progress. Did this one just this evening. I would guess by now I've done at least 500 of these three corner chip cutouts. This is the best one so far. It's funny, I'll do one and think, "that's pretty good". Then, I do a few more and look at them as a unit and wonder, what was I looking at? There is so much junk and rough cuts. Getting better I think but still a long way to go. Steve

Been planning on more Ringmaster bowls since DIL sold one. Steve inspired me to do some carving and burning . Has been maybe three years since doing a RM bowl so had to relearn some. When cutting the first ring it is waste so not worried if it stayed in one piece. So in cutting the first ring on two large bowls it broke and one hit the deflector and then bounced on my forehead. So i put my face shield on (open top) and the first one on next bowl broke and dangedif it didn’t hit the top of my head.

Another Wednesday! One of our new members, @brianpoundingnails posted pictures of a shop made lathe he built. His "machine" is multipurpose and made for creating log furniture. Check out Brian's post and see all the functions of this marvelous machine- @Gerald has been busy turning some hollow forms. The wood was from a neighbors tree. Gerald posted more about the wood and the turnings here- @Ron Altier Has been turning more ornaments! This first one caused him to have an allergic reaction but that didn't stop him from finishing this little beauty. More about the ornament in Ron's post- Ron kept them coming with this awesome piece- More about this one- And finally, Ron finished up this gorgeous piece- His description here- @PostalTom asked our members how they stored their turning tools. He received lots of feedback and ideas. Head on over to his post and give him your ideas and suggestions. As turners, we are always looking for ideas on how to make our pieces unique. Shapes, wood species, mixed media and finishes. @Steve Krumanaker posted a topic on chip carving. He plans to use this technique to add detail to some of his turnings. He received lots of encouragement on his new endeavor. Please check out his post and offer any suggestions you may have. Another way to make a unique turning- I picked this up off of a Facebook woodturning page. This is part one of the video and part two is linked from the Youtube site. I'm not sure how robust this finish will be but it sure is interesting. Ruth Niles has added a new item to her stainless steel products. If you are looking for a gift for that discriminating espresso drinker, check out Ruth's new coffee tamper. https://nilesbottlestoppers.com/ I spent the day redesigning a jig I use to turn rolling pins. I replaced the high speed steel cutter with a Ci5 cutter from Easy Wood Tools. Now I need to make up some rolling pin blanks. The stock is getting low. I have a bunch of those flame box elder blanks cut and must get to turning them. Safe turning

This does not seem to be my week to get done with anything so here are some pics of the current pop . this is what it is supposed to be. I had figured on one large blade and my son says there are two soooo ok. this is the progress so far. The blades will be mounted at about a 30 degree angle to each other so added some heft for that. The wood is mahogany.

Now I want to draw out something small to carve around the edges or not? Got to keep it in prospective... what ever that means. This is new and different to me so the brain feelers are out there? Fred, a regular scroll saw can't do this so the reason for the cnc in front of it.

Introduction Our very own Patriot Woodworker John Mordus, or better known in our circles as @honesttjohn, is an artist on CNC (computer numerical control) woodworking. John was one of the first CNC woodworkers to join our community and helped crowd our new CNC forums. One of John's favorite creations he performs on his CNC machine are the military plaques he enjoys carving. You can see his CNC gallery featuring these very plaques here at: John's Contribution John contacted us and asked us if we could use any of his work to benefit our current project for our Gold Star Widow Nicole Merlo. As you all know we are in the midst of raising funds for the Merlo Family. The carvings below are for sale. All the proceeds from the sale of these items will be used to purchase their Christmas meal for the family, which is a stipulation of our project as assigned to us by Operation Ward 57. Yes I know, 200 dollars is a good fair amount for a Christmas meal, but let's hope the Merlo Family will have a Christmas meal they will never forget! Perhaps they'll invite some friends over, perhaps they'll go a Prime Rib route in addition to the traditional Turkey and Ham. Whatever they decide to do, it will be memorable, and they can shop without worry for their memorable Christmas meal as provided by you, The Patriot Woodworker's. Each plaque has approximately 10 hours of glue up and carving labor into them. These are American Crafts of high quality and workmanship. (shipping will be paid by the TPW community, so that all 200 dollars will reach the Merlo Family) How to purchase Please leave a reply to this topic here if you wish to purchase one or both of these beautiful carvings. Keep in mind, these are also displayed throughout our Merlo Family project portals such as Facebook and Twitter, we reserve the right to sell these carvings outside of our Patriot Woodworker community, all here will be notified immediately if one or both carvings sell outside of our community before they sell here. In Closing We want to thank everyone who has contributed to this project with your raffle ticket purchases, your "getting out the word campaigns", just being here, and all your best wishes for the success of this years Christmas project. And we want to thank John Mordus for his material contribution to the project. You all have come through wonderfully this year, nothing more can be asked of you all, we have some big donors of treasure through our raffle, and we have had some very important smaller donors through our raffle, because even though they don't have much for themselves, they still managed to come up with a few extra dollars to help make a difference in a Gold Star widows Christmas. All contributions hold equal weight, we have all given what we can, and most importantly, it was all done with heart. We truly have the greatest and smallest woodworking community in the cyber world. After all, we are: The Few, The Proud, The Patriot Woodworkers! Thank you Patriot Woodworkers!

This is an amazing piece of equipment but, I'm easily impressed. http://lumberjocks.com/mikeacg/blog/103346

I get to this show every few years, and it's everything they say it is. And now we've both moved and it's about 7 miles away instead of 70. If you're anywhere nearby, don't miss it. It's a lot of carvers, and the rest are turners, woodworkers of all sorts and vendors. I'll be there Sunday. http://daytoncarvers.com/artistryinwood.html P.S. Yesterday I sat in on some taping of Popular Woodworking's I Can Do That video series. Had a great time as "the studio audience" and talking to Chad Stanton and David Thiel who's been with PopWood for years. </drive by gloat>

Long and detailed. Another reference: Wille Sundqvist's "Swedish Woodcarving." I've made a few spoons from his plan. (sorry, it's in facebook) https://www.facebook.com/popularwoodworking/videos/10154730471291433/ and a shorter version with Peter Follansbee (also a student of Wille) http://www.pbs.org/video/the-woodwrights-shop-carving-swedish-spoons-with-peter-follansnbee/

My wife has a co-worker who had the bright idea to have a family tree carved for his 80 yr old father's birthday. So she volunteered me to do it, without asking, I might add. Only it had to be designed, cut, finished, and shipped to OK in less than a week. I did the first design and cut, didn't like it, so I did a second tree with the names carved in it and didn't like the way the text painted. Didn't look good, especially for a special gift. The tree actually had too much detail in it and the carved text just didn't work. If it doesn't look right, it doesn't get past the fire pit. I had to go a different direction but it involved a whole new design file with different platform depths (thanx MEBCWD for the idea) which would take more time that I didn't have. So, on to plan C. Cut it Suday morning, managed to go to a social function (she had it planned for weeks - had to go) Sunday afternoon, finished the text and profile cut when we got back home Sunday nite (late - but didn't plan to stay that long ........ riiiiight), painted the text with acrylic, let it dry, sanded it all out, and used spray lacquer (4 coats) since poly took too long to dry between coats. Had it ready for her to take in Monday morning. She said he was satisfied and understood why the other one didn't work. I think I paid to do this one, but ........... I learned a few things, including how catnaps on the couch don't take the place of sleeping in one's own bed. The tree was the same one I tried to carve and finish names in, only about 4 times bigger.

Just a great tip, for you woodcarvers.

Where it was This topic is long over due, my family and I went to the San Diego County Fair this past July 2nd as we do most every year, and we had a blast. Like any county fair, it is chock full of rides, summer crowds, farm animals, monster truck races, and huge portions of the deep fried and barbecued food. It was a neat time. The San Diego County Fair, formerly known as the Del Mar Fair, is held each summer the three weeks leading up to the 4th of July, then on the 4th of July, they have a grand finale fireworks show. The fair grounds is less than a half mile from the ocean, so we get the wonderful ocean breeze all day and into the night, when it actually chills down a bit to a refreshing summer night. We rolled in around 10 am and we left the fair grounds an hour before sunset. We had planned on having a light lunch at the fair, wife and I split a sausage sandwich, and the kids shared some food too. Our plan was to have dinner after our day at the fair, at some place reasonable in cost. The fair food is expensive! And we did, after the fair, we ended up at Fletcher Cove, and we hit the Subway Sandwich shop and took our sandwiches to go, to the beach, and sat and ate and watched the sun go down. It was a perfect way to end the day, and it was a perfect fresh meal to counteract the grease we ate earlier at the fair. Me and Mrs. Morris end of day after the fair, our kids took this image, pretty cool, the evening was beautiful. At the fair Of course among all the other activities that go on at the fair, there is one exhibit that I look forward too, each year Fine Woodworkers Association Design in Wood Exhibition features local woodworkers and their work in one big building. Each year I am in awe of everything that is there. The work is inspiring, humbling, and just flat out fun to see. I'll post the images here, without explanation, and I'll let you all come up with your own captions in your own head. The following images are a fraction of the work that was actually there, I tried to get an overall collection of images with you all in my mind, I wanted there to be something for everyone here. Have fun! The following images is from a separate exhibit of wood work by local high school students and the Palomar School of Woodworking. And what fair is complete without the Monster Truck and Pee Wee races! Hope ya had fun looking at our fair pictures!

It's is a replica of the famous Chinese painting "Along The River During The Quinming Festival" created by artist Zhang Zeduan during the Song Dynasty..