The real facebook was the cats and toast we made along the way?
Ever do something which you know is going to end up failing because it's a unique opportunity to test said failure conditions?
I got a little carried away when I was doodling an outline which would fit the chunk of pine I had handy, had the right grain direction, and avoided a couple of knots/screw holes, and I'm way too fast at cutting the fuckers out to notice I should have left some more material in front of the little shoulder horn. When I was rasping and filing the shape some it hit me that I couldn't let someone else use this one because I can torque the front where the spine should push and just barely hear it starting to crack which I usually can't do with even the more delicate handles I make.
As is, I almost reflexively avoid the sort of motions which would cause those cracks to spread so now I'm going to use this as my regular light saw and see how long it holds up despite the known flaw/stress point.
Kinda sucks because I was finally able to get it cleaned up and ready for finish without sanding, just coarse rasp > medium file > custom made scrapers > big card scraper on the sides. I did buff it with a piece of 800 grit on a dowel because it puts a really pretty sheen on the open texture left by the scrapers and helps highlight any problem areas I hadn't noticed while scraping.
Still, a slight change to the angles between the head and neck will keep the neat proportions without sacrificing durability.
That little change in alignment isn't fatal if you're careful how you push the teeth into your workpiece unless you catch a knot or something, so I'm kinda trying to see if the less direct stresses end up being more detrimental than I expect them to be.
All in all I'm down to about an hour of actual cutting/shaping/cleaning up time unless I get carried away playing with the scrapers or something.
It's fun hearing the little vsssshhhhhhffffffff and watching what looks like dust fly into the air before it starts to flutter down because it's actually tiny little wispy curls of wood shavings.
Sanding is a chore... scraping is almost like a game, trying to get all your little scuffs and file marks sliced off cleanly, switching the scraper around on curves so the different grain directions meet smoothly without tearing, and now and then noticing a perfect little spiral floating down to land on your bench and roll away.
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Topic: [MILK] There were 12 eggs here what did you do with them? (Happy thread?!) (Read 16307622 times)