One of those days

Don't expect any long posts out of me for a day or so. I had a lathe chisel kick back at me today while turning. Not just any chisel, but the 2lb Sorby hollowing scraper. Hit me right across the knuckles of my left hand. I hit the kill switch on the lathe and turned off the shop dust collector system with my elbow before the pain and swelling started. I was pretty sure I'd broken at least one knuckle, maybe two. But, good news, they're just bruised - and swollen, and turning black and blue and yellow. And I got a pretty good cut on the index finger. No stitches, just a couple of butterflies and a bandaid.

Of course, this is the hand that I already have problems with, and hurts all the time. Of course it is. I'm typing one handed at the moment, so if my typing is even more crappy than usual, you know why. I've got my injured hand wrapped around a cold beer, that seems to be helping.

I heal fast though, and this isn't any big deal. Just the usual shop injury. I just may not feel like typing for a day or two. The management apologizes for any inconvenience this may cause you.

What I did with my day

Just so you don't think I wasted my day, this is what I was up to today. Looks like a pile of firewood doesn't it? But it is really diamonds in the rough. This wood comes from a friend's property in South Central Alaska, it is a stand of genetically unique Baltic (White) Birch. In the cut ends of the large logs on the near end of the wood pile, you can see unique and distinctive heartwood grain figure, which in cross section resembles a rose. This is amazing material, similar in hardness to old growth maple.


If you're not a woodworker it may be hard to visualize these logs as anything other than firewood, so here's a couple of pictures of what it looks like after I've pushed the wood through my shop. The first picture is a pair of heartwood bowls with some of the softwood removed in interesting patterns along the grain line. The exterior of each bowl is textured in curved bas relief, again along the concentric gain lines. Both bowls are finished with walnut oil and coated in a glossy polycrilyc, giving them a glass-like finish. They are not intended to be practical containers, they are art. With a devotional candle (safely inside a candle glass) inserted inside, they radiate yellow light in organic patterns.

And finally, this dish, with filigree carving around the rim, is turned from sapwood (the lighter wood surrounding the heartwood inside of the bark. The filigree is cut with a Foredom tool using a fine carbide rotary bit. Like the bowls above, this one is finished with oil and polycrylic.


See? and you thought I was wasting my retirement. Ha!

Note: you can click on each picture for a larger image. Go on, do it, you know you want to.