Having no formal woodworking training I often find that I am completely out of my depth. While many guys were taking Shop Classes in Jr High & High School, I was taking computer and business courses. I am glad I did as that knowledge has served me very well over the years. So I have set out to learn woodworking from a knowledge point of zero. I have learned a ton over the past few years from sites like this and several books. But in the end there is nothing like formal education.

I first looked at taking a few week long courses at my local Woodcraft Store. Great stuff available, for $1200 a week! I signed up for a few and was planning to take them this summer. But then I remembered Seattle Central Community College a Wooden Boat Building program & some other classes. I looked it up and found they had a complete degree in Cabinet Making and Fine Woodworking!

This past Wednesday I went in for a tour. I was in for a real treat. Not only do they have an amazing program, they are moving into a brand new custom built building this summer! The program itself is 5 quarters or core classes. Longer if I want to get an AA, which I probably will. Class is Mon-Thurs 8-4 so there is a ton of instruction time. But it is also somewhat self paced which is an absolute necessity because of my bad hips, leg, and back.

So I got all signed up to start next fall. Being on disability I have the time to attend classes. Because of the curriculum, I can go to school without breaking my physical restrictions. I am extremely excited to say the least! There are 4-5 main projects that everyone must complete. From what they said most folks finish a quarter or two early and have the remaining time to work on independent projects & learn skills they desire. I got to see quite a few of the projects past students have done. They were all really well done.

So there we go. I finally decided what to do when I grow up! I am going to make find customer furniture, some day…...

It has taken a great amount of experimenting to get to this pint, but I finally have a complete finishing process! I have researched this topic endlessly and it seems that no one wants to part with the secret. So here is what I have come up with. It is bits & pieces taken from blogs, videos, magazines, & books all authored by some of the most famous turners out there.

I will readily admit that the process is over the top & there are redundant steps. Feel free to take what you like from the process and create a process that works for you.

DISCLAIMER

I don’t want this to turn into a discussion on the food safeness of finishes. I feel confident in what I use & have spent enough time & effort to have made a very well educated decision on this. If you only want to use mineral oil, that is completely your prerogative. I really really really don’t care what you choose to use. I am serious I can’t emphasize how very little I care about your opinion on what is food safe. Feel free to Write you own blog on the subject! Some moron will still post a reply about how he has used mineral oil for 157 years without issue. But mineral oil is NOT a finish, it does not dry or harden.

The Process

Power Sand using wave gold paper from Performance Abrasives 80,100,120,150,180,220,320,400,600,800

I then power buff with Abrolon Discs 2,000 & 4,000

For the finish I use 1 of several finishes depending on the wood & the potential use.

BLO for figured maple as it helps the grain pop

Danish Oil for Walnut & cherry that is likely to only hold dry goods like nuts or fruit

Walnut Oil or Salad Bowl Finish for Salad Bowls or serving platters

I apply 4-5 coats of finish with the piece still on the lathe. Burnishing with a paper towel in between each coat. Except when using Salad Bowl finish, it dries to quickly to burnish.

I picked up the Beall System from Wood Tuner’s Catalog, I got the 3” Buffs & the Long Buffing Adapter . I have used the system on 7 bowls so far and really like the outcome. I use all 3 buffs, 1 Red Rouge, 1 white Diamond, & the last coat is Carnuba Wax.

Getting the Carnuba Wax on evenly has been difficult so far. It also really highlights even the smallest amount of tear out left on the bowl. But then again, I am the harshest critic of my work. Even the smallest imperfection drives me nuts. I have made funnels out of more bowls by repeatedly taking 1 Last light cut, or re-sanding to remove that 1 little spot of tear out, all just to get it perfect.

I am also selling my Kreg Setup & a Couple Bowl Gouges, you can see them on eBay!

The fist new Toy/Tool is from this summer. I finally completed adding a TS/LS Incra Router Table and Jig to my Grizzly Table Saw. So far I really like it, at least for the Table Saw. I haven’t really done any Dovetailing with it yet.
I got a great deal on the LS/TS from Ron over at Woodworking Machinery Services>. Ron is my Go To guy for anything from Bandsaw Blades to Replacement Delta Parts, and much much more. If you don’t see it on his website just send him an e-mail and chances are he will have it.

So now my 1st TOOL GLOAT!

I do occasional CL searches for deals on a few different tools. It paid off with a full Festool domino setup for $740 a lady was selling over in Idaho. Total bargain! She said it had only been used twice and from the looks of it I believe her. It’s like new except for a few of the smaller tenons have been used.

But WAIT There’s More!!

An Almost Brands New set of Crown Pro PM Turning Tools!!

The 5 piece set PLUS the 1”, 1/2”, & 1/4” Bowl Gouges all for $275!!
The large roughing gouge is the only one that has any use on it. The 1” Bowl Gouge is a MONSTER and is gonna make quick work of rough out Bowls.

The boards are 4-6 foot long and 4-8 inches wide and it’s all 4/4.

I need to make room in my shop so if you want some send me a PM and let me know.

I am in the Fairwood area of Renton.

YouTube Bowl Video!

Yesterday I realized it wasn’t a cold, it was the Wood!!! When it comes to Wood Mold and Mildew allergies I am a 200 on a scale of 1-10. Yep the guy who’s Dad was a VP at Coleman and grew up Camping every weekend is deathly allergic to the mold and mildew that grows prolifically in every Forrest in the world. Which explains why I was constantly sick as a child.

Here are some pics of what the blanks looked like after I sprayed them down with 409. I don’t know if 409 is the optimum Mold remover but it is what I had on hand so it is what I used. So I sprayed the 409 all over the wood and left it on my driveway. Living in Seattle isn’t going to help any as the Seattle Drizzle has set in for the year.

Any suggestions on preventing this in the future????? I just put armor seal on 6 more blanks. I have them spread out with better ventilation this time. I am hoping it I let them completely dry before stacking them I won’t get the “Petri Dish” Effect. I think the sweet Sap in the Cherry is making it worse. It has attracted the Fruit Flies like mad.

This gave me the opportunity to make my first bowl blanks. I have had about 2 cords in the back 40 (sq feet) for the past 6-9 months. I hadn’t cut any of it up yet, and it was started to wear thin on the wife’s patience.

Now my whole shop reeks of Cheap Black Cherry Soda. The Cherry was cut down in early spring and it is dripping Cherry Extract.

The size has been perfect so far. I have gotten anywhere from 8×8x4 to 12×12x5 bowl blanks.

To begin with I tried using old candle wax to seal the blanks. While it worked great, the mess and headache it caused wasn’t worth it. Yeah, so I shouldn’t have used the wife’s $600 set of Calphalon pans to make a double boiler and melt the wax in. Plus the wax I got all over the counters, floor, and stove, scraped right off, eventually.

The plus was, she didn’t blink and eye when I went out yesterday to buy some Anchor Seal, LOL. Ya know you shrink 1 cashmere sweater and your never allowed in the laundry room again. ;)

So here is two short days work making up blanks. I have a ton more to do but there is no hurry. I am going to keep doing other stuff and slowly work through the logs I have seasoning in the back 40. The nice thing is, there is some nice spalting or something going on in the Sycamore I have had seasoning. It is the lacy white but there are swirls of blue & black starting to develop.

Now I just have to figure out how long it will take for that Black Cherry Extract to dissipate.

So here is the design I think I am going to go with. I made a few different drafts of this and so far this is the best I can come up with. I would put my grinder and Oneway Wolverine system on top of the cabinet. Then I would put my Lathe Tools in the holes around the top for easy access. There are several drawers to store the remaining items. I am not a Pro Sketchup artist so I am sure there are several improvements that can be made to the design. Feel free to make to suggest any changes, just try your best not to be a jerk about it.

I am having some of my bowls professionally photographed on Saturday! I am hoping it is cool enough to turn 2 or 3 more by then….

Attempting to keep some sort of order in the manufacturing process. I have cut most the boards down to 1”- 3” strips anywhere from 2’-4’ long. I then glue like strips together. So far I have 6 of laminated boards. Later on, once I laminated all of my stock, I will begin the crosscutting and re-laminating process. Then all the boards will take a dip in Walnut oil. Then I will buff them out with some wax so they will be nice for show.

Below are some pictures of the stock I have milled. All of this and I haven’t even touched the 300 BF of Madrone I just picked up.

I was really impressed with Joe and his operation. He is a man of few words but knows his stuff and will make you a great deal on local lumber, especially for 100bf or more.

He has Western Big Leaf Straight Lined S2S 4/4 at $1.89bf with a 100bf minimum. Or you can go real low with rough cut 4/4 stock at $1.25 bf. If you are looking for bulk lumber and have a jointer & planer the price can’t be beat.

But I wasn’t looking for Maple, I already have enough Maple. I was after some Madrone for my cutting boards & Boy did I make out like a bandit. He had been sitting on over 300bf of ugly Madrone shorts for quite some time. It is beautiful wood but there wasn’t a lot of long clear boards. But hey I need it for End grain Cutting boards so I really only need 2 or 3 feet of clear wood at a time and only up to 3.25 inches wide. The coloring is great, from a cream to a some great reds. Should make some nice boards.

The Gloat is the deal I got on it. Ended up getting the entire lot for $250!!!

While I was there I brought up the topic of Black Locust. Boy was that a good move. He brought out a pallet of 18 foot long slabs, all try and ready for use. I bought one on the spot without even a thought of what kind of deal I was getting. It cost me $100, I am not sure that is a very good deal but I know it is going to make a couple of beautiful tables! I think, really not exactly sure what to do with these beauties! I am looking for ideas.

Here are a couple shots of 1/4 of the slab that I ran through the drum sander.

Here is a shot of the rest of the slab. Oh and my completely organized shelves can be seen in the background.

In the beginning I tried to get it done on the cheap with a mixture of Shopsmith & Harbor Freight Tools. After 6 months of “practicing” the craft I realized that there is no match for a few good quality, accurate tools. Now I am sure that many people with far more skill and experience than I can create wonderful projects using a cheap assortment of tools. But there are trade offs. For instance, if you want to buy cheap S2S hardwood it is going to be difficult without a jointer. Not that Harbor Freight is all bad, I have used their 5” ROS almost daily for the past year and it is wonderful!

But no amount of ROS Sanding is going to do what a 18/36 Drum Sander can do in a few minutes.

Here is a picture of part of the Cutting Board that Broke the Camels Back. It looks much better than it used to but it was clear that I couldn’t do what I wanted to do with crappy tools.

It was that and my crappy HF Lathe with the randomly self adjusting Tool Rest that sent me off on my mission.

Now when I screw up a Bowl it is all on me. The first bowl was cracked when I brought the tool tip up before I pulled it fully out. Luckily I wear a face shield cause it bounced off the bowl onto the tool rest and bonked me in the face shield. The smaller bowl was the result of a brain fart, I had completely hollowed out the bowl then thought I would make a quick shearing cut on the rim. Without any of the core to support it the bowl cracked like an egg. I can live with mistakes I make. I have a display of some of the finest wood “funnels” you will ever find!

One thing I have learned from all of my mistakes is that a little (LOT) of CA can cure some pretty bone head moves!

But when it all comes together right, there is nothing as fine. I just found out I will have prime location as the only woodworker at a 2 Day Christmas Bazaar that draws over 3,000 visitors. Between that and several other selling opportunities I will have this fall I figure I will need a huge inventory of products. The “plan” is to have 200 cutting boards, 50 Salad Bowls, 500 bookmarks, and numerous other “trinkets”. I have already started the cutting boards. The first “Test” Batch is complete and I am sending them to friends to test them out. I used Doctors Woodshop Walnut Oil & Wax finish. It looks fabulous before it is used, but I need to know how it holds up under heavy use.

This past weekend I was reminded of the lifetime of use my products may get. In 1977 my dad moved the family out to Redmond Washington from Wichita Kansas. He moved us to take a position at O’Brien Water Skis. The next Christmas he brought home several cutting boards the “Guys in the Factory” put together for all the employees. I was 5 at the time and don’t remember what they looked like when he got them. But my parents weren’t big on caring for their wood kitchen wear. So as long as I can remember they have been a pale gray, and getting paler and grayer by the day. So last week I was over visiting and my dad pulled them out and asked if I could bring them “back to life”. I wish I had taken a before picture because the after pictures are spectacular!! In all it took me less than an hour of working time and the dull gray, scratched up boards were turned into these beautiful boards!!!

I finally got the cutter head today and it looks all dreamy and hopefully far less trouble than HSS knives. The HSS knives are getting towards dull after running a couple hundred BF of Ash & Maple over them. Now I don’t have to worry about sharpening them or getting them inserted all perfect like. I do enough sharpening of bowl gouges I don’t need to mess around with Jointer Knives.

I would love to make fire bricks for the local Boy Scout Troop but have no clue how to do that. Maybe a mixture of gasoline, orange juice, and wood shavings would make something interesting ;)

So what do you do with your wood shavings/dust collectionings??

Alright so here we go!

After finally getting my Shop up and running it is time to see if I can pay for my hobby by selling the stuff I make.

I have registered the website and have purchased a basic commerce site template from GoDaddy.com. If things go well my neighbor is going to build me a kick ass website. He is just finishing up his degree in Digital Media and is building his portfolio. Will end up being a…... Yep Win-Win. He also has a full photo studio setup and has offered to photograph all my projects.

So next thing I need is some inventory to fill up my website. To start with this site is going to be a place for locals to see my products and select the product they want. I have access to a large group of affluent clientel and really just need a place for them to go to and pick out what they want. This will also give me a place to capture their contact information for my newsletter.

First products are going to be Cutting Boards and Utilitarian Bowls. They are both low cost and extremely popular items. I constantly have people asking me to purchase both but haven’t had the inventory to keep up with the demand. But that is about to change!

I purchased a bunch of rough Hard Maple last summer and still had 30 bf left. I hit my local hardwood supplier last week and picked up 12 bf each of walnut, Jatoba, & Purple Heart.

Today I finished up the 5 cutting boards I have been working on and finally got a chance to start preparing the stock for my next batch. I am not sure how many cutting boards I will get out of 60 BF of lumber but I am guessing it’s more than 5. The Maple sucks though, I will probably only get between 70%-80% usable wood out of it.

He he he I got to go to town on my Olicer 8” Jointer! I decided to use the HSS knives for this project to save wear on my brand new Helix head cutter that will be arriving within a few days. Found a steal on eBay and got the Shelix cutter head for only $175 brand new!!! Factory price is $340 so I made out like a bandit!

Here are some picture of what my shop looks like now. The boards standing on end are Ash & Poplar for a Bookcase and Blanket chest I am also building.

Here is view of just the cutting board wood, they are cut into 3 foot lengths

I also unloaded some more wood for turning. So far I have Ash, Sycamore, Walnut, Cheery, Maple, and Oak logs drying out in the yard. My lovely wife absolutely loves that she has lost her garage and her back yard is now storage for random logs! This is only a portion of what I have gathered over the past few months. I gave away two full size truckloads to a family we know that needs to heat their home next winter far more than I need to make bowls. 90% of firewood around here is fir so two truckloads of hardwoods is a real treat.

There is half an Ash tree off to the left but not in the picture.

And finally a picture of Grady, our Boston Terrier. He is always prepared for game of chase to break out. He didn’t like that I took the picture instead of playing with him. He gets annoyed if anyone does anything other than giving him some love!

Thanks for checking out my Blog. I hope some of you will be able to follow along with my progress!

Chris

www.chris-crafts.com Coming Soon to an Interweb near you!!!!