Somethings not right here. Are we at a point where the most economical source of wood is to tear a finished table apart? I’m serious. I saw a Teak carving that was out of a chunk approx 3” x 4” x 8” tall for 4 bucks. You couldn’t find a chunk of rough Teak for that price. A table with 3” x 3” quarter sawn oak legs AND a top for 30 bucks? All things i saw associated with wood were ridiculously cheap.

The near future may be in woodworkers tearing furniture apart and milling the lumber from it to sell for a profit…...So somebody else can build a piece of furniture worth less than the sum of its wood????

I’m not sure what to make of all this but it sure isn’t comforting. I’m sure over saturation of imports isn’t helping the situation any. That, and woodworkers are notoriously bad at applying value to their work.

So i made me a shell for it out of a chunk of mahogany the other day. Heres what i’m wondering. Can i spray this shell cartridge with my grey lacquer undercoater followed by my matte black lacquer? I’m just not sure how a non automotive type lacquer adheres to metal. Anybody with any experience at attempting this?

I was personally always taught that it should be expressed as thickness x width x length. Yea i know. On the other side of the pond they believe it should be the exact opposite. Kind of like the way they choose to express the day, month and year when giving a calendar date.

I hereby resolve that no expression of dimensions is inherently superior to any other. Perhaps whats needed is an international coin toss to decide once and for all a standard that will be recognised across the planet. I’ll even vote for lumberjock Stewart from Yorkshire be allowed to flip the coin!

I know i would be one broke sucker if i had to call a plumber every time a sink trap sprung a leak. Or call an electrician when i wanted to put in flood lights or move a receptacle. I just don’t get how some people allow what i’d consider the basic skills of life to go unlearned. Anyone with enough sense to balance a checkbook or drive a car surely has what it takes to do most of the basic “fixit” skills, but for some reason don’t.

Are they intimidated? Do they think such task require a mysterious gene they are sure they lack?

I believe we all are knowledgable about things that interest us. But paying the Sears repairman $60 to come tell you your washing machine wouldn’t drain because the hose had a kink in it (true story of a couple i know).....should be a wake up call to all those disinterested!

So i got to thinking. What possible door design (and these weren’t anything special) could possibly be copyrighted? Do i myself own copyrights? Except mine are basically useless because i don’t have deep pockets and a team of lawyers at my disposal? Is every single one of the 5065 Lumberjocks here a criminal liable for damages if an organisation lawyered up enough decides it so?

Somethings not quite right. Listen to this quote from UK’s “Design and Artist Copyright Society” found here http://www.dacs.org.uk/

””10. When is copyright infringed?
Copyright is infringed when an individual carries out one of the copyright owner’s exclusive rights (see FAQ 5 above) without the permission of the copyright owner in relation to the whole or a substantial part of the artistic work. The test to determine what is substantial is a qualitative test and not a quantitative one. This means that there may be an infringement even if a small but distinctive portion of the original artwork was copied.””

I ask one simple question. According to the above statement, what front door in existence isn’t in violation in some form of a door before it? I’m at a loss as to how its even possible to build a front door, or anything else for that matter, that doesn’t violate such absurd criteria.

I won’t copy the door i build verbatim. I simply find it a bit distasteful and disrespectful to do so and i’ve written about it before. But what i build will no doubt meet the incredible criteria of violation in this company’s view. Perhaps in time we’ll need a Lumberjock defense fund for just such matters.

As`a reasonable adult, i know from the moment i put my creations out for public viewing, like we all do here at Lumberjocks, that theres a darn good chance it may get duplicated. Big deal. The only alternative is to never let your work see the light of day. Besides, it seems to me the best way to kill creativity, is to immerse yourself in a world of paranoia and litigation concerns, thinking somebody may actually copy your stuff.

What i started out with was a full size drawing of the handrail profile. I then decided i was going to do the rough hogging out of material by using a core box bit in my formica router. So if you look at the drawing you can see how i drew in the actual router bit size and its depth location to tell me how far from the edge of the rail to go, and how deep to go.

I then fashioned a fence to clamp onto my router base. This fence allowed me to reference off of the 90 degree side edge of the handrail. Also i made it a tall base so i could simply let my router ride on top of the handrail, but the edge being held at 90 degrees is what reall kept the setup user friendly. Of course, with such a small (but easy to hold) router i had to take all this wood out in about 1/8” increments.

I then took away my referencing edge on both side using the coping saw. Refering to my full size drawing i was able to get a line to cut on i knew would get me close to the actual shape.

Next i used my scraper or chisel to get most of the high ridges off. Then i fashioned a scaper to the profile to help me stay as true to the correct shape as i could.

Finally i got to do a lot of 80 grit hand sanding to clean the piece up and make it start looking presentable.

I could go on as to how i got the lower profile area but i suck at this getting photos into my blog. I just hope i’ve given you a pretty good idea of how i went about this project.

We shouldn’t confuse expertise in precision with the pinnacle of success. I could spend four months on a kick ass table, seeking out praise from my peers. I just probably couldn’t sell it for enough to be “successful”.

Woodworking, like life, is about tradeoffs and applied good judgement.

I did hear that the drought has produced a bumper crop of Pecans this year. Plus a guy up the street with a yard full of cactus seems to be weathering the drought just fine. I suppose how bad something is really depends on which perspective you choose to look at it from.

A hundred years from now, i figure this drought will mean a neat little area of tight grain wood on some unsuspecting guys coffee table. I think i’ll now pay a little more attention to the wood projects im surrounded with. Just to gain perspective of how climate fluctuations produced the beauty i’m looking at.

To see a project you like and wish to have exact blueprints for it seems foreign to me. Sure i get ideas from what others have made. I just don’t want to make an exact copy of it. I would almost feel disrespectful toward the person that created it in the first place. Plus i don’t get the fun of adding my own unique perceptions and personality into the thing i’m making.

Maybe its that “different strokes for different folks” deal. I’ll just go out on a limb and say you don’t know half the joy of woodworking until you find a way to express YOURSELF with it!

Not that i don’t enjoy making things for the family (and friends), i just can’t charge them enough. When i do, i’m likely to get that look that says “Hey, i thought we was family”. Oh well, i guess i should just be glad to have sought after skills and chalk it up as a price to be paid.

Maybe i’ll move my shop back into some deep hidden woods, and start passing out fake business cards at this years Christmas party to inform everyone i now work for a mobile colonoscopy clinic headquartered out of Somalia.