First bowl and another bone nalbinding needle

[tombear]

A while back I'd been given some left in the garden for several years sycamore logs in the hope they would be suitable for a hat block I need to make. Unfortunately they were too small and had splits. Anyroad today I finally decided to use some and after splitting the biggest shake free lump off of one with the good old Etwing and lump hammer I made my very first bowl.

About 8 years back I restored 3 bent bowl gouges and since I'd acquired a proper LV mallet I finally got around to using them. The gouges were a joy to use and herself had a bash as well it had looked so much fun. The wood was well seasoned but a bit stained but with a lot of walnut oil rubbed in dont look too bad.

Ill admit to sanding it plenty.

The bone nalbinding needle is about a large mans palm wide for scale. That I mainly made on the belt sander. I've misplaced my small ring and dot Yankee blade but when it turns up I'll deface it with my googly eyes mark.

Now to source some bigger bits of wood and make some man sized bowls.

Atb

Tom

 

[British Red]

splitting the biggest shake free lump off of one with the good old Etwing and lump hammer
Tom

Thats a hideous thing to admit to!

Get a froe!

(nice bowl Tom )

 

[tombear]

Cheers! I must admit I'm looking for a froe, I even considered getting one new! It seams folk have caught on and I'm damned if I can find one cheap to restore, same goes for a proper drawknife ( even rusty lumps are £20 a pop now where I've seen them) and the adze I've seen looked more like a farming implement than a woodworking tool. Also it was too big and flat bladed for my nefferious purposes.

Before I got the Estwing it was a MoD type D and a rock!

ATB

Tom.

 

[DocG]

Nice job. I'm new to making things - small bag and a spoon only so far - so I'd like to know if you used hand tools only or some sort of lathe.

Sorry if that's an obvious question, but I'd like to learn.

All the best.

 

[crosslandkelly]

Lovely work, I really like the bowl.

 

[tombear]

Thanks!

For the bowl I just used a set of three sizes of bent bowl gouges, a 3 inch dia lignum vitae mallet a rather too big for the job rip saw to rough shape it and rough and fine sandpaper to finish. Really I just used one of the chisels but wanted to try all three. Seen from above the bowls elongated rather than round, to best use the piece of wood I had.. Nearly forgot I used a flat surform to help shape the outside and a all metal axe and lump hammer to split the piece off the log.

The needle I just used a saw to cut a strip of bone, a belt sander for 98% of the shaping, 1/16 drill to do a series of holes for the eye, my shiny new Permagrit rifflers to clean out and shape the eye and to finish I used a used bit of smooth sandpaper to polish it smooth.

atb

Tom

 

[Dreadhead]

nice work on both, does this mean you are taking up nalbinding? (i've heard it is tricky to learn)

 

[tombear]

Cheers! The wife's trying to learn since I have some sort of mental block on anything like knitting or repeatedly tying the same knots! It was a major achievement when on the umpteenth attempt I managed to plait about 9 inches of leather braid!

One if her workmates can do it and has given her a lesson, with more to come. As a thank you I'm making her mate a bone needle but she has a preference for ones bigger than I've bone to make so I need to source some bigger pieces.

ATB

Tom

 

[Big Stu 12]

Nice job, thanks for showing

 

[tombear]

Ta! Avoided the house work and had a go at doing a sycamore spoon with the bowl gouges and mallet rather than a spoon knife and it was just so much quicker and easier. Next time ill do the hollow first before I shape the rest. The split bit of wood had a natural gentle
Z shape so I incorporated that in the shape.

treated with walnut oil, its about 9 inches long.

atb

Tom

 

[cranmere]

Beautiful! I want to have a go at making bone needles but I don't have a belt sander so it will be the long and tedious way.

 

[cranmere]

Nalbinding is like many crafts, the basics are easy enough to learn but it's tricky to get good, even tension on the loops as you work. I'm not very good yet.

 

[xylaria]

Beautiful! I want to have a go at making bone needles but I don't have a belt sander so it will be the long and tedious way.

I never used a sander t make mine, I could knock them up pretty quick. Sanding bone is really bad on the lungs anyway. I used a turkey leg bone. It has been a while since i made one mind you.

I got better tension with the simpler stitches not using the thumb method, it was faster too. A squarer needle rather than a flat one got the stitches neater again.

 

[bikebum1975]

Beautiful work there

 

[tombear]

Well in a low level way yeterday sucked, went round 4 towns doing the charity and tool shops and spent exactly one pound on kit, a enamelled faux viking broach which the middle son scrounged off me as soon a he saw it.

Of the three spoons I tried making, first one snapped half way up the handle when I was clumsily sawing it down to size, after I'd spent a while digging the bowl out. The second, in my attempt to get it thin now has a see through bowl while the third I discovered has a punky patch which failed when I was doing the finally sanding. I've now tidied up the hole so its a sort of strainer, I doubt ill ever use it. At that point I gave it up as a bad job.

Today it went better, I've cut out 4 or 5 blanks for later use ( making sure that there's no punky patches ) and made one into a nice slender spoon, its as deep as a desert spoon, in the past I've made them much deeper, like soup spoons, which ain't best for actually putting in your mouth rather than sipping from. Treated it with walnut oil as ever.

Atb

tom

 

[tombear]

In between times today I shaped a couple of the blanks I made yesterday into spoons, I'd had a first go at sharpening the bent gouges on my beloved Tormek-7 using the jig things and although not pretty they were beautifully sharp and a joy to use. I'm sure I'll get better at sharpening them with practice.

i'm really pleased with the top one and will try to do several more roughly the same to go in a wall rack.

Atb

Tom

 

[Harvestman]

Seriously impressed with those latest spoons. Great work.

 

[Macaroon]

Those are fine spoons - I look forward to a piccy of the rackfull!

 

[Clouston98]

Great stuff mate!

 

[British Red]

The chunkier of the latest two would make a stonking cooking spoon Tom - good work!