Woodturning, is it off topic here?

Arch - If your bruising is compressed wood - how about treating it like flat workers do when they remove a dent? Steam the spot with a damp cloth and heat source - clothes iron or solder gun depending on the size - to raise the grain. Then sand or turn.

John Weeks

Ahhh.... Arch.... you bring up the old nemesis, the skew.

I used to use the old excuse, "well, I don't really turn enough spindle work to be good with it". Then I met a guy that is a devotee of Richard Raffan, and he actually uses the skew for everything from finish planing down to roughing. To be a wise guy, he finished the outside of a bowl I was turning to make his point.

I can do a little detail work with it, but I have long fingernail grinds on my spindle gouges (I mean >long

In Flat Work, dents, which is basically what you're calling bruising, and is actually compressed grain - can be expanded with a damp cloth and an iron. The steam swells the crushed grain back close to normal.

You can exploit this crushed / swelled grain thing. Stamp a surface with something like a leather stamp to compress the wood in a pattern. Plane (or turn) the wood so the resulting depression is now flush with the new surface. Steam the surface and the pattern will swell - resulting in a raised pattern - embossing.

Thanks for responding, John, Robert & Charlie.

Robert, we two are never going to amount to anything unless we change. We think too small. We could sell your "redneck pepper mills" for big bucks if we had the gall some of our fellow turners have. We could call them "Cou Rouge Poivre Moulin" (My Redneck French is fractured, but we ought to keep some Southeast & Southwest flavor anyway, just for the tourists). We could sign them, "Robearre' & 'Arc".

What do you think about numbering them in Roman numerals? Maybe it would get us a quarter, ok a dime, more. I know you are not one to get too greedy, but how about selling our mills on a teaser installment plan that balloons half as high as my local (Wachovia) bank's mtgs. did. :)

John & Charlie, since moist heat swells wood fibers, would dry cold shrink them enough to let moisture out of green timber as a drying method? Maybe the phloem would flow in and clot to seal the leaks? :)

Turn to Safety, Arch Fortiter

oooooo...... I like it, "Arc". To make sure we didn't lose our roots though, we should sign them for sure, but like Aunt Jemimah for syrup, we should have a spokesmodel. Most of her teeth would be good, and not too many tattoos. At least not where they could be easily photographed.

Brilliant. Roman numerals, French handles for us, how could we go wrong? Heck, I'm ready to sub out the manufacturing already and sit back while the profits roll in.

You?

((.... and then suddenly..... Robert wakes up from a wonderful dream....))

Damnit.

;^)

Robert

Arch.. I've only done one pepper mill, but I used the "shaftless" setup:

mac

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I imagine freeze drying could work - it would probably be too expensive to be practicle. I wonder about the volume involved. Would it just dry the outer part of a blank then lock the moisture inside for the rest?

On Thu, 18 Dec 2008 9:20:48 -0600, Arch wrote (in message ):

snip topics where I could show my complete ignorance, and move on to what I know, cheapskatedness...

being a tinkerer in metal - among other things, a number of methods come to mind for extending that pepper mill shaft, each requiring some effort and fussing about, but none particularly troublesome. Part of the calculus in this little problem, I guess, is how you value your time, do you get your ya-yas from tinkering, like I do, and how many of these units do you want to make? You are asking a fun kind of question, and I am analyzing it way too much. Sorry, can't help it. Maybe instead of a long shaft on the mill, why not a really ostentatious and fancy really tall knob attached to the "stock" short shaft? I've had

I had similar results with a built-in grinder on a "sea salt" bottle. uffda.

It is snowing pretty heavily, right now, and am impatiently awaiting delivery of a brandy-new chuck. (turning results/report will be forthcoming, as soon as I have something to report)

On topic, sort of - I am going to be making a batch of krumkakke, and using a new wooden spindle I made for this confection.

Happy holidays to one and all. tom koehler

Who said Robearre and Arc are off topic for a turning group? You forgot about the mallet. OTOH, I never really cared for a snaggle toothed model.

Hi Mac, Good tip, but too expensive for the R&A Pepper Mill Corp. unless we can get a Govt. bailout. Only one pepper mill? I'd think they would be a hot item in Mexico or have you gone completely over to the artistic side? :)

Hi John, You are on to something! We could freeze dry a bowl into a little pile of powder that could be reconstituted by the customer back into a bowl. Think of the savings on shipping costs. Don't ask about the finish. :)

Hi Tom, Thanks for the analysis in depth. Did you differentiate or integrate or just go figure? :) The gigantic knob is a great idea. Maybe we could turn a few into beautiful finials for very fine grinds. Wot say you, Charlie?

Turn to Safety, Arch Fortiter

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But the lutefisk, Tom! Are you having lutefisk?

On Fri, 19 Dec 2008 17:54:13 -0600, John Weeks wrote (in message ):

This may be heretical, but I am not too fond of lutefisk - for those not in the know, it is codfish which has been preserved by a combination of aggravated drying plus treatment with lye. This was a staple of the scandinavian diet before the days of refrigeration. It is reconstituted by soaking, to both re-hydrate the fish and remove the lye. The result is a semi-translucent, gelatinous quivering mass. With neither taste nor texture, but still somehow achieving an impressive odor, it is appealing to the traditional scandinavian in Minnesota. There are two schools of thought on lutefisk, whether it be better served with white sauce (the Swedish Gambit) or rather more simply slathered in melted butter (orthodox Norwegian). My own preference is toward simple boiled cod with melted butter (torsk). It is as close to lobster as I am likely to get. regards, tom koehler

Hi Tom, Yep, woodturning _is off topic here and I'm the worst perp! :)

I suspect that Lutefisk is like several other ethnic 'survival' foods that are more in the talking than in the eating. We Scots honor 'The Haggis' in song and story, but oatmeal and entrails boiled in a sheep's stomach is for ceremoniously bringing to table with squealing pipes and rolling drums. With apologies to Bobby Burns, it is mercifully removed quickly so as not to interfere with our steaks.

Same for Redneck 'prime ribs' (aka sow belly garnished with chitlins) and many other foods that kept folks alive during hard times and now are honored, but never eaten. Judging by the economy, we might come to depending on them again. :(

Turn to Safety, Arch Fortiter

Just not my thing, Arch.. I'm not much of a spindle turner or set up for deep drilling.. I made the one for a client just to see how it worked, and she seemed happy with it.. Also, since I'm mostly working ironwood now, I guess I'd need carbide forstner bits.. Talk about over budget..

mac

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Arch, you're right about lutefisk being Norwegian soul food. Like Haggis, it is eaten primarily during the holiday season, but that is partly because that is when it is available. I remember back in the day when we could get it in South Dakota from September through March. Mom would buy 4 lbs apiece for my Dad and uncles. This wasn't the prepackaged stuff you find now - this came in a barrel at the locak butcher's and had the bones etc. Bye the bye - I like haggis!

Tom - of course the Swedish way is not way to eat Lutefisk. The "proper" way - meaning the way we eat it - is one piece of lutefisk, one piece of boiled potato and a bit of *cold* butter on the fork. Finest kind!

And to keep it on topic - Mom used a turned wooden spoon to serve the potatoes.

JW

What's a good wood to use? Hard maple, maybe?

I have a ceramic one I use for spices in the kitchen, but there may be a smal market for wooden ones around here.

On Tue, 23 Dec 2008 22:55:04 -0600, Dave Balderstone wrote (in message ):

I made a wooden mortar and pestle... used maple. I made the pestle two-ended, that is, there is a rounded kinda mashing end on each end, but they are of two different sizes - I wasn't sure which would be better for the user, so there are two different sized ends to choose from.

A useful feature would be a rubber non-skid bottom, so the darn mortar doesn't slide all over the countertop when you are trying to mash and grind something.

Another useful masher-upper is a trough which has a vee-shaped cross-section inside, maybe about 8" long and about an inch wide, and a roller device which is a matching disc about 2 or 3 inches in diameter with an axle about 8 or 10 inches long. You put your spices or whatever, in the trough, and then run the roller/disc back and forth along the length of the trough. Use your hands on the axle to provide both the down pressure on the disc, and its motive force.

tom koehler

I did 5 or 6 or the pestles? (crusher part) for a sculptor last winter... He did the main part out of stone but wanted wood for the "stick"..

mac

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I think I'll play a bit over the holiday. I've got a couple of maple baseball bat blank seconds that were dirt cheap at LV in the fall that might work nicely.