Kathy Marshall
02-25-2012, 4:07 AM
I'm planning on doing a bunch of chainsaw work tomorrow, so the plan for tonight was to sharpen up some chainsaw blades. A few months ago I bought an electric chainsaw blade sharpener when they went on sale at Harbor Freight, and it's been sitting on the bench ever since. I always seem to be in too much of a hurry to read the instructions and use it, so I've just been doing them by hand as needed.
Well tonight I decided to use it. Instructions were pretty straight forward and once it was set up, it was a breeze. I got two chains sharpened before it got dark (it's on a corner of the bench surrounded by other stuff so the shop lights don't help much). So then I started looking at some small blanks sitting outside of the ramp door, next the the sharpener, but none of them called to me. Then for some reason, I looked under the bench, beneath the sharpener and notice some pieces of wood that have been sitting there for over a year. Dug through some of them and discovered this piece of Texas Ebony that was in surprisingly good condition.
I didn't think I had any of it left, especially something that would be useable.
Texas ebony is very hard, but with sharp tools and a light touch will leave a surface like glass, on the downside it will crack if you look at it wrong, or even if you look at it right. This piece was dry, but it turned just the same as when it was green.
I couldn't get it to show up much in the pics, but it's got just a slight bit of curl to it.
The piece of wood wasn't very big and by the time I trimmed it up I just had enough for a small lidded box (and there might be 1 scrap left with some heartwood that might just be big enough for a pen blank.
Nothing special, just a basic little box from some pretty wood that I never thought I'd have the chance to turn again.
It's 2" x 4" with walls just a hair over 1/16" with a light coat of danish oil burnished in. I used my elf decorating tool on the top and bottom with great results, these were the cleanest results I've had (dry, hard wood with very fine grain).
225087225088225089225090225086
Thanks for looking!
Comments and critiques welcome.
Well tonight I decided to use it. Instructions were pretty straight forward and once it was set up, it was a breeze. I got two chains sharpened before it got dark (it's on a corner of the bench surrounded by other stuff so the shop lights don't help much). So then I started looking at some small blanks sitting outside of the ramp door, next the the sharpener, but none of them called to me. Then for some reason, I looked under the bench, beneath the sharpener and notice some pieces of wood that have been sitting there for over a year. Dug through some of them and discovered this piece of Texas Ebony that was in surprisingly good condition.
I didn't think I had any of it left, especially something that would be useable.
Texas ebony is very hard, but with sharp tools and a light touch will leave a surface like glass, on the downside it will crack if you look at it wrong, or even if you look at it right. This piece was dry, but it turned just the same as when it was green.
I couldn't get it to show up much in the pics, but it's got just a slight bit of curl to it.
The piece of wood wasn't very big and by the time I trimmed it up I just had enough for a small lidded box (and there might be 1 scrap left with some heartwood that might just be big enough for a pen blank.
Nothing special, just a basic little box from some pretty wood that I never thought I'd have the chance to turn again.
It's 2" x 4" with walls just a hair over 1/16" with a light coat of danish oil burnished in. I used my elf decorating tool on the top and bottom with great results, these were the cleanest results I've had (dry, hard wood with very fine grain).
225087225088225089225090225086
Thanks for looking!
Comments and critiques welcome.