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I just got home an hour ago, from picking up cut offs at my local saw mill. 3x3 and 3x5 pieces of Oak and Poplar some a foot long. What is too checked or cracked to turn, goes in the pile for the smoker grill or for the firewood pile at my local Lions Club's park. Tomorrow, he is cutting a pile of Eastern red cedar.

Many years ago, I could purchase powdered dyes used by some Eastern countries to dye Easter eggs. The powder was like a fine saw dust and came in an envelope about like what banks use for currency. The dye was mixed with a half gallon of water and a cup of vinegar. I used it once on some wooden silohuettes of animals I had cut out for my son to shoot with rubber bands. The color was deep and uniform. It did raise the grain, but the color was quite deep and vivid. When dry it looked a little powdery, but when i rubbed the pieces of wood with Linspeed the colors got very deep and shiny. Now I never used it on anything but clear pine and I did soak the pieces for ten minutes. I have not been able to find those dyes in 20 years. I have tried Greek and Russian ethnic grocery stores to no avail. .

Totally forgot about belt buckles. Saw one years ago that had been scrolled and carved out of s flat piece of fallow deer antler. till it was polished and finished, it looked like ivory. Good job!

I have both a variable speed Skil 16 inch and an older RBI non-variable speed saw. When I cut 1/2 plywood, it seems to take forever. I mean maybe 2 inches a minute in a straight line. (I could cut faster with a coping saw.). Tried different blades. Of course thin stock cuts faster but still kind of slower than what I expected. I need to cut some 1/2 inch sugar maple and I think my dog will collect social security before I am done. I realize speed makes for mistakes, but so does the slow boredom. My 1940's DuMor scroll saw with ancient pinned blades cuts much faster. What am I missing.

Oh my, how can I live in a deep freeze three months per year? No palmetto bugs. No little lizards crawling across the floor. Humidity is not so bad that the dry wall molds if the air conditioning fails. I lived in Miami for three years. Missed the change of seasons so badly. The smell of dry leaves, crisp apples. Strolling down town looking at the Christmas Displays, greeting neighbors doing the same while sipping mulled cider, The Warmth and joy of a gentle Christmas Eve snow fall. Jumping in the river for Charity on New Years Day. Padding through the snow with my flintlock hunting deer in January. Groundhogs Day. Skating on a farm pond with a bonfire on shore to roast hot dogs and warm up some hot cocoa. Going for a walk through a winter wood at midnight during a full moon. I could never give these things up. The only way to be cold is to be so inactive you may as well be dead. As my grandmother always said, You can always put more clothes on, there is only so much you can decently take off.

Got in laws in Myrtle Beach to worry about. Here in PA the worst that normally happens in our immediate neighborhood, is some trees down and power outage. A few miles away, folks built houses and cabins on flood plains. They chose it is all I can kindly say. My house is 100 feet above the stream out back, 200 ft above the river a mile away. and 360 feet above sea level. We get the hype every time there is a possible snow storm. Stores empty of bread milk and toilet paper at the mention of a heavy frost. My preparation consists of making sure the generator is fueled up. That the backhoe is ready and there is gas for the chain saws. During a tropical storm several years ago about the third day without power, we invited several neighbors over for a BBQ, hooked up the DVD player and showed movies on the big TV for a few hours. Everybody helped and we had a good time. Those who had no alternative power were happy for the few hours relief and the meal. My Mrs is the type that insists on back up systems. we have the generator, 12 volt lights to plug into the vehicles, kerosene lanterns, flashlights and candles. A propane stove, a BBQ grill and an older Coleman camp stove we use outdoors. We even keep a 12 volt TV set and antenna. The media rumor hype that goes with these storms aggravates the crap out of me. If some idiot reads Gerbil droppings and says there will be a 70 foot storm surge, the news reports it and some other idiot puts it up on face book as if it is from the National weather service. I do fault our Government for letting such crap go on. Now, I do feel that some folks should be called on the carpet for not being prepared. at least 24 hours before the storm, the National Weather service did say there would be 24 to 36 inches of rain and low lying areas around Houston were not evacuated. I understand that the Irma storm surge is enough to submerge some inhabited islands in the bahamas. That is bad. A 20 ft storm surge would submerge most of Florida south of Coral Gables. Iggy, my thoughts and prayers for you and your community, and others who may be like affected. .

That really is a travesty. You don't need a customer bad mouthing you because he paid and did not get his goods. Hopefully the slip turns up. A friend set up at craft shows long ago and when she took special orders had a special bright orange paper for the order forms and she kept carbon under the forms to make duplicate copies. She was panicking about a lost order form, which is the reason why the bright paper, less chance to mislay the slip. Her hubby resurrected the order information from the piece of carbon paper. Heck I have not seen carbon paper in decades but I use that bright colored paper trick for certain receipts.

I live on the edge of the rust belt with lots of factories etc nearby. Pallets with paints, oils and agricultural chemicals soaked in are not unusual. While most have merely been exposed to weather, I have seen them sitting in water getting moldy, or covered with bird and rodent crap. (And I still drink out of the barn hose, but only after the water's been flowing a while.) Besides which, you may not know if the pallet wood is spaulted maple that has it's own health concerns. I started making gifts for my grandkids.. I am using clean processed wood from a store or cut offs from a furniture factory. (Made a small rolling pin for a granddaughter from a piece of kiln dried sugar maple that was intended for a husky office chair leg. ) I keep a special box for woods that I am comfortable using for kids stuff. Most of it is kiln dried and not something that was used as part of another product. For instance the maple cut offs from the furniture factory. a 2 x 2 piece of sugar maple was just right to turn a little rolling pin for a three year old. Year ago, a fellow appeared at a craft show in Annapolis MD and was selling hand carved pipes. He was out collecting his own "briar" meaning multiflora rose stumps and other materials. The rumor around town was that the fellow made a pipe from a hefty root he harvested, which just happened to be poison ivy. You really need to know what you are using. Some woods suitable for pallets crack and splinter easily. Something you would not want for a child's item. If you were just cutting a rustic Christmas door decoration, no one would care. .

An acquaintance had a book about wood finishes and it contained a chart of how long it took oils to dry and I remember reading that some were over 2 decades. I believe mineral oil is a protectant more than a finish. It preserves the wood from saturation by odors, stains and tastes, but really isn't a finish, in the sense that varnish or shellac are more of a hard surface meant to be somewhat impervious to environmental factors.

Never heard them called that. I remember them and had some. Other toys too, like the dancing bear, jacob's ladder, etc.

One person I know uses a paste of bees' wax and mineral oil over the food coloring dye. rub it in briskly and wipe off excess. Years ago, I obtained some really brilliant color using Russian egg dye. As I recall, the powdered dye was mixed with a gallon of very hot water and a cup of white vinegar. The wood was allowed to steep in the liquid for about 30 minutes (weighted down to hold it under the surface) and then set on racks to dry. Once the wood dried, a light coating of BLO really deepened the color. Oily/sap filled areas did not take the dye evenly, but other wise the pieces looked great. The dye did run a little if the piece was permitted to soak in water, even after the BLO.

when turning sassafrass, the shop gets a faint smell like cloves, reminds me of Christmas.

Ike, prayers for your wife. My Mrs. went through a real rough patch with a back injury and after five surgeries and 14 years, her doctor said she could go back to horse back riding. (no jumping) There were times when I thought she was giving up on everything because of the pain she was in. Some days she just stayed in the recliner for 16-18 hours. After a couple years, something just clicked and she went back to college and finished her nursing degree got her license and she now works as a registered nurse doing 12 hour shifts at our local hospital. Some folks do make miraculous recoveries. I wish I could offer some advise about Etsy. I look through it for ideas, not so much for buying. It is difficult to find some things, and a myriad of stuff that really isn't craft, but foreign production junk. I must say though, seeing some items on etsy has given me ideas for things I could make jigs/ machines to produce items normally thought of as handcrafts. For instance, trenchers to sell to Colonial re-enactors. (a type of oblong wooden communal bowl for dining.) I had begun making some items that I saw on etsy, that were sold through a really nice local consignment shop. Just when sales were starting to trickle in, the landlord refused to renew their lease and it closed. .

Some wood turners get a really high gloss finish with CA glue. I still can't understand how they do it without their applicators suddenly sticking and wrapping around the work. I've not tried it. Saw it in a Captain Eddy video. It took me a bit to try his shine juice (equal parts nonwaxed shellac, BLO and denatured alcohol) . It shines up and dries on the work with the heat of friction between the spinning work and the folded paper towel applicator. The paper towel applicator looks like it has been coated with plastic where it contacted the work. I understand the mixture is somewhat similar to what is used for the high luster French polish..

when I was a little kid, I went to visit an aunt in Green bay Wisc. My cousin worked as a go-fer in the shop across the street. We had several days near 100 degrees around July 4th. The shop was lined with windows from waist high, but that roof with it's southern exposure really turned the shop into an oven. Well one day, it was a cloudless blue sky, but the roof was wet already at 9 am. the owner ran hoses and sprinklers across the top ridge of the shop and turned the water on. My cousin claimed that kept the shop 20 - 30 degrees cooler on those days that the sprinklers were keeping the roof cool I have done that on my pole barn when I had a several days project repairing farm equipment. definitely helps .

Reviews are what they are. A person writing the review comes from a wide range of perspectives. If you are used to using "Rolls Royce" quality equipment, then anything else is a waste of money, particularly a bargain saw. A person accustomed to using a coping saw mind find it a God send. I considered getting one when I was looking for a scroll saw. I first happened upon a Skil scroll saw at a yard sale for $20.00.. Certainly not the best, but far better then I had. It does the jobs that I do. I came across an older model RBI at a yard sale a few months later. The RBI is certainly leagues above, but not in ways that alter the end result. It is sort of like the trip in disregard to the destination. My in laws live 4 states away. Driving the trip in Mrs's little sub compact is tolerable and cheap on gas. But driving my f-250 is more roomy, more comfortable, more room to haul things back and forth and makes the trip less tiresome. The destination is the same regardless. The cheap saws and expensive saws are about the same as the transportation for the trip. Now, a saw that only takes pinned blades certainly limits the ability to cut fine holes and lines. If you scroll more than a couple hours a week, it probably makes a difference is operator fatigue.

While I appreciate the sentiment and am grateful to our armed services, the Fourth Of July is about the celebration of the rights of citizens to abolish unresponsive government and establish a new one more suitable to their needs. Talk like this today will get you on a "no fly list" : "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness".

When it comes to specialty supplies, I think many supply houses get their materials from the same few sources. There was a fellow that flaked special flints for long rifles of chert. Superior flints in every way. When he retired, no one could get them. The fellow was talked into coming out of retirement for a few months and then stopped again and the supply dried up. Another fellow I dealt with about 13 years ago, had the market cornered on certain parts made for some obsolete rifles fo they could be fired again with modern ammo. The guy's wife sued for divorce and the wife's attorney froze all the guy's assets and had him locked out of his own shop. Re-supply depended on the mercy of the wife letting him back into the shop or him getting a $30,000 loan to get replacement machinery. . He never did recover after that. Another I knew made old style colonial shoes. He sold literally a thousand pair a year and many re-enactment suppliers sold his shoes. He was very sickly his last few years and sometimes was ten months behind in production. When he died he had orders outstanding for approx 1500 pair. His children actually steps up and together with former two former employees, finished out the orders. Stuff happens and the suppliers do not like disgruntled customers. But they also can't (in most situations) control their supplier.

i don not understand how clean some shops are. It is like they spend more time sweeping, vacuuming and dusting than working. I sweep about once a week, unless there is a need to immediately clean up. A buddy has a most aggravating way of cleaning his shop. He does put all small parts and papers away, and then opens the back double doors that open just above his garden and he uses a commercial leaf blower to blow everything out the doors.

There is a big problem with magazines in general. Outdoor magazines are now almost all advertisements. I refuse to pay for 6 pages of articles continued through 100 pages of ads. Many wood worker and handyman magazines try to appeal to too broad an audience and lose interest for many, along with the 50 pages of ads. I am a newbie and look at the scroll saw magazine with awe for some of those projects. I am enough of an artist that I can make some simple patterns myself, but look to the magazine for inspiration of what can be done. There was a time, I could spend hours slowly walking the aisles of the Sears tool dept. Now, their specialty tool selection, outside of automotive, has gone to crap. And that in a way is both ok and a sign of the times. We have specialty shops and in this day of internet stores, we can buy the hardest to find specialty items with a mouse click. I remember trying to find a forstner bit in pre internet days. With the big box stores, whose clerks knew nothing about wood working, to all the little mom and pop hardware stores that "could order it for me" IF a clerk happened to know what it was. I morn the loss of those dusty old stores with their creaky wooden floors and amazing selection of obsolete parts and tools. (Arlington Hardware (VA) back in the 1970's had the biggest section of oil lamp repair parts I have ever seen in one place, who the heck repairs oil lamps then or now) Anyway, I am glad for SSWS, and look forward to each issue, at least for the foreseeable future. . .

Pictures are worth lots. Been thinking about a juried show. They require photos, they prefer that you demonstrate your "craft" during the show. They are very upfront in the application to tell prospective show folks that they are looking for unique, quality work. There are a couple of scrollers already there and two folks using wood lathes turning out Holiday decorations. Frankly the one turner sells lots of decorations but they are rather inferior considering the price. He does turn them out fast, but they often have nicks and tear outs.

Woodcraft stores have been running some classes on set up and using fancier CNC engraver routers. I watched a demonstration of an old laser engraver last November and it was simply awesome, even if the tech was three years old. I have seen products done on the little 1,000 watt jobs and it was pitiful.

Holy crap Factories around here run ads of pallets for free 4 or 5 times a weeks and sometimes have to pay haulers to take them away. I have two buddies that heat their homes with pallet wood all winter long. But then again, an acquaintance who is big into crafts would buy the stuff rather than use "roadkill" that she must process herself. In fact, one cheap guy down the road, was told by wife that she wanted a corral for the families Easter pet (lamb) When she came home from work that evening there was a pen about 20 x 20 in the back yard made completely of pallets stood up and nailed together end to end. . Strange thing, it doesn't look too bad I would have expected a hideous, eyesore worthy of several zoning officer complaints. .

those canopies seem good for "fair weather" shelter. Around here, out door Christmas Markets are catching on. That means two or three days set up in Late November, early December with sometimes frosty days, even some snow. Last year, I went to the Mifflenburg PA Christkindle Markt, and it was windy and snow flurries with a high about 25 degrees. There, they use three sided wooden shelters. (About 300 vendors for three days 10 am to 8 pm). A friend of mine sets up a portable greenhouse about 8 by 12 and operates out of the green house. (Even on cloudy days the green house can be 30 to 40 degrees warmer than outside.)

Am acquaintance is big into craft shows and street fairs selling what I call "junk jewelry" and scarves. She has similar canopies and even craft show employees. She uses 30 inch lengths of 4 or 6 inch PVC with a screw on lid and capped bottom. The screw on lids have screw eyes. She fills the pvc tubes with water and attaches them, off the ground, to the uprights, with the heaviest bungee cords I have ever seen. When the show is over, the water gets dumped and the tubes are light weight to go back into the trailer. She said the 5 gallon buckets that some use are trip hazards them selves.