Another cool video - the making of the Katana

Very nice, especially the hand tool approach...
The movie explains it all, I am showing this here because of my interest in tool making - seems appropriate (as well as the shaping,sharpening at the end of the movie). This is a 5 part series, the condensed version (1 includes all) is below, and the full version links underneath.



Part 1:


Part 2:


Part 3:


Part 4:


Part 5:

How could I miss this one?

Have a look at the following link, it's a blog I just discovered a few days ago. I just had to read the whole thing back... Very, Very! nice.

This is how an experience like ITE should be documented, it is so fitting. I just wish there could be more of this - but I guess Lynne had to do some work - how could you not with that creative atmosphere around you (I have more to say about this, but later).

ITE if you don't know what that is, is something I would like to be able to attend one day (when I become proffesional enough, and can devote the time required...) you can read about it here.

And now drum roll, Lynne Yamaguchi read from end to start, or from start to end, also you can visit her website.

ENJOY!!!

Nice woodturning videos

OK, browsing youtube and looking for interesing woodturning videos for me and of course for all of you... For starters here are two neat ones.
(I might make this into a regular feature of the blog, and also add some reviews along)

1. Nice video, if you ever wanted to explain to someone in a video about spindle turning, this one in my opinion is very effective (short and to the point)


2. Not sure this one is legal, but a great sharpening tutorial


Enjoy, more to come

The turning blues...

In the last month I've done many more ceramics than woodturnings (although I did use the lathe to make some nifty handles for the wire cutter). I begin to realize that I have a very low self moving factor (smf) - meaning that I won't move if I'm not forced to.

There are two reasons why I made more ceramics and none of them is to do with fun (it IS fun to do them, but that's not the reason I don’t turn – after all woodturning is much more fun for me), here we go:

1. I go with my wife, and it's a pre-paid sort of thing, so there is a money loss factor and also my wife literally pushes me out of the house to get there on time.
2. The working atmosphere and conditions, there are other people working next to me, some are worse, some are much better - and it is a motivator to just do something, anything... also the air-conditioner helps a lot - seriously, I don't know how many of you ever visited Israel in the summer - IT'S HOT!!!

This got me thinking that I have to fix these conditions in relation to my wood related hobbies, since I like it more and want to practice them more.

Well, thinking a bit more made me also realize that the fixing the first condition is very hard - it means setting up a club or something similar in the near area, and make it have weekly gatherings of shop work, where you and I know that wood turners like to TALK and a lot... so I decided to let that rest for awhile.

What I can do something about is my work environment – getting that air-conditioner and space so that I don’t have excuses of inconvenience…

So I’m starting to save to build my lathe a proper home. The place is selected (or dictated) and comes free, all that is left is to save the required funds for the building… I will try to start planning space here, and share the dilemmas and decisions with you, it will be expensive but I hope worth it. Pictures and stuff to come later….