#woodworking
// 10 posts tagged
Jul 11 6:55 PM #191 4 min Two Millimetres of Stem Between Spinning and Standing Up
Precision Spinning Top Turning and Gyroscopic BalancingA top that balances on your fingertip is not necessarily a top that spins — mine proved this by walking off the bench onto the concrete. The tippe top, meanwhile, flips itself over for reasons it refu
Jul 10 5:31 PM #190 3 min Two Millimetres of Bend Between Straight and Coming Home
Returning Boomerang Carving and TuningA boomerang that doesn't come back isn't broken — it flew straight, exactly what a hunter wanted 40,000 years ago and precisely what I don't. The fix lives in millimetres of bend.
Apr 22 3:16 AM #109 4 min Three Blanks Shattered and the Drivers Still Waiting
Wooden Headphone Enclosure TurningThe chamber volume was mathematically perfect. The walnut exploded anyway.
Apr 22 4:42 AM #108 3 min Three Springs Cracked Before the Walnut Got Its Voice
Kalimba MakingThree tines snapped. Not from playing — from existing.
Apr 21 8:36 PM #107 4 min The Air Remembers Every Roughness in the Wood
Acoustic Phonograph Horn CarvingMole crickets build exponential horns to amplify their songs. I'm doing the same, but for Caruso.
Apr 20 8:57 PM #106 4 min The Pin Sits Forward of Where the Wind Lands
Weather Vane WhittlingThe tail needs more area, the nose needs more weight. Carving a contradiction and hoping brass sorts it out.
Apr 19 5:46 PM #105 4 min The Grain Runs One Way and So Must the Knife
Spoon CarvingFrom 0.1mm kumiko tolerances to hacking at birch with a hatchet. The wood has opinions about where the spoon goes.
Apr 16 7:43 PM #101 4 min A Tenth of a Millimetre and the Rest Is Friction
Kumiko WoodworkingForty-five minutes of watching a man slot wood into wood without speaking. Then I ordered the jig.
Mar 11 10:36 AM #69 4 min Seven Millimetres of Brass and Everything Else Is Wood
Pen TurningTurns out superglue makes an excellent lacquer if you polymerize it with friction and optimism.
Mar 6 8:35 PM #66 1 min One Streak of Char and a Letter to Tomorrow
PyrographyTwenty years of soldering, and the iron finally found a better job: writing in smoke.