Gilding Sin City

      During the opening remarks of our meeting Jamie mentioned a really good dust mask called "Dust Be Gone"  I have one of these myself and even though they are expensive compared to the paper ones available locally, these should last forever as they are washable.  As Jamie mentioned, not only do they filter out the dust, it seems as if they are so good, the smell of the wood is removed as well.  I don't know but I kind of like the smell of wood! They claim that your safety glasses don't get fogged up but mine do, ever so slightly but usually not a real problem unless it's humid and we talked about that when I did the gilding demo -- not too often.  In any case, click here for a link to Klingspor's catalog page for the mask.
      We also discussed the yearly dues of $20.00; these should be paid by July's meeting.  The dues are used primarily to pay for the Meet Up page and we're also considering buying the domain name of Sin City Woodworkers for the club.  In case you missed it at the meeting, don't use the name of Sin City Woodworkers at this time to get a discount at Peterman lumber.  Apparently there is a business somewhere out there that used it and they are delinquent on their bills -- you may end up paying more than you want to!!  Just a preview for those of you who were unable to attend last night, Jamie has a demo set up for the next meeting that will feature a pen turner who makes some very unique pen kits.  He will be bringing in a small lathe to show how it's done.  Click HERE to visit his site and see what to expect.

     The next part of this blog may be a little difficult to write because I'm blogging on my own demonstration.  I guess that's like writing your own performance report hoping for a raise!  I'll tell you what my goal was with the demonstration and if you feel like it you can let me know if you think I accomplished it or not.  A couple of months ago my wife and I went to the Scottsdale Artist School to take workshops.  A well known figurative artist (John Michael Carter) and his wife (Barbara) taught them. Diane, being the artist, took his and I took Barbara's to learn about the fine art of water gilding.  I wanted to share what I learned there with our group.
     I talked about the two main ways  to gild; oil and water, and for most of the work members in our group may do the oil gilding process is the easiest and probably sufficient.  We talked about the materials needed (which can be bought for less than $30.00) and applications we could use for our work such as  moldings on cabinets, decorative panels in boxes, carvings, deep grained woods, etc.  I had a prepared demonstration board and showed how to gild using the composition gold and also silver. Several members were really interested in the variegated composition leaf which is available at Dick Blick here in Las Vegas. Then we got to the fun stuff if you're process driven person like me!  I think it was agreed that this is not for the impatient.
      Water gilding is using genuine gold leaf, 22kt. in this case, and through many steps applying it to whatever it is you want to gild.  I discussed the materials and showed samples of them, the cost of the materials, and also the time and methods used to prepare your wood for the actual gilding.

The first step is to remove the leaf of gold from your book and place it on the gilders pad.  Everyone kindly held their breath so it wouldn't blow away and it stayed in place on the pad much to my relief and surprise.  This pad is basically a piece of deer skin attached to a board with a light layer of foam in between.  I think it provides some tooth for the leaf to stick to,












Once the leaf was cut with a gilders knife you use a gilders tip (usually made from squirrel hair) to place it on the board.  A very small amount of vaseline is applied to the tip to hold the leaf and also to counteract the lack of humidity.  That is our enemy!!  I've brushed on the gilders liquor which is a combination of denatured alcohol and distilled water.  This reactivates the gelatin glue that was in the clay.

























After the sample board was gilded and the liquor had a chance to evaporate off, you use cotton balls to tamp the leaf into place.  You have to be sure keep the cotton dry because if it gets any moisture on it  you may pull off the gold as I inadvertently demonstrated.

     The last step is to use an agate or "hounds tooth"  to burnish the gold.  Luckily the lack of humidity allowed me to demonstrate that before the meeting ended.  Contrary to what most folks think, you're not polishing the gold at this point, instead you are pressing it into the clay which is what makes it shine like only genuine gold can.  








     All in all, I think the demonstration and discussion went well and I hope I gave you something to think about adding to your work.  If you added some gilded details to your moldings or carvings it would set your work apart from others.  I mentioned the compo material and some seemed interested in that as well.  That's an excellent way to add the look of carved details to your work without actually carving.  I have quite a bit of composition gold leaf and if any of you want more information or some hand's on experience with it let me know and we'll see if we can get together.  There were a lot of questions at the end and I answered them to the best of my knowledge but, like it says on those warning labels:

                                                       "Try first in an Inconspicuous Spot". 

Member Project: Rich Daughtery's Sewing Center

CAUTION:  IF YOUR WIFE SEWS DO NOT, I REPEAT - DO NOT LET HER SEE THIS!


  Okay, you've been warned.  My wife saw these and really liked it, she is into sewing and makes most of her own clothes.  As woodworkers you know how that goes: "Oh, that's really nice.  Do you think you could make that for me?"  And then, the challenge has been given and we're out in the shop which we enjoy anyway but really; Thanks a lot Rich!
  All kidding aside, this is an especially nice project.  I'm sure many of you woodworkers get satisfaction out of not only working in the shop but if we can improve our house with projects like this it's a win, win situation all around.  Jamie saw these and mentioned the weight and moving around all of that MDF.  These must have been heavy and hard to move around but once the sewing machine, serger, and quilting machine are running to speed I'll bet there's no vibration.

This picture shows the sewing room before Rich began work.  The next shows the project in it's infancy.  You can see all of the base cabinets he made to get the results he wanted.

 The next step was to bring the base cabinets into the room (hope he has a one story home!) and attach the top. The top is a double layer of 3/4" MDF with an oak banding.

The last two pictures are of the completed project.  I'm sure you'll agree that this was quite the project and turned our really well.  As I recall, Rich told me his wife showed him a picture of a sewing center in a catalog and that's how he got involved.  I know he's not the only one who's been prompted by the catalog price and usually lack of quality to do one better and in my opinion, he surely did!  He sent me many more pictures than I could fit on the blog, the link to those is: http://picasaweb.google.com/kc7zdm/20100316#

Push Stick Winner

Here we have the proud winner of the Sin City Woodworkers push stick contest -- Rich Steinhauser    After a spirited discussion on the merits of each push stick entered into the contest his came out on top.  It was great to see the high level of participation in the contest.  It was somewhat difficult to judge because so many of the entries were considered worthy by the members.  Some even decided that Rich's winning entry could do double duty as a drink holder for whoever had to get coffee for everyone in the shop!
  Jamie came up with the idea of choosing the most practical and user friendly over-all and then awarding another prize for the most artistically designed push stick.  This led to another round of discussion.  One was designed to look like a lightning and was made by an electrician (beautiful piece too), Dennis incorporated his carving skills and had the worlds only duck headed push stick!  After much deliberation, Larry Mooney walked away with top honor in the artistic category but; alas, forgot to pick up his hat reward.   If nobody walked off with it, it's a classic, limited edition, Woodworkers Supply logo hat.  Larry won the artistic award for his push stick which was made of Purple Heart and Ash laminated together in a checker board pattern.  The overall shape reminded us of the shoe from The Old Woman who lived .......  He had a feature we could all use on the bottom, he cut up an old mouse pad and glued it on to help keep a grip on the wood -- nice touch.
  As far as official business, it was decided to keep the dues at $20.00 a year and they will be collected at the July meeting so start putting your change back into the beer can for your dues.  Next meeting I've been talked into doing a demonstration and explanation about gilding and how it can be used to add a special touch to your next project.  Just a reminder, if you'd like me to post pictures of your recent or any project you'd like to share with the group send them to me  HERE and I'll get it on the blog.  Send me a brief explanation and description as well.  I've received pictures from Rich Daugherty which I may get up tonight.

AND THE WINNER IS .........

So, the question is how are you coming on your push stick design?  Are you re-vamping one you've used for years or have you come up with a totally new, gee whiz, push stick that will guarantee the prize!

Wait a minute, nobody said anything about a prize -- now this gets serious.  Yep, the winning push stick will walk away with one, brand new, unopened pint of Sam Maloof's, Poly/Oil Finish to try on their next project.

Now that I've got your attention, what are you doing just sitting there.  Get yourself into the shop and work on your stick.

See you at the next meeting.

Let me get the ball rolling!

    Well, at the last meeting I asked if as many of you as possible would sign up on our blog site and also that you would send me some pictures of a recent project you had completed.
  I'm still waiting ...........!
   Let's see if I can get the ball rolling by showing my latest project.  Recognize what it is?  It's a pizza peel that I made for my friend for his  seventieth birthday present.  There will be a party for him in a week or so and that's when I'll give it to him.  It's made of alder with accents of purple heart.  His initials are carved into the handle and then gilded.  Other than honoring him and his pizza making passion I also want to make sure I stay on his taster list because he really makes some wonderful tasting pizzas.
    By the way, I'm also waiting on input from you regarding the yearly dues and what you feel is a fair amount.  Don't forget the push stick competition at our next meeting.

Dovetails Illustrated

At the meeting last Wednesday we had an outstanding demonstration by Rich Daugherty on how to lay out and cut dovetails.  Woodworkers, especially those that enjoy the challenge of hand tool work view the dovetail as a benchmark and continually strive to reach it.  The first step is the laying out of the joint.  As you can see, Rich has a formidable collection of tools to do his work.  There is an ongoing debate among woodworkers as to what to cut first -- the pin or the tail?  He does the pin first method.  The angle of the joint is usually 1:6 or 1:8 depending on whether it is a hard wood or a soft wood.

After laying them out and cutting down to his line with a dovetail saw the next step was to remove the waste in between the pins with chisels.  Since he wasn't in his own shop, he needed to improvise on ways to hold his board steady -- notice the Eugster Hold Fast (glad he didn't slip!)







The next step is to transfer the pins to the tail board.  Notice that he's using a marking knife which is much more accurate than using a pencil. It also gives a slit that makes it easier to start the saw.

Here you see a holding device Rich made for this demo, it's a torsion box.  Larry Yule gave a demonstration on how to make them and several members of the club have made them since then.  At this point it's apparent why dovetails are called "dovetails".  If this were a drawer this board would be the sides.  You can visualize the strength this gives, there's no way the pin board (which would be the front of the drawer) can separate from the drawer sides.  Careful paring with a sharp chisel is required to make these pieces fit.

After a bit of paring and fine tuning it all went together.  After a round of applause we had a discussion as to whether or not the time you spend doing these by hand is worth it.
       What was our collective answer?  DEPENDS!!  
The main thing to consider is the time factor and what the piece will be used for.  Some of the members decided there was too much time involved plus to do a quality dovetail you need quality tools which Rich had in abundance.  The quietness of working with hand tools is a pleasure when compared with the noise and dust of the routers.  However, unless you're a quick worker the time spent on these will eat into your profits.  So I guess that leaves us with making up your own mind.  Try doing a couple of dovetails with whatever tools you have.  Get them as sharp as possible and go to work.  If you get stumped put a shout out on the blog or Meet Up page and I'm sure you'll get someone to help you out.


Last of all, do sign up and join this blog by becoming a follower and also sign up for the Meet Up site.  I'm still waiting for more responses regarding the clubs dues.  How's your push stick coming along?  That's for our next meeting.

Rich Daugherty and Dovetails

   At last Wednesday's meeting Rich gave an excellent demonstration on cutting dovetails and the 20 or so other woodworkers at the meeting had an up close and personal look at the mystique of the dovetail. To illustrate what and how a dovetail does and looks like he brought in his Shaker Step stool he used for his practice piece.  The dovetails fit nicely and provided the strength they're known for.  There's just something about the dovetail -- it's the hallmark of fine craftsmanship so those woodworkers who enjoy using hand tools view it as a goal to shoot for.  Jamie and I are having technical difficulties transferring the pictures she took while Rich was doing his demonstration but they'll be posted as soon as we work it out.
    By the way, don't forget about the Push Stick Competition at our next meeting.  Only one member has sent me an email and given me input on what a fair, yearly dues should be.  I left my email on the slip of paper I handed out with the Meet Up information on it.