broke the 100-hour mark and a new carve "ferret friends of Tucson"
Well.. to make a long story short, the other day my kids' old kindergarten teacher (who teaches my oldest's odyssey of the mind) emailed and put me onto a freecycle lead for some "exotic wood"- with price of FREE. Needless to say, I was dubious but made the call. I was very pleasantly surprised to meet a lovely elderly woman named Carol who gave me some wood that she knew was better than the burnpile destination it had reached. (her father was in the forestry service in the early 20th century and she and I had a lovely discussion of different woods, their uses, and forestation/deforestation of the great plains). She let me at the wood pile with instructions to "leave the junk doug fir and pine but take the good stuff" I loaded my truck with the dirt and pack rat poo covered timbers and thanked her profusely for what I suspected lay beneath the silvery facade. She just laughed and said that the menfolk had laughed when she said a woodworker would want it... but she was right...
Before, (don't let it fool you... she knew EXACTLY what she was talking about)
After a little planing... mesquite, walnut (including an 8/4 x 50 x 11 piece), teak (yes... TEAK...), maple, cherry, lots of mahogany with VERY tight grain, and lots of ash, hickory, and oak. Many of these (which became visable after a brushing) were marked with the species and size as though fresh from a lumberyard. Others were obviously home sawmill made--but gorgeous nonetheless.
At any rate, I digress.... she was a lovely lady and her hobby is ferrets. As a thank you, I made her this sign today out of one of the pieces of wood. (Mesquite)... oh yeah... and during the carve I FINALLY surpassed the 100 hour mark on my machine-- WHOO HOO!!
more coming
Lawrence
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