Making Hair sticks,picks, forks, combs

[wildhare]

Olive Juice this is for you. I hope it answers your questions about making a hair pick, fork or comb as some people call them.

I start by making a drawing on paper. I cut it out and trace in onto my wood. A guy at the local carving club brought in his son's leftovers. All exotic. Wait. Let me wipe the drool off. (Yet another advantage of finding a local carving club)

This wood is rather thick so I will slice it to make 3 forks (as they seem to be called today)

When I started carving, I used my husbands jig saw to cut out my basic shapes. Or I struggled with a non mechanical hand saw that looks like a C with a small blade in it.

I cut these out with a band saw from Lowes. Bottom of the line I have to say, but it's faster than by hand!

[wildhare]

I use 3M painters tape to tape the three together and use the band saw to cut out the wood between the tines. Notice the cuts are slightly V shaped. I can round them later with my knife.

I started carving with knock off Xacto knives, but soon tired of them breaking and PINGING towards me. I then went to a $10 folding disposable blade knife. For some reason, I could keep them sharp by using a sharpening stone or 800 grit sandpaper. I hadn't learned to sharpen the real knives yet.

I think it was because the way they mounted in the handle, you held them in the right angle off the stone, (about a dimes height between blade and stone) On regular blade knives, I couldn't seem to keep the angle right. Now I know how to keep them sharp.

As you can see, my tines are not straight right now. I use my knife, one my husband made me, to round off the corners . I snapped a shot of my first folding knife. I still take it and a smaller version with me when we go to the lake or the woods. It is cheap enough to replace if I loose it.

You can see from the photos, I wear a carving glove. You can see by my left hand what happens when I don't. OOOOopps. I bought some at a freight salvage store for anyone that wants to try carving in my shop. They are great to prevent knife slips and light gouges. They are not puncture proof. I am not sure any are other than the chain mail type. but they help with the little boboo. DO NOT WEAR THEM WHILE USING POWER TOOLS! They can get caught up in the tool and rip a finger off.

Let me know if this helps and I will post the rest as I finish them.

Wanda

[olive_juice]

Thanks so much! This really does help a lot.

Okay, so you use the box cutter for carving? Is this easier than a pocket knife?

I'll have to be on the look out for a bandsaw on the cheap, ans I'm pretty sure I could never ever do this by hand!

Oh, one more question: about how long does this take you? It seems like it's taking me much longer than it should, and I wonder if I'm doing something wrong.

[wildhare]

Olive juice,
I started with a knock off Xacto set. The blades were thinner than the real thing. One day I picked up my husbands fixed blade box knife and found I could carve with it. I could sharpen it too! I found the folding and LOCKING utility knife at Lowe's. Later I found a smaller version I liked for detail.
Do I like them as much as my Flex cut set? No way. But when I started, I couldn't afford a better set. If you are still thinking about a good beginner set, you can't go wrong buying from Rick's little shavers. His beginner set is awesome and scarey sharp when they arrive. If you are not sure you will like woodcarving, then try the folding locking utility knife. It is around $10 with a pack of 5 blades. With a sheet of 800 grit sandpaper, practice sharpening, (actually stropping or touching up the blade). If you mess it up, throw the blade away or keep trying.
Do you have a glove for carving?
Have you tried a jig saw for cutting them out?
How long does this take me? My first one took two weeks to finish. I started this morning on the hair fork so less than 2 hours to this point. But I do this daily for the past two years.

You will get faster as you go along. You will also get better. Just keep trying.

Do you want photos of the rest of the making of these forks?
Wanda

[olive_juice]

Ron from the forums has been generous enough to offer to send me a carving knife and a detail knife, so I may not have to buy one as soon as I thought, but I may try to find one of these to use until he does. Although that painters tape idea of yours is working well- my fingers aren't near as sore today as they have been.

I'd love to see the rest of the photos!

[wildhare]

That must be Ron T. We have an incredible group of folks here. I will put the rest of the photos up late tomorrow. I had to run errands today and start selling on Etsy.com. , well trying to sell.
Wanda

[olive_juice]

Good luck with etsy! There's a large board on craftster with selling hints about etsy that seems pretty helpful, if you're having trouble. I've been meaning to start selling there as well (not woodcarving- I sew and do beadwork), I just never seem to have enough craft lying around.

Take your time with the pics, I'm a patient girl. :.)

[wildhare]

Hey Olive Juice,
Here are the pictures of the finished comb. I was soooo surprised when I used the spray Cabot's marine poly. Wow what color the wood has. I will be making some hair sticks in the coming days. I will shoot you some pictures if you would like. It dawned on me when I was sanding today with my dremel drum sander that your problem about not getting your sticks straight might be you are moving too slow. I was daydreaming and sanded a divit. I found that when I move it very quickly up and down, I get it straighter. Totally straight is not as important as smooth is.

I also included a picture of the plastic box I use for protecting my freshly varnished pieces from sanding dust. It was from some iced sugar cookies my daughter loves.

I will try to find the hair sticks I made with cutouts and floating red garnet hearts and tiny crystals. I do beading too on my fused glass pendants. Nice to know there is some one else with lots of hobbies.

[olive_juice]

So you didn't stain it at all, and that was the result with the poly? Wow! I was hoping the colors of my cedar pieces would really shine through, so maybe I'll use that stuff! Your combs are beautiful and I would definitely love some pictures of your new hairsticks, but don't want you to go to too much trouble.

Putting your varnished stuff in a box is a great idea! I'll probably steal it for when it comes time to poly the stuff I'm making (if that time EVER comes, anyway).

[Thor]

Thanks Wanda. Your tutorial is very helpful.