tools and drying suggestions

[mimi_in_tx]

tools--i am wanting to make sm-med (3-12" diameter) size bowls, walking sticks, and spoon/fork sets. i have looked through the lee valley catalog and thought about buying the henry taylor palm set. Henry Taylor Palm Set - Lee Valley Tools

i don't want to buy a set with tools i don't really need right now. i would rather spend more on a few useful tools, then less on tools i won't use as much, and build my collection once i expand my projects. and i am wanting to do the work without the aid of power tools. and would a hook knife, drawknife, or inshave be helpful? my budget is no more than $200.

drying--i have 2 sycamores, 2 bradford pears, a loblolly pine, and an arizona ash that just got cut down. the trees all died in hurricane ike and are pretty dry already. i noticed the sycamore is starting to crack from the outside in. all others look pretty good so far. the trunks are all in pieces from 2' to 4' long. should i cut to size now or wait? i have a feeling the sycamore will have to be used as yard art carvings, and not as bowls. : (
i have it all stacked on pallets and covered with plywood. any suggestions?
thanks for your help.
mimi

[Ron T]

Hello and welcome, Mimi. It's nice to have you here with us. There is so much to learn here and a lot of great people here to help you. You can do most of what you want with a knife, a "v" tool and a couple of gouges. Sounds like you've got some nice wood. You can take a look at some of my sticks on my website if you get a chance.

[carver33]

Mimi,

Welcome to the forums.

You should coat the ends of the wood with melted paraffin wax to prevent the ends from drying out first and causing cracking and checking. There are other products to do this, but the wax is usually readily available and cheap. Green wood should generally dry in a dry location for at least 6 months per inch of thickness, but dead wood should dry much faster.

I wouldn't suggest buying a set of tools. I almost never use the flat chisels and rarely use the skew chisel. I prefer a wider variety of gouges from a number 3 (almost flat) to a number 11 (U shaped). I've got several different brands of tools, but I prefer the Flexcut interchangeable blade palm gouges. I like the shape and feel of the handle and the gouges come pretty darned sharp and are easy to keep sharp with simple stropping. I like these gouges because of the very thin profile of the steel.

You will probably get a number of other opinions, and you'll have to wade through them, but hopefully you'll get a lot of good advice.

Good luck.

[bigEd_H]

Welcome to the forum, Mimi. It sounds like you're on the right track with tools. Most sets include tools you may never use. The best thing is to get the tools you need individually. I'll let others recommend what brand is best for making bowls, but for spoons you can't beat the Denny spoon gouge. In fact, it's tough to beat any Denny tools for price and quality.

[mpounders]

I also like the Flexcut tools and I recommend the hook knives from Pinewood Forge. I only do spoons and I use my bandsaw for cutting blanks and other power tools for sanding or other time-consuming pieces, but nothing to stop you from doing all by hand. Flexcut also makes a draw knife that would be handy. I might start with a hook knife, draw knife, and some form of carving knife to start with if I were just going to do spoons all by hand. I'm pretty sure I would never finish a bowl if I tried it all by hand!

[Woody1961]

Originally Posted by mimi_in_tx

tools--i am wanting to make sm-med (3-12" diameter) size bowls, walking sticks, and spoon/fork sets. i have looked through the lee valley catalog and thought about buying the henry taylor palm set. Henry Taylor Palm Set - Lee Valley Tools

i don't want to buy a set with tools i don't really need right now. i would rather spend more on a few useful tools, then less on tools i won't use as much, and build my collection once i expand my projects. and i am wanting to do the work without the aid of power tools. and would a hook knife, drawknife, or inshave be helpful? my budget is no more than $200.

drying--i have 2 sycamores, 2 bradford pears, a loblolly pine, and an arizona ash that just got cut down. the trees all died in hurricane ike and are pretty dry already. i noticed the sycamore is starting to crack from the outside in. all others look pretty good so far. the trunks are all in pieces from 2' to 4' long. should i cut to size now or wait? i have a feeling the sycamore will have to be used as yard art carvings, and not as bowls. : (
i have it all stacked on pallets and covered with plywood. any suggestions?
thanks for your help.
mimi

Let me go backward from the end: if I were in your position, I would start cutting the wood now for drying. ESPECIALLY the sycamore. What I would do is get a good sized metal can (metal 3 lb coffee can is what I use) and go to Walmart or a grocery store to the canning aisle and get bulk paraffin wax (usually comes in boxes of 1 lb.). Melt the wax and leave it on low heat on the stove and have a cheap brush (2-4") available. I would then cut the wood to length. If you cut an inch or two off of the ends, then you will get rid of a lot of the wood where the checking (cracks) have begun, and you will be more likely to have more even drying. When you get the wood cut to length, then cut it lengthwise to get it in the right proportions. Once the wood is cut the way you want it, paint the ENDS of the wood with the paraffin. You only want to paint the end grain. You can go into places like WoodCraft or Rockler and find wood blanks that are completely covered in wax, and you had better treat them as if they are wet as freshly cut (because they are). MOST of the drying that happens goes through the end grain. If the end grain is sealed, then it will dry with much less checking.

If you are going to do bowls you can go to finished thickness while the wood is wet, and you will not have as much of a challenge with checking, though the finished bowl will warp (generally very interestingly). It can be finished with polyurethane and it will not warp/check. Finishing with mineral oil will give a more food friendly finish without the full degree of protection from warping/checking. I have done a LOT of bowls on a lathe, and all of these same techniques apply. If you are going to do trenchers (bread bowls) then a really sharp ADZE would be an awesome tool to have.

If I had to suggest tools for carving, then I would suggest Flexcut tools. This link is to the boxed sets that Traditional Woodworker has. I think that these give the greatest value, and if you get a set like Flexcut Set of 4 Wide Palm Tools (Handled) 83-FR404 it has some really useful tools that you will certainly use in the carving areas you specified. In addition they sell scorps that are very useful in bowl making.

Enough of that. Let me know if I can help.