A couple of questions, please....

[MoroCreek]

I've been encouraged to ask questions as they arise from some fine folks here.... so here goes.

1.) I have harvested some green saplings for a couple of months.... since October..... mostly Gum and Ironwood ( American Hornbeam ). How long should these be allowed to dry inside my home before I can start working them?

2.) I'm almost certain that my wife has gotten me a variable speed Dremel for Christmas. ( I've certainly hinted enough! ). And, reading through posts here, and looking at other woodworking sites ( Google finds thousands), I've noticed that the Dremel may not come with the necessary bits to properly work with the staffs and canes that I plan to work on. I plan to mainly use this tool to "clean" the woods for applying a finish, but I may try my hand at doing some engraving as I become more comfortable with its use. May I have your suggestions for its proper use, and for additional bits that I may use for these applications?

Many thanks in advance for your thoughts and ideas.

Kim

[Marvin Little]

Kim, I know that it is hard to wait but you need to let the shafts dry/cure for at least 6 months before you put a finish on them. I bundle mine and let them dry in an outside storage building for a year before I work on them. If you seal them while they are still moist inside they will mold/mildew on you and the finish will flake off. Home depot and others sell individual cutters for the dremel tool. They also sell a set of 4 collets that will let you use cutters with different size shafts. I was given a handful of used cutters by my wife's dental assistant. They had, of course, been sterilized by them. These have a very small shaft. Collets are the part that the cutter slides into and that tighten up on the shaft.

Marvin

[Boydman]

Mornin Kim,

I bought some bur cutters from Treeline and use them for cleaning out the diamonds. The smaller ones should work for carvin. We use the Dremel and Foredom and do alot of relief carvin...good luck.

[Claude]

I have a Dremel which I have used for light carving on harder woods. Whichever machine you end up with, buy carbide burrs (bits) for it. The Dremel takes 1/8 inch or 3/32 inch shafts. Some of the larger machines can do these as well as the 1/4 inch shaft variety.

Burrs come in many shapes and sizes. I recommend these for the basic set:
Structured Carbide Burrs-Kutzall 1/8"-Wood Carvers Supply
265081
265681
265010
265610
265096
265696
In English, these are, respectively, coarse and fine ball, c and f round end cylinder, c and f flame.
There other manufacturers than Kutzall, and they are all fine as long as they are carbide. The link is provided to show you the shapes. I do not like the high speed steel burrs, as many of the harder woods quickly heat up the burrs and they lose their "sharpness". When oily or resinous wood clogs up a structured carbide burr, you can use oven cleaner to clean it. You can hold it in a pair of pliers and burn the resin off with a propane torch or the kitchen range. Heating carbide to red hot won't hurt it, but the HSS will be ruined.

Safety note: make sure you get, and wear, a good quality dust mask and safety goggles. Wood dust is very bad for the lungs, and many of the hard woods are toxic. Also, if you are hand-holding the wood in one hand, do NOT wear a kevlar or other cloth carving glove; wear a plain, all-leather gardening glove on the holding hand. WHEN the burr catches on the wood, it will raise up and race across the wood and onto your holding hand faster than you can blink. The cloth gloves will catch in the burr and can easily break a finger and/or damage the power tool. The leather may get chewed up a little, but better the leather than your skin/flesh... I also recommend getting a flex shaft instead of trying to hold the Dremel or other tool in your hand. Much lighter weight and easier to control. When finished carving, do NOT coil up the flex cable - it will take a "set" and wear out fast. Instead, hand it vertically.
Claude

[mrugenus]

Along with the burrs Claude recommends, a couple of other accessories that I have found to be invaluable for the dremel are a flex shaft and a chuck. The flex shaft is easier to handle than the dremel itself. Using the chuck rather than collets allows me to quickly change bits regardless of the shaft size and I can also tighten it by hand so I don't need a wrench.

[Waitpinga Whittler]

I think Claude and Mrugenus have given you the best advice you could hope for on a site like this. I would like to add that you will find the dremil a little underpowered to do any serious carving, especially in harder woods, but it is great for detail work.

Also, the dremil and other rotory carvers are tools that require a degree of skill to use effectively. I remember when I first got mine, I had grand plans for its use but soon found that my expectations far exceeded my skill level. Years later I would have to say that for carving at least, one is better off getting a grounding in carving principles using a knife and a few chisels before trying to carve with power. This is just my opinion based on my own experience. I dare say there are plenty that would disagree. But I found the dremil and the like to be much more useful as suppliment to my carving arsenal rather than the principle tool.

[MoroCreek]

Thanks folks! You have given me some great suggestions, and some good ideas. I'll have to look into the burs suggested, and the flex shaft. I still do not know just how much carving I'll be doing...... mainly a little shaping and cleaning of the wood.... and cleaning the remains of the vines from the gooves they made in the wood.

Do you draw your designs on the wood prior to doing your carving? I do a little drawing...... I'll try to include a book cover I recently did for a friend of mine.

Thanks again for all your help!

Kim

[Marvin Little]

Kim, I would highly suggest that you go slow on buying a lot of burrs and other tools until you use a few of them for a while and then buy individual ones instead of sets. You tend to have a lot of stuff in sets mthat you will not use very much. Of course, you now have given your friends and family another type of presents to buy for you.

Marvin