Making New Scratch Stock Cutter

In order to make a bead detail for some frame molding I could either buy a router bit or make a new cutter for my scratch stock (a traditional shop-made molding cutter or scraper). I believe that it is good to make your own tools when you can.

Below is the new cutter in the body of the scratch stock (similar to a marking guage), a piece of scrap walnut that has recieved the molding and an old triple flute cutter I made last winter.

The profile is marked on the blank before cutting. The blank is roughly cut from an old handsaw blade with a cold chisel then filed smooth.

The profile is then cut out with a dremel cut-off wheel…

then cleaned up with files.

The finished profile cutter in the scratch stock body and the resulting bead cut into the walnut.

Moses in the Cleft of Rock

Here is an update of the Moses in the Cleft of Rock panel. It is graphite on a gessoed poplar panel- in the process of becoming a painting. The underpainting will be in egg tempera, while the final painting will be oil.

Moses Anointing Aaron Update

Here is some recent progress on the painting of Moses anointing Aaron. A detail of Aaron followed by the whole picture.

Milling Ash With a New Set-up

A carpenter ant infested green ash crotch being milled using a piece of heavy aluminum C-channel on sawhorses as a guide for the first cut. Also the standard 20 inch bar on the Stihl 039 has been replaced with a 24 inch bar and a rip-cut milled chain. The extra four inches and a new bar make a big difference in getting good true and flat cuts.

It would have been better had it not been filled with a colony of carpenter ants, but still nice wood.

A little better towards the edge, just not as interesting.

Bowls on the Mantle.

We have been making a lot of bowls lately, here are some of them.

A row of bowls on the mantle. Some are turned on a foot powered pole-type lathe and some on an electric lathe.

One in green ash, and one in cottonwood.

One in bald cypress and one in walnut.

Bowl blanks just cut and ready to have the ends coated with paraffin. Species here are, persimon, green ash, post oak, black walnut, and bald cypress.