Bizman62

Funny, the word 'masur' can't be found in online Eng-Fin dictionaries, but it was in Meänkieli (ancient Finnish used in isolated parts of Scandinavian Lapland)- Finnish dictionary, meaning the same!

Birch is pretty hard, much like soft maple. In fact, birch has been called poor man's maple since it looks and behaves so similarly! The carelian birch is hard and stiff, the grain goes all directions so it won't split. You can't get seeds from one for cultivating, the seeds produce normal birch. The only way to grow them is cloning. Back in the late sixties my parents bought a riverside field with a tiny cabin. They then bought 90 birch plants to fill the open field with. It so happened that they had mixed the plants in the nursery, about half of them were of the carelian variation. So some birches grew long and straight and some grew crooked. Even small branches are valuable as it's very suitable for knife handles and pens which don't require large planks.

I'd say the best option is to take your calipers and measure. There might be a consensus about how to tell the measurements but you never know...

That looks a lot like mutated silver birch, Betula pendula var. carelica, where the brown stripes are actually bark captured inside the wood.

I had to do the same when I first read the story. As you know back in the late sixties we didn't have Wikipedia or Google but I managed to find out what it was. And yes, the Finnish translation used the word 'ankus' as well.

Tru dat! When I introduced the flake paint 2k clearcoat at the workshop, we took a block of mahogany and rounded both the end and one side to get all possible grain directions sorted. Our Master Luthier was surprised how nicely it filled even the end grain shiny and without too much orange peel. On second thought, that should not be surprising considering the original purpose. The flake covered surface is pretty rough and you can't sand between layers so it has to build fast without running.

Mowgli again! Angkor Wat looks just like the place where you could find the ancient king's treasure including an ankus made of rubies and other shiny gems among other precious materials.

Most likely so. Not to mention that air tools are more lightweight and silent compared to their motor powered counterparts. But yes, the bigger workshop provided by the class which is mostly used by the town woodworkers has two hoses, both equipped with a blower pistol and most likely only used for blowing dust off the tables and big machines. The society workshop I joined in January has one hose which has its home in the back of the big belt sander. Pulling the hose to the workbench there would effectively block the pathways to most of the power tools, not to mention that hand sanding in a hall with several tools plus air cleaning screaming isn't what I'd call ideal.

I'm waiting for a thread of that project to see how it goes

I have a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore

The brush and denim method is easier to reach. In both workshops I've had access to the air hose is in the other room.

There seems to be several #301's in various hymn books but I couldn't find anything with "He's with me"

Unless you tidied the sides of the inlays, it looked like there was quite a many file marks and as you seated them pretty deep adhesion should be no problem. Speaking of file marks, at first I thought you had been very sloppy with the shaping. Then I noticed that the closeups were at least three times the real size on my screen!

About 3 mm, if the camera angle didn't do any tricks to my view. Thank God that was aluminium instead of stainless steel! A single mm would have been plenty thick enough especially since you bent the pieces to the radius. But you did what you did and you performed well for a first timer. As I don't usually sign into YouTube, here's my "note below": You managed to balance the speed nicely so that the job looks like threre's quite a lot of work to be done (as is the truth), yet the sped-ups make it look easy enough for someone hesitating to get their feet wet.

Just guessing here, but I think it's also depending on the pressure. Or to be more exact, too much pressure keeps the dust under the paper and the friction creates heat which then melts the resins in the dust and glues it all on the paper. Something like that. Just yesterday I watched one of Jerry Rosa's videos where he explained why he doesn't like using sanding blocks. He showed that with a block there'll soon be resin lumps on the paper whereas the same paper stays clean under his fingertips. The wide surface of the block - even a 1x2" one - doesn't let the dust from underneath as easily as the tiny spot of a fingertip and it's too easy to apply too much pressure. Mesh type abrasives allow the dust come through and even when used with a solid block there's more space for the dust. I've used Mirka Abralon/Abranet up to 800 grit without any burnishing. The wood still feels "open" despite being smooth.

Doesn't the first sentence already include the answer? The black seems to accent the binding even on the natural side, that's very stylish as such!

@mistermikev although the binding really looks nice against the natural, the sides have to be restained. With the neck glued sanding all the colour off and redoing the binding is no longer an option. @Drak this project has been a test bench from the very start. Although my previous build was sort of a challenge with the both sides carved hollow top, with this one I've experimented and challenged myself much more. Routing a binding cavity is a no-brainer, routing my first ever binding channels on a radiused top with a handheld router on wood that's so soft that the bearing digs into the sides... Same goes with the staining, I had never used them before and although I did some testing on scrap pieces on offcuts of the very same blank I had actually not visualized what I was after. In hindsight I should have made test pieces including the binding, then again I had to replace the original rosewood so this project has really been brewing all along the process. What's nice about this - and this is why I have been so careless - is that the body has cost me absolutely nothing. That is, unless you count the hours and gas used for cutting the blanks of the stump! The few drops of dye, a couple of rattle cans of lacquer, 1.80€/hour for the workshop etc. aren't worth counting as every hobby has its price. Knowing that I'm not ruining a 200€ triple A Paulownia one piece super light body is tranquilizing. If I end up ruining this I can simply cut the neck off and remake a body. There's a couple of usable pieces of that very same stump left...

So... The lacquer on the binding had suffered during the sanding process of the top so I tried to scrape it off in order to hide the seam between old and new lacquer at the seam of the binding. That didn't end well, there was a ridge with a garbled edge. Sometimes you just have to make something less pretty to make it prettier than it was at that stage.

Continuing with the Jungle Book theme, there's the bird named Chil, most likely a kite by species.

Thinking outside the box... Painting a car or bike is really not any different to painting a guitar. After you've got a good layer of primer sanded level, the paint doesn't know if there's metal or wood underneath.

Thanks, @mattharris75, foam roller was the correct word! Our neighbour who has done his share in building stands for trade shows called them 'dick rollers'... An even less expensive option for disposable paint pans is to lay a piece of cling film into any suitable holder, even a plate. That said, in a normal household disposable plastic containers make the biggest waste so just wash one food package when needed.

I'm not a solid color paint guy either so no big hints from me either. Outside of bikes I've seen similar effects in cars, even stock ones. Your automotive paint vendor might know something. And the local car paint shop could also be of help, they might even do it for you for a decent price!

In a negative pressure booth, preferably equipped with a what-do-they-call-it filtered sucking cabinet so you can keep the fumes in an even smaller area, an active carbon mask adds quite a good layer of protection. I bought one from China for about 7 euros including mail. The better version with glasses is just a little more. - When buying a mask for painting, make sure that the vent isn't right in front of you! The moisture from your breath tends to condense and drip on your fresh finish.

According to this study there's tannin in ebony at least in the fruit, leaves and bark. But as the study shows the deeper you go the less tannin there is. And tannin is the key for darkness in vinegar ebonising. If the tannin content of bare ebony doesn't give you the desired darkness, you can use black tea or/and walnut husks to increase the tannin content as described here: https://makerdesignlab.com/experiments/how-to-ebonize-wood/

That's a nice booth you've built there! The clear walls for ambient light are clever! IMO negative pressure is better as it pushes all the fumes outside. With a positive pressure booth you'd be inhaling the fumes forever in the rest of the workshop. There was times I thought I'd mention a thing or two but as I read further I noticed you already had sorted them out, including the filtered air inlet in the door and keeping the car away from the outlet grille. Very nice!