'cello 2, part 1

Electric cello number 2 is already under way. It's going to be a 5 string. I've cut 3 profiles out of 1.5" birdseye maple which was a breeze thanks to my new band-saw .

 

I then laminated the 3 sections and cut the neck and tail profiles

I also have the fingerboard cut and shaped, more pictures to follow 

gouge

This gouge is one of the first things I made in my forge It took me a few months to really getting around to sharpening and setting it in a handle. Now it works alright in tight curves. It is almost a bowl gouge in terms of angle

 the handle was really hastily made just a dowel with a slot cut in it with polyurethane glue and sawdust mixed to fill around the tool .

Again my first attempt at forging and blacksmithing so not so pretty results

Draw knife

In order to make my tool collection more complete without spending much money I have been trying my hand at tool making 

 First off is a simple small draw knife. It is a piece of flat stock twisted with a vice and blow torch then hardened in my charcoal forge to martensite then tempered slightly

 It holds an amazingly sharp edge I can slice quite easily into soft woods almost an inch and the small handles give good close control

And of course I  made a leather sheath for it

bike trailer

I built a bike trailer a year and a half ago. Using an old bed-frame and a sawzall, hacksaw and an arc welder. it fits standard bike front wheels in all diameters.
the original incarnation had very simple wooden sides and a hand made universal joint attached to the seat-post as a hitch.

 

 I was able to haul 4 sheets of plywood through a muddy two track with it on a single speed road bike. once you got off the bike it would eventualy lift the bike off the ground.

I eventually added a tailgate to make it more sturdy and less likely to lose small objects. I replaced the universal joint with an old socket u-joint my home built one worked fine but rattled and squeaked endlessly at the same time I also replaced the aluminium clamp with a steel shaft clamp.

After a year of this set up (including 2 months with skis in place of wheels) I decided to upgrade the bed with a beefier, bigger one

longbow

This summer I worked on an island as part of a summer camp program, the island has no electricity or running water. I carved this bow out of a single piece of maple over a few weeks during the few moments of down time and when hanging out with the kids. It is about 7 ft long and can fire an arrow 70 yards. Pictured also is the next bow I'm working on with hopefully more power.

The string is a continuous loop of sewing thread
The two arrows on the left were made on the island by cutting a clear cedar log section, splitting with an axe and knife, carving, and finally a trimming plane to even out the surfaces. They were fleched with crow feather I found and with turkey feathers I was given the third arrow I made out of a scrap from one of my paddles and fleched with some goose feathers.

the grip and arrow rest is a piece of birch with the nub of a crook to the side wrapped in leather. I measured round the grip at various points, cut the leather slightly smaller, punched matching holes and sewed the two ends together. Then I slowly worked the thread pulling out all the slack and drawing the leather tight no gluing required.

spring pole lathe

I built this a few months ago, It is not quite a spring pole lathe as there is no pole, rather a spring bow attached to the frame as the return mechanism.

it works rather well, i have turned out a bowl of maple and have a rolling pin in prgress

The frame is simple two by four and two by six construction. The head stock and tail stock are both set in place with wedges. There are interchangeable chucks for holding outsides of pieces as well

Nomadic Book Shelf

This was built this fall, I used some lumber found In one of my grandpas outbuildings that was falling down. I found out it was from packing crates for mining equipment. I left most of the indentations as I like the way they look.

The advantage of this design is that the whole thing can be assembled or disassembled in less than two minutes. It is also extremely stable for having no metal fasteners at all. (My test of stability is to jump up and sit on the top shelf and shake side to side, so holding books is no problem) The wedges are maple for strength and durability when being pounded with a mallet or wood block

the sides are a single piece with mortises cut through, I cut an extra mortise in between the top two shelves for different set-up possibilities.

The shelves are laminated from three pieces to make the shelves wider than the stock lumber and to make precise corners on the tenon with out much difficulty.

The tenon runs through and has a mortise through its centre that runs back into the side allowing the wedge-pin to draw tight. I drilled and dowelled the end of the tenon to prevent splitting.

Shoes

I started making my own shoes mostly because I have weird feet (size 10, 6E Wide with a normal width heel) even when I wear size 12 shoes I tend to split them out the sides.

I have made sandals before but my first full shoes were this pair of mukluks I made back in January. They were originally built as indoor slippers but I soon discovered they were quite warm outside in the snow.

I am often asked "are they waterproof" and "are they warm"

The answer to both is yes as long as it is below freezing. damp snow can quickly soak the leather if not freshly conditioned. Otherwise they keep my feet warmer than any other boots. Thick wool socks are needed as they have no insulation apart from a felt insole

This spring I made some Ojibwe inspired moccasins  for summer use

I made them a bit too small at first but luckily leather stretches, so after taking a few showers in them, they formed to my feet quite well.

This fall I ripped a hole through the bottoms and had to resole them.

leather daddy

Some leather items I have made (mostly recently)

Firstly this watch-band I made a year and a half ago so I could wear an analogue watch without worrying about scratching or breaking the face. It is very soft now and can "heal" minor scratching and scraping with all the wax rubbed into it.

The inspiration is the "Vortex Manipulator" from the Dr. Who series.

Next is a simple case for holding double point knitting needles when not in use with the knitted piece still on. It helps from losing stitches when carrying knitting in a pack. It also prevents needles from poking through bags into ones back. (Which has happened to me a lot)

I just received my new safety glasses so I built a case to hold them

Similarly for a new hatchet. I prefer using a buckle for this as opposed to a snap as the leather will stretch and the buckle acts as a cam preventing accidental unfastening. but once it is unfastened the hatchet slides out sideways without any difficulty unlike the cases where the whole handle must be pulled through the top

Kayak Paddles

I've been making Greenland style kayak paddles recently

This is the first one, It's a little rough and heavy, used only hand tools sitting on the steps of my shack this summer

The construction is two laminated cedar 1" x 4"s with maple tips and finished with marine polyurethane. Haven't weighed this one. not sure if I want to

I'll get pictures of the second one up soon. It was made using some power tools for basic shaping and ended up weighing 30 oz which is lighter than some carbon fibre paddles

Electric Violin

The second instrument almost complete. The violin body is one solid piece of birdseye maple. The tuners are from an old guitar I found on a trip to the dump

Still to be complete are the shoulder rest and pick-up. I have yet to acquire more magnet wire.

Cello

For the past two years I have been working on a few musical instruments. The first is an electric cello.

The neck and body are red oak (awful choice, but was all I could find at the time) which I shaped using a coping saw and some files in my college apartment. The body support struts are old aluminium tent poles so the whole thing disassembles quite easily.

The pickup is a magnetic coil hand wound with awg 40 magnet wire and rare earth magnets attached to screws for adjustably. this is the third pickup assembly the first was too quiet and lacked adjustably, The second included an active amplifier which ended up pumping out 3 volts of signal over whelming every amp or mixer it was plugged into the third was just right.

I was a little too cheap to spring for machine tuners at the time so I improvised with some bolts and wing-nuts that ride in groves to make a rather effective linear tuner that rarely goes out of tune.

I have given up on any attempt at aesthetics at this point in favour of pure functionality. I will try to be more artistic on the second model. (coming soonish)

Trevor has been knitting

Some of the things I've been knitting in the last year or two

These mittens are a repeating snowflake pattern on size 1 double point needles

Fair Isle mittens

After 10 years of knitting I have finally figured out how to make well fitting hats. The patterns and colours are mostly made up on the fly.

Some hats I've made recently

Cable socks I made a while back and have been wearing constantly

 My almost complete sweater, I still have to make the collar and join all the pieces, I've been taking a break from it after putting in a hundred hours or so. Size 4 double point needles for sleeves, size 4 single points for body