In an effort to try to get something going tonight, I’ve just realized the journal thing is going to be a little stressful at first…     

This morning one of my projects was building a tool.  Lignum Vitae was my wood of choice for this tool so I was glad I’d kept some of the dregs around. The dregs amount to some stuff that has real pithy sapwood and was exposed at one time to termites.The wood was on the way to being thrown out. It wasn’t and I’m glad because I would have felt bad using good wood for this project. Notice the light colored wood (sapwood). There is very little heartwood here. 

Once the stuff started turning I remembered the first time I’d worked with the stuff almost thirty years ago.

Lignum Vitae has a high oil content and the oil is very aromatic. It’s a sweet smell that is much stronger then the smell teak has when you’re working it. The oil makes finishing Lignum Vitae very easy. Once the sanding is done, you take a hand full of the sawdust and press it against the piece like you would a rag. That polishes the wood to an almost mirror like satin finish. When I do a real project I’ll get a picture up that represents what can be done with this stuff.

Some of the good stuff waiting for another project. Solid heartwood 7 inches in diameter.

One astute reader wanted to know how many types of wood there are in the world. I won’t even attempt that considering that I’d have to be thinking about figurative wood also! 

My good friend Karl has his artwork on the cover of BVI’s Welcome magazine. I have no idea where you can get this mag (check out www.bviwelcom.com) cause mine came from Karl in the mail today. I had a piece of furniture on the cover of Elle Decor one time, not even the main thing and man was I stoked. So I know how he feels. If you happen to know where to pick one of these mags up let me know. I’ll post it.  Karl’s in the mag but I’m pretty sure it’s a real old picture of him since he’s gotten old and fat. Just kidding! Congrats Karl.

Well there might be a couple of hick-ups as things get going. Hopefully you’ll be able to put up with our bad writing skills and serious lack of real humor and be able to glean some sort of information from these posts. Thanks for looking in and leave a comment if you can. Cheers

Well, we’ve been mucking around with our new gear and it looks like it’s time to log off. Have a great day, where ever you are and we hope you check back soon….. till later, cheers

This is the start of a new day so to speak. I’ll be writing here on a regular basis so that you’ll have an idea of what’s new in the our world. Right now we’re getting together a bunch of pieces for an open house we’re planning on having in the spring. We’ve got stuff in plain old hot rolled steel. Stuff in stainless and hardwood. And we’ll even be putting some things together in concrete. I hope it’s something that will turn you on and cause you to come back for more. Till later, cheers!