Scroll Saw Blog

Mahogany is a very nice wood on the scrollsaw. It likes to sit flat, and cuts smooth.  I took the remaining piece of the mahogany short I cut last week and resawed it into 1/8″ thick pieces.  One advantage of non-surfaced lumber is you can get more for your wood dollar. Rough is cheaper than S2S (in this case $0.15 per bdft), and I was able to sneak out 4 pieces; I’d be doing good to get 3 out of S2S wood.  (S2S stands for Surfaced 2 Sides, in case you’re wondering).

I decided to take a risk and stack 8 pieces of the 1/8″ mahogany for this set of butterflies. Wouldn’t want to do that with walnut or oak, but mahogany works very well at a 1″ thickness. This gives me 4 bugs per pattern instead of 3 (with a 6-high stack).

If you look in the picture closely you’ll notice I started with the center butterfly. With a 12″ blank, holes in the ends tend to be a little difficult, as the 12″ board wants to get you in the stomach on half the hole. Instead of fighting the board, I cut the middle patterns first.  After the fret holes are cut in the wings, I go ahead and cut out both middle patterns.  I then cut the waste around the patterns, severing the board in two. That gives me a pair of 5″ blanks–much less painful to the stomach !

I’ve been using the micropinner lately for stacking the boards.  This works more reliably than tape-around-the-edges, as the boards are also attached in the middle of the blank.  You do have to make sure the pin won’t get into the blade’s way–remember, these 23 gauge pins have a way of following grain! So, make sure you don’t stick one close to a line in the pattern…You can cut the pin with the scrollsaw blade, but it will pretty much ruin the blade.

When you’re cutting the blank in two, you have to be aware of where you stuck the pins.  You need enough on each remaining blank to keep the stack together.  Voice of experience here…..

Mahogany Butterfly Blank

Another area I’ve branched into is custom bookmarks.  At Artistry in Wood I had a local businessman come by and ask for bookmarks with his company’s logo on it, along with an apple.  Since these will be Christmas presents, I’ve blurred the actual logo.

After he sketched out the intent, I drew it into a pattern using corel.  I then sent a pdf file for approval; after that, it was just a matter of cutting the bookmarks.  They’ll get delivered today. Total time involved: less than an hour.

Custom Bookmarks

The order was for 40 bookmarks.  I cut them in groups of 20.  Since the top bookmark (with the pattern attached) and the bottom (with saw/drill edges) aren’t the best, the stacks are actually 22 high. I’ll keep one for historical purposes, but will deliver the remaining 43.

A stack of 22 is slow, but not too bad.  That many sheets of plywood does take a toll on the blades.

We had our first taste of “frozen globil warmin’” last night. Not much, but enough that they were playing bumper cars on the interstates this morning (including the police–they lost two cruisers in single-car accidents; that’s got to be a little embarrassing for them! )  The first snow in this area is always pretty bad.  Fortunately Jenny made it in with no problems.

I’m indoors today, cutting out dogs.  I also plan on doing some butterflies, and to start on a new display shelf.  This one (if it works ) will be a fold-out frame with top shelf, and would be stackable.  Also, I’m going to try putting some lights underneath the top.  More later—if it works, that is!

Here’s a couple of pictures of the yard.  It’s hard to see, but yes, there are a few flakes on the grass!

First Snow, Winter 2008-2009

First Snow, Winter 2008-2009

An interesting show… A few comments:

• Weather was bad, this was their first show (first shows usually don’t do well), not many people showed up—but those who did were in a buying mood.
• Good facility, easy to set-up/break down.
• Bookmarks didn’t do well, but animal puzzles sold very well.  I sold both dragons, which are my most expensive items.
• May have gotten a lead into a wholesale buy.

That’s all for now, more later…

I cut out some butterflies from the mahogany today.  Mahogany is one of those great scrollsaw woods: It cuts smoothly, doesn’t tend to warp badly, great color, great smell. It’s main drawback is expense.  I really need some more butterflies, as I’m down to 7. I got a run of 15 cut out tonight, and they should be ready by morning (tomorrow is the Beavercreek Golf Course show). Here’s a picture of the mahogany wings.  It really doesn’t do the wood justice, as it is much more rich looking in person.  The wings just have a BLO finish.

Mahogany Butterfly Wings

Today I had a small place at a “farmer’s market” type place called “Second Street Market” in Dayton. It’s a farmer’s market, but also has several craft vendors. It was a nasty day today (35 degrees, rain/snow all day long), so I’m surprised anybody showed up. I wouldn’t have come! Anyway, I didn’t sell much, but did cover expenses and made a few dollars.

You really can’t tell from one shot at this type of venue.  Since it’s an ongoing venue, people look and return on later dates for purchases. I had several requests for giraffes, and one for a scorpion puzzle.  I going to withhold judgment on this until December. It’s low cost ($40 a saturday) and close by, so I might as well go on the days I don’t have other shows.  If it works out, I may shoot for a saturday-a-month.  We’ll just have to see how things play out.  More later….

Well, mostly puppies .

• I got the puppy order finished, and they all took their bath in the BLO.  They should be ready to ship out early next week.
• Got packed up for the first shot at Second Street Market tomorrow.  Have to get up early so I can be ready to start at 0800.  I didn’t get all the puzzles I liked, but there’s a good cross section.  Since I only have an 8×8 space,  this will be a minimum set-up.  Most of the dog puzzles are represented, and that seems to be most of the puzzle sales.
• Got the latest patterns in today.  I have an order for a Yorkie; started on the customization, but it’s been a little difficult.  The Yorkie body just doesn’t like a “Y” at the end…
• In the ongoing quest for a better display, I picked up a set of LED Christmas lights.  The idea is to mount them underneath the shelf above, so that they give a continuous glow over the shelf.  Big question:  Will they give off enough light to be usable?  Mounting should be hard, just drill some holes and push them through.  They don’t take much power, nor do they give off much heat (2-3W claimed)

Last night I got an order for 12 puppy puzzles.  Having realized that I’m down to my last 2 sassafras boards that afternoon, I got up this morning and called my normal supplier…”Hey, you got any sassafras in yet?” (I have been buying them out the last three times).  Unfortunately, not only do they not have any boards, their supplier is out, too.

Oops.

I’ve got enough for the order, but I’m looking at being out of the animal puzzle business Real Soon Now.  Really, its not that bad, as I know a couple other suppliers, one I’ve already checked (over in Indiana). Anyway,  I tried another place, Willis Lumber over in Washington Court House. They require a minimum order of about 100 bdft, but I’ve been going through sassafras pretty rapidly.  I ended up getting 250 bdft, mixed long boards and “Shorts”.  The shorts were a bit cheaper, and at 3′ long, are already chopped to a good working length. What they call a short is a longer board with a bad knot/defect in it.  They cut out the defect, and sell it as a short (2′-4′) board.

Truckload of Sassafras (and Mahogany)

Yeah, those boards on top are not the right color of sassafras . They were about to have a sale on the “shorts”, and they had opne stack of mahogany.  They let me go ahead and get it, about 40 bdft of mahogany at $3.50/bdft.  Couldn’t pass that up, as mahogany has been going for as much as $10/bdft around here!.

Back at the factory, I grabbed a 5″ board and cut it up into 10 of the 12 puppies.  Here they are, cut out but still in the blank, ready to be assembled:

Puppy Animal Puzzles

After the got their bases, they went back over to the stove to harass Norma:

Puppy Animal Puzzles

And here they are, all lined up and getting ready to jump into the oil bath.  (Notice anything strange about the picture…?)

Puppy Animal Puzzles

The custom orders have been gradually rolling in.  I’m still not down to my 15 minute goal, but they are coming easier. Like someone mentioned here earlier, having a good, continuous outline makes the puzzles look better.  Also, not being scared of fat letters seems to fill them out better and not make them look emaciated.  I like the grain on this piece of sassafras as well.  It’s not captured in the photo, but the grain actually glitters in real life.

"CASSIE" Cat Animal Puzzle

Since they’ve been popular this year, I’ve been picking up more animal puzzle patterns.  For Artistry in Wood 2008 I concentrated on having a good variety instead of having depth in stock; mainly to see what sells.  One of the puzzles was a dalmatian dog. However, after I got the pattern on the wood I took a look at it and gagged–there’s holes *everywhere*  (for the spots).  So, I put it aside and did others instead.  Guess what happened….yep, somebody asked for a dalmatian!  He was gracious enough to pay in advance.  Of course, that means I’m obligated to get it cut now.

After getting the blank to the saw, it turned out not that bad.  I left out a few holes due to structural integrity, and a few others got modified for the same reason.  I took the picture below so I could email him; however, I didn’t get an email address.  The doggy did go out in the mail today, and I hope he likes him.   He is kinda cute!

Dalmatian Animal Puzzle