I want to know where you live, Tom (hint: Newport, Kentucky). As far as I know, hasn't your town always had a reputation for wonderfully naked ladies????? Or is that just a nasty puritanical Cincinnati rumor?
On Jan 22, 2010, at 1:13 PM, Tom Hodges wrote:
John, Where are you anyway? What you don’t seem to understand is that you have to put on long johns and wool socks when it gets below 68 degrees F. Well around here, the girls go naked when it gets over 100 f. So you see, you are not looking at the whole picture. We will put up with a lot of cold, just knowing that the hot naked weather bwill make it’s annual return some day soon.On a less serious note. You may know this but around here, they take pine boards and sand blast them to eat away the softer, early pulp, then use the planks for forms for pouring concrete and the result is a concrete wall with a wood grain to it. It is a very effective system and looks great, especially when painted. Or stained. I never realized that the reason there was softer wood that the sand would eat away was because of wsofter early growth, as you explained above.Thanks for the very interesting information. Tom Hodges, Newport, KentuckyP.S. Where do you live? May it says that in here somewhere but I missed it.From: blindwoodworker-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:blindwoodworker-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx ] On Behalf Of JDMSent: Friday, January 22, 2010 8:56 AM To: blindwoodworker@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: [blindwoodworker] Early wood vs Late wood Hi all,I hope everybody has had a wonderful Christmas new Year break. Here, it is summer and everyday is around 40 Celsius, that's er um...about 104 Fahrenheit. I simply cannot imagine the intense cold and freezing conditions that you have in North America. For me here, any temperature below 68ºF, I'm putting on the long Johns and three or more woolen pullovers. I went up into our Mountains here once, and experienced some snow, about an inch deep, and I have never felt more miserable, depressed and unhappy. hahahaha, so, never ever again...give me a sunny beach, rolling surf and a blazing sun every time.Over the Christmas period I've been doing a little delving into the science of tree growth and its consequent lumber. I viewed/listened to several videos by the Canadian woodworker named Hendrik Vardu from the Web site, "Passion for Wood."I now understand the structure of the wood grain in DouglasFir which I previously talked about with reference to urushi or Japanning. Actually, the same structures occur in all lumber, but in Douglas fir it is particularly noticeable.I spoke about a grain pattern of soft, pulpy, light coloured wood, separated by much harder dark coloured grain lines. In my childhood, I learned that every grain line represents a year of tree growth. but apparently, that's not exactly true. Apparently, as the Winter thaws out, and the warmth and rains of spring arrive, a tree puts on a very rapid growth spurt. During this very rapid growth spurt, the tree develops a new outer layer of the soft pulpy wood. Then as Summer comes on, and the air temperature heat increases and the rains stop, the tree develops another new outer layer of wood which is much more dense, harder and darker.So, to count a trees age, you do not count every apparent sequential growth ring, but every second light coloured pulpy ring, or every second dark coloured hard growth ring. The light coloured pulpy wood is called "early wood, "and the dark coloured hard growth rings are known as "late wood." My apologies and sorry if all of this is old news to you, but for me, it's new and exciting.In speaking with many woodworking friends here, and talking about my idea of Urushi or japanning a Douglas fir stool, to make a lined pattern of dark late wood and black Urushi filled early wood hollows, it has been suggested that I,1: wet the wood to raise the grain,2: scrape out the "early pulpy wood" with a wire brush, by following and scraping along the grain line,3: applying a pore filling wood sealer to the scraped surface,4: applying a black Japan or Urushi stain to the now, non-porous, surface,5: applying urushi or Japan lacquer across the grain to fill the "early wood" hollows,6: continue applying Urushi/Japan coats, until the scraped out "early wood" hollows or valleys are more or less filled and flush with the high "late wood" peaks,7: then sanding the surface in line with the grain until the peaks of the "late wood" are re-exposed, and are flush with the filled "early wood" filled hollows,8: then apply many coats of clear lacquer to the surface, leaving a pattern of dark black "early wood" hollows, which contrast with a myriad of much lighter mid brown "late wood" grain lines.So far, it is all just an idea and I've not made any further progress on the project. I've spent my summer holidays experimenting with the use of Tung Oil on a Pine DVD Cabinet I recently built. Natural Tung Oil smells wonderful, but it takes days and days to dry, even in this hot dry heat, so I've been messing around with the addition of hardeners and dryers to the natural product. It has worked out wonderfully, and the texture of the pine surface has turned out to be hard as rock and as slippery smooth as an Ice skating rink!Cheers, John Melbourne, Australia. From: John Sherrer Sent: Tuesday, January 05, 2010 4:35 PM To : blindwoodworker@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: [blindwoodworker] Re: Urushi/Japanning technique Let us know how it works out.I have been in the Southwest North Carolina mountains for Christmas. I have no internet service there. We came back to Winston Salem, and our house felt like a coffin, we found that turning up the heat did no good. In fact, we are still waiting for repair parts for our furnish. We had bought a load of fire wood a month ago and we are quickly using it up.Canada is currently dumping a load of very cold air on up. I hope all went well with all of you. John http://WhiteCane.org http://BlindWoodWorker.com http://HolyTeaClub.comcom\whitecane http://anellos.ws
Larry Martin woodworkingfortheblind@xxxxxxxxxxx
