And the winners are....................

I know that everyone out there wants to know who the winners of the cookie contest are.  So here goes.  Drum roll please.  Of all of the enteries from all over the US it turns out that the winners are relatively local.  Both are from Maine.  How about that?  Have I rambled on enough yet?  1st name drawn was Clare Marron and the 2nd name drawn was Tracy Wilson.  Congratulations ladies.  You will be receiving your dozen assorted cookies next week.  Don't forget to come back here and brag about how good the cookies are.  Glen & I would like to thank everyone for entering our little contest here.  Remember you can always go to Glen B's website and order cookies to be deliver to that special someone or to your own door.  Happy Holidays everyone!

Contest Time - Win Free Cookies!

Everyone likes cookies, right?  And everyone likes contests, right?  Especially easy ones!  My buddy Glen has started a website for his families homemade cookies.  They have been making them for years and selling through stores in his local area but they finally decided to open a website to share the cookies with a wider audience.  They make 6 different kinds of cookies.  Trust me I have tried them all and they are very good or to quote one of my daughters "Dad, these are awesome!"  Check out Glen B's Homemade cookies by clicking here.  So to the contest.  First off, the giveaway.  One dozen assorted cookies shipped directly from Glen B's to you.  We will choose two winners and each will win a dozen assorted cookies.  Two ways to win, we will pull one person's name from all of the people who reply to this post, either comment on my blog or facebook or twitter and say that you want to win.  One winner will come from all of the people who are signed up for my email newsletter.  So if you haven't signed up for the newsletter yet better get crackin'.  You can do so by going to my homepage and there is a spot on the lower left to sign up for the newsletter.  We will pull the two winners names on Friday, December 17th at 1pm and the winners will be announced shortly after that.  Sorry but the contest is open to residents of the United States only.  Good luck!

Happy Holidays!

Wow, it's been a while since my last post.  It has been an unbelievable 5 1/2 weeks since that last post.  I have been to New York City, twice, for shows and than home to fill orders and get ready for my last show.  Some how we even managed to squeeze Thanksgiving in there.  I then left for Chicago for my last show of the year and had a great time out there too.  I would like to thank everyone who came out to the shows to see me.  It's always great to see old friends and to meet new ones at the shows.  The drive to Chicago and back encompased over 2500 miles mostly in snowstorms both coming and going.  For now it's back to the shop to fill orders for Christmas and then maybe a day or two off.  After that I will get back into the shop and start preparing for next year which promises to be quite busy.  I also have some design concepts rattling around in my head that I'm just itching to try.  I promise it won't be nearly as long until my next post.  Until then I wish everyone a very happy holiday!

Winged bowls

Winged bowls?  What are winged bowls?  Bowls that can fly?  Well not with out help anyways.  I like to make a shallow bowl that has the natural edge all the way around it.  But the natural edge has to extend out from the top of the bowl a few inches on a couple of the sides.  Just to add to the challenge, I usually make these wings no more than 1/4" thick .  I look for wood that is longer than it is wide.  Which means that the wings may extend out several inches from the sides of the bowl.  In the case of the two pictured here one is 19" x 15" and the other is 17" x 13".  I also try to find highly figured wood because along with the natural edge this design shows of the figure of the wood to the utmost.  But see for yourself.

Front of a York Gum Burl winged bowl 19"x15"x2"

Back of the York Gum Burl winged bowl

Front of the Maple Burl winged bowl 17"x13"x1"

Back of the Maple Burl winged bowl

A light smile for you.

When I was taking pictures the other day of the tea lights that I had just made I couldn't resist doing something a little different with the shot.  So here is a smile just for you.  Enjoy!

It seems quite apparent to me that I haven't been getting nearly enough sleep lately. 

Tea lights anyone?

Original style tea light

Newest style of tea light

Well to say that the last 2 1/2 weeks haven't been tough would be a complete lie.  The hard drive went in my laptop on the 7th and I didn't get it back from being fixed until the 20th.  Everything to do with the business was on the laptop.  Other than a few printouts that I had I didn't know what I had for orders.  So therefore I didn't know what I owed and to whom I owed it.  Don't get me wrong I had Quickbooks backed up but I didn't have anything to put the back on so I had to wait.  Of course once I got the laptop back I then had to load all of the programs that I use back onto it.  All in all a very frustrating couple of weeks however it's behind me now so onward and upward.   Well that was until today when my computer kept freezing up so back to the repair shop it went to see what's wrong with it this time.  Which was probably the underlying problem to begin with that made the hard drive crash.  So I'm doing this entry from my kids apple and believe me nothing is the same as my pc.

One of the orders that I knew that I had was for some Tea lights.  I had a design that I had made a few times so I made those for the order.  I wanted to be able to offer another design in the tea lights and when I was cutting the wood for the original design I came up with a second design.  Both are pictured above.  I hope that you can give me some insight into which design that you like best.  This is just about the shape and not the colors.  Thanks.

The making of a pepper mill for Saltwater Grille

I get asked all the time about how I make a pepper mill.  While I was making a pepper mill for Saltwater Grille in S. Portland, ME I thought that I would take pictures of the process and give a brief explanation of how I go about making a mill.  I know, genius, huh?  So what follows is the process that I used to make an 18" pepper mill.








Here I have roughed the pepper mill to round between centers on my lathe.  I have cut in for the head and will now take it to the band saw to cut off.

There is a lot going on in this picture.  The mill body is being held in a 4 jaw chuck at the head of the lathe.  I have a steady rest (white thing with orange wheels) holding the free end of the body.  I am working at the foot of the body.  I have already smoothed the end up with a detail gouge.  Making it slightly concave so that the mill will sit evenly on a table or counter.  I've sanded the end, drilled the larger hole and what you see is me drilling the hole that goes completely through the body.  I will drill about 3/4 of the way through the body.  Flip it around, smooth the other end making it flat (not concave) and drill in from that end.  I do that because it makes the through hole perfectly centered in the mill body.

With the body drilled out I then work on the head.  In this picture I am holding the head in the 4 jaw chuck and have already turned a tenon to fit inside the through hole of the body.  This helps keep the head aligned with the body.  Then I've drilled a hole for the drive plate (basically a round washer with a square hole in the center) and am now drilling a 7mm hole about 3/4 of the way through the head.  I will flip this around in the chuck and trim the head to the finished length.  Which is about 1 7/8" in this case and then drill in again with the 7mm drill bit.  This hole is for the square drive shaft to come up through body, drive plate and to connect with the adjustment knob on the top of the mill.

Pictured here is a special tool that I made to hold the head so that I could turn it separately from the body.  As you can tell from the picture it's a really complicated tool.  A block of wood, turned down for access to all parts of the head, and a 7mm drill bit epoxied into the wood.

Here is the highly sophisticated tool with the head of the mill on it ready for turning to shape.

Here the head has been completely turned and now the tailstock of the lathe (round cone) will be pulled away so that I can have access to the entire head to sand it.

Here is another highly sophisticated tool.  This will actually slide into and hold the foot of the body without marking up the wood while I turn the body to shape.

Here is the body being held between the tool above and the tailstock for the final turning to shape.  At this time I will cut the shoulder down to meet the head and roll beads or rings onto the body (in this case 3 separate areas of beads/rings) and then turn the areas down to the final shape between the beaded areas.  Everything will be sanded and then a finish will be applied all before it's taken off from the lathe.  Once it's dry I will buff the head and body with 3 layers of wax, the last being carnuba wax.  The last thing that I do is assemble the mechanism into the mill and it's done.

Here is the finished mill.  This one and a few more can be found in use at The Saltwater Grille in S. Portland, Maine.  You can find Saltwater Grille at 231 Front St and on the web by clicking on their name here Saltwater Grille.