BS: Bill D ruined my life

Subject: RE: BS: Bill D ruined my life
From: Bill D
Date: 04 Nov 02 - 07:38 PM

why, Vixen....advice? *evil grin*...sure, FedEx to my address!...(what were you saving it for? Sounds like you knew to keep it...)

Mario...tsk!..well, at least you were warm!....but we did miss you...so, like those Jivaro indians..plan ahead! Next year will be here before you can say Czescovansglian vroscltztze!

Naemanson Mudlark and Amos....it ALWAYS pleases me to have the wood admired!

...and Willie-O !!!!...I'd sayI was ashamed of you,.....if I didn't have one also!....hope those pieces get used.

Subject: RE: BS: Bill D ruined my life
From: Willie-O
Date: 04 Nov 02 - 02:28 PM

blue clicky of mudlark's pics

Nifty.

Bill, I didn't say handplaning, did I?

The hand-held electric planer is a wondrous artifact.

I do use a jack plane too.

W-O

Subject: RE: BS: Bill D ruined my life
From: Mudlark
Date: 04 Nov 02 - 01:05 PM

Willy-O...I live in central California, not far from the coast. Here is a page full of manzanita pics, most too leafy to show the wood itself but one good one

http://www.bahiker.com/plantpages/manzanita.html

In a forest of old growth manzanita the witchy, contorted way it grows makes you feel like you've wandered into an Arthur Rackham illustration from a book of fairy tales. Even unpolished the wood is smooth and lively to the touch and the cut ends, even from a chainsaw, are like polished glass. Small wood lots more plentiful than large, so large works of art in this wood hard to come by, but the artfully twisted nature of the branches make them ideal for some things, and at least half of the stuff out in my woodpile would look good just being displayed like sculpture.

Bill...gorgeous work!

Subject: RE: BS: Bill D ruined my life
From:
Date: 04 Nov 02 - 12:55 PM

HMMM

Tim's got an oak burl about 2' in diameter sitting in the back yard under a tarp...

Got any advice, Bill?

V

Subject: RE: BS: Bill D ruined my life
From: MMario
Date: 04 Nov 02 - 11:38 AM

yeah - one of my gripes about missing the Getaway this year was that *this* year I knew about bill's stuff and was planning (and had budgeted) some purchases. Which is why I was able to afford a hotel room when I got stranded.

So I'm sorry Bill - but Thank you!

Subject: RE: BS: Bill D ruined my life
From: Amos
Date: 04 Nov 02 - 11:36 AM

Bill -- Wow...just wow.

Mighty fine stuff, and a beauty added to the world!


A

Subject: RE: BS: Bill D ruined my life
From: Naemanson
Date: 04 Nov 02 - 11:32 AM

Well, ain't that some purty stuff. Nice work, Bill.

Subject: RE: BS: Bill D ruined my life
From: Bill D
Date: 03 Nov 02 - 09:24 PM

"Time, it is a precious thing..
Time brings all things to my mind..."

FREEHAND?....wow....and hand planing can be as calming as Zen...have fun!

Subject: RE: BS: Bill D ruined my life
From: Willie-O
Date: 03 Nov 02 - 08:06 PM

There are worse things than wood to be up to here in.

Specially in a woodshed.

Incidentally, the particular log that inspired all this was a 24" sugar maple that has been laying out in the woods---I mean, AIR DRYING--since the great ice storm of 98 when I had to cut it down.
Past its prime. I did, in my crude way, mill some 30" boards, quarter-sawn, FREEHAND, out of it. I will probably make sign plaques or something like that out of them. They will take a lot of planing, though, which is something I enjoy doing.

When there's time.

W-O

Subject: RE: BS: Bill D ruined my life
From: Bill D
Date: 03 Nov 02 - 07:54 PM

thanks again, everyone!....

yep HG, I have some little Pecan pieces right now...it had partially spalted, (fungus and bacteria turning it colors before it rots) and was kinda neat. I LOVE Love Oak...have been messing with some for years now, and it is even better when it spalts!..Magnolia, I don't think so...too soft and bland.

When I get wood that is likely to split at the ends..(as most will do) I use a commercial waxey stuff to coat the ends (even cheap paint when I'm desparate and the wood is special...the alternative is leaving it in longer pieces and just losing the ends.

As to whether I would like some of yours...well...*grin*...it is NOT real close, and I can't say when I'd be able to get it, and if it just lies there it will be in your way and eventually rot..(well..the Live Oak will last a LONG time...but...)...I 'may' (as in 27.0248% possible) drive to Fla. for the WoodCollectors meeting in Late Feb...but..$$$ and all that. So, don't worry about saving it ...I am up to ^here in wood anyway....(it is just hard to refuse good stuff!!)

continued discussion of possibilities??? Sure...ya' never know.

Subject: RE: BS: Bill D ruined my life
From: harpgirl
Date: 03 Nov 02 - 06:24 PM

..hey Bill, do you use pecan wood? my elderly lady friend has a downed pecan tree in her yard. A knifemaker wants some of it. How does one cut and store wood for you? I love wood, trees, and all that stuff...I have magnolia wood if you want some of that, and live oak too...hg

Subject: RE: BS: Bill D ruined my life
From: Biskit
Date: 03 Nov 02 - 02:34 PM

WOW! really cool stuff Bill!!!

Subject: RE: BS: Bill D ruined my life
From: Charley Noble
Date: 03 Nov 02 - 01:59 PM

Nice work, Bill!

Charly Noble

Subject: RE: BS: Bill D ruined my life
From: Bill D
Date: 03 Nov 02 - 01:45 PM

...and Willie-O...yep...a 'little' lathe can go a long way towards relieving guilt *grin*....(I'll get you addresses and catalogues if ya want....there are lovely little small & mid-sized lathes now)

"Well, I burned 98& of that Maple tree...but look here what I did with the rest!"....lathes are nice...you can go from chunk of wood to a smooth container in just an afternoon....

....so here are some pics of a few wood things , chosen in a hurry...including one of a BIG Manzanita thing that may have been the physically hardest thing I ever turned....it is heavy and odd-shaped and wanted to shake the lathe apart....and it took about 8 tool sharpenings to find that ONE last embedded rock!

Subject: RE: BS: Bill D ruined my life
From: Bill D
Date: 03 Nov 02 - 11:36 AM

well!....*proper & humble self-effacing look*

as I PM'd Willie-O, I have been at a craft show this weekend...it is the middle of the "season", and I am up to my clavicle in wood and paperwork about wood......so I missed all this!

I do love playing with wood, and when I started bringing "show & tell" to the Getaway a few years ago, some folks (mostly those I only see once a year) demanded I bring stuff every year! And now that we are at this camp, with an obvious place for a 'folk marketplace', it just grew!~ We had wood, mushrooms, jewelry, instruments....and the usual tables of CDs from CAMSCO and others.....it seemed to work fine!

Yep...Ol' Bobert done fixed me up proper...(I hope)...he said he had some stuff I might wants mess with, and a few days ago, a pickup truck arrived with two gigantic roots from some "clearing" that Bobert was doing to enhance his Shangra-La out in W. Ginny......so now I have to figger out how to whack these "things" into usable chunks and see what's inside 'em!

(Manzanita is a shrub/small tree that grows in the US southwest....only the roots are really usable. VERY hard & heavy, but beautiful when you can manage to get all the mud & rocks out and shined & polished)

Pictures...yep...I have LOTS....I will send this post, then go see what I have in a jumble on my site and post some links for those who like such things....

Thanks to all who said nice things....

Subject: RE: BS: Bill D ruined my life
From: Willie-O
Date: 03 Nov 02 - 10:10 AM

Manzanita, what the hell is that? I thought it was a drink. What continent are you on Mudlark?

W-O

Subject: RE: BS: Bill D ruined my life
From: Little Hawk
Date: 02 Nov 02 - 11:54 PM

Wood is among the most beautiful...well, it IS the most beautiful of all materials to work into fine creations of all kinds. We guitar lovers certainly can appreciate that.

- LH

Subject: RE: BS: Bill D ruined my life
From: bbc
Date: 02 Nov 02 - 11:20 PM

There is one photo on his Mudcat photo page, Willi-O.

bbc

Subject: RE: BS: Bill D ruined my life
From: SINSULL
Date: 02 Nov 02 - 08:37 PM

Your honor, Morty! Damn! I ambitingmytongueand OUCH!!!!!. Sigh! Never mind. Back to Bill D's wood. That probably deserves another sigh... But I did purchase a small bowl with the most amazing pattern in the wood. It is to be the first new treasure installed in my new home, a good omen. Bill is a bit of a treasure himself. As is Willie-o. Apparently I am still recovering from the Getaway.
SINS

Subject: RE: BS: Bill D ruined my life
From: Mudlark
Date: 02 Nov 02 - 08:33 PM

I've never seen Bill's work, but after being on the arts/crafts fair circuit for 30 years I've seen some very nice wood turning. I was just delivered a load of manzanita for firewood and every single piece is a work of art in itself...if I wasn't so low on wood I'd save it all.

Subject: RE: BS: Bill D ruined my life
From: Morticia
Date: 02 Nov 02 - 07:42 PM

I would sell my first born or indeed my honour for a piece of Bill's work......I suspect he'd prefer my first-born.

Subject: RE: BS: Bill D ruined my life
From: Bobert
Date: 02 Nov 02 - 06:53 PM

Like you, Willie-O after seeing the geneous's work I made the same changes in the way I look at wood.

Well, A couple weeks ago I had some evergreens that needed to go and needed to be pulled out by the roots. Well, soon as I say those roots I thought of Bill...

Well, I'll let him finish the story...

Bobert

Subject: RE: BS: Bill D ruined my life
From: momnopp
Date: 02 Nov 02 - 06:35 PM

Willie-O did you PM the man? Or you want I should phone him and tell him to go looking in the forum...he does do beautiful work.

Subject: RE: BS: Bill D ruined my life
From: Willie-O
Date: 02 Nov 02 - 05:12 PM

Spring on the Mississippi

BOOOOOOOOOOIIIIIIIIIIIIINNNNNNNNNGGGGGGGGGGG!!!!!!


(glug glug glug)

Subject: RE: BS: Bill D ruined my life
From: Amos
Date: 02 Nov 02 - 05:10 PM

WillieO

Never mind. He probably thinks about what you could do with the songs he runs across, and whether there was any way to make them sound like "Spring On the Mississippi"!

:>)


A

Subject: RE: BS: Bill D ruined my life
From: Willie-O
Date: 02 Nov 02 - 05:01 PM

So Mr D, or Ferrara, or anyone, got a link to any online pics of said pieces?

Something to warm the soul anyway.

Subject: BS: Bill D ruined my life
From: Willie-O
Date: 02 Nov 02 - 04:44 PM

Ever since I saw Mr Day's unbelievable woodturnings at the Getaway, I can't split a chunk of firewood without feeling like an artistic vandal.

"What a gorgeous salad bowl Bill could have made of this chunk of spalted maple."

THWUNK!!!!

Working through the guilt really slows me down.

At this rate my family could freeze to death before spring.
After all, we're wimpy Canadians, not tough Marylanders. We believe in turning the heat on, starting about a month ago.

Lucky the woodshed was half full already from last year's mild winter.

Worse yet, he's got me thinking I should get me a lathe.

Just a little one....

Willie-O
Obsessive-R-Me