Friday, February 14, 2014

Oops... but OK, I guess

Not being entirely happy with the proportions of the oak spatula I made yesterday, I decided to trim down the blade to make it a little bit narrower.

It snagged in the mitre-saw as I was cutting it and went flying, chipping part of the end of the blade and fracturing the shaft. Oops.

That meant I had to make changes a bit more radical than I had intended. I re-cut the blade asymmetrically around the busted bits, and gave the back a more smoothly rounded profile. I cut away the split and fractured section of the shaft and socketed it back into the blade.

So, now it's quite a different shape than it started out, but actually I like it a lot better. I do prefer a bit of asymmetry in design, after all is said and done.

Thursday, February 13, 2014

Spatula of Oak

My productivity for today is this spatula-stirrer-scraper thing, lovingly hand-crafted from the finest American white oak.

The shaft is only eight or nine millimetres or so in diameter. Hopefully it won't prove to be too fragile, but oak is pretty tough.

Spoons and stirrers and what-not are a good way to use up odd scraps of timber. I believe I shall make some more.

Tuesday, February 11, 2014

Go home Nature, you are drunk


If you ever needed proof that evolution is totally fucked up, just look at this thing. It is bocydium globulare, a leafhopper. All that stuff is part of its head; what it's for I have no idea.