Awl

 

This morning I made this little four-sided awl out of a tiny scrap of something, red gum maybe, and a 4mm Allen key.

 

The tiny scrap was actually a bit too tiny; it made turning it trickier than it otherwise would have. However, it got done.

 

Awls are handy things.

Wood Chopping

 

We had the ash at the end of our driveway severely pruned a few days ago -- it had some dead or dying limbs -- and so today I've started splitting the remains. The larger trunk rounds take a bit of work with the log-splitter, but it's all pretty straight-grained, and the medium to small bits split fairly easily.

It'll take a while before it's dry enough to burn cleanly, but it should be ready by next winter. Plus, I have no doubt a few bits will end up on the lathe.

I'm coming up on half way through, and how much more I'll do today I don't know. We've got a dry firewood top-up arriving this afternoon, so I'll have to reserve enough energy to get that cleared off the driveway ASAP.

Red Sky

 

This is a smallish (450 x 300 mm) oil that I began without any clear idea where I was going, except to repeat a composition I'd done in acrylics and oil pastels quite a few years ago.

Now I've stalled on it. I feel that it needs something more, but what that is I don't really know. 

I'll put it aside for a year or tow, and perhaps revisit it then. Or maybe not. 

New Old #4 Plane

 

My friend Bob gave me an old Stanley #4 smoothing plane to revive.

I do have another #4, but it's some Aussie brand that I've never heard of, and though it's not terrible, it's not great either.

 I spent a few hours to bring the Stanley back to life, and here it is, all clean and rust-free and sharp, and with freshly refinished woodwork.

It will doubtless need a wee bit more tuning as I use it, but it's already working well. I can foresee it becoming something of a workhorse. 

Hallway Buddha Flowers