A Wood Day... uh, I mean A Good Day

Today feels almost like it's been a productive day. I spent an hour or so at Grounds today, playing with wood. I found a stick while I was hiking yesterday and decided to turn it into a cane. "Why a cane?" you ask. Well, I've made a walking stick before. That's easy. You just find a good piece of wood, strip off the bark, maybe wash it when you get the chance and bam! instant walking stick. Sure, you could cut off the broken bits of wood at the top and bottom and maybe sand it down too. But it's a cinch. I haven't made a cane before. It's still a piece of cake, but it's a step up, at least. So I lugged the stick over to grounds and Tracy taught me how to use the buzzsaw and some monster sanding machine that I have decided to call the Wood Eater, since I never learned it's real term. And the monster drill. And the gorilla glue. And the palm sander. So I now have a cane sitting in a four-foot bar clamp in the corner of my room, waiting for the glue to dry, and tomorrow I'll take it out and test how sturdy it is and take some pictures.

My whittling project is coming a lot more slowly. I spent as much time shaving off bits of wood as my arms and thumbs would let me, and I still feel like I've hardly gotten anywhere. The problem is that the wood is very hard, and very splintery. I'm worried that even after I get it down to about the right size, I won't be able to shape it because the moment I try, it'll splinter all the way up. But at the speed I'm going, it'll be a week until I have even the head small enough to try shaping anyway.

However! I'm covered in wood shavings and sawdust, and my arms and thumbs ache. It's been a good day.

I'm already planning out my next project. I'm thinking a box. Maybe one with a false bottom. We'll see. A false bottom would be tricky, but also enormously fun. And everyone knows that the trickier a project is, the more satisfied you are once you're finished with it.