State of The Shop.

There are many ways to ebonize wood, which is the process of turning something like oak into a pitch black stained wood using the tannins and reaction to iron oxide. In this short post, I show the basic steps to make the solution that reacts with wine tannins (also called bark tea) in order to produce this effect.

I've been working and not posting. I am sanding the whole interior and applying finish before I glue this thing together. Having experienced the pain of finishing the liquor cabinet after glueup nope not again.

I often discuss with friends and colleagues in the woodworking community how we choose to price our work. It's an interesting debate that never results in an answer. The reality is that there is no one universal answer for: What is my work worth?

At his point, I want to get closer to what Maguire does. When I look at the Soft Arkansas Stone it is not as expensive as the Black Stone, and I order one. I fully vest into oil stones and sell the diamond stones. Selling the diamond stones covers for the cost of the soft oil stone and leaves me with a chunk of cash for future tool investments - Because in woodworking, we all have a Tool Acquisition Disorder (TAD).

Evolution #5: Re-Introducing the strop. I decide it is time for me to stop resisting the strop, and learn to use it right. Sharpening through a completely unnecessary number of stones to get sharp, and diamond paste makes re-adding the strop a clear option.

Reintroducing An Ohishi Water Stone. Diamond stones are fine, but I continue to reach for that shiny edge, because after all if the edge is shiny, it lasts much longer (or so I think). The finest available diamond stone doesn't get me to shiny, and I still don't like stropping.