Wood workings

 Meet my nephew, Kemper Patrick Bernel. I made him a growth chart for his 1st Birthday.

 6' by 10" poplar.

 At first I used my table saw to rip this angle into the face all the way down, to mimic a ruler, but i was unhappy with it and cut it off.

 Marking out the inch and foot marks.

 Always happy when I can use my spokeshave. Works wonders on rounding over edges.

 Spent several hours painstakingly burning every line and number into the wood.

 Finished her up with a couple coats of cherry stain that I thinned out with turpentine to give it a worn look.

My favorite tool, looking awesome with some facial hair,

 On a sadder note, my best buddy of 11 years, Carl, passed away. I took a slab of cherry and hand drew his portrait onto it.

 Used the wood burner again to immortalize him.

A lot of beeswax and linseed oil later. A grave marker for a damn good dog.

Miss you, buddy.

Metal workings

 Craftsman 3.5 lbs axe I found at an old hardware store.

After the first round of cleaning.

 Nice, new handle, note the grain is impeccable.

 Decided to try painting the handle, ala "Bestmade" axes.

I think it came out pretty well.

It's something of a tradition now, that when I'm working on an edged tool, I cut my hand.

 My pops liked my finished axe so well, he gave me his old pickaxe to clean up.

 I decided to do something a little different though.

Okay, maybe a lot different.

 Since my dad probably doesn't have alot of mining in his future, but he does love to have bonfires, I thought he could use a pickaroon more.

 The tradition lives on! This was actually pretty scary, my angle grinder bounced, while cutting off one of the forks of the pick, and landed right in my palm. Remind me to write a thank you note to the "Condor" glove company.

 I think it looks pretty cool!

 Quick coat of paint for some rust protection.

 That bastard is a beast! Sharp as hell and every bit as functional as it is pretty!

Mandatory in-shop selfies.

 This next project has been going on for about 6 months, Turning another old file into a draw knife.

Heated up the tang to red hot and actually burnt it through this scrap piece of cherry to make the first handle. That's all the further this is as of now.

A bunch of stuff that happened over the last month or so...

So, the knife a made a few posts back had a little problem. After talking to Keith, he educated me on the fact that if my pin holes aren't perfectly aligned the scales will split.

I eventually removed the old scales, and drilled a new hole for the front pin.

Thanks again Keith for the idea to use some 1x1 to build a little drilling jig.

New scales from some scrap wood. Not sure what kind, but i made sure the grain was running the length of the handle instead of "north-south".

Not my favorite, but they will do. I'm honestly just sick of this knife and want to move on to new projects.

Some new stuff around the shop.

Installed a small vise on the front of my bench. didn't bother to make it flush with the bench top and side like I planned because we will be moving soon and I doubt the bench will make the trip.

Here it is holding what would become my mallet handle.

drilled a hole in my anvil's base to hold the hot cutter, but the old wood was SO impregnated with bits of steel that it broke and warped my spade bit!

New shop addition, an old, abused Makita 8in table saw. Picked it up for $25. Seems to work just fine.

Another new addition, small Craftsman toolbox. Got it dirt cheap as well. Been looking for toolboxes forever, but didn't want to spend hundreds (many are thousands!) of dollars.

Great book I'm reading. More a meditation on woodworking and crafting than the "how-to's" I have been reading prior to this.