Self Make Your Own Walking Sticks

How to Craft Canes and Staffs from Rustic to Fancy
1. Auflage 2007
ISBN: 978-1-60765-898-6
Verlag: Fox Chapel Publishing
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: Adobe DRM (»Systemvoraussetzungen)

E-Book, Englisch, 152 Seiten

Features step-by-step projects for a variety of sticks, staffs and canes. Includes a history of walking sticks, reasons to make your own, full-color gallery, and information on how to market your work. Carvers, turners and woodworkers of all skill levels will discover 15 fun projects and patterns for crafting canes. Includes 25 original carving patterns from renowned artist Lora S. Irish.

Woodworker Charles Self is an award-winning writer who has contributed a vast amount of work to the woodworking field. In 2005, he received a Vaughan-Bushnell Golden Hammer Award for Best Do-It-Yourself Book for 'Woodworker's Pocket Reference.' His other books include 'Cabinets and Countertops,' 'Woodworker's Guide to Selecting & Milling Wood,' 'Creating Your Own Woodworking Shop,' and 'Building Your Own Home.' He has also written thousands of articles for publications, such as 'Popular Woodworking,' 'Woodcarving Illustrated,' 'Woodshop News,' and 'Woodworker's Journal,' and he has edited and consulted for companies such as DeWalt, Grizzly Industrial, mcGraw-Hill, Time-Life, and Popular Mechanics Encyclopedia. he currently serves as a director for the National Association of Home & Workshop Writers.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Self, Charles

Leseproben

ADHESIVES, HARDWARE, AND FASTENERS

Producing sticks and canes successfully, whether a single project or a dozen different projects (or one project a dozen different times) means applying an appropriate adhesive, using correct clamping, allowing plenty of drying time, and choosing and using the right hardware and fasteners. We’ll look at the materials involved with those steps in this section.

There’s not a lot of hardware that goes into making walking sticks, canes, and staffs—not even such project standbys as hinges and nails. But there are several specialty pieces that are helpful, and a couple that are close to essential unless you’re making a natural shape from willow or sumac—and even there, a tip of rubber or metal is handy.

ADHESIVES

The basic needs for wood glues when building sticks, canes, and staffs are good strength and high water resistance or waterproofing. My personal recommendation is to go with Titebond II for all stick and cane construction that needs glue; use epoxy for adding decorative touches. Otherwise, almost any other wood adhesive is cheaper than epoxy, easier to work with, and just as strong as you need. But let’s take a closer look so you can make choices according to the qualities of your particular cane.

For general uses, liquid yellow glues and polyvinyl acetate (white resin) glues are best. The yellow glues include the water-resistant Titebond II and the waterproof Titebond III, which I prefer to epoxy when epoxy’s other special qualities—gap filling, adhesion to oily woods, joining dissimilar materials—aren’t needed.

For waterproofing beyond that offered by yellow glues or polyvinyl acetate, choose epoxy or polyurethane—select polyurethane first unless the epoxies fill some other specific need. Epoxies are too costly for general use.

Resorcinol is another type of waterproof glue that is less often used today. It is a two-part glue, with one part a powdered catalyst and the other a liquid. It has been used in boatbuilding for decades and is available around waterfronts as well as online. At 70°F, it has a working time of 15 minutes; the time shortens as the shop temperature increases. Like epoxy, resorcinol emits a noxious vapor and must be used in a well-ventilated area with the user’s body surfaces, particularly the eyes, protected. New safety glasses provide high and low protection and wrap around very well on the sides.

Let’s look at these specific types of glue—aliphatic resins, polyurethanes, and epoxies—so that you understand the advantages and disadvantages of each.

ALIPHATIC RESIN GLUE

Inexpensive, water-resistant glues, like aliphatic resin glues, are superb for the sticks and canes builder (see Figure 1.5). In my experience, Titebond II wood glue is a heat-resistant, waterproof, liquid polyaliphatic resin glue that is sufficiently waterproof to be used everywhere but below water lines. It is similar in joint appearance to other yellow glues but sets even more rapidly. (Chemists have provided Titebond II Extend for those of us who don’t move very quickly during assembly.) Initial tack is strong, set is fast (about five minutes), and gumming is minimal during sanding. Clamp for about one half hour. All Titebond glues are a bit more sensitive to temperature, at least on the cold side, than regular aliphatic resin glues: I used Titebond II for some winter projects and got chalky glue when shop temperatures were below about 60°F.

Titebond II and Titebond III are modestly more expensive than standard Titebond. Such waterproof and highly water-resistant glues are not really for everyday use, though a lot of woodworkers assume that total water resistance is better than moderately high water resistance. Problems arise, however, if you ever need to disassemble any project for any reason because you cannot do so by using water as a solvent on the glue once the glue has dried. Before a full cure, it is possible to peel apart pieces glued with Titebond II with a mix of warm water and vinegar. When it has dried, a chisel is needed. Titebond II, Titebond III, the foaming polyurethane glues, epoxy, resorcinol, and plastic resin are all pretty much water-as-solvent-proof.

Figure 1.5. Aliphatic resin glues, which include your typical white and yellow wood glues, work well for most walking stick, cane, and staff projects.

POLYURETHANE GLUE

I’ve tried most of the polyurethane glues and find that they’re excellent for many stick and cane uses. They can be especially useful when working with dense woods or with exotics such as teak. However, they’re more difficult to use than yellow glues, in part because of foaming and in part because water cleanup doesn’t work, and they’re much more costly. There is also the possible need for misting surfaces with water when wood is extremely dry. To mist, use a cheap sprayer, such as those that cleaners come in, and spray lightly.

While less glue is needed, there is usually no need for the kind of waterproofing that polyurethane glues provide. If you decide to make projects in this book and want to make them suitable for use below the waterline, then you want to use polyurethane; otherwise, these walking sticks, canes, and staffs simply do not need that degree of waterproofing.

EPOXY

Even though cost, toxicity, and mess are limiting factors in epoxy use, epoxies are particularly handy for many stick- and cane-making projects. In those areas where the glue itself can be used as a support for a project part, like attaching metal, buttons, or other decorations to the wood, epoxy truly stands out. Epoxies are two-part adhesives: a liquid hardener that is added to a liquid resin. Cure is by chemical reaction.

Epoxies are excellent gap fillers. Only light clamping pressure is needed, and working time is adjustable to as much as 90 minutes. Epoxy’s strength is incredible, and the resulting glue line is either clear or an amber color. Epoxies won’t shrink, are impervious to water and most chemicals, and offer good heat resistance. If you decide to use a wood such as teak, which doesn’t bond well to itself or any other wood, epoxies simplify matters. They are made to fit about any bonding need, in moderate temperature application, and most set in under five minutes.

When using epoxy, remember to mix only as much as you can use immediately. Doing so will help keep cost down and will help reduce mess. You’ll also want to wear thin plastic gloves to minimize mess (see Figure 1.6). Go with nitrile gloves instead of latex because nitrile ones avoid the chance of latex allergies showing up, are much stronger, are sometimes reuseable, are not harmed by most solvents (unlike latex), and are available in packs of 100. For general epoxy messiness, clean up quickly with acetone (nail polish remover), keeping the gloves on. Make sure all mixing containers and sticks are disposable.

Figure 1.6. In addition to goggles or safety glasses, thin plastic gloves, painter’s tape, acetone, mixing sticks, and mixing containers are good to have on hand when working with epoxy.

Epoxies are also very toxic, which limits their use in some shops, including mine. When you use them, ensure good ventilation and avoid skin contact. Obviously, don’t take it internally. If you wash up with soap and water before the epoxy sets, it usually comes off easily.

USING GLUES

Selecting the correct glue is important, but so is how you apply the glue and clamp the parts. It’s also important to work with a tight-fitting joint so there are no gaps to fill, which create thick expanses of nothing but glue and weaken the project. We want our stick and cane projects to last.

First, determine the method of application—what will you use to apply the glue? The type of glue chosen determines the method, though most glues may be applied with a brush, stick, or roller.

Next, check the joint surfaces. If the joint surface is a tight fit, clean off all dust, oil, old glue, loosened and torn grain, and chips. Any cutting that has to be done is done as close as possible to the time of gluing and assembly since delays not only encourage contamination from particles in the air, but also allow oils and resins in the wood to come to the surface.

Then, before you apply the glue, test assemble to see whether the unit can be assembled within its open time (the time it takes for the glue to set). If a glue has a ten-minute open time, assembly must be completed within that time limit. Generally, the thicker you spread the glue, the longer the open assembly time. If wood is very porous or dry, open assembly time decreases. A test assembly is always a good idea—once glue is added, correcting mistakes is messy. If mistakes creep in and glue sets, mistakes must stay.

If the test assembly takes more than the allotted time, change the method of gluing or the type of adhesive so there’s enough time to complete and clamp the assembly. This should not be a problem with any walking stick, cane, or staff project in this book.

Finally, mix, where required, all adhesives according to the manufacturer’s directions and as accurately as possible. Spread evenly over the surfaces to be joined, getting as smooth a coat as possible.

CLAMPS

One major use of clamps in woodworking is to hold parts together while glues bond. The other major uses are to hold parts temporarily for layout and fitting, to retain jigs and stop blocks, and to hold the workpiece on the workbench while you pound away. Essentially, how you clamp the cane during the gluing...