My 2nd Brown Maple and Walnut Chess Set

It is the middle of the winter in upstate New York.  For those of you who do not know what that means, it means a lot of snow and even more cold weather.  The cold weather has not been too bad as of yet but we have seen our share of snow.  The snow means that I can hide in my basement and make lots of sawdust.  I just finished my second chess set.
   Here are some pictures from my 2nd Chess set.  This one is also cut out of brown maple and walnut.  The pattern comes from Jim Kapes book "Making Wooden Chess Sets."  I really enjoy the patterns and my next one will be somewhat more challenging.  Every time I make one I learn more and more.  As they say practice makes perfect.
   I ordered and received some nice walnut from a friend and I will be going to Bristol, Vermont to pick up some more maple in the near future.
   For my scroll saw friends if you have not done compound cutting I have to say it is quite fun and quite a challenge.  The jig that is in Jim Kapes book sure does help a lot.
This set is for a special Birthday next month.  I hope to have more details after the event, I just do not want to spoil the surprise to early.  I have a feeling it will be appreciated.

 With our youngest daughter moved out and on her own, the house is even more quiet than it was before.  She has also requested a chess set that I will start working on in the near future.  We have already printed it out and put 1/2 of it to paper.  I just gotta find the time to cut it out.

These pieces were cut out, sanded and given a bath in a mixture of Linseed oil and mineral spirits, then set aside to dry and after dried, a couple of nice coats of varnish and hand buffed with a brown paper bag.

   After all that my wife Ev, puts a nice piece of felt on the bottom of each piece.The Pattern title is King Henry VIII Chess set.  I like the lines on this one and it was fun and relatively easy to cut.  Since I do not do this full time it usually takes me about 2 weeks to complete a set.
I am hoping to get started on a new and unique set in the next week or so.
Thank you for stopping by and taking a look.  Please feel free to leave me a comment.
Thank you,
Geno

My First Chess Set

This is my first attempt at a chess set, this is also my first attempt at compound cutting and I had a ball doing both.
  Santa Clause brought me a copy of "Making wooden chess sets" by Jim Kape.  There are I believe, 13 different patterns for chess sets and the book recommended this one to begin with.  The chess pieces are cut from brown maple and walnut and the chess board is from maple and walnut.
  I do have to admit this was a learning experience and there are certain things that I will most definitely do differently with the next board and chess pieces..
When I think back, 2 weeks ago this was a a few pieces of 4/4 rough lumber and now it is a wicked cool looking chess board.  This gives me encouragement to make more stuff.  I have my second chess board in the basement all glued up for the first of 2 rounds.
This set is called Neo-Classic II.  Once you get the hang of it, it is pretty easy to cut.  I am looking forward to making several more sets for family.  I think now is a great time to get a jump on Christmas.  Cut now and beat the rush.

I am planning on cutting a few sets and seeing how they do at our holiday craft shows next season.

This morning it was a chilly 7 below zero outside.  my basement work shop does not have much in the way of heat down there so I do not get to spend all day there.  I spend an hour or so then come and warm up some.  I try showing my wife how cold it is down there by putting my hands on her back but she has gotten wise to that and its getting harder to sneak up on her now. 
  
I have called my Uncle up who lives just a few mile up the road and challenged him to a early morning chess game tomorrow.  The good news is I have a great board to play chess on.  the bad news is I have not played chess in 30 years or so.  This should be an interesting game.

Ok I have rambled on enough for now.  Thanks for checking this out and try to stay warm.

Geno

Craft Show Season is Over

 

.  The craft show season is over for us for this year.  Next week I will more than likely start getting ready for next season.  This year the craft show season for us was just OK, not great but OK.  At all the shows we did this year the major issue was folks just are not buying in this area.  Now with that said, we still averaged over $200 a show which is OK for us, again not great but OK.

   This craft show season did make a nice Christmas for our family.  We do the Holiday Craft circuit in this area solely to pay for the expense of Christmas and my kids and wife did have a nice Christmas.  For those that read my blog and are not family I have 2 beautiful daughters, a great son in law and a beautiful wife of 31 wonderful (most of the time) years.

   I take partial responsibility for the sales being low.  I did not have enough of the right stuff cut.  I knew this going into the shows and still chose to do nothing about it.  OK this is a change I am making for next year.  Another change I am hopefully making for next year is my wife will be sharing some of the cutting.  I just set up a scroll saw with her name in it and I am trying to get her involved in the cutting also.  I have a feeling there will be some items that she is much better at than I am.

   The pictures above are:  1.  My baby and I all dressed up to go Stocking stuffer shopping the week before Christmas.  This has been an annual tradition where we get all dressed up and go out and tackle the malls and shopping centers just looking for that special stocking stuff for the family.  Our travels took us to Albany New York this year, I prefer to go places where probably will not run into anyone from work for obvious reasons. 

   The next picture is me opening up a Christmas present, a new book for woodworking, how did they know that is what I wanted?

   The last picture is the family on Christmas morning at approximately 5:00am.  If they look this good at this time imagine how nice they all look at a reasonable hour.

Well only a few days left in this year.  I am finding that the older we get the faster time flies by.  I am looking forward to posting more pictures and letting everyone know how things are going here for the next year. 

Happy New Year to one and all.

I must have been a good boy this year.

I must have been a good boy this year.  I came home to find a new craftsman band saw in the empty space in my basement last week.
 We are planning on changing the way we do ornaments next season.  We have been cutting our ornaments out of oak or birch 1/4 plywood.  I believe we are changing to brown maple.  Around here it is relatively cheap and with a band saw I can resaw and plane the rough lumber down to 1/4 inch and make the ornaments out of that.  I have been using maple to make the name ornaments for the past three months and that is how I have been doing that. 
   I was using the table saw to resaw the wood.  Anyone who has ever tried that knows it is not a good idea, especially if you want to keep all of your fingers.  Mrs Clause found out I had a near mishap and I think she may have helped with the band saw.  Thank you Mrs. Clause.
   If anyone has any tips on the best way to resaw lumber I sure could use some help.  Right now I am doing it free hand and it is working OK but I am always up for some good ideas.

Halfway Through The Holiday Craft Season

Well here we are halfway through the Holiday Craft season and it just seems to be getting crazier each year.  This year I started making name ornaments and those have been keeping us busy, busy, busy.  We are having fun doing it but I believe both my wife and I are really looking forward to the end of the holiday craft season.  We picked up 2 more shows this year.  Both of the shows are in Glens Falls NY, one of them was at the Catholic School and the last one is at the Methodist church a few miles down the road.
Here are some pictures of our latest set up.  The top picture is of our bi-fold doors.  They seem to make a

great ornament stand for all of our holiday ornaments.
The next picture is of my lovely wife setting out some fingerless gloves and old fashioned hand warmer muffs that our youngest daughter asked us to sell for her.   She is trying to get into the craft show circuit with her own talents and tastes.
I have been working on our son-in-law trying to drag him into the scroll saw business with me but he does live to far away so he helps me out part time when he and our oldest daughter have the time.

This year our newest endeavour is wine bottle balancers.  They have been slow to sell but everyone who walks by us has to stop and take a look or three at the display.  When they ask how do they do that I tell them "my wife says it physics but I believe its magic"  Most folks just smile but I did have one physics teacher tell me it was simple physics.  Some people just don't have a sense of humor.   I took a few different patterns and combined them into the wine balancers.  In the area we live in, covered bridges are a big thing so those are our biggest sellers to date.

Well Mom is on her way to celebrate Thanksgiving with us.  I have an Aunt and Cousin who will be here for the big day also so I have to cut this short and get to cleaning and getting ready for the festivities.  Have a Safe and Happy Thanksgiving.