I have featured michaelcthulhu several times already, and he keeps proving that he is a wholesome and good person.
The summary quote from this video:
“I don’t pretend to understand God or being gay. But only one side is sending death threats to a 22-year old so I’m pretty sure how I feel in this situation.”
Mike is trying to mad science how to make various patina colors on his sword in this one. I feel like I could have saved him a lot of trouble with that.
I still have some pretty pictures from that depo, this is not the last post with them. And I did not accidentally publish twice the same picture – two of the graffitis were very similar.
© Charly, all rights reserved. Click for full size.
© Charly, all rights reserved. Click for full size.
© Charly, all rights reserved. Click for full size.
In one of the sacks were these two pieces.
© Charly, all rights reserved. Click for full size.
I cut off the two ridges and I run all four sides along the table saw blade to clean them and I got two pieces 45x35x250 mm. One of them has a slight crack, but it is in a position where I would probably cut it anyway so not a big deal. This is enough for 4-6 knives, more if used as scales for smaller knives.
© Charly, all rights reserved. Click for full size.
© Charly, all rights reserved. Click for full size.
© Charly, all rights reserved. Click for full size.
© Charly, all rights reserved. Click for full size.
I am reasonably certain this is coconut palm wood. I worked with it before and Giliell has the resulting knife.
What is puzzling are the darker and lighter parts. Those are not sapwood and heartwood, palms do not have those, and anyway, I know of no tree where the outer sapwood is darker than the inner heartwood as would be suggested by the curvature here. I do not know what caused that color contrast, maybe it was cut close to the outer layer of the trunk, maybe it is decay, I have no clue. Palm trees do not grow around here so I have no knowledge about their variability and specific properties and no way to obtain said knowledge (google does not help).
It is not an extremely expensive wood but two pieces like this would cost me somewhere in the vicinity of at least 40,-€ plus shipping, so it is nothing to sneeze at either. These were, alas, the last surprise in my firewood treasure trove, the remaining sacks were all pure jatoba. Still, I can’t complain.
I haven’t worked with anything but wood for a while now and I still won’t for another while. But I am progressing and today I started to seriously sort through the Unexpected Treasure woodpile. And it turns out that there is more to that treasure than I initially thought.
When sorting through one bag, there were a few pieces that puzzled me. The wood was sold to me as a mix of jatoba and black locust, but these were definitively neither. I am also fairly certain it is not a local species because I would recognize most of those at a glance, certainly those that can produce pieces of this size. I put the pieces aside for later use and went on sorting the wood into neat piles by size if useful or into bags as firewood. And then I opened one bag and it turns out it is full of this mystery wood.
Here are some pictures:
© Charly, all rights reserved. Click for full size.
© Charly, all rights reserved. Click for full size.
© Charly, all rights reserved. Click for full size.
It is a very hard wood, not as hard as jatoba, but close to the black locust. It is also very dense – specific gravity of about 0,8. The growth rings are not very visible, the pores are very fine and the color is various shades of golden-brown and orange. It changes a bit depending on the viewing angle. On none of the pieces is a visible distinction between heartwood and sapwood.
That is not a lot to go on, so I have made one assumption – Jatoba is from South America, so maybe this wood is from there too. It would be sensible for a furniture and flooring manufacturer to order multiple species from one supplier and then for said species to get mixed up in the offcut bags.
So armed with this information I went on a search on the Wood Database website and I am convinced it is Garapa. All the properties check out. And it can be used in combination with both Jatoba and Black Locust because it has very similar properties (not only hardness and density but also shrinkage) to both. I am researching whether it could be used to make cutting boards and I think it is so. I have come to the conclusion that black locust can, despite the plant being toxic – but black locust cutting boards are, in fact, sold here. But even if unsuitable for cutting boards, there is nothing that would disqualify it from knife handles and knife blocks.
If you think my solution to this mystery is not correct, I would be grateful for any info. It is useful to know what wood one is working with.
Don’t worry, there’ll be some more serious content soon, and for once it’s good news. But for now, let me take you on a tour of the garden. This year, somehow, growing the seedlings on my window sill didn’t work. Don’t ask me why, but there’s no peppers this year. The tomatoes are way behind schedule. But we’ll see how it works out.
Let’s start with the potatoes:
©Giliell, all rights reserved
This looks more dense than it is, I think for the future, the beet can sustain twice the amount of plants.
Next: peas
©Giliell, all rights reserved
I planted sugar snaps and normal peas, though the latter were disappointing, too. They’re strictly for snacking, something the kids greatly appreciate. They’re mostly done now, so I plante a courgette in between. We may possibly drown in courgettes come a few weeks.
©Giliell, all rights reserved
As you can see, the tomatoes are still too small. The metal boughs are leftovers from the old trampoline so i can cover them should it rain too much.
©Giliell, all rights reserved
And a “three sisters planting”, this year hopefully with the right kind of beans. Again, I tried to pregrow my corn, and then when it didn’t take off I just sowed more outdoors. Those plants are much stronger now than the few pregrown.
That was the “serious” gardening, now for the fun part: Flowers!
©Giliell, all rights reserved
I always throw a few hands of flower seeds on the wild side of the garden. Last year, there were a few purple mallows. This year there are a lot of purple mallow plants. I love them.
©Giliell, all rights reserved
Lilies, I think. I know I planted them last year, but too late to bloom. They’re so pretty.
And last but not least, the Hollyhock. I love hollyhock. I planted those last year as well, the need two years anyway. Let’s just hope that they’ll just reseed themselves like the mallow.
©Giliell, all rights reserved
©Giliell, all rights reserved
©Giliell, all rights reserved
About two years ago, I got into playing chess online and I also watch chess videos since then, usually at dinner or lunch. One funny thing that happened last year in the online chess community was that a live stream interview between the (then) most popular chess YouTuber Agadmator and chess Grandmaster Hikaru Nakamura was banned for hate speech. Apparently, the algorithm has interpreted the phrases as “white is better here”, “black is defending”, “white attack” and similar as incitement to violence, and completely failed to recognize that the talk is about a board game.
At the same time, open racists and transphobes were spouting and often keep spouting their bile on YouTube completely unimpeded under the guise of “Humor” or “Just Asking Kwestchions”.
Today the algorithm struck marvelously again.
I do not remember precisely when I have seen so-called fractal burning of wood on YouTube, but I think it was some time last year. I thought that it looks cool so I researched how it is done. And I have immediately gone to the conclusion that cool looking it might be, but I certainly ain’t doing that, not even for a big clock. And YouTube channel “How To Cook That” has published an excellent video a few weeks ago explaining why fractal wood burning is not a good craft hack for woodworkers:
And of course, an excellent youtube video cannot go unpunished – the algorithm yanked it for allegedly promoting harmful and dangerous acts. And while it was banned, that same algorithm has actually recommended to me a video showing the hack in action. Marvelous work – a warning about dangerous practice gets banned as promotion of said practice and an actual promotion of it gets promoted. Logic straight as a corkscrew.
The video has been reinstated after YouTube got pushback, but I do wonder how many really good and possibly important videos get yanked and never get back because the channels that made them were small and did not have millions of subscribers to cry foul on their behalf. Because let’s be real – YouTube gets an actual human to do the review only when there is an outcry, otherwise, they do not bother.
I think that overreliance on algorithms has great potential for actual harm. Human social interactions are so complex that there are humans out there (like me) who are barely able to navigate them. I do not think that AI is there yet.
Guest post by Ice Swimmer
Tampere is the second city in Finland. It’s been called many things, including Manchester of Finland (short form: Manse), the City of Women and the Sauna Capital of the World*. Before this spring it was a city I visited in order to have fun with my friends who live here. Now it’s my hometown.
The city was founded on an isthmus between two lakes, formed by an esker. The lakes are connected by a channel of rapids that were dammed and provided power for the textile factories, paper mills and other industry. The textile industry led to comparisons to Manchester and to a lot of girls and women moving to Tampere to work for Finlayson (founded by a Scotsman, James Finlayson) and other factories.
These pictures are from a Sunday walk to Pyynikki Sightseeing Tower and Nature Reserve, which are on the esker, in the middle of Tampere, next to the city centre.
First, we take a look to the east from the tower, towards the city centre.
© Ice Swimmer, all rights reserved. Click for full size.
Then we take a very touristy angle and look northeast. The big tower is Näsinneula (Näsi needle), the highest building in Finland (168 m), the amusement park is Särkänniemi. The lake is Näsijärvi. This picture is taken May 8th and there is still some ice on the shores.
© Ice Swimmer, all rights reserved. Click for full size.
I talked about the two lakes. This is the other one, Pyhäjärvi (Sacred or Holy Lake one of the many lakes with the same name in Finland). We’re looking southeast from the tower and we can see a part of the woods of Pyynikki and parts of the city centre as well as the northeastern corner of Pyhäjärvi.
© Ice Swimmer, all rights reserved. Click for full size.
Then we take a look at the northwestern parts of Tampere. The peninsula is a mostly residential area, parts of which are called Niemi (peninsula), Lentävänniemi (Peninsula of the Flying) and Reuharinniemi (the tip of the peninsula, a free translation could be Cape Rage).
© Ice Swimmer, all rights reserved. Click for full size.
The following pictures are taken from the Nature Reserve.
First, a sign that says on the top “Place for sightseeing” or “Scenic view” and below that “Dangerous slope”.
© Ice Swimmer, all rights reserved. Click for full size.
Both are true. You can see Pyhäjärvi through the trees and yes, taking a few more steps could spoil your day.
© Ice Swimmer, all rights reserved. Click for full size.
This place is a short walk west from the previous place. A bench is safer…
© Ice Swimmer, all rights reserved. Click for full size.
This view is to the southeast from the rocks, over Pyhäjärvi. I bet the apartments in the buildings by the shore are somewhat costly. I think the chimney belongs to the former knitted underwear factory (Suomen Trikoo).
© Ice Swimmer, all rights reserved. Click for full size.
This is a view of one of the roads that go through the woods in Pyynikki. This one is Tahmelantie.
© Ice Swimmer, all rights reserved. Click for full size.
This concludes our trip in Pyynikki. As you were able to see deciduous trees didn’t have any leaves yet. Now, about 2 weeks later the leaves in birches and willows have come out just about fully. I’m hoping you got a little inkling of what Tampere looks like.
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* = The public saunas in Tampere are popular places, also for the locals.