Mabel Osgood Wright. Birdcraft. New York, London: The MacMillen Company, 1897.
The Art of Book Design: Birdcraft
Affinity
Art, Fun, & Nonsense.
Mabel Osgood Wright. Birdcraft. New York, London: The MacMillen Company, 1897.
Today a little video about the maintenance of sharp tools. Unfortunately I am not giving my tools the attention they would deserve, because I am not using them enough, but that should hopefully change soon. I have also bought a thick leather strip to make myself a good strop last year, but then I misplaced it and I found it again only last week.
In a pinch, I have also used following things for stropping a knife blade:
Folded newspaper, paper, cardboard, towel, dog’s collar, wooden board, and even the trouser leg of my worn jeans (whilst wearing them).
And when I had not commercial compound available, for stronger abrasion I have used:
A toothpaste, a bit of fine clay/mud, and fine wood ash (grass ash would probably work even better, it contains silica, but I did not try that one yet).
But the best results are in my opinion obtained with a strip of thick leather and jeweler’s rouge (the real stuff – finely ground haematite made from annealed rust). It is definitively worth stropping kitchen knives, especially if you have knives with an apple-seed edge.
From Nightjar…
C is for Crimson ©Nightjar, all rights reserved
Crimson.
A strong red with a slight bluish tint. Historically, it’s the color of the kermes dye, a red dye derived from the dried bodies of insects belonging to the genus Kermes. Kermesic acid is the pigment that gives the dye its color. I found a similar hue on a sunburnt rose.
Dainty Bits. Water Lily Series. Edited by Miss L. Penney. New York, The National Temperance Society and Publication House, 1891.
A children’s book full of stories and rhymes about the evils of alcohol. Some of the chapter titles include “Old Pussy’s Advice” and “Thoughtless Dick.”
Source – University of Florida, George Smithers Libraries, where you can read the entire book
From Nightjar…
B is for Black ©Nightjar, all rights reserved
Black.
My cat Mia was kind enough to help with this one by posing for me.
Embers and the Giants by Canadian artist Kelly Richardson – source CBC Arts
Canadian artist Kelly Richardson loves trees, especially the trees in the old growth rain forests on Vancouver Island where her latest work Embers and the Giants was filmed. Richardson fears for the future of these ancient trees and with good reason – deforestation is happening at an alarming rate and it’s recently been announced that another 109 hectares of pristine forest will be auctioned off.
Richardson’s work may prompt you to consider how we relate to nature as a species and to consider what the future may look like if we don’t choose a different path. In this video made by filmmaker Lisa Wu, you’ll travel to the forest with Richardson and get to see her at work making the landscape come alive in Embers and the Giants. The film was commissioned to participate in the XL Outer Worlds project celebrating the 50th anniversary of IMAX.
Canadian artist Kelly Richardson – source CBC Arts
Embers and the Giants will be at the Toronto Biennial of Art in Fall 2019, and then it’s travelling both across Canada and internationally. You can find out more about Kelly Richardson and her work here.
I’d like to thank rq for pointing this story my way.
via: CBC Arts
Today’s beautiful old book comes from the collection of Anne, Cranky Cat Lady.
Charles Hitchcock Sherrill. Stained Glass Tours in England. London, J. Lane, The Bodley Head, 1909.
For anyone interested, the entire book can be accessed at the Internet Archive.
From Nightjar…
A is for Amber ©Nightjar, all rights reserved
Amber.
The name comes from the fossilized tree resin, but I found the color amber all over the sky.
Madeline Brandeis. Little Anne of Canada. New York, Grossett and Dunlap, 1931.
Happy Canada Day!
via: Abe books
Nightjar has been hard at work on a project…
Ten months ago it occurred to me that doing an alphabet round based on colors could be a fun challenge. I was going through a difficult phase at the time and needed something to keep me distracted, so I had this idea of picking a color for each letter of the alphabet, trying to find it in nature and capturing it in a photo. Easier said than done, it turns out! For many letters there aren’t that many (or any) options available and some colors can be difficult to interpret and capture. I tried to stay away from silly color names and stick to the natural world as a source of inspiration. Those were the only rules. It was a fun and instructive exercise and I’m excited to finally share the results. I hope you enjoy it. But before we get to the letter A I thought I’d start with an introduction to the theme of colors in nature: a close-up of a rainbow!
©Nightjar, all rights reserved
Lafcadio Hearn. Japan an Interpretation. McMillen Co., 1924. – source
Photo by Public Library of Cincinnati & Hamilton County on flickr
It’s that wonderful time of the month when Nightjar shares her portraits of light.
In the month of the Summer Solstice sunlight is brighter than ever and nature is bracing for the dry season. Many wildflowers have gone to seed and are drying out already (some are doing weird stuff like the wild chive in the last photo… perhaps confused by the unstable weather?) and bugs are very busy. Backlighting is trickier this time of the year but I tried to play with June Light from all angles and I think it was worth it.
©Nightjar, all rights reserved
I had all my abrasives in one big plastic case, some further sorted in smaller containers, but the abrasive papers and pads were just one huge pile. So now that my workshop is in a state when it is actually possible to do actual work again, I have decided before I start to make knives again to sort out my abrasive materials for good (again, so in reality until the next stack overflow).
For the papers I have made a little portable shelf where I could sort them out from the coarsest (40 Grit) to the finest (7000 Grit) with some room to spare for clean paper sheets and carbon paper sheets – those come in handy sometimes in the shop, so why not. I still have three slots to fill, which is a good sign. It is a lot heavier than I thought it will be, partly because that is a lot of MDF and particle boards packed into small space, and partly because that is a lot of abrasive paper – and that is heavy, of course, it is covered in sand after all.
Abrasive papers, sorted and ready to deploy.
Precision is of the essence in such an endeavor, as is the quality of used materials of course. That is why I cobbled it all together from scraps of old furniture – 1 cm particle board from an old bed for the frame and 3 mm MDF stripped from an old bathroom door. And I took the time – about 2 hours. Joking aside, I could, of course, buy completely new MDF and have it precisely cut beforehand in the shop, but waste not, want not. I never got used to throwing money at something that will work just fine when made from scraps that I have at hand (my shop looks the part), and I certainly am not going to do that when I just quit a job and am about to lose reliable income.
Now the case could be filled again with remaining polishing and abrasive materials, in a more orderly fashion – polishing wheels, pads, polishing pastes, etc. It is just as full as it was before – which is not good – but it is all a lot less cluttered.
A lot of felt and fat and various odds and ends.
I will probably have to figure out something better for the steel wool, it tends to rust and crumble before I get to actually using most of it. But, as it is, it is a significant improvement.
I no longer have to take a pitchfork in order to get to the bottom of the case and find the grit I need. Today afternoon I will make some improvements to my belt sander and after that, hooray – I will start to make knives again!