Heartwood Rocking Horses

So there’s some info out there about making your own oil and wax finish for your wood products. This has been a great finish for me, once I figured out what ratios to use and how to apply it. It is all natural, food safe, and contains no petroleum products. Here’s what I’ve discovered…

Ratios

There’s plenty of differing opinions about how much oil and how much wax to use in the mixture. I’m not sure if there’s a right or wrong answer to this, but I’ve found something that works for me. I use a 1:2 ratio of wax to oil. You might like more or less wax, depending on your process. What I like about the 1:2 ratio is that it is a soft solid at room temperature. It can be scooped up by a rag and smeared onto the wood surface without much effort. You don’t have to heat it to get it out of the jar. This makes it easy to work with, and it doesn’t run everywhere. There are a few tricks, though, more on that at the end of the post.

I mix everything in a 1 pint jelly jar, which happens to have little markings on the side…I think some of them are in ounces. So I fill it with 2 oz. melted wax, and 4 oz oil. Here’s how.

Melting

I start with solid bees wax. You can purchase this from many bee keepers at a market, online, or in various stores in various forms. Just be sure to look for 100% bees wax if you are trying to stay natural and non-toxic. You also want it clean and filtered. I have a little candle that is wax that I’m melting down to use for my mixture.

You need to melt the wax in a water bath. This is to avoid direct contact of the jar or the wax with the stove, which would be dangerous! So, just place a pan of water on the stove and put your jar in it. You can use enough water to cover about half the jar to aid in heating the wax. I don’t use more because I don’t want water to get in there. Bring the water to a boil and use fairly high heat to speed the process along. You don’t have all day, right? This takes about 10 minutes.

Some people like to shave the wax, but I find this takes longer and is messier and more difficult. I just sit the candle in the jar and use high heat and it melts pretty quickly. As it melts, I occasionally check the amount of liquid that is accumulating by removing the jar and the candle and looking at the side of the jar. The wick from the candle makes this super easy to just lift the candle out and check the volume of the melted wax. When the liquid reaches the 2 oz mark on the side, I’m done. Remove the rest of the solid wax and save it for next time. You should be left with just plain liquid wax in the jar.

Add the oil

Next you want to add oil to the mixture. I use linseed oil, and I use all natural polymerized linseed oil from Tried and True brand. It’s their natural danish oil that has been partially dried, so it contains more solids and dries faster. You can use raw linseed oil, but I figure the more dry, the better. If you want to stay non-toxic, don’t use boiled linseed oil, it has heavy metals in it. And don’t use mineral/baby oil, it’s made from petroleum. But walnut oil, almond oil…other oils are fine. I’ve stayed away from orange oils because I’m not sure how skin friendly they are. They are used as a degreaser, so they might irritate the skin. Or they might be fine, I’m not sure.

*Side Note: If you have time, you can also “polymerize” your own linseed oil. Start with raw oil, which is greenish in color and will take ages to dry on your wood. Leave it sitting out in a wide container like a 9x13x3 baking pan, so that it can air dry. You have to leave it out for like a year, people, this takes a long time. But you don’t have to do anything with it. After a while, the oil will change from greenish to light honey brown. It is ready to use now and will dry faster when applied to your wood. I use one 32 oz. jar for one year while my next jar is drying for the next year, so I never run out. Or I just order Tried and True polymerized linseed oil that’s ready to go.

Ok, so, pour in enough oil into the jar with the melted wax to reach the 6 oz. mark, so you’re adding 4 oz of oil, creating a 1:2 ratio of 2 oz. wax to 4 oz. oil (right? that’s how ratios work, isn’t it?).

The mixture will be cloudy at this point because of the cold oil, and it isn’t fully mixed. You will need to heat everything together so that it is uniformly incorporated.

Just put it back on the stove in the water bath and stir for several minutes. It shouldn’t take long…

You can add more water to heat it faster, just keep it out of the jar. Here you see the solids are just small pieces. Keep stirring till everything is completely liquid.

Once you have liquid, you’re done! Just take it out to cool, and the whole jar will become solid again. It has the consistency of hard butter. A soft solid you can still scoop out from the jar. You shouldn’t need a knife, I usually just scoop it out with my finger and a rag. 

How to use an oil and wax finish

So this is just what I’ve found to be quickest, and most effective against wood cracking. First apply 1 to 3 coats of oil to your wood piece. Again, I use a natural, polymerized linseed oil. Allow each coat to dry 24 hrs and wipe away any excess after an hour, or 10 minutes if you are impatient like me.

After those oil coats, scoop out some wax mixture and wipe it generously into the wood. (I’ve done this immediately after applying one coat of oil, with good results, but more oil will be more protection). It will look like goopy clear butter, and you should see some excess built up on the wood. I used to try to wipe everything in really well, and wait for it to dry naturally. This doesn’t work! It will take like a year for this to dry, and you will have a tacky, icky waxy finish. What I learned was to wipe it on heavily, like I said. Just be messy. Then, here’s the trick: Use a hair drier to warm the wax and melt it into the wood. The heat will draw it into the wood, I think, and also thin everything out to a uniform covering and dry it. While it’s hot and liquid, wipe off any excess with a dry cloth and buff rapidly for several seconds, by hand, until you feel the surface become slick and dry. That’s it! It should be dry and soft to the touch. I think this heating process just makes the wax thin enough so that it will actually dry quickly.

This finish has worked well for me in preventing the wood from drying out, cracking, or getting moisture damage. You can use a few more coats of wax if you want more protection. You can also rub more oil in each year to maintain the finish, though I’m not sure the oil makes it through the wax into the wood. You hopefully are just building up beautiful natural layers of oil to your natural finish. I’ve been thinking of using more wax in the mixture, just curious what that would be like. Experiment for yourself!

The best thing about all this is it is safe, you can just use your bare hands and apply everything inside the house if you want. No fumes, no sprayer, easy!

I hope this works well for you! This has been a long post, but really this is a super fast process. It takes about 10 min to create the mixture, and about 1 minute to apply. Besides waiting between coats of oil, the whole thing is super fast and super effective! Let me know how it works for you!

…when the infeed table is wider than the cutter head

So, first off, I was awarded a grant to purchase a thickness planer, a major piece of equipment that most shops have from the start. I have been barely getting by without one, and am so happy to have it delivered already and put to use! Thanks to the Toe River Arts Council, Madison Arts Council, Asheville area Arts Council, and Avery County and the North Carolina Arts Council, a division of the Department of Cultural Resources for this grant!

Next, I was very excited to be able to work with wider boards than I have in the past. This planer is 15″ wide, and this speeds up my working time by allowing me to use wider lumber. I watched a very good video about how to joint boards that are wider than your jointer, found here:

Very good video, and if you haven’t seen it this post might not make sense. But I noticed that this person’s jointer had an infeed and outfeed table that were the same width. My infeed table is wider than my cutter head, and wider than the outfeed table. So when I try to joint a wide board, creating a rabbet, the result is a diagonal face that does not sit straight on the jointer. Here’s what it looks like:

angle created when jointing a board wider than your jointer

The edge that is not hit by the cutter head is always propped up on the outside edge of the jointer, which creates this diagonal cut where one side gets smaller and smaller. Doesn’t seem good, right? Well, I found out what to do about this, and if you don’t want to read the whole post, here’s the answer:

It does not matter! You can stop reading here. Just watch Jay’s video.

The face is flat enough that you can use the bed riser as seen in Jay’s video just as you would if the rabbet created were 90 degrees. I found this out after trying to create another bed riser for my jointer, following the same principle as with the planer. But I realized that this step was not necessary, and you end up removing about 1/8″ less material by skipping the jointer-riser bed step.

If you are interested, here’s what I did at first to overcome this diagonal cut. I had planned to post about this before I realized the shortcut, so I documented it with photos.

Step one-half- need to adjust my beds. And remove the blade guard. Be careful!

I had previously shimmed my infeed table to make the beds parallel. Since I will have to move the infeed table up and down to use this method, I decided to shim the outfeed table instead. There are many videos about this, but here’s a quick recap of what I did. First, loosen the gib screw and the locking screw on the outfeed table.

loosen gib

Next, use a straight edge and feeler guages to measure the beds, making sure they are within .002″ thickness. I basically measure all different places on the infeed table to make sure it is within .002″

If needed, you can insert shims under the bed to raise the back of the table, making it parallel. I needed to shim .017″. Lock everything back tight and you are good to go.

add shims

Step one: creating a raised bed to joint a board wider than your jointer

I cut a strip of luan board that was about 1/4″ more narrow than my cutter head. This board is about 1/8″ thick, allowing me to plane up to 1/8″ of material. I would have preferred a board closer to 1/4″ but this is what I had that was flat and smooth. I simply clamped it to the infeed table at the far end.

set up with luan board

Next, you must lower the infeed table to account for the luan. I usually plane about 3/32 at a time, so I just moved the dial 3/32 past the 1/8″ mark, or 7/32″

depth of cut guage

Step 2: Joint the board, creating a rabbet

With the blade guard removed, run the board through the jointer as normal, sliding it on the luan. You will soon create a rabbet edge with a 90 degree cut in it. Keep jointing until you have most of the face flat. You don’t really need to get it completely flat, especially if the board is way out of true. You will be limited to the depth of the riser bed, in my case, 1/8″. Here’s the rabbet created:

Step 3: set up the riser bed on the planer.

I just screwed a scrap piece of wood to the bottom of a 5/8″ shelf material. This material is slippery and really flat. It does have some give, but it will be supported by the planer beds. I had to sand the edges a bit to remove little raised burrs. Here it is sitting in the planer. It needs to be more narrow than the planer to allow the rabbet edge to sit over the side of it.

Step 4: run the board through the planer with rabbet over the side.

I ran the board through until the entire face was flat. Didn’t take too long.

Step 5: run the board through the planer with the rabbet side up

This will remove the rabbet and create your 2 parallel faces. I also ran it back through with the other side up again, just to be sure it was all flat.

Finished product

The final result was a flat board, but I lost about 3/8″ of material. What I found was that I could skip the riser board on the jointer, and just create a rabbet that was at a diagonal angle. I could still run it over the riser board in the planer with the rabbet over the edge, and it all worked out the same. But without using the riser on the jointer, I removed less material in the end. You can also avoid moving the infeed table around by skipping the use of the riser on the jointer.

Joint the edges

If you didn’t use the riser on the jointer, you will end up with a wedge shaped board in the end. Not a big deal for me, I just ran it through the jointer at the end and got 90 degree corners all around.

Conclusion

You can effectively joint a board wider than your planer by removing the blade guard, running it through the jointer to create a flat surface that looks diagonal, then running it through the planer using a riser bed with the rabbet over the edge of the bed. Finish it off by running it through the planer again on the flat surface you created. Then joint our edges and you’re done! If there is a problem with that first face being diagonal at first, I was not able to measure any differences in the final product that might suggest a problem. If you can think of any issues with this method, please post them below! Have fun!

Ok, this is a really simple upgrade, and I wish I could have upgraded in a more elaborate way. But I do what I can. My favorite things right now in the shop are some new rare earth magnets that I have placed all over the shop. I bought them to make a magnetic mosaic set, made by slicing the tiles I’ve made in half and gluing the magnets inside…we’ll see when and if that happens…But for now, I’ve found a great way to store a few often used, and frequently misplaced, small metal items in the shop. I can either stick a magnet directly on something, or tape a magnet to something wood by using HVAC tape. Here’s some photos, and short stories about how I used to store each item and how it is now “magnetted” (new word) in a new place. I hope you can use this idea too!

If you have seen my previous posts, you may know that my husband and I have been away hiking for the past six months or so. What an amazing journey! We hiked nearly 3,000 miles from Mexico to Canada over the Continental Divide trail. I had plenty of time to think up some new plans and ideas for the coming year. My main goals are to refine my three most popular rocking horse styles, to make one new rocking horse design each year, to continue carving smaller equine related art pieces, and to carve commissioned portraits of your horses.

Here on my blog I do hope to post some woodworking tips that I find helpful. I’ll also mention if I’ll be attending a show, or if I finish a new project. Thanks so much for reading! Enjoy this photo of us on the trail…

-Alicia

a high pass in the Wind River Range, WY. Late September

So I became official late last year, but I recently learned that I now have an artist page on the Piedmont Craftsmen website. Exciting! You can get to it by clicking this link. It was created and written by the Piedmont staff, I think based on some of my application information. It is a real privilege to be part of this group and receive some of their marketing tools. I will have a few pieces in the New Members show throughout March, and hope to have at least one thing in the gallery as well. Check out my site and the other new artists as well! 

Big News!

I will be taking a short break from carving, call it a sabbatical. My husband and I will be hiking from Mexico to Canada following the Continental Divide Trail through New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming, Idaho and Montana. This trip will be an immersion in the beauty of nature, and I’ll return refreshed and inspired! We leave at the end of March, and should return September or October. This will complete the Triple Crown for my husband, who has also hiked the AT and the PCT.

What does this mean? I will not be able to complete any more orders until after our return. I will have occasional access to the internet, and will return any messages as soon as possible. If you would like to schedule a horse or carving to be made in the fall, feel free to let me know at any time. The sooner the better, as time will be limited to complete any orders before the holidays.

I will be attending the New Members Show with the Piedmont Craftsmen in March, and some of my horses will be available at the Piedmont Craftsmen Gallery in Winston Salem, and the Grovewood Gallery in Asheville. I hope to come back ready to work hard and reconnect with everyone!

I’ll re-post this message on the News page and the Ordering page and leave the rest of the site the same, so you can still take a look around. If you want to follow us on the trail I’ll put a link to our updates when that becomes available.

Well, I have done a few more dog carvings the past few months, as well as a horse portrait relief carving. I have really learned a lot and discovered new tools that I wish I had, such as a power engraver, or some really good paint brushes! I also learned a lot about painting. I’ve switched to acrylic paints for the dog carvings, because the milk paint wasn’t getting the detail that my clients wanted. I really learned a lot by watching a bunch of videos from Lachri Fine Art. She paints in a photo-realistic style and has a lot of helpful tips for a beginner. I never knew about glazing before!

I have to say that I am not a painter, and I think I would rather focus more on horse portrait carvings rather than dogs. Not sure what I’ll do in the future with the dogs. I’d also enjoy doing natural wood carvings more than painting them. Or perhaps just doing a light wash to give a hint of color in the future. Much more to experiment with! For now, enjoy this quick time-laps of the process of the dog carving. My video making skills still need some improvement, but one thing at a time, right?

I have an easy time loading up for the French Broad Garden Club’s Holiday Greens Market, since they are located just a block from the workshop. Just set in the truck and drive slow! This is my first year participating in the Holiday Greens Market, and I highly recommend that you check it out. I have always seen the sign while driving past on Hendersonville Rd. But Greens Market made me imagine there would only be some fresh garlands and wreaths for sale. But no! There are fabulous crafts, jams, holiday greens, Christmas trees, plants and more that I haven’t even seen yet! I am sharing selling space with a fabulous wood turner selling amazing bowls. Also a fine basket weaver. I have two large horses and one toddler horse for sale, as well as several small wood items I don’t usually have on the website. The best part is that the profits of the Holiday Greens Market goes towards the French Broad Garden Club’s scholarship fund, helping students in need. Please come on by this Sat. Dec 5 and next Dec 12, 9-2.  Located at 1000 Hendersonville Rd 28803 in Asheville. Come early before things run out!

I am honored to announce that I have officially been accepted as an exhibiting member of the Piedmont Craftsmen located in Winston-Salem, NC. I will have the privilege of showing my work at their carious craft fair events, as well as in the gallery store. I had such a wonderful time with everyone at this past craft fair, and highly recommend any artists from this group. Everything was just stunning! I hope to be able to post more about this in the future; for now, I’m feeling excited and thankful for the opportunity!

Well, the results are in.. I did not make it past the final round of judging to get in to the Southern Highland Craft Guild. I hope to be able to contact them to get the comments back from the judging, though they claim that they can’t share the notes.

I think for now I’ll focus on the upcoming Piedmont Craftsmen event in November, and put the Southern Highlands on hold for a while. Applying is a months long process that really took a lot of my time a resources. Maybe once I’m more established I’ll give it another try. For now maybe the Piedmont event will be a success!