Schroedinger

I usually check my strips for dimension (both correspondence to the design thickness from the taper plan and consistency flat to flat) by carefully taking measurements with a digital caliper. I know that this is less than accurate, since the apex, which is always one of the reference ‘sides’, is very easily crushed, resulting in an undersize reading (the actual crushing of the apex itself is not so much a problem). There are better, more accurate ways, to measure dimensions of a (equilateral) triangular strip. The most common approach among bamboo rod makers is to use a so-called Waara v-block, named for the rod maker (and machinist and inventor) who popularised it and manufactured them for sale. The principle behind it is that you put a strip in a 60 degree v-groove in a block that has a cutout for a pair of calipers, supporting the apex side of the strip with the groove, rather than by its apex alone, and measuring the thickness of the strip-plus-block. If you know what the net thick...

Quick random message. I ran out of empty plastic bobbins/spools to refill with Gütermann Skala 240 (UNI 6/0) and Skala 360 (UNI 8/0) for making furled leaders, and for fly tying. Fortunately I have a decent supply of locally grown Buxus - too thin for ‘real’ woordturning, but more than adequate for making fly tying bobbins…

 Some time ago I showed my hollowing jig for (female) bamboo ferrules. That version consisted of a small slab of wood with a groove, the depth of which defines the resultant wall thickness, and a spokeshave to remove material from the inside of a strip, down to the desired wall thickness. While functional, that small jig wasn't completely satisfactory, for a number of reasons. In addition, the (unmodified) spokeshaves were less than totally satisfactory, as they kept digging into the surface of the jig when reaching the final wall thickness. So I updated my hollowing jig, making it from a large, heavy slab of well seasoned European oak (from a 50 year old discarded table, sawn to length and planed to thickness (using a large workshop jointer and a lunchbox thickness planer). I made a number of grooves with a plunge router, of different depth (wall thickness) - on one side for general hollowing (wall thicknesses roughly between 2 and 3 mm), and for female ferrule hollowing on the ot...