Perseverance Pays Off
So there I was, standing in my lumber supplier’s building, staring at the ugliest pallet of walnut I had ever seen. The guys told me it was called “waddle” walnut. When I asked what waddle was, they grinned and said “If you figure it out, let us know”. It has to be some kind of Yankee term because none of us southern boys had ever heard of it. All I knew was it was around a #2 common grade of walnut, which is pretty poor quality with knots, worm holes, and splits. However, it was on sale for a really good price so I couldn’t help but take a closer look.
I had an hour to burn so I rolled up my sleeves, put on some gloves, and started digging through the pile. I actually found some decent pieces which I pulled out and placed on the cart. I was startled when I got to the bottom of the pile when I spotted the most beautifully figured walnut board I have ever seen. It had a little bit of everything in it from curly patterns on one end to tiger stripes on the other. My mind was racing as I quickly figured in my mind how many lazy susans I could get out of this board.
I was able to get two, 13” and two 16” lazy susans out of this board along with some figured maple and cherry to add character. Here are the results:
Avondale Autumn Fest 2010
I had another great weekend of perfect weather at the Avondale Autumn Fest this past weekend. I’ve now had two shows in a row, within two weeks of each other, with perfect weather. This rarely happens with outdoor shows.
This was my third straight year at Avondale, and even though it is one of my smaller shows, it is always a favorite. The load in/out is very easy, customer turnout is good for this size show, and the music this year was incredible. I was located close enough to the stage that I could see the performers, but not so close that it was too loud. I was also appreciative of my long-time customers that continue to come to my booth each year to buy more products.
Most every artist I spoke with experienced very good sales. All the other woodworkers have dropped out of this show leaving me the only wood products booth this year. There is a lot to be said about not having any competing products at a show.
I’m a little glad this was my last show of the year because I am about worn out from this month’s shows. I can now concentrate on building my inventory back up and getting it online for the Christmas buying season. Watch my Artfire and Etsy stores for new and additional products over the next few weeks. I just got a hold of a large amount of P.O. Box doors of widely varying dates that I will be adding to the mix with new wood combinations.
I Love Fall Shows!
I want to thank all the good people in East Tennessee for helping make the Foothills Fall Festival my best show of the year. The weather was great, my sales were great, and I really enjoyed meeting and making new customers. Even though I live in Georgia, I grew up in Blount County and it’s always fun to return to the Maryville-Alcoa area.
I was surprised at the number of out of state customers this year. This is such a great show that it is becoming a destination for many. I sold to Alabama, Illinois, and South Carolina customers. The new artist setup was also much improved. I really liked being in the center of the street where customers could visit from both sides. It really improved my foot traffic.
The bottom line is that everyone was having fun and enjoying probably the best weather I have ever seen for a show.
Bookmarks and PO Door Banks
I’m spending the next few weeks preparing for the Foothills Fall Festival in Maryville, Tennessee. This was my biggest show last year and I have no reason to believe it won’t be again this year.
The Post Office bank boxes have been a big hit lately, so I’m working to increase my inventory of these. This is a recent new product for me and they did well at a show a few weeks ago, so I’m building the inventory up expecting them to sell well in Tennessee.
The bookmarks were huge sellers in Tennessee last year. They were flying out of my booth by the handful, so I am making a lot of new ones for the show. I have a lot of highly figured maple scrap pieces that are too small for anything other than bookmarks. I’m just pairing other pieces such as jatoba, walnut, and tulip wood with the figured maple to see what “pops” out. This current batch looks spectacular.
Cleaning Day!
The only thing I hate worse than watching glue dry is watching clear finish dry. I have post office box banks and lazy susans sitting all around the shop after putting their first clear coat finish on this morning. When this happens, I can’t machine anything that would create dust. Fortunately, I had a shipment of post office doors come in Saturday and I spent the rest of today cleaning doors. It’s time consuming, but it’s also a lot like quiet time so I enjoyed the change of pace.
It’s rare to get a hold of these vintage doors in like new condition. They were all in service somewhere at one time. Many were bought in large lots and stored in basements and barns for years until re-discovered. I probably spend at least 30 minutes cleaning each door. Some doors may take an hour or more depending on the condition. Hard to open locks, bent frames, and stuck hinges contribute to the reconditioning process. I’m not trying to make them look brand new, but they need to work and fit into the box correctly.
The first thing I do is remove the glass and wash each door with Dawn detergent while scrubbing with a soft wire brush. This gets the dirt and crud off the door, but it’s still dull and tarnished. If the lock doesn’t turn or work smoothly, which happens about 50% of the time, it gets disassembled, repaired, and lubricated. Once all this is done, I use Brasso and start polishing to get the original shine back. Sometimes I have to resort to using a Dremel tool with a spinning wire brush to get hard crud off some of the metal parts.
This is a before and after of the doors I just received. The one on the left is representative of how they came to me. The one on the right is what it looks like cleaned up. The majority of these doors had smooth operating locks, so I just had to clean them and be done with it.
I recently received a few of these 1902 double dial eagles. I got them cleaned up before I took a picture, but the dials and locking mechanism had to be completely disassembled, cleaned, and oiled to just get the dials to turn. The effort was worth it because they now operate smooth. These are beautiful, heavy, and well-built doors.
