Throw aways? Am I the only one?

[woodduck]

I have made some firewood myself ,Its all a learning curve & I try to learn from it & not make the same mistake again.Trouble is there is always a different mistake to test you.

[new2woodwrk]

7 hours ago, wombatie said:

I have had some doozies but one thing I have learnt over the years is not to drill all of the holes before I start cutting, I drill a few at a time, that way if there is an unfixable break I have not wasted all the wood.  ...

Marg

That's a great idea - I've been wrestling with this concept as my cuts get more detailed - whether I should drill them all at once, or just a few at a time?

I'm going to try this today, in between finishes I want to cut a new pattern see if I can drill a few and cut, rinse and repeat!

Thanks Marg!

[jerry1939]

9 hours ago, wombatie said:

I have had some doozies but one thing I have learnt over the years is not to drill all of the holes before I start cutting, I drill a few at a time, that way if there is an unfixable break I have not wasted all the wood.  On saying that I recently broke a portrait x 2 that I was cutting and forgot my own rule, so there was nothing worth saving.    Just keep practicing the firewood will get less.  Steve Good had some practice sheets once have a look and see if he still has them and give them a try.

Marg

The reason I only drill about a dozen holes at a time is that it forces me to get up off of my lazy ______ regularly to get the kinks out.

[jbrowning]

I have made decorative firewood and still do make decorative firewood. It's all part of trying new things and growing in the hobby we have.

[NC Scroller]

We all do.  It is part of learning.  I am never quick to throwing out my mistakes.  One they act as a reminder of what not to do.  Second I have actually saved a couple by changing the design or after learning new tricks from others or when my skills improved.

[kmmcrafts]

47 minutes ago, jerry1939 said:

The reason I only drill about a dozen holes at a time is that it forces me to get up off of my lazy ______ regularly to get the kinks out.

If I do advanced portrait style cutting.. I drill 10 holes at a time for two reasons.. I get to move around.. and I put a tally mark on the paper pattern for how many holes I've cut out.. Kind of nice to be able to tell in my listing ads on the web site how many holes was drilled and cut.. makes for some conversation... Could do a give away drawing if I was doing craft shows as a promo type thing.. I'd do it online but then there is no way to keep people from downloading the photo and zooming in on it to count them..  

[RangerJay]

6 hours ago, kmmcrafts said:

If I do advanced portrait style cutting.. I drill 10 holes at a time for two reasons.. I get to move around.. and I put a tally mark on the paper pattern for how many holes I've cut out.. Kind of nice to be able to tell in my listing ads on the web site how many holes was drilled and cut.. makes for some conversation... Could do a give away drawing if I was doing craft shows as a promo type thing.. I'd do it online but then there is no way to keep people from downloading the photo and zooming in on it to count them..  

I also drill only 10 holes at a time - but I stopped my tally count quite a while back for two reasons - first is that despite how easy keeping track of 10 holes at a time sounds I found myself sitting at the saw wondering if I recorded the last 10 holes ...... second, and more telling, is that I found myself also questioning progress with something along the line of:  "there is NO possible way in h**l that 100 holes can be that small a piece of the pattern!!!".

Jay

[blights69]

On 4/14/2018 at 11:23 AM, new2woodwrk said:

I've had to throw away a few projects I've tried to make and came out terrible.

One was an Intarsia Seagull - which I tried to make a segmentation cut and just screwed up the whole thing - none of the pieces fit together - that told me I was nowhere near ready for those types of projects again.

Others were some patterns of cars I got here - I can't seem to get some of the lines cut without screwing up the whole thing.

So I was wondering if others ever had to throw away projects for whatever reason or this something I should feel "special" about - I sure do feel "special" about it because it's really de-motivating when it happens.

Thanks in advance

You are looking at it wrong a mistake is not a fail it just means that you are making pretty firewood that is all . It is a gift to the fire gods who will pay you back in the winter months. That is what I tell myself anyways and it makes it a little easier to bin it:) 

[blights69]

On 4/14/2018 at 11:23 AM, new2woodwrk said:

I've had to throw away a few projects I've tried to make and came out terrible.

One was an Intarsia Seagull - which I tried to make a segmentation cut and just screwed up the whole thing - none of the pieces fit together - that told me I was nowhere near ready for those types of projects again.

Others were some patterns of cars I got here - I can't seem to get some of the lines cut without screwing up the whole thing.

So I was wondering if others ever had to throw away projects for whatever reason or this something I should feel "special" about - I sure do feel "special" about it because it's really de-motivating when it happens.

Thanks in advance

You are looking at it wrong a mistake is not a fail it just means that you are making pretty firewood that is all . It is a gift to the fire gods who will pay you back in the winter months. That is what I tell myself anyways and it makes it a little easier to bin it:) 

[Southern Scroller]

My custom designer firewood could probably heat a 3000 sq ft cabin in northern Alaska through a winter and have all the residents wearing shorts and flip flops.  Patterns are designed by and cut by professionals.  I never expect to match them but would like to come close.   I've used a lot of sawdust and wood glue to make things look better.  Someday maybe I'll reach that goal of near perfection.

Edited April 16, 2018 by Southern Scroller
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