Free time

If you have some free time, you can do something useful : https://www.ssvp.fr/

Woodworking and woodcarving

After a day on computer simulations of virtual atoms, nothing is better to relax and free the mind than carving wood with chisels and gouges. I am trying to teach myself woodcarving, little by little. So far, I realized dozens of objects, including spoons, decorated boxes, picture frames, and small statues.

I use tilia (lime wood), prunus (cherry wood), pyrus (pear wood), juglans regia (walnut), quercus (oak), etc.

Recently I started learning furniture-making using the techniques of our great-grandfathers (no electric tools), following books like those of Christopher Schwarz, or the excellent videos of Paul Sellers, The English Woodworker, Mr Chickadee etc.

Of all this I enjoy the creativity, since you are free to shape anything you like, and the craftsmanship, with all the feelings you get from cutting the wood (with eyes, ears, nose, fingers). No result is perfect, each one is beautiful to me.

To enlarge: right-click + "open in new window"

a technical picture: if you set the chipbreaker close to the blade edge, you can plane smoothly through a knot on pine even with a widely open plane mouth. I was quite impressed the first time it happened to me!