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Wading Staff

Started by Malcolm, August 31, 2012, 11:18:19 AM

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Malcolm

I mentioned in another post that I have decided to make a couple of wading staffs during the winter.

To this end I have ordered some wood in order to make the first one, which should be delivered .

4 x 500mm x 35mm of Bulnesia sarmientoi which is one of the hardest, heaviest and most durable woods known. It also happens to be gorgeously striped! I've also a piece of rosewood for the handle. £50 so far for the wood alone never mind the joints.

Now I have a basic design in mind.

[attachimg=1]

The handle can be grasped as a staff or as a walking stick.

Two bottom sections and an extender in order to have a different set up for small rivers where an ultra heavy foot isn't necessary (the wood itself is heavier than water). It can also be used as a stout walking stick.

So now turning to the great minds here as I see a few problems and solutions which may or may not work.

1. Straightness. If I drill out the holes for the fittings it has to be very accurate. Even a millimeter out will leave a skew. I have a possible solution to give me some leeway and that is to put the fittings on before the lathe. That way (as the wood is 35mm and I will reduce it to 25mm I have a small amount of leeway.

2. The material doesn't glue wonderfully well. so I am intending to put a number of vertical and horizontal grooves inside the joints to provide a solid key.

Now I won't be starting for a month or two yet so any advice, thoughts will be most welcome.
There's nocht sae sober as a man blin drunk.
I maun hae goat an unco bellyfu'
To jaw like this

Inchlaggan

Having seen examples of your work this may be a Grandmother and egg sucking situation, but I can delete my stupidities from this post as they are pointed out or better ideas are posted.
Bulnesia sarmeintoi, or Palo Santo, is a fine choice, but with a quoted specific gravity of 0.92- 1.1 compared with water (1) and lignum vitae at 1.23 g/cm3 it is heavy but close to floating. You might want to check it before turning and then determine the amount of lead to add.
Glueing is going to be a problem, it is an oily wood (the oil is extracted and used in perfume making and for incense). Your proposed grooves will help. I presume the ferrules are threaded and screw together, in use this adds a rotational force on the joint, could you drill and countersink the faces for some long, small dia screws to add to the holding power?
Concentricity would be my biggest problem, I presume you'll be drilling on the lathe. I have seen various solutions in the past.
You have the option to make the ends very slightly concave (as the ferrules will cover this), that might help. Checking the set-up of the lathe and practicing on some scrap will always be a benefit, as will the use or construction of some fixed steadies. Adding a block of scrap to the ends before drilling and inserting (by hand) a small drill bit, checking this with a dial test indicator before and after mounting the drill in the chuck is another option. In a hard wood like this one there is always the tendency for the drill to wander, a metal worker's combination centre drill is an option if the finished size matches. Otherwise I'd start with a small diameter, shallow, and work up to the required dimensions, with the bit  mounted in the cuck only to the depth required for added strength.
I'd go beyond the standard woodworking squares, calipers and so on for measuring and use engineers tools throughout.
I look forward to hearing of progress and seeing the finished result.
'til a voice as bad as conscience,
rang interminable changes,
on an everlasting whisper,
day and night repeated so-
"Something hidden, go and find it,
Go and look beyond the ranges,
Something lost beyond the ranges,
Lost and waiting for you,
Go."

zeolite

Rosewood eh?

Be careful if you intend taking it abroad anywhere!
Schrodinger's troots pictured above.

Malcolm

Quote from: zeolite on August 31, 2012, 05:00:20 PM
Rosewood eh?

Be careful if you intend taking it abroad anywhere!

Why?


Thanks Inchlaggan,
I don't have a decent lathe. The canoe paddles I have made so far I have fashioned the shaft by fitting an attachment to an electric drill and using a sandpaper belt and working by eye (setup is a bit like the gears on a bike).
I tried the Bulnesia sarmientoi in water and it sinks like a stone, nothing remotely marginal about it.
There's nocht sae sober as a man blin drunk.
I maun hae goat an unco bellyfu'
To jaw like this

Inchlaggan

Malcolm- try a quick Google for "self centering pen vice", available in a number of designs and there is a fair amount of discussion as to their use and efficiency.
'til a voice as bad as conscience,
rang interminable changes,
on an everlasting whisper,
day and night repeated so-
"Something hidden, go and find it,
Go and look beyond the ranges,
Something lost beyond the ranges,
Lost and waiting for you,
Go."

islaangler

I don't know much about wood , but if you look up ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosewood ) you will see some species of rosewoods are internationally protected as endangered. that's why you should not take it abroad.

Also have a look here,  ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bulnesia_sarmientoi )   it would appear Bulnesia_sarmientoi  is on the red list of threatened species.

I am surprised and disappointed that a global moderator of a site which promotes the protection of wild trout and the environment should be considering using wood from endangered tropical rain forests.
:( :( :(

Wildfisher

Quote from: islaangler on September 08, 2012, 01:04:50 AM
I am surprised and disappointed that a global moderator of a site which promotes the protection of wild trout and the environment should be considering using wood from endangered tropical rain forests.

Do you know the circumstances of that particular piece of wood? I have two 40  year old guitars with rosewood fingerboards. It was perfectly legal to cut and use the wood back then, but should  I not play them now as a gesture?  If the material has already been cut and is old, what purpose is served or what is gained by not using it for non commercial purposes? 

Inchlaggan

Plenty of woods on the red list that are perfectly legal to obtain and use- including rosewood- if you go through the correct channels and obtain the required certification. Either recycled, salvaged or from sustainable sources
'til a voice as bad as conscience,
rang interminable changes,
on an everlasting whisper,
day and night repeated so-
"Something hidden, go and find it,
Go and look beyond the ranges,
Something lost beyond the ranges,
Lost and waiting for you,
Go."

Malcolm

You are, of course, absolutely correct Isla angler. I tend to assume that if the product is sold here from a bona fide retailer all is above board. I've never checked the provenance of the amboyna, curly maple and rosewood reel seats on my rods. Neither do I know about the mahogany veneer on my fly box. As a matter of fact I don't even know whether the tuna I've just eaten came from a dolphin friendly fishery.
There's nocht sae sober as a man blin drunk.
I maun hae goat an unco bellyfu'
To jaw like this

Malcolm

I need a bit of advice here from the craftsmen. I've now turned the sections of the wood down to 25mm. The sections look absolutely wonderful.  I have drilled out the sockets for the joints. The sockets are about 0.75mm larger than the snooker cue type screw joints themselves and are very straight (I devised a way to do this very accuarately on a drill lathe).

The question is what adhesive do I use to set the metal into the sockets. I have two choices. First epoxy resin and second epoxy putty. However although I intuitively favour the latter I have never used it before but it does seem to harden very well. Have any of you used it before and how does it compare in hardness and durability with epoxy resin?

Malcolm   
There's nocht sae sober as a man blin drunk.
I maun hae goat an unco bellyfu'
To jaw like this

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