Wooden tongs, cutlery, spoons, chopstics

It was very warm today, too warm, in fact...

So, I did not dare go in my coating shed, and
in stead concentrated on the tong prototype.
Until you have done it you never know pitfalls,

desirable features and the like. So, today really started
with the template making. See what it is like bellow.



On reflection, this is too simplistic, I think.
Anyway, I thought I needed some indentation at the
grabbing end and what is bellow is just that...



I now think that this is stupid. For one thing the indentation
was made into rectangular grooves, and in so doing
one part of the structure broke off...

The faint pencil markings indicate the intermediate stem
shape, 99% of which is then cut by the bandsaw, the
rest jigsawed.

What is shown bellow indicates the long and shallow
grooves for the brass piece.



On the other side are the holes, as seen bellow.



Temporary assembly is shown bellow, without the mini
nuts and bolts, of course...



These, then, are gradually made into the final shape,
as shown bellow.



Top view is seen bellow...



As remarked at the top of this log you never know things until
you have made a prototype, and I have done just that.
Many ideas occur to me...

What follows is a schematic.



First and foremost is the overall shape of the
grabbing end. A is suggesting just that...

With B, I am concerend with the intial thickness
of the material, in order to accommodate the metal
pieces...

C is another thought. Do we really need grooves?
My current thinking is that in their stead I should
use pegs, perhaps 3 mm pegs, or even larger diameter
pegs as shown on the extreme right...

What do you say? The issue is squarely this. You cannot
purchase wooden tongs on the market. Yes, there are very
primitive all wooden tongs, but, they do not work properly.

Therefore, tongs are normally made of plastics and metals.
I want to create a niche market for my wooden tongs!

パエ－リャ ８２

Conchita, como estas?

Aqui ahora hace mucho calor!!!
Por eso estoy tomando la cerveza!, con mi
salud triste al ultimo dia del verano 2008!

Ahora, vamos!

つまり、どうのこうの（ＤＫ）て言う訳よね！
Resulta que DK!, no?

私、あそこの家に厄介になっているのよ!
Me aloja en aquella casa! (下宿の意味）

お祭りが盛大に行われたんでしょう？!
Se ha celebrado el festival con entusiasmo, no?!

でも最終的には。。。
pero, finalmente...

両国の関係（接触）って、私達が想像するより、
ずっと古いのよ！
Los contactos de ambos paies son mucho
mas antiguos de lo que nos imaginamos!

彼ら、土地の子供達のために学校を建てたのよ！
Ellos construyeron una escuela para los ninyos locales!

彼ら、それに共同組合も作ったわ！
Ellos tambien, fundaron una sociedad cooperativa!

そうよね！？
(Es) verdad!?

その後、１９８０年に
posteriormente en 1980

彼女達、感じがいいわね！
Me parecen muy simpaticas, ellas!

Conchita, como te van? Desde aqui en ingles!

それって、どうのこうの（ＤＫ）にピッタリよ！
That is ideally suited to DK!

遠い昔に
in the distant past...

彼って、それに関わっているのよ！
He is party to it all!

ドウノコウノ（ＤＫ）だと思っても想像力の
働かせ過ぎって言うわけでもないと思うわ！
It should not be too fanciful to think that DK!

空気を読まなくちゃダメよ！
You'd better take the cue!

。。。、ナンだっけ？
..., what's it? (度忘れなどの時に）

それが今の私達の立場なのよ！
That is where we are at the moment!

今もそうだけど、その当時も。。。
then as now...

彼、それを吐き出したの！
He spat it out! （異物とか）

暫くはこの辺にいるよね？
Will you be hanging around?

Conchita, that should suffice for now.
Take care!

Wooden tongs, cutlery, spoons and chopstics

There was a new discovery, last night...

Take a look at, though, what follows. These two
saucers were today's additional output...



Facing so may items wanting to be coated, I decided
to separate them into two different lots. Those
pieces except containers were, therefore, put into

the first stage of protective coating. No pictures here.

The new discovery? Take a look at this.



At a glance, this may look like a nail clipper, and it is not!
It is a piece of brass, vent halfway down the middle. Originally,
this was one of so many pieces of the same shape for my

aborted attempt at constructing looms. I picked one up and vent it
into this shape, and found that it was springy enough for my
tongs to be!

To date, I have made so many sets of salad servers, usual
huge spoons and forks, and I have never been able to
convince myself that they are really useful.

You have to use both hands to pick things up for translocation.

I would rather have a tong like...



You can pick things up using one hand only, but,
I think that even this is rather cumbersome.
Why do you need the spoon structure with a concave surface?

Why do you need a fork with a concave inner surface?

Can we not simplify things? That has been somewhere
at the back of my mind, for such a long time by now...

However, the stumbling block was the springy element
that I can use with my wooden members. I found it last
night. Naturally, I have been toying with other ideas

for securing the springness, and I have it now!

What follows are the basic members, still embryonic,
of course, but the basic items are there!



Can you see that holder elements are gooved? In order
not to show the mini bolts and nuts...

In the end they will be buried underneath
supplementary pieces, which will be sanded to remove
discontinuities. I will talk more about it later.

When put together the whole thing should be looking like...



Naturally, there are so many factors to think about.

However, I can now move into a new area, so far,
I have been doing chopstics, knives and forks, and
some turing work, but from now on I will be able to

fork myself out into tongs!

From now on I will be happily making small, medium
sized, and large scale tongs!!!

Why? I really think they are useful in real situations.
I will be even making "Somen" noodle picking tongs
for my own use!

パエ－リャ ８１

Conchita, como estas? Bien?

Hoy el tiempo aqui ha estado muy precario...
Mucho sol, lluvia ligera, unos truenos...
Y no hace viento, solo lluvia ligera...

Vamos?

これって、ドウノコウノ（ＤＫ）として知られているわ！
Esto es conocido como DK!

常夏の地
la tierra de la eterna primavera

温暖な気候のお陰で
gracious al clima muy agradable

年間の平均気温は２０度！
La temperatura media anual es de 20 grados!

君のお陰でなんとか到着が間に合ったよ！
He llegado a tiempo gracious a ti!

私がタ－ミナルに着いた時にはバスが発車した後だったの！
Ya havia salido el autobus cuando llegue a la terminal!

明日はどうも晴れそうにもないわ！
Es poco probable que haga buen tiempo manya-na!

ドウノコウノ（ＤＫ）かもよ！
Parece muy probable que DK!

もう食事は済ませたの？
Has comido ya?

お陰さまで随分良くなったわ！
Graious a Dios ya estoy mucho mejor!

Conchita, basta con esto, no?
Desde aqui en ingles!

兎に角、ムチャクチャよ！、イラつくわ！
It is all so exasperating!

彼なんか、１度も肉体労働したことないのよ！
He has never done a stroke of manual labour!
(This is dated!, 27 September 1981!)

（そんなんでは）言い訳に困るわよ！
You will be hard put to find an excuse!

彼って、静かで控えめだったわ！
He was quiet and reserved!

(勘弁してよ！）私、ただの人間なのよ！(出来ることに
限界があるの意味）
Come on!, I am only fresh and blood!

テレビに出ているタレント
a TV personality

それって、ナンセンスよね！、自分でも判っているくせに！
That is absolute nonsense, and you know it!

私達、みんな、その肉の塊の一切れ、欲しいわ！
We all want a slice off the chunck!

（勿論）代償もあったわ。。。
There has been a price to pay, of course...

(手品や魔術などで）
それ、煙と一緒に消えちゃったのよ！
It vanished in a puff of smoke!

Conchita, is this enough for now?
Vayas a donde vayas me quedaria enamorado!

Wood turning, wooden cutlery, chopstics

Today started with the coating of those running behind
the front runner containers, followed by taking my wife
to her mother's place in Kamakura.

See what is bellow?



This is one end of the morning dew down bellow as of
this morning... No, I did not do it! In fact, I had
been wondering what the very end might end up looking like...

It has doubled up on itself! Whether this is usual,
I have no idea...

From today on I will be talking about wood turing for
some time, but, before that see bellow.



Coating of the parts for my wife's brush hanger has
started, not with the usual polyurethane, but with
a blended natural resin. One small problem here is

that drying process is slow...

In terms of today's other output, see bellow.



There are eight of them, two more still to be worked on,
and that is for tommorrow. These are all small saucers
for my wife, made of natural cherry, as opposed to

cultivated spieces. When eventually coated they will look
lovely! I particularly like the grains!

What follows is the saucer to be, fixed on the lathe,
with its upper side about to be formed into a concave.



Can you see three small holes on the face?
They are the holes which fixed the face plate
on this side of the work.

The concave depth will have to exceed the depth
of these holes, obliterating them to get a nice and
smooth concave.

I worked out the bottom sides yesterday, and this
side of the work, shown here, is the oher side, and
after a while you have something like shown bellow...



Above is really, after, I should imagine, 10 minutes
of turning. From tommorrow on I will guide you
through the procedures.

May I remind you that the art of wood turing was
mentioned in one of Tolstoy's novels, shown as
a noble pastime for the Russian aristocracy...

In reality, it is a mess!

パエ－リャ ８０

Conchita, como estas? Estoy muy bien!

Estas cansando? Estas cenando? Estas haciendo que?

Aqui, hoy hace mucho calor... pero, en los otros lugarles
del pais hay las lluvias guerrelas gigantes!

Ahora, vamos?

歴史、誰よりも良く知っているのね！
Conoces la historia mejor que nadie!

ここの状況、かってないほど悪いわ！
La situacion aqui esta peor que nunca!

この伝説、どう思う？
Que te parece esta leyenda?

もう山の頂上にいるわ！
Ya estamos en la cumbre!

ＤＫって、どういう意味なの？
Que quiere decier DK?

ＤＫって、スペイン語でなんていうの？
Como se dice DK en espanyol?

彼ら、それをそう言う風に呼んでいたのよ！
Ellos lo llamarban asi!

伝説によれば
segun la leyenda

彼、私に難しい事を言っていたけど、意味が全然
判らなかったわ！
Me dicia cosas complicadas, cuyo sentido yo no entendia!

彼女の事、どう思う？
Que te parece ella!?

Conchita, tu me parece muy simpatica y ademas muy guapa!
Ahora, desde aqui en ingles...

自転車に乗っている人って、突然（左右に）進路から
はみ出したりするのよ！
Cyclists may suddenly swerve!

水が染み通るようにするのよ！
Let the water soak through!

どうでも良い花はちょん切るのよ！
Nip off the spoiled flowers!

(三段重ねのケ－キの説明で）
ここにもう一段乗せるのよ！
Another tier goes on here！

(雨）降るどころか、降るときには
こんなにドカ降りだわ！
Never rains, but it pours!

偶然に出会ったときに
on a chance meeting

皆に、お酒、渡っているわよね！？
Let us have a round of drinks!?

もうサインしたわよ！
I have already signed in!

彼女、少しイラツイテいたわ！
She was a little edgy!

(お酒の）お替りか注ぎ足し
refill or topping up (of the beer, etc )

Conchita, this should suffice for now?
Vaya con Dios!, y mandame tu mensaje, por favor!

Woden cutlery, saucers, My chopstics

It has been rainy all day today, and it was not
dry enough for the current lot.

Upon wet sanding, therefore they remained in my room.





I do not go into details, but even with these containers
some refinement work was put into... For instance, I have
been careful not to clog up the small holes with my

polyurethane, but that means not doing much along the
contact lines all the way down the length of the containers.
Today, I have removed polyurethan deposits over these

contact lines. It was about time I had done it, anyway...

Take a look at the next.



It may be difficult to see them, but I made a leading hole
in each of these pieces, the intention being that in
addition to glueing, I need to screw pieces together

for rigidity. How would you do that? You want to use
fine screws, but then, you do not want see their heads
sticking out conspicuously...

So, addtional larger bore holes were created. Heads will
be hidden away in these extra bores.

OK, then the fate of the discs from yesterday?

My wife wanted them to become, not toast holders,
but saucers, small... and, all of them...

So, I have ended up with what follows.



What you are looking at are the bottoms.

The one in the middle of these is a saucer to be, with
my face plate still attached to the top side. Tommorrow,
the face plate will be removed and the saucer to be

will be gripped by my largest set of jaws. This is
illustrated in the following schematics.



I think I should talk more about turing. For now take a
look at A. You may see the eventual shape of the saucer.
The dotted line is the concave surface, to be created

tommorrow. In order to do just that you must grip the
disc, and the red solid lines indicate where my jaws
will be gripping the whole thing.

The blue bar at the bottom is just a shallow recess.

Let us now move on to B. Here, I have a small problem.
My jaws are parellell, but the biting space, or gripping
space is limited.

In order to achieve maximum gripping I have made the
gripping zone reverse-tapered slightly. I should not have
done it, or should have done it?...

The issue is this, as shown with C, the most extensive
parts of the saucer to be will be so tightly gripped and
this portion will be damaged by the pressure...

I can fix it by sanding around the edges, but, ...

Anyway, I will be talking more extensively about turning
in days to follow.

パエ－リャ ７９

Conchita, como estas?

Vamos inmediatamente?

見たところ
al parecer

それ、聞いたことを思い出すわ！
Me acuerdo de haber oido esos!

そこで彼に会ったのを覚えてる？
Te acuerdas de haberlo visto alli?

誰も彼が言った事を信じなかったのよ！
..., pero nadie creia lo que decia el!

私、どうしてよいのか分からなかったのよ！
No sabia que hacer!

何と言って慰めたらいいのか判らないわ！
No se que decirte para consolarte1

そういう訳でここにこの建物が建てられたの！
Asi levantaron este edificio en este sitio!

バラの季節でもないのに!
a pesar de no ser epoca de las rosas!

通りを歩いてると
al pasar por la calle

覚えてる？是非タバコ止めるように頼んだこと？
Te recuerdas? Que te rogue que dejaras de fumar?

私、弟に間違えられちゃったわ！
Me tomaron por mi hermano!

Conchita, creo que nunca no fumas ahora...
Desde aqui en ingles.

これって、もう何年も続いているわよね！
This has been going on for ages by now!

何をする積りなの？
What are you up to?

これって、ドウノコウノ（ＤＫ）に関係しているの。。。
This concerns DK...

取るの？取らないの？、乗るの？、乗らないの？
Take it, or leave it!

（嫌でも）義務的に出席する集まり
those functions you attend out of duty

馬場を回っている馬達を見て、ＤＫとか
言うかも知れませんが。。。

Looking at the horses going around in the ring
you might perhaps say DK...

ＤＫ，　で、それに伴う一切合財も！
DK, and everything that goes with it!

一休みして、２０分後に再開しましょう！
We will take a break now and continue in
20 minutes!

交差点では特に注意するのよ！
Be especially careful at junctions!

Conchita, that is all for now!
Take care!

Toast holders, wooden cutlery, chopstics

Was it not supposed to be rainy today?

Anyway, it was good for drying the pieces before
coating, as you will see bellow.



I have a small problem here... Those containers, seen
vertical in this picture are one day behind those seen
horizontal. So, tommorrow, only those vertical containers

will be subjected to the third penetration coating and the
rest of the pieces will have a rest, inlcuding those seen
bellow.



These operational irregularities are inherent in my
coating system, because nail beds are limited in
number, and I am not going to strike a few thousand

nails, not any more. The main bed alone has more than 5000 nails!
It took me a few days of monotonous job of striking
nail after nail... It was a nightmare, it really was!

Anyway, to continue..., yes, the parts for my wife's
brush hanger were completed today, soon after the
coating, as you see bellow.



When they are put together the whole thing should be
looking like what is shown bellow. Members are not
yet permanently fixed together.



So much for the hanger business...

Now, take a look at the following.



These are discs, on way to becoming something...
And, they have been a pain in the neck for such
a long time, doing nothing in my room.

For that matter, I have more of those with smaller
diamters, and made from spruce... They also are
a pain in the neck.



I probably am in the process of sorting out the mess
in my room..., which is full of completed pieces, unprocessed,
raw materials of all kinds.

I think I will move most of these to my next shed, when it
is completed some time next year in our mountain cottage.
They will be useful there, too.

Anyway, the discs, or discs to be, you see them bellow.



See how neat and tidy they are now. Actually, I have found
3 more of those since, which I will work on tommorrow. My original
idea was to turn them into disc shaped toast holders, as shown here

in the middle. My wife is making some noise, though,
about the final shape of these. I will see...

In any event, I turned these this afternoon. Turning,
I have not done it for such a long time...

It is a messy business, with all those bits and pieces
flying about all over the place in my workshop...

パエ－リャ ７８

Conchia, como estas?

Aqui, hoy hace mucho calor... Como te va alla?
Ayer, mi hija volvio al norte...

Ahora vamos!

街にはどう行けば良いのですか？
como se va a la ciudad?

ずっと昔から
desde hace mucho tiempo

奥にまた別の建物があるわね！
Al fondo se ve otro edificio!

日常生活を扱う壁画
las pituras murales que tratan de la vida cotidiana

そう、その理由からなのよ！
Si, es por esta razon!

完成するまで２世紀半もかかったらしいわよ！
Se dice que tardaron cerca de dos siglos y medio en
acabarla! (la Catedral...)

それって、昔から東京のシンボルなのよ！
Es el simbolo de Tokio desde hace mucho tiempo!

彼女には３年も前から会ってないわ！
No la veo desde hace tres anyos!

素晴らしいわね！
Que maravillosa!, Que maravilloso!

ルネッサンスやバロック調の建築スタイル
los estilos architectonicos como renacimiento
y barroco

Conchita, creo que basta con esto para hoy...
Desde aqui en ingles.

私って、ドウノコウノ（ＤＫ）の夢を何度も何度も
見るのよ！
I have this recurring dream of DK!

え？、それってただ、そうなって欲しいと思ってる
だけじゃないの！？
Oh, that is just a wishful thinking, is it not!?

そんなんじゃないよ！、唯一思いつくのはＤＫかな？
Far from that!, and abou the only thing I can
think of is DK...

でも、確信があって言っているわけじゃないよ。。。
I do not say that with any great conviction...

偶然なんかにまかせたらダメよ！
Leave nothing to chances!

それ、止めにしようか？、手を出さないでいようか？
Shall we leave it?

単独２位だよ！
Second place, all by himself!

こんな調子じゃあ、どうのこうの。。。
The way things are going, dounokouno...

これって、もうそろそろ３０年にもなりかけているのよ！
This is getting on nearly 30 years!
（例えば課題とか、紛争とか、その他。。。）

最初にそれを片付けてしまおうよ！
Let us get it out of the way first!

Conchita, these, I think, are enough for the day.
Take care y unos mansajes para mi, no?