Giant Cypress

There We Went Again

There We Went Again

Brian Ward:

We found a new house a more quickly than I thought we would. And it’s in… New Jersey. Central Jersey, in particular, if you believe that such a place actually exists.

Central Jersey is the best Jersey. Welcome to the Garden State, Brian!

I’d like to clarify that there aren’t any shenanigans going on with the good folks at Culinary…

giantcypress:

95-100% ethanol for shellac

On the recent episode of the MWA podcast, we had a discussion on my favorite finish, and I went on about my love for shellac, and especially seedlac. I’ve written about why Everclear is a better solvent for making your shellac than denatured alcohol, and one thing to look out for when buying Everclear.

In case you live in a place that doesn’t sell 190 proof Everclear, Brian Glendenning let me know about another source for 95% ethanol. Culinary Solvent sells 95% and 100%(!) ethanol. I haven’t tried this myself yet, but Brian mentioned that he has 2 gallons of their ethanol, and he didn’t complain about it to me.

I have no idea how this is legal, but as Brian mentioned to me, the 2 gallons of it in his shop should disprove any skepticism.

I’d like to clarify that there aren’t any shenanigans going on with the good folks at Culinary Solvent. In some cases, you can live in a state where you can’t buy 190 proof Everclear in the liquor store, but you can buy 151 proof Everclear. The 151 proof Everclear isn’t good for making your own shellac, of course.

But it seems that in some of these cases, you can have 95-100% ethanol shipped to you even if 190 proof Everclear can’t be bought locally, which is where Culinary Solvent may be an option.

I didn’t know that — it’s always good to learn something new.

More information can be found here on the Culinary Solvent website. In any case, it’s always good to have options.

I don’t know if there is such a thing as “niche” anymore. I think that because of the internet, the…

I don’t know if there is such a thing as “niche” anymore. I think that because of the internet, the way we consume culture has changed to the point where we don’t have the same kind of a centralized culture. Let’s say you go on TikTok. Every video there is a niche! I could sit there and watch a video of somebody shaving wood, then flip to a video of a big pop star, and then flip to a video about manatees. But on the other hand, traditionally, people have weaponized the language of niches to say that if something is “niche,” it does not deserve the resources that something “mainstream” does. Then it becomes about power. So I feel like it is worth rejecting the idea that some stories are niche and some are mainstream.

— Celine Song, in a terrific interview along with Adele Lim in Harper’s Bazaar.

This is a great insight, and the idea that Celine Song or Adele Lim might see a video of me making shavings makes me giddy. I do have a TikTok account, with exactly two videos of me cooking food. Better get busy.

More Japanese tool use at set build for my son’s high school drama club. Here I’m trimming off…

More Japanese tool use at set build for my son’s high school drama club. Here I’m trimming off bracing for platforms that make up part of the set, so the platforms can butt up against each other.

The kids were talking about using a jigsaw for this task. I thought using a ryoba would be more straightforward. Plus, I was done before they were able to find an extension cord for the jigsaw long enough to reach the platform.

Japanese hand tools for the win!

(Thanks to my son for taking the picture.)

95-100% ethanol for shellac

On the recent episode of the MWA podcast, we had a discussion on my favorite finish, and I went on about my love for shellac, and especially seedlac. I’ve written about why Everclear is a better solvent for making your shellac than denatured alcohol, and one thing to look out for when buying Everclear.

In case you live in a place that doesn’t sell 190 proof Everclear, Brian Glendenning let me know about another source for 95% ethanol. Culinary Solvent sells 95% and 100%(!) ethanol. I haven’t tried this myself yet, but Brian mentioned that he has 2 gallons of their ethanol, and he didn’t complain about it to me.

I have no idea how this is legal, but as Brian mentioned to me, the 2 gallons of it in his shop should disprove any skepticism.

Oh. My. God. Woodworking in America is coming back. Logan Wittmer:

Oh. My. God. Woodworking in America is coming back. Logan Wittmer:

And finally, and maybe the most exciting of all, is our plan to re-launch the Woodworking In America Conference. This conference was put on for several years by the Popular Woodworking staff, and we’re planning to once again host this conference in 2024, in collaboration with our coworkers at Woodsmith and Fine Woodworking. 

Can’t wait to see how this shapes up.

[The article is freewalled — you can read the whole thing if you have an account with Popular Woodworking, which just needs an email address.]