Is there a project that you have started and then put off working on and why?

For me it's the dresser for the bedroom suite I'm building. I have the two outer pieces of the dresser 90% complete but had to stop to take care of paying jobs and lifes other assorted curve balls that get thrown at you. Good news is I got the tops assembled and a coat of oil on them along with the caps for the legs only to be put on hold for another paying job.

Almost forgot about the flooring for our living room/ hallway. It's all hand scraped, sanded, stained and finished. Just need the time to get it installed and my helper ( Norma) to heal up from the car accident.

Maybe 16 - 18 years ago, I started making the parts (nearly all made, too) for a rocker designed by Robert C Whitley. I like it better than the Maloof rocker, though most will consider that alone to be heresy. It intimidates the dickens out of me because the original is so beautiful. (He is an incredible craftsman) I keep threatening to finish it soon. It will help that I made a rocker for my granddaughter for Christmas, and that helped me shake my demons of getting the legs and spindles reamed at the right angles.

Plus I have a rifle stock to finish, too, started only 3 years ago. Just picked up a really good rasp last week. The wood is baltic birch and the action is an air rifle, Weirauch HW-55. It's gonna be a keeper.

PamWhat if you used some cheap 2x material to practice shaping & inlaying the action into first & get it just right & then move onto the cherry? This should help you an 8' piece of 2x6 or 2x8 would give you lots of material to practice on, if the 1st one didn't come out right just cut another & start again.

Bart - That ought to help a lot with figuring out the inlay. But they shape up different, pine is such a soft wood and most carving is done on hard wood. I didn't think it would make that much difference, but it does. My neighbor, when he heard that I was building a rifle stock had to show me the one he built. It took the heart right out of me. His was beautiful, perfect. My first thought was I can't do that and I've been afraid to start ever since. And there's always something else going on here, makes it easy to put things off.

Ryan Mooney said:

Yeah they moved production in 2009-2010 or so. Before that they were fantastic, unfortunately the newer ones aren't as good of quality:
http://www.toolsforworkingwood.com/store/blog/181
http://www.toolsforworkingwood.com/store/more/AU-Hist.html

Pauls post reminded me that the Dragon Rasps are nice as well.

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SAD --- mine looks like the rasp on the left - not the right. In the pictures I can easily understand how the new style would get clogged.

Sad - really sad.

All the good stuff is going away.

Pam Russell said:

Bart - That ought to help a lot with figuring out the inlay. But they shape up different, pine is such a soft wood and most carving is done on hard wood. I didn't think it would make that much difference, but it does. My neighbor, when he heard that I was building a rifle stock had to show me the one he built. It took the heart right out of me. His was beautiful, perfect. My first thought was I can't do that and I've been afraid to start ever since. And there's always something else going on here, makes it easy to put things off.

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Pam - you are wrong.

YES you CAN do it. You "should" do it.

I agree don't practice in softwood.

You can get a pile of scrap hardwood and glue it up into a blank piece for practice.

It you wanted to do so you "could" use pine as a test cut piece - THEN - into the glued up hardwood.

BUT - after seeing the stuff you do - YES - you CAN do it.

4 poster bed build for a grandson, started with 3 pieces of 2x6 maple glued up to make a 6x6 turning blank. Day after roughing out the post parts, some of them developed deep cracks. Tossed the whole works under the bench, where they stayed for a year.

Pam Russell said:

Mine is a cherry wood rifle stock. I had bought the wood, a big investment on my part, and then stopped because of not being sure how to inlay the action. Plus being afraid of ruining it. I've cut the blank in the general shape I want and stopped at that point. It's just a .22.

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Hello Pam,

May I offer a hint to you about this.

Perhaps making a prototype from glued up pine of just the part you are having trouble with would be easier.

Then you can take a dremel tool and carve away on the inexpensive peice with burr bits.

If you don't like it, it is easy to make a new one.

Once you have what you want in pine, you can transfer it over to the cherry using a vernier caliper and a pin transfer tool aka profile gauge.

It always helps to have something to model your finished peice on.

I started building a sewing cabinet for my wife about 4 years ago, it sits out in the shop about 3/4 done. I really have no valid reason for not finishing it.....maybe when she gets back into the quilt making mode again I'll finish it up.

Then again, if it was done it might inspire her to take up quilting again.

Gee, only one?

There are several on my list. Most times it is one of a few things that keep's me from getting started. Money (the project cost just can't be justified at the time even if it is needed), fear of a process that I am unfamiliar with. Or, and this is the big one for me, I just can't decide on a few details and I'm afraid to start without knowing in advance what every step will involve. The o'l "analysts to paralysis" routine.

I see others here with similar issues. There should be a 12 step program for us.

Rennie Heuer said:

...The o'l "analysts to paralysis" routine...

I see others here with similar issues. There should be a 12 step program for us.

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Dang it Rennie, I just used "Analysis Paralysis" in a post, then come here and see you're using the same term. Now everyone is gonna think I'm copying you, lol.

Pam, I struggle with this all the time. Probably something to do with being a perfectionist at heart and afraid of blowing the execution. I was going to suggest what has already been mentioned here. Get some cherry and practice technique until you have some comfort in your ability. I don't think you necessarily need a practice board the same size as your stock. I would maybe just work on a butt sized piece, or the wrist. I do think it would be good to practice on the same kind of wood. Break the process down into little steps and keep at those until you graduate yourself.

I had the same dream- to make some custom muzzle loaders or rifle stocks when I retire. Did that in '07 and still haven't touched the birds-eye maple stock blanks. Right now I have a grand piano needing refinishing waiting in the shop and stealing valuable shop space.......going on 3 years.........