FAQ's
What you see below are the most common questions I get asked when people see my work. If you have a question that you would like answered and can't find the answer you need, please feel free to ask us!!! I have a lot of friends in the business, so if I can't answer it, I know someone who can!
1. How did you get started doing the woodworking thing?
Well… Sometime around 1986, I was messing around in my garage with a scrolling jigsaw that I had just bought, when a neighbor asked me if I could cut out some small Christmas trees and some small reindeer for them. I did them with the jigsaw, they didn’t quite cut out smooth, but they were neat to say the least. I was in Sears and they were getting rid of their scrollsaws, so I bought a small one for $20 and tried to cut out the Christmas stuff with that, turned out pretty well!!! Pretty soon I was cutting out a lot of things for the people in the neighborhood, mostly country stuff, and putting away a little money. With the money I saved from that, I bought a better quality scrollsaw and started exploring more detailed stuff. Needless to say, my friends and family started getting “wood” gifts and crafts, made by me, for Christmas and Birthdays.
Then there was that one fateful day when someone asked me if I would consider being part of a Christmas Craft Show. I bit the bullet, made a ton of little wood things, and sold out!!! That really gave me a boost and started me in making things for more shows, stores, special orders, plaques for the military, etc. I added many tools to my arsenal since then, learned and perfected each one, thus getting better at doing other things. I added little craft stuff here and there to round out everything, and to take a break from cutting, it caught on pretty well.
Now, here I am 20 years later, and 5 scrollsaws later, finally settling down and making it a full business. Of course, this is what I planned to do when I retire from my “real” job; I just started it a little early. I’ll be putting pics of my tools and workshop up in the near future. Naturally, the BIGGEST thing in all of this is that I have FUN with everything and doing everything, kind of like a break from the real world, lol…
2. Do you teach people to woodwork?
I will teach anybody anything, I think that is straight to the point, and of course for free. I would like to see woodworking, especially fretwork, to stay as it is without being taken over by machines that put out the same thing over and over. Cost wise, it is mostly cheaper to do it by hand because you don’t have to “tack on” extra money to the selling price to pay for your $100,000 laser cutter, also cheaper to by blades, lol… So, if you want to learn, give me a shout and we can work out times and dates!
3. Why do you use Baltic Birch plywood for the fretwork?
Baltic Birch is used because it is a very workable and high quality piece of plywood. Although it is slightly more expensive than regular plywood, the Baltic Birch seldom has any voids in it; this is what they advertise as one of the qualities. I think the main reason for using it is that all the ply’s are NOT filler!!! Baltic Birch uses birch all the way through, unlike the other plywood where you will get particleboard and such in the middle. Of course it finishes great too!!!
4. What is the best glue for wood indoor/outdoor?
There are many types of glue out there for all types of purposes. I can’t really tell you what is the best for what, but personally, I prefer to use the WeldWood line of glues for everything. I also use Gorilla glue for some applications, like putting two stained pieces together; this too is a great glue.
5. How long does it take to cut out something like your wolf head?
Every piece that is cut out, time wise, is dependent mostly on how many inside cuts there are in the whole pattern. Normally, the inside cuts are done first, followed by the outside cuts. The reason for doing the inside cuts first is because you have a larger, more “stable” piece of wood to work with, especially doing very intricate inside cuts. To do the inside cuts you have to drill a pilot hole, connect the blade to its bottom stay on the scrollsaw, feed the blade through the pilot hole in the wood, attach the blade to the top stay on the scrollsaw, tension the blade for cutting, cut out the inside part of the piece, then reverse all the steps and do them again for the next inside cut! sound like fun? Pieces like the wolf head take around 20 minutes to do, the more intricate the patterns get, of course the more time it will take.
6. What are the sizes of your blades you use in your scrollsaw?
If I say smaller that a needle will that do? lol… The smallest I use is .010” and then up from that. the more detailed and intricate the pattern, coupled with the thickness of the wood, is what determines the size of the blade you want to use. Of course, thinner is better because it leaves a small kerf, but the downside is that you wind up breaking a lot more blades. Most blades are marked (normally on the back of the package) telling you what blade will perform the best on the piece of wood based on wood thickness and hardness.
7. What is the difference between a scrollsaw, jigsaw and bandsaw?
All of these saws are good for their applications of which they are designed to do. To me, the best all around saw is the Scrollsaw, it is like all of the others rolled into one, here are some examples: The bandsaw is good for cutting down boards and for outside cuts but can not do inside cuts without having to “break” the solid piece of wood to get to the center. It also is limited, by the size of the band, for cutting up to a certain length of board as well as can not get too intricate. The Jigsaw, being hand held and portable, is good for large outside and inside cuts but is very limited for intricate cuts because of the size of the blade. The scrollsaw is good for everything, but it too is limited by the size of its throat and thickness of the wood, everything else is right on track!
8. How long does it take to make a dreamcatcher?
Actually this is a good and bad question. A dreamcatcher is a series of half-hitches that go on themselves until you end them. Time can vary from 15 minutes to about 2 hours depending on how you make it, how many stitches, how large and the material used. I take a metal ring, wrap it with suede, do all the stitches to the center then add other items as I see fit (if it needs it), doing it like this takes a little over an hour. A simple grapevine dreamcatcher will take you less than 15 minutes. Of course, the more you make them, the faster you get!
9. Can you mass produce the items?
I get asked this question a lot, especially from teachers and groups that want a large amount of some items. Well… the answer quite simply is NO. Unlike someone who has a laser that cuts out the wood the same way every time and in quantity, I do everything by hand, one by one (plus, why should I spend over $100k on a laser and be like everyone else!). I can however, stack saw some of the thinner pieces, sometimes up to 4, as long as there are no really intricate cuts. I prefer to cut them out one at a time anyway. It is quicker and easier for me than to spend the time setting up to stack saw.
10. What does “XYZ” mean?
Huh? lol… I get asked a lot what certain things mean in woodworking. The best thing I can do, instead of typing all of them in here is give you a link to the best glossary of woodworking terms I know! http://sawdustmaking.com/GLOSSARY/glossary_of__woodworking_t.htm
11. Where do you get your patterns that you cut?
I get my patterns from many, many sources. Some come from wood/craft magazines, pattern books that I have bought, online patterns, groups I belong to, etc. I normally take the pattern and change it to suit my needs. I am fairly decent at making patterns from pictures also, like the Jim Morrison portrait as well as the Beatles, I love working on the computer (plus the comptuer thing is what I do in my "real" job)!!! Mostly, I see something I like (doesn’t matter wood, plastic, metal, picture, even a scene), and I draw out a pattern for it, or just come up with stuff that people might want, All good and fun…
12. How much do you charge to cut things that we provide the pattern for?
A little bit of a difficult question, but I do get this a lot, mostly from friends and familly who I hate taking money from to begin with!!! Every woodworker, or craftsman for that matter, has their own formula's for putting a price on their work. Even though we have our "formula's" I have to take other things into consideration. For example: I normally charge $.50 an inside cut, material used (wood, stain, sandpaper, glue, blades, etc. that I have a set value for the things that are done) and also, a set value for time. But... If someone gives me something with 100 inside cuts, I am not going to charge $50 just for the cuts, it wouldn't be worth it to them or myself. What I try to do is to go from the beginning to the end on a project and see what I use and how much time it takes so I can come up with a good estimate of cost. Like I said, hard to explain in detail how I do it, I just try to keep things fair!!! To end with my favorite quote; "It's easy to say what you think something is really worth, but it is not worth that much unless someone actually pays that price and you have the money in hand", just something to think about the next time someone tells you how much one of their things is worth......"
~ Chiz
