New Projects & New Workshop

Are you ready!? Me neither. Anyway, I have a reasonably functional work space and some materials. On the workbench right now is a wakizashi and a modified Clariel order that was cancelled when the pandemic started.

My workshop is now located on the upper floor of my house. It was going to be in the garage but it turns out that the heating in there doesn’t work and the water pipe freezes every winter. Oh well. The entire outer wall of this room is windows so I have adequate ventilation.

I haven’t been idle during my long hiatus. I’ve studied some new techniques and gotten a couple new tools which I hope will make my job easier and speedier. Here’s a picture of the wakizashi in progress. I’ve drilled guide holes through the material with my drill press who I call Emily, after Emily Post. If you know who that is, you’re officially cool.

Anyway, drilling nice 90 degree holes around the perimeter of the pattern I intend to cut out helps me keep my plunge cutter straight and avoid straying off on an angle that I’ll have to fix later.

You can see that the Clariel, a Seraph Blade inspired by Cassandra Clare’s “Shadowhunters” novel series, was already into the first stage of material removal when the project was cancelled. While it’s sad that the customer had to cancel, the upshot is that I can now do whatever I want with this piece. I’ve never had this kind of freedom before. It’s exciting and terrifying.

Well, let’s see what happens.