Camp NaNoWriMo

Just stopping by for a brief update. In the hectic flash that has been the last month or so, I have placed a lot of irons in the fire. On one hand, that breeds a lot of drive and creativity. On the other hand, that makes me a quivering mass of ADHD addled insanity piling up things that will most likely topple into ruin, disuse, and disappointment in the weeks to come. The upside is at least a few things should make it through the wringer intact, and any progress is a good thing.

I just found out this morning that the people that brought you NaNoWriMo are at it again. For those not in the know, NaNoWriMo is National Novel Writing Month, and is held every November. The goal is to churn out 50,000 words in one month. There is a website to help you track yourself, and stay motivated, along the way. 

This year they are launching Camp NaNoWriMo. That's right, a summer edition of everyone's favorite play from home fiction creating game. The website has been a bit packed this morning, but I managed to squeak in to sign up, and have my first go at a NaNo writing event. The idea is to start from scratch, and write a new piece in one month, but I intend to stay on track with my current project. I'm mostly in it for some motivation. If you're interested in joining the fun, it isn't too late.

I settled on a working title for my book. How does "Angel'sKin" grab you? It is an Urban Fantasy at it's core, but there are some thriller and detective story elements thrown in. Currently it sets at 13,904 words. If I hit the 50,000 goal that will give me 63,000 going into August. To give a bit of perspective I started the project in late February. Yeah, time to up the pace. In my defense, most of my man hours in this beast were dedicated to character and plot development, and a bit of honest 'world builder's disease'. That will all have to be put on hold. It will take full time seat of the pants writing to hit the goal., so wish me luck.

There are several bushcraft, carving, and tool related projects, in various stages of completion, still being documented for you guys. I hope I can post a few up before the July 31st deadline. I broke out the mini forge for a quick project last night. My attempt at a spoon adze went fairly well. I expect that will be the next write up when I come up for air. Just so you can't say I didn't give you anything, here is the finished shot of the Kiley's Garage sign. It has been packed and shipped to it's new sweet home in Alabama. I played around with different ideas to hang it, but finally settled on some homemade copper chains. Just a quick bit of twisting on stripped copper wire. Whatcha think?

I have to hit the keys if progress is to be made tonight. As always, keep creating, and if I don't surface again soon see you in a month.

Kiley's Garage Sign

Have you ever known a guy that is so awesome that he would open his heart and home to a rag tag group of near total strangers in the name of brotherhood alone? What about a dude who just gets it? I'm talking about the type of person who works full time bettering humanity, spends his off time creating motorcycle uber-amazing-ness, and just happens to rock an epic level chin mounted push broom.

I just happen to know a guy named Kiley, who just happens to fit that very description. Although I did not personally get to attend the monumental occasion that brought an army of vintage bike nuts to rest at Kiley's Garage last fall, I was inspired by the stories that grew out of it. I wanted to make him something just to say that someone noticed he was being top-notch. I started freehand sketching on a piece of catalpa, and after a while carved a ribbon. The idea was to incorporate "Kiley's Garage" into a hanging sign to put in front of the the now infamous shop where all the shenanigans in question transpired. Due to the size of the scavenged stock I had to work with, "Kiley's" is all that would fit on the first piece.

With this piece locked in, it would require actual planning to design the rest of the piece. I hauled myself over to the Do The Ton forum, the place where I first got in with this crew of crazy gear heads, and sought out some advice. After getting several suggestions there emerged a clear choice.

Justin Longhorn, as he is known on the interweb, suggested a tree of life design. Kiley had mentioned wanting one in front of the shop. Done deal.

After some research the idea came into focus and the cutting began. After the rough shaping the disc got planed down flat enough to take the design.

 

Then the design was sketched on, and holes drilled in the negative spaces. I used a scroll saw, but the job could have been done with a coping saw. You could even stick with knives and chisels if you were under equipped and dedicated enough.

The bulk of the work on this piece came in the form of sawing the blank and chiseling the details.

I worked in short bursts for months. It would not have taken very long, start to finish, but I have a habit of jumping from project to project. The overall time was also inflated due to the need to stop and fabricate chisels and knives. Since I had never done anything like this before, I was learning as I went. The methods and tools evolved along the way, and I worked on a few simpler practice pieces also.

The end result was agreeable enough.

So the last thing to do was to carve and letter the lower "Garage" section.

I left this one pretty simple. I kept the same vintage tattoo font from the top plaque. If its not broke, why screw with it till you break it. I bend that rule enough to understand it's importance well. That is to say I break way more than I fix, but it is usually because of a learning curve I'm too impatient to respect.

Once all the pieces were stained they were set up for a quick pic.  All that is left to do is string the pieces together, and ship the whole thing off to it's new home.

Even though this project took way longer than it should have, and the learning curve was a headache, the fact that it is for such a stand up guy made the completion that much more rewarding. In the end that is what it is all about. An epic gent gets some positive reinforcement, I learned something, I get to share it with you guys, and not having idle hands keeps me off the streets.

Incidentally, here is a quickie of a knife and the chisels and scrapers that were used on this project. I think a follow up post of the process used to forge, shape, harden, and temper these little guys is a must. It is a fun project that doesn't take much in the way of tooling up or experience.   These were all made of found and scavenged metal ranging from cut nails, to post tension foundation cables, and even springs from an old mattress. Once you have the basic idea on these you can easily tweak the design and hardness for all kinds of uses, so stay tuned.