The last we saw of Rose, the wand of pink tulipwood, I'd just finished carving the deep setting for a small sphere of rose quartz in the base of the hilt. The setting turned out much better than I expected, and the quartz was reluctant to be removed once I'd tested it in the setting, but I still had some work yet to do so it had to come out.
I wasn't satisfied with the petals in the hilt. The grooves that formed the shape of the petals as they wrapped around the hilt were in poor shape, and the petals themselves were too bulky. It seemed that the more I worked to create the petal shape, the worse the shaping looked. Cue the dramatic lighting.
I just couldn't get the bits to cut the lines I could see in my mind. But that was okay. I could smooth down the edges and still keep the sway of the grooves, and finish with a nice-looking wand that might not look like a flower.
The solution of course was the 180-grit sandpaper I'd just picked up at the hardware store. I was anxious to use it. The tulipwood was easy to scar and I was afraid that the 120-grit sandpaper would leave too many tiny sanding marks in the wood. And the 220-grit sandpaper was too fine a grit to remove the small scars I'd left behind trying to form the leaves. The 220 would polish those wounds into the softest, smoothest scars a piece of wood ever did see, but it wouldn't remove them without extensive sanding.
(180-grit sandpaper in red, 100-grit in green) True enough, the 180 easily smoothed down the rough edges of the grooves, and the larger humps of the petal's upward curve, leaving behind a subtler shape to the petals.
I spent more time sanding Rose with the 220-grit until the entire wand was uniformly smooth and all the tiny marks were removed. I fished out the tung oil and a brush and applied a thin coat to the tulipwood. To dry, I set the wand across two hoops of string I have tied at one end of my worktable.
Rose hung out here for the afternoon.
I wasn't satisfied with the petals in the hilt. The grooves that formed the shape of the petals as they wrapped around the hilt were in poor shape, and the petals themselves were too bulky. It seemed that the more I worked to create the petal shape, the worse the shaping looked. Cue the dramatic lighting.
I just couldn't get the bits to cut the lines I could see in my mind. But that was okay. I could smooth down the edges and still keep the sway of the grooves, and finish with a nice-looking wand that might not look like a flower.
The solution of course was the 180-grit sandpaper I'd just picked up at the hardware store. I was anxious to use it. The tulipwood was easy to scar and I was afraid that the 120-grit sandpaper would leave too many tiny sanding marks in the wood. And the 220-grit sandpaper was too fine a grit to remove the small scars I'd left behind trying to form the leaves. The 220 would polish those wounds into the softest, smoothest scars a piece of wood ever did see, but it wouldn't remove them without extensive sanding.
(180-grit sandpaper in red, 100-grit in green) True enough, the 180 easily smoothed down the rough edges of the grooves, and the larger humps of the petal's upward curve, leaving behind a subtler shape to the petals.
I spent more time sanding Rose with the 220-grit until the entire wand was uniformly smooth and all the tiny marks were removed. I fished out the tung oil and a brush and applied a thin coat to the tulipwood. To dry, I set the wand across two hoops of string I have tied at one end of my worktable.
Rose hung out here for the afternoon.
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