Author: Russ Gooding
Quad Guides
I’ve been sitting on a half-conceived ramble about making quadrate guides for a long while. Simmering. Cooling Off. Cogitating.
Please take this ramble as I intended my original emails within this post to be taken. Take the words as helpful, as informative, as well-intentioned, and as an honest summation of why it is completely impractical for Golden Witch as a company, or for me as an individual craftsman, to offer quad guides. If you’re patient, if you read to the bottom of my longest email located near the end of this post, you might learn something worthwhile about tackling craft-oriented problems. Or not.
COVID-19
New Note 9/25/20. Time flies when life is extra chaotic! This brief note is just to let everyone know that we are back to running open warehouse Saturdays once a month at the Peak Bamboo mill house. For any given month, we’ll arrange the date with the first interested maker, then as other makers express an interest in visiting, we’ll figure out the time slots. Normally we offer 30 minute pick-up windows with 15 minutes of buffer between the windows. You might arrive to find another maker strapping cane to a roof rack, but rarely are there two makers tripping over each other in the warehouse. Space is very tight between bamboo & tools, which is why we were doing appointment windows even before Corona afflicted the world. We have no mask requirements. Wear one if you feel better doing so, or don’t wear one and you’ll fit right in.
New Note 5/16/20. Hey there, we’re still ticking along here in Pennsylvania – healthy and busy. There’s a bitter dispute between our County level government, which claims we’re re-opening on Monday the 18th of May, and our State level government, which has condemned the County-wide rejection of PA’s onerous shut down regulations. At present, GW remains open as an E-commerce business. We are now scheduling curbside pick-up of bamboo orders. This is a nothing-fancy way to save on shipping if you’re local enough to drive to the warehouse, but we are not yet having clients inside the warehouse, so you don’t get to pick your culms.
The GW Bamboo Torch, Reviewed by The Planing Form
Product Review: Golden Witch Bamboo Torch
Kirk Brumels reviews the GW Bamboo Torch.
Attribution, Thanks, Continuance
Attribution, Thanks, Continuance – The Ramble
This ramble concerns attribution, as well as certain liberties we take here at Golden Witch. If you write to us through the contact form on the GW website, or through any of our business emails, you may be quoted – we attribute your name to your words. If you’re a nice person, this won’t bother you. If you’re a bad apple, well, so much the worse for you. There’s also a bit of soapbox grandstanding on the themes of acknowledging debt, saying thanks, and teaching others as the only true path forward.
Bluing, Bronzing, & Clear Coating
Bluing, Bronzing, & Clear Coating For Rodmakers
BB & CC, or, Oxide Finishes and Protective Boundaries
Scope.
This ramble will be limited to cold bluing suitable for the home shop or low volume custom rodmaker’s shop. There are several points worth noting. First,
Just a Few Guide Notes…
Just a few guide notes for now….
On Sizing Tiptops: Here’s some basic info you need for synthetic and bamboo blanks. Tips are sold in nominal 64ths of an inch, by one-half/64 increments, e.g., 3.5/64, 4/64, 4.5/64…you get the picture. To fetch this nominal size from the blank on your bench, you need to do math.
Inking Signatures
Inking Signatures…On Pre-Varnished Blanks & More
This ramble is going to start off with a simple question and a response by Russ. We’ll probably add more detailed information over time. For the moment, this is a good example of why we don’t take tech questions over the phone – because responses evaporate as they’re spoken – and a good example of how we will respond if you email us. It might take a day or two, but if someone here knows the answer, or can guide you in the right direction, you’ll get a thorough response. Eventually, it is highly likely that your question will be the stimulus for another ramble, like this one, and that way many makers can benefit from the time it takes us to respond. Really, it’s good for everyone.
I forgot ask you for some advice earlier, hope you don’t mind – I’m working on a pre-varnished blank, and wondered what the best way to go about signing the rod might be. I’m a bit nervous about trying to scuff the area and sign, would hate to possibly damage the blank. Also not sure if I could just sign directly on the finish as it is. Thanks for any suggestions – very appreciated!
Transparent & Translucent Wraps
Finishing For Transparent/Translucent Wraps – Let’s make one thing clear….
There is a difference between transparent and translucent. We need to define terms. Yes, I know this is rather elementary, or, worse, pedantic, but considering how often I see folks writing about “transparent red wraps,” the difference between transparent and translucent is worth exploring. In addition to being a Luddite (really, I’m not – it’s just that I appreciate the high art of old fashioned technology as much or more than I appreciate new-fangled things, like websites and my kids’ dueling nano-drones), I’m also, according to my tech-addled children, a word-nerd. The most prominent book in my library is the Oxford English Dictionary…not the eye-numbing “Compact” edition with its micrographically reproduced text and the reading glass in the slip-case, but the twenty volume second edition that takes up two shelves within my largest barrister.
Bamboo Blank Adhesives
Bamboo Blank Adhesive Options – A Particularly Brief Ramble
Regarding adhesives: we don’t sell any adhesives for gluing up bamboo blanks. A long while back we sold blank adhesives, but we learned the hard way that any delamination could wind up costing the company a good client, despite blank adhesives being a product we had no control over after they left the shop, i.e., storage conditions, usage past expiration, application technique, cure temps, etc. Blank adhesives were a low dollar, low margin product with very expensive ramifications. Guys can handle cutting off a few wraps that went sour, re-wrapping & re-varnishing; but when a blank delams, sane fellows blow their gourd. Not being copraphages, we don’t need that sort of mess on our plates. We offer no usage advice except this: follow the instructions of the adhesive manufacturer because they have a vested interest in your success and their usage advice is tested over both time and a myriad of applications. This said, we don’t mind sharing current sources.
Insight Into Stripping Guide Frame Styles….
Four Frames – Insight into frame styles, with particular reference to our Vintage and Classic Wide series of agate & agatine stripping guides.
A little while back a client was asking about the four frame styles currently grouped under the “Classic Wide” guides. First, it is worth noting that the Classic Wide guides are a natural extension of our wide-ring vintage series guides. Basically the Classic Wide is the same group of bezels/frames, but using fresh cut stones rather than vintage rings…this really opened up the options in terms of both color and size. Whereas most of the vintage rings are Red, Red, or Red, and nearly all are 10mm OD, the new Classic Wide stones are available in a range of stone colors and in three popular sizes: 9mm, 10mm, & 11mm.