Working

Well, I made a little progress last night. Nothing worth taking pictures of or anything, really. I cut 6 inches off the end of the walking stick, which makes it a very good height now. I also drew on the spiral lines I'll be cutting soon. That was quite a bit more work, and was tougher than you'd think.

With a cylindrical piece, you just draw straight lines (I call them key lines) down the length of the piece, then measure out a particular distance (1" gives a tight spiral, 3" gives a milder one) and make marks along the straight lines. Then you connect your marks. Take a mark at the top and connect it to the mark on the line below, only one key line to the left or right. Continue all the way around and all the way down the piece. The same principle applies to a tapered piece, but drawing the straight lines is tougher, especially if your taper isn't perfect (and mine isn't). So really, you need a long straight edge and you need to mark around the piece at various intervals as you proceed from top to bottom. As the diameter gets smaller, so will the measurement between your key lines. Keeping them straight all the way down is important if you want a consistent spiral. Actually, your spiral will get less pronounced as you get to the end anyway, as you're going the same distance down the piece but a much shorter distance around it. For me, this is actually something i wanted to see. It's really up to you.

So my next step is to cut these lines with something. I was thinking of using a Dremel to dig down deep and then going to a rattail file and then a few other files to round off my spiral cute,s but I'm wondering whether the Dremel is really necessary. It's extremely helpful for smaller pieces and harder woods, but my now completely dry cedar is lighter and softer than pine. I can make a lot of progress with files, I'm thinking I may go at it with the rattail first to establish the groove, then maybe go to a triangular file to get the grooves deeper and in the right shape. It'll take some work, but I really think it will be neat when it's done.