DRAGONMILL
DIARY
3/15/1
I was thinking about it but often it take time for the reality to set in. I now have DragonMill set up and I tooled my first piece of wood.
You sometimes learn by searching for fun, or doing things because you want to. I had a piece of wood. Top of the tree trunk, 2" wide, and 12" long, covered with bark. Rough piece of wood. Playing, I put it on my lathe and stripped off the bark.
The wood was wet and had soft fiberous rough or loose areas. It would be difficult to work with until it dried. Not thinking I put it to the side.
This morning, (2 days later), I was looking at this piece of wood appreciating it. Nice piece of wood, straight and strong. And it had a unique grain pattern because I put it on the lathe using its center ring as my guide.
My piece of wood now had unique qualities. It was not sliced out of the center of a log, one of hundreds. Its was and is the tree in its whole strength, configured to hold it strong against the elements.
Unique in a way that you can only get if you mill the wood yourself and you use the rings as your guide. I like this idea. It makes sence to watch for the best uses of the trees natural strengths. Nature by definition might mean, "best way to survive".
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