Anyway it's 10pm now and for today the job is done.
Here are some pics that will help me explain what I've done today.
These are the 2 oak logs. I am going to use the left one because it's bigger and more straight than the other.
The tool between them is what we call a "roncola" and is used by farmers for general bushcrafting. I'm using it to remove the biggest of the bark.
Here's my log with the outer bark removed. This revealed some major cracks that I will illustrate later.
I started to shape the log into a baseball bat, but this is a long process involving filing, sanding and scratching. To avoid getting bored and losing interest in the project I alternated the various phases. Shaping proceeds slowly but is fun!
The smoothing process allowed me to see the cracks more clearly. They appear to be smaller than I thought at the beginning, and are due to the fact that when I cut down the tree I helped it falling by pushing with my foot on its base. To my defense I can say that I found the tree after walking around 10 kilometers and I was very fatigued when I was cutting it down. It was also very cold with around 5°C when I started walking! Anyway the cut was not definite and those are the results.
The first crack has another smaller one nearby, while the second one is almost on the opposite side of them.
The side of the stick where they are was the one closer to the ground. This makes it the side where I will put the nails, because the closer to the ground a tree is, the stronger its wood is.
Pushing the wood in opposite directions trying to see if the cracks enlarge didn't lead to any result. The cracks remains the same and the wood appears to be very strong.
2 questions:
1) I wonder if these cracks will enlarge as the wood dries (I think so);
2) Of course I will avoid to stick nails in there, this is not a question but just a random thinking
I could avoid all these problems by removing the entire section, thus shortening the whole stick of about 10 centimeters. It's 78 centimeters long now so, even shortened, it would still be a respectful stick.
Any suggestion on this?
Lastly, here's the log oiled with the oil I use to quench my blades and hung to let it dry.
I think I will continue working tomorrow, Bill how could I do to remove the oil? Or I don't care and just keep filing?
All the job has been done with hand tools, not electric ones. For now I just used my grandfather's saw, a "roncola", a couple of rasps and my small falchion.
Suggestions, criticisms, ideas?