The Part-Time Woodworker

Unlike My Wife—I’m Running Out Of Things To Buy…

2012-02-03T11:38:00.002-05:00

The problem with tool collection is that it doesn't stay constant.

Over the last four or five years I have been searching outtools that I wanted, nothing fancy, just the normal stuff that you would findin a cabinet shop around 1900. Because of the availability of these things,they were easy to find, so I was buying one or two pieces a month. That ain’thappening anymore.

At first, the hobby is not only easy, but it is damnedcheap. A trip through the “Collectables > Tools & Hardware > Tools> Carpentry/ Woodworking” category on eBay can see you scoring one littleitem or another on an almost daily basis, if you, your wife or your bank managerlet you. There are so many little bits and pieces made to do specific processesin woodworking; you could go nuts collecting them all.

Eventually, though, you locate, buy, receive, clean, sharpenand polish about all the little guys you think you will ever need, and thensome, so you start looking for the more expensive, larger items.

The larger items aren’t as readily available as the littleguys. There are a lot of listings, but most are junk and not worth the shippingcosts, so your purchases tend to slow down rather quickly. While I restrict mychoices to a narrow timeframe, from 1880 to 1910, while not an everyday event, it is not that difficult tocome up with excellent examples. When I say “excellent”, I mean examples that Iwon’t mind using. I shoot for the high end of the “User” category. With these,I don’t feel my neck when I have to sharpen a blade, shortening it up in theprocess, or see a scuff show up on the tote or something.

Eventually, you pretty much end up owning more series' and sets that you will ever find a use for,so you raise your sites a little higher, and start to shoot for real specifics.That’s when the blissful life of tool collecting really starts to drag. Themore specific your quests; the higher the prices. The higher the prices; thefussier you become. The fussier you become; the less choices you have. The lesschoices you have; the less you buy. The less you buy; the less number of“buzzes” you get. It’s a bummer.

My Stanley plane collection, at this point, is missing anNo.1, which I doubt I will buy—ever, a No.6, which I am looking for now, anda No.9, which I’m still up in the air about as I think buying one and using itwould seriously make me nervous. From what I have seen available, these thingsare pretty vulnerable to damage.

I now have two complete sets of Stanley No.40 chisels; onefor fine work and one for wailing on. I still look for better examples of thefour patent dates, but if I don’t find any, it is no big deal.

I have more saws than I have room to store, so while I amstill searching out a pair of excellent dovetails, I spend more time trying tofigure out which maker to shoot for than I do looking for the damned saws.While I spent about a year and a half finding a matched pair of Jackson 12”saws, I have now come to realize they are a tad thick for cutting dovetails,and while they work, and work well, thinner blades would be better. As Disston made the Jackson blade in the same thickness as their own brand, buying a pair of old Disstons would be a waste of money. I would like to buy apair of Two Lawyer saws, but at over 700-bucks for the pair, I would dust them,but I bloody well wouldn’t use them.

The only thing that seems to keep me going with this is myquest for more examples of H. E. Mitchell’s tools. I had an opportunity to buyan ultimate brace of his about eight months ago when The Tool Bazaar had onelisted, but I felt he was charging way too much for it at 195₤.Since then, I have been royally kicking myself in the ass, to the point that Iemailed Andy last month and asked if he would broker a deal between the guy whobought it and myself, but he declined. While I still search daily for Mitchellexamples, it is pretty rare that one turns up, so even this quest has lost theluster it once held.

When I do score, though, it is like 27 Christmas’ and 42 birthdaysall rolled into one, and score I did just a few weeks ago.

I have a saved search on eBay for anything listed in thetool collectable section that has the name “Mitchell”. I get emails from eBayregarding this search about twice a week. Rarely do they include the tools I amlooking for, but on this particular day, I scored, and scored big.

Mateusz1979 had a ½” Ovolo plane by Mitchell up for sale. Iimmediately emailed him and asked if he had a “Buy it Now” price. We went backand forth a bit, feeling each other out, and eventually he emailed me a pricethat was beyond being fair—it was incredible. I quickly agreed, paid the bill,and a week later the plane arrived.

The plane is probably one of the better examples that I haveof cousin Henry’s. I don’t know if Mateusz bought it as clean as it was, or hespent some time on it to clean it up himself, but either way, it didn’t needthe coat of wax I gave it upon receiving it.

On top of that, the plane is a perfect addition to the set.I picked up a 5/8” Ovolo off of eBay a couple of years ago; a number two. Lastyear, Hyperkitten.com had a 5/8” Ovolo Number one that I was able to grab. Thisone is a ½” number two, the finishing plane, so if fits into the set well.

As the buzzes come less frequently now, when you get one,you savor it longer. As scoring a Mitchell plane has always given me thebiggest buzz, the image above shows you what has been sitting on my bench sincethe day this last one arrived. I pulled everyone one of them from the drawer,brought the plow down from the shelf, and even added the counterstamp coin tothe display and each time I walk in the room, I have a look and enjoy a smile.The collection is growing—its slow—but its growing.

Peace,

Mitchell

Bien sûr, il est difficile ... c'est français ...

2012-01-12T03:44:00.001-05:00

Today was a big day for me. The mailman knocked on my doortwice this morning, the first time to deliver a part for my modification of theDelta Sharpening machine, and the second, to deliver a saw blade that was justsharpened by Matt Cianci. Ya, I know. Small things amuse small minds.

First the sharpener machine part. A few weeks ago I postedthe render of the part I needed to turn this Delta machine into something thatis actually usable for sharpening. The parts I want to use on it are from theVeritas Mk II Sharpening machine. I had already purchased the majority of whatwas needed so the last piece of the puzzle was this custom-turned adapter.

Before I did anything in regards to that one missing part, Ichecked out what the Veritas machine uses to see if it might be adaptable. Fromthe images I have, I figured it might be a good bet, so I sent off an email toLee Valley customer service to order one.

Naturally, they questioned what I was going to do with adrive pulley for a machine I didn’t own. In the end, I had to speak to a memberof management about it, a person named John who was very good at what he does.I was straight with him, and after a tiny bit of convincing, they put the orderin motion. That was yesterday, and the pulley arrived this morning.

Now I have another problem. This is such a beautifullyturned piece of metal, I don’t know if I have the heart to hack it up. John hadmentioned that there was a short shaft pressed into a hole for it on thebottom. This is what the pulley turns on as it is not connected to the driveshaft, but instead, is driven by a belt. I need the hole back and I think getting that short-shaft out is going to tear up the pulley a bit. I looked at it after taking it out ofthe box and I immediately knew why these machines are $400 a pop. Gorgeousstuff, but then again, it is a Veritas product, and that is what has kept mecoming back year after year for thirty years. There will definitely be a Mk IIin my future, but not before this old Delta fries itself, and we all know itwill, probably the day after I get it back together.

Here is a shot of the drive pulley…

Only Veritas would create a part with this level of quality.

Now for the second shipment; my Trim Saw. I have writtenabout this saw a fair amount since purchasing it about 10-months ago. It is acool saw, but man, is it a royal pain the arse. This shouldn’t come as asurprise, as the title of this posts suggests; “Of course it is difficult…it’sFrench…”.

This is the saw that all the dealerswere selling as a “Veneer Saw”, and some are still listing them as that today.This is the saw that I had Daryl Weir refile with traditional French veneer sawteeth. This is the saw that I found out after having it retoothed that it isn’t aveneer saw at all. This is the saw that has three times the purchase priceinvested in it because this is the saw that I have had jointed andretoothed twice, and never used it.

Today was the day. I made my first cut with this saw and thankfully, the damned thing works, and works well. It is a bit awkward getting used to moving your arms back and forth, rather than up and down, but as golf proves, any unnatural motion can become second nature...

Matt Cianci can be reached at matt@thesawblog.com,
and you can follow his blog at thesawblog.com

Lets just say Daryl wasn’t exactly pleased with me when Iemailed him to admit that I was wrong to insist he retooth the thing as aveneer saw. He kept suggesting I was full of it and I kept ignoring what he wassaying. Every student makes a mistake or two…or three or thirty…so why should Ibe any different. I really wasn’t surprised when Daryl told me he didn’t wantanother go-round with this thing, so I contacted Matt Cianci about it. Matthasn’t been sharpening commercially for long, but he has really made a name forhimself over that short period of time. He is obsessed with saws, and thatobsession shows in his work. One top of that, Matt is just a hell of a nice guy.

I removed the blade from the handle to ship it to Matt as I felt it wasn't necessary to pay postage on a 20" hunk of mahogany that Matt was only going to remove once he started work on it. When it arrivedback, before I put it back together, I waxed everything three or four times and put a couple of coats ofWaxilit, a wax that is far slicker than normal wax, made to reduce friction andsold by Lee Valley. I use it for everything, including the top of my computerstation as it makes the mouse slide freely. After waxing, I put the thingtogether and gave it a whirl on some oak trim for the never-ending plant unitproject. In about two minutes flat I was through the wood and cleaning up thesawdust. My hat is off to Matt, as he really did a nice job on this unusualsharpening job...ok...bizarre sharpening job...

The aftermath, a fairly clean cut with a saw that
followed the mitre jack like it was on rails.

When I first spoke to Matt about this job, and ever since, I kept my mouth shut inregards to how I think the saw should be configured. In truth, I don’t know much about sawsharpening, mainly because I don’t want to know, but after wasting my money and Daryl's time with the last go-round, I'm not about to make the same mistake again.

There is a reason I don't know much about, nor want to know much about sharpening saws. I remember, as a kid, watchingmy old man, once each month, working in the garage in the summer and the basementin the winter, sitting for a fiver while sharpening all his blades and saws. Asa kid, I thought it was the most boring thing anyone could do, and, sorry Matt,I still think of it as such. I’m sure many of you would think much of what I dofor kicks is boring as well, but I can assure you, nothing I do is asrepetitive as sharpening saw teeth. Oh, and if you are wondering what I meantby, “sitting for fiver”, the old man used to go through a beer every thirty toforty-five minutes. In my world, “sitting for fiver” means a time frame of 2½ to 3-hours, the length of time it would take him to sharpen all his blades. Of course, I would sit there with him whilehe sharpened his three saws, about six to eight table saw blades; rip, cross and ply, touch up his dadoblades and tune up the knives for the molding head for his table saw, a set-up he used often for kitchen cabinet trim. I cantell you, for a 5 to 9 year old kid, those few hours took forever, but I had to sit with him as it wasmy job to replenish the beer.

Mentioning those molding heads caused me to stop and lookthem up. I am truly surprised to see they still sell those things. If noise is a factor of danger, these things are the most lethal of all. I can neverforget the noise they make…scared the bejeebers out of me. His old Beaver tablesaw took an 8” blade. It was, after all, probably made in the late 1940’s. If you have never had the honour of meeting one of these molding heads, they came with different blades; three little ones to a set. These little buggers mount at right-angles to the head, which is a healthy hunk of metal at about ¾ of a inch thick. When those thingswere turning, cor blimey, they whined. While I was looking up those heads, Iran across a listing for old Beaver table saws on vintagemachinery.org. While there werea number of them listed, none were the same as his, as they were all a littlenewer. I scooped a photo of this one that is close, one from the early ‘50’s…

A Beaver 2200, early 1950's, listed on vintagemachinery.org.
These old Beavers were manufactured by
The Callander Foundry & Mfg. Co. Ltd.,
located in Guelph, Ontario, Canada until they were
bought out by Rockwell in 1953.

I had a love/hate relationship with this saw. He kept it inthe trunk of his cars; a beat up old 40 Dodge, then he went to a 49’ Merc thatthe story goes, was tuned up by a bank robber who got caught, went to jail andgave it to his priest, who in turn, sold it to the old man. That was one fastmachine, considering it was a boat anchor. Towards the end of his carpentrydays, he picked up a beautiful two-door 56’ Plymouth wagon, the first year for thepush button automatic. When he had a job to do at home, I was always his helperand the first order of business was to haul that old saw out of the car and setit up wherever we were working. While I noticed some of the guys onvintagemachine.org stated their saws were cast aluminum, I can assure you hiswasn’t. His old Beaver was cast iron all the way; bed, body and fence. It musthave weighed 100-pounds, if it was an ounce, especially with the old ½-horsemotor hanging off the back. Every time I picked that damned thing up I got acuff because every time I did, I would grab the fence guides, the easiest partto lift it by and the only handhold I saw when I went to lift it. Every time;“How many G_d-damned times do I have to tell you not to lift it by those”…smack!(I know he sounds like a royal dick, but really, he wasn’t) He would then grabthe thing from my hands and walk away with it like it was his lunch bucket.

A quick story, I hope, about this old saw…I had a big, oldoutboard motor that I was going to build a boat for, but along came my son andate up all my money, so I knew there wasn’t going to be a fast runabout in mynear future. I asked the old man if I could store it in his basement, which heagreed to. I lugged it down the stairs, we built a stand for it, and I put itin the corner. The next spring, again when I was visiting, he asked me to dragit up again. He suggested I put it out on the front lawn and he would sell itfor me. I thought that was a great idea as I could have used the money backthen, so I hauled it up, set it up on the stand in the front yard and even ranout and got a “for sale” sign for it. The next time I was over, he beamed at mewhile he told me he sold my outboard. Great! Then he told me to go downstairsand see what I contributed the money to. Not so great. (ok, he was a bit of a dick, but I loved him anyhow) He took the cash he gotfor my outboard and bought a new Rockwell with it. I went down and had a lookat it, but I have to tell you, I hated that saw from the first time I laid eyeson it. In truth, it had nothing to do with the saw, and more to do with thefact that every time I looked at it, all I saw was the clothes for my kid thatshould have been purchased with that money, but, what the hell, that was my oldman.

As a follow-up, as my livelyhood improved and I was ready toset up a shop for myself, the old Beaver was still in the corner where the oldman had thrown it when the new saw came in. I told him that I thought it onlyright that he keep the Rockwell for now, and I’d take the old Beaver. I justdidn’t have the heart to tell him how much I hated that saw or why. I used that oldBeaver forever (keep your comments to yourself), until the top finally warpedafter we had a flood in the basement.

So there is my trip down memory lane for this year, and along involved explanation as to why I don’t sharpen saws, or at least that iswhat this long ramble started out as, remember?

Just a quick one on a subject near and dear to me…I checkout this blog’s stats every once and a while, just to see what is up. It alwaysamazes me how many of you actually read this drivel, but that is not what Iwanted to write about here. Recently, I noticed a big change in the countrieswhere the hits are coming from; the change, of course, is that Iraq andAfghanistan are no longer included on the list. That is because the boys - andgirls - have come home. No matter which flag you served under, I thank you foryour service and I thank you for a job well done. We are thrilled you came homesafe and we will remember those that didn’t come home with you. My wish for youis that your return home is exactly as you hoped it would be.

And with that…

Peace,

Mitchell

Some Assembly Yet To Acquire...

2012-01-02T01:44:00.002-05:00

Given our new pets that our neighbour inadvertently gave us, I was forced to put my wife's plant unit together before it was ready to be assembled. With pest control people steaming and spraying their way around the place to kill these almost indestructible little buggers, I didn't think having its parts stored all over the place was a good idea, so the night before their first treatment, I rattled the thing together with the parts I had.

As an aside, these damned bedbugs are killing us. We spent two months with everything we owned packed away in sealed bags and boxes while we went through three treatments of steam and spray. The steam kills the shitty little things and the spray contains any new bugs that hatch. The first treatment saw dozens drop like flies, resulting in only three being found at the beginning of the second treatment. At the start of the third, the exterminator only found one. We figured we had it beat, so he told us to unpack everything. It was like Christmas came a week early around here.

To make sure we had gotten rid of them, I had them do a "canine check". They arrived with a mutt that was taken from a pound in Florida and trained to search out bedbugs. Supposedly, it can't be sidetracked by flies, mosquitoes and spiders, and when he/she/it sniffs out a bedbug, it sits down and stares at the spot he smelled it in. Things went great at first. The trainer/exterminator let the dog out of its cage and off they went with the dog poking its nose here, there and everywhere. I was pleased to see it didn't stop anywhere, especially in my office and our bedroom. When it hit the last bedroom, however...it sniffed...it freaked...and it sat down and stared at the headboard. The trainer/exterminator tore the bed apart and came up with two, hopefully both males or both females. It looks like we still have them, so it looks like we will be having a few more rounds of treatments. Damn!

Anyway, the plant stand went together pretty easily, and I wired up the lights, hooking each up to a digital timer. Once I got it together, I rolled it into the dining room and my wife loaded up its shelves with her plants. As you can see from the photo below, they were being put on shelves with grow lights none too soon.

The first photo is a close-up of one end and shows the basic design is working, although I think it needs a solid rail around the top, about an inch back from the edge, to give the top some weight...

The wiring you see all gets hidden behind the pilasters, which I am currently working on. I did change my mind with these. They originally were to be flat stock with multiple beads running their full length, but I just didn't think they would add the weight I think the unit needs. I have the new design glued up, and they are now 2" half rounds glued to 2.5" flat stock, which is a reverse of the existing beads. I might be able to knock them off this week.

I haven't finished the cabinet area at the bottom yet, so I didn't include a shot of it because it looks like hell. The following photo is a shot of the entire upper area, showing two of the three display shelves, and because it is missing the pilasters, it looks bad enough. Hopefully, you can see that the bones are working, though...

I have been at this project for a full year now and I must say, it is seriously getting on my nerves.

Peace,

Mitchell

P.S.: I didn't get one person emailing to tell me they are interested in a new pizza wheel for their old Stanley marking gauge so I assume I am the only one that has a gauge that requires a new blade. As I only need 1, not 500 of them, I guess I'll pass on the order with the machine shop.

Mother-In-Laws...You Gotta' Love 'Em (don't you?)...

2011-12-29T03:14:00.000-05:00

Take every mother-in-law joke you ever heard, the good, thebad and the ugly, and wrap them all up in a 4’ 2” package, throw a piece ofribbon around it and you will have my mother-in-law.

My mother-in-law is one tough cookie. She survived loosingher mother at 6-years of age, being orphaned at 10-years of age, loosing allher brothers, sisters, nieces and nephews, as well as aunts, uncles and cousinsafter being transported to Auschwitz at 16-years of age in a cattle car, jumpingoff of trains getting out of Europe after the war to ensure her future sonswouldn’t become part of the Russian Army at 20-years of age and she survivedraising my wife for the rest of her life. God bless her for it and I love herto death because of it, but damn, she can become one angry bull when anyonedoesn’t do what she wants.

My father-in-law was the family’s forth generation to enterthe painting profession, his family’s business doing everything from frescoceilings to exterior house painting. In Europe, to become a painter back thenmeant a five-year apprenticeship learning to do everything from making your ownpaint to graining. Having lost all but one brother and his sister to the camps,his family home and business destroyed, he didn’t argue when his new wife toldhim she wanted to leave for places yet decided. When he finally hit Canada, he hada second shock; the profession he held near and dear wasn’t respected here theway it was in Europe, something he still doesn’t understand to this day. Pastdestroyed and pride wounded, he picked up his brushes and rollers and went towork with the rest of the painters. While he never gained the same stature hehad at home, he worked himself up the chain and started to earn a fair livingfor his family.

By their tenth anniversary of arriving in Canada, the oldman was making enough money to allow his wife to startdecorating…well…everything.

Now I’m not saying she did it single-handedly, but if youask any of the old fabric hawkers, they will tell you that there was aworldwide shortage of green velvet material back in the mid-1960’s, and itcaused quite a commotion. That was the same year my mother-in-law starteddecorating her home.

In her livingroom sits a couch that, she proudly likes totell anyone who will listen, is the first king-sized pullout bed ever made. Nowa king-sized mattress is roughly 80” square. You then have to have room for themechanism and then the arms are added outside of that. So while she is proud aspunch of that couch, the reality is, the damned thing is 2” shy of 8’. It hasto be the biggest couch I have ever seen. As with all manufactured productsbuilt prior to the late 70’s, this manufacturer didn’t skimp on the gauge ofthe steel, so the damn thing is as heavy as it is long, probably weighing in at250-pounds, if it weighs an ounce.

Added to the 3 ½-square miles of green velvet fabric thatcovers this thing is a low-back easy chair, a matching love seat and sixdiningroom chairs, all, you guessed it, covered in green velvet. But it doesn’tstop there.

When I first came on the scene, the walls were covered withembossed wallpaper that reminded me of the doilies that my grandmother had onall the arms and backs of her chairs. If the design wasn’t bad enough, it wasdone in some sort of short, green fuzz that, to my mother-in-law’s eyes, lookedlike green velvet. This, of course, using those same eyes, made this paper aperfect match for the furniture. I’ll tell you, I am lucky I suddenly becamecomatose during that first visit, because if I hadn’t, I would have runscreaming from the place and would have never got to marry my wife, who, I willmention, hates anything made of velvet - in any colour - with a passion – thank bloody God!

Married to a painter, my mother-in-law wasn’t shy about servinghim up a busman’s holiday, insisting that he repaint often. The first time aroundfor the “green” rooms, off they went to order more of the same paper. The oldgirl was dashed when they told her that the paper was no longer in production.My father-in-law, bless his heart, took it on himself to carefully steam thepaper from the walls, cleaned all the glue off the back of each piece, rolledeach one up and when the painting was done, re-hung it. He did this, not oncefor her, but twice. The second time he damaged enough paper that there wasn’tenough to do both rooms and hallway, so the hallway got painted an “almostmatching” green. He still says the paper was getting brittle with age, but Ithink the crafty old bugger tore the stuff on purpose because he was tired oflooking at it.

The beloved paper might be gone, but the sea of green velvetstill exists. When they moved into their new abode she drove me nuts pushing meto try and arrange that furniture in the in the same arrangement that they hadbeen living with for these last forty-three years. Because the layout of thenew wasn’t anywhere near the layout of the old, it was impossible to do exactly,but I got it as close as I could.

Now you would think she would be happy, wouldn’t you. Hereshe is, 70-years older than she ever expected to be, living in a nice condohigh over the city, in reasonably good health and surrounded by her furnitureand nick-knacks. Nope.

The other day I noticed that her livingroom drapes wereclosed all the time so I asked her about it. She told me she couldn’t openthem. I thought there was something wrong with the rod, so I went to look andfound nothing, the drapes moved, as they should, and as I’m a glutton forpunishment, I went back to her and reported this. She told me that she couldopen and close them herself, just fine thank you very much, but she couldn’topen them because then she would see the drapery rod.

Now this took me off guard, seriously off guard. The rod wasnew, and was an exact match to the old one in the old place. I know thisbecause I had purchased and hung it myself; taking this upon myself because Ifelt the 40-odd year old one was yellowed and worn. I then honestly thought shewas joking, and even chuckled. Oh, boy. Wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong thing to do.Her eyes flashed black and this small, frail, four-foot nothing woman suddenlyappeared to tower over me.

Seeing that I had royally pissed her off, I tried logic,asking why, after forty-odd years she suddenly didn’t like the look of the rod.I think you can categorize that as mistake number two. I spent the next tenminutes trying to convince her I didn’t think she was crazy as it was obvious,now that I took a second look at it, that this new rod was completely differentthan the old. It wasn’t. It was the same style and worked exactly the same way,but I had a much better chance of convincing her that it was my mistake than Idid convincing her they were the same. I left shortly afterwards defeated.

For the rest of that afternoon I thought about what I coulddo for the old bird so she would open her drapes again and get some sunshine intheir lives. Whatever it was, it had to be something I could make as, if I didthat, I knew all would be forgiven.

I did get an idea, but there was a catch. It involvedbending some small pieces of wood.

I had steamed a lot of wood when I replaced the bottom of myboat; so bending wood wasn’t new to me. My problem is that I didn’t have asteam box or a place to use it if I did, so just before dinner than night, Itried something else; something I had read about, but never tried.

I filled my wife’s stockpot almost to the top with water,added a little rock salt and set it on the stove to come to a boil. I went intothe office and dug out some scraps of oak; 3/8” by 1 5/8” by 12”. When I hadtrimmed them equal, I threw them into the pot. I then returned to the office tomake a mold.

I let the wood cook for about an hour, pulled them both out,and with my wife doing the deed with the clamps; we clamped them both togetheraround the mold.

Once I had devised a mount that would take my mother-in-law’sabuse, here’s what I came up with…

I have them finished with four coats of varnish, ready toinstall tomorrow. They will mount under the windowsill and will allow the twopanels of drapes to be connected in the middle and be “swaged” to each side.

This is how it will mount and work…

I know this isn’t a faithful reproduction of GeorgeWashington’s potty-chair to you guys, but to me, it is huge. If there is onething I hate more than green velvet, it’s “swaged” anything, especially drapes.After these get installed, every time I walk into that room I’ll have to facethose droopy drapes and know that I did it, with protest, but I still swagedthose damned drapes.

Awe, well. Its Christmas, and these just might bring asmile, and hopefully a little sunshine, onto the old girl’s face.

And with that, I wish all of you nothing but health,happiness and good fortune throughout this coming new year.

Peace,

Mitchell

Trying To Be Sharper Than I Appear To Be…

2011-12-15T13:57:00.000-05:00

I finally tore apart the Delta Sharpening Centre I boughtthrough Martin J. Donnelly Auctions a few months ago.

To bring you up to speed, these machines were expensive andnotorious for being useless for sharpening, which is the reason it had such ashort run. It is kind of hard to sell a machine called a “Sharpening Centre” ifit is useless for sharpening things.

When the Delta arrived, it was obvious the Post Office had beat it up pretty good.

In reality, though, I could only find one issue that madethe machine junk – its horizontal 1200 grit wet wheel; the reason why everyonebought the machine in the first place. Paying close to $300 for a machine anddiscovering that it isn’t worth a shit when it comes to the job you bought itfor can be a very quick turn-off indeed.

The reason behind this problem is something that plaguesmany of Delta’s machines. To reduce their production costs, Deltaunder-engineers some of the most critical parts, resulting in a machine thatdoesn’t work worth a damn. In this particular case, one of their well-paidengineers miscalculated the weight and centrifugal force an 8-inch wet wheelcan produce. That mistake lead to them using only a 2¼-inch collar faced to thearbor that drives the horizontal wet wheel. Because of this, that wheel isdifficult to balance, and if you do get it balanced, it is impossible to keepit that way.

The Delta machine was designed to fail.

While the imbalanced sharpening wheel made it useless as asharpening machine, I think the bones for a machine designed for that purposeare all there. It turns at 650 rpm, it has the second vertical wheel stationthat accepts the usual assortment of grinder additions and its motor and casingare beefy and reliable. As a result, I bought it.

So now that I have it, what am I going to do with it?

Enter the Veritas Mk. II Sharpening System.

This sharpening machine that is sold by Lee Valley makes themost sense to me, but I find its $400 price tag way out of line for mysharpening requirements. It has an 8-inch turntable that turns at 650 rpm, soit and Delta are the same when it comes to the basics. Where the Veritasmachine pulls away and leaves the Delta in the dust is its unique turntableand platter system.

The Veritas machine has an 8-inch well cast aluminumturntable that mounts to a 1¾-inch spindle that is belt driven. The turntablehas a collar cast into it that registers it on the spindle and it is fixed inplace using two machine screws. This is a pretty well engineered mount,especially when compared to the way Delta attached their wheel support. On thismachine the arbor is machined with a face on its side with a matching face onthe 2¼-inch collar. The collar just slides over the end of the arbor, the wheellays on top, and a small, brass 5/8-inch nut buried in the centre of a 2-inchplastic cap holds the lot of it down.

In this image you can see the Veritas turntable and how it
compares to the useless collar the Delta uses.

The Delta only has the 1200 grit wet wheel available,although other manufacturers produce wheels of other grits that will fit, but it isa bit of a pain to change them. The Veritas, on the other hand,has seven different grits available in self-sticking discs. These stick to aplatter, available in 3mm for the finer grits and a 4mm platter for the heaviergrits, with the platters being held down by a small centre-located brassthumbscrew. The result is an assortment of grits that are quick to change.

The Veritas machine has two tool guides, one for honing theprimary bevel and the other for lapping the back. The Delta has one tool guidefor working both surfaces. My machine will use the Delta system as the base,but instead of riding the tool on it, I’ll mount the tool in the Veritas Mk. IIHoning Guide, and ride this guide on the tool guide. This will give me all theadvantages of the honing guide that I love with the speed and quick-changeability of the modified Delta.

To make these modifications, I need a single part turned bya machinist; a collar that fits the cup cast into the bottom of the turntablethat is bored and threaded to screw down on the Delta’s arbor. I have been incontact with the machinist that rebuilt my old man’s Stanley No.6 that Ithought was a 7, but he has yet to reply. If I don’t hear from him by the endof this week, I will put the feelers out for another machinist.

Modifying the Delta to fit the Veritas parts is really pretty simple.

As you can see from the rendering below, it will alsorequire three threaded holes on the top-side; two for the machine screws to fixthe turntable to it, and one for the thumbscrew that holds the platters inplace. The result uses the Delta collar to support the machined collar, theDelta’s arbor thread to hold the machined collar in place, and the rest of theassembly matches that of the Veritas machine.

All I need to make this work is a simple collar.

Because the Veritas turntable is beefy, well cast andbalanced, and because it is only supporting lightweight platters and discs,instead of heavy stones, the wobble should be history and a versatilesharpening centre that also seconds as a grinder and polisher should rise fromthe Delta disaster.

Now I think that is pretty cool.

Peace,

Mitchell

NEED A NEW STANLEY PIZZA WHEEL?

On another note, I have found a machine shop here in Torontothat will I can contract with to produce new pizza wheels (roller cutters) forthe Stanley Metal Bar Gauges. I believe the same wheel was used on the StanleyNo’s 90, 91, 97, 98, 197 and 198. I haven’t finalized the price as yet, but Iam assuming they will be offered at somewhere between $12 and $18 Canadian. Ifyou would be interested in purchasing one that is within this price-range, letme know and if there are enough responses, I will finalize the deal.

If you are interested in purchasing a new pizza wheel for your Stanley gauge, let me know.

Bed Bugs Make Lousy Carpenter Ants...

2011-11-25T19:21:00.001-05:00

The pluses and minuses of condominium living differ fromindividual to individual, as does the relevance of each item on both lists. Forme, never having to cut the lawn is way, way up there, followed closely by thefact I never have to clear the driveway of snow.

My reason for hating having to cut the lawn is simple; I have ahuge allergy to grass; an allergy that isn’t activated until the grass is cut. Whetherliving in a house or in a condo, Iknow when the landscapers’ gang is busy cutting the lawn during the summer,even if I can’t hear them. My nose stuffing up and my breathing becominglabored is a dead giveaway. The difference between the house andcondo is that in the condo, I don’t have to sign that bloody humongous chequeevery month.

During the winter, every time I hear the weather forecastcalling for snow, my appreciation for condominium living goes up a notch. Eachforecast brings back memories of when we lived in the house and how much time Iwasted clearing its driveway of snow. The wasted time wasn’t a result of the driveway's sizeas it wasn’t that big, although the layout did offer independent accessto three parking spots. What consumed so much time was my inability to leave itwithout making sure the wall of snow around its perimeter perfectly followedthe driveway’s footprint, as well as being perfectly square and plumb for itsentire length. The reality is, I’m just way too anal to hire someone to do thisjob and way too anal to do it myself without wasting half a day in the process.Ya, I know. I’m a nut.

The benefits of not having to deal with these grass and snoware so great, the obvious minus of not having room for a dedicated shop palesin their comparison. Another reality is that what I used to pay a landscaperover the course of a summer to maintain the lawn was more than what my condo’smaintenance fees are for an entire year.

My wife is also not without her own obsessions. Her main oneis maintaining a spic and span home. In truth, she drives me nuts with it,cleaning things around me before I even have a chance to make them dirty. Sheabsolutely hates clutter, but sadly, she doesn’t put things away, she justremoves things from view. This, of course, means I can never find anything atany time, a problem that she is no help with at all. As the only thing on her mind while cleaning is not having something out, she doesn’t have a cluewhere she puts it.

Up until now we have both been happy with our condo; my wifebecause, compared to the house, it has minimal floor space to fuss over, andme, because cutting lawns and removing snow aren’t on my to-do lists. We are,however, right in the middle of a minus that has such an impact on our lifestyles, neitherof us ever imagined it could happen. It is such a minus, we might start looking for a house again.

What’s the issue now, you ask? Bedbugs!!!

I started out itching first, but as my wife wasn’t, I wroteit off to another allergy developing. When she started to display hives, mylast thought was bugs and my first was the cause being an issue with air quality. Because Ihave a dog, I knew I had to rule out bugs before anyone would talk to me abouttesting the air, so I called in an exterminator.

The bug-guy arrived; white shirt, tie and uniform; one thathad the company’s name blazing out from its left pocket. I swear the thing lit up as he walked. He nosed around,checking on, in and under everything. Fifteen minutes later and with us50-bucks poorer, he came back to us and the first thing I noticed was hissmile. It reminded me of smiles I had seen in photos of lotterywinners. He announced we were “live”. My wife and I looked at each otherbecause we were both thinking the same thing; what the hell is he talkingabout. That is when he said the magic words; “Live means you have bedbugs”.

Now I’m not big on bugs. I never pulled their wings off themwhen I was a kid because to do that, I would have to catch them and possiblytouch them. I’ve camped a lot over my lifetime, but never without a couple ofcases of “Off“ insect repellent. When he told us that we were proud owners ofbedbugs, my skin just started to crawl. My wife, of course, took this news as asign she wasn’t cleaning things enough, so God help me when we finally getthrough all of this. She will be scrubbing the varnish off the wood tables.

After doing a lot of research, I approached others in thebuilding, as well as the building’s management, and starting asking questions. Itdidn’t take long to discover where these disgusting little buggers came from.Thinking it would make my wife feel better about her cleaning skills, I ran upto tell her what I learned. It didn’t make a lick of difference.

Bedbugs are vagabonds and hitchhikers who don’t give a hootwhere they go or who they ride there with. They are an equal opportunity parasite that don’t give a damn how much money you make, how clean your house is, orwhether or not you shower at night or bathe in the morning. As long as you havehuman blood running through your veins, they are happy. We, as things turnedout, had done nothing wrong that would entice these things to sleep with us, otherthan being dumb enough to move next store to the morons we now live beside.

If you don’t do your research or use a professionalexterminator, neither of which our neighbors did, you usually don’t end upkilling the buggers, but instead, you send them away. I just hope these damnedbugs appreciate that they didn’t have to walk far to join us. What I discoveredwas that our neighbors sprayed enough Raid around their place daily to kill thecast of “Them!” (a 1954 movie about giant ants). I learned this from theowner’s friends as afterwards, he bragged about how he got rid of them. Itwould appear that he didn’t give a second’s thought to why there was no deadbugs lying around his apartment.

My first thought was to react in kind; start spraying theplace like a maniac and, hopefully, send the buggers back were they came from.I had met the guy a few times before all of this and during both conversations,I remember thinking that he wasn’t the sharpest knife in the drawer. I made up mymind to stop the bugs here by killing them, assuming that we would probably endup playing musical bugs until one of us moved if I didn’t.

After more research and more information from theexterminator, we ended up “cooking” just about everything we own. We put “soft”items; meaning linens and clothes, in the dryer, even those that couldn’t bewashed first due to the material they were made from. The “hard” items; smallerpieces of furniture or parts of larger pieces, shoes, books, area carpets, pictures,paper files, and of course, all my tools were placed in a Styrofoam box I madeup using duct tape. The drying had its own source of heat, and I heated thehotbox with a hotplate I bought a while ago for heating my hide glue. Adultbedbugs survive for about 10 minutes in temperatures above 120°F (49°C). Withthe dryer set on high and the hotbox kept at 140°F, we left everything weplaced in both for a minimum of 40 minutes. As bedbugs have some prettyspecific nesting habits, we could pretty much count on these items notcontaining eggs, which is something to keep in mind as the heat kills theadults, but it doesn’t have any effect on the eggs. When the items came out ofthe dryer or hotbox, they were immediately placed in garbage bags or cardboardboxes, both which were quickly sealed with packing tape. The idea behind this method isto kill any adult bugs present and by sealing the items up, it removes as many hiding places as possible forthe next generation, once they hatch.

This exercise took five days and ourlivingroom/diningroom looks like some bizarre, alien warehouse.

After we finished up yesterday afternoon, thebug-guy returned and he dry-steamed all of the furniture and beds which killedthe adults that were present. Between his steam and our heat, we pretty mucheradicated the entire colony which the bug-guy believes was divided into threenests. He then sprayed some chemical around the circumference of each room totry and contain the next generation to those areas. That is the bugger in allof this, as the new crop of bugs will slowly increase in numbers over the next10 days, which is the gestation period for these things. To allow for slowlearners, he will be back in 14 days to do the same process all over again. We,thankfully, will not have to do ours, but we have to keep everything in thebags and boxes until the end, which is a real bummer. That means no normal lifefor the two weeks between treatments, plus another two weeks until he inspects toensure they are all pushing daisies. It is possible we could have failed andhave to do the regiment all over again, but I'm trying not to think of that scenario.

It is easy to get bedbugs into yourhome, moderately difficult to force them to leave, and beyond a royal pain inthe ass to kill them.

The one highlight for me in all of this was thatI had to pack up all of my tools, going through 8 large plastic storagecontainers in the process. If you haven’t done this recently, I highlyrecommend it, sans the bugs, of course, It brings your collection intoperspective as you have to handle each tool as you pack, it gives you littlesurprises because you come across the odd one you forgot you bought, and I canvouch for it being a great activity to take your mind off your bedbugs.

Peace,

Oh, ya…and don’t let the bedbugs bite.

Mitchell

Added Sunday, Nov. 27

So what's the dilly-oh with this post? Other than one short paragraph, it hasn't anything to do with tools or woodworking, so what's up?

While I tried to make light of this situation with our new house-pets, I am a tad ticked by this whole thing. Naw, that's not true...I'm pissed!

Bed bug infestation is at epidemic levels across North America and has been for more than five years. These little shits infest more households than all the other bugs combined, yet every year the epidemic grows by 7 to 10 percent.

The reason for this is because my neighbour is not alone. By some estimates, almost half of those infected with bed bugs react irresponsibly because they either want to save a buck, or they are embarrassed. Whatever the reason, they only serve to make this situation even worse.

Yesterday, I found out one of my wife's relatives had them. He is part of the wealthy side of the family, lives in a 17,000 square foot home worth about $21-million and has a staff of three that spend their lives taking care of the house and grounds. I would think it would be a safe bet to say his kitchen garbage can gets emptied at least four times a day, as is usual for the ladida crowd. If his house can become infested, anyone's can. So how did he react? He packed up his wife and kids and took them to a hotel for the month while the staff and the exterminators dealt with the infestation. Sounds reasonable, doesn't it?

Absolutely not!

In all probability, he took a few bugs with him to the hotel, allowing them to establish yet another colony. Instead of packing the family's bags and making a run for it, he should have taken the necessary steps to make sure any live bugs weren't included before they walked out the door. Simply throwing the clothes in the dryer and packing them in clean plastic bags would have been the right thing to do, but emotions (or just not giving a shit) over-rode common sense.

The reason for this article is to bring some attention to this problem, however small the audience.

Even if you think you don't have bed bugs, check the following once a week...

Check out the seams, creases and folds of your mattress and box spring weekly.
Check the joints in your headboard as well as the bed frames, even if they are metal.
Check the underside of chairs and couches, as well as beneath and between their cushions.
Inspect the perimeter of each room, especially in any gaps in the baseboards.
Inspect telephones, radios, clocks and other electronic equipment.

Remember to make these checks once a week.

If you discover you have them, there is only one responsible way to react...

Call in a professional exterminator and follow his directives to ensure you eradicate your colony.

Don't spread them - kill them.

Ok, I feel better now...

Peace,

Mitchell

Crazed Drill...

2011-11-21T04:23:00.001-05:00

I started messin' with wood over a half-century ago, being introduced to it in the same way many of you have; through my old man. To say that our relationship was "rocky" over the years would be the epitome of the understatement, but tools and wood were always our constant.

My old man found pure joy in the woodworking processes. Fitting two pieces of wood together with spectacular precision was always his goal, no matter how simple or complex the joint. For him, a tool was something to respect, but not for the tool itself, but for what he could achieve with it. All he saw in a tool was its function, and he didn't give a rat's ass about its form.

For me, it was always the opposite. When I look at a tool, I see its form first, then assess its ability to function. As with most things in my life; I could care less about the destination as I am too busy enjoying getting there.

The differences in my old man's and my ideologies can be seen in our tool collections. At the end of his career, the old bugger sold me his collection, which consisted of about 60-odd basic hand tools (there is a list of them on this blog somewhere). My collection is now approaching 400 different tools, and while I doubt I will ever put the vast majority of them to use, whenever the thought of getting rid of them comes up, I suddenly turn into Charlton Heston and start mumbling about cold dead hands.

My last post was over a month ago, and it was nothing more than a list of tools I though I should part with. As things turned out, it was like sending out invitations to a party and having no-one show up. I sold one of the fourteen I had listed, and thinking about it now, I'm not exactly upset about the results.

A few days after posting that list I had a rather bizarre situation arise. I had finished doing a little woodworking and was putting away my tools when I was attacked by a drill. I hadn't even used this drill that day. It was just sitting out on the cabinet because I really don't have a proper storage place for it. It is a Ryobi 18 volt combo screw gun and drill, and for some reason, it decided to just jump off the cabinet and stab me.

I whipped up a little animation to show you what happened...

While it doesn't seem to be a big deal, here is what my ankle looked like twenty days later...

You can see the hole to the left of the ankle bone where the drill bit entered, penetrating about a half inch and nicking the bone in the process. It took two weeks before I was able to walk on it again, and was as painful as a son-of-a-bitch.

I'm starting to get a complex regarding drills, given all the nonsense I have been through with them over this past two years.

Peace,

Mitchell

"Duplicate" and "I Like It But Don't Love It" Tools For Sale...

2011-10-17T16:17:00.000-04:00

Up for sale are a few of my duplicate tools, as well as a couple of tools that I like, but don't love.

Below is a "Gallery" photo of all the tools I have for sale with a link above and below it. Click on either of those links as they will take you to the Tools For Sale page.

Go to Full Tool Listings

I have posted individual listings for each tool on my own server because Blogger has limited space when it comes to imaging. Each tool has enough photos to let you know what condition it is in, plus a written description.

Each tool listing displays the price I want to sell the tool for. They may not be the prices you wish to pay for them, but then they never are. I have also listed what I paid for the tool originally. Some I have listed for less than what I paid, some more, and some the same, but I didn't include what I paid for shipping so either way, I'm not going to win on any of this. Here's the point I'm trying to make; I don't mind getting wet selling these tools, but I already had a bath today. If I can't sell the tool for what I have listed it for, I'd rather keep it.

If you want one of these tools, email me using the supplied link for each tool and I will mark the listing as sold. The first email committing to purchase a specific tool is the winner. I will reply the following day with the total cost of the tool plus my cost for shipping, as well as the cost for additional shipping if required. Please use the links supplied. Your email window should open with the tool you want already listed in the subject field, along with the tool's sale number.

I expect payment within 48 hours after sending you the invoice. I truly want to sell these tools within my lifetime, so I think this gate is fair to both. If I don't receive payment, I'll pull the sold notice on the tool and try again. Your ears may burn for a few days, but I won't be sending the "boys" after you.

As far as payment options, you can pay me whichever, however or whatever way you want, as long as it is through PayPal. Once PayPal notifies me that I have received payment, the purchase will be shipped the following day.

Not going into the vintage tool business disclaimer:

To clear up any questions, I am not going into the vintage tool business, I have no plans to go into the vintage tool business, and trust me, I never want to go into the vintage tool business. The tools offered here are ones that were intended for my own collection when I purchased them, and over time I found I either do not want them, or have found another that suits my needs better.

Fine-Print Stuff:

Delivery:

Anywhere in the world.

Packaging:

No charge for packing materials

Shipping Service Used:

Canadian Post Office "Expedited Parcel"
lowest price available that facilitates tracking
Includes $100 in shipping insurance
Typically 6 to 10 days for shipments to the U.S.
Faster service available at additional charge

Example Shipping Price:

12" by 12" by 3" parcel weighing 2 pounds
Sent to Illinois, U.S.
Cost: $20.63

Shipping Quotes:

Before commitment to purchase - ask and you shall receive
After commitment to purchase - stated on invoice

Actual Shipping Costs Upon Shipment:

If I under-quoted the shipping charges - I will eat the difference
If I over-quoted the shipping charges - I'll include a money order for the difference in the shipment

Multiple Items:

No problem

Shipping Insurance:

No shipments without insurance for the full purchased value
Expedited Parcel includes $100 with of insurance
Insurance on values over $100 is purchased at $1.50 per $100

Returns:

If I send you the wrong tool, I will refund your money including shipping
If it is proven that the tool is not in the same condition as it was represented to be in the listing, I will refund your money including shipping
If you change your mind, decide you don't like the tool, or get hell from your wife because you bought it, I'm afraid you are on your own

Payment Options:

One - PayPal only

Currency:

Whichever is cheaper
With the way the currency is fluctuating these days, one day the US Dollar is high and the next, its the CAN Dollar so pick which currency works results in the cheapest cost to you

Go to Full Tool Listings

Peace,

Mitchell

Up Against The Wood Wall...Again...

2011-10-10T21:07:00.004-04:00

Chris Schwarz's Lost Art Press ran a series of articles on good ol' Mr. Studley's Tool Chest last week.

I first got turned on to Henry O. Studley's tool chest back in the late 80's when Lee Valley Tools used an image of it for one of their catalogue covers. When I built the house I was living in then, I added one of the major items I had always wanted; a built-in magazine rack and book shelf in the can. That catalogue sat in that rack for over a year and I spent a great deal of time studying that cover while doing...ahem...other things, trying to figure out how Studley did it. Studley's work is beyond amazing.

I believe credit for this image should go to Fine Woodworking magazine,
but I have enhanced it considerably since finding it.

What I didn't know until recently was that Studley built a workbench that matched his tool cabinet. Chris has also written an article about it; a teaser for Don Williams' book about Studley's work.

This is Chris Schwarz's image of Studley's workbench, which he will probably kill me for
because I messed with it; straightening out camera distortion, changing the
lighting a bit and getting rid of the distracting background.

I tried to build a modified version of Studley's tool cabinet with no luck, even after making three attempts to get it right. The biggest problem is that I ended up buying more tools than ol' Henry. Who knew I would enjoy the hunt and the purchase of old tools as much as I enjoy using them? The second problem is that I don't have room for a workbench and a floor-style tool cabinet, and won't have for the foreseeable future. Another major problem was that I kept ending up with odd shaped areas that wasn't large enough to hold anything I owned, or any that I planned to purchase. It was a livable irritation, but an irritation nonetheless. After completing the plant shelving unit I have been working on for 10-months now, I plan to build a combination bench and tool cabinet, sort of like a Melhuish No.100, but one on steroids.

This example of a Melhuish No.1 was sold by David Stanley
Auctions in 2004 for a few cents off of $3000.

Chris' latest entry in this series is in regards to how much flak he has taken for being involved in the Studley project in the first place. I haven't been running up against this situation as long as Schwarz has, but I have probably bounced off of it more often than him. Being one of these guys who questions everything, then has the cajones to actually question the answers, I have run up against the "wood wall" Chris is talking about in this post more times than I care to image. Recently, an example of this just played out, and again, it was instigated by a Chris Schwarz post.

Chris ran an interview with Konrad Sauer from Sauer & Steiner Toolworks regarding his newly designed "K13". This new plane design for Sauer started to sprout legs on some previous thoughts I had on planes, thoughts that I had been forming for a while. In general, these thoughts were directed, overall, to the height of hand placement while using a traditional plane, and specifically, dealing with the high Centre of Gravity those high hand-holds produce.

This is an image of the Sauer & Steiner K13 Panel Plane. Sauer's customer
wanted a plane that oozed speed. Me? I just want one that doesn't
feel like it is going to fall over all the time.

Sauer brought the front knob down considerably and gave the lines more sweep as they moved towards the rear of the plane for an appearance of speed. I'm not interested in a fast looking plane, mainly because I know that saying "speed" and "hand planing" in the same sentence is an oxymoron. I was, however, very interested in that lower front knob. By the time I finished reading the interview, my thoughts had legs that ran as long as the knees. By the time I had finished reading everything that was posted about it on the Sauer & Steiner blog, they had ankles, arches and even toes.

I didn't find one comment about the low knob causing problems during planing anywhere. In fact, all I read was the exact opposite. As a result, I kept asking myself, "why keep the tote and knob so high?"

I "get" that planes have a traditional design and the world of woodworking has been following the basis of that design for centuries. I "get" that a high centre of gravity has been build purposely into the planes by utilizing tall totes and knobs. I "get" that the reason for this is so the user can better gauge the tool's plumb during use. I "get" all that. I also "get" that everyone in the world, for centuries, thought the world was flat, too.

My belief is that, while the high centre of gravity offers a built-in gauge for plumb, this benefit may be outweighed by the possibility that the high centre of gravity adds more to being off plumb than the operator of the tool could manage without it. Plane the edge with a block plane and you stand a far better chance of remaining on plumb than when you plane the same edge with a bench plane, at least for me. I think it is because the high COG forces the plane out of plumb more than the operator does. Please don't tell me about the guiding finger of the forward hand, I already use it. You still have to push the plane with the tote, and that is where the wiggly-wobblies come into play.

I also think the angle of the operator's wrist has a lot to do with getting off plumb too. To plane properly on a proper height bench with a traditional designed plane, you end up with a crook in your wrist that is not conducive to keeping the plane plumb. It is also not conducive to varying the pressure between heavy forward and light downward, and light forward and heavy downward either.

Lowering the tote would cause its angle to reduce, resulting in the operator's wrist being less-cocked. A more natural angle to the wrist means less stress on it, less weight trying to throw it off plumb and easier variance of pressure. At least that's how I see it, although the only way I could prove it is to have one made and try it out, an expensive exercise in experimentation if ever there was one. That is because there isn't anything written about this, and I sure haven't seen a plane made this way. Why? I have no idea. It could be that I am so wet with this, I'm drowning, or it could be that we have all been following this design religiously for so long, going against it would be, for a plane maker, like falling on his float.

I know the most common answer to this question before it is even uttered. "If I learn to use the traditional plane design properly, I will see the high COG as an advantage. Until I do learn how to use it properly, the high COG will always work as a disadvantage. From my perspective, whether I have learned to use a traditional plane properly or not is an irrelevant argument. With enough practice, you can train yourself to overcome pretty much anything, even swinging a golf club in its proper, but unnatural way.

Maybe in time I will be able to put this thought to bed, but in the meantime, I actually was stupid enough to write it all down and send it to a plane maker I know and am considering using. I think my quest for answers wasn't met with the same joy as it saw when written. In other words, I haven't heard from the guy since.

As to Chris' report on meeting the "wood wall". I left the following comment...

"I have come to believe that there isn’t any species of wood out there that is quite as unbending as the average dedicated woodworker’s mind."

Peace,

Mitchell

P.S.: Considering that dropping 4 to 6-grand on one plane is not conducive to my wife's belief that she shouldn't have to hide from our bank manager when she visits the bank, I will be listing some duplicate and "ok, I like it, but I don't love it" tools I am selling very soon. All proceeds from the sale of these tools will be going to the "Infill Plane Payment Foundation". I am just working on the images of the tools included which are:
1 - tack hammer - not so new - not so expensive
8 - Stanley Everlast chisels - conditions from "its ok" to "hey, that's pretty good"
1 - General Angle Divider with its original box
1 - Stanley Speed Drill with most of its original bits
1 - solid wheel Stanley No.624
1 - very good Stanley No.5 Type 11 plane
1 - never used QTG laser beam level with case and - are you ready for it - original batteries still unused - wow!
I should have these posted before the end of this week.
Peace

Overcoming Life's Little Irritants, And Making Bigger Ones In The Process...

2011-10-07T13:53:00.000-04:00

My ever beautiful, vivacious, kind, loving, but completelyirrational wife insisted on “anything but an iPhone” when it came time toupdate her cell phone recently. This is probably due to my actions, more thanhers.

Come on. Be honest with me. How many of you, while involvedin something your really into, have either turned off your cell phone’s ringer,or turned the phone off completely? Then, when questioned by your wives why youdidn’t pick up the phone when she called, you have answered with; “Gosh, itdidn’t ring the whole time I was there. It must have been a bad signal”?

I used that con so many times, my wife believe the iPhones arecrap. They are, of course, but don’t tell the members of the Apple cult that oryou will be taking your life into your own hands.

So I bought my wife a Blackberry Tour.

If I were “joe-executive”, I would buy a Blackberry in aminute. Hands down, it is probably the fastest, most reliable cell phone outthere that is configured and formatted with the businessman in mind. But I’mnot joe-exec, so the thing is just a pain in the ass for me, but hey, it’s mywife’s phone so I don’t really care. Hers or not, it did presented me with a dilemma.

I started to write an explanation of the whys, hows andwhatnots of this dilemma, but when I realized that I was typing away on pagenumber 10, I wiped it all out and instead, will give you the abbreviatedversion.

Blackberry	Bluetooth equipped (as per all cell phones these days)
2007 Ford Fusion	Not Bluetooth equipped - became standard in 2008 (figures)
Pairing	To set up the common frequency between two devices and establish the encryption they will use to attempt to keep the contents of their communication private
Pairing Devices	Available aftermarket ranging from $9 to $1000
Suitability	None
Reason	Mounted by suction cups larger than my wife’s bra, clasps that scratch the dashboard piece just showing them to each other, or possible positions result in wiring hanging down in front of the driver
Conclusion	Make my own
Result	The following “hands-free” cell phone unit that will mount the phone without damaging the dashboard components and will allow the phone conversation to be heard through the car’s stereo

Material	Walnut
Product used	Griffith Hands-Free Microphone and AUX Cable
Connections	One wire from the phone to the mic, mic plugs into the auxiliary jack on the car’s stereo
Issue	Fusion has auxiliary jack buried in the console glove box
Design	Buried the wires between the phone and the mic in the phone’s mount pad, installed the mic in a tower beside the phone, allow the pad to swivel and make everything robust enough to take my wife’s abuse
Time	3-hours per day over a 4-day period
Last procedure	Drilled pad for swivel mount
Procedures remaining	None
Reason	Drilled through the damned buried wiring!!!
Results	None - its pure junk now!!!

Peace,

Mitchell

Was It A Tool Show Or An Economics 101 Lesson...

2011-10-02T18:11:00.002-04:00

The Tools of the Trade Show took place today in Pickering, Ontario. This is one of the very, very few vintage tool shows that takes place in Canada, and probably the only one of its size in Ontario.

I arrived late with a wife who was ticked because I had been hocking (Yiddish for pestering) her all morning to hurry up. She slept in, buggered around until 10:30, and wondered why I was a tad upset the entire 20 mile drive to the show's location. It started at 10 and we didn't arrive until almost 11:15. I had visions of viewing nothing but empty tables.

Boy, was I wrong.

The Pickering Recreational Centre, where the show was held, has a huge parking lot and it was filled almost to capacity. Dozens of people were leaving as we arrived, and a fair number were hanging around the entrance, standing in the rain, as we approached. We pulled up with me thinking my chances of finding something I wanted were slim, and that feeling increased as I saw all of this taking place around me. We walked through the doors, paid the 5-bucks a head entrance fee, and hit the event hall.

The hall was full of both people and tables.

The tables held tools and the people didn't.

What the hell was going on here?

I did my first circuit around the room. In general, I wasn't impressed with the quality or type of tools that was being displayed.

I did my second circuit around the room. In general, I wasn't impressed with the price displayed on many of the tools.

I did my third circuit around the room. In general, I wasn't impressed with how the sellers were dealing with the lack of sales.

I did my forth circuit around the room. In general, I was ticked with a lot of the so-called buyers.

The Quality of Tools
For the most part, many of the usual dealers were present and accounted for, although one of the first things I noticed was that MJD Tools was missing this time. While there was the odd quality piece of enticement sitting front and centre of some of the booths, most displayed mainly cheaper, not-so-rare stuff that probably ¾ of those attending already had.

Doug Orr's booth displayed the highest number of quality pieces, a Clifton No. 4 in particular, one of their first offerings, certainly caught my eye. Wider than a Stanley, done in green instead of black and displaying a lot more bling, it is a plane that will shock you when you first pick it up, as it weighs a ton. At $245, it was a good buy for those that wanted an excellent plane or collected original Cliftons. That isn't me, though, so reluctantly, I put it back. I also noticed a couple of amazingly large goose-wing axes laying on his "magic carpet" section, but putting an axe in my hands is just asking for trouble, so I didn't even get close.

Dave "ToolRush" Carriere's booth was not quite as loaded this time around as last, and overall, the quality of tools wasn't near the last show's level. I did notice something impressive about Dave, though. I can't remember if it was the last show or the one before it, but I do remember asking him if he had any Stanley #50 chisels. He said he didn't have them at that show, and gave me his card. I forgot about giving him a call, but I remembered the minute I saw a "Harlequin" set of #40's sitting front and centre at this event. Good on him. He remembered someone asking and included them.

Sauer & Steiner Toolworks, were absent at this show. I missed them. I didn't miss making a fool out of myself with them like I did at the last show, but I missed their new No. 3 that I was looking forward to seeing in the flesh.

Type of Tools
The group that this show is sponsored through is, The Tool Group of Canada. Because of that, I shouldn't complain that some of the booths mainly displayed vintage tools and machinery from the blacksmith, electrical and plumbing categories, as all of these are encompassed by the group's interests. The first tool I looked at after walking through the doors was a beautiful miniature metal lathe with a sold sticker on it. Damn! All of that said, while the last show had more vintage apple peelers than I could count, in truth, I thought this show included too much of the "other" categories, but I'm biased as I love old woodworking tools. I know those in charge will say I'm nit-picking here, but the show has a name for woodworking tools, has leaned severely in that direction since I started attending it, it is what I go to the show for, so when I see floor space taken up by a mechanically-driven-left-handed-reverse-counter-boring threading machine, when it could display a mother-load of vintage Stanley planes, I get a little disappointed.

This wasn't at the show. I just enjoy messing with images like this.

Prices
They were wayyyyyy tooooooo high - 'nuf said.

Sellers
I heard way too many complaining to their friends that they weren't making any sales. The fact that they were so busy commiserating with each other, they weren't readily available to answer some questions I had for some, meant that their crying in their beer actually cost them a few sales. A few that I was able to lay a few questions on weren't the dealers themselves, but stand-ins, and they couldn't answer them, so again, a few tools I was interested in buying went unsold.

There was one tool that I was really interested in buying; an old, craftsman made leg-vice. The problem with it was that it was the wrong way around. The sliding bar at the bottom was attached to the back leg with the front leg sliding back and forth on it. I believe it should have been the other way around, so that when the vice was closed, a chunk of wood wasn't sticking out across the floor in front of it. I noticed the incorrect set-up right away, and put down my bag and flashlight (its not the brightest lit show and I'm blind, remember) and had a close look at it to be sure I was right about it. I still would have bought it, as reversing it wouldn't be much work, but instead of acknowledging what I was saying, the seller decided to educate me on the finer points of leg-vices. If he had said, "Your right. Let's deal", I would have bought it for 50-bucks instead of the $55 he was asking. The point is, though, he didn't even suggest I might have been right about it, but instead, tried to convince me I was wrong. I think he went home with it.

Buyers
Ok, guys. Listen up. At tool shows, the tools on the table in front of you are for sale. The guy behind the table paid big bucks to be there so he can sell them. He needs as many as possible to see them, pick them up and talk to him about them. That is how he sells them. That is how he feeds his kids. You and your buddy standing front and centre of the table and talking to each other about the last show you were at, or where you got coffee on the way to the show that morning isn't doing the seller a damned bit of good, in fact, your lack of consideration is actually costing him money, not to mention really ticking off those of us who haven't viewed the guy's wares yet, and can't. If you want to talk about something other than buying one of the tools sitting in front of you, move your butts off to one side so someone who might want to buy something - can.

Ohhhh. That vent felt sooo goooood.

By the way, being a rude bugger and eavesdropping on some of the "table-crowder's" conversations, I got the distinct feeling the majority of them were members of The Tool Group of Canada, who should have known better.

Conclusions
There was a lot going against the sellers at the Fall 2011 Tools of the Trade Show, including the sellers themselves. Mainly, though, it was just the fact that the whole thing is about selling discretionary items in a less than forgiving economy that caused many buyers to leave grumbling and empty handed, myself included. Hopefully, the economy will pick up for the next show in April 2012, and the sellers will be back, wiser and better prepared to deal.

I came home and went online to Jim Bode Tools and bought a couple of miniature wire cutters and pliers. I would have bought more but Jim hasn't completed the 2011 Economics 101 course yet.

Peace,

Mitchell

Inovation Is The Mother Of Invention...

2011-09-25T14:49:00.000-04:00

As I have mentioned, my shop space is in my office, located across a 9-foot-wide room from all my computer machinery. It is a funny thing about all the computers I have owned over the years. I have never owned one that didn't have allergies; all being specifically allergic to dust. With a room full of computers that are prone to sneezing, having a dust-producing woodworking set up in the same room isn't the smartest thing I have ever done, but it exists in this manner as there are only two other alternatives; quit making a living, or quit woodworking. Neither of those options are acceptable to me.
When a dusty job comes up, I have to use a little ingenuity to get it done without wiping out the price of a new car in computer equipment. I have tried covering everything with plastic, but that ate up too much time. I have tried popping over to a friends to do the dirty deed, but I'm not comfortable in other people's environments. Recently, though, I new one came to mind while I was out walking my dog one afternoon.
Out back of our condo building is a catch-basin, one that includes a open-angled wood retaining wall. Walking over, I checked for height, and while it is a tad too high, I figured it might be just the ticket the next time a dirty job came up. It wasn't long after realizing that wall could be useful that a job came up which allowed me to put it to the test.
I am making crown mouldings for my current, never-ending project, which is making my wife a plant shelving unit. As with anything made with hand tools, it takes forever, even though the design is pretty basic. Below is a quick line-drawing of how I am putting the crown moulding together.

Surprisingly, working with planes produces very little dust, as does scrapping and scratch work. The two big dust-producers are sawing anything and some specific sanding. When I sand finishes, it produces a lot of dust, but it doesn't get airborne, so if I vacuum up the mess regularly, and don't move the pieces being sanded around, the resulting dust is not an issue. Saw the end off a 1 x 2 piece of pine, though, and the dust seems to bred in the air and what I made, plus all its offspring, land on everything everywhere.
The cheapest and quickest way to produce the filler piece needed behind the angled face was to rip a piece of 2" x 2" poplar stock down the middle on the 45, and that, I knew, was going to produce some serious dust.
Of course the best way to handle this would be to grab the stock, saw and sawhorse, and head outside and just do it, but living in a condo doesn't allow you to do things easily. Understand that the one thing condo life doesn't have is space. You trade that off for not having to cut the lawn or shovel the snow. To explain just how tight some condos are when it comes to space, let me relate this little story. My wife and I once invested in some new condos and townhouses that were being built. When the builder asked me how I liked them, I told them they were fine, but anyone who ends up living in them would never be able to go on vacation again. He asked if that was because the mortgage payments would be too high, and I answered, "No. There is no place to store their suitcases once they return home". Hence, until I can come up with a design for a foldable sawhorse that is stable when open, I don't have one.
On the first cool summer's day, one where the temperature dropped below 80°F (27°C), I grabbed the 2 x 2 stock, a 3-foot piece of 1 x 2, my favourite ripsaw, and my latest invention...a portable hold-down, and off I went to cut some wood. Getting to the knee wall, The first thing I did was cut the 1" x 2" stock in half, then I cut a "V" in the centre of each one, as shown in the image below.

Beautiful old Disston from about 1900. When I get to Heaven, I'm going
to give "KCR" a piece of my mind for making his mark on this tool so
badly. I will, that is, if those in charge of admissions
forgave him for what he did to this saw.

Placing those two pieces of 1 x 2 on top of the wall at right angles to the 6 x 6, I then placed the 2 x 2 in the "V's", which held it on the bias. My new portable hold-down is unique, in that it is voice activated, so I tapped the 2 x 2 at a point between the two 1 x 2's and stated, "Hold wood here". Impressively, the hold-down kicked into action and positioned itself at the point I had indicated and held the stock down firmly. It was quite amazing, as you can see for yourself if you click on the thread of the image below.

Modifying and adapting one tool to do something it wasn't designed
to do is not only fun, it is quite rewarding.

While I did a great job modifying this piece of equipment, if I do say so myself, if I had to do it again, I would start with the more basic model that doesn't have voice communication. Talking to it to give it directions is fine, but sometimes it gets a glitch in its programming, and it talks back way too much and becomes irritating. While this particular hold-down looks great, I would start with the cheaper model next time as this one is way to pricy for what it does. (and with that, I'm sleeping on the couch for the next month)
As the slope in the land dropped off away from the wall, the stock was way too high to cut with traditional body placement, so invoking the French sawing position that Chis Schwarz reintroduced a while ago, only this time standing up. I positioned myself beside the stock, developed a slightly different hand-hold on the saw that Chris demonstrated, as shown below, and went to town, ripping the 8-foot 2 x 2 in about a half hour, give or take due to having to take the odd break.

A modified "French" grip made easier by Disston's addition of a second hole.

The breaks, by the way, were due to the hold-down pad's inability to maintain pressure on the corner of the stock for long periods of time. Frustratingly, it would release itself without warning, and to make matters worse, its voice abilities would kick in. The one thing I wasn't able to figure out is how to add an "off" switch to this unit. When it would let go like this, it would run on wildly and there was nothing I could do but let it run its course and once it exhausted itself, reset it and start again. (add a second month on the couch)
Even though the day was overcast, those breaks did allow me to appreciate the time and effort I spent French Polishing the handle on this saw. Many thanks to Stephen Shephard at the Full Chisel Blog for his instructions as, after viewing the results with the sunlight kicking it up, it put a smile on my face for hours afterwards.

You cannot beat French Polishing for finishing a tool's handle.
In the shop, its beautiful.
In the sunlight - wow!

Peace,
Mitchell
Images taken with an iPhone

NOTE: The "Tools of the Trade Show" takes place Sunday, October 2nd at the Pickering Recreation Complex in Pickering, Ontario. While my exposure to vintage tool shows is limited, I have never left this one disappointed as there are always enough items to view and buy to make me happy I made the effort to attend.
If anyone needs any information or help attending this event, just email me and I will be happy to help if I can.

Ok, world, this is how it is done…

2011-09-07T11:29:00.003-04:00

Here’s the story behind this story…

Sharpening tools is time consuming and because my time for workin’ wood is limited, I often hold off sharpening a tool that could use a touch-up. The reason for this is that I simply would rather spend the time actually workin’ wood than pushing a chisel across a hunk of sandpaper. I know this isn’t smart, so I started looking at many of the commercial blade sharpening machines available today. Two things struck me about these dedicated machines; a) they are all way too expensive for what they do, and b) the work they can do is limited to the finer points of sharpening on a single horizontal wheel. This is ok for new tools, but it seems like every hundred-year-old tool I have bought, the last one to use it didn’t have a clue about angles, flat backs and micro edges. The result is that the blades often require considerable work before they can be finely tuned.

As I did my research, the Delta Sharpening Centre kept popping up all over the place. As this machine offers up two wheels; one vertical and a fine one on the horizontal, I gave up on the other $300 machines and started researching it. I discovered it was one of Delta’s usual offerings; a sound idea made so cheaply, it crashed and burned.

From all the complaints about the machine that I found, which were too numerous to count, the base machine was fine, as was the vertical wheel. Where the problems developed was balancing the horizontal wheel so the machine wouldn’t vibrate. Downloading all the different machine’s explosive parts drawings that I could find, I soon learned where the problem lies in the Delta machine, or at least I think I did. In fact, I am so confident that there is a way to fix this issue, I started looking for a machine to purchase.

Here’s the problem with the machine…

All of the dedicated horizontal-wheel sharpening machines have a balanced metal plate under their entire sharpening surface; whether that surface is a grinding wheel or proprietary plates or sheets. The Delta 23-710 Sharpening Centre machines do not have this. To keep the costs down, they used something that is more or less an oversize washer that is about 3-inches in diameter. Expecting something this small to balance an 8-inch wheel is more than just wishful thinking; its dumb.

Solution…

Re-jig the wheel mount by adding a full sized, balanced aluminum plate that will fully support the soft, 1000 grit, 8-inch wet wheel.

How to do this was something I couldn't answer until I bought one and had it sitting in front of me.

Enter MJDtools.com…

As Delta no longer makes this machine, I had some problems coming up with a good one in the used market place. One or two came up on eBay, but there was always something that kept me from buying them. The most common reason is my most common irritation with eBay sellers; being that many American sellers won’t ship to Canada. I guess turning away a potential 33-million bidders that could drive up their selling price isn’t worth the added shipping hassles. Grrrrrrrrrrrrr.

I subscribe to Martin J. Donnelly Antique Tools Auction’s newsletters that arrive in my inbox every Tuesday and Thursday. I do so because they list some pretty incredible tools in their auctions, although I have yet to come across anything made by H. E. Mitchell. Damn!

A while ago, a Delta 23-710 was listed in one of those newsletters so I entered a maximum bid of $150. I won the machine for less than that, and with MJDTools.com’s usual professional ways, they charged my Visa for the purchase price plus shipping, and within days the machine was delivered to my door.

Oh, oh…

I didn’t have time to open the box right away but finally, a week later, I went through my unpacking ritual. As I got everything out of the box and laid out on the floor, I discovered that the machine had been shipped with the knife sharpening attachment still attached to the machine. This attachment is a wide adjustable flat that you use to rest a jointer knife on. During shipping, the post office had thrown this heavy box around so much that they snapped the casting. Every time they threw it after that, the resulting large, untethered hunk of metal thrashed around inside the box, taking out the plastic water spray guard and gouging the horizontal wheel.

Given the similar experience I just went through with the infamous Miller Falls tool restorer that will still rename nameless (email me if you want his name), I had some serious concerns about this problem which were further exasperated by discovering that the total cost of the damaged parts was $146.60 plus shipping.

I took a couple of photos and sent off an email to Martin listing the costs of the damaged parts.

This is the way a pro handles these situations…

Yesterday, I received an email in response to my claim from Kathy at MJDTools.com. In it she stated; “I made a credit on your charge card today for the full amount that you paid”.

I was astounded, astonished, dumbfounded, stupefied and literally blown away. They just didn't reimburse me for the damaged parts. They reimbursed me for the total amount that I paid for the machine plus the shipping. In other words, I got the machine for free, and now I have to just pay for the replacement parts out of the full credit.

In this day and age, who the hell treats their customers so well?

Peace,

Mitchell

A follow-up about trying to replace the broken Delta machine's parts...
The one thing I didn't check before purchasing this machine is the availability of Delta/Porter-Cable parts in Canada, something I usually do before purchasing anything like this, new or used. While this shouldn't be a concern for this type of thing, and I hope my American readers won't be offended by reporting this, but the norm with many of these larger American-run companies is that they want to sell in the Canadian market, and actually buy up smaller Canadian manufacturers to do so, and then leave us hanging for support with the purchases afterwards. Delta/Porter-Cable is one of those companies that fall into this category.

In this case, Delta has an online parts site called ServiceNet. I went on it, found the parts I needed and ordered them. When it came time to pay the bill, their shopping cart form wouldn't accept Canadian addresses. There is no site like this for Canadians and the American site does not even include a Canadian Service Centre location finder.

I sent off an email to Delta which included a screen capture of my Shopping Cart list. I'll keep you posted regarding the results.

I Know What It Is...The Question Is Why Does It Exist...

2011-07-23T22:19:00.003-04:00

The Mid-Summer Antique Expo at Heritage Park in Milton had its inaugural run today and my wife, our dog and myself attended. It wasn’t the greatest of days for wandering an outdoor antique fair.

Around 11 a.m. the temperatures hit 33°C (in English, that would be 91.5°F). Calculating in the humidity, which weatherman seem to love doing, it hit 41°C (again, in English, that would be 104.8°F). Think about this the next time one of your fellow Americans suggests driving up here in the middle of August to do a bit of skiing.

We lasted about a ⅓ of the way around the grounds before the heat did us in. Out of the three of us, only the dog seemed to be able to withstand the temperatures. I'm not surprised, though. Almost every dealer was pushing a bowl of water at her; ignoring the hell out of my wife and I, but they just swooned over the dog. It was so bad, in fact, that she didn't touch the bottles of water we brought for her.

There were a few dealers that we did see that were selling some tools, but most of the offerings consisted of some very good Canadiana furnishings, carvings, signage and knick-knacks. While my wife scoured the tables for china and porcelain, I checked out what few tools I could see. I looked at a gutter plane made by Wallace, who made planes in Montreal, Canada between 1845 and 1858, and in Scotland before then. As was usual back then, Mrs. Wallace took over when Mr. Wallace passed away and she keep the business going until about 1885. Someone had refinished this example of their work, though, so it was worthless. For some reason one dealer I visited had a lot of Casey, Kitchel and Company planes on display, a plane maker I haven't seen much of up here. From what I have read, this firm made a lot of planes in New York State between 1847 ad 1858, mostly using “convict labor”, as they were the company that held the contracts for this during that time. Casey and Kitchel eventually parted ways in 1858, with Casey starting the Auburn Tool Company and Kitchel fading away into obscurity. I would bet it was Casey that did the deal with the government for those contracts as it sounds like he was the “mover and shaker” between the two. Now there is a salesman I would like to hire. Imagine walking into the Department of Corrections back then and saying, “We want to contract for convict labor. We want to hand them sharp chisels to fashion wood and give them access to big files to fashion steel”. Man, would I like to have been a fly on the wall during that meeting.

So we left early and all I got for spending a few hours in the boiling sun depleting my bodily fluids was this cutter for use with an auger…

It wasn't what I had in mind going into the show, but I couldn’t think of going home empty handed. As we were heading for the exit I noticed it sitting forlorn and unloved on a dealer's table, so I went to it, and when I saw it marked with the princely price of 15 bucks...I scooped it.

Ok, in truth, from a distance I thought it was a Stanley No.47 auger stop, so I moved in for the kill. Getting close enough to see what it was, my mind quickly switched from going in for the kill, to; what the hell is that?

I have seen similar items before, but not quite like this, and not for an auger. It’s maximum circumference is 3-inches, the minimum is 1¼-inches. As you can see from the photos, it pivots around a centre-point, and a cutter rotates around it removing material like a granny’s tooth would handle it, but this has the upright cast to the side of the blade, instead of the back of it.

The radius and depth adjustments are pretty simple, really. Loosen the wing nut and move the blade where you want it, move it, that is, if it doesn’t fall out and onto the floor first. I know that the shape of a wing nut can help to determine a rough manufacturing date, but damned if I can remember what shapes were around for what dates. If your looking for some fun, try researching it. In Google, I entered “timeline of a wing nut” and my biography popped up with a picture of me at birth. Go figure.

The photo above shows the shape of the wing nut and the stamping on the arm. It has the radius values rather crudely stamped, along with what appears to be “RCLF, Newark N.J., which would be the maker’s stamp. I wasn't surprised that I couldn't make out this maker's mark. Maker's marks are a dead give-away about the tool's worth. They are like wine bottle labels. If the wine is good, the label design is brilliant. If it sucks, the label is so busy, it turns you into a jitterbugger before you even drink it. (For those that have lead protected lives, "jitterbugging" is a slang term for predominant shaking brought on by alcohol, or rather, the lack of it.)

This last photo also shows the “teeth” that hold the blade in position, or what is left of them. Seeing how badly they were beaten up in the dealer's tent blew me away because I didn’t think this thing would have been used enough to incur any damage like this. Without a spur on the outer edge of the blade, how does this thing cut wood without tearing it? My first thought was that something was missing. Either it fit into something like a holesaw, or had another attachment that pre-cut a circle ahead of the horizontal blade digging in, but there isn’t any way to attach these things to it, so I figured it must be complete.

One day, when I have a scrap clamped to the table I’ll give this thing a whirl. To be honest, my expectations of it working are slim to none.

Until then, for the grandiose investment of 15 bucks, I’ll keep it on the shelf so it can remind me that junk for woodworkers has been around long before Pierre Omidyar wrote his first line of code for what became eBay.

Peace,

Mitchell

Updated Monday, July 25...
I Might Be Wrong...

Because Stephen has suggested in the comments that this little tool is for another purpose, I have created a line drawing of it to try and make its appearance clearing to everyone. I have set it off to Stephen to see if he still thinks it is a leather washer cutter. That one scares me because, with the cutting edge configuration, the only way I can think it would cut leather washers is if the hide is still on the cow.

I'll update again once I hear back from him.

Peace,

Mitchell

Updated Wednesday, July 27...

Stephen Shepherd's reply...
Stephen Shepherd replied about the line-drawing stating he was more confused than ever. He thought it was a leather washer cutter, but realized that to work it, you would have to turn it in a counter-clockwise direction, so he wasn't sure about it.

Jim Bode of Jim Bode Tools...
Jim Bode also offered his opinion on this one, stating he thought it was a washer cutter that had been converted to chamfer the ends of dowels or posts, possibly to prep them for a hollow auger. He also said it, "wouldn't work for a hill of beans".

I did sharpen the blade and tried to take it for a test drive...Jim's right...it sucks!

Peace,

Mitchell

An Eggbeater Whipped Me Good...

2011-07-16T04:08:00.016-04:00

I spent this morning writing a post for this blog that discussed the rebuild of the Miller Falls No.2 eggbeater that I purchased last year. I spent about 4 ½ hours writing it, as not only did I have to write it, but also follow an email trail, reading each to determine the gist of their content, as well as establish the timeline.

Once completed, I felt that the facts it listed did not reflect well on the tool restorer that did the work on the drill, so I sent a copy of it off to him, allowing him an opportunity to refute any of the points I had listed as untrue before posting it.

I have since trashed that article because I had made two major mistakes with it. My first mistake was writing it. My second was sending it to the restorer.

This is a compilation of the drill as it was
before I sent it off for restoration

So what are my problems with all of this?

To try and make a very long story shorter…

July 18, 2010
I purchased a very rough Miller Falls No.2, circa 1910 ($30)

August14, 2010
I spoke to the leading restorer of Miller Falls drills
I was told a mechanical and cosmetic restoration - quoted $180

August 15, 2010
I spoke to the restorer again to discuss not doing cosmetic work
Restorer agreed to only a mechanical restoration - quoted $180
Told 3 month turn-around
Told once drill was apart, he would contact to discuss cosmetics

August 20, 2010
Shipped drill to restorer ($34)
Paid restorer’s invoice through PayPal - $180 plus $25 shipping ($205)

January 18, 2011
No drill, no contact – emailed to request delivery date
Restorer stated he broke his wrist in October which put him behind

May 26, 2011
No drill, no contact – emailed to request delivery date again
Restorer stated he planned to start work the following Monday

June 9, 2011
Received email from UPS stating shipping label had been issued
Emailed restorer to ask what was going on as still no contact
Restorer answered I should “relax”, only the label was issued

June 11, 2011
Received call from restorer to discuss cosmetic requirements

June 14, 2011
Received email with 10 photos of completed drill attached

June 20, 2011
Received email stating drill was in transit

July 4, 2011
Drill delivered by UPS

As you can see from this ridiculous list, I sent the drill to the restorer almost a year ago and paid out $269 at that time to buy it, ship it and pre-pay for its restoration. I did this because I took this guy’s word on face value that the drill would be returned to me in 3 months. Needless to say, that didn’t happen.

On top of that, I felt like the guy was treating me like a mushroom; keeping me in the dark and feeding me poop. Here’s a guy who broke his wrist, an injury that I would assume would pretty much shut him down for 6 weeks or so and he didn’t bother to let his customers know this had happened, at least not this one. What kind of businessman has so little concern for his customers that he does something like that?

The biggest issue, however, is that the drill arrived broken. As I was unpacking it, pieces fell out of the box onto the table. The handle’s cap had been broken in three pieces during transit.

I had sent the restorer a very tired drill that had a very worn handle and no cap. What I had in my hands after waiting a year and paying out a couple of hundred bucks was a refreshed drill with a new handle and a broken cap. As far as I was concerned, the cap was toast as a broken cap is not that much above not having one at all.

The most important part of all of this was that this broken cap negated my investment in the tool and meant the time, effort and money I had invested in it was wasted. Let’s be real here. Even whole, this drill will never see a value that will even come close to what I have invested in it during my lifetime, and possibly my son’s. Without a proper cap, that loss is even worse.

Although I consider it garbage, to be able to live with it, I glued the cap back together so I could at least live with the drill until a replacement arrived. Obviously, at this point, I was still under the impression I was dealing with an ethical businessman. I also took the pictures you see displayed here, one with the broken cap and shipping box and the other with the cap clamped together with tape to hold it together until the glue set. You can easily see the cracks where it was broken. I then emailed the restorer to inform him of the problem, attaching the photos.

Sadly, here is how things came out of the box

I did a glue up of the cap so I could live with it,

but anyone can see this cap is toast. It would

appear that the restorer has lost his pride

for his work as he was quite comfortable

leaving me stuck with it.

His answer back was pretty simple; I should glue it up myself, and if that doesn’t work out, I should pay to have the drill shipped back to him so he can do something.

At first my reaction was just simple shock. As time went by, the shock was replaced by anger. After I sent him a copy of the write-up I had done about this experience this morning, he called me. By the time I hung up on him, I was just downright furious with the guy.

Because I don’t want to relive it, I won’t bore you with the details of that discussion, but to say that an apology wasn’t in it would be more than an extreme understatement. Yes, he believed there were some mistruths in the article, one of them being I stated the bill was $187, and it was only $180. Can you imagine someone writing an article to post on a public forum that completely brings into question your business ethics, and the first point you bring up is a discrepancy in the figures of 7 friggin’ dollars????

The gist of my telephone conversation with him was that this entire fiasco, by his estimation, was entirely my fault. Huh? Hello? Customer screwed here…hello?

I know I’m screwed and he knows I’m screwed, and here’s why. The cap is rare. I have spoken to a few in the business and they have told me that these caps are almost impossible to find. My best chance is to find another No.2 that is trashed, but happens to have a good cap, something that rarely comes up. If I do find one, I can expect to have to pay out another $40 or $50 to get that stupid little cap landed on my desk.

It was obvious from the get-go that the restorer wasn’t going to take any responsibility for the broken cap. It might be possible that the space inside him is so full of knowledge about Miller Falls tools that there isn’t any room left to hold ethics.

I can’t even go back to PayPal and open a dispute, as their customer transaction “Protection” is only good for 45 days from the date of the transaction. In 35 days, this transaction will have its first year anniversary.

Nope, I’m nailed to the preverbal barn door on this one.

Giving this nonsense some serious thought, the old adage, “…he has read so many of his own press clippings that he has started to believe them”, comes to mind. We all get a bit carried away with our own reputations when they raise us above the norm. It is only natural to do so. What separates the great from the imitation, though, is the knowledge that it takes as much work to maintain a good reputation as it does to create it in the first place.

The biggest irony of all here is the fact that I didn’t even want this drill in the first place, but bought it only because of superstition. Well over two years ago I started looking for a Stanley No.624. One of the first in the business that I contacted was this restorer, asking him if he had a Stanley 624 with a spoked pinion. The fact that I never heard back from him at all should have been an omen to me. After over a year of looking and not finding a Stanley, I bought this Miller Falls thinking that if I bought what I didn’t want, what I did want would turn up. While the Miller Falls cost me way more than I ever imagined, within weeks the Stanley I was looking for came up on eBay and I bought it. I was going to send that drill to the restorer for the same treatment once the Miller Falls came back, but hey, life is way too short to have to go through that nonsense again. I’ll deal with it on my own.

So there you go. Admitting that I have been very quick to praise those that I have had successful business transactions with, I realize that I have to be just as quick to let you guys know about the ones that didn’t turn out as well. This is the first negative report on a member of the vintage tool community I have had to do and after living through this experience; I truly hope it is the last.

Peace,

Mitchell

Added the afternoon of July 16th, 2011...

If you would like to know the name of the restorer, please email me at mitchell@liquiddesigns.ca. I will be more than happy to supply his name.

When I wrote this post last night I glossed over my last telephone conversation with the restorer for the reason of brevity. Having thought about it this afternoon, I realized that there was an overall theme to his statements to me that, in hindsight, I think explains a lot. Reviewing his excuses for just about every one of my complaints, almost all can be paraphrased as; I didn't do anything wrong because you never complained to me about anything. Having spent over 40 years in the past dealing with the public, and having the bad habit of watching how people act in the checkout lines to-day, I have to say that it is astounding that anyone connected with the public today could even come up with this as an excuse, let alone use it. I think stating that because I wasn't bitching about anything, he didn't think it was necessary to act ethically is about as lame as you can get.

Peace,

Mitchell

If You Thought My First Dirty Movie Was Boring...

2011-07-12T22:36:00.001-04:00

It's time to put a proper sheen on this sucker...

Pssst....Wanna' Watch A Dirty Movie...

2011-06-30T23:13:00.001-04:00

Ok...so maybe the term "dirty" overshoots the mark a bit. How about "dusty"...

If Mohammad can’t go to the mountain, then the mountain will have to come to him…

2011-06-21T12:41:00.007-04:00

After considering my wife’s change in position regarding our plans for moving out of the city and the loss of my planned workshop wherever that move would take us, I have come to some decisions regarding the direction I should take.

No, I’m not going to leave her.

What I am going to do is build a compact shop set-up for my specific needs that is based on a sort of modular design. If I am forced to stay here, it will work, and if we do end up moving to a more accommodating location, I can add to it as desired. If I am nothing, I am at least adaptable – possibly delusional – but definitely adaptable.

Ok, here’s the deal. We live on the 26^th floor of a high-rise condominium. We own everything from the plaster on the boundary walls in. While we can do modifications to the unit, they are limited. As moving is something my wife will not consider at this point, I am stuck with an area that is 9-feet by 12-feet with regular 8-foot ceilings. Within 108 square feet I have to operate my digital design business, deal with my teaching duties, store and display my ever-growing research library and have a usable workshop that has the facilities to store my ever-growing hand tool collection.

The only way to do all of this is to dedicate one wall to the workshop and one wall to the commercial operation that pays for that workshop.

Having done so much research lately on workbenches, this didn’t turn out to be the challenging task I thought it would be. Sequestered away in my 108 square foot domain for the weekend, this is what I came up with…

The minute my current project, the large plant shelf unit, is done, I am going on a shopping spree for a great deal of mahogany and this drawing will slowly become my centre for working wood.

Here is a layout with the basic dimensions...

The design is based on two drawer cabinets with three drawers each; two large drawers, one to be my saw till with the other accommodating larger items like my mitre jack, two medium sized drawers to hold my metal and wood plane collection and two smaller ones to hold my drills and other assorted mid-sized items.

Each of these cabinets has an overhead storage unit attached by a steel frame. These units have very shallow drawers, a number of smaller ones to hold small tools, a few midsized ones to hold files and other similar sized tools and two shallow hanging lockers with tambour doors.

In between the two storage areas lays a 7 ½ - foot bench with a tail vise at one end and a face vise of my own design at the other. A deadman sits between the two base cabinets for use with the face vise. Because floor space is at such a premium, the face vise cannot project out as far as a normal one, so the outer plate is set into the bench top with only the screw wheel projecting. When a longer board is being worked, a filler will have to be added behind it to bring it forward beyond the bench’s face.

As storage of additional jigs and things is also limited, as many adjustments as possible have to be built into the bench. One of those adjustments will be for height. Charlie, over at jack-bench.com has done some extensive work utilizing a car jack for this purpose and studying the plans I purchased from him, I am sure I can utilize this set-up to create a 10-inch height adjustment into my design.

I am also going to skirt the base cabinets to minimize the dust collecting underneath them. Because the room is full of computers as well, dust control is a big deal for me so I have also designed the same car jack set-up in their bases as I’ll be using for the bench top. These bases, however, will have the two car jacks connected so they raise and lower as a single unit to limit twisting the top. When employed, casters in each base will drop down to allow the whole assembly to be moved for relocation or just cleaning beneath.

If things change in our accommodations and we end up somewhere that offers more floor space, the bench top can be removed and set up independently, the two base cabinets can be stacked on one base and the two overhead storage units can be mounted to the wall in any one of multiple arrangements.

Overall, I think the workstation that will result from these plans will be functional to work at and esthetically pleasing to look at. The results will also be usable at this location, or adaptable if my wife decides working for a living is something she would finally like to forgo.

Either way, Mohammad ends up with his mountain.

Peace,

Mitchell

For Better or For Worse...

2011-06-17T21:41:00.001-04:00

These past few months, whenever a few minutes of break time is due, I have been merrily using it to search out any interesting books I can find on the topic of woodworking benches. I have also done more than one all-nighter, surfing the web for posts by other woodworkers regarding their trials and troubles creating their benches, their joys and disappointments with their resulting benches and their hopes and dreams for their future benches.

From all this research, here are my top-ten unscientifically defined conclusions about woodworkers and their workshop benches…

1. It appears to me that more than half of you out there have each built more than 100 benches in your lifetimes; 99 of them were built in your head…plus the one you actually built in the basement.

2. The vast majority of woodworks spend three to five years thinking about building a workbench, two to three years assembling the materials to build their workbenches, and six months to a year staring at all that stuff piled in the middle of the basement floor, all the while convincing yourselves that you shouldn’t rush these things.

3. You know the woodworkers who changed their bench designs right after purchasing the building materials for their first designs from their listings on eBay; they are the ones with the descriptions that always start with; "Bench place your bench part here - New - Still in the box..."

4. Once the build has started, the average workbench usually takes about 73.832 days, 892.37 dollars and 192 bottles of beer to complete.

5. Many of you learned a good lesson in design whilst trying to decide which end of the bench to add the detailed mounting of the bottle opener, overcoming the possible bad choice by adding these complicated mounts at both ends.

6. Although mainly kept a secret, many a proud workbench builder has been seen dragged complete strangers off the street and forcing them down their basement stairs so they can show someone their pride and joy.

7. Once completed, it usually takes anywhere from three to five years for the average woodworker to finally admit that he or she "might" have made a mistake in the design of their bench, however obvious that mistake may be, by-the-way.

8. Once completed, it usually takes anywhere from three to five days for the average woodworker to start dreaming of what he or she will be adding to their next bench-build.

9. Once completed, "Re-flattening the top" is a task most new bench owners look forward to...once.

And finally, the number one conclusion I have come to…(drum roll, please)…

10. Once completed, the average time it takes for your wife to discover your beautifully crafted workshop bench is the perfect place to put clothes for, or from, washday – SEVEN!

And speaking of wives…

I didn't have long before retirement and I can’t tell you how much I was looking forward to it (please note the operative words in this sentence, being "didn't" and “was”).

Damn it, Jim!

My wife came to me last week and asked for some help with her resume.

Huh?

My reaction was to ask why she wanted to deal with it so close to her retiring? This turned out to be a question I wished I had never asked.

We live in Toronto, Canada, which has a population of over a couple of million, 99% of them miserable sods who could care less about a single living soul other than themselves. Trust me, when I tell you that what you have heard or read about the people from Toronto being the epitome of “proper” behavior is pure poppycock. Most would skin their grandmother for her tattoos if they thought they were worth a buck, or would shave two seconds off of reaching the next stoplight. Needless to say, I have been patiently waiting these past ten years to move away to some small, rural community where I can be left alone to watch grass grow when I’m not working wood.

I have also been very vocal about this plan to my wife; so hearing even an inkling that there may be a problem with it caused me some major concern, to say the least. Sadly, it only got worse as the conversation went along.

Here's the rub. I’m older than my wife. Not by much, mind you, but enough to make a serious spread in ages at the time of retirement. Way back when, it felt like a good idea to marry a younger woman. As with most good ideas, it has come to eventually bite me on the butt, and has left some serious teeth marks in the process.

A synopsis of the conversation went like this…

"I'm going to be calling it quits."

“You can, but I’m too young to retire.”

“Well I’m not.”

“Well then, retire. Who’s stopping you?”

“I don’t want to retire in Toronto.”

“Well I don’t want to retire which means we can’t leave Toronto.”

Editor's Note: It was around this point were the words that I never, ever dreamed I could even think of, let alone utter, especially to a woman and even more especially to my wife, just fell out of my mouth…

“But…but…but...I want to build boxes…”

And with that, she never said a word. She just turned on her heels and left my office. As I listened to her move down the hall laughing hysterically in a way that reminded me of crazed hyenas, I watched with my mind’s eye as my beloved little house on the prairie went up in flames.

Peace,

Mitchell

Coping Saw Update...

2011-06-13T12:24:00.002-04:00

One of my current projects is building a new, custom coping saw for cutting away waste in dovetails. While this project is consistent with all my other working wood projects - slow - it is coming around.

As I do not have a metal lathe, or the facilities to work one if I had one, I had to farm out the job of creating the blade mounts. Last week I received word from the gentleman who is turning them for me that their creation was well underway.

Saturday, I picked up a nice hunk of rosewood from Lee Valley. It is 3-inches by 3-inches by 12-inches, cost me $19.80, has straight grain with no checks, and is coated with wax.

Yesterday, I finished the final design for the frame. It is far from the conventional design for these things, with a tad leaning towards contemporary lines.

I just need to pick up a bandsaw blade for my mini-bandsaw and I'll be off and running with it.

Cool.

Peace,

Mitchell

What's Your Kid Doing This Weekend...

2011-06-10T16:46:00.001-04:00

I have often discussed my old man in this blog, reminiscing about the so-called good old days when father and son were bonding. The reality is, without the time that I spent with him in the shop, I really wouldn’t have much to write about when it comes to him.

I have always worked bizarre hours and when my kid was around, it wasn’t any different. After a few weeks of 20-hour days and seven day work weeks I would take an afternoon off and work in the shop. I did the same thing when I rebuilt my old boat, but then I would head down to the marina and work on it in the yard. When I was spending time working wood, my kid was in school.

Realizing this reality has caused me to admit, once again, that my rough, tough, SOB of a father was much smarter than I. Not adjusting my work load so I could bring my kid into the shop with me was the biggest mistake I ever made in my lifetime, not only for me, but for my kid as well.

From what I have discovered, most of us work wood because we saw our fathers work wood. What makes anyone think that our kids will be any different than us when they get older? While in some cases I hope my kid is smart enough to be different than me, given he has already built a few furniture pieces of his own, when it comes to working wood, I know he will have the same passion for it as I have.

Back in the 50’s, the price of machinery dropped to the point where it was cheap enough for anyone to own. After a lifetime of pushing planes and humping handsaws on the job site, my old man jumped on the power bandwagon and quickly outfitted his shop with every machine available that was relevant to his production. He had a good eye for proportions and a passion for the design style that I call 50’s modern. Everything he built was square, smooth cornered and utilitarian.

One of the first lessons I remembered having was making a box with faux mitered corners. If you don’t know what that is, it is a process of trimming away all but the top layer of plywood, leaving that top lip wide enough to cover the edge of the piece of ply it butted up to, as shown in the illustration below.

This was a pretty delicate operation made more difficult by the size of the board you were adding it to. Starting with the inside cut, he would work the fence out the width of the blade with each pass until just a stubbled sliver of the layers was left along the edge of a board. He would then flip it over on the table saw top and using a chisel, slice away the corduroy surface the blades left, removing the remnants of the edge sliver in the process. When the pieces were doweled and glued up, he would run a block of sandpaper along the edge and without properly inspecting the joint, you would swear it was mitred.

I was reminded, yet again, of my old man’s teachings this morning when I read Chris Schwarz’s post. He was discussing how to explain the workings of a power jointer to his daughter. Say what you will about Chris, but the way he includes his daughters in just about everything he does puts him way up there in my book.

In his post, Chris talked about letting the wood tell you how to work it with a jointer. For me, this, of course, brought up the times when my old man taught me how to use one. He took a different approach, telling me to think like a machine. That sounds a little strange on it’s own, but the reality is, when you are coming up with a design for something mechanical, you follow the process of it in your mind from the machine’s point of view, not the operator’s.

The old man would say, “It’s a multipurpose machine which you are trying to get to do a specific job. Think of what you would have to add to this machine if you were producing it for this specific job”.

Going at that machine this way with each specific job, I soon learned how to master it. Whatever the job, I would envision a specifically styled pressure plate and feed mechanism and where it would be mounted over the blades. This would quickly give me a rough idea where to apply pressure to the stock and at what speed I should feed it. Within a pass or two, I would understand where it would need finessing, adjust the pressure or speed accordingly and I would usually have good results. While you could come up with the same conclusions without the thought of adapting the machine to the job at hand, using the adapted machine approach gives your mind's eye a picture to emulate.

I have tried applying that same principle to hand planes, by the way, and it doesn’t work worth a damn.

I believe life is a circle, and the topic of my family members working wood is no different. After getting out of the army in 46’, my old man taught himself how to use hand tools so he could earn a living. He then switched to power tools and taught himself how to use them all over again. He did, however, have the brains and the heart to pass that knowledge down to me. I wasn’t as smart as my old man way back when, and didn’t share that knowledge with my own kid. Now he lives 3000 miles away from me, so I can’t share with him the things I have learned about working with hand tools. Whichever he uses; power or hand tools, my son will be just like his grandfather, and have to learn their use on his own.

Guys, if you can, get your kids into the shop with you as often as you can. It will be a memory they will carry with them for a lifetime and beyond.

Peace,

Mitchell

Nothing Stands Without A Solid Base...So...

2011-06-05T23:22:00.000-04:00

I finished this part for my wife’s plant shelf unit about a month ago. I shot a few photos of it, got distracted by other topics and then forgot about it until today. With what this piece put me through to produce it, I can't say I'm surprised that I forgot about it so quickly.

It is a rolling base for the shelving unit, made, hopefully, to take the weight. Made out of off-the-shelf 1 x 6 poplar, dovetailed at the corners and (help me with this guys) through tenons for the cross braces (are these type of things called through tenons?).

I didn’t want the large-wheeled casters to show, so this frame allowed me to set them high and skirt them, allowing the space between the bottom of the unit and the floor to be only ¾ of an inch. I could have probably pieced it together with less wood, but I doubt it would be as strong.

I learned a few things while building this base but the one that stands out the most is; chiseling dovetails and through mortises in softwood is a bigger pain in the butt than it is doing the same with hardwood. Both the chisels, and the chisel operator, have to be extra sharp.

I finished one of the sides some time ago and finished scrapping the second one on Friday. It got coated with grain filler yesterday, which I hope to sand tomorrow. When it is completed, the assembly of the basic structure can take place, which should happen in a week or two – thank God!

It will not…I assure you…be soon enough.

Peace,

Mitchell

Class; A Rare Commodity These Days...

2011-06-03T10:12:00.004-04:00

Because my cynical view sees a world full of ScrewYouJackIGotMine type of people, when someone shows some true class, they stand out to me. Sadly, for whatever reason, true class is a rare commodity these days and because it is so rare, when it rears its beautiful head, I think it should be noted.

Take for example, Kari Hultman, over on The Village Carpenter. Now there is class personified. Like thousands of others, I have been following Kari’s progress for about four years now. The advances she has made with her abilities to work wood over these few years has been amazing, but the fact that she has taken the time to document every step of it and shared them all with us is nothing short of astounding. How she was able to keep that process up for the five years she did is beyond my abilities to comprehend. Blogging about one narrow segment of your life and interests isn’t an easy task, to put it mildly, yet for all those years she did so, on average, more than once a week, with each post holding a wealth of information. She has slowed a bit for now, and I can’t blame her. If anyone has earned some time away from the keyboard, it would be Kari. True class.

Another example is Stephen Shepherd over on Full Chisel. To quote my first blog post, back in October of 2008, I stated that Stephen “is as "earthy" as you can get”, and I still truly believe that. Because of his unpretentious ways, I think many fail to comprehend how much knowledge Stephen has been able to share with the world when it comes to historical processes. You might not be dropping any garlic in your linseed oil to boil it any time soon, but the fact that he has brought this long-forgotten process back from the dead is just one example of how he has devoted his time to these time-honoured processes. A few years ago I was always surprised to see his name associated with an article written by one scholar or another about the historic ways of working wood. Now I have come to understand that this seemingly quiet, gentle man is actually an internationally known scholar on the subject himself, and is recognized as such by some of the leading conservators of historical furniture around the world. The fact that I had to learn this from sources everywhere else but Stephen's own blog, shows me just how much true class this man really has.

The topic for this post came to me last week in the form of a marketing email, the latest edition of Lee Valley’s Woodworking Newsletter. Lee Valley is probably one of the classiest commercial operations that I have ever encountered. To me, this company is the epitome of how a business should be run as they operate solely from a customer’s perspective, not from a banker’s or shareholder’s concept. If I need something, and Lee Valley sells it, even if a box store sells it for a few dollars less, I’ll still make the trip to Lee Valley and buy it from them. I do this simply because it is one of the very rare companies out there that deserves my business.

As with all Lee Valley newsletters, the first topic I view is the “From the Collection” entry. In these posts, Doug Orr never ceases to amaze and educate me about all things historical for working wood. In the May edition, this entry not only offered up the usual, it also told me that Doug Orr is one of those rare people with true class.

I would doubt that most of you that follow this blog, and it always amazes me how many do, remember a post I did back in August of 2010 about a saw I had recently purchased from Jim Bode Tools and had retoothed by woodnut on eBay. While most of you won’t remember it, it will always be the one post that will stand out in my brain forever more. It was in that post that I inadvertently insulted one of the world’s leading authorities on historical tools, one Doug Orr. Yup, the Doug Orr I insulted is one in the same as the Doug Orr that writes these entries for the Lee Valley Woodworking Newsletters.

To give you a quick synopsis, I bought this saw from Jim Bode as a large veneer saw. When I posted about it, Stephen Shepherd commented that the saw was actually a trim saw. When Stephen says an old tool is something, I tend to take his word for it, so off I went searching for more information about it. This quest ended up bringing W. Patrick Edwards into the fray. The result of two solid days of research was no additional information other than the fact that Stephen was right, it was a trim saw to use with a mitre jack. In the midst of all of this, a Lee Valley Woodworking Newsletter arrived and in it was an article on the exact same saw. In his post on the saw, Doug Orr gave its probable use as a trim saw for baseboard or moldings when laying flooring, or possibly for doing trims on partially assembled furniture. I also remember something about it being a stair saw.

Being all caught up in the research of this saw and not knowing who Doug Orr was at the time, I gave some pretty unflattering reasons why I didn’t heed his thoughts on the saw. Those comments were so insulting, in fact, I immediately removed them and posted an apology as soon as I realized my Faux Pas.

Mr. Orr, much to his credit, gave some credence to the results of my research and started to do his own. The results of that research is presented in this edition of the newsletter, and yes, he too believes now that the saw is indeed a “Française scie à recaler”, a French trim saw.

Over these past nine months Mr. Orr has been in touch with me numerous times, updating me on his research of this saw, as well as a few other things, so I was prepared to see the results in one of the newsletter posts, but I was expecting it to be delivered in a slightly different manner. When it arrived, I was surprised that I wasn’t singled out as the “ignorant bugger”, “idiot” or “putz” that I so rightly deserved. Instead, he eloquently stated, “…benign saw descriptions can raise the ire of dedicated tool fiends, and that article brought numerous comments from subscribers regarding my description, ranging from complete agreement to adamant rebuttals.” He then went on to discuss the mitre jack of the same style as the one I bought from him at the Tools of the Trade Show last year. At the end, he presented the results of his research on the saw that proves we both were right.

Class act, that Doug Orr.

Peace,

Mitchell

I Know Jack About This Stuff...

2011-05-19T22:13:00.002-04:00

In the last post I tentatively put the thought out there about building hollow workbench legs and filling them with sand for added weight. I dreamed up this brainwave because I want the bench I am going to build to be the perfect boat anchor. Making an 8, 10 or 12-foot bench heavy enough appears to be an easy task if you can afford the right timbers. The one I want to build will only be 5-feet long or less, so I think even if I could build it from ironwood, I’d still be chasing it around the room (ironwood often weighs more than 90-pounds per board foot).

The great part about blogging is how quickly things can happen. It didn’t take longer than two hours after posting that article before I realized I was on to something. Ok, the downside of it all is that my original brainwave turned out to be about as original as green grass, but at least I knew it is going to work.

I got a few comments posted here, plus a few more emails and they all said the same thing; “been there – done that – love it!”

Out of all the responses I got, only one used sand; Stoner told me he built a covered tray under his bench and filled it with four bags of sand. By my calculations, he added a quick 360-pounds to the weight to the bench for, what? fifty bucks?

Damlen in Belgium used gravel to fill his hollow workbench structure. He also suggested a possible negative to using sand, mentioning that it may possibly seep through the joints. It was good of him to mention this as I hadn’t thought too much about it, but will now that he warned me of the possibility.

Others emailed to say they filled their structures with scrap metal, stones, bricks and other sundry material that they recycled into ballast. It all was useful information for me and I thank you for it.

Now that all of you have confirmed to me that I am on the right track, it is time to take the idea and run with it. Ok, maybe not run with it, but at least be able to move it around a bit.

A while ago Chris Schwarz posted about Floor Truck Locks, an odd name for something that jacks a wheeled item up so its casters no longer touch the floor. The ones Chris discussed are available from the CasterStore.com for thirty bucks a pop.

Here’s the rub; with all that weight in each leg, anything that will jack it off the floor needs to be right under each one, preferably centered. Putting these in that position will make it impossible to activate the foot petal. Modifying them will result in a boom, rather than a foot petal, so these wonderful little items just aren’t going to work of me.

Enter my next brainwave.

Now I would like to think this is just pure genius in motion, but the reality is, the idea I have is based on the same concept as the adjuster I designed for the Birds House for the Shooting Board. Even that wasn’t an original concept as it is based on the same technology we all have used for years to change a flat tire – the scissor car jack.

Here’s the idea…

I would rather see the solid wood of the leg resting on the floor than have that leg swinging from a jack so this concept reverses things, putting the caster on the lift and letting the foot of the leg take the weight when it isn’t being moved.

Making a square scissor jack that just fits into the base of the leg will allow the leg’s structure to help keep the caster from twisting in ways I would rather not see it twist.

The casters only need to retract about an inch, so the lift capacity of the scissor jack needn’t be much. This means the raising arms can be shorter than normal, resulting in a more compact lift. As they needn't be monsters, the volume they will eat up inside the leg will be minimal.

Another major point for these things is they can be built out of scrap steel so the cost of each will be marginal.

The biggest drawback to them is that they look like they will be a royal pain in the butt to use, so I won’t want to move the bench too often.

The biggest issue, I think, is tying each pair of jacks together so both raise and lower using only one screw that turns both jacks. I can’t see how they can be raised independently without causing the bench to seriously twist, which would end up tearing the bench apart.

Like everything else I have done, figuring out how to build this thing will probably turn out to be its most enjoyable part of it.

By the way, while looking for some scissor jack ideas on the web this morning, I came upon this site – Jack-Bench.com.

Peace,

Mitchell

It's Hard To Get Your Bench To Eat Ice Cream...

2011-05-13T14:51:00.005-04:00

My life has been spent trying to reduce the weight of something. When I built cars, I spent a lot of time removing metal to increase the weight to horsepower ratio. Over my entire 30-year career as a photographer, I spent a great deal of time and a huge amount of money searching and buying lighter weight equipment for location work. I have also spent my entire adult life trying to reduce the weight of my butt, but maybe that isn't a good analogy here.

Becoming a hand tool freak has changed a lot of things for me including this thing I have about weight-reduction. Now I am trying to calculate the best way to add weight to something, rather than remove it – specifically, a workbench.

I have been mulling over designs for a workbench for years now. My problem with coming up with one I feel would fit the bill is that I know all the things that I don’t like about a bench, but damned few of what I like. I have worked at a few benches in my time, but only one or two that were "real" benches. The rest were just a bunch of 2 x 4’s cobbled together in a squeeze. While shoddy, wobbly and rather unattractive, those stand-in benches did teach me one thing about a good bench - it doesn't have to have 'weight', it has to have 'serious weight'.

How to add massive weight to a small workbench has been the rub. I have come up with a number of ideas, everything from simply using massive timbers to storing tools beneath. Processing each idea, though, has resulting in points from the “don’t like list” coming into play.

It boils down to this; I want a solid workbench that isn’t a dust collector. I don’t want to chase the damned thing around the workshop and I don’t want one that is a pain in the butt to keep clean, both on top, and underneath.

A possible answer to my quest for an ideal bench, at least in the weight department, may come from an idea that I am currently mulling over. This current brainwave can be summed up with one word – sand.

To say that the working facilities I have been struggling with for the past two years are “limited” would be an understatement. I have been working off of a portable work bench that has a piece of ¾ ply clamped to it to extend the top and two 50 pound bags of sand strapped to a make-shift cross member to add to its weight. It was those two bags of sand that gave me this brainwave.

Whenever I read some woodworker bemoaning the
fact that his or her bench is only 8' or only has
one vice, I laugh, and laugh, and laugh.

Here’s the thing; before I strapped those two bags of sand to it, just trying to drive a screw would start the chase. After the bags were added, the bench became reasonably stationary, even while doing light planning. It all boils down to weight.

Question: So what if you add those sand bags to a normal looking workbench?

Answer: It would look seriously silly.

Question: how can you hide a 50-pound bag of sand in an open workbench?

Answer: in the legs.

This is a render in perspective without any
embellishments. It does show the widths
aren't that out of proportion with the height.

Here's what I have been mulling over…

Concept:

As a base calculation, I will use one of the cheaper woods, say Poplar.

While a standard bench top is 24-inches deep, I would prefer one a little deeper to help make up for its shorter length, which will be 5-feet. Hence, the depth of the top for me is 28-inches.

Dress this up with a bit of trim and it
might not look too bad.

By positioning the rear legs flush with the rear edge of the top and allowing for a 4-inch set-back on the leading edge, I would be left with 24-inches between the outside edges of the legs.

It would be possible to build the legs out of 12-inch stock, but I think 10-inch stock would be better.

Considering that 10-inch stock isn’t actually 10-inches wide and allowing for joining, you end up with an inside dimension of 8 inches.

Volume Calculations:

8-inches by 8-inches equals 64 square inches.

The average height of a bench leg is 28 inches.

64 square inches times 28 inches in height equals 1,792 cubic inches.

There are 1,728 cubic inches in a cubic foot.

This means that one leg would have an internal volume of just over 1 cubic foot.

Weight Calculations:

On average, 1 cubic foot of sand weighs 90-pounds.

As one hollow bench leg has a volume of just over 1 cubic foot, filling with sand would then result in that one leg weighing in at about 92-pounds.

Four hollow bench legs filled with sand would then weigh about 368-pounds.

Comparison:

Maple has an average weight of roughly 3.5-pounds per board foot.

To equal the same weight, it would take 26 board feet, or roughly one piece of maple 12-inches by 12-inches by 28-inches.

Cost:
Poplar:

Here in Canada, a running foot of 12-inch poplar from Home Depot runs about $3.50 a foot

Each leg takes about 11¼-feet of stock, so at $3.50 a running foot, one leg would run you $40.

The wood for a set of four legs would run about $160.

A 50-pound bag of sand costs $12.

Four legs require four bags of sand so the cost of the sand would be $48.

The total cost for a set of seriously weighted legs? About $210.

Maple:

You couldn't find 12-inch by 12-inch maple, so you would have to do a glue-up.

However you got it, a board foot of maple costs $9.50.

Each leg takes 26 board feet, so each leg would run you about $247

The total cost of a seriously weighted set of legs in maple would run you about $988.

Conclusions:

Chris Schwarz estimates his latest Roubo bench weighs about 300-pounds.

At 368-pounds, this idea has legs that weigh in at more than that and the weight of the top hasn't even been factored in as yet.

Go figure.

Peace,

Mitchell

They Told Me To Get A Grip, So I Got A Comfortable One...

2011-05-06T18:19:00.004-04:00

Being a newbie at these hand tools, I always think that it is me that is doing something wrong when I use a new tool and it doesn’t live up to my expectations.

My Veritas 15” Low Angle Jack Plane is a great example. I received it as a gift a few years back and was happier than a pig in poo because it was something I really wanted. The day after I received it I had to plane a number of edges on some 2 x 6’s for a deck I was building. To be honest, I was never more disappointed in something as I was with this plane. It cut beautifully, had very little tear-out, and was a dream to set up. After planning about 160’ of stock, though, my thumb and wrist were as sore as I’ll get out. Having done the same amount of stock the previous weekend with my Stanley No.6, I had a niggling in the back of my mind that it was the tote, but lack of experience caused me to blame myself, rather than the tool.

The Veritas 15" Low Angle Jack Plane with the replacement tote.

I can’t tell you how happy I was when I read an article Chris Schwarz wrote in his Popular Woodworking blog about a fellow who was creating and selling replacement totes for Veritas’ planes. It was like I had been found innocent of tax evasion when I read the first line; “The only complaint I ever hear about the Veritas bevel-up planes is that the rear tote isn’t as comfortable as that on an old Stanley or new Lie-Nielsen plane.”

After reading the article I hit the link Chris had posted and sent Bill Rittner off an email asking for some pricing and what stock was available. I got the answers, and as I was busy with one thing or another at the time, I put it on my “to get” list.

Cruising eBay a few weeks ago, I ran across a listing for Veritas replacement totes. At first I thought it was some the same person and was a little taken back by the difference in prices. I was looking at a huge spread here. Comparing Chris’ article with the eBay listing, I realized the totes were by different makers. I sent the maker, Mike, an email asking a few questions and got an immediate reply that hit all the right notes.

I immediately ordered the eBay version.

It doesn't take long to see the difference between the
stock Veritas tote (left) and Mike's replacement.

Naturally, price was a major driving force in this decision, but there was more to it than that.

These line drawings quickly size up the situation between
the two totes. Mike's version (in green) has a far
better angle of attack than the stock version.

Type of wood

The tote I got from Mike was made out of Bubinga, which matches the stock knob that came with my plane (post 2003 model). I really like the knob and didn’t really want to replace it.

Bill makes his knobs and totes out of Cherry and Walnut, sold in sets. While I love these two woods, it boils down to not wanting to discard the Veritas knob. While Bill’s knobs are nice, they are not as near as beefy as the stock model, so I felt what I gained on the tote, I’d loose on the knob.

Design

The design of the tote was a major point. Mike states his totes are based on the Stanley No.5 tote design while Bill didn’t state what his was based on. When I looked at Mike’s pictures of his tote, I thought it was a Stanley replacement at first. When I looked at Bill’s, while it is far smoother and sexier than any Stanley tote has ever been or ever will be, it is a long way from the familiar design. The thing is, I like Stanley totes. They are comfortable and well balanced, but then given my reaction to the Veritas tote the first time I used it, what the hell do I know.

Mounting

One of the major deciding factors that swung me over to Mike’s tote was the way it mounts. The original Veritas tote has two mounting screws, which Mike stays true to. Bill, on the other hand, favours just using one of them. While the way Veritas mills the tote to accommodate the screws bugs the hell out of me (see the image with caption below), I have always thought the double screw was a great idea. How many old Stanley’s have you seen with the front edge of the tote torn because of that silly little hump in the casting?

Price (of course)

The ready for finishing bubinga tote I got from Mike was $16 plus shipping.

The quote I got from Bill was $40 for a finished set.

Not only did Mike stay true to Veritas' design of using two mounting
screws, he even set the counter sink for the screws' heads in
the same manner as Veritas. The fact that they are not
flush with the top surface of the tote drives me
mad, mad I tell ya!

While I haven’t held one of Bill’s examples in my hand as yet, I will say that the quality of Mike’s work is quite amazing, even at four times the 16 bucks. The lines are very crisp and the surface is ready for finishing.

I have a slowly growing pile of tool parts that I plan to French polish and that is exactly what this tote deserves.

If you are interested, you can send Mike an email using this link,
or go to his eBay Store to find his listings.

Peace,

Mitchell

The Tale of Two Planes...

2011-04-28T16:27:00.006-04:00

Ok, I'm anal. I'll admit it. I will also admit to the fact that the older I get, the more anal I become. I have come to realize that I formed some strange ideas about mechanical things over the past ten years or so. I will also have to admit that I will go to some pretty far extremes to meet those obsessions. Did I mention that I have also realized that many of these concepts I have developed are actually obsessions. No? Well they are. To name but a few, if the manufacturer made something as a set, I want the whole set, not just part of it. If things came in pairs, I won't stop until I have them both. No matter what they are, if they are mechanical, I like them all clean and shiny, and I like them to work like the day they came out of the factory, no matter how old they are. I haven't always been this weird when it comes to these things. Lord knows my old man tried to drum a toned down version of them into my stubborn brain, but only recently did the nickel dropped. The plane that has the staring role in this post is a great example of either how far I have come over the years with these things, or how far I have regressed, depending on how you look at it.

The plane up for discussion is a Stanley No.6, a Type 18. It was part of my "inheritance package" that I bought from my old man 25 years ago. There were three Type 18 planes included in the toolbox that he made his livelihood from over his career as a carpenter; a 9½ block, a No.4 and the No.6. The 9½ was cracked, so I trashed it, but the 4 and 6 were in pretty good shape. At least they were until I got ahold of them full-time.

Up until recently, if a tool's ability wasn't measured in horsepower, I wasn't interested. When I rebuilt a 40' wood boat, I had to replace about 30% of the hull's mahogany planking. You don't know love for something until you spend hours tweaking a grand worth of Honduras Mahogany so each gorgeous plank butts up nice and snug against its equally gorgeously grained sister, then, with the grain just glowing in the sunlight, you paint over it all with a thick copper based gunk so when you through the whole lot into the lake, strange, hairy things won't grow on it. It was with this No.6 that I was able to produce that "tight" hull, thereby keeping those strange, hairy things from growing on the inside of the hull as well. Once the hull was completed, though, that plane was unceremoniously dumped into a cold, damp dockbox and left to rust its way into the ugly mess you will see in the pictures that accompany this post.

When I was forced to let the horses loose and revert to hand tools, this plane was one of my mainstays in just about everything I built. All along I thought it was a No.7. I have no idea why, but I was pretty shocked to discover it was actually a No.6. One would think, with a large "No. 6" cast predominantly into the toe of the bed, I would have noticed it long ago, but like I said, it didn't have a horsepower rating. When I walked away from the power tools, this plane was the first old tool that I stripped and soaked in Evapo-Rust. Man, I scrubbed that sucker until my fingers were raw, but it still looked like hell.

While I came to love this old plane, I hated looking at it as it bugged the hell out of me. I had given it a predominate place in the toolbox and there is sat, day in and day out, taunting me, constantly forcing me to face the results of my disregard for it over the years.

Then, one day while cruising eBay for even more planes, I came across a Stanley No.7 that was reasonably old, but looked brand new. I clicked on the link to see what it was about.

In the description, the eBayer had listed what he had done to this plane:

Sole: Grind flat. This means grind only the bottom of the body. Finished, it will be pristine, with a flatness will have no more than .0022” maximum indicator reading.
Frog: Fully restore. Grind the face, re-machine the mounting points and match the offset of points to points on plane body, plus clean and rework the blade adjusting knob, thread and ‘Y’ lever, making it better than new.
Blade: Grind the sides. Machine grind the edges dead square to the faces and parallel to each other.
Blade: Removal of harsh edges and dings. This is a hand operation that rids edge corners of any sharpness left by the original manufacturer or from abusive handling. It allows the blade to seat properly on the frog face and makes for a more ‘friendly’ blade in terms of handling.
Blade: Complete grinding of both faces. This is a precision machine operation used to help restore flatness.
Blade: Grind cutting edge. The blade's primary bevel is Flat ground at 25 degrees.
Blade: Hone cutting edge. A basic honed cutting edge is applied in order to test the plane. Each restored plane must create .002 inch thick ribbons.
Chipbreaker: Optimize. This operatio closes any gaps that exist between the chipbeaker and blade. The chipbreaker is then polished to allow the chips an easier escape.
Body: Clean. This operation removes rust and grease that have accumulated over the years.
Japanning: Once the plane body is cleaned, a new coat of japanning is applied over the original.
Level Cap: Wire brush the lever cap to smooth and clean its surface.
Tote and Knob: If the tote and knob have chips, new wood is grafted, then they are stripped and recoated.

What really caught my eye was at the end, where the eBayer stated the following:

Incidentally .... I can also do restoration on your planes if they are in need of it. Email me through the Ebay “contact seller” and I can then furnish you with additional information on the service.

Now I know Chris Schwarz states, and states often, that larger planes do not need to have a dead flat sole. Chris would know better than I about this, as he is the true expert when it comes to all things to do with planes. Even as an pure, raw amateur, though, I can emphatically tell you that no plane requires engraving, but even Chris admits to being very partial to one of his that has his logo of a square engraved on each side.

Needless to say, I contacted the eBayer, sent off my No.6 and I am thrilled that I did. Next up, off goes the No.4.

If you are interested in having one of your planes rebuilt, the man to contact is Steve Nisbett of Wheaton, Illinois. You can contact him through this email address link.

So would the rebuilding of this plane make my old man happy? Nah. Oh, he would look at it with approving eyes and run his hands over the metal and new tote and knob, and then he would ask what the rebuild cost. After I answered him, he would put the plane down and gruffly inform me that if I wasn't such a a butt-head (he would have used stronger wording here) and had taken care of the plane in the first place, the cost of rebuilding it wouldn't have been necessary. As much as it hurts to say so, even now, he would be right, the grumpy old gas-passer (sorry, it was the politest way I could say it).

While I think the fun I have had with these images is obvious, in case some of you
missed it, these are compilations made from images I took before and after Steve
worked his magic on the plane. To clarify, all these images are of the same plane.

Peace,

Mitchell

Now That's Something I Would Have Done...

2011-04-25T03:47:00.003-04:00

I woke up one day with a thing for Stanley 40's. I have no idea where it came from, but I suspect it has to do with nothing more than the shape of their handles. Ever the masochist, I started collecting them individually, instead of simply looking for a good, clean set from the get-go. After assembling almost a complete set, I realized they were not matching. I then decided that the ever-so slight difference in the older version's handles was sexier, so off I went in search of examples with four patent dates. I have one or two left to find, but after four or five years of searching, I'm pretty happy with what I have accomplished.

In truth, though, I have actually over accomplished with this particular collection. I will admit to being a real sucker for these chisels and I will buy up any and all that appear to be a decent length. To ever remind me of this obsession, I have a drawer full of the damned things, many of which I plan to sell in the near future. I doubt getting rid of many will stop me from buying more, though, as my plan of attack now is to complete the set, but times two; one good set for easy chiselling, and one "beater" set.

During one of my many searches through eBay, I came across a 40 that looked like it could have come out of my old man's toolbox. This poor old thing took a real wailing from someone, and I would lay odds it was probably a little schmuck of a kid who probably even looked like me. I felt so sorry for this thing, I bought it for about 25 bucks more than it was worth, which means I paid $20 for it.

It has sat in the drawer for a while now, but this weekend I decided to bring the sad little thing back to life. That rotten little kid had nailed this thing to death, wailing on it so bad that the cap was flattened and mushroomed over the leather washer. While driving the cap down, the wood handle could do nothing but follow suit and eventually the kid had it mushroomed over the shank so badly, it had no choice but to split.

I straightened out the opening as best I could with a chisel, then cut a wedge from some scrap ash, running it over a sheet of sandpaper until I got it to fit as snugly as I could. I filled the gap with glue and hammered the wedge in as far as it would go.

I let it sit for 24 hours, then chiseled away the waste. I couldn't figure out how to bring the handle back into line any other way but to chisel and sand away the mushroomed areas, both at the cap and at the shank. I reshaped the handle to as close to original as I could get it. I then filed the cap down smooth on the sides and revealed as much of the leather as dared. I then gave it eight or nine coats of shellac, rubbing it down with fine steel wool between coats and then four or five coats of Min-Wax Finishing Wax, each coat rubbed in with extra-fine steel wool.

The patch is not a perfect match, but then I don't want it to be. Having been wailed on is part of its history now, and that light wedge-shaped patch will put a smile on my face every time I look at it. It is nice to know I wasn't the first rotten little bugger the world has seen, and I doubt I'll be the last.

Here is the end result above an untouched example so the handles can be compared.

I know I didn't put any value back into this chisel, but I think I gave it back a little of its beauty.

Peace,

Mitchell

An Offer You Can't Refuse...Ok, Maybe You Can...

2011-04-23T17:45:00.011-04:00

I'm going to try and bring myself to sell off a few tools I have that are either duplicates, unwanted or unloved. Let me stress, I am not going into the old tool business, but instead, just swapping out some unwanted tools for cash to contribute towards buying some more tools that I do want.

I figured if I was going to do this, I'd give you folks a shot at it first. The following is the listing I came up with to post with the item on eBay. I'll leave it posted here for a few days and if it doesn't sell, I'll move it over to eBay.

This Jointer Fence has been sold.

Thank you for your interest.

I am NOT taking bids on this item.

The first one that emails me saying they want it - get it.

The price listed here is the same as the opening bid if the item is moved over to eBay.

All of the details regarding the item, payment and shipping are listed below.

Once you go through the listing you may have one question, so I'll answer it here before you ask it...

Yes, I have found that eBay descriptions that are long-winded attempts at humour get more hits and higher bids than the short, blunt, in-your-face, take-it-or-leave-it style that is the usual for the "hide-behind-the-monitor" sellers common to eBay these days.

VERITAS JOINTER FENCE – USED, IN EXCELLENT CONDITION

The selling price for this item is $17.50 plus shipping

This auction listing is for a Veritas Jointer Fence and is probably the longest description ever used for a simple piece of aluminum extrusion and a couple of magnets.

Rather than mumbling on about what this amazing little item is all about, I will quote Lee Valley…

Planing a square edge on a board requires a jointer fence, whether you are using an electric jointer or a hand plane.

The Veritas® jointer fence allows you to shoot accurate and consistent square or bevelled edges with most iron or steel bench planes. The integral rare-earth magnets make it quick and easy to attach or remove the 11" long anodized aluminum fence from either side of all sizes of bench planes, from a smooth plane (#4) to a jointer (#8).

As supplied, the 2" tall guiding face can be used to plane edges perfectly square to the face of your workpiece. It can also be used to shoot angles less than 90° when a bevelled wooden guide is attached to the inside face of the fence.

Lee Valley added an exclusion regarding this fence, stating it does not mount to the Veritas bevel-up jointer and smoother planes (see the list of planes I have used it on below).

This particular listed item is used and does have some small nicks and dings, although none major or glaring. Make sure you have a close look at the photos so you know what you are getting. The reason it does have those nicks and dings is because the darned thing actually works. Because of that, it was actually used.

The rare earth magnets still hold with the same strength as the day it was purchased.

I used this fence often, shooting pine, oak and walnut, to name a few. I shot square and beveled with it and found it was excellent at doing what Veritas designed and produced it to do.

I have used this fence attached to a 15” Veritas Low-Angle Jack Plane, a Stanley No.6 and a Stanley No.8. It worked very well on all of them.

My wife bought me a Stanley No.386 as a gift. This Veritas is less hassle than the 386, but if you are married, you will understand why I am selling it.

The listed Canadian price for this fence on the Lee Valley website is $44.50.

Payment:

I only accept payment through PayPal.

Payment is expected within three days of emailing me to tell me you want it. The dog ate my wallet is no excuse for being tardy.

Shipping:

I ship only by mail and charge only what the Post Office asks for.

I ship worldwide.

All shipments mailed using "Expedited Parcel", a trackable service that includes up to $100 in insurance.

Item weighs 10.5 ounces (plus packaging)

Shipping Time-Frame:

The fence is shipped the following working day after receiving payment.

Returns:

If the fence I send you is not the fence displayed in the listing’s photographs, I’ll refund your purchase price. Other than that, there isn’t any return on this item.

Contact:
If you wish to purchase this fence, please click here and let me know by email.

Peace,

Mitchell

Tried To Get My Feet Wet And Drowned...

2011-04-12T10:44:00.002-04:00

I recently tried to run with the big boys. Scary stuff!

If you cruise the web looking for information on vintage tools you have probably come across David Stanley Auctions. It is probably one of the premiere auction sites for vintage tools out there. The tools they consign for auction are notably far and above the average. Their recent auction included both private and museum collections which meant some pretty amazing stuff. I got hooked on this company and signed up for a years worth of their catalogues.

Their last auction was held on March 26th and on the 24th I received their catalogue in the mail. Thinking, "In for a penny, in for a pound" (little did I know), I figured I would give them a go. Not knowing how all this worked, I picked three lesser valued items to start; a 5" Brass Protractor, a Marples 15" Square and a Pair of Dowel Rounders.

The Protractor was listed as, "A 5" combination brass protractor and scale rule G++ (30-50)". The image supplied in both their printed and online catalogues showed a nice looking example so I listed my maximum bid on their Absentee Bidding Form as 50₤. It sold for 60₤.

The Square was listed as, "A 15" brass faced rosewood handled try square by Marples with bench stop G+ (15-25)". Knowing that their grading system was as high or higher than those The Best Things uses, I felt confident placing a bid for it at 30₤. It sold for 32₤.

Finally, the Dowel Rounders were listed as, "A pair of handled beech dowel rounders G++ (30-50)". I placed a top bid of 50₤, which is exactly what they sold for.

Here is what my single winning bid got me...

They are really a nice pair of cutters which look as though they didn't cut very many dowels over their lifetime. They are stamped with a previous owners name, "J. Harvey". They also have size stampings; one stamped "8" (¾") and the other "9" (1"). The "MES Howarth, Warrant Cast Steel, Sheffield" blades are probably very close to their original length, based on the very little amount of play below the mounting screws when the blade is set. As a result of all of this, I have no complaints about the tools purchased.

Now lets have a look-see what these tools actually cost me.

The invoice I received had the listed lot and selling price of 50₤.

There was then the "Premium", which I expected, of 7.50₤

Following this was a Credit Card charge of 1.98₤. I didn't see this one coming.

Then the shipping charges were added, the 17.58₤ charge being one thing, but added to that is a VAT charge of 3.52₤.

Insurance was additional, which was 0.50₤, and again the VAT charge reared its ugly head to ding me for another 0.10₤.

Now I'm not blaming David Stanley Auctions in any way for these charges. Other than the Credit Card charge, I was well aware of them before placing my bids. In actual fact, David Stanley Auctions didn't charge me the 3₤ handling charge they were supposed to, according to their literature, so they treated me more than fair.

All told, though, my 50₤ ($78.50 CAN) bid for these two Dowel Cutters ended up costing me 81.18₤ ($128.00 CAN), which means landing the tools on my desk cost more than 60% of their purchase price.

I should have expected this. When I was in London, England a few years ago, my first purchase was from a chip vendor on the street, and was just a can of Coke. When he asked me for 5₤, I didn't think twice, and just handed it to him. As I popped the tab on that can walking away, though, it hit me that I was about to drink an $11 can of pop.

England. You have to love it, but I guess only the big boys can afford to live there.

Peace,

Mitchell

As an aside, I will mention that while David Stanley Auctions is a spectacular company that deals in better than the best in vintage wares, they are a tad lacking when it comes to communications. Two emails that I have sent them asking for clarifications have been left hanging. As an international company dealing on the Internet, I was quite surprised at this revelation.

The Tools of the Trade Show...

2011-04-03T22:43:00.006-04:00

The Tools of the Trade Show took place today in Pickering, Ontario. This is one of the very few vintage tool shows that happen in Canada, so few in fact, the promoters are able to run it twice a year; a spring show in April and a fall show in October.

In the past two years I have found that the dealers had more tools on their tables than there were potential customers to buy them. This year I felt this ratio was in reverse. I think some of the dealers were gun-shy, so they cut back on their inventories and displayed less. As a sign the economy is possibly turning around, I think the buying numbers swelled this year but faced a lesser number of choices. It is possible that I also overheard more haggling over price this year than I have heard in the recent past. As an example of this, I returned to one dealer to talk price about a plane I saw about 75 minutes previous only to find that the plane gone, along with about 90% of the rest of his inventory. I mentioned that it looked like he did quite well that morning and he answered that he thought his customers made out much better than he did. Signs that displayed, "Prices are negotiable" were commonplace.

Doug Orr, the writer of all things vintage in the Lee Valley Tools' Newsletters, had his booth up and running, crammed full of wood moulding planes (sadly, no H.E. Mitchell's) and other tools of quality. We discussed a beautiful, but unmarked, ¾" steel shoulder plane with what I think was a walnut infill that I picked up off his table. This thing was amazingly built with a price of $155. He told me that it had an $85 blade in it, which barely poked out of the finest mouth I have ever seen on any plane. The mouth was so fine in fact, that I reluctantly put it back on the table. Looking at the mouth of that plane, I knew that with my limited plane abilities at this point, I was looking at buying $155 worth of pure frustration. Maybe one day, when my skills with these things improve, I won't be so quick to put things down that intimidate me, but today wasn't that day.

Doug Orr's booth is always loaded with crates of
wood moulding planes in every profile imaginable.

Doug also has a number of feature planes and other tools
displayed across his shelves and tables. They are easier
to see, but you really feel like you "scored" when you
find a needed one while routing through the bins.

As with every show, Martin J. Donnelly Tool Auctions was front and centre. Personally, I really appreciate this company being present as it gives this show the vintage tool trades "Stamp of Approval". Too often we Canadians are treated as distant relatives by our American cousin's, and it is good to see we are worthy of Martin making the long drive up here (do you hear that you eBayers that won't ship to Canada). While here, Martin also takes on the job as speaker at the meeting held before the show by The Tool Group of Canada. Maybe there is enough of us up here to convince companies like Jim Bode Tools to share the driving chores with Martin in the fall.

I also got to hold my first Stanley No.1 Bench Plane this morning, which was quite an event, I can assure you. I saw this little plane sitting on a rack in Dave (ToolRush) Carriere's big booth. The bed was unmarked, the lever-cap was smooth with the key-hole mount, the blade had the Victory Stanley logo and the adjustment wheel was the older solid-filled style. I thought it might have been a miniature model of a No.4 or a salesman's sample, so I held it up and asked Dave what it was. When he answered, "Stanley No.1; $1300", it blew me away. I had read a number of articles on this plane and had pretty much decided I would never own one because of its size. Being able to hold an almost perfect example of one in the palm of my hand this morning, I thought to myself, "Yup. Mitchell, you will never own one of these things". Its cute, I'll give it that, but if the only way you can describe something like this is to use the word, "cute", it ain't no tool I want to own. Even though I had confirmed my suspicions about this plane, the whole experience did leave me feeling a little foolish. Some tool collector, eh? I didn't even recognize the infamous Stanley No.1.

This Stanley No. 1 caught my eye, big time,

mainly because I couldn't figure out what

the hell it was.

Dave (ToolRush) Carriere's booth displays
a smorgasbord of woodworking delights.

As if the Stanley No.1 introduction didn't make me feel foolish enough, I had to add to it at the Sauer & Steiner Toolworks booth. This world renowned plane making firm is also present at every one of the Tools of the Trade shows. Each time I passed them my eye was drawn to a mitre plane they had on display, one that appeared to be about 10" in length by about 2¼" in width. Finally, during the forth go-round I stopped to have a look. I have been thinking for over a year now of making a dedicated shoot board plane, but first I have to finish the actual shooting board. I slapped together a temporary shoot to use while I was still playing with the final one's design and use my Veritas 15" Low-Angle Jack Plane with it. I love this plane but it is just too damned light to use for shooting. What I want is a hernia-inducing slug of metal that won't deflect off the end grain like the Veritas does. When I picked up this Sauer & Steiner, it immediately just felt right for the job. I had been all over this company's website a few times and have read much about their products, which are beautifully built, by the way, so I already had a rough idea what the cost of the plane was, but hoping a miracle had happened and the prices had fallen, I asked. I don't know if it was monsieur Sauer or monsieur Steiner that answered, but whichever it was, the answer was, "About 5". That answer didn't register with the number I had in my head for some reason, and I blurted out, "Hundred?" Either not wanting to embarrass me further, or not wanting to telegraph it throughout the hall, the conveyor of the information mouthed the word, "Thousand", as he smiled and shook his head. The thing is, I was thinking $6k when I walked up to the table, but still ended up walking away red-faced and embarrassed. I can get myself into these predicaments, I tell ya.

So what did I end up carrying home after four hours of frenzy feeding on vintage tool delights?

I arrived at the show looking for three specific items and walked out with one of them. I went in looking for the bullnose attachment for my Stanley No.72 Chamfer, a Stanley No.20 square, something longer than 16", and, of course, any tool stamped "H.E. Mitchell". I left with the square.

Long Stanley No.20 squares are a rarity, indeed. Not only did I find a long one, I found the longest one made. Not only that, I found it at an excellent price. While they rarely show up, the few that I have seen for sale have sold for anywhere from $95 on eBay for a very poor example, to $165 on a dealers' online store for a good example. I picked up this one for $75 and I think it may clean up quite nicely.

I came home with this 20" Stanley No.20 with the arm hanger still
attached, all for a cool seventy-five bucks. The image has the blade
looking waved, but that is a result of lighting and dirt, The blade
is actually dead-straight.

The Tools of the Trade Show may not be near the size and depth of some of the larger American and British versions, but for our little corner of the world, it is a little bit of tool heaven.

Peace,

Mitchell

While I am sure not many of you are asking yourselves, "why does Canada have such limited (and hidden) vintage tool sources?", I will answer it anyway.
Canada basically, when it comes to retailers with narrow and shallow inventories...sucks.
Here are some stats for you to consider...
Population
United States - 311 million (ranks 3rd)
Canada - 34.4 million (ranks 36th)
Land Mass
Canada - 3.86 million square miles
United States - 3.7 million square miles
Population Density
United States - 31.6 people per square mile
Canada - 3.3 people per square mile
Building an average 50-mile stretch of highway in Canada and the United States...
Average cost per mile - $500,000
50-mile stretch - $25 million to complete
Density along one mile of highway
United States - 316 people
Canada - 33 people

While developing a profitable retail business is more difficult in Canada than it is in the United States, we do have more and larger natural spaces for us to go to and lick our wounds after the bailiff has done his job and we have more time on our hands :o)
All values taken from results of Internet searches and may or may not be accurate.

When the Words, "Holy Crap" Don't Cover It...

2011-03-29T16:40:00.004-04:00

Every so often you come across somebody's work that just blows your mind. This is one of them; Aaron Radelow's site features his furniture and marquetry skills that are far and above the norm. Simply put, his work is bloody amazing.

Arron's re-creation of the 350 year old table made by Pierre Gole for
King Louis XIV's mistress. The original is currently displayed at
the J. Paul Getty museum in Los Angeles.

Peace,

Mitchell

2011-03-17T14:37:00.002-04:00

What Do The Others Have Mitchell Doesn't...

2011-03-16T13:42:00.010-04:00

I received an email from eBay a couple of weeks ago informing me that there was a new “Mitchell” listed. As I get these about once a week, I really didn’t get too excited as these searches have never produced the Mitchell I want. This one, however, turned out to be different.

When I opened the email there was a smoothing plane staring me in the face. The written description stated, “This a nice wood planer. On the top and side of the planer block is stamped "W.SUTER". It also has "H.E. MITCHELL 4 NORTH ROAD BRIGHTON" with a Lion trademark. The wood planer is 71/2'' long and in good condition.”

It had been listed the night before and had a long week to run, so I emailed the seller, bluehitch, and asked if he had a “Buy-It-Now”. He was great to deal with; honest, straightforward and pleasant. We ended up striking a deal and he shipped it out in record time.

So here it is…

Here’s the thing. I’m a neophyte when it comes to stuff like this and really don’t have a clue. Take away my books and I wouldn’t know a jack from a jointer.

I do know this is one of Mitchell’s later planes as it is stamped with his lion logo. I calculate he started using this logo around 1885 to 1890, using it for ten or fifteen years before he converted his business into an incorporated iron monger making products for stores and offices.

It has a 2” wide Ward & Payne Cast Steel blade that is 6 1/8” long. I know nothing about Ward blades except what I read in Goodman’s. I am saying this is a Ward & Payne as it has the crossed hammers, the W. and P. initials and the anvil stamp. It has a smaller anvil roughly stamped above the marker’s stamp as well. Goodman puts this blade between 1860 an 1900. It also has a nameless thick, heavy chipper.

This plane also has something I am definitely not sure about. On the sole, in front of the mouth is a honking piece of brass. I can’t figure out if Mitchell put it there, or if someone resuscitated the plane later in its life. The plate is 1/8” thick, wedge shaped, with dimensions of 2 ½” wide by 1 ½” deep.

While it is not badly done, it isn’t centered to the sole. Other than that, I can’t find any clue when it was fitted. The throat, if modified later in life, doesn’t give it away. The rear-facing angle looks original, and when it gets within a ½” of the mouth, it drops straight down so you see about a ½” of the brass plate. I have a feeling it is original to the maker, but even I would trust my opinion, so why should you?

It is 7 ½” long and 2 ¾” wide at the mouth. It has a few areas that have some issues which I haven't figured out what to do with yet, so all I have done so far is give it a quick rubdown with wax and steel wool.

I have rattled on about H.E. Mitchell tools for a few years now and I still can’t figure out what is up with his stuff. They are as rare as hell, yet they don’t fetch a dime more than average, if that. It is not like ol' Henry ran an assembly line producing these things. This plane brings my total collection of his planes to 10; a plow, a smoother, a pair of sashes (sizes 1 and 2) and a set of six beaders. They all seem to work well, feel right, are solid, not warped, hold a blade and everything about them seems to me to be complete and tight. In other words, from the perspective of a guy who, until recently, thought planes weren't worth a damn unless they came with a full horse motor, ol’ Henry produced some fairly well made products.

This, of course, brings to mind the question; why is it that I seem to be the only guy in the world who collects this maker’s work?

Peace,

Mitchell

Trouble Coping…

2011-03-10T12:23:00.002-05:00

In my quest to cut a better dovetail, I have started to focus on each aspect of the process to determine where I can improve, looking at both my performance with each, as well as the tool’s.

The one area that I see problems with is the cutting away of the waste. I have accepted the common suggestion that I use a coping saw to remove it, but the problem I have encountered is finding the proper saw.

Originally, I became enamored with a specific style of coping or fret saw that started when my wife bought one for me at the Christie Antique Show about five years ago. I found the design irresistible and to say I have picked up a few more of that same design would be an understatement.

They are nice saws. They all hold their blade relatively taunt, and all have frames that have limited flex under stress. What none of them do, however, is allow for blade rotation. This means they are great for some projects, but not for cutting away dovetail waste in a wider board.

I then dug out the coping saw I have shuffled along with me for who knows how many years now. It is marked, “Great Neck No. 28”, and I probably bought it in the late 70’s, but I doubt I used it since completing the project I bought it for way back then. It allows the blade to be rotated 180˚, although not necessarily at an even rotation for both mounts. The frame, however, is quite stiff. Using it, because of the inability to fix the angle at either mount, I discovered the blade was twisting like crazy.

So the search was on for the perfect coping saw…ha! Good luck with that one. The reality is, if Chris Schwarz can’t find one, who can? He has been writing about his coping saw adventures for years.

His latest post on this subject is one where he road tests the new Knew Concepts Aluminum 5” Fret Saw. Putting my aversion to all things new aside, I went into his article with an open mind. Nice saw, but…

It isn’t the most attractive thing I have ever seen, but between the clamping mechanism and the stiff aluminum frame, I think it may be a winner. I’m still debating buying one as the thing is $95, which would mean about $130 landed here in Canada. It also limits the blade rotation to 45˚ in either direction. While this is better than the zero rotation my favorite saws provide, and the sloppy 180˚ rotation my hardware store special has, it is not the ideal rotation I would like, which would be 90˚. I also have a true dislike of all things red, and this saw is definitely that.

Figuring if I’m in for a nickel, I might as well be in for a pound, why not make my own.

Being a complete novice at this, I did my usual research and decided that the tried and true bow saw style of frame made the most sense. Because I have never even held one, let alone used one, I have no idea how they work or feel, but their design just makes sense to me.

The big attraction to me is the double handles, as I believe they would facilitate cutting the waste away with a draw stroke, and then flipping the saw over and removing the little wing left with push strokes. What I don’t like is the traditional tensioning cord. To me, it looks like a fisherman’s nightmare when it comes time to change a blade, so I figured I would replace it on whatever I built with either a turnbuckle or a simple threaded rod.

As I had no focus whatsoever as yet on the clamping mechanism, I disassembled the Great Neck saw and scooped its parts. I also wasn’t going to spend any time creating the frame either, because this exercise was simply to find out if the basic design principle would work, so I used some Eco-Dowels I already had. Because I didn’t know if a turnbuckle or wing nuts at either end of a threaded rod would be best, a trip to Home Depot resulted in coming up with the parts that would allow me to test both within one set-up. The result of all of this isn’t going to win any beauty awards, but it did give me a huge amount of feedback regarding my thoughts on the subject.

While crude and seriously ugly, this thing really works. It offers some serious control while allowing for quick cutting. It is light and reasonably robust. I was afraid that it would be top-heavy and therefore, prone to flopping from side to side but using it, I didn’t find that at all. The turnbuckle is out and the threading rod is in, but I do have to figure out a way to capture one end of it to speed up the tightening. It also definitely needs a second handle, but I am not too sure the traditional style of them is the one to go with.

So “Prototype Saw One” is a winner and it is time to start the fine-tuning.

Peace,

Mitchell

It Only Took 52 Years...

2011-02-21T16:07:00.004-05:00

The image posted here shows my humble little sharpening setup.

When an old chisel or plane blade shows up in the mail, I get out a couple of Lee Valley Diamond Stones; one 220x, and the other 650x. I bought these because some of these old blades can eat through a fortune of 120-180x wet/dry sandpaper in a real hurry. I have no idea how they would hold up under normal use, but for my limited sharpening needs, they are the energizer bunny and will probably pay for themselves eventually. A $16.50 option is a plastic stand to hold the stone. It accomplishes a pretty mean feat as it weighs nothing, yet it seems to keep the stones fixed in one spot and as a result, there is very little chasing of the stone around the table.

Even though I cheaped out and bought the short 6" ones, there is enough surface to use my Veritas Mark II Honing Guide. I love this thing. Of all the mechanical honing guides out there, this one wins hands-down, if only for its registering and repeatability. I even purchased the Camber Roller Assembly for it so I can sharpen my No.5 blade. Cool Tool...the Guide, not the No.5.

Once I have whatever I'm sharpening flattened on the Diamond Stones, its on to wet/dry paper water-stuck to a slab of granite. Once you get past 400x, the paper seems to last forever. While the 650x Diamond Stone removes metal fairly quickly, its major drawback is the inconsistent scratches it leaves behind. Reverting back to 400x or 600x emery, depending on how bad it is, will even things out. I then take the edge through 800x, 1000x, 1200x and finally, 1600x, going through these grits on both the angle, and the back. Cutting wet/dry sheets in half gives me enough room to take the Mark II for a cruise.

The big finish is the stropping, and I have two 4" x 5" strop leathers glued to a hunk of 1" by 6" poplar. By butting two together, there is lots of room to run the Mark II on one while the blade gets polished on the other, meaning I don't need to hit the joint between them. I use Veritas' Honing Compound, mainly because it works, but also because I don't know any differently. It is on the strop that I create the micro-bevels as well, which on the Mark II, involves turning the offset dial 180°.

So that is my little metal polishing heaven, at least until I dump the lot in the closet where it will sit until next time. Big deal, eh?

Thankfully, discussing sharpening isn't what this post is about. It is actually about that old Stanley Block Plane that sits centre-stage of the above image. This is the first tool I have taken photos of that has caused me to be thankful I have switched to displaying only black and white images on this blog. It is one butt-assed-ugly plane.

I think this plane is a Stanley No.220, but I'm not sure as it is the stripped down model. It was purchased in 1959. It came with no real support for the blade, so it chatters just looking at the wood, the mouth is fixed and there is no lateral adjustment for the blade. The cap is held down by a thumbscrew and the plane is void of Stanley's "Hand-y" grips. The only gizmo it has on it is what Stanley calls their "adjustable endwise" feature. It is about as basic as any block plane can be, which makes it an unattractive plane to begin with, but then a Stanley "Design-By-Committee" ruled it could be worse, so they had it painted with the ugliest colour of maroon they could find. I don't even know why they call it maroon as it has so much blue in it.

So if I think this little block plane is so bad, what's with the post about it? Well let me tell you...

This is the last remaining tool from a toolbox complete with assorted tools that my old man gave me for Christmas in 1959. This past Saturday was also a big day for this plane because after 52 years, it has finally been brought up to snuff. On top of those two humdingers is the fact that the very next time I use this plane, it will also be the very first time I have really used it.

So let me tell you about this Christmas present...

Each tool was individually wrapped and it just blew me away as my sister passed me present after present to unwrap. When I finally got them all unwrapped, my new tool collection ran from an awl to a tri-square. In-between there was a hammer, a nail set, a pair of pliers, an apron, two screwdrivers, the smallest panel saw you ever saw(ed), a 10" level, an 8' tape measure and the forever ugly; maroon-coloured block. Each and every piece was manufactured by Stanley Tools as those tools were the only ones my father would look at. The pièce de résistance, however, was a beautiful toolbox hand-made by my old man, painted bright orange and decorated with "Billy Mitchell" hand-painted on both ends. My God, that was a beautiful piece of work made even more special in the eye of an nine year old kid.

Sadly, none of it survived except for this one plane.

The first issue was the beautiful toolbox. While the old man did a gorgeous job of it, he forgot who he was designing it for. I think he actually designed it for himself, although he never used it. I do know that he wasn't thinking of a nine-year-old boy when he did come up with the cut list. When I first put those twelve tools in it, the box had such monstrous proportions, they all but disappeared. There was also the fact that I could barely lift the thing, let alone move it around.

The tools also came sans any lessons in using them. I didn't have a clue, and while I worked with the old man often after receiving them, it was always on his power tools and with his extremely high level of ability with those, there was rarely a need for hand tool work. The result was that I never learned how to use them.

As I became a teenager, my old man and I fell out of favour with each other. I'll never know what happened to the toolbox and other tools and in fact, I don't want to know. Most of the toys and things I accumulated as a kid were handed on to my sister's kids, without even an "as-you-please" from my old man to me, so if one of them does have that toolbox, enjoy it. Just don't tell me about it.

I did get this plane in the load of tools I ended up buying from the old man and I have just kept it, but never used it, mainly because I never knew how until lately. When I did start to understand the ins and outs of planing by hand, thanks mainly to Christopher Schwarz, I sharpened up the blade on this thing and took it for a test ride. What a dismal failure. The blade chattered like crazy, it would barely cut and if felt like a piece of poo in my hand. I put it back on the shelf and just let it be a dust collector.

Saturday morning, as I was heading off to Lee Valley, for some reason I picked it up and dropped it in my bag. When I got to the store, I brought it out and asked this great old guy who works there assisting the customers what blade I should get for it. I made sure his suggestion fit and brought it home. It is the 1 5/8" Veritas Blade made specifically for Stanley planes, made of A2 steel and is twice as thick as the original blade, which I have put away for now.

When I got home, I ran the new blade through the sharpening regiment and then ran it across a hunk of oak. My goodness, what a difference 30 bucks can make. The thing cut through that oak like butter without even a hint of chatter. Because of the quality of these Veritas blades, this old lump is now a very usable tool and is ready for future work, despite its lack of bling.

It did, however, take me 52 years to get my act together with it, but like my old man said when we reconciled, its better late than never.

Peace,

Mitchell

Isn't "Insurance" Really a Four Letter Word...

2011-02-19T13:10:00.005-05:00

How do most of you handle insurance on your tools?

My insurance agent suddenly wants to see pictures and descriptions of all the tools I am insuring under my home policy. Having never run into this before, the request struck me as a tad odd, but then again, I am talking insurance.

My experience with insurance can be summed up in that "good hands" logo. As soon as I have a need for them, those two hands do nothing but start clapping, and they don't put down my stuff before they do.

It is not that I haven't thought of this list of tools before this came up, though.

A few years ago I started to catalogue my tools for future reference. It is a great idea, but not something I can get too fanatical about. Ok. I'll admit it. I haven't looked at the damned thing in over a year. The main reason for this is that it started out as a great idea but ended up just being a hell of a lot of work, as does most of my "Eureka Moments". I did get about 80 or 90 tools listed before I ran out of steam, and to explain why the music died for me with this, every entry I did in this "dream" catalogue includes the following:

The name of the tool
The manufacturer of the tool
The date it was manufactured
What the tool was used for
A quick description of how to use it
A list of articles, books and digital media that I own that relate to the tool
What I paid for it
When I bought it
An estimated replacement value at the time of cataloguing

So now you know why I haven't kept it up. I must have been either drunk of bored when I came up with this idea.

That admitted, I still have about 25% of my tools already included in this catalogue, but to finish it for the insurance agent, it would take me a solid two or three months. That's nuts.

There is absolutely no reason for posting these images of my No.2 Type 7 other than the fact that I was up most of the night creating them. After a full eight hours work, this is the only tool that got added to the list.

I think it might be time to find a new agent. What do you guys think?

Peace,

Mitchell

Look Maw, No Hands...

2011-02-09T14:38:00.001-05:00

So I took everyone’s advice and dumped the guide block while cutting dovetails. I now know how Linus would feel if someone took away his blanket.

Here are some of the suggestions I received...

Trust your scribe line – Mike Siemsen

It is amazing how that chisel’s edge grabs that thin, little scribe line. It was just like Mike Siemsen said, “It will lock in there like a screwdriver in a slot“. Mike is the principal behind Mike Siemsen’s School of Woodworking, so I guess, if I am going to listen to advice, I might was well listen to the best. One of these days life is going to get out of my way so I can get down to Minneapolis/St. Paul and take a course or two from him.

Mark with a knife and have patience – Mark Salomon (Anonymous??)

Mark reminded me that learning to produce dovetails efficiently takes time. He is right; Rome wasn’t built in a day. I would like to point out to him, though, that it didn’t burn very quickly, either. The real deal though, was suggesting that I stop using a pencil for the pins and use a knife instead. I have been doing it with the scribe line, cutting it, and then following up with a pencil so I can see it better. Why haven’t I been doing the same with the pin lines?

Practice – David Cockey

Like the others, but more to the point, David just suggested I practice more, as the more I do, the more confidence I will have.

Stick on a piece of sandpaper – Anonymous

Mr. Anonymous had a great suggestion for using a guide board, quoting James Krenov’s tip of gluing a strip of sandpaper onto the bottom of the guide board to help keep it in place

I would also like to thank the few guys who emailed me their favorite articles and links to their favorite online videos on the subject. They gave me some unique insights into mastering this procedure, even though they have kept me up half the nights since going through them all.

I tried it

So as the image above attests, I did cut four sets of dovetails without using a guide board, as well as taking the other advice given to heart. The results were reasonably better than the last session’s, but not as good as they will be at the end of the next one, I’m sure.

I had a small issue

Here’s the thing, though. I am afraid that the next session of cutting dovetails will have to be accomplished using the guide block again. Its not that I do not see the benefit of dumping it as that point in your suggestions made real sense to me. The problem is, the eyesight thing got in the way. When you have zero vision in one eye and a limited depth of focus with some serious loss of peripheral vision in the other, your depth perception gets really wonky. So wonky, in fact, that you can’t tell if a chisel is standing square to the board, or actually bent to the southwest. Lord knows I tried, but it ain’t in me, so if I am going to beat this thing and turn out some respectable dovetails, I’m going to have to cheat a bit.

With some adjustments

Thinking things through, I think I might have it by combining some of the other advice you guys gave me with what needs to be done to beat this limitation. I think the way to work this is to score a stronger scribe line, maybe by following it up with a second cut with a little thicker knife blade and straight-edge. With careful placement of the guide block, making sure it is on the board-side of the scribe, the block won’t end up blocking the chisel’s access to it, so it can be used to “lock in there like a screwdriver in a slot”. That way, the guide block can just be used as a quick and accurate register for square and the scribe line does the work it is supposed to do – position the chisel for the cut.

We will see how revamping your suggestions to fit the bill will work the next time, but I do have to state that I truly appreciate your help with this issue. You guys blew me away with your quick and helpful responses. I hope that when the next issue rears its ugly head, you will take the time again to be as helpful to me with it as you were with this one.

Oh, ya, I still don’t like using a mallet. Too noisy.

Peace,

Mitchell

Getting Er' Done One Piece At A Time...

2011-02-03T23:16:00.003-05:00

I now have both sides and one shelf pretty much completed on my wife’s plant shelving unit. An expanded course load is keeping me busier than usual this term writing a lot of new curriculum. I am trying to take a few hours out every other day to get this project done, though.

As I work in a next-to-nothing area, it requires some out-of–the-box thinking. Because this particular project is so large, being able to build, assemble and finish it in my shop is out of the question. My shop is my office when it is not being used as a shop and vise versa. Having a project as large as this sitting in the middle of it would kill both uses of the room. I could assemble it and finish it in the diningroom, but I tend to shy away from actions that cause my wife to come down on me heavily, figuratively speaking, of course. I had a friend once whose wife came home to discover he had piled all her furniture at one end of the diningroom and was using the space to build a new dingy. Now that I think of it, I haven’t seen him since they divorced.

With this project, I plan to build and finish each part of it as I go, each piece getting stained and given a few coats of clearcoat before moving on to the next. When everything is ready for the final assembly, I’ll sand each piece down so once it is assembled, it will be ready for more finish coats. This shelf is the first to be completed using this new system.

It is a rather strange looking thing, isn’t it? There is a reason for this design, however. The wide frame below the shelf is there for three reasons. This shelving unit is to hold a bunch of potted plants and nothing weighs more, I think, than a bunch of large bowls of dirt with green things sticking out of them. The tall frame should support the weight. Each shelf gets its own grow light; a 4’ Fluorescent tube. The light’s fixture is mounted on the back of each shelf’s face-frame and hopefully it is wide enough to hide the ugly buggers. Finally, to get as much light as possible on the plants, only the enclosed storage cupboards, which is 18” high at the bottom of the unit, will get a solid back. This means there is a chance the whole thing will rack, so I am hoping these wide shelf frames will limit that. So there is a method to my madness.

The frames are dovetailed together, getting all that long grain to mesh with more long grain for a strong joint. The shelf flat is only glued to its frame rails in the centre 2’ of the width. I drilled three pocket holes, elongating them fore to aft, 10” in from the ends and one in the centre, using brass screws to do the deed. I hope this will not only be enough to hold the shelf in place, but accommodate wood movement when the thing shrinks and swells during the seasons, or my wife spills water on it. Hopefully, it won’t pull itself apart.

I am not a big fan of oak and one of my greater dislikes of it is the fact that the soft grain areas shrink so they are always lower than the hard grain. I researched a way to deal with this and came up with a flooring product, believe it or not. The stuff is called “TimberMate”, and I found it better than any grain filler I have used before. It comes quite thick, almost hard actually, but you can thin it up with water. You can thin it enough to apply with a rag or spread it on with a plastic or stainless steel trowel or paint scraper. Regular metal will cause this stuff to oxidize and turn black, but if it does, the black soon disappears when you sand. It comes toned to match a number of popular woods and you can even tint it if required. It has turned out to be just the ticket.

I started out using it to go after only the really noticeable areas. It dried in short order but I gave it 24 hours each time. It sands very easily, making dust that is very similar to baby powder. As the wood is red oak, I used their matching product and was quite uneasy with it the first go-round as it looked like it is going to stand out like no-body’s business. Once I sanded it, though, I quickly realized that the product is removed from the high points, which is the hard grain, and left in the low, which is the soft grain, and it is a perfect match in colour to those areas. Because I couldn’t tell which parts were filled and which weren’t, I went crazy with it. At 20 bucks an 8-ounce bottle, I think I’ll use it more sparingly on the next one.

Once sanded and cleaned, I taped off some of areas. I covered the ends with masking tape to ensure that no stain or clearcoat ended up on them to compromise the strength of the glue when the piece is assembled. Because of the lights inside it, I wanted to coat the bottom of the shelves with a highly reflective coating so I covered the inside horizontal surface as well for that same reason.

Once set, I gave it a coat of stain, brushed on, ragged off. I used “Old Masters” Gel Stain for this, mixing their Red Mahogany and Provincial colours together 50/50. It is the first time I used this thicker gel stain and I really liked it. It was much easier to apply and clean off than the old, runny style of yore.

I gave it 24 hours to dry and then gave it two coats of Clear Varathane with another 24 hours between those coats. This clearcoat is much shinier than I want, but I like the sheen I get by using higher gloss finishes, then fine steel wooling their shine away and polishing it back with finishing wax. I seem to get a deeper finish starting with higher gloss then I do with satin finishes.

After another 24 hours, I applied the reflective coating to the underside of the shelf, thinking it would be far easier to do as it laid flat on the table rather than wrestling with it from the bottom up once it was assembled. Chroma a PlastiColor Company makes this material and I found it in an automotive supply store. It is decal material used to add chrome rocker panel accents to car bodies so I thought it would probably withstand any moisture issues as well as being fade resistant. It shines nice too.

I don’t think the final result looks too bad. The dovetail joints came out all right without any gapping holes to fill. I do like the design with the double bead on the shelf edge and the single at the bottom of the face. I think they will do nicely at breaking up the mass of this overall design, because massive it is.

I have created a post dealing with the dovetails, or at least my humble way of dealing with them. If you have the time, please have a look and give me your feedback.

Peace,

Mitchell

Is My Way Of Producing Them The Dovetail Process From Hell...

2011-02-03T23:11:00.000-05:00

This is a post regarding the way I create dovetail joints. Please don’t get the idea that I created it because I believe my way of doing this deed is the be-all and end-all way of creating dovetails. It is so far from that, you can’t imagine.

I started to search out ways of creating dovetails about four years ago. I paid a years membership at Fine Woodworking just so I could view the dovetailing demonstrations given by Steve Scott, Gary Rogowski, Christian Becksvoort, Matt Kenney and Andy Rae, to name but a few. I probably watched the videos Keith Cruickshank shot of Craig Vandall Stevens demonstrating his way of producing dovetails fifty times if I watched them once. You also can’t mention dovetailing demonstrations without putting Chris Schwarz in the same sentence and I have jumped on anything and everything he has ever had to say on the subject.

I tried them all and always found a problem in my results. I then analyzed each step in their different approaches and took what best worked for me. I then started to analyze what didn’t work well for me as well, looking for the areas that seem to get me into trouble.

I mainly came up with one major problem following the way of each master and that problem can be summed up in the name of one tool – the mallet.

No matter what I did or how I did it, when I whacked the chisel with a mallet, lightly, heavily, quickly, or using slow motion, something moved. Most often it was the guide board, which quickly threw my alignment out. One day I had had enough and I left my mallet in the cabinet, going at it with just raw muscle power. Once I did that, I had the thing beat, or at least I think I might have it beat.

Which brings me to this post.

If this post helps someone, it’s a bonus, as I enjoy nothing more than helping someone else (I’m going to post about this one day). My reason for creating it, though, is through pure selfishness. I honestly don’t know if I’m missing something or if I could do something better at this point. It is one of those, "Can't see the forest for the trees", deals. I am hoping that one or more of you knowledgeable gents or ladies will spare me a moment of your time and comment on where you think things could be improved. It would be something I would be truly grateful for.

The image below is just a link. Click on it and download a PDF file that displays text and images of the step-by-step process I use for producing dovetails.

Have a run through and let me know what you think.

Peace,

Mitchell

What to do with this seventy-two...

2011-01-27T11:47:00.003-05:00

I bought this Stanley No.72 Chamfer Plane about a year and a half ago for, I think, $225. Its a nice plane, one I have used many times, but it is the one plane in my collection that bugs me to no end.

My likes:

The blade seems to hold an edge forever, even though 100% of its wear is limited to the half inch in the middle.

It is comfortable to use as the tote is the same one used on the No. 3, a size that seems to be just perfect for my hands.

It also does an excellent job at producing a very true and even chamfer, for miles, if need be.

The wood has a beautifully patina.

I think it is one of Stanley's better designed tools, an excellent example of design following function.

My dislikes:

Registering it properly at the beginning of the stroke is next to impossible (On a power planer, the problem is always at the end of the board and its called "snipe". What do you call the same issue at the beginning of a board when using a hand plane).

It lacks a blade adjuster, something I truly hate in any plane (now there is a statement you don't want to hear from someone who collects wood molding planes).

It sells for a ridiculous price.

So all that said, what bugs me to no end with it?

Its condition.

The japanning on the main casting is just...well...sad.

The V-Sole has some lumps and craters that came with the plane from the factory, I believe.

The japanning on the adjustable sole is almost none-existent.

The blade cap isn't too bad, but it has its issues.

Its a "B" casting.

I paid another $225 for the beading attachment, but I'm still looking for the bullnose.

The question is, what do I do with it?

I sent my Miller Falls eggbeater off to Wiktor Kuc, over at WKTools.com three months ago. Mr. Kuc broke his wrist just after that, and that put him out of commission for a while, so the return of it is understandably delayed. One of my requests when I set it to him, though, was he not make it look like a brand new drill. That look is impressive, but not the look I like in a vintage tool and remember, to me, looks are half the battle.

So how do you deal with missing japanning without having it come back looking like a repainted plane?

I found a guy who restores planes on eBay and I really like what he does with these old planes, but the problem I have is that they do not look like old planes any more. I emailed him with my thoughts, and Steve assures me he is well equipped and experienced to deal with it within my requested limitations.

If the plane can be redone without looking like a remake, I then have to be concerned about the value of the tool. Will refurbishing it increase its value, or decrease it?

Oh, what do you do with an old seventy-two (sorry, I like that rhyme).

Peace,

Mitchell

Its a cheque I'll take...

2011-01-19T16:28:00.000-05:00

The following arrived in the mail this morning.

Its a cheque made out to yours truly for $18.08, the difference between the price I paid Lee Valley Tools last June for two diamond stones and the price those same stones will sell for this year. The refund is in accordance with Lee Valley's "Price Reduction Guideline". I had no idea Lee Valley Tools had such a guideline.

I searched their site for that guideline, but couldn't find anything. I then did a Google search for it, but nothing came up except a bunch of hits for postings in other blogs that have already written about this same surprise cheque.

I then sent off an email to the company asking for directions to the guideline, or a copy of the guideline. This is what came back...

"There are many factors that determine our price reduction guidelines,

unfortunately these are not published."

Now I could be a cynic about this so called "price reduction guideline" as this is the first time I have ever received anything even closely resembling something like this in the 32 years I have been dealing with this company. In fact, about 8 or 9 years ago I commented to one of the salesman that, due to the amount of money I had spent with this company over the years, I shouldn't have had to pay $5 and change for one of their caps . That comment got me a smile, but no discount and certainly no price reduction guideline cheque. (I should have bought one back then because they are almost 10 bucks now)

So yes, I'm being a bit cynical about this because the question that arises is, "Why now?"

After a little thought, I answered that question myself and my cynicism dissolved very quickly. The answer is very simple.

The economy on both sides of the border sucks. Sales for Lee Valley, like any other business during this past fiscal period, have to be down. What better way to initiate additional sales then to send a cheque to most of your long-standing, loyal customers under the guise of being a straight-shooting company? Talk about a brilliant promotion. It is subtle, a boost to customer relations, and if any Lee Valley customer is considering buying a new tool or two, where do you think they will be cashing in that cheque? You got it. Lee Valley Tools.

Brilliant!

Just bloody brilliant!

Of course, I could be wrong. The guideline could be a long-standing policy of Lee Valley's and this could be the first time in 32 years an item I have purchased from them has fallen in price the following year. It is possible, isn't it? (take two minutes out here to stop giggling)

Either way, I'm off to Lee Valley this weekend to get that Auriou 300mm Cabinetmakers Rasp I have been dreaming about for the past couple of months. As of this morning, the price of that rasp just dropped below a hundred bucks.

Peace,

Mitchell

Great Minds Think Alike...

2011-01-17T16:36:00.002-05:00

Over the past few weeks I have noticed that articles regarding the engraving of tools by Catherine Kennedy have been popping up all over the place. The Village Carpenter had one just the other day and a while ago, Chris Schwarz wrote about her work in his Lost Art Press blog, having just had the beauty of his No. 5 increased dramatically by her.

I have been aware of Catherine's work for some time now as she has been a major feature on jimbodetools.com so it was nice to see that the true movers and shakers in woodworking tools had the same thoughts about Catharine's work as I. For sometime I have had an idea forming in my head regarding some special engraving I would like to have done on my set of Stanley Bench Planes and as I'm still missing a few, I was waiting patiently to accumulate them before going at it. I did end up getting a plane engraved by her earlier than expected, though, and I'm extremely happy I did.

One Sunday morning a couple of months ago I was cruising Jim's site looking at his latest offerings and a block plane caught my eye. Jim had it listed as a "Jim Bode Tools Rabbeting Block Plane" and I immediately jumped to the conclusion he had finally started his own line of tools, something I expect him to do at any time. Instead of asking if my assumption was correct, I fired off an email saying I'll take it, and given I thought this was the first example from his new line, I asked that it be enhanced a bit by having Catharine engrave it. I figured this was apropos as I know Jim is into engraving tools big time.

After considerable back and forth, Jim finally caught on to what I had assumed and set me straight. It wasn't a tool of his design and no, he hadn't come up with his own tool line. I took the tool anyway as I thought it well made and well designed.

It is a beautiful low-angle, rabbeting block plane with a seriously hard and heavy blade.

In fact, this plane makes as much sense to others as it does to me as Rob, over on the Blogbloke, wrote about it late last week as he plans to pick one up soon.

Not only is this a great little plane, but after Catharine got through with it, it now looks a hundred times better than it did "naked". I only had two wishes for the engraving so I asked Catharine to match the contemporary feel of the plane's design and to add a Jim Bode Tools logo to the adjustment wheel. It was Catharine who suggested adding the logo to the box lid as well. She pulled this off for me like she can read minds and here is the proof...

Peace,

Mitchell

Its All In The Details, Sans The Detail Planes, That Is...

2011-01-07T21:32:00.004-05:00

Things are coming along with my wife’s plant shelving unit. Not as quickly as I would like it to, but at least things are heading in the right direction.

I now have both sides completed, and son-of-a-gun if they don’t match. I have always found this to be the hardest part of building anything; when you get one side done, you have to match it. I would save myself a lot of grief with this if I worked like Rob over on the woodbloke blog. He makes scale models and does tremendous research before he even buys the materials. Often, as with this project, I don’t work from a plan. I just come up with a concept and start at it. I know that if I spent a little time creating plans, I could cut all the pieces in one go and they would all be the same. Knowing and doing is two different things, though. I just think that working things through as I go along is a lot more fun. I work one side until I get it the way I want it, and then I shoot myself in the foot making the match.

The first order of business was dressing the stock. Using a scraper, I got rid of the squeezed out glue and realized that I would have to do very little planing. In fact, I only had to touch the plane to it in two or three places. The whole thing was cleaned up with a card scraper. I purchased a Veritas Scraper Set some time ago and I love the thing, especially the holder. I can take out a hunk of skin working with cotton balls, so anything that minimizes the chance of blood ending up on the wood is a good thing for me. While the set is a winner for me, the card holder is the bonus. It makes holding the scraper blade so much easier, especially for these large jobs.

Once I had the faces smooth, I cut the piece to length. The shelves are made from a glue-up of two 1” x 6” pieces, so the final width was 10 ¾”, which is the width I made the sides. As a result, I did not have to do any ripping on them.

I then shot the ends using my temporary shooting board with my 15” Veritas Low-Angle Jack. I have no idea how I lived without this appliance for so long, but I’m very happy to have it now. The dark areas in the image above are sweat stains, by the way.

I shot the long edges with a Stanley No.7, and I was ready to do the detail.

The detail on the shelf edge is a perfect example of why I don’t work with plans. In my drawing, I placed a three-bead reed along each edge of the shelves, but all the other details are single beads. As I looked among the Stanley No.66 Beader blades, I realized that the design would probably be more unified if the shelf edges matched the other shadow lines. I ended up putting the reeding blade back and using a single ¼” beading blade.

I started out adding a bead to the outer edges. I then wanted to remove the ¼” space between so I pulled out the little Veritas Miniature Shoulder Plane and the set of Veritas Detail Rabbet Planes. Now these little planes are really well made and I am sure in the hands of someone a heck of a lot more capable with tools than myself, they are probably an incredible advantage to a shop, but, man, I had a hell of a time with them.

The Miniature Shoulder has a blade adjuster on it, so setting the blade was very easy. Getting that blade to remove the oak in anything that resembled a reasonable amount of time, however, was another story. With a sole that is ¼” wide by 2 ½” long and only weighing in at 1.7 ounces, it was like trying to remove wood with a feather. I knew at the time I was asking a lot of this little plane. Maybe on a smaller project, one that does not involve hardwood, I might have stood a better chance. It didn’t take long to realize that there was no way the day was going to be long enough for me to plow out that space using that tool.

I then turned to the Veritas ¼” Detail Rabbet plane. At 3”, these planes are a little longer with a bit more heft to them, but they are awkward little buggers to hold. Because of their height, they are also difficult to keep square to the stock. Being a tad lighter than what was needed, it wasn't going to remove stock in a hurry either. The biggest issue I had with them, though, was setting up the blade. There is no adjustment and the only way to work it is to set it using two fingers and doing so by feel, not the easiest way for a raw amateur to set a plane blade. I also noticed that after two runs down the 52” length, the plane was uncomfortably warm in my hand, damn near hot, actually.

I said the heck with the lot of them (ok, so maybe a little stronger than that), and went to the Veritas Miniature Plow Plane, which is what I should have started with in the first place. It was much more controllable and removed what I wanted in about 4 minutes flat. I finished it all off with a quick sand and I was done for the day.

Thankfully, only two of the four shelves require this treatment, the other two having square faced edges.

Tomorrow, I’ll start trying to match it.

Peace,

Mitchell

Never Take A Coin At Face Value...

2010-12-30T23:11:00.003-05:00

The image below is of a pretty beaten up coin that is actually a French 10 Centimes bronze coin from 1855. The unidentifiable imprint on it is an eagle with his head turned to the right while it clutches a quiver of arrows. The inscription, “Empire Francais Dix Centimes” that is embossed around the circumference translates as, “French Empire Ten Cents”.

Based on the condition as seen here, the value of this 145-year-old coin is about a buck.

The value of this coin, however, is based on which side you look at. Flip it over and its value shoots up 10,000% because stamped into the face of this coin is; “Mitchell, Saw Maker, Brighton”.

So what was ol’ Henry up to defacing Emperor Napoleon the III’s coins?

He was creating a “coupon”.

While throughout history, men have been putting one stamp or another in coins, during the latter half of the 19^th century, this practice became a very common practice in commerce.

While the basis of offset printing was invented by Gutenberg way back in 1452, it was an extremely labour-intensive process, as was the paper that was printed. These two facts conspired to cause printing for basic advertising to be beyond the financial grasp of the average shop owner. While the Linotype machine was invented in 1886, it did not come into widespread use until the beginning of the 20^th century.

The Linotype machine was a pretty fascinating piece of work, for those of you that are interested in machinery. Using a keyboard, the “Compositor” would punch in the text. The machine would then use that information to assemble a line of text using molds of each letter, called “matrices”, setting them side by side as needed. The machine would then cast that mold into a “slug”, which was one line of set text. It then assembled the slugs in the “galley”, assembling them in the required order so as to define the story. When the printing was completed, the slugs were melted down and the material used again for the next run.

Added to this labour saver was the cost cutting in the manufacturing of paper, switching from the standard practice of using linen fiber to using wood pulp.

So all of this helped reduce the cost of printing at the beginning of the 20^th century, but that didn’t help poor ol’ Henry back in about 1870. In his shop on North Street in Brighton, he was producing everything from ultimate braces to saws, but remember, this was the latter half of the 19^th century. One of his complex molding planes with a single blade would sell for less than 75 cents. To bring up his volume so he could purchase stock at better prices, Henry had to advertise.

Like many small businesses at the time, Henry turned to “Counterstamping” coins. Because it was against the law to deface the British currency, Henry brought in hundreds of 10centimes coins from France and beat the hell out of those. He then handed them out as change to put them back into circulation in the hopes that they would find their way to someone in need of a joining tool. When the coins were presented to Henry back at the shop, he would give the bearer credit for the value of the coin, worth about 3 British pennies. By today's standards, given the price of hand-made wood planes, that would equal a $30 to $45 discount, not a value to sneeze at.

I purchased this coin from Rich Hartzog who operates World Exonumia, a dealer in historical coins, medals and tokens. It is purported to have once been a part of Dr. Gregory G. Brunk’s collection, Dr. Bunk being a noted authority on counterstamped coins. Mr. Hartzog has published some of Dr. Brunk’s books on counterstamped coins and is currently assembling the second update of Brunk’s title, “Merchant and Privately Countermarked Coins”. From the research I have done, I do not believe there are too many of ol’ Henry’s French francs left.

While there is the acceptance that this coin has two values; one as a French 10centimes coin and the other as a Merchant’s form of advertising, I am hoping there is a third value to it now. Adding it to my small but growing collection of H.E. Mitchell planes and I am hoping it might have just increased the value of the whole lot by more than the value of the coin. That was the rational behind its purchase, but only time will tell if it is a workable one.

Profitable or not, I have spent a number of enjoyable hours this week researching the history of these coins and in doing so, I learned a bit more about ol’ Henry Mitchell. He was obviously a bit of a hustler.

Peace,

Mitchell

My Wife's Christmas Gift...

2010-12-28T19:46:00.002-05:00

How many kind, considerate, loving husbands give their wives a plant stand end for Christmas?

I bet not many.

I know. What the hell is a plant stand end?

Its this...

...hey, at least I didn't put a bow on it.

Ok, I didn't get my wife's plant shelving unit done for Christmas. I'll admit that I didn't get as much done as I should have. All right. I'll be honest. I didn't get as much done as I could have, but it is coming together. Honest.

This is my first shot at building a frame and panel piece by hand. As with all the past projects I have done in this manner, I'm shocked at the time and labor that goes into it. Man, hand tools are a lot of work.

I have three plow planes; the Mitchell woodie, a Stanley 50 and a Veritas Small Plow. I didn't bother with the woodie because I don't want to mess it up any more than it is. I tried the Stanley, but found it heavy and difficult to push, so I ended up using the lightest plow out of the bunch, the Veritas. This surprised me because everyone says that the heavier the plane, the better the going, but I didn't find that at all.

I plowed out 1/4" rabbets along the entire length of five 1" by 4" by 6' pieces of oak, the fifth one plowing out both edges. I then cut this last one up into 8 - 4 3/4" and 2 - 13" lengths. Using a rip dovetail saw, because I didn't think I would ever need a tenon saw, I cut the tenons on both ends of these 10 pieces.

I then did something I have never done before. Where the plans call for overlaid trim, I made up poplar spacers. I have always not bothered with secondary woods in builds like this, but I guess the possibility of easier going with the plow made me get cheap with the oak this time. There are three of these fillers along the height of this side piece, one at each end and one at the step where the cupboard section steps back to the shelving section. In truth, the poplar was a tad easier to work with than the oak.

The very bottom panel is a glue-up of three 6" pieces of 1/4" oak and the other three are single pieces. As it turns out, Home Depot sells 4' lengths of oak in multiple thicknesses. At 12 bucks a pop for 6" widths, it ain't cheap, but I'm still not ready to take on dimensioning lumber by hand yet.

So I have one side complete and the other almost ready for glue-up. All of the shelves are also glued up and ready for beading.

While much slower than I expected, I am getting there and should be ready for assembly by the middle of next week.

So how was my wife's reaction to just getting an end for Christmas? Well, I don't think she was as happy with it as she was with the mink coat I gave her a few years ago. Then again, these things tend to loose something when you have to explain what it is.

Peace,

Mitchell