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Sunday, February 23, 2014

BENCH BUILT FROM A BED

I spend a great deal of time and labour rebuilding fun and useful furniture from salvaged items

and sometimes the items wouldnt be possible without first being donated for a new purpose.

This amazing red bench originally was a donated headboard and footboard

from Carrie Thachuk owner of The Passionate Home.

It was a dark stained solid oak mission style bed her daughter had used at one time.

With the addition of some more salvaged wood, and several hours of painting and waxing

she is now the perfect entry / hall bench or dining bench as the back side is also finished.

I used:

2 seat boards & 4 cross struts for the ends

base coat ASCP white, 2nd coat flat black spray paint, top color ASCP Emperors Silk

sanded with 120 grit, waxed and polished with Minwax paste finishing wax

The Passionate Home is about to celebrate their 7th year with a Birthday Flea Market right inside the store.

FYI, I stopped in for some paint yesterday and saw the amazing treasures being brought out.

This is one sale you do not want to miss,

I started making all sorts of funny noises with each different item I saw the chance to own.

Lots of ornate frames, a tall set of lockers, fancy glass wear, candle holders, orchard baskets, cheese box, wash stand cabinet, french provincial dining set with hutch, vintage baking pans, suit cases, local vintage life preserver, old typewriter and table, dental table, iron stone, 2 large vintage gates / doors, shutters, half a dozen shoe stretchers, beautiful china, science beakers, dress mannequin, lamps, antique brass candle sconces, Victorian oil lamps, DIY chairs, guilded mirrors, mason jar, misc silver trays and kitchen wares, tool caddies, antique irons, and more.

Congratulations Miss Carrie, not very many small business owners gets to celebrate 7 years.

Saturday, January 25, 2014

A Great Source of Information from Down Under

Having been busy meeting deadlines lately, so I have been remiss when it comes to this blog. I havent had time to pick up a tool lately, either, so that is another thing that I have to correct.

I havent been completely away from the woodworking scene, though. I have picked up a number of new additions to add to the "never ending tool cabinet rebuild", and I wish I had some time to take some images and post them here, as some of it is truly nice stuff.

I have also been putting together a series of posts here, all to do with the subject of Collecting Vintage Tools. There were a few posts on this topic a few weeks ago that popped up on both Dans Workshop Blog and the Woodworking Magazines Blog and they got me thinking. In general, online vintage tool sites are both difficult to find, and difficult to navigate once you find them, so I felt that discussing these issues from start to finish was in order. As it is turning out, I think the series will be useful to many; those that buy vintage tools online, those that sell them, those that have an interest in navigating the internet, and those that have a site that they want to advance, no matter what the topic.

The first installment will be a general discussion about the supply and demand for vintage tools. The second will give a quick explanation regarding how the internet, and search engines like Google in particular, work, plus how we can all make it easier on ourselves to find online sellers. In installment three, I will be taking on the different dealers sites, making suggestions how they can better serve those of us who buy from them, plus a quick run-down on how they can, at no cost at all, move themselves up the hit list on search engines, again, making it easier for us to find them. In installment four, I will open the doors to my Bookmark file for vintage tool sites, giving some opinions on what is good about them, and what is bad, along with the reasons why they ended up in one of my four categories; Daily, Weekly, Monthly and When Bored. Finally, the one I am truly looking forward to, is the last Installment, number five. My favourite online vintage tool dealer, Jim Bode of jimbodetools.com, has agreed to answer a number of my questions regarding what he does and how he does it. It will be a quick look into the business of selling vintage tools and one that I think will be seriously interesting.

I will not be posting any of this series until all five installments are completed. Expect the first post to be up and running on November 15th, then each additional installment will be posted weekly.

I would also like to mention here another true "find" on the web, this one a site from a part-time woodworker and tool collector from Australia. I found Derek Cohens site, "In The Woodshop", by accident this morning while doing a search for shooting board plans on Google. Once there, I couldnt leave until I had read each and every post. I will be returning often as it is a repository for a wealth of information. On his home page he has links to different sections that display his interests; Building Furniture, Tool Restorations, Shop-Made Tools, Tool Reviews and Sharpening Techniques, along with a couple of other categories for Commentary and Links.

Not only does he have a pretty amazing little shop full of nothing but the best in tools, but he uses them and enjoys them. In his articles he has covered everything from building chest of drawers to building shooting boards and making his own planes. Some of his tool reviews are the best I have ever read. Check it out.... http://www.inthewoodshop.com/

Peace,

Mitchell

Thursday, January 23, 2014

New Offerings from Veritas

Tongue-and-Groove Accessories for Plow Plane

Veritas Small Plow Plane with 1/2-in. cutter and conversion kit installed.

One of my favorite, and most used tools has to be the Small Plow Plane by Veritas. I reach for it on almost every project I make and just recently, Lee Valley has come up with a few new additions to make this already great tool even better.
Veritas has introduced a series of Tongue and Groove blades along with a complete line of large size cutters. Up until this point the sizes ranged from 1/8-in. up to 1/4-in. Great for drawer bottom grooves and small scale cabinet work but this new line extends the range all the way up to 3/4-in. They’re available in A2 tool steel and only took a few seconds to polish and put to work. A simple conversion kit that easily installs on the existing plane make it possible to use this new, larger line of cutting irons.
This past week I’ve been making some moldings for one of the projects in my new book and if you’ve ever made moldings you know that the bulk of the work happens before you ever touch a molding plane. A series of grooves and rabbets are created to remove the bulk of the material before the hollows and rounds refine the profile. Just this morning I used both the new 1/2-in. cutter and then the 1/4-in. T & G to establish the profile on a piece of walnut. Once complete, it was quick and easy to define the shape with my Hollows and Rounds.
The change over from standard plow plane using the conversion kit was quick and easy with excellent results.

Bottom of Plow Plane showing 1/4-in. T & G cutter.

If you’re someone who would rather create your grooves with a hand tool instead of on a router table or table saw, then the Veritas Small Plow Plane, along with this new line of cutting irons will fill all of your grooving needs.
To make the deal even sweeter, Lee Valley is offering a discounted, introductory price until June 18th so get ‘em while they’re hot~
Cheers!