Going to Build

Good Evening Everyone,

Well, I had a long day to day and by the time I got home around 4 pm I was in serious need of some wood turning time. I have several projects going at the moment and here are some project updates:

Purple Heart Tea Box for Jim

Ive constructed a lid for the box and here are some photos:

I looked through my hickory wood stack and found exactly what I wanted for the lid: a 1 inch thick piece of butter yellow hickory and so I marked off the lid and the wood for the knob on top for cutting on the bandsaw:



Here is the blank after cutting. Ive established the center of both pieces and I am about to drill a hole in both pieces in order to peg them together. The square portion also acts as the attachment point for the lid to the lathe-more about that tomorrow.  I decided to use CA glue to glue them together and it ran all over the place.


Between the above and below photos I managed to glue the small block to one of my fingers. I always keep a can of acetone around just in case I do something stupid like that. You should have seen me walking around with a piece of wood stuck to my hand....

Here is a photo of the two pieces glued together with no fingers attached:


I like to get a very fine joint between laminated pieces of wood so you cant see the glue line and Ive managed to accomplish that with this in spite of myself. Im going to leave this and come back to it tomorrow.

Next-laminated hickory and walnut bowl

You may remember from about a month ago I laminated several turning blocks out of hickory and walnut. The first blank became the nut bowl and this blank is going to become a medium-sized hickory bowl with a walnut rim. I was worried about this blank because the walnut began to crack down the middle while I was clamping it and I was beginning to worry that I might have to cut off the rim. So I decided to at least get it roughly shaped today and take a close look at the walnut rim as I was turning it.

This first photo shows the blank very roughly cut out from the laminated block. As its heavy and rather unbalanced at this time, Im going to use the 6 inch faceplate and 1 1/2 inch wood screws to mount it:



Here is a photo of the blank on the lathe. Im going to turn it between centers for safetys sake. You know this is a very heavy block of wood turning hundreds of time per minute a few inches away from my head--crazy way to make a living when you think about it. But the wood bug bit me early in life and Ive never regretted working in wood. Ive never seriously injured myself either.


Here you can see the blank being shaped from the bottom to the top. Cutting at a diagonal insures that the wood fibers are cut cleanly with a minimum of tear out:




Here is a photo after about 2 hours of turning. There was a lot of wood to remove and the block is probably much lighter in weight now and certainly is is well balanced at this point in time. Im going to deepen the shaping of the layers of wood tomorrow. And Ive added a foot to this bowl as well:


This is good quality wood and because of that, this bowl is going to work out nicely.

Its getting late and Im covered with wood chips from head to toe so its time to stop. Ill be working tomorrow so grab some coffee and Ill do the same and well see how the lid to the tea box works out.

Thanks for dropping by,
VW

" . . . Some body will hurt you like you hurt me"  OK so Im not Clapton but its a great song and it comes to mind as I think about the current project in the shop. For those of you who are newer to reading here, I will catch you up.

Due to the increased focus on hand tools in the Wood Shop Jr. and the need to increase my collection of usable hand tool solutions to help facilitate my Medieval Reenactment hobby, and due to a serious restriction on monetary funds, I decided to go "old school" on my tools. Craftsmen of the day may or may not be able to buy their own tools, but they worked hard to be self sufficient, purchase the steel of the tool from the local blacksmith and fashion the wooden parts on their own. I decided I had to carry on in this tradition. I will briefly list the agenda I decided to follow.

1. Saws: upgrade, sharpen, re-handle and build from scratch all the saws I need. This includes replacing handles on the three bench saws I use (done) Sharpening and reshaping the teeth on the 4 full size saws I inherited (2 down, 2 to go) make from scratch a dado saw (done) wide blade and narrow blade bow saw (almost done) and a frame saw (next on the agenda)

2. Planes: Sharpen, and tune up the planes I own, including my #4 Smoother, #5 Jack, #78 rabit, 2 wooden joiners, and a round bottom Japanese plane. My mini plane and the p.o.s. low angle block plane I have. (my Father in Law has a nicer quality low angle block plane that is coated, I mean coated in rust, I may try to talk him out of it and see if I can refurbish it as well.

3. Chisels: I have several bench chisels I like a lot but they have crappy plastic handles on them, I plan to fix that issue, I will also reshape and resharpen and replace the handles on the cheep hand carving tools I own as well.

4. Clamps: I need to make some simple mostly wood clamps that would be plausible historical usage.

5. Brace and Bits: I want to make an older version of a brace and get bits that will fit into it, preferably spoon bits.

6. generally replace handles and get the kit together

7. build a joiners tool chest and a small joiners style workbench that will break down to travel to faires and festivals.


I know theres other things in here that Ive missed and forgotten, but whatever. Anyhow, tonight I moved on a bit to finishing the saw section of the project, I am 75% done with the bow saws, one more piece to shape after this evening. Heres a few pics of the work I accomplished tonight. after I got the mortise and tenons all cut and finished.




































Cheers,

Oldwolf

I got a letter today from a fellow wood worker asking my thoughts on Chisels.
Thought Id share my long-winded reply with you.

















Tom,
Learning more every day. Question. I need a quality set of bevel
chisels that will be passed down to grand kids. I like the Lie-Nielsen
but they seem pretty high priced. They will be used for pretty much
general purpose and some dovetailing.
Thanks

Reply:

Hi Ted,
Nice to hear from you again.
To answer your question:
For all around quality-youre spot on, the Lie-Nielsen chisels are top notch and will surely be around for the grand kids...maybe even more! A little pricey yes, but remember, when it comes to quality hand tools you really get what you pay for.
Lee Valley sells a couple of options you may consider; first off are their Hirsch Firmer Bench chisels. For a set of six youre looking at $129.00 Canadian. Thats a pretty fair price for a middle of the road chisel. I purchased this exact set about four years ago and have been bashing them and sharpening them all along...they dont seem to mind one-bit. They certainly wont hold an edge like the Lie-Nielsen ones, but for what they are Ill recommend this set my first alternate pick.
Another option may be some Japanese style chisels...again you can find them at reasonable prices. You mentioned dovetails...these due to their shape would make them better suited for cleaning out tails and pins when working with dovetails.
Again, I have a nice little assortment and really enjoy using them. The rings usually need to be smacked about and stepped on....they tend to come from the manufacturers loose. Not a big deal to fix. The canted shaft from the iron up the handle is a nice touch as well; youll see this makes allot of sense once you start using them. Better sight lines while you work and a more natural hand held grip because of the overall shape- really helps the wrists and forearms. Something to think about.
Here are a couple of links to Lee Valley Tools...

the Hirtsch Firmer style: http://www.leevalley.com/wood/page.aspx?c=1&p=46403&cat=1,41504

and the Japanese Bench style: http://www.leevalley.com/wood/page.aspx?c=1&p=46404&cat=1,41504,43500&ap=1

Have a look at the Japanese dovetail chisels as well: http://www.leevalley.com/wood/page.aspx?c=1&p=54872&cat=1,41504

Now, with all of that said and hind-sight being 20/20....
If I was just starting out Id say to Hell with the sets of chisels and buy one or two of my mostly used.
O.k. lets say today Im cutting dovetails in 4/4 stock...To chop them out I may splurge and get a 1/4 or 1/2" Lie-Nielsen socket chisel... For cleaning out the waste, maybe a 1/8 and 3/8" dedicated Japanese style dovetail chisel...
Now we have four really nice chisels. Not a fortune spent and were content... At least until next week when were doing really fine dovetails on a small cabinet door...The Veritas detail chisels are my choice hands down for small scale work. They were designed by Yeung Chan, a California cabinetmaker and I use at least two of these every day...seriously. Here is the link to them...Get the 1/4" and the 1/2". When you first hold them youll think theyre too small or light or fragile.....something youd use building ships in bottles...well at least thats what I thought. A few days after getting them-theyll be like extensions of your fingers. Cleaning out the corners in dovetails- paring the waste on small tenons....chamfers...really, these are amazing.

Veritas Detail chisels: http://www.leevalley.com/wood/page.aspx?c=1&p=46035&cat=1,41504

Maybe a couple of more nice wide Japanese bench chisels-? 3/4" and 1".

That would be a really nice set indeed...a little pricey but you dont need to get them all at once. One or two, here and there...spread it out a little. Lord knows in the economic times we live who can afford to pay a small fortune for anything?
That said, this Christmas when Santa brings you my new book, Made by Hand, Furniture Projects from the Unplugged Woodshop, and you want to build a few of the projects in there; youll need one or two mortising chisels....go back to Lie-Nielsen and buy a 1/4" and 3/8". I have the full set of them and can honestly say you wont ever be disappointed. And......I didnt but them all at once!! Over a span of a year or two.

So there you have it....
spend the $275.00 on the Lie-Nielsen set of five Bevel Edge Socket Chisels: http://www.lie-nielsen.com/catalog.php?grp=1234

or 129.00 on the knock-about Hirtcsh Firmers...or ~ better yet...
build a custom set for about $600.00
buying one or two every couple of months or so....A year or two goes by- you have exactly the set of chisels you want and use. Gotta have some patience on this one...
the set of Lie-Nielsens are sounding better and better eh.?

Thats my two cents...good luck and let me know how it turns out.
Cheers!

( sorry for the shameless book plug!! )

Its been a very busy week here at the Penultimate Woodshop. The laundry list of activities which have been taking up all my time include milling four new kitchen door saddles from scratch, flattening the sole of the Stanley #4 I recently picked up, mounting a dehumidifier to permanently drain into the houses plumbing, buying the rights to my sites name (now to learn to use it), beginning to track down babysitting for while Im at WIA and designing some Penultimate Woodshop T-shirts.

With the notable exception of the dehumidifier none of those tasks are 100% complete, but I have taken heart in pushing all of them forward quite a bit.

As Im doing my best to post regularly (trying for once a week) Im sorry if there is the occasional post such as this one that serves more as a status update than actual blog post. I will do my share to fill the intrawebs with woodworking errata, just not this week.

Whats been taking up all your time lately?

Written with blogaway on android.

Whew! Schools out for summer! Now maybe I can get back into the shop!

I did manage a little work in the last couple of weeks. Heres some shots of the cupboard with its new "antiqued" hinges.

First some before and after closeups:





And one of the cupboard in the sun, which happens every morning in the summer, and is exactly the situation in which the old, shiny hinges really bugged me. I am now much happier...