Teaching Turning…
He was totally self taught, and a bit of beginner, and we worked on technique and process while he did it. He’d been getting it done, but I was able to pass on some tips and trick and good technique as he worked. His turning improved dramatically over the night, and he produced a fine Cocobolo slimline last night.
It’s a little strange to me (and a little not) at how easy it was for me to “instruct” on a subject. Strange because I don’t feel like I’m a master like many of the folks I interact with online, but also not strange because I do love to teach what I know. All in all we had a good time, and the pen turned out quite nice.
badger
Second Use purchase
I was going to make some crack about Vice or Vise, but I think it’s come off a bit flat. Instead, I’ll just post a pic of my new score and babble on a bit about my workbench plans. (and struggles.)
I found this at a fun store to visit, Second Use, where I like to check for recycled materials to use in my woodworking. Kind of my thing, which should be interesting as I move into more furniture type things. I did see a bunch of Poplar that might be good for a project I’m considering. Any way, I saw the vise pictured to the right on the site, and went down to take a look. It is a bit rusty on the surface, but it’s still usable, and it’s massive! It cost me $45 at that size, and condition for a quick release vise I think that’s about fair. A little elbow grease, a wire brush and some WD-40 should be good.
As for the bench this goes on, it’s a bit of a struggle right now. I’m having lots of problems figuring out what I want out of a bench, at what I can afford to pay. I want it solid, a thick top, a good height for hand tool wood working, and able to hold work well in lots of ways.  I’ve been reading Chris Scwarz’s book on Workbenches, and it’s full of good ideas. Too many good ideas. It’s somewhat maddening because I want to narrow it down, not expand the list.
Workbenches, From Design & Theory to Construction & Use By Christopher Schwarz
I’m actually coming close to a final idea, only just recently, from the book mentioned above. The “roubo” which is oft mentioned on the internet, in the woodworking forums, etc. However, it’s got a lot of what I want, plus it’s compatible with what I already have. I have a base pretty much built already in another bench that came with the house. It’s got solid 4×4’s for legs, and is a good layout size, it’s too high but some sawing will fix that. It really just needs a good top, and some hardware.
Which brings us back to the vise. :)Â See what I did there?
I heartily recommend the book, and the author for reading. They have a good blog and magazine for us woodworkers.
Badger
Apple Hammer
I made a quick hammer on the lathe tonight, out of some applewood I had lying around. It spent some time outside, so it’s got lots of checks and cracks, but it’s still pretty solid hardwood. And what I was making was intended to be used for hammering chisels, so it could be less than perfect.
Turned out pretty nice, all things considered. (No pun intended really.) I only finished with a hand rubbed walnut oil coat to bring out the color, nothing more. I would like to find some non-checked applewood to make a nicer one sometime, it does have some pretty grain.
badger
Dovetail Box Progress… and FAIL
So, fresh from the Roy Underhill teachings on dovetails, I wanted to do it myself at home to cement this knowledge into my head. I learn best by doing, and I did a successful dovetail in class, but then went on a week vacation. So today I thought I’d do another corner of the dovetail box I’ve been working on. It’s really just a practice box, since my first attempt was so terrible. I had decided to keep the box going, and cobble the bad section together, maybe with pins or something to remind me where I started.
I also put some time into figuring out a groove in the bottom using my Stanley #45, and a rabbeted bottom with my Fillister plane. Both of which were success, and I put a couple grooves in the bottom edge of two boards. I decided to ignore the “stopped groove” idea, and just have gaps in the corners. The #45 was fairly easy to set up, and I was making groovy grooves pretty quickly, despite all that I’ve read about how difficult it was to set up. I took a nice picture of the tools, and grooves in a still life. You can also see the cherry test board I rabbeted as a test fit into the groove.
Next I got my hands dirty on some dove tails. I did the “Roy Underhill” way, setting everything from the width of a chisel blade, and working from there. Very little to no measuring, but accurate reproducible measuring. This is “old school” at it’s finest. I marked, I cut, I chopped and produced a very fine dovetail that fit very tight on my first fit with no extra trimming or shimming. I was pretty pleased with my self, until I realized that I had mixed up my face sides! The pins went the wrong way! Disaster…
Oh well, at least my dovetail joint is pretty sweet. I figured out how to save this box, but I’ll have to trim off the pins and the same amount on the other side to make my square box rectangular and slightly smaller. But at least I don’t have to redo the tails part, just cut new pins. This is how we learn right?
Badger
PATINA Tool show shopping…
Still catching up on my posts after coming back from Vacation. This post is just a “show off” or “tool gloat” post.
Shown in the picture from the Top Left.
2 different width paring chisels- these are not as common as they used to be, and these look nice. I learned to use them at the Woodwrights Shop and I wanted a couple for myself.
Mortise Chisel – looks like a buck brothers handle on a different bland blade. The tip was extremely hollow ground, like on an 8″ grinder wheel, I’ll need to fix that up, but for the price ($12) it was worth trying to fix.
Moving Fillister Plane – This was my big score, and made the drive worth it. I paid $27, and I should have bought both they had. I set it up and tried it out this weekend, and it worked great after a quick sharpen. I love this tool, Roy was right.
Gimlet – I got it for cheap with the Fillister plane, and I’ll try it out later.
Mortising Gauge – I needed one after taking Roy’s Mortise and Tenon class, and this one was $7 (but he took $5) and needs a little TLC, but is in good enough shape to use.
Try Square – I used on like this at Roy’s class, and wanted my own.  I only had flat contractor squares in the shop.
Stanley Spokeshave – I need a good spokeshave for my bowsaw project, and this looks workable. The two I picked up for cheap at Harbor Freight are worthless (big surprise) and I need one that is built better.
That’s all for now, I got some shop time today, and I’ll post some results later…
badger
Woodwrights School day 2
Thursday 3/11/2010 –
Dovetails, Mortise & Tenon with Roy Underhill
Described on the website thusly “After this one-day workshop you’ll have no excuse! You’ll learn to lay out and cut the classic through dovetail, the half-blind dovetail for drawers, as well as the intersecting mortise and tenon joint for chair and table construction. You’ll take home the three joints, as well as the foundation skills for furniture construction. All tools and materials provided.”
The class delivered exactly what it promised. It was a hands-on all day affair with Roy at the helm. My class had eight people in it, and I was probably the youngest guy there. There was one other guy near my age, and rest looked to be retirees looking for something new. I felt pretty good with the tools, the set up was fantastic where we each had our own bench, tools, and lights. Roy would start out by showing us all the steps in one go, going over it piece by piece, then would set up loose to do it ourselves.
We did a set of through dovetails before lunch, and mine were fairly tight. I liked his method of laying everything out, it made a lot of sense. He starts with a chisel, and bases the rest of the layout off of that starting point. Roy’s method is “tails first” and I think I’m going to go with that, and avoid the whole religious debate about tails or pins first. Let me see if I can remember all the steps and put them in another post.
We then broke for lunch at the “old timey” soda shop next door, and Roy joined us. It was really fun to hang out and just discuss random things. He spent some time talking about his new home that they had recently purchased, it was an old Mill house that he planned to make into a larger version of his school. He also bought us all a giant banana split to share!
After lunch we were all a little sleepy, but we got some coffee and soldiered on. Next up was half blind or drawer front type dovetails. They most build on the things that we learned in the through dovetail side, with some variations. Mine came out pretty well, and I was feeling pretty comfortable with the tools now.
The next stage was a bit different, and I was pretty out of my element now with Mortise and Tenon joints. Again he uses a method in which all measurements are based on the width of a the chisel point, and uses very little measuring. This is a good thing since mortise chisels are very hard to find these days, either costing hundreds of dollars for new or getting lucky with used ones. There is one affordable set available by Narex, but they use metric measurements rather than inches. Which is OK with Roy’s method actually, and I might get that set finally. My mortise and tenon joint came out pretty well, except I blew out the bottom of the drilling and tore my wood (can be fixed with glue), and my saw cuts were a bit imprecise, which is hidden by the joint but still…  Sawing was probably my worst point, and I think I need to figure out how to fix this. My cuts seem to drift easily, and I have always had a hard time with sawing. Practice, practice?
All in all I very much enjoyed the experience and Roy was a fantastic teacher and great host. He was as genuine and warm as he is on his show, which is rare in this world. He was a passion for this art of hand tool woodworking, and that comes out in his class. I would love to go back and take other sessions for sure.
Removing Rust
I tried a trick for removing rust last night on a Disston possibly No. 4 steel backed backsaw. It’s a tenon saw I think, and I found it for $7 at an antique store with a busted horn on the bottom of the handle, some light pitting on one side of the blade, and a whole lot of surface rust. But for $7 I couldn’t pass it up, especially since the teeth were in great shape, and the blade was straight. Plus, it was $7.
I did some searching on the internet, and found something I could try with what I already had. I took a brand new “scotch brite” type kitchen sponge, sprayed the blade with WD-40, and scrubbed away. It worked quite well, and the rust came off easily. The pitting was only on one side, and doesn’t seem to be too bad, it cleaned up pretty well, and once I put the handle back on the saw it made some decent cuts in some sacrificial pine.
All in all, worth $7. The handle chip on the bottom horn doesn’t impact utility, and is still very comfortable. I might glue a piece of wood and bring the shape back, or I might just use the thing as is. I’ll try and snap some pictures tonight, I didn’t have my iPhone on me last night.
Still working on my Day 2 write up for my visit to Woodwrights School, more on that later.
**edited: added picture of the cleaned up saw**
Woodwrights School day 1
Wednesday night “Planes for Joinery” with Roy Underhill, Bill Anderson, and Elia. 3/10/2010
Showing up at the Woodwright School was a little intimidating because it felt like every one already knew each other, and I was walking in cold. Â Everyone was very friendly, but it was a little overwhelming at first. Â There was some apparent “technical” difficulties going on, as in the guest presenter forgot his outline/class notes. Â I was amused to witness the famous Roy of the Hand Tools busting out his Macbook Pro, and portable printer to run off a couple copies. Â Soon they got started, and it was Planes Planes Planes. Â The presenter who I had to look up on the site, just launched right into it. Â He and Roy tag teamed the presentation throughout the night, with the guy some have started calling “the Apostle” helping out.
Another amusing thing was when Roy busts out the camera and the LCD tv (artfully hidden behind a blackboard on the wall) and doing extreme close up shots of some of the plane work. Â It was pretty cool (and education), and might have detracted a little from the old timey feel of the shop, but I’ll let that go in the name of education. Â Roy was pretty energetic, if not a little… OK, a LOT tired from teaching a full day class already that day. Â He was still Roy though, and it was great to see him in person.
I did get a moment of stunned silence when they found out I was from all the way out Seattle way.  The question came up when Roy was talking about his favorite plane, the moving fillister plane.  He said you could still get them for about $40, and I couldn’t hold back a snort.  He was puzzled  by my reaction and asked why?  I told him about the total of 2 of those planes I’d seen, and that they went for over $100 easily and were usually busted.  I got lots of sympathy at that, and Roy immediately went to get me a flier for a tool collectors group.
Later after the class went to “hands on” portion I got to talk to Roy a bit, and he was very nice to me. Â Some times when you meet an idol, you find out that the people they are on TV or whatever are not the person they are in life. Â Not so with Roy, and I enjoyed the evening very much. Â We did get to talk about the moving fillister plane a bit (more on that later) and he showed me what to look for in used ones. He was also amazed that I came all the way out there for his class, and joked about how the pressure was on now.
More later on the next day in another post…
Tomorrow I meet a Master…
I leave for North Carolina tomorrow morning, and being from Seattle, it’s fair trek to get there. I am going to meet a master of the craft, a veritable crazy old Jedi wizard of hand tool woodworking.  Roy Underhill. I am taking a class and a seminar at the newly opened Woodwrights School in Pittsboro, NC for my 40th birthday. (My Birthday already happened, but this trip is my present.)
I’ll be taking “Planes for Joinery” Wednesday night, and a full day with Roy on the subject of “Mortise, Tenon, & Dovetail”. Â Should be exciting, and a bit intimidating, but I hope to learn a lot. If nothing else, I’ve always wanted to meet this guy and I owe it all to Dan.
— Badger
Marking Knife
I got a little shop time today, and made a new tool. I recently cleared a bunch of space, and got a whole new corner for the shop which I share with the family storage area. While I was cleaning the shop I found a broken jigsaw blade. I read somewhere on the internet that you could make a marking knife out of these. So I gave it a shot.
I used the grinder to shape it a bit, and pointed it on both ends.
Then I turned a piece of Mesquite pen blank I’d gotten in a trade box with some other pen turners.
I cut a piece of brass pen tube I found while cleaning up (a theme perhaps) to make the ferrule.
Then I drilled a hole slight smaller than the width of the tang in the end.
Clamping the blade in the vise, and then hammer with a wooden hammer on the end of the handle I seated the blade into the handle with a few good wacks. It’s pretty solid, and I figure it will work for a bit, and it’s going to get a lot of action as a marking knife so I figure this will be good enough.
Then a quick sharpening on the grinder, and a pass over the sandpaper to flatten the back and done!
A nice quick project, that I can now use to mark accurate dovetails.
– Badger