Building nice wood

If you didnt get the memo earlier, I dont have a project video this week. But I will be back next Friday with something good. And if not something good, at least a new project!

Until then here is a Mere Minutes update:




And, heres a video I from August 20, 2010, almost three years ago. Its kind of dated now, since Man Vs. Wild isnt on any more. But Bear Grylls does have a new reality show called Get Out Alive, which isnt bad. Forgive the sound quality: I shot all those old videos on my little Cybershot camera and edited on Windows Movie Maker.

I definately needed a lumber rack in my new small shop so I got to looking around the internet at other peoples ideas and builds and most of them seemed pretty complicated or they protruded out from the wall to much for my small shop.

I came up with a simple but strong design that doesnt force you to sacrifice space nor does it take alot of tools, materials, or complicated jointery to build. In my small shop I am trying to put alot of things on wheels and this lumber rack is not built all the way to the floor so that I can roll tools underneathe it.

So take some time to watch this video and build yourself a great lumber rack.



I do consider this a meduim duty lumber rack but you could easily add two more uprights with supports between these making them 16" on center rather than my 32" on center. This would add alot of extra strength is you decided to load it up excessively.

I know I said that the next time I blogged I would say something about my riff on the Dominy clock, as seen and done by the big man in plaid, It was very enjoyable to do the basic construction but the move and lack of heated shop will hold off the finishing process for a while, not to mention a lack of funds to purchase a quartz movement... sigh... oh well, we move forward, and the clock shall sit in the corner of the living room, built but unfinished, at least until summer.

All that to the side, I will explain my new mission! If you dont know, I dont think I have advertised this too much on this blog, other than my family there are 2 passions in my life. One of course is making sawdust. The other is viking age and medieval reenactment. For those of you possibly unfamiliar with the concept. Reenactment has to do with studying history and attempting to recreate an experience similar to that time in history, hopefully for yourself to experience, but usually, and probably more importantly, to help share that knowledge and experience youve gathered reliving and studying the lifestyle to those in the general public. I could talk forever about viking age history, as much or more than woodworking, but I will just stop here with most of it and say if you want to learn more about that side of my life you can go to the web page for the group I co-founded in 1996 by clicking on our name "Tribe Woden Thor"

Our group does several school, library, and festival events each year. Where we set up different aspects of what life was like, from the knight to the lord to the common man, then we interact with those who come visit us to teach them what we can. For a long time I have wanted to set my sword and spear to the side and set up a display that demonstrates a combination of both my woodworking and historical lives. My vision is to set up a small workbench with a tool station behind, and spend the weekend of the festival, woodworking, with as close to period tools as I can get. (there is evidence of viking age woodworking tools... Google "mastermyr chest") Realistically my tool set up will be closer to 16th to 18th century, with the exception that I hope to procure and use spoon augers instead of twist augers.

Again, the usual hurdle will be finances... The hand tools that I have been able to collect to this point are pretty modern looking, plastic handles being the most obvious anachronism. I have tried to make several bargain purchases via eBay, but things always get bid up higher that I want to go. Saws will be the biggest thing for me to tackle. chisels and planes I have, or can work on. The saws I use in my handwork all look like crap. Then, this morning whilst lazing around in bed and listening the magical sounds of my children diplomatically discussing the programming outline of their Saturday morning, I had a small epiphany of sorts. Why not modify my current tools to look and work with wooden handles. Certainly I can build versions of these tools more economically than searching for and buying them online, antique store, or otherwise.

So the next few steps of this web experiment...blog of my work and methods, will indeed follow me as I embark on the attempt to create, some from existing tools, some from scratch. I believe I am going to start with saws, as I believe that to be my most immediate and needed area of improvement, First I want to modify my Vaughan Bear back saw into a wooden handle beast of burden. I will permanently remove the plastic removable handle forever and place a handle similar to this Lie Nielsen Dovetail Saw.

I will also modify my flexible flush cut saw (my favorite saw!!) to have a wooden handle , change the handle on mt least favorite saw, a jack brothers dovetail saw that currently switches from a left hand to a right hand grip (This is the first saw I bought and it has never cut well, but then again I didnt know anything at the time) and I am going to attempt to build both a bow saw and a tenon saw from scratch. This project will also include teaching myself to sharpen and possibly modify the teeth of these saws and to sharpen the teeth of my full size crosscut and rip hand saws inherited from my wifes grandfather.

Im sure there will be other projects to follow, A wooden brace, making my own wood planes, those things come to mind immediately, there will be more.

So this all being explained, there will be more to write when there is something done... Hoping maybe Tuesday Ill have a chance to start!! As usual I will take a ton of pics and try to update this regularly, I know I know, best laid plans of somebody and that other guy... but I will try. Until then, happy sawdust everyone!
D

I have one more series of thoughts on the William and Mary Book Stand I recently completed. As I was pondering the finish of the piece I spent a little more time on Chuck Benders site to get a look at how he did the finish. He took a little bit different of an approach than I did, creating a finish that looks aged, but what I began to really notice was the finish pictures he had staged of his piece. Pictures just like this:
Now he also had a picture of the original piece. that picture was staged very similar to the picture of his work.
So I figured I had to keep up the tradition and stage a similar picture of my own. I wanted to personalize it somewhat though. I didnt have a nifty chip carved box or a blue glass vessel to show off in the picture. I thought about it quite a while. I wanted some items that represented me and yet, I also wanted to do something that was an update on the piece itself.





This is a piece with its roots in a different era, a time when books were a status symbol of wealth and affluence. The other day I was sitting in our local Barnes and Nobles with my wife. We each were enjoying a quiet moment together in the coffee shop area, each of us paging through a book.

Im not sure if everyone remembers such antiques as books but they are made of paper with words printed right on the page. The words dont move, light up, or hyperlink to a web page, but they can be highly entertaining. On the whole, I recommend books!

But while we sat there I took my eyes from the print in front of me to take a sip of my lemonade, and I happened to look around me. We were not alone, at least six other tables were occupied and we were the only ones with books in our hands, the rest of the tables were a collection of different digital tablets and readers and one dude with another antique known as a laptop.

In 1711 a book was a status symbol, in 2011, to my sometimes chagrin, the tablet reader is the new status symbol of the literary world. So I borrowed an tablet reader from a friend and used it to set up this picture. For what its worth, Id rather see a book on the stand.

Ratione et Passionis
Oldwolf

or curved if youd prefer.
 

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 shows location. It started at 10 and we didnt 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 didnt.

What the hell was going on here?

I did my first circuit around the room. In general, I wasnt impressed with the quality or type of tools that was being displayed.

I did my second circuit around the room. In general, I wasnt impressed with the price displayed on many of the tools.

I did my third circuit around the room. In general, I wasnt 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 Orrs 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 isnt 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 didnt even get close.



Dave "ToolRush" Carrieres booth was not quite as loaded this time around as last, and overall, the quality of tools wasnt near the last shows level. I did notice something impressive about Dave, though. I cant 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 didnt 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 #40s 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 didnt 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 shouldnt 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 groups 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 Im biased as I love old woodworking tools. I know those in charge will say Im 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 wasnt 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 werent making any sales. The fact that they were so busy commiserating with each other, they werent 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 werent the dealers themselves, but stand-ins, and they couldnt 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 wasnt 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 Im 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 wouldnt 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. Lets deal", I would have bought it for 50-bucks instead of the $55 he was asking. The point is, though, he didnt 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 isnt 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 havent viewed the guys wares yet, and cant. 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-crowders" 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 hasnt completed the 2011 Economics 101 course yet.

Peace,

Mitchell

All done with the GRR-Ripper

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Were working on a distressed walnut table top for a client who has a masonry pedestal. Were just making the top and the apron/stiffener. Its nearly finished and looking pretty good. Click the photos to enlarge them ...

The rough lumber form Irion Lumber in PA ... Beautiful boards, all from the same log.

Glued up and cut to round with a circle cutting jig on the bandsaw.
Heres one way to do it ... circle cutting jig There are simpler ones, like a board and a nail

We like this next process. Its quite fun. You move the pin that you use to cut the table round out away from the blade and one person spins the table (Trevor in this case) and one person (me in this case) holds the belt sander square and level. Once that kicks in, then you actually have to keep the top from spnning too fast. Sanding the cut edge this way takes only a couple of minutes .... Dont skip grits .... Dont let it take off ....

Trevor mortised the six round apron parts with the domino and glued them up in a circle using the band clamp, adding small moldings to the bottom edge to reinforce the glue joints.

View of the table bottom.
More later this week as its completed

The clients pedestal