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vivianteddybear, your table top is gluing up now.
Okay, so a given that it's leaving a glassy surface behind. That's the whole point of it. Just for kicks I took one of the thinner shavings in. This plane, which I adjust by hitting it with a hammer, took a shaving two and a half thousandths of an inch thick, if I am reading my caliper correctly. With a minimum of setup.
Oh, I'm keepin' this one.
They are, of course, completely different from each other and I will notice immediately if I misplace one. But still.
I wonder if this is how Screamin’ Jay Hawkins felt when they told him he had 55 children (later reckoned to be perhaps as many as 75).
This man is terrifyingly good. He builds 1:12 scale models of furniture that is hard to build at full size. I want to make a crack about too much time on his hands but I don’t have the heart to do it. It’s not like he’s only done this one thing, he does them all the time. He also does his own hardware (of necessity, it’s not like you can just go out and buy a ¼″ copy of a 3″ plate. The keys for his locks are so tiny they are dwarfed by the tweezers he’s using to hold them, and yet the lock works.
I am regretting that delay now. With the right honing compound it gets better edges faster than my waterstones + stropping. It’s not as good at keeping the edge straight as my waterstones are, but damn is it effective. I sharpened a chisel and put it back in my leather tool roll and it effortlessly punched through the leather and out one side.
I am simultaneously delighted by this and terrified of what will happen if I slip with that chisel. I’m gonna start counting all my fingers after working with it, because with it that sharp I’ll never know if it cut me.
I already have a laser-guided pencil, what more does one need? -EdA laser guided laser. That way you can make sure your laser is pointed correctly.
Definitely no more shopping at Sabobo for me.
If you haven’t seen him before, Klausz is a Hungarian (I think?) carpenter who immigrated and now does custom furniture here. He is one of the best known craftsmen in the field at the moment, and takes the job of teaching seriously.
Turning on a spring pole lathe is apparently quite different from using a normal lathe. For one thing, catches aren’t as big a deal because the thing can only rotate so far in one direction. At the same time planing a cylinder isn’t trivial. I suspect my books are only going to be so useful in learning how to do this thing, and that I’m going to have to teach myself most of it (which is fine, honestly).
(Grr: posted now because Cox is being moronic; I finished it last night)
With a little luck I might have it completed this weekend.
Ray Iles 3/8″ mortising chisel
When I recieved this in the mail it became instantly obvious why
chisels of this design are referred to as pigstickers
. It is
simply enormous, but enormous in a good way. I didn’t get a
chance until today to cut a test mortise with it, but after honing
it cut through the Douglas fir I had smoothly and quickly, and
vastly better than the firmer I had repurposed as a mortiser, let
alone my bench chisels.
If I had to complain about anything, it’s actually a little too big; I have big hands and have a little trouble sometimes controlling the damn thing. But there’s a reason it’s that big, and I'm not willing to sacrifice that for minor conveniences.
Would I buy another, at $70 a shot or so? Heck yes. In fact I have another on order, the 1/4″ version.
Review by Graham Hughes, March 24th
Lie-Nielsen Coarse Rip Carcass Saw
This is a 10 ppi version of Lie-Nielsen’s carcass saw, which I bought for use as a tenon saw. I think it would probably be classified as a sash saw around 1920, but whatever. I don’t like that Lie-Nielsen uses split nuts (which require a special tool you can get by regrinding a screwdriver), but I can’t complain about anything else on the tool. The curly maple handle is quite attractive. But I didn’t buy the saw to look at it.
As far as actually sawing, I have nothing to complain about. It saws quickly, easily and accurately, and (with the mortising chisel above) helped me cut probably the best mortise & tenon joint I think I’ve ever done.
There are some other tenon saws available, for example the Pax or the Adria. I have no experience with them, although the Pax saws I do have are delightful. In this case I knew I wanted something a little on the coarse side, and the Pax and Adria are all 13 tpi (12 ppi).
I’m pretty happy with the saw as it is, and as I break it in it will apparently become even better. I’m sure it was worthwhile buying some sort of tenon saw, as my Pax dovetail saw is not really coarse enough to make for a good tenon saw.
Review by Graham Hughes, March 24th
I haven’t had cause to use it yet, although I will soon, but all the reviews I have of the beast say it’s the best mortising chisel currently on the market, and every bit as good as the old mortising chisels of yore.
dr_mrow and refurbished, and now two hatchets. I just tested the new pair on some fir cutoffs, and they cut fine after I reground the damned edge.
I hear the cry already: why in the name of ghod do you have more than one axe, let alone even one? There’s a long reason for this that I will gleefully tell you all about if you are fool enough to ask, but basically “they’re good for different things”.
Why I have any axes at all I haven’t totally sorted out yet…
For those of you who weren’t there to witness it, my #7 jointer’s tote self-destructed on me at collegium. I’ve hated that handle since I got the plane, so replacing it was an easy decision. Today I got the replacement in the mail; my jointer is complete again. Whole. Useful.
Now to go to the library and write.
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