Time to do some drilling, and some sawing, and such.
Well, for starters.
I still haven’t solved the layout problem, but all is not lost. The drilling went as well as you could expect.
So what of the fret sawing?
If you have seen how Roy Underhill does it, you will know that a fret saw is not the correct tool. Roy uses a pointy hack saw blade, but I hadn’t watched the video in an awfully long time, so I guessed on the “correct tool”.
The fret saw seemed to get the job done, but even in the video, I could see that a lot of the cuts are a little squiggly.
Going to have to try to fix that as well.
But the real problem is with the sawing itself. A fret saw pays a hefty price with all the threading, and re threading. One of these blades last a good while most times, but I don’t expect this one will last all that long now.
A while back I stumbled on to a set of plans to build the Roubo book stand. I looked at it, and thought that it would be interesting to do some day.
The only thing that really stuck with me on that set of plans was the instruction to practice in softwood first…
Well, after committing to film more of my work, I found myself with a block of pine in front of the camera, and I hadn’t thought to look again at the plans.
Here is your lucky chance to watch me bang off the layout on the fly.
Sweet!!!
I wonder how many things you can pick out that I did wrong?
Well for one, it seems I’m a heavy breather when I’m pondering what to do next.
I also still haven’t mastered marking out a 45 degree angle.
In the heat of the moment, I completely forgot to always reference my square off the same surface.
Finally, the layout on the side doesn’t look right…
I suppose I could have also titled this as “Woodworking in the community part 3″, but I guess I’ve moved on from that.
I’m still on the fence regarding the future of woodworking. I’d like to hope that the future is bright, but success breeds complacency, and complacency breeds failure.
I guess my concern is that I think what Frank said was wrong.
Ya, that’s right Frank! I’m calling you out!
Not really Mr. Klausz, uh, Sir.
Please don’t banish me…
But consider this.
There is only one “The Schwarz”, but unless he also carries a sword and has the habit of stating, “there can be only one” after dueling, we can expect that one day (hopefully many years from now) to mourn the loss of another highly valued woodworking hero.
Just relying on Chris to keep woodworking alive (Yes I know that was not what Frank was saying) is the opposite of what I’m offering as handtool economics. We can only have a healthy economy if the entire woodworking community does their part.
I believe that our economy will collapse if it is missing any one of these two key elements.
1. Woodworkers willing to learn
2. Woodworkers willing to teach
My Grandfather was a hobby woodworker, but it did not get passed on to my Father, and I know for certain that one or both of these elements were to blame. As a result, my father couldn’t pass the hobby to me.
As a child, like most other children these days, the tradition of woodworking was dead to me.
This break in the chain makes me a first generation woodworker. I am untaught in what I know. The equivalence of a correspondence student at best. I’ve studied the books, and read everything ever written on the web about woodworking. I put a TV in the shop so I could follow along with woodworking videos, but I’ve never had a mentor to tell me, “don’t hold it like that, hold it like this”. Sure I’ve gotten on pretty well over the years, but a little one on one time with someone who already knew the skill would have gotten me here years ago.
Many of you are in the same boat. You went out and bought a good plane in hopes that the plane would show you what you should expect a plane to do. You marveled at what it could do thinking it was sharp right out of the box. You were stumped when it stopped performing when it went from not really sharp, to down right blunt.
You had nobody to show you how to sharpen, so you went to the woodworking forums for help. A number of well meaning people chimed in with a million different methods to make two surfaces intersect at one angle, sparking another heated argument on the one true way to sharpen.
Those of you that know what I’m talking about, I hope you understand how valuable your hard earned knowledge is to the new woodworker that is willing to learn.
The question is, are you willing to teach.
It’s not Chris’s job to teach the people in your town how to sharpen, or saw, or plane. It’s your job.
Well, assuming you don’t want this thing to die.
Next problem?
The skill of teaching does not come natural to all of us. I’ve got plenty to tell anyone who will listen, but it all sounds so much more eloquent in my head.
It’s also one thing to bang off the perfect saw cut in private, it’s a whole other thing to do it in front of expectant onlookers.
Well as far as I know, the only way to improve your public speaking, or one on one teaching is to do it. However if you can feel confident that you can demonstrate skills in public, it should be a little easier to do the speaking.
Here’s my idea.
Video record your work, and post it on your blog…
One take. You go with what you get.
Ya, that’s right.
You guys are in trouble!
I’m going to try to incorporate more video into the blog. I’m not expecting it to be great video, but I do hope that it will be beneficial to all of us.
1. This will up the pressure to test my skills. One take, do or die. Post the results…
2. Like I said before, I’ve never had anyone critique my form, or my work patterns. This gives me the chance to critique myself.
3. You the reader get to watch and decide if you like the way I do things, or if you like a different way to do it.
4. If nothing else, I have awesome taste in music, so every video will be an audio treat. Ha, ha, ha.
Here is the first one. I originally made it as a response to Chris’s post Shut up and Sharpen, and was what got me on this line of thought.
So did it really cut like a knife? Well, ya it was pretty sharp. Not atom splitting sharp, but still very usable.
I hope these upcoming videos are of value to you all. I’m just wrapping up my first full project with video, and it’s been a real learning experience.
I’ve got to hope that any regular reader of this blog already knows who made this plane. If you don’t, stop reading and click on the picture to discover one of the few blogs in the world that really matters.
I’ll wait…
OK, welcome back. Last time, I decisively convinced all of you that LN planes are not overpriced, so we can safely move forward. Way forward.
I’ve always wanted one of Konrad’s planes. I came close to ordering one a few years back, but the timing wasn’t right (and I’d just ‘accidentally’ dropped six bills on a set of chisels).
That was back when money seemed to grow on trees. Since then, the economy has left most of us a little lighter in the wallet, so new tools are a little slower to make their way into my shop.
Let’s face it, most hobbies seem to cost money. Unless you collect belly button lint, you are going to end up spending money on your hobby. Hand tools are no different, it won’t cost you as much as… Say yachting, but I still need to eat.
These days, just like most of you out there, it’s not so easy to spare the funds required for this hobby.
Over the past decade or so, many fantastic tool makers have popped up. Some have flourished, and others have struggled under the weight of back-orders, others have flourished under the weight of back-orders.
I’m just another customer, and I don’t have ANY inside information on ANY tool makers, but if my change in buying habits are at all like the rest of the hand tool community, tool sales must be down.
The thing that bothers me is that not every retail market in our lives is suffering from the down turn in the economy. When I drive by my local coffee shop the line up of cars in the drive-through blocks traffic just as bad as when we all thought we were rich.
Over the past years, I’ve incorporated an adapted approach to finances vs. hobbies.
As an example, I can’t function (literally) without my morning coffee. It’s not a grumpy thing, it’s a drooling moron thing. There was a time that I was known by all the coffee shop staff well enough that my coffee and donuts were waiting for me at the till. I made a financial choice a number of years ago to make my morning coffee rather than buy it at the coffee shop (and skip the donuts). I’d forgotten what a savings this small thing makes, so do let’s have a look.
An extra-large coffee would cost me $2.00 each morning. Multiply that by 365 for a yearly cost of $730.00
A container of Folgers coffee lasts me at least a month. You can get it on sale for $7.00 so we stalk up. Multiply that by 12 for a yearly cost of $84.00
That one change of lifestyle saves me $646.00. I won’t include saving $417 in donuts I didn’t need. (Holly Crap!!! that would be a thousand dollars a year!!!)
You can walk out of LN with even their most expensive plane, or a full set of chisels (you didn’t want the chisel roll anyways) for less that $646.00.
I guess the problem here is that it would take years for this little scheme to pay for one of Konrad’s planes, and I really would like one of my own some day. That’s why I always make a lunch rather than eat out, get movies from my local library (Free) rather than pay $12.00 each at the Theaters, and a number of other things that I won’t get into.
Some people may say you shouldn’t have to sacrifice these things, and I’m not saying you should. It’s a question of likes vs. value.
I’d really like a jet ski, but I value woodworking more. I really liked skiing, but I valued woodworking more. Golfing is fun but I’d rather be woodworking.
I really dislike making my own lunch, and coffee, but I value our niche tool makers more.
If me not supporting my local coffee shop and fast food joint, keeps one small tool maker from closing up shop and going back to their desk job, I’ll gladly keep the home brew percolating, and the bread maker bread-maker-ing.
It’s no sacrifice.
So I challenge you to get out there and look for some tool maker that you like (that you really, really like), then consider if there is anything else in your life that you value less than that tool makers existence.
Let’s keep our hobby strong, because even in a recession, coffee still does grow on trees… or a bush… or something.
It’s a good thing I’ve forgotten my Woodnet password…
It seems there is a heated debate on weather LN planes are overpriced. There are the usual comments along the lines of “If they were overpriced, people wouldn’t buy them”, and “if you think their smoothers are expensive you should see the price of their shooting plane!!!
These threads are also good for at least one person who decides to dabble in the economics, and the effect of inflation on prices. The problem is that numbers have a way of spinning around and biting you in the tender bits if you are not careful.
One member (MattP) made the following post.
In the early 20th century, you could apparently buy a smoothing plane for about $1.62, and a Stanley block plane for about $1.45
The purchasing power of the dollar has declined by 96.5% since 1900. Phrased differently, a dollar today buys the same thing that 3.5 cents bought in 1900.
By that measure, a handplane of comparable quality to a $1.65 smoothing plane should cost about $77. And–whaddya know!?–a new Stanley smoothing plane costs $79.00 at Rockler. Of course, we all know that a Lie Nielsen No. 4 runs $300, or nearly 4 times as expensive. – MattP
I should mention that I don’t know MattP, I have no beef with the guy, and I’m not trying to start something. I have no intention of discrediting him, and in fact, I appreciate the time he took in researching the topic. However it seems pretty clear that he is set on his opinion (as am I), and I think it may have blinded him on what these numbers say.
In the spirit of good natured debate, here are some sticking points I have with the argument.
While a smoothing plane went for a buck sixty-two, not all smoothing planes were Stanley’s flagship smoothing plane known as the bedrock. I’m sure a bedrock smoother was more than the price listed.
The Stanley block plane’s old price is listed just 17 cents less than the smoother. In today’s money that is $59.50. A LN #4 smoother is $300, and the LA block plane is $165. The difference in price is more than double at $135. Again, pointing to the fact that you never could buy a bedrock for a little over a buck an a half.
Well those are just number that you spin any way you want.
The old smoother was probably made in either America or Canada. At the time just about any living being that made their living working wood, other than the mighty beaver, needed a smoother. High volume manufacturing lowers overhead, and that lowers the individual price tag on most any given product. Foundries could be found scattered all over our continent, and there was a wealth of skilled metal workers as a result. The old world market was perfect for affordable NEW hand tools.
Today most smoothers are used by a tiny nich market know as “hand tool woodworking hobbyist”. The modern world lists smoothers on kijiji as block planners, primitive tools, and vintage smothers. The modern woodworking hobbyist has the choice of buying block planners at the flee market, or buying from modern tool makers that build in overly small batches. Many of us will go with the $5 smother. So why are LN planes so much more expensive than a modern Stanley? Well the most obvious answer is that LN uses an American workforce, and Stanley planes are made in Mexico where wages are much lower. Now it would be horribly inappropriate to say that Mexicans CAN’T make as good a plane as an American, but the whole reason you chase cheaper wages is because you are willing to compromise quality for price. There is also the issue of foundries. There aren’t that many left to choose from. And finding reliable, skilled workers for your small tool making shop. Who will train them? Manufacturing in North America is not so much of a way of life like it still is in many third world countries. Finding the right people to build your tools can’t be as easy as it once was. The other reason is as I mentioned before. LN can’t be making the same volume of planes today as Stanley once made a hundred years ago. As a result LN must spread their overhead over a much smaller market base.
That means that anyone that thinks LN planes are too expensive can blame people like me. Eight times I have chosen to buy old Stanley planes rather than LN planes. That’s 8 planes that could have carried just a little more of LN’s cost of doing business.
Don’t blame LN.
Blame me.
So now let’s compare the Smoother of yesteryear (let’s give it the benefit of the doubt and call it a nice type 11 Stanley) against the modern Stanley Sweetheart. Can you even compare these two planes?
I really don’t think you can. If I happened into Rockler and saw the modern Stanley priced at $79.00 and right beside it was your typical flee market type 11 in decent shape, also priced at $79.00…
What plane catches my eye? What plane do I pick up and inspect?
It wouldn’t be the modern Stanley. I have better things to do with my time.
I would however stop and look the Type 11. It would have to be pretty sweet for me to not be turned off by the sticker price, but I wouldn’t have even looked at the price tag of the modern plane.
No you can’t compare these two planes.
If you still need more convincing or you just want a good laugh (many of you I’m sure have already seen it), I’ll need to pass you off to Wilbur Pan writer of giant Cypress.
T’was out’n'about reading amongst the blogs a while back.
A respected blogger (and, one of my heroes) wrote how he finds gang sawing his dovetails to be faster.
Since I’m all about the speed, I thought I’d better give it a try.
I’d also just picked up a hand screw clamp that really helps out with wider boards. It was actually quite handy with keeping the two boards together while getting them into the vise. It’s really important that they stay perfectly aligned with each other. Otherwise it could make for some really sloppy cuts.
The idea here is that with the two boards in the vise together, you will save time with layout and sawing, so I tried it out.
Marking the layout, I guess is faster since you only do it once, however, my dovetail marker is too small to complete the line across the two boards, so I did have to take the time to extend the lines with a square.
Again, sawing with the dovetail saw is faster, but if there is any part of dovetails that I feel I’m quickest at, it’s sawing the tails. Then you have to remove the waste. If you are like me, you would cut it with a fret saw, but at an inch and a quarter, that fine little blade would be no match for it.
Solution?
Coping saw!
I’d never used a coping saw for this purpose, I use it for coping…
With a wider, deeper blade, you can’t just cut straight across. (sorry, no pics…) Instead , you have to start by cutting down with the curf, and then cut an arc until you are cutting parallel with the base line. This leaves you with a little triangle that didn’t get cut out. Then you have to turn your blade to cut in the opposite direction, and make a second cut. In my opinion, this makes it take just as long as sawing the two boards individually with a fret saw, but I also don’t like the coarse cut of the coping saw vs the nice fine cut of the fret saw. As a result, I also found that I had more waste to chop out with a chisel.
All in all.
I’m not sold yet, but please don’t let this stop you from trying it.
I don’t like it, but you may love it, and then you can tell all your friends how great it is.
And it’s always nice to be able to recommend something from your own experience rather than because a guy named Chris said it was good.
I get a lot of traffic from the search engines on this topic, so I thought I might as well show how I do it.
Prepare to be amazed…
Or not…
Ya, I know. It doesn’t look like much.
That board makes a better door than a window, so let’s get it out of the way.
Ya, I know. It doesn’t look like much, but that’s the point!
All we have here is a couple of scraps of MDF up against a plane stop. The plane stop just needs to be a little taller than the MDF so it catches the board.
I don’t need to stress about the fence being square or any of that crap. I’ve got a knife line to plane down to, so when I get to the knife line I stop. If I’m a little heavy on one end, I just plane that end, and pull the plane off the cut before I get to the other end. Once I’ve made a full length shaving, I’ll stop to check that the plane is cutting square to the board, and then I can simply plane to my little hearts desire.
Sometimes I’ll also slap a little paraffin wax on the side wall of the plane so it slides easier.
Along with a friend of mine, we put together a sharpening workshop for some of the members of our woodworking club. They all seem to own planes, but non of them seem to ever use them. Those of them that do, they mostly use them to hold down their shelves so they don’t float off into the stratosphere. Some more creative types have discovered that they also are great at storing their very finest of dust collections.
I say, good on them, but it still couldn’t hurt to learn them to sharpen the blade a little.
You see the thing of it all is. There are all kinds of demos and videos out there that we all watch and think that we are learning. I know the folks in the club have all watched Rob Cosman do his song and dance (by the way, I have a new respect for that guy after this weekend), he will demonstrate sharpening, planing, and dovetailing, and all but the most lifeless pools of primordial ooze get whipped up into a lather of tool buying excitement.
And happily go home with tools that they have already forgotten what to do with.
Our plan was to put those hands to their tools, and get them doing stuff with them.
We made a Saturday of it, and this, finally was my chance to show these people how easy it was if they just gave it a try.
………..?……
Let’s start on the grinder. The grinder is your workhorse, it will quickly remove the material that would take forever to remove with a stone.
…….?…
No, no. Hold the blade this way, and make light passes on the grinder. No, light passes. A little lighter.
Hang on. Light passes, and you want the blade to slide flat on the tool rest. No wait, you’re tilted back too much. STOP! You’re digging the edge into the stone now, and you’ve burned it….
What is going on here!? Why are they having so much trouble?
And then the memories started flooding back of when I was learning how to hollow grind a blade.
I burned an edge or two. Bobbled halfway through many a pass, and leaned on the grinder so hard that it would slide away from me too.
For years now, I’ve been telling people that grinding is easy, and to tell you the truth. IT’S NOT!!! Not for a beginner! The same thing goes for free hand sharpening. In our world there is very little that prepares us to be able to hold so many joints rigid, and smoothly move the other joints. The modern world just doesn’t work that way!
The thing is that God made us with the ability to control our bodies movements if we are willing to take the time to focus on it. It’s not easy, but it is possible. I learned how to do all this stuff on my own. I sucked big time when I first started, and in some things I still suck, but the things that have improved were not a result of special gifting, or super human dexterity. It’s simply a result of pushing through the suck factor, and reaping the rewards of following through.
Storing finishing products is tricky. I don’t like finishing in the first place, so having to fight with storage doesn’t help.
A while back I gave Tung Oil a try for the first time, but the problem was I didn’t use it all, and any amount of air in the can would dry it out.
The first product I tried was Finish Preserve from Lee Valley. This is a cool product, but as the note says “: full can feels empty, but will provide approximately 75 two-second bursts of non-toxic, non-flammable gas.“
If you can’t tell if it’s full or not, you can’t tell if it’s full or not. It worked great the first time, but a year later when I needed it again, it seems it really was empty. I don’t know if I stored it wrong or what, but clearly in my hands, it is not a fool proof solution.
I’ve also tried using Lee Valley’s Collapsible Bottle. This again is a pretty cool idea.
Unfortunately…
The overspill crud is hard to work around, and the cool collapsible flanges make the top wobble back and forth like the clown from a jack in the box.
Cool idea, but I don’t think it’s for me.
And then, I accidentally read the instructions on the side of the Tung oil container.
Enter Tostitos Jar…
This could be the answer.
Well, no,
This could be the answer.
After breaking through the layer of dried tung oil in this can, I found a little that hadn’t dried.
The only problem is that it doesn’t fill the jar any better than it did the can, however, like the collapsible bottle, I do like the wide mouth. I like to be able to dip a rag directly into the oil, when I apply it, so we just need to solve the empty jar issue.
The answer according to the label, is to fill it with water. The oil floats on the water, and does not mix with it.
Sweet!
So there we go, problem solved. A salsa jar and some water.
No problem right?
Well not so fast. You can’t really fill the jar to the point that there is literally no air in it. There is still a small bubble in there that is going to ruin some of that precious oil, and leave crustys in the good oil.
Foiled again!
I’m going to try something here, and see if it works.
I’ve placed the jar upside down in this paint can. The jar shouldn’t leak anyways, but if it did, I’m hoping the vacuum effect will keep everything where is should be. Worst case it will spill into the paint can, but I’ve gotten distracted.
My thought is that since I can’t keep the air from the oil. Being upside down, as the air dries some of the oil, it will hopefully bond with the bottom of the jar, and not float up to the top when I one day turn the jar right side up again.
This is just like science class!!!
Oh, and one more thing.
If you are ever in a friends work shop, and he offers you some nachos.
This box is an important one for me. As usual, it has no functional purpose, but it’s still a bit of a big deal.
The beauty of photography is that you can hide a world of sin with the right camera angle, and a tight depth of field.
For the first time, I’ve built a box that doesn’t really have a bad side.
Now don’t get me wrong, dovetail perfection is still not quite within my grasp, but any gaps you find on this little sucker, you gonn’a have to search for them.
Cutting a raised panel is not that hard, but getting all the angles to line up with the corners, and also get a nicely planed surface on the end grain is a little harder.
Ok, I cheated a little. I usually cut the grooves with my plow plane, but this time, I used my powered router. I have to admit, although I hate my router, I hate most all my power tools, that is a great way to cut some grooves!
I also had the forethought to align the birch so that it shows the curls better when it is NOT upside down.
The box is pretty close to perfect, but the lid? It? It was perfect. A lid with a matching raised panel. Without flaw.
Perfect…
And it looked like donkey poo when I put it on the box.
So I made a simple squared edge lid, that is not perfect, but I managed to fix it.
