Some interesting instructions here.
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So let me get this straight.
Elliptical is just a fancy word for “oval”?
Got it!
Now that’s a bar trick!
Reply
Half Lapped Dovetail Joint
Sometimes you just forget about a project you’ve been working on.
A few months ago, my woodworking club did a little challenge to make a picture frame. I was in the middle of some other stuff, so I decided not to participate. A week before the challenge was due, I received a certificate in the mail for a course I’d taken for work.
“Darn! That’s going to need a frame”, I thought.
Nothing I make happens quickly, I’m very un-rushed in my workshop. So building a frame in a week was going to be a problem. Especially since I’d be learning some new techniques as the build progressed. The first was cutting glass for the first time, the second was the half lapped dovetails.
After dimensioning the sides of the frame, I also cut the groove to hold the glass. I’ve marked the layout for the dovetail, but first I’ll cut the half lap.
Had I gone with any larger of a frame, I’d have needed to use a larger saw. It didn’t even occur to me until this point…
After cross cutting the waste out, there was a little paring, and fussing to make sure the shoulder was square. At this point it occurred to me that this is much like cutting the shallow tail I used here only easier.
Cutting the tail was nothing new.
Transferring the tails was interesting. Getting everything in place was easy enough, but making sure it was all square? Different story.
Now “all” I have to do is transfer the dovetail lines, mark the depth, cut to the lines, remove the waste, glue, and assemble. Ya, right…
It was 2 days before it was due at this point, and nearing midnight. If I didn’t finish glue up tonight, I’d not have a chance at getting any finish on in time.
What I’m saying is that this is the end of the pictures for today. It was a long haul, and I was a sleepy boy the next morning, but I survived glue up before sunrise…
Triangle Shaped Plates
I had to laugh when I read this. I take no offense to it, I just can see that Chris and I are (in this case) from totally different worlds. For one, I hate (I use the word “hate” too much) cooking. I also hate have a strong dislike for fine food. It’s just too she-she, and frou-frou for my tastes. You wann’a add a garnish to my meal, then slap a scoop of mashed potatoes beside that blue rare steak. I don’t go for that artistic stuff either. Don’t waste my time with some lime and jasmine drizzle, that’s time I’m not chowing down!
And somebody tell my how a giant triangle plate makes it taste any better!?
God made plates round for a reason people.
…..
…….
Seem to have gone off course again….
The real thing that got me in this statement was about reclaiming wood. I get that you don’t necessarily want to be limited by the dimensions, and quality afforded by pallet wood, but some of us still have big plans for some truly horrible designs, and absolutely critical woodworking errors. Nice wood limits my freedom to fail miserably.
Don’t get me wrong. I like working with select materials, but I have this one little issue.
I have access to a lot of reclaimed, salvage wood, and I just can’t say no to it.
The Deadly Sin of Gluttony
I hate prefer not to use MDF, but I see a metric ton of partial sheets that would other wise be destined for the local landfill. There’s occasional bits of oak and maple, I even snatched up an old fir door. It’s huge, and one day I’ll break it down into usable pieces. The grain is perfection you’ve never seen.
Stair treads are becoming a problem. Your typical stairs have 12 to 13 treads, each 3 feet long.
I have too many to count of southern yellow pine floor board cut offs that I can’t think of what to do with, but at 12″x14″x 2″ I just can’t get rid of them.
And cabinets. All the good wood you could harvest from a cabinet door. It’s too much for me. I can’t say no.
Heck, last week I brought home a 2×10 cut off because I liked the grain.
A few months ago, I was invited to an evening of special discounts at my local wood supplier. I stood in the store, with some really great wood in my hand at a very fair price. But I couldn’t buy it. All I could think of was those piles. Years worth of piles of wood sitting in my garage, my basement, even the back of my van. I knew that I couldn’t justify spending a dime until I use up some of this stuff. So I put it down and walked away.
So many mistakes I still need to make, but I’ll get there some day.
Or not…
Oh and one last thing. There was one part of Chris’s statement that left me totally in the dark. I had to google “Altendorf table saw”, but didn’t get past the home page before I got bored.
Too gizmo for this guy…
Was it something I said?
Hey look at that!
It’s been 6 months now since I started this blog. I never planned on noting milestones when I started, but I’m still a little surprised by just about everything involved in bloggers ville.
For one, I can’t believe that I still have anything to write about. My original plan was to document the odd project, and that was about it. So I’ll quickly give myself a pat on the back for using my words.
What has left me completely stupefied, is that anyone else wants to read it…
I’m a very selfish writer. I write what pleases me, and what I think is funny, or interesting. I’m also a selfish reader, by that I mean I have a very short attention span. So paragraph after paragraph on stone flattening by anyone other than myself would put me to sleep. The fact that any of you give me the time of day is not taken lightly.
So today is not about me or the Fair Woodworking Blog. It’s about you the intrepid reader. You gluttons for ridicule, and my harsh unqualified opinions. What gives you the stomach for hearing about my morbid, twisted thoughts and stories? I don’t know.
Whatever it is, it’s nice to see you have stopped by.
And on that note, I should mention that I’ve hit another milestone. This month Fair Woodworking had its 1000th view! I’ve never really promoted the blog, in fact I’ve only ever told one person about it, and that was only while asking permission to proclaim that I hated him (by the way I don’t actually hate Konrad Sauer). At first it was a mystery how other than by google search, anyone found the blog. That is until I noticed that you can click on the comments I’ve made on other blogs, and it links to mine. I like that because it makes this feel more like a community. Since then I’ve noticed a few other bloggers have added my blog to their list of links. While my goal is not to get on everybody’s blogroll, I do want to show my appreciation to such a kind gesture.
And then there is Twitter. I don’t get Twitter. At all. I set up an account to try to make heads or tails out of it, but I don’t see its charm. I did however discover that I do have at least one reader who does get it. It was very cool to see that most of my posts are being re-posted on another twitter account along side of what I would consider “respectable” bloggers.
It’s not why I’m doing it, but it’s nice to know that you guys are there.
Thank you to everyone for an enjoyable 6 months!
Have a great week in your part of the world, and if you already have one, keep blogging. If you don’t…
Start.
I talk to myself
The first time I saw a picture of a Bill Carter plane, I really wasn’t impressed. I didn’t think much of it, and wondered why anyone would want to buy one. They looked rather raw and rustic. I had to think that if I wanted and old looking plane, I’d just get an old plane.
Some time after, I found myself in the shop of a fellow woodworker. As it happened, he was the proud new owner of his own Bill Carter plane. Inwardly I smirked to myself, and more out of politeness, I asked if I could see it.
The deadly sin of Greed
It’s confession time. I don’t think buddy knows the whole story, I don’t think I ever mentioned it…
I’m a pretty honest person. I’d like to think I am anyways. But what happened next makes me wonder.
Time slowed down as he placed that little plane in my hands. I’d never seen anything, nor felt anything like that plane at that moment. How is it that this plane, this tiny piece of reclaimed metal. So raw, and marvelously rustic, could be so…. so, perfect.
Time stopped.
“Self”, I said, “you’ve never touched perfection before”.
“No, I suppose you are right”
“Who’s to say you ever will again”
“Well what am I to do?”
“You know what to do”
“I have to give it back”
“NO!!!”
“Pardon me?” I asked myself.
“You can run”
“WHAT?”
“Pop him on the head, and run”
“Have you lost your mind!?!”
………
…
..
In a cold sweat, and my ears ringing, I gingerly handed the plane back.
What just happened?
To this day, I can’t explain those few moments, other than to say that greed is always around the corner. That’s not to say that we are all on the verge of theft, and assault with a miniature hand plane, but whether it’s keeping up with the Joneses, or who gets the last pork chop.
Greed it waiting for you…
You’re once, twice, three times the chisel…
“If you can’t tell the difference between skunk and mink, why buy mink?”
Recently I was asked if I thought it was really worth spending 3 or more times the price of an entry level chisel to get one of the high end chisels.
This question gets thrown around a lot on the forums, and I really have to wonder what planet some people are on.
Let me back up a bit.
Last year I found myself yet again at a Rob Cosman Dovetail demonstration. I’d like to think I’ve got dovetails down for the most part, but it was something to do on a Saturday morning. I also wanted to give his often criticized/praised Dovetail Saw a try. Always the salesman, I knew he would offer it up for a test drive, and I was first in line. The saw felt heavy in my hand, but no more than some of my larger back saws. I’dunno it seemed fine enough…
What really surprised me was when I approached the bench, I found Rob’s bench is very different from mine. It’s much taller than mine, I’d guess at least 6-8 inches, even though I’m taller than Rob.(I don’t think I’ll be building a moxon vice any time soon.) He also uses a shoulder vice, that you have to reach over. His bench forced me into a standing position that I never use for sawing. As a result I was completely out of sorts in trying out the saw. The rest of the people had never really used a hand saw any, so they couldn’t understand why I was having so much trouble.
That day I learned that I really know what I like in a bench design for sawing, and I instantly knew something was not right. As a new woodworker, you don’t get that feeling very often, because everything feels new, different, or simply not right.
So do I know what I like in a chisel? On the forums you will read about how the higher end chisels are better balanced than their cheaper counterparts.
This one makes me laugh.
Have a look at both of these pictures, and notice that with both sets of chisels, they are all about the same length. They do get a little shorter as the width of the chisel decreases, but not much. One thing for sure is, all sizes have the very same size handle. So how can a 1/8″ chisel be “balanced” and a 3/4″ chisel be equally “balanced”. It could be my lack of experience, but this balance thing sounds like arm chair woodworker speak for “them chisels sure is purdy”.
So what of the metal? Surely the LN’s are clearly superior? I’ve been using both sets a lot lately, and I’ll be darned if I can tell the edge holding difference between the two. Again, it could be that I’m just that dense, but I’m starting to think it will be years before I’ll be able to tell a difference. Anyone else that is at my experience level that can tell a difference is clearly gifted, and superior to me in every way. I really can’t tell the difference.
All that stuff is still too subtle for me to pick up on, but anyone can pick the clear winner on looks. One looks like a Ferrari and the other looks like a Datsun. I’ll admit it, the big reason I bought the LN chisels is for the looks. They really are awesome to handle, and I do believe it is what spurs the unfounded arguments above. They ooze a Mystical sense of beauty, and power over the hands that hold them. I think to some degree their beauty can make you a more confident woodworker, and that may make you a better woodworker. Who knows..?
The LN’s have very neat and clean lines. On the other hand the Narex had a hard edge where the flat of the chisel meets the round of the neck.
I found this immediately unacceptable.
With a rotary tool, I ground it flat.
Both on the front and the back. On 8 chisels that’s 16 sides that had to be addressed.
So does this justify the Narex chisels being 6 times less expensive than the LN? What is your time worth, and do you have a rotary tool?
But wait, there’s more.
I bought the original Narex chisels. They call them “beveled edge” but we all know they are not. It’s more of a raised panel top, with square edges. The LN’s display the correct bevel we have all come to admire. The new Narex version is beveled “correctly”. The bevel is critical for removing the waste out of dove tails, and it seems that over the years this concept was lost. I should mention that the proper bevel is ONLY needed for chisels that will used for paring between tails. You could use a Mortice chisel to pare between the pins.
In the old days, I’ve been told that before you used a new chisel, you would add the bevel yourself. I did it, again with my rotary tool. With the LN’s they did it for you at a price.
After a long session of chiseling waste, I noticed something between the two chisels. The “correct” bevel of the LN’s made my fingers sore. When I hold the chisel I grasp it by the edges. With the bevel on the sides it makes for a sharp edge to hold on to.
With the modified Narex, the wide edges were much more comfortable to hold, yet the modified bevel on the end still worked fine for the task.
Hmmm….
As I’ve said/shown, the Narex chisels require some work to make them properly usable. Another issue I had with them was for sharpening. When I bought them, I didn’t know how to sharpen. I started off with a sharpening jig, and found that for many of them, the jig seemed to struggle getting the edge to sharpen square. This drove me nuts! What I found was that the backs of the chisels were not necessarily square to the fronts of the chisel. Since the jig mounted with the front towards it, the bevel would always be out of square.
The only solution was to try to square up the front to match the back. At this point I realized that these chisels were giving me an introduction to free hand metal work. It took some time, but just like the other modifications, I manage to get it right.
On a side note, after seeing that I was capable of fine tuning my chisels free hand, it occurred to me that free hand sharpening would be a snap in comparison. I’m pretty sure that was the last time I used my sharpening jig.
So I guess I’m saying that while the LN’s are great, you could live a long and happy life with the Narex.
In closing, I’ll offer something very subjective. Chisel sizes.
To me anything larger than 3/4″ is a carpentry chisel, not a woodworking chisel.
The Narex set of 8 includes a 1″, 1-1/4″, and a 1-1/2″. The 1″ is handy for installing door hardware on unmilled door slabs. The 1-1/2″ is great as a glue line scraper. The 1-1/4″ has never been sharpened or used.
This leaves me with a set of 5 “Woodworking” chisels. 1/4″, 3/8″, 1/2″, 5/8″, and 3/4″. I like narrow pins for my dovetails. In many of the wood thicknesses I use, when cleaning out between the tails, the 1/4″ is just a wee bit to wide. At $76.00 for the Narex set, the sizes are it greatest limitation.
Many woodworkers recommend newbies buy just 1 or 2 chisels to start. I’m glad I didn’t. In fact my favorite thing about my LN’s is that there are 9 of them between 1/8″ and 3/4″. I use them all, but think I use the 3/16″ the most for paring the tails, followed by the 1/4″. Occasionally I screw up a cut and find the 3/16″ is too wide. The 1/8″ is my safety net.
So if you are looking for some chisels, I can’t tell you what is best for you, but I hope I’ve given you another useful perspective.
Lie-Nielsen Beveled edge chisels link
Narex Bevel-Edge Chisels link These are the ones I own. At the time of writing, these chisels are discontinued, but when I checked for availability, it shows as backordered until May 29th. They are less expensive than the newer versions listed below, and if you like the idea of having a wider edge to hold onto, and are not afraid to modify the ends, you may like these better. Grab ‘em while you can!
Narex Classic Bevel-Edge Chisel Link Same as the ones above, but with fully beveled edges, and a slightly higher price tag. Why anyone needs a 2″ chisel with a fully beveled edge is beyond me…
We think ahead
I found this on Peter Follansbee’s blog.
Mostly posting it so I can find it again if I want to…
