Best selling wood projects - Pre Owned and Pre Loved

Best selling wood projects

Since my last post, I have been asked many times where did I find the pre-loved tools that I use.  I would love to be able to say that they were passed down through my father.  Sadly, I only have his hand saw - a Warranted Superior 26 inch 8 point cross cut. It is very much like a D-8 and was probably made by Disston.  And I love using it.

Others, I have found in all sorts of places.  Garage and boot sales, Sunday Markets,  second hand and bric-a-brac stores, online and other auctions - to name a few.

It helps enormously to have a working knowledge of hand tools before looking.  Familiar names of quality tool makers, and the styles of their construction are a walk up start.  Often you can recognise a quality nameless tool because of its obvious parentage.

Here is a little gem that I found today - pre-owned but definitely not pre-loved.

Sad, isnt it.  If you saw it on the street you would probably step over it.  But .......  made by Robert Sorby, and in a useful and rare size 1-3/4 inches wide, this chisel was worth trying to save.

First step was to get rid of the rust and scale, and see what damage to the steel lurked beneath.

 

Hmmm ... lots of pitting to both sides.  Pitting on the top is ugly and deep - but is only cosmetic, pitting on the bottom is a real problem.  At this stage, the back is so bad that only the bottom half will be given help, as this is where all the cutting action will take place.

 

The pitting is quite deep here, and to hand flatten this would take days.  I used an electric linisher with quite coarse grit to begin the flattening, keeping the blade cool during the process so as not to affect the temper of the steel.

Here is the back of the blade after  introducing it to the linisher.  A big improvement, but the scoring from the coarse grit now needs to be removed. Also, the cutting edge has been radiused in the past for some reason and has a distinct roundness.  I dont want this rounding, and will grind the edge back to square.  This will necessitate re-grinding the bevel as well.                                                Many modern woodworkers now approach the back flattening, by working their way through four, five or even six ever-finer grits.

I dont believe that this would have been the practice for craftsmen in the era of these tools.  It simply would have taken too long, and Im not even sure that such a range of grinding grits was available to them in any case.

 I am using only two stones.  The first is a commonly available at any hardware store combination oil stone - coarse/fine.  First, the coarse side.  This is used to begin removing the linisher lines and also to shape the bevel.

 Next, the finer of the two sides of the stone.  To lubricate, I use a kerosene/oil mix of around 5/1. Works well for me, and doesnt clog the stone.  

Once again I work on the back and the bevel, but this time I add a micro bevel. I have become accustomed to the position of my hand and wrist relative to the stone when doing this, and I do it now from muscle memory without checking.  I guess this is the benefit from hand sharpening a few thousand times over the last forty years.  It would be an advantage to anyone starting out to use a bevel guide.

Finally, I use a very fine white arkansas stone that was passed down to me from my wifes father.  It is very hard and very fine.  Same lubrication as before.

And thats it.  The blade is good enough to use and will cut well.

Of course the chisel needs a handle, and this piece of local Eucalypt will be suitable.  I dont know what species - maybe white mahogany, but it is sturdy timber and I know it will turn well.   Ill have to leave that until another day.  

This same process can be followed in resurrecting all chisels.  Saws and planes are another matter, and Ill address those in the near future.

Happy woodworking to all.

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Best selling wood projects - That Chisel

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The blade is finished and needs a handle.

White mahogany is an Australian eucalypt species that grows around these parts, and I think that this is a piece from one of these neighbourhood natives.

Roughing down to a cylinder on the lathe isnt terribly exciting, but the transformation to useful handle certainly is.

This is a large blade and will require an appropriately large handle.

I really must invest in a longer tool rest one of these days

Ive made this handle longer than what is usual for most bench chisel handles, as I want the extra length for finer control at the blade end when using it for paring.

I have a brass ferrule that will fit the tang end to prevent any possible splitting. The hardwood handle is strong enough to take mallet blows when necessary.

A coat of bees wax and a quick polish with a handful of shavings, and the shape is complete.

Here is the finished article:

A good test of any chisels degree of sharpness - is in the paring of endgrain.
This one isnt too bad at all:

It may not be pretty, but it is no longer the near reject that it first appeared to be.

Happy woodworking to all.
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Best selling wood projects - Small Projects A Mobile TV Table

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Part One - Layout, Cutting and Preparing Joints 

Yes, I know that I am a hand tool neanderthal, and I really love using them.  I also still have a yen for manually focused SLR lenses too, but that is another story.  Folks are sometimes surprised to find that I occasionally watch television, and yes there is a small TV in the back room so that the grand-kids can watch Kung-Fu Panda and the Ice Age series.

Thing is, the back room is used for so many tasks - sewing, spare bedroom in a pinch,  the retreat that provides a quantum of solace when the house is hectic, as well as that place that all the lego can be left out for days while imaginative building projects take shape and form - and games are invented around the masterpieces of construction.

So the TV has to be movable - and it should be small enough to push out of the way when the kingdoms of imagination need room to grow.


A low be-castored table is my answer to this conundrum.

The LOML wants timber that is light in colour, so no rosewood or Australian cedar thanks very much.  I love working with camphor laurel, but no, something more plain this time. 

I have found a plank of tea tree that will serve well.  Ive never worked with this timber before, and I am interested to see how it responds to my tools and my patience.

This plank is straight from Mal Wards Botique Timbers, and is still fairly rough.

First step is to mark out what will be the various parts of this simple construction.


 The plank is far too large to be cut with my power tools, and anyway I love a chance to use a good handsaw.

This is a lovely "old" Sandvik, so beloved of my cousin David, who swears by them.  I am not too fussed on the plastic handle, but he is right about the saw - it went through this hard timber like a hot knife through butter. Note the kerfs from both edges meeting in the middle - to stop the weight of the plank splintering the edge.

Next step is to true up one edge as a reference for all the further cutting that will be necessary.  First - the trusty Carter number 5 jack plane to remove all the rough and unruly parts of the edge.  Finish up with a Lie Nielsen low angle jack.  If the pieces were longer I would have reached for the Stanley number 7 or 8, but this time a number 5 will suffice.  Lie Nielsen uses American cherry for their handles - it is amazing how dark this timber can become as it ages.  Compare mine to a new plane handle here.

This little table will have an open front, two sides, a shelf and a top - all braced by a partial back that leaves room for the cables and power cord. Joints between the various parts will be partially housed and will have through tenons, to add a touch of Greene and Greene to the design.

The top is a straight rectangle.  Both sides, the back and the shelf will all have tenons cut which will project through the panel that each will interface with.  Sounds complicated, but its not.

Here is the shelf.  It will have two through tenons at each end, and a short (3/16") stub tenon between them that will sit in a shallow housing.  The stub tenon can be seen marked in this image and the first picture below.

The second image above shows the cut after the corner of the shelf has been removed.  I cut just inside the line and will pare back to the line with a paring chisel.
I did this, as this edge sits flush with the side and I wanted to avoid saw splintering here, and there is no housing at the front (or the back) to spoil the line of the front edge of each side panel. Hope that makes sense - if not, keep watching and youll see what I mean.

Before cutting down the grain, I often line up the workpiece so that it is square to the vice - helps keep the saw cut straight.
Since the cut is essentially a ripping cut along the grain, a rip dovetail saw works best.  This is a little Lie Nielsen 15PPI that works very well.

Paring the endgrain back to the scribed line takes a sharp chisel.  This one does the trick.

Cutting out the waste between the two through tenons can be done easily with a coping saw.  A jigsaw or a bandsaw would be quicker, but were not in a hurry today.  Notice that I am only cutting down to the level of the stubby tenon that will sit inside the housing.  Not too fussed on cleaning this up with a paring chisel, as this will not be seen.

Cutting out the corners means sawing across the grain. I was lazy and tried the dovetail saw, which sometimes works OK.  Not this time.  The timber has all sorts of swirling grain and the rip dovetail saw kicked and bucked like a mule.  The tenon saw handled it easily. This is a Tyzack.

Here is the finished shelf.  Notice the through-tenons at each end.
The back will look almost the same - just smaller.
The two sides will have through tenons only at the top..

Ill get those done next time, as well as cutting the through-mortices and the housings.

Happy shavings to all.



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Best selling wood projects - The Joys of Old Tools

Best selling wood projects

Following the Lazarus-like re-birth of the old Sorby paring chisel, I would like to follow up with a couple of other gems that have crossed my path in recent weeks.

One of the most useful hand tools in the workshop is the jack plane - usually represented by a cast iron version of Stanleys number 5 bench plane.  These were made in their thousands by numerous manufacturers from Sargent to Record, Millers Falls and Turner, to name a few.

The traditional jack plane has a generous mouth, rugged construction  and a radiused blade to shave off thick shavings.  Once set up, it can quickly dimension timber without dust or noise.

Here is a perfect example of what is highly desirable in a plane of this sort.  Made by Carter Australia, it has a thick casting, solid frog, thick blade and tough hardwood handles.  The picture above shows it as found, before it was cleaned and fettled.

One of the best kept secrets of Australian made hand planes, is the quality of the blades made by Carter. Thicker than the equivalent Stanley blade, and of excellent steel, this blade is a great partner for the plane that will wield it.  Re-ground with a bevel that has a 10 inch radius, and then honed sharp, the blade is ready for work.

Here it has been used to shape a wide chamfer - quicker than setting up and cutting on a table saw.
Too many new number 5 hand planes are not the workhorses that they should be, because they are too expensive and too full of bling.  For this reason they are often treated as the princesses of the workshop, instead of the tradesmen that they are.
Carter handplanes - primadonnas they are not.

The other workhorses of carpentry and cabinetry are hand saws.
Because of the availability of cheap power tools over the last ten years, few woodworkers now reach for a hand saw.  Further to this, there is a general ignorance of handsaws among casual woodworkers, to the point that all handsaws look the same.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

Here are two old hand saws that are  similar to those seen frequently on Ebay and at Sunday markets.
The indicators that these are not just any old saws are staring us in the face.  It starts with the handles.
The first is an Atkins Perfection saw - indicated by the embossed handle.  This was the top of the Atkins range of saws and a masterpiece of the sawmakers art.

The second has no branding except Warranted Superior on the medallion.  The handle says it is a quality saw from one of the premier saw makers.  The smooth curves, the lack of flatness in the sides of the handle and the wheat carving on the timber which looks like fruitwood (maybe apple) - all point to a superior product.  This one resembles a Simonds 10-1/2 skew back.

These two saws deserve a fresh opportunity to do what they do best - cut timber in the hand of someone who cares.

The blades are most in need of attention.

These are very hard steel and wont be affected by the abrasive action of a wire brush.

It is a much better choice than sandpaper, which scores the surface of the sawplate.

All of the rust and scale need to be removed so that the saw can pass cleanly through timber without jagging.

Once cleaned and oiled to prevent further rusting, both of these saws need sharpening and setting.

The Atkins is a 7 point cross cut saw, while the Simonds is an 11 point panel saw, filed cross cut as well.

The handles have had a thin coat of boiled linseed oil - to prevent the timber from drying out and cracking.

Both have tapered blades -  something done to the shaping of the best quality hand saws - and of which, manufacturers were most proud.




The Warranted Superior / Simonds Saw has no etch.  The Atkins Perfection saw has a clear etch - still visible after cleaning from under all that crud.
Hand saws generally are the poor cousins of used tools in the market place, as there is such a small demand for them.  Hence they are often sold cheaply.
Woodworkers should jump at the opportunity to snap up these beautiful old masterpieces, before everyone realises how valuable they really are.



Learning to use and care for hand tools is one of lifes great pleasures, and it adds immeasurably to the joy of woodworking.

Happy woodworking to all.
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Best selling wood projects - That Mirror Finished at Last

Best selling wood projects

The lacquer has dried nicely and the frame ready to receive its finishing touches.

A piece of mdf around 3/16 inches thick was cut to serve as the backing, and to positively lock the plate glass mirror in place.
I cut it around an inch over the size of the mirror all around.

Small flat headed nails similar to tacks, but more like cut-nails were chosen, ensuring that they were shorter by about 1/4 inch than the combined thickness of frame and backing.

Since this mirror will be wall mounted, I chose a pair of adjustable hangers for each top corner and lined these up with the ends of the backing.

These will be sufficient to take the weight of the frame and glass.

They also allow for sideways re-positioning if there is any need for final adjusting.

Always good to have some latitude built into the hanging process!

So - there you have it.

All done and dusted. 

All it needs now is to be hung on the wall in the wardrobe.

Those other doors in the reflection are a restoration that is awaiting some extended rainy weather.

Babysitting for the last little while has been great - but - you know .....   not as young as I used to be .....

I think that the next project is going to be an outside task.
I have a gable end on the house that needs re-cladding, and a garden that is begging to be finished.

The driveway needs some more asphalt, and the fish are biting down along the breakwall.......


Decisions, decisions .......................


Happy woodworking to all.
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Best selling wood projects - The Little Carport That Could

Best selling wood projects

Turning A Carport Into A Multi Use Room

Years ago when we first bought our old cabin in the woods, we had all of our five teenage children at home, and not enough rooms to give them all some privacy.
The old home had a carport off the end of the house, where the car barely fitted because of what else was stored under there.

 At the other end from the family chariot, was some space that we used to store boxes (and other stuff) before they were unpacked, and a place found for the contents.

We had inherited another old shed - of sorts - that defied gravity and the best attempts of mother nature to bring it down.

So, after we had found a home for all the goods and chattels that occupied the carport, it was time to turn it into a live-able room.   I built this in my spare time, and was lucky to already have the roof in place.

Once the supporting framework of the stud walls was added, the steel posts that had supported the roof were removed.  They were re-used for a back verandah on the northern side of the house.  I built it later.

The two windows shown here were taken out, and became a double window along the short side of the room, while I sourced some other timber-frame windows for the long wall.
The first window space became a door between the rooms, and the second was covered completely when the interior was lined.

All the exterior log linings were re-used on the new exterior walls.

An access ramp was added a little later, and this was covered with a narrow verandah roof.

Being in a hurry to get the room ready for occupation, it was lined inside, but the ceiling - of tongue and groove boards - was never ever painted.
Until now.

Years of exposure outside had darkened and weathered the timber.  In our advancing years, with our eyesight not what it was, the LOML suggested that a coat of paint might not only brighten things up, but also help us to see better when we use this room.
Did I say - we - you all know what I mean though, dont you.

Because  of the immutable law that says that we will fill whatever space is available to us, and the fact that we are expecting family guests this weekend, the furniture etc has to stay in the room while I paint around it.

It is being done in two halves.
It doesnt look like it because of the wide angle lens used for the picture........ but.......
The far end (half the room) is finished, while the half nearest is 3/4 undercoated, with one panel left to do.
This is all brush work, and involves lots of looking up with a bent neck.
You can see what the original timber lining boards looked like before undercoating.
And the finished colour at the far end isnt too shabby.

Hope shes happy..................
................... I know I am.

Happy woodworking to all.

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