Wednesday, February 5, 2014

Saw Stop





I really don’t know what all the fuss it about- saws with automatic stopping mechanisms and the like. Not to brag but my antique Disston has been equipped with this so-called ‘new technology’ ever since I got it.
Yesterday, while ripping some maple my thumb somehow got in the path of the blade. Yikes! Could have been catastrophic but as soon as it started cutting into my flesh it stopped- go figure.
Saw stop old school style.

; ) It’s Monday morning- time to get at it…

Risk Reward Ramblings

Occasionally I come across a discussion of a particular way of viewing craftsmanship. Essentially the model places any craftwork along a spectrum with "workmanship of risk" at one end and "workmanship of certainty" at the other. Basically where your work sits on the spectrum is a function of how likely you are to screw up the whole job at any moment. The late David Pye is credited with developing this model.

Heres an example of workmanship of certainty:
With a CNC, everything is set up before the workpiece is ever at risk. Really, the craft is completed before the bit ever touches the aluminum.

If you want to see you workmanship of risk, head on over to Konrad Sauers site and take the time to study some of the posts where he walks you through the steps of turning wood and steel into $10,000 handplanes. Lathes? CNCs? Mills? Nope...pretty much just a hacksaw, rasps and files.

Yesterday while I was boring that hole all the way through my new tote I was remembering a picture from Konrads site:
This was a jig he made for drilling the holes for the cap lever pin on a freaky badger plane. The nature of the plane is such that the angle of this hole is not normal to any axis of the plane body. I suppose the trig calculations arent that difficult, but Im pretty sure that he hadnt actually defined any of the angles contributing to it...trying to measure them with any degree of certainty would be futile because any measurement errors would be magnified by the other two angles. Thats why I really like his caption for the above photo: 

"In the end I pretty much eyeballed it, took a deep breath, and went for it."

True, if he screws up here, hes only ruined an assemblage of metal. However, at this point hed probably already spent 40 hours or so on the plane and one wrong move erases a whole week of his working life. Hes got kids and a mortgage too, no wonder his stuff is so expensive. I dont do nearly as complicated work as this and I still manage to screw up EVERY SINGLE PROJECT I attempt in some way. Everything I do is filled with mistakes.

But sometimes dowel holes do line up correctly. Sometime pins and tails mate satisfyingly snugly. Occasionally I can even cut a tenon whose sides are parallel and whose shoulders are all on the same plane--not often, but occasionally.

Perhaps this is all a long way around examining the title of this blog. Most folks probably view woodworking--particularly handtooling--as a pretty tame, relaxing hobby. "Adventure" may not exactly be the first word that comes to mind. I can, however, assure you that there are moments of true exhilaration to be had from these high-risk situations.

I would encourage all to examine daily tasks and place them on the risk/certainty scale.

Baking cookies? I like them soft but not so much that I have to wash my hands afterwards. How much time in the oven it too much time?

Trimming fingernails? I like them really short, but dont want them tender.

Etc, etc.

Hopefully my saw kit will come in this week so we can get back to the normal posts instead of this nonsense.

Tuesday, February 4, 2014

My New New Tools

Just a quick post while Im waiting for some glue to dry...


While making my small bedside table I quickly came to realise that I was spending most of my time making my inaccurate cuts to length correct by planing the end grain with a block plane. My old steel backed backsaw is slightly bent, almost blunt and in need of a sharpen, not to mention a slightly loose handle. This combined with my natural inability to saw straight meant a lot of wasted time, especially as I was leaving the marking lines and then some just incase the cut went wrong.


Now dont get me wrong, I know I could spend some time sharpening the saw etc but what better excuse than to splurge on some shiny new toys?


I have to say a big thankyou to my girlfriend for my late Birthday presents...


My new bling bling Lie Nielson 14ppi Crosscut Carcass Saw & 15ppi Thin Plate Rip Dovetail Saw has made cutting to size a breeze. I can choose to split the line or leave it intact with a very minimal of effort and maintain a square cut. Yes they are pricey and probably way overkill for my beginning needs, but the smile I get just from picking them up makes them worth it!


I was a little worried when I first used the new saws as they seemed to jump out of the cut and generally not seem to behave, but soon learnt not to force the cut and relax both my grip and pressure letting the weight of the saw and the sharpness of the teeth do the work. The result an almost perfect square cut 99% of the time.


The nice shiny plates also allow me to mark a straight perpendicular line on the non-waste side of the cut and the reflection in the saw plate aids as a guide to keep the blade straight and plumb. In short these saws are teaching me how to saw accurately and correctly.


They look stunning as well!...

My life often mirrors George Goebels famous line, “My luck is so bad; I bought a suit with two pairs of pants, damned if I didn’t burn a hole in the jacket”. For those of you who are too young to remember, George Goebel was a stand-up comic, singer and actor whose variety show, The George Goebel Show, was popular on television from 1954 to 1960.

I have been checking out the listings on eBay for Stanley Everlast #40 chisels, the non-SweetHeart variety, for the past year. Over this time I have picked up 5 of the original set of 11, with one duplicate. I got a good 2”, a good 1 ¼”, a fair 1”, a fine ½” and two pristine ¼”. I have paid anywhere from $90.00 for the 2”, down to $38.00 for the ½”. The prices I paid average around $45.00 each, which I have considered to be fair, given a good set of 11 would run around the $1,500.00 mark.

The whole idea behind these acquisitions is put together a really good user set of chisels that are of better quality than the current offerings of today and will appreciate in value over time. This theory is behind all my tool purchases, and while I believe it is sound, I doubt I will ever know if I was right or not. I’ll never know because I will never consent to selling my tools as long as I am breathing. After I’m gone, my son will inherit the collection and he can do with it whatever he wants; add to it, use it, or sell the whole lot to the highest bidder.

We are all aware that the world’s economy is in the toilet. I don’t know if you have noticed it or not, but as a result of this tanked economy, the prices for vintage tools has fallen considerably, especially on eBay. An example of this is my old friend woodnut4, a serious vintage tool collector and saw aficionado, who has taken to putting reserve prices on his saw sales. This is something he has never done before in the two or three years that I have been following his offerings on eBay.

I have always been taught that when the economy tanks and prices fall – buy. This goes for real estate, stocks and bonds and all those things you believe will bounce back after life returns to normal. As my tool acquisitions are something I believe will bounce back in value, and then some, I have taken to watching the eBay listings even more closely.

So why, if I smell a good deal in the air, did I start this rant quoting an almost forgotten television personality?

Well the fact of the matter is, every listing that has appeared on eBay for Stanley #40’s over the past four months have either been too short or too beat to consider being a sound purchase or they match the size and quality of the ones that I already own.

Damn!

Peace,

Mitchell

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Monday, February 3, 2014

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