All posts by Tom

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Tools

Sharpen that saw

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Over the past few years, this blog has  led me to some interesting places in the woodworking world. One of the most interesting is the hand tool world embraced by folks such as Shannon Rogers, Kari Hultman and Mike Siemsen. Hand planes. Chisels. And, most impressive of them all… hand saws.

Most of my collection are new models that I have purchases. A dozuki. A Veritas dovetail saw. A gent’s saw. Some nice stuff.

A Disston D-7 rip saw from the 1920s

But, my favorite is my old Disston 5 TPI ripsaw.  I bought it online, stunned by how much steel was left on the saw.  As you can see, the handle is still in very good shape. The listing said that the saw dates back to the 1920s. The blade has some rust on it, and the distinctive etching has all but disappeared.

The best part of the saw is the amount of steel on it. The width of the blade is impressive given the age of the saw. As the saw gets sharpened, steel is filed off from the toothed end, narrowing the blade. Given enough sharpenings, the width of the blade gets so narrow that the saw eventually becomes unusable. Unless, of course, you want to cut the plate up into scraper sized blanks.

At last night’s St. Petersburg Woodcrafter’s Guild, I brought the saw in to have it looked at. Turns out that luthier extrodinaire Andy Gibson sharpens saws in his shop. He give the tool a once over, and was very impressed with its quality. He pointed out that when the saw was sharpened in the past, the teeth were never properly dressed, so it was something that was going to have to be fixed before it can be sharpened.

Andy Gibson checks out the saw

He also pointed out a subtle design in the saw. The front teeth of this rip saw were set closer together. He said that was in order to get the saw started into the kerf, with the larger teeth set toward the rear for heavier cuts.

Andy was going to take the saw back to his shop to do the sharpening, but then he had an idea. Why not come to my shop where we could do the sharpening together?  Hey, now that’s a good idea. We’ll have to set up a time to see when we can do that.  Heck, while we are at it, he’s also offered to help me build a new cherry handle for this old baby.

He’s a pretty sharp guy!

 

 

 

Experiences

Crossing the Tampa Ocean

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This past week was kind of crazy for me. I got sick with bronchitis. My son Dominic had his Confirmation (’tis the season, right?). And, to top it all off, I had to ‘waylay’ Iggy to make my presentation across Tampa Bay to speak with the folks at the Tampa Woodworkers Guild.  The monkey didn’t go down easily, but you’d be surprised how effective a roll of tape can be…

The monkey put up a struggle

After I took care of the monkey, Jay Marino, the St. Petersburg Woodcrafters Guild’s event coordinator, and I headed across the long bridge to Tampa. The meeting was well attended, and I have to admit I was a little nervous.  I mean, this was a meeting of woodworkers who are pretty darned talented. What was I going to be able to teach them?

It was then that I remembered the reason why I was there in the first place. The reason I was asked to speak there was to show some corner joinery options for club members while building burial urns for indigent veterans. When veterans pass, the Veterans Administration handles the cremation and interment, but this is done in a cardboard box. The woodworking guilds in the area are putting together urns to provide a more dignified resting place. If we are going to batch out the boxes to meet the needs, we are going to need all joinery options on the table.

Talking to the Tampa club

So, I presented my heart out. I covered all manner of joints from the basic brad joints to cut nails, dowels and biscuits. I covered plugged screw joints and pocket screw joints with plugs. Splined joints like I had used on Katie’s Confirmation box. Dovetails and box joints.

As the presentation wore on, I became a lot more confident. The jokes (that would have made Iggy cringe) started flowing more freely. The laughs started coming from the audience. Soon, I started answering questions from the room. How long have I been blogging? What are my favorite projects to build?

Wowing the crowd

Could I serve as that guild’s vice president as well?

Alright, maybe I can’t spread myself any thinner, but I feel like we had really done a great job bridging the bay between the two groups. And, since it was such a great project, it’s a pleasure to be working together.

Now, how do I get adhesive out of monkey fur?

 

Quick Polls

Quick Poll

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Our workshops are very much like fingerprints. Each one is unique to every woodworker. Whether you are shoehorned into a small corner of your basement, or have a separate, dedicated building with tons of space, your shop is an expression of your woodworking style, your living conditions and the amount of money in your bankroll. Sometimes we love it, other times… well…

A tight but tidy shop

This week, I want you all to come clean and let us know how you feel about your shop space. Whether it’s the perfect place for you to make sawdust, or it’s a rat hole you would abandon at the first opportunity, let us know what you think.

 

Link of the week

Link of the week

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The Cutting Tools Blog

It’s always great to see a brand new blog being born into the Internet. And, when it’s the blog for one of my supporters, I have to let y’all know that it’s here!

The Infinity blog header

David Venditto has launched the Infinity Cutting Tools blog, and the timing on this is pretty interesting. He is fitting out the woodworking shop in his warehouse, and the first few blog posts are going to be about how the shop is getting set up.   Follow along and see how the shop – and the classes that are taught there – progress.

(Sorry this is a day late … When I woke up yesterday, I was sick enough to have to go to the doctor. Bronchitis… again… the second time this year. Total bummer…)

 

Shop Talk

One project ends, a new one readies…

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Well, it had to happen.  The Confirmation box was finished just in the nick of time, and she and my youngest son Steven flew to Baltimore to deliver it to my niece Katie. After the big ceremony, everyone went back to the house for a big party. That’s where Rhonda presented the box to Katie.  I’m gonna go out on a limb here and say she dug it.

Rhonda and Katie admiring the box

While they were gone, I had a list of to-do’s that was about as long as my arm.  I had to paint a few walls, grocery shop, laundry, drive my oldest son Dominic to two day-long events, coach basketball… well, it was crazy.

But, I had another job to tackle.  You can imagine what it was…

Carving leaves a mess

Yeah, wood carving leaves a big mess.  I mean, seriously. It seemed as if all of my carving tools, sanders, glue bottles.. the works were out on the bench. And, all of it was covered in sawdust, wood shavings and plane curls. The works.

So, I had to spend a little bit of time to get the place back in order.  Surprisingly, this enormous mess took less time than I thought to get whipped into shape. All of the planes went back in the till, the carving tools into the drawer, the finishing supplies back into the cabinet. As I went along, I can remember my many firsts on this project. I can remember how I thought there was no way I was going to get this done. And, the satisfaction of getting the project done in time.  This was going to be a project that I was going to remember for a while.

And, suddenly, it was done. That unbelievably daunting clean up task was complete in no time, and the shop was back in ship-shape.

A clean shop is ready to go

Now, it’s prepared for the next project… and the memories it is going to bring.

Quick Polls

Quick Poll

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Getting involved in electronics can be tricky business.  Every time a new technology is invented, processor speed increased or new storage medium is heralded as the next great thing, your computer, stereo or television is one step closer to needing to be upgraded.

Old woodworking tools are sweet!

Fortunately, this isn’t the case when it comes to woodworking tools.  Power tools built in the 1950′s still slice through lumber and planes and chisels more than a century old still slice and dice joinery as well as they day they were made.  And, they can still do their work despite the fact that many of these babies sat languishing in some cellar or out building for decades before being brought back to life.

This week, let us know how old the oldest tool is in your collection.  Power or hand tool – it doesn’t matter. The one caveat is that the tool still has to do work for you in a your shop – no living room display case models are allowed.


 

Link of the week

Link of the week

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The PlyPi

Remember my friend Paul – the guy we built a home office for? He recently told my son Dominic – a computer wiz – about the Raspberry Pi. It’s a chip-based computer from Great Britain that costs all of $25, yet can do some tremendously cool things.

The PlyPi case

The problem with these computers?  They come just as a chipset with some connections. Kind of vulnerable. Kind of clunky.  So, one of the things that proud Pi owners do is build their own cases.  Some tuck these babies into the chassis of old Commodore 64s. Others in Lego cases. And, some build them out of wood.

This post from the blog Single Lens Reflections shows how the site’s administrator build a Pi case from some plywood. It’s elegant. It’s protective. And, it’s made out of wood. What’s there not to like?

Just do a quick Internet search to see some wild Raspberry Pi cases built by others.