Making a Rabbet Plane

Kind of looks like a rabbit

I wanted to try a rabbett or shoulder plane from the ground up...including the iron.  I had an old chrom-steel saw blade I used for crooked knives and used my metal cutoff blade on RotoZip to get the rough stock out... With careful grinding and frequent dips in water I got it to the shape I wanted without having to heat treat the metal.

I put a 30 degree bevel on it and then lapped the back with my sandpaper sharpening system.   Final honing on the bevel and it is a very nice blade.  However, I think I need to make a longer wedge to support the 1/8 in. iron.

The body is laminated with the central maple being two parts.   I could quickly and easily make the bed dead flat and then just glue the cherry sides in place.   Bed is 45 degrees and iron is at 30 degrees.

It cuts with the grain in bevel down position, but clogs up fast.   Next one will have a cone shape escape hole.   Cross grain is terrible...but then for that, the bed angle should be more like 20 degrees.

Since it is quick to do, I will keep experimenting with different shapes and find something that works well.  Sure is fun to make your own tool!

S.Tyzack Rabbet Plane

 I picked this up at a second hand store a few years ago and put it in my old tools box.  Today I finally began to check it out and was surprised at its age.

The plane is made of quarter sawn oak and stamped with the maker's name and address.
S.Tyzack  8 Old St Road  London  and also the owners stamp PASCOE.

Well the Tyzack company only made planes at that address from 1861 to 1867.  So this tool is civil war era.

I'm not sure the iron is original because it looks a little rough for something sold by a tool mfg.  And it is a bevel down grind, with a 55 degree bed angle.

Hammer marks on heel

Maker's mark and owner stamp on toe

  

Tobacco Pipe

I was curious about tobacco pipe construction, so I did a little research and realized it was relatively simple construction that might be fun to try with some of the hundreds of off-cuts I seem to accumulate.

Not being willing to go to all the trouble of a complete finish job and find out it is a failure....I made a couple of test pipes from 8/4 cherry.   After all, lots of people smoke pipes made of corn cob, so I can't be far off the goal ;o)

Dimensions of my bowl are 1in. diameter and about 1.25 in. which I did with a Forstner bit and a big burr to round the bottom of hole a bit. I used a 5/32 bit to drill the draught hole.

I failed to find a pipe stem to buy, so I just purchased a $7 corncob pipe and took the stem from it.  It required an 11/32 x 1/2 in. mortise to be drilled in the shank which I accomplished on the drill press -- and now it's ready to start breaking in.

Test pipe in Cherry

Local smoke shop on the corner seems to be more of a head-shop, so their tobacco selection was limited to Prince Albert.

I was surprised that the test went so well.   Easy draw, and the tobacco kept its light for quite a while.  All in all, I think I will have to continue with the process. Didn't get too hot -- no tongue bite and very pleasant smoke.

Next is develop some jigs to make things repeatable, and develop a system to turn lucite or vulcanized rubber stem material.

... well, well, I have  found that making my own lucite stem with resin and a mold will be the thing to do.   Copper pipe and an appropriate size rod for the draught hole ought to give me a stem blank that needs only minor sizing on the lathe...and then some heat to bend it in a nice curve.   Look out -- here comes the Alaska Pipe Factory, LOL.

.......
After a few bowls of tobacco and another test pipe, I think I will try just making a corncob style pipe... turn the whole bowl and plug in a stem.   Might be easier to duplicate and have a back-to-the-roots kind of appeal ;o)

Cherry Carving Mallet

I needed a round mallet that would fit nicely in my hand when carving.   I glued up two pieces of scrap 8/4 cherry, and turned it down where it felt good.

I just left the head as it was after the skew and the handle portion I sanded 80 grit to have a little texture to it.

I did wipe on some finish, just because I love the appearance of cherry.   

Dog Agility Contact Trainer

My wife asked if I would make a contact trainer for our dogs, like she saw online.  It is constructed of 1/2 in plywood and pine  sides.

I had some exterior latex left over from painting the chicken house, so the base coat is a nice bright RED.  My wife's favorite color.   The top will have to be regulation blue and yellow so not to confuse the dogs...I thought dogs had trouble with color??  Oh well, I just obey.

Three coats of yellow porch paint, with a handful of non-skid granules: 

Next a coat of blue, and make the hinge with 1/2 in. copper pipe and some 1/2 in. steel rod.  Two 50 inch sections of chain and 4 carabiners completed the project.

Large Desktop Pen Holder

A friend asked me if I would make him a larger pen holder because he uses a lot of felt pens and markers.

I have a pretty good inventory of spalted Birch I milled from downed trees in the state of early decay.   I  sawed the small log sections into boards and book matched the boards to give me some nicely figured panels.

Two different panels were used to achieve a 15 inch circumference for the octagon.    I added the cherry dividers just to keep stuff from falling over ;o)

Sawbench and dogs

Sawbench
Something that disappeared in the last couple of moves, and didn't get missed because I really haven't been using handsaws...is my sawbench.  Bench, not horse, because it's a little wider and even works as a place to sit.

Now that I'm using handsaws more, I found this Swartz design for a sawbench that I made with some carefully chosen construction 2x4 material (rift sawn) and a left-over piece of cherry.

It was relaxing to convert the 2x4 into sizes I wanted and surfaced all the parts with a few strokes of a smoothing plane.  No sandpaper here!



Spring dogs... I got an end vise attached to the new workbench and needed dogs for holding long boards.   I had a few minutes, while waiting for some finish to dry,  so made four.  They are designed to fit snugly in the hole with only 1/2 inch  of the textured head protruding. Didn't really need four, but the way I loose things ...

Moxon vise - On the cheap

The Moxon vise seems to be pretty popular amongst the traditional hand tool types, and I got the opportunity to use one  last month.   I liked it, and decided to make one...not much reason to pay $200+ ..... Gee whiz, what kind of traditional hand tool craftsman can't make his own vise?  ;o)

The nice feature of this tool is its portability.  Clamp it to the bench when using it for cutting dovetails, etc, and remove it when done.   It affords you a better height for sawing and a larger clamping surface for wide boards.

I was disappointed to find the cost of acme all-thread and nuts about 60 to 100 dollars!  So I looked around for something I could use....In my clamp dolly, I have a pair of 8 inch C clamps with 3/4 in. Acme threaded screws... just what the doctor ordered.   My trusty hack saw freed them and I'll get a buddy to weld washers on to ride against the movable jaw.

3/14 I dropped off the screws today to be welded.  I also bought nylon washers to put between the vice and metal washer -- smoother running and less damage to wood.

cost incurred so far, $4.

 washers welded in place - Thanks Ben!

Spent another six dollars on lumber (managed to find some nice rift sawn 2x4) and folks, we have a vise!   It is ready for holding boards or panels up to 24 inches wide, and at a comfortable height for sawing dovetails.

"Nut" epoxied into recess

Nylon washer in front of steel washer

Locally made Hold Fast

I wanted three hold fasts for my new table and asked a blacksmith I know--Mark Couch at Alaska Forge -- to try making them for me.   He supplied three made from 5/8 rod and they are terriffic.  They have a lot more spring to them than the ones I've used from Woodcraft -- which means easier to use.

Mark will sell them for $12 apiece.

I painted them to avoid any rusting -- and they look cool too.  This was his first run at making this particular tool and I suggested reducing the length of the 'arm' from 12 inches to about 6 or 8.  But they are just fine the way they are for my needs.

 

 

A little primer and paint will protect

Ressurecting Old Handsaws

I love old saws.  They have the patina of years of hard work, often the name or initials of the user, and usually are excellent metal.

Problem one is another set of years of disuse and neglect resulting in rust, dull or misformed teeth and dry or cracked handles.

Lacking a saw filer in my area, I decided to do my own.   After cleaning the blades of rust and putting a fresh coat of boiled linseed oil to the handles, I will convert these old saws to great tools again.   In addition to the others in my shop, I have one from each of my wife's grandfathers... One worked for the Spokane Public Library as a carpenter and custodian, the other built houses when he wasn't driving truck.  A real treat to have a tool of theirs --  W A Braim and Quade:

saws all clean and ready to file

In the vise and ready to start sharpening.

First, I'll even out the teeth with a 10 inch mill file fixed in a wood holder.  The rest is just file each tooth.   To see a rundown on the actual filing angles, see this link.

The saw of WA Braim's is a D-20 pre 1928 model.   The saw marked with Quade name is a Disston Pacemaker, a low-cost line.  My other two are both D-8 models - one crosscut, one rip  -- and all four are filed 8 tpi.

Rebuild of the Ultimate Cutoff Sled

My cutoff sled  body got damaged last year, so I dissembled it and salvaged the fence and Kreg strip.   But now I need it again to cut table top sections for the extension table I'm building.  This sled will accomodate duplicate cuts of 48" long panels.

I stopped off at big-box store for a sheet of 3/4 MDF and wondered while struggling to get it into my truck why no one asks "would you like help loading that?" .   They seem to be all solicitous when I have a bag of light bulbs or a paint brush --- but I show up at the counter with a 500lb 4x8 sheet of lead they call MDF and noooooobody asks.

The adjustable horse that supports the sled has been a great addition to my shop since I made it with the original sled.  It takes up very little room, adjusts to fit whatever support task I have, and it looks pretty good.

I improved the wood guide strip to an aluminum bar to ride in the miter gauge slot.  

Making A Krenov Style Plane

8 inch smoothing plane - 50 degree bed

9 inch scrub plane - 45 degree bed

Alaska Creative Woodworkers hosted a class on building the Krenov insired smoothing plane this weekend.  We were provided with a Hock blade w/ chip breaker, a block of maple, a pair of cheeks and blade pin  -- and pizza ;o).

The first task is deciding on a blade angle and scribing it to a little front of center.   We used a high angle of 50 degrees to allow an almost scraping action on hard-to-plane materials.

Bandsaw cuts

Now the painstaking work of getting that blade ramp dead flat and smooth.....with a block plane.   If you haven't done more with yer block plane than I have, this will take a while.

 Plane, plane. plane.....





check progress...and repeat.

Heel and toe swung away to mark for blade holder pin

Chop a slot for the breaker screw, carve the locking pin, and time to glue her up!

Spent some time making a wedge and filing the mouth so the blade just barely slides through. I chucked in the iron and wedge, and it made shavings!   I just needed to figure how I wanted the shape to fit my hand and make the cut.

Fresh off the bandsaw

A little work with  rasp and it's ready to make shavings.

I had planned to leave the surface rough...just like I got done with rasp -- all organic and tactile.  Well, that didn't last long when I saw how nice that grain on the sides looked after sanding down to 150.  Just kept going and pretty soon it was all dressed like a fancy-schmancy tool catalog picture.   Forgive me, oh great spirit of tools.

I'll be using this baby to put a beautiful edge on the table top sections I'm doing for an earlier post .. alder extension table.   The Hock iron is just so sharp, and the mouth I filed is real tight -- so the shavings are lacy thin.

 

 Nice view showing the curly grain in maple

  

 Notice the plane hammer I made from an old one my wife's dad owned.  She said they used it for hammering paint can lids back in place.  The plastic material on each end shattered and left the center steel piece and a nice handle.   I turned a couple of Oak replacement ends and it is perfect for the job.  Plus my wife is tickled her dad's tool is back in use.   After sanding off the red finish and a little lacquer, the hickory handle looks pretty skookum too!

Scrub Plane

I liked the result so well, I ordered another blade from Hock tools -- a 1.5 inch scrub blade with a 5 in radius.  The body is qs white oak and I dispensed with the chip  breaker.  I think the 3/16 thick iron is plenty -- and I don't have to cut relief for the  CB screw.  I just made a thicker wedge from mahogany and the plane makes shavings like it should --- really hogs out the material fast.

Just in case you didn't know, the scrub plane is for getting a rough board to nearly flat and true quickly by planing across the grain while checking progress with winding sticks.   After the board is relatively flat, a jointer or jack plane will even out the hills and valleys.   Then it is time for the smoothing plane to make a finished surface.

Sourdough Bread

OK, this isn't about sawdust, but a man has to eat, right?   And what better food than a loaf of crusty sourdough bread?

Sourdough... I keep my sponge on the counter in a small stone pot.   If I don't use it for three days, it gets fed by removing 1 cup and replacing with 1/2 cup flour 1/2 cup water...that's all you need to have a vigorous nicely sour leavening agent.  Plus, you have a cup of sourdough sponge to make pancakes or waffles with.

Baking...  I am converted to the no-knead system.  It's easy, quick and tasty.

Dough...
Mix up 1 cup sourdough sponge with 2 cups flour, 1 cup water and 1.5 tsp salt.  You get a sticky dough.   Just leave in the bowl with plastic wrap on top of the dough for 8 to 24 hrs.

Either mix in the evening for baking the next evening, or mix in the morning for a loaf that same evening.

After a day rising

Proofing... Don't knead!  On a floured surface, gently form the loaf you want --round for the Dutch oven, or oblong for the stone baker. Use a pie plate for the round loaves.

dumped on the counter and ready to form

proofing basket is 4" drain pipe with wood feet

I like to use foil backed parchment for proofing and baking...that eliminates a lot of cleanup and sticking.   Also makes it easier to transfer the proofed dough to the baking vessel.

Oven... OK it takes about 90 minutes for dough to rise, but be flexible.   About 30 minutes before you are ready to bake, put the baking vessel in the oven and turn the heat up to 500 degrees.   Yup, 500.

When everything is ready to go, pull the baker out of the oven and lift your baby bread into it...pop the lid back on and put in the oven for about 30 minutes--may have to adjust to your stove.

At the end of 30 minues, take the lid off and continue baking for another 10 minutes or so...You have to decide how brown you want it, so keep an eye on things.


Here's one of mine just out of the oven.

The frog chef approves

Oh man, warm sourdough with butter.   yumm


******************
non-sourdough  cheese loaf..

3 c. flour
1.5 tsp salt
1 tsp yeast
1.5 c. water
1 c. grated cheese - I like cheddar