WoodworkingONLINE.com

Yeah, we know it’s almost February. But we’ve finally got all the kinks worked out for posting a FREE SHOP CALENDAR in PDF format that you can download and print. It’s a handsome calendar with quality photos of old tools from the early issues of ShopNotes magazine. We’ll be posting a new calendar every quarter. (This helps keep the file size down for easy downloads.)

We think you’ll be proud to hang this in your shop. And it’s handsome enough to hang in your office or kitchen. So tell all your woodworking buddies about this cool download.

I’ve never met anyone — who gets into woodworking to save money — actually save any!

First Furniture Project

If I’d known about this rehab process before I bought the rust-encrusted Stanley No. 6 and No. 7 planes that I found at a garage sale for $4, I wouldn’t have resold them for $20!

It’s No RareBear

This is a sweet project that this fella put his heart and soul into. I like it.

There’s a Bird in my Office

-Joel

In ShopNotes 88, we featured a project to build your own shoulder plane with double dovetails. I’ve had more than a few guys contact me about how to get plans. I’m happy to announce that the plans are now available at PlansNow.com.  You’ll not only get the detailed plans for building the shoulder plane, but you’ll get a supplemental article that gives you tips and tricks for working with metal. It’s a great value and a great project. And you’ll end up with a quality tool that’ll last.

I remember when I received my first catalog several years ago from Bridge City Tool Works. At first I thought, “These are awesome tools.” Their craftsmanship is unbelievable. But they were out of reach of my meager tool budget. (Thanks honey!)

But Bridge City Tool Works and founder John Economaki have built a strong following made up of both users and collectors. You don’t stay in business for over 25 years without a loyal customer base. And as John says, “We make a world-class product …but, there’s more to our tools than just making sawdust. I believe the combination of form and function is inspiring and adds immensely to the physical process of woodworking.”

So when I was asked last week to take a look at the new HP-7 Shoulder Plane, I was eager to get my hands on it. Read the rest of this article »

For those of you interested in metalworking and woodworking, this post may be of interest:

A Visit to Paul Hamler’s Shop

Looking for a circular saw? Acccording to some WoodNetters, the Makita Hypoid circ saw is hard to beat:

Makita Hypoid Saw

I’m not sure which is funnier – the Craig’s List item for sale – or the forum thread itself:

Craigs List – Chuckle

Even considering repeat posters, over 1000 people took advantage of this “Day After Thanksgiving” Sale:

Official HDT Black Friday List

Well, I learned something today. And I have a greater appreciation for our grandfathers’ and great grandfathers’ understanding of wood and wood movement with changes in humidity. Especially when it came to making wood-body planes.

I had always wondered why a “coffin” smoothing plane was made in the characteristic shape of a coffin. I thought it had something to do with ergonomics and how you handle the plane when using it.  Nope.  Uh-uh.  It has everything to do with how the wood moves, grain direction, and keeping everything square.

For some reason, I ended up on the Clark and Williams web site this morning. Lo and behold, they have an article, “Design and Tuning Considerations for Bench Planes,” on wood selection in the making of traditional hand planes. Here’s an excerpt:

There’s another thing happening with bench planes. The body of a bench plane is divided into three sections. The toe and heel sections are solid wood and the escapement has only air and thin sides or cheeks that have a triangular shape. These thin cheeks absorb or lose moisture faster than the solid thick sections. As they expand and contract more than the adjacent solid sides, they force the planes of the soles of the heel and toe out of alignment. This is taken care of on the traditional smooth plane by the coffin shape which exposes the end grain of the sides. The sides of the heel and toe thus are able to maintain a similar moisture content as the cheeks. We prefer the 18th Century style longer planes because the height of their bodies is less and it limits this effect.

The toe and heel sections, on a coffin shaped smoothing plane, are kept as short as possible. The heel, bed, breast and toe are all end grain and moisture moves relatively freely to and from them. The center of the mass of the heel and toe sections, because of the angled breast and bed, will be low and relatively close to the sole. The moisture carrying capability of the rays comes into play here and helps keep the center areas of these sections in equilibrium.

Bethcha’ didn’t know that. I sure didn’t.

Photo courtesy Lee Valley Tools

Last spring, I bought one of two brand new hand planes, both from Lee Valley. One was the Veritas® medium shoulder plane. The other was their low-angle smooth plane. Most of my planes are restored derelicts purchased on Ebay or from yard sales. So the decision to get this plane didn’t come without a lot of thought. And the only new plane I’ve purchased up until then was a cheap little trimming plane from the BORG.

Now, you can read all sorts of lengthy reviews of this plane all over the web. But I want to talk about why I decided on this plane.

Read the rest of this article »

Being a native Buckeye and having an interest in old tools, I’ve recently gotten curious about the history of the Ohio Tool Company. While nosing around on the ‘net trying to learn more, I ran across this article in Farmland News about Jack Devitt who maintains a collection of tools made in Ohio — especially planes.

The article doesn’t have a dateline, so I’m not sure how old it is. It mentions a book that Jack wrote called Ohio Toolmakers and Their Tools. I contacted the newspaper and a few days later got an email from Mr. Devitt. Here’s what he says:

To receive a copy of Ohio Toolmakers and Their Tools, send $30.00 which includes postage and handling to Jack Devitt, P.O. Box 116, Ottoville, OH 45876 with your name and address. Also indicate if you want the book signed and if you want it signed to a specific person. We’ll get it in the mail the same day usually.

Now that I’m back in the shop for at least one hour per day, I’m starting to get some things done. An hour is just enough time to get small projects completed. I haven’t started building anything new yet, but I did take the opportunity to make a repair to a jewelry box that I made for my wife a couple of years ago. The box is based on a plan in Woodsmith No. 107. They called it an Accessory Box.

Not long after I gave it to her, one of our cats knocked the box onto the floor. The lid was open and it snapped the lid hinge in two. It’s been sitting on the dresser — broken, but usuable — for at least two years. Read the rest of this article »

A few years back, I purchased an old Stanley 71 router plane that was made between 1906 and 1908.  It didn’t come with any cutters or knobs.  Fortunately, the screws were still intact.  Since Stanley used an oddball thread size on most of their planes, it would have been difficult to find replacement screws.

One evening after dinner, I moseyed out to the shop with no particular project in mind.  I saw this plane sitting on the shelf.  I remembered I had a turning blank of bubinga I had purchased last winter.  It had been a while since I had used my lathe, and I knew this would be a nice evening project.

So, I asked the Galoots up on the OldTools list about the dimensions of the original knobs on the Stanley 71 and got several responses.  It occurred to me that I had a box of old plane parts sitting way up on a shelf, so I got it down and starting nosing around.  I found an old knob that matched the dimensions I was given.  Now I had something I could visually match and put some calipers on to get real dimensions.

It took me a little figuring before I found a reliable way to chuck the bubinga blank in my lathe.  Once I figured it out, it went pretty quick.  Let me just say right here that turning bubinga is a pleasure.  No tearout and it finishes really nice.

It’s always the first knob that’s the easiest.  It’s trying to get the second one to match that’s the trick.  I must have fussed around with it for a half hour trying to get it to match the first one.  A little rounding here.  A little shave there.  I finally said, “Close enough!” and called it quits.  I sanded the knobs through 400-grit on the lathe. Then while still on the lathe, I applied some boiled linseed oil and paste wax.  I was pretty happy with how they looked.  And you have to get real close to see that they aren’t an exact match.

Now all I’ve got to do is get some irons for it.  I’m told that the ones from Lee Valley/Veritas will work.  I guess I need to place an order.  They know me by first name by now.