Last Week's Hand Tool Chat Transcript
William Duffield, on the Cohansey
>Last week, I began an experiment. I turned on the Archive function for the duration of the Hand Tool Chat. Yesterday and today, I did a bunch of editing on it, to remove superfluous chat about the weather, hellos and goodbyes, and other stuff, sorted out several separate conversations into separate threads, and fixed some punctuation, spelling and grammatical constructs to make it a bit easier to follow. I ended up with three or four threads actually about hand tool woodworking subjects.
Let me know what you think. Is this useful and interesting? Hopefully this will stir up a little more interest in the chats. But, if everyone decides they'll just read the summary instead of participating, there soon won't be anything to summarize :^)
The next hand tool chat is scheduled for the regular time tomorrow evening, Tuesday, at 9:30 p.m. EST (GMT-4). Hope to meet you there.
HIghlights of March 7, 2006 Hand Tool Chat
William_Duffield David, I tried your modeling clay model of a scraper hook at the class I taught. It worked really well, but a couple of the students didn't get it right away. Probably too little experience.
pam Wm, why not post a photo of it on the hand tool board?
David_B Well, it's not always easy for some to grasp even the simplest mechanical concepts, but after chewing away at some tiger maple with a poorly-tuned Bailey, they'll get even more mortivated.
William_Duffield I didn't take any photos while I was doing the demo, so I'd have to try to pull everything back out and do it again in the shop.
pam Wm, I was thinking just a photo of the clay model, maybe we could find a way to help the beginners.
David_B I've been so weak on and off lately there are times I've used my #80 instead of a card scraper. My hands, I mean.
William_Duffield I let them try scraping some curly purpleheart, curly maple, snakewood, and a couple of other difficult woods. Also, to show them that the scraper isn't always the answer, we tried some old butternut.
William_Duffield Yes, Pam, even some still photos would be useful, but showing them dynamically how the hook is formed, with a 1" PVC pipe burnisher makes a big difference.
John_Edwards Pam, Got a call from Bill Clark yesterday. the 12 1/2 jr. try`s are coming out soon.
pam That's cool, John, will be sure and check their site soon.
Tom Hello, John E, we were discussing razee planes on ebay, I think.
John_Edwards Razze on the bay. Snagged a couple over the last couple weeks. I`ll post a picture. Likely, first of next week.
pam Thanks, John, look forward to it.
Red_Dragon What is a razee plane?
crackerjack Red, it's a woodie with a closed tote.
Tom John E, I saw one where you had asked the seller a question, is all. Ended up selling for $10. one bid.
John_Edwards $20 for shipping scared most off. He did send pictures and it looked pretty good.
Tom That's what I thought,....that and if you were bidding, I thought I shouldn't bother.
John_Edwards Well, Tom, if you want it, cover me and I will ship it to you.
Tom John E, thanks for that, but I've decided to look locally for one.
John_Edwards Just let me know, Tom.
Tom John E, thanks again for the offer.
pam What kind of razee are you looking for, Tom? Smoother? Jointer? Jack?
Tom Pam, this was a jointer for sale, I'd like to find something in the range of 24-26 inches.
pam Tom, I have a 22-24" one from Steve Knight that I'll be selling any day now, for cheap but not dirt cheap.
Tom We have all sorts of flea markets and 'antique' sales around here in the warmer months. I'm sure something will come up if I'm patient enough.
pam Good luck.
Tom Thanks, Pam, but I'm not a real fan of those laminated planes.
pam Me, neither.
Tom I'm not sure why, maybe just the aesthetics of them. I initially looked at C&Ws site, but can't come close to affording one of those.
pam C&W sells a razee?
Tom The razee was one from ebay that John E was interested in. I was looking for a jointer and came across that one. The C&W was one of their jointer planes.
pam I see, Tom, the C&W is worth saving up for, but when you need one now... Have you checked out the UK old tool vendors?
Tom Pam, I have several old tool vendors in my favorites but haven't looked recently. If I can't get one by midsummer, I'll go back on-line to pick one up. This is something I'd like to handle first and take a look at so I don't have too much rehab to do.
John_Edwards Tom, do a serch on Ohio tool or sandusky on the bay. There are several out there.
John_Edwards All, In the past I have been using a grey scotch brite pad and mineral spirts for cleaning woodies. Tried a new product from Easy Off, the oven cleaning folks. Called BAM. Works great and no smell etc.
William_Duffield Tom, re. laminated wood planes, did you see Larry Williams' post this afternoon regarding oiling wooden planes?
John_Edwards No, what did he say Wm ?
William_Duffield He said you want to minimize the time it takes moisture to move from the surface to the middle of the block of wood. The problems with oil are even worse with layers of glue inside the plane.
John_Edwards Not sure I understand that ??
William_Duffield Larry's explanation is a lot better than my summary. Re: I would
John_Edwards I`ll have to look it up, thanks Wm.
William_Duffield He was talking about the stability of the wooden plane body, choosing the wood, and the direction of the growth rings, etc. I did the extrapolation to the glue lines in the laminated planes, based on other people's observations I've read.
John_Edwards Sounds interesting
David_B I was wondering about Larry's post regarding linseed oil supporting mold. I was given to understand that linseed oil was used for it's bacteriostatic action in hospitals, institutional kitchens, and so on. Linoleum surfaces are supposed to fight bacteria, for example.
David_B Was used before the 1940s, I should've said. Making a comback, too.
John_Edwards Then Larry`s post is aimed at laminated construction ??
William_Duffield No, it wasn't. It was just aimed at applying oils to the surface of the plane, thus retarding moisture movement with changes in ambient humidity. He suggested a very light oiling, to protect the surface, e.g., minwax, but NOT a heavy, thick, deep oil coating.
John_Edwards I'll have to check it out. After cleaning the heavy crud I`ve been using BLO. A thick heavy coating of BLO
David_B Also, these days (with the rare exception of T&T) 'boiled' linseed isn't really boiled. People sure are confused about BLO. Most of the post application of, for example, 'Parks' BLO is from chemical driers.
William_Duffield They're confused about tung oil and teak oil and salad bowl finish, too. The finish manufacturers like it that way.
John_Edwards BLO=Linseed (flax) with mettallic driers. Isnt it ?
David_B That's right, John (flax) + nastystuff. Tried & True is the only actual boiled linseed, and it's a whole 'nother animal.
John_Edwards Is it still a Flax seed based product ?
David_B The only blackening I've observed from the faux BLO is from oxidation.
David_B Yeah, John. It's flax. I use T&T Original Finish and also the Varnish Oil.
John_Edwards Never tried it before.
William_Duffield Yes, it is flax seed based. So are many "tung oil" products. Flax oil is cheaper than real tung oil.
David_B I've been using T&T linseed since before it was even labeled.
David_B I tried something totally different for honing this last week. I used a 'split lap. That is a split lap machine. It's a rotating angle (45deg) 'flint' hard felt lap with slots so you can see while it's spinning. It's impregnated with Al. oxide. Alll I can say is 'wow'. Fantastic on carving gouges, too.
JohnM What grits, David?
William_Duffield David, I'm having a bit of trouble visualizing this lap. Do you look through the slots onto the surface that is being honed?
David_B The wheels are designated with grades of hardness rather than grit sizes if they're the felt ones, but Pacific abrasives makes a 120 and 180 out of some other material. You can also get 3M trizact discs and charge your own with diamond compound or green crayon.
David_B Hold on, Wm... a might have a URL.
JohnM Here's a good url for the split laps:
JohnM http://www.kassoy.com/benchtools/polishing05.html
JohnM Nice picture, anyway.
David_B http://www.professionaljeweler.com/archives/articles/2003/may03/0503pb3.html
David_B The one I used was 1/2hp and 7".
William_Duffield Thanks, David. That makes sense, I think. Do you hold your tool beneath the wheel?
David_B Yes, William.
Jim_in_Burlington That setup looks scary to me.
David_B I've not known this to be used for honing before, just on jewelry industry, but they sure take away metal fast.
William_Duffield OK, David, the second link explains it very well. I used to watch a friend facet gemstones. He spent a lot of time picking them up off the lap to look at his progress. This would be a lot more efficient.
JohnM David, a company called jooltool was promoting one for honing and grinding. i think Chris Schwarz did a review in PW a few years back.
David_B Yeah, the one JoolTool I've seen is only 3" wheels. Didn't know someone had tried one. I'll have to find his review. I wouldn't buy one for honing and I'm fine with files and sanding sticks for one-off jewelry making, though.
JohnM David, i think it's in the 6/2004 issue.
David_B Thanks, John.
JohnM they had a review of the LV MKII, and the Aussie multitool belt sander thing that attaches to a bench grinder in the article, if I remember. have to dig it out.
