Monthly Archives: January 2012
Marilyn’s Miterbox
Marilyn over at the She Works Wood blog mentioned recently that she’d picked up a miterbox that needed a little TLC. I volunteered to lend a hand, so let’s get this knocked out. Marilyn and already scrubbed the grease and dirt off, and disassembled it. Bless you, that made my life much easier. There are two [...]
The Sad Saw, Part 3 (Not So Sad Anymore)
OK, it’s done. Well, maybe a few more coats of Tried & True on the handle. When we left off a few days ago I’d used up 3 files re-toothing the saw, starting with cutting starting notches in using a spacing template. I ordered more files from McMaster-Carr, and they were waiting at home after [...]
The Sad Saw, Part 2
I made a little progress on the Sad Saw today. I put a coat of Tried & True oil/varnish finish on the handle. This is the first time I’ve used this product, and I was surprised at how thick it is. It’s the consistency of molasses. Or maybe corn syrup. The instructions say to apply a coat, let [...]
The Sad Saw, Part 1
I started out on the road to hand tool woodworking with an inexpensive pull saw from the big box store, then I restored a Disston D8 and had Dr. Phil at Bad Axe sharpen it. Now I’m Hooked on Hand Saws(TM). I won’t bore you with the saws that have recently feathered my saw nest, [...]
Planing the Last Face of the Workbench Top
A couple of weeks ago when I started on this workbench project I had essentially no experience using hand planes. Looking back, this has been a great learning experience. I feel pretty confident now that I can get a surface true with just hand tools. Planing the first two edges to glue up the first [...]
Veni, Vidi, Planie
I came, I saw, I planed. And planed. And planed. Lots of planing today. After squaring the two ends I stood the workbench slap on edge on the pseudo-bench and marked the areas of the rip-sawn edge that weren’t square to the true face. To support it I clamped offcuts from my leg blanks to [...]
Squaring the Ends
My next goal is to learn how to saw better. Plumb and square, ideally at the same time. I just spent 45 minutes squaring the two ends of my bench that were cut less than perfect with my low angle jack plane. Less than less than perfect. I’d rather not do that next time. I [...]
Rarest Woods
John Economaki is the head guy at Bridge City Tool Works. I check out his blog from time to time, and recently he announced a contest to identify the Rarest Wood in the World. The idea being to come up with a creative entry, John’s “Mirror Maple” pretty much tells the story. I’m a sucker [...]
Wet Legs
The 6″ x 6″ doug fir that I picked up for my workbench legs is green and fairly damp still. I don’t have a moisture meter, but it feels damp which is certainly too wet to cut the tenons on the ends. I rough cut four legs. Three of them I cut 2″ oversize, the last [...]
Ripped Off
No, no one has taken advantage of me, but my workbench top is the right width now. I cross cut the second end of the bench. Twice. The first cut I wasn’t happy with, so I laid out a second cut 1/4″ over. It was better, but still not quite perfect. I can track the line [...]
