http://www.traditionaltools.us/cms/ Traditional Tools en-us Fri, 18 Dec 2009 19:03:11 GMT 1440 CPG-Nuke Dragonfly Traditional Tools News http://backend.userland.com/rss http://www.traditionaltools.us/cms/images/ttlogo.png http://www.traditionaltools.us/cms/ http://www.traditionaltools.us/cms/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=31 I've added a blogging component to the site. Any registered user can have a blog on here. It isn't a very feature packed blog but we'll try it and see if it is useful. Let me know if you have any comments. Fri, 18 Dec 2009 19:03:11 GMT http://www.traditionaltools.us/cms/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=22 The latest Popular Woodworking magazine has a good shooting board article with plans. An expanded version of the article is available as a PDF file. It is pretty big at almost 2mb so it might take awhile to load over a slower intenet connection. Fri, 27 Oct 2006 16:19:00 GMT http://www.traditionaltools.us/cms/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=20 Hook, crooked, bent knives, whatever you like to call them (they are the same depending on what part of the world your in), are an exceptionally versatile tool if made well. Carvers, craftspeople, and woodworkers of every stripe would benefit from having a good sturdy hook in their tool box. I know a plumber who would not be without one. A strong hook gets into places nothing else will. First, the steel. Tool steel bought from a supplier is perfectly annealed and easy to work with, but I recover mill bandsaw blade 12"wide x 30" or gang saw which is 18"diameter x 1" because of its qualities and strength. It is a Swedish steel with a combination of molybdenum, chromium, nickel as well as a high carbon content. When filers (a mill working trade) toss band saw out they cut them up into 4" or 5" lengths. If you can get some it is well worth using, especially for hooks and swan necks, because of its exceptional tensile strength which lends itself to an excellent edge. I was taught old school. Files, no glue, and hardening and tempering. The most important factor in making any knife with reclaimed steel is the annealing process. For a hook of medium size using sawblade (with any hard high carbon steel the process is the same) have a piece of steel ¾" x 1/8" x 6". Bring the length of steel to a cherry red slowly over 5 or 6 minutes and let it sit at that colour for at least 5 minutes (20 is ideal). Place the cherry red steel--don't let it get any hotter or you'll burn out carbon--into a large coffee can filled with wood ash or lime or wrap the steel with ceramic wool, anything that completely envelopes the cherry red steel and insulates it well. In the case of a coffee can you will need a cover and make sure the steel doesn't touch the can. Let it cool slowly overnight. In the morning you should be able to bend the steel with your fingers. Annealing relaxes the carbon molecules It can now be filed, drilled, sanded and bent. With this practice you can start from scratch putting your own shape, hardness, temper, strength and marks into the steel. Now you have a piece 1/8" x ¾" x 6" long and annealed. Whatever size of blade, it should have the same proportions. If, for instance, it is 1/16" steel, it will be half the length and width of blade. The handle end (the tang) should not be less than 2" long. With this idea you can build very small, 1/16 inch hooks, 1" long, beautiful for detail. Smaller hooks require a slightly different process. Dedicate the nicest side, the side with no nicks or scratches, as the back. Then designate one end as the tip end. Draw a line across the middle of the blade. Now there is a back and top and 3 inches of tang and 3 inches of blade. Now draw a line lengthwise right down the centre of the blade, from end to end. The two lines will cross in the centre of the blade. On the tang, one inch down from the centre cross line, mark your first bolt hole on the length line, then mark a hole point ½" from the end of the tang, on the centre length line. From the tip end, draw 2 lines, one on either side of the lengthwise centre line, creating an isosceles triangle to the cross centre line. On the equal sides of the triangle, draw slow curved lines for the cutting edges Now grind to the curved lines. Keep the steel cool dipping it into a can of water as the steel heats up. There are two more parts, edge and shaping and hardening and tempering, to this article. Cariboo Blades Handforged Tools and Knives Tue, 25 Jul 2006 20:12:07 GMT http://www.traditionaltools.us/cms/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=15 Don McConnell has joined Bill Clarke and Larry Williams, the fine planemakers at Clark & Williams. Don had a column at Popular Popular Woodworking which I hear will be resuming. You may also have read some of his posts on the Old Tools mailing list. I don't know if it is related to Don's new job but Chris Schwarz reported in his weblog that C&W debuted their new plow plane at the M-WTCA meet in St. Charles, Ill. Does anyone have any pics of this plane? UPDATE: Larry Williams pointed me to the C&W website for this pic and this article. Thanks, Larry! It is awesome! Mon, 24 Oct 2005 13:06:37 GMT http://www.traditionaltools.us/cms/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=14 Note: This is an article from the old Traditional Tools site from 2003. To flatten or not to flatten. That subject is one of the great handtool "Jihads". It seems simple to me: A plane needs a flat sole in order to work properly. How flat would depend on the plane's role. In general terms, the lighter the cut the plane needs to take, the flatter the sole must be. Many planes are flat enough to use as found, especially those used with a rank set blade and wide mouth opening. A smoothing plane used for final finishing often needs to take the finest of cuts to avoid tearout and would benefit most from a very flat sole. Tue, 06 Sep 2005 12:52:05 GMT http://www.traditionaltools.us/cms/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=9 Wayne Anderson is artisan plane maker. His beautiful infill planes have been pictured in Fine Woodworking magazine as well as all over the web. Now you can have him make one for you! Go to Anderson Planes. Tue, 29 Mar 2005 14:37:13 GMT http://www.traditionaltools.us/cms/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=8 BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE An issue was recently raised on the WoodCentral forum as to whether the LV Twin Screw Vise would make a good end vise. The issue raised went to the rigidity of the vise, particularly when open and under load. The question was well placed: When I was making my bench, it seemed to me that the vise would surely sag under load. So I departed from Lee Valley's instructions, and used a non-standard installation to avoid sag. Another issue raised was whether the vise could maintain a square grip on boards clamped at benchtop level, well above the screws. LV's method for offsetting vertical racking made for a dead square grip on boards clamped high above the screws, and this will be illustrated below. So the first purpose of this Article is to answer the 'Twin-Screw-as-end-vise" issue, using photos and measurements. While making these photos and measurements, it dawned on me that I had seen more custom installations of the Twin Screw Vise than standard ones. In other words, most of us seem to vary from Lee Valley's well-written instructions. So the second purpose is to include in this article some specific detail on my custom installation, in hopes that it will be of assistance to others who are considering similar--or quite opposite--approaches. The third purpose is just to lighten things up with some photos of typical applications--ripping, cross-cutting, edge jointing. A section is to be included on setup for dovetailing, where the Twin Screw excels. I would like to apologize in advance for showing such a clean bench--normally you can lose a small dog in the shavings. INTRODUCTION AND SETTING My bench sits at the end of a long, narrow porch. I need to be able to hear my wife call, and this is the best place in the house for that, even though it's a very constrained space. The bench is 75" long, not including the end vise, 30" deep, and 35-1/2" off the floor. It has nine drawers. The apron is 8 inches deep and 2-3/4" thick, as are the vise jaws. Here is a wider view of the space. The cabinet at the right provides a whole bunch of flat drawers, plus a flat surface nearby (but not on) the bench for reference plates and straight edges. Thu, 17 Mar 2005 14:48:30 GMT http://www.traditionaltools.us/cms/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=6 REHABBING A JAPANESE PLANE By Wiley Horne SUMMARY I took a non-functioning Japanese plane off the shelf and brought it back to working life. In rehabbing this plane, there were probably 10 or 12 steps, but there are four particular things that I want to bring out for those who are new to Japanese planes, or else are struggling with one. The first is how to shim the bedding, so that the blade will fit tightly. The second is how to pare back the sidewalls of the abutments to provide lateral adjust. The third is a particular problem that can happen with the sole--high spots behind the mouth--and how to remove them. The fourth is a step that can easily be forgotten after tapping out the main blade--regrinding the clipped edges of the blade so that shavings will clear. Also discussed are some data on the curvature of Japanese blades, with measurements taken from a half dozen planes. Maintaining blade curvature will keep the blade fitting snugly into the dai. BACKGROUND PHOTO Here is a photo of a Mosaku plane and its blades, lifted directly from Harrelson Stanley's site, www.japanesetools.com. You can see the hollows on both the main blade and the subblade. You can also see the clipped edges on the main blade: that's not a stylistic touch. That blade slides down channels--called abutments--and is locked in place by these abutments. The edges have to be clipped so that the shaving can clear the abutments as it comes up through the sole. These clipped edges can begin to disappear over time as you sharpen away metal, or grind back the edge to remove chips. In other words, the cutting edge will get wider. A shaving taken with the wider blade will not clear the abutments, and the plane will jam. So after a lot of sharpenings, or after tapping out, you want to restore the clipped portions, so that the actual cutting edge of the blade is the same width as the subblade edge. Although you can't see it in this picture, this blade is curved slightly along its length, from the midpoint down to the cutting edge. So not only is the blade concave due to the hollow, it is slightly concave along its length just by a few thousandths of an inch, and I'll provide some data on this later. This curvature means that when the blade is hammered down into the abutments, it becomes sprung in the dai, because the abutments force the blade to lay straight. Fri, 11 Feb 2005 11:23:17 GMT http://www.traditionaltools.us/cms/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=4 Isn't it a beauty? It could have been yours for $102,000 (plus 10% buyer's premium)! Here is the story of the plane. If Clarence was excited before the auction, I wonder how he felt during the auction as the price soared over $100,000! Thu, 23 Dec 2004 16:26:17 GMT