This was a small project I did a couple of years ago... A recent conversation I had reminded me of it, and I thought some might find it interesting so figured I would post the story here. It's one of my favorite stories to tell, and it was a fun little project...

I was reading a post in a woodworking forum asking a question about straightening a saw - a backsaw in particular. Seems a fellow had picked up an old backsaw on Ebay and was hoping to restore it to use for himself, but was having a bit of difficulty. It seems it was bent, and he just couldn't seem to get it straight. Several helpful suggestions were given - and followed - to no avail. A further description (I don't remember if the exact conversation, or the photos), the general consensus was that it wasn't worth fixing. That's when I stepped in... I was looking for a bit of a challenge, and this was right down that alley. I got the original owner to either give or sell me (I honestly don't remember if I paid for it) the old saw to see what I could do with it.

When it arrived I got a chance to take a good look at it:

Pretty rough, to say the least - it would take a lot of work..  But if I'm anything - its a champion of lost causes... 

The weather warmed, and the shop was ready for some finishing touches on the exterior. I had thought over and over about what the exterior finish was going to be. The original idea - way back when - was to use a board and batten, of cedar. The method of construction didn't lend itself well to a vertical siding, however - and cedar was much too far outside of my budget. Next I thought maybe I could do a cheat of a board and batten - basically use a plywood and nail battens on top of it. This was most tempting, but truthfully it didn't match the neighborhood, nor did it match the house, which is currently T1-11 Besides that, the plywood used today simply doesn't have the quality of the plywood used just 20 years ago unless you buy the highest priced stuff out there - which kind of defeats the purpose of using the stuff to my mind... . So - for those same reasons I considered T1-11 and just as soon abandoned it. Another choice could have been steel or vinyl lap siding - but that just doesn't turn my crank at all. I hate the monotonous fields of vinyl lap siding cropping up in cramped subdivisions, so I wrote those off of my list.

In the end, it was budget that made the call, I'm sad to say. There were two choices in my price range - fiber cement lap siding (HardiPlank by James Hardie) and composite wood lap siding and trim (LP's "SmartSide"). It was a tough decision to make, believe it or not... Tough because I didn't like either option - but basically needed to put something up, so here's how I decided. Whether it makes any sense is up to you, but it seemed all quite logical. Of course if I had my druthers it would have been something a little more elegant, but then again one has to draw the line somewhere. It's not like I live in a neighborhood of million-dollar homes, nor do I have that sort of income.

It can be hard to figure out what will keep someone with Alzheimer's occupied - and one that will keep them happy...  The activity has to be something the person is interested in, and it's better if it has some long-time personal connection.  It was difficult to find such things for dad to do - about the only two things he was interested in were gardening and woodworking, and gardening was out in the winter - so woodworking was called upon as an activity we could both do while in the shop.  I tried having him help make saws, but the tasks required were all beyond his capabilities in his diminished state.  I also tried to get him to make wooden mallets and other basic tools for me, but he lost interest quickly.

 One successful activity we had with him was having him make reproductions of a lap desk my great grandfather owned.  It's an interesting piece, one I thought would be fun to examine for this blog.  It's an interesting study - showing some signs of both elegant and of crude construction techniques.  It lends itself well to study of early furniture and casework, as not all that was done as high-end furniture.  Most stuff that survives today wasn't the run of the mill stuff, anymore than you would expect today's run-of-the-mill furniture to be around in 150 years.  What does survive is often the high end stuff that is heirloom quality, which I think often distorts people's views of craftsmanship during these earlier periods.  To that, I offer this piece, which has more sentimental value than anything, as one example of construction techniques used in early work:

The speed of construction slowed dramatically after I had to go back to a full time position with a local firm. My shop hours were reduced to just a couple of hours of productive work a week, and since winter was on, it was also quite cold and daylight was limited to weekends... The exterior was buttoned up enough to get by until spring, and I still wanted to get the permit signed off on before I had to spend the money to extend it... As it is, I'm getting very close to having these updates be live... I think that there's only 2 or 3 more entries before it is.

Before I do get there, this is a good opportunity to go over some miscellaneous "stuff" - things that I haven't gone over directly but should be... I'll use this opportunity to touch on a few different subjects I hadn't gotten to earlier, or that don't fit well into the narrative.

My main goal after getting the roofing on the building was to get the inspector to sign off on the building. To get him to, there's a few things I needed to do. Before, I concentrated more on getting the shell up - now was time to add a few structural items to stiffen the frame.

The Philsville blog called attention to a new website for planemaker Bill Carter here:

 http://www.billcarterwoodworkingplanemaker.co.uk/

I just can't let this one pass by.  I have to encourage everone with a planemaking jones to visit his site...  Mr. Carter is a very talented planemaker and has been for some time - and his web site has some positively fascinating articles and photos of his work, both complete and in progress...  In his "projects", he uses a back off of a brass backsaw to make  a small dovetailed plane, simply too cool!

Have a look, you won't be disappointed!

Leif