General Woodworking

 My truck failed the state inspection. I knew that was going to happen because I had long crack in the windshield. What I didn't know were the problems with the control arms and the back brakes plus a few other minor headaches. Total estimate is $1600 but that is dependent upon how bad the rear brakes are. 

shelf dadoes first

The goal was to get this glued and cooking today.

done

Three coats on the back and four on the front. They are ready to go to Maria in the AM.

left one self supporting

I've come a long way since I starting chopping dadoes this way. I had to plane the underside before it fit. Better that than a sloppy, loose fit.

ditto for the right one

I got both of these to seat fully and especially at the front. I had to clamp them to close them tight.

sigh.....

This router works well for getting the slat mortises to the same depth as the dadoes. However, today it would not stay set - the back screw would loosen and the depth of the iron would increase. The solution is to put a nut to help and hold the iron where it is set. The headache is the locking screw is metric. After faffing about I finally figured out it is a 6mm fine thread. I couldn't go to ACE because the truck was in the shop and my wife was off doing her dead people stuff. I'll come back to this in the AM.

it worked

Used my two small routers to get the dadoes and slat mortises to the same depth. The depth ending up being an 1/8" deeper than I wanted them. Not a big deal but it was an annoying hiccup.

side by side

The left one is for the grandson(s) and the right is the request. The biggest difference is the size of the shelf. I am going to try my best to make both of the ones I'm making for the grandsons to be the same.

side view

The end heights are about the same but the width is 2" more on the left one.

hmm......

This shape is growing on me. Most of my previous ones I made the tops on the ends parallel to the bottom.

finally understand this

When I first got this I had a ton of problems setting the angle. Yesterday and today it just fell into place for me. The key for me was to make the lock handle the reference. DUH.

oops

Made a me-steak here. I should have sawn the angle first and then the cutout for the legs.  I was able to 'fix' it. I sawed the angle and sawed the cutout again.

worked

I had to saw the back half of the cutout again. Rasped and sanded it smooth. No need to go nutso here because it isn't visible.

for the Miller Dowels

This worked well on two builds. I'll add this step to future ones going forward.

goal met

Glued and cooking. I might do the Miller dowels after dinner.

Lowes run

When the shop called with the good news about truck, after I picked it up I went home via Lowes. Picked up  two, four foot 1x12s. Sawed out a clear section from one board to be the shelf for the 2nd grandson's bookshelf.

the ends

As I did with the first grandson's bookshelf, I didn't thickness the ends to 9/16". Instead I labeled the reference face as the inside. The opposite face I just flattened. I didn't attempt to make it parallel to the reference at all. I think it looks good having the ends as the anchors being a wee bit thicker than the other parts. 

left side laid out

If I didn't have to deal with the truck issues today, I might have gotten the dadoes/mortises chopped today. I don't anticipate any hiccups betting it glued and cooking in the AM.

accidental woodworker

 The little guy on my right shoulder says the Pats will win. It is 1644, Feb 8, 2026. I don't know how good the Seahawks are. I only saw a partial game of theirs. The Superbowl has come a long, long way. I still remember Superbowl I 59 years ago. I was only 12 at the time and I wasn't a sports nut. Fast forward to now I'm still not a sports nut and if I can't watch the game I'll survive.

2nd bookshelf

I guess making these again isn't like riding a bike after a bazillion years. I remembered some things and brain farted royally on others. Got both ends of the shelf to be self supporting. At least the woodworking didn't go south on me. 

Lost the rest of the pics for this blog post. The camera SD card has been acting up for a couple of weeks, mostly giving random card errors. Tonight after the first pic I got another card read error when I tired to post the 2nd pic. Couldn't clear it and I got the same error in my two laptops and the shop computer. 

So I went back to the shop after dinner and snapped a couple of more pics to finish the blog post for the AM. I tossed the SD card in the shitcan while I was there. I've been using this one for a couple of years and SD card have a cycle life limit.

2nd bookshelf

Got 3 coats of shellac on the bottom and I should be done with it in the AM.

One thing I did on this one was once the dadoes and mortises were done, I drilled holes for the Miller dowels. No more placement/layout headaches. Got everyone of them right on with no me-steaks.

one of two more

Decided to make two more bookshelves, one each for the grandson's desks. Initially I had enough scraps to make them. I used my last Gurney's sawmill 1x12 for the ends and the slats. I am making these a little bigger than the 2nd replacement one so it will hold school books.

two of two

Got the ends and the back slats. I'll come back to this one after I get the first one glued and cooking.

toast, extremely burnt toast

These were the shelves for the two bigger bookshelves. However, when I was thicknessing the 2nd shelf, I couldn't remove the twist. I see sawed back and forth with it. I would remove some but not quite enough. Plane it a little more and check for twist and see that it was worse than before. It finally got to a point where I was chasing my tail in circles. 

The right one (the 2nd shelf)was cupped and twisted. This board was case hardened I think because I had a difficult time cross cutting it to length. I went back and checked the first one and it had cupped, not as bad as the 2nd one, but enough for it to be unusable.

I had one board I had thicknessed  a month ago to 9/16" that I used to make one shelf. I'll have to make a run to Lowes to buy a 1x12 to get another shelf.

getting there

I had forgotten about these two frames. Glad I noticed them because I still can get them done before tuesday. Monday the Frame it shop is closed but it opens on tuesday. I'll bring them and the brown one then.

Got lucky with the Super Bowl. My digital antenna picked up NBC which is broadcasting it. This was the second time I watched broadcast TV with the digital antenna. I quit cable TV over a year ago and I haven't missed it. Now I watch You Tube and Amazon Prime Video.

accidental woodworker

It's been several months now that I've had problems with Unplugged Shop, the site to which many of us go to read woodworking blogs.  For long stretches the site doesn't update with current blogs, and when it finally works again, it's short lived and then doesn't update for another while.

I'm probably not allowed to use this image, so I'll just say it's trademarked and thank them for the use of it.

In addition, my blog doesn't seem to be included anymore on the Unplugged Shop aggregator.  I've contacted them about it to get reinstated, but I don't know if anyone monitors that site anymore.

I don't mean to be an ingrate because this has been a free service that they provide and I truly appreciate it.  I can only imagine that it takes more work than I realize to keep it running.

Does anyone out there know what is going on with them?  Please comment if you do.

out of the clamps

Everything looked ok - joints were tight and it felt solid. It was laying dead nuts flat on the workbench too. 

layout for the Miller dowels

Two in each end of the shelf and decided to put two in each end of the back slats.

spider sense was tingling

Something wasn't as it was with all the other bookshelves I had made. The alarm bells starting waking up when I saw that the back slats weren't parallel to the back edge of the ends. Not being parallel made it a wee bit more difficult to layout for the Miller dowels.

not bad

Why can't I saw an angle like this when I try 45s? Thought of this to use as a gauge stick to layout the Miller dowels.

yikes

At least this dowel boo boo came out on the bottom. I went 11 for 12 and the mishap was because I picked the wrong pencil line.

hmmmmmm........

This is definitely ain't what I had done with the other bookshelves. The top slat is too forward and not parallel to the back edge. 

toast

I rounded the two front corners and I did them too much. A portion of the round got buried in the dado not to mention there is a )&^@%*_Q_)#@^*_Q)*% gap.

not right

Instead of the shelf titling backwards, front to back, it tilts down, back to front. That means whatever is put on the shelf ain't staying there. Now it has gone from toast to burnt toast and charcoal.

confirmation

The CDs are staying in place but they look odd. It is only 7° but it is easily seen. I can't give this to anyone because of my bone headed, brain fart me-steak.

nope

Tried to salvage this by sawing the bottom legs. That idea fizzled and died because the legs aren't long enough. Thought of adding pads to them and that would have worked but I nixed it. The top slat being inset too much ruins any attempt to salvage it. I will saw off the slats and the shelf and reuse them for another bookshelf.

2nd bookshelf

These bookshelves don't require a lot of stock. Got all that I needed from the scrap pile. It is a wash, rinse, and repeat of what I did yesterday.

layout

Did it right this time. The shelf and back slats form a right angle (at the back and the front). The tilt of the shelf comes from the 7° angle on the bottom. On the first one I had laid out the shelf at a 7° from the front edge and also had sawn the bottom at a parallel 7°. If I had left bottom square to the front/back, it would have worked.

ready to be chopped

Made and caught a potential me-steak on the left end. I initially laid out the slat mortises on the front edge rather then the back edge.

maybe

Didn't get any paint on these today. I stayed in the shop until 1540 and I might get these painted after dinner.

It had snowed on friday overnight and it snowed 3 times today. The driveway and walk got shoveled twice but nothing after the 3 dump. I'll deal with it in the AM. The shoveling outings cut into my shop time and I wasn't able to complete the 2nd bookshelf. Should be able to wrap that up in the AM.

accidental woodworker 

 Today I finally did some woodworking. It was a blessed relief after playing with paint and shellac for seemingly a bazillion years. It was a request project of something I went nutso making several years ago. I still have 7 of them in my house that I use. It was like riding a bike after a bazillion hiatus, I didn't forget how to do it.

done

The brown frame finally got a check mark in the done column. I noticed this poster on a few You Tube vids I saw over the past few weeks. I will bring this one to Maria tomorrow and the black frames next week.

sigh

Two coats of black and it needs one more on the interior. Three coats on the green and it needs at least one more. 

all three

The white vertical lines are the bare plywood peeking through and shaking hands with me. The sides still don't have complete coverage. I expected the plywood to cover better than pine but both have dismal coverage.

raking light

No shellac today. I did one last eyeballing and I saw some white in raking light on the arris of the bevels. Only this frame needed some paint but I'll wait and apply shellac to both in the AM.

the request

I had brought two of these to my niece's house when my sister came up for a visit. She asked if I would make another one for her. This one is perfect for CDs/DVDs or even paperback books.

the measurements

These measurements are not carved in stone. I'll gather up stock from the pile and the size of them will have the final say. 

need four pieces

3/4" stock is too thick for this CD/DVD/bookshelf so I'll thickness the stock down 9/16". First step is to untwist, straighten, and flatten one face and square one edge to it.

done

Got a reference face and reference edge. Two of the boards had humps and no twist. The other two were relatively flat but with some twist.

knife lines

I don't have much to remove - not quite an 1/8". I like to darken the knife lines so I can gauge my progress.

done

Two ends, one shelf, two back slats and one extra for an oops. Took me a little over 30 minutes to plane the five of them to 9/16" (~14mm).

hmm.......

Got the layout done for the shelf and back slats. All the angles  are 7 degrees. This is something I screwed up royally more times than I care to recall. Usually I would saw the bottom angle in the wrong direction. Another favorite screw up was laying out the mortises for slats either on the wrong side of the layout line or laying out the mortise too high or reversing it with it mate on the other end piece. No layout me-steaks today but that was because I double, triple checked my self a bazillion times before committing to knifing the notches and mortises.

hmm......

Thought out loud to myself and had a good conversation and decided to wait on this one. I sawed the angle correctly and before I saw the cutout for the legs, I want to make sure that I don't cut into the notches for the shelf.

shelf dadoes done

Got these whacked out just before the lunch bell rang. 

mortises done

These can be difficult to do because they are only 1 1/4" long. I don't have any routers that will do a flat bottom from top to bottom (or bottom to top). There is a web in the middle that I have to use a chisel to flatten and check with a sliding square. BTW if I made the back slats 1 1/2" I do have a router that would make a flat bottom easy peasy.

dry fit

Two of the back slat mortises are loose and one is sloppy. The other pieces are snug and they are holding it together.

it is square

The depth of the mortises and the shelf dadoes are the same. The length of the back slats and the shelf are the same too. That is what helps to get and keep the whole thing square.

ends are square too

Initially the ends weren't square. I clamped the shelf and that pulled the ends tight and seated the shelf in the dadoes - then it was square.

glued and cooking

The plan is to let this cook until the AM before taking the clamps off. 

Miller Dowels

The plan is use two dowels in each end of the shelf and one dowel (maybe two) in the ends of the back slats. That should help and keep everything together and tight. I have had two of these bookshelves come apart between the ends and the shelf. Fixed those with Miller Dowels and no headaches since.

1/8" Baltic Birch plywood

Got this from Amazon for $53 and change for 12 pieces. 12" wide and 24" long and I know I paid more than this the last time I ordered some. Says it is from Woodpeckers but I'm not sure if it is the same one that makes the Red Aluminum stuff.

came today too

I bought 3 of these pigments, black, blue, and green. Two came today and one is coming tomorrow. All 3 are from the same place so I don't understand why the broken shipment?

pulled the trigger

There were two things I always had on my person when I was in the Navy. The first was my ID card and the second was a Buck 3 bladed pocket knife. Still have an ID but the Buck is taking a dirt nap over 25 years ago. 

My wife had given me a gift certificate from Lee Valley and I got this knife. Bigger (longer) than my Buck and it is probably illegal to carry this on my person. I'll keep it in the shop and use it there. I'm really interested in seeing how well this keeps an edge.

accidental woodworker 

 Another boring day in the shop mopping the finishes for the frames. I think I'm done with the big frame, thankfully. The two black frames will probably be done on saturday. So that means it will be next week at the earliest before I get them to the Frame it Shop. Fingers crossed on that happening.

ready for shellac?

I got the last coat of black paint on both this AM. Since then I eyeballed them every half hour or so. No dust nibs to raise my blood pressure and no holidays neither. I'll let them rest and I'll put on shellac starting in the AM. 

yes it if finally done

I didn't feel that way in the AM. After I had applied what I thought was the final coat of shellac, I saw a big waterfall drip on the left long side in raking light. I had to scrape it with a mini card scraper. Initially I had sanded it and slapped some shellac on it. That did absolutely nothing to hide/cover the drip. Scraping it did and much thanks to shellac as a finish. The shellac I applied after that melted and blended in seamlessly.

hmm.......

I painted these four at 0800 and at 1500 the green ones were still a wee bit tacky. The black one dried to touch in about 15 minutes. The green frames have two coats on them and they definitely need at least one more. I expected this being a dark colored paint, that two coats would do it. I was wrong boys and girls.

I found 4 places in Rhode Island to buy hardwoods. Only one had 4/4 cherry (no 8/4) in stock. The other three only had 8/4 slabs. That would have worked for the legs but too thick for the rest of the needed stock. It is looking like I won't be able to avoid driving up to New Hampshire. Highlands has 5/4 and 8/4 cherry in stock. 

accidental woodworker 

 I have two projects in the shop, one done and the other almost done. Both of them combined are being a Royal PITA. The two of them are hogging about 40% of the available shop space. It is impossible to walk around the shop where they are. I also have to be super duper careful moving stock around so I don't hit either one.

The bookcase is the one that is finished and it won't be leaving until my wife brings it to North Carolina. I would put it in the boneyard but my wife is rearranging things there so it sits in the shop for now. 

The frame for the wood poster is the one I want to be done with. At least with that one I can bring it upstairs and leave it in the living room. After this frame was glued up it has been difficult (&@%Q(_%&#@Q^%*)_+)_ to ignore. It is tippy and it would fall off whatever I had it laying on. It will be a huge relief to have it out of the shop ASAP.

hmm......

I didn't happen boys and girls. I thought I was going to be putting a check mark in the done column with these two. There were a ton of dust nibs on both sides of both of the frames.  My workbench is under the living room and walking there showers the frames with dust etc etc. Another Royal PITA. 

Sanding the frames with 320 initially didn't work that well. I had to use a mini card scraper first to remove the nibs and flatten them. I also went a wee bit postal scraping a few more drips in the corners I missed previously. And there were a few more paint build ups along the edges from the last application of paint. After the scraping I sanded the frames, front and back, with 320 grit. That evened and smoothed out the finish.

prepping

I had 5 colors to pick from for painting these shadow box frames. I chose green because it was high gloss enamel. The other choices were either satin or semi gloss. I'm leaving the backs natural with shellac. The rest of the frame will all be painted green.

3 green and one black

The frames on the right are green and the bottom left one is black. Same thing with the back natural and rest black. Not sure what or if I'll use this because it is an odd size that doesn't match standard small photos.

3 down, 1or 2 more

I got 3 on the back and that is done. The front has 3 coats and I'll put on at least one more. I'll check on it in the AM and decide then whether or not it will need another coat.

This is all I got down today. With limited space to maneuver and waiting for shellac and paint to dry I couldn't get much done. I'm still on the fence about driving to New Hampshire too. I've been searching on line for closer Hardwood sellers without any success. It sucks pond scum that Highlands isn't open on saturday anymore. 

accidental woodworker

I've just added to the store three interesting chisels. By "three" I mean I actually only have three. The story behind them is interesting, hence the tale.

English toolmakers make two kinds of of "mortise chisels": the oval-handled mortise chisels of the sort that we stock by Ray Iles, which are designed for deep mortises and are tapered front to back so they can loosen themselves in a deep joint. The second kind are sash mortise chisels, which have parallel sides and round handles. They were used for shallow mortises, specifically window sashes. The advantage of having parallel sides is that they are simply less expensive to make. There's no real advantage for registration or anything like that.

Continental Europeans have never really cottoned to the oval bolstered mortise chisel. Instead they use are very large sash mortise chisels, which are typically tapered front to back. These tools have round handles, which makes them harder to register and use - but they are less expensive to make.

The great American tool company Stanley, which made all sorts of wonderful chisels, never actually made a real mortise chisel, sash or otherwise. So imagine my surprise when one of the owners of my local hardware store (more in that later), told me he had something special to show me - three Stanley sash mortise chisels, made in France and England, probably in the late 20th century. These sash mortise chisels are not in any of my catalogs. And I only have three in metric sizes. If you're interested, you can click on the product description here; if you act fast enough, you can actually buy them. They are perfectly good great tools, properly hand forged. When I say hand forged, I don't mean by hand banging on an anvil. I mean, with a power hammer, with a human organizing the blows. It's a real skill.

Before we go back to the history of the chisels, let's talk a bit about this hardware store. Warshaw Hardware Store on 3rd Avenue between 20th and 21st streets in NYC is run by its third generation, Eddie and Carl Warshaw. It is typical of the small neighborhood hardware stores that used to be all over New York City. It has everything. In other words, when I need 1/4"-20 bolt 1/2" long I can order a box from McMaster and have them the next day or I can go into Warsaw and buy three 1/4"-20 bolt 1/2" long for probably about a buck. For a tinkerer, and a guy trying to run a machine shop, this is a godsend. Your sink breaks, you need a weird washer: they got it. The fact that they are conveniently located is a godsend.

Back to the chisels. If you're running a hardware store for three generations, the chances of finding stuff in weird corners of the shop is 100%. So Eddie called me and said that he had found these chisels, had no idea what they were for, and thought of me. Did I want them? Of course I was intrigued. So I stopped by I took a look and saw that they were sash mortise chisels, which made no sense.

Eddie said "In the 1990s, one of my distributors went out of business and we bought their entire inventory. Over the years I sold everything but these chisels because they're not really our thing and they ended up being pushed aside."

I'm guessing the chisels are from around the 70s or the 80s and were sitting in the distributors warehouse a long time. They might have been a marketing experiment by Stanley, to import some of the more woodworking friendly tools that were available in Stanley Europe into the United States to see if they would sell to hobbyists here. Apparently they didn't.

In case you're wondering how I know that they are forged and handled mostly by hand, it's because the forgings aren't perfectly symmetric, a mark of an open die not a complete drop forge. When you hand forge chisels, the balance isn't always centered correctly on the tang. To address this problem, when you put the chisels into a handle - the job of the cutler - you compensate so the chisels weight is perfectly balanced and symmetrical. But visually it may be off slightly - and that's the case with these chisels. The mark of somebody paying attention. Two of these chisel still have their fancy store hanging display hoops on.

 Temps here about have been in the single digits overnight and barely getting above 20F/-7C during the day. Today it hit 37F/3C and the snow mountains actually melted a wee bit. My happiness will be that what we have piled up along the driveway will melt before I get whacked with another storm.

almost

There were a few holidays on the brown frame that I had to touch up. The black frame has two coats on the back and one on the front. I will have to wait a couple of days for the paint to cure out before I put any shellac on them. The goal is to get the 3 frames to Maria on saturday.

toast

This is the second 5x7 shadow box and it is toast. It is twisted too much to plane it flat. The first one was twisted too but not as bad and I was able to flatten it. I had to make another frame.

nope

This was the 3rd panel I made for the frame and it was also the 3rd frame that was twisted. I thought I could keep it flat while I glued it but nixed it. I didn't want to chance it going wonky on me.

last one

The 3 previous failures were all 1/8" birch plywood. All of the plywood panels were visibly twisted. The frame wasn't strong enough to straighten it. The final panel is crappy 1/8" plywood from china. It was flat and the dry fit laid flat on the tablesaw. Glad it worked because I ran out of both the birch and chinese plywood. 

I'm dreading buying more 1/8" plywood. The price had jumped a lot the last time I bought some. With the way prices are spiraling upward, I'm sure the plywood will be higher too.

hmm.....

Couldn't get this setup to work. The clamps would not clamp on the flat of the red 45. I tried 3 different clamps and nada. I wanted to use these because I could see if the clamps twisted the frame with pressure applied. Onto plan #2.

Plan #2 was the band clamp. I eyeballed it all over a bazillion times making sure it was seated down fully on the metal corners. I thought maybe the band clamp caused the twist in the previous 3. Maybe, but 2 were definitely due the plywood being twisted.

splines

I noticed when I tried to twist the frame flat, one of the miters broke apart. Wasn't expecting that at all. I put two splines in each miter on the first frame.

3 hours later

Normally I would have waited until tomorrow but I had to check it out. The frame is laying flat on the tablesaw. There was zero rocking on any of the corners.

splines

I used red oak veneer for the splines. I'll be painting both of the 5x7 frames. I didn't do any lay out for the splines - I just eyeballed them. 

came today

I like reading history like this. The book on the right was published in 1984 and the second one in 1992. I did a cursory page check and both books are different. Both are still about New Jersey toolmakers and not just woodworking tools. I especially like reading the ads. It is like reading a foreign language even though it is my native english. 

accidental woodworker

Any time I rehab an old tool, I think about whether or not to leave as much patina as I can.  In the past I've been more in the camp of trying to make it look like new, shining up the brass and other metal parts and cleaning the wood thoroughly.  Lately though, I've been more apt to just make it useable and keep it looking like it is 100 or more years old.

With this old moving fillister, though, there was enough work required to get it fettled properly that I decided to clean it up all the way.  This is a #68 Sandusky moving fillister plane that initially looked like it was in pretty good shape.  The only thing obviously wrong was that the nicker iron was missing.

Overview

Markings on the front

Close-up of the right side showing depth stop and the dado that should house a nicker

The heel end stamped with former caretaker H. W. Campbell

The 1 5/8" wide iron was in pretty decent shape

This shows the angle of the cutting edge required due to the skew of the iron in the plane

There was a little damage to the aft end of the boxing - not enough for me to worry about

I started with the body of the plane, specifically the sole.  I was mainly checking to see if it was flat, but what I saw was a HUGE amount of twist!  I had to plane that out and it didn't take long.  Then I looked at the right side, which I wanted to be square to the sole.  It too had a HUGE amount of twist, so I planed that out, too.  Planing those two surfaces and making them square to each other had the additional benefit of crispening up the corner between the two.

Plane held in vise upside down, winding sticks showing twisted sole

Plane lying on its left side and winding sticks show twist on right side

Got both surfaces twist free, flat and square to each other

While I was planing, I also flattened the fence (only the face that mates with the plane's sole) and made the edge that rides on the work square to that face.

Squaring up the fence

Cleaned up the brass inserts and screws

Planing the surfaces that I did leads to predictable consequences.  First, since the fence is now a little thinner, the screws holding it to the body bottomed out in their holes before tightening the fence completely.  I didn't want to deepen the screw holes, so I added washers that would bear against the fence's brass and that fixed the problem.  But now the screw heads protrude just a little bit beyond the bottom of the fence.  Not really a problem - it just doesn't sit upright as stably as before.

Second, planing the right side of the plane body made it so that the dado that would hold the new nicker iron was not as deep.  Before planing I had measured it at .137" deep.  The steel I'm using to make a new nicker is .125" thick, so I thought I might have to use a shim to get the cutter to be at the level of the plane's surface.  But I planed enough off the right side that the .125" thick nicker would have been proud of the surface.  I ended up routing the bottom of the dado to make the cutter level with the surface.

The dado for the nicker.  Note how it is tapered in its length as well as its depth, getting wider at the bottom.

Some notes about how to make a new nicker

Getting the nicker close to the right shape

But because I planed the right side of the body, the nicker sits too high

So I used a small router to deepen the dado.

To complete the nicker, I hacksawed and filed a notch that allows one to remove it from the plane

Then shaped the cutting edge on the grinder

Then heat-treated and tempered it and gave the edge a final honing

The plane's rabbeting iron didn't need too much work.  After removing any rust with abrasives, I reshaped the cutting edge to mate well with the plane's sole.  Another consequence of planing the right side of the body was that the iron now extended too far out the planes' side.  So I had to grind and file that back to be in line with the plane's side and the nicker.

You can see how much the iron extends past the planes' right side (top in photo)

Grinding a new cutting edge was tricky due to the angle of the edge

You can see the laminated iron in the bevel

First test cut: rabbet cut along the grain - nicker removed

Second test cut: nicker used here to cut a cross-grain rabbet

A couple of test cuts gave nice results.  But I really had to be diligent about pressing the fence against the workpiece when cutting with the grain to avoid getting a rabbet of tapered width.  The small test rabbet cross-grain using the nicker was great.  It really worked well.

After all the work was done, I gave the wood two coats of BLO.  It's been drying 2-3 weeks now, and here's the final product.

Glamour shot

After I use it a while, I might find that the wedge needs work to fit better.  There's a slight gap down near the iron's cutting edge.  It didn't seem to affect the test rabbets, but I'll keep an eye on it.

 Today flew by and before I knew it I was killing the lights in the shop at 1458. I didn't get any major t hings done but I did whack a bunch of little things. I like that time went by so quick I didn't notice. As usual I let my limited attention span drive me down all the side streets today. Thinking my next project will be a desk for Miles. Not looking forward to driving to New Hampshire on a week day. Boston traffic is a PITA and terrifying at the same time. Oh well stercus acidit. 

done

Got the disastrous milk paint frame repainted. Got two coats on the back and front. Tomorrow I will slap 3 coats of shellac on it. Then it will be off to the Frame It Shop. 

sigh....

Shouda, woulda, coulda, but didn't. If I had looked at this frame earlier I could have fixed all the boo boos. I was ready to put shellac on this frame but I found too many hiccups to ignore. Most of it were drips and paint build up on the edges. Scraped the drips, etc and then sanded the frame with 100 grit and repainted it.

hmm.......

Thought of using a sawthooth hanger but nixed it. I would have had to use epoxy to fix it and I didn't have any.  Decided to use screws instead.

it fits

Vertical space of any kind is super tight in the shop. This fits here and there is another space above the thermometer for a sibling. I'll start looking for a couple more of these.

done

I have no idea what you would call these two. Refrigerator magnet art? I bought these somewhere in Maine 10-12 years ago.

this will work

I was going to use a sawtooth hanger when I thought of this instead. I glued the short piece at the top to the back and screwed it to the long bottom piece.

almost ready

I had to file all four screws to shorten them. The two at the top just needed a wee bit and the two in the long bottom piece needed about a 1/8" filed off.

surprise

The screws were solid brass. I was expecting them to be brass plated - that is what I find is prevalent now. Solid brass files easier than the brass plated crap.

hmm......

Happy with how this turned out. Thinking that maybe I should attach a strap or something similar to limit how far the back leg would open. The hinge I used is a stopped hinge that opens to 95°. It is steady as is and when I thumped the bench with a hammer, it stayed in place. I can revisit it if need be so for now it is sans a strap.

two new shadow box frames

Got confused again and plowed the groove before shooting the miters. I should have done the other frames with a groove for the back. 

I like

Dry fit to check the margins and they were spot on. I showed these to my wife and she asked if I was going to mat them. I hadn't considered that at all but I did muse about it for a few. I'll ask Maria about that when I bring the other frames to her. 

glued and cooking

Debating whether or not to paint these two or leave them natural with a shellac finish. Maybe I'll paint one and shellac the other.

Lie Nielsen vise screw

The leg screw was been adopted. I threw in the handle because I don't have any need for it. I don't have anything to fill in the void - I used up all I had shipping out the planes. Bubble wrap at Wally World is $16 and the S/H is going to high enough without adding that to the mix. I'll have to check around the house and see if I can scrounge up some more packing material.

quickie

Whacked a simple shelf before the quitting bell. Made it all with scraps I dug out of the shop shitcan. 

close by now

This is the Stanley depth stop do dad for  auger bits which are right above this. Thinking now that it is done that maybe I should have made it longer R/L?

accidental woodworker

 The storm that threatened my spot in the universe never happened. In the early AM it was cloudy and gray but the sun came out and shined all day long. The snow never came any where near me. The storm went south and than east out to sea. Daughter #2 who lives in North Carolina did get a lot of snow. The grandkids loved it and spent the day sledding. 

back done

Yesterday before I killed the lights I had got one coat of black on the back. This AM I got the 2nd coat on and called it done.

hmm....

Waited until this AM to put on the second coat. The shop temp is steady at 55F/13C so I decided to let the first coat set up overnight. 

hmm.... again

I like the frame/photo on the left. The margins on it are pretty even. The right one is good top/bottom but too wide R/L. I have enough of this small stock to make the right one over. I don't like the uneven margins. These are shadow box frames and the margins, IMO, need to be even all around.

Donna said yes

I made this in May of 2011 after seeing a pic of it. This was my version. I put the boxes I shellaced yesterday in it. I also have a cherry one similar to this - the top drawers are reversed on it. I'm keeping that one for me - hopefully I'll find a hole to hang it over. Donna will be taking this with her when she comes up this way in july.

read the back

This is epoxy but it is a finishing cover like what is used in making epoxy tables. Not sure what the adhesive grip is with it. This was what I was going to use on the next shadow box frame.

checking for square

I eyeballed the margins - the bottom margin is wider than the top. I used marine grade 5 minute epoxy to adhere them to the back. I set it on the radiator in the kitchen to keep it warm while it cures. 

The backs on them are magnetic. I cleaned them with Simple Green, scruffed with 100 grit to give the epoxy a tooth to stick too. Fingers crossed on that and I'll find out in the AM.

accidental woodworker 

 

done

The woodworking at least is done. I had to glue a back on it and then paint it. No shellac for this one.

epoxy failed

The frame fell apart when I took the 45 clamp pads off. The miters were still sticky and none of the miters had cured. The shop temp was 54F/12C and epoxy doesn't like cold so I think that is why it failed. 

3rd glue up coming

Cleaned up the epoxied miters and glued them up with yellow glue this time.

clamped and cooking

This is the second time for yellow glue - the first one failed when I tried to plane the sides. Fingers crossed that it will be better with this time.

warmest spot in the shop

I ended up sticking 3 miniature frames here to keep them warm while they cooked.

5x7 frame

This will be for a holiday pic of the grandsons. That pic is 5 1/4" x 7 1/4" and I made the inside measurements 5 1/2" x 7 1/2".

back to the milk paint

Put the milk paint from the can into the blender up to the max line. I zipped it a couple of minutes and painted the frame again. The coverage is spotty and there are a few areas where the paint just ain't sticking. But it did lay down smoothly.

hmm.....

The paint dried smooth and lump free. The coat I applied appeared to have laid down and stuck. 

hmm.....

I dumped the bullet back into the can and no clumps or lumps. I'm done playing with this batch. It is going to take me a few more dance steps before I get a batch that works.

my original dovetail do dad

This is how the jig works. It sets the height of the stock for sawing. 

Cosman clone

This sets the height of the stock the same as the original jig. However, that is all this one does. The original sets the height and it also is what the tail board rests on. Looks like I wasted time and calories on this one. Maybe I should have set it to a hand plane like Cosman did.

painted

I covered the area where they will go with blue tape. I plan to use epoxy to stick them to the inside of the frame. I'll get the 2nd and final coat on after dinner.

sigh

The areas of bare wood are where the paint didn't stick. It had bubbled and flaked off on one short side when I touched it. I sanded the inside bevel with 240 grit lightly and this is what it sanded off.

rescue time

Sanded the frame with 120 grit and used a hand scraper  to remove lumps and drips. After that I slapped on a coat of shellac as a sealer coat. I'll be painting it with commercial milk paint that isn't really milk paint.

shellac pile

The biggest box I just made. The other three I made over the past 3 years and none of them had a finish on them. I am giving a cabinet I made 15 years ago to my sister Donna and I am putting all these boxes in it to get rid of them.

Getting ready for another winter storm. The prediction is 1-3" of the wonderful white crappola. I don't know when it will start nor when it will stop. Fingers crossed that I'm in a pocket that just gets a lot of wind and no snow.

accidental woodworker 

I brought all the pieces inside where it was warmer. My daughter helped with the gluing up and the finishing.

First the inner shelves and uprights were glued to each other. This was the type of clamping where if you crank down too much everything will sploosh out.

don't clamp the tar out of it

After that set all day or night we glued the sides, top, and bottom. The bottom also had pocket screws driven from underneath.

Upside down

My daughter said she didn't want to paint it, she wanted it to look like wood. I offered her the options of no finish vs putting on something almost clear that might make it easier to clean or keep things from sticking to it. She opted for that so we got ready to apply shellac. I was preparing paintbrushes when she asked why we can't just roll it. She must remember helping to paint walls.

rolling on shellac. first time.

It didn't sound like a great idea but we went ahead and rolled on Zinnser sealcoat shellac. It went on pretty thick, and some areas were foamy or had ridges. I later went back and tried to smooth some of those areas out.

we laid it on thick shellaced (or is it shellacked?)

These shelves were heavy and large. It took several days to get around taking them up one set of stairs from the basement to the first floor. Then it took another 1-2 weeks and an appliance dolly to get them from there to the second floor. Maybe I should learn a lesson from that and assemble/finish larger projects closer to their destination.

in place in use

Now it's gotten to be too cold to do much else.

where the magic happens (march through october)

Although I don’t make a lot of spoons these days, I still haunt the spoon-making discussion groups on social media, and this is one of the most common questions I hear. How can you be sure that the wood finish you’re about to use is actually food-safe?

Here are some freshly-finished utensils made from eastern red cedar. Dust from this wood is a known irritant, and the oil finish hasn’t been officially certified as food-safe! Will they poison everyone who cooks with them?!? No, they won’t.

Let’s say you’ve made a cutting board or a wooden spoon, or maybe you’ve built a baby crib, and you want to be extra-sure that the finish won’t poison somebody.

You go down to the home center and start looking at wood finishes, and only a few (mostly expensive oil-based finishes) make any claims to be safe for food contact. What about the rest of them? Can you safely finish that cutting board with Danish oil? If the baby if starts chewing on the crib rails, will a lacquer finish send her into anaphylactic shock? Why on earth don’t companies tell you if their product is or isn’t toxic when cured?

Or maybe, just maybe, we don’t get the answers we want because we’re not asking the right question.

In a classic article, finishing expert Bob Flexner points out that no government agency actually certifies any wood finish as “food-safe.” A company can call its finishing product “food-safe” at its own risk, but that claim has not been verified by anybody.

So does that mean that there’s no safe wood finish on the shelves today? That only raw, unfinished wood is truly food-safe?

Not at all. Here’s what Bob Flexner has to say:

…there is no evidence of any common wood finish being unsafe for food or mouth contact once it has fully cured, so a distinction between food-safe and non-food-safe is speculative.

You can’t be absolutely sure about the food safeness of any finish you put on wood. There could even be problems with mineral oil and walnut oil that we just don’t know of yet. There could also be problems with raw linseed oil, pure tung oil, wax, shellac and salad bowl finish, because we don’t know where these substances have been or what they might have come in contact with. None has met the regulations laid out by the FDA.

But, based on FDA regulations, the way finishes are made, the complete lack of any evidence to the contrary, and the countless other untested objects food and children come in contact with, there’s no reasonable argument for avoiding the use of any finishes.

(The whole article is worth reading in full, though it’s only available on web archive sites now.)

In other words, the question we should be asking ourselves is this: “Which wood finishes are known to be toxic when cured?”

And the answer, at least in the USA, is “none of them.”

According to Bob Flexner, there are some specialized commercial finishes in some industries that come with health hazard warnings, but they aren’t the kinds of products you can find on the shelves at your local home center.

When you think about it, we come into contact with various cured wood finishes pretty frequently–on wooden floors, wooden furniture, wooden paneling, wooden handles, you name it. Have you ever heard of anybody reacting negatively to handling finished wood? I haven’t. Our common experience indicates that, as far as anybody knows, none of the the wood finishes you can usually buy off the shelf at a home center in the USA are toxic when fully cured. (Check the label. Is there a warning that the finish contains heavy metals, like lead or mercury? No? Then you should be good to go.)

That’s not to say that applying finishes is non-toxic. Many common finishes, like lacquer, give off pretty noxious gasses as you apply them. Others, like boiled linseed oil, can cause fires if oil-soaked rags are improperly stored. So you should always take reasonable safety precautions when applying a wood finish. But once the finish has cured, the finished wood is as safe to handle as any other common object in your everyday environment.

There are even a few wood finishing products that are edible: shellac, beeswax, mineral oil, and vegetable oils (e.g. flaxseed oil, hemp oil, and walnut oil). Some purists stick to these products in older to be double-extra, super-safe. I have also known people to just use whatever vegetable oil they have available, like olive oil or sunflower oil, but that’s a mistake because those vegetable oils don’t actually dry. If it doesn’t wash right off of the utensil, it will eventually go rancid. So if you absolutely must use an edible finish, stick with an oil that dries: flaxeed/linseed, hemp, or walnut oil.

For my own wooden spoons and spatulas, however, I use a three-part blend of polyurethane, mineral spirits, and raw linseed (flaxseed) oil. The oil and polyurethane mix and dry in the wood, and the mineral spirits (added only to thin the mixture so it soaks into the wood) evaporate completely.  The finish is extremely easy to apply, and once it’s cured, it stands up to repeated washings in the kitchen. And it has never, ever poisoned anybody who used a utensil that was finished with it.

So yes, it’s fine to finish your cutting board with the boiled linseed oil from your local home center. Just let it dry completely before you start chopping fresh veggies on it. And yes, go ahead and use lacquer or polyurethane on that baby crib.

Unless it’s the mother’s first baby, and she’s a health nut.

In which case, give that crib a coat of food-grade flaxseed oil followed by several coats of shellac topped by a hand-rubbed coat of beeswax. Tell the anxious mother that while the finish won’t exactly be tasty, it is certifiably edible.

 

 

bare wood showing

There is a definite difference with the paint adhesion between the late and early wood rings. There are two coats on the front of the frame and it is going to need a 3rd one.

needs a second coat

The quirk on both the inside and outside had a couple of holidays. The flat areas of the frame didn't need a second coat. I applied a 2nd coat to whole front anyway.

sigh

Way too much quark in this batch of milk paint. It is way too thick and it has a ton of clumps in it. They were easily flattened and didn't seem to be a hiccup sticking to the wood. I added water to it to thin it but it didn't really work 100%.  

On the back of the frame I painted it two more times. The coverage there was spotty and it wasn't covering entirely. This batch was borderline acceptable. I'll be making a 3rd batch of milk paint but will it be the charm? 

hmm......

In spite of the hiccups with this batch I do like this color. It isn't flat and it isn't shiny but somewhere in between the two. It was hanging out here drying after the third coat. On a positive note the paint, although it is iffy, still seems to be viable.

changed

The pendulum bob (outside the case) is too small for the viewing window. The replacement one is a bigger, shiny brass one which I like a lot. The movement I put in the clock last week is dead with my cell phone time. Now I just have to remember what did I do with the back panel?

hmm.....

Instead of the brass pendulum rod I covered it with a wooden insert. I can't remember where I bought these and a did a fruitless search for them last night. I only have one more left. I waxed it with dark Briwax to match the walnut case.

my version

Rob Cosman recently posted a vid about making a jig for setting stock square in the vise for dovetailing. He made his to match a 5 1/2 hand plane whereas mine will match a dovetail jig I already have and use.

almost done

I used 6mm plywood and a scrap of Philippine mahogany for my version. I rounded over the top on all four sides. 

done

This matches the height of the squaring jig I made a few years back. The new one should be easier to use than the left one.

no more twist

The two mini frames I glued up last week are both twist free now. The smaller one is too small for the photo I wanted to frame in it. The larger one is big enough for a 5x7.

3 days late

Stickers finally came in. They look better up close and personal than on the ETSY website. Still wish I could have found specific Stanley numbered sticker though.

dresses it up a wee bit

Sticker at least identifies the box as holding a Stanley tool.

Yikes

This is the big frame and it fell apart when I tried to plane the first side. Reassembled the frame with epoxy this time.

too small

I like these magnetic stickers. The June Cleaver moms are such a shocking difference from the sayings. I had one more of them but I couldn't find it. I'll have to make another frame because this one is a 1/4" too small.

new frame

Whacked out a new miniature frame. I will glue this one with yellow glue. After it has cooked I will glue a 1/8" plywood back to it. That should hold the miters together and keep them from separating.

grandsons Stanley #2

I rehabbed a bazillion hand planes and this was the only #2 I ever saw offered up for sale. I never saw a another manufacturer's #2 offered neither.  Right out of their toolbox it spit RML shavings.

hmm......

Two sets of RML and two sets of full width and length face shavings. I don't see the big deal with this plane. I think using a blockplane is a better choice. I got this one for the grandkids because of its size. It is a perfect fit for young hands.

it is too small

This plane feels awkward in my hands. It almost disappears when gripping the tote with one hand and the knob with the other.  

the grandson's main tool chest

I put a sticker on the box - it has a Stanley depth stop for auger bits, a counter sink, and a 1/4" driver. There is also a complete set of Stanley planes for them - #2, #3, #4, #5 1/4, #5 1/2, #6, #7, and a #8. Missing is a 4 1/2, 10 1/2, and #1 (which will never happen). Not sure if I'll add two of the missing 3.

accidental woodworker

 

last night

Made another batch of quark. I don't seem to have any hiccups with this part of making milk paint. It is neat to watch how quickly it curdles when the vinegar is added to the milk.

came last night

I have always been fascinated with Mr Wright and his designs. Falling Water is my favorite and his prairie school homes I like more than his earlier ones. But above all I love the stain glass designs that were so prevalent in his designs. I read the whole book in one sitting. 

not in the book

I rinsed the quark and placed in it some cheese cloth and a double mesh strainer to drain any water left in the quark (overnight).

hmm......

I little less than half a cup left in the pan. Water seems to be the enemy in making milk paint from my reading of the book. Seemed like a prudent step IMO.

this sucks

The book says a minimum of 250 grams of quark to make a batch. I'm about 50 grams shy. The quark is hard, much harder than my first batch. I'll had to make another batch of quark.

3rd batch

I used this milk to make the 2nd batch. I used a supermarket generic milk to make the first batch which yielded more than 250 grams. The author wrote that different milk brands yield different results with the quark.

On the 2nd batch I had added a cup and half more than one quart. I thought that would give a wee bit more than the required 250 grams. It didn't and I only got 208 grams.

2nd batch

Rinsed and draining while I went to the VA. I have an appointment at the West Roxbury VA for a PET scan at 0800 on Feb 6th. I checked with transportation and the shuttle from Providence to Roxbury leaves at 0530. After I confirmed that I went to express care for a rash on my left shin. 

I have dry skin and it is a common headache in the winter. Especially so when the weather gets cold like it has been the past week or so. Just another joy to endure in my golden years.

have enough now

Decided to make a big batch. I added 42 grams to the 2nd one to bring it up to 250. I then added another 125 grams to raise the total to 375. 

oops

I didn't notice the max line when I loaded this. The blender was straining to mix it up. I finally got it done but it was slow going. Mixing (even this big batch) was so much better over hand mixing. No lumps or clumps of quark. It was a homogeneous mix that I forgot to add the black pigment to. I had to mix that in by hand. 

kind of black

The black pigment has mica in it which makes it shiny. I think I made a me-steak getting these pigments. I'm going to search for earth pigments next. This paint batch is thick. Thicker than commercial paint not sure how will that effect the coverage? 

the small picture frame

I sanded this with 240 grit before I painted it black. This will house pics of the grandsons.

hmm.....

Two coats on the back. The coverage isn't that bad. There is no washed out look like the miniature chest. The author wrote that milk paint doesn't have a long shelf life. Thankfully this paint did dry quickly - about an hour after the first coat, I was putting on the 2nd one.

After dinner I will get 2 coats on the front of the frame. The paint had thickened between the first and second coats. I had thinned the paint before applying the first coat with 2 tablespoons of water and 5 tablespoons on the second one.

big frame

I'm pretty impressed with the coverage of the first coat on the front of the big frame. I will eyeball it in the AM before I decide whether or not to do a 2nd coat.

thicker

Don't understand why this paint is getting thicker with each use. So far thinning it with water seems to be working. Fingers crossed that I can get two coats on the front before it heads south on me.

accidental woodworker 

 The chest is done and my wife liked it. I am thinking that aliens have cloned her because she rarely likes things I make. She especially liked the color and asked me if I had done it on purpose. I explained that it was the result of my first failed milk paint. In spite of that, I kind of liked the color myself too.

new toys

Surprise. The bullet blender I ordered arrived a little before 2000 yesterday. Got some  spatulas to clean out mixing jars. Went searching for small canning jars and nada. I went to a bazillion stores and I found quart sizes but I wanted the smaller one. I'll be mixing a new batch of milk paint (black) tomorrow.

sweet

This came with 3 different size mixing jars, this is the largest one. The blender only has one speed but I don't see any need for pulse blending.

nope

The white spots are wood putty and the milk paint didn't cover it. Not sure if that was because of the crappy first batch I made or whether a good batch would have covered it.

happy face on

I didn't get any paint bleed through on the tape. All the edges are clean and sharp. The underside of the lid was the same.

last coat

Ended up slapping 5 coats of shellac over the milk paint. The shellac didn't change the paint color in the least. I used a blonde shellac that wasn't 100% clear, so I wasn't sure if it would add a tint of shellac color to the milk paint.

wood poster frame

I picked brown and I like the color. The border on the poster is black and my original color for the frame was black. There wouldn't have been a line in the sand between it and the poster border. Now with the frame being brown and the poster border black, I can pick a matting color that will blend the three together.

4th finger got cropped

I could have stopped here with four but I was in the shop and couldn't do anything else. So I applied a 5th and final coat to kill some time.

from china

14oz canning jars from the Dollar Store that the clerk warned me shouldn't be used for canning due to lead in the glass. I used it to mix 1oz of black pigment. I'll use it to make the milk paint for a picture frame.

glamour pic #1

It isn't so much the color I like, but the washed out look of it is what appeals the most to me.

pic #2

Seeing this pic now I'm thinking that maybe I should have have knocked the height of it down a few inches.

3rd glamour shot

I like the contrast between the bare wood of the lid and inside compared to the milk paint.

final glamour pic

Back looks funny to my eye. It doesn't quite match the washed out look of the sides and front. So in that respect it is good that it is the back.

hmm......

The Union #3 continues to perform well. This is a scrap of wood that I used to close the lid on the shellac can. It had dings and divots in it on both faces that the Union smoothed out lickety split. However, my OCD is in overdrive because the lever adjust is over the right.

ten minute project before the bell

This is a riser for my computer keyboard. The feet on it don't tilt it up high enough for me.

just right

I eyeballed the height and I nailed it dead on. It is 3/8" higher then the feet and it lies in the plane from where my elbows rest on the edge of the desk to my hands on the keyboard. Glad I didn't have to play with it to get the height of the riser correct.

accidental woodworker

Let me establish from the start that many, many methods of sharpening can work. And while I may be courting controversy in my approach, I really am interested in this blog post in discussing how I sharpen, not offering a comprehensive review of all plausible methods. I will also say from the get-go that there is also a big difference between regrinding a tool to a new geometry to repair damage and routine maintenance because of use.

Here is how I am keeping my tools sharp.

Except for one 3/8" spindle gouge ,all my turning tools are made of high-speed steel (HSS). There are gradations of quality of HSS, but in general HSS tools stay sharper longer than traditional carbon steel tools. On the other hand, carbon steel is easier to sharpen. Pole turners have a tendency to want to use carbon steel tools, because such tools are easily sharpened with a stone in the field. Other that that, HSS tools have replaced carbon steel in the marketplace.

One complaint people have with sharpening high-speed steel is that HSS doesn't get as sharp an edge as carbon steel. I would suggest that with modern sharpening equipment such as diamond stones, CBN wheels, and quality waterstones, HSS can get pretty darn sharp. It not so much the steel, which is kind of gummy, but diamond and CBN cleanly cut through the carbide inclusions that are found in HSS.

For the one or two times I've wanted to really change the geometry of a tool, I've used a grinder with a CBN wheel. The CBN wheel isn't essential, but it does mean my chances of burning the tool are nearly non-existent. Many people finish up on a grinder and call it a day, although they are usually finishing up on a much finer wheel (220 and up) than I have (80).

Since I don't have a super fine grinding wheel, in all cases no matter how I get to the ground edge I'm following up the fine and extra fine diamond stone. And then I'm doing one of three things. Leaving the tool as is and getting back to work. Stropping with strop treated with micro fine green honing compound, or polishing on an 8,000 grit water stone. I'm going back and forth between the strop and the 8000 grit waterstone trying to figure out which is better. I don't have an answer yet. I do think however if you have a sharp tool to begin with. a polished edge will cut better and longer.

Since I free-hand sharp everything anyway, I free-hand sharpen my turning tools. Learning to sharpen the handle heavy turning tools took some adapting, but it's the same skill. One of the reasons I'm a big fan of free-hand sharpening regular chisels is once you can free-hand sharpen chisels and plane blades, you can also free-hand sharpen pretty much everything else as well.

When my turning for the day is done, I feel the tool for sharpness. If I'm unsure if it's sharp, it's probably not. I then touch it up on the fine and extra fine diamond stone. And then follow whatever polishing medium is handy.

In the photo above, we have a 1" skew chisel and a 1" continental gouge. You can see the hollow from the grinding. I have a 6" grinder. Most turners prefer a lesser hollow and use 8" grinders. But unfortunately I can't justify a new grinder. The polish marks on the heel and toe of the bevel are the result of hand honing.

I can't emphasize enough how much of a pleasure and a rush it is when I take a tool that was cutting weirdly, sharpen it, put it back on the lathe, treadle away, and get curly shavings.

 It snowed overnight and I woke up to about an inch plus on the ground. Unbelievable after the ton of crap that fell the day before. At least it is was light and fluffy. There is the possibility that a repeat of the past sunday will happen on this coming sunday. After the last 5-6 years of minimal snow fall I can't really complain. 

not bad but also not welcomed

I was not a happy camper this AM. My arms and shoulders didn't hurt anymore but my back was frantically shaking hands with me. Spent a lot of time today molding my butt cheeks to my desk chair. But that happened after I shoveled the driveway. 

nutso results

About 15 years ago when I decided to go the rabbit hole of hand tool woodworking one of the things I went nutso on was getting replacement irons and chipbreakers. I have at least two sets of iron/chipbreakers for all of my planes except for my #8. I have an extra iron but no chipbreaker. I took out two sets for a #3.

much better

I got a Stanley iron in the Union #3. Cutting smoother and easier than the Union iron. I had a similar problem like this with a Miller Falls iron. Sharpened and honed and nada. It would not make a shaving. I ground the bevel back on my bench grinder and again nada. I couldn't get it to make a shavings. The Union iron cuts good on the right side of the iron and garbage on the left. Couldn't improve it by sharpening it again concentrating on the left side.

what a difference

The shaving from the Union iron was jagged and It wasn't continuous from end to end. And it tore out like crazy around the screw holes. The Stanley shaving was continuous, full width, full length, and the screw holes were intact.. Thinking of offering this up for sale again.

One thing I've found over the years was swapping out sets doesn't always work. What works is swapping just the iron and keeping the original chipbreaker. I don't know why but it was a hard learned lesson.

prepping the chest

I don't want any paint on the underside of the lid or the inside of the chest. If I get any bleed through the tape, I'll paint the underside and the top edge of the box.

hmm......

I lost 12 grams of quark over the past 3 days. I am still going to make my first batch of milk paint regardless. It is all part of the learning curve.

done

I think I made way too much dye for the paint. The author says 1ounce/30 grams and I stopped at 20 grams/1/2 ounce. The paint mixed easy but not completely. There are lumps of quark that no matter how much I stirred,  wouldn't go away.  The color isn't as blue as I would have liked. I really wanted something more like a cobalt blue.

One thing that surprised me was how liquid the paint became. The lime got 4 tablespoons of water and I drained the water that was in the quark container. I couldn't see how mixing the lime quark would become a liquid or even a loose, watery paint. 

It became liquid almost immediately. A bit on the watery side but a paint quality liquid. The author recommends a blender and I now agree with him. I bought a small juicing blender from Amazon. I'm supposed to have it today but I find that doubtful but I'll keep my fingers crossed. If I get it I'll make another batch in the AM.

left over

There is more then enough to color a 2nd batch of milk paint. I would have mixed a 30 gram/1 ounce sample but this jar wasn't big enough.

yikes

I wasn't paying attention when I grabbed the paint can and I tipped it over. Sigh. I am not impressed with the color on the wood. It isn't blue but it looks greenish. I wanted this to be a pale wash that showed the grain but not green and that is working. 

ugly color IMO

Besides the color being off, the coverage wasn't what I expected. I think part of the problem with that is I didn't sand before painting. This paint was applied to a surface that was hand planed. Too smooth and no tooth for the paint to grab.

hmm......

There are bumps and clumps of (quark?) on all the surface. They look like crap. The dark specs.

an hour later

The greenish tint has toned down some and it looks like a pale blue/green color now. It is dry to the touch and I'll be putting on at least one more coat.

clumps

The little dark spots are clumps of quark? They are hard and I couldn't remove them scraping with a finger nail.

worse spot

The coverage here sucks pond scum. 

240 grit

The sandpaper cut and smoothed all the clumps. It also left behind a lot of dust. I'll try to get a 2nd coat on after dinner, hopefully. If not then in the AM. I will also be applying 3-4 coats of shellac.

accidental woodworker