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Wild Rose Woodcraft
Smallest "Miter Box Saw" I've Ever Found
I strolled into my wife's favorite little antique shop the other day. It has all the things my wife likes, and virtually nothing that interests me. But we had time to kill, and we spent some quality time wandering through, looking and commenting on things.
It's run by several of the nicest little old ladies you'll ever meet. One of them asked if we needed any help, so I asked if they had any tools (I always ask, they never do, and we have a nice chat about some obtuse antique item, say, the rare victorian carved cigars or whatever, and I go on my way).
But this time she got a funny look on her face and said, "Well, we don't understand tools at all, you see, but there is this....thing, I think it's a miter saw, back over there in the corner."
So I went to inspect the thing. It was indeed a saw in a crude miter box made of recently processed pine such as the local lumber yard carries. A small saw sat cradled in the kerfs cut in the box, barely spanning the width of the box, about 12" long. The blade was black with something like tallow, the handle was worn and dark with scars and the upper horn was damaged. It was straight, but could use a sharpening. The saw back was beginning to separate from the blade near the handle, which was apple. H. DISSTON & SONS * PHILADA was stamped on the medallian and the brass nuts were domed.
All the above at a price less than $10 made it a pretty easy decision to give this saw a new home in my shop. My preliminary assessment is a Disston #4 backsaw, dating to approximately 1878 -'88. The handle shape is a closer likeness to the #4 rather than the #77.
When I fetched the saw to the cashier to pay, she asked if I didn't want the miter box that came with it. "No, you can keep it", I said. "I don't think it's original equipment, and this little saw will stand on its own merits, but thank you anyway".
It's run by several of the nicest little old ladies you'll ever meet. One of them asked if we needed any help, so I asked if they had any tools (I always ask, they never do, and we have a nice chat about some obtuse antique item, say, the rare victorian carved cigars or whatever, and I go on my way).
But this time she got a funny look on her face and said, "Well, we don't understand tools at all, you see, but there is this....thing, I think it's a miter saw, back over there in the corner."
So I went to inspect the thing. It was indeed a saw in a crude miter box made of recently processed pine such as the local lumber yard carries. A small saw sat cradled in the kerfs cut in the box, barely spanning the width of the box, about 12" long. The blade was black with something like tallow, the handle was worn and dark with scars and the upper horn was damaged. It was straight, but could use a sharpening. The saw back was beginning to separate from the blade near the handle, which was apple. H. DISSTON & SONS * PHILADA was stamped on the medallian and the brass nuts were domed.
All the above at a price less than $10 made it a pretty easy decision to give this saw a new home in my shop. My preliminary assessment is a Disston #4 backsaw, dating to approximately 1878 -'88. The handle shape is a closer likeness to the #4 rather than the #77.
When I fetched the saw to the cashier to pay, she asked if I didn't want the miter box that came with it. "No, you can keep it", I said. "I don't think it's original equipment, and this little saw will stand on its own merits, but thank you anyway".
Categories: Hand Tools
It's Camping Season
And every campsite needs a good bench. My son and I built one from hand tools and western red cedar this weekend. There was lots of raw material available, piled here for about 7 years, so it was nice and dry. We pulled out the largest one we could find. We used a pruning saw, axe, mallet, jack plane, chisel and wedges to build our bench.
First we cut out the notches in the legs, leaving them attached to the main trunk. Don't have to worry about them holding still while sawing if you do it this way.
And the finished legs, roughly two feet long. Nothing was measured for this project, but that's the approximate length. Not exactly pretty, but they work.
Next, we cut a six foot length from the trunk used the axe and the wedges to split it in half. No pics of that operation, but it split pretty cleanly. However, there was some twist, so we went to work with the chisel and jack plane.
Then it was time to sit and relax and enjoy the view!
First we cut out the notches in the legs, leaving them attached to the main trunk. Don't have to worry about them holding still while sawing if you do it this way.
And the finished legs, roughly two feet long. Nothing was measured for this project, but that's the approximate length. Not exactly pretty, but they work.
Next, we cut a six foot length from the trunk used the axe and the wedges to split it in half. No pics of that operation, but it split pretty cleanly. However, there was some twist, so we went to work with the chisel and jack plane.
Then it was time to sit and relax and enjoy the view!
Categories: Hand Tools
The Twins Have Arrived!
That is all. Pictures are worth thousands of words.
You can read more about this project at these links:
The Coolest Thread in Wood-dom
Making A Smoother According to Work Magazine
Sturnella Toolworks
Categories: Hand Tools
A Home for the Homeless
…...bird, that is. This was an interesting project from several perspectives. It began when my son-in-law, Jordan, asked if I would help build a birdhouse to enter in a contest at his workplace. Since Jordan is a structural engineer at an architectural firm, I suspected the entries wouldn't be your run-of-the-mill back yard birdhouses. If we wanted to compete, we knew we had to take our game to the next level. We had to consider the design, material, aesthetics, usefulness from the bird's perspective, and ability to withstand weather. We both wanted something that was practical for the birds, plus had a chance of at least placing in the competition (note that a lot of the entrants are primarily interested in winning, and the poor birds be damned). Google was put to work and we found lots of interesting designs, which of course we wanted to tweak a little.
First we had to choose the material. During my last trip to the lumber yard, I had seen some kayu batu in the corner, and had picked up a few planks. I didn't have anything in mind, but it was reasonably priced for an exotic and I wanted to see how it responded to hand tools. It's commonly used for decks, and has a reputation of lasting forever out in the weather. This seemed like a perfect project for the kayu batu. The planks were almost 5/4" thick and 5 1/2" wide.
Design, construction techniques, joinery, etc, were topics at the center of a lively debate. We settled on a design that is somewhat similar to the final product (not exactly, because we ended up "winging" parts of it, har har). We purposely violated some woodworking rules in order to achieve desired looks and take advantage of the material at hand. Of course, we had to compensate for our violations in other ways.
The primary rule we violated was in regard to the dovetails. The tails and pins were not aligned with the grain, which is flagrantly breaking a rule and compromising structural integrity. We did it for three reasons: 1) we wanted the look of hand-cut dovetails, 2) we did not want the end grain to show, and 3) we could utilize the planks with the grain running up/down without cutting them down or gluing up panels.
We compensated by doing our best on the glue-up with waterproof glue, then ran a bead of epoxy paste on the inside of each joint. Result? The look of hand-cut dovetails, efficient use of materials, and a box you could run over with a truck. This is built like a brick ...uh…. Bird-house. Not that other four letter word you are thinking, get your mind out of the gutter!
To start the construction, we first re-sawed the planks and milled them to final thickness. Final wall thickness is a hair under 1/2". We did get some cupping after a day or two, but nothing the hand planes couldn't take care of. Next was hand-cut dovetails, the entry hole was drilled, and the back was shortened at the bottom to allow a sliding floor to go in/out. Then on to the glue-up with Titebond 3, the waterproof stuff.
Next, I epoxied in the four posts to support the roof and added a fillet of epoxy paste to each of the four inside corners. Mortises about 1/2" deep were chiseled into the bottom of the roof. The roof is two full-thickness pieces that are edge-glued together. It is tapered about an inch from front to back, with an overhang of 2" at the front and about 1 1/2" at the back.
After dry-fitting the roof, I decided it looked to heavy and added the curve to the top, using a cambered-blade jack plane and finishing with a smoother. It looks better and will help it shed water. Gotta love design features that look good and are also practical. The roof is attached with epoxy paste.
The finish is watco oil, and I also soaked the end grain with epoxy and put epoxy on the bottom of the roof. I did not put epoxy on any areas that are exposed to the sun, as UV rays quickly destroy epoxy. The reason for the epoxy on the end grain and bottom of the roof is the wood developed several checks after final milling, and I wanted to do something to keep them from growing.
This is the guinea pig first-build, and it's one I will keep. Jordan is also building one, and finally we'll build one for the contest, which will be auctioned off to support wildlife groups.
How does kayu batu respond to hand tools? Overall, I like it. It is a bit brittle, but it doesn't really splinter. It planes well, as long as your blades are sharp. A little tearout, but it's controllable. I didn't use my toothed blade, so it's not that bad. Scrapers work wonders on it, I did not have to sand anything, see the curlies below. Grain is ruler straight. My understanding is this is a farmed, sustainable wood, so no rain forests were logged.
Here's a pic with the roof dry-fitted and no finish.
Categories: Hand Tools
A Simple Shop Cabinet
I needed more storage, and found wall space to squeeze in a 24" x 42" cabinet in Doug Fir. I started with a 2"x10" that I resawed into 1" and 1/2" pieces. The 1" side became the dovetailed carcass and shelves, and the 1/2" side became a shiplapped back. The bottom shelf is fixed in a rabbet and the upper two are adjustable. No doors at the moment, I'm thinking about that, not sure I want them.
I'm happy to have something that is solid wood rather than plywood and MDF. I put a home brow boiled linseed oil - Mineral Spirits - Turpentine finish on it, followed by paste wax. I've blogged about this build previously, in Glue-Ups With The Right Clamps Are Boring and More Efficient Dovetails.
I also used a couple of the 1/2" resawn pieces to make some "Redneck Plywood". Never heard of it? It's cheap and strong. I had two 1/2" pieces left over that were in sad shape, full of checks and knots, and warped all to heck. Normally you would throw these away. Don't do that - glue them together and glue a 1/4" strip on the front. Makes a great, cheap shelf, and you can't tell it from a solid wood shelf.
For now, it is being used to store some of my hand planes until I get the plane cabinet built, hopefully this summer.
Categories: Hand Tools
