Tools For Working Wood

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.

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.

Here is a question for you: should the point of a marking gauge be sharp or dull? And why?

Woodworking instructors answer most questions based on their experience. And most of the time when you're studying with a woodworking instructor, what you're paying for is not some universal truth of woodworking but rather your instructor's way of doing something. "This is the way I do it and that's what I know how to teach," is the instructional mantra. The more open-minded of the group will also say something along the lines of, "This is the way I was taught, and I recognize other traditions do it differently, but as I said, I teach what I know and I know that's just works very well." Some instructors have been teaching the same way for decades, whereas others see themselves as lifelong learners and explorers so their instructing evolves along with them.

My own woodworking mentor, Maurice Fraser, was compulsive, and basically taught woodworking techniques only if he had explored them extensively. The reason he taught a particular technique a particular way was because he tried every other possible method he could think of (or found out in his books) and determined that that way was the best.

Many years ago I wrote extensively about flatness of the back of a chisel or a plane blade and I polled some woodworking experts for their opinions. A very famous woodworker, a writer and instructor addressed my question, Why flatten the entire back of a chisel rather than only the first 1/32" - especially considering that Japanese chisels are purposely not flat and have a hollow? He responded by saying it was easier to teach a student to flatten the entire back properly rather than stop after the first 32nd or 16th of an inch.

A secret of woodworking is most techniques actually work. They may work at different speeds and efficiencies; they may require more or less capital investment or practice; but they work.

Certain tools fall out of favor for one reason or another, and then they can come back into vogue. Sic transit gloria mundi.

The ancient Egyptians built stone pyramids, furniture, and an empire with bronze tools.

When it comes to marking gauges, I have seen all sorts of modifications. Many of the modifications seem based on misunderstandings about how these gauges can be used. When you start out you don't know anything, you feel free to assume the problem with the tool is that it's not as good as it should be. As I turn on the treadle lathe I am connecting with New Learner energy. The trick is to bring some humility to the process as well. The wheel has been invented; I have to continually remind myself that I do not need to reinvent the wheel.

Incidentally if you want to know how to use a traditional marking gauge click here to a article I wrote ages ago. If you just want to cut to the chase, the answer is a slightly dull point works a lot better than a very sharp point because it doesn't cut the fibers. The dull point simply depresses the fibers of the wood - no scribe line that will catch stain or finish and leave a mark. The dull point also isn't as vulnerable to grain shifts as a sharp point is, so it stays straight and doesn't wander in the grain.

I'm hopeful that this year I will be able to write more blogs. I'm constantly getting comments about people who say they enjoy reading them, and I like writing them. I really do. But my time has been very very constricted this past year because I'm working on the lathe and running a business in a very tough environment. Whoever said necessity is the mother of invention is actually completely and totally wrong. Leisure is the mother of invention. If you don't have time to sit down, relax let your mind free and wander, you won't get any new ideas, and if you don't have time to actually explore new ideas from a practical sense, you won't have them fully fleshed out either.

Happy New Year, everyone!

Every day I am at work I spent at least 15 minutes - more like 30 minutes -a day using the showroom treadle lathe. I would do more but I don't have time. And this was the point of designing the lathe in the first place: I need the exercise. Using the lathe, I break a sweat; I can feel my heartbeat go up; and I can feel the improvement in my stamina. I hate going to the gym, and at this point I don't pretend that this New Year will be different. But this is different. I focus on my goal of learning to turn properly and the time just slips by. Eventually my goal is to make certain items. I have a list but I am not skilled enough yet.

And this is what will bring me to the lathe in the future - interest in turning. The important physical benefit is frosting. Consequently I don't have to negotiate with myself, resort to post-workout bribery or make complicated podcast or music playlists to distract myself from (what I experience to be) the monotony of gym exercising.

But there is a learning curve.

Turning in general has a learning curve, but I am also learning the important aspects of turning on a treadle lathes. Pedaling is one example. I am now at the point where I routinely switch feet. I am learning how to position my body so that I am not in the way of moving the tool in a cut - yet still be able to pedal comfortably. I am is getting better, but I am not yet where I need to be, or where I hope to be within a few weeks.

I also had my first accident today. It was pure stupidity and carelessness, as accidents sometimes are. If I had been using an electric lathe, I might have lost a thumb. I was rounding out square stock and stopped pedaling so I could see where I was and I touched the wood to see if it was round. It was far from it and my thumb was dragged and stuck between the work and the tool rest. This was totally avoidable mistake and it served as a real wake-up call. Fortunately instead of causing an emergency trip to the hand surgeon, the accident just caused a mild pain at the base of my thumbnail. I don't even think I will lose the nail.

I counted myself lucky and finished roughing out.

Update on manufacture: We are basically done assembling all the bits and bobs that go into the lathe. The Treadle Lathe is the largest and most complicated hand tool project I can think of by any manufacturer in several generations. We are dealing with multiples of over 100 different parts. All of the parts with three exceptions are sitting here waiting to be assembled. The parts that are missing are a few of the headstocks - we had a CNC milling crash last week and we lost a few days waiting for the machine to be repairs. That's done. We don't feel comfortable finishing the tailstocks until we have assembled a production machine and double- checked the actual center distance from the ways. (It would be just foolish to make an assumption.) And finally the welded frames were supposed to be shipped to us last Wednesday but the trucking company confused bills of lading, reported our shipment picked up and on schedule when in fact it was just sitting at the fabricator. In theory, by the time you read this we will either have frames or we will be waiting for a truck to pull up, which will be followed by a mad dash to assemble the machines. If you have signed up as a pre-sale buyer, you will then get your call to arrange delivery, although that last bit may not happen until January because most of our shop people are on vacation Christmas Week.

We still have lots of work to do on manuals and videos.

All of this is a roundabout way of saying: I expect to spend more time turning and be a better turner in better physical shape starting now.

A customer of ours, Konstantin, carves and whittles and gave us at the shop a wonderful carving a bird that is a composed of a series of whittled fans. It's all two pieces of wood, one the body and tail, the other the wings.

This is a traditional carving and the wings of the bird are made up of feathers which are carved by cutting the profile of the feathers and then slitting the profile into individual feathers, and twisting them so they lie flat and interlock.

The bird is an extremely charming piece of work and we thank Konstantine for letting us keep it. It's hanging out on the checkout counters - so come by and take a look.

If you are interested in this type of carving and whittling, the best book I know of on the subject is one I have had since I was a kid. Whittling and Woodworking by E. J. Tangerman is a comprehensive volume on all aspects of whittling, with practical examples, and also all styles of carving. The best part is that a lot of the samples of traditional carving are from pieces at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and are still on display there.

A partial selection of our Osmo display

Lets face it, carrying niche products entails a lot of explaining and the explaining runs the gamut from the considered to the absurd. We have callers who need help to figure out which sander is right for them. We also find ourselves giving detailed product instructions to callers who have made their purchases on Amazon and despaired of understanding what they bought. We have fielded questions from callers who want us to color-match their furniture on the basis of their description (its a nice rich brown) or help them find replacement parts for perfectly fine hand tools they just bought at a yard sale that need a blade or a part.

There are obvious limits to our ability to answer every question, but we do try to share our knowledge. And admittedly some of our products can be confusing. For example, customers who come to our combination showroom - warehouse - workshop in Brooklyn will be greeted by a display of Osmo finishes. Osmo is a wonderful product line, but its names can be confusing (no, Polyx is not polyurethane and Wood Wax Finish is not a finishing wax) and the color of the name panel on the can has nothing to do with the can's contents color. Enter The Explainer.

The Explainer for Osmo gives an overview of the product line, and the pros and cons of different methods of application. We try to capture feedback from everyone: our own experiences and our customers experiences; highlights from long exchanges with our Osmo rep; tips from YouTube videos that actually worked; instructions in tiny print that might otherwise be overlooked. The point of The Explainer is to distill the range of accurate information and make it practical and actionable.

We often have questions ourselves, perhaps as a product changes over time. Festool, for example, has drastically expanded its offerings of cordless tools - including two cordless vacuums. How do you use these cordless tools in tandem with corded tools (especially the vac and tool combo)? Enter the latest addition to The Explainer.

The point of the Explainers is to get to the point as fast as possible. There is a lot of text involved, but you can use the search function to get to just the part that answers your particular question. We know that some pictures or videos would be welcome in many of the listings (and some videos and blog posts with pictures are included in The Explainer section) but that getting just the right photo would slow the process down enormously. Updating info with the inevitable changes to products and product mixes is challenging enough.

Here is the complete list of our list of our Explainers which are also easily accessible through one of the main menu picks on our website.

Explaining with words also has made us more appreciative of explanatory signage. Here are some of our favorite signs from our showroom.


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