diy wood

"I'm not a collector - I'm a user."

I find myself saying that often - and more frequently - as my, well, collection, of tools has grown. And it is true - mostly. Of course, I could accomplish most of my woodworking projects with a much smaller set of tools, but that doesn't mean I'm a collector. But there are some tools in my shop that I don't use (or rarely use), that I didn't need when I bought them - and it's these tools that push me over the line into the domain of the collector.

Here's an example. Skimming through the usual boxes of dull files, broken screwdrivers, and paint scrapers that somehow qualify the store to fly an "Antiques" flag, I found this old bevel gauge. It was obvious from first glance that it was in a whole other class from the junk that mostly obscured it from view. This was a shop made tool - made by the person who used it, and made well. A craftsman's tool.



I'm not sure of the wood - I was thinking it was walnut, but now I think it could be mahogany. I'm not very good at identifying wood as I work mostly in pine, Douglas fir, and Alaskan spruce and birch. The gauge is one piece, with the blades sawn and planed down from the fence. This alone tells me volumes about its creator. Much more than a simple nailed on fence, this design took skill and a desire for quality to create.



With the fence on the edge of a board, four angles are available for marking. From left to right: 90°, 60°, 30°, and 45°.



The gauge is well made, but not ostentatious. The fence has a small amount of decoration, consisting of a thumbnail moulded edge and a bevel at each end, both of which serve practical purposes as well as begin aesthetically pleasing. The thumbnail eases the edges of the fence where your palm meets them, while the end bevels reduce the chance of chipping. I also like the idea of the hang hole. To today's sensibilities it seems wrong, damaging. But to the maker/user of this tool, it was just the practical thing to do.




So, although I didn't need it (my sliding bevel gauges work just fine), and despite a fairly major crack in one blade, I just couldn't leave it mixed in with the machine made junk in the box. I fished it out, bought it and now it sits in the shop. I occasionally pick it up, wipe on a little linseed oil left over from some project, and admire the sensibility and craftsmanship that went into this little tool. And rarely, very rarely, I'll gently use it on some project - but not too often, because it's really not one of my user tools - its part of my collection.

There, I've said it.

"Hi, my name is Dan - and I collect old tools. Sometimes."

A recent post about "Top Ten" woodworking books on the Village Carpenter got me thinking, and digging through my library trying to come up with my list. In the process, I discovered I was a little out of date on my List-O-Books. The official count is now over two hundred books!

They're all good (the "bleh" one's don't make the cut) and trying to come up with a list of just ten was hard! I'm sure I will change this later, but here's what I came up with for now - with a short rational for each:

1. The Woodwright's Eclectic Workshop - Roy Underhill

"How to start with a tree and an axe and make one thing after another until you have a house and everything in it." If I had to pick just one of Roy's books, I think it would be this one. It has everything I love about his writing: deep knowledge, excellent writing, history, culture, humor, and a strong sense of the interconnectedness of everything. But really, ALL his books are "Top Ten" material.

2. Hand Tools: Their Ways and Workings - Aldren Watson

One of the first hand tool woodworking books I read. The information is great (it has a few quirks)and his pencil illustrations are fantastic! For an added bonus, you can have fun trying to find the names, or initials, of the people listed on the acknowledgement page hidden in the illustrations throughout the book.

3. Traditional Woodworking Handtools: An Illustrated Reference Guide For the Woodworker - Graham Blackburn

A fascinating, detailed guide to hand tools and their use. It makes a good companion book to Watson's Hand Tools, especially since it covers moulding planes, something Watson left out.

4. Craftsmen of Necessity - Christopher Williams

A great book focusing on the fading (or vanished, it was published in 1974) connection between man and his environment, with a focus on architecture, agriculture, boat building and various other crafts. It examines the impact of machine technology replacing direct craftsman/environment interaction.

5. The Nature and Art of Workmanship - David Pye

A serious, almost academic in a philosophical way, discussion on, well, art and workmanship. If you are serious about craftsmanship, you need to read this book. It is kind of a highbrow cousin to the more folksy Craftsmen of Necessity.

6. Woodworking with Kids - Richard Starr

Solid hand tool information and truly inspirational photos of kids and their projects. I wish I had access to a teacher like Starr when I was a kid.

7. The Workshop Book: A Craftsman's Guide to Making the Most of Any Work Space - Scott Landis

This is one of those books I keep going back to. I love poring over the photographs of woodworker's shops. I like trying to identify the tools in the background, spot interesting storage ideas, and just trying to learn as much as possible about the craftsman by looking at his space. I always notice something new.

8. A Guide to the Makers of American Wooden Planes 4th edition - Emil and Martyl Pollack and Thomas L. Elliott

If you are interested in old American planes, their makers, and their place in history, then this is the book. It is written more for the collector, than the user, but it's the first place I go when I'm seeking information about the moulding plane I'm about to put back to work.

9. Keeping the Cutting Edge: Setting and Sharpening Hand and Power Saws - Harold H. Payson

The best single source of saw sharpening information I've come across. Too bad he strays into power saws :)

10. How to Work with Tools and Wood: For the Home Workshop - The Author

A solid "How To" hand tool book, mixed with subtle sales pitches, campy illustrations, and a surprising amount of philosophy. For a more complete discussion see my post Your Boy Is Safe When He Is Working With Tools And Wood.

If you are like me, you have favorite tools, and this little plane is one of mine. It's a Sargent 106 block plane and it has just about everything I find pleasing in a tool: functionality, style, and a connection to the past.

It may or may not be "collectible", but I'm a user! Besides, what kind of life would it be sitting on a shelf, watching all the other planes make shavings? And this plane is a really good performer too. It doesn't have a tight mouth, it's non-adjustable, it doesn't have a low angle iron, but it is a plain-old, straight-up, worker. And at just under 5 1/2 inches, I can use it one handed without worrying about dropping it.



Style wise, I love how this plane looks. The "gull-wing" screw on the lever cap is just cool!



I'm not sure where this plane came from - I look for old tools EVERYWHERE. I think I found it in a junk/antique store in Redmond, Oregon. I'd love to know how many others used it before me, and on what projects. At least one of them left his or her mark on it. If you look carefully (you might need to click to enlarge) you can make out what looks like "TED" but is actually "T.E.B" scratched into the cheek of the plane. On the other cheek is what looks like a Social Security number (not shown). I'd love to know more about T.E.B.



I'd also like to know how old this plane is. I think it is on the older side, but I don't have enough information to be sure. Here's the little I know. I haven't seen many of the "gull-wing" style 106's in the wild or on the bay, which makes me think it is on the old side. It doesn't have the VBM logo which Sargent used something like 1910 - 1918. But is this pre or post VBM? The logo on the iron is an oval, with "Sargent & Co. New Haven, CT" surrounding a sort of double arrow design. Here's a closer shot of the logo:



If anyone has any information about Sargent 106 block planes, Sargent logos, or knows any good online sources of information, I'd appreciate hearing about them. For that matter, any information on a woodworker from central Oregon with the intials T.E.B. would be great too :)

The fence for the woodstove is finally finished! Yes!



Here's a shot showing the hinged gate section in the open position. This will allow us to easily add wood to the stove or clean out the ashes. It was also the biggest headache of the whole project.


This view gives you an idea how the fence integrates with the rest of the living room. One of my design challenges was to build a piece that was structurally strong enough to do its job, but fine enough to not feel overly "chunky". I am pretty happy with the balance I achieved. The fence is visually delicate enough to feel like it belongs, and at the same time suprisingly stiff.


The fence passing its first real test! (And yes, Teague beat me - he started walking a few weeks ago...)


And finally, here's a shot of the total tool kit used - as always all hand tools:

Well, I was hoping to post pictures of the completed woodstove fence, but I hit a snag. The snag is I haven't completed it yet. Really though, I am close...really.

So, in the meantime, I thought I would do a short post on the dogs that I use with my bench and vise. Gerald agreed to help out, and also suggested the clever title.



This shot shows three variations of my birch bench dogs. The dog in the back is the original design. It has a full length groove with a wooden spring to hold it in place in the dog hole. It works fine, but dust and gunk find their way down the groove and get stuck behind the spring, gumming up the works.

So I altered the design - changing the groove to a stopped groove, which solved that problem nicely. The front two dogs are of this second design.

The dog in the front, with its spring unscrewed, has been altered to function in the dog hole that somehow ended up over the vise hardware. You can see how simple the spring is - just a thin strip of birch, with a taper on the bottom end, screwed into the groove.



Here's another shot showing the spring in place. Notice how nicely the "cut away" dog allows you to see the spring. I planned that. Yeah, forget what I said about having to alter the dog to work around a mistake on my bench. That's my custom "demonstration" dog.



I also replaced the metal vise dogs with wooden dogs. They are much more forgiving on the occasional edged tool that wanders too close.



Here's the vise dog out of his hole. Just a piece of birch, sized to the hole, drilled and fitted with a threaded insert. I was careful to arrange things so that the thumb screw pushes the insert into the dog when things tighten up. It's a little beat up, including a split in the bottom, but it is still functioning fine after years of hard work. Good dog!

Ready at last! Now I just hope that it all fits together, and that it actually does the job for which it was designed. Boy wouldn't that be frustrating, if after all this time, Teague destroys it in one day! I sure hope not...



And a more artsy shot...

The fence work continues...

On to the mortise and tenon joints!

My tool kit for this part included: my new Gramercy holdfasts (thanks sweetie!), mallet, big-boy mortising chisel (almost silly large), smaller chisel for cleaning up the bottom of the mortises, mortise gauge, square, folding rule, knife and my LN dovetail saw. Here's a shot of the bench top after several hours of work.



The piece in the center is a combination layout gauge and M&T tester for this project. I tried a new technique for chopping the mortises that I read about a while ago over at Peter Follansbee's blog - it worked great. A little too great maybe, as I really got into a groove with the mortising - so much so I forgot to take pictures! About all I can offer is a shot of the tester confirming that the mortises are the correct size and depth.



I did remember to take some shots of the tenons being marked and cut.









A final test, and that's one more done...out of 50 total...sigh.