Resurrecting Jack

"All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy..."One cold evening, this past November I was taking a break from writing; surfing around the web, from E-Bay to Kijiji through Craigs List and the like. I stumbled over an add that simply read Old Tools. I clicked on the add and viewed the pictures; nothing out of the ordinary, a few old hand saws, a couple of wooden planes and then the usual bottom of the tool box items such as auger bits, broken hammers a screwdriver or two...
I noticed as well in the photo a decent looking wooden bodied plough plane and decided to e-mail the seller for a quote. $100. bucks for the lot. Perfect. I made the deal and received the box of antiques. Theyve been sitting in my shop now for a few months and last night I decided to go through the items and have a closer look. Turns out the two wooden bodied planes, a Jointer and this Jack are pretty nice. Theyve both seen some use and have the normal wear and tear, a few decades of grime and decay but both seemed to have been well kept by their previous owners. I took the Jack plane out and disassembled the parts. I gave the entire surface a good going over with some mineral spirits and then this morning I started to re-tune it. The following are the steps I took to resurrect this old Jack plane.Beginning at the soul, where everything should begin, I took some 100 grit 3X Norton sandpaper and with some double sided tape applied it down to a sheet of safety glass I have for sharpening. I checked the bottom before hitting the abrasive with my winding sticks to see if I could detect any noticeable humps or valleys. Some dark pencil lines scribbled across the bottom will help to keep track of my progress. Id say no more than 10 minutes on the 100 grit and things were getting pretty smooth. From there I moved along to some 220 grit and repeated the process, again making some pencil marks and carefully monitoring my work. A few more minutes and I was done. I repeated these same steps with the wedge until it too was in the house of pancake range.With the soul of the plane addressed and the wedge ready to work I moved onto the chip breaker and iron. If and when you watch my new DVD, (hopefully this coming Christmas when Santa stuffs it in your work sock) youll see me explaining some of the advantages and disadvantages in Flea Market tools. I mention that if you do decide to fix up an old tool that I dont recommend reusing the iron. Instead I usually opt to replace it with a thicker, modern variety. I should say that this philosophy usually rings true, especially with old Stanley planes that originally came with thin irons that are prone to chatter. This plane however had a nice thick iron that seemed like it had lots of life left in it. With that I went to work on flattening the back. Beginning with an aggressive 220 grit Norton water stone I started the ol pushin and pullin routine. About two solid hours in I had to ask my wife to give my back a rub...serious muscle aches. I was thinking to myself that I should have listened to my own advice but with the couple of hours already invested, I had to continue on. Moving on up from 220 to 1000 to 4000 and finally 8000 the iron was finally there.
Flat...just like the tender spots on my thumbs from pressing down onto and into the antique tool steel. I turned the piece over and checked it across the width for square; not too bad but needed some work. I re-established a straight, square edge on my slow speed wet-grinder, (the only powered tool in my workshop I might add) and then onto re-establishing the bevel. 25 degrees and back to the stones. 1000, 4000 and finally 8000 to finish adding a secondary micro-bevel to the leading edge. Back over to hone and cut off the burr I finish with the ruler trick and call the iron done. I cleaned and dressed the chip breaker as well, actually using my water stones to flatten the leading edge. Some more sand paper on glass to clean up the years of rust and a nice light coat of machine oil for both. Youd be surprised at how quickly rust will develop on old tool steel like these. Seems even more so once youve cleaned off the grime that was probably preserving them in some strange choice. A nice thing now, which alchoices happens at some point in the refinishing of old tools is the story starts to emerge. Up until this point I really had no idea of where this plane had come from. There were no visible marks or emblems anywhere until the dark dirt was removed from the top of the iron. Ohio Tool Co. Ahhh, good to meet you sir. I Googled the company name and found very little information; the company it seems didnt last all too long but here is a little history for the galoots in the room.
1823-The Ohio Tool Company started operations in Columbus, Ohio.
1841 to 1880-The firm made use of Prison Contract Labor from the nearby Ohio State Penitentiary.
1851-The company was incorporated with a capital stock of $190,000. It employed about 200 and was frequently called "The Plane Factory" since carpenters planes were the chief article of manufacture.
1858-The Ohio Tool Co. officers this year were George Gere, President; A. Thomas, Secretary and Treasurer; and C. H. Clark, Superintendent.
1865-Patents issued in this year for mortising machines used in cutting plane stocks helped to speed production.
1887-The Ohio Tool Co. employed 70 hands.
1893-The Auburn Tool Co. and the Ohio Tool Co. merged with offices in New York and factories in Auburn, N.Y. and Columbus, Ohio.
1900-The Ohio Tool Co. received the highest award given on carpenters tools at the Paris Exposition.
1903-The Business Directory of Columbus lists the company at 63 North Scioto Street which was close to the Scioto River. "Scioto" was marked on their second grade planes.
1914-The Company moved to a new plant at Charleston, West Virginia.
1920-The Ohio Tool Company ceased operations."
With the chip breaker and iron ready to go to work I turned my attention to the throat and mouth of the plane. A little file work to re-establish the edges of the mouth and then into my tail vise to clean out the throat.I test fitted the newly sharpened iron assembly and was happy with the fit. I then gave the entire body of the plane a nice heavy bath of boiled linseed oil. Ahhh....goes down good. The age of the tool and the dryness of the wood soaked up the oil in no time at all. From there it was now late afternoon and finally time to take it for a test drive. A few small knocks with one of the hammers that came in the box of tools and voila! A nice paper thin shaving rolled up and out of the throat. Like a boxer past his prime getting a second chance at the belt; a title shot. This was a good day for the Ohio Tool Company and a good day for me. It wasnt about how much the plane cost or how long it took me to get it back in working order; it was simply a day spent in discovering a small piece of some history all but forgotten...Cheers!
The overall dimensions of the plane are 16" long x 2 7/8" wide. The iron is 2 1/4" wide and slightly better than 3/16" in thickness. I mentioned the nice old Jointer and wooden bodied plough plane; theyll no doubt get this same treatment sometime in the future when my back stops aching and my thumbs return to their normal shapes! Stay tuned...

Read More..

Router Table Pics

Im building a router table as an extension of my table saw. Im using my custom EZ Smart Power Bench and Bridge (PBB) for much of the cutting and routing. The pictures with descriptive captions are here.
Ill be adding to the pictures as I complete more of the table.

Read More..

An Update Regarding the Right Plane

Im rather late posting this; about four months, actually.

On November 20th of last year I posted a request for advice in choosing the right plane to create rabbets and such for drawers and small cabinets. Kari over on The Village Carpenter suggested that I pick myself up a Veritas Small Plow Plane. Doing some further research, I thought she gave me great advice and still think that choice.

Now, on November 25th, I posted an illustration and a manipulated photo to show my conflicting feelings about the newly designed Veritas plane and backsaw.

How are these two things related?

Well I dont know if you noticed it or not, but on the inside cover the Lee Valley January catalogue, the illustration of the questioning woodworker appeared as an intro to a letter about the new tool designs written by Lee Valleys President, Robin Lee. If you can put two and two together, you have probably figured out that I am now the proud owner of a spanking new Veritas Small Plaw Plane, complete with all five blades.

As an aside, the manipulated photo of the Veritas NX60 Block Plane has been published in the April issue of The Canadian Home Workshop magazine. While I wont complain about the remuneration I received for that one, I will say that it is too bad they dont make planes there.

I have to admit, it is a wonderfully relaxing choice to build your tool collection.

Peace,

Mitchell

Read More..

Tool Cabinet v4 0

I have finally quit mucking about and jumped into "Tool Cabinet v4.0" with both feet. This is where I was at last week, with more planes already added and other mounts on the bench that are close to completion.

As you can see, Ive stripped everything out of two of the three display areas and have started putting it all back together yet again. Having spent two years analyzing my last three attempts at this, not to mention having analyzed photos of God knows how many other woodworkers tool cabinets, I have a fair idea of what I want now and an almost equally fair idea regarding how to get it.

My thing with tools is that I get a kick out of their design. Some I think are brilliant, and some not so much, but either choice, I like to look at them just as much as I like using them. This, as it turns out, is the main criteria for what I am looking for when it comes to a tool storage cabinet that I can be happy with. I also had to figure out if getting what I wanted meant starting again from scratch, or simply modifying what I have to make it work.

To give you a better idea of where I am coming from, let me give you some of my thoughts regarding a  cabinet and a chest that are currently all the rage.

Christopher Schwarz, thankfully, has brought the old tool chest back to its rightful place. Each of the many that he has made over the past few years are ready, willing and able to haul his tools wherever his livelihood takes him, or just keeping them all together in one spot in his shop. Im not knocking him for pursuing a chest over a cabinet as I am sure he chose what works best for him. The thing is, while this style of tool storage works well for him and many others, it would be a disaster for me. This is because I neither travel with my tools, nor have a workshop, but more importantly, I collected my tools not only to use, but also for the pure joy of having them around. Hiding them achoice in a chest, in or out of a shop, would wipe out half of the enjoyment I bought them for in the first place. I think a chest is a fine answer to a specific purpose, but neither the chest, nor its purpose are a good fit for me.

The next most popular style I think has to be emulating Henry O. Studleys wall-hung tool cabinet. Lets face it, that is one beautiful piece of workmanship, but after looking at all the photos and videos of it, plus reading everything there is out there describing it, I came to the conclusion that it too wasnt for me. I also realized that my biggest mistake with my previous three attempts at making my cabinet work was that I too tried to emulate ol Henrys work. The hardest part of getting to this conclusion was getting past the bling. Once I accomplished that, I was able to take a good look at his cabinet for what it is, a storage container for his tools. The bottom line is, ol Henry built this cabinet so he could store his tools under lock and key when he went home at night. He did it in a blaze of glory, but once I got my head around this fact, it was easy to understand why his style of cabinet didnt work for me. The reason I came to this conclusion is simple; I can see there are three layers of tools in his cabinet, but damned if I know what any of them are below the top layer, and therein lies the rub.

There are a number of others that I looked at, but these two stand out as the best examples of what I dont want. The best example of tool storage that I do want is the wall-mounted set-up done by Steve Branam, over on the Close Grain blog. His tools are laid out in the best organized plan I have ever seen. He has full sight of each tool and accessing them is simply a matter of snatching and grabbing whichever one he wants. While the style of his set-up is something I would like to emulate, the problem I have with it is that I dont want to use an entire wall to do it. 

After analyzing everything in sight I was finally able to put together a short set of simple guidelines that outlined what I wanted.

• I need a cabinet to hold all my tools
• I want to be able to see each tool in its entirety.
• I want each tool displayed at its best
• I want to be able to access each tool quickly and easily
This, at first, caused me some problems as I realize that while my existing cabinet is large enough to hold all the tools I own, they all cant be displayed. That, to me, was a real shame, but then I realized what I said in the third paragraph of this post; I think the design of some of my tools are brilliant and some, not so much. Deciding which tools to house in the open display and which to display in the drawers was the key to creating a cabinet that I can be happy with. I also realized that displaying the tools hidden achoice was as easy as leaving the drawers open, so even the problems I came up with werent as serious as I once thought they were.
Once I got a grip on what I wanted, I had to decide whether or not to start from scratch, or give what I had another go. The cabinet I have is made from ¾" marine-grade mahogany plywood. Marine-grade plywood doesnt have any voids between its layers so there is no place for moisture to collect. Add mahoganys ability to resist rot and you end up with material that should, under normal conditions, last a lifetime and more. The design is based on Henry Studleys and Norm Abrams wall hanging cabinets, but with my own twist. The main cabinet is 36" wide with a 36" by 36" by 5½" deep open display area on top and a 30" high by 24" deep drawer cabinet underneath. The open display area has two hinged display areas as well, each being 36" high by 18" wide by 4" deep. The thing is mounted on four heavy-duty casters and is made to roll through a standard door. Because the dimensions of this cabinet are as large as I can go, I realized that I was in for another remake.
When I built the cabinet I had yet to make the switch from power tools to muscle tools, so the number of hand tools I owned was limited. The image below shows the cabinet in its original configuration.

Once I was infected by the vintage tool bug, I started vigorously adding to my collection, forcing the original layout to become obsolete as it just didnt allow enough room for the newer additions. I then rebuilt the inside of the display areas to hold what I had, but sadly, I didnt take any photos of it.
That second rebuild lasted about two years before I ran out of room. I then rebuilt it for the third time, the image below showing the results of that third build.

It wasnt long before I had gone beyond the third rebuilds capabilities and since then I have had tools stored hither and yon throughout my office, most of which I cant see at a glance. I also realized that another serious problem had arisen because of my tool storage problem. Because it became such a hassle, loaded with frustration, finding and rounding up the tools I required for a project, I simply stopped taking on projects. Because I couldnt look at the tools easily, nor was I using them, I started to consider selling them, and that is when I realized I had better get my act together.
So the key to all of this is figuring out which tools to store in the open display areas and which to put into the drawers. My first choice was simple; my planes. I then had to figure out the best choice to display each, so again, I started with the easiest choice, the bench planes.
The beauty of bench planes is their simplicity in design, but where they really shine is when they are displayed together. Each is a smaller version of the larger, and when they are lined up to accentuate their differences, I think they are a joy to behold. The result of this is seen in the photo below. I have added the rest of the set since taking this photo, but I think what I have here gives you the basic idea.

The mounts shown in the photos are not completed yet, but they are close. Each is made up of  two ³??" pieces of walnut glued together with opposing grains for strength. As you all have probably seen this type of mount a thousand times before, Ill just add a line drawing of their dimensions so you know how they work. I will mention here that the bottom layer is planed to the thickness required, depending on the plane it is made to hold while the top layer remains its full ³??". The bottom mounts are sized to allow 2" of space between the bottom of the plane and the top of the drawer cabinet, allowing room to swing the planes into place. There are ³??" wide by 1" deep walnut strips running down both sides of each plane that are to act as registers, minimizing the effort needed to thread the planes back into their mounts while reducing the chance of damage to their neighbours during the process.

These are the simple mounts, but they will become more complex as I work through the group. I am currently working on the mounts for my Stanley No. 71. These mounts are a tad more complicated on their own, but made even more-so because the bottom mount for the 71 is also the top mount for the Stanley No. 8, which is mounted below it. That will be an important part of the design; having one plane mount flow into another, giving an organic feel to the layout.
All the mounts will be made from solid stock black walnut, a tip of the hat to my old man who loved this species of wood. Because the backs of the display areas are so full of holes from the previous configurations, Ill create the layout for each display area, then remove everything and re-skin the inside of each area completely with black walnut veneer. Before I started adding mounts I taped kraft paper to the back panel so I can draw an outline of each mount. I will use this as a guide to make it easier to put the mounts back in their proper positions once the veneer is in place.
So that is about it for now. I am trying to work a little bit each day on this so I should have more to show within the week.
Peace,
Mitchell

Read More..

Unlike My Wife?I?m Running Out Of Things To Buy?

The problem with tool collection is that it doesnt stay constant.

Over the last four or five years I have been searching out tools that I wanted, nothing fancy, just the normal stuff that you would find in a cabinet shop around 1900. Because of the availability of these things, they were easy to find, so I was buying one or two pieces a month. That ain’t happening anymore.

At first, the hobby is not only easy, but it is damned cheap. A trip through the “Collectables > Tools & Hardware > Tools > / Woodworking” category on eBay can see you scoring one little item or another on an almost daily basis, if you, your wife or your bank manager let you. There are so many little bits and pieces made to do specific processes in woodworking; you could go nuts collecting them all.

Eventually, though, you locate, buy, receive, clean, sharpen and polish about all the little guys you think you will ever need, and then some, so you start looking for the more expensive, larger items.

The larger items aren’t as readily available as the little guys. There are a lot of listings, but most are junk and not worth the shipping costs, so your purchases tend to slow down rather quickly. While I restrict my choices to a narrow timeframe, from 1880 to 1910, while not an everyday event, it is not that difficult to come up with excellent examples. When I say “excellent”, I mean examples that I won’t mind using. I shoot for the high end of the “User” category. With these, I don’t feel my neck when I have to sharpen a blade, shortening it up in the process, or see a scuff show up on the tote or something.

Eventually, you pretty much end up owning more series and sets that you will ever find a use for, so you raise your sites a little higher, and start to shoot for real specifics. That’s when the blissful life of tool collecting really starts to drag. The more specific your quests; the higher the prices. The higher the prices; the fussier you become. The fussier you become; the less choices you have. The less choices you have; the less you buy. The less you buy; the less number of “buzzes” you get. It’s a bummer.

My Stanley plane collection, at this point, is missing an No.1, which I doubt I will buy—ever, a No.6, which I am looking for now, and a No.9, which I’m still up in the air about as I think buying one and using it would seriously make me nervous. From what I have seen available, these things are pretty vulnerable to damage.

I now have two complete sets of Stanley No.40 chisels; one for fine work and one for wailing on. I still look for better examples of the four patent dates, but if I don’t find any, it is no big deal.

I have more saws than I have room to store, so while I am still searching out a pair of excellent dovetails, I spend more time trying to figure out which maker to shoot for than I do looking for the damned saws. While I spent about a year and a half finding a matched pair of Jackson 12” saws, I have now come to realize they are a tad thick for cutting dovetails, and while they work, and work well, thinner blades would be better. As Disston made the Jackson blade in the same thickness as their own brand, buying a pair of old Disstons would be a waste of money. I would like to buy a pair of Two Lawyer saws, but at over 700-bucks for the pair, I would dust them, but I bloody well wouldn’t use them.

The only thing that seems to keep me going with this is my quest for more examples of H. E. Mitchell’s tools. I had an opportunity to buy an ultimate brace of his about eight months ago when The Tool Bazaar had one listed, but I felt he was charging choice too much for it at 195?. Since then, I have been royally kicking myself in the ass, to the point that I emailed Andy last month and asked if he would broker a deal between the guy who bought it and myself, but he declined. While I still search daily for Mitchell examples, it is pretty rare that one turns up, so even this quest has lost the luster it once held.

When I do score, though, it is like 27 Christmas’ and 42 birthdays all rolled into one, and score I did just a few weeks ago.

I have a saved search on eBay for anything listed in the tool collectable section that has the name “Mitchell”. I get emails from eBay regarding this search about twice a week. Rarely do they include the tools I am looking for, but on this particular day, I scored, and scored big.

Mateusz1979 had a ½” Ovolo plane by Mitchell up for sale. I immediately emailed him and asked if he had a “Buy it Now” price. We went back and forth a bit, feeling each other out, and eventually he emailed me a price that was beyond being fair—it was incredible. I quickly agreed, paid the bill, and a week later the plane arrived.

The plane is probably one of the better examples that I have of cousin Henry’s. I don’t know if Mateusz bought it as clean as it was, or he spent some time on it to clean it up himself, but either choice, it didn’t need the coat of wax I gave it upon receiving it.

On top of that, the plane is a perfect addition to the set. I picked up a 5/8” Ovolo off of eBay a couple of years ago; a number two. Last year, Hyperkitten.com had a 5/8” Ovolo Number one that I was able to grab. This one is a ½” number two, the finishing plane, so if fits into the set well.

As the buzzes come less frequently now, when you get one, you savor it longer. As scoring a Mitchell plane has alchoices given me the biggest buzz, the image above shows you what has been sitting on my bench since the day this last one arrived. I pulled everyone one of them from the drawer, brought the plow down from the shelf, and even added the counterstamp coin to the display and each time I walk in the room, I have a look and enjoy a smile. The collection is growing—its slow—but its growing.

Peace,

Mitchell

Read More..

Have you ever constructed a woodworking shed before? When this is the first time you make anything like that youll need several guidance from the procedure. Its not as easy as you might think to create a woodworking shed and its of big importance that you plan your work before you do whatever else.The 1st thing to figure out is why you want to have got a woodworking shed in your garden. Do you want to have it since you need somewhere to place all your garden tools or do you want to put your golf equipment there? Do you plan to hide there to relax from time to time when youre tired and need several private time or do you want to allow your puppies play there?There are lots of possible reasons why you want to have got a woodworking shed and no reason is better than the other one. Theyre all quite understandable and as long as you plan your work before you do anything youll most probably become really happy with this new small building in your garden.The 2nd thing you need to figure out is where you want to place the woodworking shed. Is there an ideal spot in the garden where it would be suitable to place it? There are a few things you have to remember when youre trying to choose where it has to be placed. The first thing to remember is that you need to make it in a place where it wont bother your neighbors or several member of your family. Thats really important to think about when youre planning the construction. Another thing to keep in mind is that it has to be placed where it isnt hiding the garden through the sun.The 3rd thing to figure out is how big you want to your woodworking shed to be. This depends upon what you want to use it for. It has to be big if you want a lot of puppies to play there but it doesnt have to be as big if you just want to put your golfing equipment there. Itll be really simple to figure this out when you know what purpose your new woodworking shed has.Answer these questions, one at a time and when youve done that its time to begin designing your new woodworking shed. Youll shortly discover that it can be really fun to plan and build something like this.

Read More..

The English Woodworker

A new Blog from Maguire Workbenches
I just received a letter from Richard Maguire in the UK and thrilled to report he has joined the online blogging community with his new blog The English Woodworker.
You may remember seeing a guest blog here last year about one of Richards incredible workbenches. Richard is also a hand tool ‘connoisseur’  and if you haven’t been to his main work bench site I recommend you check it out.
It’s a website I frequent for inspiration so I’m happy he’ll be blogging achoice on a regular basis to share more of his work with us.
If I was any closer I think I’d have a Maguire bench of my own!
Cheers~

Read More..