sutton083

If you want to give this a real try, then there are two fundamental areas you must learn first. The first one being about the wood itself.  How the tree grew influenced its characteristics, understanding the make up of the wood itself, how to read the grain. The differences between hardwoods and softwoods. How the way wood is processed affect greatly its look and its working properties. Knowing how the wood is made, how it moves and why, its strength and weakness, allows you to built confidently and properly a piece that will outlast us all. Second being the tools used and how to keep them sharp and serviceable. There are a Bazillions of choices out there, awaiting the unwary buyer. Which ones do you really need? How do you tell the good ones versus the crappola? How to use them properly so that they don't wear you out or hurt you, which ones when? And perhaps most critical, you need to know how to look after and sharpen them properly. Understanding the concepts of Coarse, Medium, ...

Part 2 of my answer to Ralph of the Accidental woodworker  You know the "hole" the one that used to be located near the top of the iron Pretty well all used up Adam & Co blade showing typical hole at the top Found inside an American Arrowmammett work plane That hole was first introduced to facilitate removing and installing the new fangled cap iron making the blade a double iron. Such double iron first appears around 1760. That long slot is required in order to re-adjust the cap iron as the blade get used up by repeated sharpenings. At first the cap iron was secured by a captive nut welded to the main blade AARON HILDICK DIAMIC WARRANTED CAST STEEL Typical British blade arrangements. Found on a British C NURSE plane starting in 1840. 181-183 Walworth Rd address making it between 1909-1937 Then around 1892 it moved to the bottom, first introduced by Stanley.... and for good reasons... But as you can see above,  well after Stanley moved the hole location down in 1892, the t...

UPDATED 1st May 2018 I was going to respond to my friend Ralph of the Accidental Woodworker about questions he had on a recent find he got, a Stanley iron stamped SsS. What gives? And what about the hole location moving on Stanley irons, then followed by everyone else... Why? Pic of "new" blade acquired by Ralph. Notice the hole position on the top also. Pic from Ralph Then I thought my response was getting too long, better save it as a blog entry... What's in a name, Siegley Jacob "Jake" Siegley of Wilkes-Barre Pa, If the name sounds somewhat familiar, it may be because of his Combination planes No 1 and No 2 From Carpentry and Building , Vol 6, December 1884 Siegley No 2 Combination plane.  See a resemblance with Stanley No 45? It is no coincidences... Jacob Siegley filed a patent for his first bench plane model on May 21st 1892.  Patent No 510,096 was granted  Dec 5 1893. DATAMP Screen shot He manufactured planes: The Siegley combination plane No 1 and No 2 B...

We really got clobbered with snow Tuesday... Anywhere between 55.7 to 61 cm here in Greenwood depending on the source. And I think that all of that snow got dumped in my driveway!!! This is beginning to look like winter 2015 all over again... snow storms after snow storms every 3 days or so... Friday Feb 10th...snow day Monday 13 Feb... snow day Well... Could be worse :-) There is at least 4 ft of snow up front, we had about 60cm dumped. Tuesday 14th everyone was still recovering from the storm plus blowing snow throughout the day...Snow day Wednesday the 15th school were open, then today Thursday 16th, another snow day, another 30cm coming down throughout the day, and Friday?  Well for the first time in 125 years the teachers are going on strike for the day to protest the legislation being drafted to settled the dispute going on for a while (contract expired) So yesterday, in between digging ourselves out, and making room for more snow... Had to clear the deck in prevision for tod...