Me 'n' Her - #2

Her:  I think I would like to buy a basket or something to put those cushions in.

Me:  How about I make a nice wooden box instead?

Her:  I suppose.  ... But it has to look nice!

Me:  What is that supposed to mean?!

Her:  Well...

Plate 19 Moulders - Finished!

Finally finished!

Plate 19 hollow and round planes in cherry.

I should be posting about chairs, as it was my idea to do a community chair build in June.  I still have time, don't I?  Sometimes life gets in the way of well thought out plans, and things don't seem to work out.

I do, however, have some lumber for the chairs.  I have some elm seat blanks for some Welsh stick chairs, and I went to the lumber yard the other day and bought some "smoked" oak.  This stuff is cool, it looks black all the way through.  It should make some neat leg and stick stock.

Ray Schwaneberger has been dutifully building a child's Windsor chair for the June build, so if you would like to see someone talented building a chair, you can start at his blog, Rivings and Shavings.

Anyway, before I can start my chair, I had to finish an old project that has been languishing on my bench.  Sadly, this isn't the only one.  The good news, is this project was really close to being complete, and I just had to know if these would work out.

Here they are, enjoy a few shots of tool porn:

The main feature of these is the open mortice.

I chose to give them English finishing touches, rather than French.

I called these #12 in size, as they describe a circle with a 3/4" radius.

They are a little tricky to set up, as the irons and wedges should be resting as far to the left as possible.

The question is, Do they work?

Yes, they do!  At least the round does.  I still have to sharpen the hollow and fiddle with the wedge for ejecting shavings.

I still haven't figured out the perfect geometry for the wedge to assist with ejecting shavings.  It might be that the mouth may need some carving in the French style to ensure the best ejection.

Here is an example of an escapement from a modern French moulding plane I recently got.

This is how modern French planes solve the problem. 

The big advantage of this style of plane, is that it is far simpler and cheaper to construct.  Although I started some moulding planes a while back, I never finished them after I blew out the blind side trying to sink the mortice. 

I used stock that was about 1 1/2" thick for the 3/4" iron.  That was roughly what it looked like in Roubo's plate 19.  I think this is plenty stout, and probably would work if it was a little thinner.

I have some ideas for features to add to this style of plane which will improve functionality and further simplify construction.  In other words, stay tuned as I try building a few more sets of these to fill out my plane till.

That is, as soon as I finish a chair.

Crashing the Party II

At my favorite Munich beer garden, the Hofbraeu Keller Biergarten.

Although I am not enrolled in the class this week at Dictum with Tom Fidgen and his bowsaw, I found out where they were after I got home from work tonight and imposed myself.

From left to right in the photo is a cool guy from Darmstadt whose Roubo bench is in a shop even smaller than mine, Tom Fidgen, a really nice guy from the Netherlands and the world famous Austrian Alex.

Sorry I forgot your names already, guys.  I'm really bad that way.  Perhaps you could help me out in the comments.

What I really should be writing about is building chairs, now that it is June.

I still fully intend to build a pair of chairs this month, and invite anyone else who wants to build one to let me know.  I'll post pictures, links to your blog, Instagram, whatever.  I think that this might be a fun way to build a chair, along with a hoard of internet builders.  I especially would like to post your photos of your build if this is your first chair ever.

Happy June!

Sharp

Yesterday's barbecuing experiment seems to have been a success.  At least, the iron is shiny and it has an edge that will draw blood.

Don't ask me how I know this.

The big question now is if it will hold that edge.  To find out, I have a little more woodworking to do to finish up the planes.  The round needs the mouth opened, they both need the wedges trimmed and shaped, I have to clean up the bodies of the planes, cut them to length and put whatever edge treatments I decide on to them.

Then, they get a workout.

Here are some pics of the round iron.  This only took about ten minutes for me to sharpen up freehand.  I suspect the hollow will take a little longer when I get around to it.

Here's the round that is now sharp. 

It looks like it perhaps it needs a bit more polishing in this close-up.

Only the very edge is polished.  I don't think there is a benefit to polishing the whole thing.

Another glamour shot of the whole thing.

I tried punching my last name in these irons when they were still soft.  It looks like I need a bit more practice to do that.

It looks nice, but will it cut?  That is the question.

BBQ'd Plane Irons

Tonight was the night for heat treating my plane irons.  I figured it would only take about a half hour, and I wasn't too far off.

I think I was worrying too much about this step, and it put me off.  I needn't have worried, this was relatively easy.  At least, I accomplished what I meant to.  We'll see if it gives me good steel or not once I sharpen them up.

My plan was to use my barbecue on the balcony for a platform for doing the heat treating.  This was a really good idea, as my set up didn't need to be anything crazy.

My heat-treating forge.

I bought three fire bricks at the big box store yesterday.  I also picked up a special teflon-infused fire glove.  This turned out to also be a good idea, because it kept me from burning my hand while still being able to use my fingers, unlike using an oven mitt.

The rest of my heat-treating set up.

I bought an old pot today at the thrift shop.  It was only $2, and almost too nice to use.  I think it is cast iron with an enamel coating.  Plus, there was a lid which I thought was a bonus.  Handy for when the oil catches fire.  Outside of this picture was a fire extinguisher, just in case.

I hadn't done this before, so wasn't quite sure the best way to go about this.  I set the fire bricks up this way in order to best hold the heat in the spot where it counts most.

I think this was a good idea in theory, but the torch used up all of the oxygen in that corner and wouldn't burn properly.

How I started.  Note that I am holding the iron with a big pair of pliers, using my hand in the fire glove.

I asked the Frau to take photos of this whole process, and when I looked for her while I had the torch going, she was no where to be seen.  As a result, you'll have to paint the picture using only my words.

It took a little while to figure out the best configuration, but I finally got the torch working best when it was shooting the flame at a bit of an upward angle.  It was plenty enough to get the iron hot if I held the iron as flat as I could against one of the side fire bricks.

It turns out the fire bricks hold heat for a long time, so next time I will pre-heat the iron while it is laying flat (to get that nice dark color), then lift it up so the business end of the iron is flat against the side brick and I can torch the crap out of it in that position.

Once it got red enough, and the little pools of iron float to the surface, quench.

Next time I bet this only will take five minutes for the two irons, after everything gets warmed up.

I think I wound up with a couple of decent irons.

Finished.

Now all that is left is tempering.  I haven't told the Frau I am using her oven for this yet.  Wish me luck!

Edit:  Success!!!

Some More New Tools!

OK, so I spent some more money today that I meant not to.

Since the guy with the welding torch certification is on leave for the next couple weeks, I am unable to heat treat the irons for my new moulding planes.

Or am I?

Larry Williams shows in his DVD heat treating some plane irons using a regular propane torch that you could get anywhere.  While I was at the big box store today, I was looking at those.  For a lot more money, though, I could get a MAPP torch which essentially is butane.  This particular torch gets much hotter than a wimpy propane torch, more than 2300 degrees centigrade!

This ought to heat treat the crap out of my plane irons!

I decided it might also be a good idea to get a new fire extinguisher.

My plan is now to do the heat treating on my balcony using my barbecue as a platform.  I have a couple of fire bricks to help direct the heat, and a gallon of peanut oil to quench.  All I need now is an appropriate old pot as I think the Frau will frown on me heat treating plane irons and quenching them in our best pasta pot.

I think I'm all ready to go now:  I spent my lunch hour the other day at the Army's woodshop grinding the untreated irons on their powered grinder, and finished the shaping today with a file.  I think I have them pretty close.  My guess is shaping them with a file is much easier than doing it after they are hardened.

The round,

And the hollow.  The iron is a bit overly proud here as I thought that would make a better photo.

While I was taking these photos, I found the setting on my camera that takes microscope pictures.

Here is the endgrain of the cherry plane blank.

Technically everything is ready to go.  After heat treating the irons, they can be sharpened and put to work in these planes.  However, there still are lots of cosmetic details that need to be done to these babies before I'll call them done.

A little closer every day.

Stanley #3 Smoother

Last fall I finally finished the walnut dining table I had been working on for the last couple of years.

The main reason I got hung up with this project, is the stock that I had chosen for the top had crazy reversing grain and produced tear out when it was just looked at wrong.

I tried everything I could think of.  I sharpened my blade on LV bevel up jack plane.

No go.

I tried the 37 degree blade in that plane.

No go.

I tried the 50 degree blade, which resulted in a 62 degree effective angle on that plane, which should be enough to tame the worst wood.

No go.

I tried my #80 scraping plane.

No go.

I finally used a hand scraper over the entire top to get a top that had no tear out.  The only problem with this is the table now didn't look flat.

I hated this look.

Don't get me wrong, I am extremely proud of this table, it looks gorgeous -

- In the right light.

It is difficult to photograph, but in the wrong light, it looks a lot like the following picture:

Crazy scraper bumps.  Believe me, it looks a lot worse in real life.

This is the only project I have done in the last couple of years that I couldn't smooth satisfactorily with the tools I had - i.e. my BU jack.

I therefore paid close attention when Christopher Schwarz announced he was going to use a #2 smoother for a year, and Richard Maguire started a series on cap irons and tear out with his #3 smoother.

I decided I needed to find a small smoother with a cap iron rather than one with a high angle and a tight mouth.  After striking out on eBay, I found the perfect plane at Handworks in Amana.  A Stanley type 10 #3.

Planing this table top isn't the catastrophic extremity that you might think.  The finish is just burnished bee's wax.  That's it.  If I decide to leave half of the table the way it was, the wax finish should theoretically be able to be re-applied to the table with none the worse for wear.  Time to get my new secret weapon out.

I monkeyed with my new plane the other day, sharpening the iron and setting up the cap iron like the Schwarz and Richard Maguire said.  Tonight, I decided to go for it and try it out on our dining table.

The first couple swipes showed how not-flat the table is.  However, I was astounded that this plane worked easily where so many of my previous attempts failed.

The secret is the cap iron being set as close to the cutting edge as humanly possible.  I was getting absolutely no tear out, going either with the grain or against it.

Just to prove it, here is a photo of how wide I have the mouth set on this plane:

This is about how far I usually set the mouth back on my jack plane for rough work.

This was utterly amazing to me.  I would say that I am getting to the point in my woodworking that it is getting hard to utterly amaze me, but there you have it.

About 20 minutes work.

I do have to admit that I have very little experience with a bevel down smoother.  One of the reasons I haven't got one, is that with bevel down planes, I think you probably need three:  a jointer a jack and a smoother.  I can do a lot of these tasks only with my BU jack.  I haven't ever run across a wood that I couldn't smooth with that plane.

Until this project.

I decided that this project was worth the investment in a new vintage tool - if it worked.  Boy am I glad I did.

I have a feeling that every once in a while a dedicated smoother is required, so I think that this one will be it.

The only problems I came across is that after a while, a shaving got caught under the chipbreaker.  This was expected, as I couldn't quite get the chipbreaker to fully close up to the original iron.

I also found out that this table top requires the blade to be super-hyper-freaking sharp in order to work well.  I did wind up with some microscopic tear out toward the end of my planing session that wasn't there at the beginning.  Unfortunately I don't have my sharpening stones here, so I'll have to finish this task up another day.

I like the steel on this iron, and I have no problem with using the original thin iron.  The only problem is there is only about 1/4" on the iron left until I run in to some pitting, and the cap iron isn't quite what it used to be.  I am a bit undecided at what to do to remedy this.  I could buy a new cap iron and blade from a company like Lee Valley or Hock, but I could also get a vintage replacement.  I think a vintage Swedish blade and chipbreaker would be cool.  I could also spend some time and research rehabbing the one that is original to this plane.

Anyway, here is some vintage tool porn:

I really like the look of this old plane with the low front knob.

The type 10 was manufactured between 1907 and 1909, according to the internet.  There are some real neat features from this time period.

You can tell it is a type 10 because it has two patent dates (unlike the type 11 which has three), and there is no frog adjustment screw.

The frog adjustment screw would be nice, but I figure once the frog is set, there shouldn't be much need to muck with it on a dedicated smoother.  Plus, my intention is to keep the mouth relatively open.

I thought it was neat that this was a model #3C.  That means the bottom has the corrugations.  I don't think they do much other than look cool.  But hey!  It is cool to look cool.

Just look at the frog:

The money shot.

I think the blade says, "STANLEY - PAT. 4/19/92."  I mistakenly thought that this was a later blade, but it turns out it is from the time that this plane was made, so my guess is it is original.  If it was in good shape, it would be worth as much as I paid for the whole plane all by itself!  I like the steel, it sharpens up nicely.

Overall I am extremely pleased with the plane and it's performance.  The walnut on this project was extremely frustrating to deal with, and this little smoother seems to be capable of taming it nicely.

My plan is to smooth the top until it looks good enough, then re-finish it.