Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to all and to all a clean shop.

   With luck and planning I will be posting to this blog too, but if you really want to hear from me, check out

blogthetoolstore.blogspot.com

or 

blogjessemtools.blogspot.com


cheers Ian W

Opinel Knives - a Quality Traditional Tool

  This evening my Mother and Brother came for supper.  As is always the case my Mom brought me a special treat to eat. She is diabetic too, probably inherited it from her, and so she makes good low sugar baked treats.  Also they brought a small something for me to fix in my shop, this time a new handle for a hatchet. And they brought the knife that my father used to have in the glove box of his car.  

 

  In this case I think I gave him the this knife 25 years ago.  My Father valued quality knives highly and he had several, he also introduced me to the value of a sharp knife and started me on the long journey of learning how to sharpen blades.

 I remember seeing these knives at a Lee Valley store, buying one for myself and then buying this knife for my Father.

   I admired this Opinel knife for several reasons.   I like carbon steel blades on knives because they are easier and faster to sharpen than stainless steel, which is harder.  I used to buy Old Hickory kitchen knives for the same reason.  Yes, carbon steel dulls quicker but I always felt that the trade off of sharpening  more often but faster was worth it.  I also found that I was willing to sharpen more often when it was easier.

 Another aspect of the Opinel knife I liked was that it was a single bevel edged blade.  It made it even easier to sharpen and super easy to hone.   

 This particular knife has a story, a story that I actually can share because my Father has passed away and so can’t be embarrassed by its telling.  As I said my Father kept his knives sharp and well cared for.  This knife comes from the store pretty sharp, but with room for improvement.  My Father had never dealt with a single bevel edged knife and I will never know why he choose to invest the time and effort to reshape the blade to a double bevel.  When I was mad at him I used to think it was because he was dumb.  I know he wasn’t dumb so I guess he was just so tradition bound that he couldn’t get comfortable with a new blade shape, so he worked this knife’s edge until it is two sided.  I am not going to change in back, not now.  

  I took the knife down to my shop.  Cleaned it up a bit and sharpened it with a diamond stone,  it is so sharp and so easy to sharpen. (even with the reshaped blade).  And the other bonus, these knives are still very reasonably priced.  For a straight knife I love my Frost knives from Sweden,  

but for a folding knife Opinel is super value.

Cutting Dados on Site

  Once again I turn to the internet to find good ideas.  There is no need to reinvent the wheel when there is such a useful resource available.  

  How to cut dados accurately, on a job site.

    A traditional product that has been used for 1oo's of years to keep shop tools in good shape.

   

     I have had my shops in basements for a few years now and have had the damp effect some of my tools.  Tallow is very old school but it works to lubricate and protect my tools. I even use it with steel wool to touch up rust spots on "Big Iron" in my shop.  

   Another trick that works is the candle on the plane bottom or hand saw face.  There are high tech solutions but I haven't found one that is better than these low tech solutions.

  

   It is a good product at a very good price, and a little goes a very long way.  You aren't a Luddite if you like some old school ideas.

Clara's 2nd Birthday Cake.

   Clara's 2nd birthday cake.  On the inside Anna Olson's chocolate cake.  Come for the cool icing and stay for the amazing flavour.  Great Job, Sweetie.

Really Putting Things in Perspective

Tove Elise Jackson and me

   Twelve weeks ago another little woodworker was born in Gavle Sweden.  I got to see her today.  What's better than shop time?? Grand children.  Best time, Grandchildren in the shop. (and ice cream)


   Also speaking of adorable grand daughters, it is Clara Ocean Solaris Jackson's second birthday today, ...party on the weekend.

   This proves that you can have two favourites.

Putting Things in Perspective

   When my wife takes photos on holiday she usually asks someone to stand in the photo some place to provide perspective.  If the object is small she puts it beside a coffee cup or pop can or foot or something that will remind us how big or small the flower, shell or stained glass window really was.

   Over the course of my internet career I have written a bunch of blogs and read at least a thousand or more and I have found that sometimes the lack of measurements or some way to judge scale is frustrating.  I have seem some very attractive band saw boxes for example, and often I have no clue how big the box really is.   In the past when  I showed a project photo I tried to include something to help the reader get an idea of the size of my project.  After reading blogs produced by men and women wiser than I, I have stolen one of their tricks.

   I made a scale/gauge to include in my photos.

1 x 1 x 6 inch  gauge in maple

    I can not claim the wisdom of a creator and certainly have to apologise for being so slow to make this.  It was embarrassingly easy to make, my green painters tape is one inch wide.  Three strips of painters tape and a spray can and I have a small tool that will inform and enlighten one and all.  The gauge was made with some care from a nice piece of maple that I had in the scrap bin.  I am a wood junkie and so never throw away a nice piece of wood and shazam, it turned out to be useful.

  Another project made from wood junkie wood, 

   the bird house that our Grandson is helping me build in this photo.  Kieran is only four years old but he likes to spread glue and push the button on the drill when we drive screws.  On this last project he also got to use a real hammer to drive Miller Dowels.  We built the bird houses without metal fasteners, they will weather but there will be no rust.  The wood is barn board that friends were clearing out of their garage, I got the boards to build with instead of them burning the boards in their fire place. 

   Miller Dowels are a product that I use for things like bird houses to avoid rust issues and I have used the large dowels for securing the top of my work benches down.  The top is very solidly attached and I never have to worry about hitting a metal fastener when working on the bench, nor did I have to go though the whole production of seating the big wood screws deeply in the top and then pugging the holes.  Miller Dowels, fast, strong and safe.


  

Low Cost Dowel Jig

   It is very  common for me to talk about dowelling jigs on my other blogs and there are a couple that I personally endorse as outstanding tools.  However, it you only use dowels occasionally,  less than once a year take a look at this video:

Dowel Jig on Youtube:


   This jig looks like the perfect one time use jig, and the time and cost to create it is nearly ZERO.

cheers, ian

A traffic control idea

Swedish Traffic Control

  A couple of years ago our son Richard and his wife moved to Sweden to go to graduate school for a while.  Way let onto way and now they own a house, have a daughter and are headed toward citizenship.  Sweden is a very civilized country and looks very much like Muskoka to my eyes.

  One aspect of the civilization is their attitude toward the people/car interface.  I like their decision, people come first.  One result of that approach is that people walk and ride their bicycles more than here and so are not nearly as fat as here.  In fact I was the fattest guy I saw in Sweden on my trips there. (it makes me think).

 Anyway, the photo is of a planter box,

one of a pair that are on the roads in most residential neighbourhoods throughout the summer months.  The planters are staggered a little more than a car length apart thereby forcing cars, truck etc to slow down to steer around the boxes.  Some people plant nice flowers and paint the boxes, others just leave them alone.  Either way, the city lifts the boxes into place in the spring and removes them once the weather turns winter.  This is better than a speed bump because they don’t get in the way of snow ploughing yet achieve the same result in the busy pedestrian times of the year.

I would like to see this system used in our neighbourhood. There are lots and cars and plenty of children and accidents just waiting to happen.

Getting Around Better all the time.

   I am getting around with a walking stick pretty well now, and when I drop things on the floor it is not impossible to pick it up. (just no fun).
   I have been cleaning up and finishing a couple of small projects in the shop and right now, glue and varnish is drying. 
   As a distraction, garden pictures;

   When Eva and I were digging that rock hard clay I would have bet against having flowers like that in three seasons.

Small Project Bench

 

  I think there must be dozens if not hundreds of websites, blogs and magazine articles about work benches.   The experts and amateurs all have opinions about what is best, or historic or cheapest or easiest etc. etc. etc.  All that stuff makes good reading and I have borrowed more than a couple of their ideas over time.  

 One thing that I have learned from all the information available is that there is no one perfect bench, because the scope of woodworking is so vast.  To say that you have the One Perfect Bench can only mean that it is perfect for the type of woodworking that you do.  A boat builder is going to have a different bench from a furniture makers, from a pattern maker, from a model maker, or  from a do everything handy man.  

 I seem always to be making something small for the Grand kids or am making other small projects, example, tea boxes.   I do lots of whittling and woodcarving and small scale wood work now and I needed a bench/work area to make those tasks easier

   I have two serious work benches, both sturdy and both too low for this type of work of small scale work.  Big benches have big vises, and are not at the correct focal length,  

So I developed my “Toy Makers Bench”

   This bench is actually an 8 by 10 inch work surface that clamps solidly into my machinist vise on my workbench.  The little cleat on the top offers a place to hold small pieces of wood or plastic while cutting, I can also clamp to this work surface if need be.

   Working on this bench/table uses different tools than working on big things.  These are some of the small tools that have found their way into my “ toy making ” kit.

  When I mix them in with various knives and chisels I am able to make silly little projects that give me pleasure  and don’t take up tonnes of space.     Cheers, Ian W

Wood Carving, or wood working while flat on your back

  At the beginning of April I hurt my back, or at least aggravated an already weakened back.  Being a guy however I kept going until I was completely flattened, so by the beginning of May I was in real trouble and by the middle of May I was heavily medicated and horizontal all day everyday.

  In a moment of irony, I reacted very, very badly to the second round of medication that was to improve my conditions and get me moving a bit. The result, I was not only completely immobile but horribly sick too.  That was just 15 days ago.  Many thank-you are owning to family and friends that helped me through a very rough time while the drugs cleared my system and the latest round of medications settled in to do their job.

  Early this week my head was getting clear enough that I wanted/needed to do something other than lay in bed.  I figure that if I am taking pills that keep me from driving, they should also keep me from playing seriously with power tools. Any way I am still limping around on crutches or a cane to try and reduce pressure on my leg, (the place the real pain lives) so machines are not a good idea.
  
  So, what?  Wood carving of course.  I am able to rough out the bass wood with hand saws and then I lay on the couch and whittle away on my projects.  The basic carving/whittling that I do needs a minimum to tools, I can hold the strop in one hand while tuning up the blade a bit and it is the type of project that can stand to be set aside while I rest or collect my thoughts.

   My Grand daughter, Clara is a purple girl and she is fascinated by the snails that are all over our garden and drive way. 

  So she is going to get some purple snails.  All this stuff has to be done in pairs because they live in Noah's Ark when the kids aren't here.  

  My Mom is the artist that does the painting, that is an area of wood working that still requires much more attention from me. 

thanks Mom

gardening tool Hori Hori Knife

Hori Hori Knife

   Lets face it, I love tools.  I love having the right tool for the job and when I find that tool it doesn't stop me from continuing to look for a better tool for the job.  I've kept looking, and spent money and still always come back to my gardening knife

  The Hori Hori Knife is the best weed digging tool that I have ever used.  I dig weeds out of the lawn on my knees, and have  done so for years and years.  One of my summer jobs as a school kid was digging dandelions out of local lawns. I can say with confidence that I have dug hundreds of bushels  of dandelions and related weeds out of lawns for over forty years.

   As an adult I made a decision not to use poisons on my garden, partly because I am cheap, partly because I like being in the fresh air in the garden and partly because my garden is a hobby.  If I made my living from my garden I would use every available method to increase my yield and profit margin including poisons and computers.  I don't even spray my roses for beetles, I pick the beetles off the leaves and crush them.  If the beetle infestation too great I carry a jar with gasoline or paint thinner in it and flick the beetles into the jar. ( they don't like that)

  I do not remember when I bought the Hori Hori, I know it was before it had a cool sounding name and was made from stainless steel.  In fact it was long enough ago that it was not cool at all, and arrived quite rugged, with the handle rivets loose.  I suspect that it was fairly cheap and so hitting it hard with a hammer and seating the rivets seemed a reasonable action.  I think for $27.00 I would expect the handle to fit.

   Either way, for $27.00 you get the best weed digger I know and one that you will be able to leave to your Grandchildren, you hope that there will still be gardens in their lives, I know I do.

cheers,