Vintage Tool Patch

A book review this week. More accurately, a thinly disguised chance to boast. I’ve been waiting for this book for a long time. Dutch Tool Chests is a book Fitzpatrick has been talking about on and off for years. When I built my mini Dutch tool chest it was based off Fitzpatrick’s article in Fine Woodworking. I read every article and watched every video I could get my hands on before building it. Given the volume of material I have ingested on the topic, I believed this book would serve as a nice one stop shop on the topic, but would not teach me much new.

I’m shaping metal, and I don’t really know what I’m doing. I’m using a Dremel to cut chunks out of a perfectly good card scraper. I’m not sure this is the right wheel for the job. I’m having a hard time getting the shape I want. Let’s see how it turns out.

Winter has come. My woodworking tends to slow down this time of year. I get most of my shop time late at night. It has already dropped below freezing a few nights. My shop is completely uninsulated. There is a large gap at the bottom of the door. I can watch the shavings dance if the wind blows outside.

One advantage of spending a week at the London International Woodworking Festival was the number of woodworkers I knew coming. In my never ending quest to find the perfect drill bit for egg-beaters, I made a few requests, and a bunch of people brought along their favourite bits so I could test them all. Many thanks to Scott Anderson, Ric Archibald and Mattias Hallin for bringing bits along for me to test.

I spent last week at the London International Woodworking Festival, taking Chris Schwarz’s Comb-back stick chair class and attending the show at the weekend.

In a little over a week I’m heading over to London for the London International Woodworking Festival, and I’ll be taking Chris Schwarz’s Comb-back stick char class (still a few spots for the build your own saw class if that tickles anyone’s fancy. If you are around on the Saturday say hello. In other news, I doubt I’ll have time to write a distraction for the next two weeks. I’ll be travelling the next two weekends (great time to give it a try if anyone has any ideas in mind).

In my never ending quest for the perfect egg beater drill bit, a fairly common suggestion was the double fluted bits commonly used in push drills. These are fairly rare in my part of the world, or at least I hardly ever see them pop up. A few weeks after my last run at trying a few different bits, Tom Dickey sent me a little surprise package.

I’m going to use this week to give you all a heads up on the London International Woodworking Festival. This is a show with a heavy focus on Hand Tools and Hand tool woodworking. It kicks off on Monday the 28th of October with a week of short courses. There are still places available to make your own saw, and learn to sharpen with Mark Harrell of Bad Axe fame, and Illustration for Furniture makers with Ian Parker. I will be doing a Comb-back stick chair course with Chris Schwarz for the week (currently sold out, but there is a waiting list). And some other lucky soles will Building a Dutch Tool Chest with Megan Fitzpatrick (also currently sold out, but the waiting list is worth a try).

I’m making a box, a gift for my lovely lady. I received some offcuts of the Fenland Black Oak. Its 5000 year old bog oak. The pieces I have are fairly small, and once they are gone, they are gone. There is just enough for a small box. I can make the front and back from it. I’ll be using some boxwood for the sides. When it comes to the lid and bottom, I have some bog oak pieces that are 1/8th thick, and a little too small. I have decided to do a frame and panel style lid. A boxwood frame will hold the bog oak panel, and make up enough width for it all to work out.