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Joel's Blog
Updated: 30 min 22 sec ago

Some Things Never Change

Wed, 02/05/2025 - 4:00am
Some Things Never Change 1

I visited another Christie's auction exhibition over the weekend. I like going to see what's on auction because there are many pieces of art that will be seen once and then disappear into a private collection for another 50 years. This time it was their "classics" auction - a mix of decorative arts, old Masters and some antiquities. I certainly couldn't help wondering while looking at the antiquities about how many of those objects were taken from their original resting place in the dead of night or with a bribe to multiple officials. But what really struck me is how little has changed in craftsmanship in 3,000 years.

To put it another way: the 3000-year-old version of ourselves probably had exactly the same imagination, creativity, and technical skill as we do today. What they didn't have was steel - or the ability to seek guidance from experts from all over the world and share techniques. They also didn't have electricity or motors.

The death mask at the top of this blog (945-715 BCE) is only 4 1/2" high and was originally covered with gesso and colored paint. I'm assuming it was a fair likeness of the individual it represents. It is a beautiful, expressive carving that any modern carver would be proud to have accomplished. And this was done with bronze tools, stone shards, and patience. The time it must have taken to make this mask with the available tools would have been considerable.

The second piece below is a small, not quite 6", elegantly turned bowl that in my view any modern turner would be pleased to produce. The walls are thin and uniform, and the proportions are excellent. It also happens to be made out of Diorite, a hard stone (similar to quartz) and dates from 2686-2566 BCE.

If the material were wood turned on a modern lathe, it would be a simple, elegant turning that evidences competence at turning with a really good eye for form and shape. If were made out of stone today, it would be hard work - even with diamond and carbide tools, cutting stone is not fun. But 4500 years ago! I cannot imagine the labor it took to make this. This was done on the lathe, not even a lathe with a treadle, more like a pole lathe. The tools were probably other stones and bronze tools enabled to cut stone using a slurry of sand and water. And since those craftsmen from 4500 years ago were probably very similar in temperament to craftspeople of today, I'm pretty sure there were lots of complaints about where to get the best sand, they don't make it like they used to, etc.

The exhibit also had a lot of old Masters, really second tier stuff, "school of" and studies that were never really meant to hang on a wall. Even so again, I was struck by the craftsmanship and how good the work was across the board.

I get the following takeaways from seeing these ancient masterpieces. Nothing has changed except the tools and technology. The basic dexterity, imagination, and tool ingenuity have stayed exactly the same. Second, we makers are following a long, long tradition. We make stuff. We make it to the best of our ability and craftsmanship and skill level. And sometimes the work we produce turns out fantastic.

Maybe the third thing is that the humans are known for what they leave behind, specifically what each culture leaves behind, which are examples of their skill in making things. And I am proud to be part of that tradition.

Some Things Never Change 2
A side view of the death maskA side view of the death mask


Do a Favor for Your Non-woodworking Friends - Sharpen Their Kitchen Knives

Wed, 01/22/2025 - 4:00am
Do a Favor for Your Non-woodworking Friends - Sharpen Their Kitchen Knives 1
An occupational / avocational hazard many of us have faced as woodworkers: a request to make a piece of furniture. It might be for a significant birthday present; it might be for payment (or not). Its just a stool (or picture frame, or jewelry box, or bench - to be fair, it typically isnt a Queen Anne Highboy. In other words, its a reasonable ask - except its sometimes hard to make the time and space and effort to make it.

There are many factors driving the interest in spoon carving, but surely the relative speed, space demands, material demands, skill demands, etc. of making a spoon versus making a piece of furniture helps promote spoon-making. The joys of creation and the joys of gifting meet the joy of (relatively) immediate gratification!

But if you dont want to make a spoon, or if your intended recipient doesnt need or want your spoon, you can give another gift that uses your hard-won skills: knife sharpening.

A friend who took a cooking class brought her newly-sharpened chefs knife (her knife; my gift of sharpening) to class. She immediately got a gold star from her teacher. A woodworker did this! They really know what sharp means! The teacher then devoted 10 unscripted minutes of the class to talk about sharpening and its importance in making culinary prep easier.

If you have chisels and plane blades, I hope you have learned to sharpen them. What about your kitchen knives? They work best when sharp too!

It's beyond the scope of this blog entry to go through all the lessons and things you need to know to specifically sharpen knives. But basically it's exactly the same skill you would use in sharpening your other blades. But - even better - kitchen knives are typically cutting softer material than wood and therefore they don't need to be as sharp as woodworking tools.

In woodworking we aim for that glass smooth edge. The smoother the edge, the fewer scratches, the longer the edge will last. That's because wood offers a fair amount of resistance to cutting, which stresses the blades. With cutting food, on the other hand, you can actually get away with a fairly coarse edge. A sawtooth can slice away at a piece of meat even when it isnt super sharp. You can get a lot of use out of a second- rate serrated knife. You even see serrated knives recommended for delicate cutting tasks such as cutting a tomato because a dull serrated knife will do a much better job getting past the tomatos skin than a dull chefs knife does. But on a delicate piece of fish the sawtooth will grab and tear. Kitchen knives also can quickly get dull because they get pushed against cutting boards, which is bad for the edge. (BTW plastic cutting boards are just deadly against a sharp edge.)

As is true with saws, even poorly sharpened knives will cut better than dull knives.

In the pictures I am sharpening several kitchen knives. The series of stones I am using are 400 grit (to bring up a wire edge); 1200 grit (to start chasing the edge); and 5000 grit (to finish and polish the edge). I then strop with newspaper. Why do I use that sequence of stones? In the shop I would use diamond stones; here I am using some older waterstones that I dont use for woodworking anymore - so I might as well use them in the kitchen. Although diamond stones are faster, everything works. When I am feeling lazy I skip the 5000 grit, but I find I get a better result at 5K. I used to add a 10K grit stone, but that seemed like overkill - an impressive edge, but it didnt last.

Sharp tools, whether sharp kitchen knives or sharp chisels, not only make the work easier, it opens new possibilities in doing the work. Imagine the difference using a sharp knife that doesnt slip and cuts where you intend to cut. Such a tool makes any cook appear more skillful and inspires more complex and potentially rewarding work.

I began this blog entry describing sharpening as a skill that you could offer to others because most of the users of kitchen knives have no idea how to sharpen them. Most of the advice I have seen on-line on newspaper cooking sections or mass market cooking sites is actively bad. But to be fair, the writers of these articles seem to not know what "sharp" actually means, or in the alternative, they do not regard sharpening skills in the same way they regard cooking skills: while they will spend decades learning to cook an omelet in a reliably excellent way, they think mastering a basic mechanical non-cooking skill is either beyond them or not worth learning how to do consistently. The standard advice seems to center on using honing steel or some gadget that shaves metal off, or something electric that holds the blade at a special angle. The main problem with honing steels is that they dont remove metal so much as push it around. Over time the bevel will become steeper and therefore less able to do its work. Hand gadgets that shave metal off work, but not without effort and care. Electric knife sharpeners, at least the good ones, work better, but they do take off more metal and do not get to nearly the same level of polish you can get to by hand. Depending on the machine, the knife may also end up with a more fragile edge.

But the most satisfying aspect of knife sharpening by hand may not be the end result, but rather the wonder of using your unusual skills to do something nice for someone else. Even if you cant present someone with a custom bookshelf, you can still use your talents as a woodworker to give them a useful and appreciated gift.

Do a Favor for Your Non-woodworking Friends - Sharpen Their Kitchen Knives 2

A Visit to Kalustyan - Why Independent Stores Are So Important

Wed, 01/15/2025 - 4:00am
The unassuming entrance of what used to be a row of fancy mansionsThe unassuming entrance of what used to be a row of fancy mansions

In 1881, upon the assassination of President James A. Garfield, Vice President Chester Alan Arthur was sworn in in the front parlor of his home located at 123 Lexington Avenue in Manhattan. The building, located between 28th and 29th streets is now home to Kalustyans, possibly the finest purveyor of spices and condiments in the United States.

I mention this bit of trivia because this past week I needed some bay leaves and therefore headed to Kalustyans. I live nearby and Its my go-to spice store. I feel affinity with Kalustyans because - much like TFWW - the shops customer base is the hard core enthusiast, both amateur and professional. And in order to run a business like theirs or ours, you need a certain passion for the work.

And it doesnt easily scale up.

Kalustyans was a force in New York culinary circles long before they started selling on-line. For decades the store was known as a very reliable source for all sorts of spices, herbs, condiments, and flavor ingredients from all over the world. I have no idea how many thousands of items they sell. But seriously, How many different types of bay leaves are too many? (See photo.) Their assortment of types of bitters for drinks is astonishing (see photo). The subtle differences between types of pepper are largely lost on a duffer cook like me. But when I needed some Panch Phoran for a Bengali style curry, Kalustyans had many package sizes of this spice blend.

So I definitely recommend a visit to their shop if youre in NYC and to the Kalustyans website, if youre not. But my larger topic is why independent stores like Kalusyans are so important to American culture.

At TFWW, our product mix reflects our thoughts about what a good store should offer. As a merchant, we sell products we like; as a manufacturer, we try to produce tools that we think should exist. This isnt always an easy road. Every day we get calls wondering when well be getting a certain Ashley Iles carving tool back in stock. We sell them not only because they are fantastic tools, but because you arent going to get that No 34 bent back spoon gouge so readily from another maker and you really need it for your carving.. We reintroduced real oval-handled mortise chisels into the market because we like them. Holdfasts came about because I used them as a kid and the cast ones sucked. Many of our products start out as a Wouldnt it be cool if we had thought. I have a touch of what my wife considers delusional optimism (a well known state of mind among people who start businesses). Certainly if I fully understood how challenging the treadle lathe would be to develop I might have talked myself out of it, which at the moment I think would be a big shame. We keep certain low volume products around (Im talking about you Spoon Bits) because the few people who need them, need them. And this is what independent companies are able to do.

The owners of Zabars, the quintessential Upper West Side food shop, turned down offers to open multiple stores because they didnt think they could maintain quality. Balduccis, a legendary gourmet store, tanked as soon as the Balducci family sold to investors who figured they could easily replicate the Balducci magic. It turns out that a lot of their products - and ours - dont scale up. Relatively speaking, there isnt a lot of either demand or supply.

In the tool world, most of the traditional tool businesses are privately owned family businesses. Their dedication to bring quality tools to the market and avoid the race to the bottom is tested every day. Do you want a great wheel gauge that people love? You get a Tite-Mark from us or another retailer. The reason it marks precisely without play is because it is made by Kevin Drake to his standards of what a great wheel gauge should be. Or you can do what many people do, which is buy a clone at a fraction of the price (and shame on any woodworking magazine that features knockoffs of the Tite-Mark). Unfortunately for these shoppers, these gauges dont work as well as the Tite-Mark, which is discouraging, and makes it harder for users, especially for beginners, to accomplish what they think they should be able to do.

I love supporting my local vendors. Not only is the shopping experience educational and fun, its deeply satisfying to know that should I need any other spice, not matter how obscure, someone at Kalusyans will tell me, as if I were in a big box supermarket buying Twinkies, Yeah, aisle three, near the window, the second shelf from the floor. And there it will be.

The store is actually three storefronts and a second floor - all crammed with stuffThe store is actually three storefronts and a second floor - all crammed with stuff
The endless permutations of variety and package size goes on foreverThe endless permutations of variety and package size goes on forever

8 different types of Bay Leaves8 different types of Bay Leaves

The chili department is overwhelmingThe chili department is overwhelming
And goes on foreverAnd goes on forever
Section one of drink bitters and mixersSection one of drink bitters and mixers
Section two of drink bitters and mixersSection two of drink bitters and mixers

No idea what this stuff is forNo idea what this stuff is for
Meyer lemons and dessertsMeyer lemons and desserts

A Brush With Destiny

Wed, 12/18/2024 - 4:00am
A Brush With Destiny 17
You may see a lot of tools, both good and bad, on the used market. But you will rarely if ever see a finishing brush on the used market. They simply wear out. These days brushes are considered largely a utility item in the woodworking world. Artists are known to be picky when it comes to brushes, and artist brushes can be quite expensive. But in the woodworking realm, finishing brushes were were seldom given much thought, much less the kind of scrutiny that other tools garnered.

About 15 or 20 years ago I posed the question: how do you brush on quick-drying finishes without brush marks? Varnishes and other finishes that take several hours to dry are self leveling. The finish simply floats on the surface until the brush marks melt away. Oil finishes don't really leave a buildup on the surface when applied properly - they soak in and that's it.

French polish, that wonderful shellac finish, is basically rubbed on flat surfaces minuscule thin layer by minuscule thin layer, but it's a slow process. French polish also doesn't work on molding or carved surfaces. So what's the solution?

Here's another peripheral question that's also relevant. Before spraying equipment was invented, how did car makers get glass smooth lacquer finishes on cars, or piano makers on pianos?

And the answer to that question turned out to be that there was special class of finishing brush made of superfine hair. That hair would have been made out of Badger, Fitch (aka European polecat), or European Ox. Over the years, fitches and badgers became endangered and those brushes made from their hair essentially disappeared from the market. They are certainly are not available for casual use. Brushes called "badger" or "Fitch" are generally hog or boar bristle that has been whipped against a post, resulting in tips broken down into a finer hair. You will get some brushes made out of ox, but not 100% ox. The rest would be hog bristle.
So about 20 years ago we found a brush maker in the Bronx, who was willing to make us a hundred percent European ox brush. And people loved them! Then company was sold to another brush maker, the hair got harder to get, and about 2 years ago our supply dried up.

About two months ago I got a call from the maker saying that they had found a stash of the ox-hair and they missed us. Did we want more brushes? Yes we did! Of course we said yes on the condition that the quality stayed the same. There is a change in the color of the ox hair, but otherwise we are satisfied with the quality. We ordered them in 2" width, by far the most popular size, and some 3". We still had some 1" in stock. When these are gone we do not know if we will be able to restock but for now at least I am very glad we have the brushes back.

N.B. The waterborne brushes, which use an artificial hair, will not return. We just ran out of the our remaining supply of 1" brushes we still have, sadly, they are gone.


A Brush With Destiny 18

The Private Townhouses of Brooklyn's Sunset Park

Wed, 12/11/2024 - 4:00am
An unspoiled block of late 19th century rowhousesAn unspoiled block of late 19th century rowhouses
The New York City of popular fame is a mix of skyscrapers, big apartments, and slums. But the reality is that New York City has a lot of residents - well over the combined population of Los Angeles, Houston, Phoenix and Miami - and these residents live in all sorts of housing. Manhattan housing is indeed mostly apartment buildings but does include private brownstones. Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island however have miles and miles of all sorts of private houses.

Many people are aware of the big push to build suburban housing after World War II, but NYC had significant growth between the Civil War and WWII. Brooklyn especially had explosive growth after 1883, when the Brooklyn Bridge was completed. Sunset Park is a neighborhood adjacent to the neighborhood in which TFWW is located. In these pictures, most of the housing dates from the last 20 years of the 19th century. There are blocks and blocks of townhouses. You can see in the pictures that you have a group of a half a dozen that are identical, and then another group that are almost identical but obviously built as a different development.

The townhouses around 46th Street and 7th Avenue in Brooklyn (not to be confused with 46th St. and 7th Avenue near Times Square in Manhattan) are generally two story buildings with a residential basement floor. They were built as single family attached homes, although a century later you'll find many, perhaps most, made into two-family or three-family homes. The avenues tend to be commercial, but those avenues that are largely residential (like 6th Avenue) have larger townhouses. As you get closer to the East River, the houses become a little fancier, although once you cross 4th Avenue the stock turns mostly industrial (albeit with some unfancy townhouses mixed in). As you go north, towards Manhattan and the Brooklyn Bridge, through Greenwood cemetery you head toward Park Slope, which contains plenty of very ritzy brownstones. It's important to note that in the era before World War I but even before World War II, people either walked to work or took public transportation. So if you lived in Sunset Park there's an excellent possibility you walked to work 5 or 10 blocks or so - westward to where the docks, factories, and the jobs were.
Today Sunset Park has seen some new construction, but it is uneven. The commercial stores all along the avenues are still pretty much fully occupied, with restaurants, food markets, and very few chain stores. My guess would be the most residents have a car, though I'd be surprised if residents had more than one per household. (As an aside, New York's the schedule of "alternate side of the street" parking rules for street cleaning has made generations of New Yorkers extremely knowledgeable about the major and minor religious holidays of many different religions.) But between ready access to parks, public pools, good shopping, and a phenomenal public transit system a car isn't particularly necessary.
By the way, go a little west within Sunset Park and you'll encounter one of New York's major Chinese enclaves (along with "Chinatown" in Lower Manhattan; Flushing, the largest Chinese neighborhood outside of Asia; Elmhurst, etc.).

N.B. Most of these pictures were taken on 46th street between 7th and 4th Avenue. I wasn't looking for the prettiest block, or the most historically important building. What I was looking for, and found, was blocks of middle class, well maintained, well used, much appreciated, and elegant, late Victorian housing that defines a neighborhood. As the Sunset Park Historic District Council describes it, "Sunset Park contains one of the earliest and most extensive concentrations of two-family masonry rowhouses in the city. Mostly built between 1885 and 1912, these stunning blocks are accented by commercial thoroughfares and institutional and religious buildings mostly completed by the early 1930s."

New York is actually filled with these kinds of neighborhoods that defy many people's expectation of New York life. If you come here on a tourist or business visit, you may find it very worthwhile to stray from the main path.

In other news:
We have recently seen a bunch of websites offering brand new tools at supposed sale discount prices that are actually artificially inflated prices that are then supposedly discounted. Nothing wrong with the discount but before you think youre saving money, check competitors and you will probably end up with some savings.

The Private Townhouses of Brooklyn's Sunset Park  26
The Private Townhouses of Brooklyn's Sunset Park  27
The Private Townhouses of Brooklyn's Sunset Park  28
5th Avenue is filled with stores5th Avenue is filled with stores
5th Avenue with the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge looming in the distance - about two miles away5th Avenue with the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge looming in the distance - about two miles away
The Private Townhouses of Brooklyn's Sunset Park  31
The townhouses along 6th Avenue are noticeably larger and fancier than the houses on the cross streetsThe townhouses along 6th Avenue are noticeably larger and fancier than the houses on the cross streets

Why Shop?

Wed, 12/04/2024 - 4:00am
Why Shop? 33
It's that time of the year: the frenzied holiday buying season. This past weekend I happened to be on an errand on 6th Avenue in Manhattan near a bunch of well-known big stores. Youd expect them to be filled with shoppers, but the stores were actually not particularly crowded. And this was on Black Friday weekend. It seems that if you want a product that's not unique, and you can get something like it on Amazon, there is an excellent possibility that's exactly what you're going to do.

I think people buy from us for two reasons. The first is we have a lot of unique products. Unique in that these are tools we designed and manufactured ourselves, or nearly unique in that no one else in the US carries them. The second reason is we try to give a high level of service. This means we give technical advice (even to people who bought stuff from other retailers). If you are contemplating a complicated purchase, you might want to talk to someone who can actually give an intelligent answer to a question. In many cases it's faster and easier to ask us then spend a half an hour digging around the internet. We also have tried to organize the most common questions on a section of our website called "The Explainer" that is designed to get you in the info you need in a succinct text page.

In any event, we are happy to talk with you and grateful for each sale. We know that you could have bought something else from someone else or not bought anything at all. We try to make your purchases worthwhile. But what to buy? If you have a workbench, the Gramercy Tools holdfast is a standard addition. The Gramercy Tools line has many other options. If you want to feel connected to a products manufacture, we suggest the Spoonmakers Drawknife. Although it has spoonmaker in its name, this small, nimble drawknife is also popular with chairmakers and carvers who like its versatility. This is a knife that was dreamt up, designed and entirely produced at our Brooklyn home. Some of our tools are like that; others are designed by us and produced by artisans elsewhere. Earlier this year we designed a Spoonmaker's riffler rasp, which I think is the most complicated riffler rasp ever made. On one end of this rasp is a fairly straightforward short little rasp for regular outside work; the other side is a spiral so you can get inside the bowl. When we got some very positive feedback we introduced a coarse version of this rasp.

The Gramercy Tools bowsaw is of course available as a completed saw, but its also available as a kit, in which you supply the wood for the saws wooden frame. This is a great and inexpensive way to fashion a superior turning saw.

And of course we can recommend plenty of great products that we dont make.

Quercus magazine has stopped production, but while we wait for publisher Nick Gibbs to make his next move in the woodworking world, we can binge-read the back issues of this wonderful global tribute to hand woodworking.

We also have plenty of reading material. The photo has a small sampling, from British greenwoodworking guru Barn the Spoon to Making Claptons Guitar to the book that mentions our shop to one of our many republished catalogues from 100 years ago (surprisingly useful for those interested in period furniture and homes).

Also practical reading: our friend Matt Ciancis new Lost Art Press book, Set & Filed, frequently purchased with a Gramercy Tools Saw vise. And if you dont mind some practicality in your gifts, we can offer some interesting items from Osmo. Many people know Osmo Top Oil and Polyx hardwax oil, but how about Tannin Remover, Wood Protector (great for your moistest environments), Anti-Slip Polyx or Teak Spray? These are far from routine products - and were pleased to offer them with a side of technical assistance when needed. Also practical: the Festool phone charger. If you already own a Festool 18V battery, you have what you need to give you three charging options.

Whichever route you take, please savor the warm feelings youll get when giving a thoughtful gift to others. And ideally the joy down the road from woodworking tools or knowledge that your gift inspired.

Why Shop? 34

Back In Stock!

Fri, 11/15/2024 - 4:00am
 applying grease to a batch of saw vises applying grease to a batch of saw vises
I'm happy to report that a couple of a favorite Gramercy tools products that have been out of stock for a while are now back in stock.
First of all. The Gramercy Tools Saw Vise is back! We were particularly sorry to run out with the renewed interest in saw sharpening brought by the recent publication of our friend Matt Ciancis Set & File: A Practical Guide to Saw Sharpening. Manufacturing the saw vise isn't easy and it took a little while to fill up the pipeline again.

Second of all. The English pattern Gramercy tools veneer saw is also back in stock. This is a big deal. It went out of stock because of humongous price rises from our blade supplier. We get in rough cut blades and we do all the sharpening and installing, handle finishing, etc. in house. It took months of negotiation, exploration, and experimentation to change the process of manufacture enough so we could save some steps, and keep the price pretty much where it was. (I'm particularly proud of this.) We never ran out of the other styles, but the English pattern saw is far and away the most popular.

You'll have noticed, or maybe not, but I haven't written a blog in the past bunch of weeks until now. I have been busy. We have been releasing new products over the past months including both a coarse and fine version of the Spoonmaker's Riffler Rasps. And all I am doing these days is being ankle deep in production drawings and figuring out how to make stuff. But it takes more time then I ever imagined.

Gramercy Tools Veneer Saws - packed and ready to goGramercy Tools Veneer Saws - packed and ready to go
 Gramercy Tools Saw Vises - inspected Gramercy Tools Saw Vises - inspected, greased and tested