Woodworking in a Tiny Shop

My name is Matt and I've got a problem.  I just can't seem to help myself.  About 4-5 weeks ago I visited a couple of estate / garage sales and found a few cool things.  I just can't stand the thought of these things going to the dump if nobody takes them.  Or the thought of someone else finding these things and not knowing what they are and mistreating them.  Well, I guess the first step to recovery is admitting I have a problem.  I'd rather think of it as charity for the old tools.

First, at one garage sale I found a nice partial set of auger bits.  These were #4, 5, 6, 7, 9 and 10 bits.  A shame the set didn't go all the way up to 16, but beggars can't be choosers.  I can't recall, but I probably paid no more than $10 for them all.  They cleaned up easily with wire wheels in a drill.  And they were easily sharpened, too.  Full length cutting spurs.

The Irwin bits in size order

Logo upper: IRWIN

Logo lower: U S OF A

The file is pointing to a ruined spur

Then a week or two later, I found this group of tools at another sale.  This group cost a measly $20.  And I got to the sale late!  Who knows what I might have found if I had gone early!

Spring clamps, more auger bits, a 6" brace, saw set and "parts" plane

This group of auger bits had an 8/16" size, so after cleaning it up, I added it to the earlier set to fill in that missing size.  The bits' sizes and logos were as follows (a slash indicates a divider between lines in the logo; a ~~~ symbol means unintelligible markings).

• 1 1/2" (#24)          TEMPER  /  TESTED
• 1" (#16)                U.S.A. HSB & CO.  CHICAGO     (Hibbert, Spencer and Bartlett)
• 1" (#16)                THE IRWIN BIT  /  MADE IN U.S.A.  /  MAINBOR
• 5/8" (#10)             Jennings  /  Pattern
• 1/2" (#8)               ~~~ Bit  /  ~~~ S. Pat. Off.
• 3/8" (#6)               ROCKFORK ILLINOIS GREENLEE  /  MADE IN U ~~~
• 3/8" (#6)               IRWIN  /  U S OF A

I gave this group of bits a bath in rust remover and then wire wheeled them with a drill.  They look really great now.  One of the 1" bits went into another set I've got that was missing that size.

Lookin' good!

The is a 6" sweep brace made by John S. Fray.  I didn't have a 6" brace, so this was a nice pickup.  There were some interesting things about this brace, so I think I'll write about it separately.

6" sweep brace

THE JOHN S. FRAY CO. (other side says BRIDGEPORT, CONN U.S.A.)

The plane is what's left of a type 9 (1902-1907) Stanley #3.  I wish I could have found the missing parts, but even if I had, the frog had been broken (or cut) above the depth adjusting yoke, and a piece of brass had been riveted to the inside of the left cheek.  I wish I knew what the prior owner was trying to do with this - maybe making some sort of nicker, judging by a corner of it placed at the plane's mouth.

Stanley #3 with frog broken or cut

This brass was "riveted" to the cheek using a peened nail

I got the plane to use for parts.  For a couple of bucks, how could I go wrong.  But I would really have loved a useable type 9 #3.

Last on the list was this saw set.  The only marking on it was J. M. KELLAR and I'm thinking that was an owner rather than a maker - I found nothing about Kellar with a quick internet search.

The saw set

The only marking

Front end with anvil dial settings

It looks like a fully functioning saw set, but I've yet to try it out.  The first pic of the set shows the lower screw that "squeezes" a saw plate to the anvil, similar to some other sets I've seen.  I might have to see if I can take it apart and clean it up.  More on that later if I do.

Last time I wrote about hammering out the kink that this saw had.  When I was satisfied with the plate's straightness, I moved on to the handle, the cleaning of the plate, and then sharpening.

The finish on the beech handle scraped easily and after filing and sanding it smooth, I gave it a couple coats of BLO.  I much prefer the feel of an oil finish over a varnish or poly finish.

The handle ready for finish

A few days later after the BLO had dried

I also took a wire wheel in a drill to clean up the saw bolts and medallion.  They really shine up nicely when rubbed on a strop.

For the plate, I started with a razor blade to scrape off the heaviest rust and grime.  Then I used sandpaper, eventually using a stick with sandpaper wrapped around it to help remove the rust and grunge that had built up over time.  Sanding included grits of about 50 up to 220 (or 400?) and it looks pretty respectable now, though there are still some rough marks or light pitting.  There was no etched maker's mark on the saw plate, so I didn't have to avoid any areas with the sanding.

The plate before cleaning

Sanded in sections - a lot of elbow grease expended

Still some light pitting

But the plate looks so much better than before

This pic shows the degree of curvature of the breasted tooth line

I took great care in sharpening the saw.  The breasted tooth line needed a lot of jointing to get down to a shiny bare metal spot on every tooth tip.  I was very careful to file the teeth so as not to end up with alternating deep and shallow gullets (cows and calves).  I used about 15 degrees rake and 25 degrees fleam.  The saw was over-set by a lot, so I stoned the tooth line on both sides several times to knock down the set.

Looks razor sharp to me

I shined up the brass screws and nuts and put it back together.  The saw looks great and I'm sure it will be a nice user saw for decades to come.

Thar' she blows!

Last thing: I didn't have a screwdriver that fit the saw nuts properly, so I made one from a piece of an old saw blade, a plumbing fitting, and a hunk of cherry.  Last year I made a similar screwdriver for bench plane cap-iron screws and this one is almost identical but with a thinner blade.

The saw screws are much happier with their own custom-fit driver

Fits well enough to stay in the slot

Another nice saw in the collection.  I've used the saw a couple of times now, and it cuts like a hot knife through butter.  Sweeet!

A few months ago, I responded to an ad for an old handsaw.  When I looked at the saw, I noted a fairly bad kink in the plate, so I told the seller I'd pass on it.  Realizing it was not worth much, he said "OK, just take it for free".  Not only that, but he also gave me an old Craftsman saw and an old Dunlap smoothing plane.  Those I'll address separately.

26" crosscut saw from E. C. Atkins

The beech handle close-up.  The type of wood, the screw locations and the lambs tongue were the details that helped me try to identify the model.

And the medallion

Turns out the saw is a 26", 8 ppi (7 tpi) Atkins crosscut handsaw.  I don't know the model number for certain, but the handle and description mostly match a #54 in the 1906 catalog (and 1919 and 1923 catalogs) I found at a blog on Atkins saws by Mark Stansbury.  That doesn't mean this saw is from 1906 - that's just one of the catalogs I saw a similar saw in.  But there is one big difference: the saw I've got has a breasted tooth line, and I didn't see any breasted saws in the catalogs I looked at.

After looking further at the catalogs, it could also be a #58 or #63 or #71.  No etch was seen on the plate before, during or after cleaning up, so that's no help in identifying it.

I've read articles and seen video of getting a kink out of a saw plate, but had never tried it and this saw was a perfect candidate.  The following picture attempts to show the kink in the plate.  The kink is on a diagonal starting about 8" back from the toe at the tooth line and about 5-6" back from the toe at the top of the plate.  The picture does not show how pronounced the kink really was.

Looking up the tooth line from the heel. The kink was much more pronounced than it looks here.

A straightedge was used to help locate the center of the kink

Then the pounding began.  I used the end grain of a chunk of maple butcher block countertop as my anvil.  My hammers include a 3 lb. small sledge, a 1 lb. carpenter's hammer and a small ball peen hammer.

The "anvil" setup

Hammering out the kink

The hammering took a long time.  It's possible that my small sledge didn't have enough curvature on its head because I noticed much quicker results about an hour later when I used the small ball peen hammer.  But with the kink's convex side up, I hammered and hammered and gradually the kink started straightening out.  I did this in sort of a grid around the main kink area, an inch or two either side of the main kink line, but focusing more blows along the kink line.

Using the small ball peen hammer might have been a better choice

Last year I picked up Matt Cianci's book "Set & File", in which he covers fixing kinked saw plates.  I recommend the book to anyone who wants not only to fix kinked saws, but also who wants to know how to sharpen saws.

I also give credit to Bob Rozaieski, who has a nice video on YT about hammering out a kinked plate.  I'll get into the rest of the rehab of this saw in another post.

I had been having trouble getting this plane to work properly.  The front of the frog does not make contact with the plane's main casting; it is essentially cantilevered over the casting forward of where its seat mates with the casting's frog receiver.

With frog bolted down, can fit cardboard under the toe of the frog

And this caused the plane to shudder as it tries to glide over a workpiece.

You can see the waviness of the cut

I thought if I filled the gap under the frog, the cantilever would be eliminated and maybe the plane would be more stable and cut better.  First, I stuffed a few layers of business card under there to see what the gap measured.  Turned out to be about 0.052".  I planed some maple to 0.056" thick - no small feat - and stuck another block to it to fill not only the space under the frog's toe, but also the space under the frog just forward of the casting's frog receiver.

The block and a piece of thin maple

My intent was that the top of the block would be in line with the top of the frog receiver, the slanted part would match the roughly 45 degree angle on the underside of the frog, and the thin base would support  the frog's toe.  This turned out to be a major pain in the ass, as I had to fit the piece, bolt on the frog, test it out, take it apart, make minor adjustments and repeat - many times.

In the end I would have needed to whittle away most of the slanted part of the block to allow the frog to be far back enough to bolt it down.  So I tried something much simpler - just go with a thin piece of maple, 0.056" thick, under the toe of the frog.  In the following picture, you can see the piece of wood in place.

Looking at the sole from toe end - the white is the maple piece

Well, time will tell if this fix works for the long haul, but for now, the plane seems to be working fine.  I planed some pine with no juddering, then some red alder (a relatively soft hardwood) and some pretty hard red oak, all with a nice smooth surface finish.

Planing some fine shavings of red oak

Nice smooth surface!

Could it really be as easy as that?  Maybe I'll keep this plane after all.  But if there is anybody out there who collects Dunlap planes and would like this one (for free), please contact me and I'll be happy to let it go.

I was given this plane in pretty rough condition by a guy who really didn't know anything about planes.  One telltale sign was that the iron was upside down when I got it (bevel up).  And while I know a fair bit about planes, I knew little about this particular brand when I started on this one.

The plane as found

Something look funny here?

Maybe the upside down iron explains why the cutting edge  was so chewed up!

It's an oddball size - it has a 9 1/2" long sole similar to a Stanley #4, but the sole's width is 2 1/8" and the iron is 1 3/4" wide, like a #3.  Initially, the only identifying mark I could find on the plane was the remnant of a DUNLAP decal on the broken tote.  From a Dunlap type study that I found online, a #3 size plane has the 1 3/4" wide iron, but the plane should be only 8" long (or 9 1/4", depending on the source of info).  Go figure.

I found two websites that were very helpful in researching this plane.  According to justtheplanefacts.com and aplanelife.us, Dunlap planes were manufactured for Sears by either Millers Falls, Sargent, or possibly at one time by a West German maker.  Some details point to this plane being made by Sargent in the 1940-41 time frame, but I think it is probably a bit later than that - maybe the mid 1950's (reference the Dunlap type study on the A Plane Life site).

Here's the plane fully disassembled, complete with broken tote and bent tote screw/post

Initially, I could find no identifying marks on the casting, iron, cap iron or lever cap.  The only marks I could find are a casting number on the frog (5272) and a raised "MADE IN USA" mark on the main casting just below the adjuster knob.  However, since I started writing this, I cleaned up the iron and it's got DUNLAP APPROVED BL stamped clearly at the top.

DUNLAP APPROVED BL

Here's the iron all cleaned up, but not yet sharpened. Note the hole for the cap-iron screw is at the top, unlike Stanley plane irons.

I had to grind back to the blue line before grinding a new bevel and sharpening

According to the sites I referenced, the "BL" and the cap-iron screw hole location are indicators of a plane made by Sargent.  So is the upside-down U-shaped lateral adjust lever.

As for the plane's casting, I took sandpaper to the sides and sole.  They looked horrible, but cleaned up fairly easily.  A wire wheel in the drill was used to clean up all the hardware.

The body was really grungy and the sole was horribly rough

But it cleaned up nicely

The tote was broken, so I cleaned up the mating surfaces and reglued it.  I'll have to see if that fix holds over time.  Originally, the tote had a decal or two on the left side.  Unfortunately, more than half of it was gone.  It looked like there was once another decal up where the middle finger grips the tote, but it was missing completely.

The still-broken tote showing remnants of a decal

Here's another interesting tidbit.  The yoke was a two-piece construction, as opposed to a casting.  It still works fine, but it's interesting that the two "fingers" of the yoke can move independently.  That's no big deal; when the plane is assembled, the adjuster nut keeps them aligned.

The two-piece yoke

Here showing how the two "fingers" can be misaligned with each other

When I finally had the parts cleaned up and the iron sharp, I put it together, adjusted the frog to get a reasonably tight mouth, and tried it out.  It made a shaving, but the shaving was like an accordion.

First shaving all crinkled up

I'm aware this could be caused by the cap-iron being too far forward.  Some adjustment helped, but not enough.  I also noticed a rippling effect when face planing.

You can see the ripples

So there was some juddering of the plane as I planed along the face of a board.  To me, that points to issues with how well the frog and plane body keep the iron firmly in place.  Here's where I really had to do some work.  The surfaces of the frog and plane body where they meet were painted or japanned, and were not level, so the contact between the two was poor.

Pointing to one of two spots where the frog sits. These needed to be filed/sanded level and flat.

Same with the frog seat

Frog seat filed flat

After this, I was able to get a better edge shaving, but there was still a big problem.

Got a much better edge grain shaving ...

... but when planing the face grain, CLUNK! The plane stopped in it's tracks and dug in hard!

Here's the problem with this plane and it's a serious design flaw.  And it's also why I think the plane was made in the '50's - you know, after plane makers "forgot" how to make planes that worked well.

The frog of Stanley planes has two flat areas that mate with two flat areas on the plane body.  The frog "seat" and the frog "toe" both should be milled flat and mate precisely with corresponding spots on the plane body.

Locations of the frog seat and toe

In this plane, not only is there no milled spot on the plane body for the frog toe to mate with, but the frog toe doesn't even come in contact with the plane body at all!  It's basically cantilevered out over the plane body, just behind the mouth.  Without support there, it's no wonder that the frog and iron don't have enough support to plane face grain.

This is a piece of cardboard, probably about 1/32" thick

Sliding the cardboard under the frog's toe.  I could have fit 3 or 4 of these cardboard pieces in there.  And this was with the frog bolted firmly in place!

I've started trying to make a piece of wood that will fill that gap, but I don't hold out hope that it will fix the problem.  But for this plane to work, I believe there needs to be firm support for the toe of the frog.

Summarizing, there are a couple of details that gave hints about the maker and age of this plane, thanks to the type study provided by A Plane Life.  The position of the iron's keyhole, the "BL" on the iron, the inverted U-shaped lateral adjust lever, and the two-piece yoke all indicate a plane made by Sargent.  The lever cap had been nickel plated, though the plating was removed when I cleaned up the plane.  The nickel plating indicates a plane possibly made in the 1940-1942 timeframe.  Other details include the double threaded 12-20 rods that hold the tote and knob, the brass waist nuts holding the stained hardwood tote and knob, and the three-ridged knurling of the adjuster knob.  But even with these clues, I can't help suspect that this plane was made in the mid-1950's due to the shoddiness of the design.

This is an odd plane for sure.  If there are any collectors of Dunlap planes out there and you're interested in this plane, please let me know and I'll be happy to mail it to you free of charge.

At the end of January, I went to the PAST tool collectors show in Fremont, CA.  Usually I don't come home with anything, but this time I did grab a few things.  I'll show them below, but first let me show this router plane display that one of the guys brought!

A collection of mostly craftsman-made router planes

None of these planes was made by Stanley or Preston or Millers Falls, or any other maker that we typically think of when we think of router planes.  These were mostly user-made tools and they were pretty dang cool.  The longest one was 14" long.

On the same table was also a display of an unusual Disston saw - a #196 "docking" saw.

Disston #196 Docking Saw

There's nothing about it on the Disstonian Institute site, but some other search results indicated it was used for heavy construction, like timber framing or railroad work.  It has crosscut teeth and a heavily breasted tooth line.  Someone at the tool show suggested the name came from its use on the docks, perhaps crosscutting dock boards to length.  The metal handle was interesting - possibly due to its getting rough use.

Anyway, moving on to what I picked up ...

A couple years ago I bought two larger auger bits - 1 1/8" and 1 1/4".  I found a 1 1/2" bit at the show and grabbed it for $10.  It's a Snell's-Jennings bit, no idea when it was made, but it was in near perfect condition.  It was already sharp - both spurs and both cutting lips.  And when I got home and made a test hole I was very impressed at how clean the entry rim was.  This was a great find because I have had some trouble using expansive bits for larger holes.

A beautiful, clean 1 1/2" hole

SNELL'S JENNINGS' 6

That's a really clean hole!

I'm a sucker for incannel gouges.  One of the sellers had a table where everything was $8.  There was a box filled with chisels of all types and I grabbed four - two small incannel gouges (that will add nicely to the larger ones I've got), a bent gouge, and a 1" bevel edge chisel.

The lineup

The two incannel gouges were from Spear & Jackson and New Haven Edge Tool Co.  I just need to clean and sharpen them and I think they'll be a great addition to my shop.

SPEAR & JACKSON SHEFFIELD

The S&J was about 9/16" wide

S&J curvature approx 9/16" radius

NEW HAVEN EDGE TOOL CO.

About 7/16" wide

Curvature of 9/32" radius

The bent gouge is from Ulmia.  It's 13 mm wide with an approximate 1/4" radius curvature.  I don't do much carving, but this one will be a nice addition to the carving set.

ULMIA

It's about 1/2" wide

This shows the amount of bend

Finally, there was this 1" socket chisel.  I don't need another 1" chisel, but this one is a T. H. Witherby.  If their chisels are as good as I've heard their drawknives are, this will be a real winner!  It's got a little pitting on the flat side, but I think I'll be able to get that out.  I found a good article about Witherby by Brian Welch here.

T. H. WITHERBY WARRANTED

You can see the pitting here

Not sure why, but I do prefer socket chisels

That's it.  Some nice additions to the shop.  Now I have a little work to do to get them up to working condition.

It's been several months now that I've had problems with Unplugged Shop, the site to which many of us go to read woodworking blogs.  For long stretches the site doesn't update with current blogs, and when it finally works again, it's short lived and then doesn't update for another while.

I'm probably not allowed to use this image, so I'll just say it's trademarked and thank them for the use of it.

In addition, my blog doesn't seem to be included anymore on the Unplugged Shop aggregator.  I've contacted them about it to get reinstated, but I don't know if anyone monitors that site anymore.

I don't mean to be an ingrate because this has been a free service that they provide and I truly appreciate it.  I can only imagine that it takes more work than I realize to keep it running.

Does anyone out there know what is going on with them?  Please comment if you do.

Any time I rehab an old tool, I think about whether or not to leave as much patina as I can.  In the past I've been more in the camp of trying to make it look like new, shining up the brass and other metal parts and cleaning the wood thoroughly.  Lately though, I've been more apt to just make it useable and keep it looking like it is 100 or more years old.

With this old moving fillister, though, there was enough work required to get it fettled properly that I decided to clean it up all the way.  This is a #68 Sandusky moving fillister plane that initially looked like it was in pretty good shape.  The only thing obviously wrong was that the nicker iron was missing.

Overview

Markings on the front

Close-up of the right side showing depth stop and the dado that should house a nicker

The heel end stamped with former caretaker H. W. Campbell

The 1 5/8" wide iron was in pretty decent shape

This shows the angle of the cutting edge required due to the skew of the iron in the plane

There was a little damage to the aft end of the boxing - not enough for me to worry about

I started with the body of the plane, specifically the sole.  I was mainly checking to see if it was flat, but what I saw was a HUGE amount of twist!  I had to plane that out and it didn't take long.  Then I looked at the right side, which I wanted to be square to the sole.  It too had a HUGE amount of twist, so I planed that out, too.  Planing those two surfaces and making them square to each other had the additional benefit of crispening up the corner between the two.

Plane held in vise upside down, winding sticks showing twisted sole

Plane lying on its left side and winding sticks show twist on right side

Got both surfaces twist free, flat and square to each other

While I was planing, I also flattened the fence (only the face that mates with the plane's sole) and made the edge that rides on the work square to that face.

Squaring up the fence

Cleaned up the brass inserts and screws

Planing the surfaces that I did leads to predictable consequences.  First, since the fence is now a little thinner, the screws holding it to the body bottomed out in their holes before tightening the fence completely.  I didn't want to deepen the screw holes, so I added washers that would bear against the fence's brass and that fixed the problem.  But now the screw heads protrude just a little bit beyond the bottom of the fence.  Not really a problem - it just doesn't sit upright as stably as before.

Second, planing the right side of the plane body made it so that the dado that would hold the new nicker iron was not as deep.  Before planing I had measured it at .137" deep.  The steel I'm using to make a new nicker is .125" thick, so I thought I might have to use a shim to get the cutter to be at the level of the plane's surface.  But I planed enough off the right side that the .125" thick nicker would have been proud of the surface.  I ended up routing the bottom of the dado to make the cutter level with the surface.

The dado for the nicker.  Note how it is tapered in its length as well as its depth, getting wider at the bottom.

Some notes about how to make a new nicker

Getting the nicker close to the right shape

But because I planed the right side of the body, the nicker sits too high

So I used a small router to deepen the dado.

To complete the nicker, I hacksawed and filed a notch that allows one to remove it from the plane

Then shaped the cutting edge on the grinder

Then heat-treated and tempered it and gave the edge a final honing

The plane's rabbeting iron didn't need too much work.  After removing any rust with abrasives, I reshaped the cutting edge to mate well with the plane's sole.  Another consequence of planing the right side of the body was that the iron now extended too far out the planes' side.  So I had to grind and file that back to be in line with the plane's side and the nicker.

You can see how much the iron extends past the planes' right side (top in photo)

Grinding a new cutting edge was tricky due to the angle of the edge

You can see the laminated iron in the bevel

First test cut: rabbet cut along the grain - nicker removed

Second test cut: nicker used here to cut a cross-grain rabbet

A couple of test cuts gave nice results.  But I really had to be diligent about pressing the fence against the workpiece when cutting with the grain to avoid getting a rabbet of tapered width.  The small test rabbet cross-grain using the nicker was great.  It really worked well.

After all the work was done, I gave the wood two coats of BLO.  It's been drying 2-3 weeks now, and here's the final product.

Glamour shot

After I use it a while, I might find that the wedge needs work to fit better.  There's a slight gap down near the iron's cutting edge.  It didn't seem to affect the test rabbets, but I'll keep an eye on it.

During the holiday break, we took a trip north way up to the Eureka, California area.  There are a lot of redwoods up that way, primarily in Humboldt Redwoods State Park and Redwoods National Park.  But because of all the redwoods, you can guess what the main industry was in that area back in the latter half of the 19th century and the first half of the 20th - logging.

One of the remaining mills is Blue Ox Millworks.  I had originally become aware of it via YouTube.  The owner, Eric Hollenbeck, has done several videos about some of the tools he's collected over the years, about the local architecture (some for which his shop has done a lot of architectural millwork) and about his experiences in Viet Nam (some pretty intense stories).

A sign outside gives some history of the building

Eric and/or his wife will give tours of the works on request (you should call or e-mail ahead).  Unfortunately, on the day we visited Eric couldn't give us a tour, but we could take a self-guided tour.  Immediately inside you get a view of several Barnes foot-powered machines: lathes, table saw, scroll saws.

A poster advertising Barnes' machines

A few of the treadle scroll saws

A little further along was a serious machine that would cut a tenon on a stick of wood.  Eric's got a video of this machine in action.  It's a serious machine!

The H. B. Smith Tenoner

Some info on the tenoner

There were other rooms where a lot of work gets done, and I couldn't help but get some pictures of old planes.  This was a big wall full of old wooden and metal planes.  I don't think they use these regularly - they're more of a collection of what used to be used 100+ years ago.

The wall of planes.  Unfortunately I was not allowed to fondle them.

A sweet old plough (with no iron)

Now check out this item.  They had a GIANT lathe that could do the turnings for columns or tall posts that hold up porches and the like.  This lathe could turn wood up to 18 feet long!  The piece on the lathe in the picture is about 10 feet.  Yowzah!

The lathe is against the windowed wall

The city of Eureka and surrounding small towns have many old Victorian houses.  Most of those houses have porches or balconies with railings held up by dozens of identical turned balusters.  Blue Ox has done a lot of work when these houses need repair.  But they also do work for buildings all over the country.

Finally, in addition to the millwork, Blue Ox is also a "Historic Village", showing off several other trades of old.  Two such trades were housed in the main building.  There was the Print Shop and the Fiber Arts areas with lots of old equipment.

A case with letters to be loaded into a printing press

Old cabinet with hundreds, if not thousands of print letters

Old sewing machines in the fiber arts area

Looms for making fabric

I was really stoked to meet Eric, but a little disappointed I couldn't chat with him more.  He was very gracious and I'm so glad to have gone there.  If you ever get a chance, by all means seek out Blue Ox Millworks.

For the mini chest of drawers that I recently completed, I struggled to decide what type of drawer handles to use.  Eventually I chose small wood handles that angled on each side and had a tenon to fit into a mortise in the drawer face.  After making a couple of one-off prototypes to figure out sizing, I decided on a shape I liked.

The prototypes - one sticks out 3/8", the other 1/2"

I needed four of these handles.  Sometimes when making small parts like this, it makes more sense to make them all from one stick of wood, then cut them apart.  You can get greater consistency between parts, and it's far safer and easier to work with a longer stick of wood.

A 5/16" thick, 1" wide stick laid out for 6 handles. Always good to make extras just in case.

Routed out dadoes which will be tenons later

Then removed the tenon sides

I used this "stop" to chisel a bevel on the wide sides (top and bottom of handle)

You can see the beveled shape with the piece on edge

Then I used the stop again to bevel the edges (sides) of each handle

The tenon areas were made longer than needed so that I could cut the tenons off at the length I wanted (1/4") and still have some cleanup to do on a shooting board to get the next handle ready.

Cutting off a handle with 1/4 long tenon

That leaves the next handle with extra material ...

... that I remove safely on the shooting board

The tenons were just over 3/16" thick and they fit nicely into mortises chopped into the drawer fronts.

One handle fitted

The moral of the story is this.  When making multiples of small parts, it makes sense to lay them out on a stick much larger than needed for a single piece.  It's easier to lay out this way, safer to do the cutting, and the repeatability is probably better, too.

OK, so way back in July, I started on this project.  Then knee problems made it more complicated to get in the shop.  Over the second half of last year, I gradually got most of it finished.  And finally 6 months later it's complete.

The wood is reclaimed red alder.  The main carcass is about 5" x 8".  The sides, top and bottom were 3/8" thick, the dividers 1/4".  Drawer parts were 1/4" or slightly less thick.  Here's the build in pictures and captions, with a little prose thrown in as needed.

The four sides arranged

First corner tails cut ...

... and assembled with the tailboard

Dadoes for drawer dividers laid out.  You can see on this board some screw holes - the price of using reclaimed wood.  All screw holes were on the inside, back or bottom, so will remain unseen.

Grooves to house the back are done

Carcass dry-assembled

Using the mini router plane to level the dadoes

The main carcass dry-fitted with dividers

The drawer sides were made from poplar, with a 1/8" ply bottom.  Each drawer had a single dovetail at each corner, and the bottom was glued on to the underside.  Later, a red alder front was glued to the drawer box and a handle was added.

A drawer box coming together

Two drawers with bottoms being glued on (one in the end vise, one in the back corner of the bench using weights as a clamp), another drawer's parts being sized and made ready for dovetailing

Drawer dovetailed

Three fitted

Experiments with handles.  I'm going to write a separate post about making these.

Now for the feet: making a template

On a 1/2" x 1/2" blank, cutting close to the line ...

... and finishing with flat chisel, incannel gouge and file

After mitering the ends, gluing two together to create a foot

Gluing on a foot.  Note the air-release holes in the back. Without those, when you close one drawer, others get pushed open.

Four feet in place

The piece is finished with shellac, followed by a coat of wax.  The following pics don't show it well, but it got a nice luster and reflects light nicely.

The finished product

Another view

This is going to my 2 1/2 YO granddaughter.  She might not appreciate it just yet, but hopefully later she'll have some jewelry or other treasures to put in it.

2025 was not a banner year for my woodworking.  I did very close to nothing in the second half of the year due to knee problems and ensuing knee replacement surgery.  I've been getting back to it lately, albeit slowly.  Hopefully 2026 will be a better year.  That said, here's what I got done in 2025.

Projects

This year started out with a (sort of) Shaker handled step stool.  It was a great project from a joinery standpoint, with dovetails on the front corner and multiple through mortise and tenons at the rear.

Shaker step stool with heart-shaped handle for the wife

In May, I made a picnic caddy for my sister.  This was my take on a similar item we saw at a restaurant, and it came out great.  It's got dovetailed corners, dividers in dadoes, and a bottom fitted into grooves in the sides and ends.

Picnic caddy

Also in May, I made a Paul Sellers project: a woven seat stool.  This also went to my sister.  This was an easy project, but I really wanted to try a seat weaving pattern I had not done before.  The weave isn't perfect, but it's good enough.

Easy woodworking, but tedious weaving

In July I made a quick cutting board to replace the plastic one we had been using for years.  This maple board has been very handy.

Another easy and quick project

Finally, I'm just finishing this project now, but it was mostly made in July through December of 2025.  It's a miniature chest of drawers that I hope my 2 1/2 YO granddaughter will use as a box for jewelry or treasures.  It's made of red alder, which I think is a very attractive wood.

Shellac yet to come

Tool Making or Rehab

In January, I made a new iron for my homemade extra-course scrub plane.  The old iron I had found at a garage sale, but it turned out not to be good tool steel.  The new one is from a piece of O-1 steel and I shaped it, hardened and tempered it, flattened the back and sharpened it.  It's thinner steel than the old iron, so I had to modify the wedge to accommodate the change.

Shaping the bevel with a file

In February and March, I was focused on threading small diameter wood.  I had done larger diameters, typically 1-2", a few years ago, but I was interested in trying diameters of 1/2" and 3/8".  It was a big time sink, but eventually I had success with a homemade "machine" that could cut the inner and outer threads for these sizes.  This was helped immensely by a YT video from Paul Hamler.

Overhead view of threading machine clamped in vise

Eventually it allowed me to make this thumb screw for  a marking gauge shown below

That walnut thumb screw was the finishing touch on a marking gauge I made in March.  I really love this gauge.  I knifed and marked 1/8" graduations on one side of the beam.

A walnut beauty

The impetus for the marking gauge was an old Worth marking gauge that I had been given years ago.  The mortise in the fence had gotten too big for the beam, and the wooden thumb screw to hold the beam in place was no longer holding.  So I made a new fence and wood/metal thumb screw and the gauge is a user tool again.

The old (right) and the new

Odd contrast in woods, but it works great now

I found this snipes bill plane at a tool show, but the body was bent and the boxing was warped.  I managed to get it into better working condition.

The front showing the profile

I can't recall where I found this old screwdriver.  It's got "POLAND HITEST" stamped on it.  But I cleaned it up and now I have a big honkin' screwdriver in the kit.

POLAND HITEST screwdriver with wooden scales

For some years now, I've used a makeshift small router plane that utilized a 1/8" chisel as the cutter.  But I always wanted something better.  In June, I made a better small router, using modified Allen wrenches as the cutters.  It has come in handy, and it works well.

The small router

Miscellaneous

In January, I made a spreadsheet that would help me calculate radius, given an arc width and desired bulge of the arc.  This was helpful when looking at the camber of the scrub plane iron.  But the spreadsheet can also be used when figuring out an arc at the bottom edge of a table apron or a rail component of whatever furniture you want a curved rail on.

A simple little spreadsheet

Well, that's it.  I hope 2026 will be a better year for projects.  My knee is doing much better now, but my leg gets tired quickly and I'm just not used to being on my feet for long periods.  Hopefully that's nothing that more shop time won't cure.  To all who read this, I hope you have a healthy and productive year!