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 Feeling a little better today. I think I peaked and I'm on the downhill slide to getting better. Sore throat is gone but I'm still coughing and hacking up globs of slimy, sticky crap. Still no AM or PM shop time. Maybe by the weekend?

hmm.....

I thought of the blue tape last night during a a fit of coughing. One problem I've had in the past with using a coping saw was over cutting. Either into the side of the tail or below the baseline. I put the tape 3 frog hairs above the knifed base line. I'll have to carefully gauge cutting toward the side of the tails.

ta da

Survived the first sweeping coping saw cuts. Felt stronger today too, not as weak as I felt yesterday.

done

Still have to saw the opposite end but I didn't want to push my luck. I'll saw them tomorrow.

accidental woodworker 

I’ve just started building a new solid-body electric mandolin, haven't done one for awhile.  I’ll be documenting the process in a series of YouTube videos. Here’s the first episode: hope you find it interesting.

Cheers Gary

 For over a week I've been coughing on and off all day. My first dark thoughts were it could be lung cancer. However, last night I woke up with a sore throat and a clogged shut snot locker. Thoughts are lighter now and it looks like I got my first cold in years. I feel like something a stray dog left on the front walk and you step and slide in it. I didn't even feel like doing anything but I did go out for my monday breakfast. I bought a bunch of side dishes for thanksgiving after I finished eating.Looking like I won't be strolling post lunch for a few days.

felt better

I went to the shop around 1300 and looked around. It was just as I left it. I can't imagine not being able to work in the shop. Not an idea I like but it is just for a few days.

had to do something

I felt like a kid just making one saw cut. Realized that I was too weak to do anything else. If I had I probably would have screwed it up. Maybe tomorrow I'll finish sawing this first tail waste.

accidental woodworker 

This has become a bit of a tradition here at Giant Cypress.

This is one of the best Veteran’s Day songs ever, even if it was written for Australia’s version of today.

God bless our vets, all of them.

You do not have to look far to see how ridiculous timber prices have become. What used to be an affordable hobby is now something you really have to think twice about. For hobby woodworkers like you and soon myself to be, the cost of a few decent boards can easily rival the price of a good hand plane. It makes you stop and plan every project carefully because waste just is not an option anymore.

A lot of people like to blame it on transport costs or limited supply, but let us be honest, that is not the real story. There is no shortage of trees in Australia and the mills are still running. The problem is corporate control. Big companies have taken over the supply chain from start to finish. They have bought up smaller mills or forced them out, and with fewer suppliers left they can charge whatever they like. And they do.

This sort of manipulation is not limited to timber either. It is happening across the board. The world has become greedy. Corporations are driving up the cost of living while pretending it is all about inflation or supply issues. Sure, wages have gone up, but only on paper. The reality is most people are barely scraping by. A one bedroom apartment can cost around seven hundred dollars a week, and once you have paid rent there is almost nothing left for food, electricity, or anything else, let alone a few nice slabs of timber.

For many woodworkers that means adapting. Some are turning to recycled wood or salvaging pieces from old furniture and building sites. Others are experimenting with new species or milling their own logs when they can. It takes more time but it is satisfying work. There is something special about bringing life back into an old piece of wood that most people would have thrown away.

Maybe that is what is keeping woodworking alive. In a world ruled by greed and profit, this craft still gives you something real. The feel of a sharp chisel, the smell of fresh shavings, the rhythm of a hand plane, these are things money cannot buy.

So yes, timber is getting dearer, and everything else with it, but true woodworkers will not stop. We will adapt, just like we always have. Because at the end of the day, woodworking is not about what you can afford. It is about what you can create.

lid stay

I had left the lid down for two days and no sticking. Put on my largest chain as a lid stay. This will snap off if you are too aggressive when opening as it has snapped on me before. I know from past experience that if the lid falls back free and clear, these hinges will also get ripped off. I'll tell my sister to be careful with this.

the dovetail chisels

The largest chisel I'm sharpening is 1 1/4" and I'll use it on the pins. I don't try to to match dovetails to chisel sizes. That is why I need 5 to whack out these pins and tails.

sigh

When I hit the waste to remove it, it took a chip with it on exiting. Stopped chopping to super glue the chip back before I lost it.

a work out

Chiseling the tail waste was like chiseling stone. If this had been pine I would have whacked it out an end in less than 5 minutes. Doing one end took me almost 20. On the other end I removed most of the waste with the bandsaw. I stopped here for the day so I can think on how to best do the other board.

I had made a dovetailed cherry cupboard a few months back and I don't recall the chopping of those tails/pins being this difficult. I will say that bandsawing most of the waste made chopping what was left easier. I'll have to decide whether to bandsaw them or to use my coping saw. Both have their own potential hiccups.

hmm......

The slope is a two frog hairs off square. With pine I wouldn't worry about this little bit but with this rock hard cherry I have to fix it. I checked and trimmed the tails square to the front face. Killed the lights here to go watch some football.

accidental woodworker 

 I bit the bullet hard and ordered the Whitworth tap and die set last night. Amazon says it will be here on monday. I got it because I have 4 record plow planes that have Whitworth threads or at least I know that they aren't imperial threads. I also found my Whitworth thread gauge. Luckily I had bought another one before I remembered I already had one. The downside to this is I'm not 100% sure that chasing the threads will help but I'll find out in a couple of days.

end panels

I was surprised at how well the grain matched on the glue ups. One side (left board) sticks out but the right one is much better. Cleaned up the joint line on both faces with the Stanley #80.

made a left turn

I thought about this last night right up to hitting the rack. I couldn't reconcile the overhang on the ends - that kept looking like elephant ears on a red headed step child. I am now making a dovetailed box to house the drawers. On the first plan I was going to house the ends in stopped dadoes. I made the length a few frog hairs shy so I can plane the drawers to fit.

hmm......

30 minutes work and it looks like I hardly did anything at all to this iron. I plan on shining it up so it will be pretty to look at. Time to implement plan 2-b.

custom holder

Working on something like this with one hand sucks. It is almost counter productive. I can only work on half of it and then switching to work on the other half. Not being able to use my dominant hand exclusively hurts too. With this simple jig the iron is captive and not going anywhere. I am able to employ both hands to work on it. The walls are scrap pieces of cherry a few frog hairs thinner than the iron is.

better

Draw filing the iron resulted in much better results over sanding it. Quicker too but it still ate a lot of time.

20 minutes of work

Not done yet but looking so much better. There is a defect at the bottom of the iron that is being a problem child. I wasn't able to draw file it entirely away.

2nd jig

It was shine time and trying to move this back and forth on the sandpaper wasn't working. Way too difficult/awkward to keep downward pressure and moving it with just my fingers. This worked way beyond my expectations and I moved through all 8 grits in less than 10 minutes on both irons. 

up to 180 grit

The jig held up with zero hiccups. The little tab was the Achilles heel but it performed like it was a rock.

done

Not a mirror shine but I'm satisfied with what I got. The jig fits in the bigger irons but it is a loosey goosey fit. I'll make another one when it comes time to shine them up.

glamour pic #1

Still haven't tried to mold a profile with it. For now I'll keep it somewhere in the shop where I can eyeball it as tool candy.

finally

This is the fifth layout I did. What I wanted was to have two large dovetails R/L of center with two smaller ones at the outside edges. Initially I couldn't wrap my brain bucket around it. I could see it on the brain's main projector but couldn't translate it to plywood template. I don't know why this befuddled me like it did but working it out on the plywood template saved my butt.

half pins sawn

Before I chop the tails I need to sharpen and hone my chisels. They are probably good enough to chop pine but not cherry. I'll do that in the AM.

accidental woodworker

all cherry

I have a cherry veneered panel that I can use on the 3 drawer thing upcoming. All the visible surfaces will be cherry. Should be enough here to do the two drawer and one drawer enclosures.

came yesterday

I bought 4 more no mortise 3/4" hinges from Lee Valley. Bought this scraper too. I could have used this on the last miniature hope chest. It would have worked well on the cove molding on the base.

made a command decision

Decided to put one drawer on top of the two drawers beneath it. The bottom drawers are about 9" front to back and the single on on top will be about 5 1/2" front to back and roughly 10" right to left.

bottom glue up

The joint line on this side was almost dead flush and I made this one the reference face. There was also a wee bit of a cup that I flattened. 

hmm.....

Got a small hollow here that I couldn't plane off. Fingers crossed that when I run it through the lunchbox planer it will disappear. If not it won't present a problem because it will be hidden under the drawers.

it is flat

Twist free too. I have a flat face to run through the lunchbox planer.

done

It took less than an hour to run all the boards through the lunchbox planer. All three are dead nuts 3/4" thick.

done

The OVELOE spokeshave is done. I didn't try it out but I think it looks nice. I will sand the irons until the are shiny. This may end up being a 'just for looking at' tool.

sigh....

The screw on the right is spinning and not tightening down. It looks like the the screw was badly rusted and was derusted. The threads in the spokeshave are partially occluded. My imperial 1/4-20 pitch gauge lays perfectly in the screw threads. However, when I tried to chase the threads with a 1/4-20 imperial tap it wouldn't go. Much to my surprise, I found a Whitworth tap and die set on Amazon for $60. Still sitting on a fence about whether or not to buy it.

sigh again.......

I thought this screw was ok but I was wrong. After the left screw went south I tightened this one down again and it after 1/8 of a turn it started spinning too. Both of them are toast. Might be enough for me to hop down off the fence now.

knife nicks

It is nice to finally mastered rolling the burr on this. The wispy shavings put a smiley face on me. There were 6 rows of knife nicks to remove. Had to wash, rinse, and repeat for the other two boards.

settling the design

Eyeballed the overall look first. Thinking that maybe the single drawer could be for watches? I am also thinking of making a tray on the top of the single drawer.

lots of hmm......'s today

I don't like this little semi circular piece of grain here. I cut it off shortening the drawer front to 10" right to left.

box nails

These have to go. I won't be able to plane the sides to fit the drawers. I am going to attempt to get the fit but I would rather have the option to plane to fit too.

it works

I have seen this technique for removing nails in countless restoration You Tube vids that I watch. It worked well with a minimal amount of fussing and relatively little site damage.

tapered nails

Replaced the box nails with wooden japanese tapered nails.

not too bad

The drawer on the left I did first. The one on the right was the last one. I lightly sanded both with a 80 grit sanding block. Used a screwdriver initially to pry up the head of the nail and then removed it with the diagonal cutter pliers.

got the length

I left an inch on each end with scraps for the end panels and the center divider. 

brain fart

The end panels aren't wide enough to use in the orientation I want. If I use the end this way, end grain will be facing out front and back. If I flip it 90 face grain will be facing out but it won't be wide enough. One more glue up to do.

more thicknessing to do

I left the piece to be glued to the end panel a few frog hairs thicker. I will flush them after the glue ups have cooked.

done

I left the knife line when I flattened this for wiggle room. It isn't that important that both end panels be within one to two atoms of thickness with each other. They aren't married to anything and the dadoes for them will be individually done based on each one's thickness.

glued and cooking

Not thrilled with the color difference but this is what I had to work with. I will put the shorter board at the back.

haven't forgotten this

I've been thinking about this one and made another command decision. No drawers, it will be a enclosed book shelf (or display) now. This way I can use 1x12 stock without having to do any glue ups. Three adjustable shelves and a 4-6 inch raised base will complete it. I'll start on this once I'm done with the 3 drawer thing.

accidental woodworker 

Of course, some timber will not rive. This yew log is one example. It's just too gnarly. The wedges need help from an Alaskan chainsaw mill. Interestingly, the chainsaw also needs help from the wedges, to stop the chain binding. A perfect marriage of the old and the new, the hand and the machine. Rivers Joinery, old and new, mobile workshop, comes to you.

The log has been sitting around for 4-5 years in the dry, so it's fairly well dry itself.

It's been a while since I've used the Alaskan, and a dormouse, or similar, has tried very hard to stash it's hazelnut inside my chainsaw side case. 10 out of 10 for determination, but you never came back for it!

When the early settlers came from Europe, they brought with them a mindset shaped by scarcity. Europe had already been stripped bare of much of its ancient forests. Centuries of shipbuilding, heating, and farming had cleared vast stretches of oak, elm, and yew. By the time they crossed the oceans, the old growth that once blanketed Europe was mostly gone.

Arriving in the Americas and Australia, they saw endless forests and thought they had found an inexhaustible resource. They felled the trees with the same habits that had already destroyed their homeland, cutting without thought for renewal, burning without a plan for regrowth. Tree farming was unheard of. The concept of managing forests for future generations simply did not exist in their worldview.

What followed was predictable. The great stands of cedar, oak, and mahogany in North America, and the towering red gums, blackwoods, and huon pines of Australia, were taken until there were no giants left. Many species that once grew thick and wide have vanished entirely, and those that survive no longer reach the same size because they are cut before maturity.

The tragedy is that it was not ignorance alone, it was greed and a short-term way of thinking. Forests that took hundreds of years to form were erased in decades. We inherited their mistakes, but we can still learn from them. True respect for timber starts with understanding what it took to grow and what was lost to bring it into our hands.

first coat

I could almost get away with this one coat but I'm going with a 2nd one.

a little bit of surprise

This was the spot, a divot, that I filled and when I sanded it it looked like a portion of it had fell out. It is invisible as to where it was under the first coat. Happy with how well the paint coverage performed.

last look over

I double, triple checked/looked the two over three times. No holidays and I couldn't see any casting defects anywhere through the paint.

done

Two coats and tomorrow I'll be able to put the OVELOE spokeshave together. I'm still thinking/researching on how/what to do with getting the profile fixed on the lamb's tongue spokeshave.

time to vacate the boneyard

This is the lingering headache of making things and having limited space in the boneyard. This has to go upstairs into my wife's office. I was not looking forward to doing it. I've been putting it off for a couple of weeks but today I put on my big boy pants and got it moved.

the tough spot

I have to get it up these stairs, turn to the right and go up three more steps. The last obstacle before my wife's office is getting past the end of the counter and the refrigerator.

done

The hardest part was over and no marks, scrapes, or dings on the cabinet. I went up one step at a time, resting after each one. I left it in the living room and when I got back from my post lunch stroll my wife had in it the office and partially filled.

new project

Thinking of a small cabinet (?) with these two drawers. All cherry and I will have to glue up stock for the bottom or for the top. Most likely it will be the bottom because it is a two board glue up.

wow

The twist is four lines and that is the most I can recall seeing. The plan at this point was to remove the twist and based on how thin it ends up, decide then whether or not it is still usable. I'm shooting for a thickness of 3/4".

flattening

Cherry isn't as easy as pine but it still reasonable. I couldn't take the heavy shavings with the #6 like I could with pine. After flattening with the #6 I checked it with the sticks and 95% of the twist was gone which surprised me a lot. I was expecting to see a lot of twist still left to remove.

twist free

Smoothed the board with the 5 1/2, the #7, and finished with the #3. This is ready to be fed through the lunchbox planer.

the top

This board was basically twist free. I just had to deal with a slight cup and then a hump in the middle.

hmm......

I'll let this stock relax overnight and let them do any stupid wood tricks. 

resawn cherry

Not quite equal - I thought I had eyeballed the middle before pushing it through the bandsaw. This is for the top of the two drawer cabinet. Thinking of putting one, two, or three smaller drawers on the top?

drawer front

Flattened two of them to the same thickness plus a 2nd set. The first one is book matched, the 2nd set isn't.

nice

Besides the grain sloping down, the area above it shimmers a bit. This will really pop with a finish. The top one is rather bland compared to them.

1/2" cherry

Remembered that I had some 1/2" stock I had bought several years ago. Got two boards wide enough for the small drawer enclosure.

hmm.....

I don't know what the boards on the left are. The right board is mahogany and I thought of using either of these for the small drawer fronts. I'll probably stick with all cherry for the show surfaces. Drawer sides and backs will be pine.

accidental woodworker 

Opening up the panels glued up the night before is always a thrill for the students to see their work coming to fruition.

The next step is to trim the fields to make them good rectangles for the banding followed later by the borders.  A variety of veneer saws were at work, ranging from pricey French saws to inexpensive Japanese ones.  They all work.

The perimeter banding was applied and adhered with 192 gws glue, and the banding held in place with aluminum push pins that are surprisingly similar to those used by craftsmen 250 years ago.

Throughout the day and overnight, if a panel was not being worked it was placed in front of a box fan to drive off as much moisture as possible, to harden the glue under the parquetry.  That strategy was somewhat successful.

Thus endeth Day 2.

done

It took over an hour to sand, and clean up both spokeshaves. The JB Weld didn't stay 100% in the voids I filled. Enough of it stayed and I'll elevate it after the first coat of paint has dried.

hmm.....

The right iron profile is way off on the right. The flat on the profile is gone and it is beneath the bottom of the spokeshave base. The left one is a better match - the left one is going to take a lot of work to make it right.

ready to hang

Maria had these ready for me when I got there. I think they look great and they serve a purpose other than tool porn. They show the breakdown and parts of everyone of these hand tools.

back hall has a blank wall

This is the only blank wall space left in the house. It is enough for the four frames I want to hang here. Three of the four large frames are going on this wall.

more free space on the opposite wall

One large and one small frame will populate this wall.

not easy

It took me quite a while to hang the four frames because this heebie jeebie ladder placement. I made sure the door to the right was shut tight and latched. If I had fallen from the ladder I didn't want to end up in the cellar. I took my time and if anything felt off I stepped back and changed it. Ate up a lot of time but I got them hung without hurting myself.

not even

The middle one and right one were kind of close - level across the top. Instead of trying to get them even across the top I staggered them. They drop down about a 1/2" from each other. The hanger wires on the back weren't all positioned at the same point on each frame which made trying to hang them from a level line I drew maddening to do.

hmm.....

orphan

I wanted this to be with the other 6 on the right. Not enough room no matter how much I tried to shrink the frames to fit the space.

something to read tonight

Been waiting on this for a while. The durability and coverage of milk paint, IMO, is better than any latex paint available. Making my own on a need to use basis is appealing too.

 accidental woodworker 

 Spent some of the day helping the wife with her shipping books. I had errands after and that made feel like my IQ didn't make it into double digits. Went to the same store 3 times and 3 times I forgot to get what I went there for. I had been in a fog since I got out of the rack. This was one of the days when going back to bed made a lot of sense. Hope I didn't mind fart on the books I shipped.

hmm.....

The JB Weld looks and feels good. I am going to let this go until 24 hours has elapsed. I don't want it falling out on me again.

glue residue

These are 12x12 granite tiles that I glue sandpaper to. I use them to flatten the backs of plane irons and chisels. The sandpaper on them was old and needed to be replaced. Used a heat gun to warm the paper to ease scraping it off. Flooded the tiles with mineral spirits and scraped the residue off with a razor blade.

spokeshave irons

100 grit all the way to 600. Started by flattening the irons I did yesterday again. 

better

I could see a change in them after the 100 grit. The outside edge by the profile had consistent scratches on it. 

done up to 180 grit

Looking a lot better than what I had done yesterday on the worn out sandpaper. 

done

Nice and shiny on the back - flattened up to 600 grit. I was going to use the diamond stones next but I am stopping here. The  burr on the other side of the irons wasn't as large as a plane iron or chisel but I could feel it. Good enough for a molding iron?

wash, rinse, and repeat

Backs done on both sets. One thing I have seen with all the molding planes I have and spokeshave irons, none had anything done to the backs. Certainly nothing that was close to what I whacked out today.

.

hmm.....

Looked down to check the mouth and the iron was parallel to the mouth. The headache was the rabbet on the plane wasn't square. Used my smallest Record plane to square it up. Still can't tell what wood the plane is made of - even with the freshly planed rabbet yielded no clues.

haircut time

A haircut at the barbershop next to the diner where I get breakfast on mondays costs $35 plus a tip. Makes me smile every time I cut my own hair. One month away from being 71 and what hair I have left is still black. Graying at the temples but the rest of the roof is still black.

better

Not a perfect 90 but a hell of lot better than yesterdays offering. The plane felt different this time running the rabbet. Still have to practice more to get the plane plumb as I plow the rabbet.

hmm.....

This is the purpose of this holder. The tang lays in the groove the profiled edge overhangs the front. Allows two hands to sharpen/hone the iron. I needed to make an alteration to it to do the spokeshave irons. I hdd to cut the shoulder at the back of the iron about a 1/2".

small burr

With the shoulder on the holder cut back, less of the spokeshave iron extends past the front edge. Not sure about the burr on these spokeshave irons. I can feel one but it is small and on the concave part of the profile is it hard to detect.

done

After using dowels wrapped in sandpaper and a slip stone, I finished the irons with stropping. They show an improvement over my sharpening from the other day at least visually. Fingers crossed that I'll see an improvement working the edge of the stock.

for tomorrow

Yikes. There is huge difference in the profile on the irons. This is something I don't know how to address. I have only seen one video on making molding plane irons with files and not how to make a new profiled edge. It was time to kill the lights and I'll fumble my way through with these two in the AM.

hmm......

Definitely a difference between the marine JB Weld and the JB Weld I used this time. The 80 grit sanding pad isn't exactly roaring through leveling it. It is going to take some calories to sand it flush. This small spokeshave has the most JB Weld applied. The larger one has only about 10% as much.

it is sticking good

Decided to wait until tomorrow to sand this. That will give it a few more hours past 24 to cure and harden more. I don't think it will give the problems the other one did. I did sand one small spot flush to the metal and it is sticking fast.

accidental woodworker 

The story starts at the top left of the lid and then continues on the backside, the side, the front and ends at the other side.

The casket's reliefs retrace the tragic love story of the Chatelaine of Vergy and a knight. The Chatelaine, niece of the Duke of Burgundy, secretly loves a knight, whom she arranges to meet by sending him a small trained dog. The Duchess of Burgundy, also in love with the knight, tries to seduce him, but the knight rejects her. Rejected, the Duchess takes revenge by accusing the knight of having wanted to insult her. The Duke, angry, draws his sword and threatens the knight. The latter has no other option but to confess his love for the lady of the manor. The Duke witnesses the two lovers' meeting and then reveals the secret to his wife. The Duchess then invites the lady of the manor to a ball where she compliments her on training the puppies. The latter, seeing herself betrayed by her lover, dies of grief. Discovering the tragedy, the knight commits suicide. The Duke finds their two lifeless bodies and seizes the knight's sword. The Duchess's ignominy is revealed, and the Duke beheads her in the middle of the ball. He then confesses to a clergyman and leaves for the crusade. 

The inside of the casket.

Whereas the French Minnekästchen were made from ivory and the Italian ones (cassonetti) were highly ornamented and gilded, the ones from the German language regions were made from carved wood (fruit woods like pear and cherry, and linden) and painted. Kohlhausen (1928) compiled a listing of at least 300 German examples. Unfortunately, I do not have this book, but many other articles describe these chests (for example Kohlhausen, 1925, 1963; Würst, 2005). These caskets were very popular with collectors in the 19th century - so popular that fake Minnekastchen were all around. Of these 300, at least 20 have been identified as fakes (Appuhn, 1984; Diemer and Diemer, 1992). For some, like the Münchener Minnekästchen, the debate is still going on (but in nowadays in favour of being genuine) (e.g. Diemer and Diemer, 1992; Ferber, 2001; Himmelheber, 1984; Wurst, 2005). For my project this debate does not matter. Also the fake caskets were based upon the genuine ones, and both can function as a source of inspiration. In fact, you might view my project as creating a new fake Minnekästchen.

The Münchener Minnekästchen is decorated both on the outside as on the inside. The openwork panels are nailed (gilded) onto the main casket. The inside also has a large inscription in the Middle-German language. Made from linden, with bronze hinges, dated around 1250 from the Upper Rhine region.    Height 8.5 cm, Depth 10.5 cm, Length 23 cm. Bayerisches Nationalmuseum, München, Germany, inventory number R 8071. https://www.bayerisches-nationalmuseum.de/en/collection/00038540

The use of these minnekastchen is pure speculation: love letters, tokens of affection (like hair cuttings), jewellery are mentioned by some. As far as I know, there is no hard proof of the contents of these caskets. However, for the use of the non-love-scene caskets, there is; many of these caskets were used to hold important certificates and bills (Appuhn, 1971, 1972).

Construction of the casket

The panels from the Hernen tresoor were made from oak, with carved gothic arches on them. My leftover panels were suitable for the two small sides of the casket, and I had to make two new larger panels for the front and back, using the similar technique as for the tresoor. This also meant that the side panels had upside down arches. I used a dovetail joint to connect the sides with each other, . Further, I made a groove in the sides with the electric router for the bottom board (an oak panel with a thickness of around 6 mm). The bottom board was chamfered a bit for a tight fir in the groove. Then the parts weres fixed together using hide glue. Finally, the piece was sanded and finished with linseed oil. 

The casket base is relatively thick, around 12 mm and allows for a groove to hold the bottom panel. 

Carving of the casket lid

Left: Ivory casket plaque with a man and a woman in amorous conversation. The man wears a long, flowing robe; the woman is dressed in an Italian-style gown, low-cut and belted under the bust. Dimensions: Height: 5.6 cm; Width: 5 cm; Thickness: 0.35 cm. made in France between 1300–1400. Musee de Cluny, Paris, France, inventory nr. OA2764. Right: Backside of a writing tablet (lower leaf), showing an encounter with a young woman, followed by her servant holding a small casket, offering a rabbit to her companion. The hairstyles and costumes of the figures place these leaves in the mid-14th century.  Musee the Louvre, Paris, France, inventory nr. RFML.OA.2018.24.1.2, ivory with tracesof polychromy. Height 10.6 cm; Width: 5.8 cm.

A small ivory casket with shallow carved reliefs depicting courtly scenes. On the lid, the space is divided by four arches housing amorous encounters: a young man embraces a young woman and takes her hand; he caresses the young woman's belly as she plays with her belt; a young woman crowns the lover kneeling at her feet; a young people are about to kiss. On the front of the casket from left to right: a young man tends his falcon; a lion sits between two pairs of lovers, and a standing young woman makes a gesture of astonishment. On the right side, a young man holds his falcon in his right fist, strokes the chin of a young woman with his other hand, who is carrying a flower.The back and left side show other scenes. The figures are dressed in the long, flowing robes fashionable around the first decades of the 14th century. The silver lock with the silver frets ending in fleurs-de-lis that adorn the lid, the corners, and the body of the chest are modern. The attachment points of the old handle can still be seen on the lid. Musee de Louvre, Paris, France, ivory with traces of polychromy and silver, inv. LP 615. Length: 14.4 cm ; Depth: 8.9 cm ; Heigth: 4.8 cm.

I wanted to have a late 14th century style for the carved lid, as we also portray a group from around 1370.  The French ivory caskets also date from around this time, as well as some 'romance' ivory pieces (see the examples above). However, I liked to create an unique scene for my casket and decided to use two illuminations from the 'Roman de Alexandre' from the Bodleian Library (MS 264) as a source, and combined them into one new scene using Photoshop. This version was printed in a very light black and white version on paper. I tracked the outlines that I wanted to use for carving with a thicker black pen resulting in a carving plan.

The two pages from the 'Roman de Alexandre', Bodleian MS 264, London, UK. folio 59 recto - left scene at the bottom margin, and folio 121 verso - the scene at the top of the second column.

This is the cutout portion of Bodleian MS 264 folio 121v. Note the monkey on the shoulder of the woman on the right.

The cutout portion of Bodleian MS 264 folio 59r. Only the woman was used as the man was missing a leg.

The version with the woman holding the heart mixed in. The monkey has now moved to the shoulder of the woman on the left.

The black and white tracing version of the pattern for carving the lid.

For the lid of the casket I chose a different wood type. I chose linden, because this wood is easy to carve, hardly shows any grains and knots, and also because for its whitish colour resembling the ivory a bit. The carving plan was transfered to the wood by pricking the black pencil lines with a needle. These small needle points in the wood then would be used to reconstruct the image with a pencil. 

A detail of the carving plan showing the needle pricks along the lines of the clothing.

The top left and right of the carving plan was empty. My plan was to add some rose vines filling up these spaces, like in the illustrations in the Manesse codex. Carving was done using an assortment of Pfeil fishtail gouges and a carving knife. The carving itself was relatively shallow, with a maximum depth of 0.5 cm. The finished carving was oiled with linseed oil (making it darker that ivory).

The plant tendrils with flowers and flower buds come from the Codex Manesse (Codex Manesse, UB Heidelberg, Germany, Cod. Pal. germ. 848), fol. 249v: Herr Konrad von Altstetten. Date between 1305 and 1315. http://digi.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/diglit/cpg848/0494.

I did not take photos from each carving step, but these show some of the progress. In the final photo the ivory blancness of the linden wood is obvious.

Finishing the Minnekästchen

The box was lined with red felt on the inside. The felt was glued to the wood using hide glue (from the gluepot, as this has a short drying time; and not the modern Titebond one, which is too fluid dries too slow for felt). The following step was to add the hinges to the casket. I bought some commercial available medieval type hinges which were pre-rusted. As my casket was newly made, rusted hinges were not to my liking. Therefore, I removed this nostalgic rust with sandpaper and steel wool. Then I blackened the steel by heating the hinge with a gas torch until red-hot, and then quenching it in vegetable oil.

A part of the hinge would overlap with the carving.

The hinges were relatively large. To prevent them from sticking out on the carving of the lid, they were added at the underside of the lid. A piece of wood was removed for a smooth fitting of the hinge. On the backside the hinge was attached with nails that were bent back into the oak. For the lid this was not feasible: either the bent back would be visible on the outside, or they would be bent over the metal of the hinge. Therefore, I planned to rivet the hinge on the lid instead. The square nails were converted into rivets by rounding them with a file, and cutting of the excess metal. A ball-peen hammer was used to rivet the nail against the hinge.

A wooden block with two holes that easily fitted the nails was clamped in a vise. The thickness of the wooden block is such that it corresponds to the thickness of the lid. The protruding point can be filed round to fit the hinge holes.

Some square nails with filed rounded ends.

The nails cut-off to the approximate size of the rivet. 

A rivetted hinge on the inside of the lid.

No small locks were available for purchase, and at the time I was not proficient in locksmithing. So similar to the box of the Vatican courier chess set, two nails with a rope to connect were used to close the casket.  Note that the Münchener Minnekästchen also does not posess a lock. Any remaining parts of the minnekastchen were now also coated with linseed oil.

The finished minnekastchen closed (above) and open (below).

What will be put inside this minnekästchen? Love letters, a lock of hair, or ....  (I won't tell :)

Sources

• Appuhn, H., 1971. Rosa und die anderen Briefladen aus dem Rathaus zu Dortmund. Zur Bedeutung der Sterne und Rosetten an mittelalterlichen Möbeln. Aachener Kunstblätter 41, pp. 267-274.
• Appuhn, H., 1971. Briefladen aus Niedersachsen und Nord-Rhein Westfalen. Museum zur Kunst und Kulturgeschichte der Stadt Dordmund, Schloss Cappenberg. 38 pp.
• Appuhn, H., 1972. Briefladen. Wallraf-Richartz-Jahrbuch 34, pp. 31-44.
• Appuhn, H., 1984. Die schönsten Minnekästchen aus Basel: Fälschungen aus der Zeit der Romantik. Zeitschrift für schweizerische Archäologie und Kunstgeschichte 41, pp. 149-160.
• Carns, P.M. 2005. Compilatio in Ivory: The Composite Casket in the Metropolitan Museum Gesta 44, No. 2: pages 69-88. https://www.jstor.org/stable/25067115
• Diemer, D. and Diemer, P., 1992. Minnesangs Schnitzer. Zur Verbreitung der sogenannten Minnekästchen. In: Festschrift Walter Haug und Burghart Wachinger.  Max Niemeyer Verlag,  Berlin, Gemany, pp. 1021-1060. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110937114.1021
• Ferber, A., 2001. Das Münchener Minnekästchen. https://www.grin.com/document/107921?srsltid=AfmBOoqJftTdIN6u0c2FRGkVgBJS250AY9j-apgyQpXE5qADuaQCYcay
• Himmelheber, G., 1984. Das Münchner Minnekästchen - eine Chronik. Zeitschrift für Kunstgeschichte 47, pp. 243-247.
• Hoopes, T.T. 1926. An ivory casket in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The Art Bulletin 8(3): pages 127-139.
• Kline, N.R., 2016. From Harmonious to 'Rough Music' on Late Medieval Boxes. In: The Profane Arts. Norms and Transgressions. Brepols, Turnhout, Belgium, pp. 111-127.
• Koechlin, R. 1924. Les ivoires gothiques français (Band 1, 2 and Planches). https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.21674, https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.21675, and https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.21676. (only a small part concerns caskets)
• Kohlhausen, H. 1925. Rheinische Minnekästchen des Mittelalters. Jahrbuch der Preuszischen Kunstsammlungen 28, pp. 203-247.
• Kohlhausen, H., 1963  Ein höfische Minnekästchen-Werkstatt zwischen Maas und Niederrhein um 1430. Anzeiger des Germanischen Nationalmuseums 1963, pp. 55-61.
• Musialik, E., 2022. A 14th century ivory casket with scenes from medieval romances. the newest addition to the socalled coffrets composites group.  Folia Historiae Artium Seria Nowa 20: pages 9-28. 
• Randall, Jr., R.H. 1997. Games on a medieval ivory. Record of the Art Museum, Princeton University 56(1/2): pages 2-9.
• Ross, D.J.A. 1948. Allegory and Romance on a Mediaeval French Marriage Casket. Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 11: pages 112-142. https://www.jstor.org/stable/750464
• Wurst, J., 2003. Pictures and Poems of Courtly Love and Bourgeois Marriage: Some Notes on the So-called Minnekästchen. In: Love, Marriage, and Family Ties in the Later Middle Ages. Brepols, Turnhout, Belgium, pp. 97-120.
• Wurst, J., 2005. Reliquiare der Liebe. Das Münchner Minnekästchen und andere mittelalterliche Minnekästchen aus dem deutschsprachigen Raum. PhD thesis, München, Germany. https://edoc.ub.uni-muenchen.de/4623/1/wurst_juergen_alexander.pdf

Source

 I thought today I would be painting the spokeshaves but it didn't happen boys and girls. Ran into a hiccup that I shook hands with me after lunch. Sigh. Had to make a U-turn. That and having my final PT appointment ate up a chunk of shop time today. Glad that I'm retired and set backs while a PITA aren't deal killers.

Stanley Bailey #2

I thought of this plane and I had to take it out of the grandkids toolbox to play with it. RML shavings but I had to fiddle with it a wee bit. Unexpected so I took it down to parade rest and sharpened and honed the iron and started over from square #1.

hmm.....

I could see light between the chipbreaker and the iron except for the very ends. Wasn't getting any shavings jammed up there though. Spent some quality time addressing that that also involved spending time flattening the back of the iron before it went dark.

getting quicker

Bevel is nice and shiny with zero scratches in it. Sharp enough to slice through the air and pull it apart. One thing I noticed from the first RML shavings was the sloppiness of the yoke knob. Zero feeling of the iron moving up or down. This is the only iron/chipbreaker I have for a #2. I still haven't found a #2 iron in the wild anywhere. Been keeping any eye open for that for years too.

excellent RML shavings

I was expecting to have to play with this before I got RML (right, middle, left) shavings to spit out. I bought this plane for the grandkids because it is small. It feels like a toy in my hand. Borderline awkward to use - tote barely fits for 3 fingers. I was able to get RML shavings one handed too. The #3 is the smallest bench plane I use and feel comfortable using.

toy like but functional

You see the scale of this plane in relation to my left hand. Still waiting for either one of the grandsons to try it out. Hopeful that watching the shavings curl up out of the mouth excites them too. Made some face grain shavings - full length and width before putting it back in their toolbox.

Stanley #10 1/2

I used this plane a lot when I first got it. It is about the same size as the #3 and easily does its job with the added bonus of being able to do rabbets. This plane was repaired and it was done well. This plane type suffered a lot of cracks and fractures on the cheeks due to the continuous mouth opening. Author Aldren Watson (Hand Tools book)recommends it over the #3 because of its versatility. Iron was still sharp in spite of sitting in the tool cabinet for several years.

another to do project

Hopefully I'll around to this before the interest wanes. These were drawers that I had made for a cherry cabinet but I didn't use them. Ended up making new ones and these became orphaned. Thinking of making a two drawer thing and fitting them to it.

hmm......

Leftover cherry from ???? I think I have enough here to make the carcass for the two drawers. I will probably have to glue up stock but I think the widest board will work for the top. The sides, back, and the bottom aren't as visible as the top and don't matter if they are glued up.

hmm.....

The JB Weld feels solid but I didn't have a warm and fuzzy with it.

80 grit

This grit was barely touching the epoxy. I thought it would eat it up a lot quicker than it did but it wasn't. The epoxy was built up a lot based on it filling in the defects etc so I could sand it flush. I thought I would knock some of that down with my marking knife first.

yikes

Came off completely. The knife pulled all the epoxy out with ease. It didn't seem to adhere to the spokeshave anywhere I applied it.

wow

See the dot - the epoxy fell out and that is the one spot I wanted filled. The epoxy flaked off when I cut it with the marking knife. Epoxy had gotten hard but nada after that.  

Wally World

I have used this before several times on hand planes, Stanley spokeshaves, and some hand drills. I didn't have any problems with any of them with this JB Weld.

hmm......

The top one is obvious and the bottom one I think is missing a letter(s)? I googled OVELOE and nada. 

the other side

The width of the irons for the lambs tongue are 5/8". Clueless as to what the 2 defines, if anything, for the OVELOE spokeshave.

two days

It is 4-6 hours for this to be dry to the touch and 15-24 hours before use. It is 1445 now and I plan on letting this cure for 24hrs. I'll probably be painting this wednesday rather then tuesday.

planed a rabbet

I couldn't get the rabbet square with the wooden plane. I used the 10 1/2 to do it. After looking at the iron I saw that it was skewed and not parallel to the mouth. Should have checked that before and while using it but I didn't. Assumed that it was still good from its last use.

up against the blade

Did a lot of left turns today and ended up playing with this last one. I can't remember if I had ever do this, even when I first put this saw together.

it's an 1/8" off

This is the closest I can get the indicator to zero. I got this saw and this fence over 20 years ago and the memories aren't even hazy. They are nonexistent especially about this set up. I seem to remember that the measuring tape was already fixed to the tube. I'll have to look up the instructions for it on the WWW. I doubt that I'll use if I do fix it though. But I started to address it and I might as well check it off if I can.

accidental woodworker 

Modern day tool makers mainly concentrate on hobbyists with very little knowledge about the craft. That’s not an insult, it’s just the truth of where the market has gone. Most modern plane buyers are not tradesmen or full-time users. They’re enthusiasts who might use a plane once or twice a week, and that’s perfectly fine. But tool makers design around that group, not around those who spend hours at the bench every day.

I agree that metals have come a long way, but the real question is how has any of this actually improved our craft? What benefit have we really gained?

We’ve been told that thicker irons were made to reduce chatter, but that’s just marketing talk. In truth, chatter rarely comes from a thin iron. It’s usually the result of poor bedding, a loose cap iron, or sloppy setup. What thicker irons and A2 steel really did was make sharpening slower and rule out oil stones for anyone who prefers them.

Then there’s the matter of weight. For hobbyists, a heavier plane might seem fine, but when you use one all day, it quickly becomes exhausting. Old Stanley planes were light, nimble, and easy to control. The modern premium planes, on the other hand, often feel clumsy and tiring, especially when you’re planing something like a raised panel.

Manufacturers love to say that the extra heft helps the plane glide through timber. That’s nonsense. If you need the weight to do the cutting, your iron’s blunt.

Yes, today’s planes are machined to high tolerances, and that’s impressive, but in practice, a well-tuned Stanley does the job better. It’s lighter, faster to sharpen, and more comfortable to use, exactly what a plane should be.

Tool makers love to use terms like precision machining and modern performance steel because it sells. But in the hands of someone who knows how to sharpen properly and set a cap iron correctly, an old Stanley will run circles around most modern planes. It’s not nostalgia, it’s experience. Those lighter, simpler designs were made by people who actually used them for a living, not by engineers trying to appeal to collectors.

The first person to bring this topic to light and reveal its bitter truth was Paul Sellers. I was one of his first opposers, mainly because I had just replaced all my old tools with Lie Nielsen and Veritas planes. My pride got in the way, and I hadn’t used the modern planes long enough to form an informed opinion. Looking back, my biggest mistake was selling my old Stanleys and Record planes. They weren’t in the best condition, but they still performed beautifully.

The truth is, the craft hasn’t improved because the tool itself didn’t need improving. What’s changed is the audience. Toolmakers now cater to people who admire tools more than they use them. And while there’s nothing wrong with that, it’s led to a generation of planes that look impressive on a bench but don’t necessarily work better in the wood.

So before anyone believes the hype about thicker irons and added weight, ask yourself: is it really an improvement or just another myth we’ve been sold?