Norse Woodsmith Blog Feeds

Let me establish from the start that many, many methods of sharpening can work. And while I may be courting controversy in my approach, I really am interested in this blog post in discussing how I sharpen, not offering a comprehensive review of all plausible methods. I will also say from the get-go that there is also a big difference between regrinding a tool to a new geometry to repair damage and routine maintenance because of use.

Here is how I am keeping my tools sharp.

Except for one 3/8" spindle gouge ,all my turning tools are made of high-speed steel (HSS). There are gradations of quality of HSS, but in general HSS tools stay sharper longer than traditional carbon steel tools. On the other hand, carbon steel is easier to sharpen. Pole turners have a tendency to want to use carbon steel tools, because such tools are easily sharpened with a stone in the field. Other that that, HSS tools have replaced carbon steel in the marketplace.

One complaint people have with sharpening high-speed steel is that HSS doesn't get as sharp an edge as carbon steel. I would suggest that with modern sharpening equipment such as diamond stones, CBN wheels, and quality waterstones, HSS can get pretty darn sharp. It not so much the steel, which is kind of gummy, but diamond and CBN cleanly cut through the carbide inclusions that are found in HSS.

For the one or two times I've wanted to really change the geometry of a tool, I've used a grinder with a CBN wheel. The CBN wheel isn't essential, but it does mean my chances of burning the tool are nearly non-existent. Many people finish up on a grinder and call it a day, although they are usually finishing up on a much finer wheel (220 and up) than I have (80).

Since I don't have a super fine grinding wheel, in all cases no matter how I get to the ground edge I'm following up the fine and extra fine diamond stone. And then I'm doing one of three things. Leaving the tool as is and getting back to work. Stropping with strop treated with micro fine green honing compound, or polishing on an 8,000 grit water stone. I'm going back and forth between the strop and the 8000 grit waterstone trying to figure out which is better. I don't have an answer yet. I do think however if you have a sharp tool to begin with. a polished edge will cut better and longer.

Since I free-hand sharp everything anyway, I free-hand sharpen my turning tools. Learning to sharpen the handle heavy turning tools took some adapting, but it's the same skill. One of the reasons I'm a big fan of free-hand sharpening regular chisels is once you can free-hand sharpen chisels and plane blades, you can also free-hand sharpen pretty much everything else as well.

When my turning for the day is done, I feel the tool for sharpness. If I'm unsure if it's sharp, it's probably not. I then touch it up on the fine and extra fine diamond stone. And then follow whatever polishing medium is handy.

In the photo above, we have a 1" skew chisel and a 1" continental gouge. You can see the hollow from the grinding. I have a 6" grinder. Most turners prefer a lesser hollow and use 8" grinders. But unfortunately I can't justify a new grinder. The polish marks on the heel and toe of the bevel are the result of hand honing.

I can't emphasize enough how much of a pleasure and a rush it is when I take a tool that was cutting weirdly, sharpen it, put it back on the lathe, treadle away, and get curly shavings.

 It snowed overnight and I woke up to about an inch plus on the ground. Unbelievable after the ton of crap that fell the day before. At least it is was light and fluffy. There is the possibility that a repeat of the past sunday will happen on this coming sunday. After the last 5-6 years of minimal snow fall I can't really complain. 

not bad but also not welcomed

I was not a happy camper this AM. My arms and shoulders didn't hurt anymore but my back was frantically shaking hands with me. Spent a lot of time today molding my butt cheeks to my desk chair. But that happened after I shoveled the driveway. 

nutso results

About 15 years ago when I decided to go the rabbit hole of hand tool woodworking one of the things I went nutso on was getting replacement irons and chipbreakers. I have at least two sets of iron/chipbreakers for all of my planes except for my #8. I have an extra iron but no chipbreaker. I took out two sets for a #3.

much better

I got a Stanley iron in the Union #3. Cutting smoother and easier than the Union iron. I had a similar problem like this with a Miller Falls iron. Sharpened and honed and nada. It would not make a shaving. I ground the bevel back on my bench grinder and again nada. I couldn't get it to make a shavings. The Union iron cuts good on the right side of the iron and garbage on the left. Couldn't improve it by sharpening it again concentrating on the left side.

what a difference

The shaving from the Union iron was jagged and It wasn't continuous from end to end. And it tore out like crazy around the screw holes. The Stanley shaving was continuous, full width, full length, and the screw holes were intact.. Thinking of offering this up for sale again.

One thing I've found over the years was swapping out sets doesn't always work. What works is swapping just the iron and keeping the original chipbreaker. I don't know why but it was a hard learned lesson.

prepping the chest

I don't want any paint on the underside of the lid or the inside of the chest. If I get any bleed through the tape, I'll paint the underside and the top edge of the box.

hmm......

I lost 12 grams of quark over the past 3 days. I am still going to make my first batch of milk paint regardless. It is all part of the learning curve.

done

I think I made way too much dye for the paint. The author says 1ounce/30 grams and I stopped at 20 grams/1/2 ounce. The paint mixed easy but not completely. There are lumps of quark that no matter how much I stirred,  wouldn't go away.  The color isn't as blue as I would have liked. I really wanted something more like a cobalt blue.

One thing that surprised me was how liquid the paint became. The lime got 4 tablespoons of water and I drained the water that was in the quark container. I couldn't see how mixing the lime quark would become a liquid or even a loose, watery paint. 

It became liquid almost immediately. A bit on the watery side but a paint quality liquid. The author recommends a blender and I now agree with him. I bought a small juicing blender from Amazon. I'm supposed to have it today but I find that doubtful but I'll keep my fingers crossed. If I get it I'll make another batch in the AM.

left over

There is more then enough to color a 2nd batch of milk paint. I would have mixed a 30 gram/1 ounce sample but this jar wasn't big enough.

yikes

I wasn't paying attention when I grabbed the paint can and I tipped it over. Sigh. I am not impressed with the color on the wood. It isn't blue but it looks greenish. I wanted this to be a pale wash that showed the grain but not green and that is working. 

ugly color IMO

Besides the color being off, the coverage wasn't what I expected. I think part of the problem with that is I didn't sand before painting. This paint was applied to a surface that was hand planed. Too smooth and no tooth for the paint to grab.

hmm......

There are bumps and clumps of (quark?) on all the surface. They look like crap. The dark specs.

an hour later

The greenish tint has toned down some and it looks like a pale blue/green color now. It is dry to the touch and I'll be putting on at least one more coat.

clumps

The little dark spots are clumps of quark? They are hard and I couldn't remove them scraping with a finger nail.

worse spot

The coverage here sucks pond scum. 

240 grit

The sandpaper cut and smoothed all the clumps. It also left behind a lot of dust. I'll try to get a 2nd coat on after dinner, hopefully. If not then in the AM. I will also be applying 3-4 coats of shellac.

accidental woodworker

Although I have been spending any shop time over the past few months cleaning, tidying, and reorganizing the barn, I had long ago penciled-in this week as Firewood Week 2026/7.  We are deep into Winter 2025/6 with an extended forecast of unseasonably cold weather, with overnight lows for the next fortnight running at or below zero.  That was motivation to get a good jump on next winter and beyond (we’re fine for this winter).

My target was the cluster of windfall trees (mostly maple and birch IIRC) that came down in a storm some time ago, up the hill behind the cabin.  The main trunks on these are all 18-24″, a few a bit more.  The beauty of such a trove is that it is already down but standing above the ground, making it easy to get to while seasoning “on the hoof.”  I’ll have to clear a couple of scrub saplings to get my 4WD S10 up there but if the ground is clear it will be a piece o’ cake.

Then came the disheartening forecast last week for a Storm of the Century!!! with somewhere between 12 and 24 inches of snow.  Such an event would disrupt my firewood harvesting and processing plans.  Not an existential problem, but I did have my mind set on it.  Then came the Snowpocaplyse.  Big whup.  Not even enough to get out the snowblower.

The forecast is still for very cold (for us) weather so I’ll see if I can work in well-below-zero wind chills.  My old Minnesota home town has wind chills of minus-60 so this isn’t all that bad in the cosmic scheme of things.

Stay tuned.

UPDATE

The monster snowfall never materialized, but the gradual deposits from the storm front wound up to be about three inches of snow, followed by three inches of sleet, all encased in a saturating half inch of freezing rain.  Even my 13hp snowblower choked on that combo.  We spent yesterday hacking out two of the vehicles and will spend today and tomorrow working on our long driveway.  It’s like clearing demolition rubble as I first have to break everything up then shovel it out of the way.

wow

Sunday it started snowing and it came down in small flurries. Those flurries laid down to about 9 inches. Drifts were 2-3 feet high. Snapped this pic from my back door to where I park the truck. It took me 2 hours to clear this area which is a 1/3 of the total needing shoveling. 

Shoveling this white @)%&^&@)%@_) crap wore me out. There was no where to put the snow. I had to walk from the right side to dump the snow on the left . I am fxxked if we get another snow dump like this before this blanket melts.

3 hours to clear

Can't throw more than a few shovel fulls by the bushes. I had to make my own mountain range on the right. I can usually shovel the driveway and the front walk in a couple of hours (3-4 inches). That didn't happen today boys and girls. I got lucky that a neighbor a few doors down came with a snow blower and cleared the end of driveway and the road. That would have taken me more than an hour to shovel.

late in the PM

I found these 4 poor man miter jigs when I cleaned the boneyard. They don't last long - the kerf gets worn and too wide. It doesn't matter because I don't use the miters off the jig. I always clean and smooth the miters with a hand plane on a shooting jig.

clean up

Not necessary but I wanted to put the Union through its paces. Performed adequately but not in the top 3 of my #3 planes. The iron is freshly sharpened/honed but it felt dull. It was dragging a bit rather than sailing over the wood. 

hmm........

I don't do good sawing the 45 slots. The left one I don't have problems with. I usually nail it dead on 45. The right one giggles at me every single time. I don't have any headaches with the top horizontal saw cut. It is the vertical down cut. No matter how much I try it comes out tapered, on the line at the top going out to right at the bottom. A nice tapered, slanted saw cut,

nope

I thought I could saw from the opposite side but it didn't work. It came out better but the taper was still there. Smaller and still not square up/down.

3rd try

A little help with a square was just that, a little help. Still had a tapered vertical kerf. A minor hiccup but I would still like to get dead nuts 45's off this jig.

left one

No light and it is tight and seamless in the square.  This is the first time I remember achieving this. Left or right I always seem to be a wee bit off 45.

pretty good for off the saw

The right miter is wonky. It looked good in the square but there something about it I didn't like.

the problem

The left miter heel is tapered. (the left was sawn on the right miter slot). The other miter is square and parallel. The miter won't close up and form a 90 with the pieces plumb. 

nope again

2nd attempt and the miter heel is tapered. The other miter is square and parallel. The miter won't close up and form a 90 square up/down. 

the best one

I tried correcting this cut because I could see it going OTL (out to lunch). I had also penciled a square line on the backside of the front cut. All of them were better then the front but still tapered.

I wanted to play more with this but my shoulders and left arm were singing arias to me. I'll come back to this in the AM if they are feeling better.

accidental woodworker

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

There is also an old sawmill building, but a storm (don't recall when) picked up the roof and slammed it back down, so it was out of commission when we were there.  I hope they get a chance to fix it up, but that'll be a large undertaking.

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.

Probably like many of you, as I watch the paroxysm of manufactured “rage” throughout urban America I am almost continually running an OODA Loop especially when I leave Shangri-la and go out into the larger world.  (OODA is the military acronym for Observe, Orient, Decide, and Act, a decision-making model for use in uncertain situations.)  In the environment that is the USA 2026, OODA is in my mental background like a virus scan.  Since many/most/all(?) of the “spontaneous” riots are conducted by trained out-of-state professionals provided by entities like Crowds on Demand, Inc. (a real LA-based rent-a-mob temp agency!), the need for OODA is an imperative.  I for one am curious about the money trail for the rent-a-mobs.

But ruminations on OODA are just the gateway for this post.  Almost all of us of a certain age have had our awareness formed, at least in part, by two classic dystopian novels we read in high school — 1984 (1949, George Orwell) and Brave New World (1932, Aldous Huxley).  However, my favorite novel of this (or any other) genre and roughly contemporary to them, and one that I am unreservedly recommending to you, is the far less known 1945 C.S. Lewis That Hideous Strength.  When reading THS I find many of the parallels to 2026 to be inescapable.  It is almost a fictional recitation of the seduction Hannah Arendt described as “the banality of evil” but set in the campus and village of a small British university.  It brings to mind the old quip, “The smaller the boat the meaner the rats.”

The understanding from this trilogy of dystopian fiction is IMHO foundational to being a modern grown-up.  Not the full foundation, but still foundational.  Read or reread them for a refresher course in the human condition and of the evil that men can do.  And if you are unfamiliar with That Hideous Strength, pick it up and be edified.  Every time I reread it I find myself saying, “Holy cow, that’s just like now!”  Yes, it is a semi-fantasy, but the parallels are too powerful to ignore.  It is not a fast read, not because it is turgid or difficult, but because you might just find yourself pausing by necessity to consider the implications of the tale for our modern, debauched world.

For extra credit when exploring the dysfunctional human condition take a stroll through The Minor Prophets of The Old Testament, Hosea through Malachi.  Since the books do indeed chronicle accurately the nature of the human condition, like me you are likely to pause and reflect that the truths therein are as current as tomorrow’s headlines.

 Wanted to make some milk paint today but it didn't happen boys and girls. My kingdom for a horse slapped upside the head instead. I couldn't find a container or any kind in which to mix the paint in. Since it was snowing and had been since around 0700, I wasn't going out to Wally World to buy said container. I'll try to do it tomorrow. Not sure how long the quark is viable - I have in the refrigerator for now.

back to square one

Tried to get RML shavings this AM and nada. It was like I hadn't spit them out yesterday. Found one hiccup with the iron not being square so I started with 80 grit on the runway until the iron was square.

getting closer

I have a bench grinder but I don't like the hollow grind it leaves. Nor do I have the skill to straighten the iron at a 25° angle. I expended a lot of calories on the runway and I eventually got it.

paper change

This runway gets two different grits. This face has 150. I had to change the paper because it wasn't cutting anymore.

60 grit on this face

I usually go with 80 grit but because I had to square the edge, I dropped down to 60 grit. I have a rough diamond stone which I think is 250 grit but it doesn't cut as quickly as 60 or 80 does.

hmm.......

Looks pretty even across the mouth. Yesterday the headache I had was the left side was high and the right was buried. Moving the lever didn't straighten it out entirely. I had to reset the frog as it was too far forward and the mouth was too tight to pass shavings.

ta da

First try I got RML shavings. More importantly for my blood pressure, the lever is centered. 

accidental woodworker 

Anita got two new booths in the antique mall she sells in. She went from having a small 8′ x 10′ L shaped booth to having two big rooms. Because of this, she needed a big display cabinet for the back wall in one of her rooms. She searched the internet and asked me if I could make this apothecary cabinet for her.

She wanted the piece to be made of a light colored wood but didn’t want maple or poplar. We went to Lowes and bought a bunch of 1×12’s that were a light pine made in Sweden. Being that they were from Sweden, I assume that it’s the same pine that IKEA uses in their furniture.

The first thing I did was make the legs by glueing up boards into a square. There’s a special lock miter router bit for this purpose but I have always heard that your stock has to be completely straight and flat in order for the bit to work well. My boards were neither, so I opted for 45 degree cuts and a lot of clamping pressure with band clamps and duct tape. Fortunately, they came out fine.

After the legs were made, I cut notches into them to fit the shelves. Then I wrapped the edge of the shelves with 1 1/4″ pieces of wood. On the end grain, I used a little bit of glue and pocket screws for the wood movemnet. The rest of the base was built with Festool Dominoes and glue.

I wanted robust drawers so I made those with handcut half blind dovetails. It’s a lot of fun cutting dovetails by hand and it really doesn’t take too long once you get the hang of it.

I wanted to make sure that the drawers wouldn’t bind, so I made the drawers a 1/8″ smaller in length and height so there would be a 1/16″ gap all around. I made sure the drawer runners were 1/16″ proud of the opening and screwed them in place with pocket screws and glue.

Once the base was made, I focused on the top. I wanted the sides to have a thicker panel in the middle of them, so I glued up the 1/8″ panels together. I used as many clamps I could find and stuck newspaper between the two panels so they would stick together. Luckily, when the panels dried, I was left with two oversized panels for the sides of the cabinet.

I built the case with more Dominoes and glue and created adjustable shelf supports with the scrap wood I had left over.

I love this technique for adjustable shelves. You drill a 3/4″ hole every 2″ then you rip the piece in half on the table saw. Then for the support, you add a 1″ filler on the bottom of the support stick. This way, if you need your shelf 1″ higher, you simply flip over your shelf support.

I installed the back with more of the 1/8″ thick panel wood and Anita put a natural aging solution on the piece as she didn’t want it stained.

People in the antique shop love the piece and are perplexed that I built it out of 1×12’s from Lowes.

Between the holidays and other things, I was a little out of rhythm in the workshop for a while. But this past week, I made some progress on several projects, including the prep work for some cherry bowls. The cherry … Continue reading →

 

Wow

The temp at 0603 this AM. (The time on the display never got changed on the last fall back. ) An hour later the temp had dropped another degree to 7F.

hmm.....

This is all that is left from 2 quarts of skim milk. I rinsed it until the water ran clear. I ended up with 268 grams of quark. According to the author, 250 grams is the minimum to make milk paint.

the last one

The box underneath holds four, #4 planes, he wanted 5 but the MF #5 had already sold. This is the Union #3 with a corrugated sole. I'm thinking of keeping this one because it got absolutely zero interest.

dropped 5 degrees

This is the biggest drop in the shop temp so far this winter. The temp was hovering at 59F and it is a wee bit on the chilly side now. Definitely will be wearing  long sleeve shirts now.

hmm......

Tried to make RML (right, middle, left) shavings and nada. The iron was slanted at the mouth and I couldn't straighten it out with the lever do hickey thing. It looks like the circular boss that fits in the iron slot and moves it R/L is too big.

hmm......

Getting better. I filed the the round boss a couple of times and each time it improved. The lever was moving sufficiently now and the iron was square to the mouth. Still wasn't able to get RML shavings though. Getting close, but no cigar.

finally

Over an hour later and I got my RML shavings. Full width and length with all three. The downside is the lever has to be fully over to the right in order to get them. That drives me postal but everything I tried did diddly squat with centering it. The plane does work ok now with it there. I'll keep this plane for myself. It is too fiddly to fettle and pass on to someone else.

accidental woodworker 

Torre Civica in Assisi, Italy

I’m not only a philosopher, sir, I’m a fatalist. Somewhere, sometime, there may be the right bullet or the wrong bottle waiting for Josiah Boone. Why worry about when or where?

Doctor Josiah Boone, Stagecoach, 1939

This series of articles is about tools that have been around a long time, used by nearly every craftsman and builder throughout the span of human existence. Tools without batteries, with no plastic parts, with no need to update or replace glitchy decepticon software that intentionally breaks or evaporates after a few months. These are tools that don’t lend themselves to mass-production and corporate profits. You could even make them yourself with little effort.

I call them “Ancient Tools” because their origins are older than writing.

In this post, your humble servant would like to consider two of the most ancient such tools: the noble stringline and its stiffer brother: the straight edge. We will also touch on the divider.

But before we go into details, let’s consider some background about these tools and why they are so important.

Some History

It’s not even a featherweight of exaggeration to say that each of these tools was essential to the design, fabrication and installation of the wood, brick, stone and steel that make up the foundation of both ancient and modern human civilization.

Indeed, beyond simply making stuff, these small tools were critical to the elevation of human civilization above subsistence hunting, gathering, and the herding of goats. How did these simple tools build civilization, Gentle Reader may ask?

Well the reasons are simply that the stringline and straightedge were essential to the development of mathematics, geometry, trigonometry, navigation, astronomy, architecture, engineering, external ballistics, and many other practical sciences, all of which are essential to not only craftsmen, but modern civilization in total. An exaggeration? Not in the least degree.

Does Gentle Reader use round objects? How do you think the number Pi was first approximated? 

Does Gentle Reader ever ride ships on oceans, or airplanes in the sky? Or use objects transported by trains, cars or trucks over long railways and highways? Have you given thought to how ancient builders were able to plan and layout those railways, roads and highways? Or layout and cut the earth, stones and wood to make them?

Have you considered how ancient sailing vessels were able to navigate oceans and chart constantly changing courses?

You may think that these tasks are all handled by theodolites, lasers, computers and GPS widgets nowadays, and that may be so, but it was the string line and straightedge that started it all.

It’s my humble contention that these simple tools remain of significant utility even to modern woodworkers.

Relevant History

Pardon me while I momentarily wax academic.

Did you know that the oldest and most respected treatise on geometry was a 13 book collection titled Elements of Geometry, written around 300 BC by the Greek mathematician, Euclid? That was along time ago.

A fragment of Euclid’s Elements on part of the Oxyrhynchus papyri.

The fact is that Elements is the world’s oldest, extant, large-scale deductive treatment of mathematics, and for nearly two thousand years was the definitive document studied in the West and Middle East by those seeking an education about the physical world. This includes, of course, Leonardo of Pisa (Fibonacci) (c. 1170–1250 CE), René Descartes (1596–1650), Sir Isaac Newton (1642–1727), and every other mathematical giant. It’s an impressive set of books by any standard.

Of course, Maestro Euclid did not invent all the principles presented in his books but summarized the works of Eudoxus of Cnidus, Hippocrates of Chios, Thales and Theaetetus.

The exact same principles of mathematics and geometry written about in the Elements are taught in schools and universities nowadays, although the textbooks employed are abbreviated, fancier, plagiarized versions of the Elements shamefully giving no credit to Maestro Euclid or his teachers. Interestingly, the word plagiarize comes from the Latin word plagium, meaning to kidnap.

And here’s why The Elements is relevant to this humble scribble, because, you see, Euclid limited the constructions he presented in his books to those that could be produced using just a simple straight edge (not a ruler) and a basic divider, the two most important tools to civilization, and worthy of mastery.

Let’s first examine the father of the straightedge and ruler: the string line.

The Stringline

Before the straightedge there was the string line, a simple tool older than the straightedge, the ruler and the divider. Anyone can make one.

Think about it. If you must draw a straight line, or check that something is straight, and you lack a precision straightedge or carpenter’s square, or the tools you have are too short, how would you do it? The quickest, cheapest, most reliable tool for the job is the simple string line, be it made from palm fiber, camel hair, hemp, nettles or dried fish guts. Anyone can make it, and anyone can use it. They sell it at Home Despot, but batteries are not required!

The same string line can also be used as a divider or compass.

For example, if you need to divide a distance into 4 segments, simply stretch the line over the total distance and fold it back on itself 3 times. Each fold is a perfect 1/4 division of the total distance. This may be the origin of the 1/2″, 1/4″, 1/8″, 1/16″ progressions of divisions used in imperial measurements.

If we tie a knot, or make an ink mark at each of these divisions, we’ve now made a very accurate, graduated string line which can be used like a tape measure. And all it took was just some cordage made from a nettle plant or horse tail. Batteries not included.

A commercially-available string line I recently purchased for quality control of a robotic customer fulfillment center construction project in Chiba, Japan. In Japan this tool is called a “mizuito” (水糸), which translates to “water string.” In Japan the “water line” has nothing to do with boats but is a datum line critical to layout in construction, BTW. Made by Takumi in 4 colors, this string line is made of 0.8mm x 120m low-stretch nylon. Stretchy nylon would be a big failure. The black plastic reel that came with it measures 80×52×31mm and comes in both 120m and 240m sizes and is designed to fit into a breast pocket. To use this reel, one places one’s thumb and forefinger on the opposing free-wheeling red circular centers on each edge of the reel. This allows one to completely control the reel with just two fingers while spooling line in or out and all without striking the web of the hand. A very handy tool indeed and one I use all the time.

The Straightedge

The straightedge is a stiffer, shorter, handier version of the string line. It takes some skill to make.

The ruler is a straightedge with marks (graduations) instead of knots. This takes more skill to make.

The folding rule and metal ruler are more durable, convenient versions of the wooden ruler, but take a lot of skill and expensive materials to make. They were too costly for ordinary craftsman to own until recent times.

Public Standards of Measurement

In ancient times, each upstanding, well-organized community, be it town, city, abbey, temple, or castle, had a person responsible for establishing local legal standards of weights and distances, for maintaining official references materials (e.g. actual weights, graduated rulers or containers), and for checking on behalf of the local authorities, such as the Pharaoh, king, baron, castle owner, abbot or mayor, that the subordinate members of the community were in compliance with those standards.

In past millennia this system of public standards was considered proof of civilization, one of the primary justifications for government and taxes, while the lack thereof was considered a sure sign of barbarism and crooked government.

Indeed, failure to establish, maintain and enforce these standards frequently resulted in bitter disputes and even bloody wars in the not too distant past.

With every Tom, Dick and Pharaoh striving madly to become emperor of the world and establish themself in history forever as the person who governs “standards” (aka the “ruler”), until relatively recently, these weights and measures varied from kingdom to kingdom, castle to castle, and town to town. What a confusing mess!

Matters of health, welfare and uniform commerce aside, from the days of Melchizedek, standards were, and still remain, absolutely essential to taxation, of course.

To ensure that buyers and vendors were familiar with the standard measures current in a certain place, in ancient times these standards were carved onto or embedded into the walls of public buildings and church facades in such a way that all could see and copy them, and so they could not be removed or defaced.

Defacing/modifying standards, sometimes by the taxed and often by those imposing taxes, has always been a convenient but ruinous way to make money. The recent bout of intentional high inflation and currency devaluation the world is experiencing is a symptom of currency adulteration, another ancient criminal activity related to defacement of standards.

Indeed failure to comply with officially-established standards was deemed a serious offense in many communities punishable by fines, imprisonment, dunking, public exposure, dismemberment, hanging and even crucifixion. Worldwide more than a few shopkeepers, bakers, brewers, weavers and even tile makers were maimed or executed for “shorting” their customers.

Historically, master builders and tool makers were often required to provide a letter from the local standards officer attesting that their measuring tools were in full accord with the latest standards.

While we no longer embed standards of measure made of iron or stone in the walls of churches and city halls, in one form or another, this practice continues even today.

Standard measures on the façade of the Torre Civica in Assisi (photograph Elizabeth den Hartog). Shown are public standards for various units of length at the time (yard, foot and palm), as well as the respective official standards for the thickness and size of roof tiles, bricks and floor tiles. These standards often included the minimum size of a loaf of bread and size of a tankard of ale.

How To Use a Straightedge

I learned how to use straightedges, scales, dividers and compasses for carpentry and woodworking as a boy from my father, and from carpenters and other craftsman on jobsites over the years. But I learned the most from drafting classes in college. This was before drafting heads, digital protractors, dot-matrix printers, and CAD. Back then even lettering was done by hand or using plastic/metal templates. The professors back then were justifiably proud of their hard-earned skills and the beautiful and precise documents they could deftly produce entirely by hand.

The first lesson the Masters taught was this: Never lay one’s tape measure, rule or scale on the drawing/workpiece and mark from it directly using pencil, pen, scribe or marking knife, but instead use dividers to first measure the required distance on the scale/ruler, indexing the divider’s points in the engraved lines, and then use those same dividers to transfer and mark the distance onto the workpiece or paper. High precision indeed.

The intuitive, but inefficient way most careful people do the job is lay the ruler, yardstick or tape measure on the workpiece, index one end (a careful man will always “burn” 1″ or 12″ or 10mm and not index directly on the tool’s end), locate the target distance on the measuring tool, and make a mark. But if he is trying to layout an irregular distance like 2-3/64″ (= 52 (51.99) mm), for instance, a pencil’s lead or pen’s tip is too wide for precision, so he will use a scribe or marking knife instead. But in many cases, this requires extremely good eyesight, and sometimes even a magnifying glass. When I as a young man, many senior carpenters kept a magnifying glass in their toolbox. It works.

The wiser craftsman will tip the scale or ruler on its edge, kneel or bend down so he can see the scale’s/ruler’s marks clearly, fit the point of his marking knife or scribe into the engraved line on scale/ruler, and then transfer that to the workpiece, paper, or story stick with a quick “tick.”

There is a risk that the far end of the ruler/scale at the point he is measuring from may wiggle out of alignment messing up his precision. Or that the scribe/knife point may shift while making the “tick.” With practice, these tendencies can be overcome, but clearly this method is time consuming and the results may be questionable.

The improvements I recommend to make one’s marking knife more effective at this task can be seen here.

But using dividers, the wise craftsman can fit/index their points quickly and precisely into the engraved lines in scale/ruler at each end of the measurement, first time everytime, and without kneeling, squinting, pressing down, or worrying about wiggling and shifting mark the desired distance on the workpiece. Once he has set the dividers to the required distance, he can fit one of the sharp points precisely into the index hole, or onto the line he is measuring from, and then use the other point to make a precise scratch or hole in the workpiece, which can be used again for future layout reference. This technique greatly improves precision without using a magnifying glass.

This technique works with both dividers and trammel heads.

Standard dividers are quickest, but a locking divider with screw adjustment is easier to adjust precisely and is more likely to retain the measured distance with repeated usage.

You will find when drafting or doing layout that you repeat some distances frequently. Having 2 or 3 locking dividers set to these distances close at hand will allow you to layout those distances quickly and accurately without the need to refer to scale/ruler. Your humble servant keeps three in my toolchest.

The quality of your scale/ruler becomes important when attempting precision layout. A high-quality, professional-grade scale or ruler must of course be of proper length and uniform width and thickness, be free of twist, and have accurate lines. But to qualify as a high-quality scale/ruler, it must pass 2 simple quality tests, not an easy task nowadays. 

1. Accurately spaced graduations. Performing this quality check requires the skillful use of precision tools and time, so it is seldom economical to purchase discount scales/rulers.
2. Consistently engraved graduations. Besides being spaced at the right distances, the graduations engraved into the metal must be the right length, width, depth and have smooth, straight walls. This too is also uncommon. Don’t settle for cheapo tools with shallow, uneven laser-etched or acid etched graduations. Photo-engraved graduations are best. Seldom found in Chinese or Indian tools.

We’ll consider more uses for these tools in the next installment of this crazy adventure.

YMHOS

A fusuma screen by Kano Nagatoku, a designated National Treasure of Japan, commissioned by the Tokugawa clan, Japan’s last and most famous shogunate. Imagine presiding over a meeting with this as your background!

If you have questions or would like to learn more about our tools, please click the “Pricelist” link here or at the top of the page and use the “Contact Us” form located immediately below.

Please share your insights and comments with everyone in the form located further below labeled “Leave a Reply.” We aren’t evil Google, fascist facebook, or raunchy Reddit and so won’t sell, share, or profitably “misplace” your information. If I lie may my straightedge warp and my string lines all break!

Hi, Everyone!

I have a new Substack post! Check it out!

Most of the planes have gone on to new new homes and parents. A couple of #3s and #4s are all that is left. I'll be doing an evaluation of what my tool herd looks like and what I need and can do without. Keep the eyes open for another possible fire sale in the future.

 

changed   (#3s)

The corrugated plane on the left is a Union and the other two are Stanleys. One of them has been claimed since I snapped this pic. 

five #4s

Far left is a Miller Falls and the other four are Stanleys. The Stanley on the far right has a corrugated sole. As of this typing, two of the Stanleys have been adopted leaving 3 orphans waiting for a new home.

one left

The Miller Falls has been claimed. Just the red headed, stuttering 5 1/4 is homeless. 

The transitionals sold as a set on the same day I posted the fire sale blog.  I'm glad they went as a set - it is a complete and ready to do hand tool woodworking.

hmm.....

Two quarts of skim milk heated to 100 degrees F and 2/3 cup of vinegar to sour the milk. Making my quark to make my own milk paint. I tried finding quark in the local grocery stores, they did have it but no one could tell me if it was made with fat free/skim milk.

wow

About a minute after I put the vinegar in the milk it curdled. I opted to let this sit overnight and maximize how much curd I can get.  Hoping to get the miniature chest painted this weekend.

Still feeling a little bit out of whack. The sore throat is better, 70% of the pain of it has subsided to a tolerable level. Walked to Johnny's Chalet for lunch today. The first stroll I've gone on in a week. A lot of sidewalks are still not shoveled and clear.  A storm is coming on the 25-27 that is supposed to dump 12+ inches of the white stuff. I'm hoping to get my interest back up to normal and make something regardless of the impending doom. 

accidental woodworker 

    The green woodworking world is full of rabbit holes.  Head off in any direction, and you might tumble into a shrink pot, or chase a fanbird, or take a good long rest on a sweet chair.  It is a wonder we make progress in any particular discipline, given all the potential distractions.  But for many of us, certain forms seem to tug on us, and for me, it's bowl turning and spoon carving. While I have tried my hand at a lot of adjacent projects, like basketry and casework, I always return to treen.  Why exactly I can’t say, but part of the answer has to do with flow-state and the state or place in which I live.

    When done well, both carving and turning demand a deftness and confidence of motion that you just can’t overthink.  As I talked about in my previous post, you have to turn off the logical part of your brain and allow your body to make a motion, take a cut, define a curve, without a lot of chatter from your prefrontal cortex.  It is like dancing with the wood; think too hard about the two-step, and you will trip over your own feet. Related to this is the fact that both carving and turning are subtractive arts.  While the chairmaker and the basketweaver can always replace a janky rung or a weak weaver, the carver/turner has to really commit.  Once a piece of wood is gone, you can’t put it back.  When you execute a cut, you are relying only on your skill, dexterity, and judgement to see you through.  As you let your body flow through the motion, it is sometimes hard to keep your prefrontal cortex from coming online and exclaiming, “Wow, I’m doing it!”  If it does, you often mess up.  Like driving at night, we can imagine where we can go, but we can’t see the destination and instead have to trust our skills to get us around the next turn. As David Pye points out in his essay on the “Workmanship of Risk,” the less we rely on tools for repeatability, the deeper we venture into the realm of craft, a place where deftness, serendipity, and creativity rule and where at any moment it could all go terribly wrong.

    That creative “place,” if I can extend the analogy, often feels especially alien in my world.  In college, one of my majors was comparative religion, where I became especially interested in how Eastern philosophies imagine the world in fundamentally different ways than we do in the West.  I am reminded of those lessons when I think about how carving, turning, and the creative flow state feel cathartic for me.  Take, for example, the notion of creation.  In the Western Judeo-Christian tradition, creation occurs when an all-knowing maker assembles life from constituent parts, looking at the workpiece from the outside in.  In many Eastern cultures, creation is not assembled but instead flows, grows, and divides into existence from a creative force found within a piece.  Or consider language.  In the West, we build meaning one letter at a time, like using a spotlight to pick our way through a dark room.  In the East, folks see the whole meaning at once, in the flash of an ideogram that illuminates the whole space. We even see this difference in the way words and parts of speech work.  English is exceptionally good at identifying, delineating, and classifying, possibly as a result of the trajectory of Western society: Renaissance--Enlightenment--Scientific Revolution. What English doesn’t do especially well is handle flow and change. As Alan Watts writes, “‘What happens to my fist … when I open my hand?’  The object (the fist) miraculously vanishes because an action was disguised by a part of speech usually assigned to a thing!”  In Chinese, many words serve as both nouns and verbs, and as such, those who speak Chinese have an easier time recognizing that objects are also events.  All things flow.   

    As I settle in to turn another bowl, I wonder if I am in part trying to correct for a sort of cultural bias.  I am leaving behind notions of assembly, of delineation, of logic.  I do not imagine a curve as a series of straight lines plotted on graph paper.  Instead, as every woodturner knows, I envision the form in a flash of creativity and insight, and once I start a curve, the sweet sweep of the entire form has already been set, and the only thing to do is surrender to it and flow. 

AI-Generated!?!

 Had to share this as I just heard it from the Doctor who did the bronchoscopy. The good news is there were no cancer cells in the lung biopsy or in the lymph nodes. That was unexpected because I had already made my peace with having lung cancer. Everything pointed to it. That was a leading reason for my fire sale too. 

Now that I know I'm not under the Sword of Damocles anymore, maybe I can breathe easier. The flip side of the coin is the doc doesn't know what is causing the enlarged lymph nodes (which didn't have bacteria) nor what is in the infected lung area. 

So I'm out of the woods with the big 'C' but on the fence with the unknown with what is out of whack with my left lung. It isn't slowing me down when I stroll. The doc is hoping something will show up on the PET scan I have scheduled for the 11th of Feb. 

I can get back to long term planning and doing. I'm still going to empty the boneyard because I'm sure that I can fill it again. And I decided to do the wood type poster frame. I'll be hanging it in the wife's 'reading room'. Although I'm thinking now of changing the color of the frame from black to some other color, brown maybe?

accidental woodworker 

 I had a few takers on my plane fire sale and spent most of the day packing them up. I also made a few trips to the computer shop for help with my printer. I tried for several days to get the printer to work and finally said NO MAS. The techie at the shop said it booted up and saw the printer right away. He printed a test page and couple more from the Providence Journal site.

Turned out that I was using the wrong USB port. That is the one thing that I didn't think of to change/check. That was a quick $65 for Tech 911. The printer is working and the  4 extra toner cartridges I bought won't be going to waste.

Going to and back from the computer shop was a PITA. They were doing construction at one of the busiest intersections on Post Road. What should have been a 10 minute road trip turned into a 30 minute journey from hell. And I got to enjoy it 4 times.

better

The iron and chipbreaker on the 4 1/2 had a line of rust on it. Of all of the planes on the bench this was the only plane with rust. Cleaned it up and touched up the iron on the stones.

one down

I couldn't believe the prices on the priority boxes. The cost of them jumped more than $5 since the last time I used one. The smallest box was too small for a #3 and and next size up was too big. I had some boxes that were a little smaller. 

The #5 fit in a priority box and the cost is $22.95. That is $2.05 less then the cost of the plane. Yikes.

Still feeling a little out of sorts due to the anesthesia, but better then yesterday.  The throat is still sore and it doesn't seem like it is healing all that fast neither. Fingers crossed it will be better in the AM. It doesn't bother me to eat but I can feel it - a burning, achy feeling that sucks pond scum.

accidental woodworker  

Six years ago, I made an outside mold/work board to make one of my guitars and I disliked the thing so much I sent it to the local dump. With this guitar I made a work board that is based upon the one you will find in Roy Courtnall’s book, Making Master Guitars. Unlike Courtnall’s work board, the dished solera is removable. 


The back with its braces and center seam graft. By carving the ends of the braces I can adjust the tap of the back, it’s quite something to hear the change in the tone as I carve the ends and lower the height of the braces. I can bring that tap tone into a better “focus”, the tone is present without much “fuzziness” to it, it’s hard to explain unless you are in the shop with me so I can demonstrate this amazing change.

 

Since I’ve known it was a possibility, I have wanted to be able to read a book in another language. I studied two years of Spanish in High School, which didn’t get me to the point I could read a book. I took a semester of German in college, which was about one-year’s high-school learning, so not enough.

I tried Navajo in the 1990s from audio tapes and a handout. Didn’t get far at all.

When DuoLingo came out, I started with Italian. That fit with the violin-making vibe. I also used the Pimsleur Italian course and a handful of language-learning books.  After a couple years of that mix, I found a local Italian teacher and added a few lessons with her into the mix. I could read simple newspaper stories and even a couple of easy, short books. Success!  But then my ancestors started talking to me. I looked to the north.

I have since partaken in a couple of other DuoLingo courses, including Scots Gaelic, where I got no where close to being able to read more than sentences, and Norwegian, which I have spent the most time on. 

I have finished other online Norwegian courses, as well as a couple of free courses offered by various universities in Norway. I’ve studied with hardcopy language-learning books, such as Skapago’s The Mystery of Nils volumes1 and 2.  I have gone through the Pimsleur Norwegian audio course. I got to the point I could read short popular science stories. I can make sense of some jokes. I’ve read a few short, easy books. So, success again!

Recently, though, I’ve entered a strange mental space when it comes to reading in Norwegian.

I have long been part of an online language cafe, where we meet in chat rooms with people who are at the same level in learning. We try to speak to each other in Norwegian, ask how we’re doing, what’s the weather like, and so on.

For a few years now, one of the fellows there has run an online book-club, and the books have been the Harry Potter series.

I am not a huge Harry Potter fan. It was fun. But I also realized the language level in the books is actually quite high. They are kids’ books, but complicated kids’ books.  Too high for me.

This year, the third year of the club, they are reading the third book in the series, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, or Harry Potter og Fangen fra Azkaban.  I decided to take the plunge.  I got the e-book version and the Audible version. After a couple weeks of not total failure, I ordered the hardback version, used, not new, from a Norwegian seller.

We meet every other week, Sunday mornings my time, and discuss a chapter.  Currently we are reading Chapter 9, “Grim Defeat”, or Kapittel Ni, <<Tungt Tap>>.

Something weird is happening in my head.  When I previously read a Norwegian book, a sentence might appear as << Hesten løpt rundt banen og hoppet over gjerdet. >> and in my head I would convert to “The horse ran around the field and jumped over the fence.” Maybe not 100% word-for-word, but my brain would work word-for-word as best it could.

Now, in Harry Potter 3, when I read a chapter for the first time, I put the headphones on, fire up the Audible version, which I’ve set to 85% speed to give myself a chance, and read along in my hardcopy as I listen to the narrator.

A sentence from chapter 9: << Lærerne fat på unnskyldninger for å følge ham bortover gangene, og Perry Wiltersen (sikkert på morerns ordre, tenkte Harry) skygget ham overalt, som en spesielt selvgood vakthund.>>

The corresponding sentence in the English version: “Teachers found excuses to walk along with him, and Percy Weasley (acting, Harry suspected, on his mother’s orders) was tailing him everywhere like an extremely pompous guard dog.”

If you drop the Norwegian text into an online translator, it comes out fairly close.

However, some are not so clear. The last sentence of chapter 8 in Norwegian is <<Ikke god å kommen ut for, han der Serius Svaart.>>. Drop that into an online translator and you find something like “Not good to run into, that Serius Svaart guy.”  Whereas the sentence in the (American) English version is: “Nasty temper he’s got, that Sirius Black.”

True Harry Potter fans will also note that the character names are not the same, with the exception of Harry Potter himself. Since I am not well-versed in Harry Potter lore, this is not a huge problem in my head. I can barely keep the names straight in either language.

So here’s where I’m starting to feel weird. In my initial read-through, I don’t translate anything, I don’t look up anything, I don’t read the English version first. I just sit there with my headphones on, listening and reading along in Norwegian.

And I get the idea of the story. I know what’s going on. I could explain it to you in my own words after having read it.

But I didn't really "understand" the words, the individual words.

That last sentence of chapter 8, I understood the feeling of it, what was meant by it, even though those words don’t actually make sense to me on first reading.

After my first read-through of any chapter, I do not have all the details. If I stop and look at the words on the page in front of me, I’m lucky if I know what half of them mean, individually in English. But in context, I understand what’s going on. So I’ve stopped worrying about it, and just read the first time through.

Now, when I'm on my second or third time through a chapter, I do tear it apart, try to understand what this or that word means. Not always successfully. The thing about the Harry Potter books is that they are relatively deep in the language — a combination of words means something different than the combination of definitions (translations) might mean.

People who are bi-lingual or more must have already experienced this. It’s new to me. And it’s made me question how it all works. Here I am, writing — putting shapes in an order — and you are reading it, interpreting it, and creating your understanding of what I’m trying to convey.

It’s just black shapes against a white background.  Or vice-versa if you are in dark mode. 

So strange to think that we all have decoded our language into meaning, and to wonder at the similarities and variations that exist from person to person.

<<Hesten>> means “the horse” which means a certain sort of animal that you are thinking of right now.  You may even have a color-scheme and a location in mind, even though none was mentioned.

Language itself is more magical, and weirder, than any of the Harry Potter stories.

 I didn't feel 100% today so I took it easy. Anesthesia makes me feel funny for a couple of days. I spent most of the day cleaning and sorting out the boneyard. My wife wants half of the space for a reading room. That will happen after she gets back from going to North Carolina. She is going to keep daughter #2 company while her husband is away on business. 

flattening

This is the frame I glued yesterday. All of the corners were proud. Knocked them flush before doing the merry go round routine with the #4.

survived

Sanded all the sides with 80 and 120 grit and nada. None of the corners whimpered or wiggled in the least. Strong and secure and I'm thinking of using it for a photo.

wee bit of twist

Both the top and bottom had some twist to them. I'll have to think up a way to hold the photo within the frame. I want it to be set in from the front.

boneyard

This is actually cleaned up some. I can the bookcase against the far wall.

hmm......

Forgot I had these molders. If I remember correctly these are Ohio tool molders and the far right one is a 1/8" beader.

another batch

These are 4 match planes that I never got around to playing with. I offered these up to someone  and if he declines I'll send them to whoever expresses an interest in them.

Lie Nielsen leg vise

This is up for sale too and priced to move. $40 plus the dreaded S/H. I couldn't find it on Lie Nielsen's website and I think I paid around a $100 for it. 

last of the scraps

I filled up 1 1/2, 30 gallon shitcans with wood scraps. I got rid of every piece I had in the boneyard. I had the heebie jeebies doing this last pile. I know that I'll regret it in the next couple of days because I could have used it.

xmas gift from 2008

I made this for my wife but the movement never worked properly. The chimes never worked even once. It kept time good until the pendulum stopped moving. Don't understand that because the pendulum is/was independent of time keeping. I put another movement in it (no chime) and I'll let it go for a few days. I was going to give it away to my sister but my wife wants it back.

5 hours later

Except for the clock and the 15 drawer dresser, the rest of the stuff is going to my sister Kam. I'll email her first to see if she if interested. Fingers crossed on that. If she says nay, nay, I'll put it curbside.

blast from the past

I am in the 2nd from the top, on the far left. Hard to believe it has been over 50 years since this pic was snapped.

old delta mortiser

This is going to cost a fortune to ship so local pick up only. It comes with a 1/2" mortise chisel that I think is unused or at least I don't recall ever using it. It is missing the fence and it is no longer available at any of the tool part sites I tried. It would be easy to make a new one - just need a 25mm rod and someway to fix a fence to it at 90 degrees. Free to whoever wants it.

accidental woodworker

 

 I need to move along 12 planes. A few years back I went nutso rehabbing planes for my own use. These 12 are all extras but I did use them.  I have tried to sell them before and this will be my last attempt at that. I think I've priced them to sell quickly too.

All of these planes were used by me in my shop for a couple of months. I didn't have any problems with any of them making shavings. You'll be buying a plane that can be put to work after you fettle it to your way of working.

first lot

Four #3 hand planes. From the left - my personal user for several years. I only replaced it because I rewarded myself with a Lie Nielsen #3. This plane has my initials engraved on the lever cap. If yours are RJB, it is a done deal.

2nd from the left is a Union #3. Every bit as good as any Stanley #3.

3rd&4th from the left are Stanleys. Both of them don't have the frog adjust. 50 years of using planes and I have only used a frog adjust once. IMO they aren't necessary.

2nd lot

Five #4's. The first one on the left is a Miller Falls. Again this was a personal user that got used for about 7 months of work. No complaints with it all. The other four are all Stanleys and all got a work out with no headaches.

3rd lot

First one on the left is a 5 1/4, the second one is Miller Falls #5, and the last one is a Stanley #5. This Stanley jack plane is the only one in all the lots with a frog adjust. The Miller Falls was my first non Stanley jack and it impressed me. It was the first time I had compared another plane against a Stanley. It opened my eyes to start to look for other manufacturers plane's to rehab. I use the MF plane for almost a year.

4th lot

I had to satisfy my curiosity about these. I rehabbed 4 others and sold them, and another I kept because I couldn't find parts for it. From left to right #3, #4 1/2, #5, and a #7. I used these for a short time. They have a different feel and it took me a few to make shavings and get used to them. They are easier to push and worked as well as their metal siblings.

All the planes are for sale for $25 plus actual S/H ( I know S/H sucks pond scum). All the #3's (except the transitional #3) and the #4's will fit in Postal boxes. The rest will need custom boxes. 

I would like to sell the transitionals as a set for a discount at $75. Barring that they go singularly for $25 ea. 

My email is rjboumenot at gmail dot com. The one with the earliest time stamp wins the brass ring.

accidental woodworker