This is not Paul Simons Door

Well I’m busy as hell and goin’ crazy like a bag of hammers…chopping out the mortises these last few days I don’t have time for a full blog so I thought I’d post a video with a few minutes of real time working. The quality is ‘Blair Witch’ shaky and the audio track is my old record player in the corner…I was listening to Graceland-Paul Simon’s wonderful album from way back when? How old am I now? This is one of the best parts of a hand tool shop, being able to work and listen to records. Bet you can’t say that over the deafening drone of a table saw!
In this clip I’m chopping the haunched portion of the mortise using a massive Hirsch Mortise Chisel,(by the size of these things I can only assume they’re manufactured in the magical land of Giants where everyone has hands like silver back gorillas.) Then I establish the depth of the haunched portion with my Veritas Large Router plane. I clean out the waste with a swan neck chisel from Henry Taylor in England and some paring with a large Japanese bench chisel. I think that covers it…sorry for the rushed post but I’ve gotta keep going on this.
Cheers.
***Once again I’m having problems uploading video to this blog…

you can see the entire clip at www.tomfidgen.blogspot.com

Do you Buy before you Try ?

Over the past few weeks I’ve been surprised at how many new hand tool manufacturers are popping up on the Internet and all of the well known manufacturers are offering new and exciting product. This is nice but I’m sometimes weary…it either takes someone with a bucket of dough or a trusting consumer to buy tools on the Internet without first trying them out, unless it’s from an extremely well known tool maker or you’ve at least done some homework and read some reviews from reliable voices.
I know I don’t have a bucket full of dough but I can say there are a few hand tool manufacturers I feel quite confident in. I see a new product in a nice little picture, I read a few details that the manufacturer obviously wrote themselves and with that I reach for some plastic and wait for the mail truck.
Looking at some recent articles showing the rise in the hand tool market I know I’m not alone on this. So all that said what does it take to do that?
I’m just curious if there’s a lot of people out there who would never think on buying a hand tool that they’ve never once put their hands on…I suppose in a perfect world I’d be able to get to all of the wood shows and special hand tool events, try out all of the new tools before I commit, but my reality is something quite different than that. I try to develop a relationship with manufacturers and when they offer new product I go further than just reading a short paragraph on a web-site. I’ll contact them and make conversation, discuss the company history and see how the new product came to be. I’ve found almost every hand tool manufacturer I’ve contacted with questions or concerns to be absolutely forthcoming with information and assistance. If they’re not I’ll go somewhere else right? That is my job isn’t it ? My duty as a member of society to go elsewhere when I get bad service…let people know of my bad experiences as well as the good ones of course!
The good ones thankfully out way the bad and as a woodworker in 2009 I feel fortunate to be living and working through this exciting time. Whether you realise it or not we’re watching a section of history unfold in the hand tool market alone. This renaissance will be looked back upon the way we look back on our vintage Stanley’s and the like. My Lie Nielsen such and such will probably be worth more when my grand kids hock it on ‘What-Ever-Bay’ in a hundred years….
I digress…
Wooden bodied moulding planes, panel and back saws, specialty tools and educational platforms-it’s going to be an interesting few months with so many new and exciting things happening in my wood shop. I’ll fill you in on the details as they unfold. Stay tuned…
Oh yeah, the picture at the top has nothing to do with the article; I just thought it was a nice shot of our first born- Sally, the Unplugged Watchdog is our nine year old Beagle. She spends just about every waking hour with me in my wood shop. Maybe I should use this photo for my tool chest for sale advertisements? What a disgusting thought.

Cheers!

New Tool from Veritas

Have you ever been working on a project and wished you had a certain tool to make your job easier or more efficient? More specifically a tool you already know does not yet exist? The ‘inventor’ side of most wood workers I know have this happen to them all of the time; some wish they had a certain hand tool while others take the lead and go about building their own. I like you am no different and have designed and invented new and wonderful tool ideas here in my shop~ at least on paper that is…I’m really going to try to make up a few prototypes of some ideas I have rolling around the ‘ol book shelf in my brain and will keep you posted when I do. One early morning last year I had one of these ‘moments of clarity’ and came up with what I thought would be a great extension of a common wooden bodied spokeshave. I thought about combining the mechanical advantages of a spokeshave set-up with the width of a draw knife. I thought that having a wider handle set up on a spokeshave and the ability to get a ‘rowing’ style grip would be beneficial to the piece I was shaping at the time.
Well needless to say I thought about the idea but never did get around to making one. Fast forward eight months and it seems that someone over at Veritas tools had a similar idea. ( ahh, just when I was getting ready to conquer the hand tool market! )
The new Veritas Large Spokeshave has just been introduced and I’d love to hear from you if you have one, used one or just your thoughts on the tool itself. I’m curious to see if it will indeed feel like a draw knife, having the extra weight and size but the luxury of fine tuning the iron for final smoothing as well as rough work.
Send me your thoughts…
Cheers!

http://www.leevalley.com/wood/page.aspx?c=1&p=62800&cat=51&ap=1

Accessories?
For Hand planes?
Who would have thought?

What you see here is the Veritas Low-Angle Block plane-yet so much more. To start off I replaced the standard blade with a heavy-duty 1/8″ thick, 50 degree iron. To that I added a secondary bevel bringin’ this little baby just under 55 degrees! Amazing!
That’s somewhere in the ‘York Pitch Ballpark” (Galoot, Galoot)

“But wait there’s more…much more!”

From there I added these incredible ‘after-market’ style wooden front knob and rear tote. Incredible! These elements combined with it’s adjustable front mouth and we have ourselves a plane to be reckoned with. It kind of morphed into a quazy-miniature smoothing plane somewhere in the #3 range, if we were talking Bench planes…I use this when all my other planes fail, difficult grain and tear out be damned!

“And that’s not all!”

Flip this thing back into the low-angle block and you can remove the front shoe and add a chamfer guide.
“Stop it! You’re killing me!”
Seriously folks, this is one crazy-little doggy of a hand plane, with so many accessories it’s enough to drive you wild…So you say, how does it perform as the low-angle block plane it was designed as?
I can’t say really, I haven’t put down my low-angle Lie-Nielsen Bronze long enough too find out!
Cheers.

Lie Nielsen vs. Veritas

A couple of years ago I wanted to order a left handed Skew Block Plane from Lie-Nielsen Toolworks in Warren, Maine so I called their Canadian representative, Rob Cosman. At the time Rob informed me that the left handed version was back-ordered and said he had a right handed model available. He assured me it didn’t really matter if I had the left or right model because it would always depend on the grain direction when planing a rabbet if I needed a specific orientation of hand plane. Trusting Rob knew what he was talking about I went ahead and ordered it. He was right, no big deal that it was a right handed version, it exceeded my expectations and has been a pleasure to use these last few years. Late this summer Veritas introduced their Skew Rabbet Plane also available in a left or right handed version; I decided that those times when my right-handed Lie-Nielsen would tear out wood grain when planing against the grain I would order the new Veritas left handed model. It arrived quickly and well packaged as all of my Veritas tools have. Sharp and ready to go I was surprised at the size of the plane.
Now that I have one of each I’ll compare what I think are the advantages and dis-advantages of each one of these models. First up,
The Lie-Nielson Skew Block Plane:

When this plane arrived in my mailbox it was ready to work right out of the box. Finely casted bronze with a comfortable front knob in Cherry. The plane set up quite easily and even though it was a right-handed model it felt quite comfortable in use. I decided to add a longer fence to the existing bronze one that came with the plane and the folks at Lie-Nielsen had already tapped out a couple of holes just for this purpose. The plane comes with a nicker that’s great for scoring a line just before your cut which seems to help a great deal at eliminating any tear out. I find the size of this plane suits my hand very well but one problem I do encounter while using it is it can sometimes wander away from the inside edge of a rabbet while in use. I’m not sure exactly why this occurs, I try my best at keeping it firmly registered against the side of the work being planed however it still can wander just enough to leave a bit of material on the inside corner. I wonder if the Lie-Nielsen had a second post to support the fence would it correct this problem? This small left-over material is something I’ll correct by finishing off the cut with my small shoulder plane. Not a big deal but one negative against. Another item is the Lie-Nielsen model has no depth adjustment or fence. Again, not the end of the world but a depth stop would be handy when you want to cut to a certain depth and no deeper. I would not hesitate to recommend anyone purchasing this hand plane or any other models from Lie-Nielsen.

Veritas Skew Rabbet Plane

I’ll start of with saying one of the obvious differences you’ll notice right away in these two planes is size. This is not a one handed tool. Perhaps this entire article is a little ‘apples to oranges’…I know the Lie-Nilesen is technically a block plane and the Veritas clearly is not. So why bother comparing? Why not.
The Veritas came sharp right out of the box, great except that the front edge of the bottom fence and the front leading edges on the depth stop were also sharp enough to tear out some wood grain while in use. This I quickly fixed by taking a few light passes with a small file and finishing up with some 320 grit wet/dry paper. Problem solved but still my first experience with this kind of thing from Veritas…perhaps this one was made on a Friday? I also find the Veritas a little bulkier which makes set up and blade adjustment a little tricky. I’m one who likes to see down through the throat of my plane while I’m taking a shaving however the Skew Rabbet design makes this almost impossible to do while standing over it working. The design is aesthetically pleasing, it seems to have some extra ‘contours’ molded into the body just above the mouth and throat area. I’m not sure if these are there to aid in handling however, I found that they created a kind of ‘catch all’ for shavings and needed to be cleaned out after every other pass. Some advantages I found on the Veritas are these: The double pole for the bottom fence keeps things super straight and performance at cutting down a 1/4″ Rabbet in Walnut was effortless. (once I rounded over the sharp edges and finely tuned the set-up) The large front knob is also extremely nice, they also put it on an angle or skew. Having the depth stop is also great for the reasons I mentioned earlier. Another big difference between these two planes is the over-all blade set-up. This is more of a bench plane and features a bevel down blade while the Lie-Nielsen has the blade bevel up. This again is neither here or there except this: The Lie-Nielsen can be used in all sorts of planing scenarios, simply remove the fence and you basically have a nice big block plane. That said the veritas is pretty much dedicated to what it was made for. Hey, we are what we are…So with that can I say I prefer one over the other? No not really, in my perfect plane world my Skew Plane would be about the size of the Lie-Nielsen, have all of the same features it has but borrow the depth stop, the angled, slightly larger front knob and the double pole system for the fence, from the Veritas model and I think it would be ‘damn near perfect’. I’ll also suggest if you’ve been thinking about purchasing a Skew plane either one of these fine tools are far more than standard or adequate. They each have a few pluses and minuses but hey, nothing is perfect. In my shop the great thing is this; I needed a left handed model and a right handed model…so do what I did and get one of each.
Cheers!

Every once and awhile a new tool comes along and once you have it and use it you ask yourself “How did I ever get along without it?” Enter the Veritas® Surface Clamp.
I’ve been meaning to write a short post about it for awhile now but have been so busy as of late I simply forgot. I’ve been using it for the past three to four months and can say it’s probably the friendliest, most useful work bench aid/jig I’ve ever owned. Anywhere you can drill a 3/4″ hole you can use this clamp. I’ve always struggled with holding work to the front apron of my bench but not anymore. I drilled a series of holes along the front apron, horizontally in line with the screw holes on my shoulder vise. Now, anytime I need to clamp a work piece to my bench, I simply clamp one end into my shoulder vise and catch the other with the surface clamp. Likewise, whenever I use my shooting board or any of my other bench jigs, the clamp does an amazing job at keeping things in place. It’s quick to use, effortless to install and something I can honestly recommend to anyone who has a work bench and uses hand tools. You can purchase the Surface Clamp from Lee Valley Tools. Cheers!

Veritas® Mk.II Honing Guide

If you use a sandpaper on glass sharpening method you’re well aware of the process involved in maintaining the sandpaper. From often changes to tiny tears due to ripples created when tiny pockets of air get trapped underneath the paper. I’ve discovered a few tricks to help eliminate these ‘bubbles’ between the paper and glass and generally highten the odds of achieveing great sharpening results.
The first step when applying the paper to the glass is being sure the glass is completely clean and free of any small dust particles. I generally rub a small amount of mineral spirits over the glass with a clean shop towel, this not only gets rid of small amounts of dirt and grit it penetrates any of the sticky residue left behind from the previous adhesive backed paper. Once you have the glass clean, cut your paper to size and apply a small drop of water with a little dish detergent in it. Just a drop is all that’s needed to allow the paper to move around ever so slightly while applying. Peel off the paper backing and apply. The best way to get rid of the air bubbles from underneath is with a burnishing tool of some kind; this is where your honing jig comes in handy. What better way to get rid of these little pockets than to use the heavy brass roller that comes standard on the Veritas® Mk.II Honing Guide. Just tip it back a little so the front lip is clear and, while pressing down firmly push any air out from each edge of the sandpaper.

Oncet the paper is applied, it’s time to sharpen. I always like to add some oil to the paper, this will quickly work itself into a slurry when you start to wear off metal from your iron. Clear machine oil is available or you can try using household baby oil available in every drug store around. To reach favourable results I find a good amount of downwards force is required on the blades leading edge. To achieve this and maintain stability, I will often turn the honing guide around and draw it towards me, not unlike the motion of using a Japanese hand plane. This will allow you to use your thumbs for added downwards pressure and gives you a lot more control over applied sections of the Irons edge. IE: honing a slight camber into the outside edges of a smoothing plane. The Mk.II is a sure fire way to get favourable repeated results when sharpening and these couple of tricks can get you closer to that perfect edge.

Remember, it can never be too sharp!

Nice to have ‘em when you need ‘em

This morning while working on a rabbet and dado joint cut using power tools, I discovered the fit to be a little too tight. It would have taken me hours to re-set my Table saw and start to fine tune this fit; instead I reached for a few Special Purpose Hand Planes. I don’t use these tools everyday but when you need them, there isn’t anything better.
So I’m at the beginning stages of a Platform Bed project using 4/4 Walnut. It’s a basic box with solid frame and rails. I wanted to make the side platform rails a permanent fixture so I cut a rabbet and dado along the underside of the stock. I then cut a groove into the top of the 3/4″ Walnut plywood that makes up the underside box section of the bed. I used my Table saw with a stacked Dado blade attachment for both operations making sure to set up feather boards on top of the cut and along the length as well to insure a tight fit. The solid stock over it’s length had a slight twist which made the entire process a little harder than it should have been. The result; a joinery fit that turned out to be much too tight. I could have set up the table saw to re-run the same procedure making sure to take shallow cuts until everything fit as it should. The problem with this is that to re-set the saw, do some test runs and then finally attempt to peel off a sliver at a time from the joint,would turn into hours of prep for something that may not work. I quickly realised this was the perfect time to do some fine tuning with hand tools.
My two Lie-Nielson side rabbet planes were the perfect tool for widening the dado walls ever so slightly. What took me 5 minutes with these hand tools would have taken an hour on the table saw. I followed with my small Router Plane manufactured by VERITAS here in Canada. It was the perfect tool to ride down the edge of the stock, cleaning up the depth of the cut. A quick and easy hand tool fix for a joinery problem from a power tool. Nice!
I don’t reach for these tools everyday but when you need them, they’re sure nice to have around.

Tool Chest Update

Just wanted to say that the new Tool Chest I built two weeks ago has been performing everything I had hoped for. A great way to transport my essential tools to a work site it’s actually been on the road for two weeks now with me. I thought out a few minor design changes and will add them to the next one. Stay tuned…

I first purchased the set of five Detail Chisels from Lee Valley Tools a little over a year ago and can say I’ve used them on an almost daily basis ever since. My first impression when they arrived via Mail-order was the size. They’re small, extremely light and almost hobby like. Being used to chopping out mortises and cutting dovetails with heavier European style chisels, I decided to give the Detail Chisels a try and was pleasantly surprised by what I discovered. Using Chisels with only hand force was nothing new to me; however, using chisels designed to be used with only hand force was something new and quite exciting. For cleaning out dovetails and other fine paring style work these small chisels excel. The small size fits comfortably in hand almost like an extension of your fingers slicing and manipulating wood fibers in an effortless fashion. Designed by Yeung Chan, a California cabinetmaker, they have pau ferro octagonal handles and blades of O1 tool steel. The set of five consists of three dovetail-style chisels (bevel-edged to a narrow land on each side), one trimming chisel, and a 1/16″ wide tapered chisel perfect for fine detail work. The chisels can be purchased individually however this set of five handles all of my fine detail work. Another advantage of the set of five is the price, at $ 195.00 this high quality set of hand made chisels is one of the sweetest deals I’ve found.

After I ‘Scrub” the rough stock down removing and twists or warps I move on to my Jointer Plane. This is the tool of choice to follow with. It will remove all of the highs and lows from the surface of your piece. Again my Jointer is made by VERITAS here in Canada. This Jointer is unique in the fact that its blade is set ‘bevel-up’ on a 12° bed and when combined with a 25° blade bevel, it creates a cutting angle of 37°. I mostly use this plane with the optional 38° Blade, combined with the 12° bed angle, creates the so called ‘York’ pitch, perfect for dealing with difficult grains in hard wood and the result is almost no tear-out. Another great feature of the VERITAS Jointer is the adjustable throat plate. This makes it super simple to close up the throat so you can take a real fine shaving. Another factor to consider when using any Jointer Plane is the size. The VERITAS is 22″ x 2 7/8″ and weighs 7 1/2 lbs. A big plane to handle, but once you get it going, the extra weight of the tool itself helps to keep it moving along through the wood. I also wax the sole every couple of minutes with just a standard block of Paraffin to help reduce friction.