A few chisels I have lying around. They are mostly antiques I picked up for a very reasonable price. For some I had to turn handles, but most are better and far cheaper than new ones. Old tools also posess the spirit of those who used them one or two hundred years ago.

 

 

 

 

Some of the wood has hints of burl.

You don't see this at the average lumber yard.

I turned this chisel handel from a piece of the of the American Smoke Tree pictured below. The wood is fine graned, hard and a beautiful yellow color.

 

 

The wood is a beautiful yellow and appears reasonably dense. I'm hoping the wood works as well as it looks. It is compared to Osage Orange which is beautiful and durable.

We'll see how dry it is by next year.

 

 

 

Wooden Moving Fillister Plane

My next project will be this moving fillister plane. I don't think this plane needs as much work as the plough.

This plane needs relatively little work, just sharpening the blade an nicker and mending where the boxing has come loose from the plane body near the blade.

The wedges are in good shape and made of box wood. 

The iron and nicker need polishing and straightening

 

 

 

 

 

 

Success.

Got the plane, an Ohio 96 1/2, all set up and working. I'm going to keep this one permanently configured with a 1/4" iron for making the bottom dado in drawer sides.

9-2-2014

 

 

All finished and put together, just need to sharpen the iron and give it  a run.

8-31-2014

 

 

Tote sanded and ready for finishing.

Rasping down the addition to the tote.

 

 

8-28-2014

 

 

After repairing the cracked fence I'm adding back a piece of the tote probably broken off ages ago.

8-27-2014

 

I have several of these old plough planes in my shop and thought I'd dedicate this one to making the the dado in drawer sides that holds the bottom. 

First I have to fix some defects and bad old repairs.

As you can see there are a few extra screws and cracks that need to be taken care of.

8-25-2014

 

 

 

 

5-5-2014

 

Woodworking Bench

I've been a woodworker and furniture builder all my life, but I never had a proper woodworking bench.
My father never had one either, I guess he liked his Porter Cable power sanders and his large sliding-table belt sander, and they did serve him well for over forty years. 
None of the display shops I worked in had them either, despite the fancy woodworking done there. 
Now that I’m getting into more traditional styles and woodworking methods, I realize that everything would be much easier if I had one; for planing, cutting dove-tails, using molding planes etc.
So I began looking around my small shop to see what I had to began construction. The first thing that popped up was a kitchen table with a 2’ thick maple top. A couple of glue joints were coming apart and it was sort of the right size, it was a start. 
I wanted to learn as much as I could in order to design a nearly perfect for my particular needs. I bought a book about making woodworking benches. 
I couldn't believe the plethora of intricacies, nuances, the history and the variety that constitute the ingredients of a simple bench, the options were incredible. 
One book led to another, then another and another, I couldn't get enough. 
I wanted to know everything, from the Romans to the Egyptians to present day. I couldn’t believe there were so many ways to build the same thing. Every single aspect had to be thoroughly researched and decided upon; the vices, layout of the dog holes, type of dogs, width, thickness, height, material, construction and finish.
 I'm almost done with my first working bench, I don't know how I lived without one for so long.

 

 

Last week I was in Burns Oregon at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge working on a photography project and ran across this old Kiln. Up until the 1960's every small lumber mill had one or more of these going constantly, burning sawdust and other timber processing refuse. 

                                       Old Sawdust Kiln in Eastern Oregon

5-16-2014

 

Stone Town door with "Bumper Bullets".

3-6-2014

Several months ago I was in Zanzibar. An island off the east coast of Africa belonging to the Republic of Tanzania. 

I never thought I'd visit a place where the casual greeting is "Jombo", and you constantly hear the phrase "Akuma matata".

Anyway, there I was in a hotel in Stone Town, Zanzibar, standing on the balcony and looking down and across the street at, what else, a cabinet shop.

Right there in the middle of town. 

A little while later I wandered downstairs and across the street, and met the owner, Ali.

He invited me to have a look at his shop and I was pleasently surprised to find it much the same as shops in the US. 

The wood was different, nothing I had ever seen before, but everything else was pretty much the same. 

There was a large ornate bed in the final stages of production and several other smaller projects in the works.

I felt right at home. 

A few blocks away was a shop specializing in the very ornate doors and door frames  that give Stone Town its unique character. 

Not too far down the road, on the perifery of the town were shops that milled the wood and constructed and carved the doors. Open air affairs because of the very hot humid climate in Zanzibar.

One of the distinguishing charicteristics of these doors are large brass "bumper bullets".

Apparently the origin of these doors is India, where the hardware was used to disuade elephants from rubbing themselves against and ruining the wood. 

I guess they served their purpose well, because today in Zanzibar nary an elephant is to be seen.

 

Need a door? This is the place

 

I have received way more responses to this project than I expected. I'm not sure what the interest is, so let me know. I'd be happy to expand it to include more of the things of interest to those landing here. 

My intent is to add more photos and information about antique planes. I also have a few I want sell eventually.

Thanks for the response.

Also, I have a few planes to sell. I'll have those up in a week or so.

 

 

 

There's something about using an old tool, especially old planes that were used by someone over two hundred years ago. How many dados did this plane plow? Who  owned it? I wonder? Where did they live? Was it some famous colonial cabinetmaker?

 

And there are some old planes that do just as good a job now as then, some better even. 

 

Planes haven't change appreciably since the time of the Romans or before. I've seen photographs of a Roman plane. It looks like a modern infill plane.

Power tools have been around for only a little more than a hundred years. A cabinet shop in ancient Egypt wasn't that different than one in colonial New York or 17th century London.

My father began his woodworking career in Los Angeles production shops in the 30's. He didn't like production work. In those days, if you were the table saw man, you stood behind that saw all day long ripping lumber. My father was more creative than that. He enjoyed making custom woodwork and he liked doing it himself or maybe with one assistant. So after three or four production shops he set up his own place. He made furniture there for thirty years or so. He used mostly power tools, but he did have three Stanley planes; a block plane, a No. 4 1/2 and a No. 6. He also had a new set of Greenlee chisels, the ones with green transparent plastic handles. They came in a yellow tool roll that had green edging. And there was a small Cheney hammer and a set of three Yankee screwdrivers. I still have and use all of them.

It's too bad he wasn't into more traditional tools and methods, He didn't even have a woodworking bench with vices.

I must have about fifty planes now. They are all in perfect working condition.  

 

I'm not into collecting, although there are a few planes I just like to look at. (ie. Stanley Miller's Patent planes, Millers Falls 706 and 209, Stanley 55 and some old wood plow planes.)

I find well tuned hand tools very satisfying to use.

 

My father working in his shop in the 50's.

I appreciate the Stanley 55 as a piece of sculpture. It's complexity is mezmerizing. It's always been something to have, but not necessarily use. 

 

Stanley 45

Antique Plow Plane

Antique Plow Plane

Waiting Their Turn

Gathering of Planes

Stanley No 71 Router Plane

Lie-Nielson Shoulder Plane

Early Stanley No 71 Router Plane

Lie-Nielson Chisel Plane