This past weekend I was lucky enough to make my choice up to Boston and enjoy Wood Expo 2012. Wood Expo is an event held within the New England Home Show. It aims to connect custom furniture makers with buyers. It also aims to help furniture makers with design critiques, networking and panel discussions.
Im no furniture maker myself (at least not a selling furniture maker), but the custom furniture makers who did attend and display made this a great event for anyone passionate about woodworking. The hall was lined with people as rabid for woodworking as I am.The makers who displayed or demonstrated in one choice or another included (thanks to Nick Roulleau & Steve Branam for their fantastic posts from which I pulled much of this list together):
After Wood Expo was (mostly) done we all headed down the block and had the inaugural meeting of the Boston chapter of the Modern Woodworkers Association. Nick’s done a great job of writing it up here on the Modern Woodworkers Association site.A great time was had by everyone I saw in attendance & Id highly recommend you attend next year. I hear its going to be better than ever.WoodExpo 2012 AlbumBoston MWA Meeting Album
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For this incoming year, here is a English version of a calendar published today by the Italian woodworking forum Legnofilia
Happy New Year!You can download it here:2014 calendar
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Giovanni, a friend of mine, kindly gave me a Russian plane as gift. I heard some negative opinions about and this models are not so frequent. Unluckily, the blade and cap iron were not original and the plane came equipped with a recent Stanley iron and cap. Iron is 2" wide and the plane is about 10" long, so a smoothing plane. The body is cast iron, well done; the hard wood handles offer a comfortable grip but have curious nuts requiring a dedicate screwdriver. 
Not a common future, the knob is inclined forward and I found the grip more comfortable than an ordinary one. More, it helps to provide more pressure on the anterior plane portion when the plane shot has incoming.
I had to add a washer to the rear handle for fixing it better. 
The aluminium frog shows a fine surface on which the blade seats well. It can be moved like the Bailey planes. The frog did not seat well on the base, so I had to use a file for slightly trueing the critical points.
The Y lever is malleable iron, too much thin and with a lot of lateral tolerance. 
The lateral lever is very short and this does not permit of moving the iron easily. I changed the iron, utilizing a vintage Stanley iron and chipbreaker. 
Of course was necessary to do some corrections, such as the lateral lever substitution with another one longer, the thickening of Y lever where it engages the chipbreaker (I used a little bit of soldering material). 
I flattened the sole, sharpened the blade and tried the plane.
Despite the defects, I obtained thin shaves on soft woods as well as on harder ones.
Unfortunately I cannot verify the quality and performances of original blade and chipbreaker, but after all this Russian plane (with a good blade) showed capability for a fine job, although the regulation systems were quite weak and could cause troubles with a harder use.
A Russian body with an American heart. It works!
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| The Seaport World Trade Center, Home of WoodExpo. |
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| Rob Bois |
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| Michael Scott Morton |
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| Rusty Burwell |
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| Steve Branam |
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| Chuck Bender (on right with Mike McCoy & Jim Ashley) |
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| Michael McCoy |
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| Kevin Mack |
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| Megan Caine |
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| Tom McLaughlin |
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| Glen Guarino (w/ Tom McLoughlin) |
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| Terry Moore |
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| Quentin Kelley |
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| WoodExpo 2012 |
Steve Skillins
Ryan Messier
Freddy Roman
Allan Breed
Ed McCormack
Eli Cleveland
Niels Cosman
Mickey Callahan
Since I wasnt displaying and didnt have to pay attention to potential customers, I had the chance to talk with these guys for most of the afternoon.The conversations were alchoices insightful and ranged from the trivial (touristy lunch locations) to the serious & relevant (Whats the point of he show?, How do you attract custom furniture buyers? How do we reach our designs? Where do you buy wood?) While there was rarely any consensus reached, the depth of conversation clearly demonstrated to me how passionate we all are that woodworking as a career and hobby continue. We all need to thank Tommy MacDonald, Eli Cleveland, Rick Waters, Justin DiPalma, Scott Oja & Neil Lamens putting the show on. |
| The inaugural MWA Greater Boston area meetup. |
Senin, 14 Maret 2016
Xmas Goodies
The postman just delivered more new shiny things...
First up are two Lie Nielsen Mortise chisels of 1/2" and 1/4" - Pure none essential luxury items. I have been cutting my mortises using bevel edged chisels and while its obviously doable, the thin bevel edged sides make it quite hard to maintain a square and straight edge to the mortise. Its going to be a lot easier to maintain a straight mortise using the deeper purpose designed blades. They feel amazingly balanced in the hand. I was quite surprised at the difference in colouration of the Hornbeam wood and size handles between the two sizes. I guess it makes sense...
Next up is the Veritas Cambered Roller for the Mark II honing guide. I have tried unsuccessfully to relieve the corners of my plane blades by hand. The regular straight roller makes for a dead straight blade edge which, while perfect for chisels etc, results in plane tracks when smoothing. My long term goal is to sell my new no#4 and no#6 Stanleys and buy a premium (probably Lie Nielsen) no#5 Jack Plane with two blades. One heavily cambered for stock removal and another slightly cambered for smoothing. Later I would also like a no#7 for jointing. Until then I will be using it to relieve the corners on my no#4 and no#6 Stanley blades.
Lastly, The Essential Woodworker book. After a quick read of the introduction and a flick through its pages, this book appears to be the perfect companion to The Anarchist Toolchest. It aims itself as a Pre woodworking book and teaches the complete beginner amateur woodworker (working alone and without the advantages of an instructor) the basic but essential fundamental skills that are often taken for granted in most other books. Lots of diagrams and the quality of the printing and binding are of Old School quality.
Axminster links for these items can be found on my Wish List.
Kamis, 25 Februari 2016
Cold Turkey
Due to family matters I am currently in France achoice from my workshop and tools. Aside from swinging the odd axe and hatchet for the log burner, I have been a completely woodworking free zone for three weeks!!!
However ... with lots of free time to spare I have been doing a lot of internet reading and learning! The new buzzwords floating around my head are Timber Frames & Green Oak, and Chainsaw Milling. Objects of desire now include such things as Robert Sorby 1, 1.5 & 2 inch chisels and 2 & 3 inch Slicks. Gransfors Bruks Draw Knives and Froes, and Wetterlings Axes.
God Makes Work for Idle Hands.... Ill be back home real soon and I have a lot of catching up to do!
Sabtu, 20 Februari 2016
The Cold Approaches
For those of you reading along (on Twitter & Google+ more than the blog for this topic) I’m working on a bench. That is . . . I will be working on a bench.
I’ve been obsessing over a bench for a long time and a few conversations with Aaron Marshall at Woodworking In America had my bench build leapfrogging over many open projects to the top of the list. One of the projects it jumped ahead of was the insulating of my shop. That is, it had jumped over the insulating until the cold hit.
While this is going to be a slow process and will delay my bench until January (or longer) it is well worth it and promises to transform the shop into a much nicer place. What, after all, is there not to like about having a warm, well powered shop?What needed project have you been putting off?
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| My bench design , as of a year ago (and awesome avitar). |
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| In the background you can see my barren walls. |
That cold reality has rearranged my project order once again. The insulating will come before the bench.
Unfortunately, before I can insulate, I must wire. Two and a half years ago, when I started my siding project I ripped out not only the existing insulation, but the wiring too. Since then I’ve been working in a cold shop with one outlet next to the light switch and one behind the miter saw.Today I began by starting my clean up, and oh how much clean up there is to do. In the two hours I worked, I managed to clean the far back corner, behind my shelves. |
| The cleaned corner. |
Minggu, 14 Februari 2016
New Year calendar
For this incoming year, here is a English version of a calendar published today by the Italian woodworking forum Legnofilia
Happy New Year!You can download it here:2014 calendar Sabtu, 13 Februari 2016
Tha Cold War is Finished for Planes Too
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