Sharpening a Scrub Plane Blade

The  scrub plane blade has an arc-profiled cutting edge, with  more or less  marked radius according to the job required. This profile makes it more difficult to sharpening by guides so many people prefer sharpening it by hand.

Im not very good at this job, so I searched for sharpening guides available that could serve the purpose. The Record 161 is a guide which is easy to find on ebayUK for few  pounds. It has only one central contact point (a rolling ball in the middle) and this permits to incline to the right and left allowing to follow the cutting edge profile easily.

The  blade is held firmly in place by a clamp screw that allows unrestricted iron orientation, useful even if it was necessary to sharpen skewed blade. The  dark side is that you have to ensure the correct blade position by hand.

For bigger curves the guide can be moved to the sides of the sharpening stone to allow for greater tilt, as seen in the short movie. The result was satisfactory with 35 ° bevel. To re-sharpen exactly to the same  angle Ill use a simple self made jig.

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The Jointer Man

This photograph was taken between 1932 and 1934 and portrays some members of Macagno family. The photo was kindly provided by Giuseppe Macagno, who did not follow his father (center), grandfather and uncle steps, but he kept inside a terrific passion for woodworking.

The Macagnos were carpenters, descended from an ancient lineage of lumbermen and carpenters, dedicated to all types of woodworking. That big wood piece was probably a barrel stave, or maybe a carpentry piece. The ax the man on the left holds in his right hand, has an arcuate shape, more suitable for working quickly with curved surfaces.

Of course, what most attracted my attention was that big jointer plane which supports Giuseppes uncle. Although the man had not been very high, the big plane exceeded one meter in length and 10 cm in width. Coopers are famous for using huge planes, so large to have to be placed on stands and on which the staves were moved to give them the typical curved shape.

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Rabu, 17 Februari 2016

Closed Handle Dovetail Saw

Another saw made by Stewie, this time using makore handle, a wood I did not know, but impressive in its warm colour. His comment follows.

 I have just finished work on another backsaw build. This time its a closed handle Dovetail Saw. 

The handle wood used is Makore. A beautiful colored timber that adds much warmth & charm to the handles appearance.   The 0.020 saw plate is 10" in length, and its been sharpened to 14tpi, rip tooth.  Being a finely crafted Dovetail Saw it was important to keep the total weight of the saw reasonably light. To achieve this, the brass spine was machined down to a smaller dimensional size of 12mm x 5mm. I hope you enjoy viewing the end result of my work. Regards; Stewie S.

MAKOREtieghemella heckelii

Other common names: Baku, Abaku, Agamokwe,Douka, Dumori. A large hardwood of West Africa. The heartwood colour varies from pink-red to blood-red and red-brown. Sometimes even with a purplish tinge.Texture fine to medium and even. The grain is often straight but many logs have a decorative or chequered mottle, sometimes with streaks of a darker colour. Uses: Special furniture, cabinets, turnery, high-class joinery, interior fittings, framing, paneling, carriage work and boat fit outs. Seldom imported to Australia.

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Rabu, 03 Februari 2016

Scrub Plane

A simple tool for levelling rough boards and other jobs. It is a must in any wood shop.

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