The following job has been done by Stewie S., from Australia. Stewie is passionate about making saws and wooden planes. He authorized me to publish his pics in order to collaborate to blog and increase content availability. Thank you Stewie!

After 12 months of making backsaws as well as trialing different saw handles it was time for me to consolidate my restrict my work to 3 to 4 designs only. This following handle shape is for backsaws 12" and above. I have attached photos that show you each of the important steps involved from start to finish.
I hope you find the following information of some help especially to those who may have considered giving backsaw making a go. Here you can view the handle as its shaped to design paper template. Some rounding to the handle as well as the inside of the finger hole has also been completed. I prefer to drill and fit the saw screws very early into the work. The 12" x 3" saw plate shaped and fitted within the handle. To help me mark the harback mortise within the handle I prefer to use a spare length of hardback which is fitted to the toothline. The use of upper and lower hardbacks locks the external saw plate in the same parrallel alignment to that within the handle. A good method to use if you want to keep the saw plate nice and straight along the toothline. To clean out the hardback mortise on the handle I like to use a variety of hand tools that also include planemaker floats. In this photo you can see that the brassback has been cut to length, rounded off at the toe, and secured to the handle. The bottom line of the saw plate is also nice and straight. The shaping of the handle is also nearly completed. Hear you can see the final stages of sharpening the saw teeth. I chose to go for a 12 tpi. rip tooth for this backsaw. The saw vise clamping length was modified from its original 9 " to a new 23.5 " The final look of the backsaw. The Tas.Tiger Myrtle chosen for the handle came up a treat. I only use 0000 steel wool between each coat of wood sealer and shellac. Another unique saw to add to my collection. Regards; Stewie 

 

Read More..

The Stanley 113 is a plane for planing curved surfaces. It has a flexible sole, able to assume a concave or convex shape, with a variable radius regulated by turning a large knob. A toothed gear mechanism guarantees the correct sole movement. The #113 iron is identical to the Stanley #3 one, the size being 1 3 / 4 " (4.4 cm). The lever cap and the cap iron are different from those of #3, so you need pay  attention to this detail when buying it. My # 113 was in good condition, just a lot of surface rust. I proceeded to disassemble the plane into its parts and treat them with a  vinegar bath.The flexible sole should be dropped from the metal arms using a punch.  The sole is welded to a dovetail shaped piece; it fits in the body plane. To take it apart I first lubricated with a descaler (WD40) and then gently hammered it using a punch of a suitable form (for the purpose I used a more little hammer, placing a smaller cardboard piece to protect from blows;  alternatively you can use a wood piece of  suitable form). If your sole does not want to move, better  stop the action for avoiding damages to the cast iron parts, very difficult to repair! A common #113 defect  is a mismatch between the iron seat  and the mouth.The blade  does not not rest properly  and could create problems in planing (chattering). To solve this problem, I simply added a  couple of shims (business cards are great)  on the plane seat. The flexible sole should be free from rust. Use sandpaper attached to a flat surface, paying particular attention to the mouth area. The plane must be used with straight shots following the workpiece horizontal axis.  It is also useful for the chamfer job. 

      

Read More..

There are not many positive reviews on this little rabbet plane, even anything! Today I decided to examine it more closely and verify  its performances. Although a simple structure, it has an adjusting mouth. The bullnose structure, with the front part of the sole very narrow, allows the plane for using it in special situations, such as finishing a blind rabbet or working close to the intersection of stiles and rails.

 

The  body plane consists of two sliding parts; a screw allows to lock the parts into position and set the opening  mouth to the desired width. Unfortunately, every time you  perform this operation, you have to reset the blade (troublesome without a blade adjusting wheel),  for which can be certainly convenient to adjust the mouth in an intermediate position  and avoid too many changes. Another weak point is the lever cap; it holds the blade in its position by a thumb screw. It has little contact surface with the blade and it is quite thin and induces apprehension when the screw is tightly closed. The  iron sits at 45°, bevel down, what that preferably addresses this plane for using it with the grain.

The sides were square with the sole.

I run a plane tune up. With the blade in  working position, but retracted so that it cannot cut, I lapped  the sole using glass plate attached sandpaper. The blade was sharpened with a   30° bevel. For this iron type I used the Stanley sharpening guide. In these blades its very important to obtain the cutting edge perfectly square with the sides. The lever cap was in contact with iron only to one side, making the plane practically unusable. I accurately smoothed this zone and in order to ensure a good contact I had to make a slight correction (I used a file) to the protrusions that form the lever fulcrum. The iron bedded satisfactorily.

The  final result is quite good and the plane proved to be accurate in finishing rabbets. More than one doubt remains, particularly regarding a good blade grip.

Read More..

My New Workshop

At last I have a workshop to play in! ...

After finally getting the spare room decorated, I have now moved my tools in and made some wood shavings. Tool storage is pretty basic at the moment but I hope to either build a tool chest or wall cabinet at some point.

As you can see from the photo below, the new bench is a nice size for such a small room and fits my needs fine as a beginning wood worker.

As expected, the bench does try to run achoice from me when planing heavily but its not to bad if I butt it against one of the walls and my tools are sharp. Its also too high for planing, although the perfect height for cutting, etc, so I might shorten the legs a little in time to get more weight down over the plane. Well see its early days...

Aside from a bench hook and generally playing around with scraps of wood, this small bedside table is the first thing I have ever made out of wood in my life! All done using hand tools only and no electricity aside from the room lights!

Its made using Half Lap joints from scrap wood (really soft Pine) thrown achoice by the next door neighbour and an old bed headboard, (which I think is African Mahogany) for the top. It took me 3 days to build it (including stripping heavy varnish from the Mahogany) and I have already learnt so much in those three days.

As a logical learning progression, I thought I would start with simple Half Lap joints and then progress on to Mortise & Tennons, Finger Joints and finally Dovetails.

I have some Mahogony offcuts from my boat, bought some pieces of cheap Pine from the timber yard and stock piled some old wood that was destined to be thrown achoice, so expect some more small projects soon.

Read More..

Dovetail Plane

Some time ago I purchased a German old plane set, all in good conditions, except one clearly lacking of some pieces. It had two holes on the upper side as well as two others on the lateral face. 
Someone added a self-made metal fence; a nicker for cutting cross grain and the angled sole indicated it as a dovetail plane

It remained for some time on the shelf, until I decided for its functional as well as aesthetic recovery. On the upper side was the mark "Paul Kuhn-Leipzig" on the heel the number "106".
So I wrote to Wolfgang Jordan, author of the excellent website
 http://www.holzwerken.de/ here is possible to find a lot of info about European continental old woodworking tools.

Magically I received the info I needed: just a dovetail plane and unlike most dovetail planes it had an adjustable depth stop (very useful however). Wolfgang sent a picture from a 1911 catalog he has.

 Grathobel is the German translation of dovetail plane; the n° 106 (on the bottom left in the draft) is indicated as dovetail plane with double wooden fence and nicker.

More usefully, Wolfgang sent me some pics of another fully equipped n° 106  coming from a private collection.

Bingo! Now I had all info for restoring the plane.The business sole side showed a substantial wear and I replaced it with a Wild Olive wood insert, cut so that the end grain was exposed.

For the purpose I chamfered the sole edge and created a groove at table saw for the wood insert tongue and groove joint. 

 Of course were very few chances to find the original plane hardware, so I had to adapt that I found. I used brass knobs for reproducing similar original nuts: I had to bore and  thread them. From window hardware scraps I created brass slotted plates for holding the bolt heads.

I utilized Ash wood for the fences; the sole fence defines the dovetail height, while the lateral fence acts as a depth stop and determines the width (see draws)

The final result satisfied me, from aesthetic point of view as well as the functional one.
The plane cuts without hesitation and with a clean result along the grain as well as across the grain.  A workhorse which immediately impressed me and, I am sure, will be one of my best tools.  Pics of the plane restored follow:

Here a shot of dovetail cut in a beech piece and a short video of the plane at work.