I've added two new feeds to the RSS page. One is Chris Swarz's Lost Art Press blog and the other is Leif's Norse Woodsmith blog. Both are excellent blogs well worth following.

It can be hard to figure out what will keep someone with Alzheimer's occupied - and one that will keep them happy...  The activity has to be something the person is interested in, and it's better if it has some long-time personal connection.  It was difficult to find such things for dad to do - about the only two things he was interested in were gardening and woodworking, and gardening was out in the winter - so woodworking was called upon as an activity we could both do while in the shop.  I tried having him help make saws, but the tasks required were all beyond his capabilities in his diminished state.  I also tried to get him to make wooden mallets and other basic tools for me, but he lost interest quickly.

 One successful activity we had with him was having him make reproductions of a lap desk my great grandfather owned.  It's an interesting piece, one I thought would be fun to examine for this blog.  It's an interesting study - showing some signs of both elegant and of crude construction techniques.  It lends itself well to study of early furniture and casework, as not all that was done as high-end furniture.  Most stuff that survives today wasn't the run of the mill stuff, anymore than you would expect today's run-of-the-mill furniture to be around in 150 years.  What does survive is often the high end stuff that is heirloom quality, which I think often distorts people's views of craftsmanship during these earlier periods.  To that, I offer this piece, which has more sentimental value than anything, as one example of construction techniques used in early work:

 

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The speed of construction slowed dramatically after I had to go back to a full time position with a local firm. My shop hours were reduced to just a couple of hours of productive work a week, and since winter was on, it was also quite cold and daylight was limited to weekends... The exterior was buttoned up enough to get by until spring, and I still wanted to get the permit signed off on before I had to spend the money to extend it... As it is, I'm getting very close to having these updates be live... I think that there's only 2 or 3 more entries before it is.

Before I do get there, this is a good opportunity to go over some miscellaneous "stuff" - things that I haven't gone over directly but should be... I'll use this opportunity to touch on a few different subjects I hadn't gotten to earlier, or that don't fit well into the narrative.

My main goal after getting the roofing on the building was to get the inspector to sign off on the building. To get him to, there's a few things I needed to do. Before, I concentrated more on getting the shell up - now was time to add a few structural items to stiffen the frame.

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Every once in a while I'm asked if I could restore or make a saw for a fellow woodworker. Unfortunately, my current employment situation allows me little time for personal endeavors (like finishing my shop!), much less that for others - so I've had to severely cut back work I do for others.

Gladly, I'm certainly not the only game in town, and my response is invariably to recommend one of the others I know that are in the business. It seems that just a few years ago when I first posted the article about making your own saws, there were only three premium sawmakers with product on the market(perhaps more, it depends on your definition of "premium"). Now - it seems - there are many, many more to choose from. When asked, I usually steer someone towards what I believe would fit them best, and wanted to compile that list in a single location - here, obviously. If I don't mention everyone that's out there, please forgive me - these are only the ones I've had some direct experience with.

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I see bit of discussion on the web lately of the finer points of hand saw design. I certainly welcome that there is enough interest in the subject to spur such debate, so thought I might throw my hat in the ring, FWIW. 

On canted (tapered blade heights) backsaws:

One thing noticed by many is that on older backsaws, the blade varies in height along it's length - from narrower at the front (toe) to wider at the back (heel). Then, sometime in the mid-1800's, the trend was to a more parallel back - where the cutting edge of the blade is parallel to the back of the saw. In this illustration, the upper saw's cutting edge is parallel to the edge, and the lower is "canted":

If you look closely you can see the blade at the left end of the saw is not as deep as he blade at the back.

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The smaller Disston 8" backsaws don't show up at an affordable price too often (at least for me they don't!) and when I saw this mis-labeled saw (it was advertised as a 10" saw, the seller had measured it's total length rather than blade length) on ebay some time ago I placed a lowball bid, fully not expecting to get the saw. Yet, I won - I think I got it for around $18 including shipping. Here's the saw as it arrived:

The saw: bought for under $20 - though the price turned out too good to be true.|

Upon closer inspection, my elation was short-lived. The saw had some serious flaws. What I though was simply dirt or discoloration turned out to be pitting, and quite severe, as you can see in the next photo.

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The Stanley Tool company is legendary in hand tool circles...  It is their planes that a large majority of us woodworkers cut their teeth on.  They have been making the most popular line of woodworking planes since the late 1800's - at least until the quality of their product began to suffer after WWII, ultimately reaching their low point in the 60's and 70's where the level of quality has remained until today.  Yet there are so many examples of Stanley planes out there remaining from pre-WWII days still in use today that they are still setting the standard by which others are graded even to this day.  It wasn't limited to just bench planes either - one only has to look at Patrick Leach's pages on Stanley planes to see the breadth of their product line from the day.  The sheer extent of their product offerings is testament to their popularity.   Only recently have independent toolmakers - as a collective - even begun to breach a portion of it.

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Any reader of this site knows I am a fan of oil stones... One of the finest quality oil stones out there are by the Norton company are known as "Lily White Washita" stones.  These are the type of stones I learned how to sharpen on - I had one of these stones for many years, and lost it through a mishap 10 or 12 years ago now - and I have missed it. They had gone out of production many years ago and were no longer available, but still command a hefty price for a vintage one on ebay and the like when you found a used one. 

Then, a couple years ago, Joel Moskowitz at Tools for Working Wood worked his magic with the Norton company (the manufacturer and owner of the quarry where they are mined) and got them to resurrect their Lily White Washita line of oil stones. 

When I heard they were available again I was ecstatic.  But of course I didn't buy any right away - I always had something else that was more important to get first, as I now have a hard translucent arkansas that's been serving me quite well.  However - I nearly waited too long...

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I saw this and had to mention it here, if for no other reason than to have a record for myself of it so I can refer to the links... On the WoodCentral handtools forum Joel Moskowitz (of Tools for Working Wood) posted a link to a book archived on Google Books titled “The London Chair-Makers and Carvers' Book of Prices for Workmanship” which was originally published in 1829. Later, he also put up a link to another book archived on Google Books titled “The Cabinet Makers London Book of Prices and Designs of Cabinet Work” published in 1803. These books are fascinating reads if you are at all interested in period woodworking of any kind – and the thread on WoodCentral is a great read as well..

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This was a small project I did a couple of years ago... A recent conversation I had reminded me of it, and I thought some might find it interesting so figured I would post the story here. It's one of my favorite stories to tell, and it was a fun little project...

I was reading a post in a woodworking forum asking a question about straightening a saw - a backsaw in particular. Seems a fellow had picked up an old backsaw on Ebay and was hoping to restore it to use for himself, but was having a bit of difficulty. It seems it was bent, and he just couldn't seem to get it straight. Several helpful suggestions were given - and followed - to no avail. A further description (I don't remember if the exact conversation, or the photos), the general consensus was that it wasn't worth fixing. That's when I stepped in... I was looking for a bit of a challenge, and this was right down that alley. I got the original owner to either give or sell me (I honestly don't remember if I paid for it) the old saw to see what I could do with it.

When it arrived I got a chance to take a good look at it:

Pretty rough, to say the least - it would take a lot of work..  But if I'm anything - its a champion of lost causes... 

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The weather warmed, and the shop was ready for some finishing touches on the exterior. I had thought over and over about what the exterior finish was going to be. The original idea - way back when - was to use a board and batten, of cedar. The method of construction didn't lend itself well to a vertical siding, however - and cedar was much too far outside of my budget. Next I thought maybe I could do a cheat of a board and batten - basically use a plywood and nail battens on top of it. This was most tempting, but truthfully it didn't match the neighborhood, nor did it match the house, which is currently T1-11 Besides that, the plywood used today simply doesn't have the quality of the plywood used just 20 years ago unless you buy the highest priced stuff out there - which kind of defeats the purpose of using the stuff to my mind... . So - for those same reasons I considered T1-11 and just as soon abandoned it. Another choice could have been steel or vinyl lap siding - but that just doesn't turn my crank at all. I hate the monotonous fields of vinyl lap siding cropping up in cramped subdivisions, so I wrote those off of my list.

In the end, it was budget that made the call, I'm sad to say. There were two choices in my price range - fiber cement lap siding (HardiPlank by James Hardie) and composite wood lap siding and trim (LP's "SmartSide"). It was a tough decision to make, believe it or not... Tough because I didn't like either option - but basically needed to put something up, so here's how I decided. Whether it makes any sense is up to you, but it seemed all quite logical. Of course if I had my druthers it would have been something a little more elegant, but then again one has to draw the line somewhere. It's not like I live in a neighborhood of million-dollar homes, nor do I have that sort of income.

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