Tour the Shop

This is my third, and maybe best, shop. It has a window with a view of my meadow and pond and the Blue Ridge.  It is in a walkout basement and is 400 square feet. The usual machinery is mostly on wheels. Both hand tools and machinery are a mix of collector and user. Yes, I have a lumber rack. My workbench is 7 feet long and has been wih me for over 50 years. The shop power and lighting are carefully designed. A dust proof walk-in closet contains HVAC and hardware storage.

  

Spring Snow on Blue Ridge

  

April 15, 2020

Trammel Points

 Shop made pair.

Mahogany body, brass handle, steel point, sheet copper keeper, bone lock knob. Backside of one has pencil holder.

Show No Shame

An original and a look-alike. On the right, a Stanley #122 Liberty Bell plane made in 1876. On the left, an Ohio Tool Company knock-off #0122 made circa 1894. The year 1894 was busy. The Stanley patent on the #122 expired and Ohio Tool merged with Auburn (NY) Tool Company. 

Ohio Tool made knock-offs of many Stanley tools, prefixing the Stanley model numbers with a zero. The Ohio #0122 is a drop-dead copy of the #122, except for the lever cap logo and lever connection to the cutter, which is very thick and tapered. Note the Ohio red japanning.

 

Rare Block Plane

 Stanley #120, length 7-1/8”. Manufactured from 1876 to 1947. This example was produced in 1878 and is considered extremely rare. It has the Liberty Bell plane style adjusting mechanism which was used in these planes until 1887. Acquisition of this plane completed my collection of Liberty Bell planes.

Round We Go

Rounding plane, witchet, widget, take your pick on the name. This tool, found in the Texas Hill Country, is user made (stamped E. G. Bell). It is of mesquite, I think, with a cutter from a saw blade. The hole tapers from 1” to 3/4”. As seen in the photo, it turns out a very nice 3/4” dowel.

Why Two Compass Saws?

Grandpa’s tool box had these saws in it. No maker’s mark on handles. Illegible marks on blades, which are 8 tpi. I have recently become interested in what these saws are all about.

Turns out one saw is filed rip, the other crosscut. They are intended to cut curves, as in a round table top. As the direction of the grain changes the user swaps from rip to crosscut or visa-versa. The kerf is wide to allow turning. Though they make a rather rough cut, they do the job and that’s why we have spoke shaves.

Klox n’ Box

A blog containing examples of work from the Wolfden Woodshops

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KLOXNBOX

Sleeping Beauty

I purchased this Stanley No. 67 mortise gauge mixed in a junk box at auction for $3.50. Nobody else even looked at this well-worn gauge. This one has an unusual wooden slide adjustment. It was made from 1867 to 1898. 

Bob Kaune, not the most inexpensive but basically reliable dealer, has one listed this month at $259. Wow! He rates it as EXTREMELY RARE.

See the Light

In the 1950's, Delta sold an accessory, known as the “Retirement Lamp” for its scroll saws. Most saws are missing this feature and originals now sell for around $100. I tried to use an articulated desk lamp for years. It either got in the way or provided poor light. I recently decided to reproduce the retirement lamp.

Lowes sells a 6” reflector lamp for under $10. Combined with shop scrap, a little labor, and a cool-running LED bulb, I now have perfect lighting for my scroll saw. I wish I had built this 20 years ago. Think I’ll make one for my band saw.

Sassafras Tea?

I made two of these boxes fifteen years ago. Intended to be shooter’s range boxes, they turned out to be too heavy and clunky for that use. I now use one as a traveling tool box, the other for storage. Dimensions are 22 by 10 by 10 inches. A sassafras carcass, with mixed hardwood interior fittings. Half-inch box joints are left proud for visual interest. There are three layers of storage, two being removable trays.

          

With the exception of a fitted tray of carving gouges, the box is only populated with a specific selection of tools when traveling. Why sassafras? My lumber yard had wide planks.

Historic Expansive Bit

This historically significant bit is the first  patented (1852) expansive bit known to have been manufactured. It is considered rare. It was invented and manufactured by Charles L. Barnes of New York City. It has a range of 5/16” to 1/2”. Two other sizes, 1” and 2”, were made.

I acquired this bit about a year ago for $3. It was very junky looking, but identifiable as an expansive bit. Nobody thought to identify it at that time. That took some recent on-line research. Other than the patent listing, there is an article, which includes this bit, by Eric Brown in the E.A.I.A. Chronicle, March 2019. 

How Dry I Am

It began as a shop project for my grandsons. The Rittenhouse 1782 hygrometer, as shown by Roy Underhill in his Woodwrights Work Book (1986). David Rittenhouse, an instrument maker, was a contemporary of Franklin and Jefferson, and the Astronomer of the United States. The hygrometer is based on two thin strips of wood, one piece of tangential grain, the other longitudinal, glued together with the grains at right angles and mounted on a board. The difference in expansion due to humidity change causes the strips to curve, presenting a humidity measurement. 

 

Right photo, 30% RH.

The Smell of Sawdust

My former home in Northern VA is surrounded by deep, wooded ravines. There were many fallen trees in the woods, mostly 12”+ chestnut oaks. On a cool autumn day it was pleasant to work in the quiet woods, bucking the trees into fire wood lengths. The aroma of freshly sawn oak was wonderful. Often a squirrel or bird would perch on the end of my log, wondering what I was up to.

No noisy chain saws here. I used these Disston one/two man timber saws. Four footers that, when sharp, easily sliced through the oak. The hardest part of the job was hauling the bucked logs out of the steep ravine.

Wolves at the Door

Like a wolf, I am compelled to mark my territory. These plaques are on the doors to the Wolfden Woodshop (left) and the New Wolfden Woodshop (right). This design originates with the Wolf Trap National Park for the Performing Arts.

Colonial Williamsburg No Longer Using Vintage Tools

The craft shops at Colonial Williamsburg (CW) have recognized that using old tools wears them out, which is counter to the desire to preserve knowledge of vintage tools and the tools themselves. A modern toolmaking shop was created in CW in the 1980’s to build reproduction tools for use in the shops. From photos of this operation, I would guess 100 years-worth of repro tools were made. This shop is no longer in operation.

Don't think tools can be worn out? Look at the thickness of the soles on wooden planes. A too wide cutter mouth is an indication of wear. I had a Stanley #5 iron jack plane from my grandfather.  The sole was worn down to nothing, you could see through it. I parted that one out. Narrow blades are an indication that a saw has been sharpened many times. I have an early Disston D15 Victory hand saw that has lost at least 1-1/2” to sharpening.

When I acquired my first 100 plus year old wood bottom planes, I tuned them and used them.  I have come to agree with CW,  old tools should be preserved by not using them. As satisfying as using vintage tools is, I now do not. Well, upon occasion, I might take a careful test drive.

Public Television Tools - $19.95 plus S+H

A few years ago the National Public Television station WCVE, in Richmond Virginia, auctioned off the props from their production of Mercy Street, a Civil War era story line. There were several million dollars worth of stuff and the auction was held over at least two four-day weekends. Most of the props were just “old stuff”, with some genuine antiques mixed in. Several of us from Central VA  attended both weekends, a big effort.

I am not fond of auctions as people tend to over-bid, but I went along to carry stuff. I bid on and won a box of mixed old tools. I am a sucker for hand screws with threaded wooden rods. What a mix of stuff I got for my effort! I will not elaborate, some of it is in the photo. My trash bucket was happy. My cost was something like $5 per keeper.

Tribbles

Upon occasion a woodworker hits upon a setup that faultlessly turns out a desirable object en masse. In the early 90’s I had one to produce marking/cutting gauges.  Everyone loved them and I made them by the dozens. Sold them at $10 a pop. Trekkies will remember the furry little animals that inhabited the starship Enterprise by the thousands. We called the gauges Tribbles.

Shop made (front), old timers ( rear).

The beams and fences were made of andiroba, a mahogany that the Woodworkers Club shop had in endless supply. Cutters from broken bandsaw blades, also in endless supply. Cutter wedges were scroll-sawn from maple for contrast. The wedge mortises were formed with a hollow chisel mortiser, with a quick taper trim by hand. Fences were made in two pieces with the beam mortise formed with a dado blade, then glued together. A tee nut is hidden in the beam mortise providing locking screw threads. Either a penny or dime is also in the mortise to prevent gouging by the locking screw, which was either a thumb screw or something fancier. A Watco finish made them look slick

Grab a Tool

Collecting vintage tools is big business, and is very rewarding. Collectors lurk everywhere. There are clubs, associations, and societies around every corner. They are gathering places for collectors to talk, study, buy, sell and trade tools. If you are not a club member, you should join one. The usual cost is about $10 per year.

 

Find links to all sorts of collecting activities and clubs HERE. Better yet, join a club near you.

Another Tool Collectors Club

 Mid West Tool Collectors Association, MWTCA, is a non-profit with 3,500 members and is more or less international in scope; it has members as far away as Australia. This club holds annual local, regional and national tool meets. Members receive the Gristmill, a scholarly quarterly tool magazine and many other benefits. Annual dues are $25, Canada $40. Check out their web site,  mwtca.org.