ECE Coffin Plane Restoration

ECE Coffin Plane as found in Wells, Maine

The E.C. Emmerich Company was founded in 1852, and  they're still in business in Remscheid, Germany. I found this 7-inch coffin plane at an antique shop in Maine looks like its labeled for sale in the US given that its labeled with both 51mm and 2" dimensions on the iron. I downloaded their catalog, and it doesn't appear that they still offer this plane. This plane doesn't look like it was used very often, but has sat unloved for a while and humidity has lead to rust on the iron, which in turn discolored the wood parts that come in contact with the metal. I've just cleaned it up and put it back to work. 

You can see a YouTube video I made about this restoration here.

There was some spray paint over-spray on the wood, and some general grime. The iron and chip breaker were rusty but not very pitted. There was some limited pitting on the back of the iron where the chip breaker was pressed against the metal. That took a little while to grind out but I don't think the back of the iron was ever flattened, so most of it came while doing that in any case.

Click on the pictures for larger view

I soaked the iron, chip breaker, and screw in Evapo-Rust over night to loosen the rust. While those pieces sat, I worked on the wood parts with a utility knife blade as a scraper, some small files, and sandpaper. I decided not to try and remove the rust stains as that would remove too much wood, and the worse of it is covered by the iron assembly when its put together.

The completed plane

The completed restoration produced a really nice plane. I had to square up the cutting edge and reestablish the bevel, then I worked on it with 400 and 100 grit stones before stropping it on leather with compound. The result was very satisfying. I flattened the sole by hand by marking it with a pencil and using sandpaper on a flat bed (my belt sander with the power off.) I rubbed the wood (except the sole, and the insides) with raw linseed oil.

The tuning of a wooden plane takes a little to get used to but once I had it set, it was taking beautiful shavings from a piece of quarter sawn beech I've had in the shop since 2015.

The wood shined after this pass

Check out the video if you get  chance. Leave a comment here or there (or both places!) and let me know what you think. Do you have a wooden plane, or two? How do you like them compared to metal planes?

Disston No. 7 Refurbish

This is number 2 of 2 posts about two saws I just refurbished. The other is a Carcase Saw. I've had this saw for a little while and wanted to fix it up. I wasn't sure it was a number 7 until I cleaned the plate, but I guess I'm getting ahead of myself. It was clear from the medallion that I had a Disston from 1896 to 1917, and the tote looked like the No. 7 design, but it was chipped in two places. The upper horn was missing a chunk, and one side of the lambs tongue was gone.

The tote after I removed it and cleaned it with denatured alcohol

So I pulled the saw apart and set the plate in vinegar to loosen the surface rust. You can read more about that process on the carcase saw refurbish. The tricky part of this refurbish was the tote. The chip at the upper horn left a lot of wood at upper part of the horn, and I wanted to keep as much as I could, so I clamped it up in a hand screw clamp and cut out the damage with my small backsaw. I used a small try square to keep thecuts straight. Then I used a chisel to square up the notch for the patch.

The try square held tight to the hand clamp acts as a cutting guide

For the lambs tongue, I used the chisel to flatten the area, and then glued in a small piece of quartersawn beech in both places, doing my best to align the grain. I set up a series of small bar clamps and rubber bands to hold the little patches in place. The rubber bands are great because you can wrap them around the patch to apply pressure from a variety of angles.

The rough cut horn patch

Once the glue dried on the patches, I cut them roughly to follow the shape I was looking for and then went to work with a chisel, and then some rasps and files to clean up the shape, trying not to remove any of the existing wood in the process.

The rough cut lambs tongue patch

The lambs tongue ready for sanding and toning

The horn patch ready for sanding and finish, note the contrast in color

Touching up the color of the patches was next, so I tried a darkening agent first; vinegar mixed with steel, which reacts with the tannins in the wood to darken the surface. Once that dried I touched it up with some sandpaper and  rubbed the entire with raw linseed oil. A short time later I wiped off the excess, and set it aside to dry. In hindsight, I wish I'd adjusted the color better before putting on the linseed oil, but I couldn't see how poorly the color matched until the oil was on there; that made the next step difficult. I tried some wood stain to darken up the patches some more, which I let set and then rubbed off. The linseed oil kept the stain from penetrating, and while the lambs tongue turned out nice, the horn patch is not dark enough.

Steel and vinegar solution after a few minutes

After the solution dries, a light sanding evens out the tone

While the linseed oil dried, I turned my attention back to the plate. My one piece of advice, don't go too heavy with the sandpaper grit, its hard to get the scratches out later. Okay, one more nugget; keep the sanding strokes long and straight, they show when you're done, and short, wavy strokes look wrong. After a dip in the vinegar and some cleaning and light sanding the plate looked pretty good, so I put some paste wax on it and set it aside.

The etch confirms its a no. 7, early 1900s

I put a few coats of shellac on the tote, sanding lightly between coats. When it was good and hard, I rubbed some paste wax with a fine steel wool to take down some of the sheen and add some protection. The saw bolts and medallion I cleaned just a little with a Scotch Bright pad; I like to see some of that old color on the brass. The fleck in this quarter-sawn beech is beautiful.

The finished tote. The lambs tongue looks like it grew there

The refurbished Disston No. 7

All in all this was a fun project, and the two saws that I ended up with look great and are ready to go back to work. I guess I'll have to put them in the next rotation for a little tune-up sharpening!

Carcase Saw Refurbish

This is 1 of 2 posts on saw refurbishing I just did. I also cleaned up a nice Disston No. 7 I've had around for a while, and this saw, a reasonably new purchase for me. I was looking for a carcase saw that was a little bigger, and not quite as heavy as the W. Tyzack, Sons & Turner saw I fixed up last summer. This saw has a 14-inch by 3-inch plate, 13 PPI, crosscut.

Looks like a beater, but there's potential there

This Jackson is probably a little older than the Tyzack, but new enough that all of the detail had been designed out of the tote, similar to the Tyzack. It also doesn't have a Disston medallion, so I'm not sure when it was made, but I'm guessing something after 1950.

A little worn, a little rusty, a small chip in the chamfer, and no style

The plate was in good shape and the tote was solid, with just a small amount of play where it was mounted to the plate. And the tote? Its just ugly. All curves and no angles. No balance.

The tote after cleaning with denatured alcohol, with the inspiration tote

So I pulled it apart, and soaked the plate for a short while in white vinegar. I know, folks say that ascorbic acid (vitamin C) is supposed to be better, or some commercial rust remover that I can't afford, but the vinegar worked good for me. After just a day, I pulled the plate out and scrubbed it with hot water and soap to remove the vinegar, the carbon left on the steel, and whatever general crud was left on there. Then it was wire brushing and the scotch bright pad to clean up the metal.

I'm not trying to make the tote look new. I like the age, it tells a story

The tote I repaired by cleaning off the broken chamfer square and gluing in a small piece of beech with the grain aligned. Once that was dry, I shaped it to match the opposite side with a chisel and then re-shaped tote, adding back the V-notch, a double nib ahead of the top horn, and I sharpened up the notch ahead of the bottom horn. The changes are subtle, but the make a difference. I cut the shape with the band saw and some files, and then cleaned it up with some finer files and then sandpaper.

After the vinegar bath, a good wash, and dry scrub with a Scotch Bright pad

Once the re-shaping was done, I gave the tote another light sanding. I'm not trying to remove all of the marks, dings and scars, just most of the dirt, paint drops, and the crud. It tends to build up in the shellac as it gets damp and sticky over the years. Its hard to see, but just before finishing, I added an extra chamfer stop to each cheek. It looks like there might have been a very small one there, so I deepened them.

Click on the picture for a blow-up. The grain in this quarter-sawn beech is nice

When it was clean, I rubbed some raw linseed oil into the tote, to protect it, bring out the grain, and to swell the wood up a little. I think the dried out wood was part of the reason for the loose fit on the plate. If its still loose when I put it back on, I figured I'd file a little bit off of the bolts to keep them from bottoming out in the nuts, but it worked out fine and I didn't have to do that.

The refurbished carcase saw

The next day, while the linseed oil was still uncured, I wiped off the excess and put on a coat of 2# cut shellac and left it to dry overnight. The shellac gets mixed up with the oil on the surface, and the next day the shellac is still a little sticky, and even oily in some places. I sanded off any high points and put another coat of shellac on, which dried up fine. The linseed oil and shellac mix make a kind of varnish (this is what I tell myself anyway) which I think helps to binds the shellac to the wood, and slows the drying of the linseed oil. Time will tell, but I think it may work out to be pretty good.

Before re-assembly, I touched up the saw bolts and medallion with the Scotch Bight pad, but didn't remove all of the color. The bright brass is pretty, but too pretty for a saw that looks its age. I put paste wax on the tote and on the plate to protect them. I used a fine steel wool which takes some of the shine off of the shellac so its a little more matte, which looks good.

I haven't even sharpened this saw. It cuts great. Now it looks great, won't rust anymore and the tote doesn't wiggle. That's worth a few hours, and I did the Disston No. 7 at the same time, so... efficiency, baby.

Hand Tools

Hand Tools: Their Ways and Workings is a beautiful soft cover book written and illustrated by Aldren A. Watson in 1982. This is now my go-to guide for hand tools. Watson is clearly a lifelong user and fan of hand tools and in this book he has poured out all of what he knows, illustrated clearly and concisely with beautiful hand-drawn illustrations of the tools, their parts, their use, and even care and sharpening. The appendixes even include measured drawings and instructions for building your own jigs, wooden hand tools, a work bench (including a version that folds up in a closet for the apartment dwellers) and patterns for replacement handles.

Exploded view of a smoothing plane

The book is organized by tool types. Each tool is described in detail, with cut away drawings of the innards, and its workings so the tool owner fully understands the tool and how it functions. Watson explains, and often illustrates the variations found in the tool, what the different options and adjustments are good for and then goes on to describe how the tool is used. These descriptions are full of examples, and advice ton the best ways to work, often with illustrated techniques, tips, and time savers along the way. For example, in the discussion about a spirit level there is a great tip for leveling a wooden table that doesn't include cutting the legs or using a matchbook. Fantastic!

Do you know this is called an adze-eye hammer?

If you are just starting out with woodworking tools, or if you've been using them for years, like I have, this book has something (many things!) for you. If you've been outfitting your shop with the latest power tools you see on The New Yankee Workshop and shows like it, you may want to take look at this book and see what hand tools can do, often times with less effort, less set-up time, less sawdust, and better results.

Knowing what's inside informs its proper use

Aldren Watson was a professional illustrator, woodworker, print maker and book binder. He died just a little while ago, in 2013 at 95.

Read this book. And then set it in your workshop for reference.


I also posted this book review on my other blog.

Stick Barrette Development

I've started developing a stick barrette, and if I can get the basics worked out so that they function well, and I can make them in a reasonable amount of time (so I can keep them affordable!) I'm going to sell them over at my Etsy store. If you happen to check in here, and have anything you'd like me to know, please post a comment below.

Stick barrette with leaf design hair stick

My mom and my sister wore these hair accessories when I was a kid, and I've always liked the simplicity of them. Even simpler, its the stick by itself, so I think I'm going to be offering both if I can get them worked out. What really got me think about them is a couple of big knots in a piece of walnut I have in the shop; knots are typically a pain to deal with, especially loose knot, and even more so when using hand tools. And its not just the knot, buy the wood around the knot, because the grain gets all screwy as the tree grows around the branch. This crazy graining can be really beautiful, but tough to deal with, so I started to think: what can I make to take advantage of the grain? Something curved would take advantage of the grain and give it strength if the grain lines follow the curved piece.

Three nested barrettes tucked back in where they grew

These first few photos show how I traced the curving grain lines around the knot, which I think will really improve the barrette. Normally wooden barrettes came in two types: flat-ish ones that don't really work well with a through stick, and are typically glued to a metal clip-type barrette, and the curved type of wooden barrette, which is susceptible to breaking where the straight grain of the wood runs through the thing curves of the barrette.

The three sizes will work for different volumes of hair

Both the curves of the barrettes and the sticks that I'm working on to go through them will follow the wood grain to strengthen them. The sticks are a little easier to do like that, simply by splitting the wood to size rather than cutting it. Splitting the wood naturally follows the grain lines, and the hair sticks that result can sometimes have softly undulating curves in them that come from the tree's growth. I'm betting that these curves will be both good-looking and help to secure them better in your hair.

My first hair stick test. I'll let you know how it goes.

I took a shot at a hand-split maple hair stick, and the first tester thought it was a little too thick. I wonder if it would be better for someone with thicker hair. This one is a little thicker than a pencil and the straight part of it, at 8-inches, is about a half-inch longer than a new wooden pencil. Overall this hair stick is about 9 1/2-inches.

W. Tyzack, Sons & Turner Carcase Saw

I picked up this nice carcase saw at a yard sale a few weeks ago. I'm not sure of the vintage on this saw but it looks like its 20 or 30 years old. There was some minor discoloration on the plate, no pitting or hard rust. The teeth were pretty sharp and the set seemed pretty even along the length of the cutting edge, just a little gummed up with sap or something. The tote is in fine shape but the finish was just falling off. Looks like it was kept in a damp place or something, I'm not sure but it seemed to have been alligatoring right off. I'm sorry I don't have a nice before photo, I thought I did. I think you can see in this first picture how the finish that's left, is a little funky. The worst of it was in the larger, flat expanses on the cheeks of the tote; the edges were actually holding pretty well. What I didn't like about this tote, other than the finish, is the vestigial signs of the tote design of yesteryear.

After sanding, I penciled in the lamb's tongue and other adjustments

Take a look at the design of this tote. You can see the lamb's tongue right there! Its just... mushed in with the rest of the handle. Its like a tease. So I decided that if I was going to strip this tote anyways I might as well bring a little life back to my new saw, and to myself, because, as you can see, a little part of me died inside when I looked at this thing.

Here it is after a quick trip to the band saw. Hello V-groove.

I'm not trying to recreate an older version W. Tyzack, Sons & Turner saw, so the design I chose is just something I like. Other than restoring the carved lamb's tongue complete with a clip and a real V-groove, I also adjusted the upper and lower curves of the lower horn to accentuate that Western design. The upper curve of the lower horn also rubbed against the bottom of my hand when I held the saw, so I wanted to open it up a little. I also wanted to cut in a double nib at the front of the upper horn.

From below, the reshaped lower horn, lamb's tongue and clip

After the rough cutting it was over to the bench vice with a rasp and a few files. This tote is beech, so it works pretty easily with the grain but shreds across the grain, so I couldn't cut very deep with the rasp without making a mess for myself, so it was easy going and I ended up swapping back and forth from my whittling knife to a small file as I got closer to where I wanted to be. I ended up finishing the shaping with my Dremmel to save my shoulder, which has been bothering me. If I had to do it again, I'd cut the clip in by hand, so its not so deep; seems like a weak spot.

There, doesn't that feel better?

Once it was shaped out nice, then it was only a matter of sanding it down, cleaning off the rest of the old finish and putting a new finish on. I don't have any ruby shellac, and frankly I'm not wild about the original color, and I thought the beech was a little pale, so I rubbed in a little oil stain and set it to dry on my shop made pin board. A guy I worked with years ago described this finishing aid to me. Mine is a piece of fir with box nails driven through it. The piece sits on the nail points to dry and the blemishes are tiny and sand out easily between coats. Thanks Phil!

After the staining, I added a few coats of 2# cut shellac, with a little sanding between coats. While the finish coats were drying I turned to the plate and the sex bolts, which I cleaned up and coated with paste wax. I thought about stripping the plate with abrasives to remove the discolorations, but the plate isn't etched, its just screened, so it would have come right off. I decided that a little cleaning with a scotch bright pad was enough.

All set to go

 
I finished up with a coat of dark Bri-wax rubbed in with 000 steel wool, and reassembled the saw. No re-sharpening right now, I've decided to use it a bit and see if it really needs it. A few tests cuts have confirmed that its good to go for now. Not only does this pretty little saw look better, but it feels better in my hand. Not bad for a few bucks at a yard sale a few hours at the bench.

A last glamour shot

Beeswax Wood Polish

So when I make things at the shop, I try to use natural materials whenever I can, and when I sell things, I always use natural materials unless I have a custom request to something different. One of the go-to finishes I use, especially for the smaller items I make, is a beeswax polish. Its really easy to make, and I've seen various of it on the web and elsewhere. Most often I see versions of this polish made with linseed oil or boiled linseed oil, other versions include a little paint thinner, or some other vehicle to make it spread faster (or something.)

 Here's the Moonlight and Snowfall version: 

Beeswax and Walnut oil. That's it.

Small batches work best for me. I grate the beeswax to aid melting.

Walnut oil is an edible oil, that is often sold as a salad oil, or for cooking. Its got a mild walnut odor, and thin consistency, and and soft honey-yellow color. But the important thing to know, is that unlike olive oil, and most other vegetable oils, walnut oil dries. This is a trait that it shares with linseed oil, and some others like tung oil and poppy seed oil. Linseed oil and poppy seed oil are also edible, but obviously need to be labeled as such. Tung oil is not edible and is used mainly as a base for wood sealants and finishes. Boiled linseed oil is another story: unless you boil food grade linseed oil yourself, its not edible, most boiled linseed oil products have added chemicals like petroleum based solvents and metallic driers.

Equal parts oil and wax. Heat together just until the wax melts.

Drying oils go through a process called polymerization. They actually aren't drying as much as curing as they autoxidate when exposed to air. That is, nothing is evaporating, the oil chemically reacts with the air and takes on oxygen, creating long polymer strands and creating a film. The oil actually gets slightly heavier as it takes on oxygen and forms a film. Olive oil, by contrast, won't cure, so if you rub it on your cutting boards and wooden spoons, it may turn rancid.

Let the mixture sit a few minutes until it starts to set.

Beeswax by itself is just too hard to work into the wood. I've tried. I've even finished a table by heating it, pouring it on hot, and then going over it with an old clothes iron to allow it to penetrate the wood surface and then polished it up afterwards. It wasn't worth the effort. Mixing the beeswax with the oil gives the wax a soft-butter consistency, and keep the oils from running all over everything. It works out great.

Stir before stiffens up to keep it soft and spreadable. Note the color change.

I like to measure out the oil in and then add the grated wax directly to the oil so I can see the oil level rise. When it gets to double, I know I'm 50/50 oil and wax. I'm only making about 1/4 cup of polish here, so I microwave the mixture for 30 seconds and watch it. As soon as the wax melts, I stop it and take it out to cool at room temperature.

Move it to container that isn't too big, and seal to keep it soft.

I apply this polish with my fingers, and work it into the wood, and then let it dry. The polish sets up enough to buff it up and add another coat in a few hours. The oil takes longer to dry completely, but the polished items can be handled and even used except for contact with delicate items that may stain or darken if oil were to soak out, so I'd be careful with things like silk or even important papers until the finish is completely dry.

This polish is fun, simple, works great, smells good, and is safe enough to make and use with kids. I get my beeswax from the beekeepers barn at the Topsfield Fairgrounds, here in Massachusetts. You want real, natural beeswax, which also smells great. When I'm done polishing, I rub the excess into my hands. Its great in the winter time, I've even rubbed it on chapped lips. Don't try that with a wood polish you buy in the store!


UPDATE: I made a pretty big batch for this post in April of 2014, and it is now almost December. I've never tried to keep this polish for this long, and its been sitting at room temperature. It doesn't smell as much like fresh roasted walnuts and beeswax anymore, the scent seems to have faded, and it is getting tacky where its in contact with the air inside the jar. If you're planning to make more than what you can use in a few months, it may make sense to keep this polish in the fridge; the walnut oil is perishable. I would recommend smaller batches, made as needed. That's what I'm going to go back to.

Wedge Vise

I have a machinist's vise, which works great, and I've recently made a set of wood jaws for it--maybe I'll point them out in a future post--so I can get by, but what I really needed was a bench vise to hold stock in place for planing, chisel work, etc. so I made this simple wedge vise. Actually, I made two, you can see the smaller, vertical wedge vise mounted to the face of the bench for clamping boards vertically. In the first image, you can see that I have small board tapped into the vise on edge, but an even better idea, would be a third type of wedge vise for working the edges, as shown in this Rockler article.

The draw backs of this system is lack of flexibility. The size of wood these units can handle is based on how far apart the jaws of the vise are set. I tried to pick a size that works for me, but I still end up blocking the vise with scraps to make up the difference in wood sizes.

Using the vise is simple. The stock is placed flat on the bench, with one end against the fixed jaw, and then the wedge is tapped in place with a wooden mallet. To release, just tap on the other end. Once a piece is in the vise, the whole bench will move when the clamped stock is shaken, so it really holds.

I made my vise out of 5/4 pine scrap. The long angle is 15-degrees, if I remember correctly, and its back-cut at 30 to 35-degrees, so that when you tap the wedge in place, it dives in under the fixed jaw and won't work loose. I cut the mated pieces out of one scrap on my compound miter saw, and then just screwed the fixed jaws to the bench. As you can see, my bench is 3/4-inch plywood sheathing on a frame of old 2x framing lumber, so I can beat on it (and screw things to it!)

This system won't take the place of a nice bench vise and some bench dogs, but until the time I get something like that, this is what I'll stick with. Since I took these photos, I've added a few bench dogs to help with clamping different sized pieces, including a set that runs perpendicular, so that I can drop in a scrap, and use the vise for edge work as I mentioned above. So far, so good!

Marking Gauge

So I've been really interested in hand tools recently, but not just hand tools; old school hand tools. It a back-to-basics feeling that's behind it and I like the fact the I'm more closely connected to the work. Not that I'm not connected with power tools is there a joke in there somewhere? its just that all that high speed and high power which works so well, has safety precautions that necessarily separate me from the work, so the work doesn't separate me from my fingers.

That, and its really satisfying to use a smoothing plane to square up a piece of stock that came out of a log 20 minutes ago.

This particular project however has very little of the lately of the log caste, just the birch wedges in the beam and the fence; the former holds the scribing blade in place, and the latter fixes the beam within the fence body. I'm a big fan of wedges.

So this is my first marking gauge, but I don't think it will be my last. I've never owned a marking gauge so just getting used to using it is fun. I've used a sharp knife to mark my work I'm actually working on a marking knife now but the gauge does things the knife and a straight edge can't do, and it does some of the same things, only better.

Long straight marks, parallel to the edge of a board: marking gauge. Square lines across the end of a board a set distance off the end: you could do it with a square and a marking knife but boy is it easy with a marking gauge.

Scrap wood marking gauge

 The fence is mahogany, and the beam is some hard-as-a-rock mystery wood from a pallet I have, and the two wedges are birch, as I mentioned.

The design of the beam is rounded on the bottom, so that when the wedge which runs over the top of of the beam is tightened, the beam is pushed down into the rounded mortise. This keeps the beam from wiggling left to right, as opposed to just top to bottom, which is what a wedge may do if the beam was rectangular. This basic idea I got from Sumokun over at YouTube. Sumokun does some beautiful woodcraft with not a lot of space and no fancy tools. He says it comes from a Popular Woodworking design, based on an old French design. Thanks Sumokun.

I made some additional modifications: I wedged the scoring blade, rather than setting it into the end of the beam with a screw, and I set in a brass plate on the face, to keep the face from wearing. The wedged blade idea came from Steve Emmons, who says he learned how to make his gauge from a Fine Woodworking article. The rectangular mortise in the Emmons gauge is made by assembling the fence from four pieces, and leaving the mortise as a void space, clamped around the beam to insure a tight fit. If I make another one, I may try that, altho the round bottom (made with a 1/2-inch Forstner bit prior to squaring up the mortise) is a nice feature to leave out. I think a similar feature could be had with a beam--and mortise--that is wedge shaped on the bottom

The gauge broken down to its parts

The scoring blade is made from a jigsaw blade: I ground the teeth off, cut it to length and sharpened the end to a short knife point. You can see the detail of the wedge that holds the beam in place in this photo. The little hook on the end keeps it from falling out when loosening the gauge. In fact, its pretty easy to use the gauge one handed, which is pretty nice--and not possible with the thumb screw type.

Wooden Mallet

This blog is the companion to my Etsy Shop of the same name, where I sell buttons, baubles, and other things I make in the shop downstairs. You can find the shop here, if you're interested. If you've come over here from the shop to check out what's going on or if you've stumbled onto this blog from my other blog about books, reading, libraries, and robots, here's what's up: I'm planning on putting up notes about the shop, what I'm working on, and whats working (and what isn't.) Feel free to comment where ever you like, and I'll check in and write back as soon as I can.

In the shop, the things I make I try to keep all natural, so that includes the stains and finishes I use. I love to recycle old wood, but I also try to make sure that it hasn't been treated. For example: pallet wood can be great, but I don't know if its been treated with anything, such as a preservative, or a pesticide, so I won't use it for anything I sell. In fact, I don't use it much at all, as its not something I have ready access to.

I love hand tools, and I'm learning more about them every day, but I also love power tools, and I put them to good use around the shop. I'll probably discuss the tools in a little detail in later posts, but just to get things going, I'll share one of the first tools I made here at the shop.

Moonlight wooden mallet

Check out the wooden mallet; as I said, its one of the first tools I made here at the shop, and I use it for working chisels, and for setting the wedges in my wedge vice--more on the wedge vices later--the head is maple, and the handle is birch. I split the pieces out of firewood I had in the yard.

The head was sawn into three sections, and the center section was cut to remove a wedge shape to support the handle, and then the pieces were glued back together. The handle was shaped and then I added two cuts into the top, slid it into the head, and then added mahogany wedges to expand the handle to fit the wedge shaped recess in the head.

The decorations on the head featuring my initials, were chip carved in with a knife, and then I oiled the entire mallet with walnut oil. Walnut oil makes a great finish, because it penetrates and brings out the grain, but unlike other oils such as mineral oil or olive oil, walnut oil dries. I know boiled linseed oil dries, but that's because chemical and metallic drier are often added. Raw linseed oil will dry eventually, but it takes a long time, and gets tacky in the interim.

If you have any ideas about what I should add here, or what I should try in the shop, or if you just want to say hi, please leave a comment, here or anywhere else around here, and I'll find it.

UPDATE: The mallet post seems to get a lot of hits, so I put together a sketch of the way its put together. Click on the image to blow it up (that's true for all of the images) and if you think it would be helpful for me to post the sketchup model, let me know and I will.

SketchUp model of mallet construction. Let me know if I should post the model