Based in Portland, Ore., Hand-Eye Supply carries a selection of fantastic things for creative people, from drafting and designing supplies to the best selection of workwear I’ve ever found. I own many, many pieces of the stuff they sell. The Edgevale pants are simply the best lower-extremity garment I’ve put on. The Le Laboureur work jacket is on me more than off me.
I’ve not been disappointed by anything I’ve bought from Hand-Eye since discovering the company years ago.
Check them out. Give them your support if you will.
My daughter Katy took over my basement shop for a couple weeks and has made 100 more tins of soft wax that are now for sale in her etsy.com store here.
The wax comes in 4 oz. tins and was handmade by Katy using this recipe.
Katy also will be selling her soft wax at the Lost Art Press storefront this Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. – our address is 837 Willard St., Covington, KY 41011. This weekend we’ll be waxing the inside of a tool chest to show how it works.
Thanks to everyone who has purchased her wax. Helping her start a business is one of the best gifts I can give her for self-reliance as an adult. As a result, this is a learning experience on all fronts. She is still learning about customer service, postage labels, dealing with adults, managing supplies and the like. I’m here to offer advice, but this is her deal. So if it seems a little uneven, that’s why.
We’ve had several questions from readers about this. Why do some people strop and some people don’t? Should we all be stropping? Is stropping outdated? Is it fayrie majik?
Stropping is simple. It’s the polishing of an edge with an abrasive that’s about 1 micron in size. Nothing more.
It’s the same as polishing an edge with a Japanese waterstone that is about #8,000 grit or #10,000 grit. Those stones have an abrasive particle that’s in the neighborhood of 1 micron in size.
(Don’t believe me? Here you can see the Lee Valley Honing Compound is rated for 0.5 micron. And here you can see a Shapton #30,000 grit stone is rated at 0.49 micron. In my experience, neither does a particularly better job than a 1 micron or 1.5 micron surface. Why? Because of the real world.)
So if you sharpen to #10,000 grit and then strop, I would argue that you are doing no harm, but you probably aren’t helping things much – other than extending your break from real work.
Why does stropping exist?
Until the introduction of fine waterstones, natural sharpening stones, such as oilstones, couldn’t polish an edge past a certain point – about #4,000 grit was typical (using the Japanese waterstone system for comparison). So the strop was the way to get the extra polish that makes the edge last a little longer.
Though I use Japanese waterstones a lot, I also have a strop. Why? For carving. With carving tools, I am constantly touching up the edge with a strop to keep the bevel shiny, smooth and keen. (Stoning odd shapes is a drag, so I try to put it off as long as possible.) A strop is an easier way to do this than having a wet waterstone at the bench. Also, a flexible piece of leather charged with honing compound makes it easy to polish up gouges and the like.
So strop. Or don’t. Just know that it’s part of a Western tool tradition and makes total sense with oilstones. With Japanese waterstones, the strop might be superfluous.
I have removed some difficult nails during the last 20 years, including a lot of manufactured cut nails and blacksmith-made wrought nails. Both of these styles of nails always hold much better than modern wire nails, which hold about as well as hot-melt glue or nails made of spaghetti.
But today I had to pull out one of the French die-forged nails from Rivierre Nail Factory. If I had to write a song about it, I’d call it “I Fought the Nail and the Nail Won” by Nine Inch Nails.
Here’s how it began. I was attaching 1/2”-thick poplar backboards to a white oak carcase using the 40mm nails. First I drilled a 1/8”-diameter pilot hole for the nail that was about half the length of the nail. Then I hammered the nail home.
As soon as I finished, I saw my error. The backboard had shifted about 3/16” from where it was supposed to be.
First I grabbed my 3 lb. lump hammer and a beater block and tried to knock the backboard free. After all, it was just one nail holding the backboard in place.
The nail didn’t budge.
I tried to slip a thin cabinetmakers’ pry bar between the backboard and the case to lift the back board.
No dice.
I tried to knock a small crowbar between the back and case with a hammer and some gentle taps so I didn’t destroy the backboards.
No joy.
Then I reluctantly took my Japanese cat’s paw and dug under the nail’s head to pull the nail out by its head. This is always my last resort.
But I couldn’t pull the head up. Even with the 90° leverage of the cat’s paw.
After five minutes of digging around under the head I finally abused the poplar enough that I could lift the backboard enough to get a serious crowbar between the case and backboard.
And with a mighty groan, the nail gave up. But not without cracking the backboard and cracking the shiplap on the adjoining backboard.
I considered replacing this backboard with a new one to hide the evidence of the scuffle. But I decided that showed a lack of respect to the nail. So I fastened the backboard in place, leaving the splits (which are cosmetically minor).
If you haven’t tried these nails, do. They are awesome and inexpensive, even with the international shipping. I’m afraid I do not know of any North American supplier of these nails. If you do, speak up!
Many woodworkers struggle with leveling the front edges of a frameless cabinet. You have grain running at right angles all over the place. How do you get all the front edges flush without spelching the corners and also produce a shimmering, ready-to finish surface?
The trick is to use a little sandpaper to break the edges that can spelch, then plane the joint at an angle that fools the wood into producing a nice finished surface.
To break the edges, I take a piece of worn-out sandpaper and lightly chamfer the corners that could spelch if planed cross-grain. Don’t over-do it. Just a couple swipes will strengthen the corners enough for a couple strokes of planing.
Then level the joint, getting the surfaces almost flush. Here I’m planing a shelf flush to a cabinet sides. When I’m a stroke or two away from flushing the two surfaces, I set the tool for a light cut and skew the plane at 45°. Then I level the joint.
The 45° skew fools the grain of both pieces into producing a clean surface on both the shelf and the side.
After every three or four strokes with the plane, feel the corners to see if the corners you sanded away have become sharp again from planing. Break the edges gently again with paper and continue to work the joint until it looks flush and ready to finish.
Small chamfers made with sandpaper – invisible to the naked eye – can save your butt from spelching in many cases. This is just one example.
