The Lost Art Press storefront will be open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. this Saturday, June 11, for those of you who have woodworking questions or would like to browse our complete selection of new books or our limited selection of blemished books.
We’ll also have free stickers, free posters and (I hope) some of Katy’s soft wax for sale at the store.
I’ll be working on a contemporary chest of drawers in some highly figured oak that has some unusual joinery and will be featured in an upcoming issue of Popular Woodworking Magazine. With any luck I’ll be finishing the plinth, which is constructed like a post-and-rung chair.
Just a reminder that we can accept credit cards for all our books except the blemished ones, which are cash only. The store’s physical address is 837 Willard St., Covington, KY 41017.
When I was a beginning woodworker, I tended to buy sets of tools – sets of carving tools, router bits, clamps, you name it. If you bought a set I usually got a bit of a discount and I got the false impression that I was “done” with carving tools once I bought the “set.”
You know where this is going. Sets (except for sets of drill bits) are for suckers.
My first set of chisels were the Marples Blue Chip chisels. I bought the starter set and saved my money to buy every single size the company offered. After a few years of daily use, I realized that I used only three chisels frequently (1/4″, 1/2″ and 3/4″) and one chisel (1-1/4″) infrequently. All the others collected dust instead of making it. But all that dang blue plastic made me feel like I knew what I was doing.
Bench Chisels I am certain that some people need lots and lots of chisels – bevel-edge, firmer and etc.. I am not that person. I would rather have a few perfectly tuned tools than 24 in various stages of dull.
So the three bench chisels I have are Lie-Nielsen A2 socket chisels. They fit my hands perfectly. They have wooden handles. They are lightweight. They are balanced. Everything else is fairly irrelevant in my book. My wide chisel is a Blue Spruce Toolworks 1-1/4″ chisel. Before I had the Blue Spruce I had a Buck Bros. chisel that was too soft for woodworking, which was why it probably was a survivor. Most Buck chisels are outstanding and get used to nothingness.
Other Chisels For mortise chisels, I still have my Ray Iles mortisers. But I have only the 1/4″ and the 5/16″ sizes.The rest I’ve given away to other woodworkers. Those two sizes handle about 100 percent of my hand mortising needs. (Side note: I had a dalliance with the Narex mortisers that did not end well. They were astonishingly soft.) I have a fishtail chisel for half-blind dovetails from Blue Spruce Toolworks. It’s a luxury, but one that I appreciate when making drawers and rabbeted full-blind dovetails for casework.
I thought this blog entry would be longer. After all, we’re talking about chisels. Shouldn’t I have a long list? Apparently not. Let’s talk about striking tools.
Mallets & Hammers I still have my same Blue Spruce 16-ounce resin-impregnated round mallet I’ve had for years. Its head still has only minor marking on it, which is unbelievable. That mallet is an extension of my hand and I cannot imagine replacing it.
I also have a 2-1/4 lb. lump hammer (also called an engineer’s hammer) that I use for mortising, assembly, disassembly, feline discipline and setting holdfasts. You can buy these on eBay or at hardware stores for a pittance. Old ones seem to bounce around a lot less than the new ones. After saying my vows to the lump hammer I got rid of my square-headed wooden mallets, which freed up a lot of space in the chest.
For driving nails, I have two claw hammers: a vintage 16 oz. hammer with an octagonal handle and an 8 oz. hammer with a roundish handle. The big hammer drives nails. The little one drives brads and pins, and it adjusts my plane irons (sometimes in tandem with my round wooden mallet).
Hammers are as personal as knives or things you put in your nether regions. So brand names aren’t going to help you. I say you should handle a lot of hammers; unlike when choosing a mate you are unlikely to catch any diseases. Once you settle on a hammer, switching to another one will result in serious consequences, especially when it comes to your hammerschlager skills.
Other striking tools in my chest include some nail sets (also called “nail punches”), a dowel plate for skinning dowels and drawbore pegs and my shopmark from Infinity Stamps.
— Christopher Schwarz
Part 1 of this series on handplanes can be found here.
Part 2 on saws is here.
Part 2-1/2 on frame saws is here.
Part 3 on marking and measuring is here.
Lie-Nielsen’s shipment of Rivierre die-forged nails have arrived in Maine and the company has started to sell the nails on its website here.
I ordered one box of each size and style to take a look at the blued finish and the hammered-head variants. (Previously all the Rivierre nails I’ve used were black and had the diamond heads.) Yes, I paid full retail. All the nails are very nice. The blue is nice and dark – almost black. The difference is subtle and is something most casual observers would overlook (in other words: either is fine).
If you are looking for a good assortment to begin with, here are some guidelines:
30mm nails: Fastening 3/8”-thick stuff.
35mm to 40mm nails: Fastening 1/2”-thick stuff.
50mm to 55mm nails: Fastening 3/4”-thick stuff.
You’ll probably use 35mm and 40mm nails more than the other sizes. That’s because they are ideal for cabinet backs and bottoms. And once you reduce the thickness of a 3/4” cabinet side to 1/2” for a dado or rabbet, you’ll grab a 35mm or 40mm nail for that joint as well.
In general, the longer the nail, the more fastening power it provides, but the extra length also makes the fastener more likely to split the work or bend to follow the grain. The good news is that these nails are robust and don’t tend to follow the grain much (I have yet to have one wander, which is a significant concern with softer cut nails).
It took a long time for Lie-Nielsen to get these nails, so if you order I would err on the side of ordering a few extra boxes (nails don’t go bad – like chicken).
I have a terrible weakness for marking and measuring tools. Even though most of my work eschews hitting a particular number, I am a sucker for squares, knives and marking gauges. Let’s start with squares.
Squares I have three Starrett combination squares. Two have been with me for 20 years. The third is a new acquisition. My 12” Starrett square was probably the first quality tool I bought when I was hired by Popular Woodworking Magazine. I was terrified by the price at the time – about $65 – but I was hooked after using a fellow employee’s Starrett square.
I also have a 6” Starrett combination square I bought at a flea market for $20 (Cincinnati is awash in machinist tools).
This year I bought a 24” Starrett combination square with the oversized H8 head. It was my reward to myself for finishing “The Anarchist’s Design Book.” With this square and its 24”-long blade I was able to retire my framing square and trade up in accuracy. I would never call this a “must-have” tool. But I’ve always wanted one.
Despite the above, I’m not much of a spokeman for Starrett. The quality of the new stuff seems to be falling lately. I hope it’s temporary.
I also have two squares from Chris Vesper. I have his 7” try square and his fantastic double square (with all the accessory blades). The 7” try square is the ultimate arbiter of squareness in the shop. The double square measures things in places that no other square can go.
Marking Knives I have two marking knives. A Blue Spruce Toolworks knife that is the only tool in my chest that I did not purchase. It was a gift from a reader in Arkansas who was dying and asked me to have it. The handle is some fantastic burl and the blade is, of course, the high quality you expect from Dave Jeske at Blue Spruce.
My other marking knife is a Veritas with a black plastic handle. Despite the plastic handle, it’s an excellent knife and is the tool I use when I am working out of town. I love how it won’t roll off my bench.
Marking Gauges I have four Tite-Mark gauges. I wish had four more. Don’t buy imitators or from people who ripped off Kevin Drake’s work. Your gauge lines will go astray and you’ll get a gypsy curse to boot (and then Marta will have to remove it).
Dividers and Compasses I have two pairs of small dividers from Starrett. One is vintage; one is new. The new one is not in the same league as the vintage one. I also own two Starrett compasses – one new and one vintage. The quality hasn’t slipped on these. These compasses allow you to swap the pencil for a second point, and so they serve me well for large layout chores.
Sliding Bevel Gauges I have two of them, a 7” and 4”, both from Chris Vesper. Before I could afford Vesper’s work, I was a sucker for the Stanley No. 18 butt-locking gauge.
Pencils I use a variety of mechanical pencils and lead holders for rough marking of the material. I also use the fine-lead pencils to accentuate knife lines so I can see them.
Trammels & Odd Bits I finally gave up my grandfather’s Japanese trammels and picked up the Veritas ones. I have wooden shop-made winding sticks, a straightedge and pinch rods stashed in the front chamber of my chest next to my saws. Somewhere in there is also a plastic protractor.
For marking dovetails, I have the Sterling Saddle-Tail. Love it.
And Tape Measures I can’t imagine working without a tape measure on my belt. And I get the funniest looks when I walk into the local hardware store with it. It’s a 12’ Stanley Powerlock – the kind with the metal case. Contractors look at me like I’m wearing a dress or a dominatrix outfit. In our hardware store it’s 50’ or go home.
I also have a few Lufkins floating around that I use when I go to the lumberyard or need to get a rough measurement. But for measuring anything “for keeps,” I use the Stanley. Every tape measure is a little different and a little off from its brothers and sisters.
Next up: Chisels and such.
— Christopher Schwarz
Part 1 of this series on handplanes can be found here.
Part 2 on saws is here.
Part 2-1/2 on frame saws is here.
I don’t know why my brain refused to acknowledge the two frame saws in my chest while I was writing part 2 of this series. So here’s part 2-1/2 of the series on my coping saw and fretsaw.
Ah, now I remember why my brain froze, I didn’t want to revisit the topic of coping saws. I’ve still not found one that satisfies me on all fronts. I’ve tried, cheap, expensive, vintage, yellow and rare. All have some aspect that I don’t like.
So I’ve given up and reverted to the German-made Olson coping saw I bought in 1996 or 1997. It’s been modified significantly, especially the blade-tensioning mechanism, and I’ve stretched the frame. And you can’t buy this saw new anymore. The Olson saw is now made overseas and I’m not a fan of what’s happened to it.
What I can recommend, however, are the blades for whatever coping saw you do end up settling for. I have been very happy with the Pegas coping saw blades, which are made in Switzerland and cut like a dream. And they are tough; I’ve had individual blades last for more than six months.
For fretsaws, I also went full-German. I’ve had an old German jeweler’s saw since the 1990s that tensions blades to a remarkable level. Why? Because I filed grooves into the pads of the blade-clamping mechanism. That improved its grip to “Coach Stan Turnipseed’s Handshake” level on the EU’s fretsaw clamping matrix.
You can find these jeweler’s saws on ebay for $10 to $20. The old ones are better than the new ones. Be sure to get some Pegas blades for these as well.
