Furniture maker Phil Lowe once showed me two 55-gallon barrels filled with clear stuff that looked like sand. He got the barrels from a factory that made gummy bears (I think he said the factory went out of business). Anyway, he used the stuff in the barrels – gelatin – to make his hide glue.
Since that day I’ve had the following stuck in my head: gummy bears = hide glue.
Today I decided to see if I could reverse-engineer the process and turn gummy bears into hide glue.
I bought a package of Haribo Goldbears gummy bears from the gas station up the block from Roy Underhill’s school. I put them in a cup with a little water and put the cup into his hide glue pot.
An hour later, the bears had melted and stirred like thin hide glue (I might have added a little too much water). Gummy bears are not just pure gelatin, of course. They have a lot of sugar and other stuff in them. But despite all this negative information running through my head, I had a question…
Does it stick?
I painted some Gummy Glue on a piece of poplar and performed a rub joint. The glue tacked right up with some nice pink squeeze-out. After 10 minutes, the stuff gelled up. The joint looks promising (right now).
I’ll let the joint sit overnight to see how strong it is.
Whenever Megan Fitzpatrick and I pass through West Virginia, we make a stop at Tamarack Marketplace in West Virginia for gas and a look at the furniture and crafts.
Some years we are wowed by… how do I put this?…. what people will pay good money for. Other years there is a balance of beauty and future firewood. This year was one of those good years.
We saw a lot of epoxy tables. (I promise you that this form has a half-life and will not endure. In fact, we might be entering the Late Epoxy Period.) But we also saw some nice pieces of work. You might think I’m joking, but I almost bought a Crown Royal-themed quilt.
Below are some of the photos I took, along with some occasional snark. If you have ever wondered if Tamarack is worth a stop, the answer is yes.
— Christopher Schwarz
I am unapologetic about my dislike for this epoxy stuff. I am certain it will start showing up in landfills in short order. Because of the epoxy, you can’t really burn it when you get tired of it.
We saw a couple nice Maloof-ish rockers. Good craftsmanship. This one was $3,900 – I couldn’t make it for this price.
A couple displays had incredible wooden facsimiles of tools. These are all wood. They are amazing.
Ahh, the firewood section of Tamarack.
The quilt I wanted.
It’s rare that I like a piece such as this. But this one was done quite well.
Jack planes are the most-used tool in my hands. Hands down, hands forward and hands back. I’m on my third jack plane iron since 1996. I’ve never even come close to wearing out a plane iron for a smoothing or jointer plane.
(I have eaten through some block plane blades, though I blame that on carpentry jobs and nails.)
When students ask for my recommendations for a jack plane, my first recommendation is a vintage Stanley No. 5. I have an old Type 11 from around the turn of the last century. Rosewood knob and tote. Beautiful lightweight casting. Just perfect.
But a lot of students are unwilling to take my advice. They have good reasons.
They don’t have the skill or time to fix up an old plane.
They are afraid that a vintage plane bought through the mail will be a POS.
They don’t know enough to buy a vintage plane.
They just want a tool that works without any fettling. Sharpen and go.
So here’s what I tell them: Get the Lie-Nielsen No. 62. What is sometimes called a low-angle jack or bevel-up jack. Here is my reasoning.
A jack plane should be fairly lightweight and simple to use. The Lie-Nielsen No. 62 fits that bill. It doesn’t have a frog, chipbreaker or lateral-adjustment lever. This keeps down its weight, its complexity and its price.
So what are we talking about when we discuss the weight of jack planes? Here are the ones we have in our shop, from lightest to heaviest.
Wooden jack plane: 4 lbs. 1 oz. Stanley No. 5: 4 lbs. 6 oz. Lie-Nielsen No. 62: 4 lbs. 10 oz. Veritas No. 5: 5 lbs. 4 oz. Lie-Nielsen No. 5: 5 lbs. 8 oz.
In use the wooden jack, the Stanley and the No. 62 all feel about the same. Once the tool tops 5 lbs., I notice the increased weight.
I know some experienced woodworkers don’t like the low-angle/bevel-up planes. But I have found that beginners really take to them. Likely because they are simple to set up. (There are other makers of the No. 62-style plane, including Veritas, Wood River and a variety of offshore white-label brands. I’ve used the Veritas and can recommend its quality, but it is heavy. The other brands I don’t have any experience with. Avoid the modern Stanley No. 62. I have yet to use one that didn’t have a fatal error in its bed machining.)
So why not a wooden jack? I love wooden jacks, and there are some great makers of new jacks out there. It’s difficult to recommend a vintage wooden jack for a greenhorn woodworker because the tool might need a lot of work. Heck, it might need something only a fire can offer.
So my recommendation is based on my desire to get a student going with the minimum amount of fussing with them before class, at lunch and at night.
And when three students show up with this plane, I know I have offended the woodworking gods somehow and must make a sacrifice to appease them.
— Christopher Schwarz
P.S. Scrub planes are too short for the jointing operations I ask of a jack, and its iron has too much curve for my taste. I’m sure that if I started in the craft with a scrub I would love it. But I didn’t. And so I don’t.
Barely in time for Christmas, we have a batch of our Special Edition Engraved Lump Hammers in the store and ready to ship. This will likely be the last batch before the end of the year.
The engraving was designed by Jenny Bower and translated into really fluid toolpaths by machinist Craig Jackson – a real group effort. The result is a pleasure to hold and use.
Every year Lucy and I give what we can to a variety of charities. We are picky. Lucy has spent most of her career covering the societal safety net here in Cincinnati. She knows these charities inside and out.
She has taught me to be careful as well. We do our research. And look at the records that charities file each year (here’s a primer).
The following woodworking organizations are ones I have supported for years with my dollars. If you are interested in supporting charitable woodworking organizations, here are some to consider.
I know that some of you will try to look for a political message in these choices. There is none. I will do anything to open the doors for anyone who wants to enter the craft. The best way to ensure the survival of our craft is to widen the net.
I have supported this foundation, which is affiliated with the Marc Adams School of Woodworking, for 20 years. The foundation funds a variety of scholarships, from strictly need-based to military to young woodworkers.
Based in the UK, Pathcarvers offers hands-on training for a variety of students, including those in drug and alcohol rehabilitation, those using mental health services, low-income families and prisons. You can help fund their work through the Kieran Binnie Fund for Craft, a fund that we helped launch with Jojo Wood and Sean, her husband.
Run by Rob Cosman, the Purple Heart Project provides woodworking training to wounded veterans. You can donate via this page. All donations go 100 percent to help veterans.
A Baltimore-based workshop program that provides training and support for woodworkers who are women or non-gender conforming. WOO offers a wide variety of courses and Open Shop Hours. You can donate here.
This Los Angeles-based organization provides training and work for people experiencing homelessness or poverty. People in the program make a variety of objects for sale in the Would Works store. You can donate here.
This organization helps support new chairmakers and toolmakers who have traditionally been excluded from the craft because of their gender, race or other factors. We sponsored a scholarship class here this year and will hold another class in 2023. You can donate money or tools here.
This unique organization provides good-sense training to farmers all over the world. They offer classes in everything from managing draft animals to blacksmithing to timber-framing. The classes are both here and abroad. You can donate here.
