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 Is stropping outdated?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.
Rose hip, oak leaves and acorns, sweet briar rose (eglantine) and sunflower. “With sweet musk-roses and with eglantine…”
Many English misericords have a central carving with a ‘surround’ to either side. The surround may have additonal figures that add to the central theme or they may be purely decorative. Maybe because it is May and I want to be in the garden I’ve been plucking the blooms from the foliate surrounds and trying to identify some of the flowers.
For the carver, beginner or advanced, here is your misericord flower and foliage inspiration board.
Wyvern (dragon) with foliage surrounds, early 16th c., Manchester Cathedral.
The flowers to each side of the wyvern could be woodbine, also known as honeysuckle. “Quite over-canopied with luscious woodbine…”
More oak leaves, thistle, dianthus, wild rose, maybe an iris, stylized flowers.
Ivy? Thistle? Clover? Beech leaves and nuts, rabbit.
Rose hip and Tudor rose in the center…this could take a while.
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!
Rose hip, oak leaves and acorns, sweet briar rose (eglantine) and sunflower. “With sweet musk-roses and with eglantine…”
More oak leaves, thistle, dianthus, wild rose, maybe an iris, stylized flowers.
