For those of you who have raised children, you know that I am not exaggerating when I say that glitter is the herpes of your kids’ craft supplies.
For about a decade, I regularly found glitter on my face and stuck to odd parts of my body. And, if truth be told, I have passed glitter into our county’s solid waste stream.
Today I removed the top layer of flooring from behind the bar.
So today I was starting some new demolition work at our new building and was concerned, nay – alarmed, to find some of the countertops painted purple with gold glitter. Then, as I was pulling up the fake plastic floor at the front of the storefront, I found that the antique heating registers were also glitter-studded.
The front flooring of the storefront. Plastic floor – gone. Tile…. ugh.
I came home tonight and checked myself for glitter, pawing through my furry bits like I was looking for ticks.
So far, I’m clean.
But as I was removing the black curtains from under the bar, I encountered a bad omen. A disco ball – the ovary of the glitter world. It’s ours. Unless you come and claim it.
I have, I must admit, asked Matthew at Workshop Heaven to donate here. I will, where I can afford it, buy tools in, like the panel saws and see if I can upgrade my own tool box. I will then pass one of my saws on to the young person who will get this tool chest. (They only have one more month to apply.) I wanted a No 6 bench plane; what Matthew sent me very kindly was a 5-1/2 Quangsheng. My aim was to look at these planes again. When they first came on the market I reviewed them and was less than happy. They have since revised these planes and they seem to be getting a good place in the market. I am delighted by this. From the point of view of the young maker with shallow pockets, I hate it that good tools are shiny and rosewood decorated, and expensive.
I have got a Lie-Nielsen No 7 in one of the many student tool boxes here that is a strong candidate. It’s in use at the moment so Jon’s No 6 is showing in my images. My comparison is between the Cheap Chinese and the really good Yank.
First a credit to the work of one man. Tom Lie-Nielsen has done more to enable good making to carry on, in my lifetime, than anyone I know. Quite simply he has put tools out there that give you a chance. For years in the 1980s and 1990s I wrestled with steel bananas. Tool-shaped objects created by marketing departments and accountants that challenged anyone attempting to learn to make. What was wrong you, or the tool? That they were patently not fit for function took us some years to establish. I vividly remember one student flattening a Record No. 6 eight times in 12 months and the damn thing was still moving! Tom gave us flat planes, and publicly, I thank you. Veritas followed behind often with “that’s a great solution but what exactly was the problem?” Their contribution should also be applauded. Alan Reid at Clifton gathered the remnants of a destroyed Sheffield tool industry and heroically attempted to enable good affordable bench planes to be made available to us. His forged steel Victor blades were in all planes at Rowden that could be modified to take them. I am desperately sad that these blades are no longer being made and not offered by the new management at Clifton.
The Western bench plane is a precise and complex version of a chisel stuck in a block of wood.
When any bench plane comes into the workshop at Rowden we check the perimeter flatness on a ground granite slab that has been certificated for compliance to almost atomic flatness. I remember it cost me an eye-watering amount of money. They go on this slab and our finest now rather crumpled feeler gauge is tested around the edge. Most planes these days get past this test (or they go back!!). It’s what is going on in middle of the plane surface that concerns us next.
Putting a straightedge across the plane sole from side to side now slip that feeler gauge under the blade in the centre of the plane sole. Tom’s planes generally come out quite well with half a thou being the worst. This we remedy in the time-honoured way with thick sheet glass, checked for flat, well-supported as a surface to work on. We use double-sided tape rather than spray adhesive and #180-grit wet and dry paper and a little water. There should no need to do too much work on the sole to get most of the hollow out. Wearing the abrasive unevenly is a challenge that good technique just about overcomes.
The LN No. 7 was pretty well spot-on, needing a very short dressing, but the Quangsheng showed a good three quarter thou hollow that I told Jon not to spend more than half an hour working on.
The LN No. 7 has a blade and back iron that does a great job. It’s A2 steel, which holds a decent edge for a long time. For stock removal and general work this is a good blade. For final shaving it’s is a little lacking in sharpness. But you would probably not use this plane for that purpose anyway.
The Quangsheng 5-1/2 is a potential finishing plane being small and fitted with a carbon steel O1 blade. I didn’t go and check this plane out as I have a walnut table in my studio being polished. But Jon set it up and got some pretty fine shavings.
In winding this up, to complicate a simple problem. I offer an image of my current bench plane. Chisel in block of wood, but it’s the most sophisticated version of a simple concept. I would not suggest this for the beginner. It’s like driving a Ferrari, you have to be good enough or it will kill you. But I offer it as an idea to those of you who are older and wiser and needing to conserve energy. These light, incredibly sharp tools can be very effective in the right hands. In Summer School I glued up my chest half day after my fastest students, but was able to catch up, by the afternoon, even allowing for glue to set up, as my planes were that much better at final finish.
Thank you Tom, thank you Matthew. Both planes are going in the tool chest for our young furniture maker.
One of the most time-consuming aspects of “The Anarchist’s Design Book” has been making the illustrations ready for Briony Morrow-Cribbs, who is making the copperplate etchings for the book.
After building the piece from my working drawings (which are drawn by hand), I construct a SketchUp version of each project so it accurately reflects what was built – not what was drawn on my working drawings. Things change during the construction process.
Using the SketchUp model, I create a variety of views that can be assembled into a coherent plate. I’m making these look more like early plates, so I’m taking artistic license with the arrangement of the views of the piece – instead of creating a modern engineering print.
Each view of the piece is then cleaned up in Illustrator and then laid out in InDesign (yes, there is the Layout program, but I’m much faster in InDesign).
Then the sample plate and its individual images go to Briony. She then creates a line drawing and we go back and forth on how to show the project’s details and what to shade. After we settle on a line drawing, then Briony can use that to make the copperplate etching.
She’s writing an appendix on the copperplate etching process for the book, but if you’d like to see how she made the etchings for the book “Wicked Bugs,” check out this YouTube video.
After she makes the finished plate, they comes back to me for high-resolution scanning on our big flatbed scanner and some cleanup in Photoshop.
After writing all this out, I question my decision to go down this route. But one thing will make it all worthwhile. When Briony finishes all the plates she’s going to print up 100 sets of the plates and we’re going to bind them, making a mini “Book of Plates” for the book.
Today I finished modeling the Staked Worktable (shown here) and shipped off the sample plate to Briony. I was going to start in on modeling the backstool, but my eyes are swimming from all the screen time. Better to drink a beer and listen to the new Wilco album “Star Wars.”
Popular Woodworking Magazine has just posted a profile I wrote on toolmaker Chris Vesper in 2013. Chris is a fantastic toolmaker in Australia and makes the world’s best sliding bevel, which has saved my coochie many times.
What: Chris and John will answer all your questions about woodworking, LAP books and John’s new career as a tee shirt model.
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