Monday, March 10, 2014

A bunch of stuff that happened over the last month or so...


So, the knife a made a few posts back had a little problem. After talking to Keith, he educated me on the fact that if my pin holes aren't perfectly aligned the scales will split.

I eventually removed the old scales, and drilled a new hole for the front pin.

Thanks again Keith for the idea to use some 1x1 to build a little drilling jig.

New scales from some scrap wood. Not sure what kind, but i made sure the grain was running the length of the handle instead of "north-south".






Not my favorite, but they will do. I'm honestly just sick of this knife and want to move on to new projects.

Some new stuff around the shop.

Installed a small vise on the front of my bench. didn't bother to make it flush with the bench top and side like I planned because we will be moving soon and I doubt the bench will make the trip.

Here it is holding what would become my mallet handle.



drilled a hole in my anvil's base to hold the hot cutter, but the old wood was SO impregnated with bits of steel that it broke and warped my spade bit!

New shop addition, an old, abused Makita 8in table saw. Picked it up for $25. Seems to work just fine.




Another new addition, small Craftsman toolbox. Got it dirt cheap as well. Been looking for toolboxes forever, but didn't want to spend hundreds (many are thousands!) of dollars.

Great book I'm reading. More a meditation on woodworking and crafting than the "how-to's" I have been reading prior to this.










Saturday, March 1, 2014

The Woodblight's Workshop Ep.2: Stanley No. 81

Old Stanley No. 81 cabinet scraper I found at an antique store yesterday for $10!

Couldn't wait to start rehabbing the old fellow so I don't have any pictures of the rusted out mess it was. This is a picture I found on the internet, it was quite a bit rustier than this.

Gave it a 24hr bath in "Evaporust" a non-toxic, biodegradable, all natural rust remover I found. It worked alright, but stunk to high hell. This picture is after a few hours of hand sanding.

Polished it up on the buffing wheel with some Jewelers compound. Came out alright, but I'm thinking of sand blasting it and maybe powder coating it. Also have to replace the rosewood sole as it was badly cracked, although i have it glued and clamped, maybe it'll turn out salvage-able.


Thursday, January 23, 2014

Bird feeder

Made this little tray feeder today

Started out by truing up some scrap wood

The laser guide on my circular saw helped alot on this step

Mitered some 1"x1" for a frame

Mocking it up

Gluing the frame down

Tried to bore out some little log pieces I had lying around. Ended up splitting all but one.

So, I had to cannibalize an old feeder I had made. Woodpeckers killed it anyways.

Laying it out.

Filled the logs with suet and the base with seed. Finished it off with some chain.

Wednesday, January 22, 2014

Shop stuff


Made this from an old belt.

Tried out the jointer/planer

If nothing else, it makes great tinder!

Monday, January 20, 2014

From file to knife

 Started with a file just like this one

Cut out a blank with an angle grinder

Roughed out my grind angle free hand on a bench grinder

Cut out scales of cherry

Cutting 1/8in brass rods for pins

Ready to glue scales to the knife

 Waitin for the epoxy to dry




Sanding down the scales with belt sander, rasp, and file


Rounding into shape

First coat of linseed oil

Polishing the blade with 2000 grit wet/dry paper

Shiny!



Two of my favorite knives

The knife that inspired my design, Horace Kephart's knife

Sigh, there goes my nice clean workshop. All this from just putting the scales on.