Comments for Badger Woodworks

Comment on A new Chris Schwarz workbench book… by Badger

Badger — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 23:13:50 +0000

D’oh! Thanks Dave, I fixed the mistake. I wasn’t sure when I wrote the original post, I just should have checked.

Comment on A new Chris Schwarz workbench book… by Dave Lang

Dave Lang — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 23:04:41 +0000

There is no “t” in Schwarz.

Comment on Italian carpenters tools from 1574 by Badger

Badger — Sun, 15 Aug 2010 07:12:17 +0000

I get the real sense of it being a pulled plane too. With the iron bedded so far back like that.

Comment on Meet the Thundergod by Badger Woodworks» Blog Archive » Sawbench

Badger Woodworks» Blog Archive » Sawbench — Sun, 15 Aug 2010 07:10:57 +0000

[...] knot in one of the forward notches, but I was able to work though it with a few good whacks of the big hammer. I angled everything at 10 degrees, like in the plan, set my sliding bevel gauge to that from a [...]

Comment on Italian carpenters tools from 1574 by Badger

Badger — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 06:32:44 +0000

Yeah, I noticed the angle, it does appear to be very acute. I’ll bet you’re right on the angle, or close enough.

I was looking at the planes of the Mary Rose, and they are all over the map in terms of manufacture since standardized shapes were not quite set yet. The planes showed the individual tastes of the maker. What strikes me is how similar these two are. And that cut out handle in the front screams roman. Although the examples I’ve seen have had the cutout on both ends.

Curious stuff.

badger

Comment on Italian carpenters tools from 1574 by Dave

Dave — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 03:10:44 +0000

Looking at the picture, you can just make out the ark sitting on the mountaintop in the background, and Noah presumably making a sacrifice at a burning altar (the sun serendipitously shining down on him), while the rest of the family unpacks, prepares a meal, and builds a new home. Just my take from what I saw.

The tools are interesting though, especially the plane. I don’t believe it was a block plane, nor a mitre plane. I suppose that the plane was influenced by Asia. After all, it was the expoits of Marco Polo and others from Italy that helped cement the Silk Road, and doubtless that pasta and silk were not the only things they brought back with them that the Italians made their own. The toe of the plane seems to have some deep indentations for grip, leading me to think that it was pulled rather than pushed. Just a thought.

Comment on Italian carpenters tools from 1574 by Jay

Jay — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 01:35:16 +0000

I think it’s a mitre plane or proto-block plane. I’ve often thought that shooting edges would be best accomplished with a plane that has a lo-o-o-ng toe before the iron for registration, like a Japanese plane. But do you see anything like that in western wood working? Only in old pictures like this. Also note the angle–it’s more acute, like 30 degrees.

Comment on Dovetailed Box – Practice by Jay

Jay — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 02:35:24 +0000

You can plane those pins & tails flush with a jack plane too sometimes, not unlike shooting an edge. But I’d plane sort of toward the panel and from the outside in, so there’s less chance of tearout on the very tippee edges. Again, pine seems to be less cooperative than other woods in this regard, as far as I can tell. Using a jack would also have the benefit over & above those conventional (non low-angle) block planes in that the handles give you a little extra control. On the other hand, a low-angle block is much better for the end grain.

Though I’ve never seen it, I like the idea of using yellow poplar–I’ll keep my eye out for it next time I go shopping for wood at my specialty source. It’s not something we get at our local BORG here in the northeast.

Comment on Dovetailed Box – Practice by Brian

Brian — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 04:59:56 +0000

Yellow-poplar is quite nice to work with (in particular, it tends to be remarkably consistent), but you still need to be pretty careful to avoid crushing the fibers and avoiding tearing out the endgrain. It’ll challenge the sharpness of your tools, but a little less so than pine. I like to work with both more and more these days–it’s certainly a lot more pleasant than the beech I’ve used for my last two projects!

One of the nice things about yellow-poplar is that you can typically get it really cheap at hardwood lumberyards (it’s a blast to dimension by hand). It not only makes a great secondary wood, but can be used for all sorts of other pieces. Soft maple might not be so bad for practice, either.

Comment on Dovetailed Box – Practice by Badger

Badger — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 04:35:28 +0000

Yeah, I’ve read about that trick. It’s sometimes called the “140 trick” a lot. It’s called that because the 140 block plane can be a skew rabbet if you take the side off. I want one, but they are hard to find.

I was trying to plane the proud wood, and splintered off some parts of the wood. D’oh! I gotta be more careful I guess. I glued them back on, and I’ll try again later. This is why it’s called a practice box! But I got 2 corners planed flush before I screwed the third, so I just need to more carefully next time. I have a small block plane, a stanley 9 1/2 or 60 1/2 not sure which right now. It’s one of the ugly eggplant purple ones, but it’s also one of my better sharpened planes, so it’s a big asset to me right now.

I have done one this with Poplar, I did a mortise and tenon joint when I took Roy Underhill’s class on joinery this spring. I remember what it being like you describe. The wood was very different to chisel than pine, for sure. I’d forgotten about it till just now.