Scrub Plane

  

Eventually, all things merge into one, and a river runs through it. The river was cut by the world's great flood and runs over rocks from the basement of time. On some of those 

Norman Maclean

I watched (or rather rewatched) A River Runs Through It last nite. I am always reminded what a wonderful story that is. My people my ancestors came to Northern Maine because of rivers. They came to Allagash and settled at the confluence of the Allagash and St John rivers to log and drive logs to the paper mills and lumber mills. It was a hard life and the men my ancestors were as tough as their peavey handles. That movie reminds me of that. Even to this day you live upstream or downstream from someone else. Not north or south. Upstream or downstream.  

In the process of moving downstate from Presque Isle to Portland and then back to Presque Isle (another town formed by rivers) I misplaced my scrub plane. I decided to build a new one. Seemed a pretty forgiving plane to build as it is a small step above a hatchet for refinement of cut. 

      I found some plans on line to give a rough idea but didn't follow them too closely. I used the wrong woods (birch for the sole, white ash for the cheeks) from a couple old pieces of firewood and a piece of maple for the tote.  The handle I traced off the Lie-Nielsen jack plane seen here. The front tote I just guessed. Both handles are tenoned into the body which seems solid. 

     Here you can see the curve of the Lie-Nielsen blade and the different woods. 

    The wedge assembly was a little tricky but not ridiculous.  I turned the wedge post and fitted it loosely so it could rotate if need be.  I also planed a small flat on the post; thinking it would better engage the wedge but this was probably overthinking it. The wedge is ash, roughly cut on the bandsaw. I left the saw marks... this is a working tool.

Below you can see the result. I flatten my chair seats a couple different ways. One way involves flattening one face with a scrub plane and winding sticks then marking the correct thickness and planing to that line. 

     The other method involves running a face flat on my jointer which leaves a large step (my jointer is 8" and I typically use 2x10 pine). I then scrub plane off the step and use my surface planer to bring it to final thickness.  I don't think one method is better or worse just depends on my mood and time constraints. 

It is easy to romanticize handplaning over machines. It is equally easy to romanticize the past too. The river still flows but they don't drive logs on them anymore. I'm still glad though that people still use upstream and downstream to delineate our place on earth. 

Sandpaper from Lee Valley

      

     But I would do it all again, every bit of          it.  I would lose him again just to have          him again for an hour, for a minute, 

      for even a second

     Lee Smith, Fried Chicken

If you have never read any Lee Smith I highly recommend her. She is subtle and nuanced. She reminds me of Flannery O'Conner with a little bit (lot bit?) of Bobbie Anne Mason.

While setting up shop again and  looking thru catalogs and websites I stumbled across this 3m sandpaper from Lee Valley that is pretty amazing.

If you've been reading my blog you know that I use sandpaper to sharpen my draw knives.  It's not that I don't think water stones don't work they do. But the narrow blade seems to dish the stones a lot so I spend a lot of time flattening the stones.  So I use a 1½ block of MDF in a machinist vice. A piece of 150 grit sandpaper glued to the top holds the paper on top so I don't need to futz with adhesive when running thru the grits. The paper is available in 15ų and also 5ų (around 1000 grit) and an amazingly fine .5ų (around 6000 grit) which leaves an absolute mirror polish.

In the past I used automotive sandpaper which worked fine and still does but this paper is different.  The 15ų (600 grit) has a really solid backer paper which doesn't rip in my hand held blocks I use when I'm on the horse (see below).

These blocks work ok. Could be better and maybe someday I'll come up with something but
when you're busy well you know.

Sharpening Carving Gouges

She started up her walk. Then she seemed to remember something and came back to look at him with wonder and curiosity. “Are you happy?” she said. “Am I what?” he cried. But she was gone—running in the moonlight. Her front door shut gently.

Ray Bradbury, Farenheit 451

So confession time. I'm not a great carver and its not something I particularly enjoy.  I also have to admit to using rasps more than I care to admit. And while I'm not very good at carving I am, or rather was, not very good at sharpening carving gouges. As I have stated before my goal in sharpening is speed and repeatability.  I sharpen to get back to work. Unlike Abe Lincoln I derive no pleasure from sharpening.  That having been said it's important to not sharpen because you don't like to.

So I don't even know what rabbit hole I was down when I saw how you can use the little Tormek holder to sharpen carving gouges using their tool. Which is great but it is spendy and I'm pretty happy with my methods but it did plant the seed of how to adapt my Veritas strip sander to their guide bar.

I bought the guide bar from Tormek (actually sharpeningsupplies.com) and after some head scratching and hole drilling it works amazingly well. This is the position of the gouge and the best part is the belt is running away from the edge so you can't tear the strip. I run the tool all the way from 15ų (about 800 grit) to 5ų (about 2000 grit and they are scary scary sharp. Just amazingly sharp. It's super simple too. Just put the gouge in the holder up to the ferrule and use a magic marker to color the bevel and check the point of contact. Once it's good lock the bar in place and run thru the grit. Super simple and repeatable.

Here's my latest chair, a Contemporary rocker, waiting for paint. Really happy the way this one came out.

Rolling Pins

The only travelling I've ever done is going around the coffeepot looking for the handle.

Annie Proulx, Brokeback Mountain


If you've never read any Proulx I highly recommend Close Range and The Shipping News.

In these strange days due to a layoff at work I decided to build a shop and start with chairs again.

In the spirit of giving back (and in an attempt to get the dust off my very dusty turning skills) I am making some French rolling pins.

The giving part is as follows.  You contact me that you want a pin or two and upon receiving the pin you then send a donation to a local charity. I think in these crazy days I think its important to give back.

I normally use Maple planks that I  bandsaw to size but in the process of my gypsy caravan the last 5 years I could only get logs.

This is basically turning firewood hence the chainsaw helmet and gloves. I have a clear face shield but I prefer the helmet. I find the clear shield gets dusty too easily. 

Feel free to contact me thru my email at cterrancekelly@gmail.com if you want a pin.