Weekend Sawbench

Pretty cool little bench. Gives me some inspiration for building myself one.

Preindustrial Craftsmanship

A Saw horse or a full-size workbench, for Hobbits?

Living where I do, without a proper workshop, I have moved to a more portable setup.  Along with this, I have pared down by letting go a number of cumbersome tools.  However, a flat, solid surface is sorely missed.

A less messy version of my current shop.

I find myself working on the seat of the shave-horse or on top of saw horses quite a bit with my small table-saw serving as a layout table (when the project is small enough).  And yes, I do miss the full-size table saw for ripping long boards.

Here’s a recent photo of me in my make-shift workshop.

A little over a year ago I began scheming for a small, pre-industrial-style setup.  Something an itinerant carpenter or bodger would be likely to use.  It needed to be easy to move and store but provide a…

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Woodworking by Mike Jarvi

Preindustrial Craftsmanship

This video has it all; raw logs, chainsaw, lumber mill, cutting, chopping, steaming… It’s a remarkable process to watch.

See more of his work HERE: http://www.mikejarvi.com/

WARNING, LOTS OF NOISY POWER TOOLS!

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Rainy Night

I had a chance to steal away about 90 minutes of shop time tonight. The pouring rain on the tin roof of my shop was quite contenting.  Instead of firing up all the loud saws and machinery, I decided to tune-up a couple of my planes and do a little hand work tonight.

The first plane I tuned was my Shelton No.5 jackplane.  I inherited this plane many years ago and it sat unused for sometime. I finally took the time to properly clean and recondition this plane for use.  Tonight all it needed was a little cleaning, a touch-up on the oilstone, and some fresh wax to protect it from rust. This is my favorite plane.  It cuts so easily and makes wonderful shavings, and it is versatile.  I can take rough shavings to rough down sawn lumber or super fine shavings to bring the surface ready for finish.

The next plane is a little Stanley block plane I bought off of eBay almost three years ago for $3.00.  Cleaned it, sharpened it, and put it to work.  Tonight all it needed was a little wax on the sole and it was ready.

I started getting some pieces ready for a display that I’m building for my wife.  I cut the pieces to length, planed the edges square, and laid out for the sockets of the bridle joints.  Overall not bad for a rainy night

Time Kill

Well, time has once again slipped away from me. Saturday was planned to be a partially full workday in the shop, but I barely even got into the shop, much less produce any shavings. I had to make a supply trip to the feed company to restock on chicken and hog feed, then after helping to get the kids ready to go to “The Hangout”, a bi-monthly activity program through our church, I took a phone call from my oldest sister. That call lasted almost an hour, and by then the wind had blown open my new temporary door and broke the makeshift lock. After making the repairs it was about time for the wife and kids to return and for us all to sit down for lunch. After lunch it was off to my uncle’s retirment reception, which lasted three hours!  Back home to watch the boys while my wife and daughter made a Walmart run. I tried to work some then, but about all I got done was cleaning up two handsaws. Then it was baths and bedtime. Sunday was filled with church and getting ready for my birthday party,  Today after work was filled with helping on homework, helping to cook supper, and catching a few guineas to give to my supervisor at work.  Now I’m here, spilling out my last three days.  Probably shoud have went to the shop and chopped out a few wood chips.

Door Frames

Pics I promised of the door frames.

Cabinet Doors Galore!

So, for the past few weeks I have been trying to finsh defacing our kitchen cabinets. But, between my regular job, taking care of surprises, 3 kids, and varying degrees of inclement weather with a partially open shop progress has been slow. I solved the shop problem this past weekend by closing in the rest of the shop and finally building, at least a makeshift, entry door. I did get all the face frames attached and last weekend, Monday, and Tuesday I finished building the frames for the upper cabinet doors. They are rail and style doors with 1/4″ hardware cloth and burlap panels, a Pinterest inspired design. I’ll post some pics later so you get the idea.