{"id":1155,"date":"2021-01-24T15:44:31","date_gmt":"2021-01-24T15:44:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.talesfromtheboatshed.com\/?p=1155"},"modified":"2021-01-24T15:44:31","modified_gmt":"2021-01-24T15:44:31","slug":"two-completed-projects-and-some-vintage-tools","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.talesfromtheboatshed.com\/?p=1155","title":{"rendered":"Two completed projects, and some vintage tools."},"content":{"rendered":"\n

It’s great to complete a project, and I ‘finished’ a couple of items this week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First off, a wine\/port bottle coaster for a friend who wanted a memento of his tour in Afghanistan, as part of Operation Herrick. Here, the ‘finish’ is Hampshire Sheen – a crystalline wax, that gives a superb shine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The second, an oak box, with a mahogany drawer pull. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Apart from the initial dimensioning of the stock, this box is made with hand tools only – no noisy, dust-producing power tools!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Here, the ‘finish’ is several coats of shellac, cut back with 0000 wire wool, and then National Trust Furniture Polish, applied with the wire wool, and buffed to a satin sheen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I obtained some vintage tools this week, that had belonged to a shipwright\/joiner. There are some real gems, that I will enjoy putting to good use:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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An adze is a superb tool for shaping large timbers – with care! I used one during the Tudor boatbuilding module of my boatbuilding course. In skilled hands, it produces an amazingly flat surface. I am not expecting to find a use soon, but you never know!!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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A vintage wooden router, often referred to, disparagingly (and chauvinistically) as a “old woman’s tooth” or “hag’s tooth” router. Its blade is stamped Moore and Wright 1952 and has a broad arrow mark (made for the MoD). The wide blade will make it a useful addition to my hand routers.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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I have been hoping to get one of these Preston spokeshaves – they look so nice!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I love spokeshaves, and have a collection of vintage Record, Stanley and wooden spokeshaves. They are very useful tools and I used a spokeshave to do the round-overs on the lid and base of the oak box, and to shape the drawer pull.
Spokeshaves are a great starter tool to introduce young children to using hand tools – I very much look forward to being able to teach my grandson (and granddaughter in due course) to use a spokeshave, when Covid rules allow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the collection were several wooden planes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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This is a 22 inch long 19th century beech Jointer plane. The sole is beautifully smooth and flat, and has clearly been both well-used and cherished.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Moulding plane<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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A smoothing plane<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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A pretty rare wooden compass plane<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Plough plane – used to cut cut grooves for panels, drawer bottoms etc.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Rebate\/rabbet or fillister plane, this one has a metal sole. Used along the grain.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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A more unusual, skew-bladed fillister\/rabbet plane – skew bladed because it has a small skewed blade in the middle of the plane, that acts as a side wall cutter, severing the fibres in front of the main blade, allowing this plane to be used across the grain.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The more complex wooden planes in particular were the high end tools of the trade, and were prized possessions of the craftsmen of the time. Many such tools are – like these – stamped with the name of the owner. The quality of the workmanship, produced with these ‘old fashioned’ tools could be superb, matching or exceeding that from modern machinery. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The quality of the steel used in vintage, especially pre-WW2, tools exceeds much of that later produced, though a renaissance in tool making in recent years has resulted in high quality steel being used in the more upmarket brands. It’s a shame that standards slipped in the mid 20th century.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A good example of the changing quality of steel, is the mass production of hardened steel saws, that cannot be readily sharpened, creating the modern day practice of throwing away a saw when blunt. In contrast, the preceding vintage saws are often made of high quality steel, and are well-worth refurbishing and sharpening. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Amongst the collection of tools I picked up this week were a few such saws:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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From top: steel-backed tenon saw, rip-cut hand saw, cross-cut hand saw, and cross cut panel (shorter, to fit in the panel of a tool chest) saw.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The seller of these tools, which had belonged to his father and grandfather, was keen that they be passed on to someone who will value and use them, which I will certainly do. And I have promised him that I will donate to IBTC any which are surplus to my requirements, for the use of the students there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meantime, I shall enjoy doing a bit of research on these tools and giving them a refurb. I have bought a couple of new triangular saw files, and will have a go at sharpening these saws for use.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Fine and extra-fine saw files.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s great to complete a project, and I ‘finished’ a couple of items this week. First off, a wine\/port bottle coaster for a friend who wanted a memento of his tour in Afghanistan, as part of Operation Herrick. Here, the ‘finish’ is Hampshire Sheen – a crystalline wax, that gives a superb shine. The second,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.talesfromtheboatshed.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1155"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.talesfromtheboatshed.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.talesfromtheboatshed.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.talesfromtheboatshed.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.talesfromtheboatshed.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1155"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.talesfromtheboatshed.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1155\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.talesfromtheboatshed.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1155"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.talesfromtheboatshed.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1155"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.talesfromtheboatshed.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1155"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}