Tag Archives: Woodworking

Toiling away

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The last several weeks have been consumed with building a final batch of folding stools (for now).

This time, I experimented with red and blue aniline dyes on birch since that’s the whitest wood I could find that was reasonably priced and suitable for furniture. Blue was shockingly effective—at getting blue everywhere. This stuff comes as a powder that can be best described as smoke. It’s that fine. Mixing just 2.5 grams into a pint of alcohol gets you the business end of a box of Sharpies in a jar.

The red wasn’t quite as saturated, although it also comes as a very fine powder that, when mixed up, was deep blood red. I was a little less careful with the red, and now my junky workbench (where we do tool cleaning and sharpening) looks like I butchered a large animal or something. Meh. It’s not my good workbench.

After the dye dried, I experimented to find the best next step. I usually start with shellac since it’s so forgiving and nearly non-toxic. But it’s solvated in alcohol, which reactivates the dye and creates a HUGE mess. The best solution turned out to be an oil-based sanding sealer. 

Once the dye is safely sealed, you must sand (duh) because the previous operations have raised the grain. Then, on to a varnish (with a different brush because the one you used for the sanding sealer step will have some dye contamination). When that dries, it will look like shit. That’s OK. It takes more than one coat. So, now we sand and varnish until it stops looking like crap.

Usually, three coats do it. Between coats, there is a 6-8 hour drying time, and since these pieces don’t have an “inside,” that’s six varnishing sessions. Hence, all the whining about my small shop totally blocked up with this.

I made one red and one blue. For some contrast, the top and bottom rails are yellow. That was achieved with a couple of coats of amber shellac and then a top coat of varnish on birch. Maple would also work.

Below are some pictures. The stripy one is not dyed. It is bubinga and curly maple with a varnish top coat. Finishing these dyed stools is way too much work, so I am unlikely to do it again.

 

New Tool Post #4 — Get a Grip

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The next new tool I want to talk about isn’t really new, even to me. It’s this Sears RoboGrip self-adjusting pliers. Looks like a gadget of dubious value, but it works really well. I’ve had  pair of these for…many years. My mother was a master at finding tool gifts that even tool users don’t have, but are still useful. Off the top of my head I can think of at least 4 of these Christmas gifts over the years that were so useful I still have them and regularly use them.

Robogrip Pliers

Robogrip Pliers

At a recent, “tool and equipment” auction (we call it a junk auction) I came across a box lot that had two of these larger sizes in it and in basically unused condition. Easily worth the $5 for the box just for a couple more of these guys. Now I don’t have to agonize over where to keep them, in the office where I process tools for sale, or in the shop where Things Get Done, or in the truck because in a pinch it’s better to have a versatile tool.

It’s not a perfect tool, the teeth are aggressive and will leave marks. They have a limited effective range on the lower end. They do close down all the way, but they aren’t great on small things, you really need to shift to the smaller size of these things. They also make a worse then average hammer. With the laminated construction, they are very strong, but light, sadly.

One of the fascinating things about dealing with old tools is seeing all the different ways people attempted to solve a common problem before settling on the kit we use today. I have a thick book just of the patented (in the US) adjustable wrenches. From roughly 1830 to about 1930 hundreds of solutions to an adjustable wrench were patented and certainly two or three times as many were produced. Now, we have just a handful of winners: Crescent wrench, pipe wrenches, and a couple types of adjustable pliers.

Anyway, if you see a pair of these somewhere, pick them up, you won’t be disappointed.

Finally, a useful (woodworking) rule

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Back in March, 2021, I posted on Facebook:

“Dear Starrett, please make one of these in Grad 4-1. The End.”
 
I have two of these little 6″ Starrett No. 604 Rules. One I keep in my shop apron and one on the bench. They are super useful. But they could be even better.
 
These (and nearly all rules of this sort) are marked in what’s called Grad No. 4. That means one side is 8ths and 16ths. The other side is 32nds and 64ths. The precision of 32nds and 64ths is useless for woodworking. So the rule is basically one-sided.
 
But having 8ths and 16ths running right to left on the reverse side would be really great and something that I would use all the time. There is a designation for that, Grad No. 4-1.
 
Sadly, I am not aware of anyone producing a rule in that format. If anyone knows of somewhere that does, please let me know.

 

I am happy to report that someone has taken up the challenge and produced (well, contracted with some Chinese factory) just such a rule. Behold:

A Useful Woodworking Ruler

Front view: Starrett No. 604 (top) Taylor Tools rule (bottom)
A Useful Woodworking Ruler (Back)

Back view: Starrett No. 604 (top) Taylor Tools rule (bottom)

Taylor Toolworks markets these in 6″ (rigid & flexible) and 12″ (rigid) sizes and in black or satin chrome finish for $5.99 (6″) and $7.99 (12″). Pictured here is a further variation on the 6″ only with end grads. You can find them here. Under the same moniker (Benchmark Tools™) they also sell a variety of 4R and 5R rules for the more machinist-inclined people, also for quite reasonable prices.

I snagged 2 of the rigid 6″ chrome finished rules and have replaced my Starrett No. 604 4R rules. No, they can’t touch the quality of these vintage Starrett rules, but they are graduated in 1/8ths and 1/16th on both sides and that’s what I need for woodworking. Hell, my eyesight is such that 1/64ths is a comically unusable scale anyway.

So, I sold off my Starretts for $25 each, because, Starrett. These were keepers from “a box of machinist tools” at some auction or other. Meaning they cost averaged price was like $1, not the $60 a new Starrett would have cost, or $20-$40 they run on eBay. 

Some folks avoid Taylor Toolworks (TT) on ethical grounds as they’ve played fast and loose with the IP of a couple small US-based tool makers. For example, they market an inexpensive ($37) knock-off of the excellent Tite-Mark Marking Gauge made by Glen-Drake Toolworks and sold by Lie-Nielen ($129).

Seeing that it’s sold by (LN) should tell you that 1) it’s a high quality tool and 2) it’s not cheap. And both of those are true. I have 2 of them. Superficially and functionally the TT version is the same. But pick up the Glen-Drake model and you’ll never touch the TT version again. It’s everything you expect from LN: extremely well-made, attractive and highly refined, a tool that’s a joy to use. The TT version is everything you expect from a Chinese version: functional, but unrefined. Sharp knurling for instance.

Given that, why do business with them? They carry a very large selection of specialty woodworking tools that either you can’t get anywhere else, like these rules. Or, are hard to find, usually due to small volumes. So, I avoid the knock-off and get what I need, YMMV.

New Tool Post #2 – Carved Plane

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The next tool I want to show off is this little chip carved smoothing plane. I saw this in an auction and had to have it. Normally, I strongly avoid purchases like this. Buying too much for myself sucks the money out of the business and collecting tools that I don’t plan on using is the kind of behavior I normally mock (and is what ultimately makes this business worthwhile).

However, no matter who bought this plane, it was never going to see wood again. To me, personalized functional tools are the height of hand tools. The ultimate pushback against the industrialized production mentality that robbed both woodworking tools and furniture of their souls.

I am not sure what this is made of, mahogany is my guess. It’s about 10″ long, has a 1-3/4″ single iron. You can’t quite tell in my photos, so I’ve added one from the auctioneer’s catalog, but it has a radiused sole. The style is Continental European, which is not my area (Anglo-American), so I find it hard to date this one, my guess is the late 1800s.

Chip Carved Smoothing Plane
Chip Carved Smoothing Plane (approx. 10″ long)
Chip Carved Smoothing Plane Top View
Chip Carved Smoothing Plane Top View
Chip Carved Smoothing Plane -- MD
Chip Carved Smoothing Plane (Catalog View)