Saturday, November 14, 2009

New Gets

I was in Lee Valley last week, and I bought their new Miniature Shoulder Plane.

It comes in a fitted case, and includes a corrosion inhibiting foam pad.









It worked very well straight out of the box, and even better after a honing.



Did I say miniature?



I like this plane. It's very fingertip controllable. It's well dressed, the stainless steel body well polished. The sole shows faint machine marks, but I haven't removed them and probably won't. The controls are minute to the point of difficult to use, but that's the point. I would have like to have seen the trademark knurled brass fittings or the Veritas logo somewhere, but the $31.50 tag cancels all complaining. A Canadian made plane at that price is remarkable at any size.

Lee Valley has reported no layoffs during the recent economic downturn. That coupled with the somewhat bizzare nature of this plane makes me wonder if this was a make work project. Stanley did it in the 30's when people were kept on to paint plane frogs orange.


There is one problem with a tool that looks like a toy.

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

New Gets

Barry (The Dude) over at owwm.org recently completed his second run of machinery manufacturer mugs.

I bought three this time, a Walker-Turner, a Yates-American, and a Crescent.



I got a little fancy with the Yates mug, the reverse features my photo of my Y20's stripped down logo plate.



Dollar for dollar, I think that the top production enhancing tool in the shop is a cup of strong coffee.

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Krenov Plane

I made myself a wood smoother last week.

I used the vacuum bag to laminate a Lignum Vitae sole to the Cherry body.





I bandsawed the cheeks off, then cut the ramps on the mitre saw.



I'm making a pair, exactly the same, but one with a standard bed angle of 45°, and one at the Norris angle of 55°.

I lapped the iron bed with sandpaper on granite, working my way up to 220 grit. Checking it with a square as I worked it kept it perpendicular to the sides.



I tricked it out with an ebony wedge and crosspin. For kicks I treated the cheeks like a piece of marquetry,the circle in ebony, the three in lignum. It's the same length as a Stanley #3

Assembled:



And working:



I'm pleased with the results, the BEM in that photo came out like glass.

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I'm a woodworker on the Canadian prairie.