Thread: Who else finds small/miniature tools useful?

How small is too small?

Quite a few years ago, I made a small saw with a 160mm blade to use up scraps left over from making regular-sized saws:
12 a.jpg

I called it my “little nipper” because I found it very handy for nipping off the ends of turned spindles and other small pieces. With a thin plate, fine teeth & minimal set it cut a barely visible kerf & cut very close to an edge. Of course model makers have always used even smaller saws, often called ‘razor saws’, with pitches of 30tpi & finer and extremely thin plate (0.010-0.012”). These are fitted with “knife” handles because it’s not practical to fit pistol-grip style handles to such a short, shallow saw:
12 b.jpg

When Bushmiller made a set of saws to match the Kenyon saws in the Seaton tool chest I got inspired & made a couple of copies of the smallest one of the bunch as well. One ended up shorter & finer (0.015” plate) than the original but turned out such a sweet little saw that I use a lot for small work. The smallest saw in front is usable, but only just.
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So out of curiosity I made an even smaller & finer saw (150mm, 0.010” plate) & 25tpi (the smallest teeth I can manage these days!). I scaled back the handle so it’s fairly tight, but ok for my hand (just):
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This is definitely not a saw for rough use, the thin plate needs to be treated with respect, but it’s great for very fine work. As I've theorized elsewhere, I think the combination of being close to the action, plus the very fine kerf allows more precise cuts – I can literally saw half the scribe line with this saw (on a good day). However, the extreme thinness of the plate & tiny teeth aren’t great for tracking ability, it needs a very light touch and if it does go off-course it’s very difficult to correct.

Now we get to definitely too small: I made a ½ size model of my ‘best’ small dovetail saw to go with the chest of miniature tools I made a couple of years ago. It was a fussy little thing to make and although it does do what a saw should, it’s just too dinky for any serious work. OTH, the ½ size panel saw that goes with it (300mm blade) is quite usable, the handle is too tight for more than two fingers, but it’s not too awkward to use. It's filed as a ripsaw & can be very handy to extend cuts when my large tenon saw bottoms out before I get to where I’m going:
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Of the other small tools I’ve made, small & even very small marking gauges, squares, sliding bevels, dovetail templates & marking knives all lend themselves to being shrunk for use on very small items:
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Small marking gauges are especially handy – the stock of the one on the right in this group is just 25mm wide, compared with 65mm for the one on the left, used for general cabinet work:
gauge sizes.jpg

And while ‘regular’ gauges are way too clumsy to use for setting out on tiny pieces, the miniature versions are perfect.

Miniaturised tools can be a real fiddle to make and frequently end up taking me as long as their bigger brothers. On top of that, mistakes or minor inaccuracies tend to be more obvious partly because one looks more closely at them. They are certainly not essential in a ‘normal’ workshop, but can be very convenient at times. They do have the ‘cute’ factor, and our 9 yr old granddaughter is very taken by the small planes I’ve made. From when she was about 5, she was able to manage them and would spend lots of time making shavings from the offcuts I keep for kids to create works of art from - that alone has repaid the effort to make them!

Cheers,

Not quite the same but I do seem to have a soft spot for small back saws, 8" and 10" are both a lovely size.

I have two Veritas miniatures; purchased from The Spin Doctor. One is a miniature cabinet scraper that has only been used to demonstrate that it does scrape cleanly; I intend to use it for inlay work… when I get a round tuit for inlaying…

The other is the miniature edge trimming plane that has already been used in anger for truing up 1/16” thick maple ply used as a veneer. I was impressed as to how easy it is to hold and use.

When they arrived I did a little “Show & Tell” with them at the guild; most members thought they were cute but pretty useless until I demonstrated them on some scraps. Both tools left a beautiful finish on some QLD ebony!

Chief, I was selfishly thinking of the tools I've made & forgot to mention that I too have a Veritas miniature, the little shoulder plane. LOML bought it for me as a Christmas present back when we still did such foolish things

I think it falls into the "cute, works as intended, but a bit too tiny to be practical" category. For me, that is, if someone else says it's the bees' knees for something or other, I won't demur - different strokes for different folks.

I did consider including the 6mm "detail rabbet" plane I have, but it's sort of borderline miniature. It's a truly clever bit of design, I reckon, & with that generous 'tail' on the blade-locking lever it's a pretty comfy tool to use - I was using mine just a week or so back to tidy up some drawer-bottom grooves & feeling pleased I had it. I bought mine way back in the last century, when the $Au was very favourably placed against the $Can, & postage rates from that part of the world were a bit more sensible.

It's dark & cold outside & I've just had a nice warm shower so I'm not going out to the shed now, but in the morning, I'll get a pic of my mini shoulder plane alongside the Veritas to show the difference....

Cheers,

It does seem the human psychic thinks anything small is cute, small kids around new born animals are all over them.
An it seems Tool junkies gravitate towards small tools like fly’s too honey.

An yep ,Ian your Small Tools look cute [emoji3059],
I’ve followed your many build hear over the years and they all look fantastic.

Cheers Matt.

I bought a Veritas miniature block plane to bevel the strips when building kayaks and canoes. Works well for that application and is also handy for some operations on small projects.
Sharpening the blade is an "interesting" exercise.

Thanks Ian. These small tools are superb. They go from workshop fashion accessory to real genuine users. And yours are pleasure to look at.

Repeating a little of the other thread Ian referred to but answering Ians question

Smalls saws are fab. When I first acquired a small saw I thought it was "pretty". I was wrong, it is a shop workhorse. A short saw with a shallow plate is very precise and can sort out issues with aplomb.

Stanley number 2 plane. Used on most projects. Finishes out small areas with teraout, sometimes in quite different directions to follow the local local grain orientation. Sometimes to fix a small mark or low section that wider plane is reaching. Quickens the process and I cannot spot the dips, without going to some trouble.
Note: The plane need to held down firmly for good results, IMO.


Also, designating a Miller Falls Number 1 spokeshave as an honorary miniature even though the shave looks the same size. The Miller Falls contact with a surface is tiny. Follows around tight curves, as low angle spokeshave, handles end grain beautifully. Even tearout is well handled. Not so much as it won't cause tearout, it will, but your thumbs are right next to the blade and feel the change. Stop and reverse plane directioning, then continue on.

Thanks Martin - I was hoping to get a range of tools suggested - my lot are all user-made, but there are a few factory-made equivalents, plus I'm sure others have made small tools like Chief Tiff's little beader, so there must be a few other small tools lurking in sheds out there.

In the commercial world you don't have much choice when it comes to double-iron small planes other than the two small Baileys, they are the smallest I can think of. The #1 is hardly worth considering, genuine ones are too expensive to risk using & even the 'copies' will cost an unseemly amount for the amount of use it would get in an average 'shop. The #2 is a bit more attainable, but still far from cheap, which is a pity because it should be a very handy little plane. It's very close to the same size as my largest rear-bun infill:
Bull oak 170mm.jpg

I would have said it's a bit heavier, but if my cheap kitchen scales are anywhere near the mark, it's almost exactly the same weight as Patrick quotes (2 1/4 lbs) for the #2. This is definitely one of my better products, and if I ever have to cull my planes to the bare minimum, it would be a fight between this one & the slightly smaller one who gets to stay. I never intended keeping both, but I can't make up my mind which one I like better -one day it's definitely the bull-oak infill, the next day it's the smaller western rosewood version. The bull-oak has some sentimental attachment as well, I harvested it from a lightening-struck tree in Victoria many years ago. The grain is very fine for a bull-oak & takes a beautiful polish. I wasted a lot of it on lesser projects early on, 'cos I had plenty, but I wish I'd been more miserly now as I've only got a few small bits left.

Chief, here are some comparison pics as promised. First, the Veritas mini SP with my 'mini':
Size cf.jpg

Mine looks huge beside the Veritas, but I reckon it's approaching the point where it would not be as manageable as it is, so to me that's about the minimum practical size for this tool. The Veritas will certainly shave wood, and you can easily demonstrate that it works, but it's not easy to hold doing any meaningful work, imo.

The 'detail rabbet' is altogether different:
SP vs rebate.jpg

Maybe not the most comfy tool for anyone with large hands (mine are on the small side of medium), but I find it quite ok to use. It's one of those tools that is extremely handy for me once or twice a year, so hard to justify at current prices, but definitely a tool that does its job well. I sometimes wish it were a bit thinner, & have tuought of making one for myself, but it's not easy to go much thinner than about 6mm for a rebate plane using my 'sandwich' construction, so I would have to make something like the Veritas's blade-locking system, which would be a challenge to copywith hand-tools, but do-able, I think.

There are several tools in the Veritas mini series that look like they could be very useful to model makers or makers of very small stuff, but I think you would be well-advised to 'try before buy' if you can. Some, like the shoulder plane, may be too dinky for serious use by other than very small & nimble fingers...

Originally Posted by labr@

I bought a Veritas miniature block plane ......Sharpening the blade is an "interesting" exercise....

A very good point, Bob. Small blades can be a challenge to sharpen, alright, and small or regular, the blade needs to be sharp or no tool will perform at its best. Even 'full-size' tools like spokeshaves are a problem for free-hand sharpeners. What I started doing years ago was to make up holders from scraps of wood. A few are carefully shaped & formed into handles, but many are just chunks of wood big enough to hold comfortably, with the sharp edges knocked off & a suitable slot in the end that the blade can be jammed in. I've got a drawer full of them because half the time it's quicker to make a new one than find the one I made last time!

With the blade firmly lodged in a holder, & on a good day, I can get my tiny blades up to scratch, but if I'm having a bad day, it's remarkable how easy it is to get a tiny, narrow blade off-square, or end up with an ugly, crooked bevel!

Cheers,
Ian

Martin, I forgot to say, I love your description, "workshop fashion accessory to real genuine users...." I'll use it in all future correspondence....

Cheers,

Over the last 20 years, as I acquired yet another tool I hadn't known I couldn't live without, I've many times had to re-arrange things in the tool cupboard in order to accommodate latecomers. So far, I've managed to fit everything in so they can be retrieved easily without shuffling things around like a Rubik's cube. But I'm reminded of a book my kids had when they were little. It was about a Scotsman who was super-hospitable & always accepted another guest in his house no matter how full it was, saying "There's allus room for one more...". Iirc, it ended with the house bursting at the seams.

Well, I fear I may be approaching that point with my tool chest. I wanted to store my tiny shoulder plane with its larger siblings, but it didn't look very promising when I went hunting for vacant space. A year or two ago, there was a bit of room above the two smaller shoulder planes, but a mini mitre plane & two 'violin' planes moved in & claimed that (they all sit in a slide-out tray), so no joy there. After studying the problem for many minutes I hit upon the idea of making a little pocket for it, which I screwed to the side of the partition separating the SPs from the bench planes. That worked so well I decided to add the tiny Veritas SP as well (it's been living on its lonesome in a drawer). So it now has its own little 'pocket' pocket on the other side, keeping all my shoulder planes together.

You may be able to spot them: RHS.jpg

So it's looking increasingly like my planemaking career is coming to a stop, I'm not sure I could find a space even for a Veritas mini in the plane section now: Planes 08_23.jpg

Don't bother trying to count 'em, there are more than 40 (several are lurking out of sight). And don't ask me what happened to the bloke who made some quite acceptable furniture when the only planes he had were a #5, a pretty ordinary #4, & a block plane! I guess I did use tools with tails a lot more back then.....

Cheers,

I has a solution… you simply need to trade your shop-bought planes for Wilkie-made items! I recall you saying not long ago that your Veritas scraper plane gathers more dust than it makes; and how often do you use your #20 compass plane? Edging out just those two will free up some desperately needed real estate

Ian would it help if I lent you my copy of The Studley Tool chest,
I reckon if Old Henry saw your Plane Till, he would be saying now look hear kid, I show you how it’s done.

An personally if he turned up too my place, I would be turning my earring aids up an getting him a coffee or cup of Tea.

So come on, you haven’t even started too pack them in yet in, comparison!!

Cheers Matt.

Ah Chief, you always has de answers....

I was thinking about how many factory made planes I have vs how many "Wilkuts" while I was posting. There are 13 Stanleys, Records, & Veritases, so the Wilkuts have the majority. And yes, some of them like the Victor you spotted see little use, it has had a run maybe twice a year for these last 10 years so you could put a good case for a redundancy payout on that one. And yes, the scraper planes (there's an 80 hiding behind the bullnosed rebate above the Victor), see far less use than when I first acquired them. And admittedly, for many if not most jobs I use those planes for, I could get the job done other ways without too much extra bother - I got pretty good at doing lots with little in my first 20 years of wood-butchering.

So the pragmatic side of me says, "Yeah, get rid of the excess baggage & travel a bit lighter", but the tool-junkie side of me says "Nah, you picked up most of those tools for peanuts way back and what if you decided after getting rid of them that you really did need it after all?" It would cost almost as much as my entire collection to replace just one at today's prices!

However, I am beginning to worry what's going to happen when I can no longer feed & groom my tools - I will have to bite the bullet soon & start some serious succession-planning.......

Cheers,

Originally Posted by Simplicity

Ian would it help if I lent you my copy of The Studley Tool chest,...

Matt, too true, my tool cupboard is a wasteland of empty space compared with Studley's - he must have known about the Tardis a good 90 years before it was 'invented' and he probably inspired Rubik when inventing his time-waster....

I had one very clear requirement when I made my 'toolchest' & that was that every tool would be easy to pull out & replace without having to open second compartments etc. Up 'til now I've been able to preserve that pretty well, but I have come to the end of the line, I fear- who would think that a couple of miniatures would do that? Makes you believe that old story about the straw & the broken-backed camel, eh?

Two things you should bear in mind re Mr. Studley if he does call:
1. He's a Yank, so almost certainly would prefer coffee to tea.
2. He had to hump his toolkit around a lot, it's said, so it was in his interest to keep his shyte together in a tight bundle.....

Ian