Thread: Found the round tuit!

20 years of elvaluation
They look great Ian,I can imagine getting them placed just right on the shaves could be a pain.
But like they say no pain no gain.

She Oak ?(I’m reluctant to question you on timber [emoji849])

Cheers Matt,
Of course modifying tools is not making tools [emoji57].

Originally Posted by Simplicity

20 years of elvaluation.......

Nope, 20 years of procrastination...

Originally Posted by Simplicity

.....She Oak ?(I’m reluctant to question you on timber [emoji849]).....

Spot on,Matt (you're getting good at this)

Originally Posted by Simplicity

......Of course modifying tools is not making tools [emoji57]...

Of course!

Cheers,

They look great, Ian. And quite ergonomic! Nice one.

Excellent Ian. They look wonderful and the Oak is just the bees knees.

It makes me wonder whether there should be a new sub Forum dedicated to such things: Perhaps it could be called "Getting a Handle on Things."



Regards
Paul

Ps: UK Alf?

Originally Posted by Bushmiller

..... Ps: UK Alf? ....

'Alf' was a pseudonym for a blogger who used to post often on a UK site, but apparently she dropped off the interweb because she got too much schtick from the types who seem to delight in taking others down. A real pity, I thought she was a very witty & practical person, with whom I often saw eye to eye, but I'm sure there's life after internet & she's probably happier just doing her thing....

Cheers,

"looking for something to fill in a couple of hours, & my eyes lit on the spokeshaves. I decided the day had arrived!"

A couple of hours? How long is an hour in Brisbane? xxCanadaxx? Looks like a couple of weeks work for me!

Originally Posted by Huon pine fan

.......A couple of hours? How long is an hour in Brisbane? xxCanadaxx? Looks like a couple of weeks work for me!

Well, HPF, as any spouse knows, when a bloke says he's going to the shed for "a couple of hours", it could mean anything from two hours to the whole day!

However, in this instance I didn't exaggerate too grossly, I started some time after 9, had a long coffee-break, but it was finished by 12, so if you are a stickler for precision & "a couple" means strictly two, I did under-report my time by something approaching 40%. Apologies to anyone I mislead....

Cheers,

Its almost as if you could have used a spokeshave to make those handles

Originally Posted by woodPixel

Its almost as if you could have used a spokeshave to make those handles

Indeed, WP, & I probably would have done just that had I made them soon after I got the spokeshaves as intended. In the meantime, I discovered hand-stitched rasps, which have usurped shaves for a lot of jobs. Rasps can handle (pun?) changing grain directions, so you can make a full stroke through a concavity and keep a smooth flow. With a shave, you have to come down from each end and take care that you don't get any tear-out in the middle where the strokes from each direction meet. It's not all that difficult, of course, it's just that Mr. Liogier's gadgets make it so easy..

Thinking about it, it's because I have turned much more to rasps over the last 10 or 12 years that it took so long to do this! But shaves still rule for some jobs, so I'm not throwing them out just yet.

In my first post I mentioned buying a couple of spare connectors, way back. When I started making the handles on Monday, I couldn't find the darn things. I turned the shed upside down, but not a trace. I was sure I'd put them somewhere sensible & safe. Last night I had a brainwave & looked in the small plastic box of little bits & pieces in the drawer where I keep old plane blades & smaller parts. There they were, in the most logical place to store them!

My intention had been to keep a set of original handles intact, and switch them back & forth as I played with various styles of replacement handles. However, I've decided that I don't have the time or inclination to muck about like that, & I'm quite happy with vers. 1, so if anyone out there with a Veritas shave wants to try a set of custom handles, you can have these for postage. In fact, I've got a spare handle that I half-finished, but decided to reject because it was from a different scrap of oak & wasn't as close a match, so if you don't have the time to make your own, I can finish it off & make a mate for it at additional cost (you can shout me a beer if ever we meet in person ).

First in best-dressed....
Cheers,

OK, I'm still waiting for my stuff to arrive, so I spent a bit of time this morning finishing the 'spare' handle and making a match.

Huon Pine Fan, if my reply to you sounded a bit smug, I got my come-upance this morning! What I thought would be a 20 minute job spun out to almost another 'couple of hours'. It started when the handle I made to match split as I was screwing it on. So, over to my scraps of She-oak bin & a good bit of digging to find another matching bit. There was a tiny knot showing in the piece I selected, but I thought it was superficial & would cut out - it didn't, it 'grew' as I cut deeper. It was a pretty tight knot, so I persevered, but when I put some finish on the wood, it showed up a small crack around it. The branch hole went right through the screw-hole, potentially weakening it, so I decided it wasn't a goer, either. More fire fodder!

Try #3 went smoothly, so there are now, finally, two matching handles. The offer stands - anyone who has a Veritas shave & wants to try some custom handles can have them: Extra handles.jpg

Warning: It does take a bit of faffing to get the screw in just the right position to tighten so that the handle is orientated in the right spot, so give yourself a good half an hour to fit them!

Cheers,

Ian

Those handles look so inviting I thought about putting my hand up for them, but then I would have to ask if anybody had a Veritas spoke shave they didn't want and you would see it and the cat would be out of the bag.

I hope somebody takes up the offer. The only real criticism I have of the Casuarina Oaks is the difficulty in getting large, sound chunks of them. otherwise they have to be one of the worlds most spectacular timbers.

Regards
Paul

Originally Posted by Bushmiller

..... The only real criticism I have of the Casuarina Oaks is the difficulty in getting large, sound chunks of them. otherwise they have to be one of the worlds most spectacular timbers....

Paul, you've been a bit scarred by your experience with the Bull & Hairy varieties from down the road, I think. The H.O. in particular would be a wonderful resource if it weren't for all those darned wood-eating critters that party on it. However, the coastal Allocasaurinas, like River oak (A. cunninghamianum) & the Rose she-oak (A. torulosa) are usually a lot better in that respect, I've rarely seen borers in those species. So long as you dry them very carefully, it's not too difficult to get large, sound bits from both those She-oaks. It was just sheer happenstance that the bit of Rose S.O. I chose had that little dead branch inside it, it's normally pretty reliable.

My stock of all She-oaks has run very low - time to think seriously about a wood-gathering trip or two. My source of Rose S.O. is up on the Atherton Tableland, so that trip needs a deal of planning & a good ticket-of-leave......

Cheers,

Love my Liogier rasps too One of the best things I own.

Great job Ian, as we'd expect.

How does the brass attach to the handle? Where I'm going here is could you screw the brass onto the spoke shave and then fit the handle to the brass to save the fiddling around part?