Shop Made Joiner Tools

[Bob Smalser]

These are a small sample of tools I’ve made over the decades from hardwood scraps from joiner, stockmaking and boatbuilding projects. My family’s background is Mennonite.....and frugal, and I always made a practice of not moving on to the next project until all the wood was used to best advantage from the previous one. Lotsa fun, too.

I post this to give y'all some additional ideas on how to use up your scraps and free time between major projects.


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My mentors were Dad and three childless Uncles…one built commercial waterman’s boats, one spec houses, and the remainder were frugal farmers who hired out almost no work…we did it all, often by hand.

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The frame resaw is H. Mahogany with B. Walnut stretcher and handles, assembled with bridle joint and threaded rod/wing nut bearing on washers. The blade was a coarse crosscut blade from Garret Wade I refilled into a 4 TPI rip blade, it is held in slots by steel pins made from drill rod stock.

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The Tage Frid-pattern Danish Bowsaw is identical in construction to the resaw above. Highland Hardware has the blades. The remainder of the bowsaws have string tension adjustment with loose M/T stretchers. The handles are turned and fitted with brass-pipe ferrules with a quarter-inch bronze rod inset in epoxy and slotted to receive sawblade and pin. The ferrules bear on bronze washers inset into blind holes in the frame. This bowsaw is mahogany and walnut.

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The fret saw is B. Cherry and walnut with Cocobolo handles. The small coping saw is B. Rosewood with checkering as a decoration. When I make the next coping saw from rosewood, I will use smaller scantlings to save weight – this one is unnecessarily strong.

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The mallets are a simple pattern that uses small glued scraps, handles are wedged and glued and wrapped with cotton twine. They live a hard life and are expendable. The trammel points on the cherry bar were turned from rosewood with brass lamp finials turned to a round tenon and pointed, inset in epoxy. The small walnut keysaw was turned in walnut with brass ferrule and blade mount…the blades came from Garret Wade and are mounted with a simple bronze wing nut. The boatbuilder’s planking divider is brass sheet with silver-brazed steel tip set mounted in rosewood hollowed to receive a pencil, which is help with a spring hose clamp. These dividers are used to “spile” or to transfer shapes from the boat to planking stock.

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Closeup of the keyhole saw and planking dividers.

Continued…..

[Bob Smalser]

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The oak and maple miter trimmer has an integral clamp from threaded dowels (I use a Beall Wood Threader) that holds the M/T'd rail or stile that's had a decorative bead planed into the face. The end of the bead is aligned with the plane blade, the blade loosened in it's mortise by two more threaded dowels, and the end of the blade tapped with a hammer.

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The saw vice has pine uprights with cut birdsmouths to hold the beveled vice jaws and reinforced by carriage bolts to prevent splitting. The bin is made from cherry and attached with wedged dowels. Had a lovely set of coved cherry jaws that got lost in a move...these are temporary DF replacements for the time being.

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Various handles turned or rasped to fit heirloom tools. The slick is used for ship timbers too large to move to a horse or machine.

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Handscrews made from glued-up scraps, dowels threaded with a Beall Wood Threader, and turned handles. Some have one-piece handle and shaft turned on the lathe.

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Maker’s mark carved with chisels from an old soldering iron and rehandled.

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Tap and dowel handles made for the Beall Wood Threader.

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Miter saw base with removable false table of edge-laid hard maple and wedged dowels. Sawguide hardware and tools are heirloom pieces.

Continued…

[Bob Smalser]

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Shaving horse of salvaged, old-growth D. Fir with Madrone dumbhead and treadle. Wear areas are reinforced with brass and copper sheet and bushings.

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Construction is traditional, with tapered and wedged round M/T. Had I not had this stick of old-growth on hand, I would have used maple for the legs…old-growth DF, however, equals the strength of most oaks.

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Made this walnut/oak carpenter’s box as a teenager 4 decades ago…carcass dovetails are misaligned and there’s far too much ostentation for my taste these days…but it remains in service. I keep it around to remind myself that I can do poorly-thought-out work, too.

[davo453]

Judging by the number of views but currently no comment, I think we are all speechless with admiration.

Very inspiring, the hand clamps and mallets look like a good way to use up small hardwood off cuts.

Excellent work

Dave

[Barry_White]

Hey Derek Cohen

Eat your heart out.

Bob there appears to a few life times of dedication in all of that lot.

Amazing there is no sign of my favorite timber there. MDF

I must be dumb but how do you get all those pictures into the one post.

[Sturdee]

Bob,

A few month back I had the privilige of stumbling onto your website and seeing what you had accomplished.
In fact when I saw your picture of the handscrew clamps you made it started me thinking of making my own which resulted in my post on my own handscrew clamps.

Beautiful work and an inspiration to us all.


Peter.

[kenmil]

Yes.... very nice I am sure, but where are the power tools ?:D

PS
What is a mennonite ??

[DarrylF]

Bob,

Another, slightly belated, 'Welcome Aboard and Thanks for Posting' :)

I had actually come across your website too - you do some nice work. I really enjoy making and using my own tools - just kicking off on it really, someday I'll hopefully have an assortment to rival yours :)

[davo453]

Any one know the address of Bob's site?

I fancy a look

Dave

[Bob Smalser]

Well thank y'all but it's no big deal...jut trying to throw out some good ideas besides firewood for scraps.

Casein resin glue was either free or cheap over the years...if you look at a lot of the stock those handscrews and handles were made from you'll notice it's laminated in many cases. I still laminate quite a bit for jigs and such....I run a sawmill and am averse to buying plywood.

I don't have a website...all this will eventually become permanent articles on Ellis Wallentine's Woodcentral site...but some folks collect these postings for their sites:

http://www.cianperez.com/Wood/WoodDocs/Wood_How_To/INDEX_How_To.htm

http://www.woodcentral.com/cgi-bin/articles.pl

And number are on Woodenboat Magazine Forum's FAQ:

http://media5.hypernet.com/ubb/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=1;t=008298

[John Saxton]

Thank-you Bob, for your valuable input.I have bookmarked those sites for a time when I can view them at length.

You're an inspiration in a time when judicial use of our wood resources are necessary across all mediums.

I am ignorant of the the Mennonite teachings or phylosophy but I can ascribe to their thinking of keeping waste to a minimum.

I applaud especially the notion of utilising waste timber from a project to further another need rather than delegate it to the firewood scrapheap.

One must remember that even the smallest off-cut may one day fulfil a task as in an inlay choice or glued to provide a table button etc.

Its refreshing to those of us that may slip from the path of need that occasionally folk like you surface as a reminder to my often previous waseful actions in my woodworking to highlight the need for change in my approach.

Cheers:)

[Joe Lyddon]

Small World!!:D

I also am attempting to collect links to all of Bob's main postings.

Some of the Forums can lose (delete) pictures, so I try to save more than on forum's postings.


http://www.qsl.net/wb6ufx/WoodWorkStuff.html

This is just a collection of things that I really liked and don't want to rely on other forums to keep them... and don't want to rely on bookmarks, etc. This way, it's on MY site and on MY computer.
The stuff is easy to find when it's all in one place... :)

The main reason I did it was for myself... then, I felt... why don't I share it with others... ergo, I made it public...
Enjoy.

Joe

[Andy Mac]

Bob,
Thanks for the posting and the beautiful photos. An inspiration to be sure!
Do you attempt any metal work, like forging your own blades?
I think the use of scraps is a generational thing as well: people like my folks grew up with the aftermath of the Depression, their folks threw away nothing. But maybe its the Jewish/Scottish heritage!
Quality timber is harder to get commercially, so I throw very little of stuff like rosewood, blackbean, red cedar, coachwood etc, even small bits are stashed in boxes. Despite constant nagging I hang onto it all, just in case...
Regards,
Andy

[Bob Smalser]

I do basic heat treating, welding and fabrication. Gonna get into casting bronze hardware eventually.

http://www.woodenboat-ubb.com/ubb/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=1;t=011783

[ryanarcher]

Andy, Thanks for resurecting this thread! Bob, I LOVE that shaving horse! :D

-Ryan

[JDarvall]

Absolutely incredible.........I'm especially envious of your collection of bowsaws and handscrews......and no power tools to be seen......brilliant.