Thread: Plane (and saw) till

Originally Posted by Mountain Ash

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There has been some progress. And some learning along the way. The "carcase" has been assembled and glued for posterity. The saw "racks" have been cut and installed (thank goodness for tablesaw sleds and quick jigs). The moulding plane storage has been destroyed, up to a point (can't keep an orange chipboard bookcase down for too long). The custom crown moulding has been made and fitted (sometimes I think that recycled Oregon is more hassle than it's worth). And the till has been installed.

However. I have already had to remove some of the slotted racking because trying to put a 26" handsaw into 4 slots at the same time was a nightmare. The double rack for the tenon saws was overkill (although it did provide a beefier cleat for attaching to the wall). And it was still too tall for my smallest dovetail saw. I haven't worked out what to do with the space above the tenon saws. And there is not much room for expansion.

Things left to do. Coat it with my 3 in 1, make the 4 drawers for files, sawsets and associated paraphernalia and work out how to get all the moulding planes off my bench!

That's great progress.
You may acquire some more backsaws, in which case it would be relatively easy to add another half rail above the backsaws that you have .
Well done
Tom

I had the same thought as Tom - plenty of room for more backsaws in that "spare" space!

You'll undoubtedly acquire more before you decide, one day, that you can have too many saws & have a heavy cull.

I had a good cull years ago, hoping to fit all of my hand tools in the one chest/cupboard. But when I realised I was never going to bring myself to part with enough saws to be able to fit them in the main tool cupboard no matter how creatively I arranged them, I decided to make an "overflow" cupboard to house a bunch of small saws. The spot for the cupboard was very narrow (wall space is at a premium in my shed!) but I managed to accommodate all of the 'extras' neatly & accessibly in a tall cupboard that just fits in the only available spot.

However, not long after the cupboard was finished, both my father & FIL departed for the 'big shed' & I acquired two Disstons that I had to keep, even though they were not strictly necessary. By good luck, the overflow cupboard was just tall enough, & I managed to squeeze them in on each side. Now although the number of saws I have hasn't changed since then (I have probably only one or maybe two more saws in total), there has been much chopping & changing of my backsaws as I made my own & sold off most of the factory-made saws I'd accumulated earlier. What with different sizes, handles & shapes, this has turned my once carefully-organised saw cupboard into the complete opposite.
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Getting a couple of those saws out requires extreme care, & that's one of the reasons I keep a box of band-aids in a drawer under the bench. Spots of blood do terrible things to shiny saw plate....

Cheers,

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention, the two old saws get quite a bit of use, as it turns out. One is a 7tpi ripsaw, which is much nicer to use on 19mm stock than my whopper 3-5tpi progressive pitch saw (which I acquired when a friend managed to short-circuit it on its way to the dump ) and the one that was my dad's is one tpi coarser than the beautiful near-mint pre-WW2 Disston I got in Canada. It amuses me to say as I pull one of them out, "C'mon Johnno" or "c'mon dad - enough of this lazing about, time to earn your keep" & think of the wisecrack answers I'd get from either of them...

MA

That’s looking very nice, I’ve been following along but unfortunately the pictures have not always been able to be viewed.
But I’m glad I can see them now.

Cheers Matt.

Clearly you have too many saws.

I manage quite happily with just a pair of rips and crosscuts; one pair optimised for softwoods and one pair for hardwoods. Add a dovetail saw, a pair of backsaws (1 rip, 1 x-cut), a veneer saw and a razor saw. And a Japanese flush cut saw. Oh, and a pair of modern hardpoint saws. Actually, three modern hardpoint saws. A cheap small tenon saw and a gent’s saw. Plus a Japanese-style pull-saw. Plus a couple of 20” panel saws waiting restoration. Two coping saws and a fretsaw. Did I mention the jeweller’s saw? And I’ve just remembered the other backsaw…

Oh……

Originally Posted by Chief Tiff

Clearly you have too many saws.

I manage quite happily with just a pair of rips and crosscuts; one pair optimised for softwoods and one pair for hardwoods. Add a dovetail saw, a pair of backsaws (1 rip, 1 x-cut), a veneer saw and a razor saw. And a Japanese flush cut saw. Oh, and a pair of modern hardpoint saws. Actually, three modern hardpoint saws. A cheap small tenon saw and a gent’s saw. Plus a Japanese-style pull-saw. Plus a couple of 20” panel saws waiting restoration. Two coping saws and a fretsaw. Did I mention the jeweller’s saw? And I’ve just remembered the other backsaw…

Oh……

Them dangerous words around these necks of the woods you want be careful what ya say there,[emoji6]


Cheers Matt.

Thanks Tom, Ian and Matt. I was also thinking along the lines of adding another rail in the top left section. And removing some of the extraneous slotted bits. Previously the saws were on 5 different hooks and when I put them all together I was a bit overwhelmed. I do have some apple drying for saw handles and I would like to make a couple more backsaws......

MA, looking nice. And it makes me feel a bit guilty looking at the haphazard pile I've got hanging on the wall on a J hook.

Also, I know it's an imposition on your part, but if you do run out of space, I'll take your extra saws. Yes, I know, I am indeed a great humanitarian.

Hi A. J hooks are still up in my workshop but now they are a little empty. It gets tiresome having to take off 3 saws to get to thr 4th one in tbe pile. I understand your completly altruistic notions (after all quite a few of those saws were given to me)

Hello again to all. Thanks to some late night "that looks doable" YouTube viewing of Christian Becksvoort cutting blind dovetails, I have decided to make my four drawers in the same fashion. I have some old growth Oregon that will be perfect for drawer fronts and though I have only cut relatively few through dovetails in my life, I will have a go at blind dovetails for the very first time!!!

Components were all dressed yesterday, cut to size this morning and planed to fit the opening. This arvo tails were cut and I will chisel out tomorrow.

Originally Posted by Mountain Ash

Hello again to all. Thanks to some late night "that looks doable" YouTube viewing of Christian Becksvoort cutting blind dovetails, I have decided to make my four drawers in the same fashion. I have some old growth Oregon that will be perfect for drawer fronts and though I have only cut relatively few through dovetails in my life, I will have a go at blind dovetails for the very first time!!!

Components were all dressed yesterday, cut to size this morning and planed to fit the opening. This arvo tails were cut and I will chisel out tomorrow.

Great to see that you are enjoying this adventure.
Must have been the day for it - I was cutting tails this arvo too - for a chest of drawers.
Tom

Hi Tom. I am at that. The video also inspired me to re try the chiselling approach to removing the waste (rather than the coping saw approach, which I have been using of late). This will be necessary for the blind ones anyway. Hope things were warmer in your workshop, mine was freezing - although planing always warms me up, the beanie had to come off!

Originally Posted by Mountain Ash

.... The video also inspired me to re try the chiselling approach to removing the waste (rather than the coping saw approach, which I have been using of late). This will be necessary for the blind ones anyway....

MA, we did a morning a week of "manual training" in grades 7 & 8 back in the day, & my first woodwork teacher was an ex cabinetmaker who would have trained in the late 40s-early 50s, just before powered tools really set in. He showed us the 'chisel only' method for both through & half-blind D/Ts (I only discovered full-blind D/Ts much later in my woodworking career). I knew a couple of older cabinetmakers (they would have done their time in the 30s) and they despised anyone who couldn't knock out the waste from a D/T with a few deft cuts from a chisel. I assumed it must have been a matter of pride that marked the professional from the amateur. However, I'll confess to being a sissy and sawing out the bulk of the waste on through tails & pins. For me, it's faster than chisel-only and makes it much easier to pare neatly to the line, especially with soft or crumbly woods (which I suspect your old 'Oregon' might be).

When I first started getting serious about "fine" woodwork I was a great follower of Tage Frid, one of the gurus of the woodwork 'revival' that kicked off in the 70s and he was the first person I saw using an old card scraper to deepen the kerfs for half-blind sockets. So I tried it & promptly split the ends off the first couple of drawer-fronts I attempted it on. Among other considerations, I probably should have reassessed the suitability of the wood I was using, but instead went back to "part saw, part chisel" method & stuck with it - slower but safer for me!

Fast forward many years and someone recently asked me to make them a "dovetail kerfer" similar to the one Rob Cosman makes. I told him I thought they were risky & he'd likely end up tossing it in the garbage, but he insisted. So I had a look at the Cosman gadget & after I'd recovered from the surgery to put my jaw back in place (the price is simply absurd!) I made something similar (took all of about half an hour, with much of that time spent looking through my scraps for the bits, though I have to admit I happened to have a piece of brass that was already slotted). I thought I better road-test it before handing it over, so I grabbed some scrap & set out a few half-blind sockets, sawed as much as I could, then went at them with the 'kerfer'. It worked like a charm. I deliberately made the end half pins delicate & they help up fine. So I made myself one & will give it a proper test run on the next set of drawers I make. After 60 years of playing safe, i may be about to change my ways..

I can't remember now because it was more than 30 years ago that I first tried the "Frid method" (I'm sure he didn't invent it, but learned it as an apprentice), but I think I made the mistake on that first try of sharpening the scraper a bit in the mistaken belief it would help it cut into the end grain. I've since read (& I think it might've come up in the discussion when Derek showed his 'kerfer' a few months back) that that's a big mistake; you keep the edge square so it crushes the fibres, a sharp blade tends to cleave & start a split more easily. I never was good at reading the full instructions....

Cheers,
Ian

Thanks Ian. I remember that thread now you mention it. Maybe I should make one too. After all still plenty of time on my hands (although as I type the power is still out so the workshop stays in darkness). This is the 2nd time in less than a fortnight but then again I will live in a forest!

Hi there. For those wondering how my 1st ever attempt at half blind dovetails went please see below.

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I am pretty pleased with them and possibly found them a little easier than through dovetails (or maybe I'm getting better ). I did follow Derek Cohen's advice regarding the kerfing chisel idea and I think it helped (thanks IanW for reminding me). But then I have nothing to compare to either. I had a spare hour tonight so cut some more (1 complete drawer face and 1 side of another. Coming out nicely.