How many tool handles from one board

[Andy_B]

Beautifully made, CK!! Nice looking tools!

On the depth gauges and square, how did you secure the brass plate to the wood?

Cheers,
Andy

[Cklett]

Beautifully made, CK!! Nice looking tools!

On the depth gauges and square, how did you secure the brass plate to the wood?

Cheers,
Andy

The brass plates are glued on with epoxy and further secured with about 2.5mm brass screws. If you drill the holes in the brass just the right size for the screw shank and only a very tiny countersink then after glue has set you can file the screw head off and sand everything flat. Before glue sets you can peen the screw head in a little.
If you use slotted screws it will be hardly seen. But if you use Phillips head screws a tiny dint will stay.

At least this is how I did it.

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[IanW]

Yes, the indentations in Philips-heads go too deep to file out, even if you seat them very lightly. Slotted screws are safer if you want to make the screws disappear as Ck describes. You can use the Philips heads if you are working with hard woods like she-oak; make a small counter-sink, but don't drive the screw all the way in, leave a couple of mm proud of the surface, cut off the head & peen the shank down into the recess. The brass screws you get from Bunnies are very soft & easily sheared if you try to drive them into undersized holes in very hard woods (especially the small sizes you are likely to use for this sort of job), but the good side of being soft is that they are very easy to peen. I like to do this part while the glue id still wet, it gets into the screw threads & really locks them in. But you can't always do that, sometimes you need to wait for the glue to cure enough to hold things in place while you add the "rivets". When that's the case, I try to add the screw-rivets within 24 hours while the glue is still a bit plastic & will deform rather than crack.

There may be better glues to use than epoxy types. It's something I've been meaning to investigate for some time, but am still looking for the round tuit. Epoxy usually makes a strong brass to wood joint, but occasionally, for no reason I can figure out, it just lets go of the metal, a month or a year down the track. That's the reason I always use some extra form of mechanical fastening like screws or a sliding dovetail for the brass wear strips on marking gauges etc. I'm sure there are glues that would form a truly reliable wood to metal joint, I just haven't found one yet.

Andy, in case you go looking for slotted brass screws, the only place I know of that carries a good selection is Paddington hardware, but there may be somewhere on the southside that is closer to you. These guys carry a reasonably comprehensive range of bras hardware in various period styles too....
Cheers,

[Mountain Ash]

Ian, I have been reading about how good fish glue is for metal to timber (thanks section 1 for your blogs). CK love your depth gauges, I think they look even better than the purple heart ones that inspired them. How did you make the locking knob/screw set up?

[IanW]

Yeah, thanks MA. I have read that animal-based glue was commonly used in the past. I've put the wear plate back on an old Stanley quite a few years ago (can't remember the model # but it was one of those with the full face of the stock covered with a brass plate), & my nose told me the glue that was on it was something akin to hide glue. Of course it may have been a repair too, but I'm sure I read somewhere reasonably reliable that they did use hide glue for such jobs.

Another place where they seemed to rely on glue alone was the brass inserts on the top of the #25 bevel gauges. The thin brass strips on the bottom of the stock have a tiny rivet each side, but I'm blowed if I can see any in the top strips: SB1.jpg

It would be hard to put rivets there, because of the blade slot, so I guess they rely on glue plus the locking screw to do the job. Anyway, that's how I've always done them, though I use a bit more brass & add 4 rivets rather than just 2 as on the Stanleys: SB all sizes.jpg

Protein-based glues can be immensely strong, as strong as any "modern" synthetic glue, but the trouble with both hide glue & epoxy, I think is that they become brittle over time. The failures I've had were always in the glue-brass bond, as it was on the Stanley gauge I re-glued. I've tried several recommended etches on the brass (one of which was freshly-crushed garlic!), but because I never ran a proper trial on the various methods, I cannot swear that the "garnished" bonds worked any better. What I've been doing the last 10 years or so is to sand the metal clean, immediately wash with metho, then apply the glue. That seems to work about 95% reliably, but since I've also usually added extra mechanical help (pins, rivets, etc), again I can't tell you if the metho wash is really helping...

Cheers,

[Cklett]

Hi Ian, I think the same. I always ment to ask you how the screw on you bevel gauges is fixed on the other side? Can you elaborate on the screw assembley on your bevel gauges?

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[Cklett]

Ian, I have been reading about how good fish glue is for metal to timber (thanks section 1 for your blogs). CK love your depth gauges, I think they look even better than the purple heart ones that inspired them. How did you make the locking knob/screw set up?

Thanks MA. I see we watch the same videos. That you like mine more makes me extra happy [emoji16]

I did not take any photos of the process but this is what I did.

I drilled a small recess in the wood blank to accept a small round brass plate.
Then I drilled and tapped a M6 thread in some 3mm thick brass scrap. Before I also marked a circle on the brass a tad bigger than my recess in the wood.
I used the threaded hole with a M6 bolt and counter nut to hold the plate in a vice and then with hacksaw and file brought it as close to circle shape as possible.
From then I put it in drill and filed the rest of the way round until it fit nicely into the recess.
Finally I drill two more holes in the disc so I could screw it with small brass screws to the wooden blank.
The rest is like discussed above. Glued and screwed the disc to the gauge body and after glue set filed the screw heads off again.
I thought this way I made most of my scraps instead of using threaded inserts or so.

I also did not recess the discs fully flush into the wood but left them a bit proud with a small chamfer. That was purely my design decision because I liked it.

Hope that is understandable.

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[IanW]

......I always meant to ask you how the screw on you bevel gauges is fixed on the other side? Can you elaborate on the screw assembly on your bevel gauges?

Hi Ck, I've described how I made some bevel gauges in detail here. (I just edited it because there was a picture in the wrong place that I hadn't noticed when I posted it - all good now).

If you have the time to read halfway through the (loong!) post, I discuss how I didn't like the way Stanley do the locking screw, & thought I'd be more clever, but found out Mr.Stanley was much smarter than I am. It will possibly make more sense if you read it in context, but briefly, the Stanley method makes it much easier to adjust the pivot stud so that the locking arm will tighten when it is over the stock, & not get in the way when you are measuring inside angles You can also overcome this problem by using a knurled nut instead of the arm, but I prefer the arm 'cos it gives you lots of leverage to lock the blade firmly.

In the following posts, I've suggested a few more ways of using brass & precious wood scraps.

You certainly don't have to stop tool-making yet......

Cheers,

[Bushmiller]

In the following posts, I've suggested a few more ways of using brass & precious wood scraps.

You certainly don't have to stop tool-making yet......

Cheers,

Ian

That invisible ink is terrific stuff, but could you please supply the active ingredient. (Possibly not in a link until the catalyst is available )

Regards
Paul

[Cklett]

Paul, I think Ian was referring to the following posts in the same thread where he described the bevel gauges. The link to that is under the word "here" in his first paragraph.

Thanks for that Ian. I understand now including the pitfall.

For my first marking gauge I used a thumbscrew I bought online. And you could not get enough pressure onto it. So I put a slot into it to then be able to use a screwdriver. But that means you always have to have one and find it under all the other stuff on the bench [emoji6]

Also it means that the thumbscrew sticks out more and might get in the way. Although that has not happened to me yet. That only means I have not come across the situation as most of tou guys where you want all sides being able to lie flat.
It's going to happen I am sure.....
And then I have an other excuse to make a new one [emoji16]

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[Cklett]

Next chapter: Knives of all sorts!



It started off with 2 knife kits I got for my birthday. I first cut a few blanks for the scales and stabilised them in cactus juice. As it happens I also got the vacuum system for my birthday too [emoji3]

So I did this knife first.



I thought the Sheoak fits well with the damascus blade. The little brass insert for the lanyard hole was a courtesy from Ian. (Someday I get a lathe too....)

And to finish this off made a sheath out of the Sheoak as well with some brass trim.



I did not bother with belt clip or alike. I don't think this knife will be carried around. But maybe someday in the future....

The other kit I had was the pocket knife.




I made some more blanks than I needed just in case. So I went ahead and rehandled a straight razor I once bought from a fleamarket just for fun.

I am also not really using it but I guess it is good that I used the cactus juice on it if it ever gets used.




....and then I still had a leftover scale. I decided to make a marking knife. But the blank was not big enough for both sides. So I resaw it carefully into two very thin shims. Of course now they were too thin on their own. To get the thickness I wanted I sandwiched them with some other dark wood and some brass. Now it has a nice thickness and I actually like the weight.



You also see a second knife not made with the Sheoak. That one is made with Chinese elm. It is much lighter than the other.



As blades I used leftover hand saw plate from when I did cut one up for card scrapers. I couldn't decide on the angle of the spear point. That's why I made two. One with 75 degrees and one with 50 degrees.

So there you have it and the board is getting shorter....



...but still some room for more [emoji6]

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[Bushmiller]

CK

Fabulous use of a valuable resource and very nice tools as well. Excellent.

Regards
Paul

[IanW]

C., It looks like that bit of She-oak is going to be used to the last splinter! What are you planning to do with the sawdust??

Actually, I'm pretty miserly with "precious" wood myself, making smaller & smaller things as the offcuts get smaller. I have several boxes of offcuts that are waiting for the right project to come along so can use them up. I suspect many most of them will still be waiting when I close up the tool cupboard for the last time....

Ian

[Simplicity]

CK,

Your unstoppable, those knives are looking fantastic.

Cheers Matt.

[Mountain Ash]

Hi CK. Great to see you have been busy in the workshop. Love that timber and what you are doing with it. Marking knives are a great thing to make and have.