Yet again it's been 3 months since my last post,I really do suck at keeping a journal!
It's been a busy 3 months,along with the usual earrings,cufflinks & pendants I've made a replacement electrical component for my father in laws old Rolls Royce using a piece of copper tubing (free),a sandwich board (all materials scavenged from skips & the roadside,well,apart from the glue & panel pins)for my artist friend Deborah Cameron,she paints the most amazing seascapes,http://deborahcameron.com/,started work on a pair of Viking shoes & made a few more custom tools.
This little smoothing plane has to be my favourite tool so far.She's 130mm longs by 51mm wide with a blade width of 34mm.She is constructed primarily from African Blackwood,a stable timber as hard as bone that glues to itself with little or no seam & is capable of taking a mirror finish,my favourite wood by some margin.The wedge is curly Sycamore with a ring of Blackwood,Sycamore,Black Walnut,Turquoise resin & finally beef bone holding in a 13mm Lapis Lazuli cabochon.
Her mouth is quite wide at the moment,1.5mm with the bevel down,4mm with the bevel up (I modeled her on Karl Holteys 11-SA & although she is a little shorter the blade & bed geometry are the same).This will close up once I get round to replacing the 2mm thick stanley block plane blade with a 3.5-4mm 0-1 carbon steel blade of my own creation.I'm not too bothered at the minute as I've only had to plane some very sedate Oak & Mahogany & these particular timbers seem to cooperate without a fuss producing some very woolly shavings.I'm sure once I have to plane some African Padauk or pippy Yew I'll be looking for that smaller mouth.
I've made a couple of planes before but none of them turned out as well as this one,it seems to me that Blackwood is the wood of choice when planemaking.
You may have noticed I am refering to this plane as she?I tend to name my favourite tools/machines & I've named this little beauty Charlize...
Here are a few boxes I have made using wood that I found on the streets of Edinburgh.The Mahogany I used was found just outside my flat in the form of a discarded mantel 6 foot long,8 inches wide by 1 1/4 inch thick.The 22mm Baltic Birch Plywood I found in a skip outside a flat that I presume was getting underfloor heating considering the shape of the offcuts.Not sure how much I scored but it was enough to fill the boot of our Peugot 206.I’ve made loads of stuff with this from these boxes to jigs,sanding discs,new top for my beatup workbench & faceplates for my lathe/sander/grinder.The Oak came from some old kitchen doors & drawer fronts I found a couple of streets up from mine.Once the doors had been dismantled the stiles bore about 60 feet of 15mm by 50mm strips & the drawer fronts yielded 30some feet of 100mm by 20mm boards,perfect for boxmaking. They were glued together using p.v.a.,sanded to 600 grit then finished with Liberon finishing oil. There are a number of great things about using reclaimed wood. Firstly,its free meaning all the more money for tools. Secondly,you know the wood is well seasoned,especially if its the remnants of a home remodelling. Thirdly & lastly,as far as I’m aware,is you are slowing our ever increasing rubbish tips from becoming continents in their own rights. Oh,the suede that I take my pics on is also salvaged,this time from an old 3 seat sofa. The one at the front is 120mm long by 57mm high.
