Month: September 2018
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Tools of the trade: 07 The Spokeshave
The Spokeshave is to the drawknife what the hand plane is to an adze or chisel… if you look at the blades of the older spokeshaves they even look like mini-drawknife blades. A light touch holding between the first finger and the thumb and just using the rest of the fingers just touching the […]
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Tools of the Trade 06 Drawknives
At every step of the work, the more you do with the previous tool the less you do with the next one… the closer you split to the size you want, the less ax work you do, the closer you get with the axe work the less you use the drawknife. and on through most […]
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stools: a gateway to Medieval and Greenwoodworking
So, I know a lot of people start their journey into woodworking with a box made from lumber yard dimensioned pine. (actually the wood is called “SPF” which stands for “spruce, pine, fir” meaning it could be any of those woods, but in reality most of the stuff I see is Ponderosa pine.) But since […]
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Tools of the trade 05 Hatchets
The word “Hatchet” itself has an interesting etymology. It comes from the old French word “to throw”. The Frankish armies (when the Normans invaded) carried 2 small axes into battle that had severely short and curved handles. Before engaging in the hand to hand melee they would hurl them at the enemy, intending to have […]
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Tools of the Trade 04 the Brake
A brake (or riving brake) is used in conjunction with the froe so I thought it would be apropo to mention it here. I have heard of these also being called a “cleave”. there are several types: upright A-frame, see Peter Follansbee’s blog and The Barn on White Run Japanese, horizontal or box like see […]
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Tools of the Trade 03 the Froe
30 years ago you couldn’t buy a new froe, no one made them. You could find antique ones, usually beat up and rusty beyond usability. So I made mine from old leaf springs! the one behind is a school bus leaf spring, and the one in front is a car leaf spring. these work very […]
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Tools of the trade 02 the Hacking Stock
Ok, so not everyone calls it that, chopping block, stump etc. After you have split your wood as close to size as you can, any coarse shaping with an axe is done here. it can be just a stump: this is a piece of crab apple that is too hard and too twisted to be […]
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Process outline 02
We left off with a stack of board like parts that are still fresh and wet. Now we wait a week or so. at least until the faces of the material dry out a little. They will carve better at this stage. When not fully dry but not completely wet either. The faces will also […]