Snips... ;-)
One thing led to another...
...and I had a most satisfying day in
the shop. Started out by setting out the drill bits to go in the old
bit indexes next to the post drill. That got me in the shop and the
lights turned on (nearly 70 degrees F. today, so I left the doors
open).
Next I searched out all of my old Made
in West Germany Ulima bench chisels to see about grinding needs.
After locating them all and determining that they just needed
sharpening rather than grinding, I set the hoops on all around the
tops and then removed all of the nasty yellow varnish from the wood
and metal hoops and ferrules. They now feel much better in the hand
and are far easier on the eye!
During the search process I also (tools
are salted around the shop in a variety of boxes, waiting for
shelves, cabinets and a bench) found an old Auburn Tool Company
wooden jack I'd been meaning to rehabilitate to use for quick stock
removal. I flattened the plane bottom (didn't take too much), ground
and honed the blade, performed the ruler trick on the back and it's
ready to roll.
Also in the search process I came
across my Stanley No. 49, the prime candidate for my initial foray
into the mysteries of citric acid. CA is now on my shopping list for
tomorrow.
Also in the search process found an old
nasty panel gauge that had come with a bunch of leather tools I got
a long time ago. I pulled it out, went at it with 0000 steel wood
and Howard's Restore-a-finish and a few minutes (and a couple of
coats of paste wax) later I had a found a lovely oak, craftsman made
panel gauge with marked lines in 1/4" increments and tiny numerals
stamped for each inch. The pin is a finishing nail that has been
filed to a knife edge. The fence is quite worn, as is the business
end of the stock. At some point a user has relieved the wood around
the pin to give a better view of the pin. Sweet piece, and I needed
a panel gauge too!
Next I got involved in making a rack
for my newly cleaned bench chisels. I had a left over bit of red oak
already in an interesting shape, so I used my large Stanley miter
box and 30" Disston to trim the ends to a pleasing angle.
Then I used an ante-bellum Disston
tenon saw to cut spaces for the chisels. A bit of mallet and then
some paring left me with a block to hang the chisels from. I'll do
the leather work and framing later this week.
And all I intended to do was to set the
new drill bits on the post drill's table and go back in the house.
Cheers,
John M. Johnston
January 14, 2006 |
