Resawing Boards

For a doll bed I am making I need to resaw some 1 inch thick boards in half so I can make the bottom. These should finish to about 3/8 or just a hair thicker if my sawing is good.

To resaw the boards first I mark the center of the board all the way around so I have a mark to follow.  I use a marking gauge and then go over my line with pencil so its easier to see.  

I then clamped them in my leg vise and angled them so that I am sawing on the diagonal.  Here is the first board starting to be sawn.

The next step would be to flip the board around and saw at the other side to form a triangle, and continue in this way until you need to flip the board over and start on the bottom side.

I apply so wax to the saw periodically to keep it running smooth.  However, sometimes the board will cause the saw to bind a little in the kerf when you have the full saw plate buried in the board, in that case I add a wedge in the kerf.

I had to resaw 3 boards about the size of this one maybe 8" x 24".  And here is the finished product.

The saw marks won't be too bad to clean up on these with a fore plane.

When resawing boards with a hand saw you must take care to follow your lines on both sides of the board, this many times means stop sawing and check your progress frequently.  When you get off a small amount is fixable and a large amount could ruin the piece.  The other part that requires extra care is getting your saw kerfs to meet when you are flipping the board to saw the different corners.  When these kerfs don't meet up it is tough to fix without losing some thickness from the finished pieces.  Getting the kerfs to meet up every time takes some practice.  As you can see above mine weren't perfect, but this is good enough.

All in all it took about 15 minutes from beginning to end, this include measuring/marking the center and stopping to take a few photos.

A Few Shop Made Tools

I enjoy woodworking, and I also enjoy making my own tools.  It is rewarding to use a hand tool that you have made yourself.  Of course when they aren't up to your standards you have no one to blame but yourself ;).

This is a 55 degree angle smoother I made.  It is laminated with a cross pin in the Krevnov style.  I used a nice thick, vintage Sandusky Tool iron.  If/When I do this again I will use a thicker cross pin or use a different construction method.  I have been thinking of trying the Hayworth method of doing the plane in 2 halves and gluing them up, this would allow me to use the more traditional abutments for the wedge.

This is a marking gauge I made after watching Bob Rozaieski's great podcast on constructing a marking gauge.  Watch the video and try it yourself, it really is pretty simple.  I will point out that I used an old broken drill bit as the pin.  In the future, when I build these, I will buy a few drill bits to make pins out of for multiple gauges and keep one drill bit to the drill hole for the pin.  I will also use a smaller drill bit, this one is a little thick.

Shop made tools are fun give it a shot!

Rehandled Mortise Chisel

I picked up a nice Marples oval bolstered mortise chisel a while back, and after using it on one project the handle split.  I had not re-handled a tang chisel, so it was a new experience for me.  Unfortunately, I did not take pictures of the process, but I will explain what I did and I have a picture of the finished product. 

And here it is next to the original handle that is cracked.  I tried to use the original as a model for my new handle.  Mine actually fits at the bolster slightly better and is about a 1/2 or so longer. 
 

The first step was to saw the blank to width out of 8/4 ash.  A square section worked nicely.  Next, I had to flatten an edge and square an adjacent edge to it.  Then, I could square off the end of the blank.  On the square end, mark the center of the blank.  Then I drilled a pilot hole for the tang.  Then I measured the tang at the bolster and marked the top of the blank.  I then attacked it with chisels to finish up the tang mortise.  An 1/8 firmer style chisel is almost a must here.  

The blank should fit almost all the way on the tang, except maybe 1/4 inch of space between the blank and the bolster, leave less space for harder woods.  Then hammer it home with a mallet.  Then I shaped the handle.  I used a spokeshave, a block plane, a rasp, a file and some sandpaper.  I finished it off with a few coats of tung oil.  I have used it on a few projects since making the handle, and I am very pleased. 

Antique Workbench

If you ever find yourself in Harford county, MD try to stop by Jerusalem Mill.  Jerusalem Mill is a small historic town with some interesting attractions for woodworkers and non woodworkers.  It is home to one of the few covered bridges in the state.  But of greater interest to woodworkers is going to be the gun shop and woodworking shop.  The gun shop is a two floor historic building which was, you guessed it, used to make guns at one time.  The first floor really shows little evidence of this these days but still retains the appropriate period look.  The second floor however is home to some unfinished gun stocks, a shave horse, and this antique workbench. 

This bench has a solid top, with solid legs can't that appeared to mortised into the top.  It has a leg vise up front and a traditional style tail vise at the end.  You can't really tell from this photo but the legs at the end where the leg vise is located splay out, I assume this is to give it stability against forces when planing.  Also notice the drawer in the middle, which is something most of us don't do these days to our benches.  This bench appeared to be well used, it is very marked up along the front edge from saws and other tools.  The top was most certainly not flat. 

Behind the gun shop is the woodworking shop.  The woodworking shop was built by the volunteers that use it.  It contains a much more recent, continental style workbench, that they use these days to do their work.  I checked out some of the tools they had there, all vintage: wooden planes, tang chisels, draw knives and oil stones for sharpening.  I am sure I missed some, but those are tools that stood out to me. 

All in all it was a very interesting visit and highly recommended to other woodworkers.  By the way go in the warmer whether, folks typically dress up and "work" the shops.  The village also has a blacksmith shop with demonstrations.  The center of the town is the mill, which I did not tour on my visit. 

First Post!

Welcome to my new blog.  I am a hobby woodworker, and I enjoy using handtools.  So check back for plenty of handtool centric content.