It's a Small World!

I've had a busy weekend as usual with tool orders and as I started packing, it struck me how many different countries there were amongst them. As well as the UK and of course the US (where most of my tools go) there was France, Germany, Sweden, Ireland, Latvia (a first), Israel, Spain and Australia!
It's great to see hand tool woodworking is alive and kicking the world over!

Customer Infill Planes.

Kevin from the UK sent through these pictures of a couple of planes he's made. Not your normal infill planes as he's infilled wood into wood! The one above is castello boxwood and ebony with a comfortable looking all round shape.

This one has a spalted beech infill with figured mahogany sides and a steel sole. It has a damascus blade which seems to be bedded at a pretty high angle, at a guess 60 degrees.
That's a very nice chunk of snakewood!

Nice Customer Projects.

The first one is a pair of intriguing boxes made by Vipul from West Midlands UK. Looking like an envelope or handbag they have a screw 'button' and a sliding dovetail to remove the lid. Very imaginative!

The dovetail shown below is by George in AZ, USA, this was his first attempt with the 1:6 guide.

Lastly is a very nice dovetailed box in quarter sawn brown oak by Kevin in Gloucestershire UK.

The top is oak veneer and the banding is in snakewood. The lid is held with discreet stop hinges.

The base and lid have been lined carefully with brown leather.

Another Wonderful Piano.

This one was sent to me by a Polish customer, completely different from the last one, but none the less impressive. Below is a video of the piano in action.

Apparently it's a copy of a 500 year old Leonardo Da Vinci design and took 5,000 hours to make!

Piano Maker Extraordinaire!

A good customer sent me these photos of his work which I thought you all may enjoy.
Most of my tools go the amateur woodworkers, but a few go to true professionals, of which Paul is one.

This is a copy of a Streicher very similar to that used by Brahms for the last 24 years of his life.
I'm no musician but the use of that walnut veneer is outstanding!

Above is a video of the piano in action.

And here is the man himself, Paul McNulty, looking deservedly proud of his work.

The Best Bandsaw Blades You Can Buy!

Over the years I've tried different brands and used different steel, high carbon and high speed, but the best by far are carbide tipped blades. It's not just that the blade lasts a very long time (my last one lasted 9 months of light daily use) but it's the quality of the cut. The teeth are ground in the same fashion as table saws blades and are all in line, unlike other bandsaw blades where each tooth finishes in an outward facing point.

I ordered these (for my Startrite 401) yesterday afternoon and they arrived this morning! They came from Harrison Saw and Tool 01706 225221 and cost £114 inc vat each for a 3850 mm blade. That might seem expensive but I used to buy the Lennox Trimaster blades which are over £200 for the same spec. The teeth are nicely covered and you can keep this on until the blade is fitted but not tightened.

The blade I use is a 2/3 tpi which may seem coarse but because of the in line teeth it cut very smoothly indeed. Pictured below is my blade guide setting which you can see has plenty of clearance either side of the blade. This may be against all advice but if you have really good tension, a sharp blade and you don't try to go too fast, the blade will cut as straight as a die even to the full 16" depth of my saw.

Here's the English burr walnut for one of my box lids cut to a depth of 14" in about 30 seconds. The finish is good enough to go straight to the sander.

Although I only needed a piece 14" wide I was able then choose the best position to make the cut. I used a negative template of the area required which I marked out when I was happy. This is a great technique which can be used with a mirror if you want to find the best book match.

This is the Burr brown oak which came from Yandles.

Here's a close up of the finish you get with these blades

This is the Claro walnut

 ..and finally the burr oak which came from the board I recently aquired. I'm going to have to put the box project aside for a few days while I catch up with the tools order, but I can't wait to see what these look like once finished.

Dovetail Therapy!

I was due to start a well overdue batch of high angle smoothers but decided to enjoy myself instead!
Here's a small run of desk boxes with all 112 dovetails cut and fitted, which took 7 1/2 hours of concentration. This afternoon I remembered one of James Krenov's quotations 'It's not work I enjoy but working accurately'
Each box is in a different wood, from the front, brown oak, American walnut, English walnut and European oak. The first three were all air dried and much easier to work. The European oak was brittle and required extra care. I have matching burrs lined up for the panels on each of these, more of that another day.