giant Cypress

匿名 asked:

Hello, I am entirely new to woodworking and looking at you site, I see you recommended Fujihiro Chisels. I am on Hida Tool and I see a lot of different types of chisels recommended from bench chisels , fishtail and a whole lot more. I know six and 24mm is what you recommend as a starting size but what type of chisel in these sizes should I go with? If it helps, I am looking for tools that would be generally good for all common use cases until I learn enough to want a really specific tool.

The Fujihiro chisels that I have are the bench chisels for the most part. I also have a few paring chisels and a couple of mortise chisels. The bench chisels are the ones I think you’ll want, and I’m pretty sure you’ll be happy with them.

One thing you should be aware of is that Japanese chisels tend to be shorter than their western counterparts. I think that this is an advantage, as it makes the bench chisels easier to maneuver. It’s possible that you prefer a longer, heavier chisel, but I’ve run into very few people over the years that really feel that way.

12:08 pm22 七月 2022

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woodworking

chisel

匿名 asked:

Hi Wilbur, I did a search on your sight, but can't find anything about using a Nagura stone. Do you not see a need with your really fine water stones?

I don’t have a nagura stone, which is probably why your search didn’t turn up anything. *grin*

To take a step back, waterstones, especially natural waterstones, come in a range of hardnesses. A harder waterstone is good because it will stay flat for a longer period of time. But TANSTAAFL, so the downside of a hard waterstone is that they tend to release their particles more slowly as you sharpen, which can make the sharpening process slower.

A nagura is a secondary stone that’s rubbed on the face of a hard waterstone. This accomplishes two things. First, slurry from the nagura itself gets deposited on the hard waterstone, which jump starts the sharpening. Second, the rubbing can release some particles from the hard waterstone itself. Either way, this speeds up sharpening on the hard waterstone.

Hard waterstones also tend to have a slippery feel as you sharpen, which may make holding your tool at a consistent angle more difficult. Raising a slurry with a nagura can help with this as well.

As I mentioned, I don’t have a nagura. The fine waterstones that I usually use don’t really seem to need one. They are hard, but they work quickly enough that I haven’t felt the need to get a nagura.

I do have one very hard fine waterstone that I don’t use very often that could use a nagura. When I do use that waterstone, I take my Atoma diamond plate and rub that over the face of the waterstone. This raises a slurry from the waterstone. I’ll also use a little water from the spray bottle to wash the grit off of the diamond plate onto the surface of the waterstone for good measure. This sort of accomplishes the same thing as a nagura would.

I would say that if you are satisfied with how fast your fine waterstones are working, then you don’t need a nagura. If you want to try to speed things up, use the diamond plate method I mentioned above. If that seems to work for you, maybe a nagura would be a nice thing to have.

10:38 am21 七月 2022

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woodworking

sharpening

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Humanity has finally found a way to communicate with crabs, we realize they’re smarter than us. Now that they know we know, what are they going to do?

“If we are so smart, why didn’t we stop them from inventing Old Bay?”

9:58 am20 七月 2022

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satt-prompt

show and tell time

satt-crabs

satt-writing-prompt

show and tell

satt

fun

Zero-radius game

Sharpening is important if you want to have a good time woodworking with hand tools, Japanese or otherwise. But it’s often seen as an annoyance, which I think is not the best way to think about sharpening. Good news — it’s simpler and easier than you think to get really sharp edges.

The hardest part about sharpening is understanding what “sharp” really means, especially if you are trying to do this outside of a real-world, live class or demonstration. The best way I can explain what “sharp” is from a distance is this:

You have a sharp edge when the two sides of your plane blade/chisel have a zero-radius at the point where they meet.

Please note that I’m not talking about flat, or a mirror polish. Sharpness is often defined in these terms, but I like to avoid them because they focus on factors that are less important.

This diagram of cross sections of an edge shows why flatness isn’t the most important thing. On the left, there are two edges that are both sharp. One has two flat surfaces coming together at a point with a zero-radius. The second one is the same, but the surfaces are curved. (Think of the edge of a kitchen knife or an ax.) Both edges are going to be sharp.

The middle part of the diagram shows the same cross sections, but with a bit of a round-over with a small radius where the edges meet. This is an edge that is starting to get dull. This happens both with the flat and curved sides. The small amount of dulling has nothing to do with how flat or curved the sides might be, just what is happening at the edge.

The right part of the diagram shows the same cross sections, but with a greater round-over with a larger radius. Again, the flatness of the sides don’t have much to do with what is going on at the edge.

There are a number of tried and true methods of assessing the edge, and if you keep the idea of a zero-radius point, they will all make sense. One method of assessing sharpness as you sharpen a tool is getting a burr to form. The burr only forms once you’ve abraded enough material to eliminate the roundness from the edge of the tool. If there’s some roundness left at the edge, the metal will continue to come off without forming a burr.

Another method is to move the tool under a light while looking down at the edge of the tool, and to look for a line of light at the edge. If you see a line of light, then you need to keep sharpening. The reason the line of light appears is that if the edge still has some roundness to it, at some point the roundness will reflect light from the light source, which creates the “line of light” effect. If the two surfaces meet at a zero-radius, there’s no roundness to reflect light.

There’s also the fingernail test. A sharp edge will catch on your fingernail. (If you use this test, please be careful.) If the edge has some roundness, the edge will skate along your fingernail. But if the edge comes to a zero-radius point, it will catch.

This is not to say that flatness and a mirror polish aren’t useful in the sharpening process. It’s just that they aren’t the most important things. They both have a role to play in sharpening. We’ll get to how and why soon.

8:58 pm17 七月 2022

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woodworking

sharpening

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Perfect.

6:38 am6 七月 2022

1 热度

匿名 asked:

Dear Wilbur, I'm setting up my kanna and I have watched many tutorials and read your blog. All very helpful. But on my Dai the sides are not square to the sole. Not at all. How would you recommend getting them square. I'm thinking to take the blade and to scrape it square. Or would it be better to try to do it with another kanna? Even though they are not made to cut hardwood like white oak. Id love to have your 2 cents. Kind regards, Sven

Dear Sven,

Thanks for writing, and for the nice comments, I really appreciate it.

First of all, squaring the sides of the dai to the sole is really only crucial if you plan on using your kanna as a shooting plane. If you’re using it for surface planing, it doesn’t really matter if the sides are square or not.

But if you want to square up the sides with the sole (believe me, I understand the impulse), the good thing is that you’re a woodworker, so you probably already know how to do this. You can use any method you want to do this.

I’ve typically used a second plane to plane away the side of the dai to square it up with the sole, while using a square to check my progress. The second plane doesn’t even have to be a Japanese plane. A Stanley plane will do.Other methods would include using a card scraper, a block of wood and sandpaper, or any other method of removing wood you like to use.

One last thing to watch for is the position of the pin that holds the chipbreaker in place. Usually, it’s set in deep enough that it won’t get in the way of this sort of operation. But if you’re concerned about it getting in the way, you can remove the pin by grabbing it with a pair of pliers, and working it out. You can wrap some blue tape around the pin first if you’re worried about the pliers leaving marks on the pin.

10:08 am13 六月 2022

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woodworking

plane

1 热度

giantcypress:

giantcypress:

“In Flanders Fields”, by John McCrae, 1915.For Memorial Day.

Making this a tradition.

9:48 am30 五月 2022

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memorial day

14 热度

Reblogged from

giantcypress

David Charlesworth, RIP →

From David Charlesworth’s website:

Announcement

It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of David on Sunday the 22nd of May after a long illness.

I know many people have stories to tell about David Charlesworth. Here’s mine. Way back when I first got into woodworking, and when I was first beginning to understand what could be done with hand tools, I picked up David Charlesworth’s books and videos, and devoured the information that was presented in them so well.

Not too soon after, I saw a question on a woodworking forum about the best way to break an edge on a board. There were a lot of answers that involved sandpaper. I put forth the idea that you could take a block plane, run it down the edge at 45º, and then halfway between that and one side, and halfway on the other side, and that was a pretty quick way of breaking the edge without using sandpaper. And if you wanted a more rounded edge, just repeat the process again.

A reply came in that said something along the lines of,“Wilbur is spot on.” It was from David Charlesworth.

I almost passed out. It was one of the first indications that I had that I might be able to do this woodworking thing.

RIP David.

4:28 pm26 五月 2022

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woodworking

david charlesworth

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