New old tools!

It's tool sharpening day again.....Oh joy! As you know by now, that's not meant to sound sarcastic, either.

 

The bevel on my old drawknife is a bit more round/convex than I prefer, and now seems like a decent opportunity to flatten it out a bit. I don't need it to be PERFECTLY flat, it's not like I can sharpen this 12" monster on the stones.....which brings me to another point....getting the bevel perfectly flat isn't meant to be some sort of religious or ethical dilemma. A flat bevel is self-jigging, makes sharpening more easy and repeatable, that's all. A convex bevel seems to get away from you after a while. 22 degrees =>24 degrees =>45 degrees, you know? This bevel angle wanders around a bit, so I'm just trying to improve things a little bit.

Problem is, normal files won't touch this steel, it's too hard. To have any hope of getting this done today, I need to use my cheap China diamond files.

What looks like dust on the blade.....that's steel. These files cut!

This $10 set of files has the coarsest grit of anything that I've got, and they are turning into one of those "life-saving, off-grid, must have tools". They've held up amazingly well so far, and look nearly new still, despite having already seen some fairly hard service. The diamond grit is embedded very thoroughly, so as you use the files, more grit gets exposed and the action becomes more aggressive. They have shown no tendency to shed grit when used on soft-ish steel, something that can't be said of many of the more expensive diamond stones from guys like DMT.

This drawknife is most definitely NOT soft. I bought this thing on eBay last year, but haven't had much cause to use it until now. It still had most of the factory paint on it, I couldn't see any makers stamp, but it seemed nicely forged. The handles aren't too nice, and are mismatched, to boot. It hasn't been used much at all, nor mucked up by fools. I figured it for a decent newer import knife, but today I took a closer look.

D.R. Barton, Rochester, NY. The makers stamp is so faint that it was obscured by the paint. The blade is laminated. I couldn't see that under the paint either. The Barton stamp was used until 1923 I read, so there you go. I think I paid around $20 shipping included. Old drawknives are painfully cheap, and almost certainly better than anything that you can find today.

Ever more, my tools are around the 100 year old mark, which sounds impressively old, but now that I'm nearly 1/2 that age, it doesn't feel as exceptional, haha. If you think about tool life and return on investment, these old tools are really phenomenal values. I am lucky to see 4 years of use from a power tool, but many of the hand tools that I use every day have been in use for over 100 years. That's just incredible to me. Talk about value and economy!

 

My friend Brandon is soon to set sail to the far corners of the globe in our old sailboat (and now beautiful, thanks to him....he sure didn't get it that way, haha!) and boat space being at such a premium, he figured that I might be able to put some of his old tools to good use. Thanks yet again Brandon.....you're the best! They arrived two days ago, and they are perfect!

 

A lipped shipwrights adze (yeah, the handle's upside down,oops, my bad, haha), a hewing hatchet.....

 

 

....and an arrow for Ellie.

The perfect gift for her (and she likes the harmonica that you sent, too! Lucky for me, she is developing some skill with music, otherwise....:-p

This arrow is one of a set that Brandon made years ago for elk hunting. Now she needs to build a decent bow, something that has enough muscle to push this monster. Hawaii smoked ham, here we come!

 

Phosphoric acid takes away the slight amount of surface rust.

 

Even more importantly for me, it reveals the details of the forging.

A laminated blade, L.& I.J. White, Buffalo, NY Kent pattern #3 broad hatchet. This hatchet is also well over 100 years old. According to the catalog, you could buy these for $16/dozen, of course that was in 1890. Not cheap, these tools.

I've had a few broad-axes and hatchets before, but now that I really need one...I've got nothing. Your gift is SO very timely, thank you!

 

Something that I wasn't aware of before, is that some of the broad hatchets have a welded steel face on the poll of the axe.

That seems odd to me. All I can assume is that this is the original shingleing hatchet, so you'd want a hardened hammer face to use for driving nails. One end splits, the other end drives. Cool!

 

I love the original tooling marks.

Laminated blades are awesome.

 

When viewed on edge, you can see how the steel bit was forge welded to the body, using a nice long scarf.

Very clean. A really nice, solid tool. Perfect.

 

 

 

And on to the adze. It needs some BLO, to nourish the dried wood.

 

Looking better, now that I've got the handle facing the right way.

 

 

Sharp.

I should've taken the hatchet down far enough that the grinder marks were eliminated. I figured that they would soon disappear due to sharpening attrition, but now I don't know. This steel is tough, much harder that the adze. Those grinder tracks might be there for a LONG time yet.

 

As I was sharpening the adze, I kept wondering if I was seeing evidence of a lamination, but I'm pretty sure that it isn't, despite how the picture makes it appear. Even on the back of the blade, though, it almost looks like it could be. I can't say with 100% certainty, but if it is laminated, the heat of forging it caused enough carbon to migrate out of the steel that the separation line is virtually eliminated. And not that it matters one lick, it's an awesome adze, and I've wanted one of these lipped adze for the last 20 years. I'm pretty happy, partly a delayed gratification thing, partly just overwhelmingly pleased with the tools that Brandon sends me.

Thanks Brandon!! Ellie, too. She's psyched!

 

Now for something completely different.....

I have a short list of tools that I've wanted for quite some time, but I haven't really felt the lack until recently. I am of divided mind on tools acquisition. I used to flip through the tool catalogs endlessly, each tool suggesting new possibilities for projects, each idea giving birth to ever grander plans. I made lists, added up the totals then promptly chucked the lists out the window. How many tools do you really need, anyway (Coincidentally, Sebastian has been exploring this same issue with the students in his woodworking classes down in Chile.)? As I get more proficient, the answer is less and less. Before, I wanted ALL the tools, seeing them as somehow being necessary to proper craftsmanship. Now, I tend to view many of those same tools as being a crutch to make up for a lack of skill. How can you improve if everything is done for you?

On the other hand, I've gotten more than a few tools, just bought on a whim, but then later realized how awesome they are. The "point of a sword" knife that I forged is one of those tools (although I wouldn't buy one for the $300 they cost), a wakitori-ganna (a special plane used for shaving the sides of a groove) is another. The POAS knife I've never seen for sale used, but the wakitori-ganna are so common they are nearly free. Buy one.

 

Anyways, here is another tool that just never made it onto my must-have list, but it's there now.

A (Gasp!) new tool. Finally I've bought myself a sashigane! I had been planning to buy an old one, made using German steel (what was that stuff? Aluminum? Pewter?), but my needs overcame my wants. A new Shinwa sashigane, stainless steel and everything.

I have come to hate and despise the western style framing square, but even so, how different can the Japanese version be? It has been all of this Project Mayhem framing joinery practice that has finally made me see the light. When you watch those YouTube videos of the old Japanese carpenter laying out the joint, whipping the sashigane left and right, tilting and angling..... I realized that the square can be an artful and dynamic tool, more than just the 90° reference it is commonly used for.

A western framing square is placed down, skootched into position, then the line is drawn. It is stiff and heavy, and unless you are striking from an already square edge, you pretty much need to use two hands to move it where you want. A sashigane is different. It's thin, light and nimble. It's a single-handed tool that you poke down right where you want it, draw a line, then give it a twist to the next location, mark, move, mark. This Japanese joinery has so many cut lines that the layout becomes part of the fun itself, nearly a dance if done properly. I'm only beginning to feel this, but I REALLY like it.

 

 

 

Of particular importance in how the tool works..... The corner.

The edges of the sashigane are relieved . You know how when you are marking a line and it is just the slightest bit off, due to the interference between the square and whatever it is that you are using to mark with, the thickness of the pencil, whatever..... You need to pull the square back from the line before you strike it, if you want it to be accurate, you know?

 

To hazard another esoteric byway/explanation......

I have been striking my layout lines for years using a pencil for rough cuts, a knife for the important stuff. I use a knife, because it's more sharply defined than what the carpenters pencil in my pocket can provide. A knife works great with a square, because you can run the blade right next to the edge of the square, zero clearance like. The knife also gives this great little divot point for placing the tool as you progress the marking out, an index mark. I started using the knife more, because I wanted greater accuracy than my pencil would provide.

Ironically, now that I've started laying out these crazy complex joinery works, I am frequently wanting an even more accurate mark than a knife can provide. How is a relatively fat 0.2 mm line considered more accurate than a 0mm width knife mark? Obviously it's not, but the problem is that I want to fudge the cut some arbitrary amount one side or the other AWAY from the line, and that doesn't work well with a knife line. The knife struck line disappears if you get too close. An ink line lets you fudge, but still keep the original (in part at least). Right now, for my skill level, a 0.2 mm line feels like a good goal to shoot for. I can cut one side, then the other, and chances are I'll get an acceptable fit. Far from a piston, but I'm happy for now.

 

Anyways, back to the other tools.....

A sashigane has its edges ground back, so the edge doesn't actually touch the surface. It is said that's  because the Japanese guys layout using ink, and the relieved edge prevent the ink from getting all over the square and fouling the surface, but in practice it is more than that. When I use a sashigane, I can stick the corner point exactly where is want it to be, then angle the drawing tool (sumisashi, pencil or knife) to mark the line perfectly. It is so much faster and easier.

I never would've guessed.

 

 

 

Living in this way, very simply and with no power source, can be difficult in many ways (try living in a warm climate without refrigeration, haaa!) but it also has its rewards. Renee has seen the value of having all of these ridiculous hand tools! Now that she gets to see things in action (and she does much of the work herself, too), she's given me encouragement to buy more of what I need/want tool-wise.

 

Doing the Project Mayhem joinery challenge has brought to light one of my biggest lacks. Despite the amazing resource of the Internet, there is still not much info out there on basic Japanese carpentry practice and joinery. There are a handful of books however, that keep being referenced, but I don't have any. Strike that.....didn't have.

 

Books are coming, a survey of what might be useful to a relative beginner (I guess that's what I am. I'm sure no expert, haha ).

 

 

 

I'm also dreaming.....

 

.....dreaming of a shaded porch, lying in a hammock, feeling the afternoon breeze.

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Finishing up the Japanese style saw vise

 

 

It's about time to finish up this project. The rains have stopped, the rainbows are out, and I've got some saws that are in need of some sharpening. It's time to finish the vise!

 

 

 

I'm great at starting projects, lousy at the finishing stages.. I'm too enthusiastic for my own good.

 

 

 

 

From the previous post, the two halves of the vise have been shaped, now it's time to attach them. This being my first attempt at a Japanese style saw vise, combined with my choice to run the wood grain the "wrong" way, it would be wiser to attach the halves using some means that would let me adjust or separate them when I undoubtedly need to. So, of course I choose the permanent (but much cooler) means of attachment....riveting them.

 

My rivet stock will be some old bent nails that are never in short supply. For the roves, I drill the centers on another thing that is seldom in short supply, pennies.

 

I bore shallow recesses to get everything below the surface. When I do this next time, I will bore less deep or skip the recessed thing entirely. Although it gives a neater finish, when I inevitably need to grind these off later, access will be a bitch.

 

 

The nails are lightly galvanized, but a little phosphoric acid removes that quickly. Jasco Prep&Prime to the rescue!

The zinc galvanizing causes the acid to get all foamy, but the nails are under there. I give it 15 minutes.

 

 

The reason for removing the galvanized coating is that I want the nails in as soft a state as possible before peening, so I need to anneal the metal first. Burning off the galvanizing works great, but also causes the formation of nasty gasses that can cause brain damage/kill you/etc. I'm challenged enough as it is, so prudence prevails. I don't get to say that very often.

 

 

A propane torch, get 'em red hot, then let things cool, the slower the better.

I thought that the lava rock worked well as a fireproof surface. Talk about an appropriate material.

 

 

If you happen to find yourself moving out into the boondocks and haven't yet built your forge (everyone needs a forge, right?), a good propane torch and a decent sized piece of ceramic blanket insulation makes a sort of workable emergency, half-assed forge. The ceramic insulation is key though. I wish that I brought some. 20/20 hindsight.

 

You can make a small propane forge from a tin can, and using sheet rock mud/sand mix as a refractory lining. It is handy to have around for making small tools and blades, but the key word here is small. A charcoal forge is SOOO much better. Quiet, too.

 

 

Peen the nails to lock everything together.

 

 

I cut the wedge from more of than mystery ham-wood stuff that I suspect is something like Brazilian cherry.

Whatever it is, it's hard, finishes smooth as glass, and it's more than my crappy kanna blade can handle. Rather than re-sharpening every 10 minutes, I decide that it's finally time to open up my treasure chest of tools. It's time to pull out the big guns!

"Rashomon" kanna, by wholesaler company Cubs torosaburo. Our favorite luthier, Tanaka Kiyoto has a couple of these kanna and was surprised at the blade quality and toughness. He puts the steel toughness just shy of HSS and some of the "super" steels. He doesn't know how actually forged the blades, but he was impressed.

 

http://kiyond.blogspot.com/2014/11/youtube_13.html

 

I bought this kanna from my Japanese tools pusher, Junji. It had a huge crack in the main blade and generally looked like hell. I showed some of the blade repair here, but haven't gotten around to fitting the blade into the dai....until now. It feels at least 4x more durable than the plain-Jane kanna that I have been using, yet the blade is still fairly easy to sharpen. Laminated blades are awesome!

 

 

The wood that I used for the wedge is probably too hard and slippery. The vise works wonderfully, 'cept the wedge likes to pop out at inopportune moments. I'll try roughing up the surface, see if that helps.

Next step....sharpening my old kataba saws. I plan on converting this old guy into a madonoko tooth pattern but first I will see how well it works as is, with the original modified rip tooth it has now. I've been thinking real hard about the mechanics of saw tooth design, and now is my opportunity to do a fun compare/contrast project.

 

 

Ellie is using the ugly saw, but doing great work. She's making a rabbit hutch.....more pets. Ellie, the rabbit farmer.

She did her layout using the bamboo sumisashi.

 

 

Focus and intent!

 

 

If you look closely, she's spot on the line.

That's my girl!

 

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More ura-dashi-----refinement

I guess that I had alluded to my writing a post on performing ura-dashi on chisels....... But I'm not. Yet. What I have right now is a kanna blade that is causing me some difficulties, so I took some photos of the process. Lots of photos.

Tapping out the back hollow (ura-dashi) on Japanese plane blades, chisel blades, knife blades and carving tools....... Everything takes a hit. Ura-dashi is faster than just grinding away at the stones, preserves the all-important steel hagane, and also serves to maintain a proper fit between kanna blade and dai. And it's fun!

Ura-dashi is a necessary skill to learn if you want to get the best performance from these tools, but it has a reputation for being a process fraught with danger. It's scary the first few times, but (and I can't stress this enough) get the right hammer and it's a piece of cake.



I got this old kanna recently that showed evidence of having had some pretty serious work done to the bevel. It looked as though the blade had chipped out very heavily, necessitating a more extreme session of ura-dashi than typical. Rather than the edge coming to a point, it ended abruptly at an approximately 3mm blunt tip.

When a blade requires very forceful measures to correct it for warp, twist, or has had an unfortunate encounter with a nail/rock/concrete floor, the pros will often grind the edge back a few millimeters before performing ura-dashi. This gives more support to the steel, reducing the possibility of making the damage even worse. This looked like one of those cases.

Things are coming along nicely. I have already corrected the slightly mushroomed head of the main blade, and gotten a good start on forming a new bevel. This is a 65mm blade, BTW.

I was able to hammer the upper portion of the blade back into shape, but the perimeter was starting to fragment, so I had to resort to filing a decorative chamfer. Frustratingly close to the original profile, but no cigar.



The main blade had been cut back so severely, that the secondary blade needed amputation as well (or possibly the damage was so bad that BOTH blades needed shortening, yikes!). So, ura-dashi for the osae-gane, too.

This is perfect, to my eye.

You can't make a silk purse from a sows ear, as they say. This osae-gane was well forged, and the urasuki was nicely ground. I just try to keep things looking "proper". Sometimes you get lucky......



....and sometimes you don't (get lucky, that is). This is the main blade.

The tiniest remnant of the original damage. The crack only became apparent after starting the back-flattening process. What I *really* don't like is that the crack runs longitudinal to the length of the blade. It is possible that this will propagate right up the middle and make the blade unsalvageable, but my fingers are crossed.


I grind the blade back another 3mm, about 1mm past the visible damage.

Right back to where I started, haha!

Hopefully that gets all of it. I won't know until I've completely finished sharpening the blade



More ura-dashi.

There is a bit of a push/pull interaction going on during this process, particularly in such an extreme case as this. The hard steel hagane is.... hard, and doesn't bend (well, it bends but it doesn't retain the bend. It is highly resilient and resists permanent deformation). The actual bending is due to the soft iron being bent and displaced/deformed by the hammer blows. The blade was made using a relatively hard wrought iron and it feels a little stiff. This isn't the easiest blade for ura-dashi. Maybe the steel is very stiff, too?

You hammer the bevel, displacing and expanding the iron, causing the cutting edge to be deformed downward. This induces tension into the blade.

The little squiggle to the right of center isn't the crack, it's a piece of lint.

I check for flatness using a #1000 grit diamond stone. You can see the barest hint of the flat beginning to form at the bottom edge.

I do 90% of ura-dashi using just a tiny (8 oz?) tack hammer, but this blade calls for the big gun!

A 32oz ball pein hammer is nearly the LAST type of hammer that I would choose for this process, but it is close to hand. A nice funate pattern genno would be perfect for this. Someday....

I am trying to achieve a perfectly straight, flat, land (the ura-ba, I think) at the edge.

This is looking good. It is a beginning.


The problem is that there is a lot of material yet to be removed from the bevel. I figure that doing this process in stages will minimize the stresses on the already stressed-out steel. Some of the pros advocate an even slower pace, and do just a little bit of ura-dashi over the course of days or weeks. I'm patient, but.....

Back to the bevel then. Heavy files remove the iron quickly.

And here is where the push-me, pull-you comes into play. The ura-ba was looking perfect before setting the bevel, but now the line has become uneven.

I target a very specific region to focus my attention on. Only strike where needed. Don't hit the steel part, only the iron (I know you've heard that one before). Strike heavily towards the base of the bevel to affect a broad area, lighter and closer to the cutting edge for a more localized effect.

The ura-ba is more even in width, but now there is a new condition to address. The corners are no longer making contact with the evidenc accentuated by the different directions of the scratch patterns.

I switch up directions occasionally, so the scratches act as an reference.

Back to my usual hammer. Small strikes, as close to the corners as I dare.

Magic!

There is a small spot at the far right that is still not touching fully, but that will come out as I finish.


A note: As I look at all of these photos, I guess that it should be clarified that I am right handed. I hold the blade in my left hand, with the head of the blade close to me, the bevel of the blade furthest away. Nothing weird or original about my posture, pretty typical. I would take a picture, but I only have two hands (*sigh*..... If only.....).

When tapping, I keep my hammer arm elbow tight to my side, for a controlled/restrictive movement. If your elbow is flapping around, your accuracy goes out the window.



The blade is now shorter and thicker than it was, so the blade is now a tight fit in the dai. There had been a paper spacer...... Gone now.

There is still a long way to go before the blade reaches the proper position.


It's time to actually sharpen the blade, but before I do that, I take a few measurements to see if I need to remove more material from one side of the blade, or the other.

It looks like I will be favoring the left when I sharpen this guy. The left is closer to the surface, and would be the first side to protrude, all things being equal. I want the blade to protrude evenly of course so I will try to remove more material from the left of the blade.


I do that by applying more pressure to the left side as I grind away at this thing.

I've been singing the praises of this sandpaper, but got the name wrong, haha. I was calling it 3X (actually a Norton product, and a good one, too), but it is 3M sandblaster. This is very tough stuff, and lasts an incredibly long amount of time.


This single piece has been used on a number of blades, and doesn't feel sharp at all. It still cuts, though.

That dust is mostly iron. About 50% of the grit is missing by now, and it's long overdue for replacement. If you sweep off the paper occasionally, it cuts faster.

Almost there.


After the #60 grit sandpaper, I jump to a #400 diamond stone.

A full, even width bevel.


And one last time, I check the back side for flatness.

It looks good.


Well, maybe just one more.....

And one thing to note about the blade in the picture. The line of hagane is flat and even. If I had just ground down the blade without performing ura-dashi, the line would be thick in the middle, tapering to nothing at the corners.

 Remember the chisel in the last post?

And, lest you think that all I do is sharpen tools.....

We have rebuilt almost our entire house, with the exception of one small area. The dreaded bathroom.

Just in time for us to move, haha!


I need a shower.