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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A second chance

In December of 2014, Eliana, Renee and I moved from the cold, windy and wet Oregon coast, to the Big Island of Hawaii (the Hilo side) for Renee to take a postdoctoral position with the University of Hawaii Hilo. Although Renee had been to Hawaii in the past, this side of the island was new to her. This is my first exposure as well.

Hilo has the reputation as being a VERY wet place, actually one of the top-whatever cities worldwide in terms of annual precipitation. The numbers don't lie, this place gets phenomenal amounts of rain, the more so the further up you go in elevation. Our houshold landed outside the small town of Mountain View, about 12 miles to the south/southwest of Hilo, and at an elevation of about 1,400', the rainfall maps suggest that this place gets a deluge of somewhere around 258" of rain annually. That's about 20 FEET of rain,hahahahahaha ***insert maniacal laughter***! At least it is warm here.

In the 8 months time that we have been here, we've all learned a lot about some lesser known aspects of living a rather unconventional lifestyle. While much of this knowledge is particular to this area (like living 24/7 outside, but with no real fear of freezing), some other aspects will have broader application that might be interesting and fun, particularly to those of you out there who aspire towards a less energy intensive life.

A long time ago, I lived for two years time completely off-grid, though then it was in the wilds of northwestern Montana state, as well as being in the dark ages of the communication and alternative energy scene. This was back in 1990 about, and the internet thing was just beginning to ramp up. Online shopping was still viewed with extreme suspicion, and the only real companies out there were the already established brick and mortar guys, so prices were the same as what you'd find in a catalog. Solar was the "grail", but was still REALLY expensive, and there just weren't any cheap Chinese alternatives. I was so poor, the point was moot, but I was always dreaming.

I lived way out in the sticks on 20 acres of trees, between the small town of Thompson Falls and the even tinier town of Trout Creek, out on Blue Slide Road with the other white trash. Though I didn't have running water or electricity, while I was there a new phone company opened up and offered to run line in for free, so for part of that time I was in the ironic situation of being able to chat online with people on the other side of the world in new Zealand, yet I didn't have a flush toilet. What little power I did have came from 4 ,6-volt batteries that I charged using an ever rotating series of continually breaking generators.

Years after that adventure, I became enraptured with the idea of sailing around the world, living on a sailboat and just doing whatever it is that I normally do, which is work on stuff. They say that sail cruising is the adventure of constantly working on boats in exotic locations, and in my experience that saying holds true. The perfect life for someone like me! Sailboats are like small, self-sufficient nations, with limited contact with the greater world. ALL people living on cruising sailboats are living an alternative energy lifestyle, and boats run the range from having no power at all, to some boats having all the comforts of home.

All of this blather is to say......I've been there, done that. I'm not totally new to this stuff, I have a clue. I am a MacGuyver, and I can fix most anything. I'm not saying that I'm some alternative living "rockstar" actually, because it has been my far too many mistakes that have taught me so much. I wish that I had been smart enough to write stuff down, so that I didn't need to make the same mistakes over again.

Maybe THAT is why our move to Hawaii, how we've been living for the last 8 months, has been so especially odd. I've done so much the "wrong" way, put my family through such ridiculous levels of deprivation, it defies description. That they still talk to me is a small miracle, and testament to how amazingly wonderful Renee and Ellie are. You both are truly beyond compare, and I can't express how fortunate I feel to be with you both.

Renee is so wonderful in fact, that she is giving me a second chance. An opportunity to do this the "right" way, to design a simple, economical, and beautiful life.

We bought a place. 3 acres on a dead end road,lots of trees. Cash, no loans, ours for the family in perpetuity. Our fingers are still crossed, as we just heard that there might be some difficulty with the title, but hopefully things will work out.

Here it is.

This two-track is Napua street.

 

Ellie is standing at pole 7.

One of the amazing things about living on the wild side of Hawaii (as opposed to the other, poopy side, with the sun and too many people) is that you can tell people that your address is "the first driveway on the left, after pole #7", and that's OK. Ellie says, to tell you that there is a wood-spirit hiding somewhere in this picture, if you look closely.

Lots of green stuff.

 

 

 

Thankfully there is one area right by the road, that should be fairly easy to clear. Perfect for a parking area, maybe a little workshop.

That might be wishful thinking, as it seems like the only reason that there wouldn't be any trees right here would be because underneath all of that lovely Uluhe fern (Scientific Name: Dicranopteris linearis)......that's probably solid lava there.

 

It's funny, looking for property in these undeveloped areas. The photos of the places are often just walls of greenery. There's just not a good way to photograph this stuff, and because the area closest to the road gets such good sunlight, the growth is typically extra dense.

 

Once you bust through the green wall, the land has a little more room to breathe.

Walking in this is still VERY challenging, as the guava trees can easily form impenetrable thickets. This day, Ellie and I grabbed the tablet with built-in GPS and tried to map out the property boundaries. Not the best, but better than nothing.

 

 

Much to Ellie delight, there is a significant population of wild pigs that live in the area. They have a bad rep, for digging up yards looking for anything edible. Here is what is referred to as, "pig damaged forest".

The pigs (wild pheasants,too) are one of the principal culprits in the spread of the Guava trees, eating the fallen fruit then planting the seeds, pre-fertilized. If you have pigs in the area, you've got guava too.

 

So much of life is about how you deal with your perception of "undesirable aspects. People hate the pigs because they dig up their gardens, foul their lawns, wreck our carefully planned landscaping. It will be one of our challenges, to find ways to plant that will guide the pigs around and elsewhere.

 

Ellie is happy that there are pigs, because it is one of her greatest wishes to hunt wild pigs.....dreams of killing the largest boar, using only a spear. WTF? We aren't hunters, don't have guns or walls covered with animal heads, but as soon as Ellie learned that there was just the slightest possibility of us moving to Hawaii, she began researching hunting upportunities. Strange creature that she is, she has been a hunter since she hit the ground. Go figure.

 

 

 

It's not all Guava trees. There are many of the large and extremely slow growing native 'Ohi'a Lehua (Scientific Name: Metrosideros polymorphism).

Back in here, I see a lovely big tree, but I've no idea what it is.

 

Very interesting and distinctive bark, but I haven't found a match yet. 30' main stem, then lateral branching. At a guess, 60-70' tall, and the overstory is too thick for me to see which leaves belong to which plant.

 

Doesn't really matter, because the GPS says it's probably on the neighbors property anyways. I was having a REALLY hard time staying on track. The jungle is seriously thick.

 

 

 

There are a number of areas where the lava is fissures, creating wonderful places for trolls to hide.

 

 

 

 

Hapu'u fern (Scientific Name: Cibotium spp.)

This tree fern is well over 12' tall, but the base is obscured by the Uluhe.

 

 

By now I've been in here for over an hour. The property dimensions are very long and skinny, a so-called "spaghetti lot", 125'x 1045'. Of the 1045' depth, I've MAYBE seen 300' of it, and I doubt that anyone else has either. These trees are upwards of 400 years old, some of them, and this area has never been logged/farmed/developed in any way. The current owner has never even seen the place.

 

 

It's going to take a machete at the least, before I can see more, as I've gotten as far in as I can. Stopped dead by the thickness of the ferns, and the Uluhe are growing taller than I can see over, at least 6' tall.

 

I hold the camera over my head, point it in the likely direction, and take a few photos.

 

Now you know as much as I do about the property. Seriously, these pictures are all we have, haha. What's back there? There's still about 800' we haven't seen.

 

 

On my way back to the car.....it's a good thing I've got the GPS, as I was getting completely disoriented, absolutely turned around.

 

I find a couple of small pools of standing water.

Now we know why there are so many mosquitos here, haha. Ellie's psyched, hoping for bullfrogs, researching aquaculture.....she's now planning on raising Tilapia fish.

 

So many fun things to do!

 

 

 

So.....

 

I screwed up the first time, planned for the right things, just not at the right times. I can do better. This time....we hit the ground running.

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Project Mayhem Japanese joinery challenge #4 Katasage ari

 

 

Joinery practice #4, chosen by Steven of "The twin maples"

 

A great joint, the "Katasage ari", taken from the FANTASTIC book "Wood joints in classical Japanese architecture".

 

 

 

Download a free copy here....

https://fabiap.files.wordpress.com/2011/01/wood-joints-in-classical-japanese-architecture.pdf

before it disappears. It's now out of print, and it is seriously good, having not only a great sampling of the more common joinery used, but also a little bit of where the particular joint is used and often the reason *why* a joint was chosen. This book was written by two guys, one an old school Japanese carpenter, trained nearly 100 years ago, the other an engineer and architect. This book is just great.

Thanks so much Steven, for showing me this book!

It's raining again, go figure. Have I mentioned that it rains a lot here?

 

Rather than begin with some nicely squared stock, this time I'm going for something different. This joint seems like one of those eminently practical ones, although not overly complex. My thought is that something like this joint might actually have some good applications in the real world, like, something that I could be using repeatedly in the very near future. I've been looking for some good, simple de-mountable joinery to use for building temporary or transportable shelter, and this seems a likely prospect.

 

And....I want to chop some wood, so I think that this one.....this one will be cut from the roughest stock available.

 

 

The second that the rain stops. I run to the wood pile and grab a couple of likely looking chunks.

I cut a length of Guava, and also split off a section of a rotten old Ohia that I've been messing with.

 

 

Rough out, using the hatchet....

 

...then plane the minimum amount of surface flat, just the area that needs to receive the mortice.

 

 

 

See how jagged and rough the Ohia is?

The sumisashi marks this wet, rough wood with no complaints at all. I wouldn't dare trying this using my oh-so-fancy $10 felt tip fine line drawing pen, but with this simple bamboo pen....no problem. I am such a convert! It seemed messy and kind of scary, but in reality it's just fun, and actually quite clean. The ink only seeps into the wood the barest amount, and completely disappears with 1-2 passes of the plane. In comparison, a pencil might require twice as much planing to erase a mistake in layout, most notable in softwoods. It's not for everyone, I know, but Holy Crap, I'm in love!

 

So here's where I screw up. This joint is so simple, I should've honoured that intent. Instead, I felt that the tenoned piece should be shouldered, to offer a more solid base and to assure that everything stays square. That, and I didn't want to plane this wood down any more than was necessary. What I should've done, was to just rough the thing to size using the axe, then call it good.

Anyway, the layout is getting to be more of an enjoyable part of the experience. I credit the ink, haha.

The purplish wood is the Ohia, one of the few native Hawaiian trees, also one of the most dense to be found anywhere. This particular piece is still wet, having been from an ancient deadfall tree, maybe 400 years old, but portions of the trunk are still usable though much of the trunk is rotten. The technical briefs that I've read about the attributes and uses of this wood say that it can be cut and machined using the same type of tooling that you would use when processing frozen lumber. Yikes!

 

Actually, when wet, I found that it cuts surprisingly nicely, using Sebastian's awesome saw, the big 300mm ryoba. Dry Ohia is another matter.

 

 

When I decided to cut the joint using non-square stock, I also figured that I would just kinda eyeball the angles too, as you can't mark the side face of a round log. Not well, at least. If you look to the background, you can see that I was quite liberal in my interpretation of the tenon design here. This might be considered a bastard cousin to the Katasage ari joint that I was SUPOSED to cut, haha.

And no, it's not that the color balance of my camera is off, it's that the guava that I'm using is stained a funky yellow color from bug and bacterial staining. Normally it would show a creamy sapwood with purplish brown heartwood.

 

 

For starters, I cut the mortice to fit the tenon. I ignore the area where the wedge goes, for now. I cut the joint haunched (I guess that's what it's called) with a 1/2" deep area for the haunched area, then the rest of the tenon at full depth. I cut that stuff first, but didn't bother taking pictures. The undercut area that accommodates the angled half-dovetailed part I cut by eye out of necessity, but I was able to use a "Gabe D™" bevel gauge to give some confirmation.

After drilling and cutting most of the waste from the mortice, I need to cut the wedge before I can finish. I start out with a chunk of Guava.

 

 

Plane two parallel faces until the width matches the mortice.

 

 

I saw the wedging surface at a likely looking angle. Nope, didn't measure, but then, I didn't need to.

 

 

 

I guestimate how deeply I want the wedge to fit into the mortice, then use that spot on the wedge itself to determine how much more material to remove. Essentially, set it where you want it, then mark it.

 

 

 

The wedge itself makes a handy bevel gauge.

 

 

 

 

First fit didn't require much trimming at all, but then, it was far from being a piston fit. Hammering in the wedge was a trip.

This joint is surprisingly solid!

 

 

Being who I am, I had to get the fit just the tiniest bit finer, one of the shoulders was 1/16" off. And....this is meant to be a de-mountable joint, so that's part of the deal, right?

I had to drill a hole into the wedge to get a better grip, then had to do some fairly vigorous tapping (using my new Ohia maul) to get the wedge to pop free. This wet wood is very grippy! If a person intended this joint to be de-mountable on a regular basis, you might consider a mortice in the wedge itself, its own tapered wedge, just to break it free from the body of the joint. A hole drilled through the joint, that goes through opposite the wedge would be another option, if the hole wouldn't be visible in the finished work. That way you could just poke a screwdriver through the hole, popping the wedge out with ease, a better solution than this, I think.

One other point. 

In practicing these joints for the first time, my inclination is to try to "improve" them in some way. "It would be stronger, if I just...", that sort of thing. This is a perfect example of the original being good enough. As drawn in the book's diagram, this joint is fast, easy, and strong. Cutting this guy took maybe 2 hours, but should've taken 45 minutes, at least for a beginner like me. I made the joint slightly stronger perhaps, but if ultimate strength was a concern, there are a multitude of other joints to choose from that would be better suited for this application. I constantly fight myself in this way. 

 

 

So....Awesome fun joint,and very useful too. Next time round, I will cut this guy as the simple thing that it should be. I was horribly late on this challenge, as I was finishing up the long awaited awning frames for the shed.

Simple simple stuff, but it shows a certain flair, I suppose (actually rather embarrassed, but....). Of course, as soon as I was done, the most amazing book came to my attention, one that had numerous examples of much more elegant and/or practical ways to build this particular structure.

 

That's for later.

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