A new (to me) tool

There is a piece that I want to make – have wanted to make for some time now – and I hope to start soon. One of the details I want is a beaded edge, so I needed a beading tool. I could have made a scratch stock, but I wanted a little more control and accuracy.

I follow Vintage Tools Melbourne on Instagram – @vintage_tool_shop or @vintage_tools_melbourne. I sent them a message asking if they had a beading tool for sale – they had two, both good working tools in good condition. I chose the one with the extra cutters and two fences – the original box was a real bonus.

The deal was quickly done, money transferred, and the parcel was in the next post. I received a photo of the packed box, and an invoice, complete with tracking number. A couple of days later, John the postman delivered a parcel.

The tool was in excellent condition – the cutters were free of rust, the nickel plating was in good order, and the box was just beaut. Of course I put the tool to the test – I cut a nice triple bead along the edge of a piece of scrap – it worked just fine!

On the basis of this experience, I have no hesitation in recommending Mari and Mike from the Vintage Tool Shop. One of these days, I will check out their very own Heritage Saws @heritage_saws, hand made by Mike – as they say, made by men, not machines.

To find out more about the Vintage Tool Shop and Heritage Saws, click here…

Happy with that!

Making a Saddled Chair Seat – Tools that worked well…

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For some time now, I have wanted to make a chair with a saddled seat. As time passed, I did buy a few tools that might come in handy. A week or three ago, a friend of a friend asked me to make a couple of bar stools with saddled seats. Of course I could do it – how hard could it be?

It turns out that its not that hard, or time consuming… And it gave me an excuse to put a few tools to work in earnest…

The AEG Super Clamp

I have used the Triton equivalent – borrowed during the Jacaranda show while I was demonstrating. The AEG is probably easier to use, and rock solid. The controls allow unlocking with out the risk of getting clobbered in the shins by the foot pedal.

To hold the seats while I hollowed them out, I screwed a block onto the back of each seat, and clamped the bock in the jaws. Worked well!

Arbotech Turboplane

This was the first time I used the beast. It works well, removes wood quickly, and only has a few vices. Beware ‘climb cutting’, where the cut is with the cut of the blade – in a split second, the blade can grab, dig in, create a great divot, and, if you aren’t careful, take a divot out of you. That said, cutting against the flow (think of cutting with a router – the work moves on to the teeth), the tool is quite controllable, cuts quickly and quite smoothly on wide flat curves like the chair seat.

On the down side, the thing chucks shavings and dust all over the place – best used outside. Even so, Su complained of shavings all over the vegetables!

The Scorp

This tool was something of a revelation. I bought it a few years ago – I saw it one in Carbatec, and wasn’t expensive, so I bought it to hollow out chair seats and maybe bowls. It sat unused until this week. The edge was pretty basic, especially the inside bevel. Wet and dry around a suitable scrap worked to get the edge of the inside bevel OK, then a lick on the back with the stones, and it was sharp enough.

I had kind of expected it to work like a draw knife, but it is quite different. Instead of slicing off the waste, it shaves the surface – making tightly curled shavings. It worked well, and dressed up the rough cut surface left after the Arbotech. It did a good job of shaping the seat.

The Chairmaker’s Plane

This little HNT Gordon plane has curved bottom – curved in two axis. It is a little tricky to use – the body of the blade has to be held at the correct angle to cut, but it worked really well. One of the seats had some pretty wild grain, but the little plane didn’t care – I got no tear-out to speak of.

Like all Terry Gordon planes, this was good to go straight out of the box. The blade held its edge, and was easy to sharpen as needed.

So far…

This is one of the two seats, after hollowing out with the Arbotec, shaping with the scorp and refining with the plane. Still more work required to fettle the shape, then sanding.

Happy with that.

The Desk is done!

This desk spent a long time in my shed as a bunch of parts. Finally completed, finished, installed, and now I sit at this desk writing this post.

Happy with that!

Almost done!

It has taken a while, but this desk is almost done. A couple of bits to clean up, then I start putting on the finish tomorrow…

Morning light…

Morning light on a Flooded Gum desk top – no finish yet. Work in progress. Love the shine and the colour…

Bed Head Mk II

Earlier this year – BC (before Corona) – we bought a new bed. The old one had finally cries enough – or to be more accurate, our aging bones called enough. New mattress, new base. So now we needed a new bed head.

When we lived in Exmouth, I had made a bed head – even though the bed had a head end. This was more of a wall hung panel, zinc finish Mini-orb framed in pine – see below. The new bed head is much the same, but is framed with flooded gum with a black glaze type finish. Su is happy, I’m happy.

Small Boxes

The dreaded virus shutdown happened just a few days after the last CVWA meeting. At that meeting, Andrew Grady had a trailer load of timber odds and ends to give away – he had been cleaning out his shed, and these odds and sods were surplus – just taking up space. What better than to give them away so other they can clutter up someone else’s shed?

I had grabbed a couple of choice pieces, and was resisting the desire to take more, when Andrew pressed some pieces on to me. So I went home with some olive wood, some black wattle and a few small pieces of Crows Ash.

While I was making one small box, so while I was set up, I might as well do a few more. Logical. So three more small boxes – two from Crows Ash and Coastal Cypress, and one from Flooded Gum with a Banksia top.

Eventually, these pieces will go to a gallery, but for now, they will stay packed out of harms way, unless someone makes me an offer I can’t refuse.

Thanks Andrew! Happy with these.

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Spurwinged Plovers

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A pair of Spurwinged Plovers set up their nest in their from yard. For those who are unfamiliar with plovers, the nest is just a depression in the ground – these laid three eggs. Also, for those unfamiliar with plovers, they will defend their nests fiercely. They use various tricks to foil potential predators – dragging a wing and pretending to be injured, leading the predator astray, and full frontal head on attack. Unlike magpies, who swoop from behind, plovers fly straight in at head height, veering away at the last second. For the past few weeks, a trip to the letter box has been a thrill seekers trip!

The photos above were taken by Su – full zoom and as close as she dared. Photos taken while peering around the corner of the house. You can see the eggs below the plover – three mottled green eggs. Quite beautiful. You can also see the strange mask like mantle around the face, looking very medieval. You can also clearly see the spurs on the wings that give the plover its name.

Finally, the little ones hatched three active and barely controllable chicks. Su managed to photograph the first hatched. The next two followed within minutes. By the time Su got the camera out again, Dad was in full protective mode, and the chicks were too far away to photograph.

Plovers don’t have a reputation for being great mothers, and this pair’s territory takes in both sides f the road out front. Hoping that the chicks survive!

A Box for Frufie…

Some time ago, we lost our much loved Frufie, a French Bulldog.  We had her remains cremated, and the ashes were delivered in an uninspiring memorial box.  I finally got round to making her a new resting place.  The top is made of an unidentified wood picked up off the beaches of Exmouth, where Frufie loved to run and chase crabs and critters in the shallows.  The sides are ebony.

 

This is a photo of Frufie, with her beaded necklace, posing in front of her portrait, painted by Jessie Breakwell.

Bird life…

This rather beautiful parrot has been a regular visitor over the past week or two.  At first, he was pretty shy, but now he is more confident.  We haven’t identified him yet – I’m thinking an aviary escapee.  But he is beautiful.

The other regulars at our bird feeders are rainbow lorikeets, crested pigeons, peaceful doves, plumed whistling ducks and white headed pigeons.  We occasionally have a few scaly breasted lorikeets and wood ducks drop by.

The garden and one acre block is also home to blue faced honey eaters, spurwing plovers, ibis, mynas noisy friar birds, magpies, and more.