Full Chisel Blog

August 31, 2010

Curly Maple Spinning Wheel 5

Filed under: Carving, Drilling, Finishing, Hide Glue, Historical Material, Of Interest, Proper Tools, Restoration, Scrapers, Spinning Wheel, Techniques, Uncategorized, Wood — Stephen Shepherd @ 2:05 pm

I thought that this would be my last post, however when I put the wheel together today I noticed it was missing a pitman.  Well it will not work with out one so I turned one up.  I measured from the treadle up to the crank at bottom dead center and subtracted an inch to keep the treadle off the floor. 

After it is turned, I got it wet with water to raise the grain and allowed it to dry before scraping off the raised grain and burnishing the surface on the lathe with shavings.

Using a wide chisel I made the upper part flat on both sides, so it would fit on the iron crank.  I drilled the holes from both sides, a large 1/2″ hole for the button on the end of the crank and a smaller one for the shaft of the crank 3/8″.  I need to drill one more hole on the other end for the leather strap that connects the bottom of the pitman to the foot treadle.

Still need to finish the hooks on the flyer, but did get the whorl working, had to re-line the inside of the pulley with some very thin leather glued on with fish glue.  The shaft of the mandrel was not threaded but friction fit, interesting, so the leather was necessary to make the pulley hold tight.

I have an old pioneer wool walking wheel in the queue and have already made one part but trying to decide the tension mechanism.

Stephen

August 24, 2010

Tool Handles

Filed under: Carving, Furniture, Hand Planing, Hide Glue, Historical Material, Of Interest, Proper Tools, Restoration, Sawing, Scrapers, Techniques, Uncategorized — Stephen Shepherd @ 3:56 pm

I got some nice curly maple and decided to make up some more tool handles.  I make square/octagonal tapered handles and all of my shop tool handles match, including a broom handle.

I used the pistol grip saw that I just made to rip the square into 4 sections.  I added the clamp to help hold the piece while I ripped to depth.

I also used the saw to crosscut the pieces to length.

I shaped them on a bench hook with a small smoothing plane.  I planed them square with a bit of taper, then knocked off the corners and brought it to octagonal and with the proper taper.  I used a scraper to smooth, then got them wet to raise the grain, then scraped them again.

I also did a ‘repair’ on an iron bed I am restoring for a client.  The bed had been painted with many layers including some sponged on bright colors, so I had it sandblasted.  There was a cast piece missing when it was brought in.

So I shaped a piece of pine to fill in the missing.  I cleaned the iron with alcohol applied liquid hide glue to glue the replacement piece in place.  I will fill it when it dries and the bedstead will be painted with white oil paint.

Also got a few more things done today, so it has been a couple of productive days in the shop.

Stephen

August 18, 2010

Pistol Grip Hand Saw 2

Filed under: Carving, Drilling, Finishing, Hide Glue, Historical Material, Of Interest, Proper Tools, Sawing, Sharpening, Uncategorized — Stephen Shepherd @ 5:43 am

Well I finally got it finished, had problems with punching the holes in the blade.  The steel proved too difficult so after sharpening a twist drill bit, I used a gear drill to make the holes for the rivets.  I upset some barbs on the edge of the tapered tang with a cold chisel.  These will grip into the handle, I also used liquid hide glue to glue the tang into the square mortise. 

The saw is a bit 18th century, a bit Dutch with a little American thrown in.

I first fit up the yellow brass ferrule to the handle by using a slitting gauge to score the shoulder, then going cross grain removed the extra wood, then a float to make it round.  Once the brass ferrule was fit, I scraped down the cherry handle to make it fit smoothly.  I then used a gimblet bit in a brace to drill the hole for the tang.  I used a 1/8″ chisel to square up the square tapered hole.

I used the saw to rip a maple wedge for a toothing plane I am working on.  I tried two different grips, the first with the index [trigger] finger pointing forward.

This seemed awkward to me so because I had made the handle large enough for four fingers, this grip, which was much more comfortable and I felt I had more control over the saw.

I should have cleaned my nails before this photograph.

Stephen

August 13, 2010

Curly Maple Spinning Wheel 4

Filed under: Carving, Clamping, Drilling, Finishing, Hide Glue, Historical Material, Of Interest, Proper Tools, Restoration, Sawing, Spinning Wheel, Techniques, Uncategorized — Stephen Shepherd @ 8:00 pm

The broken leg also had some damage and missing wood on the foot, so I made a couple of cuts to square off the damage and used the remaining part I cut off the top repair tenon to replace the missing wood.  Because it was too difficult to clamp, I relied on the fact that hide glue shrinks as it dries.

Having good mating surfaces between the old and the new was essential, I toothed the surface to help with adhesion and let the hide glue do the rest.

I also worried out the leg that was stuck in the base.  This is a traveling wheel, so it is made to take apart and move.  I introduced alcohol by pouring it onto the spatula then touching it to the joint.  This was in case it has some remnants of hide glue remaining, but it was just a tight fit, but the alcohol did help in the successful removal of the leg.

I also decided to add one small peg/dowel to help strengthen the splice to the top of the leg that makes the new tenon.  I drilled it in through the old wood and into the new.  This will help with the shear force on the joint.

I still have to finish the whorl, but almost done.

Stephen

August 10, 2010

New Toothing Plane

Filed under: Carving, Drilling, Hand Planing, Hide Glue, Historical Material, Mortice & Tenon, Of Interest, Proper Tools, Sawing, Scrapers, Techniques, Uncategorized, Veneer — Stephen Shepherd @ 4:35 pm

I need to make one of these in order to trade for some materials that I don’t have.  It is a toothing plane with the blade set vertically.  I based it on the shape of my little English coffin smoother.  I marked out the mouth and throat and transferred the marks to all sides with a scratch awl.  I then used a 1/4″ twist auger drill to make the throat and escapement hole.  I drilled from both sides.

I then used a few chisels to work out the rectangular mortise that is the mouth and escapement for the ‘chips’.  The debris, chips created by this tool are real small but can clog the throat and escapement, so it is a good idea to make some sort of relief to allow the throat to be cleared.

Starting to cut the angle for the locking wedge, I got most of the sawing done when I discovered a design flaw in my little throat saw.

I will have to make a new handle that has a bit more wood at the stress points.

While still attacked to the long piece of wood, which makes working on it a lot easier, I fitted up the blade.  I then laid out the outline of the plane and used a small un-backed saw to mark out the end of the plane.  I also connected the lines from top to bottom on the front end to get the sides to shape.

I used chisels from 1/2″ to 1 1/2″ to shape the sides to the coffin shape.  I did a bit of scraping but will need to spend more time putting it in good order.  It took me 3 hours to get to this point, a couple more hours and it should be done.

Stephen

August 9, 2010

Curly Maple Spinning Wheel 3

Filed under: Clamping, Drilling, Hide Glue, Historical Material, Of Interest, Sawing, Scrapers, Spinning Wheel, Techniques, Uncategorized — Stephen Shepherd @ 5:55 pm

On the last leg of the project.  I cut off the repair dowel and accompanying plastic wood resin stuff, flush to the bottom of the base of the spinning wheel

I then had to go after what was plugging the socket/mortise with a couple of different size twist auger bits and a gouge.

I then needed to fit the replacement tenon into this hole.  I used a rasp, float and card scraper to make the new replacement part.  I then took the broken leg and squared off the bread to splice the new part in place.  I then traced the outline of the splice to the new part and cut them out using a cross cut saw for cross cuts and a rip saw for the rip.

I used a rasp to shape the new part to fit the old and to provide a tooth for gluing with liquid hide glue.  Once it was fit I saturated the old leg first to allow the glue to flow down into the worm holes, providing an excellent key.

I clamped the piece along its length and served some hemp cord around the pieces to provide uniform clamping pressure.  I also used a wire clamp to add additional pressure.  The scarf joint should be strong enough, but I will probably put in a couple of pegs.

Next the whorl.

Stephen

August 2, 2010

Curly Maple Spinning Wheel

Filed under: Carving, Finishing, Hide Glue, Historical Material, Mortice & Tenon, Of Interest, Proper Tools, Restoration, Spinning Wheel, Techniques, Uncategorized — Stephen Shepherd @ 1:27 pm

Here are some more pictures of the restoration process for this early Curly Maple Spinning Wheel.

The above picture shows the distaff without the broken and repaired rib with end tenons.

I had to ’spring in’ the repaired rib, after using liquid hide glue to coat the tenons and round mortise.

The treadle was in good condition, but all but one of the pegs were missing.  They were made of maple which I thought was unusual, with the hickory used on other parts.

The above peg is the only original that survived.  I think the piece was made from unseasoned wood and the square pegs were pounded into round holes.

This is a peg fragment and shows the joint between the turned axle and the flat foot rest.  I cleaned off the joints and glued them back together as they had been originally.

The base or shoe of the mother-of-all was split, made of birch, I used birch to fill in the gap.  The split was fairly straight, I did use a chisel and fine rasp to smooth out the crack and glued in two pieces of end-grain birch to replace that which was missing.

I worked off the excess with a flat chisel and small scraper, then colored with pigmented shellac.  Needs a little more black pigment daubed on to complete the effect.

One spoke in the wheel was missing and the one at the bottom is broken and will require a new tenon on the left end.

I applied a coat of linseed oil/turpentine with a bit of yellow ocher to get the right color base coat.  I allowed this to dry for several days before proceeding.

The burnt umber in shellac just didn’t look right, too red, so I stripped it off by saturating a paper towel with alcohol and wrapped it around the spoke, letting it sit for a few minutes then wiped it off.

I also discovered that the tenon on the end needed to be longer, the spoke shorter, so I turned it to the right length before continuing.

With some yellow ocher and black iron oxide mixed with the burnt umber got the color closer.  Tomorrow I will give it a glaze to bring it to the right tone.

Stephen

July 26, 2010

1835 New-York Book of Prices

Filed under: Hide Glue, Historical Material, Of Interest, Reviews, Techniques, The Trade, Uncategorized — Stephen Shepherd @ 3:30 pm

for Manufacturing Piano-fortes by The Society of Journeyman Piano-forte Makers is a fascinating book reprinted by the American Musical Instrument Society.  It also includes a list of New York piano, musical instrument makers, etc. plus a translated leaflet of what German Emigrants should do when traveling to America from 1833.

The information contained is fascinating in that it delineates prices for the finest details of the various steps of making a piano.  The stuff on veneering is interesting and the book gives a good idea of what it cost to get things one.  And because it is piece work for the various parts it can give insight to the time it took for various tasks and the compensation for each step.

I recommend the book to anyone interest in the minutia of the trade, and at $25.00 including postage and shipping it is well worth the money, and you know how cheap I am.  I saw a flyer hanging on a bulletin board when at the Piano Technicians Guild convention in Las Vegas at the end of June and sent them a check.  Got the book this morning and have been pursuing it with relish.

Stephen

July 18, 2010

A piece I restored was on Antiques Roadshow

Filed under: Finishing, Furniture, Hide Glue, Historical Material, Of Interest, Restoration, Techniques, Uncategorized — Stephen Shepherd @ 3:32 pm

I restored the painted and grained secretary back in 1983, made of pine it was painted to look like curly maple and burl maple with a painted walnut desk top.  It had been in her family and had a stamp ‘Saint George Builders Union’ inside the top of the secretary.  I guess I didn’t see this episode of Antiques Roadshow when it aired back in 2007, just saw it on PBS a few days ago.

Leigh Keno did the appraisal [$4500.00] and there was no mention of any restoration work which would effect the value of the piece.  The porcelain knobs were on the piece when it came in and those were left on.  The base of the table was loose and needed to be re-glued [with hide glue of course] and the top of the desk was completely repainted as the original finish was worn off.  There was enough to determine that it was a walnut graining.

There was also damage to the graining, some was flaking off and the finish was very dry.  I treated it with Moses T’s Reviver then did the infill painting of the base coat color [a light yellow oil paint] allowed that to dry and in-painted the missing grain with shellac and burnt umber pigment.  Still looks good.

I will have to dig through my slides and find the pictures when it was in the shop 24 years ago.

Stephen

July 13, 2010

Sea Chest

Filed under: Dovetails, Finishing, Furniture, Hand Planing, Hardware, Hide Glue, Historical Material, Nautical, Of Interest, The Trade, Tool Cabinets & Tool Boxes, Uncategorized — Stephen Shepherd @ 2:04 pm

I have wanted to make one of these for some time now and at last I have an order to build one.  I may have to make two as I like the design.  The sailor’s sea chest was his seat, table, tool box, strong box, food locker and the only place on board that was uniquely his.

I will be making it from pine, dovetailed at the corners.  The top and bottom moldings will be attached with glue and nails, the hinges are simple offset strap hinges secured to the inside with rivets or clinched nails, the lock will be a double lug half mortise lock with a self escutcheon.  The box will be painted blue with Prussian blue oil based paint, not as bright as the drawing and interior decoration to be provided by the new owner(s) as will the beckets [the rope work handles].

The side handles are attached to the box with long clinch nails and the rope work ‘beckets’ will be done up through the round holes provided.  Some of these are quite simple and some are incredibly complex, occupying many hours of work during long voyages.

The chest is 31 1/2″ wide on the bottom, 28″ wide at the top; 24″ deep at the bottom, 16″ at the top and 18″ high.  These are approximate sizes, pending approval of the sailor that placed the order.  I got the design and dimensions from a photograph and it was difficult to scale, but I think I got the measurements close to the original.

Stephen

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