debor054

As I haven't built a stool for a while, I decided to try my hand at a Shaker style bench / stool.  My scaffold boards have warped a fair bit in drying meaning a full bench was not really practical. Ok, I admit it, with a lot of planing it could be done, but my natural laziness told me to keep it small... hence I'm calling it a Shaker stool. With some inspiration from Google images I rough cut my two side pieces of timber and attacked them with my winding sticks, a no#6 Foreplane set for a heavy cut followed by my no#7 Try plane set fine to get them flat. After getting the edges straight and parallel, I cut the ends square on the bench hook.  I am definitely getting faster as milling rough sawn boards into usable stock. The main feature of this stool is the cut out design of the side pieces. I first found the centre of the board and marked the position of my desired hole.  Now it's confession time... I didn't have an auger bit large enough and resorted to using ....

In the 'tradition' of my last birthday , Axminster Tools and their free next day delivery got the better of me - again! I treated myself to a few 'shiny things' ... as I've said 'It's an addiction!'. Firstly, a Lie Nielsen no#4 Iron bodied smoothing plane . I decided against the Bronze body as this more than meets my needs for a smoother. It has the standard A2 blade and I have the option of a high angle frog at a later date if needed. My 'beater' Stanley no#4 will be kept set rough, as that's all its capable of anyway to be honest.  Secondly, an imperial Lie Nielsen Dowel Plate . I have some riven Oak and Walnut  stock that will make nice draw bore pegs for Mortise & Tenon joints and dowels for boxes etc.. The other items include, a really posh Cap Iron screw driver which is lovely to hold and prevents scratching up your nice new premium planes as the brass collar captures the large screw head. A joiners Scratch Awl which unfortunatel...

Yesterday was my birthday, and it seems that my girlfriend has secretly been practising her dovetails ... in cake!