Innholdsfortegnelse for Issue #93 i Australian Wood Review

Blue Spruce has established an enviable reputation as a maker of premium quality tools since first entering the market more than 10 years ago. This system is their first attempt at producing a marking knife that has the ability to take interchangeable blades for varying woodworking tasks. The tool is beautifully presented in a custom suede wallet that includes three spear point blades of varying thicknesses, a joiner’s knife and a scratch awl. The blade holder is turned from a range of exotic timbers and includes a stainless steel ferrule with matching collets. All components of the system including the blades, collets and turned handle are faultless in both presentation and function. I found all blades honed and ready for use on removal from the packaging. So how is the…

Many woodworkers relate a spokeshave to chairmaking. In my workshop, a spokeshave is also a furniture edge tool that I can use to break edges, fair curves, remove machine marks, and even bevel the underside of a surface. You don’t have to be a chairmaker to enjoy working with spokeshaves; you just need to learn how to use them skilfully and it is not as hard as you may think. Tool types Spokeshaves, like bench planes, come in wooden or metal version. Various sole patterns are available in metal spokeshaves: flat, convex/round and concave. Less common is the vintage double shave shown over the page in photo 1 – loaned to me by Dave Darling for a recent project – which can work both flat and concave surfaces. Flat spokeshaves…

Longitudinal section and plan (mm) For a long time I had assumed that handplanes had reached their peak of development in the form of metal-bodied planes like Lie-Nielsens and other top end handplanes. Because these planes could never quite give me a tear-out free finish I believed that Australian hardwoods and some imported timbers like New Guinea rosewood were just too cranky and grain rich to be tamed by any handplanes or jointers without the inevitable patches of tear-out and splinters. Cabinet scrapers and sandpaper were the only way to deal with this problem. How wrong was I? During a furniture woodworking workshop one of my students asked me if she could build a wooden handplane, mostly to learn the skills required and also end up with a really cool…

Last issue I described how to make a tap to produce large threads in wood. Traditionally, this tap would have been used to make the matching threadbox, with which to cut the external threads of wooden screws. Pairing the two would be a great ‘low-tech’ combination, but unfortunately, Australia is not blessed with an abundance of woods which thread well by that method. There are some, most of which are not easy to obtain in the dimensions required to make large screws, and in any case, threadboxes are quite challenging to make and maintain. However, many of our hardwoods can make excellent screws, and the way to get them to cooperate is to use the cutting ability of a high-speed router bit. With the help of a simple jig, you…

I first thought of using a leaf shape for a chair backrest many years ago, and once tried it on a rocking chair but it was not that successful because the leaf ended at the seat, and the arms I made didn’t blend in very well. However, it was wonderfully comfortable and had a very strong and light backrest, so I just squirrelled the thought away. After I’d made quite a few of my (effectively three-legged) V chairs and realised what a strong and surprisingly stable configuration it was, it struck me that the stem of a leaf could be extended downwards to form a back leg just like the V chair. Then one day, when the ideas had clarified, I did a careful sketch and there it was…one of…

Rob Cosman makes a statement about his saws, by presenting them in a wooden, finger-jointed box. No common cardboard box here. The saw handle is made from a speckled, black, composite material, rather than the traditional wood. It is well shaped, and although it lacks the traditional sharp corner details of the best saws, it is very comfortable in the hand. At 491 grams (17.5 oz), it is over 50% heavier than the Lie-Nielsen. This is partially because the brass back is made from heavier stock, but its balance point suggests that a reasonable amount of the extra weight is in the composite material of the handle. The 9" (225mm) blade is secured in the brass back with a series of copper pins, so that it cannot work free and…

Using a bar gauge lets you directly transfer and compare dimensions without conversion to numbers, theoretically reducing the chance of transcription errors. You can use it to quickly test an assembly, like a drawer or box, for squareness by checking the diagonals are equal. I find them invaluable for this process. You can make up your own bar gauges or use this beautifully made Veritas unit which consists of two 6" steel rods fixed to aluminium clamp heads. The rods have threaded end holes that accept interchangeable brass tips or extension rods. Three styles of tips are included: ball tips for inside measurements (the rounded ends tend to bruise softwoods less), pointed tips for inside corner measurements, and mushroom-shaped tips to hook over edges for outside measurements. The range of…

For the Job in Hand 3Ms new Sandblaster UltraFlexSponges are an all-in-one abrasive and sanding block product that is flexible in use, conforms to any shape and can simply be washed out and reused. The sponges are available in multiple grits, and are long-lasting and clog resistant. Available from Bunnings Stores. www.bunnings.com.au Custom Carving Flexcut Tool Company Inc was founded in 1986 as a custom carving shop and woodcarving school. Some eight years later Flexcut began manufacturing a new breed of woodcarving tools to address the needs of the modern hobbyist and professional. Originally Flexcut started with only four different tool profiles, but now the company, operating from its plant in Erie, Pennsylvania produces and distributes over 300 products for woodcarvers. In the past few years Flexcut have introduced The…

Three years in the making, literally from tree to fine finished object, Treecycle 2016 was an exhibition of over 450 pieces of furniture and artworks created from wood salvaged from the Royal Botanic Gardens Sydney (RBGS). At their stage of life, woodworkers Leon and Ginny Sadubin were hardly looking for another major project that would absorb a great deal of their time, but creative people can attract and engender work that is driven by passion rather than pecuniary benefits. The name coined by Ginny represents a clever combination of concepts which this project and exhibition now embody. Treecycle is the direct descendent of The Kauri Tree Project (2010), both of which took inspiration from Garry Olson’s seminal One Tree Project in the UK that spawned similar events and exhibitions all…

HNT Gordon’s new moving fillister plane is designed to cut fast and accurate rebates. Available in a range of species, the one shown is made from bull oak. Out of the box this is an exquisite tool. With beautifully machined brass fittings and fixtures, a 4.75mm thick 01 tool steel blade hardened to RC 62-64 and an M2 HSS nicker blade, it’s clear no compromise has been made with regard to the quality of materials used. The brass sole will ensure a reduction in wear and therefore a longer working life. The depth stop, nicker, fence and blade are all fully adjustable and one feature that I really like is the ruler scale on the depth stop and fence to give maximum accuracy when setting up for a precise cut.…

Made from high carbon steel, this mini plane takes the sharp edges off boards in seconds. You simply run it over the corner and the inbuilt cutters plane off the corner. The tool is around 60mm long and weighs just 62g. Despite its mini size it works well and I found it ideal for deedging things like shelves and cabinet corners. It does not replace a neatly hand planed bevel, but you can use it instead of sandpaper for quickly easing a stack of say bookshelf edges or similar. Running the tool over a sharpening stone will refresh the sharpness of the cutting edges. Review tool from Professional Woodwork Supplies, see www.woodworksupplies.com.au…

To truly machine a piece of wood you first flatten and straighten it on a jointer and then thickness down to finished size. The end result is a straight, evenly dimensioned piece of wood. A combination machine performs both these functions admirably and offers money and space saving. One machine has a single footprint and an almost two-for-one deal dollar-wise compared to buying a separate jointer and thicknesser. The trade-off is time and effort. For example, to convert from jointing to thicknessing mode you needed to raise the guard, release any locking levers, raise the tables and install dust extraction. Some manufacturers have streamlined this changeover time, but the fact is you are always limited to either planing or thicknessing. If, halfway through thicknessing a stack of boards, you realise…

When I started woodturning in 1983 I soon realised that I enjoyed making bowls more than anything else. I remember one turner saying to me, ‘Don’t you get bored making the same thing all the time?’, but I have never been bored with bowls. The possible design variations – use of grain; open or closed form; base or no base; rims that flare, roll or dip; foot or no foot; and more – these are enough to challenge me for a lifetime, never mind the challenges of improving my technique to make it easier. But of all the things that make a good bowl, the line of the piece is the most important. By this I mean the line that defines the outside profile and the complimentary sweep of the…

Bandsaws are one of the most useful machines in the workshop. Some experts even suggest that a bandsaw purchase should precede a tablesaw. There has been an enormous amount written about ‘bandsaw drift’ and many articles describe how to make elaborate changes to allow the fence to be re-aligned to the mysterious constantly changing drift. Some experts even go to the extent of discarding the fence because it’s just too difficult to keep it aligned to the blade. But anyone who has worked with Michael Fortune will know there is a very simple, easy way to solve this dilemma. You just align the blade to the fence, not the other way around. There is even an adjustment on the machine to do the job so you don’t need to make…

This year Vicmarc Machinery celebrates 32 years of manufacturing premium quality woodturning lathes, chucks and accessories. This truly is a success story about a company that relies on innovation and a passion for quality to punch way above its weight on a local and global scale. If this sounds over the top, consider the fact that as a country our manufacturing base is shrinking before our eyes. Vicmarc is an Australian-owned family business with a workforce of 11 which employs CNC machinery and CAD in processes that are nevertheless hands-on and subjected to rigorous quality checks at every step of the way. Victor Verrecchia founded the business in 1984, but before that built the forerunner of the company’s signature VL150 not long after emigrating to New Zealand. Buying furniture for…