Wednesday 26 October 2016

HNT Gordon Block Plane For Sale


In the workshop move I came across one last Gordon plane which has just been used for demonstration at shows. I would class this more as a high angle smoother with a 1 1/2" wide blade bedded at 55 degrees. It has nice subtle rippling. I'll let this one go for £69 + postage, first come first served! NOW SOLD



Monday 24 October 2016

My Box Collection


We've been hard at work trying to get the house sorted after the move. I now have an office all to myself and that's given me a chance to display most of my box collection.


Above are two boxes by my favourite current designer maker Matthew Burt, have a look at his website http://www.matthewburt.com/


A small two drawer chest by Alan Peters along with another one from Matthew.


A bowl by Alan Peters and a desk box by Peter Lloyd http://finehardwoodboxes.com/


Three boxes by American Phil Weber https://weberboxes.com/


A couple of small ones by John Makepeace and below a highly rippled sycamore box by Peter Lloyd.


Friday 14 October 2016

Dovetailed Trophy Shelf.


Once some woodworkers get going with the magnetic dovetail guides there's no stopping them!
Here's a trophy shelf made by Bob from New Jersey. The shelf looks indestructible, I hope the wall fixings are strong too.

Saturday 8 October 2016

Ulmia Work Bench


A few weeks ago I was looking at vices to make another work bench. As the three benches I already have, included a Bench Crafted leg vice and two benches with shoulder vices, I wondered if there was a traditional face vice that was worth using. The Ulmia face vice in the Dictum catalogue made some very bold claims about not wracking wherever wood was clamped. Although this vice is sold separately I decided just to buy one of their benches rather than make my own. At just under £1,000 (+ vat) delivered from Germany it seemed very good value.


Three weeks after ordering it arrived, assembly was easy and the base was rock solid despite only having the two stretchers.


The vice did indeed clamp solidly without wracking on both outer sides. The single guide bar passes through a long very tight fitting bushing and I guess this is why the vice doesn't rack. In the excellent instructions there is also the facility to adjust the vice if wracking occurs with wear and use. One of the other things that attracted me was the 5 1/4"gap between the screw and the guide bar, clear down to the floor. This meant a lot of vertical clamping for dovetailing could be done without putting any strain on the vice.

Although I don't normally use a tail vice this bench came with a very nice one. There is zero play and it stayed level through its full extension.  As with the front vice it can be adjusted for wear. The bench comes with four massive aluminium dogs which are 30 mm diameter, not much good for use with other accessories, but will certainly do the job! The whole bench gave the impression of being massive, not in size, but in construction. This small 5' bench weighs in at 100kg (220 lbs). They also make a 2 m long version (6' 6") which is only another £115 and is no doubt more popular but I just didn't have the room.


Ulmia have always had a very good reputation and it's great to see they keeping up their standards.


I was a little surprised to see the top was constructed from shorter lengths of beech instead of full length staves but it is beautifully made and came dead flat with a nice surface finish.
Time will tell how this bench performs but I suspect it will be a pleasure to use.


Wednesday 5 October 2016

Walnut Sofa Table from the US.


Nathan from the US sent me these pictures of a beautiful walnut sofa table he made, the design is by Matt Cremona. He managed to buy 1,000 board feet (about 80 cube for those in the UK) of the stuff at a very good price, lucky man!


He has used the fine timber very sensitively and the nice finish is Minwax wipe on poly.
The banding and the drawer sides are quartered butternut.


Nathan is saving the wood for special pieces and he has certainly created one here.




Saturday 1 October 2016

A Change from Making Windows!


Joe sent me these pictures of some recent work he's been making which is very nice.
He runs a high end joinery company and he website is well worth a look.