r/handtools

Built this a little while back, 2022 I think.

Just a little dovetailed box, big enough for a deck of playing cards. Walnut, maple, friction lid. Finished with Danish oil and paste wax.

All hand tool, including resawing and dimensioning all stock.

Feedback welcome. Thanks!

A while back I challenged myself to make a hand plane completely out of black walnut using only hand tools over the course of a weekend. This time I let myself use everything I have available and took closer to a month of on/off work.

The knob and tote are glued on while the frog attaches to the base plate using wooden screws and can be removed. Depth adjustment and lateral adjustment are both functional in the sense that they move and use wooden screws as well. Same deal with the blade, chip breaker, and lever cap.

Fantastic way to use up a lot of wood that was sitting in the off cut bin and I’m planning to enter it in a local competition later this month.

Still have room for some additions!

This turned out way better than I expected. This board had been sitting in my parent’s garage for about 25 years. I recently cleared out the old wood to use myself at my workshop. Apparently, this board came from a neighbors apple tree.

I finished this flipper today for my dear old mother’s birthday. I worked on it off and on when I had time this past month.

I used hand tools and carving knives for 90% but I couldn’t get the smooth finish I wanted. The wood is very hard and the flaming grain pattern was a nightmare for my knives. I usually carve green wood so this was a new challenge.

I switched to an orbital sander using grits 80,120,180 and got the finish I wanted. Soaked in mineral oil for 30mins and here we are.

I think I will make many more utensils from this wood.

I hope this is not too unglamorous for this group. Apologies if so. I understand. I’m curious though. 

Broken handle. Does anyone happen to know how this might be constructed? 

I am guessing a straight oval piece of wood, slotted for a few inches, and hidden expanding wedge used. It seems this would manufacture incredibly easy. Simple handle. Simple cut. Quick glue application. And driven home in seconds. Passes the lawyer/liability test. 

But maybe someone actually knows? 

And yes, I am aware Chinese handles are only $20-$30 on Amazon with free shipping or from the big box stores. 

And yes I could drill and/or chisel it out to see for myself. 

Finally finished my tool display wall. Everything is sharp and 100% functional. They are all mounted on hooks so I can easily remove and use them. Still debating whether or not to add a drawknife above the two-man saw. I felt like it was a good way to display my collection while still keeping it accessible.

Acquired an early Made in England Stanley 5 1/2 in a job lot of planes and after taking off a considerable amount of rust, this is the state of the mouth (the toe is on the right of this image).

What do we think? Is there any point spending an hour lapping the shit out of this on some 80 grit or is it a complete write-off?

From the research I’ve done Stanley didn’t make a bronze transitional plane so I’m trying to figure out what’s up with this plane magnet will not stick to it. The lever cap is also bronze. I also don’t wanna scrub all the patina off the bronze it just yet I don’t know if that would be a bad mood but the spots that I’ve scrubbed is where you see the bronze and like I said a magnet won’t stick

I was planning to reusing an old box, but these bolts were in the way. Any idea on how to remove these?

My flexcut roughing knife just fell out of its shaft. It's been "jangling" for some time before it fell out midcut.

So my question being, what do I do now? Can i just glue it back in? But it was jangling before, do I need to put a wedge in? Or just a shitton of glue, and what kind of glue?

I decided to pull the trigger on an eBay listing and was hoping to get some help in identifying what year this Stanley plane is from. Thanks in advance.

I’m thinking of picking up some molding planes in my area for about $10 each in similar conditions as pictured. Should I be wary of those with similar cracks?

It’s in pretty good shape, but will eventually try to clean it up and restore it a bit so it works better, would love for it to be my apron/pocket tape

My sharpening setup:

• For establishing bevels/flattening backs, I use 80 or 120 wet sandpaper glued on glass or melamine

• Then I use a 300/1000 trend diamond stone and a strop with green compound, with a Veritas side clamping jig.

It works well enough for me.

My issue is that like many others I sometimes buy tool lots, clean them up, keep what I like and sell the rest, etc. I'm also the type who often changes tools and sells/buys new ones. Often enough that reestablishing bevels/squaring them up/etc on sandpaper is very annoying and time consuming. Flattening backs is also annoying but it is what it is, establishing bevels is particularly bad when I want a lower angle, it takes ages.

I have a bench grinder but it's very old, cheap and super weak, I can stop it by hand (with gloves). For the longest time I've wanted to buy a better one, but I always get lost and give up. I don't think I want a Tormek, they are expensive and better suited to honing than establishing bevels, which is not what I am looking for. I like my guide/stones/strop fine, if anything I should learn to sharpen free hand, not interested in buying a 500€ sharpening machine.

• I don't know if I should go for 150 or 200mm (6" vs 8"). Is 200mm better because it gives a shallower hollow grind? I've seen people recommend 150mm but I don't even remember what the argument was.

• Slow (~1400rpm) vs fast (~2800rpm) grinders. How much of an issue is it really? I see some people say the fast ones will ruin an iron instantly, and some other people say that if you're careful it's not an issue. I have repaired really damaged or really unsquare irons with a belt grinder in the past and never ruined one so I'm tempted to think a fast grinder would be fine as long as I keep water nearby to cool the iron. I have no problems dunking an iron in water every 2 seconds if it means I don't have to grind the bevel by hand for an hour.

I don't know what to buy and I always end up giving up. The used market sucks for machines like this where I am. It's either super old beat up or lidl level cheap stuff. Nothing I'd want to buy. The slow ones seem to be WAY less common here (FR) and way more expensive. I can find name brand fast 200mm grinders for 100-150€ but for a slow grinder it's more than double, if not more. Particularly 200mm ones, the only ones I've seen are getting close to Tormek pricing. Which is too much for me.

Seems like slow grinders are not something people commonly use here and the only ones I find are really expensive. I've found like one or two 150mm models, and they are twice as expensive as a fast 200mm.

For example I could buy this grinder for 120€ https://www.recordpower.co.uk/product/rsbg8-8-bench-grinder-with-40mm-whitestone-with-uk-plug and it comes with a 100grit 40mm wide wheel, which seems like it would work for my use. I would just need to add a dressing/squaring tool (I don't know the english name) which is cheap enough and I could maybe add a Veritas tool rest since the price of the grinder is reasonable. That might not even be necessary since the tool rest looks usable from the pictures, I don't know.

Will this work for me?