Dutch Style Tool Chest

I've wanted to make a better toolbox to store my eighteenth century tools in, but I couldn't decide on the design until the other day when I saw the one Christopher Schwarz posted on his blog. It’s a Dutch style chest that I've seen before in Jim Tolpin’s Toolbox Book.

I wanted a design that looked like it belonged in the time period I’m interested in and could hold all the tools that theoretically a person would need to build a house with in the eighteenth century, less of course my larger timber framing tools like axes and other odds and ends.  I also wanted it to be a little different and have its own unique character. I think the Dutch style chest fits the bill. A big plus is the lids steep slope which will prevent junk from accumulating on it like a traditional flat top tool chest.   

My chest is going to be larger than Schwarz as he stated his is for travel. My toolbox is 42 inches high by 16 inches deep and it will measure 40 inches long. I can still move it when I go to events I will just need to take some of the tools out which I normally do anyway with my small traveling toolbox that I use now. The box will contain saws on the inside lid, a tool well, a drawer for my slick and framing chisels, two shelves for planes and a shelf for my bow saw and panel gauge. My long planes will fit in front of the molding planes lengthwise. 

Here are a few pictures of the sides as well as my dovetail guide (it came in real handy with this build). Notice the benefits of the long vise of my bench. I really like being able to put pieces in it when I dovetail. I will post more as I progress.

By the way happy New Year!!

Utah Bound

I’m on my way to visit my son stationed in Utah for Thanksgiving. Last year when I was there we went to the Golden Spike National Monument. You can see in the picture how exited he was to be standing at the place where the two railroads joined (ya not really). He did like the trains though. This year I have more excitement for him as I brought my rock hammer and geological maps. Utah by the way Rocks!..... I didn’t mean that as a pun.

I forgot to take detailed pictures of my forge as Cincinnatus requested, but I did include a photo of the fire box and clinker breaker. I purchased it from Kayne and Son Blacksmithing Supplies out of North Carolina. Yes it was expensive, and yes I could have welded one up, but it was easier to buy one and in the end it will outlast and work better than anything I could have cobbled together.     

The clinker breaker is the three sided iron item in the photo. The metal rod next to it is the lever to turn it back and forth. The clinker breaker is held in place between the fire box and cast iron elbow. In use the flat part is oriented to the top creating a gap around the side. The gap is small enough to prevent coal from fall though, but big enough to allow air from the bellow to pass unrestricted. When it gets clogged with ash and clinkers the handle is rotated back and forth breaking up and cleaned out the obstruction. By 
the way the disk with the handle is the ash dump that goes on the bottom.

Happy Days the Forge is Running

Happy days! I finally got my forge shed up and running. I’d been using a small rivet forge in the past and it was a real pain. It was tough to get metal up to heat and it always clogged. Weather was a problem as well as I forged outside and always had to fight the wind.  Now I don’t have to worry about the ever changing weather in Nebraska and I will have something to do all winter.

My bigger forge works great. It was given to me by a friend free of charge. All I had to do to was put in a new fire box and line it with heat resistant concrete to give it more heat retention. The best thing about it is that it has a clinker breaker. This is a device for breaking up slag and gunk that builds up in the air hole. No more clogged air holes. The blower is also way bigger than I had before and requires very little effort in cranking and it puts out a large volume of air.

For today I made a new holdfast for my bench, a part for an 18^th century candle holder, and a hook for a door. I got carried away with putting bees wax on everything for finish and coated my hold fast. Now it doesn't  "hold fast” so I will have to burn off the bees wax in the forge to get it to work. My other hold fasts (you can see them on my previous work bench post) worked fine, but would get in the way when I used my plow plane as the arms of the fence would run into the bent arms of the hold fast. I wanted a new one that had a very low profile like the one used by the Dominy’s.  

Lots to learn as I know little about blacksmith, but boy I sure like it!  I intend to learn how to make hinges and other hardware for my furniture and tool projects. One thing I am getting better at is making nails and I plan on making a lot of them this winter. 

19th Century Meets Circa 1976 House Repair

It just occurred to me today that I’ve reached a tipping point with concerns to power and hand tools. This afternoon I was replacing some water damaged fascia board on the roof. I needed to cut a 5 foot section of 1x8 and cut a ½ inch dado about a ½ inch from the bottom.  The old me would have taken the board to the table saw and did it all there. The current me is somewhat lazy and uses his table saw as an expensive storage devise.

So I would not need to spend time and effort cleaning off the table saw, I grabbed my panel saw and plow plane and performed the job in about 15 minutes. All joking aside it really made think about the fact that in this case hand tools were way quicker than power tools.

I don’t see me getting rid of my power tools any time soon, but I’m finding that I’m becoming a better woodworker by incorporating hand tools and power tools. Another side effect of hand tool use is that the more I use hand tools the better I get at using power tools. I think it has to do with learning to work with the properties of wood which you really don’t get a feel for with power tools.

Felloe Saw

I’ve been planning on making a treadle lathe for awhile now. The design I settled on will have the drive wheel off to the side to accommodate for its large diameter. A problem I encountered is that I don’t have a band saw to cut the curved felloes and I want to make this lathe as much as possible with tools available from the late 18^th century. No problem right? Just make a Felloe saw.

I’m in the mindset that bigger is better (not always a good mindset) so I researched old photos and came up with a saw that is 40 inches square. I used oak for the top and bottom stretchers and to cut down on weight I used pine on the sides. Al l the corners are chamfered for comfort as well as looks. I forged the hardware because I didn't want to have to use any tools on it when I tension the blade; also I wanted it to look 18^th century. The blade is made from a 3/8^th inch band saw blade.       

I think the saw looks great, but then my standards are low. The real issue is the saw is not controllable, the blade folds over and the saw will not cut to a line. I’ve tried hook tooth blades and regular tooth blades without success. All my blade widths have been 3/8 inch. Maybe I need to try a ½ inch blade. Do they make band saw blades of different thickness? Maybe its not ridged enough. Please if you have any suggestion let me know. 

Filipino Bolo

I’m somewhat of a complicated guy, one part of me is interested in the Stone Age world the other the eighteenth century. I can make and use stone tools and I can make and use eighteenth century tools.  I’m not great at any one thing, but I can do them both satisfactory. I guess if I was to define my interests they would be in woodworking and wilderness survival. I find it interesting that people from both the woodworking and survival community are always asking the same questions. What tools are the best to have? For me, if I could only have one tool for either interest it would be my Filipino Bolo.

Of my 22 years in the military I spent 14 years as a Survival Instructor. While other people were learning valuable technical skill in the high-tech world I was teaching how to fall out of airplanes and how to properly skin rabbits while hiding from the enemy. It was the best time of my life and that’s where I got acquainted with the Filipino Bolo. Below are its advantages

• Unlike an axe it has no handle to break
• It is lighter and less cumbersome than an axe
• You can dig with it (try that with your Gränsfors Bruks axe)
• You can use it like a froe
• You can use it like a draw knife
• Like an axe you can cut large trees down with it
• You can use it like a knife (I guess that’s kind of obvious)
• The least unbreakable of any cutting tool I’ve owned
• Easy to sharpen even with improvised devises
• You can butcher small and large game with it

I have two bolos; the first one (top bolo) was purchased in the Philippines by a friend for $15 dollars US. I carried this while teaching survival and now I carry it for work. I’ve used it in all environmental conditions. Its total length tip to end of handle is 17 inches. It is about 3/16^th thick and was made out of a leaf spring of a car and it has a solid tang. The handle is water buffalo. The metal is pretty easy to sharpen and I do that with a file. Notice the end is blunt; this is so you can dig with it. The sheath is made of mahogany, notice the belt hook. The duct tape is not holding the case together it is there to peel off to repair other items.

My other bolo (bottom bolo) I found on eBay for about $40 dollars US. Its fancier and I really haven’t used it much. It still is very heavy unlike a cheap bought machete. I like my beat up bolo better. I’ve dragged that thing around the world so I have more memories with it.

Here is a site I found on making bolo’s I have not purchased anything from this site so I can’t vouch for it, but they do have a good video showing bolos being made.   

http://filipinobolos.com/how-are-they-made.html

Get a bolo you might not carve any cabriole legs with it, but they are a great tool to use in the yard and on the trail. Bolos are also an easy blacksmithing project.

            

Adjustable Mortise Gauge

With the wooden thumbscrew finished I turned my attention to constructing a much needed adjustable mortise gauge. The style I decided on has two adjustable beams with a nail inset in each end to act as a scratch awl. With this design I can adjust the width of the mortise as needed and I am only limited by the length of the two beams. Another feature I feel is a must when using a thumbscrew is the captive pad, it prevents the thumbscrew from marring the beams.


The wood for the gauge is from a white oak beam I salvaged from a barn that was built in 1867. It has a wonderful caramel color and is quite dense.  I am very happy with this tool.

When tapping threads in a piece of wood the same rules apply as making the screw. Use fine grained wood. Normally I would not use oak, but as mentioned earlier this oak is very dense and hard. I’m guessing it has to do with either the age or it could be that I counted 32 growth rings in the small section that makes the head. This tree had to be well over a hundred years when cut down in 1867.

The hole for the tap has to be straight and smaller than the diameter of the screw. If you buy a threading kit it should tell you what size drill bit to use. I just practice on scrap to make sure it’s the correct diameter and tap that before using it on my project. With this oak I used my post drill to make sure the hole was straight. Post drills are really more for metal, but I don’t have a drill press so I used it. When I made my slitting gauge I used an auger bit and just eyeballed the hole and got it straight. I think that was more luck than skill.

I used linseed oil to lubricate the tap and I ran the tap through it a couple of times. One side note; the linseed oil made the threads swell up and the screw would not fit at first. After an hour the wood soaked up the oil enough that the screw worked with no problem.

Below is a pic of my most useful marking gauges. This is strangely part of my bucket list. I want to construct as much as possible all of the tools of an eighteenth century carpenter and joiner like the Dominy’s. Then I want to build a small cabin using those tools and outfit it with the ironwork and hardware from my forge. Kind of strange I know, but I’ve given up on the idea of getting a job at a living history museum (there hard to find)  so I guess I will make my own.