A Dog's Breakfast

[ken hatch]

Some random subjects:

A photo of the boy child's table with the tiles in place, kinda. MsBubba will come along later and do her magic with the tiles and glue 'em down where they belong.

The table's top is 19mm plywood with Cherry edging glued and pegged with Walnut pegs. The base legs are Sapele (the ones the tear out post was about) with South American Walnut aprons pegged with Oak. There are a couple of places where if you look hard, or maybe not so hard, you can see the hand of the maker.....Makes it Art don'tchknow :-). That's my story and I'm sticking to it. BTW, if you can not make out what the mosaic is, it is an Elephant's head, ears, and trunk formed by flowers. Anyway one Winter Solstice present down and a few more to go.

jamiesTable171118dscf2137.jpg

There are spear point, single point, single bevel, double bevel, Japanese, and Western knifes in the pile of marking knifes. Most at one time or another were my go to marking knife. Same old story, you need to kiss a lot of frogs to find the prince. Today the one I use is the cheapest of the bunch, a Stanley #10-049 with a 11-041 replacement blade. I first noticed the Stanley knife in one of Paul Sellers videos and thought I'd give it a go. Mostly because my marking knifes all were OK but also all had a "yes but" factor. With the Stanley knife it was bonding at first mark, I've found no down sides to the knife. Blades can be sharpened and they hold an edge well but the blades are so cheap I will usually just replace (IIRC <$4.00 USD each). Blades are quick and easy to replace and the blade lock works easy and well. Some folks might balk at the double bevel, to each their own, but folks it is wood you are marking. Need I say more?

markingKnifes171109dscf2122.jpg

When we bought our early 1970's period house about eight years ago a lot needed doing, the land it was setting on was the reason to buy, not the house. Anyway there was a broken down outdoor bench in the gully MsBubba wanted repaired along with a complete re-do of the house. All of that has been done except repairing the broken down garden bench, in fact a week or so ago we re-painted the back half of the first re-paint, the front half will be done this coming Spring. Cut to the chase Bubba: Several days ago I finally got around to the garden bench. What I originally thought would be a couple hour project turned into a two day affair with several trips to Ace for hardware and each slat was different and had to be individually fitted, the only common thing was the length.

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ken

[Jim Koepke]

A nice collection Ken.

Your comment on the Stanley knife being the go to knife reminds me of a conversation many years ago about sharpening guides. Someone had tested a lot of them and found the cheapest worked the best. At the time it was the Eclipse. This was before Lee-Valley and others got into the game, but the Eclipse style is still a good option. With marking knives like so many things, if it works for you then it is likely what is best for you. At least until you find something you like better.

My story is about the same with the garden bench, though we have only been here 9 years now. Mine was done with oak pieces from the Home Depot discount bin. When it comes to fasteners and such my goal is to not have to make a trip to the hardware store for nuts and bolts. Just be sure to put it somewhere you won't accidentally back your car or truck over it. DAMHIKT!

jtk

[Phil Mueller]

Nice work, Ken. Can’t believe a whole house project got in the way of restoring that nice bench

I’ll join you in the “folks might balk” group. My collection isn’t quite as large as yours, but my go to has become this garage sale Xacto knife. Freshen it up now and then on a stone. Just seems to work for me. I may have to give that Stanley a try, though. Thanks for posting that.

70E5B510-5ECA-474F-911E-D90D15C7380A.jpg

[ken hatch]

A nice collection Ken.

Your comment on the Stanley knife being the go to knife reminds me of a conversation many years ago about sharpening guides. Someone had tested a lot of them and found the cheapest worked the best. At the time it was the Eclipse. This was before Lee-Valley and others got into the game, but the Eclipse style is still a good option. With marking knives like so many things, if it works for you then it is likely what is best for you. At least until you find something you like better.

My story is about the same with the garden bench, though we have only been here 9 years now. Mine was done with oak pieces from the Home Depot discount bin. When it comes to fasteners and such my goal is to not have to make a trip to the hardware store for nuts and bolts. Just be sure to put it somewhere you won't accidentally back your car or truck over it. DAMHIKT!

jtk

Thanks Jim,

I can feel your pain, I hope it was recoverable.

Yeah, I should have put my usual "With anything wood YMMV" on the end. One of the things I like about the Stanley knife is they are so cheap I buy 'em by the bunch and they are scattered around the shop and house so when I need a knife all I have to do is glance around and there is usually one in sight. Of course every once in a while MsBubba gathers 'em up and puts 'em in a pile on the bench.

ken

[ken hatch]

Nice work, Ken. Can’t believe a whole house project got in the way of restoring that nice bench

I’ll join you in the “folks might balk” group. My collection isn’t quite as large as yours, but my go to has become this garage sale Xacto knife. Freshen it up now and then on a stone. Just seems to work for me. I may have to give that Stanley a try, though. Thanks for posting that.

70E5B510-5ECA-474F-911E-D90D15C7380A.jpg

Phil,

Those were my thoughts as well but MsBubba had other ideas. That woman is a slave driver, I tell you a slave driver . Your knife looks good, I like a thin flexible blade.

ken