One down ...

[Derek Cohen]

So now i am interested in building Windsor chairs, starting with three bar stools for the kitchen bench. First I need the tools. I decided to make a few, starting with this travisher ...


Thanks to Pete Galbert (for the supporting emails) and Claire Minahan (for the video and emails). Claire has a video building Pete's design. She makes and sells these now. The video was made a few years ago, before the design was updated with a brass sole (rather, it used an ebony sole, which necessitated a slightly wider body). I chose to built it with the brass sole, which is where the extra emails came in.


The blade is O1, bent, heat-treated and tempered in my shop. The timber is She-oak.


Front ...





Back ...





Sole and blade ...





I tried it across pine grain ...





It was hard to stop





It works the same on hard maple. Forward pressure = light shavings. Back pressure = heavy shavings.


Regards from Perth


Derek

[Rick Malakoff]

That's way cool as they say in SoCal, I'm always an impressed with your degree of craftsmanship.
Rick

[James Pallas]

Looks like it'll work. That she-oak makes some nice looking tools.
Jim

[Brian Holcombe]

Nicely done! Hard maple....you are a glutton for punishment

[Robert Hazelwood]

Excellent work. That wood is lovely.

[Derek Cohen]

Thanks James. Thanks Robert.

Brian, knowing the hours you put in, that is the pot calling the kettle black!

Regards from Perth

Derek

[David Eisenhauer]

That's a beaut Derek and I am looking forward to seeing the seats before-during-after the travisher work. And, while I have you, thanks for the tip on sharpening router blades with a grinder. That PIA task has now been downgraded to the manageable category in my shop.

[lowell holmes]

I had a travisher one time. And then, Hurricane Harvey rolled through . . . . . ...........

A lot of stuff is mislaid or ? Maybe it it will turn up.

Oh well, we are on our way back, our house is intact, it has new floors, and was thoroughly renovated. We have new furniture as well.
My wife's car is new. FEMA came through for us.

[David Eisenhauer]

Glad to hear it Lowell. For some reason, I thought that the water came into your area but did not get your house. I wondered when we did not hear from you for a while. What is the status of the shop?

[lowell holmes]

Glad to hear it Lowell. For some reason, I thought that the water came into your area but did not get your house. I wondered when we did not hear from you for a while. What is the status of the shop?

The shop survived with minimum damage. My collection of 12 hand planes is on a high shelf as are my dovetail and tenon saws.

[Jim Koepke]

As usual, amazing work Derek!

Will you be posting a build instructional for this?

jtk

[Bill McNiel]

You scare me Derek. Very nice!

[Graham Haydon]

Lovely work, Derek. Look forward to seeing your journey into this style of chair making.

[Derek Cohen]

Thanks all for the kind words.

As usual, amazing work Derek!

Will you be posting a build instructional for this?

jtk

Jim, I need to be careful here. Claire builds and sells these planes, and I would not wish to reproduce her methods or plans since they are her livelihood. I chose to modify the travisher in the video and update the design to match the latest one. To do so, I examined many photos on the 'web - almost all by Claire, since it seems that few, if any, have built this version. I have suggested to Claire that she makes a new video ... although the current video is very worthwhile. What I will do, is post a few pictures of the processes that I needed to do that take her video a step further. (I suspect that this will drive more to just buy the travisher from her rather than make it! It is not for the faint-hearted ... however I did not wish to be on a wait list for several months).

Regards from Perth

Derek

[Derek Cohen]

A photo essay of making and fitting the blade



I started with 1" wide x 2.4mm thick O1 steel. You may make out my scratched marking ...





The cut out blank(this is already quite different from the video) ...





The jig to cold bend the blade ...





In compression ...





This is how much springback there was ...





This was the second blade I made. The first was bent around a template of the final shape, and with the springback was far from the desired curve. The second time around I was ready for this and just bent it enough to fit ... got a little lucky ..


How it fits ...





For heat treating I made up a small oven with some scrap stainless steel and bricks. The MAPP gas was only just hot enough to get it to the desired red.





... and then it went into the oven. Luckily my wife was busy baking Christmas cakes. I made sure she first sampled the brandy ...





This is the completed blade. Interestingly, when the steel is bent, it becomes concave along its length, which is like adding a hollow grind. This makes it easier to hone the back of the blade.





This is the jig for grinding the hollow. When the steel was flat I ground a shallow bevel - just enough that I could register the wheel on the centre of the bevel as I was after 30 degrees. (The eagle eye will note that the white Norton wheel is back - a rounded edge is needed to grind the inside curve).





The brass mouth was made in the same manner.


This is resulting hollow grind ...





.. and angle ...





Fitting the blade and brass mouth: the basic shape o the travisher has been cut out on the bandsaw. The fit between sole and blade is a little off ...





After rasps, files and scraping ...