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Thread: One down ...

  1. #16
    Join Date
    Feb 2004
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    Perth, Australia
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    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 ...



  2. #17
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    Feb 2004
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    Perth, Australia
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    Now with bolts ...





    ... into inserts ...





    Mark off the area where the throat will be cut, and saw the waste for easy removal ..





    Chisel it away ...





    Clean up with rasps and scrapers ..





    Now to prepare the brass mouth: the toe needs to be tapered at 6 degrees. The reason for this is to allow for a varying blade angle - if you rock the travisher back, it will take a deeper cut. Rock it forward to take a fine cut.


    The disk sander is set up at 6 degrees off vertical ..





    I masked off the area not to grind (I did not want to grind over the bolt holes), and tapered the mouth up to the edge of the mouth ...





    Once done, all was screwed back together. Now we have a working travisher ... or should have ... so a test cut ...





    And that's where we came in ..





    Regards from Perth


    Derek

  3. #18
    Join Date
    Jan 2013
    Location
    Halifax, Nova Scotia
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    90
    That is a quality tool!
    I'm sure that we will all be watching eagerly to see your choice of woods for the stools. With the so many species available to you that we don't see in North America there must be some more suitable for the seat and others for the legs.

  4. #19
    Join Date
    Dec 2012
    Location
    Ste-Julienne, Qc, Canada
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    194
    Very nice craftmanship!

    - Is 6° standard for a travisher or you just pick this angle?
    - How much time have you spend fabricating this tool if I may ask?

  5. #20
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    Feb 2004
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    Perth, Australia
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    Hi Normand

    6 degrees for the mouth was the amount specified by Claire Minihan. 6 degrees for a reamer is the angle that most Windsor chairmakers appear to prefer.

    How much time? This is difficult to judge, since I needed to do a lot of research to build the modification. Once I started, it was about an afternoon to make the blade and another afternoon to fit it and shape the body. A few more hours to tidy it all together, perhaps. I was not keeping check of time, and not rushing the process. I plan to make another, and it will be interesting to see how the time is cut down now that I know what I am doing.

    Regards from Perth

    Derek

  6. #21
    Join Date
    Dec 2012
    Location
    Ste-Julienne, Qc, Canada
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    Hi Derek,

    I forgot a question...
    What about the thickness of the blade compared to the front brass plate, are they the same? It seems to me that the brass plate should be thinner but I'll see what your answer is.

    Have a good day.
    Normand

  7. #22
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    Aug 2007
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    Dickinson, Texas
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    Quote Originally Posted by David Eisenhauer View Post
    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.

  8. #23
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    Feb 2004
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    Quote Originally Posted by Normand Leblanc View Post
    Hi Derek,

    I forgot a question...
    What about the thickness of the blade compared to the front brass plate, are they the same? It seems to me that the brass plate should be thinner but I'll see what your answer is.

    Have a good day.
    Normand
    The brass started out a little thicker, about 3mm compared with the 2.4mm of the O1. I filed it down until they were the same, and parallel. Then I took it down a snitch below the blade, which is necessary for the blade to cut.

    Regards from Perth

    Derek

  9. #24
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    Sep 2007
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    Longview WA
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    Thanks for posting what you did for the build sequence. Not sure if this is something for me to do, but one can always dream.

    jtk
    "A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty."
    - Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965)

  10. #25
    Join Date
    Jan 2013
    Location
    Halifax, Nova Scotia
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    90
    Quote Originally Posted by Derek Cohen View Post
    Hi Normand

    6 degrees for the mouth was the amount specified by Claire Minihan. 6 degrees for a reamer is the angle that most Windsor chairmakers appear to prefer.

    How much time? This is difficult to judge, since I needed to do a lot of research to build the modification. Once I started, it was about an afternoon to make the blade and another afternoon to fit it and shape the body. A few more hours to tidy it all together, perhaps. I was not keeping check of time, and not rushing the process. I plan to make another, and it will be interesting to see how the time is cut down now that I know what I am doing.

    Regards from Perth

    Derek
    Derek
    If you plan to build a second one ,you might want to consider a hard wood front instead of the brass.
    The reason I say this is the brass is flat in the fore/aft direction and it is hard to get curvature in two planes in sheet metal. With the wood you can shape it as you wish.
    Hard to explain but when you are working in a concavity the flat base is a limiting factor.
    Perhaps one way of thinking of it is like using a flat bottom bevel up spokeshave compared to a round bottom metal spokeshave.
    After several tries that is the way I went with good luck.
    travishers.jpg
    The leading edge is lignum vitae from an old carving mallet that cracked.
    I didn't make the blades but purchased them from Eli. I admire your skill in fashioning them.
    Bill

  11. #26
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    Aug 2013
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    Great thread Derek!
    Bumbling forward into the unknown.

  12. #27
    Join Date
    Jan 2009
    Location
    Williamsburg,Va.
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    12,402
    Is it impossible to buy slotted screws in Australia? Or non plated steel screws? When I needed small,unplated screws for 18th. C. style tools,i put the small,cadmium (or whatever) screws into some muriatic acid. In a short time,the bubbling would quit,meaqning that the plating was all gone. Then,I rinsed off the acid,and heated the screws to a spring steel blue with as Mapp gas torch. Then I had proper looking screws for things like small brass hinges. We still can get slotted steel screws here,but I have several hundred pounds of original 1040's-1950's steel screws that I bought at an auction of an old ship fitting company in Newport News. Not many small sizes though.

  13. #28
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    Feb 2004
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    Perth, Australia
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    Hi George

    They do not make or sell slotted machine screws anywhere in Australia, and especially not in metric. These are M6, and they are stainless steel. The reason I chose M6 is that they are the only threaded metal inserts available. In short, no other choice.

    Regards from Perth

    Derek

  14. #29
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    Feb 2011
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    Carlsbad, CA
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    Derek, awesome thread thanks so much for posting!


    You're truly a "Renaissance" craftsman – I really admire your ability to work wood and metal equally well and to produce super cool hand tools that don't not only look great, but that work even better. That's a magic formula I haven't been able to achieve.


    Seems like the tolerances you're working to for so many critical elements (like the height of the brass sole vs. height of the blade, the 6° taper across the width of the brass sole, the small size of the mouth etc.), must be extremely tight – which makes your results even more impressive. Sure you're not an engineer?


    As usual, your work is very inspirational. That said, the combination of skills needed to build this tool, not the least of which is expertise with scary fire/oil heat treating or whatever you supposed to call it, in addition to the exacting metal and woodworking are clearly way over my head. I will be happily visiting Claire Minihan's website to take advantage of her experience and expertise in providing a well-made, ready to go tool that a knucklehead like me can simply try to use.


    Thanks again for taking the time to share your work/knowledge/expertise here on SMC. I always learn something for your posts and I'm grateful for your contributions.


    BTW, I think your screws are fine.


    Best, Mike

  15. #30
    Join Date
    Feb 2004
    Location
    Perth, Australia
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    Hi Bill

    I am not sure if this is answering your comment about "hard to get curvature in two planes in sheet metal" .... however, the 6 degree taper I added to the brass mouth does just this, that is, permit curvature in two planes.



    Is that the same?

    Regards from Perth

    Derek

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