I had some shop time so....

[Dave Anderson NH]

This being a long weekend I got a good bit of shop time yesterday and today. Shown below are a couple of awls I knocked off from 3/16" diameter O1 drill rod ($3 for a 36" length). The black one is Gabon Ebony and the other one is snakewood and made from the cutoff which produced the marking knives. The marking knife shown is made from a piece of 200 year old Chestnut which was part of a beam in a friend's barn. Lots of cutting and trimming to get a piece which didn't have cracks or wasn't completely eaten by powder post beetles. The tools only have one coat of tung oil on them as yet, so it'll be a while before they getnice and shiny.

The last photo is of the start of the fences for 4 more cutting gages. The wood is big leaf maple burl and hopefully it will show some nice grain when finished. I intend to make the beams out of ebony. Stay tuned.

[Bob Burke]

Wow! Just awesome! Thanks for sharing, again.

[Tyler Howell]

Wow! Just awesome! Thanks for sharing, again.

Ditto!

[Mark Singer]

Dave,
Beautiful!!! Just Beautiful!!!

[Glenn Clabo]

Dave,
You are an inspiration! Absolutely beautiful work.

[Wendell Wilkerson]

Very pretty stuff. I have question. What are you using the walnut oil in the first photo for? Are you using it for your quenching oil or as a finish?

Thanks,
Wendell

[John Weber]

Dave,

Really great work, I need to make better use of my shop time. Great additions.

John

[Dave Anderson NH]

Hi Wendell-

I use the walnut oil to quench the steel. Both walnut oil and peanut oil are able to absorb more heat without smoking than motor oil so the shop doesn't get as smokey or smelly. I also use walnut oil occasionally as a finish instead of BLO. Walnut is a drying oil like BLO and Tung Oil and makes a good finish particularly for items in contact with food. The caveat here is that some folks are allergic or sensetive to nuts and nut oils so be careful.

[Chris Padilla]

What can I add? Superior craftmanship. Using tools to make tools...what could be better!? I am envisioning the ultimate Dave Anderson NH toolchest. It would be too nice to use!

[Mark Stutz]

Dave,
There may be an obvious answer to this question but it escapes this novice. How do you sharpen the point?
All of your tools are absolutely beautiful! I'm beginning to get inspired to try some of this myself. Thaks for sharing.
Mark

[Adan Madrid]

Dave,

Nice work. I love the cutting gauges. Where do you get the brass?

[Dave Anderson NH]

The point is tapered and pointed with my stationary belt sander using an 80 grit belt that is dedicated to metal work. and then it is cleaned up by hand using progressively finer grits of SiC paper up to about 1000 grit.

The brass is from either McMaster-Carr or from MSC depending on which of them have the size I want. The brass ferrules for the awls are from Lee Valley and depending on the size run from about $.15 each to about $.24 each. They have an assortment of six or seven different sizes available.

Thanks for the compliments guys.

[Perry Schmidt]

Nice work! I've got a few Woodsmith/Shopnotes w/ some plans/instructions on how to make a few hand tools (marking guage, level, mallets, etc.)

Some are nice, but they don't cover some of them I'd like to make - e.g. your very nice marking knife!!

Is there a good book on making your own hand tools?? Can't seem to turn one up w/ a book search on Amazon or Taunton. Any recommendations?

Thx,

Perry

[Dave Anderson NH]

Nice work! I've got a few Woodsmith/Shopnotes w/ some plans/instructions on how to make a few hand tools (marking guage, level, mallets, etc.)

Some are nice, but they don't cover some of them I'd like to make - e.g. your very nice marking knife!!

Is there a good book on making your own hand tools?? Can't seem to turn one up w/ a book search on Amazon or Taunton. Any recommendations?

Thx,

Perry

I'm sure there is a good book somewhere, but I have never looked and don't own any. My inspirations come from tools pictured in books, on the net, and from ones I've seen in person. I just look at the tool , try to figure out how it was made, and then sort of wing it from there. Most aren't very complicated so it's usually not too hard to figure out. I will admit that I've made some real turkeys while developing a prototype that works out well. I try to do my mock ups in poplar or pine so I don't waste good or expensive hardwoods or exotics.