The array of carving gouges is mind boggling. So many skills lost. Thanks Charlie.
The array of carving gouges is mind boggling. So many skills lost. Thanks Charlie.
A reminder of what our forebears were capable of:
http://www.ronaldphillipsantiques.co....aspx?tabid=19
Kind of cool to try to get your head wrapped around how this crisp little lovely from 1775 was designed, laid out, and made:
http://www.ronaldphillipsantiques.co...ategoryid=1362
Coolest tools in the world wouldn't get 99.9% of us past the first blank sheet of paper staring up at us. I know it wouldn't me.
Wild horses could not keep me from buying every bright, shiny, brass and bronze 'dude' tool in the world if I thought they would give me even a .001% better chance of executing this chair.
Last edited by Charlie Stanford; 08-03-2013 at 6:32 PM.
Just browsing through that Marples catalog, a couple things come to mind (besides all Charlie points out) - I wish you could still buy new chisels and gouges without handles, and I wonder where I can get my hands on the "bench or block knife" listed on page 20 (going by the page numbers up top, page 39 by the PDF page numbers) - I've seen one, or something similar, used in a couple videos (I believe one of them was the Swedish spoon and clog making video making the rounds a while back) and it seems like a useful tool.
" Be willing to make mistakes in your basements, garages, apartments and palaces. I have made many. Your first attempts may be poor. They will not be futile. " - M.S. Bickford, Mouldings In Practice
That is an awesome catalog, Charles. Thank you for posting.
Look at the names for the tools! Wagonmaker chisel. Coachmaker chisel. Look at the number of gouges - it looks like a different gouge for each 1% of radius! A century after the industrial revolution, it looks as if men were still making a lot of stuff by hand.
Don't own either one (I have Stanleys), but, last I looked, the Lee Valley was cheaper by a lot.
Were you buying the small router plane - the one that's the size of the Stanley 271 - I'd recommend the LN, because Lee Valley's is not among their best designs.
Au contraire my good fellow. I will concede that the Veritas designed round shaft should have a flat spot to stop the bugger spinning around. However you have to but both Lie-Nielsens at a cost of $160 to get the open and closed mouths that the Veritas offers in one unit at only $55.
Thanks but I'll live with their 'poor design'.
"If you have all your fingers, you can convert to Metric"
Hilton - I'm Assuming your talking about how the LV plane, you can flip the blade in the body, and use the back of the body as an open mouth design?
On my original look at the LN plane on their website, I was surprised that it didn't seem like you could do that (or at least, there was no mention) but looking at the Craftsman studio page for the LN small router it does look like that is an option with that plane as well.
Don't know how well it works in practice with either plane, I don't have any small router planes.
" Be willing to make mistakes in your basements, garages, apartments and palaces. I have made many. Your first attempts may be poor. They will not be futile. " - M.S. Bickford, Mouldings In Practice
I had the small LV router, but the spinning blade caused me to sell it. I replaced it with the Shopfox model which is the same as the LN - and if I ever need to replace the blade, the LN fits it. That said - I've only needed it a couple of times when the dado was close enough that the large wouldn't fit. My large is a LV.
I wonder if one could grind a flat spot on the shaft of the Veritas? It may then need a slightly longer screw though. Alternatively, the miniature version of the big router plane seems to have the square blade which should work better. For routing out hinges it would be useful.
"If you have all your fingers, you can convert to Metric"
In my opinion, neither the LV nor the LN small router planes are good. I owned the LN small router plane and I couldn't lock the blade tight enough without using a screwdriver on it.
Additionally, trying to adjust the height of the blade in small increments is very difficult.
The really small (miniature) LV plane is the best design, but is too small for most use. The blade locks tight and there's a screw adjustment for the blade height so you can make small adjustments when routing out a hinge mortise.
And a (good) small router plane is needed because sometime you have a hinge mortise that is in a tight spot and you just can't get the big router plane in.
Message to Rob Lee - scale up the miniature router plane and give us a small router plane that's usable.
Mike
Go into the world and do well. But more importantly, go into the world and do good.
If you want a small router plane consider the LV miniture
http://www.leevalley.com/US/wood/pag...at=1,230,41182
great blade adjustment mechanism and a depth stop. A serious small plane.