My Latest Toy

[jsburger]

Lie-Nielsen had one of their hand tool events in Salt Lake City last weekend. Last year was the first time they had ever been to Salt Lake and they came back this year. Hopefully it will be an annual event. They bring a large assortment of their hand tools that you can try. There are company experts to answer all your questions. They also have local craftsmen and some not local. This year they had Russ Filbeck a retired US Navy Submariner turned master chair maker. He made a chair for President Jimmy Carter who is himself a chair maker. I was able to purchase his book "Making Ladder Back Chairs", which he signed, at a nice discount. You can read all about him on his web site.

http://www.russfilbeck.com

I have always wanted to do more with hand tools so I thought I would get a decent plane. I have had a Lie-Nielsen rabbeting block plane for years and love it. The consensus is for a first plane or an only plane the low angle jack plane is the one. It can do just about everything most of the other styles can do. So I bought a Lie-Nielsen No. 62 low angle jack plane. I think most people would agree that Lie-Nielsen makes one of the best planes on the market. You can certainly spend way more money from the hand made custom makers but I doubt they work any better.

[ERLover]

So St Nick came a week early. Nice John.

[Gene Howe]

That's just plane sweet.

[ERLover]

JB,
you just bought that in anticipation of Dustys post about your non traditional shop.LOL
Remember John, there is no dust collector hooked to it, and IT WILL put shavings on your floor.

[jsburger]

JB,
you just bought that in anticipation of Dustys post about your non traditional shop.LOL
Remember John, there is no dust collector hooked to it, and IT WILL put shavings on your floor.

Yeh, but there is no dust with a hand plane. It cuts ribbons so thin that you can see through them and as long as the piece you are planing. No "dust" to get all over the place without a sucker.

[algale]

Nice looking plane!

And thanks for the backstory and link to the Russ Filbeck site -- great looking chairs (although I think the one Charlese built for his daughter looks just as good as any of these).

[jsburger]

Nice looking plane!

And thanks for the backstory and link to the Russ Filbeck site -- great looking chairs (although I think the one Charlese built for his daughter looks just as good as any of these).

The interesting thing that he explained is the technique to put them together without glue. How the different parts either quarter sawn or flat sawn. Not that the parts are actually sawn but the way they are shaped with a draw knife and a spoke shave in the correct grain direction. The legs and back are green wood and the rungs are dry. The tenons on the rungs have circular grove near the end. When the chair is put together the legs dry and shrink and the rungs pick up moisture from the legs and swell. The legs have to be shaped in the correct grain direction so they don't split when everything dries. The result is a locked joint that lasts almost forever without glue. That is the way it was done in the 1800's and early 1900's.

BTW, he uses a draw horse like Roy Underhill to make his parts.

[algale]

The interesting thing that he explained is the technique to put them together without glue. How the different parts either quarter sawn or flat sawn. Not that the parts are actually sawn but the way they are shaped with a draw knife and a spoke shave in the correct grain direction. The legs and back are green wood and the rungs are dry. The tenons on the rungs have circular grove near the end. When the chair is put together the legs dry and shrink and the rungs pick up moisture from the legs and swell. The legs have to be shaped in the correct grain direction so they don't split when everything dries. The result is a locked joint that lasts almost forever without glue. That is the way it was done in the 1800's and early 1900's.

BTW, he uses a draw horse like Roy Underhill to make his parts.

Those are some interesting points. It sounds like a good read. Might have to get a copy.

[jsburger]

The interesting thing that he explained is the technique to put them together without glue. How the different parts either quarter sawn or flat sawn. Not that the parts are actually sawn but the way they are shaped with a draw knife and a spoke shave in the correct grain direction. The legs and back are green wood and the rungs are dry. The tenons on the rungs have circular grove near the end. When the chair is put together the legs dry and shrink and the rungs pick up moisture from the legs and swell. The legs have to be shaped in the correct grain direction so they don't split when everything dries. The result is a locked joint that lasts almost forever without glue. That is the way it was done in the 1800's and early 1900's.

BTW, he uses a draw horse like Roy Underhill to make his parts.

Those are some interesting points. It sounds like a good read. Might have to get a copy.

He has a picture in his book of someone sitting on the porch and leaning back on the back legs of the chair against the wall. He said he has seen some chairs that had the back legs worn down almost to the rung because that is the way they were always used . A testament to the joinery. My wife laughed, she is from Mississippi and said yes my parents had the same chairs back in the 50's.

[nuhobby]

Don't worry; you won't get addicted (NOT!) ....

Talk about dust vs. shavings. I had one plane that sharpened really nicely. I was pulling sweet shavings off a plank of butternut. These long shavings went in to the DC3300 and got caught in the impeller area, making the dust-collector quite noisy!

I love a plane with all its curved lines on the body. I'm restoring an old Stanley and even my wife liked the new knob I turned on my PowerPro:

D_Ironwood_Knob.jpg (117.37 KiB) Viewed 7407 times

You've got a beauty there with that Lie-Nielsen!

Chris