Master Craftsmen Gifts

The holidays are here and that means it’s time to head out into the traffic, the crowds and the long lines. If you’re anything like me then you have a long list of people to shop for and you’re probably not looking forward to it. With all the frustrations that come with holiday gift shopping it’s no wonder so many people are turning to the internet. With lower shipping rates and faster delivery times it’s finally economical and convenient to get all of our holiday shopping done from the comfort of our homes or offices.

My father can easily be called a master craftsman and boy can they be hard to shop for. At first you try to buy them excellent examples of fine woodworking but they often end up critiquing it more than appreciating it. And anything unrelated to woodworking seems to be entirely uninteresting. So this year I looked into some antique hand saws. I thought it would make a great decoration for his shop or just a nice memento of early American woodworking. Whatever he decides to do with it I know he’ll appreciate it!

Pull Saw Door Casing

In a prior post we hit on baseboards being removed as one of the first steps, true because the floor trim has to sit on top of the new materials being installed. The other trim that needs to be dealt with is the door casing and sometimes door jambs.

The new flooring must appear as if it is under the molding everywhere. The cuts at the bottom of the trim are difficult to execute, unless the right carpentry tool is on site. This awesome little gadget has been called a pullsaw. A smaller hand saw that cuts as it's pulled through the material in reference. To get this cut accurate only requires, to lay the new flooring flat in front the trim and cutting, now the flooring will slide underneath and give that professional look.

Must Have Hand Saw

To be frank about it, when we have so many great machines to save us energy do the work for us, and do it so accurately, why should we resort to using a hand saw? The truth is that many hand saws go unused, and the band saw, table saw and partly the plunge router have replaced the handsaw around our bench. However there are a few hand saws that are still needed and really cannot be replaced.

The first would be a general purpose cabinet shop saw, I have a very precious Pre- War Disston 10tpi saw that now sits gathering dust having been replaced by an ultra-sharp hard point plastic handled throwaway saw. There are lots of brands of them, Stanley make a good one, Dakota make another, there is not a lot to choose between them. They all have a Japanese tooth pattern that cannot be sharpened. So you use them, dull the blade, throw them away and buy another. I hate this but I can't say that my old pre-war saw is better except in terms of conservation of resources. And that is becoming important as my 15 year old daughter keeps reminding me.

The small tenon saw has however an important use around the bench. For a while I abandoned the European back saw pattern and recommended Japanese Hand saws. Since doing that we have gone back to recommending back saws made by Veritas, Lie Nielsen and Adrea. This is because in the past 10 years the quality of the back saw has been improved. There was a terrible time in British saw making history when once proud companies like Roberts and Lee made a very poor quality saw, I still have an expensive half tenon saw by Roberts and Lee. I bought it in the late 20th century and keep it as a reminder of how bad they were.

We recommend that students by a genuine dovetail saw. This would be a saw with teeth cut to a rip pattern. An old-fashioned dovetail saw would have 19 or 20 teeth per inch, the best we can get nowadays is something like 15 tpi. The blade will be between six and seven inches long and will have a nice handle and a well fixed heavy brass back. This small saw will be for small components and joinery of things like drawer sides. For the slightly heavier work, carcass dovetailing sawing and more general sawing you need a very similar saw called a "half tenon" saw. This is very similar to the dovetail saw, same teeth, same rip cut but a slightly longer blade maybe eight to nine inches. The dovetail saw you will set up to saw with a fine kerf, the a half tenon you will set up to have a slightly wider kerf.

Pitch in with your Home Remodel

There's nothing more stressful than having to remodel your home. In fact, more than a few couples have cited a redone kitchen or a reconstructed bathroom as the reason for numerous fights, even divorces. Knowing how stressful these projects can be, it is to the benefit of all homeowners to enter into the project with as many helpful tools as possible. To that end, before you rip out that extra wall or dismantle that countertop, make sure you seek some sound advice and make a run to the hardware store.

Even if you're not doing the bulk of the work yourself, that doesn't mean all the work needs to be done by your hired contractors and construction workers. Cut down on costs by rolling up your sleeves and performing some of the smaller tasks yourself. Even if you're not trained in construction, you can certainly handle cosmetic touchups such as painting and work that can be done with basic tools like a hammer, screwdriver and painted hand saw.

Custom Copper [collars]

Requests come in all the time when surrounded by creative individuals. And this was going to be a pricey one, commodities always fluctuate in cost and ever changing with supply and demand needs. Copper pipe is on the up-tick of late, but I put a holding 30 day quote prior to install and got a local plumbing supply company to commit to $6.12 per foot, 1-1/2″ …. 1/8″ walled copper plumbing tubing. Our usage for this copper tubing, in such, was for fence and redwood deck railing.

The spacing needed to suffice local codes and also required a rather tricky custom fastening collar attachment with like metal screws to be compatible [ no electrolysis] and endure the harsh coastal climate on the west coast. With 6×6 posts carrying all burden, sealed with an oil base primer before inserting into our posts holes, and a 2×8 rough douglas fir cap, we obtain a unique and stylish alternative to the common everyday barrier. We used a fine hand saw on some of the finish cuts for noise is often an issued in gated communities.

The custom collars had to have a base silver solder braised to an 1-1/2″ coupler and predrilled for our screws. We installed these after layout by using a Vix bit to relieve the extra stress on our fasteners and keep a clean machine like finish to the phillip’s heads. Our client became ecstatic when arriving home and seeing the finished product, while her real estate portfolio knowingly greatly improved by adding an outrageously avant-garde curb appeal.

Erecting a Garden Fence

Fencing might seem like a task suited more for professionals, but in truth it can be achieved by the average person with the right tools and a little elbow grease. You will need a post hole digger (or a shovel and a lot of elbow grease), a shovel, a wheelbarrow, a nail gun, a hand saw, a measuring tape, and a level. You will also need the supplies necessary for a wood fence, including wood posts, wood beams, wood slats, and concrete. The first step is to set the posts in concrete, which can take several days to dry. Space your post holes in specific intervals (often 6-8 feet), and then dig them out with the post hole digger (about 24 inches deep). Then place the posts in the holes and add the concrete, ensuring the posts are level.

When the concrete is dry, cut your wood beams and place them between your posts, ensuring they are level. Then begin placing the wood slats with nails from your Dewalt nail gun. Nail guns have different power and pressure levels, so be sure you're not driving in the nails too deep or not deep enough. When you're done, provided your measurements were correct, you'll have a great looking wood fence for your garden!

This Home is safe and Comfy

I love watching the show "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" and one of my favorite episodes was that of the house built for a deaf couple who had two kids, the youngest of which was blind and autistic. Each bedroom definitely catered to their extra-special needs, employing technology and child care expert to make the house safe and comfy for everyone.

The host's secret project was to create tool sheds for the dad, who works as a mechanic. The shed was filled with everything a mechanic and budding carpenter would need: drills, nuts and bolts, antique hand saws, everything. The father was overwhelmed, since he said it's been a long time since someone did something special for him. When their eldest boy saw his dad's tears, he knew he said thank you from his heart.