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That's a bit unfair. Sure you don't need them but I would have thought it was up to the purchaser to decide what they want and what fits their budget. If we cant admire nice tools, why bother admiring nice (and expensive if you buy it) furniture, when a second hand Ikea will do the job just as...

Thanks but I'll have to own up - you can buy the rod like that, like a stick of Blackpool Rock, then epoxy them through the knife handle. You can make them with a bit of effort though. Just not in this case.

Thanks ...both Lloyd (that's me :)), just managed to get a stencil sorted for the named one.

I polished these with emery paper boards - ~30mm wide 6mm ply with different grades of emery paper stuck on with double sided tape. Grades of paper from 100 to 1500 or 2000. Then buffed them a bit with rouge, although I don't think that made much difference. All takes a bit of elbow grease...

Hi Guys many thanks for the suggestions. I'll chop the really cracked ends off and paint them as suggested and store them for a bit to see how they go. Don't think there is much pith but since they have cracked right down the middle, I can just continue that as suggested. I did paint the...

I'm realising that my post title wasn't very clear - twaz a question. I wasn't really intending to use them as full slabs in the long run, more wondering how best to store them to ensure I get something usable, when they are dry enough to use. Even if I get a few 100x25 mm lengths in the long...

Hi I chain-sawed out a cherry stump for someone a few years ago. Not knowing what to do with it, the stump lay on our drive slowly rotting and splitting. Recently, I found someone able to slice it into slabs, shown below. These are roughly 1 metre x 400 mm. Despite the splits, there appears...

If you want something British, then Orion Optics UK make nice Newtonian scopes with good optics. I have a VX10 which I made a Dobsonian mount for. It's a nice, lightweight scope, easy to move around but not set up for photography. The advantage of a Dobsonian mount for general star gazing is...

Depends on length of grass and size of lawn...I use a very traditional smooth-edge sickle (dont have a scythe) to hack down long grass for our alpacas - its sort of effective to get handfulls of grass. Its hard going. I have a petrol scrub cutter and lawnmowers (but our lawn is not small)...

Thanks all for your help. OK, I think I have it This brass is actually supposed to be cold working brass I was lucky to get so would pein OK, but I think locking the brass with the steel is the way to go. I'll just make those secondary bevels small as suggested. I've yet to cut the other...

Hi thanks for the comments. So, essentially, I'm filing a relatively shallow bevel as shaded on the picture. By the sound of it, that needs to be, say, 5 degrees or less at the bottom, and to get the aesthetics of the double dovetail, it needs to be across the width of the tail (after I have...

Hi All I'm in the process of making a copy (more-or less) of a Spiers panel plane. I've got the dovetails cut on one side of the sole (with a few gaps :( which I hope will fill when I start peining) ...see pics...and am contemplating the secondary bevels that enable the locking of the sides...

I enjoy using nice tools so have a few (too many), new and old but all good quality IMHO (Clifton, decent older Record, Ashley Iles chisels, Thomas Flinn saws (and some old Groves and Disstons). But probably one of the most useful things I have is a decent (old) drill press. Gets used all the...

Can't help I'm afraid, although I do have the same name :). Cheers Richard Lloyd... once of Birmingham (or there abouts...Wolverhampton actually, and also, not immortal as far as I know)

Is that shrinkage after drying or in the drying process? I had thought it quite stable and have used it in knife handles a bit. Cocobolo is generally unobtainable here although it is fantastic stuff. I got a bit for knife scales from the US some years ago. I'll see if I can get Rosewood...

Thanks for the link Ian. I'll bear in mind what you say - maybe bubinga is a good bet after all - it is pretty easy to shape, hard and stable. I understand what you are saying about furniture making. I really don't need any more either and the offspring aren't settled in one place so don't...

Yairs, I have heard some of your compatriots moaning about the lack of choice over your side of the ditch. There are a few suppliers of choice woods over here who'll post to NZ, so if you produce a body that really cries out for some super fancy infill, you should be able to find something that...

I got a bunch of lever caps re-plated for myself and another forum member and felt afterwards that I wish I hadn't. I asked the plater not to go anywhere near them with a linisher, so what did he do? The very shiny and now misshapen lever caps just looked out of place on a vintage tool...

Yes, I see you have a bit of a problem ;). I have done something similar with guitars and I cant even play!! Actually, I think I have guitars out of my system and they take up space if you house them in a nice solid case, rarely to be played by someone. So, perhaps a plane-making problem isn't...

Thanks Ian - that helps a lot. I have a friend with a mill so I'm doing the dovetails the easy way. Using a mill. The cutting out question was regarding the external shape. I think, having just had a brief try, a metal cutting jig saw will be good enough then I'll sand to the edge with a...