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Ultra-thin chisels can be handy at times. A few years ago I needed to pare a very narrow slot, way too narrow even for my thin pattern-makers chisels , so after casting about a bit, I cut a piece off an old steel circular-saw blade. The plate was about 1.6mm thick , which suited my purpose, and...

Bill, I mostly use the holdfasts at the back of the bench, for steadying wide boards/table tops held between the bench dogs. I have a similar problem that there are cupboards directly undeneath, so what I did was drill a series of holes in a thick board & screwed that to the back of the bench...

Yep, turned out well. You obviously got more ambitious as you went along fitting a lever-cap instead of the original bridge, & it looks like you've sweated a steel sole on it to close up the mouth. That part would be worth a bit of explanation, especially how you blended the existing blade...

Quite a few years ago (10 to be exact), we 'discovered" on the Ubeaut forum (it starts at post #44 on page 3 - it's a longish thread!). A member saw a drawing in a very old publication, of a holdfast fashioned from a crook formed by a tree branch and did some experimenting to see how it worked...

Yep, the way they did them a couple of generations ago. This old (repaired) rosewood tote came off a post-WW1-pre WW2 model. It was love at fist grasp & has become the model for any handle I make.... Cheers,

Woops, typo, I meant 1919/20, not 30.... And I didn't word my reply very clearly, what I meant was that the high knob/base ring indicates that as the earliest potential date, but of course they can be later, as appears to have been established. A nice pair in any case.... :) Cheers,

As Sploo sez. They are certainly later than my examples, which are both type 11. The raised ring around the high front knob came in in 1919/30 so they have to be at least that age.... Cheers,

Geoff, just to get our terminology on the same page, I refer to the lump of metal the tooth is pushed against as the 'anvil', the bit wot pushes it over as the 'plunger'. The anvil on the common types of sets has a spiral chamfer of constant angle but increasing width. It is usually recommended...

Hmmm, I think this risks becoming another case of over-thinking a "problem" that doesn't really exist. I'm all for customising handles & tools to suit your own tastes & purposes - we've been doing it for thousands of years, but imo there is very little need to change the way plane handles are...

While it might seem logical if you think about it, in practice you don't need to vary the set of a taper-ground saw. I have never heard of anyone doing it & I have always used the same amount of set toe-ro-heel on my saws without encountering any problems. If you are using a typical...

More or less what Droogs said. The traditional grain direction for totes (& saw handles) was chosen as the least bad way to cater for the compromises needed to use wood for the job. I've repaired & replaced dozens of plane totes in my time & often wondered if I could orient them better, but...

Steve, the handle of that saw just doesn't look right to me for the early 1940s, it has the lines of a later (50s-60s) type. If it really was the one your grandfather was using in November 1940, it was ahead of its time. I could be dead wrong & maybe it is the saw, but I strongly suspect the...

I think grandpa probably had a fair idea of what he was doing, he wanted a saw that would handle green or less seasoned wood so he converted his saw to something that In principle is the same as an "M-tooth". But if he was getting on a bit, his eyesight may not have been the best, hence the...

Well done Steve. What will you do with the "spare' blades? Is the next step building saws from scratch? It's fun but can be an endless rabbit-hole... :) Cheers, Ian

Derek, I wasn't comparing the ratios of the Bailey lateral adjuster with the Norris or any of its clones. No competition - it has a much higher ratio and is indeed far easier for fine corrections. I was saying the original Norris & Veritas ratios aren't hugely different thanks to the very...

I am not sure I understand your point Derek, or what 'problem' you are describing? The short shaft of the Veritas version is mostly determined by the amount of room available in the metal frogs or blade-beds. There is simply more room in a standard Norris. The ease of lateral adjustment is...

Hmmm, lateral adjustment is mandatory on low-angle jobs, imo. They are so sensitive to getting the edge slightly off - even with lateral adjustment you need to keep them close or you'll run out of travel before the edge is evenly exposed. As someone who sharpens "freehand" I like lateral...

Really interesting! That bead looks near-perfect, free of the little blips and chatter marks my scratch-stock beaders leave: A quick rub-over with some folded 180 grit paper cleans them up, and they look fine from a normal viewing distance (as with quite a lot of hand-work I've seen on old...

Adam, I've not seen anything like those either. I've made & used scratch-stocks for decades & find them extremely useful, but now you've got me curious & wondering if the wider blades on your examples work differently? You called them "shaves" but as far as I can see, they wouldann have the...

As deema said, the numbers on saw sets don't really match the pitch, they are just reference points so you can return to particular settings for different saws. Some can be serendipitously close, which is a good aid for ageing memory... ;) Trial & error is about the only practical way to sort...