OMG--finally--almost

[MikeW]

I owe everyone an apology for allowing my bad couple weeks to interfere with posting winners to the OMG thread. I learned a lot from this experience. I should have engaged my brain before choosing to make the OMG thread into a guessing contest. I should have thought through actual rules and clearly delineated them. So I apologize for the confusion, the delays and any possible hard feelings my thoughtlessness may generate.

We chose to be generous on some of the guesses whether they were accurate in part or applied to a verse they really shouldn't, we have come up with four people who were all close.

They are:
MarcW
Jake
Matt1245 <--oops...had it wrong. About par for this course! Thanks...
Jamrine

We will have the final winner drawn from these four and posted to this thread. We have another idea as well, but will reveal that later. So now, the verses and pictures.

This old man, he played one
He played knick-knack on my thumb
With a walnut paddywhack,
Throw your dog a bone
This old man came spinning home.

A wonderful, vintage 5-inch sweep brace with what is at least to me unique in that it has a 9-sided chuck. Walnut pad and handle, and of course, spins round and round.

This old bear, he played two
He goes inside out for you
With a knick-knack paddywhack,
Give your bear a bone
This old bear came close to home.

Another vintage tool--beautiful calipers for both inside and outside measurements. This is one of the six gifts I cannot believe I received. Lovely, little, possibly craftsman made. They have been taken by Dina who has a penchant for calipers. The "close" reference...these kind of calipers get one close...

This new chook, he played three
With some Padauk just for me
With a knick-knack paddywhack,
Smooth your ripples now
This new chook came scraping home.

Ooh. A new scraper shave made from Padauk and boxwood. Works great. I use these for smoothing the ripples left behind following coping saw or bandsaw work. If you have never used one of these, you are missing a great tool.

This young man, he played four
Has a button I adore
With a knick-knack paddywhack,
Supply the other half
This young man came whacking home.

Another new tool--or rather half of one. This handle will be attached to a vintage Butcher firmer. A perfect marriage of new and old. Made from Imbuia with a generous strike button which will see a whack or two before the weekend is done.

Antique twice, he played five
Used by those who had arrived
With a knick-knack paddywhack,
Guide its journey across the wood
This antique has found a home.

One of the loveliest of simple profiles on this over two hundred year old molding plane. This size of profile is difficult for me to find here, but fits the scale of my work wonderfully. The "Used by those who had arrived" refers to the skill it takes to sharpen a molding profile as much as this plane has been. While you don't get to see a picture of the iron, it is nearly used completely up. Still, it will probably last me all or most of my life.

This plane has seen a lot of use over the years and is in wonderful shape. It had to have been an oft used and well beloved plane to have used up an iron as much as this one, and yet by experienced people judging from the care this plane has received. Lovely. And already in use.

This old bird, he played six
He made chunks into rounded sticks
With a knick-knack paddywhack,
Now I need some pizza
This old bird has a replacement blade.

This vintage Preston shave is the best shave I have ever used. There. I said it. Even better than the Boggs I sold. Better than any vintage shave I have had. It has a replacement Iles blade. Rock solid performer that fits my hands and is a joy for me to use and behold. Complete with infilled handles.


These six wonderful tools were either made or purchased by our own Miss Alice Frampton. They mean a lot to me and I will fondly think of the giver as I use them through the rest of my life. Thank you.

Take care, Mike

Oh. The "married a Fish" clue? The molding plane was made by William Madox who was a planemaker in Westminster from 1748 to 1775. He married Mary Fish of St. Giles-in-the-Fields 5 November 1747.

 

[Matt1245]

I owe everyone an apology for allowing my bad couple weeks to interfere with posting winners to the OMG thread. I learned a lot from this experience. I should have engaged my brain before choosing to make the OMG thread into a guessing contest. I should have thought through actual rules and clearly delineated them. So I apologize for the confusion, the delays and any possible hard feelings my thoughtlessness may generate.

No problem at all Mike, i'm sure we have all enjoyed your thread, and we understand that your bad couple of weeks had to take precidence over the guessing game. Don't worry about it.

I thought that looked like an ALF patent scraper when i was reading your thread. A big thumbs up for you, Miss Frampton.

I'm pleased that i guessed that one of the tools was made by a member of this forum, even though it was the wrong tool and wrong person. :lol:

Fingers crossed.....

Matt.

 

[Matt1245]

P.s. How dare you spell my name wrong :twisted:

:lol: Matt :lol:

 

[JesseM]

I had fun playing. Those are some nice tools. I particularly like that shave. It looks very regal

 

[Paul Chapman]

No need for apologies, Mike. It was great fun and I, for one, really enjoyed it Thanks for giving up so much of your time for our enjoyment :wink:

Cheers,

Paul

 

[David C]

Great stuff!

ALF, were the wooden infills on the Preston handles original or craftsman addition do you think? I have seen some examples without wood.

Best wishes,
David Charlesworth

 

[Anonymous]

Very nice Mike...you tease :wink:

Especially like the old moulding plane. I haven't come accross a plane that cuts that profile yet.

All the best.

 

[Alf]

Ohhhhh, so that's what it was! #-o :lol:

On my way out of the door to the car boot in a rush, so forgive me for the moment...

Cheers, Alf

 

[Clinton1]

Thanks for the challenge and the long wait in which to anticipate the answers and generally think it over.
Thanks also for revealing the clues.

Apologies not accepted, as none are needed.

I hope that the bad weeks are over and that you get to play with your new tools with your mind in a relaxed state. All the best.

Clinton Findlay
(who thinks that a regualr guessing game like this would be a good idea - prizes not needed though!)

 

[Alf]

Before I go any further, it's very important to note I didn't just do this out of the goodness of my heart - there's something in it for me too... 8-[ Mike and I somehow came to a sort of an arrangement where we'd do an exchange of "tool parcels", neither knowing what the other would contain - well not exactly. He didn't have a clue but I knew at least what type of tool it'd be. The idea was to send them off at the same time (so no cheating possible) but what with one thing and another that hasn't worked out. Best laid plans, eh? :lol:

Anyway it was good fun putting togther the things, trying to guess what might appeal and attempting to get a sort of "Great British Tools" theme running through them all. The brace and calipers were an easy one - Mike had seen them both and expressed interest and the brace is a classic design we see a lot over here while being unusual over there.

The scraper is a slightly slimmed-down design of the one I did the WIP post on; get a better idea from this. The GBT theme catered for by the use of boxwood from a damaged Marples chisel handle for the clamping piece.

Tha handle is London pattern, so... Might have been more exotic wood, but it was a case of picking the one that came out best

Really glad you got the moulding plane working okay, Mike, bearing in mind its condition. 8-[ Very last minute acquisition from a group of assorted planes bought from someone in Camborne. Viewing was held in the darkest end of the kitchen, so I went for it not on the marks but on the length - the older moulding planes aren't the standard length, as some will know. Got lucky ('cos others turned out to be user-made) and did cartwheels when I deciphered the Madox name. Oldest tool I've ever found I think.

Finally, the Preston shave - definitely a GBT. That was one of the additional tools "thrown in" by Mr Thomas, patternmaker, during my Patternmaker Mother Lode experience. I assume he probably got it from another patternmaker, but which of them stuffed the handles I know not. Definitely a user modification, although not sure I'd have the guts to drill holes for screws through that casting... :shock: Seemed to me it was no bad thing to keep the good karma going in passing it on again to a craftsman worthy of it, so that's what I did. Plus it was the nearest I could get to sending Mike an infill... :wink:

Really didn't think it'd make Mike all this additional work though #-o Oh, and apologies to the two folks who guessed I might know something and to whom I lied like a dog - it was in a good cause. :wink:

Cheers, Alf

 

[engineer one]

mike and alf, well done, this was definately worth the effort and the "lies" to get such inter continental guessing going.

sorry for pushing you into giving out a saw mike, but you are such a genuine character i thought you might rise to the bait, even though sadly
i knew i had no chance of winning. this has been one of the best threads without any grief for a long time. sorry that it coincided with you having a "s**t" time, but having just had something done to my heart, which they had finally found, it is interesting how life gets in the way of enjoyment :lol:

it is nice to know that some things live on after us, and that caring people both look for them, and then others also use them. and there was me thinking alf was only interested in pushing us down the slippery slope of mega tools.

if only i can get some energy back, i must get up early and check out a couple of boot fairs up here in london(fat chance!) still gives me a chance to re-cycle some of my rubbish too.

once again mike we believe it was worthwhile, and thanks for giving us the chance =D> \/

paul :wink:

 

[AHoman]

this has been one of the best threads [...] for a long time.

Agreed! Awesome thread, Mike. I especially love the spokeshave -- have fun with it.
-Andy

 

[Alf]

...my heart, which they had finally found...

Hope you're okay, Paul, but I had to laugh over that one :wink:

 

[engineer one]

well you have to admit if you laughed alf then what a shock it must have been to me to have had it found.

actually i seem ok after the electric shock treatment, but it was a wierd feeling. i think the recovery after finding the heart took longer and was more painful though :lol: ccasion5:

now i have to actually finish some of the jobs i started earlier this year :lol: :lol:

thanks for the best wishes, and thanks for supplying mike with the script for such an interesting thread :roll: :twisted:

paul :wink:

 

[MikeW]

Everyone is simply too kind. Maybe like a first love, an anticipated first visit to a country 'round the world...and so many other firsts, UK Workshop was the first woodworking forum I found when ill. I know it's probably a trite thing to say--again--but the UK Workshop, you each and every one, hold a special place in our hearts.

Ok, Sorry for causing the gag reflex folks!

This exchange between Alf and I was a really fun thing for Dina and I to do--cause she had a hand in the contents, too. We all sent our packages off and almost two weeks later, mine which was sent off to Alf came back ripped, smashed and everything a bit damp inside. The inside packaging mostly missing.

Brass bits scratched, steel looking worse for wear, wood broken on more than one thing. So Alf will have her return package with a few less contents than planned and when Dina and I have the opportunity to remake the widgets which were destroyed, they too will follow.

Paul--Dina and I both loved your idea and that there's been a bit of mutiny, larceny, death, sickness and general mayhem cascading on us was just a bit of bad luck. But even on this side of it, the fun was worth it...and more down the road [albeit with a bit more thought first].

Take care, my friends one and all.

Mike

 

[Jake]

I don't deserve the prize looking at the other guesses (but am I **** withdrawing!) but fantastic thread, really irritating in a good way like a crossword or a game of chess.

 

[bugbear]

This old man, he played one
He played knick-knack on my thumb
With a walnut paddywhack,
Throw your dog a bone
This old man came spinning home.

A wonderful, vintage 5-inch sweep brace with what is at least to me unique in that it has a 9-sided chuck. Walnut pad and handle, and of course, spins round and round.

Hmm. 9 sided. New to me, too. Further, I don't see many 5" braces, and they're normally rather simple; only a VERY small percentage have ball bearing heads.

I have a 5" brace with a counter sink permanently mounted, since it works so well.

BugBear

 

[Alf]

Hmm. 9 sided. New to me, too.

Whereas it's never even occurred to me to start counting them... :roll: :lol:

 

[Pete W]

the brace is a classic design we see a lot over here while being unusual over there.

Don't see a lot of them over *here*! Nine-sided or otherwise, I've been looking for a smaller radius brace for an age without luck.

Anyway, well done Mike and Alf.

 

[Alf]

Sheesh, you mean to say youse guys aren't falling over them? (bet I don't now, either :roll: ). Okay, Mike, send it back - it's obviously too valuable and I wouldn't want to embarrass you... :wink: :lol: