The Joiner Made Oil Stone Box and Other Bench Stuff Thread

[Adam W.]

I've got a bit of a thing going for these joiner made oil stone boxes. It's almost as if they are a connection to the past and reveal something about the men who made them. Some are utilitarian affairs and others are embellished with some nice details.

Here's the recent addition to the collection which I'll pick up tomorrow.

It seems nicely made from mahogany with a raised panel fielded lid and bead mouldings on both parts of the box.

(Corrected for the sake of pedantry)

Do you have a favorite made by yourself, inherited or bought as secondhand ?

 

[Jacob]

I've got a bit of a thing going for these joiner made oil stone boxes. It's almost as if they are a connection to the past and reveal something about the men who made them. Some are utilitarian affairs and others are embellished with some nice details.

Here's the recent addition to the collection which I'll pick up tomorrow.

It seems nicely made from mahogany with a raised panel lid and bead mouldings on both parts of the box.

View attachment 129273View attachment 129274View attachment 129275


Do you have a favorite made by yourself, inherited or bought as secondhand ?

As far as I know this double ended design is strictly modern and designed to make better use of honing jigs. Not needed if free-handing in the normal way.
I've got half a dozen or so boxes. They are all OK but can't say I like any of them particularly.
Sorry to be a party pooper!

 

[Adam W.]

That's OK, I understand.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Anyone capable of making the box probably wouldn't have needed a jig.

 

[D_W]

As far as I know this double ended design is strictly modern and designed to make better use of honing jigs. Not needed if free-handing in the normal way.
I've got half a dozen or so boxes. They are all OK but can't say I like any of them particularly.
Sorry to be a party pooper!

Made that one up on the spot, huh? I have a long box that's old enough to have been marked with deep letters for the owner, mahogany, and covered with dents from being hit on the bench or hit in a tool box. and finished with what looks like varnish. It's got endgrain blocks in the ends.

It prevents someone from rolling and edge over the far or near end of a stone and literally deflecting the edge or nicking. Something that would only matter with fine work. It also makes the stone feel like a longer stone for someone trying to get after working something briskly.

 

[D_W]

(I heard Bill Carter say something about the end blocks helping keep the stone flatter - that was his statement, not mine - I don't mind them, but they could easily get contaminated by metal dust in my shop).

 

[IWW]

I have a hard white Arkansas stone that was given to me by an old antique dealer - he threw it in with some chairs I bought from him. According to the A_D, it was owned by a doctor & used for sharpening his scalpels, which had some appeal to me, being a pathologist (veterinary) ...



Unfortunately, it doesn't see much use these days, I find it just too slow on some of the modern tool steels I have acquired over the last 30 years, & I switched to waterstones some years back. I much prefer not having water anywhere near my cutting tools, but it just became too tedious using the Arkansas as a finishing stone. However, I won't part with it just yet out of sentimentality...

Aren't you blokes overthinking the end-blocks a bit? I see it as just a simple way of securing the stone on the base, rather than routing a recess (as is quite often done), with the added bonus it's easier to clean the thing when you are done. A busy cabinetmaker would want his tools to look the part, but wouldn't want to waste more time than necessary making his stone box, I would have thought...

I guess there were plenty of mahogany scraps available back in the day, the box above is also mahogany, though in my case more of a 'plain brown wrapper' than the boxes above. It has a hand-routed recess for the stone (which gets full of oil & swarf!). You can see the chatter marks from the router (having just been using my OWT for a similar task, I recognise the pattern immediately ):



And Adam, just to be pedantic, I'd call your box lid 'moulded' - there is no frame or panel that I can see...
Cheers,
Ian

 

[hlvd]

As far as I know this double ended design is strictly modern and designed to make better use of honing jigs. Not needed if free-handing in the normal way.
I've got half a dozen or so boxes. They are all OK but can't say I like any of them particularly.
Sorry to be a party pooper!

Our instructor at Technical College said those end blocks were there for blade run off, to make full use of the stone when hand sharpening. This was in 84/85 and we weren’t allowed to use jigs.

 

[Adam W.]

I like a pedant, although actually Ian, I think it's called fielded if we really must get it right.

Which we should for completeness, no?

 

[dannyr]

That issue was well fielded.

Love these boxes, old or less so, also have scrap exotic wood - tempted to make kingwood or mahogany, possibly fielded and with a curlicue base (what's the correct term Ian or adam?)

 

[hlvd]

I have a hard white Arkansas stone that was given to me by an old antique dealer - he threw it in with some chairs I bought from him. According to the A_D, it was owned by a doctor & used for sharpening his scalpels, which had some appeal to me, being a pathologist (veterinary) ...

View attachment 129298

Unfortunately, it doesn't see much use these days, I find it just too slow on some of the modern tool steels I have acquired over the last 30 years, & I switched to waterstones some years back. I much prefer not having water anywhere near my cutting tools, but it just became too tedious using the Arkansas as a finishing stone. However, I won't part with it just yet out of sentimentality...

Aren't you blokes overthinking the end-blocks a bit? I see it as just a simple way of securing the stone on the base, rather than routing a recess (as is quite often done), with the added bonus it's easier to clean the thing when you are done. A busy cabinetmaker would want his tools to look the part, but wouldn't want to waste more time than necessary making his stone box, I would have thought...

I guess there were plenty of mahogany scraps available back in the day, the box above is also mahogany, though in my case more of a 'plain brown wrapper' than the boxes above. It has a hand-routed recess for the stone (which gets full of oil & swarf!). You can see the chatter marks from the router (having just been using my OWT for a similar task, I recognise the pattern immediately ):

View attachment 129299

And Adam, just to be pedantic, I'd call your box lid 'moulded' - there is no frame or panel that I can see...
Cheers,
Ian

I think you’re giving joiners and cabinetmakers a disservice by saying their oil stone boxes only needed to be functional. When you’re in the trade you’re judged by everything you make, big or small and those oil stone boxes were a representation of your ability.
We were certainly encouraged to be as elaborate as possible when making ours as apprentices, and would have been marked down for anything utilitarian.

 

[Adam W.]

That issue was well fielded.

Love these boxes, old or less so, also have scrap exotic wood - tempted to make kingwood or mahogany, possibly fielded and with a curlicue base (what's the correct term Ian or adam?)

I know what you mean, but I don't know what it's called.

Is it cupids bow ? Or maybe that's just fancy antique dealer speak.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Not stone boxes but it's just nice (to me, anyway) to use well made tools I've made myself.

 

[Tony Zaffuto]

Those of us

I think you’re giving joiners and cabinetmakers a disservice by saying their oil stone boxes only needed to be functional. When you’re in the trade you’re judged by everything you make, big or small and those oil stone boxes were a representation of your ability.
We were certainly encouraged to be as elaborate as possible when making ours as apprentices, and would have been marked down for anything utilitarian.

in my many decades of searching old tools, etc., I’ve come to looking for stones in such boxes, as a demonstration of the owner’s pride in the stone. Also, most of the stones in such carved boxes, were the more desirable natural stones.

 

[Adam W.]

Here's a nice one.
I'm impressed by the parquetry box....I wonder what the stone is?

 

[dannyr]

Not stone boxes but it's just nice (to me, anyway) to use well made tools I've made myself.
View attachment 129305

Much cruder, and heavy, more froe hitter than a shop mallet, but here's mine, from a knotty (on purpose) length of hawthorn bole.

It's been a useful 'persuader' and looks a little bit more knocked about than when it had its portrait taken by proud maker

 

[Tony Zaffuto]

Here's a nice one.
I'm impressed by the parquetry box....I wonder what the stone is?


View attachment 129308View attachment 129309

Run you fingernail on the stone to see how fine it is. If you have any other natural stones to compare it to, try that. The left side seems to show yellowish tints of well oiled Washita stones. In any case, this looks like a well loved and used stone and definitely one to buy, if found whilst out looking!

 

[Austin Branson]

I don’t own any, but my Uncle was a highly skilled’body builder’ at Wolesley Cars. His boxes had marks from forstner drills.
Adam, I believe it’s a ‘raised and fielded’ lid. The angled surfaces are fielded, while the raised surface is, well, raised.

 

[Adam W.]

Run you fingernail on the stone to see how fine it is. If you have any other natural stones to compare it to, try that. The left side seems to show yellowish tints of well oiled Washita stones. In any case, this looks like a well loved and used stone and definitely one to buy, if found whilst out looking!

I don't know anything about the stones really, as I use a bit of slate for sharpening which I'm happy with. I think I have one somewhere, which is a yellowish mottled colour, no idea what it is though. The chap selling this box says its Charnley forest, which means diddly squat to me, although I like the birdseye maple box very much.

 

[Adam W.]

I don’t own any, but my Uncle was a highly skilled’body builder’ at Wolesley Cars. His boxes had marks from forstner drills.
Adam, I believe it’s a ‘raised and fielded’ lid. The angled surfaces are fielded, while the raised surface is, well, raised.

Even better and adds to the completeness, which is strangely satisfying.

I picked it up this morning and it looks virtually unused, with a nice carborundum stone in it which is shimmed into the box with some brass plate. I'll put it to use tomorrow and see where it fits into the grand scheme of things.