Bob Easton

Chocolate powered woodworking

Shopmade Scratch Awl

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picture of scratch awlA scraggly old broken spring hook (tool “G” at this link), with the broken off end roughly resharpened to a point, served as a scratching tool for many years. Now, with the ability to neatly grind metal, and a little scrap of oak, it takes new form, a finished scratch awl. There’s really not much to it. I turned the handle in a small model making lathe. The awl itself is that old tool reground and polished.  3M microabrasive film is fantastic for polishing. The ferrule was donated by a self-sacrificing Pentel mechanical pencil. Finish is several coats of danish oil.

Yes, it is small. It fits the palm easily. As shown in this picture, I was using it to prick through a paper pattern to prepare for cutting a boat part.

Shopmade Router Plane

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Someday…  Someday, I’m going to need a router plane. Router planes are used to clear the waste from a dado groove. I really don’t need the plane today, but have some projects in mind for the future that will need dado joints.

picture of router planepicture of blade and blade holderI based this plane (also called an “old woman’s tooth”) on an example made by Derek Cohen. A bit of 5/4 ash left over from the Fiddlehead boat was the starting point. Shaping was much as Derek described; drill a few holes, cut the outline with the shopmade turning saw, refine with rasps. Now that I can shape metal, the tooth / blade was shaped from a hex key. Hand cranking the grinder to shape the blade burned off a hand full of mini Tootsie Rolls. A screw insert and a thumb screw were the last of the parts. A couple of coats of boiled linseed oil, followed by a coat of danish oil finished the job.

picture shows depth settingYes, it cuts as intended. This hex key yielded a 1/4 inch wide blade, which will be handy for the intended projects. The method used to set the depth of cut is to elevate the tool on a couple of old business cards and then drop the blade to the wood surface and tighten the thumb screw. Now, remove the cards and cut. Repeat til done. By the way, it is a real good thing to cut from the outsides of a groove toward the center. That avoids tearout at the edges.

For those who have no old business cards for depth setting, use two aces out of a deck of playing cards. Leave them in the shop, so the next time you have friends over for poker, you know where at least two of the aces are.

Grinder Gloat

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Old tool galoots gloat when they get a good tool at a very good price. Lesson of this one: Be patient. Wait for the good one.bench grinder

My shop has been without a grinder, until very recently. The chisels have been sharpened enough to lose their original concave grind. It was time.

Did you know that you can set up a “Saved search” on eBay, and have it run once a day for months and months? That’s what I did when looking for a hand cranked grinder. eBay has plenty of these, and most are in pitiful shape. So, I waited and watched the daily search results, and waited and watched, and waited and watched.

A few weeks of daily searches yielded this “B&C Universal” grinder. It looked to be complete (most aren’y) and in decent shaped. It’s amazing how many grinders are missing their tool rests, and  how many sellers don’t know to take pictures of that part of the grinder. Know what you are looking for because many of the sellers don’t know what they’re selling.

The sweetest part of this deal is that I ended up being the only one to bid and got it at the seller’s minimum bid, $9.99. It arrived a few days later and proved to be in very good shape. This grinder must have set idle on someone’s bench for decades. It shows virtually no wear. I know it sat idle from seeing an oil streak that ran down the side of the flange holding one side of the stone. A well used tool would have had that oil more evenly spread. There is some paint pitting, and there was some rust. The stone was like new, the edge still square, no chips no ruts, and it passed the ring test. The gears are angle (spiral?) cut, not straight, making for very smooth running.

Cleanup was easy. This is the first time I’ve used vinegar for rust removal, and was very pleased with how well it worked. Mineral spirits did the rest. I decided not to strip and repaint, but to put this tool immediately to use.

picture of the decalpicture of the logoNow, can anyone tell me more about it? The metal dish used as a guide for sharpening knives and scissors had a decal saying “B&C Universal” and “No Skill Required.” On the side of the gear case is part of a logo. It is a diamond shape with a “B” fitted into the left point, and a “C” nested in between the “B” and the right point. Most of the word “Bridgeport” appears under the right side of the diamond. Yes, that probably suggests Bridgeport Connecticut. Bridgeport has long been famous for tool making. So, who in Bridgeport made “B&C” tools? Thanks for any information.

As always, click any picture to see a larger version.

Lastly, note a very interesting feature (see first picture). The grinder has a tool rest support arm that allows attaching the rest on either side of the wheel. The rest can be easily moved from one end to the other, making it the only ambidextrous grinder I saw during my time waiting for a good one.

How does it work? Very well. Better than I expected. Of course, getting used to cranking with one hand and tool holding with the other was a bit like learning to dance the Cha-Cha using only one leg. My chisels are sharp again, but you still don’t want to see me dance.