Fiddly bits

What with the whole Noah thing I didn't share my wooden haul from last Saturday, did I?


The rebate plane is a narrower one than the general run of skew rebates I see, and that plus the generous length of remaining blade persuaded me to make the effort to haggle it down to a quid. Just as well seeing as I then blew my remaining cash on the clamps. They're not Jorgies obviously, but the advantage of seeing them in the flesh is you can at least pick out the ones that work smoothly. Yes, they were some of many - new. For sale in an actual shop. I know, shocking ain't it? But they're jolly useful and after all you can never have enough clamps...

Meanwhile not being able to easily find and use the tools I already have has been getting me down a good deal. I finally came to the conclusion the Ultimate Hand Tool Storage wasn't going to happen without some trial runs, so using the crummy kitchen cabinets as the shell I've set to work. As I suspected all along - these "simple layouts" take an inordinately long time to actually do. Not helped by the very hard wood strips needing pre-boring for the pins. Nothing is glued of course; inevitably things will get changed round and indeed there are already a few redundant holes...


Still it all looks like the end of the tunnel is in sight, doesn't it? Not on your nelly. There's the other side to do yet...


It'd make much more sense to be assembling a For Sale list... Anyway, then will come the creative work to hold cutters and such, all of which will take a disproportionate amount of time 'cos fiddly bits always do. And in the meantime you're sitting there saying "but Alf, what about that door for the sawtill?" Yes, good point. Noted...

No Noah

Well thank you very much for your thoughts, peeps - unfortunately Wiley's SWMBO encapsulated the result. I went and took a long hard look at the workshop with a tape measure, and if it was a hollow shell it'd be big enough. But it's not a hollow shell and thus for all practical purposes a no-go. Also a more practical assessment of the access and such wasn't encouraging. The garage would have been okay - but the Old Man has this quaint idea you should be able to get your car into the garage. Yeah, I know, I don't get it either but what can you do? So an opportunity missed.

Sigh.

Heigh ho, not all a loss 'cos in the course of researching about such things I ran across this blog which is entertaining and I shall keep up with it regardless. I'm not by nature a glass-half-full kinda gal, but I'm working on it... ;)

Noah

I come to the readership seeking advice, guidance and sanity. If you don't have any of the latter perhaps you could borrow some from a passing SWMBO? They're usually very good at cutting to the bones of the matter, often to the woodworker's misfortune... It's like this:

We were just finishing up lunch and I was wondering whether to exert myself to go to a very local car boot sale that has probably the most picturesque location you'll ever see, when the doorbell went. T'was Peter, the next-door neighbour - very nice fellow, ex-pro boat builder of the traditional variety but now earning his crust doing "process engineering", whatever that may be. He has, he says, a proposition for me.

Ooo-er.

Apparently four or five years ago, while he was still working at the local shipyard (well technically one of the local shipyards - not talking building the Titanic here, of course, but in this case luxury yachts, repairing the lifeboat etc. The other one does refits for ferries, RFA vessels, all sorts). Anyway, where was I? Oh yeah, well he'd bought these plans for a boat, made up the moulds to build it on, and then life had intervened and nothing further had happened. Now I diagnose a serious case of a man missing the work he enjoyed and wanting to get back to it even if just as a hobby, but yet again I digress. Trouble is while he has the plans, the moulds and the desire to have the boat, he doesn't have the space in which to build it. Which is where I come in.

In short, do I fancy collaborating on building it - he (presumably - we haven't gone into detail) provides the materials and I provide the space and get to build a boat (which is quite near the top of my "One day I want to..." list) with someone who knows what they're doing. Anyway, here are the plans, have a look and see if you fancy it and you might find it interesting even if you don't want to do it. I say calmly I'll have a look, make positive noises etc and somehow manage to restrain myself from doing a dance out of sheer excitement.

Eeek!

It's an Iain Oughtred design - the Acorn 12 skiff. Strictly the rowing option - no sail. Just as well 'cos with the sail it's all too reminiscent of Swallow or Amazon and then I'd be a helpless babbling idiot up to my neck in a childhood fantasy - on a par with someone who always said they wanted to be an astronaut when they were 8 now being invited to the International Space Station and then required to make a rational decision about whether to go...

So I'm trying to stay rational. I think it could be done in the workshop - and still be got out of the door. The Maxi could be a problem though. And it's a heck of an opportunity - I was resigned to waiting for a mid-life crisis before I even seriously considered anything on the "One day I want to..." list. On the other hand it'd essentially turn the workshop into a boat shed and nothing else - all other woodworking bar the smallest stuff would be curtailed with a great boat sitting in the middle of it. And for how long? I daresay we all know someone, or someone who knows someone, that has a project-that-never-ends story. But perhaps the biggest thing is am I actually capable of making something with someone else? I'm very much a me, myself and I kinda woodworker - all self-taught etc etc. You can't get half-way through a boat on your premises and find the owner can't bear to work with you any more.

So some sane, rational, considered opinions please, folks. Do we proceed to a cautious affirmative stage subject to details? In short - Noah or No Noah?

Sloth

No, not that sort...

A car boot sale report as late as Thursday? Shocking. I plead dodgy internet access at my usual blogging time, although that's just one of a whole array of flimsy excuses... But enough of that.

Contrary to the historical picture of this Sceptred Isle being perpetually shrouded in mist and drizzle we seem to be experiencing a prolonged spell of bloomin' lovely weather in these parts. If it wasn't for aforementioned sloth etc I could be doing a car boot sale every day of the week I reckon, but as it is I restricted myself to Sunday and for the first time in months hooked up with The Tall Scotsman. Did I mention I now know his name? I won't spoil the mystery of the thing by telling you what it is but at least now I'm in a position to provide anyone coming down here hunting tools with at least one guaranteed means of finding someone who's at least seen some once... His cupboard was rather sparsely stocked you see. However...

Long-term readers may recall over a year ago I purchased a Stanley socket chisel from The TS? Here's the entry about it. Well after a year both our memories are evidentally shot because when he presented that same Marples chisel handle with a flourish we both thought it was the handle we'd been looking for - not that it was the handle we had but the chisel to go with it we were seeking. You see I own two bevel edge socket chisels, and the other one happens to be a Marples, so I thought that one was the chisel I must have bought from him. D'oh. I didn't even remember all that until after I'd fitted said handle to my Marples - and the spooky thing is it fits exactly, even unto the uneven line of the handle finish precisely matching the uneven line of the socket. But I'm sure I didn't buy it from him... I suppose Cornwall's tool-selling community is small and there's every chance they are indeed a pair that were separated at some point in the recent past.


A certain Yankee brace also persuaded me to look at non-wood-handled braces with rather less scorn than previously and I found myself stumping up the necessary lettuce for this pretty clean 10" example. Of course the ratchet sounds like a quartet of maracas players caught in a piece of agricultural machinery in comparison with the Yankee, but on the other hand it rather blew away my theory that CoMeT were the non-plane arm of the Anglo-Scottish Tool Co. The planes in question being trademarked "Rapier":


How can one walk away from a theory-obliterating tool? Well I couldn't anyway and it's as good an excuse as any other...

Interesting developments on the new plane front this week as well, but alas, all is cloaked and daggers await me should I reveal. In short I merely share this with you to annoy and tease. Mwhahahahahahaaaaaa...