Finally "cashed in" my BriMarc vouchers this week; came this afternoon...
The workbench is currently littered with saw-filing paraphernalia so propped up in the toolchest was the only place I could find to take its family portrait. Do I need another block plane? Er, no? But the plan is to get one of those rear totes R's been trailing for months and use it as a dedicated mini-smoother. I've been feeling the lack of one for a while now - and yes, I know about the #03, but how would it cope all alone in a sea of upward-facing bevels? Eh? Never thought of that, did you? Honestly this Veritas thing is getting out of hand; if I ever do make myself a tool cabinet I'm going to have to call it "Vino".
In vino veritas, see? Gettit? Oh, be like that then...
Anyway, the saw sharpening has seen a 14" Tyzack Sons & Turner (with immaculate, untouched nuts - if you'll pardon the expression...) back to useable life. I successfully butchered it in my early saw sharpening days when I failed to heed all the warnings about not stopping halfway through. It ended up cutting on the pull stroke halfway along... D'oh. It's now fully restored and bootiful - even if it did take me four passes to get the teeth back in order. That reminds me, I need new saw files.
I also sharpened up the F Constantine back saw I mentioned here. Much to my chagrin a couple of teeth pinged off during the sharpening process - never had that before. It doesn't effect the cut, which is smooth, but I just wish they hadn't broken off. I feel kinda bad about it. So it was with some worry that I tackled the (probably older) Brookes saw I got last weekend. But it was okay and sharpened up a treat, once I'd peered at it to try and decide if it should be rip or crosscut. In the end it seemed to have the vestiges of a crosscut configuration, so that's what I went with again. Been a very long time since I sharpened a hand saw, especially one with a mere 5.5ppi; it's quite a different thing to finer teeth to my mind. Small teeth need good eyesight. Large teeth need brute force. Or is it just that I need a sharp file...?
That reminds me again; I need new saw files.
I did one light pass on the Disston D8 but that file was in terrible condition too, so I couldn't do a proper job on it at all. Merde, this is going to get expensive.
Finally it's that time of the year again, when a young galoot's thoughts turn to the irritations of UPS and the delights of Lee Valley boxes. Done the first bit already, but I'm supposed to be tackling the skew jig doodah next and frankly it looks too complicated for a galoot of Very Little Brain. Strikes me as the kind of thing that will delight the engineering types. The sooner they get back to wheeling out some planes the happier I shall be...
Just as soon as I get out from under the tool cleaning and selling, I promise I will blog again. Honest.
In the mean time, Good News. The 18th celebration won't be 'til July so I have A Reprieve on the chair completion. Huzzah. Just as soon as I can can find the bench top again I can do some actual woodworking...
More Good News. Another haircut done and dusted - my locks are safe for another 5 weeks. Phew.
Bank Holiday weekends are not good things. Not only are there far too many days when I'd like to be at a car boot sale, but I also get out of the way of blogging. 'pologies. Anyway, the aforesaid car boots were, well, okayish but nothing spectacular. The Tall Scotsman failed to find the chisel to go with the handle - and hadn't brought the handle either, which was a shame 'cos I may have just the chisel to fit it myself. The weather was rather greyer than the forcasters had lead me to believe too, so turnout wasn't what it should be for the Easter weekend. I suppose we should just rejoice that it didn't snow... Friday I stayed home and, erm, what did I do? Haven't a clue. Nothing very interesting then.
Saturday was a rare visit to Truro Cattle Market and the sale there. Used to go there a lot, but they started to charge for entry and the atmosphere went right down. Not sure I went there at all last year. This time was no exception - everyone's busy trying to justify their entrance costs and all the good sellers aren't there any more because the pitch charge went up too. Hardly a tool to be seen from one end of the place to the other, but eventually a rummage in amongst rusty spanners produced two oddities. One, a bevel gauge of some sort. The other marked The GreenWatt Plane, with patent number; evidentally some sort of scraper. Naturally they didn't look quite like this when the cost was negotiated to 50p.
Found the patent for the GreenWatt, #216433 and it turns out to date from the 1920s and uses a razor blade as the means of scraping. Invented by two chaps from Tunbridge Wells called Alfred Greenwood and James Ernest Watson - hence "GreenWatt". Don't suppose it set the tool world alight, but it will come in handy cleaning up saw blades.
To my delight cleaning the bevel revealed it to be a Starrett and some research actually reveals it to be a #47 Improved Bevel. A bit of Googling and I find it retailing now for $75. Phew! Okay, so this one isn't it its first youth, but it works a treat. Cool.
Sunday saw a plethora of car boot sales, all rather sparsely populated. At the first one, for some unknown reason, I found myself asking "how much" on a grubby canvas tool roll of rusty auger bits. When I countered the £3 with £2 and he said yes, I was stuck with them. Most are of the Irwin/Solid Centre variety, which are exactly the sort I'm not short of. D'oh. Not even the Expansion Bit fills a void - I already have two of the blasted things, and complete what's more. Oh well, they've cleaned up okay at any rate.
The TS may not have found the chisel, but he did have a #03. A Record #03. A rosewood-handled, pre-war Record #03. Okay, yes, there's pitting, but the iron is original and plenty of length. My only prior exposure to the #3 size plane is a Stanley that I got in its box. The reason it was in its box is 'cos the frog bedding was ground all to pot and it's practically impossible to use. So I've not been a fan of #3s in consequence but here's an opportunity to rectify that unfortunate state of affairs. I told myself I didn't need any more planes, I certainly don't need another smoother, however small. I asked the fateful question. I know there are fortunate folks out there who probably pick up #3s in better condition than this as freebies or something, but the required tenner seemed reasonable to me. I succumbed.
The TS seemed mildly unhappy to see it go, which at least made me feel like I hadn't been done - even if I had. Look, it's still got its decal on the top of the rear handle, it's not a total dead loss. Possibly to convince myself of this I launched into cleaning it straight away. Been a long time since I did a whole plane and I've lost all my speed - took me all day. The result is an attempt at clean but not trying to be new (which it isn't). So I kept refinishing the wood down to a minimum f'rinstance. My only real Bad Thing was the brass polishing; I can't help myself. But time and tarnish will sort that out in short order.
Anyway, the whole haul for the long weekend. Pretty poor, but still a record breaker. First time for years I've got everything cleaned from a weekend's rust hunting within a week of the purchase...
Finally, in the post this morning, a pressie from my woodworking internet-less chum, C. We'd had some discussion about inshaves and travishers and he couldn't place them so I sent him a pic or two and a few spare PWW mags and a copy of The Axe Book (also spare) 'cos I thought he might find them interesting. Today I got this in unexpected return; a "heel shave" I believe. One of those tools that confirms the galoot saying "if you can't identify it, it's a leather-working tool".
It has no maker's marks, not even the usual suspect "Snell & Atherton", but a couple of sixes stamped on the top and sevens stamped on the blade and adjustable toe. Pretty dinky little thing; looking forward to seeing how well it works 'cos it has an adjustable mouth as well as depth of cut, so it could be good. Or finicky...
Remember my recommendation for this Firefox Extension? Reopens a tab if, like me, you close one and then immediately go "bugger, I didn't mean to do that". Well Firefox has had an update to v.1.5.0.2 and my beloved undoclosetab no longer worked. Notice the past tense - if you want to get it to work, at least on Windoze, try this:
- Go to http://mozilla.dorando.at
- Download http://mozilla.dorando.at/undoclosetab.xpi to your desktop
- Go to Download.com and download WinRAR (install in the usual way)
- Open up undoclosetab.xpi from your desktop with WinRAR and go to the install.rdf file.
- In the file replace the 1.whatever number between "maxVersion" and "/maxVersion" with 1.6 and save.
- Exit WinRAR and right click undoclosetab.xpi on the desktop and select Open with> Firefox. The usual extension-loading dialogue box will pop up, follow the instructions etc etc. Restart Firefox.
- Behold, it works.
- Apparently it can work with other extensions that haven't been updated too, which is why I though it worth bothering to type this all up.
If it doesn't work for you, sorry but I doubt I can help - I'm not a techie! Good luck.
Not the best of piccies of the chestnut, but I was concentrating on getting it stowed rather than taking its portrait. Had to lop off a bit on two of the boards or they wouldn't fit in; always a worry as you try to decide the best place so you won't curse yourself some months down the line. Naturally this tailor-made space for them wasn't in existance until I'd had a bit of a tidy up of the timber store; not before time mind you, so it's an ill wind... Except it isn't, but no-one says "it's a fair wind etc etc" do they? Not sure I can rely on the moisture meter much, but it's definitely wetter than stuff that's been in the w'shop for at least a month (new purchase, currently on offer for under 20 quid at Axminster - while the cat's away the mouse will place an order in the certain knowledge of being able to squirrel everything out of sight and avoid those awkward questions... 
) Hopefully the workshop will be dry enough, but no so dry as to over-hasten the drying completion. Bit of an experiment, this one, 'cos I haven't had any air-dried stuff since the dehumidifier was set up.
Meanwhile I pottered about doing all sorts of odd things that have been on the to-do list for ages. Came across this little pattermaker's shave that I'd forgotten about (and might have been handy for the chair seat - d'oh!), so drilled out the knackered screw, re-tapped for M6 and used one of the approximately 200 shouldered thumbscrews I bought at the car boot last year to bring it back to working order. Only 199 to go... Kinda cool; I know it's a patternmaker's shave 'cos I bought it from the patternmaker who made it. Also did a couple of oval turning experiments and I think I know more or less how to go about the task a bit better than I have before. Well in all honesty it can't get much worse. Oh yes, and the last thing in the picture is actually to do with the chair. Bet that'll have you puzzled... 
I'm currently "home alone", aka Cinders, so instead of being able to shove off, footloose and fancy-free, into the workshop I'm hanging about waiting for deliveries, 'phone calls etc. What a 'mare. Spent most of the afternoon shivering with the window open because I knew a delivery was expected and I can't hear a damn thing out here if the doorbell goes. Just my luck that he should be later than usual...
Mind you, it's not all bad. The little time I get in the w'shop is all my own without awkward "how's the chair coming?" questions when I get in again. I confess, I'm having a chair vacation for a week. There, I've said it. It makes sense though; I was getting jaded and thinking about cutting sanding corners instead of doing it properly. Much better to do something else and come back to it afresh, is my thinking. So I decided to indulge my tool-making itch. The plan was to do some handle turning, maybe tackle the long term project of getting good oval screwdriver handles. But it was perishing cold here today so the unheated garage wherein the lathe resides wasn't a welcome prospect. How about that long-postponed stair saw then?
I've already got a design in mind, some walnut of just the right thickness, even the white pencil handy to make clear marks. And somewhere, ready prepared over a year ago, is the blade. I need the blade 'cos I can't remember what length I made it. I hunted through all the likely places and all the unlikely ones too.
I couldn't find it. 
Okay, yes, I have one or two other hunks of saw blade from which to make another, but I just know as soon as I do that it'll turn up. Damned if I'll make a replacement. So I find myself at an "imp arse". But by a happy coincidence I found instead a box of brass, countersunk, cross head machine screws. Huzzah, I can finish the chair devil properly at last. So I did. And then thought about maybe making one with a straight blade, now I had the machine screws... A while ago I found myself smitten with Brian Buckner's "Gunstock Scraper" and fancied making one of my own. Well why not now? In a bid to convince myself it wasn't a skive I took lots of WIP shots and told myself maybe I'd write an article and try Good Woodworking with it. I probably won't, but that's what I told myself...
Anyway, it's not too bad, although maybe I'll cut down that blade a bit... I used some of a 3/4" square stick I got from a mixed pallet from South London Hardwoods ages ago - dunno what it is mind you, but tough as old boots, creates a very yellow dust, scrapes and finishes bootifully. The chair devil is bubinga. I have no idea why I got so many pieces of 3/4" square stuff on that pallet, but they include a lot of greenheart and some purpleheart too; the latter all gone now, alas, apart from small bits suitable for testing scrapers on. Hard to find anything to use them for, but this scraper is the ideal project for it. The blade clamp piece is a bit of maple, and really it's at the very limit of its capabilities this thin. Trust me to find the ideal chunk of brass only after I'd finished... 
Odd thing is I can't for the life of me recall what I bought, and used part of, that brass for. Hell, I had hoped for a few more years before this started to happen... So really I need to make another one with a brass clamp/toe. Or maybe I could bare the bone aroma again...
So where was I? Oh yes.
With the booty safely stowed in the, erm, boot, off we went to see the Wood Man. 'Course that joke wouldn't work in North America, but the trunky in the trunk makes no sense... It's debatable if that joke works anywhere anyway, so we'll move on.
Funny how in Cornwall you can go for years bypassing whole sections of it; this place was such an area. Not a stone's throw from the A30 yet you felt like you were dropped in the middle of nowhere. Which is probably why we missed it. Belatedly His Nibs mutters about needing to look out for "rustic fencing" as a landmark and I point out we passed some about 1/4 mile back. D'oh. We turn round, make for the rustic fencing and I know we're in the right place. The Wood Man, let's call him, erm, "Kim" (seeing as how that's his name) had mentioned something about an oak barn and here is was. And here I was without the camera. Bum. Anyway, proper oak framing, cedar shingles, the works. The kind of place you'd say "I want a workshop like that". Or I would anyway. The open half is currently housing a tractor, various other bits of forestry-related machinery and stacks of boards. The enclosed half houses Mrs Kim and a wood stove - I believe the long-term intention is she will sell her lavender plants from there. Not only is this place a candy store for me but my mum would love it too. Oh deary me...
The rest of the place is a bomb site. Rubble, weeds, more bits and pieces of old machinery than you see on Scrap Heap Challenge, you name it. Further up the track is an open garage with the chassis of a truck being reassembled having been taken right down to the individual nuts and bolts and restored. Bits of truck litter the place, grey primer and oil pervade the air, odd boards of oak and acacia lean against oil-smattered work surfaces.
I love it.
We have a tour looking at the various timbers he has about the place. As always happens when I'm presented with a sensory overload I forget most of what I wanted to say or look at. I did manage to enquire about average prices, moisture content ("this feels like it's dry" probably means he doesn't have a meter...) and so forth. Prices are good, sourced locally including the Tregothnan Estate which used to offer the stuff themselves until they got a joinery manager who knows jack about wood. But I wander off on a rant... Anyway, delivery is not a problem, which is my usual stumbling block when it comes to buying wood. A Honda Jazz may be good for the enviroment but it's hopeless for capacity.
He's particularly proud of the Chestnut; very stable, dries quickly. I'm particularly interested in the Chestnut because I had some from Tregothnan before and it's lovely stuff. Apparently a local sculptor has just used huge blocks of it from him for a giant pineapple to stand at the entrance to the Eden Project and not a split. Okay, so how about a cube or so of Chestnut as a trial run? He has some in the barn that's fairly dry so it makes sense to go for that in order to get to the point of using it asap. Then I'll know if I'll be buying again, see? Anyway, I pick over the 1" (bit more than 1", actually) boards and pick three that seem not bad. Of course any local wood is going to be what you'd call "characterful", but that's what makes it nice IMO. He's careful to allow for the knots and sapwood in his totting up, which is good to see, and £21 lighter we agree on delivery on Monday or Tuesday of this week.
It's coming tomorrow. Can't wait to see what a pig's ear I've made of my choice...
Sunday afternoon I did some of this:
A bit of this:
A little of this:
And got this:
Still needs sharpening, but according to Hand-Saw Makers of Britain (birthday pressie) it's probably by Constantine Brothers, 68-70 Hollis Croft, Sheffield 1856-1900. 'Course it might be Francis Constantine of the same address between 1845 and 1849, but as the Brothers used the F Constantine mark the balance of probability is for the later dates. J Hobbes (or maybe Hobbs - forgot to check), well he really, really didn't want to lose this saw. Not only did he stamp his name all over the handle "many" times, but he stamped "Js" on the heads of the nuts. Kinda like that, I must admit...
So the excitement of cutting the legs was evidently too much for me and I had to have a bit of a lie down for a few days... Not really, just No Woodworking. So often it seems to happen in my projects; I take a big step forward and subsequently don't do a thing for days.
Today, however, was All Go. First of all the timber fella got back to me yesterday and yes, I could come over and take a looksee. When would be a good time? Tomorrow morning? Right, 10.30 or thereabouts then. Where are you? The answer to that one took a while and even then we managed to over-shoot the target.
But I'm getting a bit ahead of myself. First a stop at Pool Market, or rather the car boot sale opposite. By the time that had been combed there was no time for the market proper. Nice day, you see, so sellers were out in force. Except there was only one with any tools worth considering. Luckily for me it was the Tall Scotsman who usually frequents Hayle RFC on Sundays - but they're knee-deep in building works so that one's off and here he was. Excellent. Plenty of droolable stuff but usually he's a bit on the costlier side of things so I tried very hard not to get carried away. However a socket chisel caught my eye. I hoicked it up out of the box of bits and pieces and squinted at it to see if there was a maker. Nope, not a sign in the usual place just below the socket on the back. Odd. I looked at the socket more carefully and wait, what's this? S -T -A- What the...? It's a Stanley? Squinted some more... Made in U - S - Whoohoo, a USA Stanley in the land of Sheffield steel! Now there's a rarity for you. I clung on to it and looked around a bit more - the more you buy, the cheaper they come as a rule of course... Propped at the very front of a box, virtually hidden, I see a promising-looking beech handle. I haul it out to reveal a 14" back saw, London pattern handle, 3 split nuts (tampered with a bit, but nothing too awful). I sight down the blade. Not bad. Name on the back is stamped... What's that? Constantine? New one on me; gonna have to ask about that one too.
Meanwhile I'd also spotted out of the corner of my eye a Sjorbergs holdfast in another box. I directed the Old Man in that direction with a query as to whether he wanted another one to go in his Sjorbergs bench? He had a look. He asked. £10. He bought. I was encouraged; I was expecting higher than that 'cos it was virtually new. I proffer chisel and saw. Ah, have you not got the handle? There's a handle for it? sez I. Yeah. He rumages. Here we are. He has a Marples beech handle, decal and all, (with leather striking washer doodahs - don't see those often round these parts) in his hand.
I point out that's not the right handle, wondering all the while where the Marples chisel it was the right handle for was...
Ach, no, it's this one. One rather bulbous and lumpy Ash user-made example with a copper striking ring is squashed into the Stanley socket. Oh well. I try for the "How much?" clincher again, but he's off through the boxes like a dervish muttering that the chisel for that Marples handle is around here somewhere. Oh really? I start to look too.
We didn't find it.
Now how much for what I have found? £2 each. Ach, it's a done deal. I hand over a fiver and possibly under the influence of the Old Man's tenner he gives me £2 change. I express gratitude and we reminisce about how long I've been a customer of his and my regret that I didn't buy a Stanley ratchetting electrician's screwdriver from him about 5 years ago. We part en rapport. I'll keep looking for that chisel, sez he. I'll drop by on the way back and see if you've had any luck, sez I.
We complete the circuit and head back towards the car via the Bonny Banks of the Tall Scotsman. He's engaged in badinage but breaks off to say no, no chisel, but he has something else for me, wait there. Naturally I waited there.
Turns out his old man was knee-deep in tools too, died a while back, but only now is the TS feeling able to actually part with the surplus stuff. I sympathise. Anyway, here are three chisel handles of his you might find handy, on the house so to speak. I thank him and we talk further of Pa TS and his habit of making model aeroplanes with 3ft wing spans and giving them to members of his family which was a bit of a mixed blessing when you live in a small council house in Glasgow. I tell you, you couldn't write it... Turns out the only thing he's keeping and using of his pa's tools are some rather prosaic black-handled Stanley chisels and how ironic it was given all the nicer tools that have passed through his hands. I agree and wonder why that sounds familiar.
But time ticks on, wood to see, so we start to go. Are we coming next Sunday? If he finds that chisel he'll put it aside for me. Kewl. He'll have lots of stuff; he sent his girlfriend off to Winchester to sell a load and she got there too late and was turned away so he'll be selling on Easter Sunday. I told here, sez he, get out of bed earlier.
I realise what's sounding familiar. The Tall Scotsman is Cornwall's answer to Todd Hughes. Okay, so he doesn't have a skull on his van, apparently only one girlfriend and so forth, but it's awfully like a more restrained British version...
Anyway, the booty:
Tune in tomorrow to see them cleaned up and what happened at the Wood Man. Can a Blog be a "page turner"? Maybe a "link clicker"? An "RSS feed checker"? Oh never mind...
... diddle-iddle-iddle-um, with my wooden leg, diddle-iddle-iddle-um. What, no Rolf Harris fans out there singing along? How wise. Hey, I didn't know he was yet another one with a birthday on March 30th - about the only obvious thing he and Van Gogh have in common... But I digress. I blog not to discuss entertainers of Australian origin, but rather as a lame (ho, ho) link into my own wooden leg adventures. Particularly to say I got some wedges like this:
And with the aid of spirit level and the thickness of two fingers - the preferred Brown Unit of measurement for this task - determined the seat slope:
Then measured to assertain that to get the pommel height of 18 1/2" I'd need to take off 5 1/4" (okay, so I was a little generous in my leg length...), so made a high tech marking gauge to achieve marking of same. Viz: A piece of wood 5 1/4" long registered on the flat and level bench top and a pencil:
I then got out my 10pt 22" panel saw - straight back, nib, rather awful metal "rivet" type saw nuts and an unremarkable beech handle. Cuts like a dream and I think that's probably despite my sharpening job on it. Maker unknown, alas. Anyway, got out the saw, laid the chair down on its side on a padded surface and did the evil deed. The amutated feet are there for all to see. All saws are amputation saws...
Chamfered the edges after only a tiny bit of tweaking needed on one leg to stop it rocking:
A good overall sanding and a spit coat of shellac to protect it from the immediate danger of marks and blemishes - the fresh shellac is lurking in the bottom of a jar dissolving as I type - and it's A-okay:
How do I know it's okay? Gentle reader, I have no photographic evidence to prove it, but. Well. The fact is...
I sat on it.
As the venerable wise man probably said, by the running of the Neat's Foot Oil thou shall knowest that Spring be here. Verily.
Yep, went to fill up the syringe for my daily fix, er, I mean for use on the oil stone and found it was warm enough to be runny without standing it in front of the heater for an hour first. Huzzah! Soon I'll be complaining it's too hot in there...
Meanwhile I have cast my net a little further in the quest for design opinion; don't take it personally, blog readers, your opinion is still much valued. I seem to be getting closer and closer to the point where I really can't go any more until either the auger bit extension turns up, or I give in and go powered. Never mind, I managed to successfully side-track myself into making a chair devil to help put off cutting the legs to length. No picture just yet 'cos I find myself embarrassed in the countersunk head machine screw department. The bolt heads and enormous penny washers don't do it justice... It kinda works, but I don't think I've got it quite right yet.
Finally, should be Good News on the 'puter front. I won't say any more just now in case I jinx it, but unless someone decides to play silly buggers it should finally get sorted out in the next couple of weeks.
Tsk. Sort of letting this Blog go a bit at the mo', aren't I? Fear not, back to proper woodworking-related stuff today.
Saturday saw me trailing up eastwards again - oh, wait, did I say about going up to Liskeard on Thursday? Well I did, and didn't buy anything at Bob's Tool Box but the venison sausages at The Globe in Lostwithiel were nice. Anyway, went virtually to Liskeard again on Saturday, this time because it was the Cornwall Garden Society's Spring Show and when mothers are wont to go to such things there's no gain-saying them. Not exactly my thing but apparently my presence was required. Still, not all a dead loss. It could be that I've found a potential supplier of wood - air-dried, local stuff - who's not far away and indicated that he'd deliver too. A tentative huzzah then. Got to give him a call and go and have a look - when I can get past the benighted answer phone. Hate those darn things...
Chair-wise it's been a bit o' this an' a bit o' that on the whole. The main, nerve-racking task was trimming the protrouding leg tenons. I was brave and took off the bulk with a saw - Japanese has having the thinnest blade and narrowest kerf to cause the least damage if I boobed. Went okay. Once I'd done that I discovered a couple of the wedges hadn't quite filled the gaps at one end of the sawn kerf, so a bit of work with wedge offcuts and glue was required. 
I then finished up with the gouge - bit of de ja vu working on the seat with the gouge and so forth again. Seems a long time ago... I've got that darn thing flippin' sharp now. Not only did it slice through the beech like buttah, but a light brush of the edge against my leg resulted in carefully severing a few fibres and a hole in my trews. Never touched the skin. Not sure whether to be annoyed or impressed. It made up for not drawing blood later, you'll be not-particularly-surprised to know...
To finish off the tenons I confess I turned to powered means. If you remember I thought the right half (as you look at it) of the seat needed a little more work anyway, so two birds... After a practice run I took the angle grinder and some 40g to it, which made short and scary work of the job. Makes a helluva mess though, so I'm glad I waited until I could do it outside. There's a definite knack to it and by the time I'd followed up with 60g I was kinda getting the idea. Nevertheless work with scraper was required for the odd place where the knack was knackered, before I followed up with the random orbit sander. Man, how I hate sanding. Next task on the seat is to cut the legs to length but I need to do a little checking on what angles and height to go for before I attempt that.
Meanwhile work on the arm has been going on. In JB fashion I've been using a 4x2 in an engineer's vice held in the front vice of the bench to clamp the arm to in order to get good access. Somewhere under the router mat you can probably make out the base of the engineer's vice bolted to a block held in the front vice. The spring clamps are holding in a patch while the glue dries. Sigh. A bit pinged off as I came round the inside curve with the spokeshave; my own fault, I was taking too heavy a cut. It's not an invisible repair, but given all the joins and alterations of grain direction between the four pieces of the arm anyway, I don't think it'll scream out its presence.
Anyway, it's getting there. Practically at a point where I could opt for a low back Library Chair if I fancied. Mind you, not this low backed... I'm a bit miffed that the tiny difference in arm thickness is making its presence felt rather more than I'd hoped. I fear I'm probably going to have to do something about it. Heigh ho.
