And down the rabbit hole I go again

Just now I followed a link to a newly marketed bench strop. It's a block of wood with a couple of socket head screws to take bits of MDF with leather on. Or not. Depending. Some number of dollars are asked for it. I genuinely thought it was an elaborate joke. I looked at the other products and there's a surface plate "cover kit" (soft fleece, no less - cosy) and a piece of ply with, um, a hole at one corner to facilitate shaping things. Apparently it's not a joke.

Someone's gone mad. It may be me, but I dunno...

Beginner's Tool Kit

I've read a few articles on making tool cabinets over the years, and believe me, I'm reading a few at the moment... But they all tend to have one laughable idea in common - you should decide what tools you need to put in it. Hah! Are they mad? I could be here for years. But it happens to coincide with my re-re-re-reading of Woodworker annuals, and an article that crops up a couple of times over the years. Viz: a starting tool kit for a beginner. It's a question that crops up on the fora pretty regularly too; indeed it just did again while I was prepping this blog post. I imagine Charles Hayward got asked the question more than most and it struck me it'd be a place to, um, well... start. Then I thought "Y'know, I reckon I have all these. Be kinda fun to see what it actually looks like."

Yes, I got sorta side-tracked again... The most surprising thing is I didn't actually have all the specified tools after all.

The Essential Tool Kit, 1939, as chosen by Charles Hayward:

Small, isn't it? Want a list? Or course you do. Hayward first, then what I had available to fill the slot in brackets.

Handsaw, x-cut, 22", 8-9 ppi. (Spearior 88 22", 10ppi - all my panel saws are 10ppi, oddly enough)

Back saw, 10", 14-16ppi. (Could have used an Onions "Governor" brand 10", 13ppi but...)

or

Tenon saw, 14", 14 ppi & Dovetail saw, 8", 20ppi (Douglas & Sons 14", 13ppi & L-N, 9", 15ppi

)

Jack plane, wood, 2" cutter (A B Salmen, marked Late Chas Nurse, Technical jack, 2" cutter)

Smoother, metal, 2 3/8" cutter & Fore plane, metal, 18" long

or

Smoother, wood, 2 3/8" cutter & Trying, wood, 22" long

(Plane choice can be mixed and matched, and as I don't actually have a #6 (!), I went with the metal smoother, Stanley #4 1/2, and the wooden trying plane, an Atkins & Sons with 2 1/2" cutter)

Chisels, firmer, 1/4" & 3/4" (Hales Bros. and an unknown)

Screwdriver, 8" cabinet (Spear & Jackson)

Screwdriver, 3" ratchet (Yankee #15A - seems to be the variety shown in the accompanying drawing)

Hammer, Warrington No.4 (Stanley 8oz Warrington)

Mallet, 5" (Coachbuilder's mallet, may be 5" if you measure it at the right point...)

Pincers (Um, yep. J W Ward, Sheffield)

Nail punch, fine (2mm)

Gauge, cutting ("BugBeared" Nurse & Co)

Bradawl, medium (The text extolls the virtues of the birdcage awl, and I concur)

Brace, ratchet, 8 or 10" sweep (Stanley #901 10" - might as well start the beginner with a nice one...)

Bits: Twist, 3/8" (The text suggests a dowel bit, so one Marples example)

Countersink (Text says snail, so one J Howarth example)

Shell, about 3/16" (For screw holes apparently; mine is unmarked)

Centre, 3/4" (Text says "One or two" but sticking with the list, here's an Alfrid brand 3/4" improved pattern variety)

Square, try, 6" (The wooden stock variety are given the thumbs down and I only had an engineer's 6" all metal)

Oilstone, 7", India or carborundum, medium, or combination fine and coarse (Um... 8" slate, fine - I like the box, 'kay?)

Scraper, 5" (Scraper, 6", Roberts & Lee)

Rule, 2ft, folding (Text suggest 2 or 3 ft, so I went with a Rabone 1380 3ft)

The main thing I'm thinking is "Two chisels?!" at this point. What about you? But that's the bare essentials; Hayward then lists the tools that are likely to follow, some of them quite quickly.

That looks more like it. The chisel and measuring/marking departments both look much healthier.

So the "extras":

Bowsaw, 12" (Marples, 12")

Bullnose plane (Drawing shows an infill, but all I can offer is a Preston #1355. It's a hard life)

Rebate plane, metal (Marples 78)

Toothing plane, 2" cutter (Friends, I do not own one! First failure)

Spokshave, wood, 2 1/4" blade (It's wood, but 2 3/4" blade. Lee Valley kit)

Plough (Text says the 040/043 sort are fine, but the larger is better, so a Record 044 it is)

Chisels, firmer, 1/8" & 1/2" (Marples and one of the Sorbys - it's hard to make out which one)

Chisel, bevelled edge, 1 1/2" (C Johnson and with a thinness of blade you wouldn't believe)

Chisel, mortise, 5/16" (I know why I got it into my head it should be a sash mortise chisel, but I'm utterly wrong. It's shown as an Oval Bolstered, which I have in 5/16". But this is 1/4". These days, with 3/4" stuff being more common than 7/8-1", a 1/4" is probably more useful anyway)

Gouge, outside ground, size to suit (I threw in a Ward & Payne 3/8", which I find rather handy myself)

Hammer, pattern maker's, fine (Basically something for fine work. This is the best I can do, but it needs a new handle)

Gauge, marking (User-made cam action - seemed appropriate as the design is given a couple of times in the Woodworker)

Gauge, mortise (Screw adjust is advised, so herewith one modern abomination from Crown)

Bits: Twist, 1/4" & 1/2" (The 1/4" is advised for boring mortises. A couple of nice strong Irwins seemed appropriate)

Centre, 1", or as required. (Don't seem to have an 1", so 15/16" instead)

Square, try, 12" (The hate against wooden stocks presumably continues, but this Robert Sorby is really all metal with a wooden infill)

Square, mitre, 10" (Um. Er. I don't have one. Failure number two)

Bevel 8" (8" by Moi)

Rasp & File (Unspecified. I went with Grobet 10" 2nd cut cabinet rasp and 8" bastard cut half round file)

Sash cramps, pair, 3ft, or as needed (They're on the floor, okay...?)

G cramps, 6".

Handscrews (Text favours handscrews over G cramps, so a pair of those)

In addition, the tyro is directed to make his own mitre block (8"), mitre box, shooting board (about 3ft) , straight edge (4ft), square (2ft blade), parallel strips (winding sticks), oilstone case, veneering hammer, and bench hook.

So now what are you thinking? (Apart from "I'm not brave enough to be a beginner woodworker in Charles Haywood's world") I'm thinking how it reminds me of the scarcity of tools in young Thomas' kit in The Joiner and Cabinet Maker, but more so. (Interestingly, just 15 short years later in the 1954 magazine, this has already changed a surprising amount.) I'm thinking how every forum discussion guides beginners away from bullnose planes too. But mainly I'm thinking there's a dovetail saw but virtually all firmer chisels.

At least there's one bevelled edge chisel, and a beauty. But even then the text says "not a necessity but no man who has once had one would like to be without it. It is a really splendid tool for paring" Well said, Charles - it is, indeed, and this woman has no plans to be without it either. But in a time where the bevelled edged chisel is king, the preponderance of firmers is a little hard to get your head around. Thought-provoking though, if not necessarily provoking the thoughts I'd intended. But it did highlight that I have that beautiful chisel, and I don't use it nearly as often as I might because it's hidden away in a drawer, and thus how important good tool storage is.

Pining away

So while I continue to put off boring some deliberate on the position of holdfast holes, my thoughts turn to another little problem I have:

See? This is why I prevaricate, shilly-shally and generally beat about the bush - to prevent precipitate purchase of pinus palustris. aka The Bench That Never Was. Or is it? Here's the options that have, so far, waddled to mind:

1. Build a bench anyway. You know, a bench I don't actually need or strictly speaking have room for, but at least now I could make any darn bench I liked with any darned vice/vise/vices/or viceaux (Lots of vices) I choose - within financial reason.

2. Build a bedstead. Which I could actually do with, and frankly you could build the thing like a bench if one fancied. What? You've not heard of the Roubo Four Poster? 5" square posts, I gather. After a couple of misunderstandings he stopped offering it with a choice of vices... But I'm not wildly enthusiastic about it, and frankly a lady is not necessarily keen on sharing details of her couch with the entire woodworking population.

3. Tool storage. Since this blog was but a babe in arms the recurring problem of tool storage has cropped up. (And absolutely no-one is to mention tambour doors in the comments box.) I could really, really do with a proper tool cabinet. I'm sick of not using tools because I can't find them/get to them/be arsed to go and look for them. Or because they're still in their boxes in the house, which is absolutely the worst thing of all. And anyway, benches are so last-few-(apparently-endless)-years.

Apart from that, I got nuttin'. What can you do with SYP anyway? I imagine it's a bit hellish in some respects; dovetailing, for instance. But presumably you can make "real" furniture out of it, if you fancy? I just don't know - it's only seemed to have swum into my ken in the form of benches. Endless permutations of benches.

Yup, I'm increasingly getting a feeling like whatever I decide I ain't going to be making a bench. But then again...

Hanging Deadman

Before we start, apologies to BB - I forgot about his board jack suggestion. I have used something similar before. Well clamps anyway. A clamp:

As you can tell from the vice and drill, and indeed the ply, this is a carefully and recently staged photo to demonstrate the use of a handscrew for the purpose. This is because I don't have any pics of me using it "in stock". And this is because I'm a lazy idiot and will sooner swear and curse than move myself sufficiently to apply one lousy clamp to the work. Which is why it's absolutely essential to have the easiest and laziest-person's solution to the problem - or I won't use it at all. So, BB's solution, although easy to make and fit, would be utterly useless because I'm utterly useless at using this sort of thing. I feel the shame of it, I assure you.

Anyway, it was pointed out to me that what with Treasure Island and talk of "deadmen", Monday's post all sounded more than a little piratical. Gets worse today, as I bring you Tom in Colorado's "Hanging Sliding Deadman" - jangling chains and Execution dock fourtunately not required. Tom kindly sent me pics of his solution to the overhanging bench top scenario, and equally kindly agreed to let me share. So in his own words, take it away, Tom:

I have attached some photos of my own board jack, which I designed to overcome similar problems to yours. The overhang on my bench top is a little more than 6 inches beyond the lower stretcher, so I made this sliding jack with a “kicker” to support it against the stretcher.

The leg (vertical piece) needs to be forward (toward the user) from the point where the jack hangs in the track, so that the weight of the leg itself will make the whole thing want to swing backward into the lower stretcher. This just keeps it from swinging freely when no workpiece is on it.

The really nice thing about this design is that it is very easy to remove from the bench. The sliding “head” of the jack rides in a groove on the back side of the front edge of the bench.

There is a backing strip of wood (merely screwed to the underside of the top) that is cut short on one end, allowing the “head” to slip out of the groove and off the bench. You can see this in one of the photos, sort of at an awkward angle, but hopefully it shows the groove and backing strip well enough.


The jack can also be held in the tail vice if ever needed that way.


I built the bench top with this jack in mind, so I cut in the groove before everything else was in the way, but I think any sort of track to hang the jack could be retrofitted (or just screwed on) easily enough, and it would be out of sight on the back of the front edge. I once had a free-standing board jack that I used with an older bench, but got pretty fed up with having to step around its feet when edge-planing a long board. That was the inspiration for my newer sliding jack.

As the jack exists now, it has a series of notches on the vertical piece to hang the adjustable support block. I cut the notches on a tablesaw, but think it would be just as easy to do with a drill press and bandsaw or handsaw. Also, after I built it this way, I thought that just a series of holes drilled in the face of the vertical piece for inserting dowels to support the workpiece would be simpler and less intrusive.

A woodworking friend of mine saw it just after I finished building the bench, and he was skeptical of how strong it was, so I stood with all my weight (I weigh 200 lbs) on the support block and it didn't even make a sound. It surprised me too.

Thank you, Tom. It's certainly an option that appeals, as I can try it without making permanent changes to any noticeable parts of the workbench. I'm inclined to think it's suffered enough in that respect!

As to holdfast holes, I'm touched by the idea that time and projects will reveal unto me where to put them. How long have I had that Veritas holdfast, waiting for this very thing to happen? Certainly years, and it, well... hasn't. Why? Because it always seems easier to do without it than stop and bore the necessary hole. Yes, I know; I'm a fool to myself. You needn't point it out...