The Far-Eastern Wood Butcher: Prime cuts from the far east.

R eally?   Well, it's everywhere, check Granpa or uncle Tim's shack ( if you include copies of it by lesser tool makers) For something so abundant (well, Stanley sold them by truckloads), so common and so relatively inexpensive, I will attempt to wax some lyrical on them. By "them" I mean their design, their construction. The plane pictured above was purchased off ebay for $4.90. It looked like Joe Meatball (to borrow Patrick Leach's character) bought it, used it on some hardwood (pre silicon valley micro chipping at the edge)without first fettling the plane(unsharpened factory bevel), and put it away (in some dry place), and totally forgot about it. First off, at Five Bucks, how can you go wrong? Five bucks don't buy you a door wedge these days.   STANLEY'S SUPERIOR ADJUSTABLE HEIGHT DOOR WEDGE, TYPE 16.  1) The lever cap also serves as an ergonomic palm-rest to push the plane forward, and the oval shaped  cut-out serves as a hanging h...

I nitially, I intend to use a Record No. 52 1/2 as a front vise, and bolt on another similar but cheaper knock-off Vice at the far end of the bench as an end-vise. The retractable dog built into the jaws will work with the row of dog holes I'm going to chop into the front strip of the bench. At nine inches wide, the dog holes will have to be 4 1/2 inches from the front of the bench. Not too bad...really. Just that compromising on such a detail bothers me. Especially when this may jolly well be the last bench I'll ever find the time to nail together. And with hand tools, it's really a LOT of work. That's it. BUY A TAIL-VISE HARDWARE. I am suprised to learn that the tail vise actually get used more than the front vise. (Tail vise festering in my mind now) Yes, I know I can get Western commissioned, China produced hardware from some giant online woodworking retailer. I'm not saying the hardware is bad, but think.. pay a little more, maybe like for the price of ...

I have perhaps 2-3 hours every night for wood working,  If I'm not too fatigued from my day job; If I'm not suffering from bouts of depression; If I felt like continuing the work; If it does not rain.(Tarpaulin is my friend)  KAPUR : Found (according to the brief entry in Wikipedia) in the lowland rainforests of Malaysia, Indonesia and South-East Asia. ..It is a durable construction timber . I chose Kapur because that's what the timer merchant had, in terms of price range , size required and weight. At $2.50 (4 x 2s) a foot ($5-6 for the 4 x 4s), it's also resonably affordable. I would describe the wood as hard (like oak) quite dense, and have a smell resembling camphor blended nicely with baby vomit.  The top will be 21 Inches wide by five feet long. 21 inch because of the 6 slabs of 3.5 x 3.5 Kapur wood to be bolted to form the top. 5 feet because any longer, I will not be able to enter my workspace; the balcony. Here (below) you ...