Quotulatiousness

June 25, 2017

Sometimes, the workman is right to blame his tools

Filed under: Germany, Technology, Tools, Woodworking — Tags: , , , — Nicholas @ 03:00

Paul Sellers recently bought and tested a new Two Cherries brand “Gent’s saw” and was very unhappy with the tool:

This week I picked up a brand new gent’s saw straight from the pack made by the famous German tool makers Two Cherries. I noticed the unusual tooth shape, which strangely resembled the edge of a tin can when we used to open it with a multipurpose survival knife. I wondered how it would work and whether it was just a miscut. I examined several others and realised it was actually intentional as they were indeed manufactured that way. I offered the saw to the wood and the very middle cut with the dovetailed angle and the broken off section was the results of ten strokes.

“The long saw cut on the left is how the saw cuts by a man who has used such saws every day, six days a week for 53 years. The two to the right are how it cuts after sharpening and redefining the teeth.”

Could this truly be the end product of the once highly acclaimed Two Cherries of German tool manufacturing? I looked at the packet and, well, there it was; Made in Germany. So here is my perspective on the saw. Nice beechwood handle–nicely shaped (but it is unfinished), nice brass back, good quality steel plate, not too soft, not too hard. Two Cherries, the materials leave you no excuse for making such a poor grade product. YOU should be very ASHAMED of your product and yourselves. It is the very worst saw of any and all saws ever, ever, ever manufactured. I have never seen anything worse.

[…]

If you bought this saw and you thought the outcome was a result of your inexperience. It’s not. Blame the tool maker. It’s his pure arrogance to think he can pass something off to you like this and call it a dovetail saw. Shame on you Two Cherries, shame on you!

June 22, 2017

How to Make Snap-to-Line Templates | Paul Sellers

Filed under: Technology, Woodworking — Tags: , — Nicholas @ 02:00

Published on 12 Jun 2017

Paul shows his prefered method for making plastic templates for drawing, layout and shaping. Using the correct materials, it is easy to cut to exact shapes and sizes with crisp traceable edges. They can be easily shaped using various tools. Paul gives some ideas of possible uses in the day-to-day of woodworking.

Paul uses styrene plastic for his templates. See here for more information: https://paulsellers.com/2017/03/making-templates/

June 12, 2017

How to Make a Dovetail Template | Paul Sellers

Filed under: Technology, Tools, Woodworking — Tags: , , — Nicholas @ 02:00

Published on 2 Jun 2017

Paul introduces the dovetail template that he has been making and using for over 50 years. It helps you to efficiently mark out the dovetail angle. Making it requires a high degree of accuracy and attention to detail, in order for it to be used as a reference.

May 28, 2017

How to make a Half-lap Dovetail | Paul Sellers

Filed under: Technology, Tools, Woodworking — Tags: , , — Nicholas @ 02:00

Published on 18 May 2017

The half-lap dovetail is possibly the most common of all the dovetails used today. It is used for the front corners of drawers, and anywhere where you want to use a dovetail which is not visible from a certain viewpoint. Paul has developed a method which includes a small rebate, that helps in aligning the components to achieve the crisp definition of quality half lapped dovetails.

For more information on these topics, see https://paulsellers.com or https://woodworkingmasterclasses.com

March 15, 2017

Making a Poor Man’s Mitre Box with Paul Sellers

Filed under: Technology, Tools, Woodworking — Tags: , , — Nicholas @ 02:00

Published on 11 Mar 2016

The best way to get hold of a mitre box that suits your needs is to make your own. In this video, Paul shows how he makes one in a matter of minutes that guarantees accuracy, especially when used in combination with a shooting board (link to shooting board video). They can be used for many things such as trim for tool chests, boxes and drawers as well as picture frames and the like.

March 3, 2017

Sharpening a Chisel with Paul Sellers

Filed under: Technology, Tools, Woodworking — Tags: , , , — Nicholas @ 02:00

Published on 27 Feb 2017

Chisels come from the manufacturer needing preparing or initialising as well sharpening. How do you check they are flat and get them sharp? Paul shows you the process he follows. This gets them to the level we need for crisp and accurate work.

For more information on these topics, see https://paulsellers.com or https://woodworkingmasterclasses.com

December 13, 2015

How to Sharpen a Knife with Paul Sellers

Filed under: Technology, Tools — Tags: , — Nicholas @ 04:00

Published on 11 Dec 2015

Paul shows his very simple method of how to get a razor sharp edge on your kitchen, carving, pocket or any form of knife using just a few pieces of sandpaper or some diamond paddles.

July 27, 2015

Sharpening and Setting the Bench Plane with Paul Sellers

Filed under: Technology, Tools, Woodworking — Tags: , , , — Nicholas @ 02:00

Published on 23 Jul 2015

Paul Sellers shows how he sharpens and sets a bench plane in his every day of work. A quick and easy guide to get your plane working.

February 21, 2015

How to make the Three Joints – Dovetail – with Paul Sellers

Filed under: Technology, Tools, Woodworking — Tags: , , — Nicholas @ 03:00

Published on 17 Feb 2015

It takes a master woodworker to teach the basics. Watch Paul’s every move in this video. He shows every single detail of cutting this essential woodworking joint. This is one of the three joints that Paul talks about in his woodworking curriculum. The dovetail is the essential box joint. It is the strongest way to join two pieces of wood at the corner. Although there are many variations on a theme with this joint mastering the most simple form is the most difficult and important step.

December 21, 2014

Woodworking Christmas Gifts and Projects – with Paul Sellers

Filed under: Randomness, Woodworking — Tags: , — Nicholas @ 00:04

Published on 20 Dec 2013

In this holiday themed video Paul Sellers give some advice on buying a new woodworker some basic tools. He shows how to make a small tree decoration. He also shows how to make a wooden propeller toy, a mixing spatula and a cutting board.

October 25, 2014

Sharpening woodworking tools

Filed under: Technology, Tools, Woodworking — Tags: , , — Nicholas @ 09:39

Paul Sellers talks about the practical limits to sharpening woodworking tools like planes and chisels:

As I have said, we have become something of an obsessive bunch when it comes to the different elements of working wood; sharpness has become more and more obsessive. Now we are not talking about the violin maker seeking sharp levels for clear tone from the wood and who uses wood so soft, unsharp gouges and planes would bruise rather than cut the fine surfaces he strives to achieve. His standards parallel the levels needed for severing tissue by the surgeon’s hand, not the bench joiner chopping mortises and cutting a few dovetails.

Chisel edge degradation by Paul Sellers

It’s unfortunate that since the demise of ordinary craftsmanship we now turn to guru wood writers and not wood-wrights. Woodwrights are no longer there to give us our information of course. It’s true too that the sources of information become more and more questionable. Three recent sources of information teaching on sharpening techniques I tracked back to tool catalog and online sales people selling products for sharpening. Most of the information they have is not new but regurgitated. Each phase of sharpening change marks another saleable product and so we see Japanese water stones added to carborundum stones, Arkansas stones and Washita stones and then came diamonds and abrasive films, diamond paste and flattening stones. The list goes on.

We have survived the different gospels of scary sharp and micro-bevel methodology and are emerging to this very simple reality. As long as you start the cutting edge somewhere around 30-degrees and polish it out it will cut well. If you you sharpen to around 1200-grit it will cut most anything you need in woodworking. If you sharpen to a polished edge of around 15,000-grit you can slice the most delicate of materials effortlessly, but 98% of the time that’s far from necessary. What am I saying? I’m saying that we generally sharpen to task but often sharpen to a higher level because it’s not much extra effort. We all know after a few efforts at sharpening that the greatest effort comes at the start of the process when we have to regain ground to get through a fractured and dulled edge and back to a productive cutting edge. That said, it’s not a big deal, just a few extra strokes on the coarse diamonds gets you there. So, if that is the case, why do we sharpen to higher levels than are usually needed. Well, it is a fact that the more polished the two plains forming the arête for a cutting edge are, the sharper the edge is but the stronger the edge is too. As I said, the extra effort is worth the work because it’s so quick and effective. It’s not so much what we do to the edge to establish it but what we do to the edge after we have prepared it for work. Taking the chisel to the surface of the wood to work the wood begins an immediate process of edge reduction we now know is edge fracture but was once called wear. No matter the steel, edge fracture occurs at some level but some steels fracture more readily than others. What we often do not realise is that it is impossible to find a steel that both takes and retains an edge and at the same time has a level of durability we can rely on forever. All edges wear away by fracture and constantly need restoring.

September 2, 2014

Sharpening woodworking tools

Filed under: Technology, Tools, Woodworking — Tags: , , — Nicholas @ 16:23

I’m an occasional woodworker, but I’m always aware I don’t sharpen my tools as often as I should. One of the reasons I don’t is that it’s such a hassle to sharpen them properly: it’s not as simple as sharpening a kitchen knife, and you need to spend time to work through from a coarse grit (250 or so), through medium grit (1000) and into fine (4000) or even superfine (15000 and higher). This video by Paul Sellers has persuaded me that it doesn’t have to be that way for most of the woodworking hand tools I’m likely to use:

Published on 8 Nov 2013

In this video Paul Sellers shows that you don’t need to sharpen to 15,000+ grit on you planes, chisels and other woodworking tools. 250-grit works just fine for most of our woodwork. Paul addresses the myths and misinformation put forward, and challenges what we think about sharpening.

To find out more about Paul Sellers and the work he is involved with visit http://paulsellers.com

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