A bit of She-oak, add some brass and ...

[Derek Cohen]

I decided to make another brace. This is small, to be used as would an eggbeater, such as for drilling holes for screws. It can also be used as a driver.

The total length is 400mm (15 3/4") with a 100mm (4") throw.

Materials: West Australian She-oak body and Tasmanian Blackwood pad.

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a262/Derek50/Drills/AWR%20Brace/Brace-complete3.jpg

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a262/Derek50/Drills/AWR%20Brace/Brace-complete2.jpg

The pad ...

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a262/Derek50/Drills/AWR%20Brace/Brace-Pad2.jpg

An old, rusty Stanley brace sacrificed itself for the upper connection. This turns so sweetly.

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a262/Derek50/Drills/AWR%20Brace/Brace-Pad3.jpg

Finally, the chuck is made from a spring-loaded clip-on driver holder. I wire brushed the anodising back to a steel finish.

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a262/Derek50/Drills/AWR%20Brace/brace-chuck1.jpg

Construction: I turned the pad on my lathe. After bandsawing out the basic shape, the final body shape was achieved with rasps and scrapers. The She-oak is so hard and interlocked that my spokeshaves just bounced off! Sandpaper to smooth. Oil and shellac to finish.

Thanks for looking.

Regards from Perth

Derek

[Bruce Page]

Wow Derek! That is beautiful!

200 years from now somebody will have that in their prized collection.

[Dewey Torres]

WOW,
Nice work. You might be the first one I have seen to actually build one of these. It is a beauty!

[Berl Mendenhall]

Derek,
You do such really fine beautiful work. Your tools are great!
Berl

[John Keeton]

That's really a great looking tool! You comment in many of your reviews and posts about the hardness of the native Aussie woods - what is with that? Seems like most all of your available hardwoods are, well, HARD! Is it the climate, soil - just curious. As I have commented before, although I think they are beautiful, I never work in exotics, so their characteristics are intriguing.

[Jim Koepke]

Great work and it looks like it works great.

jim

[Gary Herrmann]

Beautiful job as always, Derek. I really like the curve.

[Derek Cohen]

That's really a great looking tool! You comment in many of your reviews and posts about the hardness of the native Aussie woods - what is with that? Seems like most all of your available hardwoods are, well, HARD! Is it the climate, soil - just curious. As I have commented before, although I think they are beautiful, I never work in exotics, so their characteristics are intriguing.

Hi John

We have a lot of eucalypts. It is not just that they are hard (and they are very hard - see below) - they also have short, interlinked grain that frequently reverses. This is what makes it so important to plane with a high cutting angle. It really sorts the men from the boys (apologies for a sexist comment).

Here is a link to a list of international timbers. You can look up their hardness/density ratings, etc:
http://www.worldwideflood.com/ark/wood/timber_list.htm

I frequently use Jarrah (hardness rated here at 8.5), Karri (9.0) and She-oak (14). By comparison, look at the ratings for USA Sugar Pine (1.2), Poplar (2.3), White Oak (6.0) and hard Maple (6.9).

Regards from Perth

Derek

[Berl Mendenhall]

Wow, I thoutht Maple was hard. It's not even close to your stuff. That stuff would be like tring to plane tangled twisted wire. Gives me a whole new appreciation for SYP and Poplar.

Berl

[Louis Reed]

Keep the posts coming, I enjoy your work and comments.

Louis

[John Keeton]

I frequently use Jarrah (hardness rated here at 8.5), Karri (9.0) and She-oak (14). By comparison, look at the ratings for USA Sugar Pine (1.2), Poplar (2.3), White Oak (6.0) and hard Maple (6.9).I can envision my router bits exploding on contact!! Oooppss, shouldn't have said that in the Neander forum!

[David Keller NC]

"I frequently use Jarrah (hardness rated here at 8.5), Karri (9.0) and She-oak (14). By comparison, look at the ratings for USA Sugar Pine (1.2), Poplar (2.3), White Oak (6.0) and hard Maple (6.9)."

Interesting - I'm guessing that she-oak is also very interlocked and nearly impossible to split, hence you can get away with the beautiful form of that brace. Most all of the beech, hard maple, and birch antiques I've either owned or had the privelege of handling have a rather thick web where the handle turns out and then back in, presumably to prevent the brace from splitting in two when pressure is applied to the head.

[Derek Cohen]

David

You will just have to take my word that this brace body could have been made even thinner and it still would not flex with a half dozen adults standing on the pad and jumping up and down! :)

Regards from Perth

Derek

[Bill White]

Hey Derek. Have a bit of an idea for you. Why don't you send me the brace. I'll just copy the pattern, try it out for a year or two, then send it right back to you. (Laughing up my sleeve.)
Well done!
Bill

[Derek Cohen]

Bill

You got a deal :)

Regards from Perth

Derek