A few new hand tools... Gloat for me...

[Dave Gaul]

...because I'm still new at hand tools, and loving every new one I get!!

Got the burnisher by Two Cherries & the 10" mill file for sharpening my scrapers.

The beech mallet for wacking chisels, and the 1/4" mortising chisel is the "Extra Strong" line made in germany from Traditional Woodworker. Got the chisel for chopping my first mortises on a night stand for one of my daugthers. Gave it a test run on a scrap piece of Red Oak last night, seemed pretty good to me! Probably needs a good sharpening, but should do just fine in the maple for the night stand!

[James Scheffler]

...because I'm still new at hand tools, and loving every new one I get!!

Got the burnisher by Two Cherries & the 10" mill file for sharpening my scrapers.

The beech mallet for wacking chisels, and the 1/4" mortising chisel is the "Extra Strong" line made in germany from Traditional Woodworker. Got the chisel for chopping my first mortises on a night stand for one of my daugthers. Gave it a test run on a scrap piece of Red Oak last night, seemed pretty good to me! Probably needs a good sharpening, but should do just fine in the maple for the night stand!

I would love to hear how the chisel holds up once you really get into the project. I've been think about buying one of those.

Jim S.

[Jim Koepke]

Looking good.

I bought a similar mallet many years ago and still use it.

One of the first things done to it was a treatment of sandpaper to make the grip more comfortable and then a coating of furniture oil to help it last.

jim

[Dave Gaul]

James, I will let you know how they fair.

Jim, did you oil the whole mallet or just the handle? Would BLO be ok to use?

[Jim Koepke]

I only oiled the handle. Mine was able to slip out when it was new. Being tapered it only came out one way.

BLO would probably be fine.

I have become amazed at BLO. Some of my wooden handled knives that have seen too many years and the same with garden tools left out to the whims of the weather have had their wood much improved by a generous application of BLO.

I did not have any BLO at the time so used a furniture oil with bees wax. I use it on a lot of tool handles.

The main difference is BLO is a polymerizing oil and the furniture oil just soaks in and remains volatile.

jim

[Rick Markham]

...because I'm still new at hand tools, and loving every new one I get!!

I can assure you... this feeling never goes away! Actually it just gets worse :D Welcome to the slippery slope, your on the downhill slide now ;)

I also am interested to see how your mortise chisel holds up.

[Dave Gaul]

Jim, BLO it is then! Maybe even some wax on top too...

Rick, so far, it seems pretty solid. It is much bigger than I thought it would be, and it feels pretty good in hand.

[Dave Anderson NH]

Jim, The first thing I go when I get a new garden, yard or hand tool with a lacquered handle is sand the finish off and go at it with BLO cut with mineral spirits or naptha. I learned this from my Dad who got it from my grandfather. I even did this to the handles on the trusty wheeelbarrow and it's stood up to outdoor abuse for 20+ years.

[Dave Gaul]

Jim, The first thing I go when I get a new garden, yard or hand tool with a lacquered handle is sand the finish off and go at it with BLO cut with mineral spirits or naptha. I learned this from my Dad who got it from my grandfather. I even did this to the handles on the trusty wheeelbarrow and it's stood up to outdoor abuse for 20+ years.


Really? That is good to know! I am soon going to replace all the wood on our wheelbarrow... I am going to try this for sure!!!

[Jim Koepke]

I have been thinking of making a dip tube for my yard tools out of some PVC pipe with a fixed cap on one end and a cap for sealing the other when not in use. Then the whole handle can be immersed in BLO and left to soak for a day or two. I just have to come up with the rest of the set up to hold the tube upright and then to suspend the tool above it to allow the extra BLO to run back into the tube/tank.

jim

[Dave Gaul]

I have been thinking of making a dip tube for my yard tools out of some PVC pipe with a fixed cap on one end and a cap for sealing the other when not in use. Then the whole handle can be immersed in BLO and left to soak for a day or two. I just have to come up with the rest of the set up to hold the tube upright and then to suspend the tool above it to allow the extra BLO to run back into the tube/tank.

jim

Interesting... you gotta post pics of that!!!

[Rick Markham]

I have been thinking of making a dip tube for my yard tools out of some PVC pipe with a fixed cap on one end and a cap for sealing the other when not in use. Then the whole handle can be immersed in BLO and left to soak for a day or two. I just have to come up with the rest of the set up to hold the tube upright and then to suspend the tool above it to allow the extra BLO to run back into the tube/tank.

jim

Jim, are you wanting to fix the tube to something, or a more temporary set, up. My inclination for a temporary set up would be a big bucket of sand. Short of having 15 foot ceilings permanently fixing it to a wall might make getting your tools in and out kinda difficult. For supporting the tool, I would put an eye hook in a ceiling rafter and suspend it from twine. For overflow, you can run a smaller pipe joined to the main pipe just below the top, have the overflow run back into a sealable reservoir, just make it so you can cap the overflow pipe too and ya have a sealed vessel. Open when ya need it ;)

Just had another thought, to make it more stable and still portable, a five gallon bucket with some quick-crete in the bottom, Just enough to keep it stable, but not so much ya pull anything moving it :) That way ya don't have to mess with sand and getting it adjusted everytime!

[Dave Gaul]

I can assure you... this feeling never goes away! Actually it just gets worse :D Welcome to the slippery slope, your on the downhill slide now ;)

I also am interested to see how your mortise chisel holds up.

Rick,

Got a chance to use the mortise chisel this past weekend. I chopped 8 7/16" deep mortises, about 1" long for 1/4" thick tenons. The mortises turned out ok, I need lots of practice, but the chisel seemed to do it's chop just fine! I purposely pried as much as I could to really test it in the hard maple I was chopping in...

[Rick Markham]

Dave, I am waiting on my set of bevel edge chisels from LN to come, should be here soon, I am pretty excited :) My next purchase will be some mortise chisels, I will definitely look hard at those since yours is holding up well. I got bored one day so I decided to make a chisel mallet out of some scrap I had laying around, since I knew I would be needing it soon. :cool:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v295/Rick357/001-2.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v295/Rick357/002-4.jpg

[Dave Gaul]

That is a very nice mallet man!!

I'm sure there are better mortise chisels out there if you spend the extra $$, but the one I got is quite beafy and works for me!