An afternoon with new shop friends

[Derek Cohen]

It's been 6 weeks since I spent any time building something in my shop (a gennou handle does not count). This afternoon I spent some time with a few new tools, which I thought I would share with all of you. Be warned, this post is picture heavy!

Some time back I had come across an interesting board at the local Borg. It was on the rack with pine, but it was unlike anything I had seen. I grabbed it as it looked like it would make an interesting box. Here it is cleaned up ...

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a262/Derek50/Woodworking/An%20afternoon%20with%20new%20shop%20friends/s2a.jpg

So I prepared a piece of Karri (very, very hard wood ... similar to Jarrah in looks. This began life as ex-roofing timber).

Another use for a Veritas skew block plane - working across the grain ...

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a262/Derek50/Woodworking/An%20afternoon%20with%20new%20shop%20friends/s1.jpg

One of the new friends was this 3 1/2" adjustable square gift from Stu, my mate in Japan.

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a262/Derek50/Woodworking/An%20afternoon%20with%20new%20shop%20friends/s2.jpg

Stu had sent me three Koyamaichi dovetail chisels that Mr Koyama had ground to my specification - minimum shoulders - and I was looking forward to trying them out with the new gennou I had handled (posted recently).

I also got a chance to use the new LV mini edge plane. I thought that this would be useful when building small boxes with thin sides ..

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a262/Derek50/Woodworking/An%20afternoon%20with%20new%20shop%20friends/s3.jpg

Look at these shavings!

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a262/Derek50/Woodworking/An%20afternoon%20with%20new%20shop%20friends/s4.jpg

Back to the box. I had not cut a dovetail in about 8 weeks. I was determined that this would go saw-to-saw. No excuses ..

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a262/Derek50/Woodworking/An%20afternoon%20with%20new%20shop%20friends/s5.jpg

Still getting to know this saw, but it is real sweet ..

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a262/Derek50/Woodworking/An%20afternoon%20with%20new%20shop%20friends/s6.jpg

Now the other new tool was the production version of the Knew Concepts fretsaw I had some input into. This is 5" in depth, with a Titanium frame, and the blade angle can be set at 45 degrees either side as well as 90 degrees.

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a262/Derek50/Woodworking/An%20afternoon%20with%20new%20shop%20friends/s8.jpg

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a262/Derek50/Woodworking/An%20afternoon%20with%20new%20shop%20friends/s9.jpg

Lee has been supplying it with an Eclipse 18 tpi blade, one that I recommended. The combination is outstanding.

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a262/Derek50/Woodworking/An%20afternoon%20with%20new%20shop%20friends/s10.jpg

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a262/Derek50/Woodworking/An%20afternoon%20with%20new%20shop%20friends/s7.jpg

The chisels worked well ..

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a262/Derek50/Woodworking/An%20afternoon%20with%20new%20shop%20friends/s12.jpg

Look at the tight fit at the shoulder ..

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a262/Derek50/Woodworking/An%20afternoon%20with%20new%20shop%20friends/s13.jpg

Marking the cheesy pine was "interesting".

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a262/Derek50/Woodworking/An%20afternoon%20with%20new%20shop%20friends/s14.jpg

It cut easily but I was concerned how fragile it would be ..

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a262/Derek50/Woodworking/An%20afternoon%20with%20new%20shop%20friends/s11a.jpg

[Derek Cohen]

Finished ..

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a262/Derek50/Woodworking/An%20afternoon%20with%20new%20shop%20friends/s15.jpg

Now would it go together?

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a262/Derek50/Woodworking/An%20afternoon%20with%20new%20shop%20friends/s16.jpg

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a262/Derek50/Woodworking/An%20afternoon%20with%20new%20shop%20friends/s17.jpg

Dovetails ..

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a262/Derek50/Woodworking/An%20afternoon%20with%20new%20shop%20friends/s18.jpg

The base is yet to be done. There is some pine left for that (after the lid is cut open).

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a262/Derek50/Woodworking/An%20afternoon%20with%20new%20shop%20friends/s19.jpg

Thanks for sharing this with me.

Regards from Perth

Derek

[Don Dorn]

As usual - nice work and thanks for sharing the process.

[Trevor Walsh]

That is exactly my thinking for getting the Mini Edge Plane too. Nice box as well.that cheesy pine is some cool stuff.

[Paul Incognito]

I'm working on making dovetails as nice as yours.
PI

[Jim Koepke]

I think they call that deer season pine around here.

Nice looking box.

jtk