Dave Beauchesne
06-09-2012, 12:08 AM
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Well, after Chris Griggs made a bow saw from the Gramercy kit out of Yew, I had the urge to do the same.
The Woodworkers Guild I belong to has an annual 2 x 4 contest in which the piece must be made out of a SOFTWOOD 2 x 4 ( x 8 feet long )
Personally, I am not a softwood fan, but Yew is an uncommon species that fits the bill, so I use it for the purposes of the contest.
I also like making my own tools, another plus. Yew has the right tenacity for a project such as this, so here goes -
The piece of Yew I yewsed ( that was for you Chris ) was particularily light colored - it is usually more orange. Finding stock that doesn't have pin knots in it that may comprimise the arms is another task. I burned up over half the 2 x 4 getting rid of inclusions, defects etc., but got sufficient stock to do the job. You can see on the handle photos the swirling nature of Yew - it is unique to be sure.
I turned the handles and toggle on my Delta Midi-lathe, and roughed the curves out with my 14'' Delta clone; the rest was done with a dovetail saw, japanese pull saw, egg beater, spoke shave, card scraper, a couple of my LN chisels, my sweet little LN 102, and the star of the show, my newly aquired Liogier LH handle rasp. Yew is stringy - everthing has to be real sharp - the rasp performed very well.
Using the rasp was an EXTREME treat; the curved surfaces near the handles were next to effortless - it was like the rasp knew what it was doing - certainly not the driver of said tool - it was very intuitive. That experience has got me thinking saw handles down the road - - - -
A very well done video ( can't recall the gentleman's name ) that is on the Gramercy site for the saw was informative, but, here is where I like the Neander thing - he went into great detail on putting the tapers on the toggle - made a jig, secured it, bandsaws the taper on one side, fiddles around to do the other side and then smooths them out - a long and drawn out process - I pulled the toggle off the lathe, grabbed the 102 after eyeing and drawing a couple lines on the toggle, a bunch of strokes later and not much more time than it took to type this, and it was done !!
One stupid thing I did was use 3M spray adhesive to attach the photocopied pattern to the wood - I have done this in the past a couple other times, but finished the project fairly quickly and it was no trouble getting the pattern off - Welllll, this time I let it sit for a couple months while waiting for the shipment from France - it was like some molecular bond from another dimension took hold - a sharp card scraper liberated the pattern and underlying glue with some effort - at least the finish took well.
The finish is grated bees wax dissolved in mineral spirits, the twine I used is waxed nylon ( I think ) that my retired telephone company buddy gave me - it is quite flat, and they used to use it to tie and bundle the hundreds of telephone wires together - strong as heck, I like waxed twines anyway, but you have to know how to tie the knots - a couple of bowlines did the trick.
Installed the brass rods in the handles with some epoxy, assembled it and let it sit under slight tension overnight - torqued it up the next day and it cuts like a hot knife thru butter!! In the end, it is one of those things I won't use all that much, but it will have its place - and it is always with pride that I look at something I made and am able to really use.
Feel free to add your two cents worth -
Thanks for looking.
Dave Beauchesne
Well, after Chris Griggs made a bow saw from the Gramercy kit out of Yew, I had the urge to do the same.
The Woodworkers Guild I belong to has an annual 2 x 4 contest in which the piece must be made out of a SOFTWOOD 2 x 4 ( x 8 feet long )
Personally, I am not a softwood fan, but Yew is an uncommon species that fits the bill, so I use it for the purposes of the contest.
I also like making my own tools, another plus. Yew has the right tenacity for a project such as this, so here goes -
The piece of Yew I yewsed ( that was for you Chris ) was particularily light colored - it is usually more orange. Finding stock that doesn't have pin knots in it that may comprimise the arms is another task. I burned up over half the 2 x 4 getting rid of inclusions, defects etc., but got sufficient stock to do the job. You can see on the handle photos the swirling nature of Yew - it is unique to be sure.
I turned the handles and toggle on my Delta Midi-lathe, and roughed the curves out with my 14'' Delta clone; the rest was done with a dovetail saw, japanese pull saw, egg beater, spoke shave, card scraper, a couple of my LN chisels, my sweet little LN 102, and the star of the show, my newly aquired Liogier LH handle rasp. Yew is stringy - everthing has to be real sharp - the rasp performed very well.
Using the rasp was an EXTREME treat; the curved surfaces near the handles were next to effortless - it was like the rasp knew what it was doing - certainly not the driver of said tool - it was very intuitive. That experience has got me thinking saw handles down the road - - - -
A very well done video ( can't recall the gentleman's name ) that is on the Gramercy site for the saw was informative, but, here is where I like the Neander thing - he went into great detail on putting the tapers on the toggle - made a jig, secured it, bandsaws the taper on one side, fiddles around to do the other side and then smooths them out - a long and drawn out process - I pulled the toggle off the lathe, grabbed the 102 after eyeing and drawing a couple lines on the toggle, a bunch of strokes later and not much more time than it took to type this, and it was done !!
One stupid thing I did was use 3M spray adhesive to attach the photocopied pattern to the wood - I have done this in the past a couple other times, but finished the project fairly quickly and it was no trouble getting the pattern off - Welllll, this time I let it sit for a couple months while waiting for the shipment from France - it was like some molecular bond from another dimension took hold - a sharp card scraper liberated the pattern and underlying glue with some effort - at least the finish took well.
The finish is grated bees wax dissolved in mineral spirits, the twine I used is waxed nylon ( I think ) that my retired telephone company buddy gave me - it is quite flat, and they used to use it to tie and bundle the hundreds of telephone wires together - strong as heck, I like waxed twines anyway, but you have to know how to tie the knots - a couple of bowlines did the trick.
Installed the brass rods in the handles with some epoxy, assembled it and let it sit under slight tension overnight - torqued it up the next day and it cuts like a hot knife thru butter!! In the end, it is one of those things I won't use all that much, but it will have its place - and it is always with pride that I look at something I made and am able to really use.
Feel free to add your two cents worth -
Thanks for looking.
Dave Beauchesne