Sweet Smell of Failure

[Doug Evans]

Hi Folks:

It was an afternoon of failure however... it was an afternoon that we feel will ultimately lead to success. Ben and I banged together the first dovetailed bullnose plane and although it has some bugs, we believe we will be successful on the next run.

The plane pictured below could possibly be the first dovetailed bullnose...

In any event, with some improved structure on our next try, we should have it licked.

Yours in abject failure,

Doug

[chaddhamilton]

A complete disaster, and I love it!!! ;)

[Roger Myers]

So Doug, I'm at the Live Free or Die Auction on Friday (good excuse as any for a day off) and chatting with this guy sitting near me...turns out he has quite a few Norris and Spiers and the likes, and he mentions that he always though they gave him the slimmest shaving...then he says that was until he bought one of those kits from them "Canadian boys"...and built his own infill...well, he says, theres nothing that comes even close!!
Just thought you might appreciate the unsollicited feedback!
Course, while I was there with my buddy Dave Anderson, this set of H&R's from Perth followed me home :)

Roger

[Dave Anderson NH]

"the truth, THE WHOLE TRUTH, and nothing but the truth". How about the two screw arm plow planes and the three panel marking gages, and I forget what other stuff you bought? All I know is that it took you two trips to your car to move the loot. Good results for a really ratty and rainy cold day in NH liquid sunshine. Oh, by the way I went back Saturday and spent exactly Zero. Tailgate prices were high for the quality and most of the auction lots didn't interest me. As a result, the mini bowsaw is completed except for the coats of finish.

[Roger Myers]

"the truth, THE WHOLE TRUTH, and nothing but the truth". How about the two screw arm plow planes and the three panel marking gages, and I forget what other stuff you bought? All I know is that it took you two trips to your car to move the loot.
Shhhh...was afraid I'd be moving into gloat territory...by the way, that misc. lot with the 2 drawknifes had a couple of minor hidden gems in with all the dirt and dust....
And, as i recall, you didn't keave empty handed on Friday yourself!!

Of course now I have to save up for September....

[Doug Evans]

Full set (36) or Half set (18)? Evens? Odds?

You know... Ben and I... we really dont get out much anymore... Dave tell me how the prices were high out in the yard again! Tell me it was damnable cold. Tell me the hollers 'n rouns were somewhat ratty that there were four or five missing... you needed a sea kayak to handle the monsoon rains... comforting things like that!

Actually, Ben is on a major roadtrip down there towards the end of September. We're trying this whole new concept this year... direct sales.

Wow! That's quite the feedback. There is a bit of an edge when a customer builds a kit though. The process itself teaches the principles of tuning. It is a labour of love and there is the legacy factor. As a result, it becomes the "go to" plane, it is maintained all the time (the builder is far from fearful of touching it), they made that throat 0.003" - they WANT it to be the best.

It's kind of weird but I sometimes feel that I've failed when I dont convice someone to build rather than buy. A case in point, our good friend Robert Shaw has limited use of his hands and I got him through most of the build of a chariot. You wanna see pride times ten! He carries it everywhere with him in his pocket.

Were the ploughs decent? We are thinking of doing a Kimberly in the new year.

Regards,

Doug

[Doug Evans]

You can see from the photo below that the plane is very fine in the front section. We epected that we would bust out the fine steel tenons on peining - this was not the case. Instead we did not put a strong enough sacrificial support in the D-Section and it buckled a bit causing distortion in the front end. Subsequent linishing caused tenon break-out. $#!! Happens - that's why we go down to the brick yard frequently.

You can see a more successful rial in the newsletter this month with the new 17 1/2" panel - I think it is going to strike a chord with a few folks in the fall.

Regards,

Doug

[Dave Anderson NH]

It was a dark and stormy day.... (true even) about 60F with a a dew point of 60F and a small crowd on Friday. A rawbreeze made it seem colder and fortunatelythey were only selling off 600 lots during the day with the other 600 reserved for Saturday. Prices were all over the map, some reasonable, a good number very high, and some good buys too. Paul Wilmott, who was bidding for the absentees, really killed a lot of the action by opening some of the bids quite high and shutting everyone else out. As an example, the first 200+ lots went in just barely an hour while usually these things average at best 150 lots per hour.

Saturday dawned with promise, but it was hours before it was kept. Things started late in the tailgate area since there was a heavy damp overcast with the occasional sprinkle and a very high dew point. Lots of the dealers didn't want to put their stuff out and expose it to instant rust. Things were cooking by 9AM, while under normal circumstances they would be booming by 7 at the latest. I saw lots of #4-6 Stanleys in Good or Good minus condition for sale n the $40-70 range and probably 2/3 of the molding planes for sale were side beads of various sizes with an average price of $30-40. Like I said, stuff was way too high. I saw spokeshaves like the MF #1 cigar shave I bought for $30 on Friday in Fine condition selling for $70-80 in less than Good condition. Many common bit braces by MF, Stanley, North Brothers, etc were going for $20-40 a piece while the day before I bought a North Bros Yankee 12" #2100, a 10"MF, and a Stanley 8" with a Craftsman label at $20 for the lot of 3 and they were all in Good+ condition. On Saturday I went home about Noon without spending one single cent for the day. Oops, I lied, I bought a cup of coffee for a buck.

If I had to characterize the event, I'd say that bad weather, the slightly less convenient location in Hillsboro, and a auction list of mostly mediocre tools kept attendance down. Spring and Fall events in Nashua have had much better attendence and a lot better variety and quality of pickings. I'm looking forward to the September Nashua auction in hopes of better productivity and pickings. In two days I only Spent $55 including the buyers premium, a new record low for me.

[Doug Evans]

Thanks for the comprehensive report Dave. I feel better now. Ben should be down there at a Woodcraft thing around Sept 20th. When is NASHUA?

"Saturday dawned with promise, but it was hours before it was kept." Love that line...

Doug

[Dave Anderson NH]

Hi Doug-

The September Live Free or Die Auction is on Sept 5-6. On Friday the 5th is the listed auction with a tools list available at Donelly's web site (www.mjdtools.com). Previews are Thursday nite or Friday morning before the auctions starts at 9AM. The Friday flea market starts at dawn as it always does and usually winds down between 1-2PM. Friday nite is also a dealers sale in the Holiday Inn with top end dealers from both the US and a coupla Brits like Tony Murland.

Saturday has another flea market/ tailgate sale starting at dawn and the catalog auction starting at 9AM. For those of you who are interested and who have never been to one of these events, there's plenty to see and do. A prerequisite for first timers, and for that matter for anyone who is interested in buying tools, is to do some pricing research on ebay closed sales, or have a copy of Walter's Stanley price guide. The auctions are long events and your rear end will get tired, but with luck and perserverence you can get some really good deals. The tailgate session has the advantage of allowing you to buy just what you want (as opposed to buying a numbered lot), but tagged prices are often higher. Note that tagged prices are almost always negotiable, though the amatuer dealers often paid too much and this limits the amount they will dicker. All in all, you can have a whole bunch of fun looking, talking tools, and meeting other Neanderthals even if you don't spend much or any money. In fact for a first timer, being there to learn is often a wise course.

[Doug Evans]

We were actually there last year - bought a fair amount of stuff, including an early Fenton Marsdens mortise gauge.

Regards,

Doug

[Doug Evans]

Ben finished off the first 17 1/2" panel yesterday. All things aside, to my way of thinking this is one of the nicest pieces Spiers ever designed (lines and proportions).

Regards,

Doug

[Roger Myers]

:D
Pausing to wipe the drool from my chin....

Great job guys!!!

Counting the loose change in my pocket.....hmmmmm, not enough yet...let's see....my birthday is coming up...plus Christmas... :)

A beautiful looking piece of work!!

as to your earlier question about the H&R's It's a half set of Malloch's with skewed irons (evens), actually missing one plane (gives me something to look for). They were in very nice shape too...one of the wedges is a replacement, but very well executed, and the'll make a nice set of users....

It's a beautiful day here in New England, hope you are enjoying more of the same....

Roger

[Doug Evans]

Ben and I could resist sharpening the iron up and giving it a test spin. Oh yeah... it's likable...

The hole in the Maple shaving? That maple came from 5"X5" section of a 19th century machine base out of the Beatty mill in Fergus. I am building a make-shift bench out of it. The hole is where the mortise was.

[Mike Schwing]

Wait a minute, I'm just starting to feel this sink in....are you guys MAKING these gorgeous planes?

OMG!

[Dave Anderson NH]

Ben And Doug are the principals of the Shepherd Tool Company. They make about a dozen styles or more of infill handplanes which doesn't count the varieties of wood infill choices available or the fact they can be bought either finished or in kit form. They also make high end drawknives, chisels, carving gouges, an awl, and sell aftermarket plane blades. Not to shabby for a coupla yahoos who only went into business a little over a year ago. They are also possessed of, or is it by, a wicked sense of humor. I'm looking forward to spending a few days with them in October in their stompin' grounds north of the border.

[Ben Knebel]

A wicked sense of humour indeed--haven't danced with the devil for--ohh-let me see --at least a couple of minutes now.

Got to run now and meet Doug at our favorite business meeting place--a nice old British Style pub in Fergus --which you'll get to see Dave when you come up--for a wee dram of the elixor of life--can't plan properly without it or is it won't plan without it. Well I know Doug can't and I certainly won't but don't get the wrong impression --we never get tipsy---wouldn't do at all--we might think up a Dragon Plane or something and then people would think we were strange instead of the really serious sober business people we actually are.

Regards
Ben

[Paul Barnard]

Wait a minute, I'm just starting to feel this sink in....are you guys MAKING these gorgeous planes?

OMG!

It's not difficult. Doug and Ben make it easy. Here are three I prepared earlier. I'm working on my 5th at the moment, a shoulder plane.

[Doug Evans]

The world's first successful infilled Bullnose finally exists.

Finally we hit the right perspiration/inspiration ratio!

Regards,

Doug

[Paul Barnard]

The world's first successful infilled Bullnose finally exists.

Finally we hit the right perspiration/inspiration ratio!

Regards,

Doug
Looks great Doug. From the posting time I guess it took a little longer to assemble than you thought.

How were the tennons on the front? How does it work? Is it kitable? Has Ben still got all his fingers?

[Doug Evans]

I burned some midnight oil last night... It is a kit. The shavings were whispy. We beefed the fron a bit to get structure.

Regards,

Doug