Luthiers tool kit

[Robert Loss]

Here's a small kit I put together for a luthier earlier this year.

Western Australian Sheoak for the saw handle and fretting Mallet, Curly Jarrah Marking knife handle, Red Tingle handle on the chisel plane and Redgum on the chisel handles. All the timber comes from my firewood pile except for the Jarrah and Tingle from. I also did all the metal work from stock or scraps except for the Japanese saw blade. Marking knife blade is made from a jigsaw blade.

Cheers

[Bob Strawn]

Beauty that is! I am guessing that the top most tool is a flush cut plane?

This is a nice tight and sweet basic kit.

Bob

[Kevin Lucas]

what do you use for nut and saddle files?

[Robert Loss]

what do you use for nut and saddle files?

Sorry but I am not a luthier. I made these tools for Chris Wynne of Thomas Lloyd guitars in Melbourne. I have made a guitar at his guitar making school earlier this year. As far as the nut was concerned we used a faux bone that was already formed to shape. I noted Chris has a heap of Stewie Mac stuff so I suspect he would have their nut and saddle files.

[Ray Gardiner]

Beautiful work, I like the look of she-oak and brass, especially when you
get that translucent rope like grain. You know what I mean.

I have been making bits and pieces with she-oak and is impressive to
see it used to such good effect here. I did a toybox for my granddaughter's
first birthday a few months back with she-oak.

Have you any details on how you did the metal-work side of things.

What steel did you use? etc.

[Robert Loss]

This all started with Luthier Chris Wynne earlier this year when he was going to teach a guitar making course in Umbria - with a special emphasis in the use of Aussie timber in making guitars. When he saw some of my tools he proposed a design and construction brief of; "make me a set of tools that I would find useful as a luthier, that highlighted Australian Timbers" and that was it!

The Japanese saw handle is sheoak turned using a par-oval cross section using a +/- 5mm or 3/16 offset. The brass spine is originally brass angle and folded over using a WW vice, annealed, cut to shape (as are all my brass bits) using a fine kerf metal cutting blade in a small (8") table saw, and sanded using a linisher. Close up detail of the bolster and locking screw arrangement are shown in the pictures below. The slot in the bolster is formed using a drill press and hand filing. The brass piece that the locking screw passes through is screwed to the bolster and then silver soldered together for extra strength. The whole thing comes apart (as do nearly all my tools) for servicing, replacement and repolishing. The handle is very tactile and I find this oval handle profile suits a medium to large hand quite well.

The fretting hammer heads are Brass and Aluminium screwed together by a SS rod that passes through and locks the handle in place. The heads were turned on the metal work. The mallet is very well balanced and feels just right.

The flush cut plane handle is turned from a 4 x 4" piece of Red Tingle and the cut in half. The blade is cut and ground from a detempered old file shaped and mounted in a dovetail fashion into a brass base. The brass dovetail was cut using the metal mill at work and is held by WW screws onto the base. A brass screw accessed from the top of the handle locks the blade in place. Tool comes completely apart as per the saw.

Curly jarrah forms the basis of the handles for the marking knives. I turned the brass collets up at work on a metal work lathe. The collets have a slot and a circular hole so they can hold either a knife blade ground from a jigsaw blade, or a sharp pointed scribe ground from a detempered 3/16" round file. This tool also comes completely apart although a drop of epoxy can be used to hold specific pieces in place if required.

The chisel handles were turned from Red Gum from my firewood pile. The blades (are 6, 8, 12, 18 and 24 mm wide) M2 stock pieces fashioned into shape using a special jig to hold the blades along one of the long edges while the taper is ground into the sides. The tip, tang and curve are cut using the metal cutting saw and then tidied up using a dremel, grinder and linisher. The brass ferrules were turned at work on a metal working lathe. The reason I used M2 stock was that I had a tight deadline. Grinding the Bevels took some time but should last a long time between sharpenings.

[Robert Loss]

Here is a close up of the Japanese saw handle pieces all pulled apart so you can see how it works.

[Ray Gardiner]

Hi Robert,

I now suspect you are in Western Australia, judging by the colour of the redgum firewood.
West Aust redgum is generally lighter than our River Red Gum (Vic).

I once built a CNC control system for a luthier, Noyce Guitars in Ballarat.
That was back in the mid-eighties. It was fun to combine woodworking
music and embedded systems development.

Once again, very impressive work.

[Terry Bigelow]

Absolutely beautiful work my friend. Love that saw.

[Robert Loss]

I now suspect you are in Western Australia, judging by the colour of the redgum firewood.
West Aust redgum is generally lighter than our River Red Gum (Vic).

Sorry, I though I entered my location in the profile but I obviously forgot to hit save. So yeas I'm in WA.

The Red Gum I used for the chisel handles was from a hybrid tree between the east coast and west coast red gum. The picture below shows a close up of our Marri as it is called.

TerryB, If you like the saw you might like the pics below. Both the handles of the saws in the shot with the black background are apricot the other one has an apricot and Western Australian Sheoak.
http://www.sawmillcreek.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=89502&d=1211996368
The collar on the bigger saw is the brass dome from an old tap, I just squished it into an oval profile.

Cheers
Bob

[Bob Strawn]

Good ecology, lovely tools, and great choices for tools. I have to respect such thought and craftsmanship.

I have to give you my apology in advance, since I will be ripping off several of your ideas and methods.

I really like making tool kits. (http://battlering.com/wordpress/category/tool-box/) :)

Bob

[Robert Loss]

I really like making tool kits. (http://battlering.com/wordpress/category/tool-box/) :)


me too! I checked your site - i'll be back to steal some ideas soon :D

Here is a set of plane makers floats I also made recently. Full story of build is here (http://www.woodworkforums.ubeaut.com.au/showthread.php?t=66551).

[Bob Strawn]

A fair theft of information is something I can respect! :D

Bob