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Thread: Late Night/Early Morning Thoughts

  1. #16
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    Quote Originally Posted by Andrew Pitonyak View Post
    So practice practice practice :-)
    Some wood species are more forgiving than others.

    I still think it counterintuitive that softer wood (like common pine) can be more difficult to plane cleanly.

    After nearly a decade fumbling with the fine points, I no longer hesitate reaching for my trusty floor scraper at the first sign of tear out on a panel.

    Some boards just can't be planed by me.

    Smooth is more important than flat.

  2. #17
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    I have never been a long sleeper. I can remember my Mom telling me to “sleep on it” whenever I was confronted with a dilemma. I keep a note pad handy at bedside to write down those “slept on” solutions. As for sharpening I have developed a do it now attitude. I keep a strop handy use it sometimes mindlessly while contemplating my next move. Not a chore, no different than occasionally having to dip your brush for work to proceed. 3 to 5 hours is all the sleep you need in my world.

  3. #18
    Quote Originally Posted by Jim Matthews View Post
    Some wood species are more forgiving than others.

    I still think it counterintuitive that softer wood (like common pine) can be more difficult to plane cleanly.

    After nearly a decade fumbling with the fine points, I no longer hesitate reaching for my trusty floor scraper at the first sign of tear out on a panel.

    Some boards just can't be planed by me.

    Smooth is more important than flat.
    Jim,

    Very true if working with hand tools. I think the old saying by boat builders works; "if it looks fair, it is fair". When working by hand it is hard to get everything perfect flat and true but as long as it looks flat and true who cares.

    ken

  4. #19
    Quote Originally Posted by James Pallas View Post
    I have never been a long sleeper. I can remember my Mom telling me to “sleep on it” whenever I was confronted with a dilemma. I keep a note pad handy at bedside to write down those “slept on” solutions. As for sharpening I have developed a do it now attitude. I keep a strop handy use it sometimes mindlessly while contemplating my next move. Not a chore, no different than occasionally having to dip your brush for work to proceed. 3 to 5 hours is all the sleep you need in my world.
    James,

    We could be twins separated at birth . It does make living with normal people interesting.

    ken

  5. #20
    Join Date
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    Quote Originally Posted by ken hatch View Post
    I've found the greatest aid to my sharpening is to sharpen as I work
    AMEN!

    Especially since keeping it sharp is pretty fast. I rarely put them away unless they have been sharpened (if they need it). The primary exception is if I need to put them on the Tormek, then I might sharpen a bunch. I have a friend who brings over two to ten blades at a time, and we can punch those out pretty fast on the Tormek for the initial bevel and then they go to very sharp pretty fast after that.

    It is very different if it is the first sharpening, especially if the back is not yet prepped.

  6. #21
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    Being a dog person, a playful dog doesn't sound too bad.
    Try cats. George would get up before dawn wanting out. He was attacked by some creature one night so we tended to make him stay in. Since then we acquired a pair of kittens. George no gets his wish of staying out all night since the kittens tend to want to climb all over him. The kittens start to run amok at about 6:30am trying to climb walls and curtains.

    For me, sleeping past 7:00am is a rare treat. This is odd because my old schedule from working swing shift stayed with me for years after retirement. Though with winter coming my sleep habits tend toward sleeping later.

    One reason for having multiple sets of chisels is so when the work is really flowing there isn't a real need to stop to sharpen. Sometimes the pause to renew a blade isn't that much of a distraction. Other times it feels like continuing the work is more important.

    jtk
    "A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty."
    - Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965)

  7. #22
    Quote Originally Posted by Jim Koepke View Post
    Try cats. George would get up before dawn wanting out. He was attacked by some creature one night so we tended to make him stay in. Since then we acquired a pair of kittens. George no gets his wish of staying out all night since the kittens tend to want to climb all over him. The kittens start to run amok at about 6:30am trying to climb walls and curtains.

    For me, sleeping past 7:00am is a rare treat. This is odd because my old schedule from working swing shift stayed with me for years after retirement. Though with winter coming my sleep habits tend toward sleeping later.

    One reason for having multiple sets of chisels is so when the work is really flowing there isn't a real need to stop to sharpen. Sometimes the pause to renew a blade isn't that much of a distraction. Other times it feels like continuing the work is more important.

    jtk
    Jim,

    Cats can be a hoot.

    I've never worked a shift, swing or otherwise, but I've spent a lot of time working the back side of the clock. In fact I still do but back in the day, often when it was time to sleep I could be 8 or more time zones from where I awoke. If you are anal about your sleep it was not the life for you. I'm lucky in not needing a lot of sleep and being able to sleep anywhere for short periods of time. That's the good, the bad is it is tough on your wife or S.O..

    I have a ton of chisels as well but stopping to sharpen often gives me time to rethink what I'm doing, saved my bacon more than once.

    ken

  8. #23
    Mostly use 1/2" chisels - suits my joinery - so I have a dozen or so good ones and can reach for a sharp one as needed - sharpen them all when job is done. After a nap.

  9. #24
    Quote Originally Posted by John Gornall View Post
    Mostly use 1/2" chisels - suits my joinery - so I have a dozen or so good ones and can reach for a sharp one as needed - sharpen them all when job is done. After a nap.
    John,

    I'd need a couple or three naps to sharpen a dozen chisels at once . I've always found it interesting how different folks work, no correct way, could be some are better that others...Maybe, most likely not a lot of difference in outcome.

    ken

  10. #25
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    I have a ton of chisels as well but stopping to sharpen often gives me time to rethink what I'm doing, saved my bacon more than once.
    Sometimes stopping to sharpen a chisel is a better choice than to change chisels. Other times it can be beneficial to keep the work on track.

    Sometimes even if there are more chisels at hand work stops to sharpen.

    For me sharpening more than a few chisels at one time can make me to forget the woodwork and end the day sharpening. It works better if mass sharpening is done at the beginning of the day.

    jtk
    "A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty."
    - Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965)

  11. #26
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    Quote Originally Posted by John Gornall View Post
    Mostly use 1/2" chisels - suits my joinery - so I have a dozen or so good ones and can reach for a sharp one as needed - sharpen them all when job is done. After a nap.
    I'm heading this way as well. I keep a shorter 1" chisel on my bench which deals with most tasks.

    The others are used for specific things, like mortising.

    75% of the use is that bench chisel.

  12. #27
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    Quote Originally Posted by Andrew Pitonyak View Post
    So practice practice practice :-)
    Works for me...
    Next Project, panel plane.JPG

  13. #28
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    I try to keep my skills on track by challenging myself. Age and steadiness are taking their toll now. I still find myself trying to split a pencil line when sawing, leaving half on the finished piece and the rest sawdust and chiseling be able to still see the cut of the knife edge. Success is a little more fleeting now days.

  14. #29
    Quote Originally Posted by Andrew Pitonyak View Post
    So practice practice practice :-)

    But, in my limited experience, it doesn't take tons of practice to be proficient. (Maybe not efficient without much more experience/practice). I forced myself to do three projects 100% by hand. It forced me to learn to use the hand tools. And got in a lot of practice.

    I suspect learning bench planes (really learning) requires you do all (planing) steps with them. For example, I just couldn't get my head around how a cambered iron could possible be better than one with just rounded/eased corners... Then I tried one in my jack plane, and it is like a whole new world flattening boards and truing edges now. I spent so much time chasing my tail with that straight edge previously... No amount of reading that it might be better convinced me to try it. Until I did. If there are life changing moments in wood working... that is the one that most comes to mind for me.

  15. #30
    I did something last night that I haven't done in years. After having some trouble planing some ebony, I decided to break out the angle thingy and check the cutting angle. After a lot of work recutting on on the 1000 stone, I should have reground on the grinder but for some reason I didn't want to, I got a nice ~25 degree bevel and finally got a wire edge on it which I couldn't get when I first tried. It was that far out. On to the 8000 and making sure I got a wire edge before stopping and followed up on the strop. I don't have the green stuff everyone seems to use, mine is yellow. It came with a kit from Woodcraft. I don't know what it is but it sure puts a mirror finish on things. I enjoyed the process but I need to set up my grinder to alleviate some of the work and start with a hollow grind. I put the blade in my #4 Stanley and put it to the ebony board and holy moly, what a nice clean cut it made. Enjoy the process and reap the rewards.

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