James Krenov taught me to make wood boring drill bits

[John]

James Krenov, whose work and writings I admire, taught me how to take ordinary HSS twist drill bits and make them into high quality wood boring bits.

Master woodworker James Krenov says, "A simple way to make what we in Europe call a cabinetmaker's drill is to regrind an ordinary straight-shank metal drill. This may sound complicated but...you can easily produce drills with a sharp center spur and very sharp, clean-cutting edges." (The Fine Art of Cabinetmaking, page 133) A center spur or brad point reduces the chance of error. I use my belt sander to regrind my drills. Some supply houses are selling brad point drills in slightly under and over sizes today. Years ago I had to make my own and still do. It's much cheaper.

You can see a photograph of one resulting bit on page 31 of my free downloadable book at

The availability of number and letter sized bits has really added to the quality of my dowel joinery and I encourage anyone to try Krenov's technique. The mass produced letter sized bits are cheap and bore wood very nicely with the simple regringing Krenov suggests.

good luck

john the toymaker

[mp]

Thinly disguised spam.

[John]

Dear mp,

Spam? I'm a bit surprised. I thought I was talking about drill bits. I thought long and hard about giving my woodworking book away for free. The lessons learned in 4 decades of woodworking seemed like they might be helpful to those new at the craft. I know Krenov's "A Cabinetmakers Notebook" sure inspired and educated me 30 years ago and he didn't give it away. I still recommend it to any woodworker I meet. Now, I'm not claiming that my book approaches Krenov's in any way, probably wouldn't be free if it did. Yet, should I keep my hard won lessons to myself? Might others end up competing and taking my means of making a living? I'm not too worried I guess. I'm always behind in my work and will no doubt retire before the Chinese become real threats in fine toymaking, though those of you making furniture better look for back up careers. I guess I'm fool enough to always respond to questions I get about technique or sources of supply. Seems only decent to help others in the craft.

(BTW- Krenov's homemade drill bits do work very well.)

Take a look at my book and see if there is good information there. It really is free and beginners can use my experience to save lots of hard knocks. The info presented can help on many projects and I would be pleased to receive feedback to make it a better book. You must have read where I offer full size rocking horse plans for sale. Am I wrong to ask compensation if someone wants to benefit from my creative energy by using my toy design? My attorney tells me this payment helps secure my copyright. There seem lots of sites benevolently giving away free plans (often mentioned in rec.woodworking). I can't as I am not independently wealthy like they must be since they no doubt have no hidden revenue goals in mind or their mention would call forth your accusation of spam. But, you can use my book and their plans and likely make a fine horse and not spend a nickle. You can have my hard won woodworking lessons for free. But, my rocking horse design will cost you about the price of a woodworking magazine, or a couple of stops at Starbucks, not that I think rec.woodworking would be a profitable place for my marketing energies. Most of what I see posted suggests a very frugal readership.

By the way, there is also a link on my site pointing to an article in the New York Times. Please don't think that I am shilling for them and asking you to subscribe.

Get a life! Enjoy the book! Or not! Its free! Don't buy the plans if my need to protect my copyright or feed my family offends you. And certainly don't venture further into my site where I actually ask folks to buy my toys. Oh, the capitalistic evil!

john the toymaker

[Rick]

Hi John,

I was going to drop you a note via e-mail when I saw this ... figured one good comment outweighs at least one bad comment!

I downloaded your book and I have to say I sat and read the whole thing through ... AFTER I jumped to the brad-point drill bit information.

Nice writing style, easy to follow directions, and well laid out. Only one photo encroached on the text but I could still make out what you were getting at, so absolutely no complaints.

Now ... IF ever I should make any rocking horses it will be for the local pre-schools (when I get the time ... sigh). I certainly know where I'll start off. I missed the plans section on your website ... I'll have to go back and take a second look.

Thank you for sharing your work and your knowledge.

I'm still trying to understand the constant tension between people looking for free plans, and those complaining when someone provides them with a well written, thoughtful set of plans, or a link to them (Hi JOAT). I don't know ... maybe it's because you're running a business (like Steve Knight, Tom Planman, Rob Lee, Ron Hock and a host of others) and DARED to put a link to your website (like some of them do) ... or perhaps MP was just having a bad day.

Anyway, don't let MP's comments speak for all of us. He certainly doesn't speak for me on this subject.

Regards,

Rick

Postscript

I'm quite surprised when I see how few comments are generated on straight information on the wreck, yet let an opinion out and it's discussed endlessly (the word THRASHED comes to mind ... upper case letters and all). To counter that, I've started what can be described as a sport ... one that does: (a) plant a phrase in people's heads and see how often it turns up in unrelated topics as a means of judging readership or (b) absolutely KILL a running argument by posting facts. Guess I'll have to add (c) thoughtful thanks for outstanding deeds. Might work if people wouldn't keep looking down, shuffling their feet and saying "oh gosh" and going the other way.

Guess it's time to remember the following:

It is not necessary to understand things in order to argue about them -- Beaumarchais (LJ ... do you have this in a XXL?)

[mp]

If you wanted to promote your book why didn't you just come out and say so?

[J]

I agree. The info on drill bits was hardly the central topic and there was nothing there but a picture of one stating that you can do it on your beltsander for cheap.

Nice book, but wrong approach towards promoting it.

-j

[Will]

I downloaded the book and loved it. Haven't had the opportunity to look at it closely, but I don't see a problem.

Thanks for sharing.

John wrote:

[Unquestionably Confused]

on 2/14/2005 2:35 PM mp said the following:

If Krenov taught you about spam, perhaps you should have paid closer attention while he was talking instead of putting the pencils in your ears and nose.

If someone responds to a question about left-handed widgets by posting a website where one may purchase them is that SPAM? Not really, especially if it's the site of a third party.

If someone posts a site showing an example of a drill bit that was home-made and responsive to the topic of woodworking AND offers the entire book from which the example comes for FREE, is that SPAM?

Only to someone who doesn't know what they are talking about, I think.

Bob - who has absolutely no confusion about this.

[Thomas Bunetta]

Thanks for taking the time to post... I've read the replies, and while the more narrow minded may call it SPAM, I downloaded the book, and particularly enjoy the quotes liberally sprinkled therein;

(ex.:The only trouble with designing and working in wood is that it has the advantage - or disadvantage, however you look at it - of being beautiful in itself...take a piece of wood - plane, sand and oil it, and you will find it is a beautiful thing. The more you do to it from then on, the more chance that you will make it worse. Therefore, working with a material of such natural beauty, I feel that we have to design very quietly and use simple forms. Tage Frid Tage Frid Teaches Woodworking - 1979)

While you do offer to sell plans on your site, this post served (to me) to offer something for nothing... and in my mind, that isn't SPAM! Thanks again, Tom

[Neil Larson]

Why? If he had just promoted his book someone would have jumped on him about that.

I downloaded the book and it looks good to me. Of course, I am not a professional woodworker, just a novice that has fun making a lot of saw dust on the way to some fun projects. I've received some good advice and some good opinions form some of you, and I guess I have been lucky enough (to this point) not to sound stupid enough is some peoples minds to require some of the venomous replies I have seen as evidenced in this thread.

Too bad this is becoming such a pain in the ass group to read and communicate with.

Oh and JT, I'm sure there are a couple punctuations and spelling errors in here to whine about.

[Larry Jaques]

On Mon, 14 Feb 2005 20:29:34 GMT, the inscrutable "Rick" spake:

--snip--

--snip--

Heh heh heh. With whom are you playing this sport, Rick? Looks like fun.

Sure, I can make custom tees. $30 gets you any saying on the front or back. What's your white/light color choice? (I don't do black tees.)

(P.S: I was skipping through/past this message when my vewwy own initials caught my eye.)

---------------------------------- VIRTUE...is its own punishment

Website Applications ==================================================

[J T]

Mon, Feb 14, 2005, 8:29pm (EST+5) [e-mail] (Rick) waves wildly and calls out: Hi JOAT

Hi Rick.

JOAT Intellectual brilliance is no guarantee against being dead wrong.

- David Fasold

[Lobby Dosser]

Downloaded the book. Will read it. FREE is a very good price!

I'll be back to buy a plan for grandkids!

Ignore the whiners.

Thanks for sharing.

LD

[DanG]

John, I saw no spam. I enjoyed your site and your attitude toward woodworking. I much prefer roaming through your post and site to most of the OT drivel that bandies around this group. It also sure beats someone asking about the best router, table saw, saw blade, etc with 50 posts following it.

(top posted for your convenience) ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Keep the whole world singing . . . . DanG (remove the sevens) [e-mail]

[loutent]

This is so much the case. If you love working with wood, it is almost a love-hate type of thing.

I could slice a cross-section out of a trunk of red oak and hang it on the wall, I swear...

I know, I have to "kill" the tree to do that.

Not making too much sense I guess - except to me (and some woodworkers).

Lou

[Dave Balderstone]

Nor me. I've d/l'd the book but haven't read it yet.

Still, John, thanks! It's appreciated.

djb

[Dave Balderstone]

He's GIVING AWAY his book, not "promoting" it.

Geez...

djb

[Jack]

This is SPAM? mp, you are the pot calling the kettle black today. You posted

7 times on an OT political discussion just in the last 24 hours... John, at least, talked about a woodworker and a woodworkers book available from the author for free download. Keep it up John.

Jack

[Edwin Pawlowski]

Look at all the publicity he got though. The book is FREE, so he didn't try to sell anything that was not mentioned. IMO, the book is pretty good and the author has a lot of time invested. So what if he happens to sell plans, he gives a good start for free.

[Joe Bleau]

If offering to share this with fellow woodworkers can be charactrerized as spam then we could use a bit more spam in this NG.

Joe