Greg G.
No offense taken, no apology necessary, though noted and appreciated.
It was hard not to go stupid on meeting Frank Klausz. It was also hard not to go "Felder!?" I always thought he was a traditional hand tools person. I'd have loved to actually see him cut some dovetails - in person. Europeans, even after being over here for decades, seem to have a graciousness about them. Perhaps it's a result of growing up in a culture where offending, even inadvertently, the wrong person could have serious, long lasting consequences. And the lack of flannel was impressive, the pressed seams in the pants were just a bonus.
As for meeting B.A.D. - he's been over to my shop a couple of times. Nice easy going guy in person and pretty sharp to boot - and I mean that in a good way.
OK - Das Loot from the WWing show
- RazerTip wood burner and several "pens" for an artist friend in Texas. Hopefully it'll get her muse?s ass in gear and she'll get back to being creative more often. She does huge murals, finely detailed pen and ink stuff, small sculpture, portraits in acrylic and oil and used to make floats for the Texas debutantes' balls (in Texas even the young women have balls). The wood burning tools should lead to some very interesting decorated gourds.
- set of medium and fine riffler files
- leather strop
- a couple more jigs for the Tormek and the diamond trueing set. Got the jig to do fingernail profiles on turning tools and one for doing skew chisels. Based on the prices, I looked for but did not find the 14 KT stamp anywhere on the jigs - but it must be there somewhere.
- Trend router - small and great for lettering and freehand stuff
- two Sorby turning tools (turning tools are even more expensive than Lie Nielsen chisels) a long fingernail ground bowl gouge and an inside scraper with changeable tips. They were out of both but I managed to talk them into selling me the ones they used for demos at the end of the show - at a discount of course since they were ?used? (and already honed and polished)
- a set of the new Micro-Plane "sanding disks" set up for 5" hook and loop ROS Supposed to last 30 times longer than sand paper disks. They clearly state that they're not good for resouness woods. There will ba a New and Improved version coming out in Janaury of '06. Wonder if, like software, they have a discounted "upgrade price"?
- set of plug cutters from Snappy Tools. These dome the top of the plug so they start easier while keeping the sides straight and square for a nice tight fit - with no glue lines..
- a slick ?dial a setting? jig for 8 different kinds of router bits - lock miter, drawer lock, T&G, Rail and Stile (ogee profile), ... It's bright yellow so it'll be harder to lose than a bunch of set up blocks. It can be dialed in for various stock thicknesses - which the set up blocks won't do.
- a set of three "spring hammer" tools, a small chisel, a self centering punch for hinge screw centers and a brad nail driver Set the tool where you want it, pull back the spring driven "hammer" and it wacks the end of the working part of the tool. May save me a black nailed thumb.
- a set of wire "burning wires" for turnings
- an interesting Blum cabinet door "soft close" thingamajig - basically a small. rubber tipped cylinder in a plastic "dowel". Drill a hole, slip it in and your cabinet door swings almost closed then slowly closes the last 1/2" to the cabinet frame. At $5 each they?re really pricey - but they work well and are unobstrusive
- a flex shaft powered reciprocating handpiece and 5 Flex Cut type chisels for it to use for carving. I've already got a Foredom from my jewelry making days.
- a pair of Kreg "Support Tabs". These go with the Drawer Guides installation jigs I already have. The latter hold the guides while installing the guides in the case. These jigs fit up under the installed drawer guides and support the drawer while you attach the guides to them. Slick jigs if you're doing drawer cabinets with sliding guides. The idea is obvious - once you've seen them and how they're used.
And the NEENER - an Macassar ebony H.N.T. Gordon spoke shave that's a work of art, feels great in hand and transitions from horizontal to convex curve acrossed the grain beautifully. The hand positions are low and close to the stock, thumbs together right behind the cutter, middle fingers over the top and down against the sides of the part, pointer fingers on the top front for holding, so it's less apt to roll and dig in. Is just as comfortable to use and hold when pulling as it is when pushing.
When a tool is designed and built by someone who actually uses it and knows the weaknesses of manufactured tools, you often end up with a better, easier to use and maintain tool.
Like Steve Knight, Mr. Gordon loves making and using his tools. He gets damn close to making one sided shaving. When someone makes something nice and useful and puts their name on it
- I'll get in line to buy one. He, like Steve, is also a really nice guy.
All this stuff didn?t quite add up to a grand. The balance must?ve gone for parking ($7/day) Show Food ($3 for a small order of fries, $5 for a burger OR hot dog, $3 small cokes, etc.) and a surprise for some poor, emphasis on poor, guy who is agonizing on which $25-40 tool to get because he can?t afford both, though he has an immediate need for both. The look on his or her face when you buy one and hand it to him or her and walk away is priceless. Next year maybe I?ll ?Hi Ho Silver? as a ride off and maybe make up a silver bullet to leave behind.
Graham Blackburn also did a great presentation on hand planes and increased my understanding of how and why they work so well - if set up properly. He also extolled the virtues of wooden planes, with thicker irons, wedges and "tap to set and adjust". He dropped in an iron, tapped the wedge in place and planed see through shavings on a quilted maple board. Then he took out a piece of cherry, tapped the plane again and took beefy cuts off it. Tapped again and went back to shaving birdseye maple. If you've tried to do that with a "modern" metal handplane, even a Lie Nielsen, you know about "slop" in the depth adjustment mechanism and the test passes that are needed before using the new setting on the real stuff. He also pointed out that wooden planes are easier to "fettle" (get the bottom flat and the sides square to the bottom) and easier to do mouth repairs on than metal planes.
He pointed out that originally, metal hand planes were developed for carpenters, not furniture makers. Metal held up better to the abuses hand tools are subjected to on construction sites..
This guys not a dyed in the wool neander but has a real passion for preserving the proper use and apperciation of tried and true tools. When a tool has several hundred years of R&D in it, by folks who made their livings with them, the result can be far superior to "the latest and greatest" out of titanium and inium coated, cryogenically treated space age wonders.
ramble mode off
charlie b