Thanks pat, they're comfortable for me to hold and use, so that's all I really cared about really, lol.
Yea, if you ever get the chance, I would stop in and check colonial out, Im planning on taking my toolboxes out because my parent want me to take them out to show some of the planes and other tools that Ive made to him. I just need to get the time to go out really, lol. Anvils sure have gotten expensive the last few years, as with everything really. You used to find them for around $2 per lb or less, but since all of the amateur blacksmiths and knife makers became a thing, the price of anvils just skyrocketed. I cant even think of wanting to pay $10 per lb for an anvil, which for that point, you might as well just make your own, lol.
My Hand Planes
Re: My Hand Planes
Well, the carving/spoon planes that I was making the chisels to do, I was sitting there looking at the screen the one day and it occurred to me that it would be easier to just hammer those out than to try to make the patterns and cast it out, lol.
I was wanting one with a 3/4" radius, and one with a 1" radius, which were the same sizes I use for my swages/forms that I use to make my gouges usually. The shape is nothing but a bow tie shape that has been made into a double ended spoon, so the offcut pieces from the side planes were hammered out and turned into those planes, lol. The mouths were chain drilled and then filed out to open them up, then drilled for 1/4"-20 threads to hold the blades in. The drill bit wandered pretty badly on the one, but it doesnt hurt the functionality of it really.
I took the round ball grinding stone in the dremel to get rid of the forging lumps and bumps and clean them up a little bit, then stuck them back in the forge to get them orange hot/bright red hot, and took them out to cool just till they lost all of thier color, then started coating them again and again with pine tar till it stopped smoking off, then held it in the exhaust of the furnace to heat them back up and bake the pine tar on them. That creates a very tough coating that nothing short of a grinder or sandpaper will remove. It's a bit different than an oil finish, like when you season a pan because it is a very tough, shiny, and smooth finish vs what you get with oil. It looks like the japanning on the old tools imo.
I still have yet to give everything a final sharpening/honing, but just rough grind, they work really well and are very easy to control tbh. I can defenitely see myself using them to finish up contours and blending parts together for coreboxes and such.
The incannel gouges and everything, I forged those out a while back and they were just ready for heat treat, just like the blades for the side planes, so I just saved everything up and heat treated it all at once to save on propane and time, and do it all at once. I had forged out a few lathe chisels too and heat treated everything while I was there, so now its time to decide what style of handles I want on them, and go make them, lol.
The thumb/spoon planes above, even tho I just forged those out, the truth is, I will still use the chisels and everything on a plane pattern coming up because casting it is the only way to make it, and the pattern uses a bunch of the same designs as those spoon planes or a spokeshave, so Im just working my way up to getting ready for the complicated one, lol.
- Screenshot at 2024-04-20 00-34-33.png (229.81 KiB) Viewed 74 times
The incannel gouges and everything, I forged those out a while back and they were just ready for heat treat, just like the blades for the side planes, so I just saved everything up and heat treated it all at once to save on propane and time, and do it all at once. I had forged out a few lathe chisels too and heat treated everything while I was there, so now its time to decide what style of handles I want on them, and go make them, lol.
The thumb/spoon planes above, even tho I just forged those out, the truth is, I will still use the chisels and everything on a plane pattern coming up because casting it is the only way to make it, and the pattern uses a bunch of the same designs as those spoon planes or a spokeshave, so Im just working my way up to getting ready for the complicated one, lol.
Re: My Hand Planes
Those look great. Are you going to cast any in Bronze?
quando omni flunkus moritati 
Re: My Hand Planes
thanks guys, and probably not that I have them in steel. The one coming up will be in bronze tho, which Ive been putting off patterns for, so it may be a little while, lol. Right now, my casting stuff has gotten half buried again, so I just try to make the stuff in other ways for now, like forging, which I can do whether it's rain or shine, lol.
Our neighbors moved out and they pulled the trailers and everything out, so I no longer have neighbors all the way till you get into town, so the forging stuff, Ive been doing that at night when it's cooler out. Right now, I was working on some stuff and that coping saw I had just was pissing me off continuously because it was so flimsy, so I decided to go out and forge a new one out, and have been playing with trying to find just the right piece of steel to make a long tapered reamer from to make something similar to a peg cutter/shaver that they would use for making violins or cellos. They're more or less just a large pencil sharpener that has a very long and shallow taper, usually 5 degree cone in them, so I figured I'd make a set of them going from 1/4" up to 1" or so. I plan on just clamping them to the workbench, then instead of running out to the lathe every time I need a post, or a round boss for a pattern, I can just grab a wooden dowel and turn it into the size hole I need, and it'll cut the taper on them up to the length I needed, then I can cut it off and glue it right into the pattern ready for light sanding and finishing. That should make that stuff alot quicker, and since you dont need to run to the garage, set up the lathe, turn down a piece of stock to round, only to get a small section, that would save alot of time and waste since there's always a little bit that would get tossed from on the lathe. This way, I can turn it into the peg cutter to cut the taper, cut that off, and put the rest back in the bin with no waste being thrown away because it can be reused later easily enough.
The coping saw, I have the frame done up, but it'll be the style of the antique marquetry saws where the frame is super rigid, but the handle part is in two parts, that way you have the handle, and the end of the handle is threaded and tightens up everything to pull the blade tight. This is about as far as Ive gotten on it, just need to go out and drift the holes to get them perfectly round and heat treat it, then it'll be ready for handles and hardware. It was all cleaned up last night with a file, so it looks alot better now tbh. It's completely forge welded together and is pretty stiff, but wants to bend side to side, so by heat treating it, it should get rid of that bend-ability and make it pretty stiff while very springy, so perfect for a saw frame.
Our neighbors moved out and they pulled the trailers and everything out, so I no longer have neighbors all the way till you get into town, so the forging stuff, Ive been doing that at night when it's cooler out. Right now, I was working on some stuff and that coping saw I had just was pissing me off continuously because it was so flimsy, so I decided to go out and forge a new one out, and have been playing with trying to find just the right piece of steel to make a long tapered reamer from to make something similar to a peg cutter/shaver that they would use for making violins or cellos. They're more or less just a large pencil sharpener that has a very long and shallow taper, usually 5 degree cone in them, so I figured I'd make a set of them going from 1/4" up to 1" or so. I plan on just clamping them to the workbench, then instead of running out to the lathe every time I need a post, or a round boss for a pattern, I can just grab a wooden dowel and turn it into the size hole I need, and it'll cut the taper on them up to the length I needed, then I can cut it off and glue it right into the pattern ready for light sanding and finishing. That should make that stuff alot quicker, and since you dont need to run to the garage, set up the lathe, turn down a piece of stock to round, only to get a small section, that would save alot of time and waste since there's always a little bit that would get tossed from on the lathe. This way, I can turn it into the peg cutter to cut the taper, cut that off, and put the rest back in the bin with no waste being thrown away because it can be reused later easily enough.
The coping saw, I have the frame done up, but it'll be the style of the antique marquetry saws where the frame is super rigid, but the handle part is in two parts, that way you have the handle, and the end of the handle is threaded and tightens up everything to pull the blade tight. This is about as far as Ive gotten on it, just need to go out and drift the holes to get them perfectly round and heat treat it, then it'll be ready for handles and hardware. It was all cleaned up last night with a file, so it looks alot better now tbh. It's completely forge welded together and is pretty stiff, but wants to bend side to side, so by heat treating it, it should get rid of that bend-ability and make it pretty stiff while very springy, so perfect for a saw frame.
Re: My Hand Planes
lol, just outside of frame of the pic, there's a box of 6 or 7 altoids tins still in the plastic, lol. When I go places, I get car sick usually, so to keep my stomache settled for the car ride, I usually am sucking on some altoids, hence why I always have a pack in my pocket when I meet you guys at algonquin, lol. I keep the tins because they're good for storing screws and little electronics bits and pieces.