Monday, February 27, 2012

Tool Porn

Despite reading Christopher Schwarz's new book where he espouses a minimal set of tools, I've been on a bit of a bender over the last few months.  Yesterday my new shoulder plane came from Lie-Nielsen.

Lie-Nielsen Small Shoulder Plane
I bought it at their recent Hand Tool Event at the Northwest Woodworking Studio, where I also picked up a Blue Spruce marking knife and signed up for a class this coming weekend where I will build myself a small brass plane.  Update:  Dammit, the class got canceled.

I try to only buy any tool as I have an immediate need for it.  I've got a storage cabinet coming up, and thinking about building the frame made me spring for a 5/16" Ray Iles mortising chisel from Tools for Working Wood.  I threw in a pair of Gramercy holddowns while I was ordering from them.  Both of those items are awesome.

I really enjoy making my own tools, mostly because I just like to make stuff.  Plus I'm cheap.  They rarely come out as good as a high-quality commercial item.  I followed an idea from a magazine and made myself a wood-bodied router plane.  The iron is a big hex key (allen wrench) ground and honed.  It works fine, until you compare it to an iron-bodied commercial version.  I do have a few simple items that I made that I use all the time.  One is an awl that is simply a nail with the head cut off, stuck into a maple handle that I sanded to a roughly comfortable shape.  I ground the tip to a crisp square profile (google birdcage awl), and it's great for locating and starting holes for screws or whatever.

That tool brings me to my next major item...  Delta has a $50 rebate going on their 46-460 midi lathe until April 30.  I've told myself that if I can get the spare room remodel finished before then, I'm getting it.  My tool handles should improve drastically, plus I can make knobs, turned spindles, and other furniture parts, and who knows what else.  No, I don't really need it, and I would probably be fine with a crappy little Chinese lathe from Harbor Freight, but that's against my religion.