In the past couple weeks I have gotten into a bit of a woodworking kick. Nothing stupendous, but I have enjoyed watching Rex Kreuger’s Woodworking For Humans series on YouTube and this was partly the impetus crossed with my successes and failures around making my desktop. Explanations aside; I have set-to-right a couple of things.
Firstly, I quickly fixed the broken handle on a hammer I acquired from my maternal grandfather. It wasn’t used a bunch, and I think it is a pretty cheap tool generally speaking, but I was happy to re-set the existing handle, albeit a little shorter than it was originally. I didn’t try to polish the finish on this one because I didn’t think it would work – the metal looks drop-cast (die-cast?) and I don’t really think a wire brush treatment would change anything. Further, the age and origin of this hammer is more important to me than it’s use and the patina of it reminds me of that.
I have had a ‘failed’ cherry picture frame, given to me by a professional because it wasn’t good enough for his needs, kicking around in my shop for probably 15 years. didn’t ever have the desire or fine-skill necessary to attempt to finish the job. As it turns out the thing was so square and solid that each corner can make a pretty good little try-square. The only missing feature now is that the tongue should be thinner than the stock – to allow squaring up on edges. They do work well for outside and inside ‘trying’.
After those simple tasks (couple cuts and some shellac) I took on making a marking guage. A valuable tool that both Rex and other YouTubers present as a critical component of a woodworking shop. I was convinced and gave it a shot. I also started with a piece of cherry from the same frame.
It should work well enough but there are at least two problems with my first attempt…three actually.
- The Stem is a bit undersized for the hole – I got too far down the road shaving it with my rasp. This makes things a little sloppy. I can fix it by making a new stem someday, if and when it becomes a problem.
- The Thumb Pin is a little hard to secure against the stem. I should be able to make this better also with an improved stem which I’d make sure is a bit bigger and has a proper flat-spot on one side (forgot that bit before I assembled it). When I do that – my thumb pin may be a bit short to secure it tightly. Hard to say really, I’ll have to use it a while to decide.
- I made the Thumb Pin black, by torching it. Doesn’t hurt anything but I think blackened cherry is uglier than plain cherry.
One last note – crossing over my hobbies – the spike on this guage is made from an old bicycle spoke.
blief 