All About Pocket Knives

Unk wrote: ↑Tue Aug 17, 2021 3:58 am We had a medium sized ash tree fall over (insect damage) in the back yard a few months ago. My sister had bought me a couple of old ball peen hammers at a garage sale for $1 a piece earlier this year. One is a Master Mechanic, and the other is an old Vaughn in need of a new handle. Vaughn has been around since 1869, so I don't know how old this one is, but based on the handle, I figure its at least 50 years old. I used the ash to make a new handle for the Vaughn. First time I ever made a hammer handle - took a couple of hours with a band saw, draw knife, spoke shave, and both a bench and orbital sander. I was able to save and re-use the wedges from the original handle.

Nice work on the hammers! Always fulfilling to put something back to useful!

I bought this cobblers hammer missing the handle. I used furniture grade mahogany that I had knowing that it is not a striking hammer mainly shoe tacks and smoothing leather. There is part of a name but cannot make it out and a 1"one." The head has seen abuse. Band saw and one inch belt sander.

mrwatch wrote: ↑Wed Aug 18, 2021 8:48 pm I bought this cobblers hammer missing the handle. I used furniture grade mahogany that I had knowing that it is not a striking hammer mainly shoe tacks and smoothing leather. There is part of a name but cannot make it out and a 1"one." The head has seen abuse. Band saw and one inch belt sander.

Nice work, and a handy tool to have, are you going to or have you oiled the mahogany?

cudgee wrote: ↑Wed Aug 18, 2021 10:07 pm

mrwatch wrote: ↑Wed Aug 18, 2021 8:48 pm I bought this cobblers hammer missing the handle. I used furniture grade mahogany that I had knowing that it is not a striking hammer mainly shoe tacks and smoothing leather. There is part of a name but cannot make it out and a 1"one." The head has seen abuse. Band saw and one inch belt sander.

Nice work, and a handy tool to have, are you going to or have you oiled the mahogany?

A light coat of boiled lindseed oil. The head, I will leave the dings and dents. I took a picture to try to read the letters.

mrwatch wrote: ↑Thu Aug 19, 2021 11:10 am

cudgee wrote: ↑Wed Aug 18, 2021 10:07 pm

mrwatch wrote: ↑Wed Aug 18, 2021 8:48 pm I bought this cobblers hammer missing the handle. I used furniture grade mahogany that I had knowing that it is not a striking hammer mainly shoe tacks and smoothing leather. There is part of a name but cannot make it out and a 1"one." The head has seen abuse. Band saw and one inch belt sander.

Nice work, and a handy tool to have, are you going to or have you oiled the mahogany?

A light coat of boiled lindseed oil. The head, I will leave the dings and dents. I took a picture to try to read the letters.

Nice work, Mr. Watch. I love refurbishing these old tools and putting them back to work.

Here's 3 of the little wooden mallets I made earlier this year. The top one is just made from scraps of oak, ash, and walnut, with no lathe work. The last one I made for a friend. He asked for one to use in his gunsmithing. One side has a leather face, then other is wood on each of them. My design improved from my first one (background in middle pic), to the one I made for him.

Those wooden mallets are so cool! Again, it's a shame I lack the skill and equipment necessary to take on such a project.

Exactly, they are cool and i wish i had the skill and space to do some woodwork.

cudgee wrote: ↑Thu Aug 19, 2021 8:45 pm I wish i had the skill and space to do some woodwork.

Space is also something I'm lacking. Someday I shall have acreage, though!

Dan In MI wrote: ↑Thu Aug 19, 2021 11:53 pm

cudgee wrote: ↑Thu Aug 19, 2021 8:45 pm I wish i had the skill and space to do some woodwork.

Space is also something I'm lacking. Someday I shall have acreage, though!

I wish you luck on your dream and journey.

Thanks guys.

Just puttering around in the shop today, and made several little projects I have been needing to do. My old bandsaw has a weird sized miter channel (18 mm?), so none of the many miter gauges I have will fit. So I made a simple one out of ash and walnut. It will only do 90 degrees, but anything else I will cut along the line - or used a rip fence - anyway.

I also have been wanting a 12 inch sanding disc. So I cut a 12 inch disc out of some scrap plywood on the bandsaw and mounted it to a 1/2 hp motor with a flange. It was so out of balance the workbench was jumping dancing around the shop! So that was a failure. So I mounted the disc to another flange and put it on the lathe, and turned it down until I finally got it balanced. It works tolerably well on the lathe.

Last was I added a length of board to the miter gauge on my new / old table saw. That only took a few minutes.

I really enjoy doing little stuff like this. Retirement does not suck!

The wife had several plant stands across our dining room windows. She asked me to build a bench to replace all the plant stands - the specs she gave me was 9 foot long, 23" high, and 12" wide. We had a patio cover built this summer, and had some leftover pieces of 6x6 rough cedar - about 5 ft long. I cut the cedar into 2x6s, and ran them through the planer, then bookended a couple of sets together. I used lap joints to make the top pieces and skirt 9 foot long. I then built the skirt and some legs for it. Finished it with some walnut stain and a few coats of poly.

Well Mike, that turned out beautifully. Congratulations. Your wife must be very pleased that she married such a talented husband.

awesome job you have done Mike.

[quote="Quick Steel" post_id=976842 time=1641370657 user_id=11282]
Well Mike, that turned out beautifully. Congratulations. Your wife must be very pleased that she married such a talented husband.
[/quote]

That’s a fine looking piece of furniture you’ve made .

Turned out great Mike! Well done!

D) All of the above

Looks great, Mike!!
As has been said, that's a piece of furniture, not just a plant stand.

Thank you, guys. I didn't cost me anything (if you don't include the cost of the patio cover! ), and the posts were taking up room in my shop. I was getting splinters every time I had to move them around. That rough cedar is rough!

Unk wrote: ↑Wed Jan 05, 2022 5:35 am The wife had several plant stands across our dining room windows. She asked me to build a bench to replace all the plant stands - the specs she gave me was 9 foot long, 23" high, and 12" wide. We had a patio cover built this summer, and had some leftover pieces of 6x6 rough cedar - about 5 ft long. I cut the cedar into 2x6s, and ran them through the planer, then bookended a couple of sets together. I used lap joints to make the top pieces and skirt 9 foot long. I then built the skirt and some legs for it. Finished it with some walnut stain and a few coats of poly.

Beautiful Mike! And you have one heck of a shop there...
"Happy Wife, Happy Life"

Thank you, Willy. We moved into the house in 2020 and I sure have enjoyed having a shop, instead of crammed into a 1/2 of a garage.

Unk wrote: ↑Fri Jan 07, 2022 5:30 am Thank you, Willy. We moved into the house in 2020 and I sure have enjoyed having a shop, instead of crammed into a 1/2 of a garage.

Unk wrote: ↑Fri Jan 07, 2022 5:30 am Thank you, Willy. We moved into the house in 2020 and I sure have enjoyed having a shop, instead of crammed into a 1/2 of a garage.

And the wife enjoys getting you out of her hair ! A shop is a win win !

Rdubya21 wrote: ↑Sun Jan 09, 2022 11:01 am

Unk wrote: ↑Fri Jan 07, 2022 5:30 am

And the wife enjoys getting you out of her hair ! A shop is a win win !

How'd you know? Maybe that's why she's always wanting me to build her something.

I got a buddies axe up and running for him. Turns out it was the carburetor

Knocked the rust off with a wire wheel, along with a new edge, handle (store-bought - True Temper Hickory), and a few coats of tung oil on everything. I asked him what he was chopping with it - re-bar?

I couldn't find a maker's mark or any markings at all on it.

That was a hacked up edge . Nice job on the rehab !

Great work on the plant stand and axe!