Happy Holidays

From the Unplugged Woodshop


Wishing you all health and happiness in the Holiday Season~
Let’s raise a glass to the New Year and all it brings!

Peace.
Tom Fidgen @
The Unplugged Woodshop

PS. Did Santa have a Roubo? ha- see you in 2012!!

; )

Everything Old is New Again

A Kerfing Plane ?
 

 Once again Joel Moskowitz’s blog over at Tools for Working Wood has got me extremely excited.
( that just sounds wrong but please, humor me )
Joel posted a link to an absolutely gorgeous 1869 Franz Wertheim tool catalog that had been acquired by Princeton University and has been digitally scanned and is available for the world to see.
Joel documented his trip to Princeton in an earlier post and had me intrigued then by the catalog he mentioned. Not enough to actually go to New Jersey myself but pretty interested all the same! Head over to the TFWW web site and have a look. I spent the last hour pouring over the hand drawn images and one of them in particular caught my eye. On page 16, Fig. 117 shows a saw that looks a whole lot like a kerfing plane I’ve been using for the past few months. I blogged awhile back on an earlier version I made which is nothing more than a moulding plane style tool with a saw blade captured within the block. Since then I’ve made several versions and one looks like a plough plane with an adjustable fence very much like the saw/plane in the Wertheim tool catalog from 1869.
Just when you think you have a new idea eh?
;D
Oh well…The good news is what ever that tool was originally used for, my modern version works really well at establishing a saw kerf in your stock. This is extremely helpful when making precise saw cuts. ie: making shop sawn veneer.
The other good news is that I have a chapter on making and using my version which I call a ‘kerfing plane’ in my new book!
I’m a sucker for these hand drawn catalogs and Joel keeps bringing them to our attention. Good on him! -Thanks Joel.