The Same Axe Twice, orThe Woodchopper's Lament

After 3 years of hard use, my axe handle finally broke today while splitting some oak. The wood was from an oak tree we felled this summer that had been threatening the house.
This is the best axe I've ever used for splitting wood. It's the Iltis Oxhead splitting axe and (as long as the wood is seasoned) it almost always splits on the first strike. Luckily, after Sarah got it for me for my birthday a few years ago, I bought two spare handles to have on hand so when it broke today, I was able to replace it and get back to work quickly.

I find that I much prefer to split wood by hand then using a gas powered splitter. The gas splitters are loud, smelly, and hard on your back. You can really only be efficient with one (IMO) if you have three people working it: one to run the ram; one to set the wood; and one to feed the wood to the person setting the wood in the ram. I don't get into the whole John Henry thing: I don't think I can beat a gas splitter one-on-one, but by splitting 30-45 minutes a day, I can get through a lot of wood and get a nice workout to boot. It's really the only way to go!

Study Nook Gets a Nice Top

I blogged about this built-in desk and cupboard in March, '09. Before that, we had a set of wooden utility shelves from Ikea. The Ikea shelves were very functional but not very attractive and we really needed a spot for Helen to do homework.
We lived with the plywood until last weekend when we went to East Wareham, MA to pick up a piece of Fireslate that we had cast to fit. The nook isn't 100% square so I made a template (including a 2" hole in back left corner for power cords, etc.) out of construction paper and sent it to the folks at Fireslate to have it made. It only took them a couple days and it came out great.

Now the homework area has a really nice, smooth work surface and it matches the rest of the kitchen.
We used Fireslate for our kitchen counter tops as well as our fireplace surround and we love it. We have to treat it with Tung oil every few months but other than that, it's pretty care free. That and it looks great.

Two-Man Saw Sharpening

Each year at our kids' school, there's a Harvest Festival. Last year we started having some events for the older kids: Lumberjack Contests.

One of the key events was the two-man saw competition but in order for it to work, we have to have two saws that are in good shape. So this year I took it upon myself to figure out how to sharpen, set, and generally tune up a two-man saw. I found two very helpful resources: The Crosscut Saw Company web site, and the book The Ax Book by D. Cook. Both were invaluable.

The first thing I did was to build this jig from scrap wood I had lying around the shop:



Then I assembled the tools I'd need:


...from left to right:

1. A file-cleaning brush to keep the bastard file clean
   
2. A wrench to tighten the bolts that clamp the saw blade in the jig
   
3. A small file (didn't use this one much)
   
4. A Stanley saw-set
   
5. A bastard file. This is the one that did most of the work.
   
6. An ax stone to clean up the rust, etc. on the blade. Also, it's used to take the wire burr off or each tooth after filing and before setting.
   

First, I jointed the saw which is just running the file over all the teeth and rakers to make sure they're all at the same height. You have to be careful to keep the file perpendicular to the plane of the blade.

After jointing, I filed each tooth. This was quite time consuming as each tooth has to be filed on both sides at the correct angle. Once I got the hang of it, though, and came up with a system it became kind of enjoyable. Almost meditative, really. This is when I used the ax stone: I'd run it up and down the saw on the flat to take off the wire burr from filing each tooth.



Once the teeth were filed, I worked on getting the rakers square and sharp. The idea is that the teeth slice the wood fibers and then the rakers take out the chips.

The rakers done, I set about setting the teeth. Using the Stanley saw set wasn't the exact right tool, but I was able to get it to work. The right way is to use a hammer and small anvil that's at the correct angle.

I was working on two saws and the steel for each was quite different. One was much more pliable than the other. In fact, one was brittle enough that I broke two teeth off with the saw set.

The Result
Oddly enough, the saw that I didn't think would work well turned out to be the better of the two. The key thing was that the set of the teeth was critical, even though they were plenty sharp. Without the proper set of the teeth, the saw will cut for a bit (about an inch or so) and then start binding up. It also helped to clean off the rust on the blade with the ax stone.

I'll definitely do this again: it was a very gratifying project.

Slide Rule Display Stands

I've been collecting slide rules since I was in Junior High. At one point, around 15 years ago, I lost my whole collection and have been rebuilding it ever since. The trouble with my new collection, though, is that it's just been sitting in a pile on my dresser: nowhere, really, to be seen. So I took it upon myself to build some display stands to get them out in the open.



It's quite a basic design. I made a jig for my table saw so that all of the triangle sides are cut at the same angle and at the same length. Then I cut the bases by eye on the chop saw and glued them up. I held them together with staples as they dried and then pulled the staples. The dowel holders on the bottom go through the back and extend out about 1 3/8" so that they act as the legs upon which the whole things leans. I wanted to be able to display two per stand, hence the second level of dowels. They work pretty well.




As you can see, I'm sharing our display cabinet with Sarah's basket collection and a bunch of history books but at least now the slide rules are out in view! There isn't enough room to show them all, so I just have the best ones out. The others are displayed on the desk where I do my daily work.
As it turns out, I'm not nearly as geeky about my slide rules as some people on the internet. Still, though, I enjoy having them and I even know how to use them for the simple stuff: multiplication, division, square roots, and cube roots. But that's enough to get me by. When I was a junior in high school I took a physics class in which we were not allowed to use calculators in our daily class and lab work: we could only use slide rules. Our teacher had a giant six or eight foot long slide rule hung above the chalk board at the front of the class upon which he did all his calculations. He was almost 7' tall. It was an impressive sight!

Firewood is in For the Winter

I've been working at splitting this winter's firewood for the last few weeks and got it all done the other day. I cut it into rounds last fall and let it sit all winter then split it by hand for an hour or so each night. Splitting by hand is a lot of work but it's also quite enjoyable and a good work out.
We don't heat with wood but we do use our fireplace almost every night once it gets cold. The wood shed holds just a bit over two cords and I think we'll burn most of it this winter.
All of this wood is left over from when we created a meadow behind our house 2 years ago. Last fall we gave about 6 cords away, then we burned two ourselves last winter, then I just split and stacked this most recent two cords. If I had to guess, I'd say that I have another cord or two in log form as well as about 3/4 of a cord split and ready to stack. Not sure if I'll keep it all, give it away, or sell it. I guess we'll see!

A Birthday Bed

I built this OP Loft Bed for my daughter's 13th birthday. I bought the plans several months ago, maybe even a year. We weren't sure she'd really want one. Turns out it was a great gift!
The plans for the OP Loftbed are excellent. The site has a great photo gallery and instructions that make building it quite easy.
There are a few things I'll keep in mind when I build the next one for my younger daughter:

• The wood, bought from Home Depot, is heavy and wet. I got a pretty good work out moving it around and then hauling all the parts up from the basement to the second floor bedroom.
• A brad-point drill bit (3/8") is essential. I used a drill press for all the holes and even at high speed they were splintery. I think the brad-point bit would make a big difference.
• I need a new chop saw. Mine is close to 15 years old and no matter how many times I adjust it, it just won't cut square anymore. When cross cutting a 2x6, it's off by between a 16th and a 32nd of an inch. This didn't matter too much on this bed except when it came to cutting the mitered mattress supports. A few good whacks with a hammer made things work, but a new saw would be nicer!
  

I think the most time consuming part of the project was sanding all of the mill ink off of the parts. Granted, this is just construction grade lumber, but even so, I didn't want to see all that crappy printing from the mill on the parts. I'm glad I spent the time doing it. Of course, doing that made me realize I need a better dust collection system!
This was a very satisfying project to build. The bed really is as sturdy as they claim on the OP Loftbed site. I can't even wiggle the thing, it's so sturdy!
Update November 21,2010 After a while, my daughter decided that she didn't like sleeping in this bed. It sat in the basement for a while while I waited to see if my other daughter would like to use it. Alas, she didn't either. I tried selling it on Craigslist but there were no takers (quite a bit of interest, though). Finally, I posted it on one of my local Freecycle lists and it went quickly. A really nice family with two small kids and a new house took it away today. They seemed pleased to get it so I felt good about the bed going to a place where it'd be used.

Craft Closet Shelves

We've been wanting to build shelves in this closet since we moved in so this last weekend I decided to get it done.

The closet itself is pretty deep (2') and about 32" wide. Sarah likes to store craft supplies in big plastic tubs so the shelves are big enough to accommodate them. None of the three walls had studs in very good spots so I had to make the supports a bit longer than I might have liked so that I could screw them into good wood.

I milled the shelf supports out of 2x3's that I had lying around. I cut them down to about 1.25" square and cut a miter in the end to make them look a bit more finished. They're screwed to the studs with #12 2.5" screws. One corner had nothing to screw into so I used pocket screws to join the side supports to the rear supports. (I think I might have to make a website called ILovePocketScrews.com someday. I think they're the best thing since sliced bread.)

The shelves themselves are 3/4" A/C plywood with a piece of pine edging glued and finish-nailed on the front. I primed them so that they're a little easier to clean.

This was one of those jobs that has been hanging around for a long time so it felt great to get it done.