That sure is some ragged and manly looking stuff!
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An Unexpected Journey: A Newbie's Walk In Wet Shaving
- Thread starter Blade-meister
- Start date
Well it is
Saturdays are my kick backed shave days. BBS is out the window and I grabbed @NurseDave 's SE razor he gave me a few months ago. This is no consolation razor because it delivers a DFS every time without any irritation. I used William's mug soap again and I'm really liking it a lot still.
On the personal side, I got out and did some manly stuff. I sharpened the chainsaw blade and went out to cut some pieces of wood for some wooden mallets. I wanted to make a beetle (huge wooden mallet used in timber framing) so that when I start building my timber frame wood shed out at the cabin I had the mallet to end all mallets. I cut a couple of medium sided mallets and a smaller square mallet. The beetle and one medium sized mallet head were out of some of the hardest maple I've ever seen. It was from a tree that got struck by lightening a few years ago and I cut it up to clear the old stage coach turnpike on my property. I'm worried it will split on me, but we'll see. I debarked them all with my favorite broad hatchet. Lots of work. Then I took my favorite draw knife that was made from an old file by a blacksmith long ago and cleaned up / rounded things well. Some guys make pure artwork out of mallets, but to me they will be used well so I want to leave all those tool marks on them for character. I also aged up a new board that will be used to finish off my shave horse so it will hopefully match the rest of the old wood on it. Fun stuff!
On the personal side, I got out and did some manly stuff. I sharpened the chainsaw blade and went out to cut some pieces of wood for some wooden mallets. I wanted to make a beetle (huge wooden mallet used in timber framing) so that when I start building my timber frame wood shed out at the cabin I had the mallet to end all mallets. I cut a couple of medium sided mallets and a smaller square mallet. The beetle and one medium sized mallet head were out of some of the hardest maple I've ever seen. It was from a tree that got struck by lightening a few years ago and I cut it up to clear the old stage coach turnpike on my property. I'm worried it will split on me, but we'll see. I debarked them all with my favorite broad hatchet. Lots of work. Then I took my favorite draw knife that was made from an old file by a blacksmith long ago and cleaned up / rounded things well. Some guys make pure artwork out of mallets, but to me they will be used well so I want to leave all those tool marks on them for character. I also aged up a new board that will be used to finish off my shave horse so it will hopefully match the rest of the old wood on it. Fun stuff!
Me too, except for the manly stuff.
The cabin is on hold until I can get to the lumber mill and get the hemlock boards milled for the outside. The outside will be next including reframing windows put in wrong by the previous owner and installing the last window on the front side. If we can afford that and a woodstove this year I'll be plenty happy because we could start using it in the fall and winter despite the lack of insulation. Once cool think I plan on doing for the inside is to have the lumber mill cut 3 inch thick planks that I'll lightly hew down to about 2 inches. I'll but these up inside to replicate what an old cabin would look like, chinking included. It will be a labor of love an time, but it will be exactly what we want when we are finished. I did get out a few weeks ago and trim the trees on the north side of the cabin so we can see into the woods in that direction. Right now the ticks are terrible. One day I walked up the turnpike to cut the legs for the shave horse and found 5 deer ticks on me. One on the way out so I promptly grabbed him and executed him with my broad hatchet. I'd have to say that it's probably been a couple century since someone killed a tick with a broad hatchet
Not much happening on the shaving front so I thought I'd distract everyone with pictures of my shave horse I got built
For those who don't know what a shave horse is, it was used by craftsman for centuries as a simple lever device to hold wood that you wanted to reshape with a draw knife. Bowyers use them to shape and thin their bow staves and they are handy as heck if you make handles for things like I do. I was determined to build it the old way so what you see below has not a single nail or screw in it. If I needed to secure something, I made wood pegs or dowels by hand carving them. Now comes the fun part, I'll be aging it so that it fits in with my other old tools in my shop. I used a wide range of tools from my broad hatchet to my draw knife. Total cost $0.00! Everything was either picked out of a cabinet maker's junk pile or harvested from my woods. The most important feature is that it works really well.
How this works is that you straddle the bench and your work rests on the inclined board. Under the round part (called a dumbhead) you place the piece of wood you want to work on, then you place your feet on the pedal below. The pressure of the pedal presses the dumbhead and pinches your piece of wood against the inclined rest. Simple lever device but is what I call simple but genius.
Hand carved wood pegs hold the inclined work rest to the bench.
The sapling legs are wedged and glued into the bench so they won't loosen up.
The old antique one I got inspiration from had this shelf cut on the end of it. I wasn't sure why, but decided to copy the feature on mine. Now I understand why it was there.....it's a resting spot for the draw knife. Above is my favorite antique draw knife. It was made from an old file by a blacksmith in the 1800's.
I truly love the wisdom and thought that goes into old tools. Many old craftsmen wouldn't lend out their tools but would rather go to the person's house and do the work for free than let another hand touch their favorite tools. I understand. I wouldn't lend this draw knife out to anyone........well maybe @ShawnF
For those who don't know what a shave horse is, it was used by craftsman for centuries as a simple lever device to hold wood that you wanted to reshape with a draw knife. Bowyers use them to shape and thin their bow staves and they are handy as heck if you make handles for things like I do. I was determined to build it the old way so what you see below has not a single nail or screw in it. If I needed to secure something, I made wood pegs or dowels by hand carving them. Now comes the fun part, I'll be aging it so that it fits in with my other old tools in my shop. I used a wide range of tools from my broad hatchet to my draw knife. Total cost $0.00! Everything was either picked out of a cabinet maker's junk pile or harvested from my woods. The most important feature is that it works really well.
How this works is that you straddle the bench and your work rests on the inclined board. Under the round part (called a dumbhead) you place the piece of wood you want to work on, then you place your feet on the pedal below. The pressure of the pedal presses the dumbhead and pinches your piece of wood against the inclined rest. Simple lever device but is what I call simple but genius.
Hand carved wood pegs hold the inclined work rest to the bench.
The sapling legs are wedged and glued into the bench so they won't loosen up.
The old antique one I got inspiration from had this shelf cut on the end of it. I wasn't sure why, but decided to copy the feature on mine. Now I understand why it was there.....it's a resting spot for the draw knife. Above is my favorite antique draw knife. It was made from an old file by a blacksmith in the 1800's.
I truly love the wisdom and thought that goes into old tools. Many old craftsmen wouldn't lend out their tools but would rather go to the person's house and do the work for free than let another hand touch their favorite tools. I understand. I wouldn't lend this draw knife out to anyone........well maybe @ShawnF
Very similar to Roy Underhill's shave horse. I'd love to own his entire collection of shows on DVD, but it's pretty $$$. It only takes 100 years for a culture to forget a skill and many of the skills Roy demonstrates are being forgotten not in text but in practice.
I was always told that you never sharpen and hone a draw knife because it sharpens and hones its self. That was always a head scratcher for me, so I sharpened and honed that draw knife in the picture and it cuts like a dream. Thanks for the kudos Shawn and for the pup condolences. Keep thinking I hear her but it's just my imagination.
Made me curious how expensive it could be. One of the first listings on Amazon is for Season 28!! Ya, I guess even at a moderate price that many season will add up to big $$
That doesn't make sense to me either. In theory your block planes and chisels are performing a very similar operation, yet I keep mine honed to an extreme edge. So why wouldn't you do the same for a similar acting tool? Planes and chisels get dull with use, so wouldn't another wood shaving blade? Heck, even carbide tools dull over time in wood.
Yup, I agree totally Shawn. In my opinion, every tool needs maintenance. Though it's a pain, after I use my axes I sit down and re-establish a good edge and hone them. I get behind sometimes with tool maintenance. I have some moulding planes that I need to sharpen and probably a few knives too. It all goes back to the old saying "If you take care of your equipment, it will take care of you." For me, I wasn't raised being taught any of this stuff. My Dad just took the axe from the garage and used it. Thinking back, he was always using a dull axe and a dull axe is a dangerous one. I thought I'd sharpened my big broad axe well enough, but when that thing skipped off the log it's easy to see how a tourniquet would be needed by someone who doesn't know the proper way to stand. I still don't feel like that broad axe is sharp enough even though it's cutting well.
I think I saw the complete collection once for over $200 somewhere. I can't imagine buying each episode individually. Kinda reminds me of being a kid and trying to buy the complete baseball card set for a particular year before they began selling them. Man, lots of bubble gum and lots of wax packs and you always seemed to lack that one nobody player from the Brewers or something. Dang, that reminds of the shredded bubble gum in the pouches like chewing tobacco! Good memories of childhood.
I loved that stuff. Bet they don't sell it any longer.
Big league chew, and yes they do still sell it.
That's right! That's the name and yeah I bought some like 6 or 7 years ago and was disappointed because it had aspartame in it and that gives me an instant headache. Just give me the sugar straight up man. I don't chew gum much, but I want the sugar if I do.
I remember gum as a kid had flavor for days. You'd pop it out, leave it on the night stand and pop it right in the next day. We didn't have coronavirus's back then
Now, it's gone in what 10 minutes? On the personal side, I was given another old axe head that I cleaned up and is destined to be the permanent cabin axe. I took a stave of hickory and got to work on my shave horse. I learned a lot about some flaws in my design, but overcame them with some wooden dies I made to hold the axe handle a little more efficiently. I used my broad hatchet to get it close and then used the draw knife. Dang, I love that shave horse! I can do so much better work than trying to pinch it in a vise. The only thing I did wrong was that the grain orientation should be parallel with the axe blade. Since I started with a rather bad stave of hickory for bow making, but good for an axe handle, it was split out to make a bow. This left me with no other choice than orienting the grain perpendicular to the blade. Other than that, the grain runs straight from end to end without any run-out spots where breakage tends to happen. I guess I'll use it until it breaks. I also found a knot in it that I'm going to leave raised for strength. It's in the perfect spot grip wise for short chopping work.
For those who have old dusty axes and old dusty tools, rather than junk them send em to me and I'll give them a second life! Unless it's severely broken, it can be fixed and put back into service. I think I love that just about as much as using them. There's something about rescuing something that is old, dirty, and forgotten that jazzes me up. Still too cold for me to fire up the forge.
Had a beautiful shave this morning on a Feather blade that is at it's end of use life for me. I skipped shaving yesterday and dug out the MW soap for this morning's shave. Man that's nice to shave after skipping a day! I'd love to do that every week, but I have being that scratchy. Otherwise, the Williams soap has been straight par in performance with my daily shower shaves. I think it's safe to say, if I was a traveling man and needed a short shave routine, I'd pack my favorite razor, Williams mug soap, and do the shower shaves.
On the personal side of things, I went last week and collected the things a flintknapping friend left me in his will. Sad to go through his stuff, but I felt blessed to receive it. In his tools and things I spotted the below hatchet:
For those who know anything about axes, Swedish steel is some of the best in the world. This Sandvik axe head was made pre-1960's in Sweden by a forge that's been going since the 1800's. The head was not drop forged because you can still see the power hammer marks where they defined the area below the eye. The handle on this little lady is all wrong. I HATE curved handles with fawn foot ends. The head is too heavy for such a short handle so I made my own handle out of hickory using my newly made shave horse. Before that I cleaned up the head with a wire cup brush on the angle grinder and some dental tools to pick out all that orange paint from the forge scale pits and the stamped letters / numbers. The poll end was also badly mushroomed from abuse. You should never strike the poll end of an axe with a sledge! That's what they make metal, plastic, & wood wedges for. I ground the poll back to a gentle profile, flap disked it, and then put cut bluing agents on it so I didn't have a bright shiny poll. So far, I've got the haft done and need to cut the kerf, wedge it, and then put a final finish on it. I'll post pictures when it's done. With the longer handle I made, it's got more of a belt axe / tomahawk look to it and I've fallen in love with it. I can see a should belt sheath being made for it in the near future so it can come with me whenever I'm in the woods.
I also finished clearing the old stage coach turnpike on my property. Mike's Pike is open! We drove down it for the first time and it's very nice to be able to drive on my property to get to the cabin instead of driving on the road. Here are pictures:
Here's a picture of some trees I'm hand hewing just for fun and exercise. I made a mess out of that log learning what I was doing and plan on going back to correct it shortly to clean it up a bit. Learning to use a broad axe is not as easy as one might think.
Historical research showed that the old stage coach route followed right below the old Indian trail, and here's a picture of the Indian trail right above the stage coach route. I still have to clear it and it was used as a snowmobile trail for decades so it's probably been widened in places. Picture below:
I find keeping busy allows me to stay healthy through all this COVID-19 stuff. My government agency is talking about furloughs and lay-offs presently. I'm hoping to weather that coming storm because nobody can do what I do. I'd probably make more on unemployment with the level of compensation they are offering and I think that's the idea behind kicking the can on down the road.
On the personal side of things, I went last week and collected the things a flintknapping friend left me in his will. Sad to go through his stuff, but I felt blessed to receive it. In his tools and things I spotted the below hatchet:
For those who know anything about axes, Swedish steel is some of the best in the world. This Sandvik axe head was made pre-1960's in Sweden by a forge that's been going since the 1800's. The head was not drop forged because you can still see the power hammer marks where they defined the area below the eye. The handle on this little lady is all wrong. I HATE curved handles with fawn foot ends. The head is too heavy for such a short handle so I made my own handle out of hickory using my newly made shave horse. Before that I cleaned up the head with a wire cup brush on the angle grinder and some dental tools to pick out all that orange paint from the forge scale pits and the stamped letters / numbers. The poll end was also badly mushroomed from abuse. You should never strike the poll end of an axe with a sledge! That's what they make metal, plastic, & wood wedges for. I ground the poll back to a gentle profile, flap disked it, and then put cut bluing agents on it so I didn't have a bright shiny poll. So far, I've got the haft done and need to cut the kerf, wedge it, and then put a final finish on it. I'll post pictures when it's done. With the longer handle I made, it's got more of a belt axe / tomahawk look to it and I've fallen in love with it. I can see a should belt sheath being made for it in the near future so it can come with me whenever I'm in the woods.
I also finished clearing the old stage coach turnpike on my property. Mike's Pike is open! We drove down it for the first time and it's very nice to be able to drive on my property to get to the cabin instead of driving on the road. Here are pictures:
Here's a picture of some trees I'm hand hewing just for fun and exercise. I made a mess out of that log learning what I was doing and plan on going back to correct it shortly to clean it up a bit. Learning to use a broad axe is not as easy as one might think.
Historical research showed that the old stage coach route followed right below the old Indian trail, and here's a picture of the Indian trail right above the stage coach route. I still have to clear it and it was used as a snowmobile trail for decades so it's probably been widened in places. Picture below:
I find keeping busy allows me to stay healthy through all this COVID-19 stuff. My government agency is talking about furloughs and lay-offs presently. I'm hoping to weather that coming storm because nobody can do what I do. I'd probably make more on unemployment with the level of compensation they are offering and I think that's the idea behind kicking the can on down the road.