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Well, to start, today's squares really are pretty cheap and it wouldn't cost much more than the materials if you are going to make it out of metal.
However, making one out of wood, if you have a rectangle with the opposite sides the same length, then measuring the distance between opposite corners is the way to go. When both measurements are equal, all ...
12
They are designed to smooth round things like wheel spokes and chair legs.
According to this nice blurb from Wikipedia:
A spokeshave is a tool used to shape and smooth wooden rods and shafts - often for use as wheel spokes, chair legs (particularly complex shapes such as the cabriole leg),[1] self bows, and arrows. It can also be used to carve canoe or ...
12
Hollow auger
U.S. Patent 203,384 is for a "Hollow auger" or more specifically for improvements to a hollow auger. "What's a hollow auger?" you ask. Well, as @Keshlam suggested it is a device for cutting tenons on chair rungs or spokes as demonstrated by a similar device on a You Tube video. It's a device that, rather than drilling a hole, it drills what ...
12
I am trying to figure out why that was the standard at the time.
Not sure if this is a chicken/egg issue, but I think the answer has to do with a tool called a brace.
The first braces were no more than curved pieces of wood with a tapered metal inlet at one end that received different bits. The bit was held in via the wedging action of the tapered end.
(...
10
There are a few common differences between Japanese and Western saws:
A decent Japanese saw is often cheaper than a decent Western saw.
The body mechanics of sawing are different--with a Japanese saw, you cut on the pull stroke and stand more in-line with the cut, whereas with a Western saw you cut on the push stroke and stand at an angle to the cut (so ...
10
So how can you make a square, without using a square? How were they originally made if the accuracy needed to be right, but modern methods of measurement and manufacture were not available.
Rope, and Pythagoras triangle.
A long time ago, the Great Pyramid of Giza was built. This was way before any modern, recognised system of working out a square - and yet ...
10
A draw knife is one traditional tool used to remove bark.
If you have a folding pocket knife, you might be able to hack it into a mini-draw-knife- wedge the tip into a small stick, use tape or twine to close up the split, then use the body of the knife as one handle, and the stick as the other.
10
So how can you make a square, without using a square?
There are two very simple methods, the first relies on measurement, the second is empirical.
If accurate measurement is available you can rely on the 3-4-5 rule, already referenced in the Answers you've received.
I happen to have just made an accurate pocket try square using this method:
Assembling ...
9
I can think of at least two options:
use the template on a duplicator
use the template to set
calipers
.... basically what keshlam said. The first if you have a duplicator you can use the template to make the shape. Most of us don't have a duplicator in our arsenal.
The other is to use calipers to take measurements at key places.
First you take and ...
9
It appears his right hand is holding something like a bow which I will assume is what is literally turning the wood.
Yes, he's using a bow lathe, a turning method that goes back at least as far as ancient Egypt and still in wide use by craftsmen in the Middle East, as well as in Africa and across Asia.
The photo in the Question is a bit murky, easier to ...
8
For this gauge, I would imaging that you scribe with both beams individually instead of scribing with both points active at the same time.
So, if you're setting up the inside cheek of the mortise, you scribe with the shorter beam. Then rotate the tool slightly and scribe the outside cheek with the longer beam. This is a similar system to the Veritas Dual ...
8
This is a tangential point to your main question but has a bearing on my suggested solution:
I have heard that the old-school way of creating a flat surface is to use a hand plane, and that if you use the right tools, you may not even have to sand because the surface is so smooth.
While that can be true it does tend to get overstated by some planing ...
8
This is another example (of many!) where terminology is used irregularly in the woodworking world.
To me witness marks or witness lines mean lines such as you'd quickly pencil over a board face prior to planing or scraping, they then witness the progress you've made so that you can see where you have and haven't worked the wood yet.
Marks such as the ...
7
Are there practical reasons to purchase Japanese saws to add them to my collection or are these just something I want to purchase as a gimmick?
Despite their obvious excellent qualities to be honest I think the answer is more in the realm of the gimmick/curiosity than a needed addition to the arsenal of a Western woodworker. In part this observation is ...
7
If you can draw straight lines, you can make a perfect right angle using a compass - see this simple diagram:
Draw straight line (1), then parts of a circle (2) and (3) - as long as they are centered on the same line and overlap, their exact distance doesn't matter. Join the two points A and B where they intersect with straight line (4).
You now have two ...
7
As @TXTurner suggests, a drawknife is great for bark removal. The dirt, grit, and grime in the bark will dull the blade faster, so it might be a good idea to have a drawknife dedicated for the task.
National Trails Training Partnership also suggests the following tools:
Bark/Peeling Spud
(source: TraditionalWoodworker.com)
(Carpenter) Adze
(source: Lee ...
7
I have tried in the past to make precision cuts using a hand saw and always have issues with the blade sticking or hopping out of the cut.
If by sticking you mean that the friction between the blade and the wood is very high, that could be one of a few problems:
The wood you are sawing is closing the kerf and pinching the blade,
Your cut isn't straight,
...
6
If you want to see how it was done 100 years ago without fancy modern tools you should really start with "The Woodwrights Shop" with Roy Underhill it's on PBS and has a lot of content available for streaming.
For your specific answer on how to make a square "square" Roy shows a really simple way in the episode "Try Square with Christopher Schwarz" http://...
6
I'm just starting out with woodworking, and as I don't have a project I want to complete as yet, I'm interested in making many of the tools I'd use as part of the learning process (mallets, squares, marker gauge etc).
This is how I am learning woodworking, and eventually metalworking, as well. It's a good way to go. Building squares is a nice little project....
6
Template-guided turning requires a jig which holds a tracing tip to follow the template, and a cutting tip that tracks this motion to bring the workpiece into conformance with that shape. It's sorta like pattern-guided routing, except that the wood spins rather than the cutter, and the pattern is farther from the wood to give it room to spin.
The other way ...
6
How can I improve the results I get?
Based on your pictures, I surmise that it's due to a combination of:
Your chisel not being sharp enough,
Planing against the grain,
Not having the edge of your chisel slightly proud of the side of the plane body, and
Taking too thick of a shaving with each pass.
I find it hard to control the depth of cut, tapping the ...
6
I would not approach it like this.
What I would recommend you do is pick a project you want to work on, and then get the tools you need for that project. Chances are very good that all or almost all of those tools will be needed for the next project, too. Whenever you encounter a task that can only be accomplished (or can be accomplished much easier) with ...
5
To understand its use, remember that the bed of the plan is very short compared to a hand plane. If there's any sort of arc in wood (concave), your plane may not cut at all because it will bridge the gaps. But with a much smaller bed, a spokeshave will cut.
A couple of examples where I've used it:
When I have an intentionally curved piece. Suppose I'm ...
5
The tool for this is called a scorp. There are small ones for carving out wooden spoons, and large ones for chair seats. They are like a drawknife, but curved.
Here's an example:
That said, unless you are making a lot of these, and willing to invest a fair amount of effort, it might not be worth it to buy a scorp. A curved hand scraper (just a 3 x 8 or so ...
5
Was also going to suggest mini block planes as well for the outside of you "U". Their size lends to detail and you can easily shape the blades to be soothing blades which prevent the edges from digging in (More used for flat surfaces but if you already own these tools it could work.)
While looking at pictures I also found references to shaping planes which ...
5
There is a compass plane, a plane with bent or bendable sole.
Unfortunately I couldn't find an image with a proper license (sic)
The radius on a compass plane is probably too big for a stool.
There is also the spokeshave with much shorter sole.
It can be concave or flat or convex.
A third solution is to mount the stool top on something that lets it rotate ...
5
There are distinct sets of traditional marks for several purposes. At least some of the sets of marks have regional variations.
Reference face and edge marks
One common set of marks is a loop like a cursive lowercase l and an inverted v.
The loop marks the reference face which is the first face that has been flattened and levelled. All subsequent ...
5
Leaf springs from the pick&pull junkyard. Already has an eyelet, reasonably straight, beefy, sharpen-able, ... what's not to like? Heck, just come by my yard and see what you want. (Though from the looks of it, you're 2,928 miles away. Maybe start driving soon.)
5
Tradition plays a large role in it, but generally metal fasteners aren’t ideal:
Screws are strong, but unattractive.
Brads and other small nails are too weak to hold joints under much stress
Metal dowel will expand and contract at a different rate than the wood eventually loosening the joint
Wood glue doesn’t work on metal
There are plenty of workarounds ...
5
A lot of woodworkers enjoy the challenge of building stuff using only wood. There are greater and lesser degrees of this. Some people go so far as to build hinges and latches and locks out of wood, for example, though by tradition, most woodworkers metal hardware for these elements.
To expand on the points Coreyward made in his answer, the traditional ...
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