Changing a tool's DNA

I was catching up on my reading and found an odd post written by The Schwarz where he mentioned "a chisel with rasp-like teeth on its shank". It sounded like a joke to me...

Everyone who's been reading Chris' blog for a while knows he's a funny guy, but he's also a talented and knowledgeable woodworker, and above all, a professional journalist. So I gave it a second though and realized I wanted to see what that joke of a tool was all about.

A quick Google search and there it was, right on the first page and being sold on Amazon, the Nicholson WoodChuck Chisel Rasp Set! And it looks freaking odd, like someone decided to play with the tool's DNA and the result wasn't quite what they expected.



A few questions cross my mind:

• How do you flatten the back of the chisel on your precious stones?
• How to you do a paring cut without denting the surface around?
• Do you hold the tip of the tool while using the rasp? Watch out, it's the cutting edge!!

The more I think about it the more I want to go to my shop and take some paring shavings with my Japanese chisels and maybe smooth some curves with my Auriou rasp.

Handplane anatomy

Bench planes are without doubt the most used tools on a hand tool shop. You can use them to prepare your rough boards - remove all the cups, bows and twists, plane it down to the thickness you want and smooth the surface in preparation for finishing.

While this task may require various tools like a scrub plane, a jointer, a jack and a smoother, most share the same anatomy. Take a look at the exploded diagram on the left (click on it for a larger view) and you can get familiar with all the terminology and part names used on a hand plane.

Enjoy:

• Handplane Anatomy
  

Blog update - Google Search

I decided it was time to add a search feature to the blog and after a little research I found that Google provides a couple of widgets you can easily add to any site and make it search enabled within minutes.

The first widget adds the search box which you can place anywhere on all pages of your website while the second is for the search results which you'll add to a single page. It's better to leave this one in a page on its own since it will take up considerable screen space.

Google offers two versions of the custom search, one that costs $100 per year and a free version where they'll display some ads on your website.

While at it I also added a few AdSense banners, mostly because I've always felt a little curiosity about this advertisement medium and its effectiveness. Now I'll be able to experience how effective it actually is.

To finish the tweaking session I also changed the blog RSS feed through FeedBurner so I can monitor its the usage statistics. I setup the server to redirect the visitors from the old feed url to the new one but please drop me a line if you stop getting my posts in your feed reader.

Woodworking wallpapers

While checking out some Lie-Nielsen tools I've been considering buying I came across a set of six high quality wallpapers you might like to see on your computer screen.

I particularly enjoy the one above - most probably because it's black & white and it features the LN smoothing plane that's been on my wish list for quite some time.

Unfortunately they're only 1024 x 768 pixels and it looks rather stretched on my screen. Click on the photo to access the other five wallpapers.