Oilstone Boxes


G S Haydon

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I think I said at the end of my bench build I was looking forward to making something else rather than shop funiture and the like.........

So with that in mind I completely changed my mind and did some more of that kinda stuff. My inspiration for this came from page 42 of "Joinery & Carpentry 1931 New Era Publishing". On that page was a sweet looking oilstone box with a double ogee base and a pitched roof cover. I have also seen Adam Cherubini and Chris Schwarz have vintage offering that look very similar but are minus the cool pitched roof.

 

I was initially reluctant to post the project here as I did a video on the process (go right to the very bottom if you want to see that monster). Done with the minium of though I shot some fottage and joined it all up. I soon learned how I needed to improve and that should hopefuly be reflected in my next video & project journal which will be on making one of these  

 

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Anyhoo back to the oil stone boxes. I had three to do in total for the three stones I have, India Combo, Washita & Hard Arkansas. Timber of choice was some offcuts of sapele which will hopefully darken over time giving some nice rich tones.

 

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I made a template for my prefered shape on a scrap of cardboard and tranfered it to the wood.

 

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The stone centred and drawn around and lines reinforced with marking and cutting gauges.

 

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I then went caveman on the housing. I could not really use a brace and bit as the lead scre might poke through the shape below and besides it might be the sadistic side in me but I do love to chop a mortice. The hammer in shot was a bit of an experiment, a copper rawhide type normally used in automtive. It's actually quite punchy although it looks a little weird in this setting. I finished off the base of the housing with a hand router. This was the worst bit of the video (I blame the grain direction :lol:)

 

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I then added some saw cuts to underside so I could hog of the waste quickly with a chisel.

 

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Then it was refining the shape which was done with a loose #4 blade as a scrape, chisel, 1/2" paring gouge, and some sand paper.

 

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I did stop with the build photo's there as I could feel in my plums that this was not as good as it should be. Although if you watch the vid it's all there, saw, jack plane, smoothing plane.  

 

The finish was a honing oil (baby oil) applied with a rag. Boom!

 

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Now some context shots

 

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Now if you have the guts for it here's the vid

 

http://youtu.be/0a3V6IHg4is

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Graham,  What size are the Arkansas stones, and do you not have a Black Hard?

 

I wish Washita stones were still available.  I bought a set of Arkansas stones in '74, and they were thrown outside by a tornado hitting a boat business I had in 1988.  The Washita and Hard stones were broken right in the middle.  I have since bought a set of larger, thicker stones from Halls, but they don't have Washita, at least not like it used to be.  The first Washita was a great, fast cutting stone.

 

If you don't have a Black stone, I'll send you the one I have from the first set.  The new Black one works the same as the old one, and I have no use for 2.  It finishes a great, super sharp edge.

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Tiods thank you but it does fall short of what I expect on a video, I will be shooting some more over the festive period which I hope will be better.

 

Eric, reponses like that bring a smile to my face :).

 

Tom, thanks for asking. My stones are very much budget options, sourcing oilstones in the UK is a bit crap. If I had to do it again I would simply pay shipping from the us which is around $30>40 dollars. The sizes are all 8 x 2 which is something I feel familar with, I would be happy to sacricle some width for extra length (yeah I know how that sounds :)). 

I would like like to try a Black, many of the books talk about these being used for surgical instruments so they must be pretty awesome :ph34r:. That is such a kind offer but that shipping charge is gonna beak your balls and would make me feel a bit uncomfortable, if we lived on the same side of the pond I would take you up on it though.

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I'll check the shipping.  It's just a 6x2x1/2, so it might not be too bad.  It only costs 7 or 8 dollars to get a molding plane shipping from over there. A metal plane goes up to about 50 bucks or more, so I haven't bought any of them from the UK.   I'll check when I get a chance after Christmas.  If it's not too bad, I'll go ahead and send it.

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I'm not worried about something in return.  I'll be glad for someone who might appreciate the stone to have it.  It's just extra weight in the Sharpen toolbox now.  I've been buying 2 or 3 molding planes from the UK most weeks for a while now.  They're usually in much better shape than ones found over here.  They must keep them in houses there, where here most seem to come out of barns.

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