NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 1983, No. 43, $3.50 Making ... - Wood Tools

Q & (continued)
A
very old pieces that come into his shop.
For best results, you must have a snug fit berween the
groove and the inlay, and a good glue bond. A syringe with a
No. 19 needle puts the glue neatly in the groove.
Some people recommend using celluloid for string inlay
(available from Constantine's, 2050 Eastchester Rd., Bronx,
N.Y. lO461) because it bends easily around short-radius
curves and isn't affected by stain, but I have never tried it.
Furniture glue will not hold it, and varnish remover dissolves
it into a stringy, tubbery mess.
Japanese chisels-I recently purchased a set of Japanese
chisels. When used with a carvers' mallet, the chisels tend
to chip or become dull fa r too quickly. This is the first set
of expensive chisels I've ever bought, and I wonder if I'm
expecting too much. -Richard D. Stone, Middletown, Ohio
TOSHIO OOATE REPLIES: When new, a well-tempered Japanese
blade is slightly harsh and on the brittle side. Most Japanese
craftsmen prefer a blade that is a little harsh when new because
this shows that it was properly tempered. The very fine
edge becomes extremely hard when the blade is temperedharder
than is easy to work with. This problem occurs more
often with chisels than plane blades because a chisel edge
must withstand the shock from a hammer blow. Thus, no
craftsman will use a new blade, even the most expensive, as a
finishing blade. A new blade, like a wild stallion, must first
go through a breaking-in period called "taming the blade."
Use a new blade vigorously and sharpen it frequently. Even
though water is the lubricant on the sharpening stOne, pushing
the blade across the stOne causes friction, which creates
enough heat to slightly draw the temper of the very thin
edge. To keep the cutting edge from chipping, sharpen the
blade normally (see my article on sharpening in FWW #29),
then feather the edge lightly on the finishing stOne. Feather
for one stroke and then rub
the back flat as usual. Repeat
this several times. Every time
It�
Feathering
the edge
you sharpen the blade, finish
by feathering. After about a
�.
week of vigorous use, you'll
be able to omit the feathering
step and sharpen the 8fpf
r .
blade normally.
FWW
If you treat
the blade this way, you can
tame the well-tempered blade
without sacrificing its qualiry.
Lapstrake plans-I've just read the lapstrake boatbuilding
article in #36, and I'm particularly interested in
plans, books or general information on Alfred Sovik 's contemporary
Oselver boat, pictured on p. 57. What can
you suggest? -Thomas M. Krause, Wauwatosa, Wis.
STEVE McALLISTER REPLIES: Oselver plans, and possibly information
about Sovik, can be obtained by writing to Universiteteis
Oldsaksamling,
&
Frederiks Gat 2, Oslo, Norway, Attn:
Emil Christenson; or from the Sjofartsmuseum, N-5000, Bergen,
Norway.
The book Norse Boatbuilding in North America has
lines for and photos of the Oselver. A wonderful book on the
general subject is Inshore Craft of Norway, published in
1977 by Frondahl Son, Oslo, Norway. These are both
available from the Maine Maritime Museum, 963 WashingtOn
St., Bath, Maine 04530.
'(\ .w: ' Blade
Colored inlay-A client of mine owns a 17th-century oak
slant-top desk made in Flanders. Floral inlays on the lid
16
have fa int traces of green and red under what remains of
the high-gloss finish. These don 't seem to be the natural
colors of the wood. How were these colors applied-dye,
stain or paint? -Hap Johnson, Thetford Center, Vt.
ROBERT MUSSEY REPLIES: Marquetry inlays were often dyed before
being cut to shape and assembled into a design. Veneers
were steeped in natural dyes which, depending on the color
desired, might have been a decoction of brazilwood, oak
bark, madder root, french berries or scarlet-colored rags.
Hundreds of old recipes document a wide range of natural
materials for producing a rainbow of colors. Most of these
dyes were fugitive, fading quickly on exposure to sunlight or
through oxidation. Dying went out of fashion in the late
18th century, when woods with a strong natural color were
more often used for marquetry.
Slicing a burl-I recently acquired a piece of white oak
burl, about 4 ft . in diameter, which weighs at least
1500 lb. How should it be cut? Should I keep it outside for
a year or two, or should it be sawn, stacked and cured in
my basement? I have a piece of plastic over the top, to keep
the rain off, and I have oiled the ends.
-Robert S. Wattles, Arlington, Va .
DAVID HOLZAPFEL REPLIES: Yours is the job of the diamond
cutter. How you cut your burl depends on what you intend to
make. A turner will see turning stOck in a burl, a furnituremaker
will see boards and a carver will see what needs to be
removed. The burl itself, its shape, seams and end checks will
also determine how it should be cut.
I would recommend that you ripsaw "through and
through," from tOp to bottom as the tree grows. Leave the
natural edge complete with bark. Don't crosscut, else the oak
will check terribly and you will lose a lot. Slice the burl as
soon as you can. The wood won't really begin to dry until
you do. Immediately coat the end of each board with white
glue, paint or tree surgeons' pruning tar. Since you will be
air-drying the wood, keep it stacked outside off the ground,
and cover it with a sheet of plywood or roofing tin to keep it
out of the sun and rain for a year or more. Then store it in a
heated room for another year. Use a moisture meter to be
sure that the wood is at lO% to 12% moisture content before
you use it. Good luck. Go slowly.
Finish-reviver-I recently found a recipe for a fu rniture
reviver that calls for raw linseed oil, vinegar and terebene.
My problem is that nobody has heard of terebene. The
chemical dictionary defines it as a "mixture of terpenes,
chiefly dipentene and terpenene. " Could you tell me who
sells it, or if it's called by another name?
-Joe Wolinski, Minneapolis, Minn.
ROBERT MUSSEY REPLIES: Terebene is a generic name applied to
a class of driers that were added to oils and varnishes during
the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Combined in formulas
containing linseed oil, terebene was supposed to keep the oil
from remaining sticky and gummy. One recipe for terebene I
found in an early-20th-century formula book is a mixture of
medium kauri (a copal varnish resin), boiled linseed oil, flake
litharge (a lead oxide), resinate of manganese (another metallic
oxide drier) and American turps. All of these are available
tOday except kauri-which may be just as well, since readily
available, commercially made driers are easier to use and
probably cheaper.
I don't suggest making and using this reviver. Even boiled
linseed oil remains tacky for years before it finally polymerizes,
and raw linseed is worse. It collects dirt and darkens with
age, eventually becoming black if applied repeatedly. Linseed