June/ July Chair Build

Well as Brian has said many a time, "Life happens".  Such is the case with me.  I did manage to get a chance to finish carving the spindles for my chair last Saturday.  Before I did that I took a few minutes to sharpen my drawknives.  While the edges felt sharp and would grab a finger nail, I could tell by the way they were cutting it was time for a quick tune-up.

Bevel down knife and the Drawsharp

Pete Galbert in conjunction with Jameel Abraham of Benchcrafted fame, developed the Drawsharp.  It is a wonderful tool for quickly sharpening/honing the edge of a drawknife.  Check it out here on the Benchcrafted site and on Pete's blog.

I was able to get the spindles roughed out into octagonal shapes and set aside to begin to dry.  I let them sit for a bit before exposing them to the heat in the attic, my present day kiln that only works in the summer months.  This keeps the pieces from warping and splitting.  I was curious so tonight I checked an extra spindles moisture content and was happy to see it had gone form 35% to 15% since Saturday.  Now I cam put them in the attic to begin super drying them.

Spindle at 15% EMC.  Time to put in the attic.

I finished the night off by doing a bit of redesigning of a stool seat.  What I did was increase the size by 10% and changed a few sight line, rake and splay angles.  Nothing drastic from the original design, but it is something that I have been wanting to do and now that I have someone wanting a stool I have the opportunity.

In shop design session.

Next I will be finishing up the arm for the chair and preparing to do the final assembly.  Hopefully the sun will come out and heat up the attic so that I may finish up the June Chair Build by the end of next week.  If not I may just have to finally break down and build a kiln.  Until the next time be well and be safe.

~ Ray Schwanenberger

Drawknife Rehab - The Conclusion

It has taken a bit longer than expected, as usual, to complete the rehab.  However, after a few minor bumps in the road, it is done!  In the last episode I left off needing to hone an edge on the newly ground bevel.  So with great anticipation I went to the drawer that holds my new Galbert Drawsharp.  Are you are asking yourself; "What is this new fangled contraption of which he speaks"?

It is a wonderful tool for sharpening/honing drawknives.  It is the brain child of Chairmaker, instructor, raiser of goats and all around nice guy, Peter Galbert in collaboration with tool maker, artisan and all around nice guy Jamel Abraham of Benchcrafted.  Ok enough of the Bromance.  Check out the Drawsharp here.

Following the instructions I set the Drawsharp to hone the newly ground edge.  I started by making several passes with the diamond abrasive on the beveled edge until a burr was turned along the entire edge.  I then flipped the drawknife over and honed the back turning the burr back to the bevel side.  This left me with an even scratch pattern along both sides of the edge.

When using the Drawsharp you hold the drawknife as though it were a fiddle and move it over the blade.  Next, I turned the pads to the sandpaper sides and continued to turn the burr from bevel to back and back to bevel using a diminishing number of strokes until the burr had disappeared.

I have heard it said many a time, if a drawknife can cut Eastern White Pine end grain and leave it silky smooth, it is truly sharp.  Well, I am short on EWP.  However, I have a plenty of Sugar Pine.  Sugar Pine is a bit harder and more dense than EWP, but only slightly.  So without any handles I put the edge to the pine.  Not the results I was hoping for.

As you can see the cut bore evidence of fine nicks in the edge.  I retrieved my jewelers loop to closely inspect the edge.  As I feared and suspected, the pitting on the back was not going to allow me to produce a keen edge.

This meant one of two things, either scrap the project here and now or attempt to remove the pitting from the back.  I don't know about you, but at times like these I hear voices; in an English accent I hear "What the bloody hell, get to work".  It might be a dead relative?  So it was, I took a file and worked the back of the drawknife, taking care to keep it as flat as humanly possible.  After removing about 1/4" to 3/8" of the pitting back from the edge I put the drawknife to a series of water stones stopping at 8000 grit.

 I repeated the honing process with the drawsharp and the final results were this.

As you can see there is still evidence of a tiny nick caused by the pitting.  I looked with the loop again and found it to be close to the end of the blade.  It was a go for the handles.  I thought about using paduck or purple heart but decided on good old cherry.  Why?  J.W. Mix & Co. was the maker of the drawknife and my research revealed the company was in New Haven, CT.  I felt it was only fitting to use a beautiful American hardwood on this old American drawknife.  I remembered my brother-in-law giving me some old cherry sticks that he salvaged out of a 19th century home, so I went digging.

This was my step drilling gauge for each handle and the handle pattern.  Each handle needed to be step drilled to accommodate the handle tangs that transition from rectilinear to round.

Now let it be known far and wide, I am not a woodturner.  I would someday like to be very proficient, that being said, this process took me probably three times as long as someone who knows what the heck they are doing would have taken.  Whew, that felt good to get that off my chest.  First I roughed out the cylinders then I step drilled each one.

Next I put the blanks between centers and began shaping the handles.  This process was much like turning legs for chairs, only smaller.  I was feeling my oats and thought I would use a skew chisel to give it that extra nice touch.

As you can see, I was humbled and put the skew away for yet another day.

Here are the finished handles drying.  The three dark rings were scribed with a skew and then burnt in with an old guitar G-String.  The finish is shellac put on while spinning on the lathe, then burnished with shavings.  After that, I wiped on several coats of an oil varnish mix.  The only thing left was to put the handles on the drawknife.

First I annealed the tang ends by heating them to a cherry red and letting them cool.  This made it easy to peen them over.  Thanks for the heads up Pete.  I really, really like the look of natural cherry and black together so I decided to paint the ferrule's and caps black.

A drawknife that could have easily been destined to be on the wall at a Cracker Barrel will now be residing on the wall above my bench waiting to be put into service.

With every project I try to learn something.  I take away from this project; The importance of finding edge tools that are free of or have very little pitting; That some tools are worth the extra effort to make them usable again; That investing my money in good tools made by good people is worth 10 fold the expenditure; That investing some time in learning to use a skew chisel would be a wise investment.

I hope that I have been able to provide you with some good information.  Information that will encourage you to get into your shop and try something new.  This is how we learn, by pushing ourselves outside of our comfort zone.  So let's go to the shop and do something new and exciting, and always be safe.

~ Ray Schwanenberger

Drawknife Rehab - Part 4

Yesterday my day began a little before sunrise with a trip to my good friend Ralph's farm in the flat lands of eastern Indiana to pick up a little hard maple.  It was a beautiful drive with the fresh snow on everything and as the sun came up revealing a crystal blue sky.  After I got a close look at the pieces I think I may have some figured maple on my hands.  These are not ideal for leg blanks for my windsor chairs but I think I will be able to use them for another project.  That of course will be another post.

After an equally beautiful trip home I parked the truck and headed into the shop.  It was time to get back to rehabbing my old drawknife.  This next step, grinding the blade to remove the chip/nick, was the one that was going to determine if this was the end of the trail for this project or if I was going to be able to continue and make this a usable drawknife.

I had several concerns moving forward.  The one concern that loomed greatly in the back of my mind was a matter I had never considered or heard of, until Paul Frederick brought it to my attention in a comment. Hydrogen Embrittlement.  My understanding of hydrogen embrittlement is that atoms of hydrogen are absorbed into the steels atomic lattice like structure which causes the steel to become brittle.  Hydrogen embrittlement may have occurred to some extent because I removed the rust using electrolysis.

Michael Olsen is an electrical engineer that read the post and left this comment:  "I would be skeptical of embrittlement considering the relatively low energy levels used.  Most such brittleness occurs in either high voltage electrolysis of thicker material or combined low voltage and thin sheeting".  Michael gave a very interesting and more in depth explanation in his comment that helped put my mind at ease.

Further research revealed that the passage of time, letting the piece sit for an undetermined amount of time, or baking the piece at 200 degrees Celsius (392 degrees F) for four hours, would cause the hydrogen to be dislodged from the steel.  Since the knife sat over the Holidays it was off to the grinder.

In the picture above is the jig I use for grinding drawknives.  This jig is one that came from the wonderful mind of Pete Galbert.  If you are interested in building this wonderful jig and learn how to use it check it out here.  There is no need for me to try to explain what Pete has already done so well.  The first thing I had to do was to prep the spine of the drawknife.  I filed, sanded, and waxed the spine to ensure that it would slide easily over the hardened steel pins of the jig.  As a side note, since I do not have a designated spot in my small shop to work on metal, I take great care to shop vac, often, the metal filings so that I do not discover them in a future woodworking project.

After preparing the spine I adjusted the jig so that the wheel would be grinding in the middle of the existing bevel.  I measured this to be roughly 25 degrees.  I used no real forward pressure on the knife just enough to keep it in contact with the stone without jumping, and moved the knife back and forth across the spinning stone.  I do use a slow speed grinder.  While I was making progress it was taking quite a long time to get down to the bottom of the chip/nick.  So I decided to employ a method I have used on nicked plane irons in the past.

I used a set of dividers to gauge the distance from the spine to just at the bottom of the nick and scribed a line onto the newly ground bevel.  I then marked the metal that was to be removed with a red Sharpie.  Here is where the process goes against everything that seems correct.  I laid the flat back of the knife onto a grinder table and ground the edge of the knife to the scribe mark.  Zip-A-Dee-Do-Dah and Bob's your uncle, no more chip/nick.  Now what remained was a relatively large flat where a sharp edge is supposed to be.  I highlighted it in red so it would be easier to see.  Now it was back to grinding using the grinding jig.

With a little more time I was able to grind a nice even bevel across the knife and it is now ready for honing.  I was so excited to be able to reach this point of the restoration without the drawknife cracking due to possible hydrogen embrittlement and to discover, at least at this point, it appears the pitting that remains is not deep enough to prevent me from obtaining a good edge.  However, this will only be fully realized when I finish honing.  I was so pumped up over the results I broke out all of my old drawknives that needed to have the bevels reground and went to work.  In a matter of thirty minutes I was done.

The next thing that needed to be done was to make the angle of the handle tangs as close as possible to the same in a position that was comfortable to me.  It turned out to be just about 83 degrees.  I was able to accomplish this very easily without heating the steel.  I clamped the tang up to the bend in my leg vise and ever so gently moved the blade to obtain the desired angle.  I then ensured that the tangs were in line with the back of the blade.

What determines if a drawknife is bevel up or bevel down?  If the handles are in line with the back of the spine it is a bevel down knife.  When in use with the bevel down the hands and wrists will be comfortably in a downward position.  It is not very comfortable, nor is it recommended, to use a drawknife with the wrists cocked upward in an unnatural position.  By laying the knife on its back and then on its bevel, it readily becomes evident as to which way the drawknife is to be used.

In the next exciting episode of Drawknife Rehab, I will be posting on honing the edge, starring the amazing Galbert Drawsharp. If all goes as planned, I will be including the turning and installation of the handles.  So stay tuned for the next exciting episode of Drawknife Rehab.  Yeah I know, my bubble is a bit off.

~ Ray Schwanenberger

Drawknife Rehab - Part 3

This will be a much shorter post today.  I mentioned in the last post that I put the ferrells and caps into 5% acidity vinegar to finish removing the rust on the inside surfaces.  Within minutes there were bubbles forming on the pieces and the rust particles were floating in the vinegar within an hour.  These four pieces remained in the vinegar for 30 hours.  I then rinsed them in tap water, filled the jar with water and added baking soda to it.  As for how much, well I used a very old scientific method, Gravity!  When a clump fell out of the box that was the amount used.  This is just to neutralize any remaining acid from the vinegar.

First 15 minutes in vinegar

After 30 hours in vinegar

In solution of water and baking soda

 After drying the pieces off I wire brushed inside and out and coated with protective oil.  Hint: a 1/2" plumbers brush was just the ticket for doing the inside of the ferrells.

I also measured the flair of the tangs on the drawknife today and determined I will need to make some adjustments to them before replacing the handles.  The tangs for the most part are in line with the blade making it a drawknife best used as a bevel down knife.  Just what I want.

I will check the angles on one of my favorite drawknives and most likely adjust this knife to match as closely as possible.  My instinct tells me it should be fairly close to the 83.75 degrees pictured above.

The last post has had some great reader comments.  I greatly appreciate that you take the time to read my blog and even more so that you take the time and effort to contribute with your comments.  One concern brought to light by a reader was Hydrogen Embrittlement.  There have been some wonderful contributions concerning this and they can be found in the last posts comments.

~ Ray Schwanenberger

Drawknife Rehab - Part 2

As luck would have it, just as I was making great progress on this project, I had to go out to work.  I guess that is how it is when one is semi-retired.  In an attempt to be as thorough as I can this will be a rather lengthy post.

Well I'm back and lets take up where I left off a few weeks ago.  I searched the shop and house for the materials needed to remove the rust using electrolysis and the only thing I had was the baking soda.  I purchased a plastic container to use as the electrolysis tank, 8' of 1/2" rebar to use as sacrificial steel, rebar tie wire to connect the rebar together and to tie to the drawknife so that it could be suspended in the tank, and the total cost was less than $12.  I borrowed the battery charger from my neighbor Rusty (isn't that ironic).

First step was to wire the rebar together as evenly spaced around the tank as possible.  All my research indicated that removing rust using electrolysis is a point to point process.  So to avoid any shadowed or blind spots the drawknife needed to be surrounded by the sacrificial steel.  The longer piece of rebar on the left is where I clamp the positive side of the battery charger making the rebar the anode.

Next I filled the tank with water and added 1 tablespoon of baking soda per gallon of water.  Mix this thoroughly, stirring until the solution is clear.  This is the alkaline solution needed.  Some individuals recommended using sodium bicarbonate NaHCO3 (baking soda) while others recommended using sodium carbonate Na2CO3 (Arm & Hammer Super Wash).  I am not a chemist and I know that there is a difference between the two, but I'm not sure exactly what the difference is in regards to removing rust using electrolysis.  By the way, both camps results were the same, the rust was removed.  So the deciding factor was, the baking soda was in the pantry.  I then wired the drawknife to a piece of wood and submerged it in the tank.  The drawknife will be the cathode once the negative cable of the battery charger is attached.

Take great care to ensure the drawknife or any other parts do not come into contact with the rebar!  Next, I attached the positive cable to the rebar and the negative cable of the battery charger to one of the wires around the drawknife.  I made sure that both cable clamps were out of the water.  Once I ensured that everything was as it should be I plugged it in.  Almost immediately I saw a reaction take place.  Another word of caution: If for any reason you should have to move anything in the tank unplug the battery charger first!

After 32 hours I had to remove the drawknife from the tank.  At that point in time it appeared that 99% of the red rust was removed from the drawknife.  The ferrells and caps however still had a bit of rust remaining, especially on the inside of the ferrells.  I rinsed off the drawknife, ferrells and caps while wire brushing them, then I coated them with a protective layer of oil.

There is a good bit of pitting from the rust, hopefully it will take a good edge.

Red rust is removed and the black rust is stabilized and adhered to good metal.

Name stamped into the drawknife was preserved because electrolysis was used to remove the rust.

Metal Protection from Felder, good stuff!

The sludge that remained in the tank was gnarly looking.  The rebar had collected the rust just like it was supposed to.

Earlier today I cleaned the protective coating off the caps and ferrells.  I then placed them in a glass jar covering them with vinegar (5% acidity).  I will remove them in the morning, rinse them with water, then put them back in the jar covering the pieces with a mixture of water and backing soda.  I will leave them in this mixture for a few minutes to neutralize any remaining vinegar then wire brush them.  Hopefully this will remove the remaining rust and I can apply the protective oil.

If I am unable to get a post made prior to Christmas my family and I would like to wish you a very Merry Christmas and a safe and prosperous New Year.


~ Ray Schwanenberger