Tools For The Budding Luthier

Marktigere1

As above.

I would add that a good blade is essential with chisels.

Mine are very old Marples which I use for small shaving work and squaring. (Nut base as an example)

I only really use the 1" and 1/4" (approx as no markings) but they are very sharp when using the waterstones which helps immensely to prevent slippage which may damage the surface or worse damage you.

I believe chefs worry more about a blunt knife than a sharp one.  I believe that to be true of chisels as well. 

Have a look at Rutlands.  They have some nice chisels.

Cheers

Nomad

Sometimes, I'm happy to fettle tools to get them serviceable. Sometimes, I'm happy to make tools. However, as with most things, there's a need to find a balance between the time it takes to do that and the time it takes to earn the cash to buy tools with that already done. I could spend ages trawling eBay or car boot sales looking for old chisels and gouges, and plenty more time cleaning them up, maybe replacing handles, etc. If restoring old tools was what I wanted to do, that would be great, but this is one of those cases where I'd rather just have the tools and make use of them.

Consequently, I found the Ashley Iles web site and got...

Straight sweep gouges...
No3, 37mm
No 5, 37mm
No 6, 19mm
No 10, 15mm

Butt chisels...
3mm
6mm
12mm
37mm

The gouges are for carved tops, and the chisels are mainly for paring (the big one for squaring neck pockets). At 200 quid, I decided that earning the dough by sitting in a nice office drawing pretty pictures in 3D was preferable to spending chunks of time at home restoring old tools. So, that's that sorted for now.

What's the deal with the little violin maker's planes? I don't have much experience with planes, but I'm inclined towards ones that have some sort of screw adjustment. I did consider buying plane irons and making block planes (and may still consider it since some nice chisels are incoming), but I'd like to consider what's available ready made, especially if they're easier to set up and adjust.

WezV

I don't go searching for old tools, I keep my eyes open for old tools.

Roland

What do you use for sharpening your chisels?

Marktigere1

Nomad said:

I did consider buying plane irons and making block planes (and may still consider it since some nice chisels are incoming), but I'd like to consider what's available ready made, especially if they're easier to set up and adjust. 

I needed a No. 4 and No.7 plane and did the look on Ebay thing etc etc.

In the end I bought Axminster Rider planes (4 & 7) and glad I did.

I have a Record, Bailey classic No 4 1/2 and the Rider's are as good.  They also do the small block planes.

Worth a look.

Nomad

WezV said:

I don't go searching for old tools, I keep my eyes open for old tools.

In this case, I decided to do neither.

Nomad

Marktigere1 said:

I needed a No. 4 and No.7 plane and did the look on Ebay thing etc etc.

In the end I bought Axminster Rider planes (4 & 7) and glad I did.

I have a Record, Bailey classic No 4 1/2 and the Rider's are as good.  They also do the small block planes.

Worth a look.

Cheers, Mark. A No7 is in the plan. I currently have a cheapie block plane (about 7" long) and an Irwin/Record No4, but I need to practice a bit before I go spending on bench planes - my technique doesn't seem to yield flat things very well. They have been sharpened on wet stones and stropped.

WezV

Nomad;996294" said:

WezV said:

I don't go searching for old tools, I keep my eyes open for old tools.





In this case, I decided to do neither.

Well hopefully my advice will be useful to someone, even if its no use to you.

WezV

I do have a few of the little ibex finger planes I brought new. They are not the kind of tool you find many other places.

I do have a big round bottomed plane which was a second hand find. I think its a coopers plane. Bit too big for most guitar stuff though

Marktigere1

Nomad said:

I need to practice a bit before I go spending on bench planes - my technique doesn't seem to yield flat things very well. They have been sharpened on wet stones and stropped.

Short planes (no 4 etc) can result in this.

When I am jointing two bodies together (leave it) I always use the No 7.  Its a bit of a beast but I use candle wax on its base and take small cuts at a time.  The blade is also razor sharp which does help.  The finish is almost polished which I have been led to believe is what you are aiming for.  Don't always achieve it mind 

I find planing one of the more satisfying woodworking activities but it does take practice and I am far from an expert. Always learning technique me.

Also, I never plane straight, always have the plane at a slight angle to the direction of travel.  More comfortable and yields good results.  Ben from Crimson Guitars does it that way as well so I'm happy.

Nomad

Thanks Wez. How do you find the shape of the Ibex planes? I was looking at the rectangular-shaped ones at Dictum (Herdim branded), but found a comment somewhere that the oval shape of the Ibex ones is better for access on some stuff. Not sure if that applies to carved guitar tops, though - they seem quite large and open to me. Any particular sizes worth getting? I'm thinking of an 18mm one for now.

Cheers Mark - I went to Axminster and got a 4-1/2 and a 7. So far, they seem like good tools for the money. The finish is generally a bit better than my Irwin/Record No4, and I notice that the latter doesn't have an adjustment screw for the frog (didn't realise the Riders had that at first). The lateral adjustment bar on the Irwin/Record isn't centred when the blade is parallel with the mouth (the cam bit at the end is markedly off centre from its pivot). I haven't honed the Rider blades yet, but they cut quite well with the factory edge - I'll give that a go soon.

Planing at an angle will present a longer edge for the width being cut, and introduce a slicing component to the motion, so I'd imagine the cut would be a bit easier and potentially smoother.

I have to say, Axminster don't mess about when it comes to getting stuff delivered - ordered Thursday at 1:30pm, arrived next day at 11:30am. (Crimson have been a bit disappointing in comparison - ordered a week past Thursday, something out of stock, finally shipped last Thursday, and due to arrive on Monday. And I had to ask what was happening - no comms to notify me of the delay, and no offer to change or cancel the order.)

@Roland, I use Japanese water stones and a home made two-sided leather-faced strop loaded with polishing compound (two grades). The stones are 800, 1200 and 6000 grit. Used this setup for doing knives, and a very fine edge can be achieved. Not the cheapest, though - probably £100 for the set I have with a bit of shopping around. It's this...

http://www.axminster.co.uk/ice-bear-waterstone-sharpening-kit-810204

...plus a 1200 grit stone. I got them a few years ago from somewhere that was doing the main kit for 54 quid (and had to wait weeks for them to come into stock). I also have a small double-sided ceramic stone (Spyderco Doublestuff), which is excellent for touching up blades when out and about. It's also very hard and I'll be giving it a try for cabinet scrapers (not keen on doing those on the water stones due to potentially wearing grooves into them). I use water on the ceramic stone as well - I don't like using oil because I feel water flushes out the crud and metal particles better. Unlike the water stones, the ceramic tends to lose its grit after some use and then stays at the new grit - it started as a medium/fine, and now feels like a fine and very fine.

In other news, I ordered some 50x25mm aluminium box section with 3mm wall thickness from this place...

https://www.aluminiumwarehouse.co.uk/

...for making levelling beams. Their prices are very good, although delivery at £15 means you have to order a decent amount of metal for it to be worthwhile (it tends to come in proper lengths, like 2.5 and 5m, anyway). They also have a cutting service which is very reasonable at 50p per cut. I ordered a 2.5m length, with bits cut to 200, 300, 400 and 500mm, with a remaining bit just over 1m long (which will go into stock for some unknown future use). Total cost was about 35 quid, which adds up to a lot of levelling beams on the cheap. I have a granite surface plate at work, so the first thing I'll do is check the flatness of the extruded product. If I feel it's needed, I'll skim the surfaces. Delivery is next day, but they need 2-5 days to schedule the cutting job through their workshop. I'll report further when they arrive.