Pro bowler

The youngest turned 5 today and bowling was on his mind.

everyone had a great time!

started off with a power spare

continued to have fun.

and as it goes, all good times must come to an end.

Bottle caps

Making some more bottle caps.

magnet sandwich:

bottle cap

epoxy

2 washers

epoxy

magnet

clamp overnight 

the two washer elevate the crimped edge of the bottle cap so it doesn't scratch the refrigerator.

breadbox acts as specialty grain storage for home brewing.

some more caps.

cedar knot shrapnel

Working on another round of shipping crates and came across this gem of a cedar knot. 

every now and then table saw work will create this opportunity image, where the knot is really highlighted.

to keep working quickly i busted this slat at the knot, than finished the other dimensional cuts.

 i can't help but to admire the variety of the wood growth in a tree.

as a side note: when the table saw blade starts to slice into the knot it creates a sort of wood shrapnel effect that will pepper across your feed hand and possibly your face. 

safety glasses when working with saws is important for many reasons. wood shrapnel from knots is just one of them.

Mongolian delight and evil dead

Wifey and i enjoyed part 2 of our valentines day.

first - japanese beers washing down mongolian delight at the Crystal Jade.

excellent food, $1.88 beers (and a good selection) and a large red radish flower on my plate.

second - evil dead the musical  tickets. we had seats in the "spatter section".

this was the first movie i ever dazzled my wife with.

in return she got these tickets for a memorable v-day.

it was a GOOD NIGHT.

Restoring vintage hammers

Hammers are lined up and really are just needing to be hung.

as with all of my restored tools i want to keep the history of the tool present in the final product.

for this lot of hammers i have focused on re-milling the head and the claw poll up to the eye; while leaving the cheeks textured as i discovered them.

by the level of polish it will allow one to see the quality of steel 

and

 support my efforts to have a tool that looks and feels from our history,  but beyond the "old and tired".

the steel of these are very good. to be admired and enjoyed.

hammers have two functions: constructing and deconstructing.

for vintage hammers, i believe them to be best for finer woodworking projects.

i would leave the rough construction and deconstruction projects for the new titanium hammers or 

crap hammers whose life is best temporary. 

i leave a slight belly on all heads.

this will allow the nail to go below the surface of the plane that one is driving it into.

Dogs and the start of a minor snow storm

We are expecting 6-8 inches and then more over night.

by morning the total on the truck was just over 8.5".

Left over shower hair

Please tell me that others have this same issue:

What should a person do with the hair one's wife leaves behind when she uses his shower?

damn right,

make a "Grrr face" with it.

Scoreboard

Almost every game we play is best out of three 

and 

because of that some of the longer games or games that get interrupted need to be kept track of.

i had a bunch of trim around and put together this simple score board.

also found a purpose for an old incomplete deck of cards.

the top panel is the game and who versus who.

the square nails hold a few cards. the others go into the bottom holder.

the back of the card has some graph paper we can write the ongoing scores.

the middle panel is the current score

the holder right below are the spent game cards.

Broken coping saw blade

Hammer restoration, removing the old handle.

There is not doubt that a drill bit or a coping saw blade is going to fatigue after enough use.

also, one can generally predict when the accessory has passed its life expectancy.

at any moment it is going to break.

then why in the hell does the actual moment of breakage still jar me.

usually i am pretty focused on the task at hand and the sudden uncontrolled loss of hand controll moving in the direction that the pressure was applied smashes the concentration 

and 

mildly pisses me off.

then with a new blade or bit, i go back to work with 10 fold the determination to finish the task.

Length of shower

A one beer shower.

finishing off the line of Ska beers that i can get here in omaha.

never disappointing.

this amber colored pale love with a fair white head is notable for its piney hop aroma.

this to me is a "lighter" more refreshing (after workout sort of drink) that complemented the color and the head color. very drinkable.

Vintage hammer with ruler

I made the final decision to use brass brads to mark the 1 inch increments.

there are pros and cons to all the options i was considering.

pros = allows metal to be present outside of the head

= the reflection of the material sticks out the measurements

= brass adds to the vintage look, without being vintage at all

= easy to replace if the odd chance they come out.

cons = although the brads are glued and below the wood plane, the could come loose in time.

(i have done this before and never had one come loose. being set just below the wood, it wraps itself around the end of the brad and the hand through use burnishes it into place)

New miter saw

New power tools 

"YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!"

according to Rimmer, there comes a time when you have to take the dog to the back of the house and give it both barrels.

and so be my 10 year old $40 compound miter saw.

I used the hell out of it, and looks pathetic sitting on the floor waiting for me to dismantle some of its parts that i can reuse.

often times i can feel like i can make something out of little

this was on sale for a good price and made some very smooth & smooth sounding tester cuts.

after hearing this machine i noticed how damn loud the old dog was.

still to be missed for how faithful it was on my projects.

Valentines bathroom flowers

Giving wifey some Valentines appreciation.

Flower arrangements in the bathroom.

(keeping the romance alive)

i waited until she fell asleep and then put it together.

good way to send her off to work in the morn.

Etsy hatchets

Posted a few more hatchets on etsy tonight.

i am trying to include some kind of a mix of tools for people.

germantown 1

germantown 2

plumb 1

plumb 2

"tempered"

true temper

 the absence of tools started to make me a bit insecure. 

Ash Wednesday lunch

After work was able to get a simple lunch.

Lenten beers should be "big food" types.

for those of us home brewers whom truly appreciate its presence in our the history, 

these beers are an important way of life past and current.

there are many Lenten styles out there, i had never had this particular one but the name was intriguing. 

Klein ball peen

Whilst waiting for hatchet shipping crate paper flash to drive i started to polish up a 

Klein ball peen's ends.

getting mirrorryryryry.

Final hone on double bit

Putting on the final sharpening before sending this double bit off to Florida.

this double bit will be a faithful chopper.

Hatchet crates lined up

Lined up some hatchet crates are drying.

each crate is made specifically for it's particular hatchet.

there is no uniformity to the tools i work on, so i in my building system i build the crates after the hatchets are completely finished.

this insures a proper fit.

their lids are behind them.

next step is to add the latches and hinges

then

the paper flash

then 

the photos.

Overcrowded workbench

I officially have too many projects going on.

early this morning in the shop,  i was admiring my cup of coffee and for some reason my eyes moved to the mesentery the right and then to the mesentery on the left;

then my intestines cramped up a bit.

at the end of my building session today i will reorganize!

and to make a note, i haven't worked on hammers for a week.

Under the volcanic vinegar bath

Thought i should show the results what laid under the volcano.

knowing what i was sticking my hand into helped me pull out the treasure without hesitation.

anything else i may have paused for a moment.

clean as a whistle.

Volcano vinegar bath and dog hair

On february 4th i took an image of a vinegar bath that still had 3 hatchets on the bottom.

with all of my activity, i have promptly forget about it until today.

i looked inside and saw lava.

what really adds to the image is the dog hair that has migrated into the bath has not even caught on fire.

the similarities between a volcanic rust bath and a real volcano.

Vintage hammer restore

Looking forward to introducing vintage hammers.

these striking tools are just damn nice to handle. 

they feel right and with that octagonal handle will perform excellently.

i started working on this one with the batch of hatchets.

still need to include rule marks in the handle.

New batch of hatchets

The next batch of hatchets is coming along well.

painting is done, first coat of oil rubbed in and 90 percent of the sharpening and polishing done.

in here are 2x plumbs, 2x germantowns, and others.

crates are not coming together as fast i would like.

right now the frame and panels glue is curing.

First cuts on crate panels

With today as my friday i am in a really good mood. i can work can work on finishing this next batch of hatchets for sale. 

before i can even post the tools for sale i need to make sure that even the shipping crates are finished.

i think it means more when taking photos of the hatchets in that which will transport it to the new owner. this way they can see everything that will be theirs.

right now rough ripping the front and back panels of the crates.

Humboldt trouser knees

Knees on pants wearing out,

Knees wearing out.

this pair of humboldts wearing well.

Vinegar bath after 12 hatchets

There is no need to change the vinegar after each tool soak.

this particular concoction is vinegar and the rust from 12 vintage hatchets (3 of them still at the bottom).

actually a beautiful sight, you can see (almost feel) the bubbles get trapped for a moment under the dead metal film on the top.

Coffee liqueur bottled

From december 6th post on making the coffee liqueur 

today was time to bottle. 

just under two months of conditioning in the growler.

simple syrup = 4C water 4C turbinado

1/2C coarse grind extra dark roast coffee

3C vodka

this yield came to two 16 ounce grolsch bottles and a 12 ouncer bottle.

had to empty out the copper tea strainer twice from the grounds.

smell was CRISP & CLEAN coffee smell!

drizzle over the top and with each bite dig into the pool of black awesomeness on the bottom.

flavor was perfect for our pallet.

store in the back of the refrigerator.

Octagonal hickory hammer handle

Good looking couple.

old school hammer heads need to be paired with octagonal hammer handles.

the feel and control of these handles are undeniably PERFECT.

the multiple of sides adjusts for multiple hand positions as well as hand sizes.

each side seems to marriage well with digit contours and thumb placement.

a must try.