Her Book of Shadows – Canada Day Sale
This doesn’t have much to do with woodworking except as a partial explanation for why I’ve spent so little time in my shop lately. The other part of the explanation is that I’ve got my house torn up as we’re installing wood flooring, new moldings, etc. It’s woodworking but hardly something to report on. Besides it makes my knees hurt too much for me to want to photograph it. But I thought some of you might be interested in how a woodworker writes a mystery novel so…
Canada Day Sale 
I’ve decided to have a ‘summer’ sales of my eBook, Her Book of Shadows 
If you like to read mysteries without serial killers, sex and lots of violence, you’ll like Her Book of Shadows
Review comments:
“This is such a well written mystery, and full of make you laugh out loud lines. I loved the setting of Quebec City, and the snippets of the French language scattered throughout made it so authentic.” – esldonna
“How refreshing to find that Larry Marshall’s first is a who-dunnit in the best tradition of well crafted stories of crime solving.” – Polystamper
“This is a beautifully crafted book, full of interesting convincing detail and engaging characters.” – Janet Guerrin
Book Description:
In Her Book of Shadows, retired cop, Scott Riker, lives with his wife and daughter in Quebec City where he heads a group of interventionists. Directed by Quebec business mogul and philanthropist, Luc Duchesne, the group uses their talents and resources to stand between people in trouble and the criminal elements who would do them harm.
Riker agrees to find Jodie Burke, a teenage girl whose parents say ran away. But when Jodie’s friend turns up murdered on the Plains of Abraham, it becomes clear that Riker faces something more than just a runaway girl. Time is running out and he must find Jodie and prevent whoever is trying to kill her from succeeding.
Riker struggles with his emotional involvement in the case, caused by the similarities between his daughter and Jodie Burke. This, and his attempts to reconcile his risky business with his role as father and husband add to his internal conflicts but maybe the two roles can be compatible.
A Shift In The Space-Time Continuum
Was there a shift in the space-time continuum? Maybe a worm-hole opened up between Cincinnati and Quebec City? Oh yeah…this is still Wood’n Bits, not some sci-fi blog.
What baffles me is this simple fact. Today Chris Schwarz announced that “We just received our office copies of the February 2011 issue, and that means it will soon be on its way to subscribers.” I got my copy YESTERDAY! Great issue for those of you waiting for your ‘soon to be on its way’ copy.
Oh Happy Day – Lee Valley Fall Catalog
Do you ever have a day that starts you grumbling? That’s how my day began. I was sitting next to my second cup of coffee trying to figure out why my CSS-defined menu wouldn’t work the way it should and why the graphic behind it was disappearing. Grrrr….grumble…grumble.
But a savior arrived. No, it wasn’t someone who knew what they were doing. It was the mail man. And guess what he brought? A message to Garcia… err… nope… wrong story. It was a message from Mecca – a new Lee Valley catalog. Ahhhhh… the day is going to be a good one after all.
If you’re not aware of Lee Valley’s great catalogs, I fear, my brother, that you’ll never be a woodworker. Sending checks to Lee Valley is a woodworking tradition and one can never be part of the fraternity without taking part. So, if you haven’t gotten yours in the mail, head to Lee Valley and order one of their great catalogs. Did I mention that it’s FREE? It isn’t, really, but they give you the catalog knowing that the checks will start arriving soon (grin).
I apologize for the quick snapshot. Their catalog, of course, looks much better than this photo suggests. They always do. But who has time for setting up for photos whe you’ve just gotten a new LV catalog? I’m sitting down with my third cup of coffee and I’m going to do some browsing. That CSS problem can wait.
Cheers — Larry
Bonus Material for Fidgen's Made By Hand Book
I’ve waxed poetic, in my way, about Tom Fidgen’s Made By Hand book. I’ve also documented the building of a set of shop bents illustrated in this book. But the good stuff about this book continues. Tom has moved his brilliance from his old blog, Working Wood to a new website called the Unplugged Workshop.
The website is gorgeous but the really big news is that Tom has an entire section in support of his book. There is a page for each of the 6 projects described in the book and he has posted and annotated a bunch of the photos that got cut from the book to accommodate space limitations. In addition to this new information, Tom is providing downloadable SketchUp models and orthographic projection plans for each project in PDF form. So, if you’ve been wise enough to buy this book, you’re going to want to visit this great new website.
Cheers — Larry
Using Planes To Make A Plane – Part One
Sometimes my buying habits are embarrassing. At last count I owned 4 books and a DVD on how to build wooden planes. I have a Hock blade for making a chisel plane, bought as a “response” to the Fine Woodworking construction article. I have a Hock blade/chip breaker, bought shortly after I bought David Finck’s book. I’ve also bought a whole pile of O-1 steel in all of the sizes necessary to make a set of hollows and rounds. But I haven’t made a single wooden plane – ever.
A recent Twitter discussion about David’s book, Making and Mastering Wood Planes, inspired me to do something about this silliness. If you’ve never seen David’s book, it’s a fantastic text on how to make and use Krenov-style wood planes. It’s gone in/out of print several times and the current edition, the “revised 2nd edition” was welcomed when it was released as the older versions drag down prices that require a second mortgage.
I decided to build a basic plane following Finck’s instructions, but with a twist. Finck assumes you have a shop full of power tools and depends upon them to make his wooden hand planes. I find more than a little irony in that and thought I’d try to make one using, mostly, hand tools. I’m not going to replicate David Finck’s instructions here; that would be unfair to him. Rather, I hope I can outline the steps, show you how easy it is, and get you to buy a copy of David’s book and build planes yourself.
Choosing the Wood
Traditionally wooden planes were made from beech, oak, maple and other hardwoods. More important than species, though, is a need to choose a block such that the grain runs along the length of the plane and you want to orient any deviation of that such that the grain descends from front to back.
If you follow Finck’s instructions, you need a block that’s 2 1/2″ thick and as wide as you need to accommodate your blade choice. The only 10/4 wood I had in my shop was a piece of red maple so, from that, I cut a piece the proper width and about a foot long (I wanted a 10″ plane using a 1 3/4″ Hock blade/chip breaker.
I marked the block with the triangle and on each side I put the line indicating front-back grain direction. I then cut the cheeks off the block. This approach (the Krenov approach) allows you to cut all of the internal angles and work up the ramp without a lot of fancy chisel work. What is important is that the cheeks and center pieces form tight face joints as otherwise the seams will show in the finished plane. Finck uses his jointer to smooth these surfaces after cutting them with a bandsaw. I used a smooth plane after using a handsaw. I took longer; he makes more noise. My seams are not visible in the finished plane.
Cutting Front and Back Block Angles
The standard angles are 45-degrees for the blade ramp and 62-degrees on the front block. The ramp angle will determine the angle of cut and while 45-degrees is called the “common angle” for a bevel-down plane. If you want a plane to use on highly figured wood, you might want to increase that angle.
Once the cuts are made, I used a low-angle block plane to smooth and square up both of the angled surfaces. You need a really sharp blade here as you’re planing a fairly large end-grain surface. Particular attention is given to the ramp as it needs to be very flat as it must support the blade. I must be square as otherwise the blade will not present square to the work when you use the plane. Just to avoid confusion, I’ve laid the center over on its side in the photo so you can see the angles. In the plane the angles would face upward. You can test the ramp on a flat surface and see if you can rock it in any direction.
Assembly Dowels
To create the plane you sandwich the two center blocks between the two cheeks. To facilitate this dowels are placed in the top corners on each side. Pretty is not the goal here as these dowels aren’t part of the end result. What’s important here is that the dowels need to be tight enough to align the sides with the center blocks but not too tight as you’ll be opening and closing this assembly.
I drilled 3/8″ holes in each top corner, fitted dowels, and cut them flush with a flush-cut saw. Nothing much to say here. Mine were tight enough that I had to hammer the dowels into the holes and use a chisel to get between the cheeks and center blocks to pry the joints apart. I think this is a good thing as they do loosen up as you move through the creation process.
Oh, you might notice my dust collector in the background. I’m mighty proud of it. Works great.
Cross Pin
The blade is held by a wedge that fits under a cross-pin that bridges between the two plane cheeks. This cross-pin must be allowed to rotate, though it doesn’t need to be a loose fit. Finck shows several ways of making the cross-pin; I used my lathe. The distance between the cheeks (leave a small amount of room for expansion) plus the thickness of the cheeks determines the length. I turned the pins on the ends of 1/2″ square stock.
I laid out the location of the holes for the cross pin according to Finck’s directions. Finck suggests that that you drill one side, assemble the plane, and drill through the first hole to make the second, ensuring that your drill bit is vertical. I used a drill press for this and drilled both holes at the same time. A bit of test fitting is in order here. Make sure the cross-pin can rotate and that there is no side-to-side binding.
Finck recommends using a chisel to round over one side of the pin (the side away from the blade). I used a rasp and a bit of sandpaper for this. The shape here is up to you as what’s important to operation is the flat side that will hold the wedge/blade in place.
Chip Breaker Screw Relief
At this point the plane is almost ready for assembly. But if you’re using a blade/chip breaker combination, you need to provide relief in the ramp for the screw that holds the chip breaker to the blade. Dimensions of the relief channel are determined by the size of the screw and how far down the ramp it will be when the blade is extended.
I marked this out and treated it as a mortise, chopping out the material. Easy peasy.
Finally…Assembly
The time has come. This is where those phrases, like “pulling it all together”, “the hard work is about to pay off”, and “oh how I wish I had 3 hands” flow freely. Final assembly is both scary and exciting but in this case, mostly easy because of the assembly.
You need three clamping cauls, one for each side of the plane and a third to ensure that the bottom is flat. This last one is the most important. Notice that there is only one dowel in the corner of each center block. Thus, they are free to rotate around them. The “sole caul” helps you align the center blocks to form a flat sole.
I clamped the sole caul in place using a couple quick clamps. Then I used the other two cauls and three clamps to clamp the plane together. And at this point I’m going to do what is rare in blogging…a cliffhanger. Look careful at this last photo and see what I saw. I’ll be posting the second part of this sequence “real soon.”
Cheers — Larry
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