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Dec 16 2011
We now offer a new board in our Shooting Board Line. It’s called the ‘51’ Shooter.
It’s our Deluxe, Basic Plus and Basic Shooters made available in “Chute Style” for the LN 51 shooting board planes.
While we have mentioned similar news of this recently, and have been offering chute adapter kits to be used as an upgrade to our shooting board line, it just made sense to give this series it’s own identity, and make it easier to order. Continue Reading »
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Dec 01 2011
Over the course of time I have had opportunity to observe how many oils and lubricants perform in the woodshop, and the trades. My Father and Grandfather used 3 in 1 oil in their shops, along with other brands of light machine oils available at the time.
They also often used non-detergent 30-weight oil, but it’s terribly messy and doesn’t perform well on a lot of woodworking equipment where exposure to cold temps and sawdust are concerned. In light of what my ancestors did, I found myself thinking about, and wanting better lubricants.
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Nov 11 2011
Work to a line. Cut on the waste side of the line and leave the line on the work.
Supporting Tip: Mark which side of the line will be the waste side. The waste side is the part you don’t intend to keep.
This isn’t about measuring as much as it is about marking. Marking exactly that which we want to keep is the best way to assure things fit when we assemble our project’s parts. If we don’t observe this however, it can render our careful measurements powerless. The fitment of our work is what we honor the most. Continue Reading »
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Jun 16 2011
Lie Nielsen released the LN 51 chute board plane in late fall 2010, and reviews of it’s performance have been very favorable. Based on the design of the Stanley 51, this shooting board plane seeks to have all the desirable qualities of enhanced usability and durability. It’s heavy, weighing in at 9 plus pounds and the angled blade skews the cut to the board being trued. While originally made to work with Chute Boards similar to the Stanley 52 Chute Board (which offered a track, or “Chute” for the plane to ride in), it will also work on shooting boards without an enclosed chute.
We are happy to share with you that the LN 51 is already a perfect fit on all Evenfall Studios right hand shooting board models, and if it is a Chute Board you really want, we offer a both a shooting board model called the ’51′ Shooter and a ‘Chute Adapter Kit’ that creates a true “chute board” out of many of our existing shooting board models for the LN 51. Continue Reading »
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Jun 05 2011
Woodworkers often ponder what matters to produce the highest quality outcomes in woodworking. Defining quality is the key. It is a combination of tooling and technique to be sure. There are times we can save money; there are times we should invest for the long haul from the beginning. It isn’t always about money as much as it is about how far we want to take our outcomes.
Here are some considerations for bringing high quality to woodworking. Continue Reading »
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Feb 27 2011
We have introduced a new leather strop sharpening system, that uses genuine horse butt leather, for helping maintain the finest edges on edge tools while they work.
Maintaining an edge during the woodworking process provides higher levels of working sharpness from edge tools, promoting accurate cuts and joinery, smoother wood surface finish quality, and saves woodworkers an enormous amount of wasted time regrinding, by avoiding dullness, affordably. It comes down to convenience. This is very important, because when sharpening isn’t convenient or is too messy, we tend to allow tools to become so dull, that restoring sharpness is a lot of hard work. Dullness is avoidable if we maintain sharpness as we work. Maintaining edge tools should be easy.
Why would we want a strop optimized for our workbench? Most strops on the market today are not optimized for honing woodworking tools well. Some come closer than others, but overall they don’t offer the right combination of leather types, flatness, length or ergonomics all at once. Woodworkers want some options and ease when they maintain their edge tools. Our strop is capable of maintaining tool sharpness, reducing or eliminating the mess, while fixturing itself on the bench where the tools are working.
Enter the ‘Bench Strop’ from Evenfall Studios. Continue Reading »
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Feb 16 2011
We’ve had some requests for more information about our new ‘Bench End Planing Stop’, because it works a bit differently than what woodworkers are accustomed to.
Our new Planing Stop is the jointer planes helper, engineered to be a complete planing stop, meant to be easy to set up and use. When you wanna plane, you wanna plane! When you are done planing, simply lower the screws and it’s flush to the bench top. Always ready.
Why would we want to use a planing stop?
The main reason to use a stop when planing is that it offers no cramp to the board. By cramp, I mean clamping the uncorrected board so that some of the wind and twist may become compressed. When you clamp a board that isn’t flat before you attempt to true it, you can flex the wood fibers against a natural wind and actually plane more problems into it than out. Continue Reading »
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Feb 12 2011
Over the past few years building shooting boards, our product line has grown through thoughts, ideas and suggestions. We have expanded to six shooting board models and many accessories for them. We continue to work on ways to expand shooting board capabilities.
During this same time, we have developed other jigs for helping take woodworkers further in other aspects of the craft. We listen to what woodworkers talk about when they discuss what they feel is difficult for them, or could be more efficient, and what they wished were easier.
Many woodworkers say they want to spend less time making jigs. Some say that they don’t have enough spare time, others don’t have the tools. We listened. Free time these days for most people is limited and precious, so when there is time for woodworking, most people want to maximize their outcomes making great cabinetry and furnishings. Continue Reading »
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Dec 23 2010
For some time now, we have wanted to add a shooting board for picture framing and moldings. It’s new for 2011, and it is available now.
Working with picture frames and moldings in general presents a special set of circumstances when mitering. Often, the bottom and back of the molding are the only surfaces that can be registered flat and square, and so they have to be the ones used when registering them against fences for cutting and shooting.
So it goes that if you can only orient a molding one way, which is on it’s back, a single chute shooting board will only be able to shoot half of the miter. The right hand board will only shoot the left side of the miter, and the left chute will only shoot the right side. A problem if you only have one chute. There are workarounds, but ehhh… They are often rife with as many problems as they hope to solve.
Enter our newest shooting board, the ‘Picture Frame Shooter’. A shooting board with twin chutes, independent, calibratable left and right hand 45-degree miter fences, with tall, removable fence faces to prevent breakout to the top of most plane blades. Continue Reading »
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Nov 26 2010
In The Craftsmanship of Dick Proenneke, we looked at how Dick took a number of hand tools into the Alaskan wilderness, and used them to homestead and create all the things he needed to live and survive. It was rustic carpentry from available timber that was felled, seasoned and milled by hand on site. We all got to look over Dick’s shoulder as he showed us how these tools could be used to create most of what would be needed to make a comfortable home and live well in a remote area.
Dick wrote that what he had accomplished was good enough for “rural work” but in reality, he was a very talented user of hand operated tooling, and knew what he could accomplish with the woods he had access to and the kind of durability he needed from them. Rural work did not mean he quit refining the quality of his workmanship, it meant he built the way he did so as to provide utility, endure hard use and inclement seasonal conditions.
Colonial Williamsburg Photo
Hand tools are also very highly regarded as the go to tools for fine work. Work on pieces where tolerances are exacting, or the sizes of the pieces are so small or thin where powered tooling would make it difficult to work safely or accurately. Continue Reading »
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