Carpentry Made Easy

T

Tom Holt

Joined
Dec 30, 1999
Messages
475
Been working on the Little House In The Big Woods, and my new best friend the 20" village heavyweight has already earned its corn. Not only does it fell and lop the lumber, it's a wiz for shaping.

Hadn't previously realised what a superb drawknife and plane a khuk makes, especially for planing round posts. I found a fine 15 foot silver birch for my roof-tree, felled it and lodged it horizontal in the crooks of 2 oaks about 4ft off the ground (like mounting it on a saw-horse) so I could strip off the bark and plane it. I used the khuk first as a drawknife; the inside curve of the blade follows the round contour perfectly for skimming off knots &c, leaving the post as near straight as darnit. Then adjust the angle a tad (just follow the bevel)and the khuk becomes a plane. Quicker than my grandfather could've done it with an adze (he was a wheelwright shortly after WW1), and a fine finish.

Next step, notching the posts and cutting tenons &c. It's great not having to carry a heavy toolbox up and down that steep hill!
 
Originally posted by Tom Holt
Been working on the Little House In The Big Woods, and my new best friend the 20" village heavyweight has already earned its corn. Not only does it fell and lop the lumber, it's a wiz for shaping.

Next step, notching the posts and cutting tenons &c.
It's great not having to carry a heavy toolbox up and down that steep hill!
Click to expand...

Tom I've used mine only for a short time for trimming the bark off of some Osage Orange a friend of mine brought me.
Then done just as you said and trimmed it roughly down to the first outside layer of heartwood so I could oil it to help prvent cracking.
As you said the khukuri is no slouch for this kind of work, almost like they have been designed for such ainnit? :)

I'm really interested as to how your gonna cut the mortise's to fit the tenons.:D

I also want to add that you're most fortunate to have a little bit of woods to retreat too. It's been way to long since I've been back in the deep woods..........
 
Yvsa wrote -

"I'm really interested as to how your gonna cut the mortise's to fit the tenons."

With a drill & a chisel... You can't do *everything* with a khuk. Just most things.

(Ah, but if I still had the Kobra; betcha I'd have found a way...)

"I also want to add that you're most fortunate to have a little bit of woods to retreat too. "

Yvsa, it's been a lifetime's ambition. Taken every penny I'd got, and rather too many that I hadn't got - but it's worth it.
 
A place of your own, in a patch of woods "just far enough" out of the way would be more beneficial than anything medicare or NHS could ever scare up.
 
Amen.

Nice to have just a little patch of wilds that dont smell of oil or ashpalt where you cant hear anything cept for the crickets.

What with all my favourite wilderness spots being cleared for housing, farming, etc. The lovely stream where me and my little bro used to catch Siamese fighting fish and freshwater catfish is now buried beneath a golf course. With all this "civilization" I cannot help thinking we've lost almost as much as we have gained...

Andrew Limsk

Originally posted by Walosi
A place of your own, in a patch of woods "just far enough" out of the way would be more beneficial than anything medicare or NHS could ever scare up.
Click to expand...
 
I've watched the village idiots do some down-right foolish thing in the name of progress. Many of those thing were not only unsuccessful but very expensive too. And then I heard some dummy on TV say my grandfathers good old days were not really the good old days. The dunce doing the talking was only about 25 years old. I say that there were a lot of better days when I was a very young man on the farm.

When I first retired from the Marine Corps we lived in Austin, TX for about four years. Then when things started to drive us all crazy. Away we went to the next county, and the closest small town is 13 miles away. Just good living now.

Tom, Let me tell you, you are going to enjoy the dickens out of the house you build with you own hands. I sure enjoy mine.
 
OK.
So you're saying I shouldn't sell the old farm house and 20
acres and move back to Chicago to get work?
Gets hard to generate income in the country, but I do dread
the idea of apartments, traffic, picking up the dog poop,
and trying to find parking spaces in a town with 2 cars for
every house or apartment.

Might have to re-think the plan.

Kis

:rolleyes:
 
Tom,

Once you get the house built, all you'll need is a dog and a couple of yaks! :D

I envy you too. ... someday I'll get there :)

Alan
 
I know it's a pain but if you could take a few pix along the way I (and I'll bet a lot of others!) would like to monitor your progress.
 
Originally posted by Kismet
OK.
So you're saying I shouldn't sell the old farm house and 20
acres and move back to Chicago to get work?
Gets hard to generate income in the country, but I do dread
the idea of apartments, traffic, picking up the dog poop,
and trying to find parking spaces in a town with 2 cars for
every house or apartment.

Might have to re-think the plan.

Kis

:rolleyes:
Click to expand...

Dayum Right Kismet!!!!
Go Organic and sell quality stuff to any local restaurants if possible.
If that's not feasible try to find a specialty niche and fill it. You may have to go to a few greenhouses in order to grow what you need in order to have sales, but do try at all costs to stay where you're at!!!!
We truly do need all of the small farms that's left. America will truly go to hell in a handbasket when or if we lose our small farms!!!!
 
I think Shell Oil is the biggest farmer in California these days.

I fear the time of the little 40 and 80 acre family farm is just about finished. And as Bro said, not only is this sad it's also dangerous.
 
I live on an overcrowded little island, inhabited by the kind of people who think electing Tony Blair for a second term is a good idea. I want somewhere I can breathe, and good stout fences to keep my fellow citizens out of my face; somewhere where I can hear myself think, and wear my khuk on my belt without the risk of getting shot by the cops.

My family have lived in the same house and worked the same patches of dirt for at least a couple of hundred years; but we've always been tenants, and when my dad's gone, I won't be able to afford to take over the tenancy; our landlord is a government agency, and the government doesn't like country people. Instead, the house will go to some rich city type as a retirement home or holiday cottage, like all the other houses in the district. I think there's something wrong with that.

I think what I envy you guys in the States most (apart from the 2nd Amendment... ) is the fact that in certain parts of your country there's still a decent amount of space between the houses.
 
Originally posted by Walosi
A place of your own, in a patch of woods "just far enough" out of the way would be more beneficial than anything medicare or NHS could ever scare up.
Click to expand...

I'm fortunate to have a few quiet acres filled with turkey and deer. In fact turkey season starts April 15! Best therapy there is, bar none. :D
 
Originally posted by Bill Martino
Better than the jungles of SE Asia???????
Click to expand...

My turkeys don't carry AK-47's. But they do get the 'ol ticker to thumpin'. Sort of like sunny scenic SE Asia I suppose. ;)
 
I know it's a pain but if you could take a few pix along the way I (and I'll bet a lot of others!) would like to monitor your progress.
Click to expand...

Definitely!! :)
 
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