COTS Project Thread

Good info, I'll get some pics so you all can take a better look. Maybe I should only use this wood with the grain lengthwise. What gets my blood to boiling is I had my wedge marked, it was getting tight and I was probably 2 blows from stopping.

I then proceeded to damage my handle today, and I'm starting to feel like this project is cursed. I put the head in the vise, I often use a different technique for driving the handle out but I had it in there to drill the wedge. So I started to drift it out and of course it turned slightly in the vise. I wasn't paying attention and the shoulder of the handle caught the bar in the vise and when I hit it again I sheared a sliver right off the shoulder. Well with these deep heads there is nothing extra to work with and that sliver was more than I could spare. I put a flat spot on the shoulder and glued on a little wedge. I am determined to overcome this but it sure seems to have taken a turn against me.
 
Square_peg said:
Hemlock and fir are still common out west here, but spruce is showing up, too. 20 years ago is was mostly hemlock. Now we have a lot of Doug Fir coming down from BC. I see more Doug Fir than anything at my favorite supplier (not a big box store). Big box stores mostly have spruce.
Click to expand...

Actual 2 x 4 and 2 x 6 physically marked "stud" grade? That's a surprise. Most stud grade lumber in Ontario is from central and northern Quebec (all lumber stamps identify the mill and the geographic location) where boreal forest Black Spruce, that grows infinitely slow, is harvested by the boat load.
 
Yep, studs. 2x4's, 2x6's, etc. Doug Fir. And not too brittle. Kinda surprises me. 20 years ago it was a pleasant surprise to receive D. Fir instead of hemlock. Now it's more common. Might be because all the tree farms are growing D. Fir and the hemlock was the last of the old growth.

A recent batch of 2x10's included about 50% 'Select Structural' grade shipped out as No. 2 & Better. I'll take it!
 
Square_peg said:
Yep, studs. 2x4's, 2x6's, etc. Doug Fir. And not too brittle. Kinda surprises me. 20 years ago it was a pleasant surprise to receive D. Fir instead of hemlock. Now it's more common. Might be because all the tree farms are growing D. Fir and the hemlock was the last of the old growth.

A recent batch of 2x10's included about 50% 'Select Structural' grade shipped out as No. 2 & Better. I'll take it!
Click to expand...

Hem-Fir has been the standard trim material here forever.
BC Fir has been quite common here for a long time. It will have some Larch in with it also. Very hard to tell the difference between the larch and fir. Larch was used as the top cord in the glue lam beams.

The spruce use surprises me. I always think of Howard Hugh's airplane when I think of spruce.

I did some work in eastern Oregon in the eighties and was surprised to learn that the lumber we had was not kiln dried or if it was it was no where near as dry as what I was a costumed to. Easy to drive a nail into not so easy to grab an arm load of.
 
Most studs today are made in a highly automated mill. There is one near me, very few people work there relative to the output. All 2x4, 2x6, 1x2, and only 8 foot and less (standard pre-cut). No other sizes of wood cut at this mill. Spruce, fir, jack, and red pine in this mill graded SPF. Most of the wood cut is small diameter down to 5". Studs are a commodity with daily prices posted on commodity exchanges priced for the fixed banded stack. That's the reason I can see 2x4's from western states at the local Lowes or Menards instead of the mill from 10 miles away.
 
garry3 said:
The spruce use surprises me. I always think of Howard Hugh's airplane when I think of spruce.
Click to expand...
The Spruce Goose! Educated conjecture here but old growth Sitka Spruce is/was revered for being knot free, easy to work and shape, and for having consistent structural properties. I think it's still convention to make quality guitars from clear Sitka spruce. Multi-ply woods (Spruce and/or Birch?) were successfully used to manufacture the famous and rugged deHavilland Mosquito, no doubt influenced by Hughes ambitious venture.
 
halfaxe said:
Most studs today are made in a highly automated mill. There is one near me, very few people work there relative to the output. All 2x4, 2x6, 1x2, and only 8 foot and less (standard pre-cut). No other sizes of wood cut at this mill. Spruce, fir, jack, and red pine in this mill graded SPF. Most of the wood cut is small diameter down to 5". Studs are a commodity with daily prices posted on commodity exchanges priced for the fixed banded stack. That's the reason I can see 2x4's from western states at the local Lowes or Menards instead of the mill from 10 miles away.
Click to expand...

The Crown-Zellerbach mill in Kelowna B.C. took out their large chutes and big saw blades already in 1980. The tracked feller buncher machines they were trialing at the time in a matter of minutes could cut a dozen trees (8-12" lodgepole pines), trim to length, delimb and gather them into a side 'basket' all in one swoop before having to move to unload. Side benefit about all this specialized mechanization; big trees and crooked ones have been spared because that mill could no longer handle them.
 
Well we got Humpty Dumpty put back together. It's hung a little closed, which happened somewhere while I was bringing the tongue down to size - I think I got it leaning forward slightly and the gap I ended up with at the top kinda follows. Not sure if I am just paying less attention or what. I couldn't make the red stain take. I just finished the handle too smoothly before applying it and that was that. It would still take leather stain just fine so chances are I'm going that route if I should decide that I MUST have it red. This is my first attempt at cold bluing and I dunno, I like it fine. Pics.

Might as well start with the ugly.
plumb_jersey_wedge by city_ofthe_south, on Flickr

Good fit at the bottom. As I mentioned above, I sheared a sliver of wood off the shoulder and here is the repair. I would love to take credit for the grain orientation of the repair but that was a complete accident - it's off a different piece of wood.
plumb_jersey_fit by city_ofthe_south, on Flickr

Crack is gone. The blending looks better in pics, but I'm satisfied with it.
plumb_jersey_headtohead by city_ofthe_south, on Flickr

plumb_jersey_group1 by city_ofthe_south, on Flickr

plumb_jersey_finished by city_ofthe_south, on Flickr
 
That is a beautiful handle worked with skill and care and whatever leather dye you use it is great.

Would love to know what it is but would understand if it is proprietary :D

Thought I was following the thread closely- that is head you repaired? I don't see any crack at all.

You make some sweet lemonade COTS :thumbup:
 
Thanks guys. Yep, this is the cracked head. Someone else did the weld, I just ground it and covered it up. The weld job was nice and the bit sharpened just as hard as I would have expected so no detriment to the heat treat. So the stain on this one cannot be described because I fiddled and I messed around and I sanded, and then I resanded and then I stormed off in a hissy fit. So I normally use Fiebings "tan" leather dye. It has to be diluted with BLO because leather dye just plain old works better than wood stain. It is much thinner and I believe it is alcohol based so the wood drinks it like water (probably not GOOD for wood but it takes almost none to get the job done). I used "merlot" colored wood stain on this one which is .... red. I felt like it was a really good match for the color Plumb used. However, my handle would not take it at all. I think it is because I sanded the wood too fine before attempting to apply the stain. But two things, wood stain + cold blue = an axe that frickin stinks. Leather dye + BLO (and no cold blue) = a nice smell that conjures images of grandparents and wood piles and the good old days. :)

Nah, this project tried to hurt my feelings. I'm sure it's payback or karma or something, but I've been waiting for a beveled Plumb Jersey and these handles take too much work to just let it all win. I'll probably pick it up one day to split some wood and have it try to kill me.
 
cityofthesouth said:
Nah, this project tried to hurt my feelings. I'm sure it's payback or karma or something, but I've been waiting for a beveled Plumb Jersey and these handles take too much work to just let it all win. I'll probably pick it up one day to split some wood and have it try to kill me.
Click to expand...

I keep reading that last part - still laughing for some reason! :thumbup:
 
cityofthesouth said:
Nah, this project tried to hurt my feelings. I'm sure it's payback or karma or something.....
Click to expand...

That's the thing - no matter how good you are at this or how experienced, you will occasionally have a problem. Metal isn't perfect. Wood isn't perfect. And humans aren't perfect. But that's where the beauty comes from.
 
Square_peg said:
That's the thing - no matter how good you are at this or how experienced, you will occasionally have a problem. Metal isn't perfect. Wood isn't perfect. And humans aren't perfect. But that's where the beauty comes from.
Click to expand...

It's true. The whole experience gets added to the knowledge tool box.

On a related note, some other folks have been telling me that they have experienced a number of cracked Plumb axes. I now have 3 different Plumbs and I have noticed that they ring more than my other axes, and there is some speculation that they are possibly a harder steel throughout.
 
How common is it to crack like that? I thought that mainly happened from forcing too tight of a wedge.

And is the second one on the left also a Plumb? Really like that one. I guess it says "Plumb Jersey lineup". Top handles there.
 
Thanks Agent. They are going faster and faster, but I tell you, I would love to be able to go back in time to watch someone make the high quality handles of the past. For the outfits that did it on giant belt sanders after they came off the lathe, those guys had to have been amazing to get them so good so fast.

The guys at House doing it (you guys might have seen these).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZc0X9lVFoI

But I found these videos from a place in Canada. I contacted the person who made the video and got a phone number but it was never working. It's unfortunate because the way it sounds, the old guy goes back into history far enough to know how a real handle should look. But the video only shows them turning a straight handle.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_evHbHFv6cE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aNxD7w82onk
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top