@ Lady Bay, SA
….ideal for beginning cuts in the middle of a board; cutting an arc – and reaching into difficult corners.
One side rips down the grain; the other cuts across.
I think it will prove to be useful for our boat-building projects – and is , besides, a beautiful saw to hold and admire….
Well, there’s no denying it: I am a novice, and these things happen. My first attempt at a centre-rib proved to be unsatisfactory.
I have made a second version, and must now adjust all the other ribs, so that they form a watertight lute shell. (Watertight is probably not the correct term, but that’s the way I think of the process).
Slowly and unsurely the bits and pieces come together. I am still confident a musical instrument of some sort will emerge – and as I follow the Curve, I find myself having to learn (if not master) new skills, and old skills….
Two more Mark Pearse paintings.
The Road is one of many in the Catalogue.
The sheds are between Aldinga and Sellicks Hill (Mark is looking more or less north-east, along the line of Willunga Hills).
See also: The Road goes ever on….April 2019.
A kind and longtime friend recently sent me a bank cheque, along with a written instruction to buy something you need – or else, something you may not necessarily need, but definitely want.
Those who have been following this Boatshed commentary won’t be surprised to learn that I felt more inclined to the second half of the instruction – and as it happens, I had for some weeks been admiring a not really essential block plane at the online shop of Fine Tools Australia.
https://www.finetools.com.au/collections/all
Having persuaded my Credit Union to accept such an unfamiliar, and possibly criminal currency, I secured the diminutive Low-angle Block Plane, made by Qiangsheng Tools Co. China – and as you will see in the first photo (with the dollar coin), it is an adorable and handsome and irresistible woodworking tool.
I can’t understand how I have managed without it for so long.
Already it has proved useful for a range of unnecessary jobs, and I am certain there will be more. It can get into difficult corners; it can plane smoothly across the end-grain; it is a joy to hold and cherish.
And it has settled in comfortably with the little family of Boatshed Block Planes, which grow in number if not size….
….but still very beautiful.
Slow going, as I cut the native cypress with Dad’s Japanese Ryoba saw.
The kerf is minute: approximately 1 mm – so there is little waste. A truly amazing saw-blade.
These rough-sawn ribs are 3 mm thick – I will plane each of them down to 1.4 or 1.5 mm, using the Luben Low-Angle Block Plane.
(see my commentary: A Tale of Three Planes – March 2018).
No horizon. December 12th, 2020
Summer day beside the Estuary….
I have been trying my hand at cutting, planing, scraping, bending and shaping a lute rib, using an off-cut of native cypress….
The rib is 1.5mm thick. After a bit of trial and error – chiefly error – I managed to bend it to the required curve, using the heated bending iron (which is maintained at an even temperature).
So far so good….
