A house that I've been working on got a new boiler, which came in a nice simple crate made of White Oak, Cherry, and maybe some Maple. I spent a few minutes at the end of the day pulling it apart and saving the nicer pieces. The slats are 1/4"-1/2" thick, maybe 3" or 4" wide, with some other assorted size pieces. I guess I can use the thin stuff for some cute little boxes or some other little project.
Yesterday I whipped up a quick handle for that sawblade I mentioned in my last post. I used some riven Maple from the back yard, axed and knifed to shape, cut a kerf in it, and secured the blade with a bolt and a small screw lower down to keep the blade from rotating around the bolt in use. It's not pretty but it will do the job. I'm pleased with the blade so far, a bit thicker and seems like much better quality than my old cheap Sharksaw (my first handsaw from a few years ago). Now that I have my nice one, I can relegate my Sharksaw to construction work, not that I ever use it for nice cuts anymore.
The #1 use of hardwoods in the USA is for pallets.
ReplyDeleteIt's great getting decent timber for free, I pulled out a load of hardwood out of the skip today at work (not sure what type yet till I get the paint off). It was from two 4m doors out of a univeristy. If its no good it can always keep me warm on the fire so no loss.
ReplyDeleteI never tried the Jap saws, I hit far too many nails in my line of work! Do you use the tradional western saws as well?
I keep one or two older, duller saws for when I expect to hit nails, I keep my nice saws for when I'm sure there won't be any problem. The old dull Japanese saws still cut pretty well though, since the teeth are so deep even when the points are dulled from hitting a nail they still cut pretty well because they have the long cutting edge that is usually preserved.
ReplyDeleteI have a nice backsaw from Lee Valley, wrote up a review a while ago on this blog. Apart from that, I haven't developed the knack for sharpening my couple of antique western saws, and it's cheaper to buy an awesome $10 replacement blade for my Jap saws and use it until it's worn out than buy a decent western saw that I don't need to seriously sharpen before using. And when my Jap saw blades wear out past the point of even using them to cut nail-ridden wood, I turn them into card scrapers.