More Shop Stuff: The Fox and the Hedgehog

Been spending the last couple months doing some shop projects that have been on the hit list for a looong time.

The fox knows many small things:

In her blog, The Village Carpenter, LJ Buddy Kari Hultman lauded her 2” square. Since I’d already had great success with her wonderfully minimalist sharpening station, I took a go at making one. Whether its the size, weight, or the fact that I made it myself, it gets a lot more use than the 6” aluminum one I had been using, and my work is looking better.

In making the “Not a blanket chest” i discovered the need for a panel guage. This one’s a little on the heavy side, but with brass marking knife and a pencil holder it does the job.

One of my first projects was a pair of these saw horses. A friend felt they looked a little unsound, so I submitted them to a stress test including several kilos of benkerai, a jack plane and two guinea pigs. Since it was a stress test, the MT joints did eventually fail, but (a) they were my first MTs ever, and (b) only after truly unreasonable treatment. The horses may be light, but they’re sturdy. (No guinea pigs were harmed in the conduct of this test.) This is the third pair I’ve made since then. One set is the legs of my sharpening station/dump table; the second is a stand for my tote. This one is already getting use as storage space, so I may need another pair soon.

The hedgehog knows one big thing.

All the above came in handy for this brute, which looks a bit like Wall-e. It seems everyone else on LJ has one, and I was feeling left out. I couldn’t get my hands on any 1.5” stock for the top, so I ripped 1.5” strips from some 1” benkerai. Benchcrafted provided the hardware.

Everything made by hand.

-- From such crooked wood as that which man is made of, nothing straight can be fashioned. Immanuel Kant