The first of my "Pete Culler" oars is largely finished, apart from a lot of sanding and maybe a little trimming here and there. Very satisfying thing to make. Lots and lots of planing of wood shavings, which has an almost zen like feeling to it. Hard to stop.
The handle was relatively easy to form, as it starts square, then circular. After that it tapers all the way to the tip, which is tricky. The blade has to be judged by eye and touch, it is very hard to measure anything. I couldn't hollow each side of the blade as I don't have a round bottomed plane, but I think it looks quite good without the hollow.
The really tricky part will be making a second oar to match.
Hi Julian, love the oars and cant wait to see them nicely varnished. I have bought a few tools following your purchases and informal review, namely the Charnwood bandsaw and the Bosch multitool. Both are excellent and really useful.
ReplyDeleteA recommendation from me to you would be the planer thicknesser I bought recently. I looked at lots and had many bids on eBay but finally bought the Titan from Screwfix. The cheapest I have seen anywhere only £150. I have used it to plane some cedar I have and some mahogany and the results are great, smooth, no ridges. Dust collector works great. The unit is surprisingly well made so if you are looking I would recommend it unless you are looking to spend more. You will notice looking at many of the machines they are of similar design underneath but with some different features. I was surprised the Titan had a bigger motor than a model that was over £100 more so worth looking at the detail of the spec. Cheers, Andy
I've found the band saw to be the most used power tool. The multi tool does things that nothing else can reach, like cutting a square hope in a deck! But the sliding mitre saw doesn't get used as much as I expected. It is great if you need to cut several bits of wood just the same length, but I don't often need to do that. Hadn't thought about a planer, but I'm not sure if I've got the room for anything more!
ReplyDeleteDear Julian. I have been following your blog for a while and thought that you might enjoy http://www.farreachvoyages.com/dailylog/1aug14topresent.html Thanks Mike
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