wood processing

Denim case for a folding buck saw.

Posted on September 28, 2018 by akadventurer

When taking my buck saw out for some work yesterday, I remembered I was going to make a case for it from a canvas painters tarp I’d gotten.

I’d cut up a pair of old jeans for making char cloth a few weeks ago, had a lot left on hand, had it out for another idea yesterday, so it was on hand.

Liked the idea of denim better than the canvas tarp.

Legs are great lengths of material, but a bit short on that pair I cut up because of worn cuffs and where I cut them before.

Had a brand new pair I can’t wear (bought 2 years ago when losing weight fast, could almost get into them. Got hurt and gained weight last winter, I garantee I can’t get into them now). So that’s how I ended up with a fancy, clean, spanking new denim saw case!

Cut a leg off, split about 1/3 and a taper off one side, sewed up what was left.

By hand. “Cheated” to get it straight and even. Pinned the edge/seam allowance where I wanted it, then clamped it up in my 2′ long wood workers vise on the bench, held just below the stich line. Think of it as a Loooonnng stitching pony like used for leather work. Worked a real treat!

Not the nicest stitches in the world, but they work!

Voila, a bag!

Sewed the old top end shut to form the bottom, leaving the hemmed cuff end as my new top. Figured the wide hem to be hollow, can run a draw cord through it. Forgot to do it before stitching the side…

1/16″ brass rod, loop bent in end to pull the 550 cord, bent in a loop, and I fished it through the hem. Little tight at the existing side seam, but I got it with come cutting fishing and finagling the rod through!

Need it longer but it’s (gasp!) the only 550 I had on hand. I’ll use it to pull a longer chuck through later. 🙂

Messy stitches to re tack down the hem ends where I cut it..

I wanted more length past the saw for fold over, but 28″ inseams don’t offer much over a 24″ saw… 😉 It works though!

With the saw in it;

Categories: Adventure Metal Works, Camping, Camping gear, Custom, custom-made-tools, Fabrication, Field gear, Improviser, MacGyver, Modifications, New Gear, Re-purpose, Recycle, Repurpose, Saws, Scrounging, Sewing, Soft Goods, wood processing, Woods tools

An Axe Man’s Bucksaw Part 3

Posted on March 22, 2018 by akadventurer

The entire build, in order, more or less; 🙂

I could go through everything I did here in long descriptions, and pictures, but it’s not really necessary, and probably not that interesting either. But here is a general run through. 🙂

Pick out a piece of 1″x8″ x 5′ oak
cut out the pattern

trace it on the wood
Jig saw one upright
Sand the contour
Trace #1 to get #2 the same
Cut, sand #2
Measure and mark for the mortises
Round the edges with a router
Cut pilot groove on blade end to guide cutting the blade slots
Locate blade mount holes, drill
Cut blade slots
Cut the mortise on #1
Rip the cross bar from the board
Square and measure it all for proper cross bar length vs blade length mounted (crucial for proper end angles when blade under tension, and good looks)
Cut and fit the tenon on #1 end
Cut #2 mortise and tenon
Test assemble
Find cord for windlass(I was out of 550! Finally found some heavy clothes line cord..)
Trim scrap to use as temporary windlass bar
Tighten it all up and do a test cut(worked!)
Cut thinning profile on cross bar
Sand cross bar, and route edges
Re-assemble
Discover binding in tenon joints, trim
Re-trim/fine tune joints
Assemble and do a test cut again
Find that I over trimmed the joints, it will now start to slip from a H to a parallelogram-ed H under tension. (Rounded the wrong corners too much; you need the Top corners of the bar end and tenon tips rounded for slip, but the bottom corners left square for rigid support, so the can only pivot in at the top, but not out at the top!)
Discover that if it slips, the windlass slips down the bars, loses tension and it falls apart.
Discover, by clamping the cord in place under tension, that, thankfully, If the windlass doesn’t slip down when it flexes out of H shape, it doesn’t collapse!
Locate for windlass cord supports
Cut pins from 1/4″ copper rod,
Drill and press fit copper as cord supports.
Re-assemble, tighten, test cut 7″ birch log.
Success! (With one about 1/8″ of flex at the joints out of square- good enough)
Decide the scrap your using as a windlass bar works great, no use to make another one
Trim, round, sand the windlass bar.
Disassemble, wood burn the saws name, and my product line name on the side.(not selling it, but figured, meh, why not? )
Also burn in witness marks to identify/match mortise and tenon joints in their matched pairs for proper future assembly.
2 day break to get stain and oil finish.
Counterbore for recessed T nuts
Install T nuts, pin in place with tiny Brad nails
Install keeper ring on windlass bar
Turn down bolt heads, and threads to fit in wingnuts, making wing bolts.
Test the stain, find it won’t penetrate the oak dark enough, skip using it.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Part 4 coming soo. 🙂

Categories: Adventure Metal Works, Backcountry, custom-made-tools, Field gear, New Gear, Outdoors, Saws, wood processing, Woods tools, Woodshop, Woodwork

An Axe Man’s Bucksaw part 2

Posted on March 21, 2018 by akadventurer

I’m proud of two big things on this project;

One being design and execution. The basic mechanics of the saws are really, well, basic. Two uprights, a center cross bar, blade at the bottom, and a Spanish windlass at the top.

And the cross bar being mortise and tenon jointed to the uprights, to provide up/down pivot so that the windlass can tension the blade, but have no twist of pivot in any other plane or axis.

Simple.
I looked around the Web for ideas, since there are a LOT of these out there, for sale, and home built designs.

But I basically still had to design, engineer and build it from scratch.

Lots of time with measuring, squaring, offseting, re-squaring, and making sure both ends matched.. Etc.

The other thing I’m really proud of, is the fact that I’d Never, Ever cut a mortise and tenon joint before. I did one test mortise on scrap(which sucked!) before I cut on the first saw bar I’d just spent 3 hours making. Yeah, fun. 😉

Cut by hand, chisel and saw. Turned out exceptionally well, if I do say so myself!

The second one even press fit at first cuttings, no trimming needed!! (The first one took 10 minutes of fit/test/shave/test/carve/test/whittle, to get to work, then it was a touch loose…)

Now I know why my Dad hated doing them, and always wanted a power tool for it! I was never taught to cut these, not that I remember. He never got the tool till late in life– he just avoided the joint style.

I actually got him one that attaches to a drill press a couple years before he passed away. It didn’t exactly fit his drill, and he never got to use it before he went. I have them both here, but ironically, I preferred to learn to hand cut them. I’ll get the tool setup at some point soon, but so far, I like doing them by hand!

I Was a bit ambitious in part of my joint design; I copied ones I saw a guy on YouTube do, where the end of the bar is rounded, and the face of the mortise is curved to match. So that when it tensions, and the end bars angle, it simply rotates the two curves on each other. A cleaner look than with straight bars, where the angling would leave gaps.

THAT was fun to figure out the geometry on, and then cut in… Oi.

I didn’t get them perfect, but they’re pretty dang good, if I do say so myself.

Categories: Adventure Metal Works, Axes, Backcountry, Camping gear, custom-made-tools, Field gear, GetOutdoors, New Gear, Outdoors, Saws, wood processing, Woods tools, Woodshop, Woodwork

An Axe Man’s Bucksaw Part 1

Posted on March 20, 2018 by akadventurer

This obe is otherwise known as The Moon Saw. That name to be explained later though. 🙂

I’ve been wanting to do this project for a couple months now. Took a while to get other things out of the way… Pressing household maintenance like broken water tanks, and no running water kept cropping up! (Among other little things that Eat time).

I knew I wanted to do a 24″ saw, so I went and picked up a blade early last month. I actually got a whole swede saw. A blade was $8. A Fiskars saw with the blade was $11. Yeah, might as well buy the $3 saw with it, and have it!

Then it took a month for me to get time, and some shop space made to do it.

I neded some large paper for patterning another project, so I sat down and started drawing designs. I could have gone with dead simple straight side/handle bars, and been a LOT simpler and easier…

Bug I figured if I was going to do it, I might as well do what I liked.

The one I built is actually the second design I had drawn, and while the other was thought out over 3 days, this one I drew and finalized in 10 minutes. And liked it more!

(Original design on left, axe style on right)

You can see where the name comes from, if you notice the fawns foot handle ends, and “S” shapes. I had my hatchet handle on the bench at the time, and was holding it, such a nice grip; So I traced it, reversed it, traced again, and blended the contours some.

Simple!

More to be seen soon.

Categories: Adventure Metal Works, Axes, Backcountry, Camping gear, Field gear, GetOutdoors, Hunting, New Gear, Outdoors, wood processing, Woods tools, Woodshop, Woodwork

A good spring day.

Posted on March 22, 2017 by akadventurer

Was another outside work and play day yesterday. Got the snowmachine unstuck. Snowshoed a trail (over it twice, double wide)to pack snow for the machine through deep powder, so I can haul firewood tomorrow(a buddy and I dropped and bucked trees yesterday).

Carried the .22 rifle(Marlin model 39, made in 1951) while on the snowshoes in preparation for a bird hunting trip with a friend this Saturday.

Did some bushcraft firecraft, and had a cookfire. Dinner was my last caribou steak grilled with some fried tater slices and hot tea at the fire. Plus regular chores of getting firewood split and in for the house. In the 20s all day. Last few days have been 20s and 30s, but Monday night/Tuesday morning was the first night to stay at or above 0F. We’ve turned the corner, spring really is here I think!

Backwoods Knives sheath knife, Lee Reeves nessmuk hatchet, Plumb cruiser axe. The prep work tools for my little warming and cooking fire this afternoon.

Categories: Adventures, Alaska-Life, Axes, Guns, hatchets, knives, Outdoors, weather and seasons, Winter, wood processing, Woods tools

Amazing!

Posted on March 21, 2017 by akadventurer

What you can look at everyday and never see!
Been looking at buying some burl wood chunks for a project. But really hoping to find some Alaskan wood in the process, with no luck.

Then I suddenly realized one of my Dad’s old clocks that doesn’t work anymore, hanging in the livingroom… I knew it was a burl but it’s been there for 20 years, broke for 10+ so I never “see” it or think of it.

Figure what the heck, I’ll cut it up, save some $$. Got it down and find it marked birdseye birch from Kenai!!! 😮 PERFECT!! I’d never even heard of birch with that burl pattern either! Turns out to be SUPER rare.

Categories: Adventure Metal Works, Alaska-Life, carving, Gunsmithing, wood processing, Woodwork

Spring time catch up.

Posted on March 16, 2017 by akadventurer

Been a while. It’s either been a lot going on with no time to post, or I’ve been sick as hell(flu, twice through, laid out for 3 weeks, then almost gone, got too cold working, relapsed, and now running into 6 weeks total) and literally Nothing going on to post about.

Anyway, here is a random slew of pics from the last couple months.

Moon and Venus.

My first day out snowshoeing.

Recent knives used and the books I was reading that week.(for a forum thread)

Dads stainless handle Sabre jack knife that lives in the den, which is currently the reloading room.

Case hobo and an Alaskan cookbook

225 grain LWN (long wide nose) hard cast .41 caliber bullets I ordered from GTBullets. 100 lubed and sized for $13, even with $6 shipping, it’s almost cheaper than I could cast my own.. And is considering I can’t afford the mould right now! 😉

Cleaning up an old Schrade USA stockman, a 8OT , that a friend gave me last summer.

Knives and guns, notable pairs, (for a forum thread )

My Beretta. 45, that I’ve now amazingly had for 10.5 years! And the custom Andy Sharpe coffin fighter that it’s come to live with. I rarely ever carry one without the other.

My Mom’s Liberty Mustang .22 and Dad’s Case peanut.

Most sentimental pairing; my Ruger Security Six 357 mag. Which has belonged to both my older brothers, and my Dad before me. With Dad’s Western brand hunting knife.

New stuff, second week of March, my takes from the EDCC (edccommunity.com) passaround box.

Old style finned bomb shaped beads are a fad right now, had some shop time so I tried one. LOTS of work to get the rounded nose, and fins. Had to freehand the cutters on the curve, and lots of file work off the lathe. Too time intensive to make many of them, but I might still..

A slew of pocket dumps, in mostly cronological order, late Jan. to now.

On my knees in a sniw bank digging out firewood at 0F or 10F. Something like that. Proof that I wear my guns working, they’re not babied. (Much.. 😉 )

Simple day last week, hour or two after dark working on firewood. Headlamp and the bluetooth speaker did constant duty… I zip the speaker into a mid layer pocket, hit Google Play, usually Springsteen, and have music wherever I am while working.

Yesterday’s carry, 3-15-17, an outside day. been cooped up sick, wanted to get out and work for a while, puttered around with a few projects (most of which involved shoveling snow!).

Cousins. Both old used and worn, but great Schrade USA stockmans. Large 8OT, and medium 34OT.

My Titanium Eng1nerd Prangler (mash up of key dangler and pry bar) is getting some great coppery brass colored wear stripes in its anodizing. The things that swing and rub on it are brass and it sort of burnished onto the area as it rubs.

And, more of 3-15-17… got the sled out for a bit.And found out how out of practice I am… Was stuck a total of three times! Oi. Thankfully all within ~100 yards max from the house! God is good to me!

Categories: Adventures, Alaska-Life, Beads, Clothes, Custom, custom-made-tools, Daily-cary-log, EDC, Field Notes, Flashlights, Guns, Hanks, key-chains, knives, Leather, Modifications, Multitools, New Gear, No-pain-no-gain, old tools, Outdoors, Pocket knives, Reloading, Sentimental, Theory/Thoughts, titanium, truck, Vehicles, weather and seasons, Winter, wood processing, Woods tools

Spruce burls anyone?

Posted on April 26, 2016 by akadventurer

Several years ago, a buddy bought a house here, and this was left in the garage by the previous owners. A Hat/coat rack made from a spruce tree with several burls on it, set into another Huge burl as a base.

Great concept, just not done the best way.. they’d drilled holes in the burls and stuck 3/8″ dowels in them for the hanger pegs… Not to mention it never had a finish applied to it so it was dry and dull.

He thought it was the ugliest thing ever… I didn’t think it was that ugly, but not real gorgeous either… just not real practical the way it was made, and the space it’d take up. He was gonna trash it. I took it home.

I intended to cut it up, to get the burls for woodworking… Today, over 6 years later, it was still standing in a corner of My garage… ;):oops:😒

So I finally got around to cutting it up.

It stood about 6′ tall. For scale, that is a standard milk crate, and the Husky saw is a 440 with a 18″ bar. It is now in the form of several separate burls, waiting to be delegated projects.

Got a bowl, a few kuksas (cups) and some knife handles planned from the small ones. No idea yet about the behemoth that was the base(and I swear that sucker weighs at least 75lbs, even dry and seasoned like it is!).

I went ahead and used the husky to split one of the smallest of those burls down from the center trunk, so I can start carving something. Thinking maybe a small kuksa .

Categories: Alaska-Life, chainsaws, Lathe, Outdoors, wood processing, Woods tools, Woodwork

wood processing

Share:

Like this:

Share:

Like this:

Share:

Like this:

Share:

Like this:

Share:

Like this:

Share:

Like this:

Share:

Like this:

Share:

Like this: