Tuesday, December 6, 2011

Get The Lead Out

So recently on a woodworking forum I frequent we had a discussion about pencil sharpeners.  We all were pretty much in agreement that the old school manual crank ones were the best and thus we set out on finding the ideal pencil sharpener.  In my quest for the ultimate sharpener I started doing some digging on available options. There are tons of them out there X-Acto makes some, Stanley Bostitch makes some as well.  I then stumbled upon Class Room Friendly Designs.  The looks of the pencil sharpener are pretty slick, it is an old school look that I prefer.  Check out this video of how it works


I was honestly skeptical of the of the sharpener.  It looks like it would work good, but I wasn't sure about the mechanism that pulls the pencil into the sharpener.  In reality it works extremely well.  You can sharpen the pencil and it will basically stop when the pencil is sharp.


The sharpener came packed very well.


Here you can see the sharpener and the clamp the you can use to clamp it to a shelf.



I would like to have seen two sharpeners in here but honestly the one does a fantastic job.  It creates a very clean cut and a very nice point on the pencils.  

 Here you can see the little clamps that grab hold of the pencil while you are sharpening.  It  holds the pencil very firmly and doesn't allow it to move while sharpening.
 Look at those beautiful points.  I sharpened a few more pencils after this and it is consistent in its ability to sharpen all the pencils.

All in all I would highly recommend this pencil sharpener if you are in the market for a manual sharpener.  I am very happy with the tool and have added it to my arsenal of tools in the wood shop.  

Please make sure to check out http://www.classroomfriendlysupplies.com/ the sharpener is $20, the company that sells the sharpeners is based out of North Carolina.  I don't believe you will regret the purchase.






Monday, August 22, 2011

Hand Planes

It has been a while since my last post. Life has been interesting the last few years and I've had very little time for woodworking or the money for that matter. It's an expensive hobby. However it is one that I love so I try and do little bits here and there. The latest project I completed was a set of Hand Planes. In a recent issue of
Wood Magazine they had an article on making your own hand plane. I have wanted to do one of these for a LONG time and really enjoy making my own tools and jigs etc. I'm finding the jig side of things is going to be very helpful in building guitars. Anyway. I thought I would share my hand planes with you. Hope you enjoy. Oh and you should see a new logo on the blog now. I like it much better.


We start by gluing up the blank for the hand plane. It's roughly 2"x8"
All the parts next to each other

Cut the bed out for the blade. That center triangle later becomes the wedge.


Gluing all the parts together.


Glued up and ready to cut the wedge.
Bottom of the plane with the throat opened
Test fitting everything

The Wedge is now cut out.
After everything was shaped and tuned

The woods are Spalted Maple, Sapele, Walnut and some oak veneer in between






Here is the two that I have built so far.  The one in Front is Curly Maple Sapele and Oak.




Both planes work beautifully and I couldn't be happier

--Grover

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