[ soundtrack : ‘‘Medley: The Recruiting Sergeant / The Rocky Road to Dublin / Galway Races“- The Pogues ]
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A draft of this post was published by mistake yesterday — I clicked on the publish-button in a fit of distraction. This is the edited and proofread version.
I usually edit out (most of) the overtly political or ideologically contentious ‘rants’. I’m guessing you’re here for the woodworking, not for the daily culture war squaak-squaak. But I do find it difficult to keep my mouth shut, as these are highly interesting times we are living through.
I’ve noticed one thing about myself after I started doing these scribblings; When I’m woodworking I am steadfastly concentrated, focused, not easily distracted. When I’m writing I can very easily veer off on a tangent, my mind seemingly working in another mode, in a more associative and playful state. This is what makes writing so fun for me, the opportunity to be inventive and playful with words and meaning. Most of the time, these verbal inventions fall flat when read again in the cold light of next day … but when they stay standing! Building text with words is the only thing that can rival the joy I derive from making things out of wood.
Then there is the question of truth, honesty and sincerity. A published text is never “the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth“, it is always more akin to a pale, two-dimensional representation of a tactile, smelly, mouthwatering, sexy, singing & dancing supersensual experience. It is what licking a stamp is to a banquet.
Still … I’m rather fond of the old alphabet, those black squiggles on digital parchment, but often I’m afraid of being too honest, of saying too much, of being too open; no doubt because we live in an increasingly censorious age. The only ones denying the existence of cancel culture, doxing, de-banking, no-platforming, in short; ostracism are those conformists who need not fear it themselves. Ours is the age of the relentless ideological commissars spawned in the dumbed-down seats of ‘higher education’. Dunning-Kruger candidates, the lot of ’em!
I’m at it again, aren’t I? *sigh*
“NOW BACK TO OUR REGULARLY SCHEDULED PROGRAMMING.“
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If I were assembling a woodshop from scratch again, the first machine tool I would acquire would be a circular table saw — as high quality and as big as I could afford. Other woodworkers would opt for a bandsaw or perhaps a jointer. Ask four woodworkers for advice and you’ll get seven different answers — split personality disorder seems to be the bane of our trade. Must be something in the dust.
It all depends on what kind of work you mostly do and how you go about it. I’ve seen people get good results in a great variety of ways; it’s not worth quarreling about — each is blessed in his own faith, as long as you recognize in your heart of hearts that I am right.
Back when I rented a larger space and ran more of a production-shop I had a beauty of a full-size SCM (Italian) saw. It had a scoring blade for veneered work and was effortlessly stable and accurate — a joy to use. On continental Europe, and even here in Protektorat Norwegen, we prefer the sliding-table style of saws as opposed to the crosscut-sled style favoured in the garages and sheds of the Anglosphere (*snigger*).
Modern high quality circular saw blades have tungsten carbide or similar hard metal teeth brazed on to some sort of carbon steel alloy blade. Some blades even have their tiny teeth coated with industrial diamonds for heavy duty use. In a small, custom shop like mine the problem isn’t that the blades get dull, but that they get coated with resin. That affects the sawblade’s cutting ability.
The amount of wood I split on my little saw is absolutely miniscule measured against the maintenance intervals stipulated in the industry manuals. On the other hand; I rigorously select for the fattiest of pine pieces so that my products will be as rot resistant as possible. In short: It is just as important for me to clean my blades as it is to sharpen them.
Still, my blades also need sharpening once in a blue moon. Whether that expense is justified or not depends on the size and cost of the blade. Smaller blades for hand-held circular saws and chop-saws you might as well buy new, but larger, more expensive industrial blades might be cheaper to have sharpened. That inflection point will vary.
I’m lucky enough to know of a small, family-run company (two brothers) who also caters to local small-time woodworkers like me; supplying tools, equipment and sharpening services. They drive into town (Oslo) once a week (Tuesday) to deliever goods on your doorstep. Excellent service!
But this poses a practical question: How to transport the saw-blades back and forth? I could, of course, use the cardboard packaging they came in, but where are the bragging rights in that? Here’s my solution:
I think of them as ‘sawblade-envelopes’. I made them back when I ran my old shop. Sheets of poplar plywood (cheap!), frame of ash (hardwood leftover).
The construction is as simple as can be.
Make a hole so you can lift the blade with a finger instead of trying to get a grip on it along the toothy edges.
The ‘envelopes’ stick in place by friction and can be secured with a piece of tape during transport.
I probably like making stuff for my workshop more than I like making ‘pretty things’. Sometimes I think of the shop as an orchestra where I get to be both composer and conductor. Any new tool or equipment is like an additional instrument or harmonic possibility, enabling me to make even better wood-music :-)
That said, the three blades I most often switch between hang on a nail on the wall.
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I enjoyed this article, but I'm thankful to have had a chance to read the unedited version. It is nice to know that there are still clear-headed people in the world.
Nice read. With ya on the workers.
I like your blade holders, much more elegant than mine. I made a vertical holder for my blades with an all thread bolt in the middle with spacers between blades, fairly common around here for guys with sharpening services.. Unfortunately my sharpener passed away a few years ago. I also stopped using much also and that has kept the blades cleaner.
On the other hand teaching teenagers to work wood everyday they are more likely to damage our blades before they need sharpening so I just keep buying new. 😡
Hope all is well as can be with the family. Appreciate your posts every time.
Thanks!