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Any technical info (not tech news bullshit) website providing print styles should get tax breaks for caring enough.
I just printed a ‘page’ of tech expository that needlessly blew up to a ridiculous nine double-side sheets with all the useless web elements (links, nav, banner, … ), childish font size, over-expansion of images…
Yes, web is hard, time is short, and printing is trees. And most websites aren’t worth the juice they burn. Sad fact.
Paper is also a fact. Do the right thing.
The distance between each gullet valley(?) in the 3 ½ pitch range is 10 mm. Not exact each time but relatively close and consistent. So that’s what I’ll use to re-notch the new teeth on the heel.
If anyone has other perspectives on the current geometry, I’m all ears because the next step is to start filing. Tomorrow.
Jointing done.
Now it starts to get tricky for me. Frankenstein (the so-dubbed saw) is progressively filed. It begins with 5 ppi at the toe for 16 cm, then abruptly switches to a monstrous 3½ ppi back to the heel (or did, and will again). You can see the transition at the pencil point here. Tote is to the right. Not exactly ‘progressive’, IMO, but there we go.
There’s no way to change the 3½ pitch without filing the teeth off entirely and starting new. So I’ll keep as is.
Need to find a Coulaux catalogue, I guess. In the meantime, this remains a fermoir until proven otherwise. I’ve got other big chisels.
Nosban also defines the fermoir back in the early 1800s (merci, Nico). At that point the blades were made of three layers fused together; two iron on the outsides and a steel in the middle for the edge.
That further suggests to me that a true fermoir would have tops/bottoms equally tapered like daggers, not sided differently.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
The good news, if it really is a fermoir, and not a hack-made one from a good chisel: I don’t have to grind this down.
But, it would sensibly seem to me that a chisel with a two-sided bevel edge would have an iron that tapers similarly from bolster to edge, like a dagger. Mine, however, has one flat side along tool axis, like the bottom of a chisel, and one tapered side, like a chisel top. Is that normal for a proper French fermoir? I don’t know.
Another big firmer/registered (whatever) chisel to restore at some point. A Coulaux. One of Alsace’s historical tool forges long gone.
This chisel’s been through it. I’d guess it was 2 or 3 cm longer at the start.
Handle not original.
Unfortunately, someone ground both sides of the edge; probably used as a wedge (wood splitter). I’ll have to grind off a full centimeter before doing anything.
First a citric soak to see how much hardened length is still there.
I have one rifloir. I always forget about it. It’s pretty coarse, though.
The ragged horn annoyed me enough I’m going for it.
I can’t for the life of me dry clamp the damn patch, but the fact I can balance an 8-kilo hunk of brass on it speaks to it’s flatness. A circus elephant on a stick.
I’ll level it up more so it doesn’t slide off like the Grinch’s sled when glued, but that will create plenty of pressure and squeeze-out.
The tote looks like beech, but not sure. The patch is ash, already having a flat side. Only other thing I have is oak.
There’s a video of a guy who turns a refrigerator’s compressor into a bench-top welder in about 10 minutes (he already had the tools and parts, which are few). He merely reroutes some wires, adds a plug-in and homemade copper coil, and uses some Hitachi wand clamp thing as a rod holder. He then proceeds to weld steel pipe to a steel plate in moments.
I’m impressed.
I’ll be keeping our compressor if we upgrade.
I’m unable to find any 1-piece hinges like this. But three hinges would probably mimic the function, perhaps with an extra screw or two in the leafs for added stability.
Is this a walnut tree? I think we have a walnut tree. Didn’t notice it before. It’s growing at head of our driveway, right by the cement divider with the neighbor’s, which is probably not good. And looks like it was cut off at the stump once, because it had two stalks growing up (I cut off the smaller one).
Grooming young walnut trees is a rather considered situation, it seems.
I think I’ll just let this one do what it wants. I gave it some space after this photo.
A nice set of imperial-sized Russel Jennings (bought out by the Stanley amoeba, evidently) Auger Bits for sale. These probably came over during the war, or shortly after. The bits are in excellent shape.
What strikes me is the cool box design; a single box composed of three hinged levels that can be opened like a book on it’s side.
On the other hand, having three flatter, lighter boxes would be easier to move and handle when you need one bit and know which box it’s in.
Our yard is full of tiger mosquitos. Now I find that a locally acquired chikungunya virus disease case has been reported in Alsace for first time. France has reported 111 cases of chikungunya so far in 2025. Climate change is driving longer, hotter conditions favorable to mosquitos and thus disease spread. There’s now a vaccine for chikungunya, but not for West Nile Virus, another disease spreading in Europe by the mosquitos. I’m bit daily. Maybe time for the jab.
Chapter 2 (new thread): The Tote
This thing feels good in my hand. Perfect fit. Grip is wonderful.
But that fracture is going to be hard to fix.
Cont.
I have a few minutes and don’t have an actual split-nut driver for the Disston-looking saw, so switching focus to the old rusty boy.
First a little backstory that some may remember from a few years ago…
At that time I had bought a nest of saws from a particular seller online, dirt cheap; seven for 10€, or something. Two of them caught my eye. That was the gamble. They looked like good saws but where covered in something black from toe to grip. I had to buy them to know.
Cont.