Toolemera Blog

A Multilingual Happy New Year!

Afgani	Saale Nao Mubbarak
Afrikaans	Gelukkige nuwe jaar
Albanian	Gezuar Vitin e Ri
Arabic	Antum salimoun
Bengali	Shuvo Nabo Barsho
Bulgarian	Chestita Nova Godina
Chinese	Chu Shen Tan
Cymraeg (Welsh)	Blwyddyn Newydd Dda
Czechoslovakia	Scastny Novy Rok
Denish	Godt Nytår
Dutch	GELUKKIG NIEUWJAAR!
Eskimo	Kiortame pivdluaritlo
Estonians	Head uut aastat!
Finnish	Onnellista Uutta Vuotta
French	Bonne Annee
Gaelic	Bliadhna mhath ur
German	Prosit Neujahr
Greek	Kenourios Chronos
Hawaiian	Hauoli Makahiki Hou
Hebrew	L'Shannah Tovah
Hindi	Nahi varsh ka shub kamna
Hungarian	Boldog £j vet k¡v nok!
Indonesian	Selamat Tahun Baru
Iraqi	Sanah Jadidah
Irish	Bliain nua fe mhaise dhuit
Italian:	Felice anno nuovo
Kannada:	Hosa Varushadha Shubhashayagalu
Kisii:	SOMWAKA OMOYIA OMUYA
Khmer:	Sua Sdei tfnam tmei
Laotian:	Sabai dee pee mai
Nepal	Nawa Barsha ko Shuvakamana
Norwegian	Godt Nyttår
Papua New Guinea	Nupela yia i go long yu
Philippines	Manigong Bagong Taon
Polish:	Szczesliwego Nowego
Portuguese	Feliz Ano Novo
Punjabi	Nave sal di
Romanian	AN NOU FERICIT
Russian	S Novim Godom
Serbo-Croatian	Sretna nova godina
Sindhi	Nayou Saal Mubbarak Hoje
Singhalese	Subha Aluth Awrudhak Vewa
Slovak	A stastlivy Novy Rok
Slovenian	SREČNO NOVO LETO
Somali	Iyo Sanad Cusub Oo Fiican!
Spanish	Feliz Ano ~Nuevo
Swahili	Heri Za Mwaka Mpyaº
Swedish	GOTT NYTT ÅR! /Gott nytt år!
Sudanese	Warsa Enggal
Tamil	Eniya Puthandu Nalvazhthukkal
Telegu	Noothana samvatsara shubhakankshalu
Thai	Sawadee Pee Mai
Turkish	Yeni Yýlýnýz Kutlu Olsun
Ukrainian	Shchastlyvoho Novoho Roku
Urdu	Naya Saal Mubbarak Ho
Vietnamese	Chuc Mung Tan Nien

What, no finishing?

I've been watching the latest poll on the blog: Favorite Woodworking Activities. People have both common and diverse likes, but... no one likes finishing? I find this most strange. One of my favorite activities is finishing. Whether it's applying a finish to an old hunk of furniture I've restored or the finish to a new piece of woodwork, I find finishing to be restful, meditative and rewarding.

When else can you experience the joy of watching the wooden surface bloom under your expectant gaze? What was pretty but understated glistens, gains depth and life. Really folks, why don't you like finishing? 

Brushing on a shellac finish is most calming. It's an exercise in muscular control, in understanding wood grain and wood movement. Building up a brushed on shellac finish is great stuff. It goes on clear, is scuffed during scraping, is clarified again as each coat is applied and either shines or glows when rubbed out with pumice or rottenstone.

Wax is a delight. It smells good. It feels good. It deepens the coloration of the wood without filling the pores, leaving a welcome tactile sensation for the hand.

Varnish can look great when it imparts an amber hue to outdoor woodwork. Fairly easy to apply and quick to change the look of that weathered old wood into something warm and friendly.

Padding on oil is fun. It's sloppy. It smells good. It gets all over the place. It makes the wood change color in an instant, bringing to life forms and images you may not have known were there.

So what's not to like about finishing?

Till next, most grumpily, Gary

We all have our vises

Recently, Chris Schwarz posted a question about a mystery leg vise. Seems this odd duck had a dowel mounted on the bottom of the face and no one could figure out just why it was there. I remembered a vise that I've lugged up to a tailgate or two with hopes of selling it, with no luck so far.

This may not be an exact replica of the vise Chris is talking about, but it struck me that perhaps the two have something in common. Mine has an adjustable back plate that allows the user to lift the entire vise, front and back jaws together, straight up or drop the unit till the foot hits the floor. This one has a common looking bottom tenon with holes to accomodate pegs. I wonder if the vise Chris is talking about was also intended for mounting on an adjustable backplate? Even if not, here are a few images of the vise (which I may just keep and mount on some bench. It weighs in around 50 lbs).

And while we're on the subject of vices, here is an oddball vise from I don't know where:

Till next, Gary

Dig We Must

Con Edison, the New York City electric company, has the following phrase on their barricades: "Dig We Must". Or at least they used to when I was a kid. I'm doing much the same thing over at the Free Stuff part of the Toolemera Press website.

Which is to say that some things are looking good and some things are not. I'm making some changes to the gateway page as well as to the lead-in pages for Trade Catalogs and Books & Booklets. Along the way I discovered that an entire page of trade catalogs has disappeared. Plus there are some CSS coding errors that have played havoc with the trade catalog pages. I'm working on trimming the CSS codes to the bare necessities and some of those necessities are going through those teen age years.

As I am sure that the major part of the internet is now quaking in it's boots (is the internet an 'it', a 'they' or what?) at the thought of any problems within my website, please rest assured that the fixes are in the works.

Till next, Gary

Wanted: A whole lotta answers

With apologies to Led Zepplin, at the auction last week, while selling in the parking lot, a few folks stopped by to ask questions about what tool to use for a given purpose or where to find good introductory information on hand tools. Well, it's not as if I am an all around expert but as a library type, I do tend to file away lots of hopefully not-too-useless bits of information in my head. I tried my best to answer what I could or to re-direct to another person who would have a better answer. Or any answer.

What struck me was the focus of the questions. These were people with beginning or intermediate skill levels who wanted to know about some fairly advanced or esoteric topics such as drawer bottom planes, sliding dovetails, the difference between a hollow & round set and a rule joint set, etc. There was a sense of confusion as to where to start learning along with a desire to jump in with the difficult stuff. 

Over the past year I've been re-reading a great many books on my shelves with a focus on 19th Century and early 20th Century texts on the manual arts. In addition, I've been hunting down new titles as well as earlier versions of some titles to see if there had been substantial changes in the books during subsequent editions. Or, perhaps I was just looking for a good excuse to buy and read some more books. Along with this has been considerable correspondence I've had with various people concerning the current focus of woodworking books on the advanced 'showy' & 'sexy' tools and techniques that lead people away from the basics that are needed in order to attain that showy feel. Apologies for the run-on sentence. I get James Joycey every now and then.