24 | May | 2016 | Je ne sais quoi Woodworking

24/5/2016

Back in November 2015 a reader by the name of Frank Bartlett started commenting on my posts. It turns out that he hails from the Kavango in Northern Namibia where our fishing camp is. He currently resides in Cape Town and is an avid old tool collector/user. Since then we started corresponding with regards to good shops to visit to hunt for old tools in the former Cape Colony. He pointed me towards a few good ones in Cape Town and I returned the favour in terms of the same in the Garden Route.

After my post on the Langdon mitre box and saw, Frank indicated that he has long been looking for something similar in Southern Africa. I undertook to let him know if ever I stumble across one. In April of this year friends of mine (yes that is you Heidi) visited a few antique stores in the Cape Town area and took photos of a mitre box and saw, which they sent on to me. I immediately sent it on to Frank who went in search of the shop with very sketchy directions.

I do not want to elaborate too much more as Frank will probably do a better job of documenting the adventure. Anyway that got us thinking about a post on the restoration of this mitre box/saw. As we discussed it more we realised that I could actually create a category on my site where other woodworkers who does not want to blog full time could post some of their projects.

Frank agreed to be the first guinea pig and has already sent me some photos of very interesting projects that might feature on Je ne sais quoi Woodworking in the near future.

Over to you Frank and watch this space to the rest of you.

18/4/2016

This project has been on my ‘to do’ list for at least two years. Ever since reading the seminal work “By hand & eye”, I just had to build a sector. It really is a magic wand in the shop once you understand a few basics of pre-industrial design methods.

During the Easter break I aquired this broken Danish boxwood rule for R35 (US$2.24) at an antiques shop. I have been looking for something like this for a while, as these rulers have the perfect type of hinge for a shop built sector.

Seeing that one needs to mark out measurements on the sector, I decided to use a light coloured wood. I found this piece of Olienhout (Olea europaea africana or Wild olive) that would have been harvested between 1988 and 1992 on a farm in the Groot Marico district. My father was building Grandfather Clocks at the time and one of his best clients (as well as a personal friend) supplied him with Olienhout from his farm. This is a piece that was left over from that era.

I can still remember driving to Groot Marico with my father to deliver a Grandfather clock to this guy called Oom Frik. Oom Frik purchased at least four of these clocks over the years and paid for it in part by supplying my father with the most magnificent Olienhout. On the way there we stopped at the Hotel in Groot Marico to sample some of the local mampoer that the area is famous for. When the barman heard that it was my first visit to Groot Marico, he explained that it is custom for first time visitors to be served a glass of the local elixir on the house. Being a student at the time, I needed no further convincing so he proceeded to fill a tumbler with crushed ice followed by more than a sensible amount of mampoer.

That stuff knocked my socks off to say the least, despite being a fairly fit alcohol consumer at the time. As I sat there sipping the poison, I could swear Oom Schalk Lourens wispered something to me. For those of you who do not know the work of the legendary Herman Charles Bosman, do yourself a favour and read (at the very least) “Mafeking Road & other stories” (1947). It is arguably the best literature ever to come out of Southern Africa and it will make Groot Marico and the Afrikaner come alive to you. I digress, but as a last thought on the matter I will leave you with a quote from Bosman where he described Groot Marico “There is no other place I know that is so heavy with atmosphere, so strangely and darkly impregnated with that stuff of life that bears the authentic stamp of South Africa”.

Anyway this piece of wood comes from that area, has been lying around for at least 25 years since being harvested and was most definitely enjoying those beautiful Bosveld sunsets with Oom Schalk Lourence at the time Bosman was writing his epic stories.

On the table saw I ripped 6 thin strips from the side with the lightest coloured wood. Two of those were milled down to the exact thickness of the boxwood rule.

I then got rid of the broken hinges.

I planed the boxwood very carefully to expose fresh wood for the adhesive to bind to.

The strips of Olienhout were then glued up as so …

After removing excess glue and squaring up, I had two extensions with perfect slots to accommodate the rule.

The rule was then epoxied into position.

16/5/2016

At this stage I first marked out the divisions on the inside surface of the arms. I decided on 25 mm divisions which gave me 24 of them on each arm of this sector.