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Both tubes were carbon and ordered from Rockwell composites. Much easier than laminating them over a mandrel myself. Aluminium components were on the list for a while, but as carbon can be really aggressive to aluminium parts I decided to go with carbon. Lighter too. The headtube has a 1 1/8...

Can't tell. If you take a similar bamboo/hemp/epoxy bike, can you tell how much strength is in the corners and how much in the bamboo? Frankly it doesn't much matter. It's a composite bike, but if I really have to decide I consider it a wooden bike with carbon reinforcements, not the other...

Thanks for the kind words, everyone. I think the bike turned out even better than I planned. It really turns heads, and I've pretty much broken every speed record that I've previously tracked on my Sports Tracker. The frame is really quite stiff, but still comfortable to ride. If I'd have to...

I't been years since I posted my last project, but here I am again. My latest project isn't classical woodworking or traditional joinery. I have built so much with traditional tools and methods, that I wanted to do something totally different. I don't even remember where the original idea...

Lovely saw, I especially like the top part and the transition in the top forward section of the saw. And the horns of the handle are as beautiful as always. It's interesting to see how the designs evolve: I had your saws as the benchmark for mine when I started building my saw and now this...

If you need a good blade just let me know, I know a few good smiths around. And when you have done a few you'll start thinking of forging the blades yourself... :) Pekka

=D> Brilliant! I really like the contrast between the two knives: one with a definite (almost exaggerated) Finnish heritage and the other a really different, fresh feel. It's surprising how much the different materials change the feeling you get from them. Very nice end result, I hope the...

I remember seeing something like that on eBay. If remember correctly there has been a slightly similar knob in the 60's in brown plastic (?!) and in fact the earlier, low "balloon type" Stanley knobs had the same idea of a wide top. There is hardly anything new in hand plane business :D That's...

Surprisingly most of my bench chisels have been I. Sorby. So when I received an I. Sorby parallel iron from Ray Iles among with a load of other plane irons I got from him, I decided that I had to use it for the plane, although it looks a little too long. The plane iron came without a...

I missed this in my previous reply. The spokeshave adjuster is easy to make, but the problem is that it is very coarse. If the pitch of a M6 thread is 1 mm, then 0,1 mm shaving means 1/10 turns on the screw, which isn't that much to do accurately. And finish shavings are much thinner than that...

Turning small brass items with a drill is dead simple, really. The only problem is to fit some kind of a holding point to the brass fitting I'm working with. Usually a screw and a nut can be used, sometimes it requires drilling and tapping the workpiece, or any other means to provide something...

The adjuster is simple. I have never learnt to use the Norris type adjuster so that it would feel natural, it seems that I always mess the sideways adjustment when adjusting the depth or then have to stress myself trying not to. I had two preconditions when designing the adjuster: no special...

In fact they are a tiny little bit asymmetrical, but not that way as the image suggests. Other "shoulder" of the lever cap is a tiny bit higher than the other, but in the pic it looks like they would be somehow crooked. Next pictures aren't about cleaning up the castings, as there are some...

The casting process can now be (hopefully) seen at http://images.sihistin.fi/main.php/v/valu/ Please be patient, it's on a slow server and it may have to still resize the images when someone opens them for the first time. Please let me know if it does not work properly. Pekka

Ha! I was afraid that someone would ask :wink: We seemed to have posted at the same time so I did not notice this post before I sent my previous one. Before you get scalded for bad puns about casting let me thank you about the spokeshave; it really was spot on what I have dreamt of. One day...

Brilliant! Getting that bend symmetrical is something I would hate even to think doing myself. It would be pretty nifty having a skew-ish mouth as the dovetails would be 3 mm off on the other side of the plane... ](*,) Great work. Pekka

I got a hold of various gas tanks, mostly dive tanks. The furnace is made from a He/O2 tank. The crucible is the bottom half of a smaller tank. Can't really recommend as it really starts oxidising and flaking only after a couple of casts. The bottom of a third, smaller tank is cut to the bottom...

It has been a long project, but some things sometimes get done. I should be able to get the plane(s) ready soon, so I'm trying to catch up with the story. Casting the lever caps was not that difficult after getting the furnace built. It's just a coal fired furnace built from a gas bottle. Here...

The varnish used on those handles is nitrocellulose-based stuff. It will dissolve (slowly) in alcohol, and very quickly to toluene. Acetone is a good "middle of the road" solution: easy to get and much safer than toluene. I would suggest just first rubbing the handle with an alcohol rag. Any...

The blade is silver steel (that's what Santa told me :) ), so it should not be too easily affected by the bog oak. You should not put the knife to the sheath anyway without drying the blade. If the blade is dry, the oak should not tarnish the blade anyway. Pekka