Month: August 2023

Enjoying Experience and Slow but Solid Improvement instead of the Fallacy of Instant Success

I started out woodworking like many do – working behind a desk in a long hours job and seeing other people do more than slink into a couch for off hours and just sit in a daze until forced to go back to work the next day, and sometimes that would be later the same day if the prior day went late enough. Not saying I didn’t put through plenty of physical output at work, but it was stacks of paper and files. Someone at work thought I was particularly frustrated – which was probably true, but problem solvers typically don’t have a pitchy salesperson like fake outlook on things.

That started me out woodworking and the first thing I learned to do with hand tools was sharpen from a David Charlesworth DVD. I followed it, it worked, and spent another couple of years wondering how much sharper things could be because all forum input was “there’s no way I had actually sharpened a plane iron properly…it takes years or longer to master”. Well, it doesn’t, and that’s another discussion for another day – how do people get stuck for decades trying to learn something that should be routine and mostly mastered in weeks or months.

What I didn’t know, and probably wouldn’t want to hear is that there is satisfaction in woodworking that doesn’t sound like “if you get a good set of plans and have the right tips, you’re building things better than the pros do”. That message was out there, but it’s bullshit. Which pros. Are you comparing your bookshelf-with-metal-adjustable-pins to some guy who is assembling concrete forms?

It took me about 6 or 7 years to learn that first, you need to have something you want to build well so badly that you’ll figure it out, and second, you don’t have to sweat failing. And not in a fat kid finishing the mile way – “oh, there’s no such thing as a failure”. Well, there may be. Maybe a given individual isn’t meant to do fine art, or carvings, or run half marathons, but most of us will find something we are good at or that we enjoy, or if lucky, both at the same time. And when we do, it’s worth experimenting, doing, and forgetting about someone telling you that a good maker will be able to make anything. A good maker may make more than one thing, but they will become familiar with a smaller number of things, and those things will be better.

And the Repetition and Realistic Incremental Improvement

….that incremental improvement, and learning how to improve faster, and adding on more universal skills like developing feel and training eyes: That’s the key to actually making something better than you thought you could, which will bring you far more than envisioning celebrating that you never made a mistake. You’ll own the knowledge. There is some self teaching and self learning in this that maybe hard to grasp if you’re super conscientious and not very creative. And some need to block out the “expert opinion” of people who either know a better way than what you’re doing, or who are at least dead set on telling you that they are.

Here’s an example from my current kind of build-up. I want to make chisels from rod or solid stock, which I discussed in the prior blog post. I don’t need to, but I want to.

The chisel on the right is the third chisel I hammered out. There is a *lot* of grinding to do on that. The one on the left is the fourth, and the one in the center is the last from yesterday. They look a little different because I’m trying things. you can see that I ran the tang out with the guillotine on the one in the middle, and you can’t tell, but I’ll come back later and consolidate that. It stings my eyes a little to look at it because what I don’t want is discontinuous length. This chisel was made out of only about 2″ of rod and the tip to tang length is 8.5″ now, so the grain is probably elongated somewhat, and for a chisel, I think that’s a good thing.

But there’s a little nugget of improvement on it. After hammering out the right side chisel on this picture, I started to realize that drawing the material out makes it easier to work with rather than hammering it flat. It’s counterintuitive, because drawing out and flattening along the way sounds like more work, but it isn’t. The length of chisel shown in front of the bolster is far more like what it will be when it’s finished. The bolster is rough looking and there’s a lot to grind back, but that can be solved another day.

At this point, the first two chisels were arm aching stuff, the third at the right was still chunky, and the fourth on the left started to clue me in about drawing out material. To not just learn this but feel it at the same time is far different than hearing it in a class and doing what you’re told.

This incremental improvement is very pleasant, and my thoughts about whether or not this was physically reasonable to do after the first couple of chisels are gone – of course it’s reasonable to do in perhaps several per day. And that will be plenty. I can’t physically put in a box what this is and ship it to someone, and it isn’t woo, either. It’s not superficial “lifestyle woodworking” to sell a class, and I think it’s not a beginner friendly thing, so I’ve got no rah-rah idea of what you should just go do (“go make chisels!”). I know that I want to do every single step of them in the shop and I want them to be better than anything I can find. Maybe that’s not possible, but I’m shooting for it.

And I’m shooting for anything else I can learn about moving metal to perhaps be useful elsewhere, and getting closer and closer to a finished chisel off of the anvil where it makes sense. Because these results are nowhere close to that.

And I’m thankful to be going to the shop contemplating, feeling, sometimes ending in some pain, but not limited by someone else’s ideal or limitations or what doesn’t make sense in 2023 or whatever else. It’s a lifetime thing, not dependent on the next class or the next article, and absolutely devoid of any of those internal dialogues about “how much is this worth, is it really worth my time?”. The last bit is one of the dumbest things I’ve encountered on a regular basis – that what you’re doing for leisure doesn’t have enough value and your time is worth too much to do it even if you like it.

Hand Forging Chisels with Integral Bolsters

I’ve made a fair number of chisels. I don’t know how many exactly, but probably about 150. At the outset, I shrunk bolsters onto a tang by heating a bolster, tapering the tang (fatter as you go down the chisel – opposite of historically) and then allowing the bolster to shrink onto the tang. They could move, but hard handle wood and a stout brass ferrule probably would’ve limited that.

It stuck in my head that I wouldn’t be a “real” chisel maker until those bolsters were not able to move. So, over time, I experimented with forge welding a mild steel bolster onto a high carbon steel chisel. Using the same steel would’ve been better in some ways (easier to weld) and less good in others. But being a bit of a chicken, knowing that the weld could fail if it wasn’t great, I’ve always left those bolsters a bit bigger than what you would see on chisels historically. Bigger meaning thickness – more gripping surface on the tang of the chisel. If the weld fails, it usually does immediately if you strike it, so I put the chisels in a mock handle and hammer the end of the handle hard. It’s usually even easier than that, though. The welds are either good or they aren’t.

Here’s where things depart from “how it was done in the past”. Chisels that were actually made by hand often have butt welds on them, and I’m sure industrially made chisels do, too. As in, even where you see that bolster and assume the tang on an all steel chisel goes through the bolster or the bolster was upset or die forged in place, you might rather find the bolster was upset on the end of a blank and the tang is actually butt welded. With wrought iron, this was common, but for purposes of making chisels, I don’t really care too much for laminated types as I’ve had three failures in chisels that I’ve purchased – all three were related to the back of the lamination. And making something like an all steel paring chisel allows for much more control of the chisel’s spring. you should be able to lean into a bench chisel or paring chisel, and with my parers, you could mallet them if you could stand how high your hands would be.

The departing from how it’s done in the past is I want to make chisels out of a single piece of steel, hand forged and ground. To do this, the idea is to get bar stock big enough to form a bolster – remember, I only want hardenable steel – nothing more formable like iron or mild steel – and then forge and grind the remaining steel and file the bolster into place. I have finished one chisel and hammered blanks out for three more. This requires either square stock or round rod, and in the US, the steels that I like to use are sold mostly as flat bar – so my beloved 26c3 is out when making these types.

One finished chisel and another rough blank – hammered and ground from W1 rod

Hammering the steel from rod out to this point is no joke, either. I don’t have a power hammer, and at this point hope not to have one. I hope to improve my ability to hammer to draw these chisels out in 10 minutes instead of the half hour it took to do the first one and near that for the second.

The funny thing about the first chisel above is that the bolster – the first one I’ve done that is integrally part of the steel, actually looks like it’s forge welded on as a separate piece. A clue to how it’s formed is in the second blank.

There are plenty of other questions to answer – the most important being whether one can hand hammer round stock as much as is needed here, not allow too much carbon to escape into the atmosphere, and then in the case of a hand maker, normalize and heat treat by hand and eye and get a good performing chisel that won’t be bettered by anything commercially made. I think the answer to that is that it can be done.

The first chisel is handled now and seems to work fine malleting – but after getting carried away grinding the tang above the shoulders, it could use some aesthetic help with the tang to shoulder length being shorter on the next one.

Forged W1 steel chisel with London plane tree handle

The bolster looks a little wonky – but that’s actually due to an attempt to finish grind the bolster to a fine finish with a high speed wheel. Not a great idea. Filing and hand finishing will be fine for the tail end of the process.

Bevels that you see on the chisel don’t change from any prior process – they’re always ground onto the chisel after the chisel is hardened. If they are there when the tool is quenched, you get a banana unless you’re using A2 or some other steel meant for accountants obsessed with eliminating skilled labor.

It shouldn’t be too hard to visualize what goes on from the blank above that’s not finished to the chisel that is finished. It’s a little bit of back and forth. The rough shape is formed, and the better I get at hammer swinging, the closer it will be to final dimensions vs. these early attempts kind of wasting a lot of time and steel and belts and wheels with grinding.

It would certainly be easier to do this rough work with a power hammer, but it’s true at the same time, I don’t want one and my shop is under the house on a slab shared with the basement – it would be undude for the house, and the family, and cheat me out of experience that I need. Thus far even in 4 chisels, it’s apparent to me that I’ll never form these smooth and easy the way Williamsburg can do with two guys and buttery soft wrought iron, but 10 or 15 minutes could be enough to get the initial blank. ready to start grinding. And in case someone thinks 10 or 15 minutes should be what it takes to make a chisel, it’s more like two hours for a hobbyist if you’re really going to do all of this without taking shortcuts or investing in a lot of equipment.

I’ll spare everyone why I think excess carbon is good in a chisel. With W1, after forging, the carbon content is probably down to 0.9% or so, and I’d like more than 1. And fortunately after starting this process making, I’ve found some European DIN 1.2210 steel sold here in the US in round rod (about 1.2% carbon) that may be a suitable substitute for 26c3.

The anvil that I’m using is 125 pounds, though. I can tell moving metal will be a 4 pound hammer or more venture, and it’s a bit much for the anvil. Which creates another problem – where does one find a reasonably priced local 250 pound anvil that’s in good shape? That’s an unknown – what is known is that something like a JHM ductile iron anvil (hardened, though) is a little over 2 grand after paying freight, and a ridgid forged steel anvil is closer to $3k with taxes and freight. Doable, but in principle, something I don’t want to give in to yet.

I Made Amber Varnish

My last post about varnish stuff was a glossary and intro. If some of the discussion in this post don’t make sense, you can find definitions or discussion of the terminology in that post. Pardon the winding length of this post, by the way. Yesterday was an adventure replacing the cold water line in my house and some of the stems off of it – I finished at 1:30AM and am wiped out. But, back to the varnish…

Amber varnish is probably the earliest “super varnish”. One that has good toughness, high hardness, and is suitable for a lot of uses, from furniture to floors to whatever. I’m not sure if it was used for coaches and things of the like as the texts I’ve read are later, and semi-fossil Copal resin varnishes dominated.

Amber’s interest because Copal is described as being lighter in color than amber, but Copal also relieved varnish makers from having to make varnish out of Amber. So what’s behind these two things? Amber has to be heated to a very high temperature to run and be made soluble for linking to a suitable oil (usually linseed). As discussed in the terminology post, the oil and resin are cooked together to make a long polymer chain. The run temperature is high enough that cooking over fire would’ve been dangerous – it’s only a couple of hundred degrees between amber’s autoignition. The other thing about it, and perhaps some is the resin and some is the temperature needed in the cook, is that the resulting varnish is the darkest I’ve made. I feel like I’m new to varnish making and haven’t made much, but by jar count, this is the 16th varnish I’ve made.

Dark varnish isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but if all varnishes are dark, of course rare then would be a light varnish. Copal allowed relatively light hard varnishes if it was cooked quickly to short string and then used as it was.

At this point, I think the changes in semi-fossil Copal availability have made it so that the baltic amber that’s available, and even at a relatively reasonable price, isn’t much harder to cook than Copal, and maybe not any harder than madagascar Copal.

And, yes, amber resin is the same thing you’ll see with bugs suspended in the middle of it, or polished into sort of a relatively soft natural gemstone. The baltic amber that’s sold for varnish making appears to be little pieces that aren’t valuable for anything else. For the purpose of varnish making, this is nice – the resin does not need to be broken down and it doesn’t have tree trash and dirt in it that some Copal types have.

What makes cooking difficult?

The difficult part of basic oil varnish making is getting a good clean resin to start with and then getting it to melt without burning it. With softer resins, this isn’t much of a challenge unless you’re really new. But with something like Amber or the harder Madagascar Copal, I can see thermocouple temperatures of 700F or so and still have unmelted leftovers after filtering the varnish. My setup is sort of gamed so that it’s not easy to get much past 700F. I don’t have any interest in an eruption of sticky burning stuff that you can feel the danger of if so much as a raindrop or two falls in it and spits a tiny bit out.

If that unmelted stuff is something like 2-15% of a run, I just throw it out. While you’re cooking resins, some part of the mass escapes into the atmosphere, even if you keep the lid on the pot, and burning the pot contents probably just would lead to the same amount of usable resin in the end, but it would be smoked. Like dark and it actually stinks.

After reading extensively about how Amber is difficult to run, warnings from authors not to run it, and pictures online of people stirring what looks like charcoal, I kind of expected it would be a failure, but I also kind of expected that my easy “for dummies” setup with some experience would make it doable. And it was.

There is only one thing I didn’t anticipate: the smell of the resin being run was perhaps the worst smell I’ve ever smelled. Running resin stinks – enough that it’s inconsiderate to neighbors as it’s a putrifying kind of smell, not just like a campfire or burning cooking oil. None is pleasant. But amber takes the cake as being the most disgusting I’ve smelled, and it lingers, even outside. Like on the leaves of trees and under the eaves of the house even though my cooking setup is nowhere close to them.

But I’m happy to have run something that is warned against, no fire, it’s not black, and the properties of the varnish itself are nice. it’s basically a 1 part resin to 1.5 oil, and 15% of the resin or so was pine rosin to create a melted layer to help avoid burning things. Older recipes include Copal (probably easier to melt than what’s available now) and pine rosin up to 50% of the resin content as a cheaper alternative.

A picture of the final amber varnish in the large jar, and some poured off and thinned to use in the small jar.

I mentioned above that the old texts mention you can make a lighter but less durable varnish by getting string, which signifies that the oil and resin have combined chemically, and then just stopping. I use the term “quick varnish” for this. Get them hot, put them together, and take them off the heat before they get darker. Since this is already going to be dark, this is a long-string varnish. Long string in my experience is easiest to get by keeping the varnish over heat for some period of time, testing periodically. As string gets longer, you have to pay attention as the varnish can become so well cooked that it becomes a gel, and it’s generally a lost cause at that point.

So, I cooked this as far as I cared to push it and the mildly thinned result in the large jar is almost like corn syrup when it’s poured, and it has unbelievable adhesion, even wet, and is immune to soap and water.

Here’s a look at the side of the large jar tipped just to get an idea of the darkness of the film.

Very dark finish demonstrated by tipping the jar to see a thin layer on the glass.

I have no idea where to use something like this other than intentional dark finishes or on very dark woods. I don’t think there’s any limit to its shelf life, though, so there’s plenty of time to figure it out.

It’s waterproof, like a modern finish, and I test for that by pouring water on a piece and just letting it stand until the water is dry. If the varnish is impervious to water, it won’t let water into the finish, but also, it won’t even degloss. Semi-fossil copal and amber both do this. I’m sure some others do, too, but inexpensive pine rosin varnish definitely does not tolerate much water contact. BTDT leaving a test piece in the rain by accident, discovering the surface swelled and bumpy with water the next morning.

A test piece of beech finished with a thin layer of amber varnish, water has partially dried. A brushed finish would be considerably darker, perhaps tending toward the color of a violin.

So, about 4 hours of effort in this case, but not all of it with me being attendant. Probably about 2 hours of actual involved time, and all that results is a quart of finish. That’s true, but it’s worth noting that the finish is about 70% solids, so it’s more similar to a half gallon of a higher quality urethane. And it’s just a different animal, anyway. There will be no curing in the jar with this, and if sunlight is available, it’s dry to the touch in about an hour or two.

Two other Varnishes for Color Comparison

It’s not impossible to have a lighter varnish with good tolerance of water, but I haven’t made one yet. I think it’s hard to look at the first picture and get a sense of just how dark the varnish actually is, so here are two more pictures for comparison.

Semi-fossil copal short-string quick varnish. Still a good varnish, but gives up durability in theory to keep this lighter color. Note the film color left on the glass as the varnish jar is tipped.

A fast-cook limed pine rosin (lime added to increase hardness and melting temperature) varnish. The film is so light it’s hard to see on the side of the jar. Unfortunately, the durability and hardness of the varnish isn’t that great.

I may return another day and try to improve this post so it’s not just like some short-sleep dude typing at random, but if you’re reading this last sentence – I haven’t done it yet.

And maybe that’s suitable for Varnish. I could make this varnish on a regular basis, but making it was more about making something that’s practically forbidden in some texts and less about doing it regularly. Especially with the smell – bad enough that 10 ounces of it running would’ve easily tinged the nostrils of dozens of neighbors.

The Plague of Influencers and Affiliate Programs

I’m fresh off of a tirade writing about WBW elsewhere and the stupid affiliate programs all over the place leading to Jabronis (my opinion) pretending that they know something or “have a new favorite” only to put up a revenue token link and never just level with audiences and say “listen, I really only put this video up because when you click on this link, I get a temporary window of a day or two where you buy anything from the retailer and I get money from it.”.

And, of course, it’s not just WBW – it’s every other no accomplishment or mediocre accomplishment person showing their new favorite this or that or a supposed “test” result that just allows linking a whole gaggle of affiliate links at once.

What a plague all of that stuff is. Wood Whisperer telling you about his new favorite rust protection? The revenue link corresponds with the company boasting about a 20% affiliate commission, while the presenter tells you “he bought the product” in a lot of cases, which is misleading. My opinion is that it’s intentional – you would probably get far more than 5 additional sales (erasing your cost) by implying that you just chanced upon something and omitting you’re getting a huge affiliate commission.

It’s pretty much nematodes and tardigrades in the world of woodworking, though. Everywhere and permanent. You don’t immediately see it, but the whole system is set up to create separation between you and retailers or manufacturers while implying that the transition person laundering the information is impartial or “a friend”. A friendly person who never manages to tell you their actual incentive, or recommend things from a full menu of choices without bias in their wallet’s favor.

How do you tell? This isn’t the acid test, but I’ll tell you a story and then tell you one of the acid tests. My dad is retired. He doesn’t do much for investing, aside from give someone his money. He leaked to me a few years ago that he was going to talk to a financial advisor. My dad also gets more pension and social security income than he spends by a wide margin (he’s cheap), so the last thing he needs is an annuity. I said “make sure you don’t do something stupid like buy an annuity that you’re being sold just because it’s far more profitable for an advisor than it would be for them to collect a fee and direct you toward index investments”. His response was “I don’t think he’ll try to do that, I already bought two annuities from him”. A-hole alert. You won’t know enough to know my dad’s financial situation, but I do – no independent advisor is acting in my dad’s interest doing that and my dad could be protected by elder law at his age. He insisted that the advisor is very friendly and has a lot of clients and they all like him. Well, his advisor definitely was successful ad curating a group of clients who aren’t investment savvy and judge advice by smile and whether or not there is free stuff like coffee.

I said “the guy is an A-hole and he should be prosecuted if he’s your financial advisor and not a captive insurance agent or someone who you’d clearly know only wants to sell annuities”. My dad was offended, obviously I’m implying he’s been had and he wasn’t aware of commissions or the idea of annuity income when you’re already unable to spend the income you have. I said “OK, here’s your asshole test. If he tries to sell you another annuity, you’ll know he’s an asshole if you don’t already. I’m telling you ahead of time. It’s pretty easy to smile and give someone coffee if you’re bagging a $5k commission for an hour sitdown”.

I had to break through what my dad felt was a good trusted relationship, and suddenly he had to be whatever pilled you would call it where he understood what was going on, and not only did it put a cloud over him for going to the meeting, or potentially, it made him feel stupid, and while he’s not the same kind of “questioning and digging asshole that I am” (a whole different kind of a-hole!!). Nobody likes to hear, either, that they could be protected by elder law prosecution, because that’s code for “you’re senile and dumb” to a lot of people.

My dad was unhappy with me, audibly, and I value my relationship with my dad a lot. He is rock solid and I would trade him for nobody else. Later that night, he called and he’d gotten enough time to get a little removed from knowing that his son can be inconsiderate or impolite when it comes to lining out something that’s a problem with principle, and he said “Well, I just wanted to call and let you know. You’re right. He tried to sell me an annuity. He said it returns 8%, so what’s your son’s problem?”. I had given him a no-authority order tell the advisor to call me and why – tell him I want to have him call me, what I do for a day job, and I want him to explain why a financial advisor or planner would recommend an annuity. I used something from my secret underground and estimated the cost of an annuity for someone his age and found the yield to be around 2% after expenses. The payment was about 8% per year of the single premium for the annuity. Of course, his advisor was an A-hole, and gave him the fake act of “sure, I’m going to call your son and explain it to him”. Of course, the guy never called, and my dad later called him and he said “he changed his mind”.

Would this have really hurt my dad? No, he’d still have more money than he could spend, but it’s an issue on principle. I have no clue if I’ll get an inheritance and don’t plan for it and don’t really care – it’s my dad’s choice, and I explained to him that if he found a worthwhile charity, I’d rather he give 100% of his money to the charity than will me anything while giving half of his money to an advisor who misled him. And my dad proudly announced I wouldn’t have to worry about that because his advisor (late 40s in age) had sold his company and was retiring.

That’s a long story, but if I could influence a few people to bust that kind of crook, it’d be worth it without question.

Back to influencers. How do you tell someone is an A-hole? My definition. They provide you with information about their “favorite thing”, a “test of various products”, “secret tips” or anything else, and what they’re discussing includes some combination of links to amazon with the word “redir” or “token” on it, and possibly direct links to the products they’re talking about with more in the URL when you hover over the link than just the base website of the maker.

You have every right to ask them how much the commission is on what they’re talking about, and why they don’t disclose affiliate program details as part of talking about something. Just saying “i might get a small commission on some things sometimes” isn’t enough. It’s avoiding the subject, and the information should be specific about the video and about what’s provided. Why doesn’t the Wood Whisperer go nuts telling you about all of the various ways he’ll earn affiliate commissions on a video that purports to be a test about various hard wax oils? Simple, because if he did, many would start to think a little longer, and more folks would probably do what I do – request Youtube eliminate suggesting videos from “creators”, one by one, if the videos have revenue token links or sponsorships and the presenter doesn’t make a pretty big deal about what they’re getting from all of that.

You can certainly decide that I’m just a grouchy rotten person who is peeing on campfires, and I think that’s fine. I’m not really that big on telling people what to do, but rather floating some information out there. I can guarantee you when you are the kind of a-hole that I am (operating on principle, even when it just seems really negative sometimes), people will have the same feeling my dad did. “But I liked that guy”.

What got me on this today? I upset someone who was recommending “carbon method” rust preventive because the wood whisperer recommended it. I didn’t know anything about it other than that it makes little sense as a rust preventive and the wood whisperer figured that even though he used it and got rust on his table saw, it would be worth making another video about it and saying he still liked it. Why do I think he made the video? Well, a good starting guess would be the publicly advertised 20% affiliate commission, though we don’t know what WW’s link token really gets him. It could be more, or it could be less. I doubt the latter, but who knows – I’ve seen online retailers get short arms when someone is especially good at referring people to them, and change the terms of an affiliate program. I have a special distaste in this case, because the person who was glowing about the video and passing it along to other people made the very big pronouncement “well, he said he bought it on his own”. Well, here’s a potential scenario for everyone to think about. You are an influencer, you find a product that has a 20% affiliate commission and you buy it hoping that you can get it in a video and then perhaps get a relationship that’s even a little more special than that. Do you think influencers might be more interested in shopping affiliate programs than products? I do. You may disagree.

But I think if you start to observe this pattern, and you’re aware of it, you may start to change your opinions just as my dad now is fully comfortable that his advisor was an A-hole and he’s more comfortable that I’m not calling him dumb for being taken on investment decisions he signed off on.

Today, I learned that WBW tested some new irons and he’s impressed by them. Guess what. There’s an affiliate link to what he’s talking about for at least one of the products. I bought one of the same iron (the 10V iron tested here). I have no idea what to do with it – the alloy seems to have potential but it doesn’t pan out used side by side with simpler steels because of the way the edge is as it wears. Did I pay for it? yes. Did I ever refer anyone to collect something from the site’s affiliate program? Absolutely not. Did I ever do that anywhere on any platform with anything? Absolutely not.

Different person, same site, with an upbeat pleased feeling to be passing the information along from the video. I think they probably aren’t considering why the video was made in the first place. A link to the right for a recommended short let me know that WBW also has a new favorite marking knife. It’s $120 and made out of about $3 of Nitro V steel….he boasted that in 6 months, he hadn’t had to sharpen it. Nitro V steel wears about as long as A2 – it’s pretty easy to keep a pristine edge on a tool if all you need it for is to make a video to collect revenue through an affiliate token. Guess what the description of the video had in it – a reference token to the site to buy the knife. What do the people who are the viewer version of my dad at the advisor’s office get out of the video? A guy they like has a new favorite marking knife that lasts forever compared to other knives (it won’t – there’s no shortage of catra and toughness testing information for the steel alloy – it’s basically a variation of AEB-L steel, itself being very cheap), and since the video shows such a large number of other knives, it implies that this commission-yielding marking knife is unique. I don’t know what the token link sends back to the video creator – maybe in affiliate interest it is. Maybe it’s not that high of a commission and just another day at the office. I don’t think most people stop to think “maybe this is about generating commission revenue in the first place”, or want to learn more about the steel to find out if it’s really long wearing and really expensive, or if it’s just a very expensive marking knife made out of fairly common materials.

I named a couple of “creators” here – it’s awkward. That should not be confused with me saying these are the two worse or that there aren’t 2000 of the same thing. I’d bet you could find your favorite alcohol infused flying bugs to be doing the same thing, and just about everyone else. Left behind are the videos from people like Curtis Buchanan – actually telling you things that will make you want to go to the shop to do more than open a box and then lose interest and go buy something else.

I Tried Reddit

I don’t think I can take it. The forums are for all intents, dead for hand tools. I’ve registered for reddit in the past, but I don’t remember why and the system is a bit foreign to me.

It looks like a site not really for sharing knowledge, but there’s plenty of panic questions from people who screwed something up, and folks who are making things and trying in a veiled way to advertise them. Which is against the TOS. Which is good, because the format is boggling in terms of the number of redirect attempts to get you to look at other topics, and especially ads.

In just a couple of weeks, I’ve seen several posts of people who want to use a plane with a chipbreaker and have no idea.

And the whole “Karma” thing is dopey. It would keep the Charlie Stanfords and other O.G. knots trolls from having their posts displayed, but there’s a catch with it. If someone says Paul Sellers is the GOAT and you say that’s an alternate reality, you’ll get so many downvotes that perhaps your posts won’t show up, and if you’re not really sharing anything except legitimate suggestions, that kind of defeats the point.

Reddit isn’t a forum run by some guy with delusions about personal ideals being better than other woodworking media sites’ personal ideas, it’s a well oiled calculating data mashing enterprise. This setup is on purpose, because it is the best for advertisers both in terms of the mood and for attracting the type of people advertisers want. Advertisers don’t want me, they don’t want half of the people who will read this blog and they certainly don’t want a Warren who likely won’t suggest much of anything made recently.

It’s so different that it’s entertaining, but it’s not going to be entertaining very long for anyone other than folks who just want to show they made something. And for that, it’s probably great.

It’s in some ways like stepping back in time on the forums, aside from the transient impersonal feel of everything on it. That is, the bulk of the group seems to think the Rob Cosmans and the Paul Sellers types are the high end makers, and that they infallible sources of information. Probably because the nature of the place prevents any distillation of information for the better – to an extent even worse than the forums do.

Of course, I love to shove everyone toward using the cap iron, and there are lot of folks there who could use it. But I don’t think anyone reads over 1000 characters of text (that being told to me by a guy who was sort of educating me about the consequences of making a negative post and then responding to people who posted rebuttals to clarify – that’s apparently a good way to just get multiples of all of the pissed off karma bees running your score down, and then you’re supposed to care about that. I think it’s a good acid test. If honest answers prevent you from having posts displayed, then you know what you need to know about the site).

Since paul and the other who knows who – i can’t keep up with all of the shallow youtube video link-revenue experts like the wood whisperer or Rex or whoever else. And yes, I know a lot of people love the wood whisperer, but a recent search on hardwax oils (I had no idea such a finish was so popular, but I guess so were velcro shoes for a while) that all have revenue links or actual direct affiliate links to each product. Or the “carbon method” – barf. You’re not the customer viewing those videos, your the product.

And reddit dovetails with that. I don’t think anyone is going to read anything about the chipbreaker when they ask how to deal with tearout. Even though you can show a picture like this – a mexico made stanley (and not a particularly good one) working through something that will tear out.

But, anyway…weird – it’s like some people showing fine italian food, but commentary getting offended if anyone says they’re not thrilled about online classes on how to make Ragu.

It does seem like it’s a shame that you can’t get the long-time accomplished hobbyists and pros on a site in a focused discussion anywhere, where useful information could fall out and be stored. But that ship has sailed – the strong makers for the most part abandoned the forums, and there’s no reason to worry about “what could be” when it’s already proven to be “what won’t become”.

Basic Principles and Terminology of Natural-Resin Varnish

I mentioned I’m not going to talk about how to make varnish other than to say that you can go out to youtube and read about it, along with old texts. The texts written around the turn of the century or a little earlier are still accurate for us, sans the quantities where things are in proportion to 100 pounds of resin or 100 gallons of finished product or some other such large numbers. Some of the resins are $6 a pound in quantity, and some are $70 even in quantity if they are uncommon (semi-fossil copal). But I want to define some things because you may want to go figure this out, and I want to talk about varnish and if I use terms without defining them, you’re not going to follow what I’m saying because it’ll seem like jargon. However, some of the terms apply to all finishes and since I want to talk about varnish anyway, this post is a limited intro to terms used with varnish making.

By the way, when we make varnish, it could be a very small amount up to probably some fraction of a gallon. I typically try to make a quart that in better varnishes will be two when it’s properly thinned. A quart of varnish that’s 70% solids is a *lot* of finish. The large quantities in older books would not only be a logistical and budgetary issue, but also probably not legal to make in a lot of jurisdictions because of VOC rules. That sounds like a weird restriction for a hobbyist, but varnish cooking was an industry, so the rules were written for it as well as manufacturing other coatings.

Defining the Basic Process of Making an Oil Varnish

An oil varnish, like what you’d think of as being on a boat, woodwork or a violin is made from a resin (usually from a tree), an oil (usually linseed, but sometimes walnut or tung) and a thinner (usually real turpentine, but many solvents will work and commercial varnishes are typically made with cheap hydrocarbon solvents – good fresh smelling turpentine is $62 a gallon at the very cheapest, and some is much more than that.

The process of making varnish is typically several steps, but it’s not like a recipe for brownies.

Step 1 – prepare the resins and oils. Preparation is focused mostly on cleaning things off of the resin or out of the oil that complicate step 2.

Step 2 – cook (“run”) the resins and cook (to “break”) or cook and oxygenate the oil. This step prepares both parts so that they will bond together in step 3.

Step 3 – introduce the finished products from step 2 to each other, cook them together until they bond with each other, and then perhaps longer if searching for certain properties, and at the tail end of the process, introduce enough turpentine to make the varnish suitable to be poured later.

Steve Voigt is doing an enormous amount of work on this subject, and he’s got lots of information on his blog that’s much more precise about actual cooking and details on the steps, and I’d direct you to him as he’s done a lot more of it than I have.

He also has an excellent recent video trio on making copal varnish, which is probably the most desirable varnish for woodworkers, and would’ve been on instruments, in my opinion, if adherence to tradition were less important than results.

There’s enough there for you to do what he shows, though semi-fossil copal is expensive and it’s not a beginner’s first step. It’s also potentially dangerous to make varnish, and if you introduce open flame like a propane burner or a fire, you risk very serious injury. You may hear rumors of bad burns from candy making with sugar at 350F, and so on. Varnish resins often run around 600F or higher, and the oil can be in the same range for preparation – there is no doubt that in larger quantities, people have died making varnish, and anyone who does a lot of it has some scars. Lucky for me, I’ve had two little half-bb sized spots of hot resin spit out on my arm, but even that was enough for blisters and two little purple scars on my forearm. Just keep danger in mind, skin graft type burns aren’t out of the question.

Terminology for Oil

Washing – literally shaking oil in water, vinegar and water, water and salt or all types of things. Washing oil is a matter of separating things in the oil (like antioxidants) that will prevent bonding of the components in longer polymer chains to themselves, or in bonding resins and oils in a later step to make longer polymer chains.

Breaking – cooking or perhaps some other treatment I’m not aware of (chemical?) to separate parts of the oil from each other and destroy unwanted proteins.

Blown – oil that’s been introduced to oxygen while preparing it – like blowing air through the oil while heating. Obviously, drying oils dry with exposure to air. Treating the oil with air can initiate the drying process, but this isn’t like epoxy or two part finishes – raw linseed oil can be blown or manipulated and then the treatment stopped and the oil will just dry faster later, but it won’t finish drying on its own.

Terminology for Resin

Rosin – this is cooked pine tree resin. Pine rosin quickly cooked into a varnish isn’t particularly good, but violin makers used a lot of pine rosin based stuff. It can be aged or oxidized or treated to make it better. But it’s the same rosin you think of with baseball pitchers or as a block for violin bows.

Fossilized – resins that have been around so long they have fully transitioned to being a fossil. Amber is the only one that I can think of.

Semi-Fossilized – resins that are between sort of “new” and fossilized. Could be hundreds to millions of years old depending on the type. India and Copal resins are of this type. Some Copals are debatable. There is a stark difference between the aged resins and the type that have just fallen on the ground recently. The former makes a harder and better varnish. The latter is far less expensive and I haven’t seen a good reason to use it, but new or unaged resins are popular for incense or “spirit” varnishes (like shellac – just dissolve the resin in a solvent and have an evaporative finish).

Congo/Madagascar – the two semi-fossil Copals that can be purchased and used. Both make a hard varnish that is essentially waterproof and that won’t soften appreciably when exposed to hot temperatures. Madagascar is apparently much younger, but it’s a *very* hard resin.

Run or Ran/Has been Run – resins that have been cooked to get undesirable stuff out of them so that they will bond chemically with oil when cooked together. Running resin can stink so bad, depending on the type, that a rendering plant manager would’ve called the police about the smell. Amber is by far the worst thing I’ve smelled thus far, the fumes are really unhealthy in the first place and shouldn’t be breathed, but the smell will make you wish you had only stuffed your nose with cat poop.

Terms for Cooked Varnish

String – after oil and resin have combined in a cook and have become a “block co-polymer”, the polymer chains will link together allowing the varnish to stretch out in strings if you touch a cooling drop of it and pull your finger away.

Clear – when cooking, if you haven’t gotten oil and resin to bond together and drop a drop of the hot mix on bright metal, it will be cloudy looking as it cools. Once it’s clear, you’re either at string or working toward it.

Pill – a property of varnish such that the oil and resin are thick and not oily, too think to string, and can be rolled into a little pill. Asphaltum in a cooked varnish strings easily and will get to the point that it pills.

Gelling- I’m guessing a little at this, but I’ve had two varnishes gel. I believe this happens when the cook does something to introduce so much air or heat to varnish that it’s partially cured and will no longer flow.

Quick and Light or Cheap Short String– I’m coining this, but it’s described in old texts as an inferior varnish. It’s gotten by mixing components at high heat, getting a string quickly and then removing varnish from the heat rather than cooking it to a better quality. Reasons for this generally have to do with cooking a shorter length of time so that the varnish remains light colored.

Strong String or Long String – it’s not yet clear to me what level of string was typical in the old days. Perhaps a foot or longer. Longer string varnishes mean the varnished produced has longer polymer chains, will be tougher, and probably will be harder. This property also makes the varnishes of the same components feel sticky (very hard to get off of hands without a solvent) and much thicker at the same thinned level.

Long oil or Short Oil – you can vary the amount of oil in a varnish in proportion to the resin. The more oil (long), the more flexible the varnish, but softer and slower drying. The “shorter” or less oil, the faster the varnish will dry, the harder it will be in general, and also, if pushing limits, it will be hard and easy to crack. 1 part resin and 1 part oil would be neither long nor short. Some of the old recipes specify very little oil for cheap furniture varnishes to get a hard bright polish.

I think that should cover enough that I can blog about the varnish that I’ve been making and you can read older sources if you want and there will be overlap so that varnish-related posts don’t just lead to . ………. o O (?????).