Fall

The Common Ground Fair Country Fair was an awful lot of fun. I spoke with hundreds of people while working on one of my Windsor chairs. The spring-pole lathe saw lots of use by the crowd. Packing up at the close of the fair, and then unloading everything back at the shop was the usual pain. With the fair out of the way, I am in a rush to take advantage of the last warm weather of the season to get a multitude of outdoor chores done before the cold hits. The storm door on the kitchen entry needs paint. Two cords of wood need to be stacked. The entry to the shop roof has been leaking and reached the point where I couldn't ignore it any longer. So, the past week and a half has been spent peeling off the old shingles and flashing, covering everything with Water and Ice shield, and then reshingling the roof. The Ice Shield was tough to work with as it had a suicidal desire to crumple up like Saran Wrap. But that task is now finished and off the list. Ann has been looking at the main roof of the house and making noise about that roof needing to be reshingled. That's a job I am not going to attempt. Just one more thing to be added to the list. This week's must do project is repainting the shop's windows. I was primed, pun intended, to start today. But rain intervened. Bummer.

I used my new Chair-maker's plane, to which I had added a handle, at the Fair. It worked really well. I was concerned that the top of the handle might interfer with adjusting the plane iron and wedge. This did not prove to be a problam. When holding the plane I noted that my fingers were still well behind the iron when it was seated in the plane. I had about 3/4 of an inch between my fingers and the iron. So I wondered whether I could get away with makeing the plane a half inch shorter? So, during breaks from the roofing project, I made a new shorter plane body. With a handle blank fitted to the body, I inserted a spare iron and wedge. and lo and behold, my hand was still clear of the back of the blade. I've spent the last two evenings whittling a handle for the new plane. Once I finish this version up I'll have to use it a while to see which of the two planes I prefer.

Have a good day. Thank you for stopping by. STB