Thread: What are you working on?

I've noticed that my new house seems to be a bit dryer than my old. Or maybe my old house just had high humidity. My Bison Horse hide strop has been showing signs of being really dry so today I decided it was time to hit it with some Neats foot oil. I've only ever oiled it once or twice in the past, and have used very little oil. Maybe a 1/4 teaspoon each time, and really worked it in. Today I gave it a good oiling, really trying to get everything with oil. Did the back side, edges, handle and even up around the Chicago screws. I'd say I used 1 1/2 teaspoons on the entire thing. The remnants of what was left on my hand got massaged, rubbed, Molested into my old Weiffenbach Shell. Gave both a test run and both are still feeling great. Slightly more draw on the Bison but it's super slick, and maybe a little too slick from it being dry.

and the hobby rolls on....



Also been noticing my walls getting marked up from the strops as well. Think a nice wide piece of Walnut on the wall for protection might be effective and eye catching. Next time I'm at the wood store I might look for a nice piece for this purpose.

Nice looking strop, and contemporary stand design. Quality project work gong on here gents!
Andrew, a wall plate fir the strop hanging eye's a good idea too. Keep the chafing at bay.
I've not used neetsfoot on either of mine so far. Followed the Kanayama recommendations of pure water wipe downs till saturated maybe once a year, then hand rubbing once dried again. So far so good.

Originally Posted by MikeB52

Nice looking strop, and contemporary stand design. Quality project work gong on here gents!
Andrew, a wall plate fir the strop hanging eye's a good idea too. Keep the chafing at bay.
I've not used neetsfoot on either of mine so far. Followed the Kanayama recommendations of pure water wipe downs till saturated maybe once a year, then hand rubbing once dried again. So far so good.

I'll have to see how this "heavy oiling" goes for the Bison. I really love that strop so hopefully nothing bad will occur now that I've done this.

Now that we're on the topic of strops, Did Bison recently get bought out by some other company? I saw a new name on Max's line of razors for them, as well as the strops.

Originally Posted by ClimbingCarpenter

I have been perfecting A production design for this stand for the last couple months and now all I need is a retailer to order a couple dozen. Attachment 257795

Nice. Tell me about the joinery - just glue?, biscuits?, floating tenon?

Originally Posted by aaron1234

I'm working on getting this 80lb + piece of iron wood cut up!

That's a cool hunk of wood, Aaron. I love it! So dense, that piece doesn't look like it should weigh 80 lbs. but then go to pick it up, solid.

With some pointers from some fellow members I've managed to de-knot a few old brushes and get them ready for new knots to be put in. I have three Ever-Readys and a Rubberset. To get the old knots out I tried the crunch-in-a-vise method shown in a few other threads but in the end couldn't get that to work so I just drilled them out. To fill the empty space beneath I cut popsicle sticks to where I want the new knot to go down to and poured epoxy in there. Got them polished up and letting the epoxy cure overnight, maybe put the new knots in tomorrow.

Tuzi, Great work!
However, I seem to be lacking with not enough space below on most of my vintage re-knotted brushes like that. I reckon most were originally boar brushes.
I do like the badgers low, stiffer and without so much immediate bloom.
I got some as low as I dared and then use an o-ring yet. Never have built one up...
I suppose it all has to do with the particular knot being used handle and preferences.

Looks like you have the luxury of going deep on these! The weight of the epoxy will make the brush have a nice, solid feel, I think.

Originally Posted by sharptonn

Looks like you have the luxury of going deep on these! The weight of the epoxy will make the brush have a nice, solid feel, I think.

Yep, they were all hollow all the way to the bottom. Once I drilled down, the old knot cracked kind of like in half and came out in chunks on two of them, the other two I drilled through to the hollow space and the rest of the knot remained stuck to the sides. Then I used a dremel drum sander to smooth out the sides of the hole.

Yep and now the popsicle sticks go all the way to the bottom with epoxy solid all around. Gives the handles a real good solid feel. I have 20mm badger knots going in and I am on track at this point to have 48 mm of loft if all goes well.

I wonder if you might oversize and get some 24's in those 2 with the black tops?
24 is a perfect size. at least in my opinion. 2-bands?

Originally Posted by sharptonn

I wonder if you might oversize and get some 24's in those 2 with the black tops?
24 is a perfect size. at least in my opinion. 2-bands?

The camera angle makes the holes look a little weird, they all have the same size holes. 20 mm knots will fit perfectly the way they sit now. I never thought to oversize any of them when I ordered the knots.