ebay: You Can Find Almost Everything for Sale

© 2011 Albert A Rasch and
The Rasch Outdoor Chronicles™
$g&m f9bd 45kd q!?5.

ebay is the devil.

There, I've said it.

One of my compatriots over here is an avid ebay shopper. He gets all sorts of stuff, but concentrates on comic books and electronics. He is quite adept at finding the deals, timing his bids, and putting the right price on them to get them.

It's been a steep learning curve for me, but I finally won my first bid tonight! Suffice it to say that I figured out it takes aproximately 7 seconds for my bid to hit ebay and another 7 to get back. Fortunately I have a multi monitor setup that allows me to refresh one screen while confirming the bid on the other. So I have learned how to play along with the ebay regulars and challenge them on their own turf.

So what did I get?

A 10 gauge bench mounted roll crimper!

I can't remember when I never wanted a 10 gauge bench mounted roll crimper. I mean every kid on my block in New York City wanted a 10 gauge bench mounted roll crimper. As a matter of fact I was at the ECP (entry control point AKA Suicide Bomber Gate 1) and through an interpreter I found out that the scrawny, underfed Afghan was here looking for a 10 gauge bench mounted roll crimper. Go figure. I don't make this stuff up, I just report it!

Now, I happen to own a H&R 1960s vintage 10 gauge slug gun. I've always loved that thick barreled shoulder thumper, and the only thing missing is a handful of brass shells loaded with a big ball of hardened lead up front, and another handfull of paper hulled thumb thick shells with a couple of ounces of BB shot. A cold Fall day, acorns on the ground, with turkey and hog on the menu, who could ask for more?

Some 10 gauge paper hulls, so I can actually use the 10 gauge bench mounted roll crimper that I so cleverly won on ebay, would be nice.

Getting back to ebay, as you all know I'm a bit of an amateur wood butcher, and I love handtools! One of my favorite tools is the Stanley #51 spokeshave. Little did I know that Stanley has produced some 100+ varients of the spokeshave; of which the majority are available on ebay. Now how was I to know that I needed a #67, an adjustable mouth #52, and the #80? Just to be safe I bid on another dozen varients just in case I might need them too. 

Now the real problem is how am I going to explain the 5 hand saws I am waiting on? One of them is a Disston Forester's saw measureing a whopping 41 inches that still has its belly! At the price I may get them at its a bargain just for the forester, and the other four saws might actually be useful. 

And I have a bid on a slab of Bubinga...

Bubinga?

WTF is Bubinga?

I know now, but I didn't know I needed a four foot long, eight inch by two inch thick slab of Bubinga until yesterday!

I checked out the hammers on the off chance that I didn't have a particular one in my collection of fifty or so. Nothing like getting a real deal on another eight pound sledge sans handle and paying more in delivery than it would have cost to get a new one with a handle at the local hardware store.

Then there are the wooden planes...

Ok, so I took the Bubinga off the watch list, and I haven't won any of those spokeshaves I thought I needed. But I do have a couple of #78 rabbet planes now, one complete for my father who used to have one, and one for me to clean, refurbish, and bring back to its former glory. I picked up a couple of other planes for refurbishment, a box full of measuring calipers for the machine shop portion of my garage, and another box full of Stanley marking gauges that I will refurbish and resell. I figure that will keep me busy when I get home.

What I'm looking for is a three inch thick, eight inch deep, by sixty inch slab of quartersawn live oak. It's for a secret Chronicles' project that I dreamed up one feverish night, while relentless Afghan ameobas prowled through my intestinal track. I'll need a Stanley #71 too while I'm at it, that should keep me occupied trying to get one at a reasonable price. Seriously, how many people in the world could possibly need one, that everytime a #71comes up they run the price up beyond what can be considered appropriate? Well, I'll keep on bidding and we'll see who ends up with what!

Note: Monday morning 0406 hours Afghanistan.

Stanley #238 Grooving Plane



Started at $9.99 days ago, and has sat there at that price for all those days. Today, three hours before close of bidding it has steadily increased to $63.00! The 238 would have come in very handy for the Super-Secret Chronicles project I am working on...

Albert

Best Regards,
Albert “Afghanus” Rasch
The Rasch Outdoor Chronicles
Albert Rasch In Afghanistan

Though he spends most of his time writing and keeping the world safe for democracy, Albert was actually a student of biology. Really. But after a stint as a lab tech performing repetitious and mind-numbing processes that a trained capuchin monkey could do better, he never returned to the field. Rather he became a bartender. As he once said, "Hell, I was feeding mice all sorts of concoctions. At the club I did the same thing; except I got paid a lot better, and the rats where bigger." He has followed the science of QDM for many years, and fancies himself an aficionado. If you have any questions, or just want to get more information, reach him via TheRaschOutdoorChronicles(at)MSN(dot)com.

Best of the Outdoor Bloggers: Wild Ed's Texas Outdoors

© 2010 Albert A Rasch™ and
The Rasch Outdoor Chronicles
$g&m f9bd 45kd q!?5. trochronicles.blogspot.com


Wild Ed is a prodigious outdoor author and one that I am honored to be friends with. This is his second installment on the Best of the Outdoor Bloggers series with several more to come, as his posts are that good!

Best of the Outdoor Bloggers

Wild Ed's Texas Outdoors:
Turning Canoe Paddles into a Double Blade Kayak Paddle

Recently, I built an all wood boat and have started on my second build, which will be a copy of the Brazos Boat Works design of a 3 panel kayak with stripped decks. The whole boat will be made from cedar strips.

I did not want to paddle these boats with a plastic kayak paddle and decided to go purchase a laminated wood double kayak paddle. Boy was I in for sticker shock. I had no idea that wood kayak paddles would be so expensive. I came home without a paddle and decided to just use the plastic one I had.

I went to Academy several days ago to look for another plastic paddle and while I was browsing the plastic paddles I saw several inexpensive single wood boat paddles. A light bulb went off in my head and I thought why not take a couple of the inexpensive wooden boat paddles and make a double blade kayak paddle. The following pictures will show some of what I did and how it turned out. I am actually quite proud of the results and will be doing some more in the future. Total cost in materials was under $40.00

Here are the two inexpensive canoe paddles I started with.



Clamped the paddles together cut the handles off and cut the blades to shape on the band saw



Here is what the two paddles looked liked when I unclamped them from cutting and shaping the blades.




Sanded blades, cut scarf joint, glued. fiberglassed the joint and clamped up to dry.




Finished paddle sanded and varnished. The upper blade is darker in the photo because it is wet and the final drying is taking place. I did put a bamboo dowel through the scarf joint and also fiberglassed the joint to make sure it was plenty strong. This was my first time to laminate two paddles into one and I am pleased with the result. I want to see how this length works with my style of boat and a high seat. I may make a shorter one later.

My friends, I hope you are as pleased as I with this installment of "Best of the Outdoor Bloggers." I want to thank Wild Ed of Wild Ed's Texas Outdoors for allowing me to share his "Turning Canoe Paddles into Kayak Paddles" with everyone.  If you have a post that you are particularly proud of, or if you want to look at your Analytics and check out what your # 1 post is, please feel free to forward it to me and I will gladly post it and link the snot out of it to your blog!

Best Regards,
Albert A Rasch™
Member:Kandahar Tent Club
Member: Hunting Sportsmen of the United States HSUS (Let 'em sue me.)
The Hunt Continues...

Tapered Hole Reamer: A Chronicles' Project

© 2010 Albert A Rasch™ and
The Rasch Outdoor Chronicles
$g&m f9bd 45kd q!?5.

Handmade Tapered Hole Reamer

I've been on a bit of a Chronicles' Projects tear these last few weeks. I suppose I've been trying to get quite a few things done before I ship out again.

Yesterday I needed a tool to taper and smooth a stepped hole I bored in a segment of a powder horn I am making.

I remembered seeing an auger type of tool that was used to taper the bung hole on barrels after they had been bored out.

So I grabbed a piece of oak that was originally a piece of a pallet, and a branch. I scrounged around my junk bins until I found an old hacksaw blade.

The pictures pretty much tell the rest of the story.

Piece of scrap oak in the lathe

Every time I bump into a piece of hardwood, whether a limb or dressed lumber, I grab it. You just never know when you can use it for something. This piece came from under a crate.

Turned to taper

Starting saw kerf on midline.

Turned Red Maple handles.

I turned the handles out of some branches I had in my scrap wood box. I also took the opportunity to carefully bore a hole through the top of the reamer for both handles. I turned the handle tenons just a hair larger than the hole I bored, and I also grooved them with a pointy tool so the glue would have something to lock on to.

The piece of oak had been split so I had a couple of already somewhat flat spots that I refined with a block plane. They are not exactly centered around the hole, but they suffice to allow the handle tenons to bottom out properly.

Finishing kerf.

Measuring for the hacksaw blade.

I put the blade in a vise and snapped it at the mark I had made. Then I rounded out the end of the hacksaw blade, and flattened the back with a sharp single cut file.

Blade in place.

I did have to file the back of the blade down in order to have it sit just above the edge of the kerf. After filing it down, run it over a coarse stone to straighten out the edge. Finish with a fine stone, holding the back of the blade as close to perpendicular as possible.

 The side towards the cut gets relieved.

I relieved the front of the kerf so the wood scrapings would have some where to go. It's just a small shelf, maybe an eighth of an inch deep, and at a right angle to the blade.

Reamer in use.

 Almost done.

Nicely done!

I put it right to use, and it works like a charm. Don't get me wrong, it's not a machine, so it took me a while to get the taper reamed out completely. But it sure looks pretty and when I am making something for pleasure, I am not in a hurry.

It's not centered, but because the horn curves, and you start out with a square block of wood, the initial hole doesn't always end up where you think it should. But it is centered to the previous section.

The tool itself took me about an hour and a half to make, and the majority of that was cutting the kerf. All that's left to do, is to give it a coating of linseed oil, touch up the blade, and hang it up.

Best Regards,
Albert A Rasch™
Member: Kandahar Tent Club
Member: Hunting Sportsmen of the United States HSUS (Let 'em sue me.)
The Hunt Continues...

Hunting in NebraskaAirSoft: It's Not Just for Kids!Yo-Yos for Troops!Nebraska Hunting CompanyCupidFish.comScott Croner

Hunting in NebraskaAirSoft: It's Not Just for Kids!Yo-Yos for Troops!Nebraska Hunting CompanyCupidFish.comScott Croner

Tool Treasures Found!

© 2010 Albert A Rasch and
The Rasch Outdoor Chronicles
$g&m f9bd 45kd q!?5. trochronicles.blogspot.com
And they were right by me the whole time!

Sometimes you just get lucky! I was sitting in front of my garage on a Concrete Masonry Unit, or cinder block for the uninformed, whittling and sanding away on powder horn number II. My garage neighbor, a Columbian fellow who happens to be a Viet Nam Vet, comes to chat with me often. I really like him, he's polite, talks just enough but not too much, and always brings me a bottled water.

He takes an interest in all my projects, and I believe he really enjoys watching me struggle my way through some crazy plan I have cooked up!

This weekend, like I said, I was working on Horn #II. I was scraping the inside curve when he stopped by, cold bottle of water in hand.

As he handed the bottle to me he said, "Let me show you some tools I was given some years ago. There's a plane that might be useful to you."

The tool box is a three drawer, top tray affair, hand made, and painted in oil. It's obviously older and has seen honest use.

As he opened the top tray, my eyes fell upon a cranked slick, another large slick, and a brace with an assortment of auger bits. Slicks are basically very large wood chisels used in wooden boat construction and timber frame construction. You don't see them very often. The one I own I found at a flea market and it was quite beat up. It took me a while to bring it back to its former glory.

In the trays was a small, but valuable assortment of chisels, auger bits, odd-ball tools, and several bronze pattern makers planes! Again, tools not frequently seen in your usual tool chest.

Bronze round bottom pattern makers planes.

My friend has invited me to use them any time I care to, and I definitely took him up on the offer. I gave the pattern makers planes a quick clean up, just to make them look better, and he loaned me two chisels and a turner's gouge, all of which I am going to sharpen so they are usable again. I have some old blue jean pants' legs I have been saving that will make good oil cloth. So I'll make a chisel wrap to protect them while I am at it.

Turning gouge, 3/8" gouge, hand forged fishtail gouge

I have to make a custom slip to sharpen the fish tail, and the 3/8" gouge needs to be reground and profiled. The turner's gouge just needs a quick swipe across a fine stone, and it will be fit to work with.


By the way, I researched the 3/8 gouge. It's 138 years old! The William Butcher Steel Works existed between 1867 and 1873. To think I am holding a tool that who knows how many craftsmen held, really thrills me. I hope my work can do it justice!

Best Regards,
Albert A Rasch
Member: Bagram Tent Club
Member: Hunting Sportsmen of the United States HSUS (Let 'em sue me.)
The Hunt Continues...