Yet more tools!

Here are most of my knives. I love these tools. The two Opinel branded knives are both lovely to use. I bought them both new and are Made in France. Useful for trimming overhang on guitar sides (I prefer a hand tool for this) and for carving tuning pegs and other jobs. They have carbon steel blades are were ultra-sharp straight out of the box. Further across on the top pic are my two violin-makers knives and a carving knife I made from instructions in a book by David Finck. The blade I made from a jigsaw blade, ground down. The violin makers knives are Chinese-made and I like them a lot. I find lots of uses for them. I'm not sure they are as good as European or American made knives but they are still pretty good in my experience. The last three are an inexpensive exacto knife, good for fine work on tuning pegs. The next is a pricey German carving knife which I haven't used yet being a recent purchase. Lastly I included a cheap disposable hardware store utility knife which is very handy to have when precision isn't required.

Some of my saws

Here are some of my handsaws. On the left is my trusty dovetail saw that I bought second-hand from a Wood Show. It's useful for fine cutting when you need a blade that won't flex. Next is a small saw that I bought new from a model-making tool catalog. It's great for all sorts of fine cutting but the blade can flex when making heavier cuts in hardwood so I have to be careful with it. Next up is a saw I bought from a hobby shop. Useful for things like staring nut slots but I don't use it much. Alongside is a hardware store general-purpose saw with hardened teeth. It's useful for making rough cuts but that's about it. For most purposes I much prefer my Japanese-style saw. Next up is a tenon saw I also bought second-hand from a wood show. It's very useful, much more so than the general-purpose saw. Lastly is my expensive saw bought from Stewart MacDonald's It cuts on the pull stroke, unlike the other saws here which cut on the push stroke. I reserve this one for cutting fret slots with a miter box. As with anything from Stew Macs it's high quality and does a great job. All these saws have their own pluses and minuses. You can never have too many tools and I've never bought a tool that I've not found to be useful at least once.

More tool talk

More pics of my tools, both bought and self-made. On the left of the top pic is a small convex-sole plane I bought new off eBay from a seller in China. It wasn't expensive and it's one of my favorite planes. It's a joy to use for finer work when carving soundboards and for shaving braces and the like. Next are three of my spoke-shaves and my cabinet scraper. The cabinet scraper at the top is a modern version of a Stanley no 80. I don't like it much and wish that I'd paid a bit more and bought a vintage Stanley. The adjusting wheel is fiddly and it just doesn't work as well as I'd like. It could be that it needs more tuning or maybe it's just badly-made! I may end up buying an old Stanley to replace it. Next down is an old convex-sole spoke-shave that I bought from a garage sale. It has no makers mark but works like a dream. The two green and red devices are my two German-made Kunz spoke-shaves, one flat-bottomed the other convex-soled. I bought them new many years ago. Both are nice to use and were a good investment. Next up is my cross-pein hammer I bought new from a hardware store many years ago and wasn't expensive. It's light-weight, has a Hickory handle and is useful for adjusting wood planes and for any light hammering jobs. Most hardware store claw hammers are too heavy for lutherie work in my experience. On the right of the top pic are three of my self-made tools. The one on the top right is the first tool I made and I love it. It's made according to plans in Irving Sloane's book Steel String Guitar Construction. I've used it for carving the plates on my two arch-top guitars and for anytime I need to plane concave surfaces. Like most of my self-made tools it's of Jarrah. Below it is another round-bottom plane I made to a different design. I've not used it much and I think it needs more tuning. The iron I made from a cheap Taiwanese block plane blade with a Dremel tool. As you can see I'm not concerned with how my home-made tools look as well as they work well. If you choose to have a go at making some of your own tools you'll may want to make them look better. Lastly is a marking gauge I made according to instructions in a library book that I came across many years ago. The book was aimed at woodworkers in developing nations and showed how to make all sorts of devices with rudimentary tools. I wish that I could remember the name of the book and it's author as I'd love to buy a copy and make more tools from it. If you know this book leave a comment. This gauge works as well as any factory-made tool I've tried.