Dave Slight

Trying to recreate a bit of the Juzek magic formula

I think they have been reading these posts

Guess you forgot about the bagpipe harp, or the ocotobass.

The Norris style adjuster is a bit strange and quirky. When Norris came up with that idea, it was a neat way to incorporate both adjustments into a single adjuster. Other plane makers, such as Nurse, used a similar system, with their own patented adjuster.. It worked for that style of British infill plane, where previously the blade setting involved a simple screw lever cap, or wedge, and a small hammer to adjust blade protrusion. I’ve owned, and sold a lot of Norris planes, but their adjuster drove me crazy for a different reason. It was a twin screw design, so a very small turn of the adjuster moved the blade in or out far too much. Once you finally got the shavings to the thickness you wanted, it was best to never touch it again, until sharpening was required.

Maybe I just got lucky, or they were better finished in the past. Lie Nielsen make some very fine tools. If I had to buy everything all over again, I would buy Lie Nielsen. In the past, I have wasted many hours truing and adjusting planes. The quality control of some Stanley and Record planes left a lot to be desired, so it was necessary. An old Norris is just as likely to be wonky by now too.

Congratulations on your Degani. I have always liked those, even if the antiquing is the least convincing, in the history of the world.

I had this experience with a set of very expensive chisels. On ebony, the edges just crumbled away in moments. I contacted the manufacturer, and they were aware of this issue, yet still shipped them out knowing this. The answer was to grind back the ends, which they did for me. Since then, the chisels have been excellent in every respect. I wrote about this in more detail previously, but I do not know how to find and quote my old post. FWIW I have several Veritas planes, and find them to be excellent. The blades are A2 and the powdered metal stuff.

I can’t say if it is the real thing, but I do find it a really beautiful violin. Birdseye maple is so stunning, in this quality.

I hope one day, I will get to see your work in person. From the pictures, and the videos, your work is stunning, and an inspiration. By the way, please leave some flames for the rest of us!

These look familiar, I think there was a previous discussion here, years ago.

This highlights the value of having seen the actual results, rather than only the written words. I would say the same about Rubio, anyone trying his mineral ground concoction, probably never saw one of the finished instruments.

For exactly this reason, I try not to have much willow in the workshop. The rest of the willow, I keep in a storage tub, away from all my maple and spruce. It can be a worm magnet, and it’s hard to trust. They are obviously in the wood when you buy it sometimes, but there is no way to tell, until the holes start to appear after several years.

Must have been rough times at the market, trying to sell off all those swords! Thanks for the info, feel like I learned something today

The site had a bit of a wobbler the other week, and it might have been a result of that. The answer is you can not be sure which, between the templates, and the poster, are most accurate. The only way to know, is to have measured the violin yourself. I would not expect commercial templates to be very accurate, more of a generic shape. We all know that some of the Strad posters had a number of printing errors in the past, the newer posters may be better, but I do not know.

In the knives shown, the layered part is not the hard steel, and does no cutting. It could be for the sake of appearance, and does look good. Many knives are quite traditional styles, so they may have been made in this manner for centuries. The Japanese knives I have,are all a double layer for the single bevel, and a triple layer for the double bevel.