E Pluribus, Unum

 

That excellent Mister Bain has given me a bunch of router plane bits, sufficient to put together one complete one, using one of my Veritas cutters.

As well as this, there are another two baseplates (another Marples and a Record 071), and another collar and thumbscrew. I seem to recall that the thread for the post and thumb-nut on these things tends to be some weird archaic type, but parts are still available for them if I want to build up another one.

Coupla Days Later...

I've tidied it up a bit. It didn't need a whole lot of work: mainly scrubbing everything down with steel wool, respraying the baseplate, and stripping down and repolishing the handles.

I'll hunt out a bit of ash or something and resaw it down to 10-12mm for a base. Wood-on-wood works better than steel-on-wood; it slides better, and it doesn't leave nasty black marks on the work.

At the moment it has a 5mm Veritas cutter in it; that's a bit narrow for day-to-day work, and I might see if I can rustle up a 10mm blade. It's not a high priority though.

Black Scale

 

We've been getting this nasty black scale on our little lemon tree for a while now, and I am informed by the Garden Centre Lady that it is caused by some little bastards of insects doing their bastardly little insect thing.

She sold us some oily goop to spray on it, on top and bottom of the leaves, to put a stop to their shenanigans. Hopefully that will mean the tree will start producing a decent amount of decently-sized fruit again, rather than the few rather pathetic specimens it's making right now. I might have to set up some sort of drip-watering system for it though; I don't think it's getting enough water in the fairly sheltered spot it's in.

I like lemons, and I use them a lot. It would be good to be able to get back to using our own rather than buying them from Australia.

Archimedes Screwdriver

 

I found these tools today in a local antique/junk shop and bought them for myself as an anniversary present.

The long one is an Archimedes Screwdriver, something I've long wanted. It rotates by pressure on the helical lands you can see in the shaft, against spring tension that keeps it extended. It can be latched closed so it doesn't take up so much room in the toolbag. It takes interchangeable heads, though it came with only one, and finding more these days might be a bit difficult. It's in very good condition apart from the finish on the handle; its obviously been kept well lubricated and not been used as a hammer.

They've been largely superseded these days by electric drill-drivers.

The smaller one is a little screw-awl, excellent for creating the tapering holes you want for old-style wood screws. It has a nice boxwood handle.

The two of them together cost me about $25, so a steal really.

Blue Folk Revival CD Cover Painting

 

This was a painting I did back in 2004 for a CD cover for my friend Peter Gatonyi's band, Blue Folk Revival. Or maybe the CD was called Blue Folk Revival. I don't remember.

Anyway, I just found some photos I took of it at the time on the fairly shitty digital camera I had at the time.

If I recall correctly, it was about 800-900mm square. Acrylic on unstretched canvas.