Buddy made a framing slick

[Seamus]

My buddy in Maine
who posts on an old tools group
made himself a framing slick for
an upcoming T.F. class/project.
I asked him if I could post the story
here and he agreed. FWIW
Galoot is an honorif meaning someone who
eschews the use of electron burning tools
when assaying woodworking projects,
preferring instead to hew to the line of our
forebears and use old or antique tools.
Saint Roy is Roy Underhill of the Woodwrights Shop
on PBS. I believe that's all the decoding necessary

Gentle Galoots,

Short version: got more gifts, finished a slick

Long version: I received two more packages from Galootaclaus yesterday,
one a very fine old machete that fits my hand perfectly and actually
swishes when you swing it, the other a very cool Millers Falls carving
set in a nifty plastic box that opens as a stand. It includes a tiny
slipstone. Here's a picture:

Galoot Image Central

The puddytat didn't want to move out of the studio so I made him smile,
meet Bo, everyone :>

Thank you Galootaclaus, thanks very much!

In the same mail I received the St. Roy DVD that Michael made for a
bunch of us Royless Galoots. I spent a happy afternoon watching Roy
FOR THE FIRST TIME, he sure is something. Thanks so much Michael,
you're a king!

I finally finished the slick I made, it's about 3 feet long with a 2
1/2" blade that's about 8" long. The blade is a piece of leaf spring
with about a 20 degree edge. The ferrule is a 1 1/4" piece of copper
water pipe and there's a piece of hammered brass followed by a piece of
leather between the shoulders of the blade and the wood. The handle is
brown ash and I know how tough it is because I whacked it quite hard to
get the blade seated and it was totally unaffected. The whole thing
weighs about 4 pounds. Here's a picture:

Galoot Image Central

and a closer look here:

Galoot Image Central

The picture make the shoulders look slightly off, but they're not, it's
just the angle of the camera and the fact that the blade is bent at the
tang (5") in the traditional fashion.

Sharpening this baby has been a huge job since the steel is super hard
and I'm doing it by hand. I still have a bit to go and then I need to
make a blade guard.

Happy 2007 everyone!

Adriaan

"This is what you shall do: Love the earth and sun and the animals,
despise riches, give alms to every one that asks, stand up for the
stupid and crazy, devote your income and labor to others, hate tyrants,
argue not concerning God, have patience and indulgence toward the
people, take off your hat to nothing known or unknown or to any man or
number of men, go freely with powerful uneducated persons and with the
young and with the mothers of families, read these leaves in the open
air every season of every year of your life, re-examine all you have
been told at school or church or in any book, dismiss whatever insults
your own soul; and your very flesh shall be a great poem and have the
richest fluency not only in its words but in the silent lines of its
lips and face and between the lashes of your eyes and in every motion
and joint of your body." - Preface to Leaves of Grass - Walt Whitman

[ThomasPowers]

That's real slick!

Thomas