Springtime - Time to begin again

The debacle of the Great Northern Hot Tub purchase is wending it's way down allowing me to recover enough space in the garage to turn around, change my mind, read between the lines, and other elbow room intensive activities.

So the epic saga of the Paul Seller's Style Work Bench begins anew!  In the last two days I've decided which tools are necessary to the job and put the rest either "away" or into cardboard box storage until I can clear out enough space to take care of them.  Now I'm working through my minimalist list of tools, fettling them for the job ahead.

Today I hope to get a leg or two planed weather allowing.

And what's a plan without a list or two?

Tools I've identified as necessary

• Combination square
• Pencil
• Marking knife
• Tape measure
• Mortise gauge
• Chisel hammer
• Chisels, Beveled:
• 2 X 1/2"
• 2 X 3/8"  (Probably overkill)
• 1 X 1"
• Chisel, Mortise - 1/2"
• Mortise Guide
• Tenon saw
• Rip Saw
• Bench Planes:
• Stanley #4 1/2
• Stanley #4

So far I have the tools gathered and the chisels and planes sharpened.  I went back to using a guide on the chisels and for reshaping the bevel on the plan iron so I have a nice consistent 30 degree bevel on both.  Afterward I added the "wings" on the plane irons.

False Start

I REALLY need to start looking at something besides the icon on the weather forecast.  The three sunny days I was going to use to finish the leg tenons and maybe start glueup are here.  And the high's are in the low to mid 30s!

So much for working in the alley.

Good thing I've got lots of stuff piled up to do.  In woodworking alone I want to resharpen my "good" Marples chisel set, strip the lacquer (what a completely wasted "c" that is) off the new wide Narex chisels I got from Lee Valley.  These chisels, I'm guessing made special order for Lee Valley, are in English units, have an oval handle with two flattened areas, and unfortunately a lower standard of finish from their "Premium Bench Chisel".  On the Premium set I could take the lacquer off with steel wool.  With the Lee Valley "Classic Bevel Edge Chisels" the lacquer gets embedded in machining marks on the chisel surface giving them a milky appearance.

I haven't finished flattening these large chisels.  Or rather I am through flattening them via my DMT stones but I don't really like the result.  Certainly it's not the mirror finish Paul Sellers calls for.  But I'll strip them and sharpen them up today anyway.  I've collected my EZE-Lap stone set now so I might spend some time today trying them out as flattening stones.

Okay, time to retrieve my rubber gloves from the garage and get to work stripping chisels.  Should be thoroughly unpleasant.