Leaving on a jet plane...

I am leaving today for London England for a two week trip. Part of it is a school trip to see the bookbinding sites in England. My husband is coming too so we will be doing the tourist things during our free time. I will take lots of pictures and post them when I return.

New Knives

From left to right: Insertion Tool, Peachey Lifting Knife, English Lifting Knife, French Knife and in back is my Spokeshave.

I recently took a two day workshop with Jeff Peachey, a bookbinder and tool maker. At this workshop I made three new knives, finished my french knife and fine tuned my spokeshave. Jeff is a wonderful teacher, I have had many problems in the past with sharpening my knives and he made it very easy. He brought many tools with him, from power tools to help with shaping the knife blanks, to finished knives to take ideas from. Below are the finished blades:

From left to right: Insertion Tool, Peachey Lifting Knife, English Lifting Knife, and French Knife.

This is my spokeshave after the adjustments that we made at the workshop. We used epoxy and a piece of paper to flatten the bed of the handle. This lets the blade rest flat and closer to the bed which prevents "chatter." We also flattened the underside of the piece that holds the blade in place to help keep the blade still and flat.
If you ever get a chance to take a workshop with Jeff Peachey, take it! You can visit his online catalog also to see what he makes and sells.