Hole Saws and a Knife.

   First things first. Happy New Year.  I hope that everyone will have a healthy and happy year. It appears that 2022 will be a challenge, but...we hope not as big a challenge as 2021 was.

  So, I made this adjustable desk light awhile ago ( April 2016) and it has sat on my desk since then, with out the shade.  My ire is slow to rise but...even I get tired of having the glare of a bare bulb in my eyes, it just takes some time.  Once I decided something needed to be done it was a case of taking the lamp to the shop and getting on with it.  Also the pill bottle came available at the right moment too. The neck of the bottle was too large to fit tightly on the light socket, so I needed a collar to fit the light and large enough to fit the bottle. 

  I have a hole saw set  

by Bosch that I have turned to many times in the shop. This time I cut the small hole and then cut the larger hole out around the smaller hole giving me a wooden collar that fit the lamp and the shade.  This was one of those jobs that having the right tool took minutes, and now the glare from my desk lamp is gone, it only took 5 1/2 years.

  The other job was mostly  a nostalgia thing.  In my Grandfather's workshop was a very very sharp light duty shop knife.  I can still see it above the bench and it was only used for cutting string, paper wrapping, canvas etc.  Grampa told me that it was a straight razor blade that he had put a handle on.  There were other shop knives for other things but the Razor Knife was always present when a very sharp blade was needed.

  Recently a niece and nephew, learning of my thing for blades gave me a very old straight razor he had bought from a bin at a outdoor gear show. Liked this one: 

  The handle was yellow plastic and cracked but the blade was still 'razor' sharp.  I made the handle from three slices of wood and cut the shape of the blade out of the middle slice before using epoxy to glue the slices together.

  I did line up the one hole in the blade when gluing the sides on, but with the epoxy and the tight fit it wasn't really necessary.

  I have no idea what the dark wood is, I scrounged it from a packing case from Chile years ago when I sold tools. It was really nice to work with, and I have one knife's worth of wood left. 

   Once I got the handle on the knife I set about re-discovering the uses of a razor knife.  It is sharp, holly cow is it sharp!  The blade is also pretty soft and prone to curl over after very little use.  It is great for cutting leather, string, paper patterns etc. just like Grampa's knife. I have a leather strop and it straightens out the blade and makes it really sharp again. If you are old enough you remember barbers using a lather strop to sharpen their razors, they got about one use from the razor before it needed a quick touch up on the strop.  As long as I don't abuse this razor knife I expect it to stay sharp and useful for life.

  I'm  including a link to a video of a fellow stropping his knife, in case you are not aware of stropping your blades, it is a cheap and easy way to keep your blades sharp.

 cheers ianw