Posts by «swirt»

• Custom gun stock spacer

A few months back I purchased an old 20 gauge Lefever Nitro Special shotgun.  As is often the  case, somebody had cut the stock down in length to fit a child.  It was too short for me, and my son has been using the gun when we shoot clays and his arms are longer than […]

• Checkering a gun stock

I recently bought a 94 yr old shotgun.  It was in pretty bad shape.  Over the years, the checkering on the stock had been worn, sanded, refinished until there was only the faintest trace of it remaining.  In most places you could see the dark lines, but could not even feel them with a fingernail.  […]

• Refinishing an Ithaca Lefever Nitro Special 20ga

I own a 16 ga Lefever Nitro Special  that is my favorite shotgun for shooting sporting clays, but it costs me about 50% more for 16 gauge ammo than 12 or 20 ga and the choices of type are also more limited.  So I bid on an auction for a 1929 20 ga version of […]

• Ithaca Lefever Nitro Special

Having had a love of old tools for many years it is probably no surprise that I also like old firearms.  I am not a hunter, I am not opposed to hunting, it just doesn’t suit me.  I am also not a prepper, survivalist, or delta force wanna be.  I am just an older guy […]

• Tung Oil – Best stock finish

As you may know, I am a big fan of pure Tung oil as a finish for many wood surfaces. I use it for most of my furniture as well as tool handles and carvings. I think one place it absolutely shines is firearm stocks.   Why pure Tung Oil is great for wooden stocks […]

• Harbor Freight Gun Cart

I used to shoot trap when I was in high school and college, and then it slipped out of my life for ~35 years.  Recently a good friend got me out shooting “sporting clays” (not even sure that existed 40 years ago) and has rekindled my passion for ridding the world of clay UFOs.  I […]

• Live edge standing desk

Back in 2014 I built my manually operated sit/stand desk. It served me well for a decade, but because it was inside an armoire style cabinet, it had limited desktop space.  As I put more hardware on the desk, it became harder to lift and lower.  So I eventually grew lazy about any standing. I […]

• Review: TayTools Jack Plane

TayTools #5 jack plane more than lived up to my expectations of what a jack plane should do.

• Low profile bench dogs

I don’t often work with thin stock, but when I do, I have issues with being able to plane it because my dogs are too tall.  I need some dogs that are along the line of 1/4″ thick.  My wood dogs are too thick, as are my plastic ones. So turned to the internet to […]

• It’s a feature, from a bug

I had some oak from a neighborhood tree.   While it sat in my porch or in my workshop, developed a bit of a bug problem.  I could see exist holes and little piles of sawdust coming from it, so I knew it had to go.  I decided to run a piece of it through the […]

• Sunset Heart Candle Holder

Back in February 2020 I was looking for a small fast project to make with my son.  Some of my projects are kind of big and he loses interest, so I was looking for something small.  I came up with the idea for a candle holder made from three pieces of wood laminated together. I […]

• Outdoor Cedar Bench – sawbench

I have a nice tiny patio outside the front door of my workshop.  When I have been planing or sawing and worked up a sweat, I’d like to be able sit and rest while my heart settles down.  I tried putting chairs there, but they are too comfortable and I settle too long.  I need […]

• Multi-set drill index with guide

I have a bunch of drill bits.   Anything over 1/4″ I don’t go through that rapidly,  but anything under 1/4″ they are prone to breakage or other tip damage.  As a result I have a bunch of these small packs of bits that are incomplete sets.  It is a pain to rifle through them for […]

• Best woodworking pencil

I know a lot of people disrespect the mechanical pencil for the wood-shop because the lead is too  thin and breaks too easily.  I used to have similar complaints.  I work with a lot of irregular wood with rough saw marks and things that would spell the end for the fragile lead on a mechanical […]

• Propane Forge Cart

We’ve been doing a bit more blacksmithing and the arrangement of the forge on my sawbenches has always been a bit troublesome.  They are wood, so they have a tendency to burn.  They are also low, so I have to stoop to see in the forge.  I’m getting older and don’t stoop so good anymore.  […]

• Convert Ball Peen to Straight Peen Hammer

We were on vacation in Murphy NC.  Beautiful place. On one of my early walks with the dog, I saw a wood handle in sticking out from brush at the base of a utility pole.  I pulled it out and found an old 24oz ball peen hammer.  It was in pretty bad shape with rust […]

• Sun and Tung Oil

This is a simple project of making a live edge shelf for my son.  I had nicely prepped a piece of Cypress with a plane.   When I asked what color he wanted it, he said “Black, let’s torch it.”  So we burned it with a weedburner, brushed it off with a blue nyalox drill brush, […]

• Bottlebrush Unicorn

My son had a project he wanted to make as a gift, so I turn this blog post over to him at this time. I went online to find a good picture of a unicorn. I found this one that was not too complicated to cut on the band saw. I cut a 14 inch […]

• Bottlebrush Tree

In October 2021 my neighbor wanted a Bottlebrush tree cut down and I was interested in the wood. So I offered to cut it down. As you can see, it had quite a lean to it. I was not concerned about hitting the house because it was fully leaning away from the house. I was […]

• Charcuterie Board – Planche?

Back in May 2020, my son made a serving tray as a gift for his teacher and wrote about it here. Fast forward to December 2022 and we get a call from his past teacher offering him his first commission for another one.  Only now we can’t call it a serving tray, we have to […]