I made a holdfast in 1978, the second day I worked in a blacksmith shop. I still use it professionally today. The main thing is that the arm ought to have spring. Cast iron will do a poor job because it is too rigid. Also the arm should be tapered, going with a steady taper from 3/4 or so at the top to about 3/16 at the pad. Most of what is on the market today is either cast or poorly tapered or both. If your blacksmith can avoid these two problems you will come out ahead.
Learning is what a lot of us spend our time on these forums for. So if you can get a handle on a design, do give these folks a shot at it. Sooner or later you'll come home with a set of holdfast and they'll have learned to make another tool. That's a win-win in my book and do let us know how it works out.
Along with the woodwrights shop episode, here are a couple of videos I sent to the blacksmith guild. They're confident one of their blacksmiths could do it no problem. Now I just have to figure out how much it'll cost.
Thanks for the reply Mike. The bench is only about 1.5 inches as is. Looks like I'll have to put a couple of boards on the bottom side of the bench where I put my rows of dog holes.
How do you know you're learning anything if you don't screw up once in awhile?
01-04-2017, 08:52 PM (This post was last modified: 01-04-2017, 08:54 PM by Handplanesandmore.)
If your bench is 1 - 1/2" thick, you don't need to beef up its thickness. Try it out first! I have worked with many benches at or much less than 2" thick and the holdfasts have never failed to work on them. Recommendations are one thing and there are so many variables that often, you don't have to follow them. This applies to using tools.
Holdfasts are simple animals and like anything else, woodworkers tend to overthink and overdo about them. Buy an economical one (Gramercy ones are excellent and are the ones we use at the school with zero failure rate) and bang the heck of it (with a wooden mallet!) to put it to work. Do it rather than overthink it.
01-15-2017, 01:09 PM (This post was last modified: 01-15-2017, 01:12 PM by mr_skittle.)
Well I finally went through with it. I spent a couple of hours at the local Forging Community's shop and came home with a nice, functioning holdfast. I had to postpone it a couple times so I could have to time to bring my portable bench and try it out. I'm happy I did because it did take a few tweaks to get it working just right. I also brought along a few tools in the hopes of trading a hand plane lesson for a discount on the work. Unfortunately the smithy had a schedule to keep and couldn't hang around. It ended up costing me $45. Twice the price of a Gramercy one but hey, I got to watch it being made and opened up a relationship that may lead to discounts in the future or maybe a little kickback if I can send any of my students over for one. Since this is my first holdfast, now its time to figure out all the different ways to use it, both on my new portable bench and my home bench.
Now here's my first question as a new holdfast owner: The benchtop is made of about 1.5 inch White Pine (Pinus strobus) and I've already drilled a few 3/4 inch holes for the planing stops. The holdfast fits in with just a little slop, and as far as I can read there should be more. It works 'as is' but it takes a little more effort with the mallet to cinch and unlock it than it should. I guess the question it whether I should drill the holes a bit bigger or wait for the holes in that soft pine to naturally compress with many wacks on the holdfast.
How do you know you're learning anything if you don't screw up once in awhile?
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