Reamer Giveaway

by | Jun 30, 2020 | 7 comments

The last few months have been a time of innovation for me.  I’ve been working on a new tool to produce – a handled scraper for cleaning up chair seats.  Right now I’m trying to bend the handles out of walnut, which isn’t real easy.  I’ve also been working on new chair designs.  And I added a removable handle to the reamers I make.  Tim Manney’s excellent reamer has a removable handle, while mine has been made out of straight-grained dowels.  But dowels aren’t all the same size, so fitting them was a pain, and the removable handle seemed like a nice touch.  So now the handles are riven from a hickory log and turned to a 2 degree locking-taper on my patternmaker’s lathe. 

I have one of the old dowel-handle reamers left over and I’d like to give it to someone who is serious about chairmaking, but might not be able to afford a reamer. Maybe a young person? If you know someone, nominate them in the comments section on the website.  I’ll choose a winner this weekend.

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Mike
3 years ago

It certainly is incomfortable to try and work ones case to ask for a free tool, but I must admit, having a reamer would certainly help me out.

I discovered woodworking, more specifically with handtools, when I moved in the US a few years ago.

Having a H4 visa I am not allowed to make money in any way for now (only my wife is allowed to work, as a biology researcher).
While this leave me some time to build furniture (basically, as soon as my 2 year old daughter is sleeping), it also leaves me with next to no budget for tools.

I’m trying to build all the furniture in our home. Hopefully it’s an experience I’ll be able to turn into a job when I’m allowed to work again.
Chairs have been on my radar for quite a long time, but without the place for a lathe (to try and build a reamer) or the money to buy a proper reamer it has been on the back-burner for now.

3 years ago

I’m not exactly young, but I’m hoping to take up chairmaking in my retirement, which just started. Chairmaking has always been of interest to me and I now have the time to learn it.

Ed Hopkins
3 years ago

I nominate myself but I don’t think I’m any more deserving of anyone else. Once I tried to get a relative to buy me one of your reamers for a birthday gift but you were sold out. My most recent chair has untapered holes for want of a reamer–it will most likely explode and cause great harm to many. But there is still time…

rljtex1@gmail.com
3 years ago

This would not be for me , but for my daughter Emma. She was in your shop a few years ago during the fall art tour. She took to the lathe quite well. This reamer would be a great addition to her vintage hand tool collection. She is an artist in every sense of the word. By the way she is 13. Thank you for your consideration.

Ralph Kilpela
3 years ago

I know a young army veteran who served in the 3 tours in the Middle East and is using hand tool woodworking as a form of rehabilitation. He suffers from PTSD. He wants to start making Windsor Chairs in his shop. I have worked with him in his shop and his goal to start building chairs. His name is Jake Torola. The reamer is a good start in chair building.

Peter Fabri
3 years ago

I am not young. More poor. But I have made several stick benches and chairs and have struggled at drilling the angled holes for the tennis. I have read everything Chris Schwartz wrote about resultant angles and I was successful in each case and happy with the final result. But I blew out a corner and one seat and ended up painting the seat Tuscan Red (Sono Toscano).

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