Toolmaking Art » Injustice

Testing For Lead

Bob Strawn — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 12:00:10 +0000

In my pursuit of toolmaking, I don’t want others to come to harm. I use a lot of odd bits and bobs to make things with. Brass and bronze have a special appeal. The problem is that these items can be full of lead. Leaded brass is easy to work and polishes up with ease.

As long as no one looks over your shoulder or cares about the dangers, there are a lot of good reasons for a business to use leaded materials. Since compassion is only allowed in publicly traded companies when it is dictated by law, or demonstrably more profitable, it is just not safe to assume the products we buy are safe.

10$ and free shipping for 8 test swabs is a bargain considering that what you don’t know can make you and your children stupid and irrational. (Free shipping on $25+ orders, so you will have to get a few other items. Getting this marshmallow gun with it will still leave you 2 cents short.)

You take a swab, shake it up, crunch up the little glass containers inside the plastic sleeve, shake it up again with the swab pointed up, to mix the tiny shards of glass, powder and liquid, and then point it down and squeeze juice into the swap.

There is enough juice to drip some of the test fluid on a few objects and then swab with the remainder. This way you can test a few things at once.

I gathered a bunch of stuff I wanted to test and cleaned or polished or sanded a few areas on these surfaces. I also put the stuff that I thought would be safe first on my list to test. Once you have rubbed the swab on grungy or lead, you can not do further testing with it. You can however as long as it is still damp, clean and testing negative, keep checking stuff.

It comes with a couple of cards with lead spots so you can be sure it is working if everything tests out lead free.

The high speed sprayer nozzle, a long discontinued item from Harbor Freight, tested positive. The brass hose connector also discontinued, from Harbor Freight also tested positive, but not strongly.

This is sad, because both of these items are used for gardens, pets, yards and even children. It is also sad, because they would make great ferrules for tools. The little Stanley insert for opening sliding cabinets tested negative as did several other nice brass fittings. The old air hose fitting tested negative so it will someday be a very pretty ferrule.

These three pieces of brass all show red. The one on the left I was planning to use to make a tool today. This is the reason I started the lead testing. Now it is trash. I am not going to use it. The middle piece is a tube from a pen turning kit. Since the user will never touch it, I don’t have a big issue with the lead content.

Since the dust and shavings will be in my work area after I work it, I am going to have to come up with another way to turn pens. Otherwise I will be increasing the ambient lead in my work area, yard and on the products I make. The tube on the far right is a typical brass tube like you can get at a lot of hobby stores. Yes it tested positive. I will not be buying anymore of these.

I pulled off the sleeve on one of the test swabs so you can see the two glass vials inside. Make sure to crunch them up well and mix the ingredients. Note the scarlet stain on the trammel below the vial. Sadly this trammel tested quite positive.

I was worried about the small brass fittings in these pictures but they seem O.K..

The beautiful, functional and well designed trammels that I got from Rockler will never be used again. I really did not want this tool to fail. I just lightly brushed a whisper of the test fluid on the inside flat of the trammel.

The picture does not do justice to the lovely scattering of scarlet that matches with the lead test included with the kit.

This is really sad as this is probably the prettiest tool that I have ever bought. This trammel is perfect apart from the fact that it is laden with lead. I cannot use it, nor will I pass it on to someone else for them to use. I have tested brass fittings on 12 other tools and none of them came close to as high a reading as this trammel. I really liked this trammel set.

I probably would have put a thin coating of epoxy and then hard wax on it and just been careful if it had a low level of lead in it. Foolish of me perhaps, but it really is a nice trammel. This is not just a touch of lead however.

I guess this is another good reason to make your own tools. It is also a good reason to drink Kombucha Tea.

Bob

Traditions, Tools and What Will We Pass on to our Desendents?

Bob Strawn — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 13:00:29 +0000

As craftsmen, artists and gardeners, hand tool users who take joy in creation, we stand in reasonable shape to pass on our treasures to our grandchildren and even to strangers unknown who may marvel at the care and thought of those ancient hand craftsmen in the 21st century. This thought comforts me. This thought has been a comfort to wise men long before I struggled with understanding life’s complexities. Solomon considered this as well. Proverbs 22, a good man leaveth an inheritance to his children’s children. Ancient wisdom here.

Here is a website produced by a man that considers this thought quite deeply. I have great respect for him, though he does not comfort me at all, Climate Denial Crock of the Week

This is where he regularly presents such features such as this one;

I have a few odd blocks of truffula wood that have been given to me as gifts. These treasures conflict me. I don’t plan to ever publish any of my works with them, as I don’t want to encourage the destruction of more truffula trees. I don’t want to just leave them as block to be used as doorstops and then thrown away by another generation. So I will try to use them in as graceful a manner as I can, label them as best I can, and then show that more renewable and locally available materials can do as well or better.

I will confess that the rare and exotic do hold the odd lure to me, I am not a purist. So when I want some, desperately, desperately. I look for a place where the plant is being managed well, by people who are managing it as a multgenerational treasure. That or I plant it myself, in hopes that with enough nurture, I may have some to work with some day. But then, I find I often love the tree too much to part with it for the simple wood.

This is the crux of the matter. All of this, quite literally is as ash if we do not find ways to live more gracefully and with better impact on this world. My saving a tree is nothing if the land it is on cannot reasonably be expected to support a tree in a hundred years. The traditions we pass on, to beloved children, beloved friends and even beloved strangers, are as dust if stewardship is not a strong part of those traditions.

Bob

Is a Copy of a Copy a Crime?

Bob Strawn — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 13:00:24 +0000

I have waded through a lot of discussions about copies being made of other tool designs. It is quite interesting to see where people stand. It seems that there are several issues that divide how we think about these things. The variations on ethic make this a pretty heated issue. Personally I like this. I think societies need to discuss ethics every now and then.

I have a lot of respect for a good copy. Clark and Willams makes reproductions and I hold them in the highest regard. The company that some people are defending, Lie-Nielsen, makes an upgraded copy of what a lot of people consider the best mass produced planes. I like this too. What is really neat here, is that a upscale, high dollar product, that has been maintained with quality engineering and quality support has loyal supporters, despite being quite expensive.

WoodCraft, is the one with the copy of a copy. It sells for a bit less and looks pretty nice. Woodcraft has given me very good support in the past, so as far as that goes, they might come close to Lie-Nielsen There are folk supporting them in their decisions as well.

I have no objection to competition either. I like the idea of companies competing with each other to provide me with the best price on the best quality goods. The competition between Lee Valley and Lie-Nielsen has been very good for the woodworking community. I suspect it has also been good for both of those companies. People respect them around the world. The competition is between innovation and refining old patterns. I like the results.

One of the big issues is the China thing. A lot of folk are developing a real hatred of things from China or India. Personally I would rather support the company that takes care of their employees. I would much rather buy from Canada that China for the same reason that I would rather buy food from a share-cropper than a slave owner. I think that people that share control, profit and future are more likely to make caring decisions. People who exploit people are much more likely to put toxic stuff in baby formula. As we turn our face away from the suffering of others, we practice the same skills that endanger our world.

I would rather buy local, but my real priority is to buy ethical. I would rather not reward selfishness. Business should be win-win. I try to consider trade practice, environment and business ethics, when I buy. I don’t want to give more money and power to a person or company that does not care about people. Even people who they will never meet, of different faiths, colors and languages.

I approve of WoodCrafts effort to offer quality products at lower prices, but I would rather not have products made by underpaid labor drive a quality company like Lie-Nielson out of business.

Given my choice, I prefer to buy from a person. A good a product can be made by a woodworker, out of wood and steel and bronze. It just takes a bit of time and care.

Bob

User Comment Spam

Bob Strawn — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 13:00:47 +0000

Until you run a blog, there is an entire family of spam you never see. Stuff with pages of links to all the stuff they normally spam you on are common. In any case they have links that lead back to sites you really don’t want to see. Often they compliment your site mastery, wisdom, artistic style and blog in general.

I want to know what their search engine is based on. My most popular post for spam is my sawhorse post. I have no clue why. Once a day, at least, a spambot tries to put a spam message to the sawhorse post. What makes sawhorses so interesting to spambots? It is a short enough post, not a lot of special words to search on. It is not high ranking on google searches, so I have no clue as to why they have picked out that particular post.

Since I have mentioned spam on this post, this post is likely to become my most spammed at least for a month or two. Go figure.

Bob

Fleam, Bowsaws, History and Faith

Bob Strawn — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 13:00:25 +0000

I just this week read a post about fleam over on Popular Woodworking. Aparently Colonial Williamsberg does not put fleam on their saws, since there is no evidence of fleam on saws in Colonial America.

This got me to thinking, Tage Frid, an expert among experts, liked to use a ripsaw for cutting dovetails across grain. If Tage Frid was comfortable with a ripsaw for dovetails, It seems likely that, as long as a striking knife is used, and you are able to truely saw to a line, that a cross cut saw is in fact unneeded. From my own experimentation, a cross cut saw tooth for tooth, is a bit slower, It also is more prone to shifting from a line. The actual cut is a lot smoother with a crosscut and I rather like using a crosscut, but it could be that a master carpenter of that day might have had little respect for the crosscut saw.

This also brings me to an odd point, history is being explored actively at Colonial Williamsberg. This is a bit of a surprise to me, as I personally have good reason to have little faith in the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation. When I went to Colonial Williamsberg for the first time, My family made a point to sit in our family pew.

This was the front right pew, it was labeled ‘Uptigraph.’ When the church was built, one of the ways it was paid for, was for the wealthy families to ‘buy a pew.’ My father’s mother’s family had donated a hefty amount for the honor of having this be their official seat.

When I went back there with group while I was going to camp, the pew had been renamed. Apparently Uptigraph was not important enough sounding, it was now the ‘House of Burgess’ pew. It was pretty silly, but it made me somewhat question the authority of the place.

When I went back there when I was a camp councilor, the pew had changed names again. Apparently the House of Burgess was not important enough sounding, it was now the ‘George Washington’ pew. It really makes me wonder what else they have altered. I have not been back since, nor have I taken my family.

So while I have good reason to have little faith in Williamsberg in general, it does seem that there are historians associated or employed by the organization, that are doing good work.

I don’t know how important an issue it is with them, Uptigraph is not that common a name, and it certainly isn’t my name, yet I suspect that any of them who knew of the pew and regularly visited it as a point of pride, are much less likely to donate or visit again.

But, back to the saws, I wonder if perhaps all the cross cut saws were worn down, or if woodworkers altered them on their own. It seems that looking at cuts in wood is probably the best way to tell for sure. Another possibility is that having loose fibers in a cut, made the cut hold well despite changes in humidity, and made the cuts glue well. At a time when end grain and joints were mostly hidden in fine furniture, perhaps the smooth cut of a cross cut saw might have been a disadvantage.

Bob