December 09
A busy couple of months has seen stock run a little low. I am finally getting around to cleaning out all those red dots ready for a fresh run in the new year.
It will be worth keeping a lazy eye on the Boneyard as I am having a bit of a clear out and all sorts of treasure will be dragged from the back of the shed and listed here or on our eBay page. Also a possible apology this month, installing Version 7 of a popular operating system resulted in total hard drive meltdown and some spur of the moment hair removal. Not much was lost thanks to our Tech God making my repeat my lines of
"I must back up, I must back up" but I may have dropped a few emails in amongst all that hair. Point being... if you were ignored, please try again!
Thanks for the fantastic year, it has been great fun, I have learned a lot and I look forward to many more.
Happy Holidays Folks ;-)
September 09
I am pleased to introduce a new section to the web site called The Boneyard
This is where I will list the project planes that I feel are worthy of restoration, I will endeavour to carefully check over, photograph and list any defects. Think of it as the eBay rust hunt without the fuzzy photos and risk.
Once again I'd like to thank all those who have offered words of advice, constructive criticisms and well wishes. It has been a great help and has made me laugh and choke on my morning coffee more than once.
I'm still learning something new every day, which makes every day.. a good day!
July 09
This week has been fun. Helmut's huge effort in organising the design, manufacture and group purchase of replacement
blades for Stanley bench planes 3 through 8 has finally payed off and we are starting to see the blades reach their new homes.
The M2 HSS blades came in at 3mm thick with matching cap irons and screws to suit.
Going only from the two blades that I have installed and put to use they take a mean edge and hold it well.
You can read the original 88 page thread here
or go here for reports from the new owners as they come to hand.
Helmut (Thumbsucker on the forums) has done a fantastic job.. I hear he has a second order in the works which will be even better as he gets to iron out the kinks.
Keep an eye on the forums if you would like to be a part of the second order to score some amazing blades for your money and participate in what I'm guessing is a piece of Australian hand tool history in the making!
May 09
Thanks to all those who have placed orders and especially those who sent words of encouragement and advice, it is
much appreciated! April's tool activity slowed down a little while I did some actual woodworking! even a little paid turning which
is a rare treat. There are a few new tools just added and some more on the way (keep an eye on Planes, Saws and Instructional Books for the latest)
It may be worth mentioning here that have had a few requests for basic "fixer upper" planes, I'm more than happy to fill these requests if I can.
I am also very happy to fill requests for plane parts, it may be some time before I get around to listing spare parts on the site so in the
meantime it may be worth contacting me to see if I have that piece you are missing.
March 09
Lots of great tools have come in and are ready to be cleaned and checked over. Among them, a couple of nice rebate planes and a very interesting selection of saws. These will be listed shortly. Also notable this month is our listing of some amazing D2 plane blades that come with plans for a stunning wooden plane and brass rub plate to suit. You can check them out here.
Feb 09
Welcome to Luban White 2.0!! v1.0 lasted little more than a month! That's what we "do it yourself" types get when we take on the Internet bare handed. When things go wrong the age old answer "reach for a bigger mallet" just doesn't apply. It didn't look all that bad and it worked for the most part. The biggest problem was that I used "frames" to build it and as a result it couldn't be properly searched by google-bots and the like. Other little annoyances started to rear their ugly heads as well so eventually I had to bite the bullet and call in the expert in-law who rolled in and set me up with a clean and sparkling framework for me to build my site on. All .php and .css ... very nice indeed.
Our first month was very good considering our google invisibility. We have successfully filled our first dozen orders, thanks to some exposure through Woodworking Australia's Woodwork Forums, where we took part in their monthly prize draw. If you have yet to discover the forums, I strongly suggest you check them out.
Watch these pages over the next few weeks. (and next few years for that matter). Now that the web site work is done, I can get back to what I love... The tools!
