I changed the title of the blog

I changed the title of the blog to my original concept for my woodwork site.  The Bad Karma Beef Company was originally a joke in a way, my idea for a restaurant name really.

My tiny workshop is just that, about 3 square meters of space against a wall in my apartment, between the family room and the office area.  Basically, a workbench, some tools on the wall and some powerful lighting.  A bench to work on and the tools to do the work, keeping it simple and uncomplicated and happy.  My work area does make me happy- I love being there with my family in the same room and the cats tracking sawdust through the house.

We decided to put the workshop in our living room instead of the basement, so that I would actually see my family in the evening.  I spend all day teaching, so on many days I may only have an hour or two before heading off to bed.  I like to have my family around when I work, and I simply don't feel like locking myself in a cold basement every night.  Besides, we actually have the space for it, and with hand tools, the shop looks really nice in the family room.

Eventually I will build a giant bench and need copious amounts of tool storage, and when that day comes I will build a giant shop.  But for right now, my tiny work shop is perfect.

But what about the sawdust?  Does it not get everywhere?  The short answer is NO!  So I kind of lied- I have one battery powered tool and its probably the most important factor in being able to have a shop in our apartment.  Its amazing, though it is arguably the most expensive appliance we own.

Behold, our Roomba!  His name is Marvin, and he loves eating sawdust.

I won't do a review (right now,) but needless to say, this little guy gets the job done and we don't find sawdust stuck to the bottom of our feet very often.

However, the cats do manage to get sawdust stuck on their little paws fairly often.  Where do they find it, are they storing it with their hair balls?

Just a quick picture

I'm putting up a quick picture of one of the spatulas I made. It went to my wife's uncle- it was hand made from a small plank of beech.  (Buche im Deutschland.) It took a couple of hours with the sash saw, spokeshave and a chisel to make.   It weighs a bunch,  but it is supposed to.   I love these fun little projects.

The second picture is my helper buddy 'sawing' the wood with me! 

Hello World!

I'm getting ready here to publish the first edition of my online woodworking notebook.  This is currently a work in progress, but by seeing the number of page views that I've had today, I thought perhaps I should tell people what's going on.

Sorry, no beef for sale here.  The only thing that I'll be cutting up is wood, and putting it back together again.  This is to be my online journal of my woodworking projects and learning, along with a few detours I'm sure.

My main emphasis is on woodworking with hand tools.  The only power tools I own are a Dremmel tool left over from my R/C days, a cheap drill and one of those multi-purpose power thingies that was good for sawing through damaged laminate floor.  Everything else I use came without batteries and can't be plugged into the wall.

There are several reasons for using hand tools instead of power tools in my case.  First, I live in an apartment and am surrounded by my family and other families.  Excessive noise and dust would be a huge no-no.

Secondly, I love hand tools and enjoy collecting them nearly as much as I like using them.

Third, I like being able to come home from work and just work on a project.  My kids can 'help' and the worst that will happen is that they get covered in shavings and saw dust.  No high speed blades, no high torque motors and no high decible noise.

Fourth, it really provides me with a sense of crafting things instead of manufacturing a product.  Not that I'm saying that power tools are bad, which they aren't.  What I mean is that I have to really pay attention to what I'm doing to keep my lines straight.  I have to get my layout perfect.  I have to have discipline in my endeavors.  And this to me is satisfying.

And finally, I outfitted an entire wood work shop (over the course of 9 months) with nice hand tools for the price of a Mafell Erika table saw.  (Those Mafell tools are nice, wow.)  Just saying, I now have everything necessary (but not necessarily everything I want, oh so many tools.) to build practically anything I'd like as long as I can get the wood into the shop. 

Just sort of getting back at cost- I splurged and bought a Grammercy Sash Saw, which costs a lot for a hand saw but the cost is peanuts compared to the cost of a top of the line power saw.  And my hand saw will last forever with just a little maintenance.  I don't think anyone even hand builds power saws in the U.S. 

And one other thing- cheap tools aren't cheap.  They cost in terms of frustration, damaged products and replacement costs when they crap-out or after I realized that they never worked.  I have 3 POS handsaws from our local hardware store that are good for nothing but taking up space in the closet, and for that same 45 Euros I could have bought a really nice Japanes ryoba (had I known about them) and gotten some work done.

Am I spending fortunes on tools?  No.  I've fixed up some stuff off of ebay and made some moderate investments in some new tools.  Some were relatively expensive (but that's because we're always comparing prices to big box store PRC junk,) some were not, but everything I have bought was given thought and reviewed and fits the needs of my task.  Starting out, did I need an Starrett Square- no.  Did I realize all of my other squares weren't very square after I got a Starrett Square- yes.  So did I need a Starrett Square- I guess I did.

So, I'm going to use this to post about my progress in woodworking and my projects.  I started off getting my tools first, doing some minor projects with them, but now that I have my workbench I am going get started in earnest.  I've made enough spatulas (people love Christmas spatulas) and now its time for some real stuff- like spoons.  No, I meant like furniture and boxes and sawdust for the cats...

SAWDUST!!!!