Replies

1. 
   RalphBarker | Apr 01, 2012 11:01am | #1

   Special April 1 items

   Not sure if FWW has done anything, but Lee Valley has come through again:

   http://www.leevalley.com/US/wood/page.aspx?p=69302&cat=1,42401

2. 
   RalphBarker | Apr 01, 2012 11:23am | #2

   Watch the video

   https://www.finewoodworking.com/item/45884/video-sneak-peek-of-new-groundbreaking-video-workshop-series

   Now, this is woodworking at its best!  ;-)

3. 
   roc | Apr 01, 2012 08:10pm | #3

   I don't know about an April Fools article but this one sounds like one

   But it is ALL true !

   The secret is the balance of two awesomely powerful forces

   adhesive wear

   and

   abrasive wear

   It has been recently discovered by Bell Labs Woodworking Bunker (the BLWB Division for short ) that there is an optimum self regulating and self sharpening plane blade geometry that has, until now, been over looked by modern crafts people.  It has been theorized this geometry was commonly known and used by all craftspeople before the fall into the dark ages ( not the dark ages we are currently in but the one in the 6th to 13th centuries).  How else could they do decent woodworking without Tormek sharpeners and or a full set of Shapton stones ?  I know I could not . . . until know !

   On hearing this combination of angles anyone not actually using it would think that the edge would be too weak to be durable and so dismiss it on the spot without testing it and so this , apparently, is the reason this secret combination has lain in obscurity for so long.

   However . . . like the twenty pound bicycle that easily supports the two hundred and thirty pound rider at ground speeds approaching and even exceeding fifty miles an hour this plane blade geometry is a miracle of engineering that has reached a pinnacle of positively perfectly balanced forces.

   Pre 6th century they didn't know the actual mechanics of it but they knew that if they used a back bevel of 15° and a bevel up angle of 15 . 5° the forces on the blade would exactly balance and so sharpen the blade through what we now know to be "adhesive wear".  The flexible edge navigating the molecular structure of the wood like a fine phonograph needle.

   What is more this works regardless of the wood species being cut.  Some would even say irregardless of the wood species being cut but I am not ready to go that far without further testing in my own laboratory which is located in the SiLLYWRDS Divison of Bell Labs.

   The edge is self regulating once the exact balance point has been reached; like the double-acting rotative centrifugal governor on a steam engine : an infinitesimal  wear on the one side of the edge deflected it one way and the adhesive wear then caused it to veer back, then the cutting action caused it to return in ever smaller oscillations until a near perfect steady state is obtained.

   It sounds counter intuitive but then so does the differential of the rush of air over the top and bottom of an air craft wing causing lift.

   As a matter of fact that is a relatively similar effect.

   NOW using this new miracle edge geometry the only time you sharpen with stones is to set up the 15/15.5 geometry, after that just use the blade and occasionally advancing the blade slightly once a week or so to make up for the loss of metal on the blade.

   No more sharpening.

   It's a MIRACLE !

   For full details go to this link

   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/April_Fools_Day

4. 
   BruceS | Apr 01, 2012 10:42pm | #4

   Self sharpening

   That must be the same self sharpening principle that is beign used and advertised by Roto tiller Mfg's. ;-)

1. 
   joinerswork | Apr 02, 2012 08:50am | #5

   Long time ago, I read about a drag racer's engine which had rubber camshafts.  As the engine revved up, the cams wore into a wilder and wilder grind, enhancing the performance.

   My garden tiller's tines don't rotate that fast, though.

   Ray

5. 
   swenson | Apr 03, 2012 08:11am | #6

   bent tools

   I always love the Lee Valley and FWW April fools, but this year my six year old granddaughter beat them all with a phone call.

   "Papa ! Go down to your basement ! All your tools are bent !"

   "Oh my"

   "April fool, Papa, I gotcha ! April fool !"