Hooked on glue

April 30, 2007

I’ll be honest: I didn’t expect these stick-on metal hooks from 3M to work. I mean, the same adhesive technology that sticks my to-do list to my computer is going to support my heavy winter bubble coat? That seemed pretty impossible to me.

But without them, my clothes hang on the bedposts before ending up on the floor. And who has time to think up a whole new clothes storage system? So I outfitted the backs of the closet and bathroom doors with adhesive hardware from the Forever Classic collection. After some design reconsiderations—the nickel-finished hook really would work better with the bathroom fixtures than the bronze one—I was pleased to find I could remove the replaceable, tacky Command Strips that hold the hooks without leaving any marks on the walls.

So far, the hooks are hanging tough. They hold up to bathroom steam, and the only time one bowed to gravity was when I piled up four different jackets on it this winter—and it even held up for a week, despite my blatant disregard of 3M's “no more than five pounds” guideline. I'm not one for rules, especially from some commanding strip.

How Michelangelo might have cleared brush

April 27, 2007

An article in yesterday's New York Times featuring a chain saw sculptor from Buffalo, New York, got me wondering: what kind of chain saw does the artist choose? How could the roughest-cutting tool in the arborist's arsenal dig out the tiny crevices of an eagle's feathers or a bear's snout?

I contacted artist Rick Pratt, the subject of yesterday's article. Lately he's been carving the likenesses of famous Buffalo natives into old-growth maple felled during storms this past winter.

Hardware Aisle: What do you recommend in a precision chain saw?
Rick Pratt: I use a carving bar. It's a titanium bar that comes to a pointed tip, allowing you to use it like a carving knife.

HA: Where do you get it?
RP: You can special-order carving kits that have bars with different sized tips. The tips round off to points the size of a quarter, nickel, or dime, depending on how much detail you need.

HA: And which kind of power head do you use?
RP: I like the small Husqvarna 346. It's lightweight and doesn't kick back—which is good, because you're using a chain saw in exactly the way you're not supposed to.

Still waiting on a solar Sawzall

April 26, 2007

Little over a year after the EPA introduced Energy Star guidelines for cordless power tool battery chargers, the first manufacturer has stepped up and earned the star.

California-based Makita Power Tools announced today that three of their lithium-ion chargers will consume 35 percent less energy than conventional chargers, qualifying the products for the energy-saving stamp.

The EPA points out that poorly designed chargers, even when not actively charging a battery, can draw as much as 5 to 20 times more energy than the battery can even store. Hopefully other manufacturers will take Makita's lead with future charger designs—saving energy and saving all of us money on the power bill.

See a few other TOH-approved ways to save greenbacks by going green.

Stripped ease

April 25, 2007

The day the painters set my house on fire, I knew I’d made a tactical error by not showing them the proper way to strip. Strip paint, that is. My contractor was the kind of guy who sees paint peeling off the clapboards and his fingers start itching to light up the propane torch.

I had heard about the Speedheater, a new technology from Sweden that involved using infrared heaters to remove paint. It's supposed to be safer, fairly fast, and environmentally friendly, but he’d have none of it. Winter was setting in and he didn’t have time to learn new tricks. He’d done it his way for years and never had an accident, blah, blah. (You know where this is going and, yes, I was insane to go along with it.)

Although it was satisfying to see a century of old paint come off bit by bit, I couldn’t watch as his workers put flame to wood, especially one guy we dubbed “Pyro” who left a trail of scorch marks. Nor could I breathe, and we moved out to my mother-in-law's after a couple of days to escape the smoke, fumes, and lead dust.

Then we got the call from a neighbor that everyone dreads: The fire department is at your house.

Put a little lead in your pencil

April 23, 2007

The Striker, a mechanical carpenter’s pencil sold on the promise of an indestructible plastic body and a fat piece of graphite that never needs sharpening, probably won’t replace the traditional carpenter’s pencil on many job sites. That’s too bad. As a marking tool, the Striker has its problems: the “Dura Lead” breaks under little pressure, with use it rounds off to a nub you can’t get within 1/8-inch of your layout square, and it “advances” by dropping out of the pencil housing entirely. But let’s not dwell on that.

Instead, think of the Striker as a motivator, an instrument that’s more inspirational than functional, that rare tool that becomes a kind of project mascot. The name itself has a catchy, superheroic quality (this looks like a job for…the Striker!) that gave me a last little burst of momentum when I was working on a job I just wished would end. A friend and I were marking cuts well past midnight, sharing the Striker and all its shortcomings. I had just scribed another cloudy line on some lumber when the Dura Lead snapped, leaving a jagged edge as sharp as a freshly whittled wooden pencil to make our final few marks.

“Alright,” my partner said, “Hand me the Striker!”
“Strike it!”
“Stricken!”

Striker to the rescue? Maybe. Regardless, the Striker keeps its place in my toolbox—right next to the carpenter’s pencils.

Chisel with teeth

April 20, 2007

A woodworking chisel is supposed to have a perfectly flat back, because that’s how it works: the back guides the chisel as it cuts, using the surface it’s just visited as the template for what it’s about to shave next. So it doesn’t make sense to un-flatten the back by forging a rack of rasp teeth into it...or does it? 

Well, you got to hand it to the tool designers at Nicholson, who came up with the Wood Chuck chisel-rasp combination tool. Their target market is the guy installing lock sets. He has to chisel little flat spots for the strike plate and maybe for the escutcheon, and he has to fit the cylinder into whatever raggedy hole he’s inherited or hacked through the door. Sometimes he wants a chisel, sometimes he wants a rasp, and sometimes he wants both.

So rasp teeth on the flat back can come in pretty handy, and half-round rasp teeth on the beveled top face can be even handier. At only $25 for a set of 3 (½-inch, ¾-inch, and 1-inch), there's not much wood that the Wood Chuck couldn't chuck. Especially if you’re like me and you wouldn't want to lug around your whole toolbox for a fiddly little doorknob job.

Keep on rinsing in the free world

April 17, 2007

Showering, in my history, has not been an experience rich with choices or options. It was either on or off, wet or dry, hot or slightly less hot. So my initial experience of Moen’s new 7-setting Inspire showerhead felt how I imagine I would feel if I were a Soviet ex-pat first hitting the cereal aisle at an American grocery store: paralyzed by indecision. Do I go with a gentle “Relaxing” spray setting or the concentrated “Invigorating” beam? Energizing massage, targeted massage, or massaging rinse? Cocoa Puffs or Fruity Pebbles?

Fortunately, my girlfriend made the decision for me. Knowing how easy it is to install a new showerhead, I had knocked out the job without her knowing. I had accidentally left the new 2.5-gpm nozzle set to Invigorating, and the laser-like gush she was met with the next morning nearly blew her out of the bathroom. Thankfully, the seven settings shift on the fly via an intuitive plastic tab, so she was easily able to adjust the stream while calling me into the bathroom to demand an explanation. Journalistic research, I claimed, and hastily set the spray to Relaxing, which pretty closely approximated the flow of our old showerhead. It hasn’t been adjusted since.

So despite the options, showering is still as cut and dry as ever—but hey, at least I can choose which cereal I want to eat once I get out.

This little light of mine

April 10, 2007

I was walking past Rue Faubourg St. Honore—the one in Greenwich, Connecticut; not Paris—and found the most incredible collection of antique and reproduction lighting and fireplace accessories. I never would have imagined the quantity of goods stuffed into the narrow space behind its tiny storefront. The owner, Jim Ryan, has ornamented nearly every inch of the tall walls with a unique assortment of good lighting in a variety of American and European styles. Some of my favorites were the Caldwell wall sconces and ceiling fixtures. Antique fireplace tools clustered the floor, filling the place with antique brass andirons, pokers, and shovels great for scooping out a winter's worth of reusable ashes.

Thanks to Jim, handmade reproductions of Early American lanterns now frame the front door of my 1927 Colonial Revival. In my entranceway, a pumpkin-shaped melon jar creates a play of fractured light. The store custom-finished some web-backed sconces to match the window and door hardware in my dining room. And the Faubourg's onion lanterns outside my renovated barn create an old-fashioned charm.

If you make it to Rue Faubourg, stand in the center of the room, turn slowly and soak in the lumens. I promise, the treasures surrounding you will really brighten your day.

—Carolyn Blackmar

Rue Faubourg St. Honore, 44 West Putnam Avenue, Greenwich, CT, 06830. Phone (203) 869-7139 or fax (203) 869-2918.

How wet does it get?

April 6, 2007

For a long while, I managed to convince myself that I didn't need a moisture meter. I know that wood moves and appreciate the importance of gauging the moisture content of materials before building with them. But since I don't make my living laying hardwood floors or crafting fine furniture, I figured that other tools needed to come first. That was before I found a moisture meter for only $40 (most cost twice that amount) and decided to finally add one to my toolbox.

I've since discovered just how quickly this little black box can earn its keep.

Love (these) handles

April 3, 2007

I want a nice kitchen. I want a nice big kitchen with all the extra frills and trimmings that someone who doesn’t have my space and money constraints can actually get. And one of the things I want in my plain-Jane kitchen, which I don’t have, is sexy hardware. You heard me: I want sexy, handsome hardware that’s got style, class, and a personality all its own. And I’m not just talking cute little knobs for my cabinets. I want that extra special kitchen decadence of having a cool, unique refrigerator pull.

I want these things, because in writing a story for This Old House magazine, I discovered First Impressions International. They make all kinds of pulls for clad appliances—13 designs in 30 finishes, plus custom pieces. That means if I see a door pull on their site that I think would look great on my refrigerator, the company can make it to the appropriate size and give you the right brackets to do that. And if I fall head over heels for a refrigerator pull that doesn’t have a matching set of miniature handles for the rest of my cabinets, they can make that happen too.

I can’t wait for the day I can put in a curvaceous bronze pull, like Model #CF36A, or a rough-hewn pewter bar, like Model#CFR9, on my fridge. I’m determined to bring the sexy back in to my kitchen.

—Natalie Rodriguez

First Impressions International, Coconut Creek, FL; 954-419-9918; firstimpressionsint.com