Finished

Finished the kitchen, now I haven't a clue what to do with my free time. I'm happy with the outcome, there are always things that could have been done better, design flaws, and a few mistakes but not too many on this project. The corner of the sink cabinet and the Lazy Susan cabinet was set a little too tight and the door pulls do not work well together....fixed by setting the hinges on the Lazy Susan door on the opposite side. The trim over the sink and the stove could have been better planned, not as clunky and the dish washer opening is about 3mm or 4mm too big on the sides. There are some workmanship flaws and a few dings but again nothing major and most just add a little character.

The good things: The "pull down" shelf is great, the open cutting board storage works even better than I thought it would, the new sink is perfect, I love the look of the granite, and the extra 25mm of depth in the wall cabinets adds just enough extra room.

Saw Sharpening

I've always sent my saws out for sharpening, problem is I can not find a local sharpening service for back saws. Damn, what an excuse to buy some more tools. After weeks of looking and reading all I could find on the techniques and tools for sharpening hand saws I decided "what the hell, might as well". A saw vice was needed and there are just a few chooses, new (Gramercy tools), used, or make your own out of wood scraps. The good used ones are too expensive, make your own looked like a PIA to use, so that left new. Ordered one from Tools for Working Wood http://www.toolsforworkingwood.com//Merchant/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=toolshop&Product_Code=GT-SAWV&Category_Code=TS plus the files and a saw set.

I finally got it all set up and sharpened the first saw last night.....not bad, did a rip cut 14 tpi on an old Frued back saw and it cut fast and almost true first cut out off the vice. After dressing the high side a couple of swipes, it made beautiful straight saw dust, saws better than any saw I've got back from a sharpening service.

Now I'm wondering why I didn't do this years ago.

The photo is of my sharpening area, plane irons, chisels, saws....now it makes no never mind.

Looking at some of the older posts, I realized that the photo of the bike's farkle shelf is out of date and things have been added and moved. Anyway this is the latest version.

Almost There

I hung the north wall doors yesterday, just the east wall upper and lower doors and the lazy susan door to go. All but two of the remaining doors are ready for paint, one of the unfinished doors had a brain fart cutting mistake and I had to glue-up a new panel, the other was also a brain fart but on one of the rails. I'll paint the finished doors tomorrow and deal with the brain fart ones once the others are hung.

Rode the bike to a RTE on the 31st, beautiful day to ride. It was good to air out the Dirty Fat Girl, for the last six months about all I've done is work on the kitchen redo except for a couple or three RTEs. Of course the three RTEs were good ones, the first was a run to Jackson Hole to meet a couple of friends for a hamburger. The next one was a Bum Burner Gold (1500 miles in less than 24 hours) for some Texas BBQ and the last was a run up to Cedar City, Utah for dinner with some riding buddies.