Jim Kingshott's DVDs

[robo]

With Christmas visitors gone I finally got the chance to have a look at one of Jim Kingshotts DVD's on Bench Planes.
A bit basic but an excellent and well presented DVD. I like the way he works up from a wooden jack he made in 1945 (for quick removal) to a Stanley and then to a Norris for the final finish. On the Jointing section he uses an enormously (long) Norris. It's nice to be reminded how we should be doing things - like cleaning the wood before starting, with a wire brush to remove any embedded grit etc?
They were originally produced in the UK in 1995 in video format but now only available as DVD from across the pond? Mine did slip under the Customs net though

Very much looking forward to viewing the others.

R

[dunbarhamlin]

I watched these recently - a charming fellow with a healthy down to earth attitude.

My Christmas viewing comprised 18 hours of guitar making DVDs - Benedetto archtop guitars and a fellow from Paracho - who kept making me blanch and would have had Scrit in fits - tailed routing rebates in his lap

[robo]

I have watched all of Jim's DVDs (4 of them?) now and what great viewing they make.
Jim was certainly a "natural" at presentation but I wonder if some of his colloquialism's were understood across the "pond" or even here in the UK? e.g. when demonstrating planing for a sash window using a wooden Badger Plane he says nows time for a "Dockyard Sharp" and adjusts the plane for a thicker shaving?
Anybody familiar with that saying or did I mishear?

[Alf]

robo said:

They were originally produced in the UK in 1995 in video format but now only available as DVD from across the pond? Mine did slip under the Customs net though

I know Matthew at Workshop Heaven was looking into the possibility of stocking them over here - probably about time I prodded him about it to see if it's likely. I like to support a local specialist supplier like him or Classic Handtools if possible, but impatience may yet get the better of me!

As for "dockyard sharp", it sounds highly likely. ;D Along similar lines to something being "good enough for government work", which I iirc from an Old Tools List thread is a term well understood in North America.

Cheers, Alf

[dom]

Could it be connected to Ship shape and Bristol fashion ?

[engineerone]

if you remember of course until the late 19th century, most of our ships in the navy were wooden, and many of the fittings were wooden. until the advent of the ironclads etc most ships certainly had lots of wooden used in their construction.

i would guess that someone at chatham dockyard or museum would be able to provide details of this.

remember that until marc brunel invented it, the production of
ships blocks was done by hand, rather than machine so the tradition of a ship's carpenter was long established.

paul

[argus]

.


Jim Kingshott was a great character who came from the north Hampshire / Surrey borders, I believe and had an accent to prove it.

I have most of his videos from the days when one of the comics (F&C, I think), used to give them away for the price of the postage.

Looking at the context of ‘dockyard sharp’, he takes his plane and drives the iron forward to take a hefty shave off the bit of pine he’s demonstrating with. The expression was that if it was sharp enough for that, it was sharp enough for the iron hard oak in the dockyard, I guess.

In many ways the dockyards at Portsmouth and Chatham dominated heavy naval carpentry well into the age of steam and Hampshire is where Pompey is situated.

I have the smaller, younger brother of Jim’s badger, and they are a treat to use, but awkward to sharpen, but the iron angle will allow that kind of shaving thickness that a straight plane will not tollerate.


.

[robo]

Argus - how many videos did Jim make?

I have the 4 DVD's (Bench Planes, Special Planes, Dovetails and M&T's)
and I see Axminster have a VHS video on Sharpening.

Anybody know if others are still available - would love to see them?

R

[argus]

.

Robo - Without getting them out to count, I think that I have two more on sharpening, in addition to that lot.

.

[jmk89]

Curious that the DVDsshould be available in Oz but not in the UK:
www.booktopia.com.au/search.ep?author=kingshott

[jmk89]

In honesty I have to tell you it was too good to be true - I ordered the DVDs from Booktopia in Oz only to be told that they were on the website in error and they were not available in Australia. I guess I will also have to go through the customs risk to get them form the US....

[benhall]

jmk89 said:

In honesty I have to tell you it was too good to be true - I ordered the DVDs from Booktopia in Oz only to be told that they were on the website in error and they were not available in Australia. I guess I will also have to go through the customs risk to get them form the US....

I got mine through Fox Chapel Publishing in the US.
Ordered them in September - they arrived just before Xmouse.
See:
www.FoxChapelPublishing.com

regards
BH

[dom]

Welcome to the forum BH

[benhall]

dom said:

Welcome to the forum BH

Many Thanks Dom.
I look forward to learning heaps.
Regards
BH

[wrongnail]

Jim was a special man; a fine craftsman and although I didn't see him often, whenever we did meet up we got on like a woodshed on fire.

Some years ago, we were both asked to go to a woodwork show, organised by one of the magazines. As contributors, we were treated Royally, and over tea and biccies, Jim and I waxed lyrical on the apprenticeship scheme that we had both enjoyed. (Although I went into a different line of work myself.)

While we were talking, someone I didn't know, drifted up, and sat down to talk to us. He got a bit sniffy, about apprenticeships, claiming he could teach someone just as much in 18 months, and that the first few years of an apprentice's time was wasted making tea and sweeping up. Well he might have been right on that score. But boy, could he pontificate about his furniture!

I have one of Jim's videos on cutting 'lap-dovetails'. Most instructive and well-presented. He even left in a scene where he made a mistake and over-sawed into the lap!

On a personal note, if I ever got stuck on anything, I could always ring him at Deepcut and I well remember talking to him about making a tail vice. Three days later a brand new, Record vice-screw and Rabone combination square arrived in the post, compliments of Jim. Those were the days.

Yes.. he was a charming man who is sadly missed; and I can vouch for that accent.

John.