RAFFLE – Rob Cosman Dovetail Saw + Joinery Crosscut Saw

J's customer Creations is sponsored by bits and bits use the code J Bates to save 10% off your next router bit or CNC bit purchase at bits bits.com TLD drr version too long didn't read uh I'm going to raffle off two premium handsaws all of the proceeds are going to go to a wonderful charity the Purple Heart project uh for wound combat wounded warriors uh to get into hand tool woodworking so that's the short version of it before I get into the specific about the saw specifics about the Purple Heart Project I want to share with you my little journey into hand tool woodworking so I really got into woodworking 2008 Nish something around sometime around then and it wasn't until 2016 that I decided you know what I want to see what all the fuss is about with these traditional hand tool workbenches traditional woodworking workbenches you know previous to that 2016 I had one of these pulk Style assembly tables I put a big Vice on one side I could do a lot with it why do I need a hand to a workbench why do I need something like solid like this when this does everything that I need it to do so I looked at different designs on building a workbench and what I settled on was a French design it's it's kind of funny people say that this is like the J Bates workbench which is flattering but it's incorrect this is a a French design workbench nothing specific to me it's a French design um so I built this workbench it's got a big thick top big joinery from the from the legs to the top big joinery from the rails it's a very solid structure it doesn't bounce back when you chisel on it it doesn't rack at all uh when you when you interact laterally on with wood on on top of this it is a solid structure that has taken quite a bit of abuse so I built this workbench and I finally experienced aha the that's why these workbenches are so popular in the woodworking world it's a fantastic tool to help you do woodworking more efficiently it makes sense so then I started to go down the rabbit hole that is hand tool woodworking I got a couple planes and then you got to learn how to sharpen the planes and then I got some different chisels and made my own chisel handles and then it wasn't until I think excuse me I think the early part of 200 17 maybe it was late 2016 um anyway I I I went to a location that had a woodworking store I live in Mississippi and at the time zero woodworking stores yeah of course you have a tool section at your local lows but that's mainly contractor stuff it's not stuff that's focused or specialized in woodworking so we go to this Meetup in Birmingham Alabama Birmingham Alabama happens to have a Woodcraft my very first Venture into a store store specifically set up for woodworking or specifically targeting Woodworkers and first time in there you know I'm a kid in a candy store all kinds of fun things to look at and that's over my budget that's that's way over my budget this all these fun things to look at you see these different Power Tools in person for the first time Powermatic this or jet that or whatever the tools were you get to see these for the first time in person and I'm going up and down the aisles many times and as I'm turning this aisle I won't forget it was on an end cap bottom shelf I see this box with finger joints and it says Rob Cosman I thought oh buddy that's got to be one of Rob cosman's dovetail saws I've I've I've seen all of Rob's videos at the time I saw the videos of him going through the manufacturing process where they make these hand saws uh saw all kinds of Rob's content and um he struck me as somebody who just a downto earth guy who's who conveys information very very well so I was already a fan of Rob cosman's content and here he is here's one of his saws all right so I just went down this starting to go down this hand this this hand tool woodworking rabbit hole and I and I see the benefits of having a really really nice workbench what are the benefits of having a really really nice handsaw so I was like okay it's a little over budget can't buy it right now walked around the second time I saw that box I was like don't pick it up because if you pick it up you're going to buy it so I walk around a little bit more and of course I'm with several other people and they're taking their time as well so we're all seeing the store many many times the third time I remember specifically walked around and I'm like if you pick it up you're going to buy it so I picked it up I'm like okay whatever let's do this I'm going to buy it and I remember getting home and being really excited to open this box is kind of weird like I'm I'm an adult but I get got that you know Christmas morning excitement and I open the box and I start making some Cuts I put some wood in the Vise and I was like all right let's just cut a Dov tail joint I don't think I've at that point had ever cut one so I was like just freehanding everything just making a bunch of cuts I'm like wow this is this is really nice this saw the first impression with the saw is it's heavy it's there's a lot of heft to it and I'm making the cut and it's cutting straight I'm trying to figure out my body language making this cut and it was it was a fun EXP experience was a fun process like a little Milestone moment on my woodworking Journey so uh another thing that makes these this stuff tail saw great is I don't know if you're familiar with this particular saw it's the Rob Cosman dovetail saw but it's got 2 in of fine teeth and then the rest of it a little bit more aggressive teeth so uh this first two inches is 22 teeth per inch I think that's what it is yes 22 teeth per inch and the rest is 12 teeth per inch so as you start your cut the 22 teeth per inch uh allows you to very carefully and delic not I guess delicately uh start the curf once the curve is established in the location that you want then you can power through with the more aggressive teeth it's a very interesting and practical design I really really like that so anyway my hand tool Journey uh I I kept going down the hand tool rabbit hole for majority of the next year or so learning all foundational skills with hand tools and if you if you've never been interested in hand tools I encourage you to take a take a dive down like I said the rabbit hole that is hand tool woodworking learning these foundational skills will help you regardless of where your woodworking Journey takes you currently I'm heavily invested uh into the CNC world of woodworking but I wouldn't give up these skills for anything because they're very beneficial for basically everything that you do and recently uh let me back up a little bit bit before that uh before getting into this other workbench so 2019 is uh Rob Cosman reached out to me via email and uh he said hey I I I saw my saw up on your wall I I assume it's the dovetail saw uh I would love to send you the uh the companion to that saw which is the Crosscut saw I think it's the journeyman Crosscut saw and um you know the only thing I ask is if you don't mind just give a little bit of promotion to the Saws and and let people know that uh when you purchase one of these saws some of the proceeds to uh of that goes to the Purple Heart Project and it's a fantastic charity to um to really help Wounded Warriors and whatnot and um if you could just give it a shout out or so I'd appreciate that and I yeah absolutely no problem at all what a kind gesture well that was 2019 uh my daughter was born in late 2018 uh also I got my first CNC machine and my my woodworking Journey kind of snaked away from hand tools and all of my hand tools for for quite a while unfortunately were kind of out of sight out of mind and it wasn't until um I still use my hand tools occasionally here and there but it wasn't like a specific focus of my woodworking it wasn't until late last year 2023 that I built a workbench for my daughter and she started using it and then she wants to experiment with hand tools she says Dad is there another tool I can try that's that's her her her way of asking for something else to experiment with and absolutely so I'm going through all my hand tools and she's trying them out on her workbench and then I personally go down the hand tool Rabbit Hole once again I'm getting sucked back into hand tools doing what I call Daily dovetails which will be another video I'll challenge you on in uh I guess the next video so I'm working with hand tools quite a bit more frequently than what is displayed in these videos and then it hits me like a ton of bricks I never upheld my end of the bargain to Rob he did something that was very kind he sent me a saw simply asking to highlight these saws and let people know that hey some of the proceeds of these sales go to this wonderful charity and man talk about deflating like I didn't I wasn't the man of my word with this with this with this agreement that was that sucks man caught myself in uh in a sticky situation that really sucks so as I'm messing with these with these hand tools and and having a lot of fun with them again how can I make it better how can I as uh was it Gary V says 5149 you always give 51% and you'll get 49 in return well how can I one up what I said I was going to do and I actually never did okay so I had this idea why don't I do a raffle to raffle away these two saws we can raise way more money than what the value of these two saws saws is and hopefully uh give all that money to the Purple Heart Project and hopefully help out way more in the long run than simply talking about these saws like the original uh like I originally said I would all right that's what I'm going to do I'm going to raffle off these saws and then I start using them cutting more dovetails and and then I'm out here the next day cutting some more stuff out here the next day cutting some more stuff just kind of honing some skills once again and then I have that moment of selfishness of like uh this is this this is my very this was like a milestone moment for me the dovetail saw this was this opened up so many thoughts and doors for me and I've done so much quality work with this saw and then this other saw you know this was a gift uh this was a gift from somebody who I who I think is a a fantastic Craftsman and fantastic instructor and and is just doing a lot of really good stuff this is a gift I I'm being completely selfish but but I I don't want to wrap all these off now oh back into square one what do I do well uh I ended up purchasing two brand new saws so in this box is the joinery cross journeyman joinery Crosscut I don't know why I've been calling it journeyman joinery Crosscut saw sorry about that and also a brand new dovetail saw I was going to open them out of these boxes and show you like ooh shiny new tool brand new saw however they are in a sealed padded envelope and I think whoever gets them should be the first one to open them so rather than raffling off mine I I I don't want to part with these they're they're fantastic tools and I want to keep them forever I purchased two brand new ones and that's what the raffle is going to be uh whoever wins the raffle will get both of these shipped directly to them and um and that's that so all of the proceeds that we're all the money we're going to raise from this raffle all of it's going to go to the Purple Heart Project if you're not familiar with the Purple Heart Project you can go to Rob cosman's uh YouTube channel robcosman.com as website there's links all over the place on all of this content where you can find out more about the Purple Heart Project but I do want to share with you the mission statement the vision and how do they accomplish their mission you can find this on uh the Purple Heart project.org so what is the mission of the Purple Heart Project PHP the the purple art Project's mission is to introduce physically and mentally combat Wounded Warriors still suffering from the negative side effect of combat to the peace and joy that can be found through the therapy of traditional hand tool woodworking that's that's a wonderful mission statement what is the vision of PHP we envision a community of combat Wounded Warriors that shared the joy and peace found through the bond of woodworking are con are connected for life and know that they are supported and never forgotten well how do you accomplish this so how does the the Purple Heart Project actually function how does it work the Purple Heart project accomplishes our mission by providing selected combat Wounded Warriors with a PHP scholarship to attend one of Rob cosman's training theand workshops selected combat Wounded Warriors are fully funded for travel per Dee and tuition to attend Rob cosman's week-long training the hand workshops where they learn the skills of hand tool woodworking so no expenses to the people uh who get involved with this who are are selected in this program they receive a full hand tool kit they receive a full kit of tools about $2,000 worth of tools that's awesome and a custombuilt workbench and continuing support when they return home so real quick on the workbench that's another way that you can uh support the Purple Heart Project if you'd like to without uh a direct monetary um contribution so I had to screenshot this cuz I forgot to print it off the bench Brigade today today Jack Lane coordinates an Ever growing pool of bench Builder volunteers who make up the bench Brigade mostly in Canada and the United States but a growing number of international volunteers as well Jack matches up a volunteer who is located near the hometown of a PHP selecte and he or she builds a custom workbench and then delivers the bench to the PHP selecte these deliveries can get quite emotional I would imagine so and are as satisfying for the volunteer and as it is welcomed by the purple project scholarship selecte so if you don't have the means to contribute a direct Financial contribution there's other ways that you can get involved building a workbench for somebody else who goes through this program that's pretty cool and I definitely wanted to uh note that as well if you would like to participate and purchase one of the raffle tickets you you can do so on my website I'll have a link down in the description below if you want to find out more information about the Purple Heart Project or maybe even sign up for the bench Brigade you can go to Purple Heart Pro the purple har project.org wanted to make sure that the was there or not the purpleheart project.org and find out as much information as you need over there uh you can go to robcosman.com if you want to find out more about Rob and everything that he's doing I think that's it you guys take care have a great day and I'll talk to you in the next video