The Renaissance Woodworker

I first used one of Mark Harrell’s new tenon saws at the hand tool olympics at the Woodworking in America design event last August in St Charles, IL. At the time my dovetailing skills were actually better than my tenoning skills because I had spent more time practicing dovetails. Needless to say I was shocked when I cut my tenon so easily and based on the measurement, I was vaulted into 3rd place in the competition (at the time anyway, and there were many more than 3 competitors for you jokers).

No question that tools do not make the craftsman, but they sure do help. I blame the TSA and baggage restrictions from keeping me from buying one of those saws right then and there. Then in October at the hand tool rendition of Woodworking in America, I cut some tenons again using the same saws. I was not competing this time since I was helping out at the SAPFM booth and therefore ineligible. (Pro tip: this is a great way to get out of a competition, “I’m ineligible!”) I got the use the saws a lot more while hanging out at the booth and let’s just say I had an identical experience. I walked away and vowed to contact Mark and place my order. And order I did. I have been the proud owner of rip and crosscut Bad Axe saws now for 3 months and have had a lot of time to work with them. No buyer’s remorse here and I just love these saws. Let’s take a look at some of the features that make them so great and what it means for your work.

Handle

These saws have a beautifully formed Cherry handle that is modelled after the golden age of saw manufacture. The Cherry is a surprising species with so many fruit woods being used in the past, but Mark is very picky in the blanks he chooses to obtain the most stable cut and pleasing grain. Like the blued steel back, these Cherry handles impart a simplicity that is like comfort food and just feels good to look at it. The handle is carefully shaped to be easy to grip while not interfering with the sawing motion. I have pretty big hands and I didn’t feel like I was crowded at all. The handle smoothly flows into the back with a nice chamfer to rest your forefinger on while sawing. Then as a finishing touch, Mark incorporates these beautiful inset medallions.

Length, Width, Pitch

At first glance both of these saws seem really big and the depth of cut beneath the backer is bigger than any vintage saw I have seen. This height is really valuable in keeping your cut plumb because the whole saw is well balanced and just like balancing a long broomstick on your finger the extra height adds a better center of gravity.

Mark will soon be offering a 14″ version of his saw as well but for now you can get a 16″ and 18″ version of the saw. The 16″ offers a 4″ deep saw plate whereas the 18″ long saw has a 4.5″ deep plate. Like the saw restoration service you can specify how you want your saw toothed and sharpened but Mark recommends to following and this is what I purchased from him.

18″ Rip saw sharpened at 10 ppi
16″ Cross cut saw sharpened at 12 ppi

The saw plate itself is high quality Swedish spring steel and is beautiful to look at as well as durable in use and in regards to tooth strength.

Tooth Geometry

This is where the real money maker is with these saws. Mark uses a few tactics to provide an easy to start, clean, yet aggressive cut.

Progressive Rake: by adding variabiity to the attach angle of each tooth the saws will start smoothly but transition to a faster cutting tooth then relax back to decrease tear out on the opposite face of the board. The transition is difficult to pick out readily but on close examination you can see the subtle change. The following is taken from Mark’s website detailing his filing technique with some photos of my own saws thrown in to illustrate the rake transition.

Rip: I start with a 15-degree rake at the heel for the first twenty teeth, then modulate to 10 degrees for the next twenty teeth. From there, I rake every tooth is at 5 degrees for an aggressive cut. I add five degrees of fleam on every tooth (regardless of rake), which reduces tearout on the opposite side of the cut. The rake relaxes again in the same manner at the toe end of the saw. After conducting the initial filing to set a consistent rake, I then rejoint the saw, establish 20-degree sloping gullets, and file off the points without shortening adjacent teeth so that every tooth does its duty.

Crosscut: The rake modulation for the first forty teeth goes from 20 to 15 to 10 degrees at the heel end of the toothline, then I reverse that for the last forty teeth at the toe end. 20 degree bevels per tooth, and 10 degree sloping gullets. Though ten degree rake for the majority of the toothline is an aggressive cut, It achieves a surprisingly smooth finish on the wood.

The addition of sloping gullets is still a debated technique (one I am for BTW) but in theory it not only provides a little extra space in the gullet to clear sawdust but it can also provide a slightly keener tooth.

Like everything in life, too much of a good thing can be very bad. The same applies to saw filing. Fleam will slice the wood and make for a cleaner cut, but too much fleam will dramatically weaken a tooth. Mark strikes the balance needed in rake, fleam, slope, and pitch to give us a revolutionary saw.

If you weren’t already sold, then remember that Mark Harrell is a veteran who served his country for almost 30 years with dedication and passion. Since his “retirement” Mark has sunk his considerable talents into saw making and restoration and we are all fortunate to have him around to make us all better woodworkers.

Please take some time to visit Bad Axe Tool Works. The site is clean and beautiful and chock full of information and tutorials. Mark doesn’t have any secrets and he lays out everything in his bag of tricks so that the average woodworker can produce the perfect saw too.

I have completed all the functional aspects of my workbench and it has already greatly improved the quality of my woodworking. Now it is time to turn my attention to some of the creature comforts. I find myself crossing back and forth across my shop to get a bench hook or a shooting board and I need to put in a shelf to store all of these accessories.

This episode came out longer than I had planned as I really try to keep them under 30 minutes. However, I find that oftentimes woodworking shows can be frustrating by telling you how to do something without actually showing it so I decided to keep in all of my footage of cutting the tongue and groove joints by hand. So I apologize for the 200+ MB download (even after compression) but I hope you will enjoy the show.

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After my trip to Valley Forge for the 2009 Hand Tools and Techniques conference I became a little obsessed with wooden planes. I had a particular interest in molding planes.

I was lucky enough to come across several auctions on eBay from the same tool chest. Unfortunately I was sniped on one of them, so I missed out on completing the set, but I have a fairly complete set of sizes 1 through 8 hollows and rounds.

Hand cut moldings is an area where I am still very new, but I know enough to know that I don’t need every size to be effective. In fact, like mortise chisels, you may find that you are reaching for the same couple of planes over and over again depending on your penchant for Roman versus Greek molding profiles. This however is a topic for another post.

The coolest aspect of working with vintage tools is the feeling that you are picking up where a long gone colleague left off. While I have many vintage tools, these molding planes have a particular significance as I know a little bit of the provenance. The planes were previously owned by one Cornelius Stout, born in Susanville, CA, in 1849. Cornelius was one of 3 brothers and 1 sister but the only brother to pursue woodworking. His father moved to California from New Jersey along with the great masses in response to the Gold Rush. It is here that Cornelius spent his formidable tradesman years as well as the rest of his life. In addition to making furniture, Cornelius was an entrepreneur who was responsible for a few patents, one of which was a clamp designed for both clamping and stretching actions. You can see his original drawing and patent application from June of 1909 here.

Cornelius worked in the Pomona, CA area until his death in 1925 at the age of 76.

On all the planes you can see his initials stamped into the back

and on the front is the Ohio Tool Works stamp telling us just a little bit more about their history.

Obviously there are still many many gaps in the life of these wooden planes, but I take great pleasure in knowing that with every shaving I am continuing on the work of Cornelius Stout.

And no matter how good or bad my work is, I think he would approve

I am introducing a new segment this week called Hand Tool Tips. I capture a lot of footage when I’m working in my shop. A lot of it really isn’t relevant to an ongoing topic or a specific project so it just gets filed away under miscellaneous tips. Hence the birth of Hand Tool Tips. In each episode I will highlight a specific process or technique using only hand tools.

In this episode I demonstrate how you can add a bevel to the long edge of a board using only your hand planes. Doing this same task on a table saw can be dangerous if you’re not very careful and often results in unsightly burning no matter how sharp your blade. Those burns have to be cleaned up with sandpaper or a plane anyway so why not skip the table saw altogether. You might even get it done faster!

I’ll do my best to get out another episode of Hand Tool Tips soon and they may be great filler in between projects (or when I can’t get the video edited in time on an existing project). Please let me know what you think of these short format shows and please let me know if you would like to see a specific topic covered.

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Maybe it is just the circles I run in lately but there are a lot of conversations about not needing this power tool or never using this jig because it is more enjoyable and sometimes faster to use a hand tool instead.

It probably has a lot to do with my personal development as a woodworker as I continue to focus more on the minutiae of joinery and the perfect fit or perfect shape, but I am certainly using my hand tools more and more every day. I don’t want to necessarily espouse one philosophy over another as I think the woodworker needs to do what works best for them. That best practice could vary from day to day and project to project too. There is no need to criticize a fellow for doing something differently because sooner or later you will be in that same position.

For example, I really enjoy using planes to flatten boards. There are several reasons for this and most of them are warm fuzzy, introspective ones. The measurable reasons are:

shavings are great for starting fires (in the fireplace) on cold days
most boards from my favorite lumber mills come in 8″ or wider sizes & my jointer is 6″
I can stand to burn the calories
I have never been able to get twist out easily on a power jointer
I have a really, really, cool workbench

However, we all have those projects or tasks within a project that can only be described at tedious. This drudgery can kill your enjoyment of a project and oftentimes leads to abandonment. Raise your hand if you have an “unfinished project” corner in your shop! Do I want to spend several days working on that task by using hand planes to process the stock when I could zip through it on a jointer in 15 minutes? Not likely. So you can see my point of not criticizing another’s dogma. I can say I don’t use my power jointer anymore and don’t really see the point of such a tool and encourage others to ditch their jointers all day long until that one task comes around and I sneak off to the electron smashing side of the shop. That’s a little hypocritical don’t you think?

My preamble here is a set up to some of my thoughts about my own work and my shop set up. This is in no way a cavalier way of saying do as I do and everything else is wrong. Call it an experiment.

As many of you know I have one of those magnetic mats that covers the table saw to protect against rust. I realized the other day that it has been on there so long that the fine coating of dust on it has hardened in place. I began thinking and realized that it has been well over a month since I used the machine. The same story for my power jointer. It was probably early November since I last used it. Now let me honest: I haven’t been working in the shop every day. The Christmas shop rush was all about the lathe as usual so there was no need for either tool. The ongoing Roubo bench saga is well beyond the point of milling and sizing stock so there was no need there. Even the Chest of Drawers that I built in August saw very little use of either machine. Most of the sizing of stock was done on the band saw and the wider stuff was flattened by hand then run through the thickness planer.

So here is my idea: to abstain from table saw and jointer use for the next 60 days. I would like to see what happens to my work style and time until delivery of finished projects. I say 60 days as I have 2 furniture pieces in que for the next 2 months to start. I probably won’t finish them both in 60 days but I will at least be on to the joinery phase where I spend all my time at the bench anyway. Let me be clear, I am not unplugging completely as I will probably still use my planer to save time when creating parallel faces, but beyond that I feel I can handle everything with just my hand tools. I really want to see how many times I am reaching for these tools and what happens to my skills when I have vowed not to use them.

I can honestly say that if this experiment is successful, I will NOT be getting rid of these 2 tools. Remember what I said in the first part of this post: drudgery is not for me. I can however see myself moving them off to a corner of the shop in a long term storage mode and freeing up a substantial amount of space for dancing.

So let’s throw down the gauntlet! Starting today and until the end of March I will not touch either my table saw or my jointer no matter how badly I screw up a rip cut or flail about with my hand planes. It should be an interesting experience to truly test my hand skills and see what my patience threshold really is.

Who’s making bets!!!

This message greeted me when I unwrapped my new back saws from Bad Axe Toolworks.

It made me laugh but it is a dogma to keep close to your heart while working with hand tools. Saws run easier, planes slide nicely, bits turn smoothly. Old English cabinetmakers often used tallow to lubricate their planes and that is what really gives most of the vintage tools that lovely patina we see today. The first time you run a block of wax along the sole of your plane and use it you will be shocked at the difference it makes and how much less you end up working. Saws are just the same especially when you get deep in that cut and your arm is starting to burn. A quick swipe of wax and your saw has wings and powers through the cut like a Coon hound on the scent of a prize jackrabbit (that was for you Kari).

Now Adam Cherubini just put up a post recently proclaiming the virtues of the wooden plane and the fact that it needs no wax to glide across its surface and I can’t deny this. In fact I commented on his post my agreement and satisfaction of using my wooden Jack. But I do own a fair number of metal planes that I am not going to stop using because I need to wax the soles. Maybe if Adam asked really nicely and threw in some of his grandmother’s lasagna and a sixer of Sam Adams Irish Red (hey I’m multi-cultural in my epicurean pursuits) then I might consider it. You would still need to keep that wax around for your saws and auger bits. For that matter, have you ever waxed the bed of your thickness planer or table saw? What magic that does to using the tool!

So, I’m sorry for all the tool endorsements that have cost my readers money lately. I will make amends with this recommendation. Go to the grocery store and buy a block of canning wax for a couple bucks, heck you can probably get it cheaper at Wal-Mart. This will change your work for the better. If you run out of that wax in your lifetime as a woodworker, drop me an email and I will buy you another block.

I sent a bunch of saws to Mark Harrell at Bad Axe Tools/Technoprimitives before Christmas and began consultation with him on what my nest of saws needed. In my quest to do more and more hand work I wanted to build out a small, albeit comprehensive nest that would allow me to work cleanly and efficiently on all tasks from sizing rough stock to final dimensioning of parts. These were my thoughts on the coarse, medium, and fine makeup of this nest.

Breaking down stock to rough sizes

1 Rip saw in the 5-7 tpi range
1 Crosscut saw in the 8-9 tpi range

I would use these two saws to quickly break up longer boards in their rough state. The stock would be at minimum 4/4 but likely thicker to the 8/4 range so the tpi needed to be low to accommodate it. The cuts don’t need to be pretty so an aggressive rake would be best to allow for faster work. The set would be moderate here since I would be working in both hard and softwoods. I sent Mark a 28″ Disston D8 to be my rip saw and I have a D23 filed crosscut at 8 tpi currently in my shop ready to go. The large rip saw could also double as an effective resawing blade too.

Dimensioning rough boards to close to final size

1 Rip saw around 8 tpi
1 Crosscut saw around 10 tpi

These two saws would take my planed stock that was flat and to thickness and cut out the parts needed for whatever I am building. Thickness for 95% of my work would be 7/8 and under but speed is still somewhat of a factor especially when ripping so I wanted saws with a low tpi but still capable of producing a somewhat clean cut. My thoughts were to get this cleaner cut with a relaxed rake which would also serve to make the saw an easier starter. The set would be minimal so at the remove much less wood and allow be to work very close to the finish line while saving on plane clean up later. I sent Mark a 26″ Disston D23 to be re-toothed and filed rip and I would use my 11 tpi crosscut 20″ D8 panel saw since by this point in the process most of my parts would not be very wide and a long saw wouldn’t do much for me. This would be where I see growing the nest in the future by adding a 26″ crosscut saw, but for now the panel saw will suffice until I start building large casework and want to saw faster.

Bench Work

1 rip saw filed fine in the 10+ tpi range
1 crosscut saw also fine in the
This is really the last saw cuts that get made. In some instances it could be larger joinery like bridal joints that are deeper than the clearance of my tenon backsaw. It would be final sizing of a panel in a door or case side where I don’t need the edge to be clean since it would be housed in a joint. These will be small and clean cuts. For these operations I would use my existing crosscut panel saw but I would need a finely tuned rip saw to accompany it. I got a 19″ D8 on ebay that was file crosscut so I sent that to Mark to be filed rip.

What is so great about the service that Mark offers is the entire process is a consultation and a peek into the head of a saw expert. I told Mark what I currently have and what my goals were and he helped guide me with regard to pitch, geometry, and size. I did some initial cleaning of the saws to remove rust by following the instructions on Mark’s page and then packaged them up to be sent off to Wisconsin.

Once Mark received them he did a once over and diagnosed problems he saw like bends I didn’t catch in the saw plate and how they fit into the handle as well as the quality of the existing teeth. He sent me his findings and prognosis in an email along with his suggestions on how to set up the saws to meet my goals. Initally, Mark also suggested I contact Tom Fidgen to get his take on the content of a good nest and together, Mark and I factored in Tom’s comments to come to conclusions on the final profile of each of the 3 saws I sent him. It turns about that all of them has bends that I didn’t catch and the small panel saw was really at a point that wasn’t worth the restoration money for the outcome. Rather than leaving it at that, Mark, who is a bit of a collector, told me he had a nice little Simmonds saw that would be a great stand in and in many cases a better performer than my little Disston. I gave him the approval to move ahead with the restore on that saw and I paid the difference.

The final products are all very close to my initial ideas with some minor tweaks here and there in rake and pitch. Throughout this process Mark was highly communicative letting me know his thoughts and his project time line. The rush of orders on the Bad Axe side of the house prevented him from getting to my saws for a few weeks and he was up front with that. I told him there wasn’t a hurry to begin with anyway, All told though once Mark started working on the saws, it only took him the space of one weekend to complete the complete reshaping, re-toothing, jointing, filing, and honing of all 3 saws. The finished saws arrived on my doorstep this past Saturday and they look beautiful. Mark uses mostly recycled material for all of his packaging too.

The saws were clean and beautiful with wicked sharp teeth. My big 28″ rip saw could cut you just by handling it and the set was much less than when I sent it to him.

As is typical whenever shop toys arrive in the mail I have a day of non stop activities outside of woodworking. I did get down to the shop briefly on Sunday and put the Simmonds panel saw to work sizing to width some shelf planks for the lower shelf on my workbench. The saw starts like a whisper and cuts really smooth leaving a clean cut that took only a pass or two with my jointer plane to be ready for tongue and groove joinery.

The saw plate is polished nicely with a clearly visible etch

The handle has a nice chip carving pattern on it and is comfortable in use.

I haven’t been able to try out the other saws but the real test will be when I start my next project and can work the work all the way from the mill to the finish, putting to work all the varying pitches and geometries to good effect.

The nest will cover just about anything I need especially when I add in the 8 tpi rip file bow saw in the foreground for awkward ripping tasks like when I needed to cut my vise chop to shape. Of course I am not including my joinery saws in this post, but know that they are very much a part of the work and I will get into a discussion of those in a future post.

Working with Mark was a pleasure and I felt that I was truly in the hands of an expert throughout. He has just updated his website as well as put a flag in the ground on Facebook where he has some lively saw discussions already underway. In fact there is a great discussion on just what makes up an ideal nest of saws. Head over there and check it out.

Just when you thought it was safe to go back to work on Roubo…

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I paid a visit to the Baltimore Museum of Art this past weekend. I had heard tales of their excellent decorative arts wing that contains excellent examples of 18th century furniture with an emphasis on local cabinetmakers from Baltimore and Annapolis. Unfortunately on my way down the hall to the exhibit I was told by a docent that they were closing that wing due to a shift change in guards and no longer had the manpower to keep that wing open. I understand this is a product of a recessive economy and the museum just not being able to employ the number of guards necessary. It was understandably disappointing but I was directed to some other parts of the museum where I could see furniture. Surprisingly I saw a great deal so I can only imagine what the dedicated decorative arts wing must look like. Stay tuned for that report later as I am chomping at the bit to go back.

Ironically the piece that sticks in my head the most was shuffled off to the side of an exhibit and I only noticed it because I was assuming the role of husband waiting for his wife outside the restroom. Behind and to the side of a pretty Queen Anne dining chair was this curious little table.

While it was still an exhibit meaning I couldn’t touch it, I was able to get very close and take some snapshots and sketch some of the curves. This later point provoked some rolled eyes as the aforementioned wife left the restroom. There are hundreds and hundreds of these little candle stands sprinkled throughout period furniture exhibits, but this one particularly caught my attention because of it’s simplicity. The turned central column is not overly detailed and it represents the truest essence of the Queen Anne style that I like so much. There isn’t a wide flare into a bulbous base that is so common in this form but a gradual widening that terminates in a small bead. This whole shape adds a very delicate feeling to the table which seems to support the beautifully shaped top as if it were weightless. This is an interesting contrast to the tripod feet that snake down and firmly plant themselves. Many of the designs I have seen like this seem to stand on tip toe but this one has it’s heels planted and I like the curve formed at the ankle because of it. This speaks to the Queen Anne style as well since this was really before the ubiquitous ball and claw came into vogue.

I took a shot up under the table as best I could and confirmed that it wasn’t a tilt top (that would be unusual for such a small piece) but I also want to confirm the joinery points as I was already mentally marking out a piece of Walnut that was sitting back in my shop.

Here is a better shot of the top profile with it’s Porringer-esque shape that beckons you to set your drink there and settle down in your Windsor chair with a good book.

I think this very simple piece embodies much of what I admire about the Queen Anne period and it will definitely get a place on my “to build” project list. The challenge of dovetailing the feet into the central column is something I look forward to as well as the freedom I have to design my own take on that column while at the lathe. Expect to see this piece pop up again in the near future as I already have a spot in my house picked out for it. Maybe while I’m at the lathe I’ll turn some candle sticks or an oil lamp to accompany the table so I can read in the “old style”.

It’s the time of year when resolutions are made (and broken) and we look ahead with excited expectations for the new year. What do you want to get done in your shop this year? What do you want to learn? This is when I start to think about taking classes that will challenge me and force me to try a new technique. I firmly believe that this is the best investment you can make in your own woodworking. The is no question that good quality tools can help you immensely but lets be honest, you still have to know how to use it right?

Here is the problem. Woodworking classes are expensive! No question that they shouldn’t be because think about what you are getting by taking one. A fellow craftsman is passing along some serious knowledge and best practices that will serve you for the rest of your woodworking career. The big cost isn’t so much the ticket price of the class, but the time and sometimes travel necessary. A lot of schools have seminars and weekend classes, but I just don’t get much out of those because it isn’t enough time to really cover a topic. Most of the time you sit and listen to a lecture and then get a small amount of hands on time. It is the process of actually making with someone looking over your shoulder and guiding you that makes these classes so worthwhile.

So, OK, you have scrimped and saved the money to pay the class fee, but now you have to figure out how to get to the school and arrange lodging and travel. This can be a very daunting hurdle to overcome. Not only that, but while you may be having a ball, you are away from your family and that is always tough. My wife is a sweetheart and has come with me on a few woodworking vacations. She enjoys the quiet time to read and catch up on some relaxation time, but eventually she wants to get out and do something and with me in class all day she is limited. So no matter what she says I always end up feeling a little guilty for taking time away from her vacation.

What’s my point? I seem to be advocating taking a class, but spending a lot of time shooting holes in the idea. If you can work it out, then do it, it will be worth every penny.

But maybe there is an alternative. The digital woodworking community has never been better and there is this little known site call The Wood Whisperer. Maybe you have heard of it? Marc and Nicole Spagnuolo has put together an amazing community that is full of information. What has been missing is that class feeling you get when you bond with your fellows and get knee deep in shavings and sawdust.

About a year ago, Marc launched The Wood Whisperer guild. This is his subscription only site full of exclusive content and events. I was an inaugural member and the first year has been a lot of fun. You meet great people and we have been fortunate to have some big names come and speak to us on their inspirations and work. Internet technology is a wonderful thing that allows us to have a fully interactive discussion and learn a lot.

Marc is taking this idea to the next level in a few months by starting up a group build project. He is going to present us all with a small table design and build it while we build along with him. This is not a new idea as many of us bloggers and podcasters have encouraged our readers to build along. Marc is going to augment this idea with weekly live guild session to help along people stuck in the build or to share ideas for variations on the plan. With over 500 members already in the guild you can imagine the collected wisdom and experience all gathered together in one chat room. With the live streaming capabilities that web cams offer us, many of the guildees can broadcast what they are building at the same time and we can all advise one another and share in the woodworking goodness.

In other words, this is a traditional guild where you get together with friends and talk wood. Only I suggest that it is better because we can do all of this while remaining in our own shops and building along.

So my point is, if you are not already a Guild member, I urge to to click on the pretty Guild icon up on the top right corner and check it out. It will easily be the best money you have spent on your woodworking education. Now to be perfectly honest, I do get a little kickback if you sign up by using this link and I thank Marc for the opportunity to represent his ventures on my own site. I can tell you that this “kickback” has nothing to do with my endorsement of The Wood Whisperer Guild. It is a great place to be and I am happy to be a member. If nothing else my proceeds will just go back into my own show to make it better.

If you join, make sure to drop me a line and say hi next time you are in the chat room too.