The Renaissance Woodworker

I envy the carpenter. He can take his show on the road anytime. If I leave my shop and bench and tools, I am useless. Sometimes, even changing tools I am useless. I’m sure you know what I mean and if not, try cutting a set of carcass dovetails with a saw, chisels, and marking gauge you have never picked up before. This weekend my skills were put to the test as I was dragged from my shop to do a project in the wild.

It’s back to school time and the gloom that has settled over my wife in the last few days has made that blatantly known. After finally accepting the inevitable, she tells me that we need to visit her classroom on Sunday to do some organizing in the classroom. I also needed to deliver the Hepplewhite book case to it’s place of honor. Heather told me that I needed to build some shelves for an existing book case to store sheet music. Basically she needed 3 more shelves and to replace 2 of them that had bowed beyond belief. (I’m not sure who decided un-laminated particleboard over a 40″ span was a good idea for shelves that would hold books) The good news is that there is already some shelving material on campus that we could use and that I would just need to cut it down to size. I was dubious at this last statement since no further details were given. She assured me that they didn’t need to be pretty, just fit in the space and hold up to boxes of sheet music.

Here is the case after I pulled everything off the shelves.

I took a quick measurement of the sheet music boxes (the black boxes to the right in the above picture) and spaced out the shelves to be somewhat consistent from top to bottom. I then went in search of the aforementioned shelving material. I found it upstairs in the stage scene shop and was happy to see it was a good quality plywood with maple veneer and what looked like a few coats of poly on the surface. The edges had been banded with maple as well. Things were looking up, but I still had to deal with the size. The smallest piece was 24″ wide and 72″ long. My shelves needed to be just under 12″ wide and 40″ long. I knew going into this excursion that I would need to be sawing and I thought it would be great justification for the nice collection of Mark Harrell of Bad Axe Toolworks refurbished hand saws. Since I was traveling I thought I would take my “toolbox” saws AKA panel saws because they are 19 and 20″ long and make for easy travel. They are sharpened for a cleaner cut as I normally use them at the bench for final dimensions of panels and such. I also took along a few clamps, a square, and a block plane.

Woodworking on the road is not so much about having the tools, but having adequate work holding. This is where my clamps came into play. Using the chairs in the classroom I set up a sawing bench of sorts and clamped my pieces down. I was able to use an existing shelf as a template and went to work cross cutting the boards to the right length. My little panel saw performed admirably and soon enough I had the boards to length (and perfectly square, if I do say so myself)

Now comes the fun part. It was time to rip these boards in half to make 12″ wide shelves. Ripping scares a lot of people because you have so much real estate to cover and keeping a straight edge only gets harder over that long distance. Ripping over a 6 foot distance is not only intimidating, it sounds a whole lot like work. To these naysayers, I say, maybe you need to tune up your saw! A bit of positioning with the chairs, enter the clamps, and off to sawing.

After a few careful strokes with the saw at a low angle I determined the path of my saw. I tipped it up to close to 60 degrees and started to work in earnest constantly puffing to clear the sawdust from my line and ensure I am tracking correctly.

I have not had that much time with this little Spears & Jackson saw since Mark sent it to me. The cuts I have done have been great but on a much smaller scale. If I were in my shop I would be using my 26″ saw for a cut this long so you can imagine how shocked I was that this little 9 tpi, 19″ saw was racing through the board. In about a minute I had 2 boards from one.

A little block plane work to clean off the saw marks and a tiny chamfer to kill the sharp edges…

…and I have 3 new shelves installed and ready to be loaded.

This “project” was hardly fine woodworking and with no fit and finish that I would expect from my normal furniture projects, but something about it was thrilling. Leaving my shop to build things rarely happens and to know that I can take just a few tools on the road and complete a job without making a lot of noise, mess, or needing an extension cord is a truly exciting prospect.

Road weary tools back home in their shop

The fall is here and that means cooler temps and fewer excuses to get out into your shops woodworking friends! Rick Waters and Neil Lamens are at it again with the latest Sawdust Chronicles Build Challenge. In the initial 30 day challenge in the Spring of 2009 I won a bunch of finishing products from General Finishes for my desk organizer.

The Winning Desk Organizer from TSDC 30 Day Build Challenge Spring 2009

This was a great project because it is not something I would have normally done. By signing up and participating I was held to the rules of the challenge which was “build a desk organizer”. The design exercise that resulted was a new and exciting experience for me and one that I highly recommend you take advantage of.

There are lots of build challenges and group builds floating around the Internet now, but I believe this is the only one where your design is the focus and you get honest and constructive feedback. Plus it doesn’t hurt that you get the chance to win some great prizes and the adoration of woodworkers everywhere. I can’t tell you how weird it was for me after I won a prize in the inaugural build to walk down the street and have random people come up to me and say, “hey, why are you carrying that desk organizer around with you?”

In all seriousness, this challenge is something you should consider. This time Rick and Neil have recruited Adam King to help them with the judging and they are asking contestants to build something that suspends a surface up to 32″ off the ground. No more guidance than that (actually there are more rules but you have to go to Rick’s site to learn about that)

This lack of guidance is what is so exciting. You are free to let your imagination run wild. Based on the judges and their work and tastes, I think you had better feed your imagination some peyote because these guys can be pretty out there.

So my recommendation as a past contestant is to jump into this with both feet. The contest starts today and you have until the end of October to finish the piece and submit it. I must admit I’m still a little on the fence because I have so much already on my schedule both in and out of the shop. Woodworking in America is a month away and that usually is a podcasting festival for me so I may lurk a little and see what my brain comes up with before jumping into this. But don’t let my weakness stop you! You can still register even though the contest is underway.

Go on, get going, nothing more to see here!

…but not in the way you might think. Sure the edges are B-E-A-utifully sharp, but I’m talking about the sides of the blade that are ground down to a very fine edge. This is great for dovetail work as you can get into those tight spots. This is one of my more artsy photos but you can see what I’m talking about with very fine sides.

Fine Edges make for nice dovetailin' but painful carving

The problem with those beveled edges is if you ever choke up on the blade you can slice up your fingers pretty easily. I am working on ball & claw feet for my Dunlap Chest of Drawers and I am rounding over the ball using a 1/2″ bench chisel. The straight chisel is really efficient for quickly shaping the ball and needs very little touch up afterward.

I am a white knuckle carver for sure and I grip my chisels tightly and choke up really high on the blade for the best control. I know I could stand to relax, but that will have to come with time and practice. I still have to remind myself to breathe every now and then too.

Well several hours into my carving session I realized that my fingers were starting to hurt and then I noticed a drop of blood on the front claw of the foot I was working on. A quick look at my hand and I had about 12 of what looked just like paper cuts on the inside of my first two fingers. It was then that I realized maybe I was gripping a bit too much.

This is several days later after the cuts had time to heal a bit

If you look at my carving gouges they have nice rounded edges for comfort as I assume most woodworkers choke up for control while carving too. Needless to say I will not be grinding down the edge of my Lie Nielsens because they excel at what they do with joinery. I might just need to re-purpose one of my flat sided firmer chisels or go get a #1 sweep carving chisel.

Now I’m going to go gross out my wife with my lacerated fingers…

This week I address a common problem when hand planing: inadvertantly tapering the board. This was something that Brian Meeks, @extremelyavg on Twitter brought to my attention. First off you should go check out Brian’s site because it is a humorous and refreshing look at our fine craft taken from the eager neophyte’s perspective.

Enjoy the episode and like Brian, let me know if something is on your mind that you want to learn more about. If I don’t know the answer, I’ll make up something witty and add music!

I’ll be upfront and say that this post will probably get me in trouble but it is something that has been on my mind for a bit. I view fine woodworking to be in a renaissance of sorts as more and more new people come to the craft. It is exciting and somewhat nostalgic as I answer emails from beginners and scratch my head wondering if I am really qualified enough to be giving advice. This influx of beginners and the inordinate amount of lawyers in the world has created a cadre of highly safety conscious woodworkers. More is written in the blogosphere about safety and the traditional print world is following along nicely too. I think it is great that so many people want to be safe, but I wonder what wisdom we are missing out on as we sidestep a technique or tip that might be viewed as unsafe and fear a call from a lawyer hired by an overly litigious and injured listener. It seems that idiots can ignore all safety measures, work a table saw, cut off a limb, and strike it rich just because manufacturers are afraid to call an idiot an idiot.

Meanwhile in the deep, dark underbelly of the woodworking world nestled in the dusty shops of crusty professionals who have been making furniture since before the Internet and personal computers dominated our existence, wizened professionals are making beautiful pieces using techniques that might make the information age neophyte cringe. Yet these professionals can count to ten using only their two hands.

“Don’t y’all do this” is something I have heard Charles Neil utter more than a few times as he engages in a somewhat risky cut on the table saw or a climb cut with a hand held router. “This is not the safest thing in the world, but it works” is another Neil gem. Professional advice born out of 30+ years of woodworking experience.

I have attended classes in professional’s shops and been enlightened by simple techniques for beautiful joinery only to be accompanied by the disclaimer, “don’t tell anyone I told you this because it might be viewed as unsafe”. Yet the technique yielded an incredible chip free tenon shoulder right off the table saw. Any of you who have been in one of these professional’s shop will know of what I speak.

So here is where I get in trouble: how can we get these nuggets of wisdom on the open market for all to enjoy? At what point do we recognize that woodworking is working with sharp things that can cause bodily harm and it is up to us, the woodworker, to be responsible and smart enough not to injure ourselves. If I get hurt, it is my own dumb fault and no one is to blame.

It is stunning to me that when I truly uncover a new method of doing something, it is usually just a slightly less safe way that creates better results than the tactics I am using currently. For instance, have you ever cut the last 32nd of an inch off your tenon shoulder by climb cutting on the table saw? It does a great job and leaves an immaculate shoulder. If done properly it really isn’t all that dangerous, but let’s face it climb cutting with a table saw is not the best idea when trying to make a through cut or remove more than a tiny amount of wood. I won’t divulge who taught me this (you know who you are) because the woodworking safety police might lock you up.

So fess up folks, what are you doing behind closed doors in your shop that yields great results and you are afraid to write or talk about for fear of condemnation. In my mind, everything in woodworking has an element of risk and it is up to the individual to determine how comfortable they are doing it. So what do you think, am I nuts to open this can of worms? I just feel there is a lot of wisdom out there going untapped because it might be unsafe.

Hello, remember when I used to make podcasts? I’m back and hopefully with a bang as I try out and review what I feel is the slickest shooting board on the market. Don’t know what a shooting board is? Watch this and see how a shooter should work.

Check out Tico Vogt’s site and if so inclined pick up one of these beauties. If you are going to Woodworking in America (and if not, why not???) stop by and say hello to Tico and try out the Super Chute there.

My Roubo workbench has given me so much joy that I finally decided to give something back and we became blood brothers last night. I guess I can say that I have finally broken in the bench with this sacrifice.

It is still amazing just how much a little tiny cut can bleed. At least the sharpness of your tools allows for nice clean cuts that heal very quickly.

You may remember during safety week a few years ago I did a video about how to clean the piles of shavings off your bench and what not to do. Well, I never said I listened to my own advice and swept the shavings off with my hand only to find that chisel I had been looking for…buried beneath the shavings. I am personally not a fan of band-aids because I lose the tactile feel in my fingers that I rely upon when doing hand work. I often get little cuts in places that are just impractical to bandage. You know what I mean I’m sure, like those tiny cuts right on the tip of your finger? I have been told that CA glue can solve these problems but I discovered a first aid product years ago that does the trick for me.

Skin Shield will seal up those little cuts and provide some protection to allow them to heal. It also keeps the blood off your beautifully planed Walnut. It’s a great little product to keep around in your shop.

Don’t you love when you are watching a woodworking show and the case comes together perfectly square with no adjusting at all? The host always gives tips for how to make it square but their work just always falls in place perfectly.

What world do these people live in? I’m pretty happy with my joinery and milling skills but regardless of the effort I put in, it always seems that my case work needs just a little encouragement towards the magic 90 degree mark. Maybe Karma is trying to tell me to design crazy asymmetrical and curving pieces where 90 degrees doesn’t exist.

Until I start to channel Maloof or Esherick I need a little help. I find the easiest way to correct a case is to insert a known right angle into the inside corners and use clamping pressure to easy the case into alignment. These angles I bought at Rockler years ago have saved my butt more than once but really any shop made angle that is sturdy or even some corner brackets from the home center will do it as long as they scribe a 90 degree angle.

So until your world lines up perfectly and all your joints fits the first time without any adjusting, this tip might make things a little easier.

My Hepplewhite book case is out of the clamps and I have been playing around with my new scrumtrulescent Super Chute shooting board to miter the integral bead inlays. I took a break from that detail to glue up the pediment so I could fit it to the bottom of the case. Technically speaking this wasn’t really imperative to do now, but I’m sure you all have had that guilty moment where you just want to see what your piece looks like when it is assembled so you skip ahead a few steps.

I glued the entire pediment together with a straight piece across the back and the half laps make for a sturdy piece. Once I have added further glue blocks and attached it to the case it will be very strong. So here is the first look of the simple case set upon the feet assembly.

It is really startling what adding these feet does to a simple square case piece and I am really happy with the look. Here is a closer shot with the bead detail along the bottom shelf.

I am really almost done with the piece as I only have to flatten the top and I’ll be routing a classical pattern around the top edge. I thought about doing it by hand, but that would involve stopping to sharpen some molding planes and my wife is already tapping her foot about me getting this done.

I have begun testing various colors for this project and it has been a fun experiment in creating colors by mixing various dyes. Honestly with so many great quality premixed stains and dyes out on the market this doesn’t have to be done. However, my stocks are a little low right now and I don’t really have time to order anything new so I’m mixing to create colors I don’t have. These two samples are an attempt for a vintage Cherry. I think with a few more coats I could get there, but the purple tint to the darker sample got me thinking.

So I used some General Finishes Danish Teak oil based stain straight onto the pre treated Pine (using Charles Neil’s Blotch Control) to get a feel for that color as a base.

I wasn’t happy with the quantity of brown in this so I started over and went directly to Shellac. By combining Transtint concentrated dyes into a 1 pound cut of super blond Shellac I came up with this interesting color.

It is 3 parts Honey Amber with 1 part Cordovan and with the Shellac carrier it dries very fast and continues the sealing that the Blotch Control started. It is a little intense for vintage Cherry, but the hint of Mahogany feel is nice and knowing that this piece is going to live in a fluorescent lighted space I wanted the colors to be intense since those light really wash and cool a color. The sample shown is actually two coats so it is a little darker and I think I will keep to that schedule and top it off with General Finishes Arm-R-Seal since the piece will probably take a beating in the classroom. If all goes well, I will get some shop time this weekend and be able to finish it off.

I’ll leave you for now with this fluffy shaving shot while I was smooth planing the trim pieces. It seems like a zen like way to end.

Enough of these ear drum smashing, dust spitting machines. The rough and tumble work is done on this book shelf so now it’s on the the work I truly love with my faithful hand tools. Maybe I will still do some ear drum smashing, but that will be the fault of The Who and maybe a little Rush. After the problems I had getting the sliding dovetail groove correct, I wanted to make sure I had a consistent depth throughout so I went to work with the router plane. This is hard to do by test fitting because if the depth goes shallow in the middle as you would expect with a cupped board it can cause significant binding that could damage the workpiece. So it is better to be safe and work the groove with a router plane.

Now it is time to focus on the bead detail that runs on the inside edges of the case. I want to inlay a small strip of banding that sites 1/8″ proud of the case surface. I will round over that exposed edge and each strip will be mitered into the corners. To start I need to cut a 1/8″ by 1/2″ rabbet on all those edges.

The two case sides need to have a stopped rabbet where the sides meet the upper rails and bottom, so I marked out the termination and used a chisel to hollow the area and thus give my rabbet plane clearance in front of the blade to make the rest of the cut.

Now I ran some thin strips of material to make the beading over at my table saw and then cut them to length at the bench hook and then used the shooting board to get them square and to the exact length.

I set these bead strips ever so slightly longer than the rabbet so the center of the strip bows up and away from the case. When you press the center flat it drives the ends into place to ensure a tight fit.

I rounded over the edge of the bead strips using my scratch stock cutter. This is the same process I used to cut the faux cockbead into the drawer front of my Queen Anne Side Table. I have not mitered the corners yet as I need to wait until the case is assembled and glued to be the most accurate fit. Leaving those bead strips a little long also ensures that I have some room to play with when mitering the corners too. I’m looking forward to putting my new Donkey Ear appliance to work that I got from Tico Vogt. Here you can see his Super Chute in action as I square up the ends of the lower trim.

While the glue on the case cures, I turn my attention back to the feet and the trim pieces. You may remember at the beginning of this series I started out by making a template for the curves on the front and side trim. I used those templates to lay out my pieces then cut a half lap joint of sorts that would lock into the back side of the feet and give a strong bond to hold together the lower assembly. The addition of more glue blocks not only strengthen but provide attachment points to the bottom of the case. Here you can see the half lap joint at the feet.

Here is a look at the rough cut curves on the front and side trim. I still need to refine the shape with my spokeshave and a files.

Once the feet and trim are attached to the case I will cover the transition with an applied molding. The details are coming together. I’m also experimenting with some coloring options and I believe I have decided upon a nice color. That however is a topic for another post. Stay tuned!