The Renaissance Woodworker

I spent so much time building and perfecting my Roubo workbench that it seemed only fitting that I retire my cobbled together shooting board and bench hook for newer, smarter, and faster models. In the digital age we are blessed with a plethora of information when you embark on a new project. In this case it was more curse than blessing. The sheer volume of great data on bench hooks and shooting boards is astounding. Hardwood, softwood, or plywood? Length, width? Fence height, fence material? Jeesh so many opinions and so much talking about what are supposed to be simple appliances.

I guess I shouldn’t really complain because I am one the masses contributing content and opinions to the whirlpool. I just didn’t want to spend a bunch of time considering how to make them when I had some high quality scrap baltic birch ply sitting in the corner of the shop. It’s flat and already cut in sizes that make sense.

I made two hooks, a low profile and a miter hook. Both are sized to accommodate the average work I would be doing.

The low profile hook has a fence that is only 1/4″ tall and I will be using it for small parts work. This is a quick way to plane small parts by butting them up against the fence and still being able to plane across them. I made the bed of the hook 12″ wide and 18″ long to give me plenty of space the work. I may end up using it as a backer board when chopping dovetails too.

The miter hook is really just a normal bench hook but I made the fence 1.5″ tall and cut two 45 degree and one 90 degree kerf in it. I also stopped the fence short of the left side of the hook to allow cutting there too. With the taller fence I can register a back saw in the kerf and make very accurate cuts. Like the low profile hook the fence is attached to the base using Miller dowels.

Finally I made a new shooting board. My old board was no longer flat and I can never get the fence right. I had screwed the fence in place and with years of unscrewing and screwing the holes don’t keep the fence steady. So here I made the shooting platform out of 1/2″ ply set on 3/4″ ply for the chute. I can shoot wider stock now as more of the plane blade is exposed. The board is 18 by 15 with plane chutes on either side of the board. I am a lefty but my Philly skew miter is made for right handed use. (my oversight, I should have told Philly my gaucheness) No matter and it is still easy to use and works like a dream. I added the left hand chute in case I wanted to square up another end of the board and could keep my same 2 reference faces against the fence. Thanks for the tip Bob Rozaieski!

The fence is hard maple and it is attached to threaded inserts in the base. I drilled over sized holes in the fence so that I can adjust the fence to keep it square.

In use the board works great. I was a little concerned that the fence might shift but so far it is rock solid. I guess if it becomes a problem I can add some sandpaper to the bottom.

So those are my new appliances and I have already gotten a lot of use out of them since I started my end table for The Wood Whisperer Guild Build. I’m sure you will be seeing these boards a lot in the future.

We have the full year Patriot pass so why not take advantage of it and scheduled another trip down to Williamsburg for this weekend. It is spring break for my wife so I am taking a few days off so we can get out of town. I feel continually blessed to live in the mid Atlantic in such close proximity to historical wonders like this and remain committed actually taking advantage of it.

This trip we are hoping to spend a litte more time in the DeWitt Wallace museum up close and personal with some incredible 18th century southern furniture. There are regular furniture tours taking place and I hope to catch one of them. The weather is expected to be warm and nice so we are both looking forward to strolling up and down Duke of Gloucester street and just relaxing. I am also curious to check out the new coffee shop Charleston’s since that last time I was there the Carpenters had just raised the roof.

Of course no trip would be complete without a stop into the Cabinetmaker, Cooper, and Carpenter shops. So my dear readers, please tell me what you would like to know about the 18th century cabinetmaker and joiner. I have plans to spend some time talking with these fine folks and I would love to be armed with questions from you all. Submit a comment here or send me an email at shannon@rogersfinewoodworking.com and I will do my best to get your questions answered.

I would estimate that I am doing 85-90% of my work with hand tools these days. Because of that I am constantly looking for better lighting so I can truly see my work. Lately I haven’t even been turning on my over head fluorescent lights instead favoring to turn on the incandescent work light right over the bench. I point the light at the white ceiling and work with only the reflected light. Sometimes, I’ll turn the bulb right on the work for a spotlight effect. It is really amazing how little light you need to woodwork, and I can’t help but think of my forefathers in the cabinet shops working in the waning light of day.

I can’t really put my finger on it, but there is something very calming about working in a semi dark shop. It feels more intimate and just feels wrong to be making a lot of noise like I might wake up someone so it seems that this low lighting actually lends itself to hand work. The weather is still a bit too cold for me to open my garage door and the two windows I do have shed some natural light on things but not quite enough; hence the incandescent task lights.

All of this preamble leads up to an experience from this weekend. I was working in my shop most of the day on my Wood Whisperer Guild build table with only this one light on over the bench. I continued to work until just before the sun went down when I took a break to walk the dog. That led to dinner and a few other things in the house and I was not able to get back down to the shop until it was fully dark outside. As I walked through the door into the shop I was greeted by this sight:

Behold my shrine to hand tool woodworking! How can you not be inspired to produce your best work when confronted with this setting!

I have been using a Veritas bevel up smoother for a few years now with no complaints. The stock 25 degree blade was great but I switched over to a 38 degree for a combined 50 degree “York” pitch after a while and dedicated this plane to tough grain situations. I have a refurbished Stanley #4 that I used for everyday smoothing stuff, but as soon as I run into anything figured or with reversing grain I turn to my Veritas.

I just celebrated by 35th birthday this week and my lovely wife gave me a new 50 degree bevel replacement blade for the Veritas. This was something I was interested in trying ever since trying out some of the really premium planes like Brese and Sauer & Steiner while at Woodworking In America last year. These premium tools have their irons bedded at 55, 60, or sometimes higher for that tearout free cut. With this new 50 degree blade bedded bevel up at 12 degrees I now have a smoother set at 62 degrees.

A very little bit of honing and polishing of the primary and micro bevels and the iron was ready to work. I had just finished up a miter bench hook where I crafted the fence out of a scrap piece of maple turning stock that was 1.75″ thick. This particular piece was cut off a highly figured larger piece so while not heavily figured it had some curly grain nonetheless. I had secured the fence and cut the two 45 degree slots and a 90 degree slot. I secured the fence to the hook using glue and Miller dowels so while flushing the pegs to the surface I really began to uncover the wicked grain beneath. This was the perfect test for my new “premium” smoothing plane.

Schnick, schnick, schnick and with three short passes the pegs were flush with nary a torn grain and beautifully glowing curly maple appearing as if from no where. I immediately turned to the other bench hook I have just created. This one I call my low profile hook because the fence is only 1/4″ high and it is meant for working with small pieces. The fence was crafted from left over Bubinga that was already planed to 1/4″ thick. This stock has wicked hard grain with early and late growth rings intertwining throughout. The wood is hard and unforgiving. I had already planed the pegs flush using my old smoothing set up of 50 degrees and it smoothed it but left some tearout in the expected places. I ignored it because…well…it’s a bench appliance. Flush with success using my new 62 degree setup on the other hook I tried to tackle the beastly Bubinga.

Schnick, schnick, schnnnniiiick again and…WOW! What a difference 12 degrees makes!

So here is the final work holding touch to this workbench. Really an accessory to help with wide panels or edge work on long boards, but something that is indispensable when those needs arise. Much of the work is the same as the leg vise except for the sliding mechanism which I detail in this episode. Finally I apply leather to the jaws for that little bit of extra holding power. Enjoy!

I added a new toy to the tool cabinet this weekend. An Iwasaki Carving File purchased during the big Woodcraft sale. These files are extremely sharp as they have been chemically etched. Their diagonal tooth pattern cuts much like a plane would cut including a form of tiny chip breaker which actually clears the chips from the file and prevents clogging.

I chose the medium cut, round file since most of the time I reach for a file is when trying to refine a curved surface. The edges are safe so that you can cut right up into a corner which I really like when trying to clean up a sharp corner.

My first impressions are that this file cuts really smoothly and just glides across the wood. I grabbed a scrap of hard maple to put the file to the test and before I knew it I was pulling long curly shavings off the wood with little effort. The stock removal was really fast and still left a clean surface that wouldn’t take much to clean up.

I am really impressed with how easily and quickly these files work and I am anxious to try out the fine and extra fine versions to see how clean they leave the stock. The file I currently own will be invaluable for rough shaping and I imagine I could knock out some cabriole legs pretty quickly with it.

The concerns I have at this point is how durable the teeth are over time. At around $30 a piece they are not super expensive but not throw away either. I’ll have to report back on that in time. For now I have some cool shavings to make with my new file.

Here in the US we tend to be a little ethnocentric. Call it American swagger, call it geographic isolation but we often forget that things are different elsewhere in this big world. So it is nice every once in a while to be shaken out of our preconceptions.

Last weekend I made a trip up to Hearne Hardwoods to pick up some 12/4 Walnut for the table I am building for The Wood Whisperer March Guild build. While the Hearne folks were tallying my total I noticed this column that looks like it came off some kind of temple. It was broken at the bottom so it looked like it was just snapped off in demolition. It is elegantly shaped and faceted and I can imagine that the structure it once adorned was a thing to behold. The curves evoke something from Asia and once I looked closer that was confirmed when I realized that the entire column was made from solid East Indian Rosewood!

…Paradigm shifted…

Just because it is exotic and hoarded in tiny parts for pen turning and the like here doesn’t mean that it couldn’t be someone else’s 2×4 construction lumber somewhere else in the world where Rosewood grows naturally.

Suddenly this digitally small world just got a whole lot bigger.

It’s time for another hand tool tip. You have crosscut that board and now you notice it isn’t square or parallel to the opposite end. Yes you can use a shooting board to fix it, but this gets hard with larger boards. A shooting board is really just a jig that makes a fundamental skill easier. Isn’t it best to learn that fundamental before relying too much on the jig? Let’s show you how to do it the real way without the “crutch”

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I received a “rush order” request from my wife last Thursday for a small end table to go into her voice studio where she conducts all of her private lessons. The little makeshift table she was using literally fell apart when a student leaned on it by accident. I think it was something that was floating around the school already and she grabbed it because it was there. It does nothing but provide a place to keep a box of tissues, a plant, and space for students to place things during their lessons. Since it collapsed on Wednesday, she has had more than a few student comment, “hey where is that little table, I used to set my books there?” or, “where is that little table with the tissues on it?”

It’s funny how a seemingly insignificant piece of furniture can play such a major role in the function of a room. You may not even notice it (unless you’re a woodworker) until it is gone and you suddenly have no place to set your keys or reach for a tissue. So by Thursday afternoon it was readily apparent that she was going to need something to replace the table, and preferably something that wouldn’t fall apart when a student leans on it.

Enter the fabulously talented woodworking husband of said teacher! My marching orders were to produce a small table that would sit in a corner and be around 25″ high. No drawer, no shelf, just a simple, square table top. It needed to be built and delivered by Monday ideally and built using only scrap laying about the shop. The finish would be black lacquer to match the piano already in the studio.

My time constraints immediately eliminated the visions of cabriole legs and Queen Anne cyma curved aprons. I am a notoriously slow woodworker so I needed to scale back my design. I decided upon something from the Stickley catalog because the straight forward lines and sturdy construction would fit the bill both aesthetically and functionally. The Stickley number 603 Tabouret would fit the bill nicely.

The size and stock requirements would allow me to build it with only the scrap laying about and it would fit into a corner well. I liked the crossed stretcher and uniform design that allows you to place it any which way and it will always be facing front. My wife is not keen on the round top and with some quick mocking up in SketchUp I was able to render this same design with a square top. That got the seal of approval and I was off to the races.

I did an inventory of my stock in the shop and knowing that this piece would be painted I wasn’t ready to “sacrifice” my good hardwood. I came up with a piece of 2×12 construction lumber and a big hunk (5×4.5×36) of Kiri that I got for a song many months ago. For long time readers this is the same piece that I used to make my Tansu box in June of 2009. Knowing what raw material I had on hand it was time to consider where construction compromises needed to be made. Since I was only using scrap I would need to do some resawing and panel glue ups to get the dimensions I needed. I hoped to save the time added in milling by attaching the lower stretcher with an integral tenon instead of the through tenon that Stickley so loved. Not having to fuss over a clean exit of the tenon and then clean up/chamfering the exposed end would cut an hour out of the build easy.

I considered attaching the top stretchers with pocket hole screws but since I was building the piece out of softwood I was not convinced that the pocket screws would hold up over the years. Instead I stuck with the traditional half blind dovetails into the top of the leg posts. No one will see these dovetails so they don’t have to be show quality and using softwood allows for some compression space when fitting the joint. In reality these joints came out really pretty and it was almost a shame to hide them under the top.

The top was glued up from two pieces in probably one of the cleanest panel glue ups I have ever done so there was very little surfacing to be done once it came out of the clamps. It is attached through elongated screw holes from the top stretchers to compensate for seasonal movement.

From rough lumber to a sanded piece, I only spent about 5 hours. I kept to my promise of table saw and power jointer abstinence as well, but don’t think that really added any build time since I roughed the pieces out on the bandsaw while cutting down that big hunk of Kiri. I usually do my joinery by hand anyway.

This was a whirlwind build from concept to finish and it taught me a lot about how I work and what decisions I make along the way. What compromises do you make in a design due to time and money constraints? How do you deliver a quality product on a tight delivery schedule while not sacrificing your style? I don’t have a picture of the finished piece yet because by the time the finish was applied it was dark outside and I really can’t get a black lacquered piece to show up well in my shop lighting. I’ll take some pics when it reaches it’s final home and post them.

I have spoken a lot about the custom filing that Mark Harrell does to make his Bad Axe tenon saws so incredible to work with. Here is an example of what I’m talking about. Ash is very hard and when you are cutting a 3.5″ thick piece like this one it can wear you out. I was cutting a tenon on top of the sliding leg vise assembly that rides in the groove on the underside of my workbench top.

First of all the cut started easily and powered through the hard Ash with little effort and in no time at all. The cut was dead square and really clean considering the 10 ppi pitch. There is no tear out on the back of the cut because of that relaxed rake on the front and rear teeth.

This will be a visible piece every time I remove the vise assembly but I made no attempt to clean it up because I like the reminder that I cut this by hand with a beautiful saw.

Call me a fanboy if you like, but I am sold on Bad Axe Toolworks! The beauty of this cut is merely another testament to a great tool.