Plane Shavings

Purty Tools Just Plain Work Better

2012-02-13T18:45:00.000-08:00

Well, not really. But they are more enjoyable to use. At least for me. Inspired by the little restored Millers Falls #107 drill I picked up a few weeks ago at the RATS tool sale, I decided to take a shot at doing a little refurb on my Millers Falls No.2. I've had this drill for a while and use it quite a bit. They are very handy for smallish drilling jobs and I highly recommend that you pick one up if you don't have one. The MF No. 2 is one of the more easily found egg beaters, and I believe, one of the better ones.

I didn't do a full on, strip to the bare bones restoration on this one; mainly because I didn't quite know how everything came apart and I didn't want to screw up my perfectly functional drill. I removed the chuck, the main drive gear, and the handles. I stripped painted parts on a wire wheel and sanded the wood the best I could. Then I polished the chuck, the handle arm, and the parts of the main body that were nickel plated. Taped up the rim and teeth of the main gear, and all the parts on the body that didn't get painted and laid on a couple coats of Rustoleum gloss red and gloss black enamel. The finish on the wooden parts were so burnished and hardened from use that I really couldn't get them stripped down as much as I'd have liked so I'm not thrilled with the finish on those. Did the best I could, slapped on a little bit of stain and some clear poly and called it good. It's not on par with the $160 restored ones you find on eBay, but I'm happy with it, it didn't cost much, and it was a fun little project. And I could swear it drills just a little better with a fresh coat of paint.

Since I finished this drill, I came across a write-up that a fella did on one of the forums detailing a fully stripped restoration that he did on a No.2. After picking up a few pointers from him, I think I'll be on the lookout for another candidate to restore, taking the next one all the way. You know, because there's just not enough on my "to do" list now. :)

Anyway, the before and after pics:

Book Review: Inspiration-Gene Landon and Seven Hearths

2012-02-08T16:30:00.000-08:00

About a month ago, I saw a post on the SAPFM Forum by Tom Meiller about a memorial book he had written on Gene Landon. I didn't know a lot about Mr. Landon, other than that he had taught woodworking at Olde Mill Cabinet Shoppe in Pennsylvania, he was a very respected woodworker, and that he had passed in June of 2011.

I clicked on the link that took to the site where the book was for sale, a print on demand publishing company and saw the price. A bit steep for me at $79.95. I also saw that they had a preview button that you could click on. The 13 or so pages in the preview were enough to convince me that this book was worth taking a chance on. And boy am I glad I did.

I feel this book is worth the price just for the pictures alone. Over 300 by my count, most in color, all beautifully done. The pictures were taken in Gene's home, Seven Hearths, which he built in the 1970's but looks every bit like it was built 200 years earlier. The house is a fantastic backdrop for his amazing furniture. The text is not extensive, but it is well done and gives you a glimpse at what an amazing craftsman and an amazing PERSON that Gene Landon was. He was one of the premier builders of period reproduction furniture and has pieces that he built or restored in museums across the country and even in The White House. One piece he did that I found fascinating was a replica of the rising sun chair in which George Washington sat in during the Constitutional Convention in 1787.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and I'm sure it's one that I will reference again and again for inspiration and ideas. I came away with am immense respect and admiration for Mr. Landon's work and for who he was as a person. After reading this book, I am saddened that I never had the chance to take a class from this giant of woodworking and just as sad that I never had the opportunity to meet a man who was obviously a very special human being.

Congratulations and kudos to Tom Meiller for a fine job in putting this book together. I only wish that it was available in a leather bound edition, which would be fitting for a book containing these works of art.

RATS Antique Tool Show Review

2012-01-26T15:55:00.000-08:00

This past weekend I attended my first RATS (Richmond Antique Tool Society) Antique Show on the outskirts of Richmond, Virginia. I found out about this show through a post on the SAPFM (Society of American Period Furniture Makers) forum. I went to the RATS website and got a little info about the show and the e-mail address of club president Rick Long. Rick was very helpful in answering my questions via e-mail. The show was about two hours away, but since there was a few things I was looking for, I decided to go check it out on Saturday morning.

The show is actually a large general antique show with about 15 or so tool dealers set up in the middle. I went with the intention of looking for some wooden tongue and groove planes, a nice handled wooden plow, and anything else that looked like it would be at home in my shop. Most dealers had a good selection of tools with them, mostly users, which is what I'm looking for. The prices were pretty decent overall and most of the dealers were willing to dicker. I found a pair of 1/2" tongue and groove planes that were in pretty good shape. They were marked $35 for the pair, I was able to get them for $25. I didn't really find the sweet, primo, handled wooden plow plane but I did find a nice Millers Falls #107 hand drill that someone had restored to like new condition. I didn't really need it but it sure was calling my name. $44.95. Must have picked it up and put it down ten times in the 3 hours I was there. Finally couldn't stand it anymore. Offered $40. SOLD! So, that was my haul for the day. Although I've bought quite a few antique tools off eBay over the years, I prefer tool shows where I can actually pick up the tools and inspect them. A picture on the computer can be quite deceptive. I was pleased with my purchases and am counting the days until the next sale, the annual PATINA auction and sale in March. Time to start saving my pennies.

Oh, I did check out the non-tool antiques while I was there and although I didn't buy anything else, there was some pretty interesting stuff, as the pictures show.

A New and Improved Closet-With a Little Hand Tool Practice Thrown In

2012-01-23T12:40:00.000-08:00

So the un-ending home improvement projects continue. This time, a custom closet for my oldest daughter to replace the old wire rack system that was in there. I'm making this primarily out of a sheet of 3/4" oak ply and since I just can't bring myself to cut sheet goods with my hand saws, this would be mainly a job for the table saw. BOOOOO!!! BUT, the face frame is out of solid 3/4" oak, so I thought I'd get some hand tool practice in and do all the joints with hand cut half-laps. YAY for hand tools!!! The half-lap joint is a pretty basic joint in which half the thickness of each piece of wood to be joined, generally at right angles to one another, is removed from the top of one piece and the bottom of another to make a joint that looks like a butt joint, but has more strength.

I built my boxes first out of the plywood and then made the face frame fit the assembled boxes. Nothing exciting here. Rip the plywood on the table saw. Cut the plywood to length on the table saw. Glue, screw, and nail everything together. YAWN! Now for some hand tool action. On to the face frame. First I ripped the rails (the horizontal pieces) and stiles (the vertical pieces) to their proper width and then cut all the pieces to length. When using a half lap joint, all the pieces are cut to the full length of the case piece, as opposed to if you were just using butt joints, in which case you would subtract the width of your stiles from the length of your rails.

I laid the stiles on the plywood boxes and then marked where the top of each rail would be, as dictated by where the shelves were. I put an X on the side of the mark where the waste would be removed and then took the rails and stiles to the bench. A bench hook is a great accessory to have for cutting these joints by the way. Generally on face frames, you want your stiles to look like one unbroken run and your rails to join into these, so the half thickness to be taken away from the stiles will be on the back side. I scribe across the back of the stile 90 degrees to the edge at each of my marks I made earlier using a striking knife. A knife is much better than a pencil in this case as it is more accurate and gives you an edge for your saw to ride on later. I then use the rails themselves to mark the width of the material I'll be removing from the stiles, making a small mark and then squaring up with a square and marking knife again. To mark the depth of the material to be removed, I set a marking gauge to exactly half the thickness of the material and mark this between the width of rail marks I made, always marking from the waste side. Next up is cutting the shoulders on these marks I just made but before I do, to make a cleaner cut, I chisel a shallow groove on the waste side of each line for my saw to register in. I saw down to my depth line on both sides and then chisel out the waste in between. I don't worry so much if I take a little too much material out of the middle as strength isn't really an issue here. To cut the half-lap on the rail all you do is mark the width of the style on the end of the rail, square across same as was done on the stile, mark the depth with the marking gauge on the end and sides of the rail, cut the little groove on the waste side for a cleaner shoulder cut, and then cut the shoulder to your depth mark. Put the rail in a vise and saw down the marking gauge lines to complete the half lap on this end of the rail. I saw on a diagonal part way down, then flip the board and finish sawing from the other side. I also find that it helps to cut a small notch in the corner of the rail to aid your tenon saw in starting the cut. Ok, repeat this process for all your intersecting rails and stiles, glue and nail from the backside and you have a nice half lapped face frame.

I feel like this description has been even more rambling than normal and for this I apologize. Hopefully the pictures will help clear things up a little. Two things I'd like to reiterate though are using a knife to mark a line is usually far superior than using a pencil, and a bench hook is one of your most valuable sawing accessories. Well, time to go. I'm sure there's something around here that needs painting or updating.

Oh, by the way, my daughter is very happy with her new closet arrangement. Much better than the old wire shelving. GO PATS!!!

Woodworking?

2012-01-09T17:12:00.000-08:00

Alright, here's the deal. I've been busy with home improvements for the last few months which have kept me out of the shop. Therefore, not many new blog post on Plane Shavings. My mom reads my blog, and for the last month or so I've been hearing "When are you going to post something new on your blog? I'm tired of checking on it and seeing ""Another One for the Till""!" (This was prior to "My Shop in Shambles" post.) So, although not a lot of woodworking here, this one's for you Mom!

We bought a set of four bar stools about three years ago. Nice Windsor-ish style with swivel bases. We've enjoyed these, but over time, the swivel feature had gotten so loose on a few of them that they would swivel and bang against the wall or counter with little more than a breeze, marking the walls and dinging up the bow-back of the stool. So the other day I took one apart to see if the ball-bearing swivel plate was serviceable. I jokingly sat on the base of the disassembled stool and said to my wife, Jen, "All fixed!" Well, she said she'd be fine with that. So after some discussion, we decided I'd make some padded cushions for them and give them a fresh new look. The following pictures are the before, during, and after of the stool transformation.

So, right or wrong, here was my process. I marked off 13" circles on 3/4" ply with dividers and cut out with a jig saw and sanded the edges smooth and slightly rounded. I cut matching circles from a sheet of 2" high density foam and stapled these to the plywood circles around the edges. Then I wrapped this combination in cotton batting, pulling tightly and stapling from one side and then to the opposite side all the way around and trimmed the excess. Next, I wrapped this in a canvass material that Jen and I chose and stapled this while pulling everything tight, pretty much the same way I did the batting. After trimming all the excess canvass material, I placed the cushion face down, centered the upside down stool on it, and drilled and lag screwed through the holes that had previously held the swivel assemblies to the stools and into the plywood base of the cushion assembly. Preformed this entire routine three more times and voila! Four "new" stools and a fresh look for not a lot of money. And no more dinged up walls from swiveling seats.

Not exactly a lot of woodworking there, and definitely not the type of thing that I like to do in the shop and blog about; but when you own a home, these are the things we sometimes must do. Jen's happy with them and if Jen's happy, I'm happy. Right Baby? :)

My Shop in Shambles

2011-12-29T17:20:00.000-08:00

Well, it's been quite a while since I've posted anything on here. Just wanted to touch base and let anyone reading know that I haven't been abducted by aliens or even worse, sold my tools and given up woodworking. Been engrossed in home improvements for the past month and a half or so and my shop has suffered for it.

These pictures are the results of installing 92 boxes of laminate hardwood throughout the house as well as replacing all the standard baseboard with 5 1/4" tall colonial and replacing all the standard door casings with plinth blocks, fluted trim, and rosettes. This has been quite an undertaking, especially with the holidays mixed in, but I'm on the downhill slide now. All the floor is down and about half the door trim and 3/4 of the baseboard is installed and painted. So hopefully I'll be able to get back out to the shop in a few weeks to finish up a couple more saws and maybe an actual piece of furniture or two.

Seeing all my hand tools covered in a thick layer of saw dust is pretty painful and really makes me appreciate the joy and relative cleanliness of hand tool woodworking. Of course, all my prized hand tools could have been spared this sad fate if I had the shop I wanted. The garage would be the home improvement shop and my "real" shop would be nice and clean and organized. A safe haven for me and my non-tailed tools. Oh well, someday. :)

Meantime, here are a couple pics of what the new floors and trim look like.

P.S. The picture of the bedroom is my oldest daughters room. I just changed paint colors in there and Jen (my wife) and I haven't had a chance to get a new, more color coordinated bed spread yet. Didn't want anyone seeing that and thinking my style sense is THAT bad. :)

Another One for the Till

2011-11-17T16:55:00.000-08:00

Finished this panel saw shortly after finishing the 19" tenon saw. Thought I'd just do a short post with a few pictures. This one has a 22" saw plate, .032 thick, filed rip at 8 ppi. Rake angle of about 5* relaxed. No fleam on this one. The handle is beech. I filed the first 2" at the toe at 12 ppi in hope that this would make it easier to start. I think in theory it was a good idea, but I should've filed it this way for maybe the first 4" or so. The 2" just isn't enough to really get it started, at least not in my few test cuts I made. Built this one for when I want a cleaner cut in 3/4" stuff than what my D-8 5ppi could give me, and for rips in stuff thinner than 3/4 stock. Again, all I've done is a few test rips in 3/4 pine, but so far so good.

A Good Weekend

2011-11-14T17:38:00.000-08:00

This past Saturday, the newly formed Chesapeake Chapter of the Society of American Period Furniture Makers (SAPFM) held it's second meeting in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. As this chapter has members from a wide geographic area, we try to have meetings in a variety of locations as to try to be fair to everyone. This meeting was quite some distance from my house; more than a three hour drive, but the first meeting was so good that I really didn't want to miss the second. It did not disappoint.

The meeting started out with a little bit of chapter business and then it was on the the fun stuff. Member Fred Walker (chapter coordinator) had graciously offered to tutor members on building a Chippendale side chair and he was first up, discussing the style and construction techniques of the chair. I can't imagine too many people knowing more about these chairs than Fred. Mark Maleski (secretary/treasurer) then showed his progress on the chair that he was building under Fred's tutelage and discussed what he'd learned and his failures and successes. Impressive stuff to say the least.

Next up was show and tell, one of my favorite parts, where members can bring in things they've built or are in the process of building. There was a beautifully constructed 18th century style tea caddy, a stunning tiger maple keepsake box, and my personal favorite, a 17th century style joined stool ala Peter Follansbee/Jennie Alexander. I brought my new tool chest, Seaton chest inspired firmer chisels, 18th century style tenon saw, cross cut and rip panel saws (more on the rip panel saw in a future post). Judging by the number of questions I received, there seems to quite a bit of interest in tool making. Obviously, it's something that I thoroughly enjoy.

Then came our featured speaker for the meeting, Chuck Bender of the Acanthus Workshop. Chuck is a master craftsman who has been building period furniture for over 30 years. In 2007 he started the Acanthus Workshop where he teaches a variety of classes to all skill level of woodworkers. The title of his presentation was The Good/Bad/Ugly-Design and Construction. One of the main objectives of the talk was to get us to recognize good design from bad. Chuck had put together a wonderful slide show featuring some beautiful period pieces, as well as some that just didn't quite measure up. This was an effective presentation as it really gave you a chance to see what visually worked on these pieces and what just did not, using not some golden rule formula, but just your natural sense of proportion and what looked right to the eye. I said earlier that I couldn't imagine too many people knowing more about Chippendale chairs than Fred Walker, well I'd say Chuck is one of those few who knows at least as much.

In addition to all this, the members of this chapter are fantastic. Just to name two, at this meeting were blogger's extraordinaire Kari Hultman of The Village Carpenter blog and Shannon Rogers of The Renaissance Woodworker blog and The Hand Tool School. I had the opportunity to talk to both quite extensively and they are both great people. Kari is one of the most passionate woodworkers you'll ever meet and so talented in so many areas of woodworking. And she shares my love of toolmaking. :) Shannon educated me on different varieties of furniture wood and answered all my questions about the different varieties of mahogany on the market. He knows a LOT about lumber. (He works at McIlvain's Lumber)

I'm so glad that I was able to attend this meeting. It was well worth the drive. Although our chapter is in it's infancy, it's off to a wonderful start. Our first meeting's feature speaker was Kaare Loftheim, journeyman cabinet maker at Colonial Williamsburg. Kaare is one of my favorite people to learn from. He is knowledgable, talented, and has a wonderful sense of humor that make his presentations a lot of fun. Our third meeting is already set to take place at McIlvain Lumber in the Baltimore suburbs with Don Williams scheduled to be our featured guest. Don is the Senior Furniture Conservator at the Smithsonian Institution's Center for Materials Research and Education. Don is a master at furniture refinishing amongst other things. He is the mastermind behind the Andre Roubo translation project and author of the upcoming book about H.O. Studley, of the famous Studley tool chest. Not a bad first three featured presenters! Thanks to Bert Bleckwenn (Chapter President) and all others who give of their time to make our meetings great. I encourage anyone interested in furniture making (or tool making) to come to our next meeting and check things out. You won't be disappointed.

Testing the New Tenon Saw

2011-11-08T17:45:00.000-08:00

Well, my impatience got the best of me as I thought it would and I set the teeth on the new tenon saw last night using my old triumph saw set. It's actually not a bad tool. I think I just need to get used to it, and get used to setting teeth in general. I am a novice at saw sharpening.

That being said, I decided to use a trick that I just saw posted on Chris Schwarz's Popular Woodworking Blog. It's a video of Mike Wenzloff showing a trick that his grandfather taught him. Basically, you intentionally overset the saw slightly and then wrap a piece of paper around the saw plate and squeeze the teeth in a smooth jawed vise, like a machinist vise. The teeth punch through the paper, but the paper doesn't compress on the plate above the teeth, leaving you with a consistent set on each side of the plate the thickness of the paper you used. Actually, at least in my case, a little more set than the thickness of the paper. I'm a little guy and I don't achieve quite the foot pounds of pressure that Mike does. ;)

I set the saw at home last night and then took it to work today where I have access to a machinist vise. I first used a sheet of legal paper and this left a little more set than I wanted. Then I switched to a sheet of newspaper and this was just the trick. The saw plate is .025 and the teeth after the vise squeeze mic out at .035. So .005 of set on either side. Right or wrong, this is what I was aiming for.

I put the saw to the test tonight. First I made some cheek cuts in a piece of 2 1/2" wide polar. Ate right through it like butter, nice and straight. Next I put a piece of poplar in the vise with the face toward me and tried to track some lines. The saw did well but turned slightly left on the last stroke or so on some but not all of the lines. Could've been my sawing skills, I'm not sure. What I do know is the saw cuts very quickly with no effort. That heavy brass back really propels it through the wood. 7 strokes and I was to the max depth of the saw. The cuts were a little ragged on the back side so I hit the saw with a couple strokes of the file with just a slight, maybe 5*, bit of fleam and made some more cuts. That little bit of fleam smoothed things out a bit. Less ragged on the back side and no loss of speed so I think I'll keep it at that.

Backside before fleam . . . . . . . . . . . . . Backside after fleam

I'm happy with the look and feel of this saw and based on the test cuts I think I'll be pleased with the performance as well. I really think that the Mike Wenzloff trick is a great thing for someone inexperienced with setting saw teeth. I highly recommend you try it. I know it really helped me. And if it's good enough for Mike Wenzloff. . . . . .

Next up, I'm finishing a 22" rip filed panel saw build. Wasn't I supposed to be starting on a blanket chest? Dang.

Brute of a Tenon Saw

2011-11-06T07:18:00.000-08:00

Got this tenon saw pretty much finished the other night. All done except for setting the teeth. I tried to pattern the handle after the tenon saw in the Seaton Chest, while the saw plate size I got from an illustration in Smith's Key. The handle feels really good in my hand and I was happy with the way it turned out; until I took pictures and looked at them. It was then that I realized that I took a little too much out of the handle opening at the top leaving things just a bit thin at the top in front of the horn. I think the picture actually makes it look thinner than it is, but I think I'll try to leave more meat there on the next saw. Don't foresee a problem functionally, just aesthetically.

The saw plate is a piece of 1095 spring steel from McMaster-Carr, sized and shaped on a sheet metal shear at work. Cut the teeth in by hand with saw files. The back is a folded brass back that I purchased from Mike Wenzloff. One inch wide and in excess of a quarter inch thick. A hefty hunk of brass to say the least. Well worth the price to me as I have no good way to bend metal this thick. The handle is quarter sawn, well, more like rift sawn, beech.

Vital saw stats: 19" long saw plate. 3 9/16" depth under the spine at the handle, 3 1/16" at the toe. Teeth are 9 ppi, filed rip with about an 8-10* rake angle. Saw weighs in at a hefty 2 pound 5 ounces. I think with the heft of this brass back, it's just going to be a matter of getting it started on the line and then just let 'er eat.

I haven't set the teeth yet because I'm looking for a 42X saw set to try out. If I get impatient before I find one, I'll just use my old Triumph set.

Once I get the teeth set, I'll post some in action pictures and give a report on how this beast preforms.

Tool Chest Complete and Loaded

2011-10-29T11:06:00.000-07:00

Word of advice; don't start something, get it to the point of being useable but not quite done, and start using it. If you do, it's very easy to keep using said project in it's unfinished but useable state for months. Or longer. I fell into this trap with my tool chest. If you follow this blog, you may remember that one of the reasons that I built this chest was to have a way to transport my tools to Pittsboro, North Carolina and my class at the Woodwright's School last May. The chest served it's purpose well on it's trip south and back but once back in my shop, I continued to use it in it's unfinished state until I finally made the decision a few weeks ago to get off my duff and get it finished.
Basically all that was lacking was a lip for the top, an applied batten to team with the lid to create a dust seal, and a skirt moulding at the base of the chest. The lip for the top consist of three pieces of poplar, a front and two sides, dovetailed at the corners and then just glued and nailed on to the edge of the chest lid. The upper batten I made of red oak, mainly just for contrast. This wraps all the way around the chest and is chamfered on the underside, dovetailed at the corners, and has a 3/16" bead around the top on the front and sides. I attached this with straight slot flat head wood screws from the inside of the chest.
To give the chest a touch more height and to keep the floor of the chest from sitting directly on the concrete, I attached two battens, ran from front to back, to the underside of the chest bottom. The base skirt is also red oak, through dovetailed at the corners with a mitered pin on top. The skirt was then chamfered all the way around. I attached this with wood screws by carving pocket holes into the bottom of the chest carcase sides and screwing into the skirt. I did it this way to avoid any exposed fasteners or fastener holes on the outside of the skirt. I also left the skirt up about a strong 32nd so the battens are carrying the weight of the chest rather than the skirt. This also avoids the chance of the skirt chipping if I slide the chest across the floor.

All the poplar parts of the chest were painted with two coats of barn red powdered milk paint and then, for a little protection, a few coats of danish oil finish. The oak parts were just finished with the danish oil. I was a little concerned whether I would like the paint/oak combination but I'm pretty pleased with the look. I also put some danish oil on the inside of the chest.

This is by far my biggest and most involved hand tools only project. Well, I did use an electric sander before applying the finishes, but other than that, all hand tools. I'm very happy with the way it turned out. My wife likes it too. So much so that now my next project is to be a blanket chest of similar design, only larger, for the foot of our bed. Well, I may try to fit a little saw making and chisel making in there somewhere too. Wow, I really need to be retired from my day job to get all this hobby work done. ;)

Bench Addition

2011-10-16T08:42:00.000-07:00

I saw some pictures of a few other benches on line that had this feature added to them and I liked it, so I thought I'd treat my Nicholson to one. So far, it's been a nice addition. It's purpose is not a permanent storage spot for tools, but rather a place to temporarily store tools that are going to be frequently used for the project at hand. That's why, other than the few spots on the left made for chisel storage, the slots are left open with no individual slots for specific tools, because the tools stored here will change based on the project. The obvious benefit is that it helps keep your bench free of tools on the work surface and eliminates the chance for a chisel to roll of the bench top.
I've never used a bench with a tool well but I've heard the major complaint about them is that they are a place for shavings and miscellaneous junk to gather. This rack seems to have the tool well's advantage of keeping tools close at hand without the disadvantage of inviting unwanted junk to gather.
I just used some SYP left over from the bench build for the rack. The slots were laid out to the widths I wanted, marked the depth, sawed to the depth line every inch or so with a crosscut backsaw, and then the waste was chiseled out. A little work with the paring chisel to somewhat smooth things out and it's ready to mount on the back of the bench. I just used 1/4" lag bolts from the home center to attach it. Eventually, I'd like to replace these with square headed lags, strictly for aesthetics.

Something Completely Different

2011-08-20T06:07:00.000-07:00

Cool fall weather makes me think of two things, being able to work in the shop without sweating and football. Specifically fantasy football. I'm in three leagues again this year and am defending champ in my big money league. Our draft is tonight and I wanted to add a little something in addition to the cash prize, a trophy to be presented to the champion of the league for him to hold for the year. This is what I came up with. Not exactly original, but pretty cool I think. It's based on the Lombardi trophy, given to the NFL Super Bowl Champ. My version is, not surprisingly, made of wood. It started out as 4 pieces of construction grade yellow pine 2 x 6's laminated together for the base and 4 pieces of construction grade 2 x 6 mystery wood from my local Lowes laminated together for the football shaped object on top. Once the laminations dried, the base was laid out as a tapering triangle shaped obelisk type thing and sawn to shape with a 5 point rip saw. The football was laid out on all four sides and then sawn, chopped and finally sanded to shape. I had illusions of doing this entire project with hand tools but soon found out that was beyond my skill range. There was a LOT of work on the belt sander required to get that thing into football shape. The other tough thing was getting the top of the base scooped out so that it cradled the football without having major gappage in that connection. I did this with a variety of carving tools, scooping and fitting and scooping and fitting and scoop..........well, you get the idea. A time consuming process to say the least. Once the two pieces were glued together and the glue dried, I did some final sanding and then sprayed the whole thing with a couple coats of a copper color "hammered" paint. This gave it a pretty cool finish.

I learned a lot from this project. Number one, I don't miss using power tools. The shop was in a fog the whole time I was sanding the football to shape and when all was said and done everything in the shop was covered in a layer of saw dust. Number two, southern yellow pine has got to be one of the worst woods to carve. Those rings of resin are incredibly hard. And finally, I learned that this will be the ONLY Lombardi trophy I ever make. :) What a PITA it was. But now that it's all done, I'm glad I made it. And knowing how much work went into this damn thing will give me that much more incentive to win the league and hold on to the trophy for another year. Wish me luck in the draft!

Some exciting news if you like old tools (At least I'm excited)

2011-08-15T19:22:00.000-07:00

As you know if you've read my last few blog entries, I have quite an affection for the book The Tool Chest of Benjamin Seaton. I've had my copy for about 4 years now, having bought it at Colonial Williamsburg's Working Wood in the 18th Century conference. The DeWitt-Wallace Museum bookstore had acquired copies to sell in conjunction with that years topic; Tools, Tool Chest and Workbenches. I bought a copy for $24. Quite a bargain I thought at the time. Even more so now, as I just checked Amazon, who has 5 used copies available from $148 to $270. I wouldn't even sell my copy for that price.

I give you that background to tell you this. The Tools and Trades History Society, who published the book in 1994, states on their web site that "A new enlarged edition of The Tool Chest of Benjamin Seaton is due for publication in the autumn of 2011." This got me pretty excited so I got in touch with the Society through e-mail and tried to get some more information. They don't have a release date as of yet, but hope to release it before Christmas. The gentleman who responded to my e-mail told me that the last he heard, the book was being proof-read. The really good news for me was that he said it would be available to the general public, not just Society members, though he doesn't know yet what the price will be.

I will be anxiously checking their web site daily, like a fat kid waiting for cookies to finish baking. I'm not sure what "enlarged" means; whether it means more content or just actually a bigger size. I'm betting on the former, but either way, you can bet that it'll be on the top of my Christmas wish list.

P.S. I apologize if I offended any cookie loving fat kids. I love cookies too! I've just been blessed with a speedy metabolism. ;)

18th Century Style Chisels: First Two Complete

2011-08-10T20:34:00.000-07:00

Just finished my first 2 chisels in what I hope will eventually grow to a set of 8 to 10. As I mentioned in a previous post, I am basing these chisels on the firmer chisels in the Benjamin Seaton Chest. These first two are a 1" and a 3/4" chisel. Both chisels have pretty much identical measurements aside from the width. The blades are 3 3/4" from tip to shoulder, and 6" to the bolster. They taper from about a shy 3/16" at the bolster to a very thin 1/16" at the start of the cannel. According to the book, The Tool Chest of Benjamin Seaton, bevel edge chisels were did not show up on the Sheffield list until 1870. That is why these chisels taper so thin at the tip. This style chisel was made for trimming dovetail sockets and delicate work, while thicker firmers were used for heavier work. Just to give you an idea of how certain tools are for certain specific jobs, there were 61 chisels and gouges listed in the Seaton Chest inventory. Quite a collection by modern standards.

The beech handles are 5 1/2" long, 1 1/4" wide, and 1" thick at the end, tapering down to be flush with the bolster. These measurements, as well as the measurements of the steel, are the same as these size chisels in the Seaton Chest. The corners are knocked off to create an octagonal shape to the handle that is both traditional as well as very comfortable. The handles is finished with multiple coats of Formby's Tung Oil. They feel really good in the hand.

As these will be used mostly for paring and not receive a lot of heavy beating, I sharpened these to a 20* bevel. Though not as sturdy as a typical 25* bevel, the lower angle makes for a sharper edge. Both these chisels sharpened up very nicely and are extremely sharp. Time will tell how the edges hold up.

These chisels turned out just as I'd hoped aesthetically. I really like the look of the beech handles. Very traditional, at least for English tools. I hope to get a chance to put them to wood this weekend and see how they preform. I'll let you know.

Thanks to George Wilson, Mike Siemsen, Dean Jansa, and Bob Rozaieski for their advice on tapering and heat treating the steel.

A picture to show the difference between a modern premium chisel and the style in the Seaton Chest.

Trying Out The New Forge

2011-08-09T21:15:00.000-07:00

I'd gotten 2 chisel blanks ready for heat treating so it was time to give my new forge a try. I waited til dark and set everything up in the driveway outside the garage at the request of my wife. I tried to tell her I'd never blown up a house before, but I think she felt better with things outside. :) I was using MAP gas, which burns hotter than propane, with a plumber type torch tip. I got everything set up how I wanted it, turned on the torch and waited. And waited. And waited some more. After 20 minutes, it was pretty clear this wasn't working like it was supposed to. I decided the trouble might be the tip. After a little internet research, I went and picked up a new tip with a swirling flame that claimed to burn much hotter. What a difference. Within 3 to 4 minutes the inside of the forge was glowing red. I put the 1" chisel blank in the forge, turning it a few times, and within a few minutes, the blank was glowing a nice, bright orange color. I checked it with a magnet and it was non-magnetic for about 2 1/2" up from the bevel end. Plenty high enough so I stuck it back in the forge just long enough to get back the heat I'd lost checking it and then quenched it in oil. Cleaned the black of the blank and stuck it in the toaster oven at 375 for an hour and then turned my attention to the 3/4" blank. Same satisfying results. Very quick to get up to temp. I'd read somewhere that some people temper the blades for an hour or so, let them cool, then bring them back up the that 375 temp again for an hour. Not sure if this does any better than tempering once or not, but I did it anyway. When they were done in the oven, you could clearly see the nice straw color that came up 2" to 2 1/2" from the end.
I'm really happy with the way the forge preformed once I switched to the swirling flame tip. Once I get these two chisels cleaned up, sharpened, and handled, I'll try to get a few more blanks knocked out. I believe I have enough O-1 left for a 5/8" and 1/4" or a 1/2" and a 3/8". I feel pretty good about my heat treating set-up now. It's not the prettiest thing, but it does the job.

I think I scared the chisels into submission when I showed them what they were going to get if they didn't act right in the forge. A 500,000 BTU flame thrower, err, weed torch. Lucky for them it didn't come to that. I think my wife was thankful also. :)

Home Made, Low Tech "Forge"

2011-08-08T20:27:00.000-07:00

With this little chisel making project I've got going on, I thought that I should figure out a little better system of heat treating O-1 tool steel than just laying the steel on some fire bricks and holding a propane torch over it. I was able to heat treat my striking knives on a bed of charcoal, but that wasn't really ideal either. I did some internet research and found what looked to be the easiest, most economical solution to be a "paint can forge". I bought a new 1 gallon paint can from Lowes, and found the insulation and refractory cement at a wood stove store. I used a propane bottle to form the insulation around. Once that was packed in tight, I pulled the propane bottle out ( very important step :) ) and drilled a 1" hole for the flame to enter the forge. Then I slathered on a coat of refractory cement, let that dry, and applied a second coat, making sure to coat the opening for the flame also. Apparently this insulation is pretty nasty stuff and you don't want any of it exposed to flame. Next step; try her out and see if she works.

Making 18th Century Style Firmer Chisels: Getting Started

2011-08-01T20:06:00.000-07:00

For a long time now, ever since I attended Colonial Willaimsburg's 18th Century Woodworking Symposium on the Tool Chest of Benjamin Seaton, and purchased the book by the same name, I have been fascinated by the beautiful tools inside that chest.
The chest was built in 1797 by a young Benjamin Seaton to house an extensive set of woodworking tools that his father purchased for him from Christopher Gabriel & Sons in London, England for his 21st birthday. What a birthday present! It was an impressive collection, featuring bench planes, moulding planes, 16 pairs of hollows and rounds, saws, chisels, gouges, and much, much more. After building the chest, Benjamin apparently, for whatever reason, never put the tools to work. He made a detailed inventory of the tools in the chest, and that inventory, along with a chest full of tools, is probably the most complete and pristine example of an 18th century cabinet makers inventory available to us.
What intrigued me most were the beautiful saws and the chisels. The chisels were unlike any available on the market today. Long, graceful looking chisels with square sides known as firmer chisels, not the bevel edged designs, tapering on their sides to almost nothing, that are so popular today. Since the day I saw the pictures of these chisels in the book, I've wanted some. To see how they work and just because I love the beauty of them. I can't find chisels like these, and if I could, I'm sure I couldn't afford them. So I decided to try to make a few.
Time for a little detective work. The book, The Tool Chest of Benjamin Seaton, written and published by The Tool and Trades History Society in England, has some wonderful pictures and just enough measurements scattered throughout that with a pair of dividers and a rule, you can pretty much figure out the sizes of the chisels. I'm starting with the 1" chisel. I purchased a length of 1" wide, 3/16" thick O-1 tool steel from McMaster-Carr for the blades and some 1/8" O-1 for the bolsters. After figuring out the measurements from the book and sketching the design on paper, I laid blue painters tape on the 3/16" steel and laid out the chisel shape on that. I cut as close as I could to the line with a hack saw and fine tuned the shape with files. The blade is 3 3/4" to the shoulder and 6" to the bolster. According to the book, the 1" chisel is 1/16" thick at the start of the bevel and 3/16" at the shoulder. Pretty darn thin. To achieve this tapered blade, I turned to my bench-top belt sander with a 40 grit belt and ground the taper by eye, quenching in water often to keep the steel cool and checking the thickness with my dial calipers. I ended up with .0625 (1/16") at what will be the bevel end and .155 (just shy of 5/32) at the shoulder. I'm very pleased with the way this turned out. For the bolster, I drilled a hole in the 1/8" O-1 and then filed the hole square and with a little taper to slide into place down the tang and lock in place due to the flare of the blade. The bolster will eventually prevent the handle from pushing down to far form hand or mallet pressure. I filed the bolster to an octagonal shape and tapered the thickness out from the hole. Looks pretty good and will serve it's purpose.
So far so good. Next step is to heat treat. With the end being so thin, I don't dare try to establish the bevel prior to heat treating for fear of the steel warping. Stay tuned and keep your fingers crossed for me. I've never heat treated anything so thin.

A New Saw. And Lots of First.

2011-07-24T15:04:00.000-07:00

Well, I finally got this little panel saw done. I actually cut the saw plate out for this way back in September of last year. No sense rushing these things. This is the first panel saw that I've ever made and only the second saw overall. Consequently, it's also the first closed handled saw handle I've made and the first lambs tongue I've carved. All in all, I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out.

The saw plate started off as a piece of .032" 1095 spring steel from McMaster-Carr. I made a cardboard pattern of the shape and size I wanted the plate to be (pretty much like the Kenyon saw in the Seaton chest) and transferred this to the spring steel. Then I cut the plate to size on the metal shear at my work and then snipped around the toe til it was close and then filed to final shape. Don't ask me what I was thinking when I filed in the nib. Not the traditional placement I know. I'll just call it my signature look.
I brought the plate home and hand filed the teeth in the plate at 10 TPI using a pattern that I made on Exel, printing that out and using that as a guide for the tooth spacing.
That's pretty much where I left things until about a week ago when I got a wild hair and decided it was time to finish this thing. I drew up a pattern for the handle from looking at pictures of the saws in the Seaton chest on-line and in the book "The Tool Chest of Benjamin Seaton". The handle is black walnut that I had in the shop. I used my sash saw, and a coping saw to rough it out and the shaping was done with gouges, chisels, and rasp and sanded smooth with sand paper. The lambs tongue was just shaped with a v-gouge and a chisel. Wasn't nearly as tough as I thought it would be.

For hardware, I just used 1/4-20 straight slot counter sunk brass screws and brass square nuts. The square nuts were mortised into the right side of the handle and filed and sanded flush before the handle was finished. To finish the handle, I started off with two coats of Watco danish oil. This just left the wood looking dull and blah so I went and bought some Formby's low gloss tongue oil finish. Three coats of this, sanding with steel wool in between and a steel wool scuff up after the final coat to take some of the shine off and I called it done. While one of these coats was drying, I removed the bluing that was on the spring steel using citric acid. This was the first time I'd used this method and I was impressed with how quickly it worked. Less than 2 minutes and all the bluing was lifted right off.
I have lots to learn when it comes to saw sharpening, but I sharpened and set the teeth the best I know how and she cuts pretty good. Here's some test cuts. Nice thin kerf with no binding and a fairly smooth cut.

Hopefully as I learn more about sharpening she'll just cut smoother with every touch up.
I'm really finding myself enjoying the tool making aspect of this craft. There's nothing quite like using a tool that you actually made yourself. Now maybe I can use this new saw to cross cut some oak to size for the skirt on my still unfinished tool chest.
Oh, and I just got in some O-1 tool steel with which I'm going to try my hand at making some 18th century style square sided firmer chisels. Hopefully I'll get a chance to start on these soon.

Removing Rust with Vinegar-Mixed Results

2011-07-08T20:37:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago I went to a local estate sale and picked up 2 pair of Starrett dividers and a pair of Lufkin outside calipers. They were pretty rusty but the price was right, $15 for all three, and they were good brand name tools so I picked them up. You can never have enough dividers as far as I'm concerned. I'm starting to really see their usefulness in transferring measurements and laying out dovetails, among other uses. They're pretty cool tools and you can usually pick up vintage ones at a reasonable price. I could see myself developing a divider "problem" in the future.

Anyway, I was reading a post on WoodNet the other day where they were discussing de-rusting tools with citric acid. Vinegar was also mentioned as a good way to remove rust from tools. Hey, I have some rusty tools. AND Ihave some vinegar. Sounds like it's time for a little chemistry experiment. Well, I think I'd give myself a B- or a C in THIS Chem class. I'll let the pictures do the talking.

Before:

After:

As you can see, the 10" dividers didn't fare so well. Cleaned up nicely, but I guess I left them in a little too long. From what I understand, vinegar removes the rust, but also eats away the good metal if the tool is left to soak to long. Hopefully I can find a spring to replace the broken one on the 10" dividers.

Other than that little snafu though, I'd say I was impressed with the de-rusting ability of plain old white vinegar. Just a very little bit of wire brushing after a soak and things cleaned up almost like new. If you try this, just remember to immediately blow the tools off to remove the water that you rinse the tool with. I used an air compressor but you could use a hair dryer also. After I blew them off I sprayed them down with WD-40 for good measure. All and all, even with the little mishap, not bad for $15.

Just Piddling in the Shop

2011-07-06T20:08:00.000-07:00

Well, it's back. Seems I've been stricken by another case of WWADD (Wood Workers Attention Deficit Disorder). With a tool chest sitting by my bench just begging to be finished and two panel saws and 4 back saws in various state of incompletion, it would only stand to reason that with the little bit of shop time I've had lately that I would work on building some wooden squares. I don't know why, other than the fact that I think they're pretty cool. Well, that and the fact that I've been watching Bob Rozaieski's pod-cast a lot lately and the episode on wooden squares caught my attention. If anyone reading this (IS anyone reading this?) hasn't been to Bob's site, do yourself a favor and check it out. He probably has the best, most informative blog going when it comes to hand tool woodworking. And his pod-cast are fantastic. He is doing the woodworking community a great service with his site.

Now, about these squares. The miter square is made from walnut with oak dowels pinning things together at a 45* angle. I cut the bridle joint with a small tenon saw and chiseled out the waste with a mortise chisel and then refined it by paring away at whichever side of the bottom of the bridle needed material removed to get my 45* angle. I established a true 45* angle on a test board by basically using this method. One more reason that dividers are one of the most valuable tools in the shop. When you strike these lines on your test board, I recommend that you use a knife rather than a pencil. A knife leaves a much more precise line.

The two try squared are made from beech with walnut dowels pegging things square. These squares started out as a piece of 1 3/4" x 1 3/4" beech, 18" long. I marked a line about 7/8" on the edge of the beech for the stock and ripped it with my D-8 rip saw, making sure when I marked it to orient things so that I'd wind up with quarter-sawn wood, much more stable. Then I took the remaining length of wood and ripped that in half for the blades. I planed the 7/8" stock down to about 3/4" and then made both edges square to the face and cut this into the lengths I needed for my two stocks; in this case 10" and 6". Next I cut the cheeks of a 1/4"wide bridle joint as I did with the miter square and then planed the blades to thickness to fit in the joint. Then it was a matter of squaring the blade to the stock using the same test board I'd used for the miter square and truing it to the 90* line that was established in the process of finding the 45* angle. If you're square to this line, flip the stock 180* so that the blade is on the other side of the line and if you're still square to the line, your square is actually square. At this point it's time to glue the blade into the bridle joint in the stock and let it set for a few hours. Then come back and drill holes for the dowels and glue those in. Once the glue set on these I pared away the excess with a sharp chisel and cut the decorative ends on the stock and the blade. This was traditional on craftsmen made 18th century squares. Made a few passes with a smooth plane to dress everything up nice and then I just finished with a few coats of danish oil.

I'm happy with the way these turned out and I think I'd like to make one more, maybe about a 4" or 5" version of the try square. The two I've made so far are a 15" and a 9" blade length. These are fun to make and really not that complicated and they'll serve you well for many years. And I always get so much more satisfaction using tools that I've made when I'm working on a project. Now I just need to find time to put them to use on some of these incomplete projects around the shop.

What a Fathers Day haul!

2011-06-19T18:14:00.002-07:00

Absolutely amazing generosity! I was floored when I unwrapped my Father's Day gift. Pleasantly so obviously. The details: A 4" Hamilton Marking Gauge in stunning African Blackwood, absolutely beautiful. The new Veritas Dual Marking Gauge, such a nice, heavy, quality tool. 3 Auriou Rasp; a 10" Cabinet Makers Rasp, grain 9; a 6" Modeller's Rasp, grain 15; and a 6" Round Rasp, grain 13. I had put the three rasp on my Christmas list ( never too early to start one of those :) ) so I was really surprised when all 3 showed up on Father's Day. Never tried a hand stitched rasp before but I can't wait to put them to use on some saw handles. Thank you so much to my wonderful wife (and to my girls, although I don't think they knew what they got me till I opened the box :) ).

Oh, and if all that wasn't enough, the day before Father's Day my step dad brought me a pristine Stanley 71 router plane with all 3 cutters, throat closing foot, depth gauge,

and fence. This thing looks like it MAY have been used once. A router plane had been on my short list for quite a while. Check. Looks like a type 13 best I can tell. Also included in his bag of goodies were a BUNCH of brace bits, including a 24, 22, 20, 18, and 17, and 5 expansion bits of various sizes, all in virtually new condition, and two old braces. Thanks David.

Needless to say, it was a great Father's Day. You guys sure know how to feed the tool addiction. :)

The Woodwrights School-Day 2

2011-06-10T16:47:00.000-07:00

Sunday morning rolled around and it was time to make the now familiar drive into Pittsboro for another day at the Woodwrights School. I could get used to this. :) Today's class was Advance Dovetail Technique w/ Bill Anderson. I was a little concerned that the advance joinery class would be a little out of my league, but Bill is a great teacher and made it as easy as it could possibly be. Roy had basically said that he and Bills teaching style were night and day, actually he called it something else that was clever and witty but I can't remember now. Like Ren and Stimpy? No, that's not it. Oscar and Felix? Maybe, but I don't think so. Oh well, point is they're different. Which is kinda nice to be taught 2 different ways to accomplish the same task. Bill uses dividers to lay out his joints. A technique I had just used for the first time on my tool chest carcass.

The first thing we did was a through dovetail joint in a board that we put a 1/4" groove on the inside of both boards near the bottom of the pieces. I believe this was called a half lap dovetail. The trick was to be able to plow through grooves in both pieces and not have a little square of the end of the groove show up in the finished joint. Not too difficult of a joint. The dovetails are cut as normal through tails but on the tail with the groove in it, you remove the portion of the tail that has the groove. But before you remove that part of the tail, transfer your marks to your pin board. One thing that Bill teaches differently is to remove the waste between the tails and then transfer the marks to the pin board with a marking knife, versus Roy's method of marking with the saw before removing the waste. We cut the 3 tail sockets as normal but on the bottom one, you have to transfer the thickness of your trimmed down tail to the face of your pin board and be sure not to saw below that mark on that tail socket. Then it's just a matter of cleaning out the waste between the pins, putting them together, and wa-la, a hidden groove.

The next joint was called a half blind mitered dovetail joint. Although they were through dovetails. I guess the half blind refers to the miter at the top? This is a pretty cool joint and not as difficult as it looks. The first thing we did was determine how wide we wanted the mitered portion to be. This will be determined by the size of the profile you may want to put on this edge. Once you subtract this width from the tail board, you lay it out just as normal through dovetails. The only difference is when you saw them out, you will have the material you left at layout beside the one half pin socket. Don't saw the miter yet, mark your pins from your tail board first. Mark all your lines on the end of your pin board. Cut all your lines as normal EXCEPT the straight wall of the half pin where the extra material was left. This line has to be cut at a 45* angle, leaving the face side untouched and sawing down to the baseline on the inside. Now all that's left is to cut your 45* miters from the top edge down to the half pin on the pin board and to the pin socket on the tail board. Time for a test fit. Ahhh. So nice. :) Now we took them back apart and put a nice ogee detail on the top edge. Which is the point of doing the miter in the first place. One thing I learned, other than a really cool joint, is the joy of cutting a profile with a wooden moulding plane. It truly is pure bliss. I REALLY need to get a nice ogee plane.

We kind of ran short on time so we didn't get to execute the tapered sliding dovetail joint, but Bill explained it well enough that I'm confident I could make the joint.

I'm really glad I stayed for day 2. Bill is an excellent teacher and aside from learning some really cool joints, he also gave me a few tips that made me a much better sawyer. A very light, almost hovering touch when starting the saw and smooth, full saw plate length strokes with no downward pressure. Amazing how much smoother my cuts were after putting these tips to use. I've got my eye on a couple other of Bill's classes. The one day saw sharpening class and the 3 day make your jointer plane class. Although I'd rather make a try plane length. Hopefully some day.

As you can probably tell, I highly recommend that you treat yourself to a class or two at the Woodwrights School. It will be a great experience.

My weekend at Roy's

2011-06-09T20:04:00.000-07:00

Well, my day to attend the Woodwrights School finally arrived. I'd been looking forward to it for months. I was scheduled to take the "Dovetails, Mortise & Tenon w/Roy" class and was extremely excited to spend the day with one of my heroes.

I'd been working like crazy to get a tool chest built to transport some of my own tools to use during the class and it came down to the wire. I was installing the hinges for the lid and putting on handles the morning I was to leave for the class. But I got it done.

Roy's school is in a very quaint little town called Pittsboro in North Carolina. And it's really not a stretch to say it's Mayberry-like. I got into town about 7:30 that morning and since school wasn't supposed to start until 8:30, I had time to walk around a little. What a nice little downtown. And I do mean little. I had to chuckle to myself when I walked past the barber shop just a few doors down from Roy's and saw a man and his son getting haircuts with red and white striped barber smocks on in the old fashioned shop. Could've been my imagination, but I swear the barber looked a lot like Floyd Lawson.

I worked my way back to my car parked in front of the school and waited. About 8:15 I saw the familiar figure of Roy Underhill come around the corner and open up Disney World, er, I mean the school. Trying not to look too anxious and trying to give him a little time to get straight, I waited about 10 minutes to go in. I was first there so I introduced myself and asked if I could bring my chest in. Absolutely he said, so off I went to lug it out of the trunk. It's fairly heavy with tools in it. I worked my way to the back corner bench were there'd be room for the chest and prepared to settle in. Roy made my day when he came back to look at the chest and told me what a great job I'd done and how I didn't need to be in his class, and that I should be in Bill Anderson's advanced dovetail class the next day. He offered to switch my registration to that class. I told him thanks but I really wanted to take a class from him. I was on cloud nine from his little compliment and before class started I called my wife to tell her what he'd said about the chest and about the class tomorrow. Without me even asking, she suggested that I take Roy's class and stay for Bill's the following day also. What a woman!!! So my weekend just got a lot better before it really even started.

Roy's class was full, ten people, with woodworkers of various skill and experience. Time to get to work. Roy has a great way about him. He puts you at ease, explains things well, and makes the learning fun with his wit and humor. He is also extremely knowledgeable. Obviously about woodworking but about so many other things also. More on that in a minute. After a brief talk on safety it was time to get dovetailing. First up were through dovetails. The way we did things that day, at the request of a student, was Roy would explain a step, then we go do that step, then come back for an explanation of the next step and so on. Roy is what I would call more of a "feel" woodworker than an analytical, by the book guy. He doesn't care what the angle of the dovetail is, doesn't even care to find out most times. He just decides how may tails he wants on the tail board and goes from there. A 3/8" chisel determined the width of our pin sockets. Doesn't matter what size you use, the point is, make this measurement the width of a chisel you have. After laying out and cutting the tails, we marked the pin boards by placing them in the face vice, laying the kerfed tail board on top of the end of the pin board and placing the toe of the saw in the kerf of the tail and pulling back. Although I'd seen Roy use this method on TV before, it was the first time I'd tried it. After all was said and done I have to say, I liked it. We finished marking the pin boards, cut them with our dovetail saws, removed the bulk of the waste with coping saws and then chiseled to our base lines. Time for a test fit. Whew, not bad. First dovetail came out nice. Time for lunch.

We all had lunch together at the restaurant right next to the school. I can't think of the name right now to save my life but it was delicious. Great food, good service, and killer shakes served in an old fashioned glass with the extra brought to you in a stainless steel cup that the shake was made in. This brings me to what I was saying earlier about Roy being knowledgeable about so much. When I brought my tool chest in, I just had the rope handles going through holes I'd drilled in the cleats and tied in a knot. I told him I needed to learn how to braid rope to make a better looking handle. Well, he told me to bring some rope to lunch and right there in the restaurant he took the braided rope apart into 3 strands and showed me how to braid my handles! I was so excited about this new found skill that when I got back to the hotel I braided two handles, took the cleats off my tool chest, grabbed my carcass saw and bench hook and with the bench hook on the hotel dresser, sawed the backside of the cleats open to accept my new handles. First time I'd done woodworking in a Super 8 and I'm sure the maids were wondering what all the saw dust was from. Termites?

Oh, back to class. After lunch we moved on to half blind dovetails. I'd never really done these before and was thrilled when they turned out not half bad.

Next was mortise and tenons. We laid out and sawed the tenons first and then used a marking gauge and the tenons to lay out the mortises. This was also a first for me and gave me a chance to try out my new Ray Iles mortice chisels. Boy are those a dream to work with! I'm gonna have to look for excuses to do more mortice and tenon work.

I'm really glad I took this class. I learned a lot, gained a lot of confidence and had a GREAT time. I can't wait to go back and take other classes. Just wish he was closer. I'll do a write up on the advanced dovetail class here in the next few days.

Oh yeah, they have an amazing tool store upstairs also. If you love old vintage tools like I do, this alone is almost worth the trip. Great prices too.

It's here! It's here!

2011-05-31T13:25:00.000-07:00

This was in my mailbox when I got home today.

Opened the box and saw this.

My long anticipated copy of Chris Schwarz new book The Anarchist Tool Chest. Can't wait to delve into this one!

Tool Chest Build Part 5, Coming Together

2011-05-24T21:03:00.000-07:00

Well, I've had a few late evenings to work on the tool chest since my last blog entry and it's starting to come together now. I'm not going to have it completely done and painted before I leave for North Carolina and my class with Roy, but I hope with a couple more evenings to have it done enough to trasport some tools in. I'm going to shoot for getting the lid made tonight. Then I'll need handles, I'm thinking cleats with rope handles, and I think I want to put a skirt board around the bottom. Maybe a trim board just below the lid also. Then a nice coat of milk paint on the outside. But for now, I'm shooting for a lid and handles before I head south at some point on Friday. Wish me luck. :)
I'll try to take lots of pictures and do a report on my experience at The Woodwrights School when I get back.

Tool Chest Build Part 4, Shiplap Joints with a Rabbet Plane

2011-05-17T03:12:00.000-07:00

So, on to the bottom for the chest. Based on the size lumber I had, I decided to run my boards for the bottom from front to back and rather than glue up a panel, I'm just going to let them float individually in the grooves of the sides of the chest. To keep gaps from opening up all the way through as the wood moves with the seasons, I chose to use shiplap joints where the edges of the board meet. These joints are pretty simple to execute, and with minimal tools. All I used was my marking gauge and a 1" square rabbet plane.
To start, I set my gauge to the desired setting, in this case 1/2", and ran a gauge line down the edge of the bottom boards, on top on one side, on bottom on the other side. Then I reset the gauge to 3/8", half the thickness of my boards, and ran these gauge lines on the edge of the 3/4" thickness. To start the rabbet, take your rabbet plane and tilt it toward the inside of the board so that just the corner of the iron rides in the gauge line made earlier on the face of the board, using the finger tips of your left hand to ride against the edge of the board and act as a fence. A couple of passes like this establishes a shoulder for the rabbet plane to ride against and the plane can now be straightened to 90* and run down the edge of the board until you reach the 3/8" depth gauge line. And that's pretty much all there is to it.
I have to admit, this is really the first time I've used a rabbet plane in a project and it's a great tool. Mine is one I happened to find on eBay about a month ago. When it came in I just inspected it and set it aside, not having an immediate use for it. Well last night I found a use. Sharpened the blade on a few different grits of oil stones for 5 minutes or so and that was all it took to have a wonderfully functioning plane. Nice tight mouth and all. This turned out to be a great find and I will be keeping my eyes open for more. The square blade rabbet planes are much tougher to find than the skewed, but I've heard they are better, and the performance of this one gave me no reason to doubt these claims.
Next step, a couple passes on all the pieces with the smooth plane and then some assembly.

Tool Chest Build Part 3, making grooves without a plow plane

2011-05-16T14:18:00.000-07:00

Ok, so the next step was to plow a groove in the front, back, and sides for the bottom of the tool chest to fit into. Ideally, one would probably do this with a plow plane but since I don't currently own one, I chose an alternative process.

The first step was to lay out where I wanted the grove to be. The bottom will be 3/4" thick boards with a 3/8" thick rabbet on the ends and edges to fit into the grove, so I took my marking gauge (don't currently own a mortice gauge either) and set it to 3/4" and marked a line up from the bottom of all four sides of the chest. I then reset the gauge to 3/8" and ran another line parallel to the first. I deepened these lines straight down with a striking knife and then came back with a chisel on the waist side of each line and made a little groove; a place for the saw to ride in during the next step.

Time to saw the sides of each groove. For this I used a small tenon saw filed crosscut. On the end boards, I was able to saw all the way across to a depth of about 3/8". This measurement is not absolutely critical. On the front and back boards, my saw cuts had to stop short of each end by about 3/8" or you would see a 3/8" x 3/8" square hole on each end of the chest when assembled. To make these stopped cuts, and the give the saw dust a place to go, I chopped mortices in each end of the board within the lines cut for the grooves. These only had to be about 2" long or so. Just enough to give the saw clearance at the start and finish of each stroke. Once these cuts reached the 3/8" depth, it was time to remove the material in between. The best way to do this is with a chisel.

I took a 3/8" bench chisel and started at an end closest to a mortice with the chisel held bevel down at about a 30* angle of attack. Tap the chisel with a mallet until you get near the 3/8" depth and then flatten out the angle. This is why you want to use the chisel bevel down. Do this down the length of the groove isn about 2" chunks until you reach the end. Then come back with the same chisel, held bevel down, and pare the bottom of the groove flat. This is the first time I've used this method and it gave me surprisingly good results. It's actually pretty satisfying to do things with minimal tools and have them turn out well. . . . . . . . .but I still really want that Clark and Williams plow plane. :) More to come.

Tool Chest Build Part 2, Dovetailing

2011-05-15T10:14:00.000-07:00

Got the dovetails cut on the carcass. Cut the pins first, which was a first for me. Worked pretty well. Laid out the pins with a pair of dividers, also a first. I liked this method. I just laid out a half pin on each end of the board, then decided how wide I wanted my pins and tails to be, which determined how many pins and tails there would be. Then it was a matter of setting the dividers to what I thought the width should be and walking them across the board. A few adjustments of the dividers width and I was all set. You know your setting is right when you start a the edge of the board, on the narrow part of the half pin, and walk your dividers across the end of the pin board, and end up on the line you drew for the other half pin. Then to get the other side of the pins, you go back to the side of the board you just started from, and this time start the dividers on the line of the half pin. When you walk them across this time, you will end on the edge of the other side of the pin board. You then take your bevel gauge, set to the slope you want your dovetails to be, and draw lines for your pins at each first mark from the dividers with the gauge one direction, then at each second mark with your gauge in the other direction. Then it's just squaring down the face of the board, sawing to those lines, clearing out the waste with a coping saw, and paring them to final shape. Set this board on your tail board to mark the tails from the pins you just cut and cut and chisel the tails. If all goes well, they'll fit together off the saw. I had to pair about 5 or six pins down to get them to fit. They're not perfect, but they fit together well and are very strong.

Next is to plow the groove for the bottom board to fit in. I should have done this prior to dovetailing, but I got a little ahead of myself. I don't own a plow plane ( at least not until my lovely wife buys me that nice Clark and Williams plow plane and set of irons ;) ), so I'll be cutting my grooves with a carcass saw and chisels. I'll let you know how that worked out on my next post. Talk to you then!

Preparing for a woodworking class/Building a tool chest?

2011-05-13T10:32:00.000-07:00

I am signed up for a one day Dovetailing/Mortice and Tenon class at The Woodwright's School on May 28th. I've been very much looking forward to this since I signed up 4 or 5 months ago. I think just getting to spend the day with Roy is worth the price of admission all by itself, let alone actually having him show you his methods.

With this class in mind, I thought that it would be nice to have a portable (ish) tool chest to take some of my tools that would be relevant to the class along with me to North Carolina. So, in about a two week time frame, I'm going to attempt to build a tool chest. I actually started on it a few nights ago and so far, just have gotten the panels glued up for the front, back, sides, and bottom, and have cut to size and squared up the front, back and side panels. Going to start dovetailing the carcass today. All this is being done with no machinery, just meat power. I'm REALLY trying to get rid of those tailed beast. I'll update and post pictures when I get something worth showing. Looks like the size is going to be 26" long x 16" wide x 14" tall. Larger than I'd originally planned. Hopefully this won't be too big to carry. We'll see. More to come soon.

Woodworking ADD

2011-02-22T06:03:00.000-08:00

Well, I think it's official; I have woodworking ADD. That's Attention Deficit Disorder, not Accidental Death and Dismemberment. I seem to always have 3 or 4 projects going at once. I have a hand crank grinder I'm building, inspired by Bob Rozaieski's model, about 90% done; a 20" 10 TPI crosscut saw that I'm making from scratch that I filed the teeth into the plate and then set it aside; and a 22" 7 TPI saw plate for a small rip saw that's been sitting in the saw vise with teeth half filed in for about a month now. So with all these unfinished projects, it's only logical that I take and rehandle a chisel that I just handled 3 weeks ago. I just wasn't quite satisfied with the look and feel of the first one. I felt it to be too narrow at the top and possibly too long. This new one is beech also, an inch shorter, and of a much more pleasing look and feel, at least to my eye. This one was done rather quickly, at about 10:30 at night and is not quite perfect. The handle overhangs the tang on one side and is a little short of it on the other. And it may be just a bit too short but I'm gonna use it as it is for a while and see how I like it. Then I'll probably go for chisel handle version 3.0. Maybe I can get some of these other projects done in the mean time. Maybe. Although I HAVE been wanting to start on a saw till, and a sharpening station, and a spring pole lathe. Oh, and a router plane, and. . . . . . . . . . . . .

Handling a tanged chisel

2011-01-31T04:52:00.000-08:00

I have a weakness for old square sided firmer chisels, so when I was at the PATINA (Potomac Antique Tools and Industries Association) meeting and auction last weekend and saw a nice 1 1/2" un-handled tang firmer for $6, I had to pick it up. Yesterday I had a little free time so I decided to make a handle for it. This was my first chisel handle and also my first time working with beech. I had a little laying around the shop that I was given a while back and thought that it would be ideal for a handle. I really like the way the beech worked with hand tools. Takes a nice, crisp edge. Made me wish I had some larger chunks for making a few wooden planes.

The process of making the handle was nothing groundbreaking, but here it is. I started off with a 2" square piece of beech and cut it a little over the length I wanted. Made sure one end was square and then marked the center. Drilled a hole in this end just a touch smaller that the tang where it meets the bolster to a depth of half the length of the tang. Then I switched to a bit a touch smaller than the tang width at it's half-way point and drilled this to the full depth of the tang. This allowed the chisel to go into the handle with about a half inch gap between the handle end and the bolster. The drilling was done with brace and bits. From here I marked the outer edges of the bolster on the handle end, removed the chisel and drew lines from there to the other end with the taper I wanted. Then it was just a matter of sawing close to the line and finishing up with a plane. After I had a square, tapered handle, I needed to knock the corners off to make the square an octagon. For this process I clamped my plane upside down in my twin screw of my bench and used it like a jointer, running the corners of the handle over the blade of the plane. This works really well for this and other small pieces you may need to plane. Just watch your fingers. After I had an octagon shaped handle, I trimmed it to length and then took a sharp paring chisel and pared bevels on the end of the handle for comfort. With the handle shaped, I inserted the tang in the hole, squared up the chisel blade to the handle, and whacked the butt of the handle on some scrap wood on my bench to seat the bolster flush to the handle. Done.

With me drilling the hole for the tang by hand, the handle is just slightly out of plumb with the chisel from side to side, but not enough to hurt anything. Overall, I'm very happy with how it turned out. I see more of these handles in my future as I just can't seem to pass up a good deal on a orphaned firmer.

Shave Horse

2011-01-25T18:50:00.000-08:00

Well hello again blog reader. It's been a long time between post. Hadn't really done anything blog-worthy lately. My shop time has mainly consisted of a few started, but yet unfinished projects.

This past weekend I finally found some time to do a project that had been on my to do list for well over a year; a shave horse. And I have to say, this was one of the most fun pieces that I have ever built. I think what made it so much fun was going into it with the attitude that it was a functional piece of shop equipment that I didn't have to strive for museum quality on. As a matter of fact, on a piece like this, I think a little bit of crudeness, (or homemade ingenuity), adds character to it. At least that's my view of it. I love pretty tools as much as the next guy, but I just don't think I'd want a mahogany shave horse with bamboo turned legs and moulded ogee edges. No, for a piece like this I think southern yellow pine with drawknife and spokeshaved legs and the edges of the seat just clipped with a fore plane is just right.

This is only the third piece I've done with just hand tools. I'm really wanting to get to the point where I can ditch my table saw and I'm really getting close. All the material, minus some wooden dowel that I used to hold some round tenons together, is construction grade 2 x 12 southern yellow pine that I got from Home Depot on a recent trip to Colonial Williamsburg. SYP is not available where I live; have to go a few hours south. And it really is an ideal wood for shop equipment. Much more heavy and dense than the "white wood" or whatever they call the construction lumber here in Maryland.

Using plans found on Jennie Alexander's Green Woodworking website as my rough draft, I started off by cutting to length and ripping to width the boards for the bench and the ramp. This was done with a Craftsman 10 TPI cross-cut saw and my old Disston D-8 thumbhole rip saw, 5 TPI. Incidentally, I'm really becoming found of the overhand rip method, similar to what's shown here, only I saw toward me rather than away from me. This is much easier on your arm muscles, I can saw for much longer stretches without stopping from tiring out, and because you are sitting and not hunched over, it's much easier on your back. So, after cutting these boards to size, I cut 1 1/2" strips for the legs and then just trued things up with a fore and jointer plane. I then laid out and drilled 1" holes in the bench for my legs and then used a tapered reamer to make tapered holes. I then used a drawknife and spokeshave to shape the legs roundish and to taper the tops to roughly match the tapered holes in the bench. I definitely need more practice with that reamer. My holes were slanted just like I wanted them with the brace and bit, but got out of whack when I went at them with the reamer. No big tragedy because it's just a shave horse, but I gotta get that straightened out before I build any windsor chairs. :)

The ramp was attached to the bench with a wooden pivot much like Peter Follansbee used on his shown in his blog.

The round tenons that were used to hold the treadle together were fun to make. I just laid out a one inch square centered on the end of a 2" x 2" piece of pine, sawed the tenon cheeks down as far as I needed the tenon to be long, and then cut the shoulders to remove the waste. I then drew a 1" circle on the end of the square tenon and went about pairing away anything that wasn't that circle. These cross pieces were put into 1" holes on the treadle sides, the tenons drilled and held with some dowel I had laying around the shop.

I'm really happy with the way this turned out, especially for being just a little more than a days work. I haven't had the opportunity or the need to put it through it's paces yet, but I did try some scrap on it and it has tremendous holding power. This was a really fun project to build and if any of you have been thinking about it, I highly recommend that you make a shave horse for YOUR shop.

My "Someday" Shop

2010-08-10T17:15:00.000-07:00

I've been dreaming of a hand tool only woodworking shop for a few years now. For now, I operate out of about a quarter of a 2 car garage. Not terrible; I'm sure some have less of a space than I do, but as I trend more toward working with hand tools, I find myself wanting a detached, dedicated hand tool shop. The good thing about working with hand tools is that you really don't need that big of a space. After all, you don't need to make room for the table saw, power jointer, thickness planer, drill press, band saw, radial arm saw, etc. I've been toying with some different design layouts and different size shops lately. These are the two most promising designs I've come up with so far. I don't have any fancy CAD programs, so these were just done on Exel, hence the crudeness, but you get the idea. The county I'm in doesn't require a building permit for buildings under 300 square feet, so both these come in just under. Any time you can avoid dealing with planning and zoning, I highly recommend you avoid it. I really want this to look more like an 18th century shop than a garage, hence the lack of an overhead garage door. I also want lots of windows to let in lots of natural light. I'm not even sure I'd run electricity to it if it weren't for the hot, humid summers we get here in southern Maryland. I think I'd at least need a fan out there. :) The photos are of the Shoemaker's Shop in Colonial Williamsburg. This is ideally what I'd like my shop to look like on the outside. Or at least somewhat this style. I believe that the area you work in can inspire you to do better work and a shop like this would just make woodworking that much more enjoyable for me.

Alas, this is all a dream for now as funding will not allow this for quite some time I'm sure. But it never hurts to dream and plan; for someday.

Some dovetail and carving practice

2010-08-02T09:39:00.000-07:00

I've been wanting to get out in the shop and do a small hand tool project, so last week I got a chance and made a little sliding top candle box with through dovetailed corners. Just made out of pine from the local Lowes. Cheap enough to make a mistake on yet decent enough to bring into the house when you're done. The box itself didn't come out too bad. 12º dovetails and a raised panel type top beveled with my 16" wooden fore plane and my new Clark and Williams smoother. The groove the top slides in was made by a 5/16" wooden groove plane I'd picked up off eBay a while back. Worked pretty well. Glued it up and threw some ebony stain on it for a quick, rustic finish. I thought this would be a good place to try out my new carving tools, so I made a couple of practice B's in some pine with my Pfeil 60º V-Parting Tool and pleased with the way they turned out, figured I was ready to carve into the top of the candle box. Well, let's just say that the practice B turned out a lot better than the one on the box top. Go figure. As for the Pfeil gouge itself though, I like it. Just have to learn how to wield it. Oh well, it matches the rustic look of the rest of the box and if it bothers me too much, I can always make a new top. That's the great thing about a little project like this; it's fun to do, but if you mess it up, no big loss. And it gives you a chance to hone some hand tool skills.

My First Carving Tools

2010-07-24T20:37:00.000-07:00

Took advantage of Woodcraft's 10% off sale and bought some Pfeil Swiss Made carving tools that I'd had my eye on for a while. I've never carved anything in my life, but have been fascinated by Peter Follansbee's work and also by the fine carving work I've seen by Kari Hultman on her Village Carpenter blog. I bought the set of 6 to start with, as it had tools that I thought would be useful in a variety of different projects. The set included a 8mm straight chisel(double bevel), 12mm #5, 10mm #7, 10mm #9, 3mm #11 veiner,and a 6mm #12 V-parting tool.

I went to the fabric store this afternoon and bought some duck cloth to make a tool roll to give my new tools some kind of protection. The roll has 19 slots, so I have room for more tools; Christmas coming and all, in case my lovely wife or wonderful mother are reading this. :) I'm no seamstress but I think the tool roll turned out pretty good considering I made it using my daughter's "I'm a Big Girl Now" sewing machine. :)

Hope to give a report on how they carve soon.

First attempt at saw making

2010-05-29T17:49:00.000-07:00

Well, here's my first saw build, complete except for the teeth. I actually made the blade for this about 6 months ago but just got around to making the handle this past week.

The saw plate is from a sheet of .018 1095 spring steel from McMaster-Carr. The steel comes with a blued finish which you could leave on if you wanted, I chose to sand it off and have a bright saw plate. I wanted this saw to have the look of an 18th century saw so when I cut the saw plate, I canted it, 1 5/8" at the toe, 1 7/8" at the heel. I did this with a floor model metal sheer. I chose a steel back for this saw instead of brass. It started out as a piece of 3/4" angle iron from Lowes. I slowly and carefully bent this closed in a machinist vise, moving it in slow increments from side to side being careful not to kink or bend the back crooked. This is the hardest part of the whole process. Once I got it bent closed, I shaped it, filed the imperfections out of it, and then sanded the file marks out. Then it was time to install the saw plate. I started with the saw back on the bench and the top heel corner of the saw plate inserted in the rear of the saw back at 90 degrees to it. I tapped that corner in and then worked my way toward the toe, tapping it down into the back as I went. The useable depth under the back is 1 1/8" at the toe and 1 3/8" at the handle.

The handle is black walnut and the shape is modeled after the Wenzloff Early Kenyon Saw. Made a paper pattern and attached it to the walnut with a glue stick, cut the handle to rough shape with a coping saw, then lots of work with a couple of rasp and a chisel, followed by progressively finer grades of sand paper. The finish is four coats of wipe on clear satin poly. Stumbled across the hardware at a True Value. Not sure what they're supposed to be used for, but they work pretty well as saw nuts. And less than a dollar a piece. Now I just have to find to nerve to cut the teeth. Trying to decide between 15 and 17 PPI.

This project has been a lot of fun and I'll definitely do some more. Really want to make a copy of the Tenon Saw shown in Smiths Key.

Striking Knives

2010-05-27T10:56:00.000-07:00

Here are some striking knives I made a few months back. All are made from a piece of 1/8" thick w-1 tool steel, 1" wide by 36" long, purchased from McMaster Carr. I made the three shiny ones first. Cut the steel into three 9 1/2" lengths, put masking tape on the face of each, and drew the outline of the striking knives on the tape. Cut the outline just shy of the line with a hack saw and finished them up with a half round bastard file and a flat mill file. Formed the 25 degree bevel with the file, but not all the way to a sharp edge; left about a 1/32" flat on the bevel so the edge wouldn't distort during the heat treating process. The finger cut-outs on the two were just made with the half round file. I find these to be very comfortable in the hand. The awl end was made by chamfering the edges with a file and then working them to round. The point was finalized on sandpaper stuck to a table.

Next came the heat treating to get them hard enough to hold a nice, durable edge. I heated the metal with a plumbers torch with mapp gas, which burns hotter than propane. I laid the metal on a bed of charcoal as to not let the heat dissipate so quickly. First step was to bring the metal to the "critical point" of approximately 1500 degrees fahrenheit. The metal becomes non-magnetic at this temperature, and that is how I determined when I had hit the appropriate temp. Once this level of heat is achieved and held for about 20 seconds, I quenched the metal in a coffee can filled with water. At this point the metal is extremely hard; way to hard to use. It is very brittle and too hard to be honed on sharpening stones. So the next step is to temper them to a useable hardness. I was shooting for somewhere around RC 60 or so. To achieve this hardness, I place the knives in a 425 degree toaster oven for about 45 minutes. This brings the metal to a nice straw color, which helps tell you that you're where you want to be hardness wise. I then polished them to a bright finish with progressively finer grits of sandpaper, the final, a wet-sand to bring them to a nice polish. Then a final sharpening on my oilstones to finish the shape of the bevel and give them their final honing.

The two shorter knives were made with the left-over length of metal I had. These were inspired by the striking knives that the blacksmiths at Colonial Williamsburg make for the cabinet makers and jointers. The process was the same for heat treating them. The twist in the middle was done by heating the metal cherry red and holding one end with a pair of vise grips and grabbing the other end with an adjustable wrench and twisting while still cherry. I put a point on the end of one of the knives and a tiny knife edge on the end of the other. On all five knives, only the bevel end was heat treated. The awl end was left soft so it can be easily shaped with a file or sandpaper.

Workbench Complete!

2010-05-26T13:29:00.000-07:00

Completed my Nicholson bench yesterday. Drilled 3/4" holes in the front apron and top for holdfast. This was done with a 10" swing brace and a 3/4" Jennings auger bit. Installed a 2" square planing stop on the left side of the bench top. Mortised the hole in the top by marking out the area, drilling four 1" holes, and then squaring up the hole with chisels and rasps. I've been very happy with the bench initially. Seems very stable. No racking or movement when planing. I'm guessing that the wide front apron adds a lot of stability. May add a bottom shelf eventually, I'll see how it goes.

New Tool

2010-05-18T15:12:00.000-07:00

Received a new (old, but new to me) tool in the mail today from Hertfordshire, England. It's a Marples inch and a quarter tapered reamer that I won on eBay. I was very pleased with the quality of this tool. Nice tight handle with no cracks and really nice steel.Seems pretty sharp too. I hope to put it to use soon in reaming the seat board holes to accept the legs of a shave horse I've been wanting to build. It'll also come in handy if I ever get the chance to tackle Windsor Chairs.

Workbench in Progress

2010-05-17T12:52:00.000-07:00

Finally got a chance to finish making my twin screw vise for my Nicholson Bench and got it installed today. I'm pretty excited to get it done as I've been dealing with health issues the last couple months and haven't been up to any woodworking. It was good to get back to it. The bench had been sitting untouched since around December.

The bench is made of southern yellow pine and the vise chop out of a thick slab of red oak I had lying around the shop. The vise screws are inch and a half dowels that I threaded with a Beall wood threading kit. They work well, and I like the idea of wooden screws vs. metal. Just a traditionalist thing. No garters on the screws. I don't think I'll need them. I'll just manually pull out the vise chop after unscrewing the screws a few turns. And I can remove the vise entirely if it gets in the way of stock prep on the bench top.

I still have a little work to do on the bench. I want to drill holes in the front apron and a few in the top for hold fast. And I want to add a wooden bench stop at the left end. Hopefully soon. The tools on the bench in the photos have nothing particular to do with the construction of the bench, but the bench just looked so empty without anything on it. And I just can't resist pictures of tool porn. ;)

Jamie Bacon