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Today’s episode is titled “Abrasive Personalities Pt. 1″ and is the first in a multi-part series written and recorded by Ron Hock of The Sharpening Blog.

To check out this article and to read all of the other amazing posts written by Ron, including the other five posts in this series, visit his blog at The Sharpening Blog.

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Letzte Woche ist was beim Bezahnen schief gelaufen. Heute konnte ich die alten Sähne abschneiden. Die Schlagschere erzeugt doch ein wenig Spannung im Material. Endlich wieder Bilder von der Terasse. Heute konnten wir zum ersten Mal draußen essen.
Subtitles:
Last week something went wrong with retoothing. Today I cut of the teeth. The metal shears puts some tension to the blade.

Daylight pics again. Today we had or first lunch outside.

My best selling oud strings are Aquila, made my Mimmo Peruffo and company at Aquila Corde Armoniche in Vicenza in Northern Italy. The Italians know a thing or two about making strings for musical instruments. As you'll hear in the video, most of the strings you buy, whether they be LaBella, D'Adarrio, Pirastro, originated in the same town in Italy. Also note the historical string engravings and plates from past centuries. Neat!

Mimmo also makes gut strings. I do not sell these, since they are quite expensive. But they are, without question, the best-sounding strings I've ever used. If you've never tried gut strings before, I suggest you try out a set.



In this video Mimmo shows the process for making Nylgut, the synthetic gut strings that Aquila is famous for.



Here Mimmo shows the beginning steps of how real gut strings are made.

I procrastinate. Always have done, always will do. I put off those slightly irksome or difficult jobs 'till I'm in the right mood or have the mojo to do something. The preceding days were no exception 'cos I'd been delaying sawing the veneers for the media unit...I'd had the new blades for a couple of weeks, but you know what...I just didn't want to do it.

Until today.

The grey, dismal rain clouds of yesterday had gone and it was a lovely, sunny Spring day...just right for sawing up veneers.

I'd already prepared all the material as can be seen in the pic...the big lumps at the back were the pieces in question being about 1.4m long and 100mm wide, so you can see that I approached the task with a little trepidation on my little bandsaw!

Having had a recent enlightenment regarding my 'digital' well-being, the cynical amongst you will no doubt note with some profound glee the use of suitable push-sticks on the bandsaw....this was to set up the thickness on test piece against the re-saw fence.














It took about thirty minutes to get the 'set' absolutely spot on (which was having 2mm veneers cut true and straight) but having got everything 'just right' and taking a deep breath, I started to cut the main pieces of oak. To my surprise, it all went very well and an hour later...




















I was left with a rather nice fanfold display of 2mm thick oak slices...and one blunt bandsaw blade!

Today’s episode is being posted a day earlier than normal, but with good reason. I wanted to give everyone a chance to clear their schedules for the next Live Wood Talk Online, which will be Monday March 22nd, 2010 at 9PM ET. If you can make your way over to www.thewoodwhisperer.com/live join us in the chat room for all the fun of a live show.

A few other announcements on today’s episode include a chance to win your share of the $10,000 in tools and accessories from Festool and Fine Home Building Magazine. For more information about this contest visit Festool/FineHomeBuilding Giveaway.

Todd Clippinger of www.americancraftsmanworkshop.com sent us a heads up on a limited time offer by Scott Morrison of www.finewoodworker.com. Scott’s offering a 15% discount on his “Building a Maloof Style Furniture” DVDs, templates and Buterfly joint kit. More details are in the show.

April 9-10, the Lie-Nielsen Toolworks Show will be stopping in Chicago for a visit at Jeff Miller’s studio. I’m planning on being there on Saturday the 10th, hope you can make it! It’s a great opportunity to get real hands on experience with their whole lineup.

And last but not least, although totally forgotten in the show, Hendrik is back in April and we’re looking for your questions. Do you have questions about wood selection, wood movement, etc? Submit them before April 5th!

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Length: 25 1/2” (measured at teeth). PPI: 5 1/2 (graduated). Tapered saw plate (0.035” at teeth, 0.025” at top, tapers about 0.005” toe to tail). Handle wood: Madrone (I think). Finish: Minwax gloss Polyurethane (infused under vacuum then top coated).

The saw plate seems like a pretty nice chunk of steel, it tapers from about 0.035” at the teeth to 0.025” at the top and also tapers from toe to tail (about 0.005”). It has graduated teeth and is stamped at 5 1/2. The hook angle looks to be about 0º. I kept those numbers when I sharpened it.
So how does it cut? Well, this ain’t no girlie man saw but I’m not a he man saw stud; I find it really hard to use on hard wood, those big teeth and aggressive rake tend to grab and the thin plate does not like that and bends. It is probably my lack of technique but it isn’t fun. On soft woods, once it gets started (which can be a PITA), it flies. I might change the rake to 4º and see if that mellows it out. However it does cut straight and there isn’t much blow out on hardwood (lots of blow out on soft woods).

Here is the front and back of a piece of Elm I drew lines on and cut (my hard wood test case):

      

Oh yeah, I do think the hang angle is on the high side.

I have been testing  Ecopoxy as an adhesive. They are not marketing it as an adhesive, but I think they really should. I love this stuff.
Here is a fairly wicked test of a glue. any glue you choose to name.

This nice jagged chip is about to be glued.

To this chair leg.

I waxed my clamp first so it wouldn’t become part of the chair leg, and then I smeared the epoxy.

The resin component of the ecopoxy had  crystals in the bottom, kind of like the crystals that will form in honey.  I crunched them up with a Popsicle stick and stirred them in.  I was a bit nervous, with this, but a test is a test.  It stirred up a bit cloudy, but as you can see, after adding the catalyst the glue became transparent with no evidence of cloudiness.

The epoxy was not thick, so it went into the pores and gaps without too much work. The setting time is quite long, so I was able to paint both surfaces quite well, join then and even dabble a bit more in to fill holes. There was no smell at all. I also painted a bit onto the surface of my worktable, where it was a bit lower than the rest of the table. An odd sort of fix and test. My worktable is juniper, so I managed to do a test of Ecopoxy on a fairly acid wood as well.

As another rather vicious test, I added five new mallets to my mallet collection.

Mallets tend to get a bit of impact, so using a glue to make a mallet is cruel. Osage has a bit of oil to it, so it is also a rather cruel test. Using Aluminum Bronze, and joining it to osage is rather going over the top as far as pushing a glue. I also used some ash, since that is kind of expected as a handle and will work as a comparison if the rest fails.

So far the chair and the mallets are all holding up fine. I have not gone easy on them either.

I have to say this is a very good glue, long setting time, rugged finish, unlimited shelf life, forgiving mixing ratio, no smell to speak of, and it  takes weight and impact well.  When you throw in that it is food safe, and marine grade water proof, this stuff is a hands down winner.     I have quite a few other tests about, but it will take a bit of time before I can say how well they have held up.  The chair and the mallets are the sort of thing that I have seen other glues immediately fail from.

Bob

If you have read much of this blog, or listened to me or Alexander at any length, eventually you hear us come around to Moxon.  For those who are not familiar with his name, Joseph Moxon (1627-1691) was a printer in London, and in the last quarter of the seventeenth century he wrote a book called Mechanick Exercises, or the Doctrine of Handyworks. Chapters covered include joinery, turning, carpentry, as well as blacksmithing, “bricklayery” and Mechanick Dyalling (the making of a sun-dial).

 

Moxon won’t teach you how to build a piece of joined furniture; but he illustrates and discusses the tools necessary for the work, and describes the techniques of making a mortise and tenon joint, how to plane the stock, etc. The book has been out of print again for the past few years; after going thru several reprints in the 2nd half of the 20th century.

Now Gary Roberts of Dedham, MA has brought it back again, in a facsimile edition. About a year or so ago, Gary released a CD version; I got that too, then when the book came along recently, I grabbed that as well. I already have a couple of editions (modern ones, not antiques!) and Alexander has others I don’t have. But better to have too many, than not enough. It’s not like there’s a lot of 17th c books on the subject.

If you don’t have a copy, bop over to Gary’s site & get one. cheap and clean. If you have one, maybe you need a shop copy in addition to a shelf copy.

http://shop.toolemera.com/shopmechanickexer.html

(all that disclaimer stuff – I have never met Gary, tho we have exchanged some emails. I have no interest in this gig, and I paid for my copies…so there. If it stunk, I would have said little or nothing. It’s worth getting.)

If you have Schwarz’ version of Moxon, http://www.lostartpress.com/product/da5ef04d-4805-4b1e-aed4-9bfc84c19591.aspx  you still need this one, that one is only the chapter on joinery.

I added some leather to my leg vise, and to my dogs. I can tell that the gripping power is much improved. I also built a new shooting board. It is more robust, and has a low friction plastic strip screwed to it so the plane's side will slide smoother. And lastly, I cut off part of my wagon vise hand crank because I was tired of it protruding above the bench top. That's all for now, I have to figure out what to do with all of this leftover leather.

The Mastercrafts TV programs have generated tremendous interest in traditional crafts and highlighted the dedication required to learn the skills. What comes next? another series? we hope so. An end of show mastercrafts party? well sort of.

The Heritage Crafts Association have been working hard to raise the profile of these crafts and bring all the crafts together to campaign for better support and work out ways of keeping the crafts alive and flourishing in the future.

Next Tuesday at the V&A in London things come together. The HCA are holding a forum and press launch event and most of the Mastercrafts mentors are coming along with members of the production team and the book publishers. There will be editors from Crafts magazine, Craft and Design, Country Life, and Jon Henly from the Guardian amongst other journalists who write on crafts. 

At the morning Forum we have representatives of a wide range of crafts organisations from the Basketmakers and Pole lathe Turners to the Craft Potters, Calligraphers, Woodcarvers, Feltmakers, Lacemakers, Upholsterers, Weavers Spinners and Dyers, Artist Blacksmiths and many more. These folk will discuss what we feel is important about traditional crafts and why they should be promoted, we'll discuss what the issues are that face the traditional crafts today and find out if they are the same for all of us or differ across our different areas and finally we will look at how we can work together to ensure the best traditional craft skills survive and flourish in the future.

In the afternoon we have the official press launch with working craftspeople showing off their skills to invited guests including politicians from the Lords and Commons, Craft consultants from funding agencies and trusts, directors of Crafts Council, Craft NI and Craft Scotland amongst many others.

So what will come of all this? What is the aim of the day?

Well it's difficult to say really, we do not want to preempt or impose our ideas on the outcomes of the forum. We will be as interested in listening to what all these crafts have to say. We suspect there are common issues and we hope that there is a feeling that we are all in this together and can work together to share the best of what we do and pass it on to the next generation.

We are very sorry that since the forum is being funded primarily from the committees own donations it has had to have a strict limit on numbers.  We wish many more of our supporters could have been there and we hope to run a larger more inclusive event not too far in the future.

The other exciting news of the day is that we will be launching our friends scheme. Our supporters will now be able to take a more active role in the organisation but signing up as a friend and paying a small annual sub of £12 folk will be able to help us take the work of the HCA on to the next stage. We will not spend this money on expensive membership packages and we will not be spending much time and money actively recruiting. Rather we hope word will spread as it has done so far by word of mouth, we wish to return I guess to the original idea of charities where folk join and give money because they believe in the good cause rather than for the attractive membership package. Friends will all get a vote at the AGM of course and priority invitations to  future events. If you have been waiting to be more involved I am afraid you have to wait just a little while longer. The friends page will go live on the HCA website on Tuesday.

I like William Pain, as some previous posts have intimated. Usually I can't afford William Pain. Once in awhile the Fates look my way (although some people have surmised that a Fate looking your way is not a good thing) and Mr. Pain finds his way to my bookshelves. Twice this has happened. Not thrice, but twice. Mr. Pain was quite the 18th Century writer: William Pain (c.1730–c.1790) The Builder's Companion and Workman's General Assistant (1758) The Builder's Pocket Treasure: or, Palladio Delineated and Explained (1763) The Practical Builder (1774) The Carpenter's and Joiner's Repository (1778) The Builder's Golden Rule...

Der kleine Fuchsschwanz entwickelt sich: Klaus hat mir den Grif geschickt, damit ich die Zähne testen kann.


Subtitles:

Klaus send me the handle. Now I can finish the saw sharpening.

I’m back from another trip down to Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia. The Liberty passes we bought last October have definitely paid for themselves since this is our 3rd trip down there. For a woodworker this is a great place to go. For a woodworker like me who is fascinated by history and proud of my American forefathers, this is like Disneyland! This time around was a little different. The weather was glorious with sun and upper 60 degree weather. It was the last week before the official season begins so the crowds were low and the interpreters were warming up their presentations for the bustling masses that will descend in the coming months. This meant that we were fortunate to get the “extra” bits of history that they normally don’t have time to tell you. The house tours that normally run 15-20 minutes during peak season can sometimes run 45+ minutes when there isn’t a line forming outside.

This means that I got to spend a lot of time in colonial interiors and up close and personal with southern Queen Anne or “Neat and Plain” furniture. I particularly recommend the Peyton Randolph and Everard houses for a look at fine furniture of the Virginian Gentry. Another great spot is the newly opened Charlton’s Coffeehouse where you can sample coffee or chocolate and get to see and use some more common furniture.

And don’t forget the DeWitt Wallace museum. This is like Winterthur south of the Mason Dixon line, where you can really get a look at southern furniture.

I also got to chat with the historic tradespeople extensively. Over the next few weeks I will be putting up individual posting on the woodworking related trades practiced in Williamsburg. I also will be heading back for a full week in early June once school lets out for my wife and will have an opportunity to ask more questions put forth by any of you who follow this blog.

In the meantime, I urge you to head over the Williamsburg website where you will find a bounty of information. This is an organization that has ironically embraced 21st century multimedia marketing and has well over 300 podcasts in audio, video, and enhanced formats. Pay particularly close attention to the episodes on the historic trades and you will learn a lot about cabinetmaking, brickmaking, wheelwrighting, coopering, joinery, etc, etc. There are also several trade slide shows and videos that contain great pictures of the tools and processes for each trade.

The motto in Williamsburg is “that the future may learn from the past” and it is indeed a noble pursuit. Regardless of our woodworking passion, there is so much to see and learn from this trip and you cannot but be proud and impressed with our founders and what they have wrought. You may be surprised at just how little things have changed in 250 odd years politically and socially.

The sights are beautiful to take in and you can easily get lost in the moment and be transported back to the last half of the 18th century. Most of the trades still practice the apprentice system and this is run by the Historic Trades department. Apprentices are taken on for 7 year contracts and in almost every case the folks I spoke with had little to no knowledge of their craft when they started their apprenticeship. Many of them either joined the foundation as an apprentice or had spent time working as a tour guide or retail shop worker before making the leap into a lifelong pursuit. This was inspiring to see and the extremely low turnover in the employee ranks is a testament to the experience each of these tradesmen live. I must admit that my thoughts are turning to making my relationship with Williamsburg more of a professional one and you can believe that I will keep my eyes open on this apprentice program and will be the first in line should something come available. Anybody want to put in a good word for me?

As a parting thought, the woodworking world seems to have gained an interest in design lately. This is largely driven by the intelligence of fellow SAPFM member George Walker. For those of you who follow his column and blog you will appreciate the proportional ecstasy provided by this structure.

Can you tell I really like this place???

Have you seen this man?

We chose the dividers from Moxon, our first publication, as our corporate symbol.  I say corporate as a joke because if you know us you know we are hardly corporate.  Our lofty goals for Lost Art Press are to publish information that other companies won't and to make enough money to support our tool and alcohol purchases which by the way, are substantial.

Anyway, I wanted to refer you to a podcast that I have found called The Logan Cabinet Shoppe.  The purveyor of this blog is Bob Rozaieski.  He is a Sith from the dark side of woodworking i.e. hand tool only guy.  On his site he has put a video chronicle of the building a porringer top tea table.  If you go to Quick tip #4, you get to see how he designed the tea table using proportions based on column orders.  The entire design starts with the height of the table which was restricted to fit a particular space in his house.  From this known limitation he then designs the remainder of the piece using only dividers, to include determining the curves of the cabriole legs.  The video is done in a clear color coded manner and is easy to understand.

I wanted to thank Bob for taking the time to put this information out there for us and let others know about this great video podcast.  In case you want to know what a hand tool only Sith looks like, here is a picture of Bob from his site.

Regards
John

I’ve owned my custom woodworking business for 13 years, and the financial
shake-up of the past few years seems to have prompted a lot of people I
know to adhere to a “don’t move, improve” philosophy when it comes to their
homes. Rather than simply trading up to bigger and fancier houses, a lot of
my friends and clients are looking for creative ways to make their current
homes work better, and the kitchen is one of the first places that they
look. Kitchen remodels – of whatever scale – are a great way to build equity
and maximize functionality and aesthetic appeal, and I wanted to write a
book that could help people navigate the process of planning and executing
their own projects.

As I prepared for this project, I took a pretty thorough look at the kitchen
books that were already out there, and I learned a few things that guided
the direction that this book ultimately went in. I found that most existing
books either fell into a “how to” category that detailed the construction of
cabinetry, or an “inspiration” category that focused on full-page photos of
dream kitchens. I didn’t really feel a need to  reinvent those wheels, but
in talking with David Thiel at F+W Media (Popular Woodworking Magazie's parent company), I found that we had a shared vision for a book that could be a bit of a hybrid. We speculated that it might be useful to show how the design process works, and then describe how to jump through the logistical hoops that make creative ideas a reality.

This combination approach, I think, makes this book not only unique but
genuinely useful.

Because there is no single correct way to plan a kitchen project, the book
presents a wealth of general principles that readers can apply to their own
projects, and then I sought to take it a step further by detailing some of
the projects that I’ve been involved in over that past couple of years.
These case studies go way beyond simple before-and-after photos and really
delve into each step of the process.  I think that this synergy between
theory and reality should be pretty interesting. To take things a step
further, I conducted interviews with architects and kitchen designers whom I
admire and got their perspective on how to create practical and beautiful
kitchens. The DVD documents some of these interviews, and I think it is a
fun and casual way to soak up this information.

In terms of practical advice, I tried to provide a lot of information about
how to plan and schedule projects so that they move along efficiently, and
how to avoid many typical remodeling pitfalls. For those who are inclined
to get their hands dirty, I included a lot of how-to tips about cabinet
construction, drawer-making, and much more. And, just to be clear on this,
the book isn’t just for remodels – it is also just as handy for brand-new
kitchens. The same basic principles apply to just about any situation. So,
whether your kitchen dreams are modest or bold, and whether you plan to do
it all yourself, or you’re simply looking for a good overview of the process
so that you can help to coordinate with the other people that you’ll have
on-site, I think that book should be invaluable. Happy reading!

– Chris Gleason, Popular Woodworking books author

Click Here to Order "Kitchen Makeovers for any Budget"

I have a good friend whose has spent a lifetime collecting arrowheads. He’s got scores of display cases with wonderfully colored flint tools, and many more boxes of broken cutting tools, stone hammers, axes, and various tools for grinding corn. Here’s a nugget of wisdom. Don’t be too quick to volunteer to help an arrowhead collector move. Anyone, whose collection is primarily made of stone, makes for a lot of heavy lifting. What never ceases to amaze me is how humans were able to take the most basic simple materials and create wonderful and useful objects. This brings me to my favorite woodworking tool, the lowly dividers. What could be simpler? A pair of pointed sticks joined at a fulcrum. No wires, chips, servo motors or sensors. Yet for centuries this simple tool was fundamental to science, art, and building (including crafting furniture).

I was pretty excited when the folks from Popular Woodworking Magazine contacted me about the upcoming Woodworking in America Conference this Oct 1st – 3rd in Cincinnati Ohio. Chris Schwarz wondered if I could put together a session on using dividers in the woodshop. Shazam! That sounds like fun. I’ve got more than a few tricks up my sleeve about how to use dividers to make quick and accurate (math free) layouts at your workbench. Most exciting of all is I plan on assembling some material to help you visualize how to “think proportionally”. After all, what makes dividers really powerful is they can be used to collect data, but not the kind of data we are used to. We are used to collecting numbers with a tape or digital calipers that help us comply with a plan or specifications. Dividers help us collect and manipulate proportions. How is this door frame in proportion to the raised panel? How is the thickest part of this leg proportioned to the thinnest and to the overall height? If sharpening is the touchstone for unlocking hand tool skills, using dividers i.e. thinking proportionally is the key to design.

George R. Walker

Earlier, I posted an entry about the number of table saws in use in the United States. (Click here to read that piece.) In the post, the figure was pushed from 700,000, as represented in The Oregonian, to four million or more. But that number may be a bit short, too.

While reading a copy of the Journal of Trauma, as mentioned here, I discovered that the actual number is between 6 and 10 million saws.

— Glen D. Huey

I dislike the look of saw screws that sit on the surface of the wood, so they need to be inset. Which isn’t all that easy if you try to do it with Forstner and regular bits (drill a small (1/16”) pilot, counter sink both sides, then drill out to screw diameters). One of the blogs on back saws mentioned using a piloted counter bore, these are usually for metal so I was all over it. It consists of two parts: the counter bore (sorta like a end mill in that it bores a flat bottomed hole) and the pilot, which has two diameters: one that fits in the pilot hole to center the counter bore and the shank that fits inside the counter bore itself. The counter bore I use is 7/16” and a 3/16” pilot with 5/32” shank.
Using the saw plate as a template, I drill (use a drill press with a depth stop!) a 3/16” hole at each plate hole (3/16” because it is close to the body drill for a #10 screw (which is a #11 drill, 0.1875” vs 0.1910”) and you can get a 3/16” pilot), then counter bore each side. I use 7/16” because that is the size of Lee Valley counter sink washers. I make the T nuts out of brass rod with a 1/4” shank so I have to drill out one side from 3/16” to 1/4”. I usually screw this up (need another counter bore!) but not too badly so it works OK (if not, I just drill out to 17/64”).