Hand Tools

As of today. a member of the Guild of Master Craftsmen.

 

Now let’s go through some less commonly used writers – not actually pencils – that can help in the shop.  First is the one with the thick lead in the wooden handle. This is the CretaColor 5.6mm white chalk lead. Plain white chalk is a decent alternative. The black charcoal lead is less useful but […]

Lightening the workshop has been long overdue and I decided it was time to sell off the tools I do not need. The clutter had slowly built up over the years and I reached the point where I only wanted the essentials. I also let go of a large amount of timber that looks impressive but is not friendly to hand tools. American ash, red oak and similar species look beautiful in finished work but planing them is another story. When you are young and strong you treat it as a good workout. That is no longer the case for me and with ongoing back issues I simply cannot fight timbers that feel like stone.

I am not a woodworker who keeps a jointer tucked in the corner or a thicknesser ready to roll out. I have always worked with hand tools only and I have stayed true to that. I hand plane boards to thickness and I take rough sawn timber all the way to a finished surface using nothing but planes and scrapers. All of that puts real strain on the lower back and over time it has caught up with me which is one of the reasons I had to rethink what timbers I work with and what tools I keep.

When the cost of living went up I underestimated how much harder it would be to sell things, but they are moving slowly. Something I did not expect was how little interest there was in a rosewood mahogany industrial stain I tried to sell for years. I still have five litres left which is just over one gallon for readers in the United States.

I had gallons of the industrial stain made specifically for me and it never went off despite what some people think. The industrial version is nothing like the common off the shelf stain. Industrial stain is mixed to a formula, has stronger pigments and deeper penetration and is made for commercial finishing shops that need consistent performance. Off the shelf stain is thinned out, weaker in colour strength and produced for mass retail where cost and ease of use matter more than quality.

Stain can last a very long time if it is solvent based and kept sealed. Solvent based stains do not spoil the way water based products do. The pigments settle, the solvents separate and it may look unusable, but once mixed properly it returns to its original state. As long as the lid seals well and the container has not rusted through it remains usable for many years. Water based stains have a shorter life because bacteria and mould can form in the liquid, but industrial solvent based stain is far more stable.

Last night I tried the stain on a sample piece for a project and I expected it to look ordinary. I was wrong. It looked better than I imagined and I am relieved I did not sell what I had left. It reminded me of how easily people overlook good materials simply because they have never used them.

Clearing the workshop has made me more aware of what I actually use and what I was holding onto out of habit. Letting things go has also shown me that knowledge plays a major role in what people choose to buy. Some know exactly what they are looking for. Others walk past quality without realising it.

Sorting through everything has also made me think about how my work has changed. I do not work the way I did twenty years ago and there is no point pretending otherwise. My back limits what I can push through and the timbers I choose now have to make sense for the way I work. Once I accepted that it became easier to decide what stays and what goes.

The workshop feels calmer with less in it. There is more room to move and more room to think. What is left are the tools and materials that fit the way I work today. It feels like a step towards working with a bit more clarity and a bit less noise, and there is nothing wrong with that.

 Same o, same o, with the cold. I feel like I'm in a rut not getting better and not regressing neither. Still have the cough, still hacking up pounds of phlegm, but I'm sleeping better. Haven't woke up trying to cough my lungs out through my mouth. If I still have the cough I'm going back to the VA acute care.

no before pic but an after pic

Top drawer enclosure is 99% done. It looks a lot better than what I expected it to.

it is gone

The gap I saw it when I glued up is gone. This was a pleasant surprise. This top will be visible so, no gaps allowed.

left side

The tails are a wee bit proud but no gaps. One small chip missing on the far right tail.

right side

One errant slip on the far left tail baseline. Wasn't paying attention and the chisel wasn't in the baseline when I whacked it. Other than that boo boo, this looks better than the other side.

the fix

The plan is to glue this quarter round molding flush with the back edge. That is step one.

step two

Cut and fit the back. Then glue it against the inside face of the moldings. This will never be stressed in any way so it will be adequate.

hmm......

This short side toes in enough for it to be a PITA. Using the scrap of pine pushed it outwards until it read square.

short legs

These were a little tricky to hold and true up the miters but I got it done. Thought about how to do the bottom molding - nothing to glue it to but air. Decided to do the top and sides first. Then glue the panel to those 3 moldings and after it has set, glue the final molding to the panel.

3 times was the charm

I did good on the first 3 but on the last one I wandered out into La La land 3 times. It is confusing to me and I sawed the miters correctly but on the wrong face twice. Before I got it right I did a practice one on a 6 inch scrap molding.

ready

I left this one a few frog hairs long for just in case. Fingers crossed that I don't lose it before I need it.

sigh....

The diagonals are a 1/8" off. Something must have shifted when I moved it from the workbench to the tablesaw to cook.

worse side

Without the drawer in, the opening looks square. With the drawer in, it looks bad. This is the kind of thing that happened with me a lot of years ago. Time to see how the left drawer looks.

better than the right one

Smaller gap and at least it is the opposite of the right side.

fitting begins

You know the drill - plane, make shavings, check the fit. Wash, rinse, and repeat until the gap is parallel, even, and consistent top to bottom.

almost

The drawer is tight against the side at the top. I'll wait and save this for later, after I have the center stile installed.

oops

Realized here that I had made a me-steak. This orientation is wrong - this is the bottom and the bottom should be the top.

survived

Both of the drawers were a bit tight. I had to plane some off the tops of the drawers before they slid in/out easily. The good thing is the drawer edges are good. No uneven gaps and the margins on both look better than the first fitting.

compare right and left sides

I took a lot off the right side fitting the drawer. Unfortunately I had also taken off the right side when I had fit these drawers to the first cabinet I made them for.

hmm.....

The back edge of the drawer is a wee bit on the thin side. It is barely a 16th at the top tapering out to a little thicker at the bottom.  I'll have to keep an eye on this.

ready to go

The center stile is next. I am going to dovetail it at the top and bottom. The other option is a half lap but I'm not keen on that. There isn't anyway to hide the center stile connection so I think visually a dovetail is a better choice.

history repeats

When I last tried this joinery on the last cabinet I had made the same me-steak. This one is about a 32nd shy between the baselines. Not something I want to use putty or veneer on to hide any gaps. 

strike two

The gap on the 2nd one is about the same as the first one. I was going to invoke my 2 same me-steak rule but I said no. Been a while since I worked the whole day in the shop. Instead of killing the lights I worked on something different.

just in case

Made 6 center stiles, 5 are for just in case. I'll find out in the AM how many of these I burn through.

need four

Used one of the errant center stiles to get the plugs for the through groove holes.

good match

I had to fix the chip missing on the tail because on the side you could see it. Plugged the through groove holes and would you know it that the top side had the bigger holes to plug.

filling the gaps

Hide glue and cherry sawdust to make my own wood putty. This is the first time I've tried cherry and hide glue. Curious as to how dark this will look after the glue has set up. I'll find out in the AM.

accidental woodworker

Pencils are tools. Nearly every project in the shop involves using them, and using the right ones for you really helps. I will explain my preferences. Of course, yours may differ but hopefully the lists in these posts will be of value.  The list starts with a good-old #2 (neutral HB lead) hexagonal wooden pencil […]

Thinking about auger bits translates me back to a strange link we might none of us be aware of in the day to day, but at one time it would have been a godsend to certain cultures and so too today’s world where spiral elevators are used to raise solids and liquids from one level...

Source

 Wow. Nine days of feeling like crappola. I've been fighting this cold/flu/whatever for 9 days that I counted but it doesn't include the week or so before I started counting. I'm still not feeling 100% but maybe something around 60-70%. I haven't strolled in almost two weeks now and I'm dreading the day I venture out to do it. It might be tomorrow and just a 1/2 lap to get back into shape.

need a groove

I figured where the groove should be so it would be hidden but nixed it. It would be too far in from the back edge. Instead I ran the groove a 1/4" in from the back edge and I'll be filling in a few holes later.

it fits

I was expecting the fit to be snug but it was loose. Not self supporting by any stretch of the imagination. The back is captive 360 so the looseness isn't a problem.

fitted

I didn't escape this unscathed. My first rip cut was 5/8" short on the width. The second one was dead on.

ends

Sawed the pins and removed most of the waste. One down, one to go.

sneak peek

I like this and I think I'll skip making the top of it a tray. It has sufficient length and width to house keys, wallets, etc etc.

hmm......

These are all the pieces for the top drawer enclosure. I don't want to plug holes from grooves on this so I'm thinking of alternative ways to attach the back. Gave it my best goofy looks but drew a blank here.

Yikes

This confirms that I'm an idiot. Glued the box together and I didn't put the back in. I only noticed it when I spun the box around checking the tails and pins. Got lucky and I was able to whack it apart, apply a bit more glue, and get it back together again.

needed some help

I had to clamp the long diagonal to bring the box into square. I was able to close up some of the gaps in the tails but not all. What is helpful is the gaps are mostly on the small ends.

road block

Got the TPI on this screw but not the size. According to the chart the 18TPI is for a 5/16 screw. No way this is a 5/16 screw. I'll have to search for how to match the TPI to a screw.

sigh

The front of this end snapped off at about the 1/3 mark. Glued it back but there is a gap on the half pin now. Not sure how I'll deal with it but making a new enclosure is at the top of the fix list. 

accidental woodworker 

A customer of ours, Konstantin, carves and whittles and gave us at the shop a wonderful carving a bird that is a composed of a series of whittled fans. It's all two pieces of wood, one the body and tail, the other the wings.

This is a traditional carving and the wings of the bird are made up of feathers which are carved by cutting the profile of the feathers and then slitting the profile into individual feathers, and twisting them so they lie flat and interlock.

The bird is an extremely charming piece of work and we thank Konstantine for letting us keep it. It's hanging out on the checkout counters - so come by and take a look.

If you are interested in this type of carving and whittling, the best book I know of on the subject is one I have had since I was a kid. Whittling and Woodworking by E. J. Tangerman is a comprehensive volume on all aspects of whittling, with practical examples, and also all styles of carving. The best part is that a lot of the samples of traditional carving are from pieces at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and are still on display there.

 I spent a couple of hours in the shop today. When I woke up I didn't feel so hot but that changed as the day went on. Don't feel 100% but better than I did yesterday or the day before. I stayed and kept working in the shop until the quitting bell rang. First time in over a week that I had spent more than 30 continuous minutes in the shop.

tails cleaned up

Blue taped a chip blow out but the chip missing on the left is history. Unfortunately the bottom board is what I chose to be the top. I'll have to rethink that whether I fix the missing chip or not.

4 done

Took my time and chopped the four small pins in the AM session. Planned to whack out the 4 larger ones in the PM session.

big chisel

Used a 1 1/2" chisel to chop the large pin waste. I find it is easier to keep the baseline straight using the widest chisel possible.

done

Overall I'm happy with how this came out. Not my best work but I would place in the top ten.

my me-steak

This was the tail waste where I didn't allow for the chisel moving backwards. This is the top up face too. So I have a couple of tail gaps and a missing chip so far to deal with on this face.

the bottom

Much better looking bottom which has now been promoted to the up face. All the sins on the original top will now be unseen on the bottom.

doesn't look too bad

The scale of this doesn't look oversized at all IMO. The center stile is tight and won't go all the way to the back. The left drawer is not square with the opening. The diagonals for the front opening are dead nuts on. The right drawer margin is ok - it is even top to bottom on the right.

got lucky

The sapwood on the tops of the drawer blends into the sapwood on the bottom side of the top. I'm going with although I still like the grain pattern on the original choice.

much better

I squared up the left side of the left drawer. The margin is consistent now top to bottom. In hindsight maybe I should have waited until I glued the carcass before doing this. I should be alright because the ID of the carcass is square as is the drawer now.

center stile

With the drawer squared up, the center stile is now loose in the gap between the drawers.

I was prepared

When I laid out the opening I used the left one. The right one was the one that was going to be used to make the center stile.

hmm......

Sneak peek. I wasn't sure how this would look - would the top drawer thing scale or just look odd. I'm ok with this as it is.

choices....

The bottom one I picked to match/blend with the top grain pattern and having lots of color. The top one has straight, uniform grain that matches the drawer enclosure and the grain of the top. Bottom one is out for the drawer front and the top one is the winner.

tails for the top drawer enclosure

The drawer in this will be about 2 1/4" high OAL with a usable interior drawer height of about 1 7/8". That would be sufficient for it to be used as a watch drawer?

area for the back

The drawers are not the same length. The right one is longer by over a 1/2". This is how much room I have to put the 1/4" cherry back in.

hmm....

The cherry panel is wide enough for the grain to ran vertical. I am going to run it horizontally so it goes in the same direction as the  length of the carcass.

accidental woodworker 

 Slept good last night. When I woke up for the toilet trot races I coughed. I didn't wake up at all because I coughed. My symptoms for a cold/flu seemed to have paused and resumed. Feeling better, but I'm being cautious about them now. The after effects of this cold/flu could run on for a couple of weeks. Day/night Quill along with cough suppression medicine appears to be working. Spent most of the day in the rack nodding out and watching You Tube. I'll probably do the same tomorrow.

from Mortise and Tenon

This was supposed to come on monday but instead it spent the night on my front step in the rain. Luckily for me it was packed in a large box with a lot of packing paper. It wasn't wet and none of the pages were stuck together.

center bit info

This book was originally published in 1903 and republished again in 2025 by Mortise and Tenon. This came out at when hand to machine work was getting started. I got it mostly for the info like how to sharpen center bits. The book is loaded with a lot more lost hand tool info. It will take a few days to wade through the information pool.

Based on the writing I think it was written in England, or written on this side of the pond by an Englishman. Not a deal killer but the written language around the turn of the century wasn't like the prose of today. Makes reading it more interesting.

No shop time at all today. I didn't even go to the shop. Feeling better, but weak as new born babe. Maybe tomorrow I'll finish up the last of the pins.

accidental woodworker 

 Last night was the worse night I've had since I started counting the days of this cold. I barely slept and I was coughing so much my hernia site hurt. Every cough sent waves of agony through it. My right hip (the metal one) not to be out done, sang arias with every cough too. A miserable )@&%$)%)_@_*)( f-&%#ing night I hope to never happen again.

last night

After dinner I went to the shop and sawed the pin waste. Did good with no over cuts into the sides or below the baselines. This was as close to the baselines as I felt like getting to.

detour

Got a comment about running an imperial 1/4-20 through the Whitworth tap and die. I could see a difference in the threads as I only did about 3/4" from the bottom. No real effort required to run the die on the imperial threads. However, it didn't help at all. These threads were a bit looser than the original screws and they wouldn't tighten down neither. Back to square one on coming up with a fix for this headache.

wasn't hacking up my lungs

Wasn't coughing so I decided to check the fit at one corner. I didn't see or feel any problems. It should go together fully once the pins are chiseled and cleaned up.

hmm.....

Not too bad on the tail side. I anticipate that these small gaps will close up once the glue swells them.

not horrible, not good neither

I knew I would have gaps on the pin side. I rushed chopping it and paid the price. I moved the baselines several times and I could see it exactly when it happened. I might be able to close some of the gaps when I clamp this. I'll deal with them after the glue up.

1710 today

This was my only trip to the shop today. That was to retrieve my camera for the pics for today's blog post. Spent most of the day in bed sleeping. Blissful, non coughing, sleep. Depending upon how I feel, tomorrow I'll chop the last of the pins. Slower and paying more attention.

accidental woodworker 

For our first-ever Black Friday Sale, we’re offering 15% off all cribbage boards. Shop now… first come, first serve.

And yes, you get free shipping within Canada and the US, too.

Sale ends November 30.

 I finally broke down and went to acute care at the VA. I dislike going to the doctor but the cough was getting out of hand. I tried a cough and chest congestion medicine for two days that kind of worked. The phlegm I had been hacking up by the pound was gone but the cough shifted into overdrive. It woke me up at 0200 and I thought I hacking up bits and pieces of my lungs for the next 3 hours.

I was concerned that I might have contracted Covid but the test for it came back negative. That was good news. The doc said my lungs were clear which ruled out pneumonia - the two fears I thought I had were zero. The doc said I had a viral infection and gave me some pills for the cough. He said that they will make me feel a lot better. We'll see how modern chemistry performs, eh?

sawing the pins

I like the tape idea for where the baseline is. Even with glasses and the baseline highlighted with pencil it was still difficult for me to gauge when sawing. Can't mistake where the baseline is now.

pins sawn

In spite of trying to hack up my lungs I intended to spend time in the shop today. That got flushed with my trip to the VA. I got back to the barn at 1430 and decided to wait until tomorrow for sawing the pin waste. No matter how I feel I'm going to spend some time in the shop then.

accidental woodworker 

Have you ever come across something that works unexpectedly well, or even perfectly? Like when packing a box and all the items fit in nicely with no rattling? Or when you finish building something with just a handful of scraps?

I come across these happy coincidences quite often. When I encouter them in daily life, they are a reminder that good design works. When I encounter them when making something, they are often encouraging as I take them as an indication that I’m on the right path. Good design works.

Take for example this happy coincidence that I came across today:

I needed to cut a series of hexagons with a 14 inch width. After laying out the shapes (read below to learn how I drew them), I first cut them into triangles with my track saw. (The hexagons were being cut from large, 2 inch thick slabs that were not flat, so the track saw made the most sense to me.)

Then, to make them hexagons, I needed to cut the other 3 corners. For this, I decided that my sliding table saw was the most efficient tool to do this with accuracy and repeatability. I set the crosscut fence to 30 degrees, then pondered how to ensure repeatable positioning.

The normal method of using a stop block wouldn’t work, since not all the corners of the triangles were intact (e.g. the corner extended past the edge of the material, as shown below).

My next idea was to use the diameter lines to align to a mark made on the crosscut fence. Although this would require manual alignment, this method would offer acceptable accuracy and be farily quick to position each cut. Plus, the clear-anodized aluminum crosscut fence readily accepts pencil marks. I grabbed a pencil and combination square to make the mark and discovered…

Remarkably, in order to make the cut, the diameter lines would have to be located right at the end of the crosscut fence. No adjustments to the fence were required, and no marks needed to be made on the fence. How cool was that?

How I Laid Out The Hexagons

To lay out the 14 inch hexagons, I used a compass with pencil, pair of dividers, and a square. Below, I demonstrate drawing a smaller hexagon on a scrap.

First, I set the compass to 7 inches (half of 14) and drew a circle for each hexagon. I used a compass with a pencil, though I could have also used a pair of dividers to scratch the circle which would have been more accurate.

Next, I set the dividers to the same 7 inches by placing one point in the centre divot and the other point on the circumference.

Then I walked the dividers around the circle, leaving 6 equidistant divots around the circumference.

Finally, I connected the divots on opposite sides with a straight line, and drew a line square to that and tangent to the circle.

I extended the tangent line in the other direction, then repeated five times to complete the hexagon. Remember to leave enough room around the circle for the hexagon corners.

This black walnut tray started out as an experiment in rehydrating kiln dried wood. One of the carvers in my October class asked me if I had ever tried soaking a block of kiln dried wood to bring it back … Continue reading →

It’s been a banner year for the Barn Clan, with grandson #3 born in February and grandson #4 born last Friday, giving us quite the inventory.  As the fates would have us all the grandsons live within five miles of each other, so Grandma Barn is always ready for a road trip.

Good thing Grandpa Barn has bins of tools ready for the new hands.

 I thought I had turned the corner but I was wrong. So badly wrong. Late in the afternoon the cold I thought was on its way out returned with a vengeance. The cough was back triple worse, the snot locker was clogged again, and my throat hurt. I guess it is going to be a few more days of feeling miserable.

is it an omen?

All of the taps are starter ones. Not a single bottoming tap in the lot. Could it be a hint of the quality of them? I don't anticipate using this much so it may last me long enough to leave it to the grand kids.

great chart

Lists all the British Standard threads. Everything needed to tap a hole and thread a screw.

back side

Same info for imperial threads. There is also British Standard thread for 47 1/2° - didn't know that existed. All the drilling info is in metric - no imperial.

hmm.....

As much as I like chopping the waste, sawing most of it and then chopping is the way to go on this cherry.

done

Got all the waste chopped. I checked all the sides of the tails square to the face. I still have to clean up the baselines and the corners before I mark the pin boards.

This was all I did today. This little outing exhausted me. I felt like I had worked hours while it was barely 20 minutes. Having a cold sucks big time when you have the urge to make sawdust.

missed it

This is on the outside face on the top. This must have happened when I knocked the waste out. At least I didn't have this headache when sawed the waste.

accidental woodworker 

But not my very, very personal ones. Over the last few decades I’ve accumulated more woodworking hand tools than perhaps I should, but there again, it’s all been for the best of reasons. I have written to books, fifty articles for magazines, and then a thousand blog posts. Factor into that a thousand video episodes...

Source

Using the Hackett Sub-Sea 3.2ton hoist to raise the new(old) timber racks. The Hackett winch is British engineering at it's best, it works, it has to; designed for undersea work on oil rigs etc. Old faithfull, timber trolley, plays a crucial role also. 

Fine adjustment with a larch beam and oak block fulcrum, on the trolley, to get the bolt holes to line up.

Manual handling with safety and confidence in your tools. Love them; they deliver again and again.

 Started to feel normal today. Coughing less and I'm no longer hacking up globs of puss. I think I'll be back in the shop friday - at least that is what I am shooting for. If nothing else I will go there and just sit and watch You Tube.

done

Got the other side tail waste cut out. No boo boos and no expletives expended. More importantly no over cuts.

 

hmm.....

I expect that I will have gaps on the baselines. For some reason I assumed that since I removed most of the waste I could chisel directly in the knife line. I was wrong as I saw the chisel move backwards when I struck it. Oh well, I have a container of cherry sawdust to make wood putty with.

came today

Got my British Standard Whitworth tap and die set today. The box is MDF but is still nicely made. 1/16th up to 1/4 inch.

hmm......

There were 3 starter taps. I was expecting at least one bottoming tap but I can chase the threads with what I got. There was something in the threads and I got the tap to run in/out freely through both holes.

die holder

Both screws went through the die without any hiccups. It felt a little loose but there were no hindrances running it in/out.

tap holder

This is a simple tap holder. Considering what I payed for this set it fits. The quality isn't shouting at me with the paint on the tap and die holders being questionable. The tap holder worked and held the tap securely in spite of its looks.

clear and clean

Got my hopes up because the tap cleared out something in the threads. The fit was loose but not as loose as the die with the screws.

toast

Badly burnt toast too. The threads are clean on the screws and the spokeshave but the screws spin freely - neither one would tighten and stay there. I don't have any ideas on how to restore the threads that I can do in my shop. The only red neck idea that popped up in the brain bucket was to fill the threads in with JB Weld and tap it again.

accidental woodworker