Flair Woodworks

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.

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.

As a child, I loved journals. I bought many. Each had so many pages with so much potential. I still have them to this day. But aside from my name, they remain untouched. That’s because while I loved the idea of creating a record of my thoughts and ideas, the challenge of filling it with content worthy of the journal was too much for me.

What went wrong? I misunderstood the purpose. The journals were tools for me to record my thoughts and ideas that may or may not one day be realized into something larger. They were not meant to be great themselves.

The idea of creating something perfect was getting in my way of creating anything at all. My vision was preventing all productivity.

Now, when creating anything, I will start anywhere. Write a few words, draw a few lines, make a few cuts, swing an axe. Just make it bold and make it permanent.

No pencils here. No undo button. These allow for revisions and second guessing.

Once the first stroke has been done, I can assess my progress. Do I like it? Should I include or exclude it? This is how some of my best work is done.

Sometimes many revisions are necessary to arrive at the end result, but if the previous revisions don’t survive (e.g. were erased/undone), there is no way to study and learn from the them and understand why the end result is as good as it is.

Right now, this is a blog post. Yesterday it was an idea (actually, it was a different idea). Tomorrow it could be a book, or a billboard, or a tattoo.

I recently needed to make some wall-shelves. I needed three, they needed to fit on a specific wall, and they had to be made of a light-coloured wood. I didn’t have any other criteria or requirements.

The piece of wood I chose to use was a yellow birch cant about 4 x 6 x 36 inches. My first thought was to run it through the bandsaw to resaw it into three shelves roughly 1.3 x 6 x 6 inches, then joint and plane them flat and parallel. It would have been a straightforward process, but I realized that there was a more efficient, and interesting way to make the shelves. It became obvious when I thought about how shelves are used:

Shelves are mostly decorative, with only one surface (the top) functional. Therefore, only that one surface needed to be flat and smooth to hold items and facilitate cleaning, as dust doesn’t tend to accumulate on the bottom of shelves. The other surfaces could be rough, so I could skip the step of planing that side. The bandsawn texture would be interesting and tactile. However, a bandsawn texture can only be created with a bandsaw, and any subsequent processing of the surface changes it. Attempting to adjust or correct the shape in any way would result in an irregular pattern of texture (e.g. a smooth spot). Therefore, the cut made by the bandsaw must be perfect.

Take the following for example. (A) is the desired outcome, where all sides are straight and parallel – a rectangle. However, if the bandsaw’s fence isn’t aligned properly, the blade wanders, or the line is not followed, a taper (B) is the result. Likewise, deviating from the line can result in a convex (C) or concave (D) surface. All of these conditions can be corrected, but would require additional work with the thickness planer (or similar tool) which, as mentioned before, would also remove the tactile surface left from the bandsaw.

With only a little more work, I could make the shelves more interesting by adding some curves. Plus, any irregularity in the cut would be imperceptible.

So, that’s what I did.

After sawing the curves, I used a foam sanding block to gently smooth the texture, ease the sharp corners, and remove the fuzzies. Then I used my best crosscut blade to cut them to length, applied three coats of semi-gloss polyurethane, and installed them on the wall with steel tapered connectors.

If you don’t incorporate curves into your work, I encourage you to try. Here are some of my favourite tools to work with curves:

• Bandsaw, jigsaw, and coping saw
• Coarse, hand-cut rasps, rotary and belt sanders with coarse sandpaper
• Chisels, carving gouges, and drawknives
• Arbortech power carving attachments for angle grinders

I don’t often lay out curves before shaping them, but when I do, these are the tools I may use:

• Flexible battens (strips of wood)
• French curve templates
• Adjustable compass with pencil, and a trammel for large arcs
• Pencil, used freehand

These are my top tips for working with curves:

• When using saws to cut curves, making all your movements smooth will generally lead to smoother curves
• Trust your eye and hands – when it looks good and feels good, it’s good
• Cut joinery before adding curves, or at least make sure you save reference surfaces when shaping
• Be aware where your joinery and fasteners are so you don’t expose them or hit your tools on them

Let me know if you have questions about adding curves to woodwork.