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There are a few well known tricks in woodworking, such as using a deliberately blunt chisel as a scraper, using a slightly dulled chisel for hinge mortises to reduce tear out, the old cabinetmaker’s trick of burnishing end grain with the back of a chisel, and various tricks popularised by people like Paul Sellers and Rex Krueger.

But the one I’m particularly thinking of is one nobody really knows who invented.

Using a chisel sharpened to a square 90 degree edge so it acts as a scraper rather than a cutting tool is an old workshop technique. It appears to have been known by toolmakers and cabinetmakers long before it became popular on YouTube. There is no documented inventor that historians attribute it to. I actually wrote about it extensively in the magazine on planemaking and demonstrated it on YouTube eight years ago before my account was hacked.

The person I learned it from, and most responsible for popularising it among modern hand tool woodworkers, is probably Bill Carter. He demonstrated grinding a chisel square and using it as a scraper, particularly for planemaking and fine fitting work. Modern references to the blunt chisel technique often trace back to him.

The idea itself is not unique to woodworking. Metalworkers have used scraping tools with blunt cutting angles for centuries to remove tiny amounts of material with great control.

At first glance it sounds ridiculous. Why would anyone intentionally ruin a perfectly good edge? The answer becomes obvious the first time you use one. A sharp chisel wants to dig. Even with careful control it can suddenly follow the grain and remove more material than intended, which can be a costly mistake. A blunt chisel behaves differently. Because it cannot slice into the wood, it removes material slowly and predictably. Instead of taking shavings, it scrapes away fine dust and tiny fragments. You can work right up to a line with a level of control that is difficult to achieve with a sharp edge.

This makes the technique especially useful for planemakers. Bill Carter used blunt chisels when fitting plane beds and mouths where removing even a fraction too much material could ruin the geometry of the tool. The technique also works well for cleaning up difficult grain, removing small high spots, and fitting parts that require absolute precision.

If you want to try it yourself, take an old chisel that is no longer your favourite. Grind the bevel away until the edge is square to the back. There is no need to hone it. Hold it almost upright and push it forward like a scraper. You’ll notice immediately that it behaves very differently from a normal chisel.

If you’re not sure what I mean, I’ll leave some video links below. Bill demonstrates his quick method of blunting the edge and raising a burr, and Richard Maguire from the English Woodworker goes into considerable detail about it, though in good jest I’d say he does somewhat overcomplicate the sharpening side of things. Richard is one of the most knowledgeable and pleasingly pedantic woodworkers I watch, and I trust that what he tells you is accurate and properly researched. That matters more than it might seem. Far too many content creators have jumped on YouTube hoping to make money without giving much thought to the misinformation they spread, particularly around history. The claim that carrots were purple and genetically modified in the 16th century to become orange springs to mind.

http://www.billcarterwoodworkingplanemaker.co.uk/select-a-technique-below/1-using-a-ground-off-chisel/

June is here and the birds and flowers are bursting with enthusiasm. I’m mostly making final preparations for my upcoming shrink pot and lettering class at Pete Galbert’s, but I wanted to take a moment to post this bowl that … Continue reading →

I’ve got a 12-inch radial arm saw down on the first floor of the barn, but it has not seen one second of activity since it was moved here thirteen years ago.  I’m just not doing anything that makes it necessary.  However, on the second (main) floor I’ve got a 10″ chop saw that gets used regularly to make long boards shorter for whatever reason.  For some tasks I use the cross-feed sled on the table saw but far more frequently I’m just chopping something up.

One of the great features of the chop saw is that it is quick and easy.  One of the lousy features is that it made a huge mess even when I hooked up the “dust collector” outlet to the shop vac.  Even when everything was hooked up properly sawdust went all over the place and it required a local cleanup with every use.

I finally got tired of this nuisance and made and installed the lowest possible tech solution, which reduces the sawdust cloud by about 99%.  I looked through my mountain of boxes piled up on the third floor and found one that fit my needs.  Equipped with a utility knife and a roll of masking tape I fabricated a box shroud to fit over the back side of the saw, complete with a port for the shop vac hose.  At this point the only thing missing is a fitting to glue to the portal for plugging in the hose, but even with just a rough hole cut in the side of the box the collection is magnificent.

The five volume compendium "Turning and Mechanical Manipulation" by Charles and John Holzapffel started with Volume 1 in 1846 and ended with Volume Five in 1884. A planned sixth volume was never completed. The series is a treasure trove of hand tool technology. Volume Four, on Plain Turning, and Volume Five on Ornamental turning are the bibles of their field.

Unfortunately the Holtzapffels, both father and son, may have been great tool makers but they were crappy writers of how-to books. In the time between their era and ours, "how to" instructional books have become more engaging and and much more than just a recital of facts. And of course, the act of writing a book - whether in the 19th century or today - doesn't of itself confer an engaging writing style. As a matter of fact, most Victorian books I have plowed through are pretty turgid. I can claim the honor of having read all six volumes of "The Morning Chronicle Survey of Labour and the Poor" a a groundbreaking 18491850 newspaper investigation into the living and working conditions of the British working class mostly written by the crusading Morning Chronicle journalist Henry Mayhew. I found the section on Billingsgate Fish Market to be particularly evocative and engaging - nearly two hundred years later, you can still smell the fish. Later in that section Mayhew notes that the description of the fish market section was contributed by his colleague at the Morning Chronicle: Charles Dickens.

But back to Holzapffel. I realized that in order for me to understand treadle lathes, I would need to plow though Holzapffel's description of using a treadle lathe - possibly the only instruction on using a treadle lathe specifically with hints on treadle speed, how to stand, and other treadle specific info - however turgid I found his prose.

I found it tough going. Too much of my time was spent getting lost in the text (in a bad way). And then I had a brainwave: what would happen if I took the important bits of the text and fed it into the AI chatbot Claude? I asked Claude to take the text and turn it into modern English. And it did - and wow, what a massive improvement. So here ya go. I don't have the time to do the entire book - you can if you want to; it's pretty easy - but here is what I hope is the first section of something useful. The PDF is also posted on the Gramercy Tools Treadle Lathe product page.

One important point. I look at this modernized version as a inexpensive translation. One wonderful feature of the modern internet is that Google and many services will do an instant language translation for you. The translations are rarely perfect and may miss the nuance and discernment that a real translator can provide. However, it's hard to imagine how a niche project like modernizing inaccessible language in a classic woodturning text could ever be economically viable, so having a starting point is great.

A note on the text: As I wrote in a previous blog, "softwood" in this time period included all the furniture woods, including oak. "Hardwood" referred to like Ivory, Rosewood, Ebony, and Boxwood. Meanwhile, a lot of modern forms such as roughing gouges hadn't been invented or named yet and so are not mentioned in the tools section.

Here is the link to the modern version of chapter seven.
and here is a link to the entire volume four in all its glory.

PS We used to stock reprints of all five volumes of Holzapffel but slowly they have gone out of print. We do have a single copy available of Volume Two which covers construction, action, and application of cutting tools and the machines derived from hand tools.

 The miniature cherry chest isn't done. I'm waiting on the screws which are coming friday, but I'm still applying shellac too. In between doing that I started and almost finished the cherry bench/stool/plant stand. Came close but no cigar but I am so awfully close to being done with it. I have already started looking ahead to what will be coming out of my shop next.

rearranging the shop

I needed the workbench to be cleared off so I can work on the bench/stool/plant stand. I need the bench to plane and clean up the rails and legs.

cleaned up

All the rails had burn marks that cleaned up easily. The legs were mostly burn free but had saw marks to plane smooth.

hmm......

Legs and rails sawn to length and dry fitted. The stretcher I'm leaving over length because I haven't decided how I'm going to use it. This gives a peek at what it will look like which IMO ain't too bad.

swapped out

Removed the 1/4" drill block and installed the 6mm drill block. Looking at my stock of dowels, 99% of them are 2" and 1 1/2" 6mm pins. I have about 40-50 1/4" diameter, 1 1/2" spiral dowels.

6mm dowel in a 6mm drilled hole

The dowel fits snug and I mean snug. I can't push the dowel into the hole with my hands. No probably driving it home with a hammer. As an aside the 6mm dowels fall straight through the 1/4" diameter drill block bushings.

oops

Got ahead of myself and drilled a hole I shouldn't have. The rail will cover about half of it but not all.

scratched off the bucket list

I have wanted to put a butterfly on a split/crack for a bazillion years. The split/crack here doesn't extend straight through to the other face. It only goes less then half way. 

hmm......

This came out better than I expected. I have a gap here at this end but the rest of the butterfly is gap free. This is going to be the up face of the top. If this butterfly had come out crappy I would of placed this face down.

The depth of the mortise is about 5/16" deep and I sized it so that I could use my small Stanley router to get the depth consistent.

stretcher

Still figuring out how to do this. Overall I want the stretcher to keep the bottom of the ends from moving in/out. I kinda have an idea but that won't happen until after it is glued and cooked.

panic time

The glue up plan was to do the ends first and then the two long rails. Things went south on me first when I couldn't align the 2nd bottom rail with the top one. The top rail fit on both ends but the bottom one was off.

I thought it was me not drilling the holes correctly so I drilled one more. That did diddly squat and left me with a hole I had to plug.

the problem

When I drilled the dowel holes I did them opposite of each other. The holes on this end should have had the closest dowel to the edge on the right and not the left. The other end of this rail I drilled correctly. Drilled the holes again in the right orientation this time.

another me-steak

After the screw up from above, I was checking the holes lining up and they do. However, I saw another misalignment that I'll deal with after this has cooked.

2nd _*&%@)(@*_)(_#@ me-steak

When I put this rail in I thought I had done it right - making sure the slot for the table clip was facing the inside of the base. Missed that by a mile. I had remembered to do the table clip slots with my plunge router but I'll have to chop this one by hand on the other side of this rail. 

I made this same brain fart on Miles's desk and the fix to hide the me-steak is I'll cover it with a thin slat of cherry.

hidden brain fart

While I was trying to figure out why the bottom rail holes didn't align, I drilled two holes on this face that I'll have to hide somehow. These won't be partly hidden though but will be staring right back at me.

one more

I had a couple of drips and runs that I had to card scrape away. It is going to take a couple of covering coats of shellac to blend them in. I should be done with the shellac tomorrow. Before glamour pics I'll have to wait for the screws to come in.

hmm.....

Clamped and cooking away until the AM. I have been thinking of the stretcher and I think I have decided how to do it. I will notch the ends to go over the rails - not a full half lap joint but a 1/4 one. We'll see how that shakes out in the AM.

accidental woodworker 

I’d like to share my process with a series of pictures to illustrate the process. I’d be interested in hearing from other framers who make their own frames and moldings. Basswood begins with 5/4 stock which I try to get at least 7″ wide. A combination of hand planes and a power planer will yield material that is about 1 1/16″ to 1 1/8″ in thickness. I hand plane every surface of the boards after cutting them to rough length and finished width. For this profile I wanted a slight chamfer on the edge which was cut with a low angle block plane.

To support the painting I cut a 1/4″ groove on the inside of the piece about 1″ from the top surface. Plywood (1/4″ thick) is eventually glued into it to support the painting and strengthen the corners. The corners are strengthened further with a face frame sized biscuit. Miters are cut using my shop made jig on the tablesaw and the frame is glued and clamped overnight. In the clamped picture you’ll notice a spring clamp in each corner; there is another piece of plywood on the backside to strengthen that — I know: overkill!

I keep projects glued up over night and check for any misalignment, glue, scratches, etc. before starting the finish process — it is so easy to miss them; don’t ask me how I know!

The first step to the finish process is to use Zinsser Seal Coat shellac on every surface. Once dry I lightly sand with 400 grit paper. Next up is taping off the top edge to apply a flat black paint to the inside of the frame. I tape down about 1/2″ from the top and use latex simply because it’s easy to clean up. Once that’s dry, the black areas are taped off so that the gray burnisher/sealer can be applied. Prior to applying the slow set size the frame is buffed with 4/0 oil free steel wool. In my experience, whenever an area is taped off for gilding it’s best to press the taped area down firmly and remove the tape right after gilding. I used to wait until the size was completely set (24 hours or so) but that could result in a jagged edge. By carefully pulling the tape off before the size has set I find that any leaf that wants to rip off can usually be pressed down while slowly pulling the tape off.

Imitation silver leaf always needs to be sealed to prevent it from tarnishing, my preference for that is Platinum Blonde shellac made from flakes. Since the paintings for both of these frames have a blue palette the shellac was tinted with French Ultramarine Blue dry pigments. To tone down the garishness of the silver leaf it was lightly buffed with 4/0 steel wool prior to airbrushing on the shellac, you can see the difference it makes in the left photo. After the toning was dry, cotton pads and Liberon clear Black Bison wax was used to rub out the shellac and add a slight sheen.

The final step of course is to install the artwork. Holes are located and drilled through the plywood using a 1/4″ forstner bit. I’ve found that the forstner leaves a clean hole which allows for any slight adjustments. Number 6 screws with washers are used, the hole size allows for slight adjustment. My process is to use spacers to center the painting and then locate the holes from underneath the frame. They are pre-drilled with a gimlet and the art is attached with the screws, snug at first to allow any adjustments in case the painting is slightly out of square; this does happen sometimes! One thing I like about the depth of the frame pieces is that the D-ring can be installed so that it isn’t visible from the side. In the picture showing the back view you can see the gusset that is glued into each corner.

So there it is, my process for floater frames which I’m happy with as is my wife and her gallery. Are there any other frame makers that use a similar process? Like I said earlier, Las Vegas doesn’t have a thriving art scene so there are few that I can share frame making with.

The Abraham boys and their posse are at it again and Handworks 2026 is barreling down the pike.  It will be Friday and Saturday of Labor Day weekend, in the lovely village of Amana, Iowa.  I’ll be there again close to dead center of the Festhalle, hawking my wares such as they are.  Polissoirs, beeswax and shellac wax, videos, and original c. 1765 Roubo prints, etc.

It’s the most amazing tool festival of hand woodworking you will even encounter with visitors and makers from around the globe if the tradition holds.

I’m already ramping up my truckload of stuff to take with me, at the moment creating a pile on and under a workbench I will be taking and making wax processing part of almost every day from now on.

This just might be my last long road trip other than family priorities.  We just don’t have the oomph for drives like that anymore.

 I had my annual peepers check this AM. Got there at 0730 for my 0830 appointment. I went early because Rte 10 gets nutso with rush hour traffic. It worked in my favor because at 0740 my annual exam began. An hour later I was driving home with 20/20 vision. It seems like every year the exam takes a wee bit longer and they add new tests and checks. Hopefully that is what it is and not because I can't remember what happened a year ago.

chest attached to the base

I used two screws on each bearer to secure the chest to them. 

not rocking

Happy with this. I was expecting some rocking because the base had a teeny bit of twist. Maybe the chest pulled it straight but it doesn't matter. The chest is tight and flat to the bearers and base ain't rocking.

moldings

Got  the four moldings sawn out over the lengths needed. This is as far as I got in the AM session. My peepers were dilated and I was working with sunglasses on and it wasn't working. I couldn't focus and see clearly so I went upstairs and did the crossword and sudoku puzzles.

up side of the lid

Got the first coat on the lid and it didn't pop like I thought it would. I like the sapwood and the black grain lines. There are black gum pocket/lines on the back stop too. Subsequent coats of shellac should pop this.

sizing the moldings

The molding under my finger is a test piece. I used it make sure the front molding is positioned dead on the corner.

yikes

I had seen this but I thought it was a black gum pocket. The peepers still weren't operating at 100%. The screw was too close to the edge and caused the bulge.

fixed

Squirted some glue in to the crack and clamped it shut. I'm lucky with this fix because the molding will hide all of it. 

first one done

Got the first molding set, checked, then glued and nailed in place. The plan is to repeat this for the two short ends. The last one I will trim/fit between the short open ends.

got 3 attached

Fitting the last long molding in place was batting next.

sanding stick

Used a 120 grit sanding stick to sweeten the miters. The corners of the chest after planing and sanding were slightly off 90°. 

sigh

Over corrected my trimming and the last molding is short. This gap is too wide (and ugly) to ignore. I have one more piece of molding left to replace this one.

the problem

This short side molding is a few frog hairs short of the corner. I pulled this one off and used the last long molding to get a new short side one.

new molding

Got the left corner tight.

ditto for the right side

Happy with the fit of the miters on the back. Glued and nailed it off and with that the moldings were done.

hmm.......

This was the molding I had dyed the bare wood and I can see a color difference between this and the other three. Got lucky because I wasn't pay attention as to where this molding was going. If it had been at the front I would have ripped it out and replaced it with a new molding.

decided

My choices were to rip out one of these to match the 1 1/2" square leg. Instead I'm going to knock these two down to 1 1/2" because they are the exact same length.

done

I got one leg blank for any oops that might bite me on the arse.

done

I got all the parts needed for this bench/stool/plant stand. Four legs, 6 rails, and one stretcher for the bottom rails . The board on the right is an extra rail, again for any potential oops.

In between getting shellac on the cherry chest I'll start working on the new project. I'll be doweling this like I did for Leo's desk. I will use the 6mm dowel jig I just bought for my Dowel Max jig.

accidental woodworker

Here are the dozen hand-blade scrapers that I use. In upcoming posts, I will discuss usages, techniques, and how to sharpen them.  These are all steel in the hardness range of Rc 48 – 52. Most are Lee Valley. Lie-Nielsen and Bahco are similarly very good. Thickness dimensions are inches/mm. Top photo, left column, top […]

I love tales like this.  I knew of an instance in some southern swamp where they discovered an ancient sunken cypress trunk that was so valuable the salvage company had around-the-clock guards protecting it until they could find just the right buyer who had just the right project.  I vaguely recall it went to a developer who was going to use it in all the public spaces is a huge skyscraper somewhere.  I think the dimensions of trunk were 48+” diameter at the top and 180-plus feet long.  That’s a mighty big tree.

I’d heard the asking price was $7 million.

Many years ago back in Maryland we had a micro-burst that uprooted a number for mature tulip poplar trees, the largest of which measured 24″ in diameter at the first branch, which was at the 60-foot mark.  I was unable to find a sawyer willing to deal with it, so given the cycle of life it has now gone back to the earth.

Saint Thomas shrine

Tresoor / dressoir for Castle Hernen

Medieval toolchest

Strycsitten

Savonarola folding chair

14th century X-chairs

Sedia tenaglia

Turned triangular stool

Sella curulis

St. Thomas / St. Joseph bench

Scapradekijn / hanging cupboard for Amsterdam Castle / Muiderslot

https://thomasguild.blogspot.com/2017/09/the-scapradekijn-for-muiderslot-part-6_15.html

15th century bench

installing the hinges

I always try to do my hinging the same way. Which means chopping the hinge gains on the wider board/part first. Then repeat for the other (thinner) one.

stop and move on

A big chip out happened the first lid hinge - I super glued it and clamped it with a piece of blue painter's tape. While it set up I chopped the other hinge.

yikes

A hinge is MIA. I spent an hour searching the house retracing my steps trying to find it and nada. I almost bought another set of them from Horton Brasses. Hint - look at the far end between the vise faces. The MIA hinge was hiding there.

nice touch

Horton sends steel and brass screws with their hinges. However, I had two strikes against them already. The first is they are phillip head screws and secondly, they are too long. They aren't too long for screwing into the chest but they are for screwing into the lid.

I tried ordering some black oxide, #4 x 5/8, flat head screws and nada. In fact I was ordered a lot of screws to get above the minimum and they only had two of the 9 screws I tried to order. I ended up buying brass, flat head slotted screws off the internet. It was site I hadn't ordered from before.

no help

I had no #4 x 5/8" screws in any flavor and the #5 x 5/8" screws I had were too big for the hinge countersink. I'll have to wait for the screws to come in. 

yes they are 3/4" long

I thought of clipping/filing the screws down to 5/8" but nixed it. I'll cool my heels and wait. Once they come in I will paint the heads black.

prepping for shellac

All the woodworking is done except for attaching the back stop on the lid. The glue joint on the underside of lid wasn't flush. A few strokes with the card scraper and it was.

swagged hinges

I made both gains the thickness of the leaves which left me with this big gap. I expected that and to lower it I will trim the gains on the chest until I get a gap I like.

handle template

Drilled the holes for the handles now rather then after the shellac was done.

better looking tear out

The grain on the front at top reverses three times along the length. I skewed a #3 and got most of it to look presentable. I followed that up with a card scraper. I didn't get it all but enough. I stopped because I didn't want a hollow in the front between the chest and the lid.

sneaking up on it

The gap I wanted needed about a 16th to go bye bye. Used the router plane to sneak up on that - took me 3 plane and checks before I got there.

almost there

I was slowly reducing the gap but I didn't like this one - still too wide.

done

Trying to avoid the lid becoming hinge bound. That would require adding shims to the gains which was the opposite direction I was going in. I'm happy with this one. The lid is laying flat on the front edge and the angle from the back to the front is a frog hair off 90°. (It sill may get sucked down some when I screw the hinges in place too.)

first coat of shellac

I like watching the first coat of shellac pop this cherry. I can't wait to see what it looks like with 5 or more coats slapped on it.

last of the woodworking

I had 3 coats on the underside of the lid and set the back stop in place. I used a couple drops of super glue along the length to hold it in place while I screwed it off.

last one

Five screws and a few drops of super glue secure the back stop. All the woodworking is done. The oohs and aahs will commence after the last coat of shellac is on.

easy oops fix

I forgot to remove my center line pencil mark on the back edge. Shellac is very forgiving with something like this. Card scraped the pencil mark and put shellac on this and it disappeared like it was never there.

3 coats on

Got four coats on the underside of the lid. Next batter up is marrying the chest to the base. Then I'll attach the cove moldings and finish applying shellac to the chest and lid. I should be snapping glamour pics on tuesday (for Wednesday's blog post?).

couldn't get it to flow

The cathedral grain doesn't flow around the chest in one direction. I tried to do it but it wouldn't work out. I wanted the sapwood on the outside of the chest and couldn't get the cathedrals to cooperate. 

next project

Most of these scraps of cherry have been hanging out on the tablesaw and they have to go. I think I have enough here to make a small table/bench/plant stand. 

leg stock

The two bigger ones are too big for this project. The thinner one is 1 1/2" square and I think that fits better with the overall scale of what I intend to make. I'll start on it after the chest is done.

I found something that will turn brass black - Birchwood Casey Brass Black Metal Finish. Heating brass doesn't turn it blue/black but this will. Coming from Amazon tomorrow.

accidental woodworker

My son asked for a desk or table, as all he has in his room is an end table that's too small to use a chair with. I had saved some ideas and thought this would be a good match. The inspiration is from Bill Hylton's Country Pine Furniture. My son helped with most of the steps.

photocopy from the book

The only wood that I had enough wide and thick pieces to use was maple. I think that's a good choice as it should be hard enough that it won't easily get impressions, as compared to poplar, pine, sycamore, etc. Most of the maple is curly. Curly maple looks nice but I am hesitant to handplane it because it tears out so easily. Not many handtools in this project.

marking out soft / curly maple

We marked out the pieces leaving room for snipe. The widest pieces can be used to make the lid and the aprons. The thickest pieces were 1 3/4" and will be legs. All of these pieces were sent through the thickness planer at least a couple times to smooth their faces.

nice and smooth

Some of the maple had bug holes. I do not find them delightful. I fill them with clear superglue and scrape them level later.

we can't have holes in our desktop!

The first step was to glue up the lid and cut it to size. The lid is large and heavy. I have concerns about it staying flat. Breadboard ends would be a good idea, and what are pictured in the plans, but it will be easier to go with battens. I'm also worried that if it slams shut it might break along the glue line. Maybe I can add some of that toybox hardware that keeps lids from slamming.

two wide pieces to make the lid

After the lid's size is set, the base can be made to fit. The base has four legs and four aprons. I am using dominos for all of these joints.

The side aprons are slanted. For these angles I followed the plans. I cut both sides at once on the bandsaw so they would match. After they were cut I set a bevel gauge to match the angle, in case I needed to transfer it to other pieces later.

the side aprons are angled

I needed to make angled cuts on the tops of the front legs. I crosscut these on the bandsaw after tilting the table to match the bevel gauge.

side apron mating with over-long leg that needs to be cut tilted table to match

Then the front apron needed a matching angle on its top edge. This was a rip cut with the same angle.

the front apron needs to be beveled to match

The long taper of the legs were also cut on the bandsaw. I have a plywood sled and leave the edges hanging over the side as I push it through. On one leg I cut the tapers on the wrong sides. We had planned on the ugly faces being on the back, but I had to rotate that leg 90° to make it work, so the ugly side will be more visible.

long tapering cuts on bandsaw

Before gluing the aprons and legs together I tried to smooth everything. In the next picture you can see my tools:

planing scraping and sanding

The card scraper is used for 90% of the work. A smooth plane or #80 scraper can help for the larger bumps or ridges. I also use a hand sander, mostly for the corners and edges.

Before gluing anything together we applied one coat of transtint Honey Amber and then handsanded back. This is supposed to add some depth to the curls.

applying transtint in water don't crank down too hard

I glued up the short, angled sides first. After this I decided to add pins, as I wasn't sure glue alone would hold everything together. Not all of these joints are square and flat and flush and tight. So I drilled 1/4 inch holes and made 1/4 ash pins, as I have done a couple times before. The pins in these tenons were not drawbored, which saves a couple steps.

split ash to make pegs hammer through a series of smaller washers

Later the front and back aprons were added to complete the base. In the picture the base is resting on the bench with the legs hanging in the air.

four legs and four aprons

next day AM session

I checked the base for rocking and immediately was annoyed. The top was rocking a teeny bit and the bottom twice as much. Spent my first ten minutes getting the top and bottom to be rock free again.

new bearers

Didn't have any cherry so I used pine. They are snug fitting and dry - no nails or glue. Before I commit to this I wanted to make sure it is going to work.

first fit was good

The bearers felt snug and they held the weight of the chest on them. No rocking which put a happy face on me. Took the chest out and put it back in again and it was rocking.

not rocking

Checked the chest but it was still laying flat on the tablesaw. I was getting the heebie jeebies about this base and chest ever getting married.

a happy sigh

The far left corner is down - that was why it was rocking again. Evened the bearers out and checked the chest and no rocking.

baby steps

The plan was to nail the bearers on, no glue, and checked the chest for rocking. 

oh what a relief

Bearers nailed on and the chest is dead flat on them - zero rocking.

hmm.......

Leaving the nails in the bearers. I didn't want to risk pulling them off, applying glue, and then nailing them back on. 

screwed the bearers

I added screws to the bearers one at time. After screwing one on I checked that the chest still wasn't rocking. Got them all screwed off and the final check of the chest still had no rocking. Much joy and dancing in the streets of Mudville commenced and lasted for hours.

cleaning up the base

There were a lot of shallow tear out spots that the sandpaper wasn't removing. I had to use a card scraper to finally remove them. I used a #3 only to flush the pins/tails at the end. I didn't want to risk tear out planing the entire length of the sides.

shellac and black dye

Trying this to see how it will look on the cove molding I dyed yesterday.

not black enough

This is the back side of the molding that I didn't dye. I guess I was looking more for this to be a deep black like it was paint.

the dyed side

I don't like this look at all. I thought some of the red oak would peek through but it isn't. This molding doesn't look like wood to me.

from ACE

I  had to make a grocery store run and ACE is in the same parking lot. $10 for a pint can of cherry dye.

cleaning up the chest

This took a lot of time and a ton of calories. Used the #3 to flush the tails/pins on the corners and sanded the chest after that was done.

hmm........

The middle one was dyed on the bare wood. The other two I put a seal coat of shellac first before applying the dye. The middle one is dark but not as splotchy as the top and bottom ones are. They are also lighter. The cherry dye IMO doesn't look like cherry. I think I like the red oak dye was a better match for cherry. Regardless I am going with the cherry dye as is for the cove molding. It will be a contrast between it and the chest cherry.

it worked

Made a template for the handles and tested it on a piece of scrap pine.

back stop

Rounded over the top edge on the front and back to soften it. Got the hinges laid out and stopped here for the day. My wrist was hurting probably from the  RO sander work I did. I'll get the hinges done in the AM. After that is done I can attach the back stop to the lid.

accidental woodworker 

For the last eight years, Hannah has worked alongside Paul as his mentee. As we move, she has cleared her things from the workshop, but there are two pieces she has no room for and would much rather see go to someone who will love them than put into storage. Paul offered to share them here.

For the background to the move, and for the workbenches Paul is also letting go, see his post here.

Both pieces are entirely hand made, using hand tools for around 98% of the work.

Craftsman-style rocking chair in oak, £300

Hannah's Craftsman-style rocking chair in oak. She is asking £300, though Paul reckons it is worth at least double that.

Sofa table, £300

A sofa table of Hannah's own original design, again beautifully made. It really has to be worth £2,000, but with no space to keep it she would rather you grabbed a bargain at £300.

How to buy a piece

I have four hand-made workbenches that have served their purpose, and they need to find new homes in the next few days. Over the years I have given away a dozen benches, along with tools and equipment, to organisations supporting people with different abilities and disabilities and with other health and wellbeing needs. Those were the benches from my hands-on classes. Like the airlines, though, I can only carry so much excess baggage, and these four must now go.

Here is what is available.

The two "video" benches, £300 each

Two of these are the benches I built to film the bench-building series in my garage workshop (they were both built at this time, but we don't recall which one was actually built on camera), so they carry a little fame with them. Both are little used, and both have excellent, barely-worn Eclipse 9" quick-release vises fully installed and ready for work.

They are very similar in size: about 5' 4" long (give or take an inch), 3' 2" high and 27" deep. One of the two has a tool stow that adds 7" to the width. Both are made from good-quality kiln-dried construction studs, and they are robustly strong and weighty enough for any kind of woodworking you care to name.

The New Legacy bench, £300

This one comes from my New Legacy School of Woodworking. It is 5' 6" long, 23½" deep and 38" high, and it is very robustly built to last a lifetime of woodworking.

The roof-timber bench, £300

This last one has a different story. While the first three benches here were made by my own hands, this one was made by John, whom many of you will know. It is built from the Scots Pine joists and beams taken out of my own house when the builders put an extra room into the loft. It departs a little from my usual English joiner's workbench: the stock is heavier, there are twin tenons on the cross rails, mortise and tenon throughout, and a dovetailed drawer. It is exceptionally well made. It measures 5' 4¾" long, 26½" deep and a little taller at 38¾" high.

It is well worth £1,000, but I will settle for the first £300.

Add a set of hand tools, £150

I can also supply a set of hand tools, well suited to anyone pursuing hand-tool woodworking, to go with any of the benches. The set is well-used but highly functional, freshly sharpened and ready to go to work. For £150 it comprises:

• Two handsaws
• #4 and #5 bench planes
• Combination square
• Coping saw
• Dovetail saw
• Tenon saw
• Layout knife
• #78 router plane
• #80 scraper
• Set of chisels
• Chisel hammer
• Sliding bevel
• Dovetail template

How to buy one

A non-woodworking post – but it has a hand-made 19th century door in it. Some friends & I often chat about the birds we see around the neighborhood and in one of those conversations recently they re-told me a story of a door in their house. It came out of an old house here in town about 50 years ago. Though I had heard the story, I hadn’t seen the door until this spring – of didn’t remember it anyway.

As far as that sort of thing goes it’s a nice, but pretty common, white pine door. Shiplapped boards, clinch-nailed battens. I like how some of the boards taper in width – that’s a nice feature. Its original configuration was from a house-to-a-shed. I don’t know what went on in that shed, but someone kept notes written on the door about the weather and comings and goings of nature – 

Here’s what I can read from the middle of that section:

1890

Bluebirds Robins + Blackbirds 

10th of March ______ _____ ___

First Crickets Aug 7, 1890

First frost of the Season Sept 25

Crickets on Oct 10 [Rainy? ???]

   “           “     “    16

First Snow flurry Nov 11 1890

These notes are scattered all across the top half of the door. Some legible, most less-than legible. There seems to be no rhyme or reason to the format – one year is here, the next is elsewhere.

On the top cleat are some notes from 1886 – then right under them 1891

top cleat

I can’t quite make out the top line but just below that is:

“First white frost of [the season?] – with the date just past the nail head – “Sept [21?] 1886
Heavy freeze Oct 4 1886″

Then right below that a line setting off the next entries for 1891

“1891 Robins and blue birds Mar 15
Crickets heard first time on Aug 9″

It goes on – but that photo cuts it off right there…it spills onto the next photo. “Frogs Mar 20 Crickets….” [illegible]

So – if you’d like to help decipher what’s written on this door, I’m all ears. I shot large photo files – and if I’ve done it right you can view and/or download them – but you gotta have a dropbox account…

I wasn’t sure of a way to create downloadable files here on this blog – and I gave up trying.

Any of you with graphics wizardry might be able to improve the photos to bring out the writing. The earliest date I’ve seen is 1872, latest maybe 1894 or 5. I think this link will bring you to a folder of 30 or so photos. If you can transcribe stuff, key it to the photo’s number

I tinkered with the brightness & contrast on this section from the 1870s

1870s

the bottom third I get:

“Crickets Aug 1st 1877
” heard distinctly on
Oct 15 1877 after a very Warm day”

Anything you have to add, leave a comment or send an email – PeterFollansbee7@gmail.com

That’s right, sometimes cleanup is the exact opposite Christmas.  Usually in the aftermath of a deep cleaning and reorganizing of the barn I find that I suddenly cannot find something I need.  In the “Before” I knew exactly where that thing was even if the overall spatial composition was more similar to a maelstrom.  But at least I knew where item X, Y, or Z was.

Yesterday I needed to sew something up but could not find nor remember where I put the stinking sewing kit.

Grrr.

Samtsirhc indeed.

 I went back to the shop after dinner last night intending to spend a few minutes checking out the base/chest rocking issues. Those few minutes morphed into almost 2 hours. One thing led into another and I lost track of time. Figuring out why things were going south on marrying the chest to base started to consume me. In the end I still didn't have a clue as to what was going on. 

Instead of adding the pics from that session to tomorrow's post I am writing it up as a separate post for today. As soon as I post this I'll be returning to that headache and commence doing battle again.

the problem

The base has a teeny bit of twist over the sticks both top and bottom. IMO it is no where close to causing the headache with the chest and base being married. I was starting out first by checking the base and the chest for twist.

the flatness check

This is my preferred way to check for flatness and the chest ain't a rocking on either diagonal. I also checked with the sticks and they said no twist too.

hmm.......

Thinking about this I thought that maybe there was a hump on one or more of the bearers. There wasn't, all four were flat and straight.

light assist

I even shined a light behind the rule and no light peeked out on any of the four bearers. 

hmm......

Thought I had found the problem. Two corners had one above the other and two were the rule hit. I evened the ends were they met but that didn't make the rocking go bye bye.

one of the high corners

Both of the high corners were where I had the veneer. I really thought this was the fix boys and girls.

it wasn't easy

Of course where I had to remove some wood was against the grain. One corner torn out and looked ugly.

sigh

I had to shim the ugly torn out corner so the rule lay flat across corner to corner. Got zero joy when I put the chest on the base. If anything, the rocking was worse then before.

checking the offset

Next check on the hit parade was checking the bearer offset from the top of the base to the bearer. It was off less than a frog hair 360 in a few spots.

hmm.......

Clamped the chest to the base. The clamps pulled it flat and tight to all four bearers. I could see and feel them pull the twist out of base onto the chest.

no joy again

The chest ain't rocking on the base but the base is rocking. It wasn't rocking as bad as the chest unclamped but enough to be annoying.

back to square one

Starting over by checking and removing the twist on the base. I wanted to go forward from here with a known, good flat base.

the final check

When doing this I saw that two of the bottom corners weren't square in one direction. Squared those, flipped it and kept at it until there was zero rocking on the tablesaw. Repeated it for the other side. Base was now flat and not rocking on either the top or bottom.

removed

The bearers came off without any problems. I thought with them being glued that they wouldn't come off as cleanly as they did. The reason why I didn't extend the bearers from side to side was I didn't have any scraps long enough for the long side. When I replace the bearers again I will do that.

hmm.....

Still surprised after seeing this pic how easily this cleaned up. I used a card scraper to remove the glue residue. 

last check

According to the straight edge the top of the base is flat, straight, and all in the same plane 360.

hmm.......

This is not the look I was expecting. I put on a 2nd seal coat of shellac and once it was dry, I wiped on the ebony dye. I was hoping that it would be more dark and black. Maybe I can boost that happening with adding some black dye to the ebony?

accidental woodworker

 

I stuck to the plan

After dinner I went back to the shop and glued up the 2nd base. It was twisted a bit so I clamped it flat to the workbench. I wasn't expecting it to do anything but when I took off the red handled clamps, the base stayed flat on the bench. Nothing moved or shifted when I did that. Sometimes you get lucky.

cleaning up the base

It probably wasn't necessary but I planed and rasped the base cutout smooth.

it fits

I had built in wiggle room, R/L and F/B. However, it seems I added a wee bit too much R/L - it was 3/16". But that is what the cove molding is for - to cover any gaps between the base and the chest.

blurry pic

Just as well that this was blurry because the tails on this base have some of the ugliest gaps I have seen in many, many moons. This blurry corner had the worse looking ones.

the other end

This corner looks better but it still ain't good IMO. I will use it and shim all the gaps.

the best corner

This is what I was expecting to see on all four but that didn't happen boys and girls.

homemade putty

Gathered up some cherry sawdust and mixed hide glue with it. I filled in all the small gaps with this that didn't need a shim.

bearers done

I glued and screwed the bearers to the inside of the base.  I will screw up through them into the bottom of the chest.

too high?

The bearers are 5/16" down from the top of the base. That puts the plywood bottom a few frog hairs below the top edge. Not that matters much because the cove molding will hide it. In the pic it looks high to my eye, but in person it doesn't.

bottom on

I nixed just screwing the bottom on and instead I glued and nailed it. Flushed the edges of it to the chest.

lid sized

The lid is a 1/2" oversized on the front and sides. I may knocked that back to 3/8" because I'm not exactly in love with this amount of overhang. 

needs shims

I had 4 pin/tails to shim on this end. The other end I had to do 6. Overall I used 14 shims to close up gaps. 

shim stock

I picked through my cherry scraps and used those that closely matched the chest. The japanese dozuki did extremely well sawing the thin shims I needed.

more homemade putty

I shimmed what I could but there were still a few gaps that looked ugly. 99.9% of them were on the tails. I only had to fill two spots on the short ends.

the cove molding

The first step is to put a thin coat of shellac on so the dye doesn't end up splotchy. I put one spoonful of shellac into the container.

hmm.......

I added 3 spoonfuls of the alcohol from the brush container into the spoonful of shellac. That should thin it so the dye goes on even. I don't think the cove molding is pine but it looks like poplar to me. I don't know if this molding will act like pine does when it is dyed.

two of the choices

The plan is to dye it with red oak first. The right one didn't look like the cherry at all. After the red oak has dried I will apply another coat of shellac as a sealer. After that has dried I will apply the ebony as the 2nd dye.

happy with this

The color came out more even then I expected. It also doesn't look that bad against the cherry. (BTW when I was at Lowes there wasn't a drop of cherry dye in the store.) After dinner this will be dry and I'll put on the ebony. I want this molding to stand out from the cherry and that is why I'm using a dark ebony as the top coat dye. I'm hoping that the red underneath will peek out too.

hmm........

The chest is rocking in the base. The chest isn't rocking sitting on the bench. I stacked up some veneer on the low corners until the chest stopped rocking on the base.

it went south

Took the chest out of the base to super glue the veneer stack together. Put the veneer stacks on the bearers and put the chest in place. It was rocking again. Less than two minutes before it wasn't. WTF?

The chest lays flat on the tablesaw with zero rocking in any direction. Under the sticks it shows zero twist too. The bearers show a little twist but I don't think it is enough to cause the amount of rocking I'm seeing. I'll have to set this aside for now and think on it for a while. 

back thing doo dad or doo hickey

I have a book on furniture styles and the names of the parts of them. What I don't have is one thing that has anything like this. I like the look of it on the lid over leaving the lid flat and unpopulated. A back stop is what I came up with to call it.

accidental woodworker