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The alarm goes off at 4am.

My eyes snap open and for a moment the room is completely still. Like a soldier waking to the sharp sound of a bugle, I’m out of bed and heading for the shower before I’ve properly thought about it. The floor is cold under my feet the whole way there. There is no hesitation. I’ve been doing this long enough that my body seems to know what comes next before I do.

Early morning is my favourite part of the day. There is something special about being awake while the rest of the world is still asleep. The house is quiet, the streets are quiet. My workshop patiently waits for me in silence, somewhere out there in the dark.

Outside, I can hear the birds beginning their morning songs, a few thin notes at first, then more of them answering each other. To me, it is better than music. I stand there listening while the kettle rattles and starts to hiss, steam curling up past my face when I pour it. I wrap both hands around the mug to kick start the day, feeling the heat move into my fingers, then step outside and breathe in the cool morning air before heading into the workshop.

As soon as I open the workshop door, the fresh morning air begins to mix with the aroma of timber, that particular smell of sawdust and shavings that’s sat in there overnight, faintly sweet, a bit like standing inside a freshly cut tree. It’s still dark outside. There is something about walking into a workshop at that hour, when the rest of the world is asleep, with nothing but the smell of wood and the task ahead. That’s the part of the day I look forward to most.

I know there is a long road ahead of me, and I don’t want to waste the day.

Most cabinetmaking shops start around 6:30 in the morning. But in a hand tool woodworking world, that’s too late unless you’re retired. Every board has to be prepared by hand. Every joint has to be cut, grooved and planed to fit precisely. There is no machine waiting to do the work for you.

My motto is simple: every detail takes as long as it takes.

So I start early.

Usually I’m in the workshop somewhere around 4:30 in the morning, and I’ll keep working until around 5pm. Seven days a week is not unusual when I have a project like this in front of me. There is a certain rhythm to it. The early morning, the quiet workshop, the sound of hand tools in use, steel on wood, the small grunt of effort you don’t even notice you’re making anymore. Long hours await me as I work my way through one part of the bookcase after another.

Today, however, the work is going to be a little different.

I’m going to carve both sides of the bookcase.

I had spent some time previously looking at antique bookshelves and noticed something interesting. The sides were generally quite plain. The decorative carving was usually concentrated on the front, and even then it was often quite restrained, a flower perhaps, with a few petals and some foliage worked around it. Nothing too elaborate.

That makes sense when you think about how these pieces were made. Carving is slow work. The more detail you add, the more hours disappear into it. Most antique bookcases didn’t need much more than that.

But this isn’t an ordinary bookcase. This one is being made for my son.

I stood at the bench with that thought for a while before I picked up a tool, one hand flat on the cold, unplaned side panel, feeling the grain run under my palm. I’m not making this piece to satisfy a customer, or to get it finished as quickly as possible. I’m making it because I want him to have something that was made by his father, something that can sit in his home for decades, and maybe get passed on again after that, still carrying a little piece of the person who made it. So although the antique examples might have left the sides plain, I decided that mine would not be. I was going to carve them. And this is where the real work begins.

My son and wife had recently returned from a trip through Bosnia and Herzegovina. They’d travelled all over the country, but there was one place in particular I’d asked them to visit for me: Konjic, a small town on the Neretva River, tucked in among mountains and dense green forest. I didn’t care about the scenery. I wanted to see the woodcarving the town is known for.

Konjic has a long tradition of hand carved furniture, with patterns that are immediately recognisable. Geometric shapes combined with stylised flowers, leaves and interwoven forms, filling panels and borders with a rhythm that almost makes the wood look woven. Triangles become diamonds, diamonds become stars, and simple cuts repeated over and over create patterns far more intricate than any one cut would suggest. They found the museum where some of the old furniture is kept, and were surprised to learn the tradition is still alive, some of it modernised, but a lot of the old patterns still being carved the same way they always were.

When they got home, my son showed me the photos he’d taken, dozens of them, patterns from every panel and border he could find. I sat at the computer that evening, the room dark except for the screen, and went through them one by one until I’d found the ones I wanted.

Once I’d settled on the patterns, there was only one thing left to do. I opened QCAD and started drawing, the mouse clicking under my hand while lines built up on the screen, curve by curve, until the photographs had disappeared and I was looking at clean geometric lines I could print out and transfer to the timber. When I carve, I don’t redraw the pattern onto the wood. I glue the printed drawing straight onto the board. There’s little point spending an hour transferring every line by hand when the drawing’s already accurate on the computer. The paper becomes my carving pattern, and from there the real work begins.

I start by gluing the paper to the timber with spray adhesive, the smell of it sharp in the air for a second before it fades, working it down carefully from the centre out with the flat of my hand so there’s no wrinkle or bubble trapped underneath. The paper goes slightly tacky and cool under my fingers as it sets. When it’s smooth, I stand back for a second and look at the pattern sitting there on the raw wood, waiting, and then I pick up the V tool.

The V tool is the one that outlines the design, the irregular curves of the floral pattern, the veins running through each leaf. I set the edge against the paper, rest the corner of my palm on the timber for control, and swing the mallet. Each blow is slow and steady, cut deep, because this will be a relief carving and the depth I put in now is the depth I’ll have to work with later. The mallet makes a flat, dull knock against the chisel handle, over and over, a small jolt travelling up through my wrist each time, and by the time I’ve worked my way around the first flower there’s a fine skin of pale shavings gathering at my feet and a faint ring in my ears from the knocking.

Once the outline’s cut, I switch to a #7, 20mm fishtail gouge and start establishing the background, cutting away the timber around the design so the flowers and leaves begin to stand proud of the surface. Curls of wood peel off with each pass and drift down onto the bench, catching the light from the window as the morning brightens outside. It doesn’t have to be that particular gouge. Any size or shape that suits the carving in front of you will do. The main thing is you take your time and let the shape tell you where to cut next, rather than forcing a shape onto the wood that isn’t there yet.

With the background roughed out, I round over the arrises and start shaping the leaves and flowers as best I know how, running my thumb along each edge as I go to feel where it’s still sharp and where it’s started to soften into a curve. There’s no formula for this part, no measurement to follow. You look at what’s in front of you and use your judgement, a little more taken off here, a curve eased there, until the petals start to look like they’re actually resting against each other instead of just sitting flat. By the middle of the afternoon my forearm has a low, steady ache running through it and there’s a warm patch on my palm where the mallet’s handle sits, but it’s the kind of ache that tells you the work is going somewhere.

The last thing is the background itself. I texture it with short, close strokes, so the surface around the carving catches the light differently to the smooth, shaped timber of the flowers and leaves. Run a finger across it and you can feel the difference before you can see it, rough against smooth. Without that contrast the whole design goes flat and the eye can’t find its way through it.

When it’s finished, I brush mineral turps over the paper, the smell of it sharp and clean, and watch it curl and lift away on its own, no scraping, no risk of scuffing the carved surface the way I’ve seen people do it on YouTube. A wipe with a paper towel clears whatever adhesive is left behind, the wood underneath pale and slightly damp where the turps has been. One thing worth knowing: turps won’t stop the finish from taking later, but if you’re going to glue that area afterwards, either keep the turps off it or let it dry fully first, otherwise it can interfere with the glue. Denatured alcohol is what I reach for instead, when I need to clean an area before gluing, since it won’t touch the spray adhesive enough to lift the paper but it will clean a surface without leaving anything behind.

Now that both sides are carved, I’m ready to glue the bookcase together.

I know you’re itching to know how long it all took, and I’ll be honest with you because there’s nothing shameful about taking your time when you’re making something by hand. Everything took about a week for this first stage. That included planing both sides, though I only needed to flatten one face of each board completely, since that was the face where the dadoes were cut. Then there was chopping out the dadoes, followed by carving both sides.

A full week of work. I stand back at the end of it with my hands still smelling faintly of turps and timber, shoulders loose for the first time all day, and picture him running a hand along that carved edge one day without knowing exactly how many hours went into it, just knowing his old man made it.

I’d say the job’s a good’un.

It’s now ready for the glue up.

I updated my Guitars Currently Available page!

I added "Violante", guitar #50 to the list which will be available later this year! I will post updates on this guitar as I finish it!

The Lorenzo Frignani #221 guitar is now listed on Reverb!

First things first, remove the top, this usually requires breaking most of the top into pieces.

cooked

I resisted the urge to come back and play with this after filling the supper pie hole. When I sawed off some excess the half pin it left was a wide half pin. Due to that I wanted the box to cook overnight in the clamps to strengthen those corners.

sigh

Made another boo boo, brain fart me-steak. Sawed the groove wrong again. Didn't I just do this a couple of days ago? I'm not going to fill this.

sigh, again, and again

I made this boo boo when setting the fence on the tablesaw. I'll fill this one in because it is on the outside face. At least I caught it before I got to the other end.

the lid

Got lucky that I found two scraps of New Zealand pine to make the lid. It isn't my preferred way as I like one board lids but this is a shop box. A two board lid will keep out the dust just as good as a single board lid.

two options

The bottom is overkill and too large for this lid. The top one is doable.

nope

This hinge isn't swaged (not a deal killer) but this does kill it. There is no countersink for the screws. The screws when tightened down would be proud of the hinge leaves. That means the hinge will not fully close even with a generous mortise for the hinge.

right one is the winner

I wanted to use the left one but the screws in the box and the lid would have been too close to the edges. BTW these are both 90° stop hinges which makes them borderline acceptable.

needed some work

The hinge is sized for a #3 screw but all my #3 screws are flat heads and this needs a round head. Drilled it out for a #4 RH.

pilot holes

Used a numbered drill for the pilot hole. My smallest fractional bit was too small. This is about all I use this eggbeater for. It excels at it and the only annoyance is the chuck needs help to open and close.

box prep

Planed the four sides leveling and flushing the pins/tails. Filled in a couple of gaps and once it has set I'll sand it.

hmm......

I had to reset this hinge. The barrel was below the top of the box. The hinge on the opposite side has its barrel sitting less then a frog hair above the top. As is the lid would have protested when opened/closed.

it works

Used a scrap to check the swing the of the hinges. I used tape and the truncated lid swung freely. Both hinge barrels are inline now.

3 hours later

Sizing the lid. I barely had enough overhang R/L but squeaked by. I ended up with the R/L with a couple of frog hairs overhanging with the front of the lid being flush with the front face.

done

Whacked out a quick finger grabbie thing. I had thought of putting a catch but nixed it. No need for it IMO. This is ok for giving a place to open the lid with thumb or finger.

last step

Used the sanding sticks to smooth the end grain ends. Next batter was slapping some shellac on it.

3 coats

I steel wooled between each coat. I'll do that for each coat I put on from here. I also ran my fingers across the top to make sure it was still flat and smooth. 2 more coats and this should be getting a check mark in the done column.

accidental woodworker 

What I like the most about my craft is the days are laden full with work I want to do. I have put in more days than probably, possibly all of you and I still go willingly to work to make something I've designed, picked out my rough-sawn wood for and do not use a machine or a machine process to make with. Imagine, sixty-one years of six-day weeks making every day from wood. I carry this DNA of designing, engineering and making inside me. It's inside you too, most definitely. It's got a name. Identifying it is essential. Its name is 'calling'.

Our humanity is designed to make in the sense that the word design comes from the word designate. Break it down more, and you will find in there the word de= out or from + sign= derived from. Look too to author as in designing something we wrote into being by design. That's the reason I say that we carry within our DNA the ability to own ideas and develop them into multidimensionality. Only humans can capably do this.

So, following hundreds if not thousands of years of mapping out our ideas in drawn from our knowledge of craft, of growing, harvesting, curing, preserving and cooking, such like this, is indeed, in the deeds that we do, hard-wired to trace our design paths by taking the raw and unprocessed ideas into process mode to process it by the logic of our amazing humanity.

When I'm making, I find myself wrapped in a world of intelligent making, a high-demand world of critical thinking, processing, high-level interacting with the raw I process with my hands and mind. There is no passing wood into the mouth of an insatiable machine. My hands take on the full meaning of making and the felt textures speak volumes in my decisions for cutting and processing with a chisel, a spokeshave and a plane of one kind or another. Because I am born to make all kinds of things using my hands, I chose to do just that and never fought it but wholly volunteered into it.

In the same way birds migrate by crossing mighty oceans, deserts and continents so too I follow a call I can scarcely describe. I would that we could all return to our true callings, that vocare that spoke to our inmost being for our trade and working to the days when we knew who we were and what we had to do because the magnetic fields, scents and sights spoke deeply unto deep. Shop work as in vocational training is but a hundred years old and an Americanism that adopted the idea whereas vocation calling is ancient and had both spiritual and physical implications relating to the deep essence of knowing in a deep way what we were to actually do with our lives.

This morning I woke to a live brain and was ready to take on the challenge. Over the days before, I processed design intuitives, patterns worked out to follow that I must volunteer into to ensure the dead-on accuracy of a fully fitted lid. The lid anchor point is unchangeable and non-adjustable.

It's quite hard for me not to find joy even in the difficult things. Whether that is in the actual process or at the final outcome I am never sure. My chemical neurotransmitter feeds on the dopamine to ensure my joy every time, uniting brain and physical sentience every time I work things like this out. Passing it on to you and others heightens my awareness that what I give was also given in my vocational calling.

I love that a mind opens in our working

That we return to our roots of making

Answer the simplicity of dreams to make

and lift the tools by hand to create

what's yet to come from our fingers, fingertips

hand, arm and upper body pressures.

I haven’t written an article for a build project since the days of the magazine. Where’s Matt when I need him? Well, here goes.

The first thing I’d like to get off my chest is that I really don’t know the correct name for this style of bookshelf. I’ve seen them in antique shops and furniture stores described as Indian, Moroccan and Egyptian. So who is right? I have no idea. Perhaps someone reading this can enlighten me. What I do know is that my boy likes them and wanted one, and I like them too, so that was good enough reason for me to build one.

I devoured the internet looking for a style I could reproduce and, to be honest, Pinterest is still one of my go-to websites when I’m looking for gorgeous clocks and furniture. It didn’t take long to find what I was looking for. Once I had found a design I liked, I showed it to my boy and, after getting his approval, I wasted no time getting to work. There is something satisfying about having an idea in your head, finding a piece that comes close to what you imagined and then deciding, right, let’s build it.

You might be wondering about the drawing. Surely I would draw the whole thing up in CAD before cutting any timber? Well, not this time. All I needed to get started was a printed photograph of the bookshelf I wanted to use for inspiration. I’m not trying to reproduce an existing antique piece exactly, so I don’t need its original measurements. I’m building this bookshelf for my son, which means I can make it to suit his needs, the space he has available and, just as importantly, the material I have sitting in my workshop. The photograph gives me the design and proportions I like, while the actual dimensions are mine to decide.

I pulled out a couple of durian boards from the workshop. I think durian is going to work particularly well for this project because of the character of the timber and the appearance it will have once it has been worked and carved. I measured the boards and started working out the dimensions from there. I decided on a finished height of 65 inches (1650mm) and a width of 8 inches (200mm), with the shelves being 7/8 inch (22mm) thick. I deliberately went a little heavier than the modern industry standard of 3/4 inch (19mm). I like the additional substance, and for a piece that is intended to have an antique appearance, I don’t think the extra thickness will look out of place.

The trouble is that my boards are 1 1/4 inches (32mm) thick, so I have a considerable amount of hand planing ahead of me to bring them down to 7/8 inch (19mm). This is one of those jobs where a bandsaw would really shine. When I owned a bandsaw, I would resaw the stock as close as possible to the finished thickness and then plane it smooth to the required dimension. That removed a tremendous amount of unnecessary timber before I even picked up a handplane. Without a bandsaw, however, I’m back to removing all that material with muscle, a plane and a fair amount of patience.

I’ve started writing down how long some of these jobs actually take in the workshop, because it is very easy to underestimate the amount of time involved in preparing timber by hand. It took several hours just to thickness the boards and flatten one side. Once I had one true surface, I didn’t waste time trying to make the other side look as though it had come out of a thicknesser. I only needed to plane the surface that would eventually become the show face, and that is where I concentrated my effort.

This is one of those areas where traditional hand-tool woodworking differs considerably from the way timber is normally prepared today. In modern woodworking, we tend to surface all four sides of a board so that everything is flat, smooth and consistent. Machines make this relatively quick and easy, so there is little reason not to do it. When working entirely with hand tools, however, every surface you prepare is time and effort. I don’t see the point in spending hours making a hidden surface perfectly flat and smooth when it doesn’t need to be.

In the old world of hand-tool woodworking, you true the side that matters and then surface plane the show face with a smoother. The show face doesn’t necessarily have to be perfectly flat and machine smooth either. It needs to be good enough for the job it has to perform. In this case, that surface is particularly important because it is going to become the face of the bookshelf and will eventually receive the carving. That’s where my attention belongs. There is little sense in spending half a day making a surface that will never be seen as perfect as the one that will become the centrepiece of the finished piece. I don’t have any photographs of the boards after they were planed because, at the time, I had no intention of writing about this build. You’ll have to take my word for it and picture the process in your head. I also don’t have any photographs of me chopping out the dadoes, so I’ll explain what I did as clearly as I can. I’m sure most of you already know how to chop a dado, but there is a little trick I use that makes getting the opposite end accurately positioned much easier.

I set out five dadoes, spacing them as equally as I could along the board. I knifed one side of each dado but deliberately didn’t mark the opposite side yet. I then chopped down to roughly 1/4 inch (6mm) on the first line. Once I had established that wall, I took the shelf that would eventually fit into that dado and placed one end against the wall I had just chopped. I could then use the shelf itself to mark exactly where the opposite wall needed to be. I marked that with a knife, scribed the line and then proceeded to chop out the rest of the dado. This way I wasn’t relying on measurements and hoping that the shelf would fit. The actual shelf became my reference, so I knew the dado was being made specifically for that piece.

With the boundaries established, I used a chisel bevel side down to remove as much of the waste as I could. Once I had removed the bulk of the material, I brought the dado down to its prescribed depth with my router plane. When it was finished, I numbered both the board and the dado so I would know exactly which shelf belonged in which position. This might seem unnecessary, but it is an important part of working this way.

In a machine woodworking environment, the idea is generally that one shelf should fit every dado. The machinery allows you to produce a consistent dado and consistent shelves to very close tolerances. In the hand-tool world, no two boards are identical. Each dado corresponds to the particular shelf it was made for. The fit is established individually, and once everything is numbered, there is no confusion about where each piece belongs. It is a different way of thinking about furniture making, and one that I actually enjoy.

At the top of the board I made a 1/4 inch (6mm) groove, and on the top section I made a rabbet, or rebate, with a corresponding 1/4 inch (6mm) tongue. This gives the top a positive location rather than simply having it sit on the end of the board. Once I had completed the first dado, I worked my way through the remaining four, using the same process for each one. By the end of the day, the dadoes were finished, the parts were numbered and the job was a good’un”.

There was a price to pay for all that work, though. I had spent the entire day hand planing timber and then chopping out the dadoes, and it put a massive strain on my back and neck. By the end of it I was in so much pain that I could barely walk. You would think that might have been enough to keep me out of the workshop the following day, but that’s not how it works when you love what you do. The next morning I was up bright and early at 4am, ready to get back into the workshop.

I’ve always said that if you want the nation working, give people jobs they love to do. Nobody will want to take a sick day, and nobody will be unemployed. I suppose my back might disagree with that statement, but when you’re doing something you genuinely enjoy, getting up at four in the morning to do it doesn’t feel like work.

BTW I do have photos for everything else.

finish done

I can't see a color difference between the blonde shellac and the super blonde underneath it. I'm happy with the build and the shine. I'll check it in the AM for drips, runs, and holidays.

shelf bottoms

I put two coats of the blonde shellac on the bottom. The build was iffy after one and the shine wasn't there. With two coats the build and shine is now good enough for the bottoms.

Kreg jig box

Can't do anything else on the honey can you so I'll be whacking out the box for the pocket hole jig.

hmm......

I must have dropped this because one corner was dinged and below its mate (more than the half pin). I sawed off 1/8" to remove it and square this end again. I had plenty of room because I had about 3/8" of wiggle room to play with.

it was lunchtime

The tails were done and I got the pins sawn. In the PM session I chopped them and fitted the box together. I have been thinking lately about sawing out the waste on the tails and pins with a coping saw. I am seeing this step on You Tube more and more. 

oops

 The box is too big. I am ok on the length and depth but the height is way OTL (out to lunch). I thought I had sawn the box to width already. I thought wrong boys and girls.

hmm......

There is over 2" of dead space which is too much. About 1/2" of the dead space will be eaten by the bottom but it still leaves too much.

better

I dry fitted the box and flushed the bottom with the #4. Then I sawed off about an inch leaving a little less then an inch of dead space. This is acceptable and I'm going with the height as is.

divider

The router is small but it works but it has its annoying quirks. Both the height adjuster and the lock loosen with use. The divider separates the screws from the pocket hole jig doo dads.

everything fits

I was going to saw the top off but I changed lanes on that. Instead I will hinge an applied top. I glued the box and divider and set it aside to cook until the AM.

yikes

Before I killed the lights I ran my fingers over the top and I thought I was dragging them across a washboard. I tried initially using 120 grit  to smooth things but that did diddly squat. It gummed up from the shellac and I had to drop down to 80 grit before the top felt smooth. I sanded it back up to 180. I'll get shellac on it starting in the AM.

accidental woodworker 

Slow shop day. Nothing exciting happening and I spent most of the day molding my butt cheeks to my desk chair watching You Tube. The honey can you is essentially done. I need to slap a few coats of shellac on the carcass, install the top, the shelves, and the cup pull for the drawer. I had ordered that from Lee Valley and it is coming sometime on Monday. I'll put off the glamour pics until then.

came at lunch time

It looks like any other blonde shellac I have bought. Smells the same and the flakes don't look any different. I was kind of expecting something from the bottom of the barrel full of bug parts and tree debris. And it weighed a little more than 1.1 pounds. Mixed up a batch to have it ready to go for tomorrow.

hmm........

This shellac whizzed up into the finest powder I have seen. The batch from two days ago was powdery but it was coarser then this batch. Based on the finest of it I expected it to dissolve immediately. 

dissolved rapidly

I mixed up a 2 pound cut - 6ozs of flakes and 3 cups of alcohol plus a wee bit more to fill it to the top. Initially the flakes dissolved easily with a little bit of clumping. The clumping went away with extra stirring and clumped a wee bit more when I stopped and checked it again 15 minutes later. 

The batch I mixed two days ago dissolved immediately and stayed that way. An hour after first mixing it there were no more clumps and it looked ready to slap on the project.

no difference

This batch wasn't as thin as the two day old batch (which was 99.9% gone). After waiting 2 hours I put a coat on the shelves, top, and drawer front. I couldn't feel or see any difference in its application then I did with the previous batch. It dried to the touch within five minutes and I think I'm calling it done. I think this coat is the 4th one and that is adequate for the undersides.

almost done

The slats have 6(?) coats on them I think. Three spray coats and 3-4 brushed coats. I used up the previous batch getting the last of it on the carcass. I like the build and shine so far but I am going to slap on at least one more coat of the 2lb cut shellac. (that depends on how it looks on the undersides) I am going to wait until the AM to do that. It will give the previous shellac time to set up.

accidental woodworker 

Hand Holds On Bench Planes

I wonder if we truly understand the hold we have on bench planes, the subtle grips, the slips and slides left and right and then the difference between skews and slides and a combination of both in a sliding skew. Because something has a handle doesn't mean we have to use it. I wouldn't look to a carpenter for sound advice, I've seen too many men's vans over the years depicting a viselike bulldogging grip with two fists whole finger-wrapped around the handles and tote to believe they know very much about planing wood. Perhaps it's because there's a cord attached to their version of a plane and to them, shavings come away in tiny chips spit from the so-called power tool in the millions. In the hand tool world, it's a clutch of long and wide ribbons that spill noiselessly to our feet. Two completely different worlds, thankfully.

Most often it's a dull plane iron that forces a man to use a power grip to get the plane enter and then cut. I have yet to pick up any sharp plane or edge tool that belonged to another in a previous history of ownership that was sharp or anywhere near it. Most people overwork an edge because they are reluctant to take time out to sharpen it. We usually sharpen up long after we should have done.

When George hovered over my woodworking at the workbench, me fifteen years old and a complete novice, he'd nudge my elbow, speak softly or loudly but always with a tone that said, 'Listen and obey' then, depending on my response,"Get a grip!" The firmness in a voice of true authority speaks volumes and my hand hold on my plane searched for the as yet unknown version yet to be revealed. At first, I simply assumed he was saying 'more force' or 'grip harder', but I soon learned after various initiation sessions that he was saying the grip needs adjusting.

Who said you only push a Western bench plane? When the frame on the bench is to big turn, and you cannot get behind the plane because of distance, pulling the plane into the cut might well be the only way to effect a cut.

George was the gentle giant in my teen years of apprenticing. He was big on teaching and training and never let anything slide when it came to hand tools. In general, we worked in 20 different woods and I learned that each different wood type had its own idiosyncrasies with almost no two being the same. Planing wood meant handling a plane accurately according to task and sentience. No one speaks in these terms and though George didn't either, the unspoken worth of silent words spoken by action spoke volumes; I learned from a cough and an 'um' or the heavy industrial-grade clearing of a throat.

I posed this picture to show my general soft grip and hand and finger positioning. See how the hand grip on the rear tote with my dominant hand wraps only three fingers with the forefinger pointing and registered to the side of the plane frog. The front hand is semi firm and relies on the two fingers opposed by a firm thumb. I would say that 90% of my plane work follows this pattern though I hesitate to give it a value. The finger pointing on the tote handle gives verticality and direction to the plane.

Grip is everything in handling any hand plane, but instruction comes best through an experienced woodworker at the bench. I am talking about a man-maker with decades in his hands at the bench rather than a college graduate teacher who scarcely if ever made for a living. My hand holds may change fifty times in pursuit of a smooth surface. The subtle shifts drive for more than just shoving the plane at the wood. That slightest of skews, a square-on equalling out of balanced pressure to get the fullest width, the lifting of the [lane heel and the lightest circular motion here and there that changes the dynamic majorly with so minimal an effort. Of course, that means far too many to remember and recall in the saddle. I always told my students in hands-on classes to take time to experiment even on their projects. Mostly they were too diffident and especially if the plane strokes they were using worked. Why fix what ain't broke isn't really a good maxim if you want to gain mastery for future use. I recall one time planing a wide board absolutely across the grain at ninety degrees to the long axis of the plank and how many woodworking carpentry and joinery 'experts' told me in comments how very wrong that was. With wood grain, there may well be one right way for that plane stroke, you just have to find out which one will give the result you want. It might be one out of the 50, and I wouldn't limit that number to 50 either. A slice cut is not a skew cut, but there are skewed slice cuts mid-stroke over complex grains that deliver smoothness. I had that in my newest and latest two boxes where you might have thought it would be the curly-grained woods causing an issue when it was the straight-grained elm every time.

The inside view of my hand hold on the tote shows the three wrapped finger......while the outside picture of the hand shows where my pointing finger rests in place beneath the cutting iron assembly and the side of the frog. But then notice the not so subtle change in my left hand because my right, dominant hand is my power hand.

Planing the ends of my dovetail pins, smoothness came readily going across the grain rather than with it. Several circular motions planes up my end grain even on small sections. I learned that from George too when I was a boy, and he was only just a man of 25. We tried different techniques and strokes that defied books. Ever noticed how old books rarely if ever spoke of such techniques. They only ever showed rigid hand holds with no versatility. Looking at what I know about woodworking today, I realise how little value they offered to novices

I planed the nubs of the pins down but have yet to tackle that small tear out by the vertical ripples. A little tear out isn't daunting to me as it might have been back 1960s starting out.

Of course, what's right for met might be right for others, but what is often lacking is experienced makers talking about alternatives. Also, though many experienced makers might have been working wood for years and decades, very few of them, perhaps one percent, will use any hand tools for any significant time in a day. This sad reality holds them back. Would I ever use a power router to rout out for a hinge flap? Of course not. Would I level the nubs of my dovetail pins or tails with a belt sander or power planer, hand held or static? I wouldn't. It gets too complicated and absolutely unnecessary in my world of non mass-making. I have the job done in a heartbeat with a sharp plane and a few choice planing techniques.

Would I use a random orbit sander on my work? Or a belt sander? I have no problem with these two creatures. An RA sander loaded with a newish 280-grit disc will leave the very smoothest finish. The advantages of planing is creating the dead flat and true plane. The RA with a fine grit paper doesn't take the surface down more than a small thou of an inch and so retains the flatness you get from a planed surface. Going through various grits from coarse to fine creates problems on fine work..

Last week my brother and I laid the new 2″ HDPE penstock (pipe) for my microhydroturbine system to power the barn (and the cabin if necessary).  Last winter absolutely trashed the existing pipeline of Schedule 40 PVC.

The 2″ HDPE came in giant ~6-foot coils, each of which weighed several hundred pounds.  Once these were unraveled we had a rasslin’ match that looked like a monster movie with giant snakes.  If you’ve never handled large dimension HDPE it is unbelievably tough and strong, slippery and cantankerous.  Not to mention ridiculously expensive compared to Sch40 PVC, but I am expecting it to be worth the added investment.  I got 15 years from the Sch40 PVC so this should outlast my time in Shangri-la.

Even two stout redneck brothers were no match for the Super Slinky.  We wound up lashing the end to a long rope, feeding the rope along the path we wanted the pipeline to follow, and then pulling it up the ravine with my beloved little 4WD S10.  The pipe was more than a match for two ~septuagenarians but was no match for 210 h.p. x 4500 lbs.

Here are the old and new, side by side.  This level of damage to the old penstock was present in about 75% of the 1000+-foot length.

We finally connected the new pipeline into the system and had water flowing!  I discovered that even at the bottom there was a crack in the PVC joints, so that needs to get replaced as soon as I can find the time.  It’s working, now, but who knows for how long?

The work is not done by any means.  I’ll let the new HDPE pipeline relax and lose its coilification to the greatest degree possible, then work the line from top to bottom leveling and lashing it.  Reducing the up and down of the lay is critical to making the flow have as little turbulence as possible.  If all goes well I will be able to run the system year round.  Here’s hopin’.

first one

Last night after dinner I went back to the shop and put on the first coat of shellac on the shelves, the top, and the drawer. Doing the tops of them first followed by the bottoms. I hate this part of a project. I don't enjoy applying finish and certainly not the wait time between applications. Not to mention I can't do much of anything else while I do these dance steps.

got 3rd coat on

This one pound coat isn't building and it is going to take more than 3-4 coats before it shines like I like it.

hmm......

I hadn't forgot this box for the Kreg pocket hole jig. I got the layout for the tails done but I don't have any room to get the Moxon vise on the workbench.

in the workshop

The humidity is/was high today. I didn't want to bring it up to the driveway and chance having the shellac blush on me. 

first coat

The vertical slats look darker than the legs and rails. It was a little awkward applying the shellac to the interior - there wasn't a lot of room to spray.

PM session

Got 5 coats on the shelves, the top, and the drawer front. I got four coats on the interior of the drawer and I'll put four on the bottom of the drawer.

hmm........

Got two spray coats and I rubbed them down with 4-0 steel wool. Applied the 3rd coat and I didn't have a warm and fuzzy with how much spray shellac I had left.

its dead Jim

The can went dry spraying the on the 4th coat. I only got one side of one of the vertical slats before it gave up.

hmm........

Used about 2/3 of the batch I mixed up yesterday. I hadn't expected to use so much of it just on the shelves and the top. I still have the bottoms of them get shellac on. I got a pound on order but it won't be here until next week. FYI - the cost of 1 pound of dewaxed  super blonde, with S/H, was $87. That is about $20 or so more than my last order. 

I had bought it from shellac dot net and the price of the same shellac on 4 other sites were all within a few dollars of the shellac dot net price. I then checked on Amazon and dewaxed  super blonde was the same price. However I found blonde shellac, 1.1 lbs, for $30. I don't know if it is dewaxed or not but I'll have it tomorrow. Fingers crossed that I will have enough of the current batch to finish this project.

accidental woodworker

I started blogging here 16 years ago today. Now I have decided to bring the Literary Workshop blog to a close. This is the 400th post on the blog, and I expect it to be the last one.

When I started the Literary Workshop Blog back in August 2010, I was just a couple years out of graduate school and had only a couple kids. A whole lot has changed since then.

When I started the blog, I didn’t set out to build an audience or promote a business or anything like that. Here’s how it happened: I used to post regularly on a woodworking forum called WoodNet, but the posts on that forum lasted only a year before being deleted. As an avid hand-tool woodworker, I enjoyed showing off my projects and trading woodworking advice with other traditional woodworkers. So I started this blog as an archive of the longer posts and projects I had put on that forum. Eventually the blog took on a life of its own. Internet forums declined in popularity, and I continued to learn about hand tools, make furniture, and discover traditional woodworking techniques. I’m a compulsive writer, so describing these things came easily to me. Part of the fun of starting a new project has often been planning the blog post(s) and photos that would feature it.

So what has changed in the last 16 years?

First, today’s media ecosystem is different. When I began the Literary Workshop Blog, most of the high-quality information on hand tools was still on forums and blogs, as well as in a few select magazines and books. If you wanted to work wood with hand tools, the information wasn’t going to find you. You had to read up on it. Now in 2026, the online space is flooded with short-form how-to videos, and once social media algorithms figure out that you’re interested in hand-tool woodworking, it will keep delivering that content to you automatically. The sheer amount of video content available is overwhelming. And a surprising amount really is fairly high in quality. That means there’s less demand for written content than their used to be. But I’m a writer, and I’m just not interested in creating video content. And even if you’re more of a reader than a video watcher (like I am), you can get very high quality content on hand tool woodworking from several good sources, like Lost Art Press and Mortise & Tenon Magazine.

I also maintain this blog at the pleasure of the WordPress platform, which I don’t control. Tomorrow the owners could decide to delete everything I’ve written over the past 16 years. If I were going to keep writing seriously about woodworking, I would want to publish it in a more stable, permanent form: a book. But I’ve written books, and I know what kind of time and expertise such a project takes. There are much better woodworkers than I am writing books right now, and I’m very grateful for them. I have neither the time nor the desire to compete with them for a publisher’s attention.

I’m also concerned about the rise of AI large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini, which have taken advantage of all the free information on the internet and are able to synthesize it for users, often without regard to the credibility of the content, let alone the identity of the people (like me) who labored to produce that content. I am not interested in providing even more free content to feed those AI beasts.

But more importantly, my free time has become more limited of late. Writing about a project takes a significant amount of time, and the more time I devote to the writing, the less time I have for the woodworking itself. That’s one reason why I’ve gone from posting a couple times a month (at my peak) to posting just a few times a year.

If you’ve never tried to write up a project for a magazine article or a blog post (or done a video shoot of it), it’s hard to imagine how much extra time it takes to do the content creation on top of the actual woodworking. I estimate that writing a high-quality series of blog posts about a project can add a good 50% to the total time the project takes. If the project is really involved, doing the content creation can easily double the time. So if it was a 12-hour project, but I want to document each step and write up a series build-along posts, it’s now an 18-hour project, at least.

These days, I don’t have a lot of time for woodworking itself. Most of my kids are teenagers, and I’m always running them to practice or rehearsal, or attending a game or a show they’re in. And my oldest now has kids of her own, so my wife and I are having fun doing the grandparent thing. I’m also in a leadership position in my local church, which is an honor but also a big time-commitment. And my current job doesn’t allow me to step away from work during school breaks like my previous job did. All in all, it’s a good phase of life! But I have fewer stretches of uninterrupted time in which I can get a project done. Woodworking is still important to me, so if I’m going to spend any time woodworking at all, I can’t also be committed to writing about it.

Besides, I feel like I’ve said pretty much everything I wanted to say about woodworking and related topics over the years. The really important things I’ve learned and shared here can be summed up pretty easily:

• Make things you need. You get started by figuring out what you need, learning some skills, and trying to make it work with the tools and materials you have most readily available.
• Read widely. You can learn things about your craft from the most unlikely of authors.
• Sharpen your tools. Sharp fixes everything.
• Simplicity is a virtue. You can do so much with a small kit of essential tools.
• Use what you have. Most jobs don’t require new tools. You may already have something that will get the job done.
• Keep your eye out for good material. There is a lot of good stuff out there if you know what you’re looking for.
• Be picky about what you keep. There’s a lot of junk that’s not worth taking home or holding on to.
• Quality matters. Spend the money to get the good tool, and spend the time to make the joint fit just right.
• Specialize. There are so many sub-fields in woodworking, and nobody can learn them all. Pick just a few and get really good at them. Skills in one sub-field will transfer over to another.
• Build relationships, not just projects. It’s good to bring people into your process and to share what you have with others.
• Selling your work will change everything about your craft. You may or may not like the changes.
• Learn by imitation and experimentation. Find excellent models to imitate.

I do want to say thank-you to you, my readers, especially those of you who have taken the time to post encouraging comments on posts, or to ask follow-up questions. The writing comes easier when I know there will be at least a few people reading. And if you find yourself wanting to read more of my writing, you can always go back to the very beginning of this blog and start reading from there! A lot of the pictures are now gone from my earlier posts, but many of the really important photos remain.

If you run across a post you like, but you find broken links and/or missing photos, please post a comment letting me know. If I have time (and if the photos still exist), I’ll try to update the post with the missing material. And if you want to interact with me about woodworking, I am willing to reply to new comments on old posts, at least for the time being.

Eventually, though, I will close down users’ ability to comment on posts and turn this blog into a true time-capsule. I have no idea how long it will remain accessible to other people. I suppose it could still be floating in a digital archive a century from now. Maybe in a couple hundred years some historian or anthropologist will stumble upon one of my posts and discover something really interesting about the Hand-Tool Woodworking Revival of the early twenty-first century. Or maybe some distant descendant of mine will get interested in genealogy and discover more about his or her ancestors than anybody really needed to know. Or maybe a freak solar flare will obliterate this whole blog before the end of the year. There’s no telling how long anybody’s writing is really going to last.

Even though I won’t be writing new blog posts anymore, I’m not really going away. I’ll still be right here, doing the things that I’ve always written about: reading books, building furniture with hand tools, making spoons and spatulas, and spending quality time with my wife and kids.

Farewell!

Stephen J. Schuler

Springfield, Ohio

To finish this series, here is a suggested list of the remaining tools to add to the shop as it builds.  1. Cordless hand-held power sander. The 5” diameter is the most versatile and  practical. I like the 3M Xtract Cubitron II Net Disc 710W sanding discs.   2. Flashlight. Cordless in the brand you […]

hmm.......

This back doo dad thing needs to be secured now. There isn't any way for me to clamp it after the top is secured. And speaking of the top, it is going to be tricky to do. I will have to place the carcass on the top upside down so I can screw the table top clips. The doo dad thing is going to be a PITA then.

centered

I got the top, the doo dad thing, and the carcass aligned on the center. The overhangs are less then a 16th off. I thought I would have trouble getting an even overhang because the the top was out of square. It looks good to the eye and no one is going to measure it.

 

hmm......

I have cleaned up glue squeeze out a bazillion different ways. A toothbrush, hands down, has been the easiest and cleanest way to remove it. I've had toothbrushes in the shop for years and never used them. I saw a japanese You Tube woodworker using a toothbrush to clean up squeeze out. I won't be using a rag and a putty knife to clean it anymore.

cooked for 3 hours

Probably wouldn't have mattered but I planed the doo dad thing flush with the back edge of the top. 

overkill

I used 5/8" pin nails to temporarily hold the top while I screwed it. Two of the pin nails were proud and I hammered them flush. I'm not going to bother with setting and filling them. Who (besides me) looks at the inside front of a drawer?

hmm.......

Missed filling in two. I filled in the back and the opposite side yesterday and missed these two.

snug fit

I sawed a piece of the same wood as the drawer box. Used a chisel to shape it to fit the hole. When the drawer is opened now you won't see any holes.

another oops

The end grain on the ends was coarse and rough to the touch. This would look like crappola with shellac on it. Sanded the ends from 80 to 180. My 220 sanding sticks need fresh sandpaper.

slight gap at the bottom

The gap was a lot bigger. I had loosed the screws on the inside at this end and clamped the drawer front to the drawer box. Tightened the screws again but I didn't get it all. I did manage to get the opposite flat and tight. There is a slight cup to the drawer front that wasn't there yesterday.

branded

I like to apply the brand to a fixed, non removable part of anything I make. The top is removable as is the drawer and shelves.

for tomorrow

I had a little over 3 ounces of flakes so I mixed up a 1 lb cut. I'll have to put on a lot of coats to build it up. I have pound on order.

hmm.......

The end grain chamfer is a little rough. I was expecting this to be smooth coming off the router. I felt it when I playing around with the doo dad thing.

done

I didn't need to go through all the grits. 150 and 180 made it baby butt smooth. I did the three shelves also. Now I think I'm done with the woodworking.

canned shellac

The left can is almost empty but the right is full. I intend to use the spray shellac on the vertical slats. If it is sunny in the AM I will try to get 4-5 coats on them before the lunch bell rings.

accidental woodworker

Sandusky Tool Co. was in business from 1869 to the mid- or late-1920's.  I used to think it was named for a person, but it was named for the city in which it was located, Sandusky, OH (about 50 miles west of Cleveland).  This rabbet plane started life as a 3/4" wide plane.  It was a little shy of that when I got it, but it's thinner now after I had to plane one side a bit to get it back in shape.

Sandusky 3/4" Rabbet

The logo on the toe.  Looks like it also has a "146".

On the heel: I think this originally read "3/4"

Thanks to the Internet Archive, I could find a 1925 Sandusky catalog, and there was a #146 skew rabbet plane shown.  The 3/4" size sold for a whopping $1.40, though that was probably a lot in 1925 dollars.

The plane needed some truing up.  The sole was not flat - it was a bit high just behind the mouth.  And the right side was twisted such that behind the mouth, the plane body stuck out about 2 mm more than it did ahead of the mouth.

High spot on the sole behind the mouth

You can see by eye how much higher the body was by my finger than it was ahead of the mouth.

I planed the sole and right side flat and square to each other.  I did these things with the iron installed, but safely out of the way of my bench plane iron.  With the iron and wedge installed and tightened, a check of flatness on the sole gave a different result than when the iron was out of the plane.  I didn't bother truing up the left side of the plane.  That doesn't make any difference in how I'll ever use it.

Sole and right side square to each other

For the iron, I ground a new bevel and ground a little of the right side so it would sit in the plane right.  When set up as I've read it should be, the right side of the iron should sit proud of the plane body by a few thousandths of an inch.  I went though a few iterations of grinding and fitting in the plane until I was happy with how it looked.

I also noticed during these fitting steps that the iron's bed (back wall of the mortise) had a step that didn't allow the tang to move right of center.  So I fixed that with a chisel.  Fortunately that didn't affect the fit of the wedge, though I might still mess with that a bit.

After sharpening and honing the iron, I made test cuts in pine and oak.  Both came out good, though it's always a challenge to get an unfenced rabbet plane started.  I prefer to cut the rabbet a little shy of the width line, then clean up with sideways cuts to the line.

Cutting a 1/2" x 1/2" rabbet in pine

Cleaning up the side wall, pulling the plane back toward the camera

I think this will be a nice plane.  It's practically perfectly quartersawn and the grain patterns on the sides are beautiful.

Update: I've used the plane a few times now and it's a real winner!  It outperforms a homemade 3/4" straight-across-iron rabbet plane that I made long ago.  The skewed iron really makes a nice difference.

Bill Anderson shows how to Identify Antique Molding Planes to Discover Rarity and Historical Significance Affiliate Disclosure: When you purchase through certain links on our site, we may earn a small affiliate commission, at no cost to you. Learn more.

There’s no doubt that QCAD is my go-to 2D CAD software. I turn to it for virtually all of my design work. I do enjoy working with 3D software packages such as FreeCAD, but I always seem to find myself coming back to 2D. Perhaps that’s because I started out with AutoCAD, where I spent years drawing all sorts of things. One example is this drawing of Bedford, QLB, which I created for a company in the Netherlands. It was drawn accurately to real-world scale.

I love drawing, and I love the accuracy I can achieve with CAD software. Before I go any further, I want to make it clear that I am not sponsored by QCAD. In fact, they don’t even know I’m writing this, which, I think, says a lot. Over the years, I’ve tried many different 2D CAD software packages. The first one I ever used was AutoCAD, and there’s no denying that it’s an excellent program. But bloody expensive, and for us woodworkers, I think it’s completely unnecessary.

We don’t need all the bells and whistles that come with professional engineering and architectural CAD software. What we need is something that allows us to draw accurately, work to real-world dimensions, make changes easily and, most importantly, get on with designing our projects.

So, what is QCAD?

QCAD is an open source 2D CAD software package. No, it doesn’t do 3D, but you can draw in isometric mode and create the illusion of 3D, just like we used to do back in high school. I still do that sometimes, just for fun. There are two versions of QCAD: a free version and a paid version called QCAD Professional. The Professional version has some additional features that aren’t available in the free version, and you also get 12 months of free upgrades. In addition this a one off payment, not a subscription.

Is it worth paying for?

Everyone is different, but for me, absolutely. It’s only $72, and you get free upgrades for the first 12 months. Renewals are discounted as well, so you really do get a lot of bang for your buck. When you compare that with what other 2D CAD packages cost, QCAD is very affordable.

If you’re interested in having a look for yourself, click here to visit QCAD.

I haven’t said a great deal about QCAD, but I think you get the gist of why I like it. It’s accurate, capable and, most importantly for me, it’s a pleasure to draw with.

What I want to briefly touch on now is a new project I’m currently working on.

My son commissioned me to make him a bookshelf. He wanted something special that he could, God willing, one day pass on to his own children. So I’ve chosen a traditional design and taken it a step further by adding floral carving and chip carving to both sides. As far as I know, this particular style of bookshelf was never made with this type of carving historically. The patterns I’ve used are based on a Bosnian cabinet I came across in a photograph from a museum in Konjic, Hercegovina. I don’t know the exact date the cabinet was made, but I believe it could date from somewhere between 1901 and 1923. The style of bookshelf itself goes back much further, however. By combining that traditional form with the carving patterns from the Bosnian cabinet, I believe I may be creating something that is genuinely unique. As far as I know, this particular combination doesn’t exist anywhere else in the world. There won’t be any videos of this build. I’m tired of competing with the algorithm, so this one will be strictly for the blog.

I hope you enjoy following along as the project takes shape.

last one

What a PITA installing the back screws on the bearers. I hope that the next time I make one I'll remember this hiccup.

hmm......

Replacement shelf fitted. No more gaps at the front/rear between the legs.

another sneak peek

I sawed another shelf and the top first thing this AM.  This is the new shelf fitted along with the top dry fitted. I didn't feel like screwing the other bearers on to see what all the shelves looked like. This was good enough to give me a sense for the overall look.

Lowes run

Laid 1/4" spacing on all four sides and attached the drawer front with pin nails. I was happy with the fit of it and secured it with six 3/4" #6 FH screws.

still catching

With the drawer front applied the drawer is catching again. The bottom edge of the drawer box was catching on the top forward edge of the bottom rail. I rounded it over removing the arris - it helped but it was still catching. I don't know what else I can do to stop it so I'm leaving it as is.

last one

Planed the top and the 3 shelves smooth. The step for the final prep is to sand the end grain edges - 80 grit up to 220.

routed the chamfers

Routed a chamfer on the drawer front first. The top and the three shelves I chamfered just the sides and the front. Left the back squared off.

had to check the look

I like the look of the chamfer. Readily evident at the front and not so much on the sides. At the back from 4 feet away I couldn't tell you if it was chamfered or squared off still.

I was hoping to get this fully prepped today and ready to apply shellac. That didn't happen boys and girls. The shelves and the top are ready for shellac but the carcass needs the arris knocked back on the legs and the slats. But I think the all the woodworking is done. I'll have to screw the table clips and the shelves but that is a minor operation. 

I had to quit early because tomorrow is garbage day and I had to saw up some branches. They won't take anything that is longer then 3 feet. I had to drag two 33 gallon shitcans full of yard waste out to the curb. That was a chore. What should have taken 3 minutes got stretched out to 20. The shortness of breath is getting worse. I had to stop and rest several times bringing them curbside. Maybe I'll sleep good tonight because I'm feeling dead tired as I type this blog post.

accidental woodworker

The view from our booth

I don't have much of a blog this week because I've been busy preparing for Handworks. Handworks is the best hand tool show in the world. The show is held in Amana Colonies, Iowa, next Friday, Sept. 4th, and Saturday, Sept. 5th, 10am - 5pm both days. Admission is free. Here are some pictures from the last one - in 2023. We showed off our prototype folding treadle lathe at the last Handworks, and this year we'll have lathes for sale, along with lots of other stuff. The real attraction for us, however, is getting a chance to meet in person so many people who have supported us over the years. It's wonderful to see the energy behind hand tool woodworking. People have a great time.

So this past week we have been putting things in boxes and putting the boxes on pallets. I'll be representing TFWW at this year's show along with Alyson, whom many of you have spoken with on the phone or in person.

You can get a sense of the influence and excitement Handwork generates with the following story. A customer came in this week mostly to buy Festool, but he also loves hand tools. At the spur of the moment he decided to go to the show and began looking at plane tickets. I'm hoping that many of you reading this post can indeed find attendance worth the airfare, long drive, etc. Friday is usually mobbed; Saturday is a little mellower - but a great time is had by all.

The reason that all the pictures except one are from the Festhalle Barn, where are booth is, is that being a vendor, unfortunately, I never get a chance to see the show and rarely leave the barn. If I grab you by the shoulders and ask you keep an eye on the booth for a little while - it's because we need a break.

Roy Underhill doing the keynote speech. This year it's Chris
Alan Dorsey explaining what's going on with the treadle lathe
Pat Leach's booth of vintage tools which was across the aisle
Awesome display of miniature tools by Paul Hamler
Demo rasps and saws at our booth
The one time I got outside at saw stuff in the tent

 

half laps done

The shelf bearers fit perfectly F/B. These were on the to do list for today. Spoiler alert - got to them in the PM session.

can't see it

Got lucky that the errant groove is the front of the drawer. I hadn't tried to match it for grain/color but I stumbled into it. It took me a while before I could pick it out.

fitting the drawer

It is a snug fit on the height and no go on the R/L. This is ground zero and I'll have to account for the drawer opening being out of square.

drawer planing set up

The clamp on the left (by the coffee cup) keeps the drawer tight to the workbench edge and from lifting up. The 5 1/2 tends to lift up the back end as I planed forward. 

knocking down the top

I got the side to side partially fitted but the top needs to be dropped down a few more frog hairs. There is only a paper width of clearance and I want at a minimum a 32nd.

hmm......

I thought I had the side to side but I was wrong. It is hanging up before the 1/2 way point.

one step forward, one step back

At this point I had already planed the top edge 3 times. There some clearance but the drawer while being pushed in was binding and being uncooperative. However, I like the process of planing, checking, and fitting. One important thing I have learned is to resist the urge to take one more swipe. That is the difference between a smooth in/out and a sloppy, binding, hesitant in/out.

wee bit more than 1/2

The first half is smooth but the back corners of the drawer are up tight on the side rails. There is clearance at the front so I only have to plane in about a 1/3 from the back of the drawer. This is because of the out of square hiccup.

done

Drawer slides in/out easily and smoothly. There is no annoying shifting and binding as the drawer goes in/out.

top needs more love

Although the drawer is moving in/out ok there still is barely more than a paper thickness of clearance. I almost went nutso on this but caught myself and calmed down. I made four passes and I was happy with the gap I had at the front between the drawer top and the top drawer rail.

hmm.......

The arris on the back was catching on the bottom drawer rail as the drawer was pushed it. Planed and sanded the arris off and all was well in Disneyland again.

hmm........

Due to the out square hiccup, the drawer front needs a little more love. I want the applied drawer front to lay flat against the legs and the rails. I will have to plane off a taper that is about a 16th at the widest point.

fixed

I got some tear out planing the taper but not a problem, It will never be seen again once the drawer front is secured to the drawer box.

nope

This was going to be the drawer tilt doo dad but not anymore. Centered on the back means there is a conflict between it and the table top clip slot.

the work around

Going with two tilt doo dads positioned between the table top clips. I am going to screw these to the underside of the top. The front to back length is about 1/4" short which is for expansion. That gap will be placed at the drawer front.

hmm......

Forgot that I had these - hide glue brushes. I had wanted to buy more of them but the French company stopped making them. Found these while working on my bar clamps.

came yesterday

I couldn't find the little tubes of this so I bought these - the cheapest price I saw. I also two more clamps, I have 14 of them not 12. The bars I got from my old work in the attic. These were the hangers for the fluorescent lighting circa 1958. The bars are thick walled and heavy, perfect for clamps. Now I don't have to deal with the clamping heads rotating as I use them. 

ok

Drilled a pilot hole in the bottom of the shelf bearers. Checking to make sure that the screws aren't too long.

finally

Trying to get the screw in the back of the shelf bearer was a miserable job. I tried a bazillion different methods and the vise grips got the Kewpie doll prize. It was still slow going due to the space constraints I had to deal with. Glad that I only have four of these to do.

the goodie parade

The big problem with the back screw, other then the lack of space, was I couldn't get a pilot hole for the screw. I'm securing the bearers with brass #8 round head screws and they suck for trying to screw into wood without a pilot hole. So what I did was to vise grip a #8 sheet metal screw to make the pilot hole for the brass one. Worked fine on the first two but it was slow going.

sneak peek

Got the shelf bearers for the top shelf done. I will remove the bearers and the shelves before I slap on the shellac. It would be a ROYAL PITA to do that with all the shelves/bearers in place.

nope

I wasn't getting a warm and fuzzy with this shelf. The gap on the left was noticeably wider than the right. This part of the carcass is relatively square when I checked it. The top is off 3/16 and this space is a strong 16th off.

better

The vertical slats aren't in line with the inside edge of the legs and that was throwing me off a lot. I got the shelf to be snug at the front between the legs and the same for the back. I had to plane the outside edges at the back a little to get the shelf to fit properly.

happy with the fit and look

I am going to chamfer the edges of the shelf. Thinking of just doing the front and sides and leaving the back squared off. Plenty of time to figure that out. 

Tomorrow I'll finish the shelves and make the top. The drawer front I'm thinking will be 1/2" poplar. Lowes has 1/2" poplar and a 1x4 would be perfect. The drawer opening is 3" and a 3 1/2" wide poplar board would span the opening by a 1/4" on all sides,

accidental woodworker