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Another bit of preparation for the 32” scale bass that I hope to build for myself “at some point”. I’ve had a beautiful, figured maple top in stock for many years, but at 28mm I considered it too thick and therefore too heavy to use. I finally plucked up the courage to re-saw it by hand……….

The months have passed smoothly since the builders began their work on my studio workshop. It is more than just a place to do woodworking and furniture making, a simple enough shed would have done for that. We are creating a legacy of training, a place to film and edit video content, a space for my artwork and writing and then an office for us all to work from. The other side of that black line is roughly the size of a UK single-car garage, so 3.5 metres by 5.5 metres. It started out looking bigger until I started adding my things.

I've kept you up to date on many things surrounding my new workshop and office. It's time for the final revelation following the grand move. This weekend Joseph and walked my workbench down the curved path to the garage doors and into my garage workshop. I have moved into five garage workshop spaces since 2009 and then five workshop training and teaching centres with four filming studio/workshops for teaching since then too if I include the one in Upstate New York, which I should and have. Our first thoughts in doing what we have started a couple of years ago and possibly ore simply because we were striving for authenticity and not a mere YouTube influencer look. We did the surveys, found what people had to work with, what they did, do and hope for in their woodworking. I recall calling hand tool woodworking 'Real Woodworking' and then too 'The Real Woodworking Campaign' around two decades ago. I also began using the term 'new-genre woodworker' around then too. This workshop is my intended last one. I plan to continue writing, filming and making pieces for the remainder of my life and the house and workshop unite my quest to encourage everyone interested in real woodworking to bring their work home with them. Work is not a dirty word and neither is making things to sell and support dirty either. My new footprint is small. We are a true team, a small team, less than half a dozen in-house, and we work together as friends to create training content for other people as enthusiastic as we are around the world. From this relatively small end-of-the-garden workshop and studio we can now build anything we want to and send it to the four corners of the world. No more stepping stones, temporary locations and temporary workshops, even my personal Sellers' home kitchen has come to an end for filming and making. This week will culminate my journey into a final destination of woodworking masterclasses garage space where I will continue my work creatively from into the foreseeable future.

These shelves re[resent sanity to me. Open fronted, no doors, no pegboard and such like that. Hard to imagine but even in my reductionism I still had half a dozen boxes hold my equipment and tools in my transitioning process.

I first mentioned this possibility six months ago as we dismantled what we called B2 to reduce our footprint in a way that would match our ideology in real woodworking. Only one machine stands firm as my machine of choice. I own no others. This studio workshop parallels my previous version in size and configuration. The most convenient methods of making by hand come best through the evolution of work at the bench. We hand tool woodworkers have no need to drift between a maze of machines staggered throughout our workspace. We make one turn left or right, or move back a foot or two to achieve our cuts, plane and saw strokes and all of that, and yet we still get our steps in though I gave up fit-bitting five years ago because I never got in less than 12,000 steps in eight hours of hand tool woodworking anyway.

I know, it looks like it's a different space, but I assure you there is no tardis involved.

Today, at five thirty AM, I started placing things back in place. That back wall with the conduit and plugs exactly matches the one I left behind when we sold our last building and so well is the positioning that the transferred shelving unit slotted directly into place with no retrofitting and that centre plug in the middle conduit fitted directly into the same rectangular hole beneath the bottom shelf with no refit needed at all. I have things to place back where they belong in that backdrop, clamp racks to go in, a little more shelving to hang and then my wood to bring back into the left wall. We plan to film on Wednesday, so I've got two days to get this together, but I am also culling out some excesses this time.

Reloading yesterday and today has been pure joy. I have moved workshops and homes more times than I care to tell you. Perhaps this will be the last one but who can tell?

We have a few cosmetic things to do inside and out and the electrician has another day or two to finish off before the office can finally be set in place. The deep-dig outdoor work connecting to the worlds infrastructure stirred up a lot of mud, but that has now been buried safely and closed over, filled in, levelled and new turf laid so it looks as though it never happened. The building has total climate control along with filtered clean air. One thing I have loved is the clutter-free walkways, driveway and front parking bays for everyone to get their cars off the road. There is a little block paving yet to complete before we are finally off the road but within this week we should be there. We plan some tree planting in the near future and the raised beds are ready to take planting onboard. The new lawn will take a week or two to green up again and to establish its roots in time for winter.

Now this was what I had when I took over the Sellers' home kitchen.

What you saw in recent videos was a mock-up set. We didn't cheat or deceive anyone we let everyone know what we were doing so if you missed that bit, I'll tell you now, we always bring people on the journey with us. The walls were not brick but corrugated plastic with brick print photographic surface to replicate the look we wanted.

Joseph and I built the faux backdrop from lightweight corrugated plastic stapled to a half inch plywood substrate and a stud wall in front of the existing kitchen wall.

What we have in the new home studio, workshop and office is solid from-the-earth clay bedded and pointed with sand-and-cement mortar. The rafters above came from our previous studio as did the whole lighting rig that spans the whole underside of the roof and is infinitely multi-directional with hundreds of LEDs that enable us to control the light and create whatever ambiance we want. Yes, you might think that that is a luxury, but my video friends are as much artists and creators as I am, and we enable them to be their best.

The house furniture and archived furniture we have made over the last 15 years for teaching and training online are presently and temporarily safe in a 40-foot shipping container.

I recently finished my autobiography, and it is with the editor as I type. My life has always been creative making resulting in intermittent mixes somewhere between ultra-peaceful drama to get me to this point. I recall first hearing the terms 'internet', 'online', 'double u, double u, double u', back in 1984 walking down a roadway that was a dirt road in the dead-end canyon of Reagan Wells, Texas from a friend. It began, "Paul, (pronounced 'Poll' or Paawl) have you ever heard of this thing called . . ." I said that will never happen. How wrong I was. Back then, when I wrote an article for a woodworking magazine, it took months between submitting the article, and it's going on the newsstands. Within ten years that changed and a little after that the same process took only three weeks. The digital age was upon us and the whole of life for everyone everywhere changed.

Yes, I write still in analogue; as it is with hand tool woodworking, handwriting brings us down to earth and works within the limitations of our humanity. I haven't used a screaming power router now for almost two decades and have no plans nor need to use one again, ever

My stepping stones through my sixty years have fed my soul to this point, but now I am ready and settled for the next decade of woodworking. I have planned to rework my first book to make it current and bring it up to date and once my autobiography goes to press I have a book I have been illustrating for the last few years that I would like to see come off the presses before too long. This latest iteration of my workshop is key to my future and the future of the friends and family I work with. But it's more than that. Whether amateur or full-time woodworker like myself, I'm both and have been for over sixty years to date, think a little differently about where you work your wood. Change things bit by bit and work towards the best environment you can. Amateur woodworking never ends. In my purview, taking on a craft you might feel called to but could never do for a full-time income-producing job, is no less important and probably more important than those who do it just for money. Do whatever you can to customise your workspace.

When the First Fleet arrived in Australia in 1788, the tools brought from England were essential to establishing the new colony. Clearing land, building shelters and constructing the early settlements all depended on them. But the tools were already proving inadequate. Within months, complaints were being made about their poor condition, with axes, spades and shovels described as among the worst ever seen. With England many months away by sea, replacing worn-out tools was hardly a practical solution.

Source: State Library of NSW, via Wikimedia Commons.

Out of necessity, the colony began making its own. Blacksmiths became essential to producing and repairing the tools needed to keep things moving. By 1792, local production was already underway, although demand far exceeded supply. Records show that by 1797, blacksmiths and other tradesmen had produced 230 axes, along with numerous other tools. Making and maintaining one’s own tools was already familiar to many English tradesmen, but in Australia it became even more important. They simply could not rely on imported tools to meet every need.

Old Blacksmith of Leongatha, Victoria – 1933. It’s not 1792, but it’s cool.

As the colony grew throughout the nineteenth century, so did the demand for tools. Merchants began importing tools under their own names, while others arranged for English manufacturers to stamp their names onto tools before shipping them out. These brands became part of Australia’s early tool trade, although most of the businesses behind them eventually disappeared.

Local toolmaking also developed, although plane makers were relatively few in number. Those making wooden planes would have had to work with the timbers available locally, rather than relying on English beech, which was not readily obtainable.

Source: Museums Victoria collection

The twentieth century brought another important change. Following the Second World War, Australia’s construction industry expanded rapidly. Returning servicemen, a growing population and the demand for new homes created an enormous need for tools. Local manufacturers helped fill that demand, and Australian-made tools became an important part of the country’s manufacturing industry.

Sutton Tools 1917. Still to this day produce high quality drill bits

But the industry would not last in the same way. As power tools became increasingly popular during the 1960s, demand for traditional hand tools began to change. Overseas manufacturers were also becoming increasingly competitive, making it difficult for local businesses to keep up with production costs and changing technology. Some manufacturers closed their doors, while others were bought out by overseas companies. Gradually, much of Australia’s hand tool manufacturing disappeared.

By the end of the twentieth century, the industry was a shadow of what it had once been. The large-scale production of traditional hand tools had largely given way to imported products, and another chapter of Australian manufacturing was coming to an end.

Yet Australian toolmaking never completely disappeared. Smaller manufacturers and individual craftspeople continued making tools, often drawing on traditional designs and their own experience. More recently, renewed interest in hand woodworking and traditional tools has provided opportunities for a new generation of Australian makers.

Heritage saws made in Melbourne hand shaped exotic timber handles – Vintage Tool Shop

We may no longer have the manufacturing industry that once supplied much of the country, but the knowledge and skills have not been lost. There are still people here who believe in making their own tools, preserving traditional methods and passing those skills on. In that respect, Australian toolmaking is not simply a part of our history. It is a tradition that continues.

Salko Safic handmade this small router plane I made these moulding planes

Part of me knows what it feels like to be a doctor at a dinner party.  In my case, instead of being asked about aches and pains I am dragged off to an obscure corner of a house to admire and provide some consultation for a family treasure.  More times than not “the treasure” is a fake or otherwise unimportant except for sentimental importance to the owner(s).

But every so often there is that truly special encounter.

Recently while in Mordor to visit the grandsons (oh, and their parents) my daughter mentioned that their next-door-neighbor had an antique she would like to show me.  Being the victim of good upbringing I readily agreed.

And what I encountered was an historical treasure, symbolically embodying the emergence of the Modern Age.

The item in question was an intact very early telephone in pristine condition, complete with the original magneto, wiring and schematic note card that would have come with the unit originally!

It was a genuine delight to examine and comment on this artifact, given its near perfect completeness and condition.  This belongs in the lineage of a family that knows and respects history and the artifacts that embody it.  I gave them a copy of SAVING STUFF to enhance their own diligent efforts in continuing to preserve family heritage.

Thanks Ms. J for letting me indulge my own passions for the fabric of the Past.

it has cooked

Ready to unclamp and see how things look. Spoiler alert - all the joint lines were tight and glue free. I hadn't forgotten to clean up glue squeeze out after I clamped it.

Miller Dowels

I think these are the 1X size and I'm using two at each end. My only choices were birch (these four) and cherry. As far as I know Miller doesn't have poplar dowels.

nope

I used a half pattern to layout the end detail and it is off. The left side is over twice the size of the right. This would look like total crap if I did them. Time to execute plan 2.1D.

hmm.......

Shoulda, woulda, coulda, but didn't at the git go. I thought of this last night during my 3rd toilet trot race. I marked a center line end to end for positioning the pivot point of the beam.

bottom shelf

It worked much better than the half pattern did. The bottom shelf extends past the outside edge of the aprons by less then 1/8" so I had to keep it tight.

top shelf

The top overhangs the ends by 2" so I could make a larger chord here. I had to redo one end twice. I bumped the edge into the bandsaw blade so I had redo the chord to below the boo boo.

clean up

Started with the spoke shave, went to the small blockplane and then its bigger sibling, lastly using the rasp. All I needed to do this were the last two. I sanded it with 120 grit and the next batter is routing a chamfer 360 on both.

I couldn't wait

I think I achieved what I wanted with this table. Something delicate and airy looking but still capable of holding an objet d'art (french for art object) or two. I'm awfully close to oohing and aahing. And the kicker is my wife wants it with a shellac finish to match the other two poplar pieces. I would have bet a lung she wanted it painted. 

hmm.......

Wanted to get a look see at how a chamfer would look on the outside corners of the legs. Started with 5 1/6" which was too wide followed by 1/4" which still looked too wide. This is 3/16" and it won the Kewpie doll. I'll do them in the AM because I killed the lights here.

I would have done more but for some reason doing the ends of the top and bottom shelf worn me out. I didn't get winded to where I had to stop and rest but I was tired after doing them. The lights got killed a little after 1400 today.

accidental woodworker

Big OOPS, I forgot to post the blog first thing this AM. 

A shooting board is, in my workshop, mandatory. It’s one of the most valuable time-savers you can own in hand-tool woodworking.

As woodworkers, we are always aiming for perfection. Whilst perfection is seldom achieved, producing micro-accurate, dead-square and gap-free joints certainly isn’t out of reach. A shooting board is one of the most useful appliances in achieving that level of accuracy, and I’ll explain why I consider it a must in my workshop.

Trying to square the end of a board by hand is a skill that isn’t acquired overnight. It can be time-consuming and frustrating, particularly if you don’t know what you’re doing. You shave a little off the left, and suddenly it’s leaning right. You try to correct the right side, and now your board is a sixteenth of an inch too short and still not square.

In hand-tool woodworking, a fraction of a millimetre or a fraction of an inch can be the difference between a flawless, gap-free joint and a piece that ends up in the scrap pile.

At its core, a shooting board is a simple appliance that holds your workpiece at a precise angle, usually 90 or 45 degrees, while guiding a hand plane on its side.

Instead of pushing the plane down from the top, the plane glides along a lower track, trimming fine shavings off the edge or end grain of your timber. The shooting board provides a consistent reference, allowing you to produce accurate, repeatable cuts without relying entirely on freehand technique.

There are three things a shooting board is particularly good at:

1. Sneaking up on dimensions.
2. Reducing tear-out on end grain.
3. Cutting dead-accurate mitres.

I’ll go into more detail on each.

Sneaking Up on Dimensions

Have you ever heard the advice to “cut wide of your line and plane down to it”? A shooting board is one of the best ways to do this with absolute accuracy. Because a hand plane can be set to take shavings as thin as a single thousandth of an inch, you can micro-adjust the length of a drawer front or box side until it fits with a satisfying whoosh.

It’s a controlled way of removing material, allowing you to approach your finished dimension without the guesswork that can come with freehand planing.

Reducing Tear-Out on End Grain

Planing end grain freehand is notorious for causing blowout or tear-out at the back corner where the plane exits the wood. A shooting board helps prevent this by using a sacrificial fence. The fence supports the wood fibres right at the exit point, helping ensure your cuts are crisp, clean and free of splintering.

Whilst all that sounds good on paper, in reality things can be a little different. When a shooting board is new, the sacrificial fence does its job perfectly. However, after a while, mistakes happen and the fence no longer provides the support it once did.

A simple workaround is to flip the workpiece end for end and take a little material off that end until you’re close to your marked line. Then flip it back and safely plane to the line without having to worry about chipping out the opposite end.

Cutting Dead-Accurate Mitres

If you enjoy making picture frames, small boxes or decorative trim, you know that even a small angular error on a mitre can result in noticeable gaps when you bring all four corners together.

By adding a 45-degree fence to your shooting board, you can shoot your mitres to an accurate angle. The result is joints so tight they require very little clamping pressure during glue-up.

Still Not Convinced You Need One?

If your workshop revolves entirely around a heavily tuned table saw, a crosscut sled and a high-end mitre saw, you might not use a shooting board every day.

However, power tools have their limitations. Blades can deflect, wood can burn, and making very small adjustments on a power saw can mean risking the removal of too much material, unless you’re using something like an Incra fence.

A shooting board gives you control over those final adjustments. If you build fine furniture, drawers or boxes, it isn’t just useful, it’s an essential appliance in the workshop.

There are commercially available shooting boards, as well as antique examples such as the Stanley all-metal shooting board, which is fantastic but very expensive.

Jimbode tools

You don’t need to spend a fortune on commercial variants. You can build a high-performing shooting board in about 20 minutes using stable scrap materials such as flat plywood. I like to make mine out of quarter-sawn oak and other quarter-sawn materials for stability reasons. Building a shooting board out of solid wood will take a lot more than 20 minutes.

I also like them to be aesthetically appealing to my eye, which is why I’ve always made mine a little posh. You can make one with or without a fence. I own a shooting plane and therefore made mine with a hard-wearing fence.

Some Friendly Recommendations

Don’t coat it in paste wax. Yes, it will make the plane glide for a short time only, but it will also leave residue on the track and your hand plane. Don’t put anything on the track. A properly made shooting board will allow the plane to glide without assistance from paste wax.

Add a hook or cleat. Screw a small cleat to the underside of the board so it locks against the front edge of your workbench, much like a bench hook, preventing it from sliding away as you push.

Final Thoughts

A shooting board transforms hand-tool woodworking from a game of guesswork into a process of repeatable accuracy. It will save you time and turn frustrating alignment issues into perfectly square results.

I was planning to write an article on how I make a shooting board, but I made two about six months ago, so I don’t have any accompanying pictures to show the process. When I make another one, I’ll do a write-up about it.

Here is a series of pictures of one of the two I made. I sold it two days ago because realistically I only needed one. The second one is considerably longer, allowing me to plane the edges of jewellery boxes with greater accuracy. I do have to lean a little when using it, but that’s a small price to pay for the extra things I can do with it.

Using a Shooting Board Isn’t Cheating

Using a shooting board isn’t cheating, nor does it make you any lesser of a woodworker. I can successfully plane an edge by hand, freehand, and that only comes with years of practice and working wood every day. But I can also do the same job in half the time and with complete accuracy.

I often reflect on Japanese artisans who regularly use guides and shooting boards to work their magic on some remarkably complicated joinery, including mitred dovetails. These are highly skilled craftsmen, yet they have no hesitation in using aids to achieve the results they’re after.

So never let anyone convince you that using any form of workshop aid is cheating. Ripping off a customer by telling them something is handmade when it isn’t, now that’s cheating.

dry fit first

I did a dry fit first to make sure the aprons had the correct inset and that the dowels were the right length. Got it glued and cooking after I had double, triple checked it three times.

hmm.......

The dowels for the long aprons I left long because there wasn't room for the two apron dowels to bypass each other. Left the long aprons long because they carry/span more then the short ones will. Even at that the short aprons still have a 5/8" long dowel length in the dowel hole.

glued

I went back and forth about whether or not to glue these in now or wait. Glued them in because they wouldn't be in the way of clamping the short aprons.

glued and cooking

The plan was to let the two short ends cook for a couple of hours and then glue the top aprons.

last chance

Checked that the long aprons still had the correct inset at both ends before heading topside.

spacer

With the top aprons clamped the bottom of the legs, at both ends, swung outward several inches. The spacer is dead nuts on the distance between the legs.

dead nuts

I checked everything for square after I got the table glued/clamped and all was well in Disneyland. According to Mr 18" Starrett Combo Square, all the junctions are dead on 90°.

bottom stretcher

Got the stretcher sawn to length and it will be glued and Miller doweled in the AM.

hmm.......

Pine scrap that fits perfectly between the short ends with wiggle room. I was going to use this for a template for the poplar shelf but I changed my mind. I like the look of it and I sawed the poplar shelf to this width. I sawed it a little narrower than the pine so I had a wee bit more then 1/8" clearance on each side at each end between the legs.

oops

I put in two cross stretchers 8" in from each end. They will be used to provide a gluing surface for the bottom shelf. The first one cooperated but the 2nd one threw a hissy fit and split. I glued it and will use it - there won't be any stress subjected to it after the shelf is glued down.

glued and cooking

I'll let this go until tomorrow. I what to make sure that the joints get as secure as possible.

fixed

The split had cooked for 3 hours and after getting the last load out of the dryer, I glued the 2nd cross stretcher in place.

accidental woodworker

Two questions developed as I was working on a standing cabinet of my design. One: Am I likely to be pleased and happy with the final result? Two: Have I significantly learned from the process so far?  Answer to the first question: No. But why?  The solid walnut was excellent, though the walnut veneer did […]

 Had a good day in the shop if being confused with what was at the top of the A list. I wanted to work on the bottom stretcher details and that quickly went south on me. I think I spent twice as much time scratching the bald spot then I did doing anything constructive. By the time I killed the lights I was looking forward to heading topside. I think I figured out how this puzzle of a console table will go together.

step one

I got the bottom aprons dry fitted so I could mark the inside/outside and the top/bottom. I had to cut a dado on the inside face for the bottom cross stretcher.

yikes

This sucks pond scum but at least I found it before I tried to glue it up. The left apron has the inset but the right one doesn't.

found it.

The two need to be shifted over to the right and up. When I flipped this to drill the holes on the opposite end I turned it the wrong way and flipped the reference face 180. Initially I sawed off a new board to get two new aprons before I realized I could fill in the errant holes and drill new ones. DUH.

let the fun begin

This apron thing befuddled me and made feel like I had the IQ of box of pointy rocks. I played with trying to get the aprons dry fitted but I was ending up with one of them not having the inset like the top left one. I drilled new holes, glued dowels in them, and tried again. I'd like to say I got it but it took me over an hour before that light came on.

nice feeling

Both the long and short aprons have the correct inset. I took a short break and then I double, triple checked it again. 

labeled

Used a sharpie to labeled the aprons to the legs. The bottom aprons are easy as they only go in one way.

stretcher dado

 I will glue and use Miller Dowels to secure the stretcher to the dadoes.

sneak peek

I still have to do the cross stretchers. The plan is to glue the bottom shelf to the long and cross stretchers. 

didn't make it

Got the labels aligned and where did the inset disappear to? Went into panic mode and initially I couldn't get it aligned. Good thing I couldn't find my 3lb sledge hammer.

happy face on

I had the labels aligned but I hadn't checked the leg orientation. Once I did them first, the top aprons lined up perfectly. It wasn't 1500 but after all this aggravation I killed the lights. I left this as is and I'll come back to it in the AM.

I had wanted to get the short ends of the table glued and cooking but that didn't happen. But now that I think I won't bury my head in arse again I should get the short ends done then. Fingers crossed on that happening.

accidental woodworker 

Shellac has been in use for over 5,000 years, although not all of its uses were for wood finishes. It comes from a lac bug found on trees. Approximately 300,000 lac insects are involved in producing one kilogram of shellac, although the exact number varies. A significant number of insects are lost during harvesting, which raises an interesting question about the price of this natural resin.

Lucky for us, there are breeding reserves. Or is it lucky for us? These bugs have been producing resin for millions of years, but we’ve only been harvesting it for around 5,000 years. The farms established for breeding provide managed conditions for the insects and their host trees, ensuring a continuous supply of resin.

My favourite choice of finish is shellac. It dries fast, meaning you can apply multiple coats in a single day. It’s stable, doesn’t yellow in the same way many other finishes do, and, depending on the grade, can be exceptionally clear. It’s extremely attractive and has a proven history of lasting on furniture for hundreds of years. Try and get that from poly.

I once made a small box and coated it with so-called Antique Oil from Minwax. It’s an oil-based wiping finish containing resins and solvents. Two years later, the finish appeared to have vanished, and the box was still sitting untouched in my parents vitrine. You cannot beat shellac, no matter how hard they try to sell you their products.

Mixing shellac

Mixing shellac is really quite simple. You just need to know what ratio you’re after.

If you’re using spray equipment, a 3-pound cut is usually recommended by my reseller. If you’re going to brush it on, a 2-pound cut will work, but it can leave a mess. That’s the mess that turns many people away from shellac.

I like to make a 1-pound cut because it’s more forgiving. It’s a lot easier to apply than a 2-pound cut because the coats are thinner. When you apply it with a rubber, there’s no residue, but when you apply it with a brush, depending on how much shellac is on your brush, it may or may not leave a residue. Whatever it leaves behind is tiny next to a 2-pound cut

I always make about 200ml of shellac. That’s enough for one bookshelf, believe it or not. For a clock, half that amount and sometimes even less.

I like to make a 1-pound cut. I use a coffee grinder to help speed up the dissolving process. I use approximately 24g of shellac flakes to 200ml of alcohol. I also use a laboratory mixer that continuously stirs the shellac. Within two hours it’s ready for use, although I usually mix it at the end of the day and leave it overnight.

This particular model is strong enough to mix up to a 1.5-pound cut but struggles at 2 pounds and refuses to stir anything higher. If you make shellac as often as I do, then this machine is a must-have in any workshop.

Choosing the right alcohol

This is very important if you want the cleanest mix.

Denatured alcohol is what is commonly available for this purpose. Denatured alcohol is ethanol that has been mixed with toxic or foul-tasting chemicals to make it poisonous and undrinkable, thereby exempting it from the heavy taxes imposed on beverage alcohol. This is what you should be using, provided it is sufficiently pure and suitable for dissolving shellac.

Pure ethanol, without denaturing additives, is the cleanest option. If you can get your hands on that, it’s an excellent choice.

Isopropyl alcohol will dissolve your shellac, but it evaporates more slowly than ethanol, and I will never use it again.

You cannot use mineral spirits, turps or ordinary lacquer thinner. The alcohol must be close to pure, preferably 95% or higher, with very little water preferrably none at all.

I always put the lid back on quickly. I try not to let moisture from the air contaminate the alcohol, so never leave it sitting on your bench with the cap off. Water contamination can cause problems with shellac, particularly when there is too much of it. It can make the mixture cloudy and interfere with the finish, leaving you with a gummy mess that won’t dry or cure properly on your wood.

Application tools

Squirrel-hair brushes are particularly good for applying shellac because they’re exceptionally soft and hold a surprising amount of finish. Their fine, tapered hairs release the shellac evenly, allowing you to lay down a smooth coat with very few brush marks. Of course, this also depends on knowing how much finish to load onto your brush and how to apply it. A good brush won’t compensate for poor technique.

Tools for Working Wood sells these Gramercy brushes. This is great for people living in the US, but it sucks for those of us outside the US because of the poor conversion rate and the high postage costs. If it weren’t for that, I’d buy the other two they have. I already own one.

Then there’s the goat-hair brush that Paul Sellers recommended, and it’s my most-used brush. It’s my go-to because it’s easier for me to clean and hang up to dry in the workshop. It’s easier to clean simply because it’s so small.

I only use the Gramercy brush for larger items like the bookcase.

It’s midnight now, and I think I will finish the article here. I hope you enjoyed it and learned something along the way.

My next article, accompanied by YouTube videos, will be about making a magic box for my granddaughter.

So stay tuned for that, and please leave your comments below. I like reading them.

 

it has been a while

I had to stop and think about this table again. It has been too long since I initially figured out the dimensions. I had to stop and try to remember exactly how I had done it. The problem area is the bottom shelf is shorter on the length then the top shelf. Finally got it - the ends of the bottom shelf sit on the bottom stretchers and over hang them a wee bit.

got it

The top stretchers ended up 23 1/2"  with the legs being inset two inches from the ends.

slow going

The legs and the top stretchers are sawn to finished length. The bottom shelf stretcher I left as is and I'll get its finished length after the table is glued and cooked.

wake up call

Two faces on each of these four legs were rough sawn and I had to smooth them. Started with the 5 1/2 and got short of breath before finishing the first face. I had to stop for a few before resuming but I was ok after that. I didn't lose my breath to where I had to stop. I was able to work through and get all 8 faces done.

drilling the dowels

One good thing about getting short of breath is that it makes me go slow. That behooves me because I have a habit of brain farting on this. I usually drill a set referenced off the wrong face.

checking

I managed to get all the rail dowels drilled correctly.

glad I had this

This is a test leg I drilled to check for the dowel depth and how much I would have to cut the dowels. The important thing was it gave me the reference faces for setting the jig.

nailed it

Got all the dowel holes drilled and the next batter was fitting everything together to check to see if I got it right.

ugh

Drilled the first set of holes (on the right) on the wrong side of the layout line. I drilled the the 2nd set (on the left) off the wrong reference face. Filled in both sets and drilled the 3rd set on the correct side of the layout line and off the correct reference face.

hmm.......

I like it. It is small, delicate and airy looking IMO.

oops

I didn't think the bottom shelf all the way through. I could cut the width but I'm not sure that would look good. I will deal with that later. I have already have a couple of ideas pin balling around in the brain bucket.

hmm......

The holes are a frog hair over 3/4" and the dowels are dead on 1 1/2" long but the rails won't seat fully on the legs. I was going to kill the lights here but did one more task.

hand chamfer

I like to chamfer the dowel holes because it leaves a small place for any glued squeeze out to fill in.

I lied

Still didn't kill the lights because I sanded one face of the legs to remove planer ridges. No problems and the 120 grit easily removed them and smoothed the leg. I was going to stop after one leg but did the other 3. I wasn't sure I would remember which one I had done so I spent an extra 15 minutes completing the other three. Then I killed the lights. Overall a pretty good output considering I didn't get any AM time which I spent running errands.

accidental woodworker

 The saga of the DeWalt belt change and resuming the console table build again is restarted.  I got the planer back today and got the legs planed. The tech told me he almost gave up trying the the belt I gave him. I got two of them off eBay for $12 whereas an OEM belt was over $90 with S/H. I'll keep that in mind if and when I shred another belt.

step one

Before I could use it I had to install the chain and the sprocket. It was an easy do with zero headaches to deal with.

operational again

No problems making a pile of shavings. It was tiring setting up to do it though. My shortness of breath has increased a lot lately. I had to stop and rest to catch my breath several times but I got it done, albeit slowly.

done

Four legs planed square but a wee bit thinner than I was shooting for. I ended up a 32nd under 1 3/16". Still doable and the legs have the slender look I am shooting for.

stickered

I was worn out putting everything away and cleaning up the shavings in the driveway. I am going to let these legs relax until the AM. After I got them on the saw I was going to kill the lights for the day. 

made a detour

Decided to flush the 2nd box bottom before I killed the lights.

hmm.......

I was careful this time and I didn't get any plane tracks on the box sides. I was able to flush plane and sand all four sides without passing out. I got a wee bit winded but I didn't have to stop to rest. I coughed a little but no hissy fit spasms.

interesting

Not what I expected to see. The square indicated 90 at every corner. I thought after flushing the bottom it would have been off.

surprise #2

Both diagonals read 9 1/16". Working wood still holds surprises that make me smile.

box #1

This is the only glamour shot for this box. The Howard's feed 'n wax softened the brush marks and knocked some of the sheen down. I think this going out to Indiana to my sister Donna for her birthday on Nov 12th.

hmm.......

Surprise #3 - I got four legs out of each of the two boards. Thinking now that I will use these four - they are a few frog hairs thicker than 1 1/4" square. I'll have to plane two faces that have saw marks on them. I'm not going through the ordeal of running them through the lunchbox planer.

they fit

I have not quite a 1/2" on either side of the legs. I can saw the apron length shorter if I don't like the wiggle room. I'll start on this in the AM.

I strained my left arm somehow. When I move it I get a pain on my forearm by the elbow. I must have strained it hauling the planer out of the car and back into the house. At least I wasn't coughing.

accidental woodworker

In the above videos, expert hand tool woodworker, Will Myers shows how to connect a traditional wooden vise screw to the leg of a Moravian workbench! The above YouTube video is an excerpt from

A machine will more readily move rather than cut a piece wood, given the chance. If you are holding the piece of wood with your hand, the hand may go with the wood, maybe to the cutting blade.   Compare the action of a coarse rasp with a machine. Consider the work piece just sitting […]

 

came yesterday Joe

Your hammer looks too good to use but it will get used as needed.

the proud corner

This box isn't as sturdy as the first one I just finished. I don't think it could stand the stress of it being planed so the plan was to flush the tails/pins with a chisel and then carefully sand the outside with 120 grit.

spoiler alert upcoming

When I filled the empty screw hole with super glue I thought about it getting into the scissor part of the hinge. Would it get into and freeze the hinge? Well boys and girls after dinner last night I went to the shop to check on that.

it closed.......

...and then it opened - no binding at all. Zero indication that the super glue got into the internals of the hinge. Happy with how this came out.

flushed the tails/pins first

I used one of my big boy chisels because it was sharp. I didn't want to sharpen one of my bench chisels to do this.

checked for square

The inside of the box was square at every corner, each way, when I checked it with the square. The inside diagonals still were dead nuts too. I didn't bother checking the outside diagonals.

almost too small

The #3 was barely long enough to make the run around the box. Got it done but I switched to the 5 1/2 to finish flushing the top.

checking for twist

The bottom twist removed quickly but the top took a lot of dance steps. The first two runs I made it in the opposite direction of the high corners making the twist worse.

change of plans

I hadn't planned to use this as a box. It was done mostly to see how doing small dovetails would work out. Changed my mind on that and the first regret was not cleaning up the pencils marks on the inside of the box. The box will be getting a bottom and a lid.

hmm.......

This is the off cut from the first lid and I had thought about using as the bottom. It is about an 1/8" thick but the width bowed and I didn't think it would work. I flexed it one more time and it split in two. Glad I hadn't used it now. It would have been nice to have the box be all solid wood.

one more hmm.......

This is the off cut from the 2nd lid and I thought about gluing the two off cuts together to make it thicker and stiffer. If I had one more off cut I could have made it this into a plywood.

bottom glued and cooking

I went looking around the shop for pine scraps to make the lid from and nada. The 3 pieces I found were all long enough but short on the width. I do have a lot of poplar that I could use.

The tool repair guy called and said the planer was ready for pickup. This works in my favor because there was nothing else on the horizon for the next project.

sigh

The brad point poked through on this hinge mortise. I only noticed it when I wiped it with steel wool and Howard's feed 'n wax. I'll have to think on how and what to do about it overnight.

upgrade time

I had upgraded the desk computer two days ago and the shop computer is getting the same one now. Upgrading Linux Ubuntu is so much easier and quicker then any Windows OS I have ever upgraded. The only annoying changes made with either upgrade were the user permissions. I had to change them so I could long in without using my password.

The Rx I got is working. I slept last night like I was dead, it was a blissful night of sleeping without trying to hack up my lungs. During the day I hardly coughed at all and I had zero 10 minute coughing spasms. The only time I coughed was when I exerted myself (walking). Even then it was just a few polite coughs. It is a wonderful feeling not coughing continually all day long and night. The doc gave me a 3 bottles of cough suppression meds. I hope that I don't have to renew it.

Didn't kill the lights yet here. The upgrade in the shop was over WiFi and the connection is slow. I will wandered down twice 15 minutes apart until it was finally completed.

accidental woodworker

We take construction seriously in this city
Happy Halloween!
A few years ago I wrote about the Halloween decorations on the Upper East Side. But in the neighborhood for which the Gramercy Tools brand and logo is named, Gramercy Park, some people also put in a fair amount of effort.

Part two of the construction display

The Gramercy neighborhood is loosely 14th Street to 23rd Streets, Park Avenue South to First Avenue. The area in the teens and twenties was first built just before the Civil War. Small houses with stores lined the avenues and the side streets were full of townhouses. Once upon a time the Third Avenue Elevated train ran along Third Avenue and blocked light and air and consequently froze development. When the El was torn down in the 1950s ("farewell, 'El,' a long, long, long farewell," said the New York Times), a huge expansion of large apartment buildings began on the avenue. The side streets came to include large buildings but also tenement buildings and many wonderful mid 19th century townhouses (that now command premium prices).

Many homeowners and landlords put up either "Autumn" displays Or full blown Halloween experiences. Here are a few:

Carving a pumpkins takes skill

All three carvings are on 18th street between 2nd and 3rd Ave
Stuyvesant Town has a huge fall display
A simple fall display
One of my favorites
Who knew gourds and pumpkins came in such an assortment of colors
A frightful freight entrance of a modern apartment building. Simple - but it shows imagination. "Sir - can you send someone up - there are giant spiders creeping up to get me"
This takes real effort to do well - I'm impressed
The most elegant of displays - inside a ground floor living room window

before the teeny dovetails

The finish is done and the Soss hinges are getting secured. There is a 'space' on both sides of the hinges for a screw and I'm only using one screw on the box and one on the lid.
 

hmm......

Hindsight sucks pond scum. It would appear it would have behooved me to screw the lid first and then the box. I stopped here and went to the VA to get the Rx pulmonary put in this friday past. This got done before I started the next box.

The trip from the front door of the VA to the pharmacy was not a walk in the park. I got as short of breath as I did on Saturday. But this time I had to do with traffic and for the first time I wasn't looking to walk around slow moving vets, because I was one of them too. On the way out I had coughing fit and had to sit for a half an hour to catch my breath and calm down. I was hoping then the pills were magical and would kick in real quick.

yikes

With the screws in the lid, it became hinge bound. The screws were causing it so I removed the ones in the lid.

no longer hinge bound

The hinges were a snug fit in the mortise holes but I didn't have a warm and fuzzy that a year from now that would stay the same.

worth a shot

I filled up the hole that had the screw and wicked in some all the way around the top. Fingers crossed that this will hold.

sizing the box

Initially I sized the the box about 2 to 1. The long sides are 7 1/4" and the short ends were 3 1/2". I didn't like the look of the box based on those measurements. It looked squished up and too small. I like the look of the short ends here. They are 6" which makes the box still a rectangle. I think the difference of the side thicknesses is helping to balance out the look of the box.

hmm.........

That is an awfully thin baseline. The tails are going on the long sides and the pins will be on the short ends.

fancy dovetail saw

This is the saw I bought for doing Kumiko. It was expensive and the teeth are finer then my bench japanese dozuki saws. It should do a good job on the small tails and pins.

half pins

No knife walls for the half pins. I sawed directly on the baselines. No hiccups so far and I was expecting the smallness to go south on me somehow.

tails done

First half of the dovetailing without any problems. The tails felt solid and not flimsy. Clean up was easy and the middle pin socket chopped out in nothing flat.

it worked

The depth of the saw cut wasn't that deep and I couldn't see the baselines. I put blue tape on the baselines to give something better visually to guide me.

pins done

Chopping the pin sockets surprised me. First I didn't have to chop from both sides on 6 of them. The pin socket waste popped off on those 6 from one side. They were all clean with very little bits and pieces to remove from the corners.

off the saw

All the corners went together off the saw. I didn't have to trim any of the pins to get the tails to seat. I was concerned about the thinness of the pins but I no had problems with them.

happy face on

All the tails/pins closed up without gaps with hand pressure. I couldn't get the diagonals on the outside to agree but no headaches with the inside diagonals agreeing dead nuts.

hmm.......

I think the outside diagonals were toast because the pins/tails on one corner were proud. There was no way I was getting those diagonals to read square. 

glued and cooking

No clamps needed but I did have to tap down on a couple of pins to fully seat them. I'll let this cook until the AM and hopefully I'll finish it tomorrow.

I didn't run into any hiccups, speed bumps, or headaches doing these tails/pins. In the end they were done just like any of the 'bigger' dovetails I normally do. This only thing I did was to size the tails to my chisels. I was going for 3/8" but the middle one came out smaller than 3/8". A small annoyance at best. 

accidental woodworker

The folks at Lost Art Press have confirmed the Roubo On Marquetry, the volume that got it all started, is now at the printer for a second production run.  The expected availability is around Christmas, after having been sold out for the past year.  Just in time, if you get my drift.

The book is the result of the answer to a simple question I asked of Michele Pagan: “Could you translate a little of this?”  It contains the wisdom related to my great interests, marquetry and finishing.

I’ve got a smile on my face.

We’re inching closer and closer to the end of the build. In this part of the build, I’m going to make the arched panels. These panels will have simple carvings and cut-outs along the bottom edge. They serve no purpose other than decoration, but to keep the bookcase historically accurate, I had to include them. I do think they add beauty and character to the bookcase.

The first step is to edge-glue two boards together to get a wider board.

Now, I know they’re not identical, not even similar to each other. None of that is a problem because they’ll be stained, and the difference between the two won’t even be noticed.

I only planed one side because the other will never be seen. This was common practice 200 years ago. Cabinetmakers concentrated their efforts on the surfaces that would be visible, leaving hidden surfaces less refined. I suspect the change towards preparing both faces came gradually as machinery made the work quicker and easier.

I think preparing a surface that will never be seen is a ridiculous waste of time. Why spend time preparing something that serves no purpose other than to be hidden? Before machinery, that extra work would have taken time and effort that could have been put to better use elsewhere. Today, with modern machinery, preparing both faces takes considerably less effort, so I can understand why the practice has changed. But when you’re working by hand, I see no reason to do unnecessary work simply because that’s what people expect.

When I need to carve something, I always draw it on the computer and print out the drawing. I then glue the printout onto the wood and carve from there. Some people trace their drawings onto the wood, but I find that doubling up on the work. You’ve drawn it once, so why draw it again?

I understand that some people believe the paper will dull their chisels more quickly, but so will the wood itself. Others might be concerned about removing the glued paper afterwards. I see plenty of people scraping it off, and I don’t understand why they go to all that trouble when turps will reactivate the glue, allowing the paper to be wiped off easily. It also doesn’t affect the finish.

Now I repeat the same on the other three panels.

This is the other side of that panel, and as you can see, the surface isn’t prepared at all.

The next step is to attach the panel to the inside of the bookcase. I was going to use brads to nail it onto the ½ inch lip of the strips that I attached earlier in the project. It was too risky to nail it down without possibly breaking the glue bond and breaking off the strips, so I just glued it in place and it worked perfectly. This wood is hoop pine from the 1930s. Hoop pine straight out of a kiln is a little hard to work with using hand tools, and it certainly gives your body a workout. But when you cut rabbets and other joinery it’s so crisp that not even a machine can repeat it. Once it properly acclimates and settles at around 8%, it planes easily and cuts easily, but you do lose that crispness. I haven’t come across a woodworker who makes anything from hoop pine, and nor have I ever come across a timber yard that doesn’t try and talk you out of buying it. Timber yards all try and slander the wood, but they’re all dead wrong. It’s a fantastic bit of wood that should be used for more than just broom handles.

came this close

I got 5 coats on the box and the lid and I'm calling that part done. In the AM I'll install the Soss hinges and I'll rub down the box and lid with Howard's Feed 'n Wax. Then the oohs and aahs can commence followed by much dancing and rejoicing in Mudville.

I spent most of the day resting and doing nothing. I made two trips to the shop to slap on shellac and that was it. Last night I hit the rack at 2200 and 5 minutes later I launched into a 15 minute coughing fit. After that I coughed on and off for the rest of the night. The last time I looked at the clock it said 0235. I must have drifted off after that and woke again at 0330 coughing again.

The rest of the night pretty much stuck to the same dance steps. I finally went vertical a little after 0700 feeling like crappola. That feeling stayed with me all day long. Tomorrow I'll go to the VA and pick my Rx and I'm looking forward to getting some relief. Everything on my body that can be crossed is, not that I'm superstitious. 

accidental woodworker