General Woodworking

 The old body isn't screaming at me but it is achy through my back into my upper thighs. What surprised me was my left shoulder didn't hurt. There was a wee bit of achiness but no rip your face off pain. 

The plow  truck came through overnight and it was expected. They blocked off the end of the driveway and the front door walk way. They also only plowed my side of the road. They made another run around lunch time. So I had to shovel twice more today but I lucked out because it wasn't nowhere near the blizzard level snow dump.

sigh

Not too bad and it took me a little less then an hour to clear the driveway and the front door walk through. No hiccups with the left shoulder, I was expecting it to start singing arias within a heartbeat but it didn't.

hmm.......

It is signed 2023 but I would bet a lung that it was older than this. I think I signed this when I hinged it. I know this sat in the boneyard for several years without hinges. This is the pine/cherry jewelry box and I'm slapping shellac on it finally.

sigh

The banding is offset on this corner. It looked like crap and was setting off alarm bells in OCD central. Chiseled it off and glued on another piece.

wow, and wow again

I can't believe how dark the legs and bottom banding on the small box popped after just one coat of shellac. I think this is ebony but I'm not sure. Regardless, I am in love with the color.

flattening

I didn't go nutso on this. I planed the hump on one face and the cup on the other. Made no attempt to make the faces dead nuts parallel. No pain working with 3 different planes flattening this board. I wasn't sure if the left shoulder would protest or not.

done

Happy face on. The board ended up 11/16" thick which was my target.

resaw time

The blade is only 3/8" but it didn't protest resawing this scrap of pine. The blade effortlessly glided through the board with no binding or hesitation.

hmm....this sucks pond scum

In spite of the ease sawing the stock it didn't come out okey dokey. The saw cut is angled. The outside cuts aren't usable but the middle one is.

why I was resawing

This board will give the ends for the miniature chest. I am going to dutchman this pitch pocket but not the knots. Pitch pockets can bleed and run when the temperature gets hot.

second step

Knife and the chisel the outline of the dutchman. I chiseled it out and checked the depth with an adjustable square.

good fit

There is a bit of a gap on the top long edge. It isn't a big deal and I'll fill it with wood putty. This is going to be painted and won't be seen.

glued and clamped

Tomorrow I plan to go to Lowes and buy a couple of  1x12 pine boards for the miniature chest. I'll whack that out before I start on Miles's desk.

two coats of shellac

Two coats on the body and three coats on the feet. One more to go on them and they I can finish the rest.

accidental woodworker

I had been having trouble getting this plane to work properly.  The front of the frog does not make contact with the plane's main casting; it is essentially cantilevered over the casting forward of where its seat mates with the casting's frog receiver.

With frog bolted down, can fit cardboard under the toe of the frog

And this caused the plane to shudder as it tries to glide over a workpiece.

You can see the waviness of the cut

I thought if I filled the gap under the frog, the cantilever would be eliminated and maybe the plane would be more stable and cut better.  First, I stuffed a few layers of business card under there to see what the gap measured.  Turned out to be about 0.052".  I planed some maple to 0.056" thick - no small feat - and stuck another block to it to fill not only the space under the frog's toe, but also the space under the frog just forward of the casting's frog receiver.

The block and a piece of thin maple

My intent was that the top of the block would be in line with the top of the frog receiver, the slanted part would match the roughly 45 degree angle on the underside of the frog, and the thin base would support  the frog's toe.  This turned out to be a major pain in the ass, as I had to fit the piece, bolt on the frog, test it out, take it apart, make minor adjustments and repeat - many times.

In the end I would have needed to whittle away most of the slanted part of the block to allow the frog to be far back enough to bolt it down.  So I tried something much simpler - just go with a thin piece of maple, 0.056" thick, under the toe of the frog.  In the following picture, you can see the piece of wood in place.

Looking at the sole from toe end - the white is the maple piece

Well, time will tell if this fix works for the long haul, but for now, the plane seems to be working fine.  I planed some pine with no juddering, then some red alder (a relatively soft hardwood) and some pretty hard red oak, all with a nice smooth surface finish.

Planing some fine shavings of red oak

Nice smooth surface!

Could it really be as easy as that?  Maybe I'll keep this plane after all.  But if there is anybody out there who collects Dunlap planes and would like this one (for free), please contact me and I'll be happy to let it go.

I must have gotten some snow blindness because I was way off on how much I had to shovel. 16' didn't even make it to the end of driveway. I measured once I cleared it out to where the plow trucks dumped their stuff. From where I left off yesterday to the snow line in the road was almost 42 feet. I would have gladly accepted it being 16'. I started shoveling it at 0738 and I got done with it at 1248. I worked right through lunch because I just wanted it over and done with.

a little over 3 hours

I still have a chunk of snow on the right to shovel. My shoulder was starting to hurt a lot here. To add an insult to injury, it snowed for most of the time I shoveled. It turned to rain briefly before ending. On a brighter note, Mr Sun said hello around 1400.

awesome helpers

These are like football cleats that went on a super crash diet. Absolutely no slipping and sliding with these on. Because they slightly elevate your shoes they don't get soaking wet. I wouldn't have survived shoveling the driveway without them.

almost forgot to snap this pic

The fruits of my labor. I am going to be sore for a while. I can't lift lift my arm up above my left shoulder. Can't remember whether to ice it or apply heat. I'll google it later on.

I went to Shaws to get some vittles and my street was barely a single lane. There is no way two cars could pass each other. I noticed that a couple of side streets weren't plowed at all. The main road going to Shaws was clear but the left lane (4 lane road) was a wee bit short on the width. That made for an interesting drive dealing with the morons in the right lane. 

hmm.......

This walnut bookshelf didn't want to get its pilot license. It isn't rocking here at all. No rocking when I checked on the tablesaw top neither. I'll be keeping an eye on it to make sure it behaves.

been two days

I was too impatient to wait another day because I had to see how it looked right now.

about the same

I really couldn't see any difference after this second heat and clamp. There is still a wee bit of a cup on one face and a hump on the other face. Still much better than what it was before I tried this. When it comes time to plane the hump/cup I shouldn't lose that much in the thickness. Hoping it will be about a 16th or less.

almost done

This almost didn't get the final check mark today. My shoulder stopped singing arias and was screaming at me. I stayed in the shop long enough to get the last two bandings on and clamped. This was all I got done in the shop today. I don't expect to light the world on fire with shop time in the AM. That is dependent upon how much use my left arm will have to render.

accidental woodworker 

Hulot, pere "L'Art du tourneur mecanicien" 1775
Prior to the Industrial Revolution, the two most common styles of lathes were pole lathes and great wheel powered lathes. Pole lathes featured a string looped around work held between centers. One end of the string was fastened to a springy wood pole and the other was attached to a pedal. The turner would press down on the pedal and the work would rotate in one direction. The work would be cut and then the turner would let up on the pedal so that the pedal would be pulled up, rotating the work in the wrong direction, and concurrently resetting the string for the next cut. This method worked well -- and a pole lathe was very easy for a capital-deprived turner to afford. The image above features a pole lathe in action at a French shop for wood and ivory turning. Interestingly, while the person in the back is sawing out stock, two people, one looking pretty young, are roughing out stock before it gets turned. Pole lathes work with an interrupted motion, and rounding the stock saves oodles of time. The lathe itself, with a springy pole attached to the ceiling, was pretty standard. This image from 1775 isn't the earliest image of turning, but it is representative (and also makes for a great opening picture for this blog post).

Joseph Moxon's "Mechanick Exercises" 1680
The second way of powering a lathe was using a great wheel (as in the picture above). A large wheel - as large as the turner had space for - was mounted in line with the lathe and connected with a string belt. A second person turned the wheel, powering the lathe while the turner cut wood. This model worked very well, giving the turner continuous motion, but had the downside of requiring a second person's involvement.

At the time of the picture (1680) water and water mills could have been used to gear up a wheel to power a lathe, as it was used for all sorts of larger machinery. I do not know know of a specific case where this occurred, and I am not sure if the mechanics at the time were precise enough to drive a line-shaft fast enough to be practical for a lathe.

Many permutations of the pole and great wheel lathes existed. The spring of the pole could be replaced with a bow, and all of the early books on lathes show pole type lathes with small crankshafts on the ceiling which could be pumped by a second person with the cord attached to the crank.

The main problem with a pole lathe was the interrupted rotation. The main problem with a great wheel lathe (and its derivatives) was the need for a second person. You could, I suppose, also use a treadmill apparatus for an animal, but I haven't found any examples of lathes being powered in such a way.

There exists a drawing from 1480 by Leonardo da Vinci that shows a treadle lathe. Was it something he saw, dreamed up but didn't build, or actually built what he designed? There is no proof one way or another for any of these options. The earliest image I have of a treadle lathe dates from 1680 and appears in Joseph Moxon's "Mechanick Exercises." That might be the first published image of a treadle lathe in literature, but I'm not sure. Considering how many pages are devoted to pole lathes and great wheel lathes in the few lathe books that exist from the 17th and 18th century, you have to make an assumption that treadle lathes were not that common. Moxon shows the treadle (below) on a special lathe for oval turning. It's doing fairly light work, but Moxon says that the treadle is useful for turning oval work, as is a great wheel lathe, because you needed continuous motion.
Joseph Moxon's "Mechanick Exercises" 1680
Charles Plumiers "LArt de Tourner" 1701
Plumier, writing in France in 1701, has drawing upon drawing of pole lathes, great wheel lathes, overhead drive mechanisms. The first illustration in his book is of a large lathe which has an overhead hand cranked wheel and a pole option. But a few pages later, a large illustration (above) of another main lathe shows the same hand-pumped flywheel mounted on the ceiling as before - but no spring pole option. Later in the volume, he detailed the parts of this lathe, and the detailed drawings shows something interesting.

Charles Plumiers "LArt de tourner" 1701
Whereas in the main drawing the pull cord for the flywheel is clearly meant for hand action, the drawing above shows how to connect the flywheel on the ceiling to a floor pedal. As near as I can see from the drawings, the flywheels are just heavy wheels of solid wood and would work but are pretty light for a general purpose lathe. This is a big deal. Part of the advantage of a flywheel is that the flywheel stores energy and evens out the footwork so the lathe is powered all the time, not just on the downstroke of the pedal. The pedaler might be coasting on the way up, but the lathe is still drawing power throughout the entire stroke.

Later in the book, Plumier shows a light duty treadle lathe. This makes sense: a lot of the fancy work Plumier described required continuous motion and many of his readers were hobbyists who would want to work alone.

But these circumstances changed. By 1800 (and certainly by 1840), treadle lathes became all the rage - from the high end of Holtzapffel, to random low-end lathes for homeowners and hobbyists. I found many advertisements for these lathes. If you were a small shop or a hobbyist, the treadle lathe was the way to go. Great wheel lathes disappeared and factory line shafts appeared in mills. Pole lathes remained in use at least until the middle of the 20th century by bodgers working in the forest, where it was easier to turn chair parts in the forest then haul out raw wood.

What changed?
What happened?

It's easy to point to the nature of invention, to say that things have to be invented piece by piece by piece by piece. And the treadle is a natural evolution for small lathes. But I don't think that's the real case. If you're in a production environment, a great wheel lathe allows you to have continuous turning - as long as you have someone to do the powering. With the overhead drive motion seen in Plumier and Moxon and even earlier in Felibien (below), a turner could be very productive cranking the overhead crank if you had somebody else helping. In a production environment, a great wheel made a lot of sense. Pole lathes made a lot of sense as well because they entailed very little capital to build one, and they worked well for a one-man shop. Moxon's treadle lathe is a dainty little thing, with Plumier is not far behind. Plumier's overhead flywheel powered by a treadle could be operated by one person. The wooden flywheel could be big and store more momentum, but it would far from ideal. Plumier also illustrates a fairly lightweight treadle lathe, but it had a wooden flywheel.

I think the key is that there's a technical problem with all treadle lathes before 1780. The flywheels that you see in Moxon and Plumier are of wood - and they are simply not heavy enough. Holtzapffel tells us that the flywheel should weigh anywhere between 30lb and 100lb (for a big metal turning lathe). The flywheel also has to be machined and balanced, otherwise the entire lathe would shake and wobble. The cast iron flywheel on our treadle lathe weighs about 30lbs. But the operative word is cast iron. Cheap cast iron is an 18th century invention, and the ability to machine the grooves easily is a very late 18th century invention. While a great wheel lathe can be huge and made of wood, it gets its momentum from its diameter, not its weight. A treadle flywheel that has to live under a lathe bed and has a maximum diameter. It gets its momentum from mass. While it was certainly possible, even in the 16th century, to make a heavy bronze flywheel, accurately machining and boring it would be very difficult before 1800. And if the flywheel isn't machined, it's useless.

Up until the late 18th century it was possible, but very difficult, to can make a balanced cast flywheel except on a onesie-twosie basis, so it wasn't until the 19th century that machining a cast iron flywheel was cost-effective.

We actually tested a wood flywheel in an early prototype of the lathe. It worked, but not as well as the same same flywheel did when we bolted some metal plates to it. There are of course tradeoffs in weight, and some basic physics involved. If you have a light flywheel, the lathe is easier to start and spin, but it doesn't hold a lot of momentum, so heavy cuts slow it down a lot. If you have a heavy flywheel, the lathe is hard to start and you have to pedal for a few seconds to get it up to speed, but then it can power through work and its overall performance is better. In other considerations, a heavier flywheel is harder to move around, and it and costs more. Flywheel design is a compromise between usability and cost.We thought the learning curve would be easier with a cast iron flywheel, ideally in the sweet spot of a good bit heavier than a wood one, but on the lighter side of the weight range.

Incidentally, there's almost no literature on the design of treadle lathes. Part of the interest fueling this project for the past 3 years has been understanding the engineering why something was done and then actually testing it out - i.e., reinventing the wheel.

The drawing of a treadle-powered grinder (below) from Hulot is interesting. Chronologically, Hulot is later than the other references in this blog. The book published in 1775, with parts written very significantly earlier than that. But the grinder, unlike the traditional pole turning lathe at the start of this blog, is high tech. I can't tell if the flywheel is metal or not, but it looks metal to me, and in 1775 or earlier making it would have been quite a trial.

Lastly, Flibien's book is slightly earlier than Moxon's, but the lathe is nearly identical to the other lathes shown here. And we have the combo power option of pole or wheel. I originally thought that this was a drawing convention with a weird perspective, but I wonder if having a pole made it possible for one person to do pretty heavy turning, but having a wheel option allowed for faster, lighter work, if a second person were available to pump. (Lighter work because it's a wooden flywheel)

Hulot, pere "L'Art du tourneur mecanicien" 1775
Andr Flibien "Principes de l'architecture, de la sculpture, de la peinture, &c." 1676

The last big blizzard was in 1978 and I missed it. I was somewhere in the north Atlantic onboard the USS Cavalla SSN 684. My wife had to deal with it but she survived, She had gone to her mother's house to ride out the blizzard. The snowfall from this blizzard was over 2" more than the 1978 one. Kind of wish I had gone to north carolina with my wife now.

this sucks

I shoveled the spot in front of the truck and my wife's parking spot first. I waited until after I made a trip to the shop first.

this is going to hurt

The city only plowed a single lane down the street. The end of my driveway has an extra 5 foot wide mountain of snow I'll have to shovel . The headache is there is ittle real estate to dump snow. On a brighter note, about a 1/3 of the driveway had almost no snow. The wind blowing pushed a lot of snow down to the end of the driveway.

hmm.......

Starting the banding yesterday and before I went out to shovel all that white crap, put on two more pieces. I attached the banding with super glue and fingers crossed that it holds up over time.

wife's spot

Shoveled the back stoop and this spot. The sun was shining and it was kind of warm, the temp was above freezing (0C). Almost 2 hours of my life that I'll never get back.

21"

When there is this much of the white stuff, this is close enough. The back right corner was over 24". This is the foundation of the old garage and it is where I park the truck. Shoveling my wife's spot and mine took me a little over four hours.

welcomed

The bare spot was nice not having to shovel. This part of the driveway is a ROYAL PITA. The left side doesn't have any where to dump snow. So I have to shovel and walk it over to the right and dump it there. It was good work out. I quit here with about 16 more feet to go before I hit the road.  

90 minutes

Cleared it from the front door to road. At least the postman and deliveries can be made. I didn't do the front sidewalk. I'm sure the plows will be coming through again to widen the road, or I hope they do. Then I'll shovel a path to walk in.

hmm......

Banding is almost done. There is one more going around the top of the lid. This would have looked better if I had inset the banding into the box. This being plywood, it would have been a nightmare plowing the dadoes for that. 

WTF?

The walnut bookshelf is rocking still. The left rear leg is a 32nd off the saw table. I am at a total loss as to what is causing this to lay flat on one day and the next day rocking again?

awkward

I had to sand the left front leg to eliminate the rocking. Moving the bookshelf over the sandpaper and trying to hold it at the same time was difficult. I finally got it to lay flat on the tablesaw and not rock. Also didn't rock on the outfeed table and the workbench. There is free flying lessons available if this rocks on me in the AM.

done

These were done a few days ago but I forgot to post it. I am going to have to figure out a stop of some kind for kickstand leg. As is it goes back to far, thinking of gluing a ribbon as a stop. Other than that I like how they turned out. 

Didn't finish the shoveling. I will be back at in the AM. My back doesn't hurt right now but my arms and shoulders are a wee bit sore. How I'll feel in the AM is a question mark.

accidental woodworker 

Not all those who wander are lost.” 

J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring

 

Introduction 

In previous articles in this frightfully sexually-charged series, Beloved Customer produced a design drawing for your gennou handle based on the parameters of your actual gennou head and your body. You should have also selected, or at least rolled out of bed onto the floor, opened on eye, and seriously considered, an appropriate stick of wood. Assuming you’ve procured said stick, let’s get to the layout. 

Tools 

There are as many ways to layout the shape of a hammer handle as Carter has pills. I won’t tell you how to do it or what tools to use, but after making dozens of gennou, hammer, and axe handles for myself and customers, I prefer to use the following tools. You will need to have a similar set of tools on hand for layout and fabrication. 

1. Divider with sharp points; 
2. Sharp pencil; 
3. Small try square; 
4. Marking gauges (Titemark and kama kebiki); 
5. Marking knife; 
6. Rip and crosscut handsaws for roughing out; 
7. Handplanes for creating the flat sides and edges in preparation for layout;
8. Dozuki crosscut and/or rip saw for cutting the tenon;
9. Auriou cabinet rasp (Lie-Nielson); 
10. Bogg-pattern flat-sole spokeshave (Lie-Nielson); 
11. Bogg-pattern curved-sole spokeshave (Lie-Nielson); 
12. Sandpaper; 
13. Satin Polyurethane finish; 
14. Mineral spirits. 

Can you get by with fewer tools? Of course. A pencil, handsaw, hammer, marking gauge, dividers, and pocket knife are a minimum set. Will this minimalist set take more time, produce more blisters, prove frustrating, and produce an inferior handle? Absolutely yes. But it can get the job done.

Layout 

Select a board or stick with dimensions a little greater than the length, height, width, and thickness of your handle design, with 6 flat, parallel, square sides. 

You can prep this board or stick using electrical tools, but if you can’t do it with handtools alone, I strongly encourage you to work on your basic skills. In this age, surprisingly few have these skills.

Looking back on the old texts, one of the first tasks assigned trainees in cabinetmaking technical schools and apprenticeships was making a number of sticks or boards like this because this job combines many of the essential tools skill while developing an understanding of the material. I can attest to the bullet-proof validity of this concept.

1. Begin your layout by selecting and marking a flat and wind-free side of the selected board corresponding to a profile view on the drawing to be the “reference face.” Don’t forget to label this critical surface somehow so there will be no confusion moving forward.
2. Plane the surface of the board that will form the handle’s back edge (seen from above in plan view) flat and perpendicular to this reference face. All further layout will be indexed from these two faces. 
3. Mark the maximum thickness of the handle on the surface opposite the reference face, as determined by the widest dimension of the butt, using a marking gauge against the reference face.
4. Plane all the surfaces flat, free of wind, and where appropriate, planar. This needs to be done pretty precisely.
5. Use a marking gauge to draw the appropriate centerlines on both sides, edges, ends of the board/stick.
6. Use dividers to measure and layout the width of the eye, centered on the centerline you just marked, and spin this around the eye, butt, back edge and front edge. 
7. Make paper, cardboard, or wood patterns based on your design drawing of the handle’s elevation and profile views. Paying close attention to minimize grain runout, especially in the tenon and neck area, position the patterns and mark the board. 
8. Using these cardboard patterns, carefully layout all the tenon’s dimensions on the board, measured from the reference face and back edge. Be sure to make the tenon a half-sheet of copy paper too large in width and thickness. This can be trimmed down later if the fit is too tight. 
9. Adjust the lines of the handle design to meet your requirements for beauty.

In the next post in this series we will begin making sawdust. Oh joy!

YMHOS

Two Trolls by John Bauer, 1909. Not wanting to pay for the bread oven your humble servant has just installed, Granny Troll is trying to convince me to climb inside and do a closeup inspection. Will I fit? Do you like my fetching new shoes?

If you have questions or would like to learn more about our tools, please use the questions form located immediately below. To see a list of our tools and their pricing, or to contact us, please click the “Pricelist” link here or at the top of this page.

Please share your insights and comments with all Gentle Readers in the form located further below labeled “Leave a Reply.”

We see data miners and their bots as dastardly sneak thieves and so promise to never share, sell or profitably “misplace” your information for any reason. If I lie may the heads of all my hammers fly away to Valinor!

Previous Posts in The Japanese Gennou & Handle Series

• Part 1 – Introduction
• Part 2 – Ergonomics
• Part 3 – What is a Gennou?
• Part 4 – The Varieties of Gennou: Kataguchi, Ryoguchi & Daruma
• Part 5 – Kigoroshi
• Part 6 – The Ergonomic Anaya
• Part 7 – The Unblinking Eye
• Part 8 – Head Style & Weight
• Part 9 – Factory vs. Hand-forged Gennou Heads
• Part 10 – Laminated Gennou Heads
• Part 11 – Decorative Gennou Heads
• Part 12 – The Drawing: Part 1/6
• Part 13 – The Drawing: Part 2/6
• Part 14 – The Drawing: Part 3/6
• Part 15 – The Drawing: Part 4/6
• Part 16 – The Drawing: Part 5/6
• Part 17 – The Drawing: Part 6/6
• Part 18 – Wood Selection

I don't know where this official level was done, but it wasn't in my part of the universe. The drifts here might be that high but the actual amount of snow on the ground is probably less than a foot. The wind blew all day long blowing snow into drifts and then blowing them away into a new drift. I didn't shovel at all today because of the wind. I'll do the shoveling  tomorrow, as long as the wind has died down.

hmm.....

The two walnut bookshelves side by side. Initially I was going to leave the left one with flat feet. Nixed that in favor of having the shelf tilted backwards. There are slight differences between the two of them as I didn't want to make clones.

back slats

With the angled fronts this design allows for the back slats to be positioned higher. With the rounded ends I have to be careful about how close I place the top one to the round over. 

On Miles cherry bookshelf I put the top back slat a wee bit too far down. It has no effect on the bookshelf's function it is more of an aesthetic option. 

needs help

I sawed the front and rear legs with a dozuki saw. First look was good but it was rocking some. Trying to plane the front leg was difficult and I switched to a 80 grit sanding stick. 

99%

Took 5 sand/plane and check steps before 99% of the rocking disappeared.  Called it done here.

yikes

The holder for the saw went south on me. I stapled the heel of the plastic for now. If it fails again I'll go to plan #2.

sweet

Wow. This came out much better than I expected it to. The cup on this end was more than an 1/8" at the middle. Now it is about a 32nd and to the eye it looks flat. I'll try this again hopefully with the same results.

not square

I should have planed the angle on the ends before I glued the bookshelf. I didn't and it was awkward trying to hold the bookcase and plane the angle. Got it done but it ate up a lot of calories and time.

no twist

The bookshelf was rocking again. )@&#Q%_*_^_)*(^@%& Checked for twist and there was none. On the workbench it was, with the back left foot a good 16th shy of it. Did I cause it by planing and sanding it after I did it the first time?

done, again

No plane this time. I got it done with a 80 grit sanding stick.

double, triple checking it

Tried it for rocking on the tablesaw, the out feed table, and the workbench. This time I installed the Miller dowels before I sanded the feet. That added a more rigidity to the bookshelf.

new batch of shellac

Used the last of my shellac flakes and I'll have to order some more. I think I have enough to finish the current 3 bookshelves.

why I'm banding it

I have to cover the screw holes I plugged because they look like crap. I have enough of this banding left to do the top of the bottom and the bottom of the lid. I am using super glue to attach the banding.

hmm.....

 The end that wasn't cupped, decided it wanted some attention too. I heated both ends with my heat gun and clamped it again. This time I'm going to leave it clamped for a few days.

My wife just emailed the snowfall tallies for Rhode Island. Warwick, where I live, had 30 inches fall. I just looked out at my driveway and I still don't see 30 inches. The wind is still blowing and drifting the snow. 

accidental woodworker 

The snow fall dump forecast has increased. It now stands at 18" to 24" with drifting up to 4 feet. Sounds like lots of fun will greet me in the AM. The governor has declared a state of emergency. There is a ban on driving after 1900 today into tomorrow. Fingers and toes double crossed that it won't be as bad as the weather seers are saying.

oh what a relief......

The epoxy has hardened and set up. The color is fantastic. I have used liquid dyes and stains before with epoxy with mixed results. This pigment color is rich and deep. There are zero occlusions and no dead spots in the epoxy. Very happy with how this came out. 

sigh

This pine board is cupped but only on this near end. The other end is dead flat. Why I don't know. I had clamped this end yesterday and it didn't take out the cup. Helped a little but still too much to be usable.

worth a try

I remember watching a japanese woodworking You Tube vid where  he ran a cupped, bowed, and twisted boards over a kerosene heater to straighten out the board. The boards were used to make a 4 drawer dresser with doors. I don't have a kerosene heater but I do have a heart gun. I warmed up the 4-6 inches on this end on all four edges for about 5 minutes. After that I clamped it again. I'll check on it in the AM.

2nd walnut bookshelf

Got the layout done on the 2nd one. Having a lot of squares was helpful with each one set to a specific measurement.

looks good

There is still a gap but I did get the larger part of it plugged. Not sure what to do with small gap. The cherry putty I have is too red to fill it. Hide glue and cherry sawdust sounds like a better choice.

self supporting

Ok with that but having no gap is much better.

hmm......

Tried this and it worked. This is my small saddle square. I used it to ensure that I had the last 1 1/4" (the chisel width) at the end was square. I didn't use it on the rest of the dado. 

first one dry fitted

Two left side back slat mortises were loose on the cheek walls but snug on the top/bottom. The clamps didn't have any issues with fully seating the shelf in the dado leaving the front gap free.

wow and wow again

Not at all what I was expecting. I put the 3/8" blade on the bandsaw and I prayed it would stay sharp for the two cuts I had to make on the bookshelf. It was like a hot knife going through a tub of butter. Smooth, effortless, fluid, and with zero hesitation. I have never made a continuous round cut like this ever on this bandsaw. It didn't bind and easily made the curve all in one stroke. Did I say wow already?  

sneak peek

Eyeballing the cheery shelf against the walnut. Decided against staining it and I'll leave it natural. As this bookshelf ages the cherry will darken and the walnut will lighten another reason to leave the cherry  natural.

caught it

Went to adjust the depth on the router and noticed that the depth stop doohickey was MIA.

got lucky

Found it on the deck covered almost hidden in walnut wood shavings. I bought the depth stop from LN for $10 years ago. Checked their website and the stop now sells for $20.

2nd walnut bookshelf dry fitted

It was looking pretty good that I would get two bookshelves glued and cooking before 1500 roll around.

hmm........

A lot closer to the dado bottom than I would like to be. At least with this one I remembered to saw the angle on the bottom. I think I should be ok with the shelf and the dado, there will be Miller dowels helping out too.

Besseys suck

I rarely use the big Jorgensen bar clamps. I had to because the Bessey wouldn't pull the ends in to fully seat the shelf in the dado. The bar clamp did with with barely a 1/8 of a turn of the handle. The 'J' bar clamps have a large clamping head - bigger than the clamping head on my aluminum bar clamps

hmm......

The glue is bleeding through the saw cut out. Not a lot just a few little beads of glue. I'll clean them up when I take it out of the clamps.

accidental woodworker

 The weather seers ain't giving out good news. Snow starting on sunday with a blizzard on monday. The predicted snowfall for the two days - 12-14 inches. This is the lowest estimate from the three weather stations I checked. I have a plenty of projects on my plate to wait out anything Mother Nature throws at me in my part of the universe.

done

Kind of like this one considering it went south and came back up north.

cooked overnight

No hiccups when I took the clamps off. The headaches come from it moving as you loosen the clamps - not a good sign. Creaking and moaning could go either way. None of those symptoms today.

done

12 Miller dowels, 6 on each end. I will need to buy more cherry dowels, I have enough to do the remaining 3 cherry bookshelves. 

Yikes

Blew out a big chip rasping the cutout. Put a damper on getting this ready for shellac.

small cutout

The important thing is that it isn't rocking. I don't understand why this cutout is so much smaller than the previous ones. 

sigh

When I had clamped this I didn't see a gap on this side. Out of the clamps and the gap was shaking hands with me. Used the cherry in the vise to saw off a shim to fill the gap.

filled

This was the second shim. The first I did had the end grain facing up. This one has the face grain up.

2nd walnut bookshelf

Prepping the  stock for the next walnut bookshelf. Thinned the back slats to 5/8" and planed the four edges smooth.

cherry shelf

I went to Kosezla lumber this morning to check out the black walnut. They only had two 4/4 boards but both were only about 4" wide. There was a lot of 8/4 but I wasn't interested in resawing stock that thick. She told me more walnut was coming next week but I don't want to wait. This bookshelf will be cherry and there is also the possibility that I could stain the cherry walnut.

black pigment

Trying out the black pigment mixed with epoxy. Not sure how this will look. I don't have doubts about it mixing well with the epoxy.

wow

This color is incredible. It is a deep, edge of space, rich black. I filled in the voids/defects in the back slats. fingers crossed on this epoxy setting up because the last time I used it, it didn't harden. I put the two back slats on the furnace to help keep them warm.

accidental woodworker

One down and five to go on the bookshelves. If I keep up this rate I will whack out one a day woodworking wise. Applying the shellac will take a couple of days. I can see them piling up in the shop as wait to finish them. And it will be something else to find a hole to stick them in. Of the eventual eleven of them, only 3 have been adopted.

Highland Hardwoods haul

I'll start on Miles desk next week sometime. Until then I'll let the haul hang out and relax. That will give it a chance to acclimate from Highland to my shop.

done

Happy with the shine on the end grain. I had slapped the last coat of shellac on it last night after dinner. 

2nd glamour pic

All of the bookshelves are finished 360. They can be viewed and placed without regard to the back of it being seen.

2nd cherry one

Got this one laid out, chopped and dry fitted before lunch. I couldn't close it up with hand pressure on the shelf. The back slats fitted ok and all four, including the shelf, fit in their respective spots snug.

hmm......

This left side isn't bottoming out even with clamp pressure. After playing with for a while and clamping it with different clamps I got nowhere with closing it up. I was getting frustrated so I left it be to go have fish 'n chips. That gave me while to think about what might be the problem.

came today

These walnut dowels ain't cheap. With S/H, 200 dowels are .36 cents each. You can do the math to get the cost.

better

The wall on the bottom of the dado was a wee bit off 90°.  Straightened that out and got it to close up.  Fingers crossed that I can repeat this when I glue it up.

hmm.......

No round overs this time. Instead I put a small angle on the front. I used the cherry bookshelf I keep by my desk for the pattern.

glued and cooking

Had a senior moment aka, a brain fart. I forgot to do the cutout for the legs/feet. Oh well, I'll have to put on my big boy pants and do it after it comes out of the clamps.

hmm......

Got the walnut for the first walnut bookshelf prepped. The back slats look too thick to my eye. As is they are 3/4" and I planed them down to 5/8". That thickness looked like the winner IMO.

not easy

Doing layout on the walnut was a bit difficult. Lead pencil doesn't show on the walnut and my 71 year old peepers were almost useless. I got it done by using a different square for each layout line. Took me twice as long to do as the cherry and pine ones.

layout done

It was past quitting time when I got the layout done. I'll chop on this in the AM.

hmm......

There is some wane on the left end but that will be removed when I do the angle on it. Decided to nix the round over and do an angle like I did on the cherry one. The defect on the back slat I'm keeping. I will fill that in with epoxy and black pigment. I just have to remember to keep it facing up when I do the glue up.

accidental woodworker

Rolled out of the rack at oh dark 34 and I was headed north to New Hampshire at 0501 I arrived at Highland at 0734. It took a little over 2 1/2 hours which was dead on with the google driving estimate. Traffic going up on 95 was busy and thinned out a little on 495. Not bad for a weekday. 

I went to the McDonald's about a mile from Highland and got a coffee and an egg Mcmuffin to kill the 20 minutes until Highland opened. When they opened I went nutso buying cherry for Miles desk. Added poplar and shorts of walnut to round out the bill. I left Highland $460 lighter.

I got back to the barn at 1130 which was about right for the round trip. I haven't been to Highland since COVID shut things down. Memory muscle kicked in and no problems driving up and back. Other than the exit numbers being changed there wasn't anything to throw me a curve ball. Decided to buy the wood for the desks one at a time, so I'll be making a 2nd trip up north for Leo in march/april?

what $460 looks like

From left to right - 1/2 poplar for the drawers, should be enough for Miles and Leo's desk plus extra. Next is 8/4 cherry for the legs (again for Miles and Leo) with the walnut shorts on top of it. The walnut came from the shorts bin and it cost over $50. I got it to make a walnut bookshelf. The next batter is 5/4 cherry, dressed to 1" thick. This will be used for the desk top. In the clean up slot is 4/4 cherry for the rails and slats. I went overboard on this getting much more than I'll need. Whatever is left over will go to Leo's desk.

breaking down the poplar

I sawed all the poplar into 2 foot lengths for the drawer stock. I was shocked at the BF price for 1/2" poplar. I should have looked at it before I bought it ($62 for six, 6 foot boards).

cherry back slats

I found some left over 1/2" cherry to give up the slats I needed. I sawed them to 7/16" on the tablesaw and planed it smooth.

hmm.......

I kind of like this uneven width between the back slats. It is a few frog hairs less than 1/8". The wider one will go on the bottom and thinner one on the top.

walnut

This is long enough to get two sets of ends from. There is some wane but I can saw it off and still have the width I want for the ends.

reference edge

I planed one rough edge flat and smooth. The opposite face it still rough sawn. I'll have to thickness because as is it is about an inch thick.

hmm......

There was enough walnut to get two bookshelves. When I got it at Highland I thought I would get one from it.

sigh

This chunk of wane puts a damper on this piece of walnut being used as a shelf. I want a shelf that is a minimum of 5" wide. Sawing off the wane would leave a width of roughly 4". I ain't driving back to Highlands to buy another walnut short.

oops

Need two more slats for the 2nd bookshelf. Don't know how I zoned that out.

going nutso again

I have whacked five bookshelves already. I have 6 more waiting for me to build.

why not?

Thinking of using this piece of cherry as the shelf. Cherry and walnut have a good contrast between them. Another option is to go to Koszela lumber which I might do. I really would like these two to be all walnut if possible.

milk paint dyes

This is for another project I have in the queue. I want to make another miniature chest and use these to color the milk paint. I need to get a few more colors, red and yellow being on the top of the list. I couldn't find these on Amazon where I got these 3. I'll search again tonight.

hmm.......

No more Gurney's sawmill pine left excepts for small scraps. This is Lowes pine and I'll have to make another run to buy a couple of more boards. The EWP (eastern white pine) bin at Highlands was empty as in no pine at all.

hmm.......

The top board will give up the sides and the bottom board can be a front, back, or lid. The current project queue is full to bursting. I'll be busy for a while.

accidental woodworker 

 Still haven't finished the 'extra' cherry bookshelf. It might be done tomorrow though. fingers crossed on that. Wandered down a one way street and I played with making two more small cherry bookcases. Spent most of the afternoon shift in the boneyard cleaning up and organizing what is staying, what it going to the dump, and what is going to my sister Kam. I have to have all this sorted out before the wife comes home from North Carolina.

forgotten pic

This was the one thing I said I got done yesterday but forgot to include pics of in the post. Kind of large but it fits in the drill stand cabinet - I am slowly smarting up and putting drill related things in that cabinet.

good fit

I wanted to make the box out of solid wood but I didn't have any thin wood in this width. The lid is a decent fit with a consistent gap 360.

2 1/2"

The OD is 2 1/2" and I was mildly surprised by the quality of it. Not what I expected from China.

unexpected

Came with a replacement center drill bit and the allen wrench.

hmm......

Don't know what the purpose of the spring.

nice fit

I really like this fit - it is just a couple of frog hair worth of clearance. Seriously thought about removing the insert and redoing it. Nixed that because I glued the insert in with hide glue. 

1/8" dowels

They ain't a 1/8" diameter, they are a 64th under. An 1/8" drilled hole is too loose and I want these to be snug.

done

Got two dowels in each pad. I was nervous about the thinner back one possibly cracking/splitting but they didn't. I drill the dowels at a slight angle too. 

sneak peek

This will work well for DVD/CDs. I don't have any paperbacks to check how they would seat on the shelf. 

hmm......

This is the left over cherry from the 3 other cherry bookshelves. These are the two boards from resawing one in half. There is one divot on the left one and two big and one small one on the right one. The plan was to thin the boards to 1/2" and hopefully that would remove the divots. The thickest part of either board is wee bit more than 9/16".

gone

Wasn't sure that I could get this to a 1/2" and remove the divot. Got lucky and I have a 1/2" thick cherry board for a shelf. 

wash, rinse, and repeat

The right board was a bit dicey IMO because one divot was deeper than the other two.  The divots on this board planed away smoothly with no headaches.

the problem divot

This is the before pic of the big divot on the right board. The only problem I had planing this to thickness was planing it down to the gauge lines. The left side ate up a lot of calories and time before they disappeared.

about 32nd more

I planed a ton of shavings off this side seemingly without lowering the face. Eventually I got it. The divot disappeared long before this gauge line did.

gone

Extremely happy that I planed the divot away and didn't dip below the 1/2" thickness.

hmm......

Planing to thickness for the ends, one I had to plane 3/16" off and the other a 1/4". The plan is have the ends at 5/8", the shelf 1/2", and the back slats 3/8".

done

This board I was expecting some tear to happen but none did. Got zero tear out using a #6, #7, #5 1/2, and #4. 

my LN 4 1/2

This isn't a plane that I use that much but I needed it today. The second board I planed to thickness for the ends tore out. The grain on it ran almost dead straight end to end except for one little curly Q spot. The 4 1/2 plowed through it without a whimper and dead smooth. I keep a 55° frog in this plane just dealing with wonky grain.

done

I still have to plane the back slats from a 1/2" to  3/8" but I didn't do that today. Playing with the shelves and ends had me sweating by the time I stopped. A little over 2 hours start to finish. As an aside the shop temp is hovering at a comfortable 63F/17C. The temp in shop has risen 4 degrees in the past 3 days.

final prep

Sanded the end grain on the ends up to 220. Almost forgot to do and caught it as I was ready to slap shellac on it.

fanned out

Don't know if I mentioned this before but in case I didn't here goes. When I'm done with my shellac I manually fan the brush out. It holds this shape well until it is time to use it again. I have found that it dissolves in alcohol much quicker than if I didn't do this. 

shellac time

The cherry one is awfully close to be done. The pine one is just starting out. I do the bottom first 4-5 coats before I do the rest of it.

the problem spot

It raking light the end grain looks a bit dull IMO. Since I'm applying shellac to the pine one I'll keep putting shellac on this area until I'm happy with it.

made in Germany

This belonged to my wife's grandmother and she doesn't want it. Typical german engineering because it is built like a tank. The drive belt is all metal - no rubber at all. If anyone wants it let me know - it would be just the sewing machine and accessories. The cabinet has water damage and rot so it is toast. 

nice touch

That is the original oiler for the machine along with the instruction booklet. It is a small instruction booklet, I would have expected something closer to 8" x 11".

nice haul

I saved the hardware for just in case. I might not ever have the need for it but you never know. This do dad thing was for locking down the lid.

hmm.......

Found this in the boneyard - box I started and stopped. I had applied hinges but removed them and plugged the screw holes. Never progressed beyond that. Thinking now of applying the banding on the box bottom and lid bottom and top. I ordered more banding today and I'll leave this on the workbench so I don't forget about it.

boneyard find #2

This is a jewelry box I made a bazillion years ago. It is a pine box with a floating cherry panel in the lid. Because it is mostly pine it really hasn't resonated with me as being worthy of a jewelry box. That changed and I'll be finally finishing this. All it needs is for me to slap a few coats of shellac on it.

the interior

The hinges took me several years to install. I used Brusso hinges and I epoxied the screws in the lid. Because of the thin lid I couldn't use a full length screw. Maybe this would be good enough for one of my young nieces?

accidental woodworker

I was given this plane in pretty rough condition by a guy who really didn't know anything about planes.  One telltale sign was that the iron was upside down when I got it (bevel up).  And while I know a fair bit about planes, I knew little about this particular brand when I started on this one.

The plane as found

Something look funny here?

Maybe the upside down iron explains why the cutting edge  was so chewed up!

It's an oddball size - it has a 9 1/2" long sole similar to a Stanley #4, but the sole's width is 2 1/8" and the iron is 1 3/4" wide, like a #3.  Initially, the only identifying mark I could find on the plane was the remnant of a DUNLAP decal on the broken tote.  From a Dunlap type study that I found online, a #3 size plane has the 1 3/4" wide iron, but the plane should be only 8" long (or 9 1/4", depending on the source of info).  Go figure.

I found two websites that were very helpful in researching this plane.  According to justtheplanefacts.com and aplanelife.us, Dunlap planes were manufactured for Sears by either Millers Falls, Sargent, or possibly at one time by a West German maker.  Some details point to this plane being made by Sargent in the 1940-41 time frame, but I think it is probably a bit later than that - maybe the mid 1950's (reference the Dunlap type study on the A Plane Life site).

Here's the plane fully disassembled, complete with broken tote and bent tote screw/post

Initially, I could find no identifying marks on the casting, iron, cap iron or lever cap.  The only marks I could find are a casting number on the frog (5272) and a raised "MADE IN USA" mark on the main casting just below the adjuster knob.  However, since I started writing this, I cleaned up the iron and it's got DUNLAP APPROVED BL stamped clearly at the top.

DUNLAP APPROVED BL

Here's the iron all cleaned up, but not yet sharpened. Note the hole for the cap-iron screw is at the top, unlike Stanley plane irons.

I had to grind back to the blue line before grinding a new bevel and sharpening

According to the sites I referenced, the "BL" and the cap-iron screw hole location are indicators of a plane made by Sargent.  So is the upside-down U-shaped lateral adjust lever.

As for the plane's casting, I took sandpaper to the sides and sole.  They looked horrible, but cleaned up fairly easily.  A wire wheel in the drill was used to clean up all the hardware.

The body was really grungy and the sole was horribly rough

But it cleaned up nicely

The tote was broken, so I cleaned up the mating surfaces and reglued it.  I'll have to see if that fix holds over time.  Originally, the tote had a decal or two on the left side.  Unfortunately, more than half of it was gone.  It looked like there was once another decal up where the middle finger grips the tote, but it was missing completely.

The still-broken tote showing remnants of a decal

Here's another interesting tidbit.  The yoke was a two-piece construction, as opposed to a casting.  It still works fine, but it's interesting that the two "fingers" of the yoke can move independently.  That's no big deal; when the plane is assembled, the adjuster nut keeps them aligned.

The two-piece yoke

Here showing how the two "fingers" can be misaligned with each other

When I finally had the parts cleaned up and the iron sharp, I put it together, adjusted the frog to get a reasonably tight mouth, and tried it out.  It made a shaving, but the shaving was like an accordion.

First shaving all crinkled up

I'm aware this could be caused by the cap-iron being too far forward.  Some adjustment helped, but not enough.  I also noticed a rippling effect when face planing.

You can see the ripples

So there was some juddering of the plane as I planed along the face of a board.  To me, that points to issues with how well the frog and plane body keep the iron firmly in place.  Here's where I really had to do some work.  The surfaces of the frog and plane body where they meet were painted or japanned, and were not level, so the contact between the two was poor.

Pointing to one of two spots where the frog sits. These needed to be filed/sanded level and flat.

Same with the frog seat

Frog seat filed flat

After this, I was able to get a better edge shaving, but there was still a big problem.

Got a much better edge grain shaving ...

... but when planing the face grain, CLUNK! The plane stopped in it's tracks and dug in hard!

Here's the problem with this plane and it's a serious design flaw.  And it's also why I think the plane was made in the '50's - you know, after plane makers "forgot" how to make planes that worked well.

The frog of Stanley planes has two flat areas that mate with two flat areas on the plane body.  The frog "seat" and the frog "toe" both should be milled flat and mate precisely with corresponding spots on the plane body.

Locations of the frog seat and toe

In this plane, not only is there no milled spot on the plane body for the frog toe to mate with, but the frog toe doesn't even come in contact with the plane body at all!  It's basically cantilevered out over the plane body, just behind the mouth.  Without support there, it's no wonder that the frog and iron don't have enough support to plane face grain.

This is a piece of cardboard, probably about 1/32" thick

Sliding the cardboard under the frog's toe.  I could have fit 3 or 4 of these cardboard pieces in there.  And this was with the frog bolted firmly in place!

I've started trying to make a piece of wood that will fill that gap, but I don't hold out hope that it will fix the problem.  But for this plane to work, I believe there needs to be firm support for the toe of the frog.

Summarizing, there are a couple of details that gave hints about the maker and age of this plane, thanks to the type study provided by A Plane Life.  The position of the iron's keyhole, the "BL" on the iron, the inverted U-shaped lateral adjust lever, and the two-piece yoke all indicate a plane made by Sargent.  The lever cap had been nickel plated, though the plating was removed when I cleaned up the plane.  The nickel plating indicates a plane possibly made in the 1940-1942 timeframe.  Other details include the double threaded 12-20 rods that hold the tote and knob, the brass waist nuts holding the stained hardwood tote and knob, and the three-ridged knurling of the adjuster knob.  But even with these clues, I can't help suspect that this plane was made in the mid-1950's due to the shoddiness of the design.

This is an odd plane for sure.  If there are any collectors of Dunlap planes out there and you're interested in this plane, please let me know and I'll be happy to mail it to you free of charge.

Edo period, late 18th century
Last week I visited the Metropolitan Museum of Art - the first visit in awhile. I had a good experience (aside from a supposed upgrade to the coat check that entailed a time-wasting data entry session on an iPad rather than the give-a-jacket-get-a-number standard method).

One of the exhibits I had wanted to see was on "The Infinite Artistry of Japanese Ceramics." As expected, the exhibit was full of pottery, fabrics and wood prints. I was struck by one very nice-looking modern piece. Being open minded, I said to myself, "That's great, they're having some modern stuff along with the old stuff. It's a really wonderful contrast between old and new." But then I took a closer look at this "modern" pottery and discovered, much to my surprise, that was 250 years old! A lot of pieces on display were just like that: modern design in appearance, but in fact actually centuries old. This phenomenon can be a real source of double-takes, because it turns on its head what it means to say "modern" as opposed to "new." After all, usually when talking about design, when someone says, "This is a very modern piece," they also mean it's new and cutting edge. Certain designers like Gerrit Rietveld have designs from the 1920's that don't look dated. But I wouldn't exactly call them "modern." I would say Rietveld's furniture doesn't look like most current furniture that would be considered modern today. In the case of modernist Danish 20th century design, Ikea has commonly co-opted everything, and increasingly anything that's sort of Danish style is assumed to be mass-market and probably cheap junk. But it's not, and it doesn't have to be.

But seeing this Japanese pottery and not identifying the style as modern makes no sense to me. Sure, you can say it's from such and such a period, and such and such an artist, but it still looks modern. Also notable: this style didn't really catch on. Most of the other pieces in the show, some quite beautiful, certainly look of their time period. NYC has several Japanese supermarkets (and Korean and Chinese markets that stock Japanese items) in which some of the same patterns of the not-so-modern goods are still on offer. But we wouldn't call those designs "modern." Is it possible that the word "modern" means "different from the standard of the time" rather than new per se? If the style catches on and everyone copies or riffs upon it, then the style will get its own name. For example, "mid-century modern" defines a specific genre in a specific style. Eventually the style became more accepted, and then more simplified, until it became (in the popular consciousness anyway - and I say this as someone who once owned a Wim & Karen bed) as "Ikea" or "Ikea-style." Rietveld's furniture, nearly a hundred years on, still looks pretty avant-garde. But it never really became a thing. The Bauhaus design movement (1919-1933), which eventually evolved in many respects to mid-century modern Danish furniture, was designed from the get go be be factory made and lent itself to a popular genre - even if later designs aren't directly connected with the Bauhaus. (And perhaps Bauhaus nowadays is best known as the name of the British goth band.) Reitveld, on the other hand, designed his furniture to be made largely by hand so anyone could built his designs from common wood materials. But most of his work would be fussy on an assembly line and his style never caught on.

I'm wondering if 300 years ago in Japan, a potter produced a pot, and his friend said "That's a really modern pot!" and the potter replied, "Yeah, shame nobody likes anything new." That potter used a design vocabulary of his region and most of what he made would be in that design vocabulary because that's what people wanted - the definition of a popular style. Doing anything new and different would make the creator an outlier - and outliers are the modernists of their time. And it seems that, at least back then in Japan, a potter's idea of a modern design would be pretty much what we would call modern today. And now, like then, people still mostly prefer traditional designs (simplified for manufacture) not modernism.

Early 17th century
Changing anything for anyone making products is always a risk. You need to convince people that the conventional style, which is by definition what is popular, is just one option, and other options are different and better in a meaningful way. That's not easy to do and this problem has been true from centuries.

N.B. Before you accuse me of drawing conclusions without enough evidence, let me remind you that for centuries archeologists have been postulating civilizations and taxonomy based on the survival of a single bone. So I am in good company! The furniture in museums isn't usually representative of what most people had. Rather it represents what donors and other rich people used - and what managed to survive.

Edo period, ca. 1670-90

Cast iron and Bronze. Onishi Gorozaemon mid-17th century

 Got my truck back today and the driver who picked me up said we are getting an inch of the white stuff tonight. There is snow, freezing rain, and sleet in the forecast for the next week. Thursday is supposed to be partly sunny and it is looking like the only day for a while that I can make the trip north to Highlands Hardwoods is then. hmm......

nope

The pkg says 350 dots and there is no way this pkg has 350 dots but that isn't the problem. The problem is the thickness of the dots which are almost an 1/8" thick each. I'll have to search Amazon and buy something else for attaching the photos.

changed my mind again

I like how the wedge cures the shelf tilt headache but I don't like length of it. The wedge also negates the cutout for the legs. Going back to the drawing board to come up with plan #2.

signature change

These are the initials I have engraved on my bench plane lever caps. Decided to go from cursive initials to print ones.

hmm.....

Rasped a small chamfer on the feet. This shouldn't get dragged around like a chair so the small chamfers should suffice. Fingers crossed on that.

shellac time

Getting 4-5 coats on the feet first. Then I'll do 4-5 on it with it upright.

the oops bookshelf

Chiseled the Miller dowel flush with the back slat. It isn't visible at all looking at the bookshelf in situ.

hmm......

This is better. Not exactly what I prefer but it fixes the oops better than the full length wedge.

gap filling

This shim has the long grain facing up. Made it a wee bit dicey hammering it into the gap and filling it.

gap on the left

I wasn't going to fill this one but I had a lot of shim material left so why not? I went with solid wood because wood putty stands out with shellac applied to it.

one more gap to fill

The bottom of the dado really sticks out with the left side gap filled. 

first step

Sized the bottom of the legs with super glue. After it had dried I super glued the 'pads' to the legs.

almost done

The edges on the ends  and the shelf only have two coats. The rest of the bookshelf has 4 coats. Won't be done today but it should be fini in the AM.

accidental woodworker 

 My wife left for North Carolina on sunday to keep daughter #2 company while her husband is away on a business trip. The bookcase didn't go but the glass door cabinet did. Supposedly the bookcase is going south on the next trip south. Now I have to get it out of the shop and into the boneyard but that may be a headache. My wife is turning it into a reading room. Translation - I can't use the boneyard anymore for projects.

hmm.......

From China and there are three 93 1/2" long bandsaw blades. The current blade on the bandsaw burned the cherry bookshelf badly. I had to expend extra calories to rasp and sand it away.

hmm......

This sat overnight on the front porch step in below freezing weather. Before I try and use them I'll let them warm up for a few hours.

nope

Decided to put this away for now. Ace has 2 1/2" hole saws from $30 to $52 which were too much but I did find and order one on Amazon for $10. I'll have it tomorrow.

might be toast

The burning hole from yesterday may have drawn the temper out of this. I sharpened it and put it away. Two days ago I found a pkg with two of these cutters but I can't find where I put them down. 

look at what I found

I didn't know I had this big ass bit - it is a little more than 2 5/8". That is close enough to the 2 1/2" diameter I need. Before I used it I sharpened it again with my diamond stone paddles. You can see that the machining on this isn't something to write home about.

new insert

This piece of pine is between rift and quarter sawn, perfect for the insert. 

ok....

There is about a 16th clearance all around the guide. A little sloppy IMO but I won't have to worry about it binding in the hole.

insert ready

The bushings fit in a 5/8" hole. The top of them is shouldered and that is acting like a stop for them. 

sigh....

Put the cart before the horse. I missed sawing the insert to length before drilling for the bushings. On to insert #2.

got it

The fit is snug. After I drilled all the holes, planed it for a drop in fit.

lid

I sized the lid to be almost a dead on flush match with the outside of the box. I did this because the plan is to put a rabbet on the underside of the lid to fit in the inside of the box.

Lie Nielsen skew block plane

Ran a knife line 360 and planed down to it until I removed it. Did the end grain ends first and then the long grain sides.

not an oops

The length fits well. It dropped into place with no binding and no slop neither. However, the width doesn't fit. I planed the rabbet shoulders with my 1/2" shoulder plane. The pencil line on the lid is what I thicknessed the lid down to - 3/8" after fitting the lid.

hmm......

I chamfered the edges to soften them. As of now, I don't plan on putting a knob on the lid or making a finger access divot. 

lid is done

Didn't like the chamfered look so I sanded them to a round over. 

not enough

I wanted to use walnut dowels for the contrast with the cherry but it ain't happening today boys and girls. Thought of using birch but went with cherry.

finishing the ends

I had sanded the outside of the ends up to 220 but there were scratches left from the flush cut saw. Scraped them away with a card scraped.

gotta save this

I was going to cut the back slats and the shelf off but nixed it. The shelf would have ended up with a width too narrow but the length would have been ok. Decided to try and salvage it somehow.

hmm.......

Sawed two 7° wedges and put them under the feet. The shelf is tilted  up and back and the sneakers on the legs don't look wonky IMO. It is just a concept and the only hiccup I see is the back sneaker is a little on the thin side. That could be a potential breakage point.

Another headache is the orientation of the grain on the sneakers. The end grain side is against the feet. I had to make two more sets that had the long grain facing up against the feet. Doing that was bit of pain in the arse. None of the do dads I had for setting an angle worked - the 3/4" thick stock wasn't thick enough to lay out the angle.

better

I don't know what this angle is - I laid it out from the left bottom corner with the angle going up to a end point 6 1/2" away. This fix is growing on me and I'm thinking of keeping it.

squaring it off

This almost gave me a headache trying to figure out how to square this end off to saw. I could have sawn the angle to match the front edge but I wanted it squared off.

hmm.......

I think this is the way to go. The sneakers on the bottom look deliberate.

that is an option

As I was getting ready to kill the lights this popped into the brain bucket. Cut/saw the sneakers to match the length of the back and front feet plus a 1/4". Maybe even follow the curve of the cutout into the sneakers. Time to think about it over night.

 accidental woodworker

I’ve been carving stuff in the shop, some panels and the beginnings of two more strapwork boxes, one white oak, one walnut. All sawn stock, my riven oak is just beginning to poke out from under the snow. Today’s post on the substack blog is free-to-all subscribers (paid & free) – there I talk about some period carvings and post a couple of carved panels for sale…
https://peterfollansbeejoinerswork.substack.com/p/more-about-carved-panels-plus-video

But I’ve been wanting to work some recent bird photos into my everyday blog, just haven’t had much room. I have too much to say about the woodwork. The winter weather has brought some of the raptors in closer, some of them have a hard time finding food in the snow, so the bird feeders bring possible prey into view for them. That’s how I read it anyway. I know it’s true of the cooper’s hawk (Astur cooperii) – this one snatched somebody from around the bird feeders, then fed up in the top of the apple tree.

While I photographed this bird from the open back door, I saw a larger raptor swing by – just turned the camera quickly, thinking “I’ll get this red-tail…” – turned out to be a bald eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) –

we don’t often see them here, but the river was open water – most of the ponds around here are frozen over. He was gone in an instant.

Another day another raptor. Thought I saw two more red-tail hawks flying over the house…they too were gone in an instant. Then half-hour later, saw two hawks perched in the sycamore tree next door – but they were red-shouldered hawks, not red-tailed hawks. (Buteo lineatus) – I couldn’t get them both in the same shot – this one posed more cooperatively than the other.

Down in the river one day saw these buffleheads – the smallest duck. (Bucephala albeola) –

these are females and for a little while I worked myself into a state of confusion by mis-reading Sibley’s book about the bufflehead. What I thought I read was that the male doesn’t show his breeding plumage in the winter…which is not the case. Doubly-so. Not what the book said, not what the duck does. I know I’ve seen many breeding-plumage male buffleheads over the years – but they breed far north & west of here. Far. Below is a shot from the same river, same backyard, almost exactly a year ago – one male, two females. These birds are pretty skittish, I can never get close to them.

My birding mentor Marie helped sort me out. Momentary collapse of reading comprehension. It happens.

The red-tail hawks (Buteo jamaicensis) are around regularly – this one, a juvenile – tried to snatch someone from the feeder-crowd. Missed, then perched in the catalpa tree right outside the shop. Often you can get near juvys for good shots –

Every snowy winter we try to get a good photo of the northern cardinal male in the holly tree. I didn’t get it just right this year, but got a consolation nice shot of the female – (Cardinalis cardinalis)

In the winter, there’s often 10-12 cardinals here at once, but I can’t seem to get a group shot that’s worth a damn…so here’s a male portrait from quite a few years ago – next to the holly tree…

layout

Took my time and got it right. What I have to watch for is the back slats. I have a bad habit of laying them out on the wrong edge - the layout on the ends are mirror images. It is very easy for me to wander out into La La Land doing it. However, I haven't had chopping out brain fart for quite some time. I have caught my layout me-steaks by double, triple checking myself.

left or right end?????

It is self supporting but I was working on getting the front end of the dado gap free. Noticed that my walls weren't dead on plumb and it was keeping it from being gap free.

bit of a gap

This is the end panel where the dado wall wasn't plumb. It took me a few chisel/trim and checks before it closed up. I was shooting for it to be gap free with hand pressure but that didn't happen. It easily slammed shut with clamp pressure.

helping hand

I try to avoid using these clamps because they are a ROYAL PITA. I have problems with tightening  them fully before running out of screw length. However, for this application they are a perfect fit due to the clamp head staying parallel to the clamp bar. And they closed the gap nicely.

first back slats fitted

Happy with how well this fit. I laid out the notches a wee bit undersized so I would get a snug fit. I was shooting for a seamless fit between the slats and the notches. I didn't want to do shouldered tenons - I like this look more.

the left one

Three of the slats fit snug/tight and this one is kind of snug. It is self supporting but it is looser than its siblings. I think it will be ok and I expect the glue will swell the joint tight.

dry fit

Happy with this and especially so with the fit with no hiccups to rant about.

view from the back

Thinking of leaving the ends as is and making the top parallel to the bottom. Initially I was going to do them like the pine bookshelves but I came to a fork in the road.

hmm.....

I was going to round the two outside corners on the shelf but I changed lanes again. I like the look of the corners clipped more than them being rounded. I was going to round them because I did the tops of the ends like the pine bookshelves. 

glued and cooking

I didn't forget to drill holes first for the Miller dowels. Been running through the brain bucket whether to use cherry or walnut dowels? I had to swap clamps because I couldn't get the Besseys to close the gaps at the front. Used a 24" bar clamp to do the job.

look at what I found

Came across these and I had totally forgotten I had it. 90 degree drilling guide for flat and round stock. 6 bushings, three imperial 1/8", 3/16", and 1/4". Three metric at 3mm, 5mm, and 8mm. It is something I could have used recently. Since I had time on the clock before the quitting bell rang, decided to whack out a box to keep it in.

still kicking my arse

I have had this circle cutting jig for 40 years.  For years it has made me feel like my IQ isn't in double digits. I still haven't figured out how to orient the cutter in the arm. But the biggie is determining the diameter of the circle. There is a scale on the arm and I set it for a 2 1/2" diameter circle and I ended up with one a little over 2 3/4".

first hole

The empty part matches the diameter of the guide spot on but the overall diameter of the hole is a 1/4" too much. On the 2nd attempt, I got a burned out hole. The insult was it was too small. 

hmm......

I drilled this one coming from both sides, and both sides burned equally bad.

heebie jeebies setup

I'll be doing the next hole drilling differently. I will use an oversized board (length wise) with that one. I am also contemplating using a 2 1/2" diameter hole saw. I have a 2 1/4" and a 2 3/4", sigh. But that depends upon the cost. If it is too much I'll expend the calories and figure out how the circle cutter jig works once and for all. If that doesn't happen free flying lessons might be in its future.

accidental woodworker 

 The plan today was to thickness the cherry for the new set of cherry bookshelves/CD/DVD holders. That didn't happen boys and girls because of two hindrances. The first was the snow between me and the stand for the lunchbox planer. It would have probably taken me a bazillion years to shovel a path to the garden shed] to get it.

The second one was the weather. It was supposed to be partly sunny but the entire day was cloudy. To me there was a threat of rain or snow but the weather seers predicted neither would happen. I wimped out and opted not to plane the cherry today. 

close, but no cigar

Only got 3 coats of shellac on these. My limited attention span took a left turn to concentrate on thicknessing the cherry. The photo dots aren't supposed to be here until tomorrow. I have plenty of time to finish them up.

the extra bookshelf was the lead off

Decided to thickness the cherry by hand. I only had to do a couple of pieces with the 3 sets.

not quite

I used the tablesaw to saw the cherry as deep as I could. There was a 1/2" web that I used hand saws to separate. Started with the Ryoba and switched to a 7pt rip saw.

sigh

The two halves have divots on this end. The right board has another one on the opposite end. I planed and smoothed the two but the divots remained. To plane the divots even would leave them too thin to be shelves.

hmm......

Thought of putting this face down but I nixed that. The shelf tilts up and it could be visible. These two are toast but I can use them for a box or something else.

the fix

This is for the extra bookshelf and this is the new shelf for it. I needed to plane a little more than a 1/8" off to get to finished thickness.

done

Planed the ends a wee bit to thin their thickness too. Got the shelf and ends done (after I saw them to length) and they are ready to go.

looks good

Eyeballing the thickness of the shelf against the thickness of the ends. I made the thickness difference between the them all 1/8". The ends are 7/8", the shelf is 5/8", and the back slats are a 1/2".

the grandson's bookshelves

These two are ready to layout and start chopping dadoes and notches. I will make the extra one first and then attack these two.

sigh

I didn't know that one of the cherry boards still had a rough sawn face. I knifed a line 360 and planed down to it.

finally done

Planing cherry to thickness isn't difficult but not as easy as pine is. It seemingly took me forever to plane down to the knife line. Glad this was the last cherry board to thickness. It took me almost all day to do this. Pleasant way to eat up the hours. 

the extra bookshelf

I like the slight graduations in the stock. I wavered a wee bit with the ends thinking they were too thick. I thought they might be clunky looking because they aren't that tall. Seeing all three together squashed that. 

confirmation

This looks good to my eye. The back slats won't be visible with a fully stocked shelf so they don't matter that much. However, the 1/8" difference between the ends and the shelf is just right IMO.

I ordered new bandsaw blades - that is why I didn't try to resaw the cherry on the bandsaw. The blade on it now is having trouble sawing wet paper. I bought 3 of the cheapest blades I could find on amazon. As long as they last to do the sawing for the 3 bookshelves I'll be a happy camper.

accidental woodworker 

Once Upon a Time Corner Detail

Here’s the most recent frame from my shop and it was fun to create so thought I’d share the story! It’s oil on canvas measuring 12″x16″ and by my wife, Diane Eugster. When I first saw it in her studio my mind went to a wood nymph; whatever that may be! This painting needed something other than a traditional black/gold frame, something more fun and maybe with a bit of whimsical carving to enhance it.

Creating the Profile

Creating the profile began with my typical Basswood sized approximately 1″ thick by 2 7/8″ wide. The process begins by cutting the backside each pieces at 15° to create a profile that angles the frame away from the wall leaving plenty of room to install a 3/4″ thick canvas. I refer to this as my 15° Profile and it’s a way to angle the frame. I wrote a BLOG about it some time ago. I’ve modified the process somewhat since then but that blog gives you the basic method to do it. It took me less than 2 hours to profile this frame, carving took much longer than that.

The process began with cutting the 15° angle on the back of the piece, that’s #1 in the picture, this will become the outside edge of the frame. If you do any beading on the frame it’s important to do that before cutting the outside edge 90° to the angled cut. This makes it easier to clamp when gluing the frame together. For this profile I cut a 1/4″ bead on the outside edge, #2 with a small plow plane. Draw a 90° line (#3) from the angled cut to locate the outer edge of the bead. This piece will be cut off after the bead is complete. For this profile I wanted a flat section at the sight edge for gilding, this is #4 and was created with a skewed rabbet plane. To create more interest to the frame I also cut a cove; #5. This was done with a tablesaw, it’s an interesting process and I wrote this BLOG explaining my process. The final cut is #6, the rabbet. This is somewhat tricky so check my blog on how to do it. Very important to note that I always have at least one extra piece of stock about 10-12″ long to set up the tablesaw for all of these cuts.

Carving

Finishing

I’ve been using milk paint from RMPfinishes (formerly Real Milk Paint) lately to finish some of my frames. I like the effect of it and it comes in a powder form. That means I only mix up a small amount as needed and the powder will keep forever unlike paints that come in a can. For this frame I chose Blue Spruce. I mix 2 ounces of powder with 2 ounces of distilled water and that’s enough to complete the frame. I’ve found that the foam brushes they sell work great, much better than those available from my local big box store. I lightly scuff between coats (2 usually) with a Mirka 1500 pad. This frame has a gilded, silver sight edge so that was taped off and applied with quick set size. Milk paint should be sealed and I’ve used wax, OSMO #3043, and also Platinum Blonde Shellac which I spray on with an air brush. That’s how this frame is sealed, the shellac also seals the imitation silver leaf. The final step is rubbing out the shellac with Liberon wax to take some of the sheen off of the shellac and even out the spray pattern from the air brush.

Blue Spruce Milk Paint Quick set size for gilding

That’s the process for this profile; in my opinion, adding the cove and the carving creates many shadows and patterns that brings interest to the frame.