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Well, I'll try to keep this shorter, this once. The next one I just finished is quite a long one.

It's a forever friends and friendly reminder thing, woodworking the way we do. It's a totally inclusive endeavour to include everyone but especially our children to come in the workshop during their formative years; otherwisemachining wood can make it 98% exclusive, and they just might never discover their true love of it because machining must, MUST, exclude them until they are almost always past it.

Mostly, what I have to say is a might different and difference stating. My worklife (one word) making every single day in wood using mainly hand tools, except for long deep rip cuts, has been a lived life of sixty-one years. That does not mean I didn't use machines in my businesses but depended on them quite mildly and minimally if compared to most woodworkers and then too machinist-only woodworkers. What I have done and do is use a machine for two or three minutes a day, maybe not at all, and the rest of my eight to ten hours of woodworking I do solely with a handful of hand tools. Try to imagine, roughly at least, 183,000 hours of continuous and seamless woodworking and most of those hours with hand tools. Who do you know that's done such a thing with such a living and provided for a good-sized family on a single income household? But anyway, that's not the point. I am really quite different than most, and therefore I offer a singularly different perspective.

Since this pic was taken in 2015 for my book, Essential Woodworking Hand Tools, eleven years ago, wow, I feel as healthy and as well as I did back then. I have no pain and my hands, arms and upper body, they all work just as well as when I was forty. Fact is, ten minutes before I wrote this I carried a seven-foot by three-foot-six-inch bookcase down the stairs, loaded it into the back of my vehicle and drove to the house to unload it on my own. This is not in any way a boast, but the simple reality of hand woodworking in high-demand realms at age 76 is a health maintenance regimen.

It's taken me three and more decades to finally graduate my art, which I feel more to be a composition of life through the living of it. As it is with all true craftwork, furniture making and living life is a refinement process. As a graduate, I'm not altogether sure that people I've met and meet anywhere, near get the difference between what I (and it's now more the 'we' of it) do with wood and what they, the other professionals, more generally do. And I am worried that my fighting for the cause of real woodworking might have caused more the lost-cause that might be increasing the more permanent state of affairs because those in professional realms deskilling the craft and art of work most likely will win long term and that's because of their belief system. In the eyes of some it has become 'their' competition and most likely I am sure to be seen as the loser even though I'm not. You see, I have achieved change. If I were indeed trying to convert the professionals, that would make a difference, but I'm not, and that means it doesn't matter because I'm not. But it is most often the professionals who claim me not to be, "living in the real world.", and that's because, though not to anywhere near the same level, I have lived to some degree in their world, but stopped to take myself off the conveyor belt decades ago. Also, it's because, as deskilled material handlers, they never crossed over and never made it in the skilled realms and emphatic refrain to experience the successes of successful hand tool methods––mainly, that is.

No, not turned, no gouges or turning tools. Took a lot longer, but I didn't need a lathe nor incur any of the mess. I didn't need a dust mask or eye and ear protection either. Nice to have that thoughtful connectivity to my wood and the tools. It took about half an hour to make, and I have been using it now for five years on my #4 Stanley. The wood is Yew, and it fits my hand perfectly. I could have turned it, of course I could, but I was 71 when I made it, and I was able to teach and tell thousands of other how to do without having to buy a space-hogging lathe and turning tools and teach them how to turn. Oh, a;lso, Yew is highly toxic from the tippy toe of its hairy roots, through the whole of its inner core and bark to and throughout every leaf and berry. But making it the way I did, I needed nothing more else. That's a total success story right there.

I am aware that this is something of a broad brush sweep here, so I will say that not all professionals are the same, but it is always professionals that try to counter what I say and advocate by comments they dip in with. Often they fail to see the negative impact machining wood has on them long term. Quite frankly, machining wood gets old fast and soon becomes, well, standing-around boring. You see, after 61 years of daily woodworking making some really lovely and inspiring pieces, I still can't wait to get to making more every day. It's also worth pointing out that what we have and own they never wanted and never owned. That being so, there is really no point trying to compare the apples with oranges in any way shape, colour or form. If you think that woodworking with machines for the bulk of your woodworking is the more progressive and efficient way, then you could be right. What the difference is is the how of what you actually achieve, and in this, you most likely will have indeed wholly missed the point. Recessing a hinge flap with a power router, the sledgehammer approach to cracking nuts, is something of a primitive task. The power you rely on is low demand woodworking, and me and my audience in general are looking for more in our woodworking than simply becoming a machinist. We like the "risk of work" in its entirety and want to choose whether we can interact differently. I am doing my very best to explain the essentially important difference between two extremely opposite ways of working wood, points of view and the methodology and doing it from the other side of the fence as a former professional maker and one who turned amateur to become a lifestyle chooser and maker––it's my 'professional point of view', you see!

We made a cello together by hand––him 16 and me 56, I think. It took three months of full eight-hour days to do, and he still owns and plays it now, 20 years on. These are remarkable things surrounding hand tools. Look at thios. Father and son working together to build a cello. We couldn't wait to get going every single day. He has the same skills, knowledge and ability that I have and then some. We still work alongside one another most days and what I did with him as a child growing into adulthood he has started with his own two children and I have been inputting too. We're working on the spruce top now. That back, maple, is waiting in the background now that its done.

So today, I pick up chisels and planes, handsaws I can sharpen with a file in a few minutes, no more than five, and a peace I get from the slowed version of woodworking I still love to do. I have found a few hundred thousand who feel the same way and want to understand why they feel the way they do, but can't always explain it to those who think machining wood is anything more than what it really is. It's no problem from to keep reminding my friends that they don't really need to explain their quiet and gentle ways of enjoying physical woodworking, the leverage of a chisel, the skewing of the plane, choosing one plane or saw over another, such like that. It's the technology that retained its core values in our lived life of woodworking, you see.

My classes started with this project back in the 1980s and 90s when I took the leap to start teaching one-on-one with children. I have made a thousand of these small boxes since, and taught 6,500 students in hands-on classes to master the art of hand-cutting their dovetails through this one project. Since then, we have taught over a million and possibly, probably, more than likely several millions of people how to successfully develop their dovetailing skills. Who'd have thought that was at all possible. They succeeded because they came to believe in themselves.

Well, I’ll try to keep this shorter, this once. The next one I just finished is quite a long one. Mostly, what I have to say is a might different and difference stating. My worklife (one word) making every single day in wood using mainly hand tools, except for long deep rip cuts, has been...

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 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.

Fine Joiners saw ultimate edition  Rippeled Gidgee from the CustomerGerman Silver Spine  Pedderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12692353908068506678noreply@blogger.com0

 My wife had a paving contractor come to the house today to give us an estimate on getting the driveway repaved. 30 minutes later we had a contract and he had a check for $2100. That deposit locks in the cost of the base stone and the paving. We are scheduled to have it done in the 3rd week of April. It is a one day service and we can walk on it right away but can't drive on it for 3 days.

checking the cherry

I had flattened/thicknessed all the cherry before but I am starting over with it again. Most of the boards were still twist free, a couple had a wee bit that I dealt with. The only other hiccup were a couple of them had a hump in the middle.

yikes

I was holding the off cut side too but it still decided to be PITA. This board was giving up two shelves.

hmm......

This is too big of chunk to saw off as it would shorten the length of the shelf too much. As is the shelf is 16". If I cut off the boo boo it would about 12" which I think is too short. I glued and clamped it and set it aside to cook. I was pretty happy with how well the it fit when glued.

hmm.......

This board will give up the four ends for two bookshelves. Used the japanese saw - cross cut went smoothly and easy peasy. No break out on the exit cut. On the one above I did the cross cut with a big sash saw.

almost complete

Got the 4 ends and two shelves. Just need the four back slats.

hmm.......

Eyeballing the left over cherry I can see I have enough for one more small bookshelf/CD/DVD holder. In for a penny, might as well be in for a pound, eh?

back slat stock

I could just plane this stock to thickness but IMO that would be a waste. Two boards are 7/8" thick, one board is 1" and the last one is 3/4". If I can resaw the 1" board in half that you give me two 1/2" thick ones, I can get eight back slats from it.

resawing is next

The board is two frog hairs thicker than 1" so if I behave I should get two 1/2" thick boards out of this. I will be happy with stock that ends up 7/16" strong.

sawn in half

I wasn't going to attempt sawing this board in half whole - the length was 32". 

not good

There are some fairly long end checks here to deal with. The longest crack/split ran a little over 3". The checks only appear on this face, the other one is clear and clean.

nope

I tried to resaw it with the Ryoba but it wasn't working in my favor. The back/exit of the saw cut was wandering. I tried to correct for it but couldn't. Resawed them on the tablesaw and saved it. The tablesaw blade sawed right through the wandering handsaw kerf and erased it.

the result

Got two at 3/8" thickness and two at a 1/2". I won't have to run these through the lunchbox planer neither. The thickness is a frog hair under a 1/2". Should be more than stiff enough to hold its shape - the length of them will about 14" - 15".

resawed one more board

Got enough stock here to make eight back slats. I need 6 with two extras for any potential oops.

complete

This will do for making the grandson's bookshelves. I'm leaning towards making the R/L of them smaller than the pine ones. Maybe 14-15" - there isn't much call for reference books anymore because of Google.

the one more

It still is a little surprising to me that it takes very little stock to whack one of these out.

where is it?

I eyeballed this for several minutes and I can not see the glue line on this. Nothing shifted on me when I clamped it up.

the side edge

Couldn't pick it out the edge neither. This edge blowout had two long, thin pieces and it glued back together seamlessly. The board is 3/4" thick and the plan as of now is to plane it down to less then 5/8" and more than 1/2".

not too bad looking

I have some photo dots coming from Amazon. They are basically dots of double sided tape made specifically for securing photos.

almost done

Need to slap 4-6 coats of shellac on the backs. Got two on before I killed the lights for the day. I will come back after dinner and get at least one more. I'll finish up the shellac in the AM.

accidental woodworker 

This leaf pattern is a design that I’ve been experimenting with on bits of scrap for a long time, tweaking this and that. This four-sided shrink pot, made from a red maple log, was a good canvas for it, and … Continue reading →

 Don't have anything in the pipeline, not even a thought. My truck is going in the shop for repairs on monday and tuesday so I'll be without a vehicle. The plan as of this typing is that I'll be motoring up to Highlands Hardwoods in New Hampshire on wednesday or thursday. That is weather dependent too. I am going to make the grandsons their desks one at a time. Hesitant to buy enough cherry for two but on the other hand it will mean another round trip up north. Decisions, decisions.

done

Six coats of shellac before the shine was acceptable to me.

hmm......

Rethinking the bookshelves I just made for the grandsons.  I have enough cherry here to make two bookshelves. The pine might be too much of a contrast against a cherry top. Looking ahead two smaller cherry bookshelves would melt into the cherry desks. I can plane the cherry to thickness with the lunchbox planer on monday. 

hmm......

Found out today the bookcase ain't going to North Carolina this sunday. My wife is only taking this wall cabinet with her. I noticed that one of the shelf pins wasn't seating in the notch. I widened all the notches in both of the shelve boards just in case - expansion/contraction is different in North Carolina.

huge difference

This bottom slat is the one I wanted to add a veneer shim to. No need because it swelled almost shut with the glue.

Didn't get much shop time today. Spent a good portion of it running errands and helping my wife with dead people stuff. Just as well as I didn't have anything to make wood dust with.

accidental woodworker

At the end of January, I went to the PAST tool collectors show in Fremont, CA.  Usually I don't come home with anything, but this time I did grab a few things.  I'll show them below, but first let me show this router plane display that one of the guys brought!

A collection of mostly craftsman-made router planes

None of these planes was made by Stanley or Preston or Millers Falls, or any other maker that we typically think of when we think of router planes.  These were mostly user-made tools and they were pretty dang cool.  The longest one was 14" long.

On the same table was also a display of an unusual Disston saw - a #196 "docking" saw.

Disston #196 Docking Saw

There's nothing about it on the Disstonian Institute site, but some other search results indicated it was used for heavy construction, like timber framing or railroad work.  It has crosscut teeth and a heavily breasted tooth line.  Someone at the tool show suggested the name came from its use on the docks, perhaps crosscutting dock boards to length.  The metal handle was interesting - possibly due to its getting rough use.

Anyway, moving on to what I picked up ...

A couple years ago I bought two larger auger bits - 1 1/8" and 1 1/4".  I found a 1 1/2" bit at the show and grabbed it for $10.  It's a Snell's-Jennings bit, no idea when it was made, but it was in near perfect condition.  It was already sharp - both spurs and both cutting lips.  And when I got home and made a test hole I was very impressed at how clean the entry rim was.  This was a great find because I have had some trouble using expansive bits for larger holes.

A beautiful, clean 1 1/2" hole

SNELL'S JENNINGS' 6

That's a really clean hole!

I'm a sucker for incannel gouges.  One of the sellers had a table where everything was $8.  There was a box filled with chisels of all types and I grabbed four - two small incannel gouges (that will add nicely to the larger ones I've got), a bent gouge, and a 1" bevel edge chisel.

The lineup

The two incannel gouges were from Spear & Jackson and New Haven Edge Tool Co.  I just need to clean and sharpen them and I think they'll be a great addition to my shop.

SPEAR & JACKSON SHEFFIELD

The S&J was about 9/16" wide

S&J curvature approx 9/16" radius

NEW HAVEN EDGE TOOL CO.

About 7/16" wide

Curvature of 9/32" radius

The bent gouge is from Ulmia.  It's 13 mm wide with an approximate 1/4" radius curvature.  I don't do much carving, but this one will be a nice addition to the carving set.

ULMIA

It's about 1/2" wide

This shows the amount of bend

Finally, there was this 1" socket chisel.  I don't need another 1" chisel, but this one is a T. H. Witherby.  If their chisels are as good as I've heard their drawknives are, this will be a real winner!  It's got a little pitting on the flat side, but I think I'll be able to get that out.  I found a good article about Witherby by Brian Welch here.

T. H. WITHERBY WARRANTED

You can see the pitting here

Not sure why, but I do prefer socket chisels

That's it.  Some nice additions to the shop.  Now I have a little work to do to get them up to working condition.

 

These holdfasts have served me well of the last 32 years, I used them a lot when I re-sawed guitar sets by hand with a rip saw, they have never failed me. I do own a pair of Gramercy Tools holdfasts, I use them to clamp down a miter box I use for cutting kerfing strips of guitars, but I reach for and use those old holdfasts on a regular basis.

 The day started with me finding it had snowed again overnight. Because of that the driver for the shuttle to West Roxbury was late and we didn't get on the road north until after 0600. In spite of that and the crazy Boston traffic, I was only late for my appointment by 4 minutes.

PET scans are easy but they take time. First I had the zoomies IV'ed into me and that took 46 minutes. Then I got to ride the big donut scan for 16 minutes. They stuck something under my legs and had to keep my arms out stretched straight back. That hurt and I had an incredible urge to cough that I had trouble suppressing, but I did because I didn't want to repeat the donut ride.

My shoulders were aching and my hip was humming arias. The nurse had to help sit up and get off the bed. Other than these minor annoyances the PET went flawlessly. Hopefully I won't have to go back to the W Roxbury VA for another PET scan.

I got back home at 1440 and got the garbage ready for pick up in the AM. After that I headed to the shop because I had 20 minutes before the quitting bell ringing at 1500.

from leave book, take a book at the VA

I had read a couple of articles on this lady code breaker. Since I didn't get picked up to return to the Providence VA until 1250, I started reading it. I got through 80 pages before pickup and I brought it home. Biographical novels are my favorite books to read. I'll be finished with it before the weekend ends.

why not?

The idea at this time was to steel wool the two bookshelves and apply shellac after dinner. 

hmm.......

I got 4 coats on the bottom and the ends. All that is left to do is the interior. I applied another coat on the bottom and ends again. I did that because the bottom didn't look shiny enough to my eye.

quit at 1538

I kept on going boys and girls. I applied the first coat of shellac on the interior. And I will return after dinner and slap another one.

accidental woodworker