Woodworking By Hand

Shaker Stool

2012-08-19T14:48:00.000-07:00

As I haven't built a stool for a while, I decided to try my hand at a Shaker style bench / stool.

My scaffold boards have warped a fair bit in drying meaning a full bench was not really practical. Ok, I admit it, with a lot of planing it could be done, but my natural laziness told me to keep it small... hence I'm calling it a Shaker stool.

With some inspiration from Google images I rough cut my two side pieces of timber and attacked them with my winding sticks, a no#6 Foreplane set for a heavy cut followed by my no#7 Try plane set fine to get them flat.

After getting the edges straight and parallel, I cut the ends square on the bench hook.

I am definitely getting faster as milling rough sawn boards into usable stock.

The main feature of this stool is the cut out design of the side pieces. I first found the centre of the board and marked the position of my desired hole.

Now it's confession time... I didn't have an auger bit large enough and resorted to using .... A POWER TOOL!!!!!

Yep, I drilled my hole with my cordless drill and I feel dirty for it!...In fact it made everything dirty - what a mess it made. To make matters worse there was also a lot of tear out between the hard and soft wood in the grain.

Finally cutting out the connecting wedge shaped bit of wood with my large tenon saw. Now I had my sides, I needed a seat piece, more milling...

Soon it was beginning to look a bit like a stool...

Now I didn't have a plan and was just making it up as I went along, I had a loose idea of maybe some tenons in the side pieces coming up through the seat, but I didn't like the fact that the sides were the same width as the seat so there was no decorative overlap.

I didn't want to reduce the width of the side pieces as that would make the stool less stable. Where the side pieces meet the top piece looks clunky. What to do.... I decided I would have the side pieces rabbeted into the seat for strength and see what it looks like ...

Hmn... Still rather clunky. My only other option is to have the 'tenons' come up through the seat on the outside, thus hiding the joint. I marked and chiseled out the recesses in the seat top and used it as a template to mark up the side piece tenons.

I was finally happy with how the joint looked, now I just needed a 'cross brace' that would mortise and tenon through the side pieces. More milling...

With the brace all milled flat and true, I proceeded to cut the tenon on each end. Followed by the corresponding mortise in each side piece.

I was aware (after I finished the tenons) that I should have cut the mortises first to ensure that the tenons would be a tight fit ... luckily they weren't too bad.

It all fits... Now it's my favourite part of the project... NOT!

Glue Up... Take the phone off the hook, lock the door. Get everything ready... do a dry run first.

I also added a chamfer to the ends of the seat top.

After gluing up the stool, it was just a matter of flush cutting off the protruding tenons, some final trimming and then applying a finish.

Happy Birthday To Me 2

2012-08-03T02:18:00.000-07:00

In the 'tradition' of my last birthday, Axminster Tools and their free next day delivery got the better of me - again! I treated myself to a few 'shiny things' ... as I've said 'It's an addiction!'.

Firstly, a Lie Nielsen no#4 Iron bodied smoothing plane. I decided against the Bronze body as this more than meets my needs for a smoother. It has the standard A2 blade and I have the option of a high angle frog at a later date if needed. My 'beater' Stanley no#4 will be kept set rough, as that's all its capable of anyway to be honest.

Secondly, an imperial Lie Nielsen Dowel Plate. I have some riven Oak and Walnut stock that will make nice draw bore pegs for Mortise & Tenon joints and dowels for boxes etc..

The other items include, a really posh Cap Iron screw driver which is lovely to hold and prevents scratching up your nice new premium planes as the brass collar captures the large screw head. A joiners Scratch Awl which unfortunately has a round shaft. I thought it had a square shaft when I ordered it... Oh well, it will still be useful.

And Lastly, I decided to get some Veritas honing compound to add to my home made leather strop block. A number of well known wood workers use it and some swear by it, so I thought I would see if it improves my sharpened edges.

Now I just need to put them all to work...

More Dovetails ...

2012-08-02T10:55:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was my birthday, and it seems that my girlfriend has secretly been practising her dovetails ... in cake!

Another Dovetailed Box

2012-07-27T10:37:00.000-07:00

I decided to make use of my newly acquired antique oak mainly to see what it will look like when planed and finished. I also decided some more dovetails wouldn't do me any harm.

So, in the same style as my last dovetailed box I got started.

I wont go into great detail as the build process has obviously been covered before. Usual drill - cut the four pieces to make the box sides and shoot them to exact length. Exact length being - two pairs, each pair being exactly the same size - I didn't bother to measure actual length. I also made the effort to avoid all knots and only used clear straight grained pieces of Pine.

The next stage, mark out the dovetails, I'm still a tails first guy... and ... I got to try the new Poor Mans Moxon vice out properly.

My brain obviously hadn't woken up yet ... Look at my 'waste marks' ... phew! Luckily, I realised what I had done, before grabbing the saw!

I got the tails cut and chiselled out without any further mishap. Wow! ..What a difference it was using my lovely new LN chisels, I can get them ultra sharp compared to my old Stanley Fat Max beaters.

Before I knew it, I had a box. Im not sure if I am getting faster or just had more fun chopping out the pins, but it didn't seem to take long at all.

Time for some grooves, for the plywood bottom...

Then it was time for my least favourite part of the process - Glue Up!

With some clamping pressure all the dovetails closed up nicely and I managed to mop up most of the squeeze out before it caused me a lot of clean up work.

I let the box cure over night before using my block plane and number four Stanley to plane down the Pins and Tails.

Time for a lid ... Using one of the newly aquired Oak pieces I first cut off the end that was cracked and marked with nail holes and then cut again to my required length.

I used my no#6 Fore Plane to remove the old finish and get the board flat as it was quite cupped. Once squared and trimmed to size, I used my no#4 to add a nice chamfer / bevel around the front and sides of the board to form the lid.

Lastly, I whittled and spit down some off cuts of Pine to fill the groove that showed through the bottom dovetail. Once, glued and cut off with my flush cut saw, the box was basically finished.

I added some small brass hinges and finished the box with a coating of Boiled Linseed Oil and some wax paste.

Lessons learn't from this project...

Marking the edges of the Pin boards isn't required, so don't do it any more.
I think (untested) in future, I can make my groove easily stopped on one side (which would be the front of the box), then I only need to plug two holes at the back for a cleaner finish ... or just learn to do proper stopped grooves!

Antique Oak

2012-07-23T05:54:00.000-07:00

Just a quick ~~gloat~~ post...

A member of my girlfriends family discovered these pieces of very old Oak while clearing out his garden shed and kindly 'donated' them to me. Apparently, it was an antique chest of drawers that originated from the very house I now live in.

While most of the pieces are a bit scarred, cracked and holed, with some careful trimming and planing and general TLC, I'm sure I can get some good use out of them. It's not every day I get work with woods other than Pine and this Oak already has built in 'character'.

Poor Mans Moxon Vice

2012-07-19T06:39:00.000-07:00

Up until now I have been struggling with work holding on my little bench and its poor excuse for a face vice, especially if I need to hold a wide board for dovetailing for example.

My usual solution is to stand the end of the board on something below the vice and pinch one side of the board in the end of the vice and use an offcut to minimise the vice racking and hope it holds... Far from ideal!

Therefore, with my last dry (it hasn't stopped raining over here in the UK) scaffold board, I decided to make a poor mans version of the Moxon Vice (Utube).

Life started out by rough cutting the board to length. Raised beds function really well as saw horses. While sawing the board the cross cut saw started to bind indicating that there seemed to be a lot of internal stresses inside the wood. I had to finish the cut from the opposite side, at least its only a rough cut.

The next step was to rip the board into two pieces using my 5 ppi rip saw.

Again the saw started to bind and the wood actually split apart about ten inches before I completed the cut. Thankfully, the split was pretty accurate and not far from my marked line. After a quick assessment with the winding sticks it was time to get the boards flat and smooth.

For each board, I used my no#6 Foreplane to remove the rough saw mill marks and get a face basically flat and wind free before finishing it with my new Lie Nielsen no#7 Jointer plane. After the face I made one of the edges straight and square to the reference face.

Lastly, using a marking gauge, I marked all around the edge of the board before flattening the other face side to thickness and making it parallel with the first side. One thing I have learn't is always plane this second side across the grain towards the unfinished edge. If any spelching occurs, it will get cleaned up when completing the final edge. Finally, I made the last remaining edge square and parallel to the first edge.

With both boards basically four square, all that remained was to cut and square the ends on the bench hook.

After flattening, I ended up with one board being 1 1/4" thick and the other 1 3/8" thick. I glued a piece of 2"x2" timber as a cleat to the thinner of the two boards, this would be the back vice 'chop'. I thought that the added cleat would make up for the slight lack of thickness.

The last remaining step to get a functional vice was to bore the holes in each end to accept the F-clamps.

With the vice essentially finished, all that was required was to soften the corners with a block plane and give the whole thing a light coat of Linseed oil to provide a bit of protection. I used a pair of holdfasts to attach the vice to my bench.

The distance between the clamps (width of board the vice is capable of holding) is just under 24" and I didn't think to make sure it was over 24" when cutting the ends square as the thing looked more than adequate for my needs. With hindsight, 24" is a good minimum capacity, as a lot of furniture uses 24" wide boards.

One last note, the vice might be handy for work away from the bench as it fits really nicely on my Saw Bench. If the sun ever shows up, maybe some dovetailing in the garden?...

Rabbet Joint Box

2012-07-17T05:51:00.001-07:00

While making the simple bevelled wall board for my 'Ships Clocks' a few days ago, it occurred to me that the very same design might make a good (albeit chunky) box lid.

My stock (scaffold board Pine - of which I have a lot of it!) wood is around 1 1/2" thick, the simple design allows me to use what I have without having to waste most of the wood making it thinner. It also saves me a lot of sweat with a hand plane!

It also occurred to me that I have never made a simple Rabbet jointed box...

I completely forgot to take any pictures during the build as things progressed pretty quickly. A rough description of the steps I took are below:

Box Carcass

Cut four pieces (2 long , 2 short) of cheap (pre-planed) Pine to length on the bench hook.
'Shoot them' to exact lengths with square ends on the shooting board.
Mark and cut the shoulder line of each rabbet on the short sides of the two long boards (the front and back of the box) again using the bench hook - 2 rabbets per long board.
To form the actual rabbets, I first tried using my small shoulder plane with a wooden baton clamped in place to keep me straight, but this proved to be quite slow. For the three remaining rabbets, I simple used my dovetail saw to cut down the end grain (much like sawing a tenon), finally cleaning the joint up with the shoulder plane. In retrospect, I should have (been brave) tried to remove the waste with a chisel which would probably been even faster than sawing.
Use a plough plane to cut 1/4" grooves in the bottom of the boards for the base to fit into.
Cut a thin plywood board to size for the box bottom.
Glue the carcass together.
Plane the edges and joints flush and generally tidy it up.

The Lid

Approximately cut to length a piece of rough scaffold board.
Assess the board for grain direction and use winding sticks to check the 'wind' and straightness of the board. Pencil in notes on the board as to what work is likely to be required and where.
Plane one face flat using my no#6 and mark it as a reference.
Hand plane the adjacent long edge straight and at 90 degrees to the first face and mark it.
Use a marking gauge to mark all around the edges of the board to get it to uniform thickness again using the no#6 to remove wood fast.
Use a marking gauge to mark the second long edge parallel to the first.
Precision cut the board to the required length and ensure it is square.
Mark bevel lines all around the board using a marking gauge. Used my no#4 plane to create the bevels, being careful to finish the short end grain sides first.
Fit small brass hinges and apply some wax finish...

While the box does look rather like a coffin for a small dog or a cat, it was very enjoyable to make with most of the project being completed in a single day. Rabbet jointed boxes come together pretty fast! Not as nice looking or as strong as a dovetailed box, but I did learn from it and at this stage that's the most important aspect for me.

More 'simple' projects to follow ...

LN 5pc Bevel Edge Chisel Set

2012-07-11T04:18:00.001-07:00

With some well earned cash in my pocket I have decided to treat myself to a long awaited indulgence - A 5pc set of Lie Nielsen Bevel edged chisels complete with the leather tool roll.

After some discussion with a few other woodworkers who's opinions I have come to value, I decided to opt for the O1 tool steel, over the A2 steel. As I do a lot of stuff with soft Pine, I'm hoping the lower 25/30 degree bevel of O1 steel will be more suited than using a 30/35 degree bevel as required with A2 steel.

These Lie Nielsen chisels will replace my cumbersome Stanley Fat Max chisels, for finer joinery like dovetails etc. The Stanley chisels will still earn their living doing 'DIY' type chores around the house & garden. Each Lie Nielsen chisel feels so light and balanced in the hand, I am sure they are going to be a joy to use - as are all my other LN tools.

The sizes are 1/8", 1/4", 3/8", 1/2", and 3/4". The leather roll, while expensive is very nice quality and well made and really completes the set. Having space for seven chisels allows me to also store my two LN mortise chisels making a really nice set.

I'm gonna need (to make) a bigger tool box soon...

Wall Mounted Ships Clocks

2012-07-11T03:48:00.000-07:00

Wow it's been nearly two months since my last blog post! Will anyone still be reading this?

While I have been back home from my yacht delivery for a few weeks, I have been busy building a new wooden garden fence and spending my time with Bible study. Finally, the other day the lure of the tools enticed me back to my wood working room to build something. Nothing complicated, just something quick and dirty to get me started again.

A simple bevel edged board to wall mount my beloved ships clock & barometer. These little treasures of mine have been with me on all my sailings, including three single handed Atlantic crossings, so they mean a lot to me. It will be nice to still enjoy them now I'm a 'land lubber'.

Anyway, I'm back - I haven't forgotten the blog and there will be more small projects to come, I promise.

Back to Sea

2012-05-18T07:27:00.000-07:00

Just a quick Blog update ... Not much wood working action recently as indicated by the lack of posts.

I am busy preparing to deliver a nice little J92 racing yacht from the UK across Biscay and through the Gibraltar straits to the south coast of Spain.

I will be gone for a few weeks but there will definitely be more projects when I get back.

See you all soon...

Dovetailed Box

2012-04-29T10:19:00.000-07:00

After attempting my first dovetails around November last year, I haven't built upon the experience or attempted any other dovetails since. The Small Pine Chest was (and still is) my favourite project so far and I think I got very lucky with some quite tidy joints for a beginner.

I decided it was time to attempt to repeat the experience, almost knowing ahead of time that the first time was a fluke, and so to prepare for disappointment.

The idea for this project came from a small piece of Oak I had which was an offcut from the first ever thing I made. I decided it would make a nice lid for a box, and this with a length of 6" wide Pine board formed my stock.

I wont bore you too much with the starting process, needless to say that the bench hook, tenon saw and square, chisel and knife saw to cutting the pine to length, before using my no#4 plane and shooting board to shoot the ends clean.

Having all my components to size, I started to get a feel for the finished box.

After cutting to length I noticed a slight cupping of the boards and so dealt with this by planing across and diagonal to the grain with both my no#6 and no#4 .

Time to get my tools sorted for dovetails....

I used my new Veritas 1:6 dovetail template to make short work of marking out the tails, doing two boards at a time. It's certainly more accurate and less fiddly than using a bevel gauge. Time for some chopping...

After a quick sharpening session, I decided to remove all the tail waste using only chisels. Previously I think I removed the bulk of the waste using a fret saw. Once complete I marked out the bespoke Pins one board at a time using the side of my no#4 plane to mate up the boards accurately.

Maybe as a result of watching to many Utube dovetail videos, I tried to make the effort to not be overly slow and meticulous about making this box. I certainly didn't fuss to much with cutting the tails knowing the pins are marked from the tails and should correct any innacuracies. Obviously you get faster and better with time, but I don't want to spend a week making a simple box.

Ok .. first dry fit... not as good as they should be cosmetically but it's certainly a strong box! Lesson learn't my board ends are slightly off square and hence my baselines are different either side of the board when marked out with the marking gauge. It's not a lot but enough to create gappy joinery. On with the show...

I thought it was about time I did my first ever grooved bottom and do the box bottom properly.

Ta daaa....The debut of my new Record 44 Plough plane. After sharpening the 3/16ths blade and a quick practice with a small scrap of pine, I went for it. The groove was cut to (just over) 5mm deep, meaning I had to allow 1cm in length and width when cutting the bottom piece. I decided to put the grooves all the way through the pins and later hide the resultant holes with a skirt.

Time to cut some thin plywood for the bottom... 25cm x 17.5cm.

And do a dry fit....

The box holds together really tightly, it could probably serve it's purpose without glue.... I hate this bit!

Panic over - I managed to get it all together with a lot of banging with a leather faced mallet and a scrap of wood. Unfortunately, the sight of the joinery closing up nicely with the added gap filler of glue led to me applying slight too much pressure....Doh!

Not to worry - it's not the end of the world and I can probably doctor those small cracks when the glue is dry. The next step was to plane the old varnish from the box lid, trim it to size and add a decorative small bevel.

With the box out of the clamps I used my Stanley 102 block plane to trim the proud pins and tails before smoothing with my no#4.

The clamps and glue had helped to close up the dovetails, still not perfect and the odd one was a little gappy, but overall I'm not too disappointed as a second attempt. In the true spirit of 'full disclosure', the following pictures show the pins and tails of all four sides.

Basically at this stage the box is almost complete and I had a change of mind (partly due to laziness) about fitting a skirt to hide the bottom groove in the bottom half pins. Instead I thought I would keep it simple, try and match the grain as best as I can and plug the holes.

I used a chisel to 'rive' off small pieces of pine and trim to fit before glueing them in and finally using my flush cut saw to trim them off. I think they look fine.

So aside from having any hinges (which I'll fit at a later date) and a coat or two of Boiled Linseed Oil (BLO), I was done. All in all I am quite pleased with this project both in terms of how it turned out and the time it took me to do it. Being only my second attempt at dovetails and my first ever grooved bottom made it interesting from start to finish without it becoming too epic.

LN-7 Jointer Plane

2012-04-27T07:00:00.000-07:00

It's funny how things all turn out and help you make a decision. In the past week I have both sold my boat... and ... received a lovely letter (and cheque) from the Tax man. Finally, the icing on the cake,... I was sent a discount email for 10% off any item from Axminster tools.

Now, despite all the above, ... This decision did not come lightly I can assure you! I am sure the Quangsheng planes would have probably served my purpose adequately, in fact from the reviews I know they would.

They sound like really good planes at amazingly cheap prices. But... I am thinking of this as a one time quality purchase and I would always be wondering or lusting after the Lie Nielsen tools. No political or moral views came into it - I simply could afford what I wanted in the first place, regardless of the quality and value for money of the competition.

It's lovely! ... If I get the same feeling from using this new no#7 plane as I get from my other LN tools, it's money well spent. I am also enquiring about a LN no#3 smoother in iron (not bronze), but I would like it with an O1 blade and the high angle 55 degree frog. I have decided against the LN no#5 Jack plane for the moment as my old Stanley no#6 has been (begrudgingly) earning it's keep with a newly cambered iron.

As the new no#7 jointer / try plane and my crusty rough and ready no#6 fore plane both have 2 3/8" irons I decided to also spring for the DMT Diasharp 8"x3" stones in both Fine and XX Fine (8000g). I will still keep and use my 6"x2" DMT stones for chisels etc as they are a lot lighter and more portable for other work or jobs I may do away from the house.

And lastly, it's time I started doing a lot more dovetail work and treated myself to the Veritas 1:6 dovetail marker.

I will be using it in a little project soon....

How To Make Woodwork Tools - Charles H Hayward

2012-04-24T12:18:00.000-07:00

Just thought I would share this little gem from circa 1945.

PDF Here

More Stools pt4

2012-04-17T07:50:00.000-07:00

We're almost done ...

Ok so where are we ... Two stools, with all the joinery cut.

Both are structurally complete with all the components dry fit in place. The next step is to round over all the sharp edges and put some shape into the seat ends and the centre brace ends.

I used my t(rusty) old Stanley 102 block plane to break the aris of all the edges and my no#4 to bevel the seat ends. I made sure to sharpen before starting as this is all end grain work.

Sand paper and a file was also used to smooth the edges where appropriate. The final shaping isn't complete as there will have to be further 'clean up' after gluing to finish it.

I also planed the components and done any final tweaking to make sure the joinery was tight.

Time for Glue Up...

I hate this stage! No matter how many times I do a dry run rehearsal and get everything ready, I always seem to get stressed and panic and it never goes smoothly. Regular readers may recall I had a nightmare when glueing the original stool. Glueing the smaller stool first, the same happened again!... The bloody glue makes the joinery (particularly the seat top to leg joint) really tight and everything starts to dry way to quickly! I had to really use a fair bit of clamping pressure to get all the joints up snug. It's a 'head job' because you spend all your time trying to make joinery nice and precise and tight, only to realise sloppier joinery would lead to a better final finish. The joinery didn't look as nice after glueing as it did during the dry fit...At one stage, I thought about aborting but it felt like I might struggle to get it apart in time. Leaving the stool to dry for 24 hours and having a limited number of clamps, I fearfully, began the glue up of the larger stool the next day - Friday 13th!

Luckily, the glue up of the larger stool went smoothly. Not having enough clamps, I only dry fit the center brace of each stool during glue up to keep the legs square. I will do these on both stools together after the main glue up is complete.

While the larger stool was in clamps I used my flush cut saw to trim the leg tops and side brace ends of the smaller stool and then again used the Stanley block plane and some sand paper to smooth the joinery.

Time to cut the legs so that the feet sit properly and the stool is level...
I used the kitchen work surface after checking it for flat to stand each stool on, before shimming each leg using folded paper to get the stool level. I used my combination square level to check both dimensions, before using a small block of wood and a ruler to mark around each leg.

I used my marking knife and chisel to further mark each cut and make the cut more accurate using my carcass saw. A quick chamfer of each leg using my block plane and sand paper to stop the end grain splitting if the stool is moved sideways on carpet for example and I am basically done.

I finally spent some further time cleaning up and sanding before rubbing each stool with a coat of Boiled Linseed Oil. I may experiment with some liquid wax finish as well.

So ... two stools finished. I think I prefer the look of the smaller stool. I definitely wont make any further projects two at a time. I seem to lose focus and miss being able to concentrate on the details of a single piece. Not to mention progress is obviously a lot faster... and more enjoyable.

Quangsheng Vs Lie Nielsen Bench Planes

2012-04-04T11:46:00.000-07:00

A while ago I mentioned I was thinking about purchasing a Lie Nielsen no#5 Jack plane and also wanted a no#7. However, four months later I am still using my exceptionally crappy modern Stanley no#4 smoother and no#6 as a jointer / fore plane. With that in mind I have come to the conclusion that the preferred planes in my tool set would be a no#3 for smoothing, no#5 jack plane which could double as a large smoother if required and finally a no#7 for jointing and final flattening of stock.

I would probably only keep my crappy Stanleys for rough DIY type work or green wood etc.

In the perfect world I would love for all three planes to be made by Lie Nielsen, but at the following Axminster UK prices: no#3 £282, no#5 £282 and no#7 £369 - I simply cannot justify spending £933 - especially as a beginner! Can I?...

Having done a lot more research on plane manufacturers, I have discovered a UK company called Workshop Heaven who are selling planes made by Quangsheng at a fraction of the price of the Lie Nielsen ones. These planes are basically Lie Nielsen clones, based on the Stanley Bedrock design, complete with thick blades and 'improved' chip breakers 'a la' Lie Nielsen. The only constructional differences appear to be:

The Quangsheng blades are T10 Carbon steel instead of A2 as used by Lie Nielsen. Some reviews have stated the Quangsheng blades are incredibly sharp and possibly sharper than A2 steel and hold a good edge.
The Lie Nielsen planes use bronze lever caps with the Quangsheng ones being brushed steel.
Lie Nielsen offer high angle frogs - whereas the only Quangsheng option would be putting a back bevel on the blade. I guess it's possible that the Lie Nielsen frogs might fit the Quangsheng planes?

Spot the difference...

According to the reviews I have found on the Internet and online wood working forum discussions, the Quangsheng planes are very good (albeit made in China) both in terms of construction, finish and performance, with some people stating there is very little difference between their Quangsheng planes and their Lie Nielsen planes. The biggest difference as far as I can tell is slightly tighter machine tolerances on the Lie Nielsen planes, translating in to slightly finer blade control.

The three planes listed above from Quangsheng would only cost £389 total, no#3 £90, no#5 £110 and the no#7 £190 - Wow! That leaves a lot of change to buy some nice chisels....

I wrote to Workshop Heaven enquiring about the Quangsheng planes and they said:

'Officially the soles of all sizes are flat to 3 thou, although in practice they are typically better than half that.

We offer a lifetime guarantee on all of the tools we sell (your life not the tool's). I'm interested in regular happy customers, not a 100% record of never losing money on a deal.'

All in all they sound like a good buy...BUT ... would I regret buying them down the line?

So ... what to do?

Any readers own a Quangsheng plane or have any experience with them? Anyone know anything about them or can offer any advice - it would be greatly appreciated!

On a slightly different note - all progress on the Stools has been delayed due to me making the 'school boy error' of running out of glue - doh! I did intend to order some more glue online, but thought I might include a plane order...

Looking forward to your thoughts on the above...

More Stools pt3

2012-03-30T03:03:00.000-07:00

Ok ... next comes the leg bracing for our stools. Each stool will have a lap jointed brace across each pair of opposing legs (I'll call it a 'side brace') and a longer single brace that runs down the center that is lap jointed into the side braces. Make sense?.... Hmn... maybe better explained in pictures.

First, the lap joint sockets need to be marked in the legs.

After marking out using the knife and being careful to get the complimentary 10 degree splay angle in the correct direction, I pared the cut lines with a chisel, before making three cuts per socket to help allow the waste to be easily removed with a chisel.

Two stools with four legs each, times three cuts per leg equals twenty four cuts to be made just for half a lap joint. What seems like an easy process seems to take me a lot longer than I think it will. It's easy to kill a few hours and not achieve an awful lot of progress...

Using the vice to hold the stock flush with my marking lines, I used the smaller chisel to remove most of one side of the socket to the center.

Then I flipped the work piece around to do the other side.

Then used the large chisel places directly in the baseline, using the vice jaws to keep the chisel face flat.

Finally finishing off by hand and paring away any roughness.

Now it was back to the bench hook to cut four lengths of wood, two braces per stool.

I placed the square braces directly into the sockets in the legs and marked out the joints to be cut with the seat top attached using a pencil. It was nice to see the pencil marks agreeing with both my square and bevel gauge almost exactly, meaning my joints must be acceptable and the stool is remaining pretty square.

It's actually starting to look a bit like a stool... The center brace (just sitting in place in the picture above) is nice and straight forward with the joints cut at a sensible 90 degrees and therefore there is no messing around with bevel gauges. A couple of minutes center finding using dividers, some squared lines with the knife and a few strokes of the saw and a bit of chisel work later ...

We have a stool! On my previous stool I cut the center brace flush with the side braces, but this time I thought I would try and make a 'feature' of the end grain of the center brace which in turn will result in a stronger joint. In fact, even without any glue I was able to sit on the stool - albeit very carefully!

So ... Now repeat all the above for the other stool. *Sigh* I kind of wish I had done one stool at a time now as the progress would have been a lot faster. It's surprising how much time it takes to build such a simple little project.

Still to do:

Bevel and smooth all the edges and surfaces.
Dry fit and final trimming of joinery, before glue up.
Flush cut all the joints and trim the legs to match the splay angle so the 'feet' sit square.
Sand and finish.

Stay tuned...

More Stools pt2

2012-03-27T06:18:00.000-07:00

The continuing saga...

Part 1

This is the hardest part of this project, at least in my opinion - Cutting the legs accurately to produce a ten degree splay to the legs. The first thing was to group the eight legs into two lots of four for each stool matching the grain of each set and deciding which would be the visible outward face of each leg, hiding knots and other nasties on the inner faces.

Setting my bevel gauge to 100 degrees to give me my 10 degree splay angle (90 + 10 = 100), I began marking out the legs. unfortunately, I got so engrossed with concentration I didn't take any pictures to fully describe the process.

In addition, I didn't think to limit my marking with the knife as I squared the lines around the legs, resulting in unnecessary marks on the show side of the legs - doh! I will plane and sand them away before assembly.

Luckily I noticed the error of my ways before starting the second set of legs and limited my marking to only those lines to be cut.

With the marking out complete and the waste clearly marked with Xs, I used a chisel to pare out the cross grain lines to make a groove for the saw. Placing the piece offset in the vice, I used the bevel gauge to make the cut vertical. My sawing accuracy is considerably better when cutting straight down vertically, probably due to gravity helping to hold the saw straight.

I started with the shoulder as it's a short cut and across the grain, so a nice and easy warm up for my sawing muscles.

Before cutting the rip cuts down what I guess would be called the 'cheek', I found it easier to use my dovetail saw placed in the knife lines to perform a 'stopped' cut across the corners of the cut on each side before placing the piece in the vice for cutting squarely down.

Despite having done this identical marking out and cutting process a few times now, for both my original Rustic Stool and my Traditional Saw bench, it still takes me a surprisingly long time to carry out this simple task. Eventually, I had four legs all cut and pared, ready for use.

Now for the other four legs - Rinse and repeat as they say ...

The next step is to mark out the four cut-outs in each seat top to accept the legs. Simple marking out using a marking gauge (for the depth of cut) and a square. I set each leg 'socket' back from the seat end the same thickness as the leg.

I made four cuts to each 'socket' to make chiselling out easier with less risk of break out. Using a small chisel to begin with, I removed 80% of the wood from each side of the cut out.

Finally using my larger chisel placed directly in the knife line to finish the cut.

After a little paring with the chisel and size adjustment with a file, I had two standing stools.

Still a long way from being finished but at least they resemble something close to stools now.

The next job will be the bracing in pt3....

More Stools pt1

2012-03-23T07:10:00.003-07:00

I am finally motivated enough to get myself back in front of the bench and actually build something - about freaking time! As you (regular readers) may well know, one of my 2012 resolutions was to 'sell some of the things I make'. Well this has been achieved by selling my Rustic Stool and has given me incentive to make a few more to sell. Mainly, to recoup some of the money I have tied up in timber.

The session began by discovering my bench top was no longer flat, maybe due to the arrival of Spring and the warm weather we have been having lately or my bench repairs I did a short while ago? Either way, before anything else could happen it was time to warm up with my trusty no#6 foreplane and a straight edge.

Once the top was vaguely flat, I also remembered I had yet to re-drill the dog holes to make the bench usable. A few minutes later I was ready to finally begin work ... no I wasn't. As I haven't been doing much wood work lately, I knew things would need a bit of a sharpen. My first tasks would be dimensioning the leg stock and processing the rough cut seat tops.

Two large chisels, my marking knife and the no#6 plane blade, all sharp and ready to go...

I had previously rough cut four pieces of stock from one of my scaffold boards to make four stool seats, one small, two mid size and one slightly longer - all the same scaffold board width. I also had twelve meters of 2"x2" Pine leg stock.

Work began by planing the seat tops to remove all the rough saw marks to make marking out easier and basically get them flat. First across the boards, then diagonally and finally with the grain. This process allowed me to familiarise myself with the directions of grain flow and mark the boards where it changed direction etc.

The next step was to use a straight edge and get one of the long sides straight, followed by making the opposite side both straight and parallel. Luckily the boards weren't to bad and this went quite smoothly.

To be honest, I know from previous experience that the stool's joinery is not too dependant on the seat tops being perfectly flat and square so I wasn't to obsessed with getting them perfect - it's a 'rustic stool' after all!

I did notice that the two medium size seat pieces were showing signs of cracking in the end grain, obviously from drying out to quickly. I decided to leave them alone to see how they develop over the next few days and only build two stools - a larger and a small one.

The last step was cutting both ends of the board to get them square with nicely finished end grain using my trusty large tenon saw.

A short while later I had two seat tops ready for joinery. I hadn't smoothed them as this can be done later.

Time to dimension some leg stock...

I decided from my previous stool and the difficulty in finding a suitable size box to post it in, that both stools would have the same size legs, at least to begin with. I am not building from plans so this may change on down the line according to the look of each stool. The main thing is I know both will fit in my planned postage boxes.

Standard procedure, mark all four sides with the knife, pare out the cut line with a chisel and then cut squarely on the bench hook using my Carcass saw. I had to cut around the unusable knotty bits.

I love my Lie Nielsen saws, they are such a joy to use! I'm not sure if it's because I haven't done anything for a while but my sawing is more accurate then ever! It maybe (and probably is) due to my new adjustable square being more accurate than my larger more cumbersome cheap combination square?

Anyway, there we go ... Two seats and eight legs. The sun is out so that's enough for today, time to go and plant out some carrots in the sunshine.

Stay tuned for pt2.

Richard Proenneke

2012-03-15T14:03:00.001-07:00

Richard Proenneke Using only hand tools to build his life in the Alaskan Wilderness.

I just had to share this video, it's got everything from log cabin building, to furniture making and even some spoon carving - and all with only very basic hand tools. Amazing!...

Two other films about this remarkable man are also available to view.

Seed Bench

2012-02-29T01:05:00.000-08:00

Another quick and dirty 'project'...and still distracted by the gardening bug.

We needed a small bench on which to germinate our seeds indoors and then later put outdoors as the weather warms up. I certainly wasn't going to pay the ridiculous garden center prices, especially on something that might exposed to the weather!

So ...

An afternoon's work, a handful of basic tools, an old broken pallet and some pieces of recycled wood from the dump for the legs and a £1.35 bag of screws later...

Our 'new' seed propagation bench was born.

These are the tools used, a square, pencil, gimlet (i love gimlets), screwdriver, chisels and a small saw.

It's not built to last a lifetime and it's not pretty ... but, It's functional, almost free and it was a great way to spend an afternoon!

Broken and discarded pallets can be a readily available and free useful source of wood, so keep your eye out for them!

Work Bench Repair

2012-02-24T08:07:00.000-08:00

As mentioned previously, my poor little bench recently decided to give up the ghost and collapse on me.

Until, I get round to building a proper bench, I have decided to make some 'improvements / repairs' so I can at least carry on working wood. It's been ages since I have actually built anything useful!....

Anyway, the first thing to do was to lower the bench height by a good few inches. I have always found it hard to get some weight squarely over the plane and pushing sideways rather than downwards increases the lateral forces being exerted on the poor little bench frame therefore increasing the racking.

The bench felt quite a bit more stable immediately the legs were shortened. Next, add some bracing...

I had some pieces of wood that were perfect for the job!

With the four braces added and reduced height, I could really feel the bench frame start to stiffen up.

One of the biggest annoyances with this beginners bench has been work holding. All the dog holes are some stupid small size (~ 15mm) and not the normal 3/4" (19mm). Even if they were the correct size, the bench top is not thick enough to use holdfasts or hold downs. Also, even without the drawer on the front face of the bench, the bench top skirt made clamping almost impossible. I decided to put in some 'blocking' underneath the bench to thicken it up and bring it closer the the thickness of the bench top skirt.

The first job was to rip and glue up some timber to form a panel of the correct width. It only had to be flat(ish) on the side that was to be glued and vaguely square as it was not going to be seen - Its a workbench not a piece of furniture.

This panel, was then both glued and screwed to the underside of the bench top making the bench top now a good 2" (50mm) thick.

I used counter sunk screws from the bench top down into the blocking panel and also reused the screw holes that used to hold the draw rails on the front edge to secure the panel.

Lastly, with the timber I had left, I added a large brace across the front of the bench, this is in line with the bench top edge, so could be useful for planning the edges of large boards such as table tops.

With the thicker bench top and no drawer in the way, I can now easily use F-Clamps to clamp work on the front face of the bench and the whole bench feels a lot more secure.

I am not expecting miracles from these quick and dirty additions, but the bench is definitely better than it was. I will get round to re-drilling the dog holes and maybe get some Veritas Wonder Dogs and Hold Fasts for it, as although quite pricey, they could be reused on a new bench in the future. Maybe build a Moxon style bench vice?

At least I have a working bench again...for now anyway!

New Axe Fun

2012-02-21T02:13:00.000-08:00

Just a quick post...

I have been playing with my new Axe and 'carved' a basic cooking spatula and kitchen spoon. Neither of which are finished yet, so this is more of a progress report really.

The wood is from a small Ornamental Cherry tree that I cut down from the garden a few weeks back and is soaking wet green. I don't really know much about Green Wood Working (yet), so I imagine I have to leave things to dry out before they can be finished? Any advice from readers would be appreciated!

The cooking spatula is functional from a 'Bushcraft' perspective but that's about it!

I should have paid more attention to the small knots, the main one causing problems is on the side and there is another tiny one in the center of the 'blade' - A lesson learnt. Once the wood has dried out I will try and sand a finish on it and oil it properly.

As for the spoon, well these pics are straight off the axe I haven't touched it with a knife yet.

I have tried to keep the handle of the spoon the same design as the spatula as if by some miracle this little project was a success then they would make a nice matching pair. I don't have a Crook knife yet so I cant even begin on the bowl of the spoon.

One thing I am very wary of and that is not getting too attached to these little creations. The 'baton mallet' I made last week has self destructed in the warmth of the central heating. Not so surprising I guess, Green Wood + Warm House = Cracked Wood. This is quite extreme cracking though!

Oh well - it still works (for now)...

It's certainly fun to just be able to sit down and hack into a piece of wood with an axe and make something 'vaguely' recognisable. It's surprising how quickly you learn different techniques according to the accuracy of the cuts required. I am looking forward to getting some better wood as these pieces are just what I had in the garden. I'd love to try a bowl out of birch or something similar.

If the spoon and spatula don't 'self destruct' while drying out or before I acquire a crook knife, I'll get these finished and post the results despite how bad they look - It's all part of the adventure!

Lack of Motivation

2012-02-17T02:35:00.001-08:00

Another post ...at last!... Sadly again without in any real useful or interesting content.

Lately (as regular readers can probably tell), I have been lacking motivation in the wood working department - for a number of reasons.

Firstly, I don't have any wood around that's suitable for any of the things I'd actually like to make - such as a tool chest. My 'Timber Investment' is still drying out in the shed and wont really be ready for anything other than really rustic work and gardening projects for a little while and I am too tight to purchase more premium cost wood from the timber yard.

Secondly, in my quest to escape the timber merchant, I have been trying to process the raw billets of Oak and Walnut with a lot of frustration! While my little bench was fine for pre planed wood, it's simply not man enough to handle the rough 'scrubbing' of the billets down to usable dimensions. The poor thing racked so violently, it almost fell to pieces!

The base twisted so badly that the bottom shelf fell out and I swear the bench tried to escape from me by smashing through its supporting wall! Anyway, ... I will try and brace the bench up and bite the bullet and make it as low as possible to see if that helps with planing, while I try and ignore the obvious - Make a PROPER BENCH!

And I thought everybody was building Roubo benches just because they were just fashionable!

Lastly, being as OCD as I am, I find it really hard to obsess about more than a single topic of interest at any one time and lately that topic of interest has been gardening. The gardening obsession was born through my overall interest in 'Self Sufficiency', which in turn has led me back to wood working, albeit of a slightly different nature this time. As I have cut down a few small trees in the garden lately, I find myself staring at their small trunks and wondering if there's any usable wood inside...

I found a guy selling really cheap (less than £30 inc P&P) Froes on Ebay. It's not hand forged or anything fancy but it's certainly good at it's job. I really wish I'd had this tool while in France playing with the Oak and Walnut logs. I 'carved' a mallet for it from one of the small trees, to save my Beech chisel mallet from being ruined. I have also 'invested' in a really nice Wetterlings hatchet, which is hand forged and lovely.

A Hook Knife is still on the shopping list.... Spoons, Bowls and Kuksas here I come!... And, you don't need a bench!

More to come...

2000 Page Views

2012-01-30T04:29:00.000-08:00

Wow 2000 page views - another 1000 in just over a month!

Now I feel really guilty due to my lack of posts over the past few weeks. So what's been happening? ...

Not a lot on the wood working front to be honest. I have been spending my time doing a little DIY around the house, building the raised beds and getting the garden ready for Spring. Lots of digging, collecting of manure and compost preparation etc.

The new 'Timber' has been stored away in the garden shed as it's a bit wet, not 'tree wet', but rain wet. It was soaked on the day of delivery, probably due to being stored outdoors at the wood yard, so I'm giving it time to dry out a bit. This could take some time with our damp weather over here in the UK, once Spring arrives and the sun starts to heat things up a bit I'm sure things will improve.

I did bring a board or two straight indoors to see how they might handle being dried faster due to our central heating. I had rough cut a 6ft board into three 2ft pieces for the beginnings of a project once it had dried enough. However, this resulted in deep cracks appearing predictably in the centre of what would be the core of the tree trunk.

I ripped out the cracked 2" wide centre from each 2ft length resulting in the following wastage.

After some planing I now have 'saved' the following 'good' outer pieces. Even with such wastage, the wood still costs a lot less than buying it straight from my normal wood yard. I will continue to keep an eye on these smaller pieces and put them to good use in the near future.

Anyway, more of a catch up post really, wood working will resume shortly I promise...

Country Furniture by Aldren Watson

2012-01-26T02:43:00.000-08:00

Currently reading and enjoying Country Furniture by Aldren Watson.

After the recommendation of this post at the Renaissance Woodworker, I immediately jumped on to Ebay and got myself a copy. I wont bother giving an in depth review, but needless to say I highly recommend it if you are even vaguely interested in 'Old-School' wood working tools, techniques and furniture. The hand sketched diagrams are stunning...