W C Sias Joiner and Cabinetmaker

Where am I?

2013-03-04T18:15:00.000-08:00

Well...I fell down a flight of stairs while carrying a box of files. I broke my left leg and tore the ACL. I'm scheduled for repair on March 22.

I have a box of saws to be sharpened. I'm not sure that I will get to them before I have recovered. They are safe and well labeled. If you are uncomfortable or need to send them elsewhere to get them back in service I understand completely and will return them post-haste on your request.

I have a set of boxes and a table that will not be completed on time. Clients have been contacted. If I have work in progress for you that is not listed here then I am comfortable that it will be finished as specified. If you are concerned please give me a call to discuss it.

Taking away the mystery

2013-01-24T18:41:00.000-08:00

I want to share something with you. If you have taken one of my sharpening classes you may have seen this already. If not, this is for you.

When I teach sharpening I try to make it very clear that the media is unimportant, it's all technique. Sure, some media is faster than others, some media is more expensive. But the proper techniques will produce a great edge regardless of your choice of media. I do not intend to teach those techniques in a blog post. Everyone that has taken one of my classes has heard me say, "It's fun to watch an expert but you will learn faster if the expert watches you."

My method of sharpening uses two or three abrasives. The coarsest of which is used shaping. Shaping is adjusting a bevel or fixing a nick. The medium abrasive does the actual sharpening, I prefer the term honing since sharpening if, to me, the entire process. The finest grit is used to polish the edge. Attend the class for details or, if there are sufficient requests, I'll do a video here that will clear things up.

Grid seems too nebulous a term to me. To make the discussion easier in my classes I researched the size of the abrasive of various media. The first charts I made just showed the grit to abrasive size of the various media. After that I determined reasonable abrasiveness for each operation and reformatted the charts with that information. I determined that I use abrasives courser than 22 microns for sharping, 22 to 10 for honing, and finer than 10 for polishing.

There are some "exceptions" to the rules. For example, Shapton 1000 grit stone cuts so fast that it works fine for honing and some shaping. Another exception is the fact that sandpaper that is fine enough for polishing is quite expensive, therefore I recommend stropping rather than polishing with sandpaper.

So, for your use here are the charts I include in my sharpening notes. Feel free to ask questions/make comments below.

Grit to Abrasive size

Shapton	Coarse (Shaping)	Medium (Honing)	Fine (Polishing)
1,000		14.7
4,000			3.63
8,000			1.84
16,000			0.92
30,000			0.49

Norton Water	Coarse (Shaping)	Medium (Honing)	Fine (Polishing)
220	65
360	36
600		22
800		16
1,000		14
1,200			11
1,500			9.2
2,000			7.5
4,000			6
8,000			3
15,000			0.5

Diamond Stones	Coarse (Shaping)	Medium (Honing)	Fine (Polishing)
diamond	127
extra coarse	65
coarse	43
fine		22
extra fine			11

Arkansas	Coarse (Shaping)	Medium (Honing)	Fine (Polishing)
soft		22
hard translucent			6

India	Coarse (Shaping)	Medium (Honing)	Fine (Polishing)
coarse crystolon	127
coarse India	97
medium crystolon	78
medium India	53.5
fine crystolon	45
fine India	29
extra fine India		22

Sandpaper
Coarse (Shaping)

Medium (Honing)

Fine (Polishing)

120

116

150

96

180

78

220

60

240

53.5

280

43

320

36

360

29

400

23

600

16

700

14

800

12.6

1,000

9.2

1,500

8.4

2,000

6

A Special Holiday Offer

2012-12-06T17:51:00.000-08:00

I have a special offer for all the woodworkers that read my blog.

What we will do:
Kashley, Megan and I will sharpen your handsaws for you for $15 each. Actually, Kashley or Megan will sharpen your saws while I keep a close eye on them. Don't worry, yours is not be the first saw they have sharpened. They will joint your saw (you still aren't using the full length of the saw are you??), re-shape the teeth (where necessary), sharpen the teeth, adjust the set (if necessary), true the run of the saw (adjust it to saw straight), and wax the plate. They will then repack it carefully with the test board and return it to you. They will not re-tooth, straighten or de-rust your saw. They will also only sharpen western saws, no saws that cut on the pull. They will not repair totes.

What you have to do:
Arrange for delivery of the saw to me by December 15, details in a moment. Include a check for $15 PLUS the cost of getting the saw back to you. I do take credit cards but only in person. It should cost the same to get it to you as it did to get it to me. Include the following information for each saw; your name and address, whether you are using the saw for hard or soft woods, if it is a cross-cut saw and you know the amount of fleam you like include that information, a method to contact you in case we need additional information. If it were my saw, I'd write that stuff on the saw plate with a sharpy, you may want to write it on paper and tape it to the saw plate, your choice.

How to make it happen:
Contact me to reserve your place in line, email me at billsias (at) gmail (dot) com.

We will sharpen the saws on December 16 ONLY, therefore we are limiting the number of saws in this offer to 10. After the ten saws the price will go back to normal rates and will be sharpened by me. During this offer either Megan or Kashley will receive the entire payment (other than the shipping costs).

If you have a saw that needs more than just a sharpening contact me to set that up as well. I can make Grandpa's saw look like it did when he was using it.

A toolbag is more than an interesting title for an uninteresting person

2012-11-20T17:51:00.002-08:00

It's been a while since I last posted. I'd like to have a really cool excuse but I don't, I've just been busy and lacking in motivation as far as writing is concerned. For verification of the lack of motivation to write see my last post.

The Woodcraft class has met twice since I last posted. They had dimensioned the plinth boards and were ready to layout and cut dovetails. Upon parting Steve wrote the process of dovetailing on the whiteboard in the shop. I find it very difficult to recite the process, I just do it. I visualized cutting the joint while Steve wrote it out. It is reproduced here just in case you are interested.

When we parted the homework assignment was to be ready to dovetail plinths, have the carcase supports ready except for length and perhaps a width adjustment and carcase components ready except for length and glue joints.

Meanwhile, the class in my shop started with the discovery that a tool bag is not merely an interesting title for an uninteresting person.

Tails and pins are cleaned up.

Kashley's plinth is assembled. The glue-up went extremely well. I find glue ups with hide glue to be exciting. I sometimes offer suggestions in a manner that is louder than my usual demeanor. Megan and Kashley can verify this for you.

Successful assembly must always be followed by an announcement of same.

A little more clean up and

Megan's plinth is assembled as well. This was the first time I had used corner clamps...probably the last as well, at least on dovetails.

Fast forward two weeks and we are back at Woodcraft. After cutting the tails we need to cut a groove to hold the carcase supports. Since we are using through dovetails great care must be taken to assure that we do not clip off a piece of tail while using the rabbet plane. Therefore, we dive in and out of the rabbet with the plane and finish the ends with a router plane. Not as fast as just using the rabbet plane but much faster than repairing square holes in the tails.

Meanwhile, Steve reshoots one of his long plinth boards to correct for a variation in width from the opposite plinth board. Since he has very little to remove and only from part of the board he shoots with his smoother.

Then he is ready to cut his tails.

Here is sets up for a first class saw cut to remove the hald-pin socket.

After Dave's glue has set (but not yet cured) he cuts the rabbet in the end board. This is just a small ledge to help hold the carcase support. It's cut after assembly because it must not show or weaken the dovetail joint.

Back in my shop, Megan starts to plane the piece of poplar that she will use for the carcase support for thickness. She commented that it seemed a shame to bury the green, blue, purple and white wood in the base of the chest where it will never be seen again.

Then it was time for Megan to start on the carcase of her chest. Below she is sawing the cherry board that she selected for the front of the chest.

I quickly hit it with a smoother plane just to show how good her eye is at spotting interesting lumber.
She also selected a piece of walnut with both heart and sapwood. She will rip that in half and border the cherry with it.

So, there you are all caught up on the action.

Schedule:
11/26 I will be teaching SketchUp II at Woodcraft in Grand Rapids. The class runs from 4:00 to 7:00. You should be competent in the basics of SketchUp to take this class.

11/28 I will teach 'Sharpening for the Woodworker" at Woodcraft in Grand Rapids from 4:00 to 7:00. This class is the basics of sharpening and then practice on a chisel, block plane, bench plane and a striking knife. We will also discuss/demonstrate sharpening other tools. This is a hands-on class so bring dull tools and your sharpening kit.

Comments and questions are always welcomed.

Cheers,
Bill

Southwest Michigan Woodworker's Guild

2012-11-19T11:23:00.001-08:00

On 11/13/2012 I traveled with Gary Foote, the owner of the Woodcraft in Grand Rapids, to the November meeting of the Southwest Michigan Woodworker's Guild. I apologize if the name is incorrect.

It's an interesting group. They meet in the home of one of their members. The fellow has a well-equipt power-tool workshop. He and his wife were excellent hosts. There were about 35 members in attendance. After a short business session they did show and tell. It apparent that this club is full of woodworkers, not woodtalkers. They also have a couple of club-wide projects making toys as Christmas gifts for two local charities.

Everyone adjourned to the shop when I was to speak. There is an overhead camera and monitors both in front of and behind me. This allowed close-ups of my hands as I worked. After an inspiring introduction by Gary I began my usual introduction to sharpening. I always ask people that attend my sharpening classes and lecture to tell me how long it takes to bring a chisel from flat-out dull to sharp enough to put a finish ready surface on end-grain. Apparently I've been been doing this for a while, one of the attendees spoke up and announced, "You can do it in 8 seconds but you'll tell us it will take you 12."

He was right...on both counts.

I demonstrated many techniques and spoke about steel for about 90 minutes I think. I answered a bunch of questions about hand tool only woodworking and about developing speed in various hand tool tasks. It was great fun. If they weren't 3 hours away I'd attend their meetings regularly. If you are in the Kalamazoo area I will be happy to get contact information for you, just drop me an email.

Bill

Some times the plane shavings are just too cool

2012-10-31T18:12:00.000-07:00

There aren't many pictures this week, after all sawing and cleaning pins isn't a lot different than the equivalent operations with tails.

Some times the plane shavings are just too cool to not play with. Earlier in the day I had cut some dados that left some very curly shavings. When Megan arrived they simply begged to be attached to her finger tips. Halloween costumes are everywhere.

Other than the spacing be much larger, the process of cleaning out between pins is much the same as cleaning out between the tails of Kashley's dovetails.

The top of the sides of the plinth needs dados cut to install the carcase support rails. Kashley is holding the wood that used to be where the dado is now.

Next week we are committed to assembly!

Bill

Cutting our tails.

2012-10-22T06:51:00.002-07:00

With much anticipation the ladies started dovetailing their plinths on Sunday afternoon.

I essentially use Alan Peters' method of laying out and cutting dovetails. I do it tails first. I know many people prefer pins first but I think the tails first vs pins first argument is silly. Do it the way you are most comfortable which is probably the way you first learned to cut them. Save the emotional energy for something that actually matters.

We start by marking the width of the pin board around the ends of the tail boards by setting a marking gauge to the width of pin board and running it completely around the ends of the tail boards. We continue by determining the size of the half-pins on the ends. I seem to tend toward 1/4" varying larger or smaller with the size of the board. I set one divider to the size of the half-pin and set it aside to mark all of my boards at once.

Next I determine the number of tails I want, stepping that off on the end of the first board until I have set the opening on the second divider to the size of one tail plus one pin. Then I mark all of the tail cuts using an extra fine point pen and bevel gauge. Do not use gel ink, it soaks into the wood ruining the piece (guess how I know that little fact...). I mark the angle by running the pen up from the mark we scribed with the marking gauge and straight across the end of the board.

Since the girls have been practicing sawing to a line and are now quite good at it, the tail board is positioned plumb in the vice. Sawing straight across the top and down at the marked angle, they carefully stopped right at the scribed line.

Most of the waste is removed with a fret saw and then cleaned up with a chisel.

I was impressed with both ladies sawing abilities. If you look back at where we started compared to today you would not guess that both have only a few sessions experience. When it comes to handling a chisel neither is taking a back seat to anyone.

As always happens we ran out of time before we ran out of enthusiasm. Next week we'll layout and cut the pins and plow the grooves and dados for the carcase rails. Then we will assemble the plinths.

Bill

First Night of the Hand Tool class at Woodcraft

2012-10-19T18:26:00.000-07:00

Another short post because I need to pack up for the Open House at Hickory and Oak tomorrow.

My "Becoming a Hand Tool Woodworker: Build a Blanket Chest" class at Woodcraft began last night. The class is smaller than I expected but both students are ready to go.

Ready for students

We begin by assembling bench accessories and then jump into stock selection. Since the plinth for the blanket chest is 5" high and our stock was between 5" and 6" each student cross cut parts using a hand saw for half of their parts and then a tenon saw/bench hook combination for the remainder.

I was a little disappointed that they didn't have a long rip cut to do, so I had them rip a 10' board down the middle.

Nothing like ripping 10' of poplar to get the evening going.

We working on creating the reference face of our boards and called it a night. Nice short three hours class. I hope they enjoyed it, all the rest of the sessions are eight hours long.

Bill

A very short update

2012-10-17T10:47:00.000-07:00

Kashley and Megan are both ready to cut dovetails on their plinths. The lumber is completely dimensioned and all of it looks good. There are no pictures this week because it was all about thicknessing the boards and laying out the tails. There will be a ton of pictures next week since they will be cutting tails, laying out pins and assembling the plinths. The project is all smooth sailing from here. No new techniques to learn just applying the skills they have developed to larger pieces. Oh, and a ton of dovetails.

Megan is going with me to the class that starts tomorrow in Grand Rapids. She will help students learn to saw by hand and select/markout lumber.

On Saturday I'll be at Hickory & Oak. Stop by between 10:00 am and 2:00 pm if you want to save some money on lumber. Steve will show you how the sawmill runs and I will answer woodworking questions, teach sharpening and do some hand tool joinery.

Bill

A Twofer

2012-10-09T17:05:00.003-07:00

Last night I taught SketchUp for Woodworkers I in Grand Rapids at Woodcraft. I didn't get any photos but it's really not a "Let's get a picture" sort of class. Everyone seems stoked for the second class despite that fact that we didn't get as far as I usually do. We ran out of time just before we added dovetails and mortise/tenon joins to the table we were building together. Due to that the November 26 SketchUp for Woodworkers II class will begin with joinery and then progress into designing from photos, photo-realistic output, templates and more. If you have taken any of my SketchUp for Woodworkers classes and want access to the notes and models I used just send me a request and I will share it with you via google docs. Everyone in the class signed on to the newsletter so welcome to all the new folks.

Last Sunday the Becoming a Hand Tool Woodworker: Build a Blanket Chest class continued. In this session I had Kashley build a small box to give her some pre-carcase construction dovetail practice. As she worked I managed to get what is my current all time favorite photo of dovetailing.

If you look at the full sized image you can see the reflection of the wood in the saw plate. Notice the wood in the reflection is perfectly straight relative to the actual board. This is how you can tell that she is holding the saw perfectly plumb. I also like that you can feel her focus right through the picture. Kashley's knife layouts were spot on and all of her saw cuts were dead plumb.

A little chisel and mallet work.

Followed by some precision clean up in the vise.

And...we ran out of time.

Mean while Megan practiced sawing plumb and to a line.

Megan's sawing is getting quite good. All but 1 (out of 30-ish) were perfect. It looked like a hair pick when she was done.

I try to teach at least two skills that will perform each operation that is needed in building the project. Megan is now dimensioning her plinth pieces for width. After sawing as close to the line as she was comfortable last time I had her use a scrub plane to remove most of the waste. This time she used a draw knife. The expression on her face is priceless.

But it wasn't long before she was quite comfortable pulling that big old knife toward herself.

Next she sawed them to length and then shot them with the #51.

If you've noticed the blue left handed glove, that is not a fashion statement. It is the result of getting bitten by a tenon saw. The lesson was well learned and she jumped right back up on the horse.

It looks like we may start cutting our "for reals" dovetails next week. First, however, we have to dimension the lumber for thickness.

As always, comments are welcomed and questions are answered.

Bill

Schedule update

2012-09-26T13:21:00.002-07:00

Out and about:
On October 20 from 10:00am to 2:00pm I will be at Hickory & Oak Sawmilling and Lumber Company. Steve will give tours of the sawmill. I will demonstrate sharpening (chisels, plane irons, gouges, hand saw) and hand tool joinery. Lumber will be on sale and there will be special sales on project packs of lumber, It's rumored that there may be cider and donuts as well. This is a great opportunity to get your hand tool questions answered, see a working sawmill and pick-up some lumber. Map Contact Steve Van Osdol at 269-436-0039.

At Woodcraft in Grand Rapids:
On October 8 I'll be teaching SketchUp. How strange is it that the hand tool only guy teaches computer aided design? Seems about right to me.

October 18 will be the first session of "Becoming a Hand Tool Woodworker: Build a Blanket Chest." This class will run all day nearly every Saturday for five sessions after the introductory Thursday night session. You are invited to attend the Thursday night session for free. If you like what you see you can sign up right there (assuming seats are still available). The project is a Pennsylvania Blanket Chest/Shaker Blanket Chest/Tool Chest. It contains 60 dovetails so by the end you will be a dovetailing wizard. This is the same class as is currently happening in my shop except the students will have less latitude in design.

The 25th of October I will be Sharpening for the Woodworker. This is a fundamentals class. I teach the principles of sharpening and then the details of chisels, plane irons, gouges, hand saws and most anything else students happen to bring in.

November 26 will be SketchUp II. This is not a continuation of the first SketchUp class but begins at the mid-point of the previous and continues into topics like scaling, reproduction from photographs, photo-realistic output. You must be quite comfortable with SketchUp to take this class.

In my shop:
Every Sunday in November we will build a Shaker side table. The table includes a drawer. This class teaches hand tool lumber prep, dovetails, mortise and tenon joinery and drawer fitting. This class is full.

In December we will build an Arts & Crafts (Mission Style) side table with a drawer and shelf. This class teaches hand tool lumber prep, dovetails, mortise and tenon joinery and drawer fitting. The table is built from quarter sawn white oak and is, therefore, physically more demanding.

In January we will build an Arts & Crafts (Mission Style) Sette (Love Seat). This class teaches hand tool lumber prep and mortise and tenon joinery. The settee is built from quarter sawn white oak and includes approximately 20 mortise and tenon joints. Hand cut mortise and tenon joinery will never be a problem again after completing this class.

Questions?
Ask them here or contact me.

She killed the bird

2012-09-24T08:09:00.001-07:00

Session Two of Becoming a Hand Tool Woodworker: Build a Blanket Chest continued on 9/23/2012. The goals for this session were to complete creation of the reference face of all the plinth boards, create the reference edge for all of the boards and to begin to dimension the plinth boards for width. First, however, we needed to solve a problem with the bench that Megan is using.

The bench that Megan is using doesn't have a tail vice so she was having issues holding the boards for planing. The simple solution was to make a planing stop. We discussed various ways of making the planing stop. Those discussions included analysis of the physics of the forces generated and way to counteract the force successfully. We talked about screwing the boards together, but being a handtool guy I only have iron screws and I don't want to use those on a bench accessory, plus I don't want my planes to meet a chuck of iron. The design decided on was to dovetail two boards together and then clamp that 'L' to the bench to butt the boards she is working on against. So Megan's first task was to dovetail those boards into a planing stop.

I use the Alan Peters method of dovetail layout. I cut my dovetails tails first. Because I do. So together we did the layout and Megan did the labor.

Sawing out the tails

Removing most of the waste with a coping saw.

Cleaning up the pin board with a chisel.

Megan spread the hide glue with a palette knife, we put the joint together and like real woodworkers solved our problem.

Next they both continued to flatten one face of their boards to create the reference face. This face of the board must be dead flat, untwisted, unbowed, and is the reference for all other dimensions of the board.

Kashley creating a reference face.

In the past, the plane used to create the reference face was called a try plane. Using winding sticks and a straight edge they both verified that their reference faces were correct. Then they moved on the creating the reference edge. The reference edge is absolutely perpendicular to the reference face. Making the reference edge is referred to as truing the board. When that is completed the board is "tried and true."

Kashley is shooting the board to create the reference edge.

Now that their boards are tried and true we can move on to dimensioning the boards. We chose to set the width first since that would remove the need to thickness material that wouldn't exist in the final board. We set my panel gauge to the correct width and scribed each board to the precise width. The next step is to remove the waste by either sawing, planing or both.

Kashley removing unnecessary width from one of her plinth boards.

Both ladies have proven themselves to be excellent sawyers so we tried a different method of sawing this time. We mounted the boards in the vice and cut off the waste with a rip filed panel saw.

Both Kashley and Megan know that the secret to fast accurate sawing is a gentle grip and to allow the saw to do the sawing. When I teach sawing I tell them to hold the saw handle like you would hold a baby bird, firm enough to keep it from escaping, gentle enough to not injure it.As Megan was sawing her board beads of sweat were forming on her forehead. Kashley accused her of "killing the bird."

Staying away from the line with the saw allows you to sneak up on it with a plane. We started with a scrub plane until we got close and then put the board back in the shooting board to get "down to the wire." When you plane to a scribed line a wood wire will come off the wood at the scribed line. If it will comes at once you know that you are perfectly straight and right on the mark. Since Megan sawed first, she managed to get two board to width while Kashley was sawing her boards (as opposed to the fact that Kashley had to wait for Megan to finish sawing).

Next session we will finish setting the width of the boards. Then they will plane them to the proper thickness. Followed by squaring one end and setting the length. We probably will not get to layout and cut the dovetails until the following session.

I ran into both of them this morning while getting my morning espresso. It was verified by the state of soreness that Megan had indeed, killed the bird.

Girls don't sweat

2012-09-22T16:05:00.001-07:00

I warned Kashley and Megan that session two was going to be a sweaty one.

When they arrived I had them each continue working on their spoons. As I've mentioned before, the spoon carving exercise has nothing to do with making a spoon and everything to do with understanding how to cooperate with the wood's natural tendencies and to learn to identify what those tendencies are. They are both progressing extremely well.

As soon as we were all settled in we discussed hand saws. They learned how to distinguish a rip saw from a cross-cut saw and where/why to use each. We looked at a saw bench and discussed why mine will seem "funny" to them. We learned to use a panel gauge and after very little sawing instruction Megan chose to go first. She needed a 5" wide piece 10 feet long piece of cherry.

I had pre-selected two pieces of cherry that were 10 feet long and 12" and 15" wide respectively. After a discussion of the merits of each the 12" wide piece was selected for their plinths (case skirt). As we learned last week, Megan is a natural sawyer. Straight, plumb and quick. Kashley also saws straight not quite as plumb, but she is fast! I'll put her up against anyone with the same amount of experience. Give them two more weeks and they'll be ready for the Neanderthal Olympics.

Next they cut the long board into the pieces they need for the plinth. Megan cut all of her's with a tenon saw and bench hook. Kashley used a cross-cut filed hand saw for her first cut and then switched to the tenon saw and bench hook method. In an unprompted quiz, Kashley stated that the hand saw is quicker but the tenon saw produced a finer cut, I completely agree. On the other hand, the ends of the board will not be used straight from the saw. We will shoot them square before we layout and cut the dovetails.

Flattening boards by hand is truly a learned skill, I don't believe there are any "naturals." Since Megan completed her sawing first, she started to flatten her boards first. This was when she learned that the sweat I had warned them about had nothing to do with sawing.

Despite the fact that both sets of boards came from the same original board, Megan's boards all had one face that was nearly flat untouched, yet Kashley's were all suffering from some degree of cupping. Next week we finish flattening the boards and layout the dovetails.

Here are some spoon work pictures from last week. Oh, and girls do sweat.

Can she make a Cherry Spoon...

2012-09-10T06:05:00.001-07:00

The first session of Hand Tool Woodworking: Build a Blanket Chest is now history. Due to some other obligations we were limited to two hours.

In my opinion, you give a new hand tool woodworker a much higher chance at avoiding frustration by first guiding them to understand how wood works. Power tool woodworkers have the ability to force the wood to submit to nearly anything but as hand tool woodworkers we can work faster by working in co-operation with the wood.

We started out by learning how to identify open ring-porous and diffuse ring-porous woods and why we care.

Here's Megan pointing out her diffuse ring-porous cherry pre-spoon.

After sketching the outline of a kitchen spoon on a piece of cherry scrap we used our new knowledge to very quickly rough cut the spoon using stop cuts that they made with a cross-cut tenon saw and then an oversize chisel. By working with the grain and across the grain at low angles both had reduced the scrap wood into a reasonable representation of a caveman spoon.

Next we used a coping saw to work where the chisel is less effective, direct cross grain cuts. Both also used it to round the heel and front edge of the bowl of the spoon.

Next they moved to a gouge with a large sweep to hollow out the bowl of the spoon. Followed by a spooke shave to begin to refine the shape and thickness of the spoon.

Since, as I previously mentioned, we were time limited neither are finished with the spoon. However, both were further along than any of my previous students at the same time mark (sorry previous students).

So we ended the session understanding the types of hardwoods, safe use of a chisel, sawing with a back saw, using a coping saw for curved cuts, shaping with a spoke shave, and sharpening a chisel.

I was delighted at how quickly both gained the skills taught.

Next time we will complete the spoons and discuss finishes that are appropriate for food handling. Then, or more likely at the same time, we will rough saw the material for our plinths. I suspect next week's photos will include dark half-moons under their arms.

Variations in the familiar

2012-09-06T06:30:00.002-07:00

Nearly everyone at my local Starbucks knows my name and my drink, slightly dry triple non-fat grande cappuccino. Its not unusual for them to have already made it by the time I get to the cash register. Every barista makes it a little differently. Sometimes the same barista will not make it the same one time to the next. I was reminded of this a few days ago when "the new guy" made mine. At first I was taken aback by the taste. But as I drank it I began to appreciate the fact that it was different. All of the cappuccinos that I get are slightly different. I'm sure that's why I like them so much, variation within the familiar.

The same is true of hand tool woodworking. Given the same plan no two pieces will ever be the same. If I shove wood through a series of machines they will all be the same. Worked by hand they can't ever be identical. I like that.

Subtle things like a difference in angle between dovetails, a spot of twisty grain that was smoothed by a card scraper leaving that microscopic hollow that can only be felt and only by an experienced hand, the facets that were missed when rounding over by hand. I love those things. Little clues that a person made it. I'm not talking about mistakes but the evidence left by the humanity of the builder.

I think all of that is why I like teaching hand tool woodworking. Several students all building the same table or chest or whatever and they all end up with...

Snowflakes

Beginning Hand Tool Woodworking: Pennsylvania Blanket Chest

2012-08-23T06:16:00.000-07:00

I have ~~duped~~ enrolled two students into my first Hand Tool Woodworking class that will be held in my shop. This class will be different from all of my others in that; a) it is the first held in my shop, b) we will photograph and video all aspects of their build, c) I will document it here.

The class will be "Beginning Hand Tool Woodworking: build a Pennsylvania Blanket Chest."

The class will go as I usually run them; introduce a skill, the tool(s) necessary to that skill, how to care for the tool. As is my practice we will begin by partially carving a spoon. Carving a spoon allows you to learn how to work with the wood, what short-cuts you can take and what only works when you shove the wood into a machine (which we won't be doing).

So the sequence will be (tools are introduced only once but used when needed):

Carve a spoon. Bench chisel, mallet, coping saw, spoke shave.
Design and stock selection.Chalk or lumber pencil.
Using a saw bench to rough cut stock. Hand saws (rip & crosscut), panel saws, saw bench.
Dimensioning lumber using hand tools. Fore plane, jointer plane, squares, marking gauges.
Hand cut dovetails. Marking knife, dovetail saw, fret saw.
Build the bottom with a ship-lap joint and bevel. Plough plane, smoothing plane.
Assemble the carcase. Hot hide glue, clamps, improvised rope clamps, hammer.
Build the base moulding and support frame. Rabbit plane, moulding planes.
Build the lid and dust seal.
Build the hinges.
Final smoothing.
Final assembly
Applying traditional finish.

There is not a one to one relationship between the enumerated list and the number of sessions. I believe there will be five or six sessions, future class' length will be determined by the length of this one.

Since I will be recording the skills and showing them to you here, allow me to introduce the stars of that show. Alphabetically they are; Megan McDowell and Kashley Shaffer.

You will see much more of them beginning September 9, 2012. Oh and me too (kind of a beauties and the beast thing).

Almost all gone

2012-08-20T17:35:00.003-07:00

Some time this week almost all of my power tools will be gone. The only ones remaining are my thickness planer, Festool track saw and a bunch of routers.Oh and my sewing machine.

What would I do with a router?

I'd trade them in an instant for a treadle sewing machine.

Exciting news coming tomorrow!

With my feet up and hand in a bandage

2012-06-18T18:29:00.000-07:00

Thanks for all the kind wishes from everyone. My hand is all healed up and better than its been in over three years. The recovery went faster than expected.

As promised, here is the list of books I read while I was recovering and unable to be in the shop. Detailed reviews may come later.

Making Wood Tools by John Wilson.
John's shop is in Charlotte, MI. That's roughly a two hour drive from here. The shop specializes in Shaker oval boxes. I called to order the book and spoke to John for about a half hour. I will take an oval box class from him this year.
The book looks like a coffee table book in that the photos in the book are all extremely well done. Some of the ideas in it were new to me. I will make a number of the tools in the book. Highly recommended especially if youare just starting out.

Make a Joint Stool from a Tree by Peter Folansbee and Jennie Alexander.
If I were the sort of person to be a fan of a human, Peter and Jennie would make the list. I had previously read John Alexander's, Make a Chair from a Tree so some material was expected. This also qualifies as a coffee table book due to the outstanding photography and typesetting. While I don't see a joint stool in my near future the book did inspire me to rive some red oak from my property to carve and build a 17th Century Bible box in the manner described in Folansbee's videos 17th Century New England Carving,

Cabinetmaking for Beginners by Charles Hayward
The copyright is 1971 but published in 1974, most techniques are hand tool based. My grandfather's garage shop included only a table saw as far as powered tools were concerned. He had a reasonable nest of saws and in my memory only a jack and a smoother plane. There was also a full complement of chisels and whatnot. That, however, was '61 when I "worked" with him. The book seems well suited for a shop of that sort, table saw and hand tools. If you are just getting started it could be quite valuable. The book was originally sold for $3.95 and amazon has several sellers offering used copies for that same price.

I also reread all three of Stephen Shepard's books. Just buy them. They are all worth many times the price.

Contemplation

2012-05-15T08:36:00.002-07:00

I was just thinking about the last session of my "Becoming a Hand Tool Woodworker" class. There was discussion near the end about other classes that the students would be interested in. The classes mentioned included:

Build a cabinetmaker's workbench.
Build hand tool cabinetmaker's tools.
Build hand tool cabinetmaker's bench accessories.

I'm curious to learn if there is interest in these.

The cabinetmaker's workbench would be Roubo style, only because that is what everyone seems to be talking about these days. The top would be 3+ inches thick with the length being unique to your needs. Included would be a wagon vice. Face vice would be separate.

The cabinetmaker's tools class would build fore plane, smoother plane, a draw knife and a mallet.

The cabinetmaker's bench accessories class would build a pair of saw benches, three shooting boards (long grain, standard and miter), and a handful of other useful accessories.

This is all in the early thinking stage so if you think you are even remotely interested this is a good time to steer the class(es) in your direction.

With hand surgery tomorrow afternoon I'll have two to six weeks to do a lot of thinking about this stuff, so now is the time to shoot ideas to me.

Bill

Lessons learned

2012-05-14T18:53:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday was the sixth and final session of my five session Hand Tool Woodworker class.

Lessons Learned:

You can not plan a class that includes homework if you are going to not give the students time to do the homework. By running the class for nine hours on Saturday and bringing them back on Sunday morning you are forced to try to get all of the work done during class hours. That doesn't work.
Its not a problem to have vast differences in skill level between students. In fact, it appears to be an advantage. I never encouraged students to help one another with new skills but it helped me to allow students to plow ahead if they already possessed the skill being taught at any given moment while I gave more attention to the less experienced students. Everyone ended up getting their fair share of my time but in different ways. Some needed help with the mechanics of a skill others needed help polishing that skill to a higher level.
Don't sell the example pieces until the class is completed. It would have been helpful to have a table to examine closely or even disassemble but your humble instructor was unable to say no to a sale...or several. It was originally decided that I'd build one as a marketing piece. I don't see that was a failure since I personally sold every seat in the class.

How I'll do it next time:

I will not compromise on the schedule. A class with a major project requires either tons of shop time or time for the students to work between sessions. The next class will run on Saturdays only.
There are some very basic hand tools that are not available through the store (i.e a router plane). I will still demonstrate alternative methods where appropriate. I will still make tools available to students during class sessions. If its not available through the store then I will not feel guilty offering an alternative source, I will continue to encourage students to purchase tools from the store whenever an appropriate tool available.
I will keep at least the prototype piece for every class that I teach in the future.

What we'll build next time:
I haven't decided. All hand tools again obviously. The choices I have narrowed it to are:

Do the Shaker side table with drawer again.
A Blanket Chest, the dovetailed carcase will really lock in your dovetailing.
A hanging cabinet, a dovetailed carcase plus frame and panel door construction plus door fitting.
A bookcase, a dovetailed carcase plus stopped dadoes.

Clearly, I like hand cut dovetails but each project adds an additional skill to a hand tool person's bag 'o tricks. Please let me know in the comments what you'd be interested in building.

Bill

Bringing everyone up to date

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

Hand Tool Woodworking:
Due to the way we scheduled the session there was very little time between session. So, we have added an additional session. On May 12 from 9:00am (I'll be there by 8:00 hint, hint) until Woodcraft closes we will finish up own Shaker side tables. Based on where everyone was when we last saw each other all of the students should have done the following over the break:

Cut your rails
Chopped the mortises on the legs
Cut tenons on your aprons and fit them
Test Fit the base
Created the reference face and edge on drawer parts
Dimensioned your drawer sides and back to 1/4-3/8" thickness ignoring length and width
Create the reference face and edge on the drawer bottom stock ignoring length and width

On May 12 we will:

Chop the mortise for the lower rail
Cut the tenon on the lower rail
Cut the single dovetail on the upper rail
Cut the socket for that dovetail.
Taper the legs
French Polish the show faces of the aprons and legs
Glue up
Fit the drawer guides
Fit the drawer
Hand cut the dovetails and assemble the drawer
Depending on time we will do a simple inlay or go straight to French Polishing the top.

SketchUp Students:
It was fun doing SketchUp at Woodcraft. The best part of teaching SketchUp is seeing the light bulbs flash on at about the 45 minute mark. SketchUp is such a powerful design tool! You should learn to use it regardless of the type of woodworking you do.
On May 31 I will teach "Advanced SketchUp" at Woodcraft. There are several seats still open. This is a hands on class and if you haven't taken my Beginning SketchUp you can still join in if you are comfortable drawing with SketchUp and understand components. Notice that Woodcraft named this class "Advanced SketchUp" I will be teaching my Intermediate SketchUp class that evening. You will learn faster drawing techniques, how to avoid drawing whenever possible, component and model reuse and more. My "Advanced SketchUp" is making models from digital images and using SketchUp to design furniture.

What's On My Bench:
My upcoming hand surgery is causing me to try to finish up as many in-process projects as possible. Nothing new will begin until after my recovery to help me avoid hurting myself due to my inability to stay out of the shop.

I just got John Wilson's book "Making Wood Tools" in the mail. I will report on it during my break. My initial impression is very good. I suspect there will be a few book reports coming during the break.

The video I did on French Polishing has been accepted but has to be re-shot due to some focus issues and the customer wants my face on the screen. That will happen on May 12. If you are not in the class on May 12 but want to see the demonstration and be "in" the video feel free to stop in at Woodcraft around noon.

After recovery my build list is (in no particular order):
purple board (the last one, really this time, probably)
a pair of Stickley reproduction end tables
Living Room set (couch, love seat, end tables, waste basket, hall tree, wall mirror, ...)
Hidden compartment table clocks
.
.
.

Other Stuff:
I need your advice. Many of you know about the book I am writing. I was advised to start a separate blog to "give away" some of the content of the book to help determine interest. If I haven't told you about the book, its working title is, "The $100 Woodworker." In the book we build 3 projects. The process of building the projects includes finding old tools, fixing them up and using them exclusively for each build. I need a name for the new blog and I really suck at naming things. Have you got any ideas? I've already rejected OldGuyWithAnOldTool.com, it just didn't fit with my self-image! Please add your name suggestions as comments.

As always, your comments are welcomed (but moderated).

Peace,
Bill

Hand Tool Woodworking Class Session Two

2012-04-14T17:51:00.001-07:00

we started at 9:00am. I demonstrated sharpening a chisel and then used it to carve a wooden spoon. The point of the spoon carving was to get a better understanding of how to work with the wood's fibers. Rather than shoving it through a machine we learn to work with the wood.

Next we created the reference faces on the aprons we cut in our last session. We used the shooting boards we made last session to create the reference edge.

A couple of hours in and we're starting to get a nice accumulation of shavings around all of the benches.

Next we create the reference face and edge on the leg blocks to prepare them for sawing out the legs.

At a bit after 6:00pm we finished for the day. Everyone was tired, that good tired that comes from hard productive work.

We'll be back at it first thing in the morning. Tomorrow; finish up today's work, chop mortises, cut tenons, fit the tenons to the mortises, taper legs, glue up tops...

Bill

Teaching Schedule update

2012-03-31T08:01:00.001-07:00

On April 9 I am teaching Hand Cut Dovetails from 4:00 to 7:00. If you are taking this class leave a comment or email me and I'll give you access to the online version of the class reference document.

On April 19 I am teaching Sharpening 101 from 4:00 to 7:00. I teach two sharpening classes at Woodcraft. In Sharpening For The Woodworker I teach chisels, gouges, plane irons, scrapers and sometimes handsaws. In Sharpening 101 I teach chisels, gouges and kitchen tools. In both I teach the science behind sharpening, answer any questions and demonstrate sharpening anything a student brings. Attendees should bring a couple of things to sharpen and any sharpening equipment they have (nothing electrical).

My "Becoming a Hand Tool Woodworker" class continues April 14, 15, 21, 22.
In the next session of Hand Tools we start out by carving a spatula. From this exercise we will learn about working in cooperation with the wood fibers. After the spoon we will continue from where we left off by dimensioning our aprons, dimensioning our legs and then sawing them out, rails and drawer guides. We will saw out but not dimension the drawer parts. Our goal is to complete all the dimensioning and start doing joinery.

First night of class

2012-03-29T07:30:00.002-07:00

Just before everyone arrived. I have, with lots of help from Trent, milled the MDF that we will use to make shooting boards, milled poplar for bench hooks and cut the 6/4 cherry into leg length 6" wide chunks.

After building our bench hooks. We laid out our aprons and table tops on rough cherry boards with chalk or heavy pencil. Then the sawing begins. I taught everyone to saw and they begin by making all of their cross cuts. Jackie, despite never using a handsaw before, did every cut straight and square. Clearly the instruction was amazing or maybe Jackie is a natural.

Matt had handled a saw before and made all of his cuts like a pro. We are cutting from the bench top because some nameless person forgot to load up the saw benches that he had made specifically for the class.

Scott is contemplating a career change. He thinks that he could become a bench dog with just a little more practice...
Zach is cutting out his table top.

Scott realizes that I'm recording his mad skillz.

Zach realizes that someone is getting picked on and checks to see if it is him.

Jackie starting a 42" rip cut. By the end of the cut she had wandered off less than an 1/8 of an inch. I wonder if I can get her as an apprentice?

And then the shot is no longer candid.

The whole group near the end of the session.

Everyone had a sweaty fun time using our cookie-powered tools, and the cookies were delicious.

Next session we will dimension our boards with hand planes and the shooting boards that we all built.

Bill

You have killer taste.

2012-03-26T18:21:00.000-07:00

Sandpaper	Coarse (Shaping)	Medium (Honing)	Fine (Polishing)
120	116
150	96
180	78
220	60
240	53.5
280	43
320	36
360	29
400	23
600		16
700		14
800		12.6
1,000			9.2
1,500			8.4
2,000			6