In reality, I have been doing some smaller bits of work on the project as time has progressed.  I just have not had the time to write about it here.  Now, with some distractions out of the way and more time to send in the shop, I’m back at it with a vengeance!

The next step in the process was to tackle the headrest.  If you’ll recall after coopering the headrest it had been in hibernation for a while now.  There actually is a fair amount of work to be done with it before permanently attaching it to the chair.  However, as you can probably guess before doing that work I needed to make a jig to help facilitate the process!

The jig is actually a very useful one for cutting circles and/or arcs at the band saw.  You can see from the pictures that the jig consists of a base with a movable arm that holds a dowel pivot point.  In addition, for this task of cutting an arc along the front and rear faces of the headstock there is also a temporary carrier board with some scrap L-shaped supports to hold the piece while cutting.

The headstock arcs are cut using a 29 ½” radius on the jig.  I attached the rough piece to the supports with double stick tape and cut the rear arc first.  After that cut was made I shifted the carrier board so that the finished thickness of the headstock would be 1 ¼”.  I then cut the front face of the headstock again with the same 29 ½” radius.  You can see that on the second cut the band saw blade busted out from the piece and left me with a little extra clean-up to do.  I cleaned up the band saw marks with a sanding disk on the angle grinder for the coarser areas and then followed up with the random orbit sander at 120-grit.

With the front and rear arcs completed the next step was to trim the ends of the headstock to fit between the rear legs on the chair.  This was done with the same six-degree angle jig I made earlier to cut the rear legs.  This time it was used along with the sled on the table saw.  This was actually a bit of a tricky cut in that the front of the headstock wants to drop forward as you complete the cut.  I did this cutting in stages and crept up on the fit.  The six-degrees was close but not exact and that, coupled with some variance in the rear leg angles and flexing of the legs themselves, rendered a bit of fine tuning with a hand plane before a good fit was obtained.  To be honest, this was probably one of the more tricky parts of the build so far.  In the pictures you can see this process in various stages of completion.  What’s not shown is the drilling of holes in the headstock through the pre-existing holes in the rear legs to hold the headstock.  This was done with a long 1/8” drill bit (because I could not find a long 5/32” bit locally).  I then had to remove the headstock and enlarge the holes to 5/32” with a shorter bit.  While the headstock was mounted in the chair, I made marks to indicate where the tops of the rear legs and transitions into the legs were located.

The marks that I made helped with the next step of drawing arcs along the top and bottom of the headstock.  These were done with a shop-made trammel set at 41”.  I adjusted the far trammel point (with a fixed radius) until I was hitting the marks on each side of the headstock as I swung the arcs and drew them once it was hitting both marks.  These arcs marked the location of the next two cuts on the band saw.

With the headstock arcs cut I moved on to marking and drilling the headstock for the back braces.  I made a jig to locate each hole using those already routed into the seat.  These were evenly spaced across the headstock.  The holes were drilled in a two-step process at the drill press using a 25/64” drill bit.  The first hole for each ws drilled straight and the second hole was drilled at six degrees toward the front of the headstock.  This extra clearance allows the flexible back braces to move freely when the sitter leans against them.

Because there is a large radius along the top of the headrest I then made one last cut at the band saw.  This was to chamfer the top edge of the headrest so that I did not have as much material to grind away when shaping.  I did this by tilting the band saw table to 45 degrees and using a single point fence to help support the headstock while cutting.

In the final picture you can see the headstock after some rough shaping with the angle grinder and random orbit sander.  The headstock is not yet glued to the chair – it’s just held in place temporarily with screws.  Once all of the back brace processing is competed the headstock can be glued to the chair.

We began day 2 by being greeted with a display of some of Binh Pho’s work.  This was a great inspiration.  Binh’s work is truly magnificent and the pictures definitely do not do it justice.  The detail and intricacy of the work is something that can only be fully appreciated in person.  In the following pictures,  you can see the display that we were ale to look at for ideas and inspiration.

I had left off after day one – when we did thin-walled turning of face-grain-oriented bowl forms.  Day two started with a demo by Binh turning a taller end-grain-oriented hollow vessel.  The techniques here are very similar to those for turning a thin bowl.  However, since you are turning end-grain some different tools are used and the light used trick to measure thickness looses a bit of its effectiveness due to the depth of the vessel and amount of chips limiting your view as you turn.  Binh has a way around this that I’ll discuss later.

Binh uses a variety of hollowing tools for end-grain vessels.  These include: a spindle gouge, a Hunter Tool, a Rolly Munro hollowing tool and a Hugh McKay Boring Bar.  The first three tools are all readily available at woodturning outlets. The Hugh McKay tool is very unique and it allows Binh to turn his famous vessels with a vertical slab extending out of the top of the piece.  This tool allows the cutting head to be inserted straight through a hole in the top of the vessel and then bumped to angle it at either 45 degrees or 90 degrees from the shaft.  The original Hugh McKay patent has since been acquired by Deryl Duer (who assisted Binh during the week) and tools can be purchased directly from him.  Unfortunately, this tool is fairly expensive to manufacture and so the end customer cost s fairly high as well – still the tool does allow some very specific hollow turning that is not able to be accomplished as easily with any other tool.  Binh does not specifically favor any of these tools but uses all of them in particular areas  where they are most useful.

The hollowing is started by drilling a hole to the desired finished depth.  Material is then removed from the center out toward the rim – exactly opposite how you would turn a bowl because we are working on end grain for these forms.  This again is done in sections to the desired thickness as you move down the vessel.  One thing that Binh does to help with the measurement of wall thickness on these forms is to drill several 3/16″ holes into the form down one side.  Then as light is shined into the fom when stopped you can determine whether the walls are where you would like them.  Of course, this is only possible if you plan to pierce the piece later and some concept fof the design must be know so that you will drill into the right area.

The remainder of day two consisted of the class turning their own end-grain hollow forms.

For the rest of the week we moved on the surface design of turned pieces.  Binh uses three main techniques as part iof his surface design: piercing, texturing & burning, airbrushing and gilding.  Many of the initial techniques were demoed for us on a flat 1/16″ aircraft birch plywood panel.  These are very useful for prototyping designs and can be attractive in their own right.

Airbrushing was first as it is the most foreign to most woodturners.  Binh uses a dual-action airbrush that allows for separate flow of air and regulation of the amount oif paint applied.  The motion and hand control can be quite a challenge since you are moving your hand in fluid stokes while pushing doen the airbrush trigger for and and simultaneously pulling it back to regulate the amount of paint – let’s just say that I need to practice.  In the photos you can see Binh working on a demo panel.

There is a lot of masking and/or template shielding done for an airbrush design.  Things like masking tape and a clear tacky matt material called Frisket are used.  Every element of a design that requires a different color and/or treatment must be cut out with an X-acto knife and removed one at a time as paint is sprayed on.  Since we used transparent colors, darker colors are sprayed first and then lighter colors are added on top.  Needless to say, it is a time consuming process.

Binh often burns a thin outline around each element that he is going to airbrush or pierce.  This is done with a standard wood burning pen with a fine skew tip and minimal heat.  The desire is to just burn a faint line to define that part of the design.  Once the entire piece id designed and burned, then the painting and then piercing can begin.

Piercing is done last to keep the most integrity in the vessel or bowl while it is being handled for painting.  This is done with an air-powered dental NSK Presto tool that is actually used for dentistry – in fact the only difference between this tool and a dentists drill (which can also be used to pierce) is the form factor.  The NSK Presto is held like a pencil to allow you to almost draw on the wood.  The tool uses 1/16″ burs to pierce and/or carve the wood.  In addition to piercing through the wood the round-head burs can be used for various stippled effects on the surface.

In the pictures you can see the demo panel that Binh did during the class as well as a demo bowl that he did to show techniques on a round rather than flat surface.  The lower portion of the bowl is a peacock feather that is gold-leaf gilded in the center – a characteristic element of many of Binh’s designs.

After all of the turning during the first part of the week, I chose to work on a single panel and bowl design.  I tried to incorporate several of the techniques into both the panel and bowl for practice as well as future reference.  Below you can see several pictures of my work to the extent that I could complete it during the week.  The final bowl still needs the piercing to be completed at home.  Finally there is a class picture with everyone holding up their creations for the week.

The morning started with a demonstration by Binh on turning a thin walled open bowl and the afternoon was left for students to try their hands at the techniques learned.  Starting with a open form is best for learning the techniques of thin walled turning.  We will be moving on to larger and taller vessels in future days.  Taller forms will lend themselves better to the surface design techniques that we will employ to embellish the pieces.

In the pictures you can see Binh turning a thin walled open bowl as well as a selection of his tools.  Binh’s assistant for the week Daryl cut up green bowl blanks for the class.   There were a selection of Maple and Cherry blanks available.

For thin walled turning it is beneficial to shine a light source through the bowl to show the thickness of the walls.  Green wood is best for this due to its high moisture content and translucence – plus it’s just more fun to turn!   Another benefit to a light colored wood like Maple is that if airbrushed it will show translucent colors more accurately and if desired it can be bleached for an even more accurate color reproduction.

I turned two bowls.  One Maple and one Cherry.  The darkness of the cherry made it more difficult to turn to thin even wall thickness because the light did not show through the walls as readily as with the Maple.  In the pictures you can see my Maple bowl in various stages of completion.

These thin walled bowls (turned to a wall thickness of 1/16″) will dry fairly quickly if just kept in a paper bag for a week or two to moderate the release of moisture.  However, because we are going to do surface design and embellishment on them this week we needed a quicker dry time.  We used a microwave in intervals of 30 seconds cook and 20 minutes cool times.  If done carefully this will dry the piece quickly without cracking or burning.  The issue that must be dealt with is the distortion of the form as it dries – round bowls go oval as they dry.  The bowls can be massaged a bit as they cool to help with this distortion.  Otherwise, you live with it and/or use your embellishments to minimize or enhance it in the final design of the piece.

A couple of final shots showing my output for today’s class and a view of the nice laser-engraved name plate that each student receives to identify their workspace for the week and as a take-home memento of the class.

This year I am attending the school for another class from September 27-October 1, but, this time I am going in a completely different direction. I will be taking a turning and embellishment class with Binh Pho. Over the past year I have been doing more turning and I’ve also become increasingly interested in embellishments on turned pieces. The opportunity to work with Binh for a week was too enticing to pass up.

If you are not familiar with Binh’s life and work, it is a fascinating journey. Binh lived through some very difficult times as he escaped the communist takeover during the fall of Saigon in Vietnam. After a very eventful series of escape attempts and a period living on a small island with other refugees Binh finally made it to the US to reunite with his family. From there Binh was exposed to the art of woodturning and began to develop his turning skills and specialized embellishment techniques. The book he wrote about his life and work is truly a fascinating and inspiring read and I highly recommend it to anyone who is interested.

Binh’s work is characterized by very thin walls into which he pierces and and airbrushes designs. The objects that he creates transcend beyond functional turned items into true works of art. Binh uses all of his life experiences to influence how he embellishes his work with each piece telling a story.  The pictures of a few of his pieces that you see here are taken from his web site.

While I’m definitely interested in learning specific turning techniques during my week with Binh, I am most intrigued to learn how he uses specific turned forms and various embellishment techniques to compose a design reflecting a specific idea. I would like to be able to take those techniques and apply them to my work – both in turnings and in furniture.

I’m really looking forward to this class. It’s always fun to get away and immerse yourself in something that you love to do and learning from someone of the caliber artist that Binh is will be a real thrill.

You can come along for a virtual visit as well because I will be blogging about the adventure right here during my week away.  So, check back often.

As you know, I usually slow down my shop time in the summer and this year is no exception.  I did however get some shop time this past weekend.  Unfortunately, it was only to rough in some electrical outlets in a short partition wall that I am putting in one part of the shop.  I plan on putting in a couple of recycled cabinets along that wall for some needed storage.  I guess I will have to suffer through getting this wall and cabinetry installed in order to have a more functional shop this fall and winter.

With fall just around the corner, I am beginning to get the itch to do much more in the shop.  So, after I finish these minor shop upgrades I will be going full steam ahead on projects – because, we’re quickly moving in to woodworking season!

Turning wood is a great way to spend time in the workshop.  Projects can be done quickly and for very little investment in wood – especially if you turn found green wood!  Because of the nature of this work and the wood being somewhat “captive” on the lathe the dangers of turning can often be overlooked.

What follows are some points to help everyone turn more safely in their shops:

• Capture that wood dust – Just as in any other woodworking operation, turning and/or sanding at the lathe produces wood dust that is harmful to breathe.  What’s more, the dust produced is shot right back at the woodworker due to the rotation of the work.  Wood that is turned can often also be spalted and/or moldy from sitting in the elements before turning.  Turning or sanding this wood can release harmful spores into the air that if ingested can be very harmful to an even greater degree than normal wood dust.  As a result you should be extra-vigilant to wear personal respiratory protection while turning and sanding at the lathe at all times – especially when turning spalted wood.
• Speed is dangerous – Blanks that are turned on the lathe can often be heavy, large and out of balance.  Spinning a large out of balance load on the lathe at high speed can be deadly – even if you are wearing protective head gear (and it goes without saying that you should be wearing a face shield every time you spin something on the lathe).  The key things to remember when turning are: that you should always start at the lowest speed that your lathe allows and that you should stand out of the line of fire when you start up the lathe.  On my variable speed lathe, I turn the speed dial down to zero RPM before starting and gradually increase the speed until the piece is turned into balance – if you don’t have variable speed then just start at your lowest speed.  If your lathe is still unstable when spinning a blank, then you should get the piece more in balance by trimming it while off of the lathe before turning it. There are lots of rules of thumb out there for how fast you can safely spin a piece on the lathe in relation to its diameter.  However, I really never use them.  I find that for bowl/vessel turning I almost never have the need to turn higher than 600-800 RPM.  Sanding is never done above 300 RPM (often much lower) and for out of balance blanks I usually start turning below 200 RPM until true.  Of course, for spindle turning between centers lathe speeds are usually increased, but even then I rarely go above 1500-1800 RPM.
• The tailstock is your friend – Speaking of out of balance loads on the lathe, just because you have secured a piece onto a faceplate with screws or into a chuck with a tenon, that does not mean that your tailstock should be collecting dust in the corner of the shop!  When I turn, even after the piece is trued up and balanced, I will always use the tailstock for support until the last moment where I have to turn away the support point.  For turning the inside of bowls or vessels, I will follow this rule only on beginning hollowing operations of large pieces.  After that the speed rule takes care of me because I turn at very moderate speeds.
• Dull tools are dangerous – We have all probably heard the adage that a dull tool is more dangerous than a sharp one.  This is because if the tool is dull then you will naturally try to compensate for that lack of cutting effectiveness by applying more power to use the tool.  This same adage rings true for the lathe.  It’s true that we usually only sharpen our turning tools on a 100 grit grinding wheel and not on 8000 grit water stones but, that doesn’t mean that they aren’t sharp.  More importantly, a freshly ground lathe tool with cut wood effortlessly, reduce tearout and allow for better control when turning.  You should always be mindful of any extra effort that is required to cut wood at the lathe and when it becomes even a little more difficult, it’s time to sharpen.  Sharpening a lathe tool only takes seconds and then you are back to work.  Remember, as David Ellsworth is known to say: don’t grind the tool, dress the bevel – a quick, light touch at the grinder is all that it takes to get back to fantastic results at the lathe.
• Don’t bottom out – We often use holding devices when turning blanks on the lathe.  The most prevalent of these holding devices is the lathe scroll-chuck.  These chucks have 4 jaws that offer exceptional holding power for turning blanks (even without tailstock support – though we know you should always use the tailstock for support if you can!)  I almost always use my scroll-chuck to grip the outside of a round tenon that I first turn on the piece while between centers.  The biggest (and most dangerous) mistake that turners make with chucks is that they cut this tenon too deep so that the tenon bottoms out on the inside face of the chuck jaws.  This actually offers less support for the piece.  The correct way to use a chuck is the cut the tenon so that the top edges of the jaws rest flush against a flat on the piece at the base of the tenon, but with clearance between the bottom of the tenon and the inside faces of the chuck jaws.  This scenario offers tremendously better resistance against the rotational forces which try to knock to piece off of the lathe and into orbit around the shop!

Hopefully these tips are of some help to you as you turn wood on your lathe in the workshop.  I find that turning is occupying more and more of my time in the shop and I always follow these rules when I’m at work on my lathe.

Before getting into any turning, Al shared pictures of some of his turned and carved work.  Along with these pictures Al noted some of the inspiration for the embellishments that he does on his turned pieces – many of these ideas come from nature as well as looking at work in other mediums such as pottery.  Al’s advice here is that woodturners should look outside the world of woodturning for fresh ideas and inspiration.  This will help to avoid mimicking the work of other woodturners and will promote the development of a unique style of their own.

Al also shared some thoughts about safety in the shop. He shared experiences where he and other turners have been hurt in the past by not taking basic safety precautions around the lathe.  Ultimately, the moral of his safety story was to always wear a face-shield while turning,   Good advice, indeed.

From there, Al got right into the demo for the night.  Starting with a dry piece of cherry about 9” square and 2” thick, he mounted it on a screw chuck with what would be the bottom of the bowl facing out.  The screw penetrated about ½” into the wood and he noted that he uses the largest jaws on his chuck for this to eliminate any instability in the piece.  Al also used the tail stick to support the piece and indicated that he always does this for extra safety and only removes the tail-stock when necessary, even when using a chuck to hold the work-piece.

Al began turning the bottom of the bowl with a ½” swept-back bowl gouge.  The rule of thumb here is to always keep your hands behind the tool rest when turning a square object on the lathe.  He first created a short tenon for later reversing to a chuck and then moved onto shaping the bottom. He stressed taking light cuts during the shaping process, especially as he approached the edges to avoid chipping out the work.  Al often decorates the bottoms of his pieces as well as the top.  Before doing that on this piece he showed how he shear scrapes the surface for a clean cut to eliminate much if any need for sanding.  He did this by spritzing the surface of the wood lightly with some water and then scraping with a 1” scraper presented to the work at a high shear angle.  This scraper has a slight radius along its tip and is sharpened at a steep angle.  After sharpening, Al hones off the aggressive burr left by the grinder with a diamond hone. He puts back on a less aggressive burr with a couple of light strokes of the hone before shear scraping the wood. Al noted that the water tends to lubricate the cut and soften the fibers of the wood leaving a very smooth surface behind.

After shear scraping the surface, he moved on to creating some shallow coves in the bottom of the bowl using the same scraper but presented at a lower angle to cut the coves.  Al first marked out the spacing for the coves with a carpenter’s pencil.  He does not measure any of the markings that he makes but rather prefers to do them by eye as mere guidelines for the subsequent turning.  With the coves cut, he went back to the shear angle with the scraper, repeatedly pushing in lightly to create a series of grooves across the width of each cove.

With the work on the bottom complete the piece was reversed and held in a chuck by the tenon.  Al again used the tailstock for support as he trued the surface of the piece with the gouge and shear scraper.  With the edges of the piece at a thickness (approximately 3/8”) that he wanted to remain for carving, the tailstock was removed and he proceeded to hollow out the bowl. Again he started with the ½” bowl gouge.  Al performed finishing cuts after the hollowing using a smaller gouge.  This gouge had a more traditional grind at a very steep angle.  The wings were only slightly ground back and he relieved the heel of the gouge with a secondary bevel.  With a light touch and cutting on the left of side of the gouge, Al was able to get a very smooth surface on the interior of the bowl.  The last treatment for the interior of the bowl was series of small surface grooves.  Al also a made a single deeper groove on the top surface of the piece to serve as a stopping point for the subsequent carving.

Before removing the piece from the lathe for embellishment, Al penciled a series of concentric circles on the flat surface of the piece as well as a series of radial lines out toward the edges to use as guidelines during the carving process.  Next he reversed the bowl onto a vacuum-chuck to finish the foot and with that, the turning part of the demo was complete.

For carving, Al used a micro-motor tool from Wood Carvers Supply.  There are many possibilities for these types of machines (Foredom, NSK, etc.) however, this one is reliable and reasonably priced.  Al noted that to get introduced to this kind of work, a Dremel tool would be sufficient.  For most of his pieces Al uses rotary chisels from http://www.rotarychisel.com to do the embellishment.  On this piece Al showed carving treatments with two rotary chisels on different sections of the piece.  He also showed another treatment done with a rotary burr shaped like a small cylinder with a rounded top.

The carving itself was done randomly while using the lines on the piece as a general guide.   Al first carved along the concentric circles and next along the radial lines to create a random, hatched pattern.  Each of the rotary chisels produced different results and Al noted that every piece is different even with the same person and the same tools. Depending on the rhythm of the work and the amount of force used during the carving process, varying results are obtained.  The rounded, cylindrical burr was used in a repeated serpentine pattern to produce another design in another area of the turning.  After the carving was completed Al went over it with a nylon bristle brush in a slow spinning drill to remove and fuzz leftover from the carving.  He does use 3M radial bristle disks for this as well but the hardware store version that he used in the demo seemed to do the trick just fine.

The last step in the process was to paint the surface of the carved areas with black milk paint.  Though Al uses black often, he has started to use other colors as well.  Every color and wood combination will produce different results when some of the paint is abraded off the surface once it has dried.  Al likes to use black paint with cherry because, once abraded, it shows a coppery-colored sheen under the black.  The painting process was quick and simple and after the paint had dried Al used Scotch-brite to gently abrade some paint away from the surface of the carvings.  Typically, he uses some kind of clear top coat over the surface once the painting steps have been completed, though for the purposes of the demo the piece was left at this stage.

This demo was a great source of information and inspiration. Al encouraged us all to take the ideas and techniques presented and practice them. He stressed that there is enough room out there for many unique variations on the theme and that we should strive to take these ideas in our own direction as we evolve as woodturners.

Al Stirt has additional information on his web site (http://www.alstirt.com) regarding the tools and grinds he uses as well as sources of supply for many of the accessories he uses in his work – look for the Student Resources link.

Before diving in to the sculpting efforts I performed one more operation on the arms.  This was to prepare the arm to rear-leg joint.  To do this, I first cleaned up each of the rear legs at the arm joint location.  These were still rough from the original band sawing.  I just did this with a few swipes of a sharp block plane.  Next, I clamped each arm at the front leg transition area and adjusted it so that it was fairly tight against the rear leg at the joint location.  Because the angles were no perfectly matched, these joints needed to be trued to one-another.  This was done with some strips of 100-grit sand paper between the two pieces at the joint.  I pulled the sand paper through the joint, pulling away from the side that the grit was on so that I did not round over the edges of the pieces.  This took a while with the grit alternating from the arm-side to the rear leg side.  After a bit of work I had good tight joints.  After I had done this and ripped several strips of sand paper in the process, I thought about putting some strapping/packing tape on the back side of the sand paper to strengthen it – I’ll file that idea away for the next time I have to do this which will be when I fit the rockers to the chair.

With all of the possibilities of stalling exhausted, I arrived at the point where I needed to again take the angle grinder to the chair.  After all of the work so far, I was both excited to start the sculpting as well as a bit concerned over this step.  This work was done with the angle grinder and a 36-grit disk so material was going to be removed very quickly.

I started with the relatively simple task of leveling the joints between the rear legs and the seat.  This got me again used to the motions necessary to smoothly move the grinder and the aggressiveness of the stock removal. Next I moved to the front legs for the more complex of the sculpting tasks.  The difficulty here was two-fold: first, sculpt the leg to reveal a smooth curve between the leg and the seat and leaving a continuous line of the front leg; second in doing so, work to move the transition of the joint between the leg and the seat away from the corner.  The second point was necessary in order to achieve a smooth curve between the legs and seat without having an abrupt 90-degree corner.  Surprisingly, this was accomplished by grinding further into the side of the leg – effectively moving the joint line away from the corner!

In the pictures you can see the progression of the sculpting on the front legs.  The first picture shows the original joint.  Each subsequent picture shows the steps of removing material to sculpt the leg into the seat.  Note how the joint line moves from the corner outward.  This was helped on the front side of the leg by relieving the front corner of the seat to allow better access for the grinder.

The last thing to do before putting the grinder on the shelf for a while was to form a round-over along the top and bottom of the seat sides in between the legs.  To do this I first marked a line along the edge about ½” in from the corner.  I then chamfered between these lines with the grinder trying to keep a smooth line.  After that I made smaller chamfers along each edge to create the round-over.

Of course, all of this sculpting will still require more work with the rasp, files and sand paper to complete the job.  But, for now the chair is starting to look more sculpted.

Wood finishing is one of the areas of woodworking that seems to confound many woodworkers.  It seems that there is always much trepidation after spending many hours in the woodshop making a beautiful piece of furniture that all of that work can be spoiled by a poor finishing job – and of course, it can!  Well, I guess we all either have to live with unfinished furniture pieces or we have to learn the proper ways to prep and finish our projects so that we can obtain the results we are looking for.

Michael Dresdner is a woodworker and wood finishing expert that has worked in many professional finishing shops and written about wood finishing for many woodworking publications over the years.  In this DVD, Michael aims to arm the viewer with the necessary information and techniques to: prepare a surface for finishing and to achieve professional results with one of several different types of finishes.  Although this DVD is a bit older now, the information presented is just as relevant today as it was when the DVD was first released.

Dresdner starts with a thorough treatise on surface preparation and sanding.  As Dresdner states – no finish will cover the sins of a poorly prepared surface – the steps to a flawless finish start with the proper and thorough surface prep.  In the DVD, Dresdner takes the viewer through the techniques of both power and hand sanding and discusses the properties of many of the sandpaper products on the market today.

With the surface prepared on several projects, Dresdner then shows techniques for three different hand-applied finishes: a wax finish, hand rubbed polyurethane varnish finish and shellac and wax finish.  Using everyday products and simple techniques the viewer is shown practical methods to obtain very acceptable finishes that will work well on many different types of woodworking projects.

Next, Dresdner visits Chris Minick, who shows how to brush on a flawless polyurethane varnish finish.  This segment discusses thinning the finish for better flow, various types of brushes and proper brushing technique.  The rapport between Dresdner and Minick in the segment is a bit corny however; the information that is relayed about brushing is both useful and complete.   Watching Dresdner and Minick brush the finish on a couple of nightstands shows just how easy a good quality brushed-on finish can be to obtain.

Finally, Dresdner covers the principles of spray finishing showing a home-made spray booth and several types of spray-finishing tools.  During this discussion he covers how to develop a methodology for spraying a complicated piece like a chair as well as adjusting tools for different spray patterns for optimal results. The spraying is followed by a thorough segment on how to clean spray equipment in order to keep it in top operating condition.

This DVD should provide any woodworker with the basic information necessary to understand surface preparation, the pros and cons of different finishes and different finishing methods.  Whether wiping on, brushing or spraying the basics of the techniques are all covered in this DVD.  With this info any woodworker will be armed with the skills and strategies to obtain professional quality finishes in a home workshop.

Don’t forget, if you are a new customer and interested in renting these DVD’s, SmartFlix has offered readers of The Craftsman’s Path a $2 discount coupon for your use. Simply use the coupon code: CRAFTPATH when you check out!

Doug Stowe is a woodworker from Eureka Springs, Arkansas and he has been known for his wooden box making for many years.  This DVD is a companion to his book: Basic Box Making and it covers the design and construction of  his boxes as well as many of the jigs and techniques that he uses to make them.

Box making is something that has always appealed to me.  The scale and scope of the work are such that beautiful and functional objects can be made with minimal material and in a relatively short time.  However, if you have ever made a wooden box, you quickly realize that a good deal of precision and detailed woodworking is required to execute one properly.  This DVD aims to demonstrate the skills and techniques required for every woodworker to do just that.

It is evident from this DVD that Stowe is a very good teacher.  He covers things carefully, and clearly, and in terms that a novice can understand.  However, that is not to say that the material covered in the DVD is elementary.  In fact, this is one of the better woodworking DVD’s that I’ve seen.  During the presentation of his box making techniques, Stowe covers the basics of wood movement and the stock preparation steps necessary to take rough stock to the point where the joinery can be cut for each box.  This info will benefit any woodworker in his or her quest toward any kind of woodworking project, not just wooden boxes.

Along the way, various jigs and techniques are covered as Stowe produces several elegant boxes made from domestic hardwoods.  Stowe actually takes the viewer through the construction and use of most of the jigs that he uses in his work.  Some of these are the: cross-cut, miter, box-joint and miter key sleds for the table saw and a spline cutting jig for the router table.  This is a big plus for viewers that may think that lots of expensive equipment is necessary to do accurate and precise work.  Stowe’s approach is decidedly low-tech but extremely effective.  This is evidenced in his discussion on jig building, including his router-table which is as simple and elegant as it gets!

The DVD also includes the construction of several box designs as well as discussions on sanding and finishing and hardware installation.  Stowe’s flipping story stick method for routing hinge mortises on the router table and attaching box hinges is worth the rental alone.  Throughout the DVD there are many other bits of knowledge from a seasoned woodworker/designer that are vary valuable in their own right – and as an added bonus the viewer gets to see how several beautiful boxes are made!  The designs that Stowe builds are a foundation for many other types of wooden boxes that can be made on the woodshop.  If you’ve ever considered making a wooden box this DVD is one that you should see.

Don’t forget, if you are a new customer and interested in renting these DVD’s, SmartFlix has offered readers of The Craftsman’s Path a $2 discount coupon for your use. Simply use the coupon code: CRAFTPATH when you check out!

Before doing any glue-ups I needed to create some transition blocks that will sit atop the front legs where they will join into the arms.  These blocks started as 3″ by 5″ blocks at about 1 1/2″ thick and will get sculpted into the arms and legs after they are mounted with glue and screws.  Because of the compound angles of the front legs the angles for the screw holes were marked by eye to align with both angles of the front legs.  This was done on adjacent faces of the transition blocks with a white pencil.   Then the blocks were put into a vise at the drill press so that both of the lines were set square to the table and the screw holes were drilled.

With the holes in the transition blocks drilled, the blocks were held in position on top of the legs and the holes were started into the tops of the front legs.  These holes were drilled to depth after removing the blocks to allow the bit to reach full depth.  Next, glue was applied to the tops of the legs and the underside of the transition blocks and the screws were put in aligning the inside faces of the blocks with the inside edge of the front leg joints.

After the glue on the transition blocks dried, curves were laid out on two faces of the blocks.  These curves were done such that they can be sawed on the band saw and/or ground away to fair the  legs into the arms.  I cut two ends of the blocks on the band saw but kept the offcuts to help later with clamping to the arms.  The remaining material will be ground away when shaping the legs into the arms.

I spent a good deal of time dry fitting both the front and rear legs into their respective joints and dry clamping the assemblies to check the fit of the joints.  Because of time passing between the initial fitting of these joints the wood has dried out and a few small gaps appeared.   As a result I needed a couple of tiny shims the close the gaps.  Finally satisfied with the fit of the joints I moved on to the glue up.

I can tell you that the few words that I write here will not convey the amount of prep work and effort involved in the glue up of the legs.  The rear legs were first and involved using a couple of 6 degree wedges to apply clamping pressure appropriately.  The joints were glues with a liberal coating of Titebond III one legs at a time.  Once the first leg was fully seated, then the other leg could be glued before clamps were applied.  After the clamping the excess glue was wiped away with a dry towell and the joints were left to dry over night.

The next day, it was time for the glue up of the front legs.  I rigged a temporary support to hold the chair up as the first legs was being glued.  The other leg was left in place as a clamping point until the first joint had fully seated.  Then the other leg could be glued and the clamps were applied.  No clamping blocks were needed because the front legs have a “built-in” set of blocks in the excess material at the joint that will eventually be ground away to fair the legs into the the seat.

This DVD highlights the use of what is arguably the most versatile power tool in a woodworking shop, for joinery tasks. Rogowski is a well-spoken teacher and in this DVD he clearly covers most all of the basic information necessary to get started using the router for various joinery tasks used to make furniture.

Included in the DVD are discussions on the various types of routers and their uses as well as descriptions of the cutting action of the tool and how it can be safely used in both free handed and router table orientations.  Simple animations show the cutting action of the bit as material is cut using various techniques.  Rogowski covers standard cutting and climb-cutting operations and when each should be used.  This information is definitely valuable for the novice user of the router to understand in order to avoid possible accidents with the tool.

Rogowski illustrates various joinery techniques including: dados, groves, rebates, half-laps, mortise and tenon joints (with both traditional and loose tenons), and through and half-blind dovetails using simple commercial jigs.  In this age where woodworking gizmo’s are available for nearly every possible job, Rogowski’s demonstration and use of a no frills router table made from a single piece of melamine and a single board fence is particularly refreshing.  The techniques that he shows for making and adjusting joinery on this simple router table are well worth the rental fee of the DVD.  Also shown are some other simple jigs used for mortising and dadoing operations with the router.

While no router DVD would be complete without showing the cutting of dovetails using a router and jig, it is notable that Rogowski uses probably the most simple of jigs available for his demonstrations of both through and half-blind dovetails.  In doing so, he illustrates that perfect dovetails can be achieved with simple tools and a bit of attention to setups while testing in scrap wood.

For anyone new to the router and interested in exploring its potential for making furniture joints, this DVD would be a good starting point to become educated.  The router is a versatile tool and with some basic knowledge and simple setups and jigs, a great deal of furniture joinery tasks can be accomplished both safely and extremely accurately.

Don’t forget, if you are a new customer and interested in renting these DVD’s, SmartFlix has offered readers of The Craftsman’s Path a $2 discount coupon for your use. Simply use the coupon code: CRAFTPATH when you check out!

The shaping process for the arms involves two steps.  The first step utilizes a jig that facilitates cove-cutting a grove diagonally along the length of each arm blank.  This cove cut removes stock that will eventually become the area that your arms rest in when sitting in the chair.  The second step of shaping the arms will occur when they have been attached to the chair and more stock can be removed and the curves can be faired into the legs.  Before doing any cutting, I first marked the outlines of the arms on the blanks so that I could see their eventual orientation and not get confused while performing the following steps.

The jig for the cove-cutting at the table saw is a rectangular box with an angled portion that rides against a fence while transporting the arm blank over the table saw blade.  The angled piece allows the blank to travel, top face down, across the blade so that the resulting cove is cut diagonally through the length of the arm blank.  These cuts were done in a slow and methodical manner, raising the blade about 1/32″ – 1/16″ for each pass over the blade.  The jig was moved across the blade slowly to allow the blade to cut the cove as smoothly as possible and to also allow the significant dust to be cleared.  Even with this technique I stopped every few passes and used the shop-vac to clean the dust remaining on the table top.  The jig has handles with threaded rod through t-nuts to clamp the blanks in place as well as a handle to help push it through the blade.  I also used a Gr-ripper push block for added control and security.  The jig flips over and the handle reverses for the alternate arm to be cut with a reverse orientation of the diagonal cove.  The first two pictures show the right arm being cut and the last picture shows the left arm.

Once the cove cuts were completed I again traced the outlines of the arms onto the blanks (albeit a carefully due to the now undulating surface of the arms).  Then the arms were band sawed to shape and sanded with the oscillating spindle sander to remove the band saw marks along their edges.  In the picture you can see the rough shaped arms after cutting and sanding.

The other step that I completed at this time was to glue up stacks to the rockers.  These stacks consist of rocker strips and are located at the points where the front and rear legs will contact the rockers.  The stacks serve to elevate the chair above the rockers an additional distance as well as to provide material for shaping and fairing curves from the rockers into the legs.  This was a bit of a tricky operation as the stacks wanted to squirm away while they were being glued.  I again used the same rocker clamping caul to distribute the clamping pressure to the stacks.

Some of the shaping of the legs could be done with a round-over bit in a router table however, because of the irregular curves of the legs some round-overs required a unique fixture to be used with the router.  This fixture is the donut-shaped piece that you can see in the picture.  The donut allows for the tight curves near the leg joints to be rounded over reasonably well.

I first completed the round-overs on the flat faces of the rear-legs with a 5/8″ RO bit at the router table.  Next I moved to the router fixture with the same bit and proceeded to round over the other edges (all except the inside long edge).  This operation was a bit tricky and required a good deal of attention to stay safe and to achieve good results.   Noting the direction of rotation of the router bit (as it related to the curves) was very important so that areas would not tear out during the routing operation.  I needed to always make sure I was routing down-hill or I stopped short of the bit exiting the piece.  I kept my hands a good bit away from the spinning bit and in some instances avoided routing all the way to the ends of the stock to avoid any chances of kickback or over cutting.

Because I did not route to the ends of the work pieces on all edges, there was some cleanup to do with a spokeshave , rasp and file.  The ends of the legs will ultimately be shaped to final dimension when they are attached and faired to the rockers and arms at a later stage in the chair build.  However, there were also other areas in which the round-over bit was not able to do a complete job and/or where areas needed to be blended to create a flowing curve.  This hand shaping was actually quite enjoyable.  There’s something very organic about shaping wood by hand with these kinds of tools – it establishes a real connection with the material and form that you are creating.

Once the shaping of the rear legs was completed I moved on to the front legs.  The first step was to trim the bottoms of the legs at an angle (~8 degrees).  Then, I was able to lay out the leg outlines from a template for band sawing.  The front legs were band sawed to follow this outline and then a secondary curve was free-handed to define the final leg thickness.  After the legs were marked, they were band sawed again being careful to maintain a square cut while accounting for the irregular surfaces of the legs.

I followed a similar process to shape the front legs, using the same router fixture and 5/8″ RO bit.  However, due to the smaller size of the front legs I used a quick clamp (minus the soft rubber pad) to hold each leg from the center at the leg joint in addition to holding one end with my hand so that I could stay safely away from the router bit.  A similar bit of hand shaping was required after the rough router work.  With all of the initial shaping done on the legs I put them into position for a test fit.  It is starting to look like a chair!

Next up: Creating and rough shaping the arms

Sam Maloof

This DVD is a profile on Sam and includes insights on his life and work.  He covers a good deal of information on how he approached designing his furniture as well as taking the viewer through a lot of the actual steps to create one of his famous chairs.  Interspersed within segments of work in Sam’s shop are vignettes of the extraordinary house that he built and a good deal of the furniture and artwork within it.

This DVD does not disappoint if you are considering building a chair in the Maloof style.  Sam takes the viewer through building the seat, executing the specialized “Maloof Joint” and some of the process for shaping parts of his famous rocking chairs.  He covers both aesthetics and function in his discussions.

If you are anything like me, just hearing Maloof talk about his work and watching him in the shop is an inspiration.  Profiles such as this one offer a unique glimpse into what motivated Sam the woodworker to build what he did and how he did it .  Maloof was a generous man and that comes through clearly during the time you spend with him while watching the DVD.  We are fortunate to have this record of his life, techniques and work.

Tage Frid

In this DVD, Tage takes the viewer with him into his shop as he completes several projects.  Along the way, Frid demonstrates his methods for sharpening, creating a keyed-miter joint, doing half-blind dovetails and veneer work. Watching you will be surprised at the simple techniques he uses to do complex work.

In addition to the woodworking techniques and tips that he shares, Frid speaks about his approach to designing several pieces of furniture that you see displayed in his home.  He walks the viewer through the subtleties of some of the design elements of each piece as well as his rationale for creating them.

While the video is a bit dated and it has very simple production qualities, it is easy to look past those trivial things into the mind and spirit of a true craftsman.  It is easy to understand why his techniques have been revered for so long – simple and efficient are the perfect words to describe them.  You may or may not like the style of his furniture however; his techniques and insights into furniture design are definitely worth a look.

Don’t forget, if you are a new customer and interested in renting these DVD’s, SmartFlix has offered readers of The Craftsman’s Path a $2 discount coupon for your use. Simply use the coupon code: CRAFTPATH when you check out!

This DVD is one of several done by Schwarz in conjunction with Lie Nielsen Toolworks.  I have previously reviewed another in this series: Coarse Medium and Fine, here at the blog.

This DVD discusses tools that have largely been forgotten and fallen out of use in most of today’s woodworking shops.  These tools include Hammers, Gimlets and Cut Nails, Draw Bore Pins and Hand Saws for ripping and cross-cutting.

Schwarz opens with a good tutorial on the use of Hammers, Gimlets and Cut Nails in toe-nailing applications for furniture.  He discusses how these techniques were used for many years in some antique furniture that is today regarded of the highest quality, thereby dismissing the notion that the techniques are either too crude and/or somehow technically inferior.  Schwarz demonstrates simple techniques for toe-nailing a shelf into a dado in a case side.  From the demonstration it becomes apparent that this technique is both easy and physically strong.

Draw-boring is a method of pinning a mortise and tenon joint that has the advantages of having superior strength as well as eliminating the need for clamps in the assembly operation.  In the DVD, Schwarz demonstrates draw-boring of a mortise and tenon joint and the use of a simple draw-bore pin for prepping the offset holes prior to inserting the draw bore pin.  In addition, he covers possible problems in this operation and their solutions.  A simple and inexpensive approach to creating a shop-made draw-bore pin is also covered.

Finally, Schwarz speaks to and demonstrates the use of hand saws for cross-cutting and ripping operations.  He notes that these are operations that do not require significant accuracy (as the cuts are later cleaned up by hand planes) but act as gateway skills for more demanding sawing operations such as cutting dovetails.  The demonstrations are done with vintage hand saws that Schwarz notes are widely available and inexpensive.  He uses a shop made saw bench to put the work in a proper position for efficient sawing making quick work of both a cross-cutting and ripping operation in a pieces of rough hardwood.  During these cuts, Schwarz purposely goes off his lines to discuss methods for easily correcting the cut.

Schwarz is a good teacher and his information is both thorough and accurate.  The video quality is typically good as in other Lie Nielsen DVD’s.  Also, as an added bonus, included on the DVD are articles from Schwarz from prior publication on the tools as well as the shop fixtures like the saw bench.  For anyone interested in the tools and techniques covered, this DVD would be a good choice to quickly get up to speed on their use.

Don’t forget, if you are a new customer and interested in renting these DVD’s, SmartFlix has offered readers of The Craftsman’s Path a $2 discount coupon for your use. Simply use the coupon code: CRAFTPATH when you check out!

This DVD is one of two done by Ellenwood, the second DVD by Ellenwood a complete treatise on sharpening for the woodcarver.  This DVD covers sharpening, material properties and selection and carving techniques.

The DVD opens with a good tutorial on the anatomy of wood and its properties for use in carving.  From there, the sharpening and use of the most basic carving tool, the carving knife are covered.  Ellenwood carves a small stylized bird as an example of a piece to carve with the knife to illustrate the process.  Sharpening and use of other carving tools like gauges and v-tools are covered next along with a section devoted to tool practice to develop skill with the tools.  The section on sharpening is particularly well done – no doubt this is a subset of what is covered on Ellenwood’s other DVD devoted to sharpening carving tools.  He does a good job of both describing how the carving tools work as well as presenting a simple method for sharpening them using sandpaper.

With the gauges and v-tools sharpened, Ellenwood moves on to demonstrate their use by doing a relief carving of a flower.  His explanation of the process is very well done and thorough.  Following, are sections on good woods to carve, how to layout and start a carving project, clamping work for carving and finishing ideas.

This DVD is aimed at the beginning woodcarver to provide an introduction to the sharpening and use of tools as well as some basic projects to get started.  I think that it achieves this goal very well.  I would rate the sections on materials and sharpening very highly.  For the carving examples I would have preferred to see more close-ups of tool technique and maybe the addition of another project, however, that may be better suited for an intermediate DVD on the subject.  Ellenwood is well spoken and clearly articulates his vast experience on the subject.  For the beginning woodcarver looking to get his or her feet wet on the subject, this DVD is a good mix of theory and practical application.

Don’t forget, if you are a new customer and interested in renting these DVD’s, SmartFlix has offered readers of The Craftsman’s Path a $2 discount coupon for your use. Simply use the coupon code: CRAFTPATH when you check out!

This DVD is the first and most basic in a series of three done by Larry Robinson.  Larry has a long history of inlay specializing in inlay for musical instruments.  This DVD series are a companion to his book The Art of Inlay.

The DVD production is very basic and no frills and Larry’s demeanor is fairly stoic.  If you are looking for a Hollywood production with lots of fanfare, you should probably keep looking.  However, if you want to learn the basic techniques of inlaying, this DVD should fit the bill.

The DVD covers a good bit on materials and their properties.  Even though Robinson uses only Abalone and Silver on the inlay project in this DVD, he runs the gamut on what kinds of things can be used and challenges the viewer to use anything that their tools can cut to achieve a desired result – and to ignore the traditionalists!

Speaking of tools, in the DVD, Robinson shows how with a modest set of tools you can achieve suburb results doing inlay while following his techniques.  Included in this section is a discussion on the simple birds-mouth sawing platform and vacuum system for collection dust that Robinson uses during his work.

The bulk of the DVD takes the viewer through the process of developing and inlaying a Butterfly image into a block of wood.  This includes the tracing of a picture of the Butterfly and the refinement of that tracing to optimize it for inlay.  Of course, the material selection, sawing and filing techniques for each of the puzzle-piece shapes in the pattern are covered as well as the techniques for inlaying and gluing them into the wood substrate.  The end result is a very nice inlay using minimal tools.  AT the opening and closing of the DVD there are numerous still pictures of Robinson’s inlay work for inspiration and after viewing him do the basic one in the DVD it becomes apparent that to aspire to work like his one must simply master the basic techniques that he prescribes in this DVD.

Don’t forget, if you are a new customer and interested in renting these DVD’s, SmartFlix has offered readers of The Craftsman’s Path a $2 discount coupon for your use. Simply use the coupon code: CRAFTPATH when you check out!

When I last left the project, I had completed sculpting the seat.  With that task completed my attention turned back to more processing on the rear legs.

The rear legs needed to have a 20-degree angled cut from the top of the legs down to the arm rest area along their inside edges.  Also, a parallel cut to this one needed to be made at the top of the legs (to match the height of the headrest) along the outside edges.  The result will form a parallelogram shape at the top pf the rear legs which will match the angle of the headrest.

These angled cuts needed to be made at the band saw.  However, because my band saw table (like most others out there) will only tilt greater than 20 degrees in one direction (i.e. it is limited to about 10-degrees of tilt when angled back toward the saw) I needed to either cut one leg in the reverse direction or to find a way around the tilt limitation.

I chose to create a simple 20-degree jig that could be clamped to the saw table and reversed for each leg cut.  This allowed me to make the cuts from the tops of both legs downward toward the arm rest location which is the most desirable direction.  You can see the jig in the pictures.  The riser blocks beneath the jig are just there so that I had more clearance when rotating the legs during the cut so that they did not run into the saw table.

As, I mentioned, there were two cuts to do on each leg.  The first cut was from the top down to the arm rest area.  Then the leg was rotated and the second cut was made from the top downward to match the headrest height.  In the pictures you can see the cuts as well as the parallelogram shapes that resulted at the tops of the legs.

With these shaping cuts completed I next moved to the seat joint areas of the rear legs.  As you will recall, these curves have only been roughed shaped and marked along the seat top and bottom for later shaping.  To do this shaping, I first penciled in the curves to meet up with the lines that were scribed earlier with a shallow saw kerf.  These curves were based on a 2” diameter circle – the reason for this will become clear shortly.

Next, it was back to the band saw to cut along these curves.  The important thing here was to keep the leg balanced on the seat joint area during the cuts.  The picture shows the results. With the band saw work completed.  I moved to my oscillating spindle sander with a 2” diameter drum and I sanded these rough curves to shape until I just barely met the scribe lines marking the top and bottom of the seat. This resulted in legs that will require only minor shaping where they meet the seat.

With this shaping completed, it was a good time to drill the holes to allow attachment of the headrest.  This was done in two steps.  The first hole was drilled with a 3/8″ Forstner bit to counter sink for the the screw head.  With the leg in the same position I switched out to a 3/16″ bit to drill through the leg for the screw shank.  Doing it this way assured that this hole would be perfectly centered on the countersunk hole.