Woodworking Magazine

Big Teeth, Little Teeth

Christopher Schwarz — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 16:20:13 GMT

I have three favorite jokes. One of them starts out with, “What’s brown and sticky?” The second one is from journalism school. It goes like so:

“People complain about bias in newspapers. That they never tell the truth. To that I say: What the heck do you want for a (expletive deleted) quarter? The truth costs at least $10.”

In other words you get what you pay for, which is probably not a good aphorism to repeat on a blog.

In any case, my e-mail box has been deluged during the last few months about handsaws. People want to know which saws to buy because (if you haven’t noticed) there are more kinds of saws on the market than there are planes or chisels or rasps.

I’ve tried to help the individuals, but it is frustrating. Why? Because people don’t like the same saws as I do. When I teach sawing classes, I load up my car with every distinct saw I have and offer them freely to the students. What is surprising is how often they disagree with my preferences and the excellent results they produce with saws that give me trouble.

I have concluded that there is a good reason that there are so many darn saws out there.

So let’s say that you were to e-mail me today and ask what you should buy if you wanted to dip your toe into the world of saws but didn’t want to spend a lot of coin. I would pause thoughtfully for a few minutes (actually I probably would be going to the little editor’s room; coffee is a diuretic).

And here’s what I would say: Start with one saw with little teeth and one with big teeth. Get comfortable with them. Then you’ll know where to go.

Little Saw
My first “little-tooth saw” was so bad that I don’t think it would be able to cut spoiled ham. It was a miter-box saw I bought from Furrow’s hardware in Lexington, Ky. I cut everything with that saw and hated its guts. The kerf was wide enough for a sloppy drunken llama to spit through. The black plastic handle was as slippery as an eel working at a payday-loan store. And the teeth were too tiny. But what the heck did I know?

Then I bought a cheap dozuki and it was so awesome I wanted my wife to start calling me Chris-san. Wow. Cheap dozukis can change your life. What was the tpi of my saw? I don’t know and don’t care. Every single dozuki that I’ve used that was made in Japan and cost more than $30 has been a world-class saw – for some joints.

You can cut dovetails or any joint in thin stock with a dozuki. But try to cut a decent tenon and you’ll be eating a sandwich with one hand while you saw with the other. They are slow in cuts that are deep and wide, especially in dense woods.

There are other Japanese saws that are good for these types of cuts, including the ubiquitous ryoba, but I haven’t been as successful with these forms of saws. So if you want to cut bigger and deeper joints, you need a bigger saw with bigger teeth and deeper gullets. Hence…

Big Saw
A bigger saw for bigger joints, such as tenons, is a good thing. A typical dozuki is too slow to cut American hardwoods and American tenons in face-frame stock. I had a student once with a very nice dozuki who took hundreds (no lie) of strokes to cut a cheek that was 3" wide and 2" deep in yellow pine. I think he went out for a bite to eat in the middle of the cut.

You need a coarse saw to make deep cuts. But which saw? Well, I’ve recommended a few saws in my post on the new Lie-Nielsen 16" tenon saw, but there other options. If you like that cheap dozuki, you probably will like the Multiwindow 240 mm saw from Japanesetools.com. This $55.50 saw has a stiff sawplate but lacks a back. Ignore that fact. It’s a great saw for cutting all joints bigger than a drawer dovetail. I was able to cut almost any joint with immense speed and accuracy. We bought one five years ago and recently sold it. I miss that saw.

If you have a yen for Western saws, that’s OK. I do, too. Get on over to Technoprimitives.com and talk to Mark Harrell about getting a dovetail saw and a tenon saw. Get the dovetail saw filed for 15 ppi rip. Get the big saw (14" long or longer) filed for 10 or 11 ppi rip. Mark is a fair guy and his saws are very sharp and well set.

And here’s the final option: Go to a woodworking show and try all the saws you can get your mitts on. In about 1998 I had a day where I learned more about saws than any other day. It was a Friday, and the whole staff of the magazine was bored and in the shop. So we started swapping saws and trying out all manner of different forms with different woods and different joints. I used at least 10 different dozukis that day, plus a passel of Western carcase and tenon saws.

After trying all the forms side-by-side, I knew that I preferred Western saws with a coarse tooth and a long (but thin) sawplate.

If you have a chance to try out the saws in someone else’s collection, do not pass up the opportunity. The right saw in the right hands can do incredible work. It’s just a matter of matching the right saw with the right woodworker.

— Christopher Schwarz

New Tenon Saw From Lie-Nielsen Toolworks

Christopher Schwarz — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 12:12:32 GMT

In the world of backsaws, almost all the modern makers have perfected their version of a dovetail saw. But when it comes to tenon saws, things are all over the map.

Some are difficult to start or hard to push. Some are too small. Some are a bit unbalanced. Some have teeth that are too fine. I formed these opinions after trying several examples of tenon saws by modern makers and many vintage saws (teaching classes about sawing has an occasional advantage).

Until recently, my three favorite saws for cutting tenons were:

1. A Wenzloff & Sons Kenyon-style dovetail saw with a thin .025"-thick sawplate, 10 ppi and relaxed rake at the toe.

2. A Wenzloff & Sons Kenyon-style sash saw with a .025"-thick sawplate, 13 ppi and a bit of relaxed rake throughout the sawplate.

3. A Garlick & Sons vintage sash saw with the same specifications as the Kenyon sash.

Now Lie-Nielsen Toolworks has created a new tenon saw that soared onto my best-of list. If you are in the market for a tenon saw, you cannot do better.

What's different? Plenty. For starters, it has a thin .020" sawplate with minimal set – about .004" on each side. A few thousandths here and there might not sound like much, but it makes a considerable difference (especially compared to Lie-Nielsen's standard tenon saws, which are .032" thick). This new saw absolutely flies through the wood with noticeably less effort.

The svelte sawplate also makes the saw a featherweight at 1 lb. 6.7 oz. And it has exquisite balance as a result.

The sawplate is long and tall. The blade is 16" long and there is 4" under the back. The long length is an asset. I find that a long saw helps you saw straighter and requires fewer strokes to get to your desired depth of cut.

The depth of the sawplate is an asset because it puts the brass back high up above your work. This might seem like a demerit. Nope. With the back in the air, it's easier for you to feel when your saw is plumb. And most tenon cheeks and shoulders are sawn with the back plumb.

The Lie-Nielsen saw is filed with 11 ppi and has a bit of a relaxed rake. I found it immensely easy to start, fast in the kerf and smooth-cutting thanks to the hand-filed teeth. (Yes, Thomas Lie-Nielsen reports that the company is hand-filing saws at the factory.)

The tote is unchanged from the standard Lie-Nielsen tenon saw.

So what's the downside? Technically, a thinner sawplate is more fragile than a thicker one. During the last few years, however, I've been using saws with thinner and thinner plates, and I'm convinced the fragility of a thin plate isn't a big deal. Sure, you can kink it (you can kink any saw). But the Lie-Nielsen doesn't feel anything like a thin Japanese kataba saw, which can have a sawplate that's .018" thick and no rigid back to support it. Those saws require real skill to wield.

The 16" tenon saw is $175 and is available now from Lie-Nielsen.

— Christopher Schwarz

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'Wood Smart' Wood Samples

Christopher Schwarz — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 12:14:33 GMT

Growing up in Arkansas, it seemed we had two kinds of wood: yellow pine and pine that was yellow.

I didn't really start to understand the crazy diversity of lumber available until my grandfather let me play with his collection of veneer samples from Constantine & Son. The store, founded in 1812, used to sell samples of 50 different woods. Each was 1/28" thick, 4" wide and 6" long.

That's where I saw prima vera for the first time, plus limba, benge and locust. It's where I fell in love with English oak and pearwood. For me, these wood samples were as good as staring at an atlas of the world (one of my other hobbies as solitary kid). The woods were from all over the world, and I'd wonder about the places they came from.

I still have that set from Constantine; it's on my desk this afternoon.

Now furniture maker Gerald Curry offers a set of 46 American woods that is even more useful and interesting. The Wood Smart kit comes with 46 blocks measuring 1/2" x 3" x 6" in a well-fitted cardboard box.

I like these samples because you can actually see the end grain of the wood and have a chance to see how the wood looks when it is both quartered and rift-sawn.

Also cool: Each sample includes information you should know before building with that species, including its specific gravity (which is its weight compared to water), plus how much radial and tangential shrinkage you can expect from the species.

The lid of the box explains how to calculate all of these things for areas of the country that are dry and those that are humid.

Of course, the coolest thing is browsing through the species and looking at ones you aren't familiar with. I had the Wood Smart box open in the office during the last couple days and it's almost irresistible.

I'd never seen slippery elm, catalpa or sweetgum before. And I know that I'll never want to work with coffeetree (which looks like rotary-cut oak plywood). I was surprised by how different black ash is from white ash. And how green that red mulberry is.

The Wood Smart box points out that our domestic American woods are every bit as exotic as the woods across the sea. And as someone who prefers to use domestic woods whenever possible (not for political reasons; it's just my preference), the Wood Smart kit is eye-opening.

You can purchase the Wood Smart box from Lie-Nielsen Toolworks for $130. (Yes, that's about $43/bf, but good luck collecting all these species from your lumberyard.)

— Christopher Schwarz

Shown above are my veneer samples con Constantine & Son.

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Planemaker Karl Holtey Opens His Shop Door

Christopher Schwarz — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 14:42:10 GMT

All custom planemakers are judged against the work of Karl Holtey. His work has the precision of a Swiss watchmaker, and the tools are finished to such a degree that some might classify them as jewelry – if they weren't such hardworking tools.

Many people have wondered how Holtey makes his tools, and all the steps that go into building an infill smoothing plane that costs thousands of dollars.

Last month, Holtey started blogging and has been posting dozens of photos of work in progress. If you have any doubts that Holtey doesn't earn every cent he asks for his planes, read through the blog. His attention to detail is amazing.

You can start reading his blog here.

— Christopher Schwarz

Make Your Own Dovetail Chisel

Christopher Schwarz — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 11:29:59 GMT

As a beginning dovetailer, I had a crappy set of plastic-handled chisels, a newspaperman’s salary and a copy of the Japan Woodworker catalog.

All three things conspired to make me miserable.

I wanted to cut dovetails with bold angles, but my crappy chisels had side bevels that were as big as Cheddar Mountain at Bonanza. So every time I went to clean out the waste between my tails, the side bevels would tear a bite out of my tails.

I wanted to buy a sweet dovetail chisel from Japan Woodworker that didn’t have side bevels. That would allow me to sneak into the corners with ease. But I had a newspaperman’s salary, which made me want to sell drugs to the local Junior Leaguers.

Luckily, I met some clever people in my travels. Dovetailing demon Rob Cosman showed me his hot-rodded chisel on which he ground the side bevels down to nothing (and he shaped the chisel with a fishtail sweep – something I’ll share another day). Woodworker Lonnie Bird showed me how he lopped the end off a plastic-handled chisel and reshaped it so that it was easy to strike.

And what did I bring to the equation? I figured out chisel geometry (like most woodworkers eventually do), which allowed me to make the tool take a beating like a rented mule.

Here’s What You Do
So if you have a nice four-figure salary and can spring for one of the nice $1 chisels at the flea market, here’s how you can make it into a sweet worker in about 30 minutes.

Step one: File the side bevels. The side flats below the side bevels on cheap chisels are way too big for dovetail work. You need to file the bevels so that there is absolutely zero flat area on the long sides of your chisel’s blade. When you are done, the chisel’s blade should look like a decapitated pyramid in cross-section.

You can do this with a grinder, a stationery belt sander or a disk sander. Or you can take the cheap (and safer) way out and use a multicut file. This file, which is generally used for shaping metal, can shape the side bevels of a typical chisel in about 10 minutes.

Secure the chisel in a vise and work the side bevels with the file. Hold the file with two hands: one on the tang and one at the tip. Cut only on the push stroke. And stroke the file so your hand is never (ever) right over the cutting edge of the chisel. One slip and you are (blood-soaked) toast.

After filing the side bevels so they extend to the flat face of the chisel, clean up your work with light stokes of the multicut file. Then clean up your work (if you like) with a fine file or sandpaper.

Step two: Adjust the handle. If the striking end of the handle is rounded and plastic, it is likely too top-heavy to wield comfortably (the chisel should feel like a pencil), and the rounded end is probably tough to strike without your mallet glancing off the end oddly.

Take a hacksaw and cut off the top 3/4" of the handle. Try the balance. Still feel top-heavy? Lop off a little more. Make sure you leave enough handle so you can grasp the handle in your hand to strike it without striking yourself.

Once you get the balance right, file the top of the handle flat and dress the sharp corners to remove any odd burrs.

Step three: Sharpen it correctly. Grind the primary bevel of the tool at 25°. Then grind a 35° secondary bevel on the very tip. It will be a very small secondary bevel, which is a good thing. The advantage of this steep bevel is that your tool will be durable through a lot of chopping. A steeper honing angle increases edge life. And the steep angle isn’t a detriment to chopping out waste – it scarcely feels different than a 25° chisel.

Then you are off to the races.

Try this with an inexpensive 1/4" or 3/8" chisel and I think you’ll be pleased with the results – especially the lack of damaged tail boards.

— Christopher Schwarz

New Handplane Book From Christopher Schwarz on Sale

Christopher Schwarz — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 17:32:47 GMT

Look around your neighborhood. The next time you see a truck belonging to a contractor or cabinetmaker, there’s a good chance that the company uses a handplane in its logo.

Though the image of a plane is the mark of the craftsman, there are few craftsmen who really know how to use the tool. Has this knowledge been lost? Are the tools simply obsolete?

The truth is that neither statement is true. The handplane is the most advanced and cunning wood-cutting tool ever invented, and it has yet to be surpassed by anything with a power cord. After World War II, handplanes began to disappear from shops because we traded speed for skill and expediency for quality.

But now the pendulum is swinging the other way. Modern toolmakers have revived the planemaking industry and are turning out quality tools the like of which haven’t been sold for 100 years. Woodworkers are discovering that these tools are fast, satisfying to use and produce remarkably crisp work.

"Handplane Essentials" aims to get you started. Inside these pages is the knowledge you need to choose the right handplanes for your shop, set them up correctly and put them to use building furniture for a lifetime. “Handplane Essentials” contains everything you need to choose the right tool for your budget and project, take it out of the box, sharpen it and use it successfully. The chapters in this book have been compiled from more than 10 years of my writings on the subject of handplanes in magazines, trade journals and blogs.

And it's a sizable book – 312 pages – and printed on high-quality paper. The hundreds of photos in the book have been sepia-toned, just like the photos in Woodworking Magazine. The book is hardbound, covered in black cloth with a copper embossing and a heavy full-color dust jacket. And – best of all – the book is produced and printed entirely in the United States. Here's what you'll find inside:

Basics
Learn what the different handplanes are used for. Decode their crazy numbering system so you can focus instead on what each tool does. And figure out what specific planes you need in your shop.

Sharpening
Learning to hone your cutters to a keen edge is the secret to getting your planes to work. “Handplane Essentials” shows you how to get this done no matter what sort of sharpening system you use now.

Techniques
Learn how to flatten individual boards, panels and even enormous tabletops with just a few bench planes. Learn to use specialty planes to cut grooves, rabbets and other joints.

History & Philosophy
If you understand historical practice, you’ll be a better handplane user – even if you choose to reject the traditional methods. Learn to pick a well-made old tool based on how it is made.

Reviews
Find out who makes the best high-quality tool, whether it’s a $50 plane from India or a $5,000 plane custom-made by a machinist in Scotland. I've tried them all.

The book is at the printer now and will be in stock during the first week of August. If you order before July 31, you'll receive a discount of 20 percent off the regular price of $34.99. That means the book will be $27.99 – plus free shipping.

After July 31, the book will be $34.99 (though shipping will still be free).

To read more or place your order, click here. To download an excerpt of the book in pdf format, the link below.

2-CoarseMediumFine.pdf (3.16 MB)

— Christopher Schwarz

Time to Order New Business Cards

Christopher Schwarz — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 12:13:54 GMT

Instead of calling myself a woodworker, I am now considering the title "outsider artist."

Now before you stop reading this entry and resume watching videos of funny monkeys, hear me out for a bit. Whenever I'm at a dinner party with strangers and they find out I'm a woodworker, there is usually one of two reactions.

1. They ask if I could please come over to their house this weekend to build them a new closet, kitchen island, deck or addition to their home.

2. They ask if I enjoy my job at the mall scrollsawing letters all day to make plaques for kids' rooms.

I have tried to explain how I design and build furniture, but I might as well be telling them that I make scented candles from reclaimed earwax. They don't understand why anyone would make something (furniture) that is so cheaply available from Ikea.

But on Thursday, I had a revelation.

That's when our family took a quick trip to New York City and paid a visit to the American Folk Art Museum. Ever since Lucy and I visited Howard Finster's Paradise Gardens in 1990, we've filled our house (and basement and attic) with this sort of stuff. The academics call it "outsider art," and the typical outsider artist is:

1. Completely self-taught
2. Driven by an unchecked passion to make things (Finster made 46,000 pieces in his lifetime)
3. Sometimes reluctant to sell his or her work
4. A little bit nuts

While I was wandering around the American Folk Art Museum, I began to get a very weird feeling in the pit of my stomach. In the museum's "Folk Art Revealed" exhibit, which runs through Oct. 18, one wall features a number of typical Shaker oval boxes. Two steps away, there is a small chest that is obviously a product of Pennsylvania's German community that features a couple painted figures on horses.

Then you turn around and there is a chest of drawers that is grain painted to look like it is made out of mahogany. To your right is a stepback cupboard filled with homemade pottery.

Downstairs is an exhibit devoted to Ulysses Davis, a Georgia barber who liked to carve things and then display his works in his shop. He produced an entire collection of carved busts of the presidents. It's nice work.

It's then that I realized that most of us qualify as outsider artists. We're self-taught, driven to make things from wood for ourselves and, yes, a little bit cracked for doing so.

So stop bathing, let your hair grow long and get yourself a beard (or grow out that armpit hair). Speak in circular riddles.

No one will ever ask you to build them a deck again.

— Christopher Schwarz

I Couldn't Possibly Do That...

Christopher Schwarz — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 14:45:59 GMT

If you want to sell something to a woodworker, the easy way is to start by selling him on the idea that he can’t possibly do it himself. If you can accomplish that, then you have someone ready and willing to buy yet another jig to make joinery simple or publication that reveals the secrets to cutting dovetails. In truth, there isn’t much to woodworking beyond cutting stuff to a line and cleaning up surfaces you’ve cut. When I tell myself “I can’t possibly do that” a warning signal goes off, and I look for the reason why.

That alarm went off a couple months ago when we were planning the next issue of Woodworking Magazine. My assignment was to build and write about shop made layout tools, specifically wooden try squares. There was a day when this was the tool of choice, and many pieces that we consider classics today were marked for length and checked for square with two sticks. My brain was telling me I couldn’t possibly make a square of wood as accurate or reliable as my machinist’s squares, but another part of me had to ask “Why not?”

My grandfather was a tool and die maker, not a woodworker. He was proud of his skills and loved to show me his tools and how they worked. He had a cool workbench down in his basement where he kept a bottle of Scotch hidden from my grandmother. When I was five or six he asked me which I thought was thinner; a piece of paper or a hair on my head, then proceeded to show me with his micrometer. When I was nine he chewed me out for using an adjustable wrench on my bicycle when the correct size wrench was readily available. And he explained to me how the adjustable square invented by Leroy Starrett was one of the things that made modern life possible, and quite possibly the best tool ever.

Part of my reluctance to make a square from wood is my dependence on my Starrett squares. Granddad didn’t lie to me, and I think cabinetmaker’s were smart to adopt this tool from another trade. But machinist’s tools aren’t perfect, and from time to time, I’ve had to take a file to my Starretts to bring them back in line. So, I figured that if I could make two pieces of metal square to each other, the chances were pretty good that I could do the same with two pieces of wood.

As I set to work, I remembered a conversation I had with my father that changed the way I think about woodworking. He wasn’t a woodworker either, but he asked me the right question at the right time. I was trying to inlay a thin strip of holly in a piece of walnut and was struggling with getting the thickness just right. I was ready to give up, cut the walnut in two and glue the pieces back together with the holly in between. When I told my dad I thought that was a reasonable solution he asked “if you call yourself a cabinetmaker, shouldn’t you be able to make a piece of wood exactly the size you need?”

To make a wooden square, you need two pieces of wood that have nice straight edges. Then you put them together at a 90° angle. If the parts are off a little at the end, you make a fine adjustment. It’s not that big a deal. It’s what woodworkers do after they’ve cut to a line and cleaned up the surfaces. When you read the article in the magazine, you’ll see that I made more than one square. I started having fun with them and made a bunch. For me a great project is one that ends with the desire to do it all again.

– Robert W. Lang, senior editor

A Wealth of Hide Glue Information

Christopher Schwarz — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 19:25:06 GMT

Drawing on his almost four decades of experiential knowledge as well as historic evidence dating back thousands of years, in “Hide Glue: Historical & Practical Applications” author Stephen A. Shepherd provides an in-depth look at the history, chemistry and techniques for making and using hide glues – as well as compelling reasons to do so.

The historical information is of particular interest to me. I was fascinated to learn, for example, that the Neanderthal artists of Lascaux used hide glue to help secure their paintings to the cave walls, and that a circa 1500 B.C. Egyptian mural depicts a glue pot on a fire. Shepherd also recounts a fairly detailed history of the hide glue industry in America.

A chapter on chemistry and physics reveals the technical reasons why hide glue works, and Shepherd provides specifications for those adventurous few who might wish to prepare their own glue from hides of all sorts (rabbit skin hide glue is the right stuff for metallic leafing and some book binding). But for woodworkers, the practical value of this book is in the techniques sections. Shepherd covers everything from the various forms of glue pots to brushes – including how to make your own by pounding the ends of a length of cane. And of course, he digs deep into hot hide glue preparation and use for joinery, veneering and more, as well as creative methods of clamping (proper clamping pressure is, he writes, paramount in achieving a good hide glue glue-up).

So why use hot hide glue when there are so many adhesives available that require no special equipment or preparation time (and have longer open times)? Beyond tradition, the best argument for hide glue is its reversibility. With a little water and heat, a hide-glue joint can be taken apart for repair, and reglued – without having to clean away all the old glue. Plus, the glue is inexpensive, ecologically sound, doesn’t interfere with finishes as do yellow glue and other modern adhesives, and it’s a lot easier to clean up. In short, Shepherd argues that hot hide glue is as good – if not better – than modern glues, and has many advantages.

“Hide Glue: Historical & Practical Applications” is a useful and informative book, especially for anyone interested in restoration work and traditional approaches to woodworking. It’s available from Tools for Working Wood ($19.95).

And a final note: Shepherd writes that Shakespeare mentions hide glue – and I’m mortified to admit I can’t find the reference (heck – I even read through "King John" last night!). If anyone knows, drop me a line.

– Megan Fitzpatrick, managing editor

M.Power Sharpening System

Christopher Schwarz — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 17:58:25 GMT

Editor Christopher Schwarz is out of town – so we’ve commandeered his blog for a few days. Don’t worry – the socks on squirrels and monkey references will soon return.

When The Schwarz first handed me the M.Power PSS1, I was intrigued because sharpening has always been my woodworking Achilles’ heel – if you’re looking to round the end of a chisel, just hand it to me. I can do it. Having a device that locked everything in place to sharpen and touch-up my chisels and plane blades could be a godsend. If you’re a hand-sharpening guru, I doubt this is the setup you’ll be interested in using. But if you struggle with sharp, read on.

I read the instructions so I was comfortable with the process – but I must say it’s rather intuitive. This sharpening system includes an aluminum base and carriage and a couple small DMT diamond stones, one black preparation stone and a white stone for finishing. Three additional stones are available as optional accessories. And you have two angles (25º and 30º) for sharpening, so you micro-bevel enthusiasts can still play the game.

Setup and operation is a breeze. Clip the stone into the carriage by way of a small magnet, slide the carriage onto the base making sure both dovetails engage, and you’re ready to sharpen.

Fit your blade flat on the base and hold it tight to one of the two 90° sides. Next, nuzzle the tool against the stone then simply slide the carriage back and forth to sharpen the blade. But this is where things fell apart for me. As I began to slide the carriage, I found it difficult to hold the tool against the side while keeping enough pressure against the stone to actually sharpen the chisel. This has to be done as the carriage slides back and forth – and while not sliding the base to and fro. That’s a difficult if not impossible task unless you back the base up to a stop of some kind.

Too much feeding pressure on your tool causes it to creep toward the stone. That, in turn, causes the end of the stone to catch the edge of the tool and the base hops across your bench. So don’t be aggressive and take your time.

Additionally, sliding the carriage and stone along the edge of a chisel or plane blade uses the stone in only one spot. You can flip the stone in the carriage, but that gains you a second spot with the balance of the stone available to flatten the backs of your chisels.

With patience, this system does sharpen chisels, plane blades and other tools from 1/8" to 2-1/2" in width. If you’re a total sharpening novice, this would provide a locked-in and repeatable setup to put a sharp edge on your blade. But for my $85, I would choose an alternative sharpening system.

— Glen D. Huey, senior editor

Now Available: The Complete 'Mechanick Exercises'

Christopher Schwarz — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 13:52:33 GMT

"And tho' the Mechanicks be, by some, accounted Ignoble and Scandalous yet it is very well known, that many Gentlemen in this Nation, of Good Rank and high Quality, are conversant in Handy-Works…"

— Joseph Moxon, preface to "Mechanick Exercises"

If you are interested in the early development of Western woodworking – including joinery, turning and carpentry – here is some important news. Joesph Moxon's complete 1703 "Mechanick Exercises: Or the Doctrine of Handy-Works" is now available again for the first time in about a decade.

Gary Roberts of Toolemera Press has spent the last few years restoring and digitizing an original 1703 edition of this landmark work and now offers the book for sale on CD.

The book is a fully featured pdf, which means you can search it by keyword and skip easily to certain sections with bookmarks.

However, what makes this product delightful is how Roberts has recreated the feel of reading the original. Through careful digital manipulation of the scans, Roberts made the text readable and yet preserved the character of the book itself, including notes that were scribbled in the margins of the pages.

"Mechanick Exercises" was the first English-language book to discuss the practices of the trades, including those of the blacksmith, joiner, carpenter, turner and bricklayer. (There's even a later section on how to create a sundial.)

The book contains a fair number of plates that show the tools of each trade and Moxon's explanation for how each tool is used.

While the section on "The Art of Joinery" will be most interesting to woodworkers who are interested in hand work, the sections on carpentry, turning and blacksmithing are also good reading because all those trades overlap in some way.

I won't lie to you, the verbiage of the book takes a little getting used to. Some of the characters and words will be unfamiliar at first. And the rhythm of the sentences will seem strange until you become accustomed to it. I've read Moxon about 10 times, and I barely even notice the antiquated touches.

In the end, it's definitely worth your effort. Anyone who has a deep interest in craft and history will find interesting details about hand work and perhaps even see themselves reflected a bit in this 300-year-old text.

The CD is a bargain. While reprinted copies of "Mechanick Exercises" can fetch $100, this digital version is $21.65 plus 75 cents shipping and handling. It's available now for immediate delivery via Toolemera.com. Click here to get to the ordering page and download a free sample of the pdf to give it a test drive.

— Christopher Schwarz

My Adventures With Metafiction

Christopher Schwarz — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 11:48:12 GMT

I'm just about ready to assemble a drawer, so my daughter Katy lays down her saw and heads to the pickle bucket below the drill press. She dumps the cool water down the drain outside the shop door and refills the bucket with hot.

She drops the liquid hide glue bottle into the bucket then comes over to the bench, where I'm paring out the last little bit of the floor of my half-blind dovetails. I'm using a fishtail chisel, which she's never seen before, so Katy asks if she can give it a try. I show her how I hold the tool to wiggle it into the acute corners, then I put the tool in her hands.

After a couple shavings we knock the drawer side into the dovetail sockets. It fits fine, so Katy shakes the glue bottle and fetches the deadblow mallet. I hold the drawer front and Katy paints the sockets with hide glue using an artist's paintbrush I've owned since college.

I show her how I drive the joint together with a block of wood by spreading out the blows all along the joint line. Two taps. Move the mallet. After the first joint is home, Katy takes over gluing and assembly. We put the assembled drawer on the table saw and check it for square. We press the corners of the assembly against the rip fence until the box is square.

Then Katy goes back to the small bench I've rigged up for her and lines up the two handplanes on the end of the bench. She asks when she can start cleaning up the shop.

It's at that moment that I realize I'm living in a book. It feels a bit like the time I visited Graceland and descended the stairwell to Elvis's basement. Both walls are completely mirrored and the thousand reflections of your every move are both familiar and disorienting.

A New Book Project
Since January, I've been working on my next book project during nights and weekends. Joel Moskowitz (of Tools for Working Wood) and I are expanding a curious book that was first published in 1839. It is one of a series of short hardbacks written to introduce young people to the basic knowledge needed for a trade, such as baking, coopering, printing or joinery.

What’s amazing about this particular little book is that it is an engaging work of fiction that tells the tale of young Thomas, a lad who is apprenticed to a joiner's shop in a rural English town. Thomas begins his apprenticeship by sweeping the shop, managing the hide glue pots and observing the journeymen.

Then, thanks to a plot twist, Thomas is tasked to build a rough box for a customer who is leaving on a journey that same day. The book follows Thomas every step of the way, from stock selection through construction and finally to delivery, when Thomas brings along an envelope of cut nails for the customer so he can secure the lid shut before his trip.

Thomas goes on to build a schoolbox (which will be in the Autumn 2009 issue of Woodworking Magazine) and finally a large chest of drawers, all the while picking up different joinery skills and the right attitude to become a competent and trusted journeyman.

It's an idyllic tale, and likely a bit sugar-coated compared to the reality of an apprentice's life in early 19th-century England. But that detail aside, the book is extraordinary. Not only is it fun to read, but if you build the three projects shown in its pages, you will get an excellent course in working wood with hand tools.

And so with Katy's help, I have been constructing these three projects by following the instructions in the book. And though I haven't told Katy much about the story, she is naturally falling into the role of young Thomas.

She has been working alongside me through most of the chest of drawers. When I don't need her help, she's off doing her own thing – trying out the different saws, messing with the planes and asking me questions. Such as this one she asked on father's day:

"Dad, when I grow up, do you think I'll be a woodworker?"

Well Katy, I think you already are.

— Christopher Schwarz

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