North Country Windsors

Vineyard Table Part 4

2012-02-13T22:02:00.002-05:00

It is not hard to compose, but what is fabulously hard
is to leave the superfluous notes under the table.

Johannes Brahms

Here is a better look at the pivot pin for the Vineyard table. The table is pretty ingenious, considering the...well I won't go there. Suffice to say it's continental. Two people will get that that I know of. Anyway, the top pivots on this pin and cleat assembly. The table, when it is laid open to hold fruit and spirits, is held up by a harp that supports the table but then can be folded out of the way to allow the top to tip down.

Here you can see that I indeed had to recut the harp crossbar which was no big deal, as cold as it has been here lately I welcomed the extra firewood. In Van Buren, not too far north, it was -26 F, and with the the windchill is was -50 or so. Coooolllllddddd.

The only tricky part about recutting was I had to establish straight lines for the shoulders to butt up against. Below you can see the bump...it would be next to impossible to get that shoulder to fall right. I marked them out at 7 degrees and cut then free hand on a cut off sled. And then I cut the half lap on the table saw at the matching angle and viola!, it fit.

And here is the harp. I guess it looks like a harp, sort of. It pivots on two dowels and in the below position hold the table up.

Below you can see the table top starting to get glued up into one panel. The top consisted of six indivual boards, so I ( being cautious by nature) glue two boards together, then two more. Then I break down the clamps and scrape off the glue. Eventually I have three panels each composed of two individual pieces. Then I glue one "two board" panel to another "two board" panel and end up with a four board panel and a two board panel. One more glue up and its done. This sounds like a lot of work but the whole point is that I only have to deal with one glue line at a time, which greatly reduces the work in the long run. Trust me on this one. Below you can see the two board panel becoming a four board panel. Another thing is once you put the glue on ( I use PVA carpenters) for an edge glue, let it sit for a few minutes to soak in.

Here's a better shot of that sad little Windsor that live in my shop. It does have a nice seat shape, it's called a shovel seat.

Note: I am trying to transtion from a Mac to a PC and while BlogSpot is essentially the same, the picture upload and edit is different, so bear with me. I had more pics of the table top glue up that I deleted. Mon Dieu!!

Vineyard Table Part 3

2012-02-08T21:34:00.002-05:00

...She took two steps, then left
the ground, I thought for good.
But she came down hard, humped
her back, swallowed her neck,
and threw her rider as you'd
throw a rock. He rose, brushed
his pants and caught his breath,
and said, "See that's the way
to do it When you see
they're gonna throw you, get off.

from Riding Lesson by Henry Taylor

Above you can see the harp that needs a little more work. I may have to re-do this, won't know until it's all together. I know the cross bar has to be redone. This part swings between the stretchers and supports the table top. The top pivots on two pegs, and folds down when not in use, sort of like those table benches.

Here are the cleats that have the holes for the pegs and they also help keep the top flat. The holes for the screws have to be elongated to allow the top to expand and contract with changes in humidity.

Above are the slots that allow the screws to move with those changes. I use a Domino to cut the slots; a lot faster than a file or setting up a router.

The tops of the posts, or legs actually, have to be rounded or else they would bind. I usually don't cut these rounds on the bandsaw, I just cut them at a 45º and then sand it round.

I use a Ray Iles dowel cutter ( or rounder) to make the pivot dowels. That way the finish will match.

And this is the table so far. The stretchers and stretcher tenons fit great, and the feet look good. The harp goes the stretchers; it'll be done shortly. You can see how the cleats will pivot on the pegs. Top and harp and done tomorrow. Hopefully.

At the table you can see the first antique Windsor I bought. It's not much but the seat has a nice shape.

Hot Hide Glue from Wal-Mart

2012-02-04T21:34:00.002-05:00

Winter isn't a season, it's an occupation.

Sinclair Lewis

Note: make sure you use cold water when you mix it, hot just turns it into a snotty mess.

A few weeks back Cat was cooking up something ( she is a good cook...if you have ever seen me you know this is true) and I noticed that she was using this gelatin. Well, I knew that hide glue is gelatin, so I snuck ( sneaked?) some and cooked up a little batch. I mixed it about 2 parts glue to 3 parts water and stirred it, and then cooked it until it melted at 130º and slathered some on this scrap piece of ash.

I simply held the pieces together until the glue gelled and then left it for a few days. I tested it later and as you can see the glue didn't fail at all. I have never had glue hold like this.

I did up some more pieces the next day and used 251 from Tools for Working Wood and I would say that they performed about the same. All the pieces failed well away from the glue line. The Knox Gelatin is clearer and has virtually no odor.

This is the one that really surprised me. My bandsaw blade was cutting really rough, but I figured I'd try it. Now everything you read says you need as smooth a surface as you can get. But as you can see the rough surface didn't effect the bond at all.

Below you can see the roughness of the finish.

I'm not saying to buy all you glue form Walmart, but of you wanted to get your feet wet with hot hide glue, pick some up. As for cost, it's about the same as ordering it once you figure in shipping. One other thing, I found that the less I clamped, actually just holding it together til it gels, held better than clamping it tightly. Another departure from regular PVA glue.

In light of the Super Bowl and the hoopla and spectacle, it's easy, too easy to loose sight of what football can mean, and should mean, to thousands of students who play simply for the love of the game. So watch this video, and think of Charlie when you hear watch the "big game" because for some life is the big game.

Vineyard Table, Part 2

2012-02-02T21:17:00.001-05:00

But he stays by the window, remembering that life. They had laughed.

They had leaned on each other and laughed until the tears had come,

while everything else--the cold and where he'd go in it--was outside,

for awhile anyway.

Raymond Carver, Distance, fr. Where I'm Calling From

Big mortises and big tenons on this table but that's fine. I like to make the mortises with my hollow chisel mortiser, a big Powermatic that works like a dream, and I cut the tenons, usually, on the table saw. I define the shoulders on the table saw first, and then cut the cheeks either on the band saw or the table saw.

For a big mortise like this one, I drilled it out first with a 3/8 drill (the mortise is 1/2) and then chopped it out. It really makes it easier on the bit, esp. with white oak or maple.

To square up the chisel, I put it in the chuck loose and then just back the table into the bit and put on a little pressure. This squares it to the face of the piece

Above you can see the shoulders defined and below I'm getting ready to cut the cheeks. I cut the shoulders a touch deep, which makes cutting the cheeks a little easier because you don't have to get right into the corner, and it gives squeeze out a place to gather.

I like this tenon cutting method, very accurate and it give a nice finish. The key is to have all the stock the same thickness. Otherwise all the cuts will be off. Norm Abram used his all the time. I miss that guy, gut and all. He really put on a good show and made some nice furniture. The new guy, well...

Note to self.

Here are the legs going into the feet. I try not to speak in absolutes and there are many ways to do most things in woodworking, but three absolutes right here. One, all stock the same thickness. Two, cut the mortises first, then fit the tenons to them. ( I just remembered why I used the table saw. These are big tenons and I had to creep up to a firm fit, and a band saw would deflect whereas a table saw blade won't, so you can in essence shave wood off. Also, when you are trimming, try cutting one side only, then check the fit. Because if you flip the piece and cut twice, you may end up a little thin.) Three, leave the parts square as long as you can. I'm gonna pretty much have this table built before I start shaping. It's easier to hold, measure, easier to see errors, just easier.

Above you can see the progress so far. I'm ahead of this stage, more posts to come.

Vineyard Table

2012-01-29T22:08:00.000-05:00

The mind is its own place, and in itself
Can make a heaven of Hell, a hell of Heaven.

John Milton, Paradise Lost

Making a Tenon Saw

2012-01-26T22:31:00.000-05:00


The grave itself is but a covered bridge,
Leading from light to light, through a brief darkness!

HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW, The Golden Legend

I've always wanted a tenon saw. I did not want to pay a lot of money for one however. So when I was in an antique shop, I bought a big hand miter saw. You can pick these up for around $20 but the problem is they are too big, at around 21" long, they are simply unwieldy. But I thought if I cut one down, it may work.

So I put a 3/32 zip (cutoff) wheel in my 5" grinder and marked a line and in about ten seconds it was cut. I should say two things here. First off, if you buy one get a 5" angle grinder. They are actually easier to handle and much more balanced than the smaller 4" ones. Second, be careful with a zip wheel. They can kick back quickly and violently. I'm kinda lax about safety glasses, but I wear glasses and a shield with these things. Anyway, quick work. In the background you can see a flap wheel sanding disc that smooths out the edge. These also work great on wood, if you can stand the dust.

I jointed and filed the saw as usual. For this saw, because tenon cutting is primarily a ripping cut, I went with 10º fleam, 10º rake and about 10º slope. This is what Leonard Lee suggests in his book, so who am I to argue.

Here you can see my setup for sharpening, the light is key.

I usually stone the sides with a diamond hone to take the burr off; again Leonard Lee.

And here it is all done and put back together. It's 5' wide and 16" long. I cut about 5" off and it's amazing how it improves the balance. Before it felt like a chainsaw, but now it feels like a really big handsaw, which...it is.

It cuts really well too. The weight is such that it really zips thru the wood. I'm not sure how much I'll use it; I still prefer a bandsaw but at least I have the option now.

Below are a couple pictures of a Rod Back Arm Chair that was recently selected for the Society of American Period Furniture Makers gallery show in Hartford, Conn. this spring and summer. It's one of thirty pieces selected and one of only a few Windsors. Needless to say I am honored and excited.

Like New Disston 115 for sale

2012-01-20T22:50:00.000-05:00

First and foremost arms are tools in the service of rival nations, pointing at the possibility of a future war.
Alva Myrdal

After much thought, have decided to sell this Disston D115 panel saw. This saw is pretty much perfect...the handle is beautiful rosewood. According to Pete Taren at Vintage Saw, this is the best saw that Disston made.

It can be found at ebay here.

I have been buying and fixing up old saws. Maybe I'm just weird but I really do enjoy fixing these up. I find filing them meditative, weird I know. Such a simple tool, a handle and some spring steel.

Sharpening Handsaws

2012-01-14T22:11:00.006-05:00

A sharp tongue is the only edge tool that grows keener with constant use.

Washington Irving

When I was a kid we used go to my grandparents house all the time. My grandfather was a game warden and he also had a wood shop where he built furniture and puttered around. Two things I remember were his planer, loud and messy, and how he would sharpen his handsaws. I would watch him with a file and sometimes he would let me try. Over the years, I got pretty good at sharpening the saws, but then girls and life and school took over and I forgot about handsaws.

When I started woodworking on my own, I did what most do, I bought some Japanese saws and never really gave Western saws much thought. I did get two nice saws for gifts, a Lie-Nielsen dovetail and a Wenzloff carcass saw. Both work great, but honestly I never used them that much. When I did need a handsaw, I use the Japanese saws. They are sharp and seem to stay sharp forever, so why not.

Also like most woodworkers, I had a few handsaws laying, or rather, hanging around and this New Years I made two resolutions--wear my seat belt more, and sharpen the saws I had laying around. Who knows, maybe I would use them. I did recently break my dozuki saw, so why not.

Here you can see the results so far. I should say that I did have a leg up as I had sharpened saws before, but I wasn't really expecting the results I got in very short order. Five or six saws in and they are sticky sharp and they cut like a dream. More on that later and also the technique I use.

Above you can see a few pics of a cheap, well, beat up back saw. I picked it up a few years back at a garage sale for 5 bucks and set it on a shelf and forgot all about it. So I figured it would be a good candidate for my first crosscut sharpening in quite awhile. If you are gonna try hand, sharpen a ripsaw first. The only angle you worry about is rake, the others are 90º. Crosscuts are a lot harder as you have three angles to worry about if you want to do a good job.

So I got the right sized file and figured the angles and set about filing and....nothing. The file wouldn't even touch the steel. I couldn't even joint the teeth. The steel would just leave a silver streak on the file. I was at a loss, but as I had been reading Ron Hock's The Perfect Edge where he talks about tempering steel after heat treating. Best I could figure, some knucklehead in the past had heat treated the steel in the past to make it harder, and rendered the steel too hard.

So I figured I'd try tempering the blade and if it didn't work oh well, out 5 bucks. I read Hock's book about tempering and tried it in the oven, 500º for 20 minutes, then I let it cool with the oven door open and the next day, I tried filing it. This made all the difference. The file worked like it should, and I set about re-shaping the teeth and sharpening.

For the first filing, I like to take the handle off so I can re-finish it and also it allows me to clean up the blade. For this blade I had to file the wrecked teeth right off and start fresh, which actually takes less time than you would think. I stayed with the original setting of 12 tpi. I did find on the net a print out of lines that lets you sight different lines, that is to say sheets with 12 tpi, another sheet with 8 tpi etc.

Here are the lines. Just set it just behind the blade and file right on the line. I do a light scoring all the way down the blade so that when I get filing I can keep a rhythm going. Just file until you see a small flat on the top of each tooth. I will go more into my method of filing in a later post but I will say keep the flats as long as you can. Another thing I do is shut off the overhead lights and have only a swing lamp shining behind across the flats. This is critical.

Like I said, I will go into greater detail later, but the way I file a blade that is in pretty bad shape, one with misshapen teeth and different heights, is I sharpen right to left, heel to toe (handle to tip) first filing. Leave the flats, all you want to do is reduce then by half. I should have said that you must first joint the tops of the teeth to bring them all even, this is what gives you that flats. So anyway, joint and sharpen from right to left, heel to toe, cutting the flats in half. Then flip the saw around and file back the other way, left to right, still heel to toe, this time filing to shiny flats right off.

When you get to the end, turn the saw back around, and re-joint it lightly, very lightly. I then set the teeth, and joint again once. Now with the heel at your right, file lightly, to the toe, flip around and do the last filing, left to right, again heel to toe. This last one should take off the last glimpse of shiny flats and leave a saw that is sticky sharp.

These are the dovetails I cut with this saw, not bad for a big panel saw. Usually dovetails should be sharpened as a rip, or a modified rip, but this crosscut did ok.

Below you see a beautiful Atkins Panel Saw. I like Disston, but Atkins' handles are a lot nicer. The steel is great and the blade is straight. I sharpened it as a crosscut, 20º rake, 25º fleam and about 10º slope. Slope isn't necessary but it does allow more sawdust clearance. I would sell this one if anyone is interested. Just let me know via comment or email.

Unsung Heroes

2012-01-07T22:17:00.000-05:00

Mechanization best serves mediocrity.

Frank Lloyd Wright

Here are following a few unsung heroes in my shop. Or maybe tools that I use a lot that I'd like to share with others. Below you see a couple electricians pliers, end cutters and linesman pliers.

I use the end cutters to drive the pegs in on my Shaker boxes and then I clip them off. The last time I made up a batch I couldn't find them and used a hammer and then trimmed the peg off with a sheet rock knife. I explained this to the E.R. doctor as he stitched up my thumb. A lot safer to just snip off. The lineman pliers are handy when you need to shorten a screw or nail. I cut Sheetrock screws with these (Klein's) and the blades are fine.

Here are those pliers or cutters that normally you use to cut trim and small parts. I don't really find they work all that great for that, but they do work great for trimming wedges for my Windsor chairs. Much faster and again safer than trimming with a chisel.

Here's a little tea tin of toilet bowl wax that I use to coat screws before driving. The thing I like about this was is that it is always soft, so it'll stick to the threads. I've tried paraffin and I never found it worked that well.

Here is a clamp I use all the time. I started using these when I used to weld and realized immediately how handy they are. One really nice feature is they don't shift parts when you clamp them. I welded a couple big washers on and they work great. I must have at least a dozen of these.

I've shown this before but I sharpen my two turning gouges with this jig. Works great and very fast.

Every wood worker should have this is for no other reason than to sharpen kitchen knives. A happy wife makes everything else easier. And you can sharpen knives scary sharp in about 30 seconds. And you can sharpen scorps, drawknives, the list goes on.

Here's a Work Sharp disc sander. I like mine and use it for chisels and block plane blades, stuff like that. I don't think it gets a blade as sharp as water stones, but, but I do think it gets chisels and the like sharp enough. And because it is so fast and easy, I tend to sharpen more, so in the end I end up using sharper tools. Circular logic, hope that makes sense. The marker on top is another unsung tool. If you can't see what you are doing, then how do you know what you are doing? Keep one handy and you'll see.

Here's a little mallet that packs a big punch. It's a piece of 3/4" pipe threaded into a 3/4" to 1 1/4" bell reducer. I was working as a kiln consultant at a sawmill and a guy in the machine shop turned it down for me and I filled the handle with a wood dowel and the head with lead shot. I really like this mallet because it packs a punch but allows you to see what you are doing because it's so small. You can buy these but they are way spendy. This ones cost, well, nothing.

Here you can see the lead shot. Just fill it up, tape off the bottom of the handle and pour in the epoxy.

Here's an old fold out rule that was my grandfather's. He didn't work much wood as he was a potato farmer but he did have this rule and now it's mine. And I do use it. Below the tape you can see a couple ink pencils that work great on green wood. The top one is from Lee Valley and the trick with this one is to sharpen it with a knife, not a sharpener. The sharpener leave too fine a lead that breaks off. Use a knife ( I use a drawknife) and keep the tip blunt, and it works just fine. Below is the Sanford Inkblot pencil and unfortunately it's no longer made. I have a bunch of these, wish I had more though. Be careful if you're like me and keep a pencil in your mouth. The ink will mark your teeth, which looks really smart, especially when you don't know it's there. Ask me how I know that.

Couple more---a saddle square from Veritas. I use this all the time, all the time.

I use these all the time too to set up machines and blade heights, stuff like that. I see router lifts and fences that read in thousandths, but honestly these are I all I use. Again, all the time.

Last but not least, Forrest, the mascot...looks like he's trying to get ink off his teeth.

King Mika

2011-12-31T23:34:00.001-05:00

Is it not passing brave to be a King and ride in triumph through Persepolis?

Christopher Marlowe

Here is the nutcracker I made for my daughter this past Christmas, she named him King Mika.

Again, thanks Connie for the pics. And while I'm thanking people, thanks to Matt Rushing and Wilson Burnham for all the kind words and support. They are both talented craftsmen and I wish them all the best.

And thanks to my wife Cat for her all her help and support. Happy New Year!

Here is a pic of a Federal Serpentine Sideboard I will be building this coming year. Keep you posted.

Herr Drosselmeyer, Christmas Eve

2011-12-24T19:18:00.000-05:00

Maybe Christmas, the Grinch thought, doesn't come from a store.

Dr. Suess

Here he is, Cornelius Borealis, finished at last. I think he came out pretty well. A special gift for a special girl.

One thing that's nice about being a woodworker (and this gets to the Dr. Suess quote) is being able to make things for people that you can't find in a store. I know, and I am sure that all other woodworkers can speak to this, that this is probably the most rewarding aspect of this craft. And as the years go by and I am gone, these gifts will mean all the more. It's memories that make Christmas special, and on that note Happy Holidays to all.

Note: I'll get Connie to take better pics next week some time, and will post those pictures as well so check back. Her pics are magical compared to mine, not even close.

Hot and Cold, or How Omaha Steaks Fixed My Drill Press

2011-12-17T08:32:00.001-05:00

Things fall apart, the center cannot hold....

Yeats, The Second Coming

My last job was managing a planing mill and one of my duties was running dry kilns and maintaining a wood fired boiler. So as you might imagine there are a lot of bearings that run 24 hrs a day, seven days a week. Over time they would break down and need replacing. To diagnose bad bearings is sometimes easy; they will rumble or create a vibration when they run. Other times it's hard to tell, usually they will run hotter than other bearings. A rule of thumb is if you can hold your hand on the bearing for 5 seconds, it's ok. If it's too hot to do that, change it. Because it's easier (and cheaper) to change a bearing than a whole shaft, believe me on that. So what does this have to do with a drill press?

You can see the bearing on the right the different parts. This is a pretty
standard roller bearing with an outer race (the band of steel on the outside)
ball bearings ( usually covered or sealed) and an inner race. It's the inner
race that I gonna talk about today. This part is what contacts the shaft, so
this has to be heated so the
bearing can be changed. Sometimes, especially with smaller bearing, you can simply pull them right off with a puller. Other times, you
have to heat the inner race, which makes the race expand, thus allowing the bearing to be removed.

A rough analogy is a canning
jar. If the lid band is heated up and screwed on when hot, it cools and tightens up on jar. If you try to take it off, it comes off with difficulty. However, run it under hot water and it'll pop right off. Same principle applies to bearing. The trick is to heat just the inner race and not the shaft, because if you heat the race and the shaft, then everything expands, which is pointless. It's the differential that is the key. If you simply heat everthing up, you really are not accomplishing anything.

So back to my drill press. The chuck kept falling off, not all the time but enough to be annoying. I knew how to fix it, but had no practical way to cool the shaft. But when I got some frozen steaks packed in dry ice, I used the dry ice to cool the shaft. Wearing gloves, I packed the dry ice around the shaft as best as I could and wrapped it in a towel. I then took the chuck and put it in the oven at 225º for about an hour.

Below you can see the frost on the towel.

Then, when the shaft has cooled and wearing gloves, quickly put the hot quill on to the cold shaft, couple taps with a dead blow hammer and viola! fixed. I just hope I never have to take it back off.

Back at my old job, we used to change the bearings on the big planer ( about the size of a pick-up truck) every year or so. The bearing are 6" O.D. and the shaft diameter ( the size of the inner hole) is 2 7/16". These are fitted bearings, meaning the hole and the shaft are exactly the same size, thus the only way to remove and replace them is by using the heat differential. Usually we'd do this in the winter. By placing the shaft outside overnight when it's -10 or -20, you can skip the dry ice. Then the next morning we'd heat the bearings up and they would slip right on. At $800 per bearing, and four per shaft, you really did want to get it right. Beating them on with a big hammer is not the answer, rather it's simple thermodynamics. Now I have to change the bearings on my lathe, again. That's another post.

Herr Drosselmeyer

2011-12-11T08:00:00.004-05:00

This is a nutcracker I made for my wife a few years ago. It was a fun project, and my intention was to build one each year. That was 2007, and now four years later I'm finally getting around to building another nutcracker. Best intentions and all that, but at any rate, this chaps name is Otto Von Bismarck.

I really did like the project, but I have to admit that painting was a pain, but at the same time if there is any magic (and I do hope there is a little) it's when they are painted. They really do come to life, pun intended. The fur by the way is rabbit, and it's worth getting the real thing.

The directions can be found in Fine Woodworking's book Lathe and Turning Techniques. The process is pretty straightforward, but little differences can add up to a nutcracker with a personality all his own.

First thing is to glue up a blank and turn the main body and hat, called a shako. I remembered after it was done that I should have used spruce as the face is unpainted and the color of spruce is about right for skin. I used red birch here and well he'll just look like he had some brandy while standing guard in the cold.

If you look closely, you can see the small brim left on the hat. I later thought that it made it look too much like a top hat and not a military shako, so I turned it off. It's little decisions like this that add personality to a pretty standard item.

Here I turn the arms, two at a time. Below I'm sizing with a wrench. I pretty much eye-ball the sizes, but the wrench gives a jumping off point.

Above are the legs, body and arms.

Clamping up the arm at a 45º angle can be tricky, but tape helps a bunch. Just lay the points so they touch, put in some glue, and close the piece. A spring clamp holds it tight for overnight. Later I'll pin it with a dowel.

A screw clamp helps steady the body for the slot that has to be sawn next. Two cuts on the big bandsaw, and then I clean it up on the small one. The big one has a 3/4" blade and does only straight cuts, and the small one has a 3/16" blade for curves and such. This really does speed things up.

Making the cut

Above you can see another example of personality. I cut the hat off and then cut the "head" at an angle so the hat leans back a little, which gives the finished nutcracker a more relaxed pose.

Next saw and chisel the angled slot that allows the crank to rest against the body. Otherwise it would stick out.

Drilling the 3/16" hole for the crank handle. An Allen wrench helps as it has a handle. Be sure to leave the crank big, then fit it and trace the actual body shape and then sand to the line.

Mount the hands on some 1/4" dowels and leave them plenty long to give you a handle to carve with.

Here's a look at the crank. I enlarged the plans 150% and it was spot on. Notice how I left the pattern uncut at the top left...this is the part that is trimmed after pinning.

And here he is, almost done. One thing I do is all the joints are drilled with 1/4" holes and then joined with dowels. Just use those dowel markers after drilling one hole. On the first one I didn't do this on all the joints, and this made assembly a lot harder, plus a couple joint came loose. Live and learn.

The nose always takes the longest it seems. I started with a big nose, but it just didn't seem right, so I carved this long narrow beak and I think it looks great. I'm gonna paint him mostly white, and have a velvet cape made trimmed in white fur. All the separate things like belt buckles and buttons are painted separately and glued on, which is tedious but does look better. One thing I noticed is is sword is too short, but that's not glued yet. Really just gotta keep looking at him and you will see what has to be changed.

I think he looks good so far. I will post pictures, and his name on Christmas. I like the sword hilt, and the tipped back hat, and the nose. Can't wait to see him painted.

I should say here that he is not for my wife, but rather he is for my daughter Erinn. She is going to see the play in Bangor next weekend, a girls weekend away, so the memory will be fresh in her mind...she is my Clara.

A Few Neat Tricks

2011-12-04T20:03:00.002-05:00

I found this the other day on the Internet. Not the empty potato chip container, a thread on how to sharpen rasps and files. I use these a lot when I carve the knuckles on my chairs and over time they get dull. I suspect they actually get clogged with shavings, but cleaning them is next to impossible. I found this about using battery acid for 5 to 10 minutes and being very careful, all that. But then I found one that said you could use vinegar overnight and it would do the same thing, and was a lot less risky. So I filled a container with vinegar, left overnight, and it really did make a difference.

Here you can see the bubbles as the wood jammed into the crevices is eaten away. This is actually a regular double cut file. These files are pretty easy to clean with a card file, a small stiff brush. This file was really dull, so it was a good test for this.

I cleaned the file and rasps the next day with a stiff brush and baking soda, which neutralizes the acid and provides a bit of grit to clean the file or rasp. Then I dried them with a heat gun and checked them to see if it made any difference. With the rasps, they felt sharper but it's hard to tell if they are truly sharper or if they are just cleaner. Either way they cut better, but I have a hunch that they are sharper, that the acid eats away the dull edge and leave a sharper edge. But on the file, which was free of debris going in, it really is sharper. It cuts better and faster, so I guess the process works.

Here are a couple shots of the files and rasps I use to carve knuckles. Nicholson #49 and #50, and a cheap one I think from Lee Valley, which actually works really well. And the file I finish the surfaces with. I do wish I could carve better, but until that day comes, I use rasps and files.

You can see here they are cleaner. I was gonna order new rasps, that's how slowly these were cutting, but a simple ( and cheap ) fix and they are good as new. Saves money and resources, which is also good. One thing I do want to note is when you buy a file, try to find one with a safe edge (no cutting teeth on the edges), that way you can finish right up to an adjacent surface without marring it. You can see that the rasp below does not have safe edges.

This is where this all leads. Some people are better at carving and don't have to use rasps and files and I envy they're ability. But these tools get me where I want to go, so I will continue. I also think that some look down their noses at this technique, which is fine. More power to them.

And in the spirit of recycling, here are a couple pics of a small piece trimmed off a leg I was turning. I split the pieces from a dead green log, split and then turn the rough pieces in to 2 1/4" rounds, then I let them dry for a few days and then turn them. Anyway, one problem is end checking. Usually this isn't a big deal, but by painting the ends with old shellac, the ends don't check at all. Anchorseal works great too, but then I gotta order it, and pay for shipping The shellac I had laying around anyway, so again, I save money and resources. And the shellac works great. I get the shellac based primer, Zinser. Plus, when you get Anchorseal on a smooth concrete floor, it's a whole different kind of slippery. So with shellac you avoid the whole clean up mess. And, because it's alcohol based, it won't freeze so I can use it most of the winter.

Below you can see the untreated end and the treated end after a few days in the furnace room, so you can see it really does work. Wood dries quickest out the ends, which cause stress as the rest of the piece dries, and the result is end checks. That's one reason why you never check moisture content on the ends of boards.

Unpainted


Painted

Last trick---take a piece of sandpaper about 4" by 4". Rip a slot in the center and fold one piece down

Fold that half, now a quarter sheet, over the other half. Then fold the top single sheet over...

The trick here is that at no point does the sandpaper rub on sandpaper, see below. It also makes the piece easier to hold and use. I picked this up from an old painter who worked off and on for my family when I was growing up.

Small Business Saturday Sale

2011-11-23T17:53:00.004-05:00

I'm extending the 20% off sale to include Cyber Week...
Happy Shopping!

This includes everything I make, from $30 Shaker Boxes to $2400 Chairs.

I have to admit, things have been really really slow, like stop. Times are tough, and I realize that everyone is having a hard time--wants have taken a back seat to needs, and I completely understand that. I am actually dusting off my resume and going to try to find a job. I'm not really sure if I should be telling my customers this, but anyway, there it is. My costly forays into marketing have returned zip and so I figure I'll try honesty. Things are slow, so I'm trying a sale to drum up business. Some argue that you never cut the cost of high-end items because you de-value the brand, and I get that, but I would like to think that people are smart enough to know the difference. These are different waters we are navigating and I for one think they call for a different approach.

Home-Made Scrub Plane ( sort of )

2011-11-17T21:46:00.001-05:00

Here you can see a standard store bought scrub plane. This one is a Lie-Nielsen and it is a very nice plane. Since buying it a few years ago, I have discovered a few things. First off, this style of scrub plane is basically French in origin, or at least continental. It doesn't have a frog or blade adjuster, which is fine. It has a big wide open mouth, which is good so you can take think shavings and get the job done. This plane is made to quickly flatten a board, think of it like a hand powered jointer. But there is one problem, it is too short to really flatten a whole board. I think it works better in trouble areas--like a hump or a twisted board that has localized areas that need to be whacked down.

But given that it is so short, it will follow the board, rather than cut the high spots which leads to all the humps being leveled, and thus the board gets flat. This plane does not take fine shavings or leave a fine finish. As a matter of fact, the plane is used diagonally across the grain, so there is gonna be a fair bit of tearout. But this will be cleaned up by the next plane, the jack plane (or better yet a jointer plane). And finally a smoothing plane, but I'm getting ahead of myself.

Here you can see the Lie-Nielsen scrub next to a regular jack plane ( No. 5). You can see the difference in length. The scrub is about 10 inches and the jack is about 15 or so. This may not sound like much but it is. This extra length allow you to end up with a much flatter board. But if you want to
quickly flatten a board, you need to make the blade more curved, a lot more curved.

Above and below I'm getting ready to grind the curve, about an 8" radius. Just set a compass to 8" and scribe am arc on the blade with a sharpie. And then eyeball the angle and swing the blade back a forth, trying as best you can to maintain a constant center. I thought I had a jig for this bit I couldn't find it. At any rate, just swing back and forth. Be sure to mark the bevel with a sharpie so you can keep track of your progress.

You can see below how critical the marker is...getting close here. Of course the middle will be the last to be done.

Above you can see I'm about there, and on the right it's done. You don't need to grind right to the edge, the stones or in this case strip sander will finish it up. Actually there is a school of thought that you should never grind right to the edge, always stop short as the temp at the edge, because it is so thin, can rapidly get hot enough to take the temper out.

Above you can see a great way to cool a blade, simply set it on the support for my strip sander. The aluminum quickly pulls the heat out with worrying about quenching problems. This really does work.

I sharpen the blade on the strip sander with a fairly rough grit. I don't really go nuts on sharpening a scrub plane blade. This tool is not intended to take fine shavings, so save your time and get it quick sharp.

Again, hold the center point and swing the blade back and forth, trying to keep it steady.

This sander works great for sharpening kitchen knives too. I do it free hand and run the burr off by using the inside of the belt. I always amazes me peoples tolerance for dull knives. It seems that if the knife is only slightly sharper than a butter knife, it's ok, but I digress.

Here is how I set the blade in the mouth. You want a fair bit of blade sticking out. Time for a little honesty...the radius on this blade is about 5", which really is too quick a curve. I didn't measure it and after using the plane, I will have to regrind the blade. But the theory is the same. I never measure the thickness of shaving, but you want a pretty thick shaving coming out. Back the frog right off and open the mouth right up.

Here you can see the difference between the jointer plane on the right and the shop made scrub plane on the left. The scrub is used first to quickly flatten the board, diagonally corner to corner, and then the other way, and once it's flat, come back with the jointer plane and get it really flat, and clean up most tearout. You can pick up a decent No. 5 jack plane pretty cheap and grind the blade to about an 8" radius and you have yourself a scrub plane. This doesn't have to be a really nice plane, or even that flat. If you want to spend time tuning a plane, do it to the jointer plane and the smoother, but those are other posts. I honestly use a power jointer to flatten my boards, but if I get a plank that is too wide for my jointer, it's nice to have this ability so you can have a wide table top or bench seat without having to rip it apart and glue it back up.

On the home front, I broke my thumb splitting out some firewood (sledge hammer 1, thumb 0 ) so it looks like small projects for awhile, after Thanksgiving anyway.

Shaker Boxes

2011-11-06T07:00:00.000-05:00

Here are some Shaker boxes I've been making. Above are some in Birds-eye Maple, sizes 4 thru 0 bottom to top. These boxes were, believe it or not, were original tupperware.

The band bottoms are cut into fingers, the number depends on the size, and the both the top and bottom bands are boiled and bent around forms. Then I use oval shaped pieces to hold the shape while the bands dry.

Then the bands are held with copper tacks, bent over to form a single leg staple.

The lids and bottoms are carefully sanded to fit, and then held in place with wooden pegs.

Then the boxes are sanded and either finished with milk paint or Danish oil. Then a wax coat and done.

Here you can see how the boxes nest together. One thing I like to do is when I paint with milk paint, I mix and paint right off. This allows the paint to have different tones and it gives the box some texture.

Here are some boxes in Cherry, sizes 4 thru 0.

A #4 Cherry Swing handle

4 thru 0

This box is called a spit-box. It's round and made of red birch, which mellows to a lovely yellowish red.

I really do enjoy making these boxes. I like the fact that there is no glue, just tacks and pegs. I'm gonna do a post soon where I will build a #3 with a divided tray in the top that could serve as a jewelry box, or troll bead box.

As for prices, the smallest ones, the 0, are around $30 and the #4 is about $50. The Birds-eye is a little more, and the swing handle #4's are $85 in Cherry. Just email for more info. I think the jewelry boxes are gonna be around $85. Be sure to order early if you want them for Christmas.

Note: I gotta give credit to Connie Gagnon for the pictures she has been taking for me. These pics are amazing, as are all her photos. She does not give herself enough credit.

Happy Halloween

2011-10-31T18:00:00.001-04:00

Boo!!!

Antique Milk Paint Finish

2011-10-30T20:37:00.000-04:00

These two shots show where we are headed. I know, another story about antiquing milk paint. Yawn, but I'll show you how I do mine and read if you want, you may pick up a couple things.

First thing you want to do is dye or stain the whole chair. I used an oil base stain, which honestly I wouldn't recommend because it can cause adhesion problems. In this case it really didn't matter because I'm gonna antique it anyway, but if you were going for a better, more refined finish, it may cause problems, so better avoided. Just pick a brown of some sort; all you're doing here is putting some color so when you rub thru, it's not a stark white.

Then put on a base color, Bayberry Green in this case from the Old Fashioned Milk Paint Co. For this application, the Old Fashioned works better as you can rub it to different sheens and completely off if you want. Again, this coat doesn't have to be perfect, it's a base color. I should say here that in areas where there is a lot of wear ( the seat for example, and the legs) put down some wax over the stain. This will prevent the paint from sticking, so the wood will show after the chair is rubbed down. Another thing is to brush on some liquid hide glue onto the wear areas. Allow it to dry...when you paint over it the paint will crackle. Be careful not to over brush the top coat, or the effect will be ruined. I've never really had great luck with this effect but I recently discovered a better way. Lay the paint on pretty thick and while it is still wet, hit it with a heat gun. The paint will crackle right up. I find it better because it's more realistic because the cracks are smaller and it is much more predictable.

In the above shot, you can see where I put the wax. After the first coat has dried, rub down with a grey scuff pad. Where the wax allows the paint to show thru, re-apply slightly larger so you can see the wood and the underneath paint. I would recommend using Butchers wax in stead of a paraffin block. The paraffin, because it is like a candle, can be moved around when rubbed and thus may end up in place you don't want.

At this point the chair will look pretty bad but press on. Then I put on a topcoat of Mustard. To be honest, I wasn't really happy with the resulting color but more on that later.

Here you can see the crackling so far.You can see the green peeking thru, and the crackling from the hide glue and heat gun. Another thing I try to do is when I mix the paint, for antique effect anyway, is to use it right off. Normally for a black on red refined finish, I mix it and let it sit, then strain it to get a really smooth paint. But for older looking chairs and furniture, use it right off. You also get more variety in the color. My next post will go into more detail about that, but suffice it say, use the paint thick and quick.

By not allowing the paint to sit, the clumps of paint are spread out by the brush, which allows the difference colors to come out rather than one boring monotone.

Now we get out the blowtorch! Using great caution, I mix up some weak shellac, about a 4lb cut, and systematically paint on the shellac and light it on fire. Do small areas at a time, like one leg, light, one stretcher, light, etc. Caution! The flame is not visible, so make sure it's out before moving onto the next area. Go slow and light it when it is still wet. and do it outside and keep a fire extinguisher handy. I keep a garden how handy too. Again, the flame is barely visible, so BE CAREFUL! What this does is oxidize the paint, giving it a crackled look.

Above you see the results. It does darken the paint, as well as giving it a tactile roughness that mimics old paint. Next step mix up some dark wax, roofing cement, and a little dryer lint, about ten parts wax to 2 parts cement and shred up a little lint. This mixture is is then rubbed on with a grey scotch brite and after it dries a little, rub it off with a cloth. Try to remove as much as you can from the seat and areas that get contacted thru normal wear and tear, and leave the mixture in the nooks and crannies. This does a really good job of mimicking years of dirt and grime, plus it hangs in the cracks of the milk paint, making them more visible.

That about does it. Like I said, the color isn't really what I wanted. The Mustard didn't really cover the green like I'd wanted, they sort of blended together. Plus, I went a little overboard with the antiquing. The old adage is the less is more, and I think that's right. I just wanted a chair that wasn't black on red, and showed some antiquing. This just turned a little more then I wanted. But the techniques are the same, just less so.

Duh, and a Moose

2011-10-23T07:00:00.002-04:00

The other morning I was waiting with Erinn for the bus. We were at the end of the driveway, see below, and she said I think that's a moose over there. And sure enough, a big bull was standing in a mowed field across the road, about a 200 ft. away. He was close enough that we could see his breath in the cool morning. We watched him for about 5 min., until the bus showed up. He watched the bus and was still there after it left, all the kids' faces pressed to the windows, the younger kids waving to him. We used to have a small moose that would come around quite a bit, so much so he was named Manny. I wonder if this is Manny all grown up.

The other day I had one of those duh moments. Not that I have a hard time turning stretchers, but I always end up thinking there has got to be a better, or at least a more consistent way. They sometimes come out lopsided. I use a pattern from Drew Langsner's book a rough guide and just kind of eyeball it. And I'm not sure why I didn't think of this, I don't know, years ago, but I cut the pattern to create a pattern that I could place directly on the turning. This way I could see lumps and imbalances and correct them. Such a simple fix. Stretchers are harder, no, trickier to turn than they appear, especially the center one as it is very visible and also it tends to vibrate as it gets thinned out. Sometimes the muse takes her time.

In response to several inquiries regarding legs and rivings, I am going to start selling turned legs and posts as well as rivings for spindles and such. Around here, there is plenty of maple, as you can see below. I usually get my hard ( a.k.a. sugar and rock ) maple from a local firewood dealer who will pick out the better logs for me. For turnings you really don't need to be as picky as you do with the ash that is used for rivings. I do split the pieces out by hand and rough them out to rounds. I then let them dry for a week or two and then turn them out. I find that the details hold better, and the legs and arm stumps have a lot less warping. This makes them a little easier to ream and place properly.

Above you can see the baluster turnings for the legs and arm stumps.

Below are more legs....from left to right are double bobbin, baluster, vase and a back post for a side chair. The patterns are for a Fan Back Arm Chair that can seen on my site. I can also custom turnings. In the second picture down you can see another baluster, a Philly front and back leg, a vase and at the bottom a bamboo leg for a rodback. I also do stretchers, both bulge type and box stretcher.

Here you can see the rivings out of white ash. There isn't any oak up here, but I actually prefer ash. It finishes better and shaves just as well.

Below is the brake I use to split out ash into the rough pieces needed for spindles and such. I carefully follow the grain so it can be shaved or steam bent.

As to the prices, here goes...

Turnings-

Legs- double bobbin, bamboo-$14
baluster- $18
Fan Back Posts-$25
Fan Back arm chair posts-$30
Stretchers- side $9, center $10
Arm stumps-$12

Rivings-

Spindle stock 24" $3.50, 30" $4.00
Bow, arm 48" $15, 60" $25.

I can also sell steam bent parts arms and such, not sure on the price on the bent pieces. This info will be going onto my site soon.

Fall

2011-10-17T19:11:00.006-04:00

Fall is here...there is a chill in the air, the leaves are turning and it's football season. I coach a 7th and 8th grade local league, the Aroostook Football Junior Huskies. Along with two assistants I try to teach the basics of tackle football, blocking, tackling etc.. and life lessons like teamwork and sportsmanship.

We've had a great season so far, as we are currently 4 and 3. Yesterday we dropped a close one to Millinocket, a team that thumped us a few weeks ago. We practiced hard and made some adjustments and only lost by 2, 36 to 34. The kids were happy and I couldn't be more proud of them. I love coaching but it is a big time commitment, huge really.

Fall is really here when the leaves start to turn. Actually, I looked around today and I think up here they have already started to go by. Erinn and I took a walk this afternoon and snapped a few pics.

These trees are the same ones I tap for maple syrup, so if you look back at those post you can see them in spring. For whatever reason, the maples didn't really seem to turn red.

A lot of golds and yellows but the reds are few and far in between. I know we had a very wet summer, maybe that has something to do with it.

I find it strange that a tree can turn yellow and drop all it's leaves, and another tree a short distance away is still green. If anyone out there knows why, I'd love to hear.

It really is amazing to see the leaves turn their beautiful colors.

Erinn took this shot, looks cool out of focus I think.

And what would fall be without pumpkins! Daddy's Little Pumpkins, that is...

Fumed Oak Bench

2011-09-28T20:25:00.000-04:00

Here's a small bench I recently finished up. The legs are white oak, the back rails are red oak, and the back slats are sycamore. The seat is reed woven in a herringbone pattern. For this piece I fumed the oak in a small tent using ammonia. This process was used widely during the hey day of the Arts and Crafts movement, including companies such as Roycroft and Stickley.

I'm not really sure about chemistry, but the short version is the ammonia reacts with the tannins in the wood resulting in a beautiful rich brown. My friend Pete Galbert also uses this process on butternut. Above you can see the bench before the fuming process.

Here's the tent ready to go. All I did was fill two small bowls with household ammonia and replaced it daily for a week or so. It's pretty nasty stuff, so be careful.

And here is the full frontal view of the fumed bench with a wipe-on varnish and the seat woven and done. I did these shots myself, so better ones to follow. Overall I was pretty happy with the bench. I made a few mistakes that I fixed up and I'll know better next time. But the color and richness is really nice.

Below you can see (hopefully) the difference between the white oak post, the red oak rails, and the sycamore slats. If I do do another one, it will be all white oak, no red, and I will keep the sycamore...it turned a beautiful reddish.

Here's a good look at the seat. I did a small chair a few years back with a reed woven seat and swore I'd never do it again. But here I am. I did tape up my finger tips, the reed will take the skin right off, especially because the the reed must be wet when you weave. The seat looks great with the herringbone pattern, a simple method of over three, under three, over three etc. It always amazes me how strong these seats are.

Like I said, I'm happy with the bench. I want to start doing more contemporary pieces as the more traditional pieces are simply not selling. I also feel that with society becoming more and more urban, that maybe pieces like this bench and the rocker I posted a few weeks ago, that maybe those pieces will fit into an apartment setting better then a more traditional Windsor. At least that's the hope--time will tell. Well, I'm gonna watch the Red Sox game, hope they end their September swoon and pull this one out, finger crossed..

Oh, how about my beloved Buffalo Bills! That win over the Pats was a long time coming, hope they can hold it together and have a good season, GO BILLS!!! and I'm not jumping on the band wagon, I've been a fan since Jim Kelly and Marv Levy were there.

Cherry Hutch with rat-tail hinges

2011-09-05T19:27:00.000-04:00

Here's a piece I finished awhile back. I really have to do a better job of posting and putting pieces on my site, but at any rate here it is. It's a cherry hutch that I have wanted to build for a time now to store out plates and such. The piece is solid wood, which does present some challenges but it really is better than plywood. I think, and this is just my opinion, that over time you get a deeper red, a deeper color with solid wood than you do with plywood.

On this side shot you can see the pegs used to hold the shelves in place. They hold the piece securely and provide some visual interest to the side. Over time, the cherry will deepen and the pegs will become more subtle.

Here you can see the reproduction glass I used on the piece. The waves and imperfections add an authenticity that modern float glass can not replicate. Of course it costs more, but few things look better than old glass. And few things look worse than modern float glass.

This is called a rat tail hinge. The tail at the bottom has a small wood screw that goes into the stile and the top has a ring with a threaded stud that goes clean thru the stile and is secured on the inside with a small nut. The flag part is screwed to the door face. The hinges weren't really hard to install, just fussy. In the end they look spectacular...they really pop the piece, definitely worth the time and effort, and cost.

Here you can see more the hinges and how they frame the doors. You can see also the handturned knobs. By turning them myself, I can ensure a color match and I can also graduate the sizes, that is to say I can make the lower ones larger and the upper ones smaller. It's a subtle difference but it does help make the piece better.

More hinges. You can see the base design too. I think the acorn style cut out adds a little flourish.

As you can tell, I really like the hinges. We went to Kings Landing yesterday, a historical settlement that serves as a living history site. I hadn't been there since I was a kid. They had a scores and scores of Windsor chairs. The curator wasn't there, but I do hope to contact him so that maybe I can go back. I was told that they have many more Windsor chairs and furniture pieces that are not out in the houses. I would love to see them all someday. The blacksmith at the site said that he had made these hinges before. I would like to see that. If you live in the area, you should go to the settlement. Our 6 yr. old had a good time there... as long as they have horses, she's all set. It's about 30 min. from Houlton, Me.

More of a Good Thing

2011-09-03T20:46:00.000-04:00

Here are some pictures of another rocking chair. This one is pretty much a shield seat Comb Back, much like the Philly Comb Back. The rockers are actually the ones that began life as the rockers for the other rocker. I mis-measured the rockers for that rocker but they fit great for this one.

I like the other chair, the Heirloom Rocker but the turnings on this one are really nice and make for a more classic looking rocker. The finish is black on red with only one thin coat of black. I wanted more red to come thru and while this happens when the sun hits it, it really looks like a reddish brown, which is really pretty.

I don't really consider myself a great carver, but these knuckles came out nice. One admission, I use a rasp and file and a scraper more than I care to admit, but I remember a quote from Sam Maloof who said I use whatever tool is the best, be it a chisel or my teeth. This is essentially my theory on tools.

In some ways the rocker is easier to leg up than a regular chair, and I think a lot easier than a box stretcher chair, that is to say one with four rungs like my rodbacks. I drill and ream the holes, insert the legs and then mark where the rockers will land using a 1/2" thick plywood pattern. I then clamp the leg upright and use a router and a 1/2" bit to cut the slots. It fits great and is much more accurate then a handsaw and chisel. Another example of the best tool for the job.

This is a tricky cut (the pic on the right) to make but it really does add a lot to the ears. It thins them so they are the same thickness top to bottom and also give a nice shadow line on the back. On the left you see the volute. One thing I try to do is have the point on the horn point back towards to the chair. Subtle but it does make a difference.

I was happy with the way this chair came out, it is really comfortable. The back spindles flex and the crest supports your head perfectly. A great chair to rock a baby...the only problem is staying awake! At the show in Rockland a few weeks back, people seemed surprised at how comfortable they are, several people commented that oh, they are comfortable for a wooden chair. I received several orders, which is the best part.

Rocking Chair, finally

2011-08-09T22:33:00.000-04:00

Lest you think I've retired or taken passage on the Blue Nose, while I have not posted in a while, I have been busily filling orders and finally, finally have a rocking chair. It's based on a the one featured in Fine Woodworking and was designed by Pete Galbert. Pete actually sent me the plans a year and a half ago, and the plan was to build one for the birth of our second child. Well, that never happened, but I did get it done in time for Brenna's first birthday. I also made Brenna a blanket chest; I'll post the pics of that tomorrow.

I am proud as hell of this chair. The finish is beautiful and there isn't one thing I would change. All the woodworkers out there know this is rarely the case.

It really came out nice and I couldn't be happier. And Cathy, the proud mother of Brenna, loves it as well. I will try t post some more pics soon but have to get ready for a show in Rockland this weekend. Hope the see you there. One reason I haven't been posting in I've been burning the midnight oil to get this chair done for this show. Hope to get some more orders for this chair. If your in the Rockland area this weekend, be sure to stop bye and say hi, and see my chairs.

Glazing Glass Doors

2011-07-10T08:00:00.004-04:00

Whenever I build doors with glass, if the clients budget and taste allows, I like to have true divided lite panes. They just look so much better, especially when the client or a friend opens the door and sees that it indeed has divided lites. I think people have become accustomed to snap in grills, so there is a surprise when they see it.

These doors are a little tricky because they have a molded edge, a quarter round with a fillet, so the end of the mullions ( the horizontal pieces ) have to be coped, that is, shaped to fit the edge pieces. I'm not really gonna get into that, that would be better covered in a class. I am going to describe the process I use to glaze the glass panes. You could of course use wooden strips to hold the panes in place. I prefer putty, but either is fine.

Below you can see where we are headed. A smooth inlay of putty that meets in what is called a masons miter. One thing to keep in mind is that the edge of the putty has to be inside the wood edge on the other side of the glass. If you don't cut the putty inside this edge, it looks horrible...ask me how I know this. What happens is you can see the putty from the outside when the door is closed. You can chip the putty away to move the line, but that looks bad when the door is open. Better avoided in the first place.

Another shot of the finished putty, smooth with a crisp corner. You can see the wood on the outside of the glass here, well inside the putty line.

For putty, I like to use Durham's Rock Hard. It's available most everywhere. There's lots to like about it---it dries fast but not too fast, is cheap, non-toxic. The only downside is that you have to mix it with water but I see that as a plus because that way I can get exactly the thickness I want. I like peanut butter, maybe a little stiffer. You can't have it too thin because you can't cut it...the cut putty will just blend right back into tapered part. What you want is to cut it, and have a line that clearly separates the putty glass from the waste.

Here you can see what I'm talking about. First, you pack the putty into the area above the glass and form roughly a triangle of putty. At this point you don't need to be too careful. Just get some putty on your knife, pack it in like you're trying to scrape the putty off. Don't get too much or it'll be a mess. Then using a clean putty knife, run the edge down the length of the pane, smoothing it out as you go. When you get to the corner, leave the tip on the glass, and in one motion lift into the corner, creating a nice mitered corner. One trick is to clean the putty knife and lick it before smoothing. I provides just the right amount of lube to smooth it out. I'm pretty sure the putty is non-toxic, probably should check. Another important thing is to leave the cut putty until it's dry and then use a window scraper to remove. Below you can see the cut putty.

Below you can see the roughly packed in putty. If you look closely, you can see the wood that you must stay inside of--otherwise you can see it from the outside.

This is the putty knife I use, pretty standard tool. I don't use the bent part, I use the straight knife end, not really sure what the bent end is for. Maybe someone can explain it to me. I like the knife end though, really works well.

One last pointer--I place a duct tape covered brick on the pane. I glazed a door once, and when I looked at the finished outside face, I saw that some of the putty had squeezed out between the glass and the door. I had to chip out all the putty and start over, ahh the joy of doing things twice.

Above you can see how I usually hold the doors closed. On the left you can see a spinner that goes on the inside. The top part mates with a groove in the underside of a shelf and hold the ( usually ) right door closed. A rebate allows the the left door to close over the right door and hold it closed. Finally the left door knob turns and has a finger that goes behind the other door. I made that sound a lot more complicated than it is. It really is simple and hold the doors flat and true. All this takes times and takes patience to do, but it is what separates an average piece from a true heirloom.

Things have been busy around the shop lately, finishing up this piece... a really nice order from a recent show and a couple chairs from the same show, and football coaching coming right up. I have another show coming up in Rockland in early August. I also am trying to get a rocker done for that show, and I have a couple other things. Be careful what you wish for!!

Take a Seat

2011-07-03T10:27:00.000-04:00

As I said, last weekend I demonstrated at Maple Meadow Farms in Mapleton. The weather Saturday was horrible, rain and cold, but Sunday turned out alright. Erinn is here enjoying a tractor ride. Now those things have some comfortable seats.

Speaking of which, the quest for the comfortable seat continues. Here's a pic of a sack-back seat that by all right should not be comfortable. The deepest part is too far back, only about 4 1/2 in. from the back edge. The prevailing wisdom is the the deepest part should be 6 1/2 in. from the back edge, and spread out 3 1/2 in. across the middle. In other words, you measure in 6 1/2 from the back edge, and then drill a hole about 15/16 in. deep, 1 3/4 in. from either side of the center line. That marks the deepest part of the "bowl".

But here you can see the deepest part is two inches to far back, around 4 1/2 in. . And it's deep too, about 1 3/8 in. Not really sure what happened here, but there it is. The funny thing is it is very comfortable. It supports your back and bottom, and everyone who sits in it says oh, that's nice.
That's the thing about chairs, you just never know how they are going to sit until they are done, which can be very exciting or a disappointing letdown.

Below you can see the whole seat. The flanks are cut down so they don't dig into the backs of your legs.

Above you can see a Rod Back chair. They were first introduced about 1880 in Philadelphia and were quickly accepted as less expensive seating. The bamboo turnings were in response to the public interest in the Orient. On later rod backs, the top back was a flat board on which decorative painting was done to add visual interest. All of this was due to the rising popularity of Sheraton "fancy" chairs. Ahh, economic pressure. The Rodback unfortunately marked the end of 150 years of what had been primarily hand built chairs. Most later rod backs were factory made, and one can see shortcuts that were taken. For instance, on most the legs did not go thru the seat, they merely went into machine drilled holes that stopped short of the top. In many ways this marked the beginning of the decline of the Windsor as a chair.

At any rate, here's a small green rodback with another very comfortable seat. The deep part is right about 6 1/2 in., so that's "right", and the deepest part is about 1 in., which is deep for a rod back. They typically had very shallow scooping to cut costs and time. But this one very comfortable. One school of thought is that a deep seat feels great initially, but the longer you sit the more uncomfortable it becomes. I not sure I buy into this, think tractor seats. I find a deepish seat, about 1 inch just about right.

Here's a good look at how deep and wide the scooping is and this chair is comfy!

This pic shows another seat that is not as comfortable as the green one, but is still comfortable. The deepest part is about 5 in. from the back edge, and about as deep, but it just doesn't sit as well. One thing is the scooping is flatter from front to back, maybe that has something to do with it.

Here's the latest seat, legged up and seat done. This one is pretty much by the book, deep part about an inch deep, is 6 3/4 from the back, and the bowl all runs to the deep part. You can see I use a marble to find the deepest part, my daughters idea. I'll have to get back to you on how it sits. I did drop the front arris down about 3/16 of an inch so as to give legs more room.

I am happy with the edge treatment on this seat. I cut the bottom back to give the seat a sharp edge which I like, and the cove on the side came out nice. Practice makes perfect I guess.

So in summary, deep part 6 1/2 in. from the back edge, 1 inch deep, 3 1/2 in. apart, sort of.

Couple shots of the show, nice barn! The owner asked me when I was getting my stuff out, and I said out, I'm moving in! Thanks to Andrea, Miriam and Terry Gregg for having me and thanks to all the people who stopped by my booth.

Things (Chairs) Fall Apart

2011-06-19T08:00:00.002-04:00

If you build furniture and especially chairs, at some point you will be asked to fix something. It's not a matter of if, but rather when. In this case an old, heavily built pine chair collapsed. The tenon into the seat snapped off and down she came, breaking off another couple tenons in the process. Things fall apart, the center cannot hold.

In this case, I was lucky in that they were clean breaks, no long jagged splits. Of course the question is whether or not the fix is worth it must be considered. I leave that up to the them, but usually the piece has far more sentimental value than monetary, but at any rate, every fix is different and often the hardest decision is where to draw the line. This chair was actually in pretty good shape, and with such clean breaks I proceeded as follows.
First off, I cut the leg off, and using the lathe and a drill chuck, I drilled out the hole and inserted a 5/8 maple tenon into the hole; this becomes a new tenon. I use epoxy for most repairs like this one where to original glue was PVA, carpenters glue. I should say here that for all it's good properties, carpenters glue will not bond to itself once it has cured. It has to be scraped completely off to wood, and reapplied. This is why I use epoxy. Be sure to abrade the surfaces with 40 or 60 grit sandpaper, and make sure the fit is kinda loose, not sloppy, but not tight. Also, thicken the epoxy with sawdust or a product sold by West System, silica dust.

Like I said, I like West, and they have a great boat repair manual you can get thru Lee Valley. I use the high density filler. Be sure to wear a dust mask, it is silica and can damage your lungs. I mix it to about peanut butter thickness, maybe a touch thinner than that.

Here you can see (hopefully) the epoxy smeared into the hole (mortise). Put plenty in there, you don't want a starved joint. And try to abrade as much as possible.

This is where the leg goes into the seat. Again, plenty of glue on the tenon and in the hole. Since this is a blind hole ( it doesn't go thru the seat) when you drive the leg in, you will get hydraulic pressure sufficient to prevent proper seating of the leg. So I drill a small hole that intersects the leg hole. You can see the tip of the awl in the hole.

And when the leg is hammered or clamped into the hole, you can see the excess glue coming out the relief hole-- this way the leg will go into the seat all the way. If you don't drill the relief hole, the leg will sort of go into the hole, and when the clamp is taken off, the leg will move back out of the hole. This can be very frustrating if you don't understand and know the solution.

Here is the chair with the repaired undercarriage. I did clamp it up; the legs to the seat and a couple clamps on the stretchers for good measure. The epoxy I use takes awhile to cure but it does work very well.

This Sack Back below has a lot of great qualities. The hands are great, I will try them on a C-arm. The turnings are lovely and the overall proportions are very nice. For a factory chair it is a really nice chair. The paper on the underside of the seat states it's based on a chair from Monticello. Unfortunately, the seat has split right in half. I've had this chair for awhile now, and while I like the chair, it will be a tough fix. I could just epoxy the split and hope for the best, but I'm not sure how long that would last. Tough call. Things fall apart, the center cannot hold. In this case, literally.

First Show

2011-06-16T22:04:00.000-04:00

Here are some images of projects that I have finished up lately or had new photos taken. I found a new photographer and she is great, a real sense of color and making a shot work without making it look contrived, so thanks for that.

I haven't posted in a while, but I had a show downstate at Point Lookout in Lincolnville, which went really well. I met a bunch of super nice people who had nothing but great things to say about the furniture. I hope they had a good show as well, and I'd like to say thanks to all of them for all the positive comments about the furniture. This was my first show away from home, and judging fro the wonderful experience, I will be doing more.

These shots are actually from Wintergreen Arts up here in Presque Isle, not from the show I did downstate. First show and I forget the camera. I contacted the show photographer but haven't heard from him yet, hopefully I'll get some photos. My new photographer put together a slide show of the Wintergreen show which I am going to attempt to link here. If this doesn't work, check back tomorrow. Wintergreen Slide Show here. Some really nice photos, thanks Connie.

Another thanks goes out to Ed and Christine at the Mount Battie Motel in Lincolnville. Super nice people, great breakfast, reasonable rates, what more could you want. Also, if your in the mid coast area check out the Thomaston Cafe, my favorite restaurant, great food...you gotta try the crabcakes.

Lastly, another thanks to the attendees of the show who had such nice things to say about my furniture. Being almost entirely self taught, it's hard sometimes to tell if my work is really good, or if people are just being nice. The feedback was genuinely positive, so thanks and I hope to hear from all of you soon.

Wintergreen Arts Show

2011-06-05T21:07:00.000-04:00

Here's a side chair with a different finish, clear this time. A lot of people ask me for these or if I do something unpainted, so here it is. I did a sack back settee like this a few years ago, but this one is my design. Like any new chair, the first one is never really right. But with chairs, you never really know what they will sit like until it's done.

This one has a few things I'll change on the next ones. First, the front legs will move back, more under the seat and with less rake. And the back spindles are just a little too upright, a couple degrees more rake there will make the chair more comfortable. I am really happy with the way the seat came out. The figure and color are beautiful, and the shape is very pleasing to my eye.
When I say rake and splay, these refer to the way the legs, arms and spindles lean back or forward and also how they lean to the side. Just like masts on ships, rake refers to the tilt of parts forward and backward. Splay (or flare) refers to the lean to the side.

Here are the pieces I took to the show at Wintergreen Arts for my show Friday. Below you see a walnut wall cabinet with a tombstone glass door and a Shaker clock.

The blanket chest is new, really came out great.

Here is the unfinished side chair. I'm calling it the Allagash Side Chair, and behind it a Linen Press painted mustard yellow. And on the right is the Rod Back Arm Chair I made for my father.

Time Flies

2011-05-22T21:06:00.002-04:00

A little preview of a few pieces I'm gonna have at Wintergreen Arts on June 3rd. Last time, in December, I showed only chairs. This time I'm gonna have mostly case pieces, including this blanket chest. The dovetails really take center stage on this piece.

The chair below, a Rodback Arm Chair, is the finished version of the same chair I took to Wintergreen back in December. At that time, it wasn't finished. It's also the same chair I made for my father's 70th birthday.

This Philly Comb Back really will be there, a lot of interesting details.

Ryan ready for his 8th grade prom, time flies...

Speaking of time flying, here's a display case I made a while back to hold my wife's wedding flowers. For a couple years after our wedding, the bouquet kicked around and I knew that it wouldn't last long that way so I designed and built this glass case to hold them for as long as we are together, and longer. I bring this up because today is our anniversary. I won't say how long it's been, but suffice it to say time flies. Thank you Cat and Happy Anniversary.

'Tis a mistake, time flies not,

It only hovers on the wing

Once born the moment dies not,

'Tis an immortal thing.

Montgomery

Stop Moving!

2011-05-18T21:57:00.000-04:00

Here's a Sack-Back Settee I built a few years ago for my neighbor. It's ash and maple with a cherry seat. It has aged beautifuly, the seat is gorgeous.

This little detail is how I covered the end-grain of the blanket chest that is almost done. The chest has a drawer at the bottom, to the dovetails don't run all the way down the front. This shows a bunch of end grain, which honestly I don't mind, but most people like it covered up. The problem is that if you simply nailed a trim piece on, seasonal movement would break off the piece or, if you glue it on, the side might crack.

So, dovetails to the rescue. I milled a small piece of maple into a dovetail, and made a matching piece of cherry with the same profile on the inside --this is the actual trim piece. The maple piece is screwed on with a little glue. The trick is to put the inner piece into the trim piece, and have a couple inches sticking out. Then put in a couple screws with glue, but do it by pairing the screws together. What you will end up doing is pulling off the cherry trim piece, and screwing as you go. So you have a long piece screwed to the front, which is what you don't want. But by cutting 1/2" chunks out from between paired screws and thus the dovetails will hold the trim piece on, and still allow the sides to move.

Then slide the trim piece back on, carefully putting glue on the last couple inches to hold the top on. Also, trim the bottom about 1/4" short of the bottom to allow the side to expand and contract. If only wood would stop moving! Life would be so much easier. I hope to have this chest done tomorrow, hopefully. I'll show you how I fixed a mistake on the drawer.

Back at Wintergreen!!

On June 3rd. I'll be doing another Friday Art Walk at Winter Green Arts in downtown Presque Isle. This time I'll bring mostly case pieces and few chairs. Click the link for more info, but I'll probably give a short presentation at about 7:00 or so.

Knobs

2011-05-14T19:58:00.002-04:00

They say that it's the little things that make a difference, and in this case it's knobs. Sometimes a store bought knob will work just fine but there are three problems. One, sometimes you can't find the right type of wood. Say you need curly maple or something, you're out of luck. Secondly, sometimes ( especially with cherry) you put them in and they never turn the same color, so you'll have four knobs that look great, two that look meh, and two that turn out terrible. And lastly, sometimes the machining just isn't all that good, off sized tenon, chipped, etc... So I make my own. This looks a lot better when lets say you have a dresser with graduated drawers. What you want is to have the knobs in proportion with the drawers, but with store-bought, you're stuck. But by making your own, you can tick up the size in relation to the drawer. Above you can see an assortment of knobs from various Shaker pieces. I chose the one on the right page, left hand column, second up from the bottom.

I laid out a diagram on some poster board so serve as a reference. I use it the same way as my leg story sticks, marking directly off the pattern to eliminate measuring errors.

Here you can see the cherry blocks that will become the knobs, roughly 1 1/2" by 1 1/2" by 2 1/2" tall. I marked out the center and cut the tenon with a tenon cutter, 1/2" thick by 7/8", which will allow the tenon to pass thru the drawer front and then be wedged from the back side. By doing that the knob will never come out. That's another problem with store bought, the tenons are short, and tapered, so they can't be wedged, and I'm not sure why they are tapered but it results in a poor glue up.

I did the pics in the wrong order, but above you can see the drilled block and on the right I cut away the ring, leaving the 1/2" by 7/8" long tenon. Below is the process for drilling, just clamp and drill. I had some doubts about the tenon cutter but it worked great.

And here's the finished knob. I put the tenon in the four-jaw chuck and parted the different depths, then turned it out. It is basically a big asymmetrical cove with a rounded off face. I cut the cove with a small detail gouge and turned off the face with the heel of a skew. A little sandpaper and its done.

Custom made means custom made, all the parts.

Note: I had a friend call me and ask about the rainbow cuff on the four-jaw chuck. You can get it at Lee Valley for around 6 bucks, worth every penny. You'd spend more on band-aids if this thing bites you!!

Scraping By

2011-05-04T18:00:00.003-04:00

Time for a confession, for a long time, I never used a card scraper. I found them too hard to sharpen, and all I ever got was dust and burned fingers. But, after many years it has become a favorite. I use it to clean up tear out, glue smears, and general smoothing. I really like the little card scrapers made by Sandvic. I've tried the Lie-Nielsen, and the one I have I find a little thin. I tend to like a thicker scraper. Here you can see how I put the scraper about 1 1/2 inches from the edge of the bench and hold the burnisher so it touches the edge of the scraper and the bench at the same time, and run it down a few times. This sort of cleans up the edge, and draws out the edge.

There are a bunch of articles and tons of advice to sharpen a scraper; I'll just cover a couple tips that work for me. First off, the edge has to be polished and square--you should be able to fell an "edge" after squaring. If it feels round or dull, then you won't be able to turn a hook.

I think the biggest mistake people make with a scraper is by using a stone to hone the edge, the card scraper cuts a trough in the stone, and after a time, you end up rounding over the edges, which is exactly what you don't want. I use a couple pieces of MDF glued face to face, and I put a piece of wet dry sandpaper on a flat surface, and use the glued up pieces to hold the scraper at a right angle ( you can see the MDF block under my drawknife sharpening post) . The sandpaper doesn't round over the edges. So after the edge is square and polished ( I use 800 and then 1000 sand paper ), put a touch of oil on the edge, and lightly, and I stress lightly, run the burnisher over the edge at a right angle,

Then drop to about 3º or so. You don't need a big hook, nor do you want one. I breaks too easily and you really have to lay the scraper over to engage the edge. And here you can see the results, light fluffy shavings, not dust. I have a scraper plane but honestly I like the card scraper. I can work smaller areas and follow the little dips and problem areas without spending bunches of time flattening the whole piece. I now use a card scraper all the time, including on my pine chair seats.

Oh, to prevent burned fingers, use a small fridge magnet right on the scraper.

Oh #$^%$&!!!

2011-04-30T08:00:00.003-04:00

I'm cutting some dovetails here for a blanket chest for my daughter, Erinn. You can see her picture on my site under--About us. I usually cut them on the table saw using a fixture that holds the piece vertically, it works really well and is fast and precise. I've tried the the Leigh Jig, and I will still use it for a whole dresser, for example, but I don't use it that often, so it takes a while to re-learn it. So the table saw fixture works, although big pieces can get unwieldy.

Here I'm cutting the waste out with a little saw I made. One thing I like about the table saw is that the cut is big enough to easily get the saw blade in, and it really does speed up the chopping.

And here you see what happens when the pieces get big and unwieldy, Oh @$$%%#!! I caught the tip on the table saw blade and blew off the front. What to do? I didn't want to scrap the whole piece, so I fixed it as follows.

I used a biscuit joiner to cut down into the end of the pin, slicing off the blown up part. Below you can see how nice a cut it makes. I clamped it on to prevent making a small problem worse. Then chisel in from the face.

Maybe the most important part is picking a piece that matches not only the color but the grain pattern as well. Just take your time and hold the scraps pieces up the half pin and pick the best match.

Clamp on the new piece, leaving it fat and wide and long until the glue sets up. Don't rush the glue, but once it dries it's plenty strong.

Then after the glue is fully dry, back to the table saw and re-cut, and vi-o-la! perfect patch. Once the chest is assembled, you'd be hard pressed to find the fix.

Here you see the dovetails in line, the center one is the patched one, and I won't tell you which one on the below shot. The chest is coming along nicely, the panels look great and I can't wait to get the finish on it. Cherry is really a wonderful wood, and it only gets nicer with age.

On the home front, the shop mascot, Forrest, had to have surgery to remove some stuff he at that blocked up his G.I. He came thru the surgery well and seems just fine now. Kinda scary, though. There is so much in life we take for granted, but you just never know. Also, I'm reading IronWeed by William Kennedy. I read it in an English Lit. class in college, and decided to re-read it. A dark novel set in early 1900's Albany. Not for the faint of heart.

New Trick

2011-04-17T15:05:00.003-04:00

Here's a look at the leg joint I used on a table I made over the last little while. Normally, and in the past, I would have done some big mortise and tenons, but I wanted to have something that would be a little easier to move. So I used hanger bolts...

Which are basically a lag screw on one end and a threaded bolt (5/16 on these ones) on the other. I band sawed a flat, carefully marked the hole location, and used the drill press to drill the holes. A little wax, and I drove them in by double nutting them and using an impact driver with a 1/2" socket. Beats a wrench any day! You can see here how I plowed a couple dadoes to let in the piece that the leg bolts to. The angled piece is both screwed and glued in place. And then the bolts go thru and tighten up.

And here's the finished product. What impressed and surprised me was how tight this joint is. I had my doubts, but this is rock solid, and the legs can easily be taken off and stored inside the apron and top, should you ever have to move the table. The problem with tables is that you are moving a lot of air. But by securing the legs to the table, you're just moving a large flat bundle, no thicker than than the top would be anyway. So I learned a new trick. And if you didn't have the skill set or tools to make full blown mortise and tenons, you could use this method and end up with a leg to apron joint that is rock solid and easily moved.

Here are some ladles I've been making out of scraps. I draw the rough outline by eye, saw out on the band saw, and spin the handle on the lathe. The I shape the paddle with a band saw and finish with spokeshave. They don't take long to make, and are a good way to use scraps. I don't measure anything so they will all be a little different.

After they are scraped or sanded, I finish them with Walnut oil, and then off to the kitchen. I carve facets on the end with a small knife, sort of a signature.

Maple ( Walnut ) Ice Cream

2011-04-10T20:40:00.000-04:00

Well, the sap is about over. It was a weird year, I got a little more syrup than last year, about 2 1/2 gallons, but the sap never really seemed to run all that well. Good, but not great. But the sugar content was high, I ran a couple batched that were 24 gallons to one, which is really high. Less sap, more sugar, all worked out in the end. And the end is here, pulled the taps yesterday and cooking the last batch as I type. You can see here how the syrup gets darker as the season progresses. If you can, get to the sugar shack as early as you can, or ask for early syrup, there is a difference.

One thing we did last year, and believe me it will happen every year, is make maple walnut ice cream. Boy is it good. Cat is making it up right here...

What's the key? Well, I'll tell ya..

Wet walnuts!

Walnuts tossed with maple syrup...

Here's where the magic happens, an electric ice cream maker. Works a lot better than the hand crank one we used when I was a kid. I always thought that was the best ice cream, but this maple walnut is the best!

Before....

After!

Domino

2011-04-03T09:57:00.001-04:00

As I get older, I know I'm not getting smarter, but I'd like to think I'm getting wiser (not sure my wife would agree). And with that in mind, here's a shot of a table top that I'm doing. I found some wide red birch boards for the top, and in the past I would have tried to glue the whole thing up in one shot, nowadays I glue two boards together, then add a third, and finish off with the forth. I really is a much less frantic approach. And I think it save time in the end because I'm able to get the boards to line up better, which results in less planing and sanding.

This helps a lot too. It's a Festool Domino. Essentially it cuts a slot into a board, be it the end or side, and then you insert either a purchased floating tenon, or you can make your own. On this table, I used the purchased Dominos to help with the edge to edge alignment. By cutting slots and inserting the dominos, the two pieces will be perfectly level when you clamp it up. A biscuit joiner will also work. It works about the same, but the biscuit (a football shaped piece of compressed plywood) is quite a bit smaller. Which is fine for edge to edge, because you really don't need the strength because the glue joint is stronger than the wood. I use them just for alignment, and it does help.

Here's another use for the Domino. It cuts slots (mortises) into the end of the tabletop. I'm gonna put on a breadboard end, the piece laying on the top. This goes directly on the end and does two things. One, it covers the end grain of the table, and two, it keeps the table flat. The piece is glued in the middle, and pinned towards the end. The holes have to be slot shaped towards the edges to allow the top to move with changes in humidity. Anyway, the purchased dominos (tenons) I think are a little small for this application, so I made bigger ones out of some scrap birch, and glued them into the slots. Then, today hopefully, I will cut the matching slots in the breadboard, and glue the center and pin the edges. If I were to glue it all the way across, the top would split. The breadboard had to be able to float.

This shows how I used to do cut breadboard ends. I would mill a slot all the way down the middle of the board, and slide it over a mating notch (rabbet) on the table top ends. Then glue the middle and pin the ends. There are a lot of people who do it this way and there are a lot of woodworking books that tell you t do it this way. But when you look at this piece wood, there simply isn't much strength in this piece of wood. Case in point-- I made a coffee table for our house, and my son sat down on the end on the top, and snap, broke the breadboard right off. I had another break because the owner moved the table by lifting on the breadboard. Granted, probably shouldn't have done that, but still. So now, I cut slots and leave some meat between the slots, which should prevent this from happening again. Always evolve.

Here are a couple shots of a piece that joins the side of a big hutch I'm also building. I opted for dovetails on the ends of the rails for a couple reasons. First, it hold the side together and prevents them from bowing apart. Second, I didn't want to see any fasteners on the outside, because then I would have to run a molding around to hide the fasteners, which I didn't want. So by using the dovetails, I just glue it up and tap it into place, no fasteners and it provides a mechanical means to hold the case side together. I just cut the slots with a router and trim the dovetails with a bandsaw. I'm sure there are people who wonder why bother with dovetails when you won't see it on the finished piece. I do it because it's the best joint to use, regardless of whether or not you see it.

Couple more shots. The back piece is made the same way, and together they hold the case sides together. I'll post more pics of this hutch as I go along. It should be really nice. I'm also working on a new chair design, and a cherry bench with slip (upholstered) seat. I've never done one before. The bench and chair I hope to have done in time for a furniture show in June in Lincolnville Point, Camden area, Mid-coast Maine, http://www.mainehomedesign.com/midcoast-show-2011.html. If you plan on being in the area, be sure to check out the show, and stop in and see my booth. It's one thing to see my furniture on the website and blog, but you really should see it live to appreciate it.

Bending the Rules

2011-03-30T22:08:00.000-04:00

Back to the woodworking. I'm reheating a spindle here to straighten in out. You can see below how it dried with a kink in it, and to spokeshave it, I had to straighten it. I learned this little trick from Curtis Buchanan. I would have thought that once a piece, riven or not, was steamed and then dried, that was it, game over as far as bending was concerned. But Curtis showed me that heat bends wood, not heat and moisture. The steam is just a convenient way to get the heat to the wood, but the moisture had nothing to do with it, other than to prevent the piece from drying out.

So, by heating the spindle and putting some pressure on it, once the wood hits the right temperature, the wood will give and bend, pretty cool. Then just over bend a little bit, wait for it to cool a little bit, and then bingo, straight.

This shows what I do on the arms of a sack back or any chair with flat arms. Notice how flat the ends of the arms are relative to each other. I do this the same way, basically. I clamp the whole arm rail, hands up, in a shoulder vise and heat midway up the arm. I use a big adjustable wrench to hold the arm, again placing pressure on the hand, and you will feel arm give. Keep an eye on the hand, over bend a little, and keep flat relative to the other one. Or tipping slightly in, but not tipping out, and definitely not both tipping both the same way, that looks bad. It's nice to know that if the steam bending and drying leaves the hands a little funky, you can tweak them back in to shape.

www.leevalley.com has a great article on steam bending, look under the steam bending section of their catalog, and poke around til you find it. You can download it as a free PDF. One thing they say is that wood will compress a lot, but it will not stretch at all. And that's the whole idea behind straps. By using straps with a sturdy, definite end block, and cutting the pieces to closely fit between those two points, you compress the whole piece.

If you bend a piece of wood over your knee, say a branch, you'll notice that the half towards your knee bends fine. And roughly halfway out, the fibers tear apart, because they aren't able to stretch. So, by using the strap, you shift the midpoint to the outside, and thus all the bend becomes compression, which wood will do. I use straps to bend, all except the continuous arm. I think it's cheap insurance. I spend a fair bit of time prepping the piece, and I don't really find the strap a pain, so I use one. Check out the Lee Valley PDF, it really is informative.

Here's a coat rack I made awhile back, these bends were fun, except the ring, that was not fun, but overall I was happy the way this piece came out.

On the syrup front, the sap hasn't been running very well, maybe tomorrow the weather will be better. Fingers crossed.

Sugar Shack

2011-03-28T21:11:00.001-04:00


The Steam Man, actually this is the guy running the evaporators at a sugar shack we all went to this past weekend. It's the Salmon Brook Valley in Perham, just outside Caribou. One weekend a year they have pancakes and beans, and of course fresh maple syrup!

This shows the business end, where the firewood goes to boil the sap down. This operation was all business, 3200 taps, vacuum system, a reverse osmosis separator, and two big evaporators. I would have gotten better pics, but there was so much steam it was hard. The steam smells like syrup, which is a good thing.

Doors open,

Top side. I think the valve right there is where the finished syrup comes out.

The sap runs about 40 gallons to one gallon of syrup, so lots of steam!

Is that a camera?

Words you never want to say to me, "all you can eat pancakes with real maple syrup!" Boy these were good, the service was great, and the people were super, super nice. They had this maple butter that was unreal, plus maple ice cream

All done, can't wait til next year! That's Salmon Brook Valley in Perham, really nice people. Check it out if your local. I noticed a piece of curly maple in the firewood pile, and they let me take it home. I'll post the candlesticks when I get them done. Good time.

First Batch

2011-03-24T20:49:00.000-04:00

Told you this was maple syrup on the cheap. This is my "finishing" pot, the almost done sap goes into this pot where I can more closely monitor the temperature and the look of the sap. What I'm looking for is 219º F; when it hits that temp it's done, at least as far as I'm concerned. I also watch the bubbles, they get a glassy look to them. I don't really know all that much about boiling the sap, but I do get some sugar in the bottom of the jars. I don't really have a filtration system, I have a piece of felt that I pour the syrup thru, that's it.

This lobster cooker does the bulk of the boiling. I just pour the sap in and let it run, and change out the tanks as needed. I do it right in the garage. Not much to it, really. All you have to do it find some maple trees, buy some taps and hang some milk jugs. Then boil it off and watch the temperature. Some people finish it in the house on the stove. But don't boil it all down in the house-- The wall paper will fall off the walls! A lot of sugar laden humidity all over everything! You could use a BBQ grill, just keep it boiling. I don't get too wound up about the boiling. Just keep it going, and pull it when it hits 219º.

Here's Erinn, she helps me with the whole syrup project. The sap has yet to really start running great, I get about 3 gallons a day, maybe not even that much. It's still cold, and the sap doesn't start until 2-3 in the afternoon, and then it only runs for a couple hours. A big sugar shack near here got about 3,500 gallons of sap ( not syrup) last week. That sounds like a lot, but when the sap is running well, they can get that in a day!
This weekend we're going to a sugar shack where they are having pancakes and beans, and of course syrup and taffy, can't wait!

And here's the first batch of syrup, a little darker than I would have expected for this early, but it tasted so good, it has a buttery taste, different than the store bought. Just lighter and buttery, but I realize this is quite subjective. The output was good, this was about 12 gallons of sap for four and a half pints of syrup, which puts it at about 24 gallons to one, which is really good. Later it'll run about 30 or 40 to one. I shoot for about two gallons of syrup total; I give a few pints away and then we have enough to get thru the year. Good fun, and not really that much work. If you have a chance, get out and go to a sugar shack the see a real evaporator operation in action, and try some of the taffy!

Little Blackie, Shave Horse

2011-03-19T20:06:00.000-04:00

This is a nice shot of a cabinet I built to store some china. The original is at the Pleasant Hill, KY Shaker Village. The Shaker communities, as they moved further west, got a little bolder in their design. This one has a crown molding and turned legs. The original had solid ( blind ) door, put I put in divided glass doors. It's made from Cherry with pine back boards.

This is Little Blackie, well, sort of. It's my shaving horse, and it's use to shape the spindles and other parts of the chairs. Once you use one, you'll wonder how you got along without it. It's quite comfortable, and it really speeds up the process. The pedal at the bottom is pushed with your foot, which pivots the head and locks the piece in place.

The ramp just above the stick rule actually ratchets up and down to accommodate different size pieces, from rough pieces that look like firewood all the way down to the finished spindle. It works really well and makes the whole process faster and easier, which is good. I'm all about easier and faster. And yeah, the seat is padded!

This shows a closeup of the horse in action (giddy-up). It holds the piece very securely and yet allows the pieces to be quickly and easily moved and rotated. Subsequent blog entries will better explain the process of making a spindle, but this is the shave horse I use to do almost all my spindle and rail work. If it were more comfortable, I would fall asleep. My daughter Erinn loves it too, she helps me sometimes, not with a draw knife though!

Holding It Together

2011-03-17T21:46:00.004-04:00

Most all the spindles in my chairs are split and wedged, which holds them a lot more securely than glue can alone, especially as the pieces move in response to humidity changes. At the bottom of the spindle, where it goes into the seat, it is a blind hole, meaning that the hole does not go all the way thru, hence blind. As a result, the end is super dried down to 2-3% moisture content, and when this end is hammered into the 12-14% m.c. seat, along with glue, the end will never come apart. ( I picked a green chair because.....St. Paddy's Day! )

But on the top end of the spindle, the fit can't be that tight, or else you'd never get the rail or bow on. It's hard enough when it's a little loose! So the top end, seen here, the fit is a little loose, and the joint is tightened with a wedge.
The legs are the same deal, dried, split and wedged, which fills in any little gaps and in effect clamps the joint together.

Here you can see how the wedges can be used for a decorative effect on a chair that is not painted, as on the arm on a sack back bench. You can't see from this shot, but on the bottom side of the arm, where the bow protrudes out the bottom side, that end is also split and wedged, and then left fat. This prevents the bow end from being pulled back thru the arm, which is what you need. This is a very tricky joint, and while some builders will taper the bottom side and then taper the end of the bow, I prefer to run the end more or less straight, which allows me to fine tune the height of the bow. This is one of those times when looks are more important, and by making the ends straight, I can simply slide the bow end in and out until the height is sweet. Then I wedge the tops of the long spindles, and then finally the end of the bow. This way the bow is held firm and after the end is wedged, the bow is secure.

I love this shot, shows the arm stump top and the hand, which contrast beautifully against the walnut wedge. The arm is ash and the stump is sugar maple. Hey, speaking of which, the sap ran pretty good today, got about twenty gallons, start cooking over the weekend, can't wait.

This shows how the leg joint goes together, wedge ( 6 degrees ) shaped from the bottom, split on top, and then wedged from the top. You can clearly see how tight this gets, and because of the tapered hole the glue doesn't get scraped off when you put the leg in. Add to that the moisture content difference, and this is one chair that the legs won't loosen up on, unlike factory chairs.

Spring Ahead!

2011-03-13T20:40:00.004-04:00

Spring Ahead! It's that time again, Maple Syrup time! I had never done this before last year, but I decided to give it a try. I got some small plastic taps that are placed into the tree and then after cutting a small "T" shaped hole in the top of a milk jug, you hang it and wait for the sap to run. What you want is a nice sunny warm day and cold night, teens at night and thirties in the day, and sunny.

The sap, especially this early in the season, has a slightly sweet taste right out of the tree. Erinn is my official taste tester. Early like this, it takes about 30 gallons to get one gallon of syrup, and the early syrup is the best, it is lighter in color and taste, but honestly it's all good! One thing that's great is once the sap boils down a little I use it to make tea, it's great!

This is what it looks like when the spouts are in and the milk jugs are waiting. Like I said, this is maple syrup on the cheap. The spouts cost maybe 3 bucks a piece, and I cook the syrup on a lobster cooker til it starts to get thick, then I finish it on the side burner on my BBQ grill. I watch the temp and once it hits 7 degrees above boiling (219) its done. Then it's just a matter of having the canning jars steamed and ready, pour it over, and done.

I'll be sure to post a bunch of pics of the whole cooking process, and some shots of some real sugar camps in the area. I tend to go a little nuts with this whole syrup thing. I try to get a gallon and a half, six quarts, of finished syrup--that will get us thru the year plus I give a little away.

Couple parting shots of Forrest and an owl nest in the top of one of the trees I'm tapping. This tree is in pretty rough shape, but I still get some sap out of it.

It's a lot of work, but the syrup is worth it. I understand the price now when I buy some at the store, sort of like my furniture. Once you realize the work that goes into it, the price makes sense.

And They're Off!

2011-03-11T21:54:00.001-05:00


And they're off! This past weekend in Fort Kent, a small town about an hour north, had their annual dogsled race. They have different length races, including a long one over one hundred miles, which serves as a qualifier for the Iditerod.

We try to go up every year, it's really a fun time. The dogs are so focused and they want to RUN!!! Some of the teams come from as far away as Minnesota to run this race.

Here you can see a typical team, a motley crew of misfits but boy can they move. The first time we went I expected to see big dogs, but most of the dogs are small, maybe 60 to 70 pounds apiece.

And they are mostly mutts. I'll have to ask my friend Bob Johnson what kind they are exactly. It's amazing the love that the handlers have for the dogs, and the work that goes into having a team. These dogs have to be run year round, and you can't really travel, unless you have really good friends. I have two dogs and they're a lot of work, I can't imagine having 12 to 15!

Here are the leads of a beautiful team of Malamutes, big dogs, I can't imagine feeding a whole team. They were pretty. Also, hats off to the volunteers and sponsors who make the whole thing possible especially Irving Forest Products who pay the lions' share of the prize money. But obviously the teams do it for the love, not the money. Fun time all around.

Shot this on the way home, look at that sky.

Butternut

2011-03-05T23:03:00.000-05:00

This is one of my new favorite books. I don't have a Forestry degree ( English) so I'd always wonder what some of the trees on my property were. Now I knew a poplar from pine, and could pick out a maple, but honestly there were a lot of trees that I didn't know. So I picked up this little gem for ten bucks and use it all the time. Now I can tell a sugar maple from a soft maple, which is good when you want to tap trees for syrup, which is coming right up!

One interesting thing that has come up recently. I sometimes use butternut for chair seats, and unfortunately it is being killed off by a fungus. Well, I was surprised to learn that a clients son, Phil Crystal, is in graduate school at Purdue and he is studying, drum roll, butternut fungus. I've been emailing him and he was pretty excited that Maine has a population of butternut trees. There are not a lot of trees, but there are some. And Phil is hoping to study this population to find out if they are hybrids that my be resistant to the fungus. Too many of our trees have been killed off already, chestnut, elm, beech and now butternut. Hopefully some good can come out of this. And pick up the book and take a walk thru the woods, you'll never know what you'll find.

Longevity

2011-02-28T20:45:00.002-05:00

This shows how I turn the legs, and hopefully the bark shows two things. First, the pieces are split from the log. If you've watched the slide show, you'll see more on that. Second, you can infer that the pieces are green and wet. I used to turn them right after splitting, but now I rough them out, turning them into 2-3 inch rounds. Then I let them sit around for a few days, then I turn them; they tend to warp less this way.

One of the things that make my Windsor chairs last so long without coming loose is the way I use wet-dry joinery. As you can see, I turn the stretcher green and then I wrap the bulb ( where the stretcher will later enter) with tin foil. This allows me to then super dry the tenons in my little roll around kiln. Wood shrinks when it dries, and swells when it picks up moisture. So by keeping the part where the tenon will go green, or at least a much higher moisture content than the tenon, the piece will shrink around the tenon, and the tenon will swell slightly, locking the two pieces together for years and years. The main problem with a round tenon and a round drilled hole is that they both swell and shrink the same amount. This is why factory chairs fall apart, all the wood is the same moisture content. But by using wet-dry joinery, all the problems are avoided.

This shows how I dry the ends of the legs that go into the seats. The roll-around cart is covered with blue board and there is a small heater in the cart. This keeps the temperature around 110 degrees, which translates to an EMC of 4%. I only put the ends in thru the top, because remember that the rest of the legs have to stay wet. Not only is the end tapered to match the tapered hole ( 6 degrees) and the split and wedged, but the end is also superdried to about 4% M.C.. By having the seat about 12% M.C., the seat then shrinks onto the super dried tenons, locking them together. Add the fact that they are tapered and wedged, and throw in a little hide glue, and that leg will last forever.

Speaking of stuff lasting, here's a pic of a holdfast that I bought from Phil Koontz in Alaska. These are true blacksmith made tools, and they will last longer than I will. The point I'm making here is that, like my chairs, this is built to last. I buy them once and that's it. They don't break; they don't need to be replaced every three years. My chairs are the same. They are made from local woods that are completely sustainable, and they are built such that they will last generations. So which has less environmental impact? A chair built in China with woods from a rain forest that has to be shipped halfway around the world that has to be replaced every three years, or a chair like mine, that is built from sustainable woods, locally made, and bought once. And which represents a better value?

Mission Statement

2011-02-23T22:07:00.001-05:00

Boat theme this post. This is the form for the the small flat bottomed skiff I started last summer. Didn't get it finished, but I did get the sides planked, the bottom planked and caulked (I went with pine boards with a spline and cotton caulk) and the inner and outer stem and faired. Oh, and the transom. And the keel and skeg. It really amazed me how long the various steps took. I'd like to think I'm pretty good with hand tools, and when the plans said beginners should do x step in so much time, it left me wondering who these beginners were.

Anyway, here's a side shot, showing the battens that allow the planks to be spiled and faired. In other words, it gives a way to place the planks so they look nice and even, and don't end up lumpy. I'll tell ya, fairing the stem was tricky tricky. One thing that is hard is knowing what is good and what isn't. What I mean by that is like with the chairs, I now know what will work and what won't, so I know immediately what to do. But when I started out, I would spend bunches of time just trying to figure out if something would work. Same with the boat. I couldn't just move from step to step, I had to figure out how to make stuff perfect, which is good, but I think a lot of stuff was close enough.

Here's the transom and where the bottom plank meets the deadwood. I didn't know any of these terms either, really learned a lot on this one. Like the importance of proper countersinking and the magical abilities of epoxy and 3M caulking.

Tangent--Here's the brand I use to sign my chairs once they are done and pass muster. It may sound corny, but this is the last thing I do on a chair or a piece of furniture. I look it over and then put my name on it, so future generations will know who built this piece. Which brings me to a mission statement---

I saw this mission statement doing a homework assignment for a business class and now this copy hangs in my shop. It sums up exactly my philosophy on building my furniture. I'd say more, but I don't have to.

See how I brought the ship theme around...

Oneway Balance System

2011-02-17T20:52:00.001-05:00

Here's the business end of turning, sharpening. I use the bench grinders for this. A www.Deltatools.com variable speed that I got at www.lowes.com that works pretty well, and actually came with one good wheel, usually they come with a grey wheel that is too hard. The tool tends to heat up as the wheel becomes clogged. The white ( or blue) grinding wheels have a softer bond that allows the wheel particles to fracture which exposes fresh cutting particles. I have two grinders, one used for grinding my big gouges and sharpening drill bits, and the other for sharpening the cut-off tool and the smaller gouges. The is also, in the background, the strip sander from www.leevalley.com that I mentioned in the sharpening a scorp post. And under the towel is a wwww.worksharptools.com 3000 sandpaper sharpener. It works pretty well, and is my go to tool for sharpening chisels and such, it is fast.

This shot shows a balancing system from www.oneway.ca and boy does it work. The whole idea is that grinding wheel have to be balanced, and this little rig does just that. I think it makes a huge difference. Like when I sharpen my 3/8 detail gouge. Before, it would bounce on the wheel. Now, with the wheel balanced, it just lays right on the wheel, no vibration at all. I had a wheel from www.nortenindustrial.com that shook so bad I thought the spindle was bent. I balanced the wheel, and viola! no vibration, at all. This system is spendy, and a pain to set up, though not hard, but it does work. I try not to push tools, but this one does work.

One note, make sure that when you order the wheels for this system, you need a 1" bore hole in the wheel. Ask me how I know that.

Here is really the most important tool in sharpening. Tom Lie-Nielsen at www.lie-nielsen.com said the same thing in a podcast, and I think he's right. You have to be able to see what you're doing, and by marking the blade, whether a chisel or lathe gouge, you can see exactly where you are contacting the stone. It really is important, doubly so if your just starting out.

This is the jig I made to sharpen my big gouges, here they are piggybacking to show a point. They base is just a piece of oak with a slot cut in it, then on the end is a small pocket created with wood scraps to hold the end of the tool. The rear one is elevated, but I can't remember why. The lower one has a 1/4" bolt that goes in the slot, and allows the smaller roughing gouge to be sharpened without any adjustment.

This grinder rounds out the sharpening station. One the left is a www.leevalley.com tool rest that I sharpen my parting tool with, and on the right is a jig that puts a fingernail grind detail gouges. Mine is from www.robertsorby.co.uk and it works pretty well. I think I got the Sorby jig from www.woodcraft.com. All this stuff, grinders and grinding wheels, is pretty standard stuff. I'll do a more detailed post on the roughing gouge jig in the future. One last thing, when you turn, even green wood, you have to sharpen a lot! More than you think. Get used to it, and do it often.

Frozen lemons

2011-02-12T19:55:00.001-05:00

Winter is here, been here for a few months already, and everyone is feeling a little goofy. They call it SAD (seasonal affective disorder) but I call it DSOW (damn sick of winter!) This tree is frozen solid, -25 when this pic was taken, I would have taken more pics but my camera froze, no joke. One amazing thing was last weekend in Presque Isle the European sport of biathlon came to our neck of the woods. The IBU biathlon came to a local cross country park, the Nordic Heritage Center, for a one of their scheduled events. It was amazing to see some of the best athletes in the world in our little town.

But here are the sad results of winter here in Northern Maine. Little Brenna has taken it the hardest. So, what to do? Well, use the shavings from the chair work to have a cookout! I load the barrels onto the tote sled and take them to the burn pile, and then we have a cookout to beat back the winter blues. Doesn't make winter any shorter, but when life gives you lemons, you forget them in the garage, and they freeze and...., well, then they are frozen, that doesn't make any sense.

Try that again, When the chairs give you shavings, build a fire and make s'mores, even if it is only ten above. They're just as good, a little hot chocolate, perfect. Take that old man winter!

See, works like a charm...

Forrest doesn't care, just give him a stick to chase.

Philly Comb Back, Full Circle

2011-02-06T20:27:00.001-05:00

Here's the aforementioned chairs that really got me thinking that I wanted to build Windsors. It is based squarely on one that Curtis Buchanan builds. I changed the legs a little, and omitted the brace spindles, but kept the built-up arm ( which looks awesome), the shield seat and the Philly turnings for the legs. I also made the arm posts extra long, I think it looks better, plus I wanted the arms higher.

The finish is black milk paint layered over barn red with a base of conifer green. I only have one coat of oil on it so far; I'll put on two or three more. This shot shows the knuckles, I can't wait for the black paint to wear thru to the red and then green, should look pretty cool.

Bird's eye view. Lately I have doing the pommel a little different, moving it from a single point to a ridge running down the middle, it looks nice on the shield seats and bifurcates the seat. Also the seat front comes to a point, like a bow, that adds visual interest to the front.

I think it's a solid rendition, but I also wanted to be ready to do it. I didn't want to buy the legs, use dowels for the spindles, etc.. I didn't want some half-ass attempt--I wanted to be able to copy it, but more than that I wanted to make it my own. So I guess you could say that after six years of building. I've come full circle. I'm really happy with the results, a very gratifying milestone.

Hammer and Nails

2011-02-03T21:31:00.000-05:00

I gotta tell you, I love building chairs. I think they are really the peak of the craft. You start, with my Windsors anyway, with a log and a pine plank, and end up with a chair. And anytime I do a new chair, I have to do two, because unlike a cabinet, you never can know how it will look; and more importantly how it will sit. You never know, so I always build one, and then analyze, look, sit, look some more.

Then I figure out what I would change, how long the legs are, how the back feels. After all this I build a real chair, and that one, hopefully, becomes the one that looks and sits just right. I joke that all the chairs in my house are prototypes, save for a couple. That's why I only take orders, I can't really sell a chair that I don't feel is as close to perfect as I can get it.

I am almost done a chair that really started it all. A few years ago, maybe 8 or so, I saw an article on Curtis Buchanan, and in the article there was a picture of comb back arm chair that just struck me. It had Philly turnings for the legs, shield seat, carved knuckles, everything. I knew I wanted to build one, but I had never built a chair. So I took a couple classes and fast forward 8 years, and it's almost done. I can't wait to put the oil on it. Should post it in a few days.

I love building chairs, really, but they are challenging. There are only two right angles, on the whole chair. Everything else is some angle, and a lot of intuition. I wonder sometimes if you get technically better, of course you do, but also important is to trust your eye as much as your tape. Fairness--if it looks good, it is good.
So why this small cabinet? First, I love the color and finish, and second, sometimes it's nice to build something with a hammer and nails!

ps. note the Cow Jumping Over the Moon on the top of the cabinet in the top post, Erinn, my daughter,and I built it.

Scorp sharpening

2011-01-29T20:48:00.005-05:00

Here's the setup I use for sharpening a scorp, inshave, call it what you will. I have two, one from Barr Barr Tools and it is sweet, great shape and you can really generate some power. The blade is almost a circle, not flat like some. I have a flattish one from Drew Langsner ( in the pic), and it works well, and it is beautifully crafted, but I just prefer the Barr. But honestly I use both, I just find that the Barr can do more brutish work, whereas the one from Drew is able to do finer work, one step closer to finish.

At any rate, I struggled for years trying to sharpen these things, with very limited results. After some very bad results, and out of frustration, I tried this strip sander, there had to be a way. The problem was the table on mine, from Lee Valley, didn't tip far enough to give the proper angle. But by clamping a piece of 2x4 to the face, and tipping a little bit, ( I just eyeball the angle relative to the bevel of the blade ) I can sharpen the blade very quickly, and by using the various grit belts that you can get from Lee Valley, I can get it razor sharp. I don't mean kinda sharp, I mean razor sharp. It also does a great job on kitchen and pocket knives.

You can see here that I removed the piece of steel that backs up the belt as well. By doing this, it gives a little flex to the belt, which in turn gives a slight rounding to the edge, so that you can get into a cut and then get back out of it. It really doesn't work that well if all the blade does is dig, and keep digging. You need to be able to start a cut and then lift back out of it, leaving a smooth surface instead of a big nasty chunk torn out. I use the scorp for most of the rough work on a seat, and actually a fair bit of the final stages. Always try to work across the grain, and downhill, but let the wood tell you the best way. Also, try turning off any lights that are right overhead, instead let a raking light show you where the tearout is. I follow up with a compass plane, and finally a couple different travishers, more on those later.

I should say here that, as much as possible, I'll stick to chair and furniture building. I read some other blogs, and they always seem so much wittier than mine, and their lives more interesting. I figure if you want wit and book reviews and diatribes on the virtues of vegan living, you already know where to go. I won't bore you with that stuff, and while I will mention books ( I do have an English degree) that I like, or family or dogs, I will try to stay on task. There, I'll get off my soapbox.

Built In

2011-01-26T21:12:00.001-05:00

This shows a built-in I built to enclose a pellet stove ( had to do something with oil getting so expensive) we put in. It sat all alone for awhile, and finally I built this surround. The good thing is the cabinets are on casters, so they can be rolled out of the way if the stove needs to be serviced. I never realized how out of place the stove looked until the cabinets were done.

Here's a blanket chest/ window seat flanked by closets. Erinn loves to sit here and read. Somewhere there's a picture of her sleeping here, I'll find it again. Put it on my list. It's a long list. I like doing built-ins; the thing that amazes me is how quickly people are able to overlook things, like they just become part of the landscape, like a blue tarp. And then you finish the project, and all you wonder is why you didn't finish it sooner. This chest is red birch, hard to find and work, but stunning.

Equilibrium Moisture Content

2011-01-21T20:47:00.002-05:00

For some reason, I couldn't add text, so here it is. The table you see is an Equilibrium Moisture Content chart. What this charts does it show you, given the temperature and relative humidity ( RH), where the piece of wood's moisture content, given a sufficient amount of time, will be at those environmental conditions. For example, if the temp. is 120 and the RH is 60, the EMC ( moisture content) will be, eventually, 9.7. I should say here that I used to run dry kiln for ten years, drying mostly white pine and hard maple. While the methods and terminology I used in that industry are a little different, the principles are the same. The only thing different about a kiln is that higher temps are used to dry the wood faster, but the wood undergoes essentially the same process, free and then bound water are driven off as the MC drops, and eventually the MC falls into the target zone, 6-8 % for hardwoods and 8-10 % for the pine. As the woods dries, it shrinks and stiffens, and in the case of pine, some of the turpens are driven off, leaving the pitch hard and set. Think pitch bleed. The same process takes place when wood is air dried, it just takes a lot longer because the environment can't be controlled. You're at the mercy of the weather, and if it's raining, you may actually be adding moisture to the wood, even if the wood is in a shed out of the rain. You must remember that wood is hygroscopic, it always gains and loses moisture to try to equalize with the environment. A finish can slow the process, but not stop it. That's why a tight door in August swings freely in February, at least here in Maine.
One other thing to remember, and where I'm going with this, is that green wood, MC above 70 %, say, must be slowly dried at first, or else you'll get cracks, see the top pic. The gauge below shows why the piece cracked, too dry, waaaay too dry. I turned it dead green, and left it in the basement at the conditions on the gauge, which would put the EMC at 6.1, which is way too fast right off the bat. When I used to run kilns, I would start the maple at 100 F and RH about 90%, EMC about 20 %, not 6. So, the drying must be slowed down, what to do. Well, just put the turning in a paper bag for a day or so, this will slow the drying enough to prevent cracking. In case your wondering why wood cracks when it dries, the wood on the outside of the piece dries first. And as the wood dries, it shrinks and becomes stiff. So the outside is dry and stiff, but the inside is still wet. So as the inside dries, it too shrinks, but the outside can't move as readily, and at a certain point the shrink forces become greater than the strength of the wood and CRACK! the outside gives way. So choose paper instead of plastic when you stock up for the games on Sunday ( Go Packers and Jets!) Wicked cold tonite, and the next few days, at least I have a use for the cracked leg, it'll get really dry in the fireplace!

EMC

2011-01-21T19:23:00.001-05:00

EMC Table
Relative Humidity Percent	Ambient Air Temperature - Degrees Fahrenheit
0	30	40	50	60	70	80	90	100	110	120	130
5	1.4	1.4	1.4	1.3	1.3	1.3	1.2	1.2	1.1	1.1	1.0
10	2.6	2.6	2.6	2.5	2.5	2.4	2.3	2.3	2.2	2.1	2.0
15	3.7	3.7	3.6	3.6	3.5	3.5	3.4	3.3	3.2	3.0	2.9
20	4.6	4.6	4.6	4.6	4.5	4.4	4.3	4.2	3.0	3.9	3.7
25	5.5	5.5	5.5	5.4	5.4	5.3	5.1	5.0	4.9	4.7	4.5
30	6.3	6.3	6.3	6.2	6.2	6.1	5.9	5.8	5.6	5.4	5.2
35	7.1	7.1	7.1	7.0	6.9	6.8	6.7	6.5	6.3	6.1	5.9
40	7.9	7.9	7.9	7.8	7.7	7.6	7.4	7.2	7.0	6.8	6.6
45	8.7	8.7	8.7	8.6	8.5	8.3	8.1	7.9	7.7	7.5	7.2
50	9.5	9.5	9.5	9.4	9.2	9.1	8.9	8.7	8.4	8.2	7.9
55	10.4	10.4	10.3	10.2	10.1	9.9	9.7	9.5	9.2	8.9	8.7
60	11.3	11.3	11.2	11.1	11.0	10.8	10.5	10.3	10.0	9.7	9.4
65	12.4	12.3	12.3	12.1	12.0	11.7	11.5	11.2	11.0	10.6	10.3
70	13.5	13.5	13.4	13.3	13.1	12.9	12.6	12.3	12.0	11.7	11.3
75	14.9	14.9	14.8	14.6	14.4	14.2	13.9	13.6	13.2	12.9	12.5
80	16.5	16.5	16.4	16.2	16.0	15.7	15.4	15.1	14.7	14.4	14.0
85	18.5	18.5	18.4	18.2	17.9	17.7	17.3	17.0	16.6	16.2	15.8
90	21.0	21.0	20.9	20.7	20.5	20.2	19.8	19.5	19.1	18.6	18.2
95	24.3	24.3	24.3	24.1	23.9	23.6	23.3	22.9	22.4	22.0	21.5
98	26.9	26.9	26.9	26.8	26.6	26.3	26.0	25.6	25.2	24.7	24.2

Version 1.0.5

Hit the brake

2011-01-19T22:42:00.001-05:00

This shows splitting some ash for spindles, rails, etc.. One thing that can make ash tough to split is, ironically, the fact that it split so well. What I mean by this is that it tends to just pop right apart, so the degree to which you can steer a split is somewhat limited. By steering I mean usually you try to split parts in half, equal mass on both sides of the froe blade. On an earlier post I talked about the froe, now more on the brake and how to split. The brake is made of 2x12's and has holes drilled thru it to hold pipes, which in turn holds to pieces of wood. I really helps, I'm not sure how you would do it otherwise. Anyway, with the brake holding the piece, the froe goes to work splitting the wood. What you always want to do is put the heavy side of the piece down, towards the ground, and pull down on the froe handle. This will actually move the split, causing it to move towards the heavy side. Watch the split as it progresses, and you may have to flip the piece a few time before the piece is rendered in two. This process can take some getting used to, but once you get it, you can split pieces closer to the finished size, no more making spindles out of 2x4 sized pieces!

This happens often, and as I've said, you always want to split pieces with equal mass, so what to do. Well, what I do is to flatten one face with a drawknife, and then pencil some lines, roughly in thirds in this case, then I rip the pieces on the bandsaw, carefully following the grain. I have tried to split off one third, but haven't had much luck. So I bandsaw them out, and then work them with the drawknife, carefully following the grain. Try to split equal pieces, but when you can't, as long as you saw carefully, you can make spindles that are perfectly alright, and save wood in the process.

One great thing about having a five year old, well, there are a lot, but one is that everything gets painted, everything! Which is great, and, TADA!!! here is my splitting brake, froe, and froe club. I turned the club from a piece of horphobeam ( hornbeam) that Jeff Hemphill gave, the same guy who gave me the froe. Never hit the froe with a metal hammer, you can break the blade, plus you'll mushroom the backedge. So get some 2x12's, cobble up a brake, and get a froe and split some wood. This simple act is critical to the strength of the chairs because the grain runs all the way from one end to the other. Sawed lumber has grain runout, whereas split pieces are much stronger because the grain runs all the way.

Cherry Dresser

2011-01-16T20:20:00.001-05:00

Cherry chest of drawers I built for our daughter Erinn.

Same dresser, note how the dividers are dovetailed into the sides.

Reaming

2011-01-15T19:24:00.000-05:00

This is the basic setup for reaming legs. Your looking at the bottom of the seat, and the sightlines have been transferred to the bottom. The leg holes have been drilled ( 5/8), and I have the square, bevel gauge and reamer ( 6 degree) is in the hole. The reamer works like a charm. It is a turned piece of hickory with a slot cut in it, and in that slot is a piece of steel sharpened like a scraper. One big advantage is that the scraper cuts from both sides, so it always stays centered in the cut. I got mine from Elia Bizzari at handtoolwoodworking.com. He sells these reamers and the matching tapered rounders, which also work great. By using both tools, you get a perfect mating when the leg is inserted. There are several reasons for tapered tenons. Once you get comfortable with the reaming, you can fine tune the legs, stumps for perfect alignment. It also makes assembly easier, and when you insert the leg, the glue doesn't get squeezed out. Then you split the end of the leg and insert the wedge, and that leg will never come loose. Add some stretchers, and you have an undercarriage that will last generations. But more on the reaming.

Here's the look down the gun barrel. The square is aligned with the sight line, perpendicular to it, and the tip of the reamer is then aligned with the square. The easiest way is to line up the square with the sight line, then find the tip and ream until it lines up. As for the tilt out, lay the bevel gauge on the side of the reamer (remember to set the gauge to three degrees less than the desired angle, half of six) and ream to keep the angle correct. Its easier to do than I've indicated here... practice on some scrap until you become comfortable. A couple other things. I used to shape the seat and then ream, but now I ream while the seat is flat. After reaming and adjusting, I then saddle the seat. Its really easier, and I've never had problems tearout around the holes. The other tool is the bevel boss angle finder. I first used it on boats, before I started chairs, and it allows you to set the angle quickly and accurately.

This is a shot of a dummy leg, simply a 1 1/4 strait turning that has been reamed on the end. I have a couple of notches turned into it. As I ream, I test the reaming depth with the dummy leg, and once the end peaks out, I set a second bevel gauge to the height of the notch, and use this second gauge to make sure the four legs are reamed to the same depth.
I've tried other methods, and this is by far the easiest and most accarate. Now I just have to find a buyer for my old reamer.

Shadow play

2011-01-13T21:31:00.001-05:00

Rod Back

Sack Back

Same chair.

Nice Legs

2011-01-11T20:49:00.001-05:00

Here are some, most actually, of the legs I turn for various legs. From the top down--baluster, Philadelphia, modified Philly ( used sometimes as the back legs ) vase, bamboo, and lastly double bobbin. All the legs are turned from green, split maple. The legs stock is split so the grain end to end, this results in a much stronger leg. Factory legs are made from sawed stock, and as a result often the grain runs out, resulting in a broken leg.

Here are the legs that don't pass muster, my daughter paints them (sparkly pink and sparkly purple, nice job, I'd say. This way I don't feel so bad about screwing one up. Watching my daughter learn to skate ( she's 5) reminded me of when I learned to turn. I fell down a lot, and most days I felt I blew more details than not, but I kept practicing and falling, and practicing and falling. And while I still fall every now and then, it's a lot less then before. Like I said, turning can be a frustrating skill to master, but so is skating. Just keep at it, you'll be doing a triple lutz before long. And if you can't do it, contact me and maybe I can help you out. Keep at it.