Last Minute Door Update

Cutting Tenons

















I was just dumping my digital camera getting ready for summer vacation and realised I had some pics of the tenons being sawn for the door project. I'm using my 14" Rip saw and my 12" carcass both by Lie Nielsen. Here is some of the progress.






















To begin a nice deep scribe line with my favourite marking gauge establishes the tenons width; in this case they're all 5/8" thick, 3" deep and the rails being cut here are just under 7" wide. The Quarter Sawn White Oak is hard and unforgiving so make sure you have sharp tools when working this kind of wood. I'll go back and forth over the pieces to get these lines as deep as the small cutter on the gauge will allow. The base lines are all established with my engineers square off of one reference edge and then one reference surface.

















I begin each cut with a small kerf at the far side of the piece and then slowly establish the straight line across the piece using the back heel of my saw plate. I can bear down and get a nice deep kerf established with this method of using the heel of the saw where the teeth remain the sharpest. Once the kerf is adequate I begin the sawing; I saw down until my back saw just about bottoms out and then I'll rotate the work piece in my tail vise and continue on from this opposite side.
















You'll notice in the video below I'll use my Ryoba to finish off the cut to the required depth. From here I get out my miter hook and another bench hook to support the Oak and cross cut to the shoulder line. Again I'll slowly begin the kerf using the heel of my saw plate and work my way down into the cut. Finish sawing with the work piece back in the tail vise and the Japanese pull saw to complete.

















I'll do all of the rails and moulions for the entire door before I mark the pieces to saw the haunches in the tenons. In the shot above you can see the first haunches are cut in the small moulion. It's one slow step at a time in the Unplugged Woodshop. Enjoy the process and try to split these lay out lines. The video below will show the procedure...as always, I was spinning some vinyl...Neil Young's, 'After the Gold Rush' one of his best and still one of my favourites. To get a good idea of the time line to complete this one cut you may notice by the end of the job the record needed to be turned over! Ahh the joys of vinyl. Cheers!

Taking a Break

Home to the Island...Cape Breton

















Over an ocean and over a sea
Beyond these great waters, oh what do I see?
I see the great mountains
Climb from the coastline
The hills of Cape Breton, this new home of mine
Oh they come from the countries all over the world
To hack at the forest, to plow the land down
Fishermen, farmers and sailors all come
To clear for the future this pioneer ground
We are an island, a rock in a stream
We are a people as proud as there's been
In soft summer breeze or in wild winter winds
The home of our hearts, Cape Breton

These words are taken from Kenzie MacNeils 'The Island'

Well it's been a busy few weeks around here and I'm getting through the door build. I have all of the mortise and tenons cut with the panels and mouldings to go. My original plan was to finish the door over the next week or two and then head East to Cape Breton for a much needed summer vacation. My client has informed me that they're doing some major basement renovations on their home and won't really be needing the door for at least the next two months so he suggested I leave when ever I can and finish the door when I return at the end of August. So with that, I'm putting the build on hold and heading back home to Cape Breton this weekend.
The photo above is looking down from the highlands towards Cheticamp, a small Acadian village a short drive from our home. We actually do all of our grocery shopping here and some of the spalted Maple I used in one of my book projects came from this area.
It's been a great year, the 13 projects I made, six which make up my book that'll be launched in November. Made by Hand, Furniture Projects from the Unplugged Woodshop for those that didn't know already. I've actually been doing alot of re-shoots and re-writes trying to make it as good as I can throughout this past month. I'm really looking forward to getting it out there and getting some feedback on the projects. Each book will included a free DVD titled 'A Beginners Guide to Hand Tool Essentials'
The book, as I understand it will be available in hardcover through most online book stores such as Amazon and the like. If you're interested I'll be offering some pre-orders here in the late summer/early fall, these will all be signed copies and include the DVD as well as a bonus music CD I recorded awhile back. It will also have a bonus project section offered only to pre-order customers. It's basically an extra chapter with a new design that didn't make it into the original text of the book. I'll keep you posted on the details.
As for the next few weeks I won't be blogging as often, being in a rural setting doing all of those summer time things we do up here as Canadians; fishing and swimming, hiking and drinking beer... it'll be rough getting to a computer to write! (not from all of the beer but from the lack of a high speed internet connection out there)
So with that I wanted to say thanks for all of the support and comments everyone has been leaving over the course of the winter book project and now into the spring and summer seasons. The door project will be completed when I get back for those who were interested in following the process. I'll keep you posted on the summer time festivities and will hopefully be announcing some other cool news and projects for the fall.
It'll be a buzz getting back home to the old boat shop full of my power tools...after the 'hand tool only' year I've had I'll probably go all power-tool-crazy and start making lots of dust and noise! I know I have an angle grinder and brand new carving disk back home that's never been used...maybe some sculpted seats in a slab of heavy Maple...something for around the camp fire perhaps? I'm also looking forward to seeing my timber frame all stacked and waiting to be worked on some more. I have quite a pile of maple and beech that should be pretty dry. This will get rough milled while I'm out there and make the trip back here to the city for future projects come the fall.
Like I said I'll do my best to keep everyone up to date on my projects-so with that, have a great summer and happy shavings.
Cheers and thanks again!

Woodworking in America

Registration is Now Open








Big news for anyone wishing to attend this years Woodworking in America Conference; registration is now open!

The scheduled events provide in-depth explorations of subjects important to woodworkers and are brought to you by two of the most trusted names in woodworking information—Popular Woodworking and Woodworking Magazine. Presented by leading experts in the fields of woodworking, tools and furniture, the Conference sessions are useful and informative (and also a ton of fun!) for woodworkers of all skill levels and interests. In addition, the Marketplace area lets you try out the newest woodworking tools, talk to their makers and find the right equipment for your workshop.

I hope to see you there!

Mark Harrell

aka ~ Bad Axe Tool works

















Here's another quick update from Mark at Technoprimitives. He recently sent me some new pics and an update on his back saws. I've been lucky to be able to correspond with him over this past year; to watch as he gears up to launch a new business is an exciting thing for sure. From the initial ideas of his logo and etchings to the spectacular medallions and environmentally friendly packaging I wonder what it takes to make this kind of leap of faith into a market that is really a niche to most. I've often thought about how Tom Lie Nielsen must have felt 25 years ago, when he first left the security of a day job to begin his own dream...a boat load of courage and a whole lotta love besides the sheer talent it takes to manufacture a top quality hand tool. Then to turn this ideas into a reality, a flourishing business-especially through this past year of economic uncertainties. If Marks saws are anything like the magic he puts back into the vintage hand saws he's been refurbishing these past few years then I really don't think he'll have any problems. Maybe I'll be blogging about him and all of his success with Bad Axe Tool Works in 25 years from now!
Stay tuned...

Chopping a Haunched Mortise

This is not Paul Simons Door

Well I'm busy as hell and goin' crazy like a bag of hammers...chopping out the mortises these last few days I don't have time for a full blog so I thought I'd post a video with a few minutes of real time working. The quality is 'Blair Witch' shaky and the audio track is my old record player in the corner...I was listening to Graceland-Paul Simon's wonderful album from way back when? How old am I now? This is one of the best parts of a hand tool shop, being able to work and listen to records. Bet you can't say that over the deafening drone of a table saw!
In this clip I'm chopping the haunched portion of the mortise using a massive Hirsch Mortise Chisel,(by the size of these things I can only assume they're manufactured in the magical land of Giants where everyone has hands like silver back gorillas.) Then I establish the depth of the haunched portion with my Veritas Large Router plane. I clean out the waste with a swan neck chisel from Henry Taylor in England and some paring with a large Japanese bench chisel. I think that covers it...sorry for the rushed post but I've gotta keep going on this.
Cheers.

Exterior Wooden Door Part Two

A Closer Look at Mortising using a Brace and Bit

I had a few comments from my last post and thought it would make sense to answer them here. Been busy this week so I apologise for the delay. To start off with, no...I won't be publishing the address of my clients home where this door is destined so you can do a 'drive by'...they may not think that's such a good idea! :) As for a template, I tried to get some shots of the one I made; sorry for the quality but with the low ceiling in the basement shop I can't get the entire template in one shot so I'll try to sketch a diagram for my next post. I basically just cut out a piece of luan to match the finished door size and then carefully drew to scale all of the elements of the finished piece...joinery, rails, stiles etc... I was asked about the process I've been using to cross cut the rails with a inadequate size back saw. I actually took a few approaches to this and will describe it here; for the bottom rail as well as the mid-locking rail I started the cut on the board edge to establish a square kerf on either side. I then proceeded to make two passes working in from each surface. This worked well and the edge kerfs gave a track for my back saw to follow. The upper rails are thinner in width so I just made the two surface cuts meeting somewhere in the center of the board. When I lay out these lines I'm careful to work off of only my reference face and edge to keep things as accurate as possible. Once the sawing is complete I'll use a large paring chisel when it comes time to square off the end; if I was working with thinner stock then this would be accomplished on my shooting board but for 1 3/4" stock I prefer a chisel to say a low angle block plane. (Just my personal preference-either way works.) I hope that explains the cross cut system I follow; I should say that I used my bench hook as well as my miter hook for these large timbers...you can see my set up in the first photo. I considered my saw bench and did a test cut with my panel saw but with my limited shop space and the nature of this Oak I had better results with my large Lie Nielsen back saw. (still waiting for the 'Bad Axes' to arrive...won't be soon enough!!) With everything cross cut, ripped and surface planed square I lay out the mortises. These will be 5/8" thick and range from 2 1/2" to 3" deep. They all have 1" deep by 1" wide haunches but will be later cut down when the door panels get introduced. The 3" ones are on the stiles and wider lower rails and the 2 1/2" for the top 5" rail. The upper window rail gets a relatively shallow 1" mortise. I actually started with that one to get into the feel of the Oak and get a rhythm for the work. I have a great old Millers Falls brace I cleaned up about 4 years ago and it's been my daily user ever since. It's a standard 6" sweep but I don't have any issues with this smaller size. A sharp, straight bit really helps as well and I'm using a vintage Irwin auger bit I purchased for a couple of dollars at a local antique dealer. It only has one spur and is a perfect size...9/16" so I'm left with a small amount of waste to clean off the inside cheeks of each 5/8" mortise after drilling. This is a good thing-I'd never want to use a bit the exact size of my finished mortise due to the slight tear out and human error involved in the process. Even after I clearly define a center mark to register my bit some holes seem to drift ever so slightly. I figure this is mainly due to fatigue and mind meandering while performing the task. A reader mentioned using a brace with a 10" sweep...I would love to find one sometime; I can only assume it would make this process a little less demanding on the arm muscles but again, my old Millers Falls seems to be up for the challenge. When starting out the hole I'll check for plumb with a small engineers square placed along side the bit. I'll slowly get into the wood fiber and check again on the opposite axis. Begin working down and stop frequently to remove the waste. I just blow this off and never have to back out the bit. I should also mention my elaborate system of depth gauge...the ball of blue tape around the bit is it...nothing could be simpler. I should probably drill out a long piece of wood and cut it to length again placing it on the bit while I drill...this would indeed result in more accurate depths but these mortises don't have to be exact. Close to about 1/32" but not exact. It's only end grain meeting down there so as long as they're deep enough I don't worry too much.
The following is a quick clip of my process...one thing to notice is which hand I'm using where. I'm right handed so this goes at the top of the brace; I think the natural tendency would be to use your stronger arm for the turning motion but this is inaccurate. Use your leading hand to hold the brace secure and square and your other hand to turn. A bit of practice and you'll be reaching for the 'ol brace all of the time.

"Unplugg the drill and wrap your hand around the words of working man..."

White Oak and Black Stout

Building an Exterior Door by Hand

Well I've been at it this week, working through the door construction. So far so good as they say; the Oak is straight grained, heavy as sin and its aroma through my basement shop is intoxicating. A good start I'll give you a look at the process thus far. Enjoy...
















The first step and biggest challenge in the basement wood shop is space, or lack there of. I started with making a full size pattern or template showing all of the door components to scale-the joinery, mortise depth, haunches etc...this will go far at eliminating any unforeseen challenges on my way through the lay out stage. Take your time with this and make things accurate! Skipping a step or cutting a corner would be completely counter productive, square, straight and true this is my map to Heritage Doorville...I have to follow the road. The 1/4" piece of Luan is great for this template, I screwed some hardwood offcuts on the underside of the pattern and affixed it to my shop bents in front of my workbench. Space is limited so I have to work clean. This project will really be a test of patience in this small work space.

















With an accurate template it's time to start muscling the heavy planks of Oak around the shop, again the only hard part and sometimes frustrating thing about a small workspace. I'll begin by selecting my timber, carefully studying the grain patterns for a nice aesthetic and gentle flow throughout the finished piece. Again I'm drawn into the grain of this quarter sawn timber...it's amazing and humbling to think of this tree as a living thing-so beautiful I really feel lucky to be working with such fine stock. I clearly and carefully mark each component and begin cross cutting my lengths to just over finished sizes. My joinery for the rails consist of 3" mortise and tenons with haunches on the upper and lower rails. The middle or 'locking' rail doesn't have haunched shoulders but both the mid and lower one will be split into two tenons due to the width of the pieces. Cross cutting 7/4 stock is a challenge in itself so I have to consider my options here. Saw bench with panel saw? Hook on my work bench with a back saw? I tried both and decided I had much more control and a far more accurate saw cut with the back saw. My 12" Lie Nielsen Tenon saw is up for the challenge; these cuts are at the absolute top of the size of stock I could work with this saw plate. I actually had to make two cuts from both sides-a procedure I try to avoid but is my only option on this day. If I had my Bad Axe 16" or 18" back saws this would be a much better operation but unfortunately they're still a few weeks away...I'll go through the entire lot and get everything to size, from here it's over to the saw bench and my rip saw will be introduced.














Again, ripping 7/4 white Oak by hand is not for everyone...I purchased this lumber pre-dimensioned but as you can see I still have to 'work' each piece by hand. The pre-dimensioning really saves me some time early on; buying rough stock is great for my own work but a commission like this justifies the extra expense. You can usually be safe with a 10% increase on the total cut list when pricing a piece. For me the additional hundred dollars spent on my thousand for wood is well worth it. At least a week of time saved. By pre-dimensioned lumber I mean it's been surface planned on both faces and jointed on its edges. I'll still hand plane each square inch of this stuff but only to remove the mill marks. A good investment when you're trying to make a buck while working wood with only hand tools this is something I get asked about quite often. So consider that a trade secret revealed.

I'll start off with my new Lie Nielsen panel gauge to establish the width of the pieces. I find my regular marking gauge is great for thinner jobs but anything over the 5 or 6" mark and it tends to wander a bit. The marking gauge doesn't but my control over the cut can. This panel gauge is great for this procedure. My full size Corporate Kangaroo is just getting by with the job...I have a new Rip saw in my future for the next door project but you'll have to stay tuned for that one! In the shot above you can see my limited space here between the work bench and the tool cabinet; I usually do all of my sawing on the other side of the bench which is currently where the full-size door template is set up. Work clean and 'Patience of Job'...gotta keep reminding myself that!

Alright, the components are cross cut and ripped, from here it's on to hand plane alley. A welcome place to be after the day of sawing; my shoulders are thanking me already. I'll begin with my Jack plane and go across the width of the pieces taking a traversing/controlled tear shaving.
















The same procedure when using a scrub plane this process will quickly get these planks flattened out. You'd be surprised at the slight hollows and tiny hills...even off of the fine machinery they have out at A & M Wood, there is still work to be done to get these things square on four sides.
















A light cut is necessary with this cross grain technique and always be careful on the outside edge especially when running at the opposing angle to the grain. A few passes back and forth, end to end then I'll go with the grain to finish off. I establish the first flat surface and then I'll do the opposite side making it parallel to this first one. With two flat surfaces I'll get into the shoulder vise and get out the Jointing plane. Because I'm paranoid about keeping everything dead accurate with this project I'm using my Veritas Jointing fence. This is an accessory they sell that clamps onto the side body of their Bevel up Jointing plane and makes sure you're planning an edge square to the first registered surface.
















A good day spent surfacing the Oak and I'm finally starting to see how the door will look. This is getting exciting, the grain flowing naturally across the heavy timbers I began to appreciate just how heavy and strong this door will be when finished. I can now move on to joinery lay out and the two long stiles are the place to begin.
















As I mentioned they'll have haunched mortise and tenons with two at each of the locking and lower rails. The upper rail being only 5" in width will only have one plus the two outside shoulders. These shoulders or haunches will really help to avoid any twisting or winding in the finished door.
















I'll clamp the stiles together and mark them off simultaneously ensuring a truly accurate lay-out. This is just penciled in and I'll come back with a deep marking gauge and knife to make the locations permanent.

With the mortises all laid out it's time to bet my brace and a bit together. Coincidentally about three weeks ago I stopped by a local antique store and found some nice old 8" Irwin Auger bits. These things looked like they didn't see much work in their life so a quick sharpening and they were ready to go. Good bits are still hard to come by but I did notice Tools for Working Wood sell some new ones that I'm interested in. These 8" antiques were a perfect length for this application, anything longer and I'd have to work with the timber on my floor.

















A few hours of drilling and the bulk of material in my mortises is removed. For anyone interested in a good arm toning work out then this is it! I'm feeling the burn in the backs of my arms for sure. A good honest days work and I'm thinking about the tenons tonight. So to back track to the title of this post...a good black stout goes down some fine with the smell of white oak lingering. Stay tuned for more.
Cheers!






















PS.
The stout was enjoyed after the tools went away for anyone concerned with my personal safety.

A Good Road Trip

White Oak, Irons and Wedges

This past Saturday turned out to be a good one for me; first off I finally made it out to A & M Wood to pick up my order of Quarter Sawn White Oak. Terry Johnston did a fantastic job finding some of the nicest Oak I've seen in awhile. I now have a shop full of planks in the neighborhood of 1 3/4" thick by 8" wide by 8' long. Some serious weight there indeed. On my way out to Cambridge, where A & M is located I made a quick pit stop in the Ontario Carpenters Training Center. That's where I hooked up with Dan Barrett of DL Barrett and Sons toolworks.
I had contacted Dan earlier about an old plough plane I had and was in need of some irons and a wedge. I had never met Dan before but he's one of those guys that when you do meet him it's like you've known him for years. He said he had some old irons for me and also a wedge I could have. I dropped by with my plough plane for him to see and he ended up fitting the wedge for me and sharpening up an iron to take it for a test drive! Way beyond the call of duty he really helped me out by taking the time out of his schedule.














Now if you don't know about Dans work he makes amazing wooden bodied planes here in Southern Ontario. Chris Schwarz wrote a review on one of their ploughs at his Lost Art Press blog. I'm putting one of these at the top of my wish list.
As a side note, while I was there visiting Dan he had some of his tools on his workbench. I quickly noticed two backsaws and asked him where they came from. He said they were custom builds from Ed Paik of Medallion Toolworks. One was a small dovetail saw and the other a larger backsaw fitted with an ebony handle. Dan being the kind of guy he is quickly said "Here Tom, take 'em for a test drive." I did indeed and can say I was blown away. They looked and performed great although I did only make a handful of cuts with them. Again the wish list grows longer and my wallet is getting nervous! It's nice to know that here in Southern Ontario, we have some of the finest craftsmen making truly incredible hand tools.






















Cheers!

Ripping Wood

Saws, Bents and Benches

















I recently had a question about the specs on the rip saw I was using in the Moulding plane/Miter blog from a few days ago. Instead of answering in the comment section I thought I'd do it here.
I have a few old Rip saws I've acquired through yard sales and flea markets as well as a new Pax from England. I barely touch the Pax except for soft, green wood outside of my shop...kind of the weekend work, helping out the brother-in-law build a fence or deck stuff. The particular saw in question is the one pictured above; the medallion says Corporate Mark Kangaroo and the plate has Rob Sorby Sheffield punched into it.
It's 28" long and filed at 6 tpi. (teeth per inch) I sent it down to Mark at Technoprimitives and he over hauled it last year. Needless to say he did an amazing job and it became my daily user.

It's the main saw I reach for except when ripping stock in the 1/2" range. I have another old Disston that has a 24" saw plate and is filed at 10 tpi. Between these two that usually takes care of my ripping needs but I'm very interested in the new Lie Nielsen panel saws. I have a few other old Rip saws as well but they're in need of some work. When ripping wood, to further answer the question asked I generally use my saw bench. This is the design by Chris Schwarz published in Woodworking Magazine a few years back. It's a nice design and a perfect height but I find with the two angled legs I sometimes hit the end of the saw into the lower stretcher...I've since designed my own saw bench and will share it with you here in a future post. For small stock I usually just fore go the saw bench and use my tail vise for most of my rip cuts. My bench is low enough that I never seem to have an issue with this method. I'll sometimes hold the piece in the tail vise and use a hold fast as well on my bench top to keep the work piece stable. I also have a couple of 'shop bents' as I call them. Basically they're saw horses that are the same overall dimension as the end profile of my work bench. I'll use these from time to time when ripping the edge of real large work but this is pretty rare in my shop.
The plans for these will be in my book so I better not put them here...my editor may whack me across the knuckles with a yard stick!
Ripping wood by hand is probably one of the most intimidating things for people considering a hand tool only work shop; it's time and labor intensive but once you get your head around it it quickly becomes second nature. I clearly remember thinking back when I was first considering a shop with no power tools and the idea of ripping all of the wood for a piece of furniture scared the hell out of me! That said, it's been a year of hand saws and wood shavings and I don't even think about it now...assembling a cut list and grab the saw. It actually doesn't take that long either-another mis-conception I had.












So for anyone starting down this road I'll recommend a full size panel saw in the 28" ball park with a low tooth count for thick stock and then a smaller panel saw with a finer tooth for lighter work.
The saw bench mentioned from Woodworking Magazine is a great design and I'd recommend it to anyone but for me and my body type it wasn't a perfect fit. Try ripping along the workbench too, this is my preferred method but again to each his own...what ever feels comfortable is always the best way to go.
Cheers!

Greener Is as Greener Does...

Reduce, Reuse and Recycle
















As a woodworker-day in and day out, working with a medium that is truly all things living, I have a hard time not thinking about our planet, our forests and our environment. Not to get all 'Al Gore' on you- but global warming, green house gases and my own carbon footprint...we've all heard the arguments and hopefully we're all doing our share to help. That said I just received a letter from Mark at Technoprimitives describing how he's doing his own part. Bad Axe Tool works is his new saw manufacturing company and I thought (or hoped) that some of you out there may be interested to hear about his choices for packaging his new hand saws. This is a blog link from a company called Salazar packaging out of Chicago, they specialize in 100% recycled products. He's also working with another company that manufacturers a void fill/blocking/cushioning product called green cell foam to safely and soundly pack his saws- which by the way should be shipping next week!
On this note, I try my best to use reclaimed lumber whenever I can but when buying from a mill it's up to you as a woodworker to ask if the wood products you're using are sustainably harvested. Every little bit counts right?
Here is the blog: Salazar Packaging
Cheers!