Gettin' on...

Some Wood Shop Glamour Shots!


Not much to say really, all of my writing time is in the pages of the book but I wanted to share some shots from this past week. I'm halfway through projects 4 and 5 which says to me: One more to go...this is a good thing. I'm enjoying the process but can honestly say I'm looking forward to moving onto other non-book related projects. I have two or three custom pieces lined up for very patient clients who have been incredibly understanding of where I'm at with this and why I can't begin anything new until mid-March. As I'm approaching the end of this journey I'm constantly reminded of, and find myself stepping back and seeing again the true beauty of wood and wood working. Enjoy!


With my old Rip saw, still cutting like a dream since Mark at Techno gave it the over-haul; I'm re-sawing some purple heart for a couple of drawer fronts for a small wall cabinet...



Installing a pair of Brusso knife hinges on a Cherry post and panel style cabinet...this is the rather unassuming one that has the interior labyrinth of 128 joints!



Walnut cross-cut...again I can't help but to stop and think wow, this is incredibly nice wood...nice saw too! Another 'Techno' rehabilitation.



And finally the maple carcass to become a small tool box...the first project chapter of six. Stay tuned...

128 Joints

What Lies Within?

I just finished up another project for my book and wanted to share a bit of the details. The piece is a simple enough form, 2" square legs with a kind of post and panel design for the sides. One door and six drawers make a total of 32 sticks to build the frame. Sounds straight forward enough right.? What lies within? A simple form like this can be quite deceiving to the untrained eye; here's how. The 32 frame components require 128 joints; nothing crazy but a simple mortise and tenon sharing the width with a bridal joint...so far so good but if you stop to consider that each one of these joints requires up to 12 separate saw cuts, some chiseling and fine fitting that brings us to a neighborhood of 1536 scribe lines! Not so much the simple cabinet it appeared to be after all?
The hardest part for me when building a piece like this is keeping the pieces labeled and orientated properly. This is probably the most challenging piece from my book but for the reader and home woodworker who builds they're own, I can promise you this; by the time it's complete you'll be a whole lot closer in perfecting your lay out, marking and sawing techniques!
Cheers.

Another One Down

Here’s a sneak peak at the latest project from my upcoming book. It’s a small book case with doors featuring through mortise and tenon joinery. I had some beautiful Flame Birch sitting on my shelf for the past few years and decided this was the time to use it. After sitting for more than two years in my wood shop back in Cape Breton air drying, to six more months here in my new shop in Toronto, I figured it would be good and dry. Stable is perhaps a better word to use…man, was I wrong. Sure the moisture content was low but stable it was not. Once I cut into it and planed it the pieces for the doors and the top warped like a banana…Seeing as this was a limited stock I had and I figured I wouldn’t find any other Flame Birch locally I decided to use a few bits of Walnut from my off-cut pile. I’m very happy with the results however if this piece had of been for a client, it would have ended up in the firewood pile. I would have never taken the time to try fixing it. Seeing as it’s for demonstration purposes and was my prototype I took the extra steps and worked through these challenges. It changed the aesthetic of the piece which probably changed some of the design features as well. The sticks captured inside of the door frame as well as the desicion to use hand made paper for the panels…I’m happy I decided to keep going with it and make what I had work. I guess thats the point here, doing the best with what you have. So my Birch bookcase with Walnut top turned out to be a good thing .

Cheers!

Techno Ya-Ya!

You Won't be Disappointed...

What more can be said. I recently shipped off four old 'beaters' to Mark Harrell of TechnoPrimitives.com. There Mark will clean, sharpen and over-haul any old hand saw you may have. The four I sent were your typical garage sale variety, old worn-out, dull and bent.With,in some cases, 50 years of rust and dirt caked on. Mark was very quick and professional to get back to me with a diagnostic of the issues needing to be addressed and a quote to cover the repairs. Another fast turn around and here they are back in my hands. I can't believe they're the same saws I shipped him 'nor can I believe it took me so long to send them in the first place!
A full size rip saw, a smaller scale cross cut and a second 20" Rip. The fourth unit I sent was beyond repair but the three that came back perform better than the new panel saws I've purchased over the last two years...I won't mention any names but did Blog about replacing the handles on them! So with that I strongly recommend that you send that old nest of saws you've been looking at up there on top of the tool cabinet under the fine layer of dust, you won't be disappointed.
And seeing as I never did hear back from the Wenzloff guys after a couple of e-mail inquiries and watching their waiting list run from 16 weeks to 24 to 40 to...
Well you get the picture; fellas you can take me off of your list...my hand saw problems are over!
Cheers.

Progress Report

Things are moving along quickly these past few weeks, projects are coming together, designs are being discovered, adapted and constructed...work is good.
The made by hand inspiration is becoming a reality. The sideboard I designed back in September is finally being delivered this week. My clients will hopefully be as excited and delighted with the finished piece as I am.
'A hand made-modern, mixed medium-urban sideboard'...there Google that! The carcass is Walnut from a local wood mill and supplier, the glass shelves and door panels were cut by a great little glass store just North of the Danforth on Broadview ave. for anyone that knows or is in the area...You can't miss it, they have a beautiful Stained Glass sign over the sidewalk a couple of blocks up. The aluminum started as two solid plates of 1 1/4" thick aluminum plate...140 lbs. I had this pair of monolithes cut and brushed at another company in the greater GTA. www.rciwaterjets.com. Thanks Rob. The interior LED fixtures came from EUROLITE, a local business with an incredible selection of high-end fixtures. www.eurolite.com
The hinges and door pulls are from Lee Valley Tools.
I consider this design to be a continuation from the last 'hand made modern' entertainment cabinet in its evolution and joinery. Both are Walnut but that is purely coincidence. My two clients decided the wood species separately. I thoroughly enjoyed the design challenges this piece offered and while working with the different elements I couldn't be happier with the completed results.
Cheers!

Working wood...lots of it!

Half way there...

Well it's been an incredibly busy few months since the summer came and went. A few custom pieces of furniture designed and commissioned. The bulk of my time though has been spent on my book. Writing, designing, constructing its been an incredible journey thus far. I should apologise to my frequent readers for not keeping things up to date here. I'm usually good for a new blog every few days but lately it seems there aren't enough hours in the day. That said, I'm finally into the 'project' chapters and am very excited with the turn-out thus far. My hands, legs and shoulders are getting quite a work out, dimensioning a few hundred board feet of lumber all by hand! Good for the soul. The first project chapter is a small side table out of Ash which was a real pleasure to work with hand tools; the second is a bookcase with glass doors in Birch-Flame Birch. Now I don't know if anyone out there has ever had the opportunity to work with a highly figured wood like this Birch but what I can say is this: if these trees don't grow out of the Devils garden then I don't know where they come from! Reversing grain every few inches, tear out occurring with my sharpest Smoothing planes....well, isn't that just lovely.? Hey, gotta remember, it's good for the soul;now if Robert Johnston can get things done how should I?
Stay tuned...

A Low-Angle and So Much More...

Accessories?
For Hand planes?
Who would have thought?

What you see here is the Veritas Low-Angle Block plane-yet so much more. To start off I replaced the standard blade with a heavy-duty 1/8" thick, 50 degree iron. To that I added a secondary bevel bringin' this little baby just under 55 degrees! Amazing!
That's somewhere in the 'York Pitch Ballpark" (Galoot, Galoot)

"But wait there's more...much more!"

From there I added these incredible 'after-market' style wooden front knob and rear tote. Incredible! These elements combined with it's adjustable front mouth and we have ourselves a plane to be reckoned with. It kind of morphed into a quazy-miniature smoothing plane somewhere in the #3 range, if we were talking Bench planes...I use this when all my other planes fail, difficult grain and tear out be damned!

"And that's not all!"

Flip this thing back into the low-angle block and you can remove the front shoe and add a chamfer guide.
"Stop it! You're killing me!"
Seriously folks, this is one crazy-little doggy of a hand plane, with so many accessories it's enough to drive you wild...So you say, how does it perform as the low-angle block plane it was designed as?
I can't say really, I haven't put down my low-angle Lie-Nielsen Bronze long enough too find out!
Cheers.