Wood Moves...Get over it!

Last summer I built a trestle style table using some reclaimed Angelique for the base frame and some wide Mahogany for the top. Traditional bread board ends were tenoned to the main table top surface glued with walnut dowels added as fasteners. The three tenons were drilled and then the out side two holes were elongated so when the top moved it wouldn't split the wood. When elongating the holes I made a guess at how much the top surfaces width would fluctuate; seems my estimate was pretty accurate and thank goodness for that.
This shot was taken two days ago...
From last summers humidity to this winters dry stale air, the top shrank almost a full 1/4". This may surprise some people to see just how much solid wooden furniture can expand and contract. If all is right in the world the top surface will swell back to it's original size come the spring/summer and the breadboard ends will hold everything flat and true as they were designed...Stay tuned.
Cheers!

Admiring the Work

After a long and rather fulfilling day in the woodshop, Glue Bear takes a step back to admire some of his handy work.
Stay tuned...

Looking into the Face of Reason

A shot of my new glue bottle...
'Glue Bear'
I finally have a mascot-
Just thought I'd share that.
Cheers!

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.