When I was writing my review of the Harbor Freight Cen-Tech Digital Angle Gauge I realized I hadn't really used it for anything other than setting my tools to 90 degrees. So I took a quick survey of what wood supplies I had in the garage.

Hmmm... I have a few boards of purpleheart, some "hobby wood" curly maple boards from Lowes, some scraps of poplar, a bunch of redwood... I got nuttin'.

As I walked into my bathroom I found my wife had used some fugly light blue plastic drinking cups to put Q-tips in. *MY* bathroom! The horror! I realized then I had to make me a Q-tip holder that would look nice in my bathroom on my redwood shelving. But I really didn't want to make it out of redwood. That wood is so brittle I cringed at the thought of getting accurate angles without splintering.

But 1/4" maple with some purpleheart strips would be nice! And a perfect use for my angle gauge!

I decided on a hexagon shape, using six strips of purpleheart cut with a pair of 60* angles on the long sides and 1 1/2" strips of curly maple.

I first cut the purpleheart using a scrap of wood for a pushblock and the blade set to 60*. I got that 60* setting by dividing the number of degrees in a circle, 360, by the number of sides in my project, 6. 360 / 6 = 60. The cuts were made with my Delta/Leitz 24 tooth rip blade. That blade leaves such beautiful cuts...


That was easy enough. But the maple cuts weren't. I have a large crosscut sled I made for making some table miters when I first got this saw. But it is really unwieldy when using for small parts. So I had to make a small 48" x 24" crosscut sled. No construction pics, but it's 3/4 MDF with doubled up 1/2" birch ply for the handles. Simple, sturdy, and accurate. It also makes me feel MUCH more comfortable cutting small parts on the table saw. Especially using the David Marks trick of a pencil eraser as a hold down.

• NOTE: When using a stop block with a crosscut sled, you MUST hold down the piece between the block and the saw blade. Kickbacks are fierce when a piece gets wedged in there. Ask me how I know...

Back to the original project. I cut the maple so the curls ran vertical and the grain horizontal. This gave me less splintering in the curly maple when using a card scraper. But it also increased the risk of grain separation because I was scraping across the grain. I don't know that either orientation would be easy. But I liked the appearance of the vertical ripples.

The maple was 3 x 2 1/2". I cut six identical pieces with the crosscut sled and a stop block. (This is where I learned about holding down the piece between the blade and the stop block!)

I set up my router table with a 1/4" straight bit, set 1/8" high with the fence 1/4" from the front of the cut. This gave me a 1/4" x 1/8" rabbet to set the bottom of the cup into. I ran all the maple as well as the purpleheart through the router.

I placed two strips of blue masking tape, sticky side up, on my bench. I then clamped a straight edge to the bench a little ways below. The straight edge was the register for my parts to keep them aligned and give me a cup that is square to the world.

Once I was happy with the alignment, lack of gaps, and the test fit went well, I brushed Titebond II on all the joints and rolled it up. The overlaps of tape held it together and acted as a clamp. No strap clamp needed on such a small piece. I left it to dry overnight.


The next day I set up my sled again to trim the proud bits of purpleheart. The sled really came into its own for this part since I needed to make 6 identical cuts.


I used my cabinet scraper to clean up the outside of the cup and ease the edges, gently rounding the joints between the maple and purpleheart.


To fit the bottom I used a scrap of 1/4" poplar with the outside of the cup traced to it. I rough cut it on the bandsaw then used 60 grit sandpaper to fit in the rabbet around the bottom of the cut. Once it fit I used a cabinetmaker's triangle to mark the correct orientation then set it aside.

I sealed the inside of the cup and the bottom as separate pieces with some Zissner SealCoat. I'm trying to use this stuff up before it goes bad. It's the same stuff I put on the crosscut sled I made during this project. I don't like how it looks compared to "real" shellac, so I use it in places that aren't seen, or I don't care how it looks. I have started mixing my own shellac from flakes distributed by Hock Finishes and denatured alcohol. The lensing effect of the home mixed shellac is far superior to that of any of the canned finishes I've tried so far!


After two coats of the Seal Coat had been applied and dry, I applied self adhesive felt to the inside surface of the bottom and the inside of the cup.

Yes. It's red. So sue me.

This self adhesive felt is available at WalMart for around a buck for an 8x10" sheet. It took about 3/4 of a sheet for this project. And it was my last sheet of any color (that's why I used red). I need to stock up again.

Once the adhesive had a chance to become permanent, I trimmed around the rabbet and lip of the cup with an X-Acto knife. I double checked the fit of the bottom. It fit a bit proud, as I expected because of the felt. I brushed on the glue and clamped it for an hour.

Finally, I hit the bottom with my belt sander to make the bottom flush with the sides and applied 2 coats (so far... more to come tomorrow) of my home mixed shellac in a 3 pound cut. I brought it inside to hopefully harden completely before tomorrow morning so I can smooth the finish with some 400 grit paper and apply 2 more coats.

While I was sitting in my chair holding it and admiring (we all do that right? I'm not crazy? Hello? Anybody?), I realized I had made it too big for Q-tips. I'd have to have a full package in there all the time. Ugh. So I set it on my purpleheart and maple side table (noticing a trend?) and picked up a Lee Valley catalog to let my mind wander for a few minutes.

My 4 year old daughter came up and dropped a remote in it. "Nice, Daddy! A new remote holder!" She ran off to do whatever 4 year old girls do when they run off.

I, on the other hand, was stunned. Why the !@#%@$^# hadn't I thought of that? The wife had been kvetching about the remotes for months. Somehow she thought getting Dish would mean only one remote.

I know, I know. What can I say? Don't your wives hate the remotes too?

Anyway, it now has a permanent place in the living room on my maple and purpleheart side table. At least it matches.

And I still have an ugly light blue plastic drinking cup in my bathroom. But now its mate has come down to hold Neosporin tubes.

Why can't she just stay out of the Guy's bathroom?

It's April and Hendrik is back to answer more of your questions.  This month we're talking about dealing with troubled stock.  Since nothing is worse than dealing with cupped, bowed, twisted or crooked boards we answer your questions about how to tame these problems or maybe even avoid them.

Today is part 1 of our discussion, and since it's Friday that means it's Feature Friday so one of you lucky listeners is winning some free schwag!  Are you the lucky listener??

For anyone interested, coming up on April 11 & 12, 2008 there's a great little tool demo and woodworking school openhouse going on at J. Miller Handcrafted Furniture in Chicago. The details can be found at Lie-Nielsen.  There will be some great demos by a number of well known woodworkers and I'm planning on checking it out myself.

Remember for comments, questions and schwag entries drop me a line at mattsbasementworkshop@gmail.com.

 Listen to today's show by clicking on the player below

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The next photos will be of the finished planes - I promise.

After slicing (resawing) and dicing (ripping, cross-cutting) the rough blanks for the interior parts, I am now left with a few fairly identically sized boards. The individual boards are thicker than the final dimension to allow for any cupping ,bowing, or twist that may result from the resawing operation and acclimatization of the boards. I have also resawn a few extra boards to allow for any problems or mismatched grain when creating the wider panels for the drawer cases. The boards are fairly similar in width but differ in length. Half are destined for the single drawer case, the other half to the stacked drawer case. Some wane or bark can be seen on a few of the boards and this will be trimmed off to create square edges with minimal removal.

Tommy goes to work cutting the scallop shape on the doors with the band saw. After cutting the shape for all four sides, he glues and clamps them together.

In 1980, my brother and our friends (a couple of toe-headed twins named Keith and Kevin) decided to start a club. We figured since we liked riding our BMX bikes along the side of the tracks of the Burlington Northern route than ran west out of Lima, through our village of Elida, and off toward Delphos we naturally needed a club to encompass the excitement of peddling 20� bikes in the blazing sunlight. We discussed some names, and somewhere between Danny Zucko’s T-Birds and the Doug Henning Magic Men we came up with a name…The Black Panthers.

Don’t ask me how four middle class white boys in Northwest Ohio came up with the same name as Huey Newton’s black Mao-ist/socialist movement. There are some who believe the human brain stores every piece of information a person encounters in life, and the limitation of human existence is not the possession of knowledge but the ability to recall. (This leads to the possibility that hypnosis can cause one to recall seemingly tiny, unperceived details from previous life experiences.) So perhaps one of us had heard Walter Cronkite mention the Black Panthers in our pre-teen lives, or perhaps Keith and Kevin were actually black radicals just passing as Arayan twins…who knows. The point is the four of us decided to call ourselves The Black Panthers. We even went to the T-shirt shop at the mall to see if they had any panthers iron on thingies that we could have put on black shirts. They didn’t. We could have had fuzzy block letters spelling out Black Panthers put on shirts, but that seemed lame. We thought about getting custom air-brushed t-shirts, but that was too expensive. So we just waited 3 or 4 days and forgot about it as focused on our 2 on 2 football games where each person running the ball claimed to be Earl Campbell. Edward and I moved back to Indianapolis a few months later, our family having only spent 6 months in Elida.

I spoke to my brother a few days ago. I haven’t heard from Keith or Kevin in over 27 years. 26 years after the disbanding of The Black Panthers of Elida, Ohio, Panther Fever hit me again. In 2006 when I bought my first hand plane and fell into the Galoot Crevasse, I purchased the two volume boxed set of Garrett Hack’s books. I really wanted The Handplane Book. I bought the boxed set because I love books, and I love to think I am getting a bargain. I had no real interest in the second volume of that set, The Handtool Book. But when those books arrived at my house, I got Panther Fever. One look at the Woodrough and McParlin Panther Saw on the cover of The Handtool Book and an abscess formed in my soul. I instantly had an infected cavity that could only be filled and healed with a Panther Saw.

I went looking for them on Ebay. There were none. What’s the deal????? None on EBAY???? Are they rare, or something? Some Googling told me they were rare. One website went as far as to estimate there were only 30 in existence. Obviously, there are probably more than 30 of them around, but I like how some people vehemently disagree with that total. I’ve seen bulletin board posts that say things like, “Oh, he’s full of crap if he says there are only 30 in existence. The total is probably closer to 50!!!! There could even be 100 of them if they were all dragged out of the barns and basements.�

I couldn’t find one. Gail and I went down to John Sindelar’s last year and there were four of them mocking me. I asked John about them, and he said, “I’ve had a few of them through the years, but I kept these because they were unique. These are weird ones…� (Friends that is a man after my own heart. His collection is so extensive he only collects “weird� Panther Saws.)

A year or so ago a Panther Saw finally showed up on Ebay. It was beat to death, and it went for about $600. I couldn’t do it. I didn’t even bid. A few weeks ago another one showed up. It wasn’t in Sindelar Condition. It had a couple of issues. It had a blade that had seen so many sharpenings it was only about an inch and a half tall at the toe. Also, it had a big nasty drip of latex paint on the handle. Even though I felt my background as a black panther (Elida, Ohio white guy pre-teen chapter from 1980) entitled me to own this saw, it was actually my Ebay bid that made it happen.

So, even though I spoiled this story a week and a half ago by showing Gail pruning trees in the backyard with my Panther Saw, I am officially on record as being a panther owner. I have described my Panther Saw as being like a Gutenberg Bible that is missing Psalms. Sure, given its condition, it is not the most desirable sample in the world, but why don’t you show me yours before you say anything bad about mine.

A couple of weeks ago a Panther Saw in really good shape turned up on Ebay, but the final $1800+ bid did not meet the reserve.

How many are out there? There have to be at least 30 Panthers. I think there are still more than 50 Panther Saws in the world. There could be as many as 100. Mine isn’t perfect, but owning it does make me feel like I am special. And I haven’t felt this special since the Nigerian Government sent me that email asking me to help them move some money around through the use of Money Orders...

The overlap is done, and now it's time to tackle the lock. Tommy runs over the problems it poses before setting the top, bottom and center lock. When he's done, he creates and sets the back panels for the glass.

Editor's note: Because it's "Workbench Week Internazionale" I decided to tie up a loose end from my book: "Workbenches: from Blah, blah blah to Yadda yadda yadda." On page 57 I discuss Thomas Stangeland's bench and point out how the best woodworking I've seen has been built on the most minimal of workbenches.

Helpful reader Tom Moore visited Stangeland's shop recently and snapped the above photo of the bench. Below is the story that goes with that workbench.


In 2006 I taught a class in handwork at a school where Thomas Stangeland, a maestro at Greene & Greene-inspired work, was also teaching a class. Though we both strive for the same result in craftsmanship, the process we each use couldn’t be more different. He builds furniture for a living, and he enjoys it. I build furniture because I enjoy it, and I sell an occasional piece.

One evening we each gave a presentation to the students about our work. One of the pieces I showed was an image of my French workbench. I discussed its unusual workholding devices and how the bench was a bit of a Thor Heyerdahl experience.

Thomas then got up and said he wished he had a picture to show of his workbench for the last decade: a door on a couple horses. He said that a commercial shop had no time to waste on building a traditional bench. And with his power-tool approach, he just needed a flat surface and some clamps to work.

It’s hard to argue with the end result. His furniture is beautiful.

But what’s important to note here is that you can get by with the door-off-the-floor approach, but there are many commercial woodworkers who still see the utility of a traditional workbench. Chairmaker and furnituremaker Brian Boggs uses more newfangled routers and shop-made devices with aluminum extrusions than I have ever seen in a shop. And he still has two enormous traditional workbenches that see constant use.

The point here is that a good bench won’t make you a better woodworker. And a not-quite-a-bench won’t doom you to failure. But a good bench in any shop will make many power-tool operations easier and open the door to permit you to try many hand-tool operations. The bench is simply another tool. It’s the biggest wooden clamp in the shop.

As Thomas was wrapping up his part of the show he showed an interesting slide of an enormous and thick slab of an exotic wood he had been stashing for years and years in his shop.

“I just need to find the right project for it,� he said.

“Hey Thomas,� I heckled, “that slab sure would make a great benchtop.�

He laughed. Next slide, please.

— Christopher Schwarz

These last few months, I have been slowly getting together some tools and rehabbing them. So far, I have four saws. One of them is a nice old rip saw that is about worn out (not much blade left), another is a Disston that might be about 50 years old. I also have an almost new and not-too-rusted Stanley backsaw that has a price tag on it of about US$12. Another saw that I haven't rehabilitated yet is a really old dovetail saw with damaged saw nuts and a handle that is worn out but still usable.

I have sharpened each of these saws once (except the dovetail saw). I filed the Stanley backsaw for a rip cut. It was my first ever try at sharpening a saw. I did this one without a proper saw vise, without proper lighting, and without any jigs or aids.  read more »

Tommy cuts the wood for the drawers and finds some "sweet" colors and swooping patterns. After putting the pieces in place, he says they look too "blasé" and "lame" compared to the beautiful wood of the writing surface and opts for a do-over. Stay tuned to see if the new wood meets Tommy's expectations.

Me again. What, already? What can I say - must be Spring has got to me. Not to the point of getting the workshop, natch, but I did almost think of getting in there today, which is some serious improvement.

So today I get a copy of the WoodWorker's Book Club bulletin and it lists the "Top 50 Member Favorites." I eagerly flipped through to see if my book on workbenches made the list.

It did. It was No. 30.

I was quite pleased by this bit of news. It was good to be on the same list as Taunton's "Complete Illustrated Guides" (at No. 1), Kerry Pierce's "Pleasant Hill Shaker Furniture" (No. 2) and Jim Tolpin's "Measure Twice, Cut Once" (No. 3, and one of my favorite woodworking books).

But my moment of glee was quickly flung into the dirty litterbox when I saw what aced me out at No 28: "Black & Decker's 24 Weekend Projects for Pets."  

That put my tail between my legs. Time to go home and start writing that birdhouse book I've had on the back burner.

— Christopher Schwarz

Tommy and his furniture team (Steven Brown and Lance Patterson from North Bennet Street School) visit RISD Museum at the Rhode School of Design. Tommy meets with Museum Director, Hope Alswang, and Curatorial Assistant, Melissa Burchanan to discuss a priceless piece of historical furniture.

Tommy takes some de-natured alcohol and wipes it on the completed carving to demonstrate how the grain texture will look. On close inspection, viewers can see that each of the sweep carvings is a little different. Tommy then shows how to remove the material along the perimeter of the shell. After the door is completed, he discusses the work he needs to do on the drawers.

In talking with some of my woodworking friends on this subject, I learned that most were not comfortable with kids being in their shops because of safety concerns. Granted, there are extra precautions that must be taken when kids are present, but don't let this keep you from introducing woodworking to your kids, grandchildren, or even the kids up the street. And if you're a parent or grandparent who doesn't have a lot of knowledge around woodworking, but your kids have an interest, don't let fear of them getting hurt keep you from teaching them.

It is up to us as adult woodworkers to pass our knowledge down to those that show interest. If we don't, who will? Our schools? Doubtful. Find a child to nurture and teach what you know. Don't be afraid to let them in because they "might" get hurt. How did you learn?

Here are somethings to keep in mind when working with kids in your shop:

• Make sure all your power tools are unplugged. That way you don't have to worry about it.
• Make sure that all the blades on your power tools are covered or lowered so they're not exposed to little fingers.
• Stick to hand tools in the beginning no matter how old the kids are. They need this foundation anyway.
• Don't leave your kids unsupervised in the shop no matter how comfortable you are with their knowledge, maturity level, or skill. Accidents can and will happen.
• Using hand tools like hand saws can wear kids out quickly. Watch for this, step-in and help out during these times. When kids (and adults) get tired, mistakes are more likely to occur.
• With that last point being said, however; don't do all the work for kids just because YOU CAN! Let them do the work they can, and be willing to let them make mistakes on their own. This one is tough for us parents, trust me, I know.
• First and foremost, make it fun for them! Let them have some say into what they build. There are only so many bird houses a kid can make.

The video that we shot on shop safety for kids is not all encompassing, not even close. But, it will give you some good points to help you get started. My hope for this video is take it will make you more comfortable with having kids in your shop and for your kids to have a good and safe time with you.

If you have any questions or comments about the video after you've viewed it, just send us an email at:

contactus@woodworkersresource.com

And for more information on woodworking whether you're 7 or 70, go to our website at:

www.WoodworkersResource.com

Enjoy!

Craig Stevens

Starting with www.toolemera.com, The Village Carpenter, and Matt's Basement Workshop among others, I have been slowly adding new blogs to the aggregator on this site.

The aggregator displays the headlines from the source blogs for the last two weeks and provides a convenient link to the blog. Headlines are updated automatically and generally should be updated within three hours of when you post them.  read more »

For years now - I have owned, used and struggled with various Japanese saws. Specifically Dozuki's. Struggled because I could not quite get the hang of using them. I always thought it was because I had spent too much time using western style saws and could not change my habits. So my few Dozuki's hung on the wall. I looked over at them from time to time - and even tried them every now and again - with similar disappointing results.

I was lamenting this situation to a good friend a while ago and he offered to send me one of his saws to try out. The saw arrived on January 7. Now this is not just any saw - it was made by Yataiki. I was pretty overwhelmed when it arrived - partly because of my track record with Japanese saws - but mainly because of who had made it (and has since retired from sawmaking).


There were quite a few details of the saw that really caught my attention. The first was how fine the teeth were - about 19 ppi. And the set... or should I say lack of set - there is virtually none to speak of. The blade is extremely thin - and absolutely perfectly strait.



There is a texture to the blade that is quite remarkable. The blade is tensioned by tens of thousands of little hammer strikes and then burnished. Yup - this was not an average saw.

The saw stayed in my shop for many days as I contemplated using it. Normally I don't wait to long to try out a new tool, but this one was different. I emailed my friend to let him know it had arrived safe and sound, but also to get any advise on using the saw. There were many emails sent back and forth all of which were helpful and set the stage for the first use. There were a few key pieces of advise - a relaxed grip, don't try to muscle the saw and let the saw do the work. A "relaxed grip" was described like holding a hammer. If you hold a hammer too rigidly, the striking (vibration) will hurt your arm. The grip should be relaxed enough to still control the hammer, but loose enough to keep the vibration from your wrist and arm. That was a brilliant piece of advise!

I practiced using the saw in my head - trying to anticipate how it would work. I had a few "free" hours on Jan 16th and decided to work on a few kitchen drawers. I took a deep breath - and finally tried the saw. I was not prepared for the results - it was perfect. I mean truly perfect! The start of the cut was smooth and clean and the saw tracked flawlessly leaving a clean and very thin kerf. And it cut fast. I was using the saw to cut the tails on the 1/2" hard maple drawer sides.

As I was using the saw, I noticed I was feeling for the straightest pull stroke - making sure I was not introducing a twist or lateral forces on the blade. The lack of set makes this really really easy to do. I cut a few kerfs and they all turned out perfectly. There was one kerf that did not follow the line perfectly, but instead of trying to correct for it - I let the saw cut along the started path. The words of my friend not to muscle the saw were ringing through my head at this point. In the end, that kerf was only off by a degree or two - all part of the story of hand cut dovetails.



I decided to stack four, 1/2" thick drawer sides together and try a cut or two. Pictured above is that first kerf... just as perfect as all the others.



And another shot of another 4 drawer sides.



Here is a shot of the 4-up drawer sides in my Tucker vice. A really nice feature of this vice and set up is that I can rotate the vice so I am sawing perpendicular to the floor.

Now for the really sad news. As I mentioned earlier, Yataiki is now retired - he is no longer making saws. As far as I know - he did not have an apprentice. If you ever have an opportunity to try one of his saws - or a handmade saw from another maker - you owe it to yourself to try it. I feel incredibly blessed to have been given this opportunity to use one of his saws.

I've successfully added a new feature to the Norse Woodsmith website - blog feeds directly from some of my favorite woodworking bloggers - including Chris Schwarz, Adam Cherubni, Alice Frampton (Alf, at the Cornish Workshop), Gary Robert's Toolemera blog, and others.  There are links to their latest blogs at the bottom of the page, and a link to a list view of posts arranged by individual blogger) or, if you prefer, the latest posts in their entirety by following the links in the "Community" pull down menu above.

I'll be adding more as I come across more that I feel have relevant content...  and blogs older than 16 weeks are automatically purged.  I enjoy reading all of these blogs on a regular basis, and hope you find them interesting as well.

Leif

Post Script:  These blogs are not located on this web site - they are simply RSS feeds from the individual's sites and contain only content available via RSS (no web site content).  Clicking on some of these links (such as those at the bottom of the page) will take you to those web-sites directly.  I am not responsible for the content of these feeds.

Note - if you are the owner of one of these feeds and do not wish me to publish it here, just let me know and it will be removed.  But if that is the case, for your benefit I would suggest you not publish the content via RSS...  Or set your teaser length to get people to click a link to "read more" on your own site.

Black Desk, Part 1
Black Desk, Part 3

Just a minor update here.

I got a detail shot of the leg "carving" with the two coats of Minwax Waterbased Stain in Onyx. I didn't realize there was so much dust on there when I took the photo, sorry.

The white wood is some 3/4" x 1 1/2" curly maple. I found that maple at Lowe's in the common maple rack. I need to go back and find another one for trimming the top of the desk. They only had one in the entire rack.

It is attached with 8 1/4" dowels, and a small bead of glue along the length along with the glue in the dowel holes.

I have found that the use of dowels signifigantly improves the strength of the joint, in addition to making alignment much simpler. While I don't doubt that a biscuit joiner would also make the alignment simple, there is a massive price difference.

• Dowel Centers: $2 for 10
• 1/4" dowel: Free if I cut my own with a plug cutter, or 40c for two feet.
• 1/4" drill bit: Comes in every set of drill bits I've ever purchased. So I have plenty.

This last photo is the maple clamped to the bottom shelf. The clamps were more for drawing the dowels into the holes than for actual clamping. But I'll take the clamping as a bonus!

Once this is dry, I'll put some pieces on the sides of the shelves, then I'll apply the finish.

Tommy reviews how he will create boards to cover up the gaping space in the front, back and upper boards. After they have been shaped into a curve to match the pattern, the blocks are put inside the opening and Tommy shows how they are attached. He then uses a scrub plane and French curve scraper to smooth the surface, being careful not to bash his finger as he did earlier.

Tommy's next step on the Bombe Secretary project is creating the profile on the front edge of the writing surface doubler. He has already cut the Bombe Secretary writing surface doubler out on the bandsaw, run a flush cut router bit, and lastly cleaned it up with hand tools. In this podcast we see Tommy complete the shaping of the doubler's front profile.

I am joining the old book club. It seems that Chris Schwarz is always panning for gold nuggets in the dusty, old tomes of woodworking. I recently found that Chris Gochnour has been known to do the same thing. So even though my name isn’t Chris, I have decided to be an old book test pilot. Here is my inaugural flight into the realm of woodworking books of old. The good news is that I have found a book we can all take a look at.

http://www.gutenberg.org/files/20846/20846-h/20846-h.htm

It appears the Project Gutenberg folks have made it possible for the entire world to own a virtual copy of:

HANDWORK IN WOOD

By WILLIAM NOYES, M.A.

Assistant Professor, Department of Industrial Arts.

Teachers College, Columbia University

NEW YORK CITY

The entire book has been scanned, and is available at the link above. If this book had been written two weeks ago, I believe all of the woodworking book clubs would be clambering to secure exclusive rights to make it the Selection of the Month. It has about 4 boatloads of information, and it has pictures.

It tells how to sharpen a card scraper. It tells how to choose a hammer. It tells how to layout the rafters under the roof of your next house. It describes the proper circles to make when applying French Polish.

To me the most fascinating part of the book is the first section which provides tremendous detail on logging in the era before the internal combustion engine. The photos are amazing. Here are a couple just to whet your appetite.

Did it whet your appetite?

Wait!!!!!!! Did I just say “WHET�?????

Yes. And that leads us to the WHAT THE &$#*@&^%$ moment of the day…..

There is one area of this book that I read. Re-read. Paused to consider. Then re-read. It still confuses the heck out of me. I am pasting it here unedited….

To test the sharpness of a whetted edge, draw the tip of the finger or thumb lightly along it, Fig. 79. If the edge be dull, it will feel smooth: if it be sharp, and if care be taken, it will score the skin a little, not enough to cut thru, but just enough to be felt.

Maybe it’s because I am something of a bleeder, but I cannot bring myself to agree with that information. One of my primary objectives in woodworking is to avoid things that "score the skin a little."

99.9% of this free e-Book is gold, but whatever you do…don’t follow the advice “To test the sharpness of a whetted edge, draw the tip of the finger or thumb lightly along it…�

Enjoy your free book, and resist the urge to buy from the guy on Ebay who is offering a CD with this free eBook for the unheard of price of just under ten bucks. And to that Ebay guy...if you are one of my regular readers, I apologize for possibly hurting your plans for early retirement. It's nothing personal... I just wanted to be able to say that I gave all of my readers a free book.

Yep. More redwood. I really like the stuff.

Here I'm building some "floating" shelves for my bathroom to match the Quick & Dirty Bathroom Shelves I did last month.

I'm using a modification of the common floating design. Here I'm allowing the shelf to overhang the box 2" all around. In the pic to the right you can see that one shelf has a bottom enclosing the box, and one doesn't. I really just hadn't decided which to go with, so I did one of each.

Again for my bathroom, the rule is "Simple, cheap, easy, attractive, functional!" So I used butt joints with pocket hole screws and Titebond II glue.

In the photo you can see I used two screws to attach the sides to the front and one screw to attach the shelf at the rear. The glue is also applied only to the area of the screw. The rest of the shelf is left unattached to allow for movement. While I wouldn't expect much movement on a 6" deep shelf, it's going into a bathroom with all the humidity changes that go with the location. Better to be careful in the design and construction than to have buckled or cracked shelves next summer.

I wanted to show a comparison of the shelf with 4 coats of shellac next to an un-worked board. The color difference is dramatic. Redwood darkens as it ages, and my shelves are freshly sanded and machined. This makes them lighter. With the shellac the pale reds turn golden orange, like a beautiful sunrise. I love the color of the finished redwood. And as I said, it darkens with age, making it even more attractive over time.

The design is in the last photo. I haven't hooked my flatbed scanner up since moving last December, so you get the best I can do with a digicam.

Also, the lighting of these shots aren't up to my usual standard. I got a new external flash and am still dialing in the exposure curve for it. So you get some goofy looking shots because I didn't want to wait to get the exposure curve down before getting this posted.

I'll add the installed photos to my blog when I get them finished. So I guess this is Part 1...

INSTALLATION:
Added 2/23/08

I've got the shelves completed and installed. I started with measuring the width of the wall above the toilet in the bathroom. It is 30" across. My shelves are 24" across, which gives just enough "white space" on either side of the shelf to keep things clean.

I cut cleats from 1" x 1" redwood scraps to 10" long. This will give wiggle room for the shelves to be centered on the wall as well as make the calculations for centering simple. I held one against the corner of the wall about the height I wanted then made a mark at the end. Mounting the cleat at that mark will center it exactly on the wall leaving 10" on either side of it.

I had predrilled holes in the cleats at 2" from either end, large enough to allow the Walldog screws to pass through and mount to the wall. I held the strip at the mark I made in the wall and attached the left screw on each cleat. I tightened it just snug enough to keep the cleat from swinging, but loose enough to make level adjustments.

Next I put my level on the cleat and made certain they were absolutely level. I then put the second screw in each cleat, followed by fully tightening the first screw.

Now it's time to mount the shelves. As you can see in the pics above, I had predrilled two holes for screws in the shelves, and added a countersink so they sit flush.

Holding the shelf to the wall and cleat, I drove stainless steel screws into the cleats through the shelves. The screws hold the top of the shelves to the wall and the cleat, and the weight of the shelves plus whatever is placed on them holds the bottom firm against the wall.

Because these are bathroom shelves, they won't be holding much weight, but if they ever need to they will be fully capable of handling the extra weight.

The redwood shelves add a beautiful contrast to the stark white of the bathroom, in addition to providing much needed storage space. Tied with the redwood mini-shelf just above the sink, the bathroom is much more attractive and pleasing to the eye.

My next redwood project for this bathroom will be the towel racks.

funiture welding

My mother-in-law had commented how much she liked the cabinet unit I made for my wife's cookie sheets, so for my mother-in-law's birthday, we decided something should be done about the cupboard in her pantry. There were a couple of"shelves" in there already, and by "shelves" I mean a couple boards that technically were holding a few things up.

So my wife and I pulled everything out of the cupboard, discussed possible solutions and took some measurements. Then I got to work.

Here's a look at what it looks like now:






I made this in three separate units (left side, center and right side) to make it a little easier to build and install. Other than building square components to go in an area that isn't square, everything went along quite smoothly. And best of all, my mother-in-law is very happy!

All three units are built with pine harvested locally by my brother-in-law. I sanded with 100 grit and then applied a BLO (Boiled Linseed Oil) finish. And here's one final picture to give a little perspective: