As I noted back in October, Auriou has closed and is not making carving tools or rasps any more.

Shortly before Auriou closed, we received our last shipment from them. It included some tools we had carried for years and some that were new to us. Today, we are posting some of those new tools to our website. Naturally, supplies are limited to the stock on hand, but we think you'll find these tools interesting.

You can see our full collection of remaining Auriou products here.

Blair

LumberJocks raised the bar again with over 50 entries in our Bookcase Challenge. You proved that it’s possible to be very creative even with such a common project and you made the judging process extremely tough for the editors of the Popular Woodworking.

Here’s the summary of the event as well as the announcement of the winner and runner-ups by Glen Huey, Senior Editor of PW:

“Congratulations everyone. The LumberJocks excelled at designing great looking, buildable bookcases and we were certainly impressed with the group as a whole. This became a difficult task for the Popular Woodworking editors. We individually studied the entries to arrive at our own favorites, then brought those to a group meeting hoping we might see a consensus winner. Instead, we had 11 bookcases to work with to try and determine a winning design. Each design had aspects that we both liked and disliked (editors can be particular when it comes to projects for articles, you know). Even the top entries have design or possible construction techniques we would like to see tweaked, but here goes the list.”

“At the top of our list, after much discussion, is Ryan’s Shoji Screen Inspired Bookcase. This is a very nice design and will be a great article in our magazine. We look forward to working with Ryan as his bookcase comes to life in the pages of PW. Congratulations on his upcoming or recent family addition, too.”

“Close behind Ryan’s bookcase was Daniel’s A&C Bookcase with Magazine Drawers. This piece was very close to the top and had strong support from each editor. In the end, we felt that Daniel’s bookcase displayed too strong of a mixture of many A&C designs. And, the magazine drawers, when fully loaded, would be extremely heavy to access.”

“Also a strong contender was Charlie’s Sliding Dovetails Bookcase. What slowed our enthusiasm for this design was the difficulty of sliding dovetails, but when discussed further and a few suggestions were made in how this might become an easier project with a simple adjustment in joinery, Charlie’s design gained momentum, but was just nosed out by Ryan’s design.”

And here are three random winners of the LJ shirt:

• Jeff
• RLS
• MsDebbieP

Congratulations!

• Power tools don't work
  Especially if you choose redwood with any figure, planers and jointers will introduce chipping and tearout. Redwood is a brittle softwood, and does not respond well to high speed tools. Instead of a planer, use a hand plane. Instead of a jointer, use a table saw with a sharp blade.
  
• Sanding Challenges
  Redwood grain lines are much harder and denser than the wood in between. If you sand with a typical finish sander with a padded base, you will find the wood between the grain lines to sand down much more quickly than the grain lines themselves. After discovering this while making my floating shelves I had a decision to make. Do I want to try to get the shelves perfectly smooth or work with the grain. A test board smoothed out nicely with sandpaper attached to a shop made wooden sanding block. But I rather liked the slight raised pattern caused by the softer wood sanding down between the grain lines. So I ran with it.
• Flat? Whassat?
  I found that even BORG "S4S" (Surfaced Four Sides) redwood wasn't perfectly flat and straight. I chose my boards for figure and color first, then by what was flattest. Using a straight line ripping method (use Google, or wait for my write up sometime in the future on this technique) will get you one jointed edge. From there you'll have to decide whether to risk the tearout in a planer or use hand tools. I went the hand tool route...
• Color
  Redwood color can vary widely from a deep maroon to a light tan. While all heartwood will darken with age or exposure to sunlight, the pale sapwood will not. If you leave sapwood in your workpiece be mindful of the fact that it will stay pretty much the same color while the red heartwood darkens over time. Also, there are wide variations in the color of the heartwood. The wood at your store is usually adequately aged so you have a good idea of the color the wood is capable of and where it will end up after aging. Working the wood removes the darker aged color, and it can then be difficult to determine what the color will be. Choose your wood by color, and if you are purchasing different shades of heartwood at the same time, save working the wood until right before your project, and somehow mark the wood after it's been worked to keep the colors separate.
• Finishing
  I'll finish with finishing. I use shellac on redwood whenever possible. Shellac provides a better "lensing" of the highlights in redwood than poly. Many coats, sanding with 400 grit paper after every second coat, gives the best finish. On the floating shelves I had planned to use polyurethane because of the wet environment of a bathroom. But after seeing the results from the small shelf, making a test piece with the poly, and comparing them, I found the shellac to be MUCH nicer. Six coats, a couple coats of paste wax, and the shelves were ready.
  

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

Recently, Gazebo can be applicated as :

• Decorating of the house yard
• Placed in the edge of the pools as a relaxing place
• Placed in the house yard or garden
• Placed in the backyard or terrace at the back house

If you own enough books, it's easy to believe almost anything and yet be certain about almost nothing.

Take dovetails. I've seen this joint cut with a wide variety of slopes during the last 15 years. And every person who cuts this joint has a personal or historical preference about the slope they use.

For some craftsmen, the slope varies simply because they eyeball the layout. Frank Klausz, one of the two living dovetail savants I know, says he cuts his dovetails anywhere between 10° to 15° off the vertical. Tage Frid preferred slopes of "about 10°."

Other well-known dovetailers use marking jigs to lay out the joint, which locks them into particular angles. Rob Cosman, the other living dovetail savant, uses 10° for softwoods and 8.5° for hardwoods.

For the last 15 years I've been cutting dovetails, I've used the angles used by my first instructor: 10° for softwoods and 8.5° for hardwoods, just like Cosman. But for some reason, I've become dissatisfied with the way the joints look when they are visible on a piece of casework.

So I hit the library a few weeks ago, and now my head hurts from the bludgeoning. Dovetails might take their name from a bird, but reading about them is a trip down the rabbit hole.

What the Dead Guys Say
To understand how little there is to understand about dovetails, let's take an abbreviated journey through the literature. I promise to be quick like a bunny.

Charles H. Hayward, the mid-20th century pope of hand-cut joinery, suggests three slopes: Use 12° for coarse work. Use 10° or 7° for decorative dovetails. There is no advice on hardwoods vs. softwoods.

F.E. Hoard and A.W. Marlow, the authors of the 1952 tome "The Cabinetmaker's Treasury," say you should use 15°. Period.

"Audel's Carpenter's Guide," an early 20th century technical manual, says that 7.5° is for an exposed joint and 10° is right for "heavier work." No advice on hardwoods vs. softwoods.

"Modern Practical Joinery" the 1902 book by George Ellis recommends 10° for all joints, as does Paul Hasluck in his 1903 "The Handyman's Book."

So at least among our dearly departed dovetailers, the advice is to use shallow angles for joints that show and steeper angles if your work is coarse, heavy or hidden. Or just to use one angle and be done with it.

At least in my library, the advice on softwoods and hardwoods seems to become more common with modern writing. Percy Blandford, who has been writing about woodworking for a long time, writes in his new book, "The Woodworker's Bible," that any angle between 7.5° and 10° is acceptable. The ideal, he says, is 8.5° for softwoods and 7.5° when joining hardwoods.

My Own Eye
One Wednesday morning I laid out and cut a bunch of these dovetails. I ignored the really shallow angles (6.5° to 8.5°) because I wanted to adopt something more angular. The 10° dovetails looked OK. The 12° dovetails looked better. The 14° tails looked better still. And the 15° looked really good as well. (The photo at the top of this entry shows a 15° dovetail with a bunch of alternatives marked on it.)

But I've some defect in my personality that keeps me from choosing the most extreme position, so I settled on 14°. And it's a good thing, too, because a few days after that, the mindreaders at Lee Valley Tools released a 14° dovetail marker (I really should start wearing my tinfoil hat more). I ordered one ? it seemed to be a sign.

Whatever angle you use for your joint, you can rest easy knowing that someone out there (living or dead) thinks you are doing the right thing ? unless you cut something more than 15°, then you're just nuts (or use a dovetail jig with your router).

? Christopher Schwarz

When we started Woodworking Magazine, one of the things we definitely wanted to include as part of the fabric of the publication were quotations about the craft that made us laugh or think.

And when we launched our first issue in March 2004, there was no doubt or discussion about what quote would be emblazoned at the top of the first page:

Chris Schwarz, editor of Popular Woodworking and Woodworking Magazines, author of "Workbenches:  From Design & Theory to Construction & Use", and of course star of three Lie-Nielsen DVDs agreed to come on the show for an interview with yours truly.

While I meant to ask Chris everything under the sun regarding hand tools and his various articles that I've accumulated over the past few years (I swear I'm not a stalker, just a devoted Schwarzee).  I narrowed it down to just a few key ones ranging from hand sawing to dealing with letters to the editor by happy and unhappy readers alike.

I hope you enjoy this interview as much as I did doing it.  Chris agreed to come back on some other time, so stay subscribed for possible upcoming visits in the future.

Hendrik is returning in May to answer your questions about getting a woodworking business up and running.  It's a little teaser before his annual seminar so get those questions in as soon as possible.

Also, Hendrik is starting his annual three part finishing seminars: 
Part 1 "Preparing the Surface and Staining" - April 26th or May 3rd. 
Part 2 "Hand Finishing and Rubbing Out"    - May 10th or 24th.
Part 3"Antique Restoration Techniques"      - May 31st or June 7th.
So if you live in the Toronto area or feel like visiting it, and you want more information about Hendrik's finishing seminars, send an email to info@passionforwood.com

Of course you can always drop me a line with your questions, comments, suggestions and schwag entries anytime.  Just send them to mattsbasementworkshop@gmail.com.

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