You can sharpen your woodworking skills with helpful tips and techniques from the editors of Woodsmith and ShopNotes magazines. Get a FREE tips sent to your email address each week! Got to Woodworking Tips.com and sign up today.

Here’s last week’s tip from Woodsmith online editor Ted Raife:

It always breaks my heart when a project gets its first scratch. But I know that even with the best of care, it’s bound to happen. So rather than stew over a minor blemish, I came up with an easy way to make it disappear.

My repair system started with an investment in an assortment of touch-up markers. You can get these from many woodworking and finishing supply companies. My set includes about a dozen different colors and this gives me a good shot at finding a close match to the project. But the trick is finding the best color match without relying on a lucky guess.

To help make a more informed choice, I created a sample sheet on a piece of clear acetate. The sheet contains a small, labeled swatch from each marker. As you see in the photo, I simply hold the sheet up to the project to find a good match. After choosing a marker and performing a quick touchup, the project looks as good as new and I feel a whole lot better.

For more helpful project tips, techniques, and plans, visit PlansNOW.

Good Woodworking,

Ted Raife
Online Editor, Woodsmith

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Green wood chair making class by American master craftsman Drew Langsner takes place this autumn at Gifu Academy.
We make a traditional ladderback chair out of local green wood, using only hand tools.


??????????????????????????????????????????????????Country Workshops??????????????????????????????????????????The Chairmaker's Workshop???????????????
Mr. Langsner is a world's famous woodworker who has been pursueing his career for more than thirty years. He runs various craft courses at his Country Workshops. He is the author of 'The Chairmaker's Workshop'.

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The chair making class consists of part A and B.
On part A we cleave logs to get chair parts, steambend and shape them.
On part B we drill mortises and cut tenons, assemble and weave the seat.
You can book either part A or B, or both.
The tuition is 24,000 yen for each part. Room and board is not included.
We accept eight bookings for each part. Contact Japan Green Woodwork Association.

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Green wood chair making class by American master craftsman
Instructor: Drew Langsner
Venue: Forest Workshop, Gifu Academy of Forest Science and Culture

Part A 27-29th September 2008
Part B 18-20th October 2008
9:00-18:00

Here are pics of the completed Plane cabinet.  I haven?t forgot the issue that was raised in the comments section related to ?ramping? the mortis  I will get back to that when I have something intelligent to say.  Here are some ?learning points? I got from finishing this project. 

I had a problem installing the molding around the lid.  The problem started when I discovered that the lid was a hair too narrow in width, meaning the molding would not go over the box.   As with most of my mistakes I have no idea how this happened.   No problem, I figured I would plane a shallow rabbet into the area of the molding  that went over the box.  This worked.  Great , on my way to my next mistake.

When making the molding for the lid of the plane cabinet, I thought it would look cool to angle the outside edge of the molding. Not a big deal, just run a plane on half of the molding along it's length. The result, the molding is thick where it is nailed to the lid and tapered where it covers the box.  Being very proud of my use of my planes I cut the mitres for the corners and put my new shooting board to work.

That's when my next mistake appeared.  When trying to plane the mitre I could not get a perfect 45 degree joint.  I would run the plane on the mitre and it made a nice cut.  I put the two pieces together which did not result in a tight joint.  I continued to repeat this process getting the same result.  As much as I tried to get a straight mitre, and as much as I checked and rechecked the trueness of the shooting board I could not get the damn thing right!  Then I realized that I had created a compound mitre by tapering the molding before making the mitres.   The molding sat on the shooting board at a non 45 degree angle causing the problem.  I am sure there are a number of  people saying ?no kidding? or some variation?  I should have waited until the molding was attached to the box then used the plane to taper. Once again a time consuming mistake but lesson learned.  And once again, it wasn't the tools.

I got cast iron handles from Lee Valley that came with wood screws. I was concerned that the weight of the cabinet full of planes could be too much for the screws.  I consulted Chris who said "since they are not my planes...Go for it!" I chose instead to use brass machine bolts with nuts and washers.

Oh, one last thing. The raised panel moved inside the lid frame. To solve this issue, I shot a brad into the center bottom area of the inside side of the lid, stopping this movement. I put a coat of oil onto the walnut then took 600 grit sandpaper and sanded a second coat of oil into the walnut. This leaves a touch-ably smooth surface.  When the oil is completely dry I will add two coats of varnish.

-John

The Carver's Mallet Part 1

In Part 1 I talked about making the handle from curly maple and fastening it to 3 layers of cross grain laminated wood.

Now I'm adding the rest of the laminated layers to the mallet and turning the assembly on the router.

As mentioned before, the head of the mallet is made from laminated 1/4" wood, oak and padauk. I had enough scrap 1/4" wood to make it a total of 14 layers. 10 oak and 4 padauk. The bottom three layers attached to the handle and then I stacked the rest on that, gluing up 3 at a time because even that many gets squirrelly when clamping the freshly glued wood together.

The photo above is the final clamping of the entire assembly. Those Harbor Freight bar clamps fit perfectly into the 3/4" holes in my clamping table.

I quickly made a jig from particle board to hold the mallet at an angle over my router. This idea came from an article in one of the wood magazines (I forget which one). The idea is to be able to rotate the mallet over the router bit to give it a smooth face at the correct angle. I wasn't confident enough in my turning skills to use the lathe on end grain oak, so I wanted to use the router.

It was a mistake.

Several times the router grabbed the piece out of my hands, chewed it up, and spit it back at me. I'm glad I was wearing goggles!

I finally gave up on the router and put it on the lathe. I gave my turning chisels a fresh hone, held my breath and started cutting.

Not bad! Not bad at all! Some tearout on the oak end grain, but overall a good turn. I'm very comfortable with the end result. Too bad I had done so much damage to the head already with the router. Otherwise I'd be able to say it was perfect. As it its, the mallet is just ok. There is no finish on the mallet. Just 2 coats of Butcher's wax. The photos were taken before the wax was applied. That shine is from good cuts alone!

Not really. It's from sanding down to 2000 grit. =D

This is a small mallet. I am planning to take what I've learned and turn a larger one with maple for the head.

The photos here show the damage, the turning on the lathe, and the final finish photos.

I hope this helps inspire you to try your hand at crafting your own mallets! It's satisfying picking up a tool that I've made myself!

There is a phrase which keeps cropping up on or after my short courses. It goes something like this;

"I wish I had ...

There is one variation of usage which has struck me forcibly after many years of reading American magazines and Reviews.

Larry Williams' wooden moulding ...

Jan 17…Building Drawers Using Drawer Joint Bits w/ Phil Huber

Jan 24 …Three Hand Planes Every Shop Should Have w/ Randy Maxey

Jan 31 …A Simple Shop-Made Jig for Cutting Tenons w/ Carol Beronich

Feb 7 …Table aw Set Up & Maintenance w/ Vince Ancona

Feb 14 …3 New Innovations in Joinery w/ Joel Hess

Feb 21 …12 Must-Have Finishing Supplies w/ Dennis Perkins

Feb 28 …5 Surprising Woodworking Techniques You Didn’t Know About w/ Doug Hicks

Mar 6 …Sharpening Basics: Man vs. Machine w/ Randy Maxey

Mar 13 …3 Fast Joints — All in One Hour w/ Ted Kralicek

Mar 20 …Scroll Saw Tips & Techniques w/ Linda Anderson

Mar 27 …Two Methods for Perfect Box Joints w/ Bryan Nelson

Apr 3 …Case Construction: Routing Rabbets, Dadoes & Grooves w/ Chris Fitch

Apr 10 …Mortise & Tenon — Two Variations for Making Doors w/ Dennis Perkins

Apr 17 …Hand Rubbing a Perfect Finish w/ Doug Hicks

Apr 24 …Building a Bookshelf: From Start to Finish, Part 1 w/ Phil Huber

May 1 …Building a Bookshelf: From Start to Finish, Part 2 w/ Phil Huber

Get the full schedule of upcoming seminars and descriptions at WoodworkingSeminars.com

The seminars start on January 17th and run through May 1st. Cost per seminar is $8, but the price includes a $5 $awbuck$ coupon good for any item in the Woodsmith Store (excluding seminar tickets and season tickets).

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?

In this episode of the WoodworkersResource.com video podcast we're going to be looking into building simple bookcases. In this first part, we look at different joinery methods to construct our bookcase. We'll talk about advantages and disadvantages of using butt joints, rabbits, and pocket hole joinery to construct bookcases.

In part II we'll look into constructing face frames and ways to make sure that they fit perfectly, everytime.

If you would like to be alerted to when we release new episodes, simple go to our website and sign up to receive our newsletter. Just for signing up, you'll receive a special "Bonus" from us as our way of saying, THANKS!

www.WoodworkersResource.com

Craig Stevens

We have just finished shooting the 'Precision Plane Tuning' DVD, after three days of hard work. This concentrates ...

I had recently acquired a barely used planer from Sears. It was one of those deals where the price was right and I couldn’t pass it up.

When I first brought it home, I fired it up and ran a few boards through it. It seemed to work great, but I didn’t need it right away, so I stored it under the bench. Let me say right here that when Sears calls this a “benchtop” planer, that’s an outright lie. This monster is heavy. I’ve got to build a stand for it one of these days. But I’m getting sidetracked.

While I was in the process of building the project mentioned in this previous post (where I injured my thumb on the table saw), I needed to plane some 3/4″ curly maple boards down to 1/2″ thickness. (Yes, it broke my heart to see 1/4″ of those boards go to waste as chips.) As I was planing, I noticed that there was a wide, shallow groove along one edge of the boards along the entire length. Since the two boards I was planing were cut from longer stock, I thought that the boards were rough-planed that way and that’s how I brought them home. A couple of shallow passes later it dawned on me that the groove wasn’t going away. “Great,” I thought. I was going to have to tear down this planer to see what was going on.

Fortunately, this planer is designed to make it fairly easy to get to the cutterhead. A few screws remove the dust shroud to gain access to the knives. As I rotated the cutterhead around, I couldn’t believe what I saw. The gib holding the knife in place was bent outwards and the remaining cavity between it and the knife was crammed full of chips. You can see what I mean in the drawing at right. (I tried to hightlight the area in red.) The item labeled ‘65′ is the gib. Item ‘64′ is the knife. (Item ‘60′ is the cutterhead.) Now, what to do?

Figuring that the worst-case scenario was ordering a new gib, I attempted to straighten it. I clamped the bent area in heavy-duty vise and torqued it as far as I could go. That took care of the majority of the bend. Then some carefully placed taps on the leading edge of the gib with a wood block and hammer took care of the rest. Some minor filing was all it took to get a smooth, straight edge. I re-installed the blade and gib and ran a few boards through it. No sign of a “groove.” I was relieved and glad that I was able to repair it.

But the question remains…what caused the gib to bend in the first place? It’s possible that it was like that when I first bought it. But the mystery remains. When I talk to the other guys in our shop, no one can come up with a plausible explanation. Very strange. If you’ve got any thoughts, leave a comment here.

After Tommy got the pattern drawn on the fret pieces, the next step is to start removing material. He starts out with a small router and takes the bulk material out. Then, with sharp chisels in hand, Tommy shows how to clean up the edges.

Black Desk, Part 1
Black Desk, Part 2

Now I get to start on the top of the desk. The original plan was to use the same plywood and maple as the bottom shelf, however plans change. Especially when I get my hands on a 7ft oak ply desktop!

The church I work at had torn down a desk made by the in-house cabinetmaker. The top was made from 3/4" oak ply with solid oak edging and birch ply reinforcement underneath. It's heavy, sturdy, and best of all: Pre made!

I trimmed it to the 74" length I needed for the desk with a circular saw. I then spread CitruStrip on to remove the varnish. Scraped with a plastic scraper an hour or so later, then wiped down with mineral spirits to remove any trace of the stripper.

I let it dry overnight then started applying the Minwax Water Based Wood Stain in Onyx. On the underside I only applied one coat. Just enough to darken the bright bare wood.

One note about this stain. It dries FAST! In 3 minutes or less here in Colorado. I was unable to stain the entire top in one pass because the stuff would dry before I could wipe it off. I had to do it in sections. I found stripes the length of the top to be most effective in masking the overlapping sections.

I applied the stain in 6 coats over the course of several days, as time permitted. Because the oak ply had been stained and varnished before, the stain didn't penetrate the same as fresh wood would have. It took 6 coats to get the ebonized look I was shooting for. There is some small amount of the original color showing through under just the right light, which adds to the look.

After the stain fully dried (read: when I finally got some more time to work on this), I began applying the varnish. I chose Deft Semi-Gloss Brushing Lacquer because I'm addicted to the smell of lacquer. NOT! The stuff is brutal! I had to open the garage door all the way and use a respirator to put the stuff on. And the smell still permeated the house.

But it gave me the finish I wanted. Because I was going for a satin look over a solid black desk I wanted the look a solid semi-gloss finish would give. It was the closest to the dresser I had already purchased for him that I could get. Normally I would use a gloss finish for all coats except the final one, only then applying a semi-gloss. That does the best job of preserving the color and beauty of wood. But this wood is black. There is no color.

I've gotta say that I really like the way this stuff flows out when it's brushed on. Hardly a trace of brush marks throughout the desk. And with 6 coats (yep, six!), I expected to need to sand it down pretty heavily. But it was unnecessary since there were no brush marks to have to sand down!

My box fan with a furnace filter did a terrific job keeping the dust from landing on the wet finish. No bits or bumps to deal with.

The finish also flowed nicely into the oak's grain, allowing the texture of the wood to show.

I'm happy with the results. I just wish I could keep the odor from getting into my house. I think I'm going to have to stick with the less nasty finishes like shellac and poly in the future.

After the 6 coats were applied over a full Saturday, I let it cure overnight in case there were any thick areas that needed extra time to harden. I doubt it, but better safe than sorry.

So this morning I got my son to help me carry it into his bedroom and install it under his bunk bed. The layout of his room precluded a full shot of the bed with the desk underneath. And, honestly, it's a teenager's room. You really don't want to see any more than I'm showing!!

I had drilled pocket holes in the leg frames with a Kreg drill bit, and these were used with Kreg 1" Fine pocket hole screws to fasten the top to the legs. I also put some felt pads at the top of the legs to keep the top from loosening and rattling on the legs over time.

Once everything was installed and tested by my son and I laying on it (I'm not skinny either), I put his lamp on the end and took some final pics.
My son is really happy with the results, as am I. I love how everything turned out and suspect he'll be using this desk for a long time.

Soon he'll have his computer, some shelves, and piles of crap all over the thing.

He is a teenager, after all.

In this podcast Tommy curves it up! The Bombe Secretary's writing surface should have crisp corners at the end of each elegant radius. To achieve this, Tommy curves the transition points on the rounded edges, taking a machined edge and working it into to a truly hand crafted piece of art.

It's near the end of July and  it's time to give away some great schwag to some even greater listeners!!

This week we have another set of 2-1/2" Whiteside Brass Height Gages for one lucky winner and another great title from Sterling Publishing for a second lucky listener.

If you're interested in getting a set of your own gauges from Woodcraft click here, Whiteside Brass Height Gauges.

WIN AN iPOD TOUCH!!  If you have the time, please take the new listener survey, and when you do you'll be entered to win an iPod Touch.

If you'd like to enter for free schwag or just have a comment, question or suggestion drop me a line at mattsbasementworkshop@gmail.com or  head over to my website at www.mattsbasementworkshop.com or call our Skype Voicemail at 231 354-2338.

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

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To download directly to your computer Right Click on direct download, choose "Save Target as"

I've been thinking about ways to join wood at 90 degree angles. This is in part because I'm starting to think about making storm windows for the basement, and in part because there are picture frames in my near future. So I spent part of this week contemplating joints that have a miter on the show face.

Of course, the simplest way to do this is with a straight miter:

The matched angles of a miter provide some resistance to separation, but the primary benefit lies in the concealment of all the end grain. This is aesthetically pleasing, and can be advantageous in joints that need to endure weather, but nothing can change the fact that end grain to end grain provides a weak glue joint. So even with modern glues I always nail through with wire brads when making a frame.

Another way to strengthen the joint is to add some long grain to long grain contact. We can do this with a mitered half lap:

This has the added advantage of having more edge contact between the boards. You can also put a blind peg in from the back to keep these mated pieces snug. This does reveal some end grain on one side, but provides a much stronger joint. Although this joint looks simple enough, it can be hard to wrap your mind around the geometry: notice that one piece requires two cuts, but the other requires three. When I was drawing this, I kept trying to "cut" the wrong part of the the mating board, so before making any cuts I double check my layout.

You can take the long grain to long grain theme to another level with a mitered bridle joint. This joint starts to get complex.

Even with the increased complexity in the joint, this one is somewhat easier to understand in layout: each piece has one angled joint and one square joint, where the half lap has a more asymmetric structure, with one angled joint on on piece and both an angle and a square on the other.

While I was thinking on variants, I came up with the idea of adding a mechanical joint to the glue joint. I've never seen this done, but it must have been, and it seems that adding a single dovetail on each joint could be elegant and effective:

Properly done, this would be a great way to brag.

Another way to use a mechanical joint is to key the joint: I didn't have time to draw this one, but I hope to add it in the next few days...

The Teak is incorruptible. It hold its own against all that life throws at it.
See more here Teak Wood Ring

I am excited about the latest DVD as it concentrates on techniques for chisel use.

Chopping and paring ...

There’s the old standby: Gorilla Glue.  And there’s Elmer’s Ultimate Glue. And Bolder Bond. Now there’s another polyurethane glue on the market: Rhino Ultra Glue made by the folks at Liquid Nails.

Rhino Ultra Glue shares some of the same characteristics as other polyurethane glues: it’ll bond just about anything. But there is one important difference. This stuff sets up fast. After 40 minutes, you can “plane it, sand it, and stain it” as their bottle says. But get this — If you dampen the surface of the material to be bonded first, Rhino Ultra Glue sets up in half that time. That means that you only need to clamp it for 20 minutes.

There’s another difference. It’s higher-viscosity (thicker) formulation means it won’t run as easily as some other polyurethane glues. That’s real handy on complicated glue-ups where traditional glues run away from your joints before you can get things clamped together.

But what I like most about this product is the bottle. That’s right. The bottle has a flat side so you can store it on it’s side. That means that the glue will last longer because air can’t get to it. When the folks from Liquid Nails showed us this, we all said, “It’s about time.”

And there’s the long nozzle that helps get the glue where you need it. You can read all about the unique bottle features here.

Click here for more information about Rhino Ultra Glue.

I am really happy with how they came out. I've discovered a couple of ways to make cleaner and more repeatable cuts on a couple of the angled pieces. Time to get back to work...

On a field trip away from the sawdust of his studio, Tommy visits his old "vocal" coach, Jackson, to get some tips to audition for "American Idol." Tommy's voice is in rare form when he sings a duet with Jackson. Check it out.

The opening building of pendopo reflected characters like wideopen, friendly and generously character, which always welcome to the guess everytime.

Pendopo has four directions of carved pillars (soko guru) with 12 (twelve) second pillars (soko penanggap) on the right and left side and 20 (twenty) third pillars (soko penitih) on its sorrounding.

Therefore, even the building looks not so high, but give the impression of "momot" which means capable to path everything, because of its wide roof also there is nothing inside the building hence represent the basic of opening.

It match with the function of pendopo that always located in front yard as a place to held official meeting, art show, or traditional ceremony, also to accept honourable guess and official guess in the huge amount.

It made pendopo fabulous and great. Beside that, pendopo can be used as a place to give courses of karawitan and dance.

With the sides and fronts cut, Tommy enjoys "smashing" the pins and tails together. The pine is so soft, working with these dovetails is easy. But before he can glue it all together, he has to clean up the drawer then make a groove in the back of the drawer front. With the drawers taking shape, Tommy is finally starting to feel like he's making progress.

Tommy has dropped off the top of the secretary to the finisher in Salem, and it's time to work on the lower half. He reviews the plans for the base molding and, using a mockup, shows how everything will fit together.

At least a half dozen times, I’ve experienced serious kickback while using my table saw. Not once during any of those times though did I feel that I was doing something that was inherently dangerous. I almost always use my guards and push blocks. I take my time to set up my saw for safe, accurate cuts. I’ve even been known to step back and question whether there is a better way to complete an operation that I’m not 100% comfortable with.

And still, I’ve experienced situations that could have resulted in bodily injury.

Once I was knocked on my keester when a workpiece I was ripping pinched the blade and got kicked back into my stomach. (I broke two cardinal woodworking safety rules during that particular procedure.) I don’t remember now what caused the kickback. But I’ll never forget how lucky I was not to have been injured more seriously. (Or the pain to my gut!) But none of us are perfect. Accidents happen and all you can do is hope they don’t happen to you. Right?

That’s why I was surprised while watching a recent segment of TOH, as a trim carpenter made a free-hand cut on the table saw. Frankly, I watched in disbelief as he made the cut and thought to myself, “Man, that just looks dangerous!” Norm Abram was standing there watching and I thought maybe he would say something, but he didn’t. I figured there would be a lot of people commenting about the segment on our woodworking forums. And there is a debate raging over at WoodNet. But, you may be surprised to learn that there are a lot of people defending the practice.

Several people have commented that the practice of pushing a piece freehand past a spinning table saw blade is an acceptable practice by professional trim carpenters. It may be. And the guy managed to make the cut during the show without any problem. But I can tell you one thing….I’m never going to try it.

What’s your response?

Today I want to share with you two strange desings.

The first one is a very nice pair of earrings, made of wood beads (they´re beautiful). It seems they belongs to an indian, isn’t it?

The following desing it´s a spiral. I love spirals! I made the wire structure first and then embroider the beads.

See you next craft!

When I first opened the package, I assumed that the tool inside was a prototype that had a plastic blade. That happens occasionally here at the magazine when a manufacturer wants our opinion on a tool’s ergonomics before they crank up production.

But no, the white chunk of stuff at the end of the Gladstone Tools marking knife actually was the working blade. And this was no prototype.

The spear point of this 8�-long knife is ceramic. Ceramax 80, to be precise, a material you can find in a variety of industrial and home applications, including some kitchen knives.

According to the manufacturer, the knife is second in hardness only to diamond and “will never need sharpening.�

That is quite a claim, and so I immediately put the knife to work today to see how it performed. The ceramic blade is a spear-point shape that is about 1/8� thick. It has the same general shape as the now-discontinued Veritas marking knife we reviewed a few years ago.

The knife’s edges don’t feel as keen as a freshly sharpened steel knife, but the tool does lay down a fine line with little effort. It also offers the same feedback to the user as a steel knife as it makes its mark. I thought the Gladstone might feel a bit gummy (like a stainless tool), but perhaps I was just getting over the shock that it wasn’t a chunk of white plastic.

The handle that was shipped to me is not the same shape as shown on the Gladstone Tools web site. This knife has two pronounced flats that prevent the tool from rolling on the bench (always nice) and has a thin neck for your middle finger while marking joints.

The padouk handle (it’s also available in zebrawood) is well finished. It’s not as nicely turned and finished as the Blue Spruce knives, but it is nicer than most manufactured knives I’ve used. The price is $29.95 for the padouk and $31.95 for the zebrawood – those are fair prices for a nice piece of work like this.

Will the edge hold up? I sure hope so. Gladstone Tools is run by a man that many of us simply know as “Manny,� who runs Manny’s Woodworkers Place in Lexington, Ky. When I was first taking woodworking classes, I and my fellow students would hang out at Manny’s place and drool over the amazing selection of books (still the best, even today) and hand tools. Manny was always patient with us as we would fondle the Japanese chisels but purchase a small set of brad points.

Though Manny carried a few machines and power tools, the majority of his inventory has always been hand tools, including many hard-to-find things. When I first started woodworking seriously, it was Manny’s place that made a huge impression on me. I thought all furniture making used both hand and power tools. (A rude awakening was to follow.)

If you purchase this knife, add a comment below after you use it for a while and let me know how it held up. I’ll use it exclusively for a while and report back as well.

If Manny has come up with a way to ensure that I have one less tool to sharpen, that’s a pretty amazing accomplishment.

— Christopher Schwarz