Tommy works on the interior of the hidden box. He's added document drawers and a false back. He says, "It's a pretty cool little thing, and I'm having fun making it."

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!

Now that shop class is as common in high schools as poodle skirts, lots of woodworkers worry about passing on our enthusiasm for the craft to the next generation. In my house, I?ve started treating my kids more like apprentices, and it seems to be working.

They help clean the shop. They assist me on projects at assembly time. They can work on their own projects on the side when I don?t need them. And ? here?s the odd part ? I pay them (a pittance) for their help and swear them to secrecy on the ?arts and mysteries? of the craft.

This weekend has been a perfect example. I assembled a large run of shelving that I plan to install in the recipient?s home this week. There was a lot of tedious gluing, clamping and clean-up work involved, so I hired 7-year-old Katy to help.

First, I showed her the ?secret? to making the lacquer finish perfectly smooth to the touch ? a folded up brown paper bag. We rubbed all the surfaces vigorously, which knocked down any surface imperfections without cutting through the film finish. Katy did the shelves; I did the uprights.

?Cool,? she said. ?It works!?

As we were bagging the lacquer, both of us noticed that there were some small dings and scratches in the color. This is was the result of the parts getting moved around more than I like. So I swore Katy to secrecy again and introduced her to the mystery of stain pens. In this case, the best match wasn?t one of my stain pens (which I keep hidden away), it was a black Sharpie marker.

In fact, Katy became incredulous when I took her picture at work with the marker.

?What if someone sees the picture and figures out our secret?? she asked. ?Then they?ll know!?

Then we glued up the shelves. I applied the glue. Katy added the Dominos. We both applied the clamps and cleaned the glue squeeze-out. Assembly can be stressful for me, but Katy?s amazement at how the project came together kept my anxiety in check.

We did four major glue-ups this weekend, and by the fourth one, Katy dove into the work like she had been doing it all her life. I wonder if learning woodworking is like learning a foreign language ? it might be easier when you are young.

As I added the kicks to the cabinet, Katy worked at the bench at her own project ? she?s transforming my discarded shop jigs for this shelving project into a wooden alligator.

Then I paid her (about $1 an hour for the shop time) and I asked her if she?d come along on the installation next week. With hesitation, she said: ?Yes! Hurray!?

Next step: Getting the apprentices to fetch the small beer for the master.

? Christopher Schwarz

My last post showed how a piece of pine being used in my current project looks before I start working on it.

After running the board through the planer and jointer, it then looks like this:


The planer gets rid of the nasty looking rough surface and leaves what resembles a typical looking board.

This typical looking board is then glued to another typical looking board to create a wider typical looking board. When that wider typical looking board is sanded, it looks more like this:


stay tuned as progress continues...

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

Here?s last week?s tip from ShopNotes online editor Phil Huber:

My workshop shares space with the family car. So it?s important that all of my power tools be portable and take up as little space as possible. So I made the fold-up router table you see here.

I made a simple router table top and attached it to a pair of 2×4?s with screws. Then, after removing the top of an adjustable clamping table, I mounted the router table to the clamping table stand, as shown in the left photo above. The table is firmly supported by the clamping table base.

The nice thing about the table is it can be raised and lowered to match the task at hand. Best of all, I can remove the router and quickly fold the table up to store it against the wall whenever it?s not in use (right photo).

If you?d like to see other router table plans, just go to PlansNOW.

Good Woodworking,

Phil Huber
Online Editor, ShopNotes

Send for a preview issue of ShopNotes magazine

 

WESTERN EARTH KNIVES

Unique handcrafted hunting knives custom tailored for you at WEK.

Photos Courtesy of Western Earth Knives                                            "The dagger"

Custom Handmade knives and sheaths, made to order, using materials of the earth: bone, antler, horn, brass, leather, exotic woods of the West, and only high quality high-carbon steel blades. Western Earth Knives are made using designs derived from the qualities of the earth and her creatures by Douglas Gilbert.

 

Douglas has been a painter and sculptor for 40 years. It is only recently in his life that he has come to specialize in knife making, continuing to exercise his love for the powerful qualities and images of the earth. He spent much of his youth in the woods, and whittling wood was one of his early interests. A temporary illness brought him to abandon the 9-to-5 work-world and to devote himself full time to his craft. He has two grown children, a loving psychologist wife, and lives in southwestern Washington state. For additional information or to talk directly with Douglas ...

 

Contact:

                           Douglas Gilbert, MFA, Artist/Knife maker

                            earthknives@hotmail.com
                             360-501-6939

?????????????????????????????????
????????????????????????????????????????????
???????????????????
?????????????????????????????????????????????????

???JR???????????G????TAKUMI??????
????????????????????????????????
????????????????????????????????????????????
?????????????????????????????

Tommy starts a BIG dining room table (approximately 14' long) and walks you through the wood selection, milling, sitckering, and routering out the top. As Tommy goes through this process he explains the science behind the wood. And don't adjust your computer screen, Tommy isn't turning into the hulk, just blowing off some steam.

??????????????????
????????????????????????????????????????
??????????????????????????????????????????????
???????????????????????????????????

There is a shipyard of cormorant fishing in Gifu city. This shipyard is run by Gifu city council. Two shipbuilders and two assistant builders are building two ships every year. When I visited there in mid-February, they were building a thirty-passenger ship and a twenty-passenger one. The bigger one is 17 meters long, the smaller 15 meters long.

????????????????????????????????????
The material is Koyamaki, Japanese Umbrella-pine, 200-250 years old, from Kiso and East Tohno area.

??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????
Three different types of nails are used for assembling the bottom and the sides. No glue.

?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????
Bending the bottom. They put the weight on the timber and pull the end. Leave it for three to four weeks. Fix the shape by putting the sides.



?????????????????????????????????
????????
?????391
tel 058-262-0104

The shipyard is open to the public. 9:00-16:00
The shipyard of cormorant fishing
391 Minatomachi, Gifu
058-262-0104

Part way though this plane I realized this is the most "traditional" infill plane I have made to date. It was great to return to the roots of British infill planes. This is a 16-1/2" long A1 panel plane - infilled with Brazilian Rosewood, 01 tool steel sides and sole and a bronze lever cap and lever cap screw. This combination of materials is the epitome of British infills.





I was also reminded why Brazilian Rosewood was the infill material of choice - it is one of the finest woods to work with. The front bun on this plane was roughed out in 2003 and I have been waiting to use it ever since. I knew the figure would be good... but this really knocked my socks off!



One of the challenges of having such a great piece of wood for the front bun, is continuing it to the rear infill. The black streaks that run through the rear infill and handle certainly tie it all together.



Coming off the heels of two large jointers - lapping this plane was a real treat. For what it's worth... the lapping music of choice was Ministry & I used 12 sheets of lapping paper.

????????????????????????????????????NPO??????????????????????????
???????????????????????????
????????????????????????????????????????

Japan Green Woodwork Association has been registered as a charity organization today. I hope it will become a base for lots of interesting activities by the fans of green woodwork.

These last couple of weeks, I have been getting well acquainted with my "new" jack plane. I don't really like what I am finding out. For the record, it is an old Sargent that says VBM on it.

I bought it off eBay for a cheap price a few months ago. It seemed to be in fairly good condition with no obvious damage or rusting. The works were a bit tight and needed a bit of lube and a number of other minor issues. The biggest story here was the banana sole. By banana sole, I mean it was high on the ends and low in the middle. Also, the area around the mouth was a bit worn testifying to a good bit of use.

As part of the fettling process, I cleaned it up, sharpened it, and so forth. I also worked on flattening the sole. Actually, I did make a lot of progress on flattening it. Finally, it seemed to me to be reasonably flat, and I was tired of rubbing it across my Norton stone (not the way I would recommend doing it, by the way).  read more »

Tommy reviews how the doors are coming along as well as his plans for them. With the doors and hardware installed on the secretary, he concentrates on cleaning out the corners then shows how he centered the door overlap. Tommy's getting closer and closer to completion of the project!

I have been very busy lately. My father called me Sunday, and wanted to make sure I was alive. When I asked why, he said, “Well, you haven’t called in at least a week, and you haven’t updated your blog either.�

It was good to learn that I have a dedicated reader, even if it’s “just family.�

So tonight I thought I would try to get something done on my workbench. I am almost ready to assemble the four legs and four stretchers of the base, and I need 16 pieces of 3/8� diameter pegs to use for drawboring the Mortise and Tenon stretcher/leg joints.

I’m going to come clean on this to the whole world (in advance). I don’t really know if I know what I am doing… I may be a victim of the right side of my brain. You see, I’m a little bit artsy. It’s okay. In the modern world a guy can be the proud owner of a bag full of smelly stuff bearing the names Bauer, Easton, CCM, and Sherwood and still recognize the beauty of good design…

I have decided to accent my massive hard maple Holtzapffel bench with Ebony. I am using Gabon Ebony pegs for the drawboring, and I am looking forward to the contrast of the black circles on the white maple. However, I don’t know if ebony pegs will work. I think it will be okay because as I drive the pegs through my Lie-Nielsen Doweling Plate…(another shameless plug, Tom…come on…let me be a hand model in next year’s Lie-Nielsen Calendar) Sorry, I was saying, as I drive the pegs through the steel doweling plate they seem to have adequate toughness. They tear/shred as opposed to split. So I think they will be great for drawboring, but I won’t know for sure until I start driving them in.

Let me tell you the other ebony ledge I am venturing out onto…(this one might get bad): I am making Ebony Handles to go in the massive maple screws that Stephen Fee made me for the front vise. Wow, turning Gabon ebony into round cylinders for vise handles…what’s so crazy about that? Well, nothing. However, I am planning to tap the ends of the handles with male threads and then thread them into Ebony knobs. For those knobs, I am going to turn them, then I plan to tap blind holes that I have drilled almost all the way through. I honestly don’t know if you can tap ebony, but here I am letting the world know ahead of time what my plan is. At this moment I feel like Oral Roberts telling the world that God wants to take me home on a specific date. I wasn’t supposed to tell the plan until after it was successful…

Tonight I spent some time making more pegs for drawboring, and look what happened. How did I cut that finger, you ask? I picked up my drawknife. That’s it. I just picked it up. I didn’t juggle it. I didn’t swing it like a cleaver and try to catch it with my left hand. I just reached down with both hands and picked it up off the bench and apparently my left hand was a little too high on the handle and managed to get hold of some of the blade. That is almost as dumb as the fact that I cut my pegs into ½ x ½ x 3 inch rectangular blocks BEFORE I started any rounding. I now realize it would have been better to keep them as long as possible and spindle turn them down closer to 3/8� before driving them through the doweling plate. But no; I created way oversized rectangles that are too short to grab hold of, and I have to shave them down to a cross-sectional area just under 50% of their 0.25 square inches. Look at all of those shavings. I have little Ebony curls EVERYWHERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Right now in Holland, Michigan there is a moron standing in a mountain of Ebony curls who cannot lift a tiny little drawknife off of his bench without cutting his finger, thinks he can flawlessly tap Gabon Ebony, and believes he is the next great Lie-Nielsen Hand Model. Stay tuned to see how this turns out.

A popular theory holds that woodworkers belong to one of two categories: Normites, those who use power tools and only power tools; and Galoots, those who would rather take a hammer blow to the forehead than use a corded tool. It?s a religious thing, no one can be both. Like the Jets and the Sharks (when you?re a Galoot, you?re a Galoot all the way). When a Normite and a Galoot approach each other on the street everyone else crosses to the other side. There?s little common ground.

I?ve been a woodworker for ten years, more or less. Like many, I began with a table saw. My first project was a router table. I added other tools (planer, jointer, drill press, band saw) as needed but in rather quick succession. I had a well outfitted shop and all was right with the world. I was a Normite. Oh sure, I?d occasionally use chisels or even a block plane (oh, the horror) but I never strayed enough to put my American Federation of Normites membership in jeopardy. I made a number of pieces of furniture this way. Life was good.

That was the status quo for quite a while ? the electric meter was an indicator of my time in the shop. Until last year. That?s when some evil people made me think about hand tools in a serious way. There was no single event but a series of several involving talented, passionate, inspirational woodworkers. My world had been a settled, comfortable place. Until those evil people got me thinking. They motivated me to learn about the wide variety of tools and their capabilities (though there is still far to travel on this long, steep learning curve). They made me realize that some operations can be performed more accurately with hand tools. They made me spend a lot of money.

This was my introduction to Galoots. Like billionaires, I had known of their existence but I didn?t know any personally. And just as billionaires are shrouded with mystery, Galoots were an unknown quantity. I expected a bunch of throwbacks, guys stuck living in the good-old-days, possessed of a stubborn refusal to acknowledge progress. I believed that woodworkers of the past would have welcomed the opportunity to trade their planes for electric routers. Now I know better.

When I started acquiring hand tools I bought those that I thought would be useful based on what the (no longer so) evil people had demonstrated. So what did I hope to accomplish? What problems was I trying to solve? (Beyond the obvious of relieving my checking account of excess funds.) I had three goals: to improve accuracy and my ability make fine adjustments; to reduce the amount of sanding required; to wear ear plugs less often.

Several months later, I?m well on the way to accomplishing these goals. On my most recent project I used hand tools when possible. I cut finger joints largely with a hand saw and chisels. I used a block plane to round edges and trim the end grain of stiles. Tenons and panel tongues were fitted with a shoulder plane. I haunched tenons with a hand saw. The list goes on. Most importantly, the joinery turned out very well, I didn?t have to sand as much as in the past and there were entire days with no ear plugs. Along the way, I accomplished an unanticipated fourth goal: I had a great time. I?m not sure when I?ve had as much fun in the shop.

There?s no turning back now, though I won?t eliminate power tools from my shop. Frankly, the thought of dimensioning rough lumber using only hand planes is entirely unappealing. So I guess there are more than two categories for woodworkers (galootified-Normite?). So much for popular theories.

A question on dovetails on WoodCentral led to a discussion of their history, and one of the posters produced a link to a photo of a box with some of (if not the) earliest examples of dovetails on record:

Ancient Roman box, dated from the 2nd or 3rd century, currently located in Limesmuseaum Aalen (German language site) in Baden Württemberg. See the original link (Google translation) to the photo on woodworking.de.

It's a fascinating piece, I think most would agree.  I love this sort of old research...  and there's some real sophistication in the design of this box - though I guess sophistication shouldn't be a surprise when you review artworks of the period.  Helenistic statues display the foremost sophistication, for example...  But I digress

The poster also included an informative link to another German site on Roman woodworking tools I also found very interesting.

This box some fairly sophisticated woodworking - and obviously the dovetails' design is well developed at this point.   It's pretty obvious to me that they've been around for (literally) thousands of years...  Interesting that the idea of craftsmanship hasn't really changed all that much in all this time, isn't it?  There is a legacy to woodworking that goes back hundreds of generations, which is something that is easy to forget in the "we do it so much better now" frame of mind.

 It reminds me of some of the items that have been passed down to me..,.  One of my most treasured came from the old country with my grandparents - it's a traveling/storage box known as a "koffort":

Koffort - an antique Icelandic traveling/storage box that's been in my family for at least 150-200 years.

This box was originally made in Iceland, and my parents both believe it is at least 150  years old, and was quite possibly much, much older than that.  It was handed down to my father from his great grandfather when he was 13 years old...  By dad's account, his great grandfather had told him that "it was very old" when he himself had received it from his great-grandfather when he was 13 years old in 1933.  If we trace that path, his great grandfather would have been 13 years old in 1868, a difference of 65 years.  I don't know where, when, or by who it came into his great-grandfathers possession - but if it was "very old" then, I would guess that makes it at least 50 years older than that, which puts it at 1818 or so - and it could easily be yet older - but I have no documentation or even any oral history beyond what I've told you.

The construction of the box is quite simple and elegant - very similar to a "six board chest", but without any legs and a slightly more involved lid design.  The corners are dovetailed, and an iron strap has been added for strength at each corner:

Dovetailed corner with iron strap

I doubt the strap was original to the box - most like it was added some time later.  These boxes were heavily used and abused, and traveled with the owner all over creation.  Often they would also be used like what you would use a safe for today...  The angled "handle" on the side is repeated on the far side and is angled to make the box easier to be packed on the back of a mule, horse, or ox.

Inside the only additional item is a small tray at one end:

Interior view

Looking closely at the tray, you can see it's also dovetailed - and you can see the primitive hinges, which I also believe are not original:

Tray at one end is also dovetailed

The fact this is also dovetailed is important in showing the attention to detail this box was given during it's construction.  One also has to remember that when this box was built, Iceland had no real native timber of it's own.  Almost all wood came in the form of imports from abroad or, and this is more likely the case for a personal item like this, from driftwood.  Logs would follow the current up to the shores of Iceland having started anywhere along the shore from the Caribbean to upper Labrador in Canada.  Wood, therefore, was quite precious.

Another similar example I have is a larger version of the koffort, which I guess is called a "kista":

Kista - a larger version of the koffort

This is from mother's side of the family.  It's not nearly as old, I believe mom thought it dated to the late 19th or early 20th century.  It's a little more crudely made, but still uses dovetails in it's construction:

Dovetails on the Kista

 This particular box sat in a dirt floor barn for many years, and the bottom had rotted out of it.  Dad repaired it at the same time he refinished the koffort.  He did a good job at the restoration, but I'm not so proud of the finishes he chose.  But still, I'm proud to have them both here with me.

In my spare time over the last couple of years I've been working  on my own version of a koffort.  I'll post about it someday when I'm finished, but needless to say that anything I do will pale in comparison when you consider the history of these pieces, which is what I think truly makes them special.  I can only hope that, some couple hundred years from now, somebody is marveling over my creation wondering who the craftsman was that made it, why he did, and if he was as proud of his koffort then as I am of owning it now.

 

A page to discuss Mesquite Tables,Doors,furniture,mantles,slabs,burls,root-balls,logs,scraps for trim,turning blocks,turning sticks,artisans,crafts & firewood.

First of all - Happy New Year to all you Folks out there reading this! Its amazing how quickly time flies by, so.....

First up - Operation Norris. Remember the rusty old Norris I was going to restore? Well, to kickstart the year I have made some progress. Sadly, the rosewood I put aside for the infills was half an inch too short for the tote. After much head scratching I had to use something else - so Bubinga it is. I have made the replacement tote and two side sections and I'm shaping the front bun at the moment. Once the woodwork is done I can concentrate on the metalwork side of things. The adjuster mechanism will be a challenge, but hey, its a new year!

I am finally going to start building the new porch for the house, too. I had a new path and step built to the front of the house and the bad weather has put me behind with construction. I have loads of gorgeous European Oak sat in the workshop ready to be broken down. Stay tuned.

I've also had some great plane ideas over the holidays and shall be turning them into reality in the coming weeks. Can't beat Xmas t.v. to get the old brain daydreaming....... ;)

Cheers
Philly

The doubler's been cut and shaped...now, with Al on pins and needles, it's time to glue it up. Tommy starts by applying a coating of prophylactic paraffin to the doubler's finely worked front edge. Next he pours and then rolls glue on the top side of the writing surface - careful to stay within the guideline he had drawn to delineate the placement of the doubler's forwardmost edge. Next up, it's more glue on the doubler's underside with particular attention paid to the "squeeze-O factor" along the edges. At last Tommy sets the doubler in place, sets the clamps, and phew...Tommy and Al breathe a sigh of relief.

After having decided on a layout for the interior, I proceeded to take measurements of the
drawer case mockups. With these measurements in hand, I then create a cut list. The cut list provides me a clear idea of the amount of wood necessary to make both the drawer cases. The cut list also allows me to optimize the individual components for the drawer cases in order to minimize the wood necessary. This is only valid to a point however, as the wood components need to be selected with careful consideration to grain orientation and to maintain the harmony of the individual drawer cases.

With this information in hand, I selected an area of a large beech plank to cut my blanks from. Fortunately, I have some very nice European Beech planks in my studio I had acquired a while ago. The planks are rift to quarter-sawn in grain orientation and fairly thick at approximately 2.5 inches. The blanks are slightly different in size and are rift-sawn. The difference in blank size is attributed to the different size of either of the drawer cases. In the photo above, the two blanks can be seen along with my measurements and cut list. I also drew the components of the drawer cases out on another sheet of cardboard as a visual aid in laying out the components. Since the depth of the drawer cases is fairly large, I will be gluing two pieces of beech for each of the tops, bottoms and sides of the drawer cases. In doing this, I will try to maintain grain orientation and harmony to create fairly seamless components for the drawer cases.

Next I will layout and mark the boards to be cut from both of these beech blanks. After cutting the blanks in half and squaring one face and one edge of the individual halves , I will slice the boards off using a bandsaw similar to resawing.

As I had mentioned in a previous post, my table saw died recently. One of my friends at work has been nice enough to let me borrow his to work on a few projects. To return the favor, I made him a table saw sled.



Having learned from the first sled I made, I decided I'd make this one a little more flexible. I wanted to make it so none of the great 20.5" x 32.5" space was wasted by attaching guide blocks in the middle of the sled. So I made a sub-assembly.



a couple of spring clamps hold the sub-assembly in place and now it's set to make some more segemented / laminated pen projects!



I hope he likes it as much as I do!!

The architect mostly achieves the ideal process of culture combination and success to represent a unique colour of ur main pillars (as part of Joglo) and Soko Geder (one pillar). On the top of soko guru there are put tumpang songo (nine support) (it musn't be nine, it could be only three support (tumpang telu (tiga)) which depend on the capability of the owners), as the support of roof construction.

The roof construction of traditional house of Kudus shows the level of wealthy of the owner since cost to make the roof is the highest cost compare with any other parts of the house. The expensive cost was because of the motifs perfection and the carved style also the difficulty on the process to construct it.

The Pencu style roof (the towering roof) used to be made of Rumbia (a particular kind of palm leaves), but now more likely to be made of tiles. Kudus tiles often have special plant motifs, and there are the so-called genteng gajah (with elephant ornamentation) on the wuwungan (the topmost row of tiles), and the genteng raja (king tiles) which are beautifully decorated.

The design interior of the traditional house of Kudus looks simple and divided into Jogo Satru room as a guess room, which in the standard traditional house of Kudus the cover area is around 3 x 10 msq. In this room, the floor is lower around 1 m from the main room (inside room) and is a part of the fourth step or floor.

Then, inside room (jogan lebet) is a fifth step with area around 7 x 10 msq. A chair uses as the connection between the two rooms because of its level differences.and as partition between the two rooms used Gebyok.

Inside the inside room (jogan lebet), there are several rooms such as living room located below the joglo, then bedrooms and gedongan as the place to keep the heilroom and wealthy. Gedongan placed between inside room and pawon (kitchen) that located in the left or right of the house.

This pawon except use for cooking and dinner room, also use for the family activity, such as made of convection products and other home industries. In front of the pawon, precisely in the edge part of the yard placed well complete with the bathroom.

There are several types of doors in the traditional house of Kudus, there is one door, two door and sliding door. One door is usually for the kitchen, two doors in gebyok and the sliding door is in the front.

One thing that necessary to be noted is that traditional house of Kudus always build face to the south that full with the philosophy meaning and based on the natural rule of rational calculation.

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

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

The Wood Whisperer has recently announced the first annual Woodworker's Safety Week: May 5 – May 9. He’d like to think of this week as “a refresher course on safety”.

Many woodworking sites have decided to participate in this event and LumberJocks are joining with another cool challenge prepared in cooperation with Marc. And since Marc is the famous video star, this challenge is about your own videos again. Remember the success of our first LJ/TWW workshop video challenge? The expectations are even higher this time ;)

Your task is to record your own woodworking safety video and post it on your personal LumberJocks Blog. The video may present your personal safety tip(s), review of some safety equipment, top ten donts in the workshop etc. You get the idea.

Prizes

• 3 random winners will get LJ shirt, TWW shirt and TWW Finishing DVD each

How to Enter and Official Rules

1. Just add your entry as the regular blog entry and tag it with challenge05 (of course you may add any additional tags too):
   
   Note that you don’t need to use ‘challenge05’ in your blog entry title (use the meaningful title instead).
2. Enter the video overview plus embed the video into the entry.
3. Valid video must be at least 3 minutes long.
4. The videos must be posted from May 5 to May 9.
5. Winners will be announced online at LumberJocks.com and TheWoodWhisperer.com on May 11.

Marc has prepared easy to follow video tutorial in which you can see how to post your final video to your LumberJocks blog and enter it into challenge. Note that you can use any of the popular video hosting sites like Youtube, Blip etc. to host your video.

Here's the page listing all of the submitted entries.

So get your camcorder ready and have fun!

A big thank you to Michael B. for alerting me to this. For those of you who don’t know, iTunes is a pretty important part of the podcasting community. In fact, about 63% of my subscribers use iTunes to watch the show. As a result, we frequently review iTunes stats and rankings and consider them a barometer for what’s happening in the bigger picture. And all too often, we are beaten out by knitting podcasts and podcasts provided by BBC and G4 TechTV. We usually hover around 3 or 4 in the Hobby Category Top 25. But as of today, we are back in the #1 position!! Woohoo! This may be short lived though, since I believe these rankings are based on the number of new subscribers as opposed to total subscribers. This way, new and notable podcasts can find themselves in the #1 position if they start to get popular.

This is all very cool, but what excites me even more is the number of my comrades that appear in the list as well. Congrats to Woodworking Online, Matt’s Basement Workshop, The Rough Cut Show, and Woodworkers Resource. And let’s not leave out the rest of the awesome woodworking videos and podcasts that just happen to not be on the list today. Woodworking is clearly, ALIVE AND WELL!

This is another entry from John who is referring to his previous post Titled "First Class Practice"

As you recall I am making the base of the Trestle Table and am in the process of making notches in two members so when they are glued together I will have a mortise.  After sawing into the waste a number of times, I removed it by hitting it with a hammer.  A good Maydole hammer no doubt, but any hammer will do.  Here is what the joint looked like.  Not only doesn't this look nice but I don't think I am going to get a good glue joint.

So I took out my Stanley vintage router plane and went to work.  Here is the result!




See how much tearout there is on the near-right side?  And this was one of the best examples.  I was planing directly across the grain and boy did I make a mess.  I learned that I could avoid this by canting the plane and paying close attention to the wood that made contact with the iron.  It was kind of like saddling an Elm chair seat with an Inshave.  If I continued to make angle adjustments I could get a good result.  I also used the two top sides of the work as a reference for the sole of the router plane.

I had to adjust the depth a bit deeper than intended but this is the final result.  You can still see where  big area of tearout was, but this will make a good glue joint.




For explanation purposes here is how I used the sole of the router plane on the work.




John