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...

My two younger daughters are completely fascinated with fairies right now. All they seem to be talking about lately is fairies. My seven year old told me earlier today all about how she and her neighborhood friends built a little fairy house in the back yard under a bush.

Apparently the fairy didn?t want to sleep outside with the bugs and decided to set up a little condo in our hallway.

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The first-year students of Gifu Academy are making a picture frame.
It is not mitred but mortise and tenon construction. They are their first machine-cut mortises and tenons.
They learn various joineries and how to use machines through making such small products.

I was able to get a resource for the ramped mortis I used when installing hinges on my plane cabinet.  As you recall I ramped one side of the mortis to accomodate the non-swaged hinges.  This of course was not an original idea of mine and it generated some great thougths on the blog.

Below is a page from Charles Hayward's ?Carpentry for Beginners?.  If you look at figure 2 you can see that he is showing a ramp for one side of the non-swaged hinge.  The file is a word document.  I was unable to post the picture directly onto this blog, sorry about that.  If you have any trouble opening it please let me know and I can email it to you.

Regards
John


Hayward.doc (926 KB)

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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

When you design a piece of furniture to build, there are three well-worn paths (some might call them ruts) to follow.

The first path is to design a piece in a wholly original style. This actually happens about once or twice a century, and its rarity is why we don?t have furniture styles such as ?Early Bill,? ?Middle Chuck? or the ?Late Butch Period.? Few people alive can claim they have successfully launched a style, but don?t let that stop you from trying.

The second approach is to build replicas, either spot-on or with mild alterations, such as an additional drawer, or substituting a square ovolo moulding for a bead. This is a good way to learn the vocabulary of different styles, though it is time-consuming to learn everything by the doing. Some woodworkers (even professionals) might build only six pieces in a year.

The third approach is to design a new piece with vintage parts, like rebuilding an old car. With this approach, you expose yourself to hundreds of images of the form. You could look at tables, cabriole legs or Arts & Crafts desks, for example. Then you select your piece?s dominant element from the library ? say a leg, a door or a bonnet ? and design your piece around that. (However, you can?t easily mix parts from different genres. It might seem like a good idea to put a Honda push rod in a Chevy, until you hit that metric barrier.)

When asked the secret to good design, Steve Hamilton, a builder at Mack S. Headley & Sons (headleyandsons.com), boiled it down to two words: ?Picture books,? he said. ?Get a bunch. Look them over.?

Design on the Run
Designing a suitable early American wall cupboard for Woodworking Magazine began with a day in our collection of books and images. You don?t need to spend a lot of money to build a book collection, most of the resources you need are at the public library and on the Internet.

My first stop was Wallace Nutting?s ?A Furniture Treasury.? This book is available in many different forms, and it?s common to find copies for about $25. The book is as-advertised. It?s hundreds of pages of images of early American stuff that has been organized into categories such as ?chests? and ?Windsor chairs.?

The second source was auction catalogs from Christie?s (christies.com) and Sotheby?s (sothebys.com) auction houses. The catalogs these houses publish for their Americana auctions are outstanding. Good images. Good overall dimensions. And good history lessons as well. These catalogs can be pricey at $50 or more, but you can usually browse the catalogs on the Internet for free, though sometimes you have to register with the auction house (registration is free).

The third source was an old favorite of mine from my grandparents? library: ?Fine Points of Furniture: Early American? (Crown) by Albert Sack. This common book can be had for about $10 ? the new revised edition is much more expensive and rare. Sack?s book compares different kinds of pieces and ranks them as ?good,? ?better? or ?best.? This book helps hone your tastes in mouldings, proportion and turnings.

After a day of reading, I chose a fetching tombstone door from Nutting?s book and found many tall and skinny shapes for wall cupboards that looked like pieces I had seen at Winterthur, the DuPont?s Delaware estate and museum.

My design firmed up when my doctor got too busy for me one Wednesday. After showing up for my appointment, I was told there would be an hour delay. So I sat in my car and sketched about 10 wall cabinets. I didn?t worry about dimensions or joinery, just the overall look and feel of the piece. Each sketch took about five minutes and tried out variations on the door (one or two?), the drawer (one, two or none?) and the width of the stiles and rails (chunky or light?).

After those sketches, I chose the best two designs, sketched them again and showed them around to woodworkers and friends. It sounds like a lot of work, but I have found that good design is like making stir fry: You first chop vegetables and mix sauces for a long time. The active cooking time is real short ? if you?ve done your prep work.

? Christopher Schwarz

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

John is explaining a problem installing non swaged hinges?

I recently completed a plane cabinet.  Yes I actually completed something!  This was a cabinet following Chris?s plans, that holds all my planes. I made it out of walnut which has become my favorite wood.  Anyway, I needed to put quality hinges on the lid and since my past experience with no-mortis hinges caused me to turn the air blue, I went with a traditional hinge. I hoped to avoid one of my last problems, that of sheering off the head of the cheap screws that came with hinge leaving the shaft in places that were very important.  When this happened last time the shaft of the screw could not be removed which resulted in having to move the hinge and of to keep symmetry, I had to move the hinge on the other side. So that is the end of those type hinges.

This time I bought high quality extruded brass hinges. The only hitch is that the hinge is not swaged.  This means when the hinge leafs are closed there is a gap at the barrel end of the hinge (the area where the two leaves are connected by a pin). A swaged hinge is bent so that when both leaves are closed the touch from the front edge to the barrel. No gap. The issue with non swaged hinges, which by the way were used extensively in period shops, is that one of the mortises has to be formed like a ramp. The ramp will accept this gap at the barrel. The depth of the ramp in the mortis is the distance of the gap. I hope I am not sounding brilliant or confusing.  The picture will show you both the hinge issue and the ramped mortis. 

I placed the hinge on the work and used it to mark my lines for the mortis. I then set my new marking gauge (a Titemark Chris gave me for hunchbacking the Hotlzapffel bench to Maine and back), to the size of the gap. I mark this distance on the edge where the barrel of the hinge will be. This will be the deep end of the ramp. I got out my new Lie-Nielsen 1/2 chisel and carefully started to remove the waste. Having the depth of the mortis marked allows me to have a line to work to. The goal is to lay the hinge into the mortis and have it sit level with only one leaf above the mortis. In the picture you will see the ramped mortis and also see the hinge. This picture is of my second attempt. I blew out the very thin bit of wood on the long side of the hinge. Like the Dwarfs of Moria in LOTR, I dug too greedily and too deep which required a shim to be glued into the mortis to lift it to the correct height.  Oh well one side looks great!

I haven?t stopped working on the Trestle table.  I am almost there and will post a final pic when I get it done.

 

-John

I've started working on a new segmented pen. There isn't much to look at right now, but I can give you an idea of what it will look like.

Prior to finishing my last segmented pen, I cut several hundred segments with 22.5 degree angles to create a few more pens with eight segment layers. Having these pieces of Maple, Walnut and Jatoba, I thought it would be a nice way to get a good visual of what some different designs could be. Kind of like a rough sketch in 3-D.

I didn?t want to get into gluing anything and commit myself to a design I didn?t fully like, so I carefully stacked my segments and let gravity hold everything together for me. I figured this method would let me quickly see, physically, what I thought I was seeing in my head. It would also be much less time intensive than gluing a full blank together to flesh out the complete idea. Each design I have put together is the full size of a Jr. Gent II cap.

After stacking a design and taking a couple pictures from different angles I took apart what I had done and designed another. It was after I had six or eight of these designs that I thought I would put together a blog series to show how these segmented pens would look from design to completed pen.

A couple of the designs I?ve come up with include all three species that I had prepped. This design I'm working on now is one I?ve been thinking about for a while. With the light color of the Maple separating the Walnut and Jatoba diamond patterns; it reminds me of an argyle sock.

Currently I have the first of three glue-up phases completed.

John is working on completing the Trestle Table

I used my tax stimulus money to buy a flat screen TV.  The problem is that I have to walk past the TV to get to the shop.  So I was enjoying TV in all it flatness when I saw the end of the table sticking out of the shop.  It seemed to beckon me as it lay there cupped and in need of work.  But, I am a man, so I grabbed the remote and ignored it.  Now I am back at it and dealing with the cup across the width of the table.

The trestle table top (say that three times fast!)  is made from two book matched cherry boards.  They finished out at 103 inches long and 13 inches wide.  I added a middle board to the two book matched pieces to get a final width of 31 inches.  This was going to be a kitchen table but with the length, it goes into the living room.  I could have cut the top?only kidding, I would never cut boards like that.  Would you? 

The thickness of the top is just under ¾ inch so it flattens when forced without that nasty cracking noise that indicates you just learned another lesson.  The cup, which you can see in the picture, is a ¼ inch.  For the picture I clamped on side of the table flat so you can see the total cup that I needed to flatten. 

Now the bread board ends create a cross grain situation and wood movement becomes an issue.  I like wood movement! There I said it.  I like feeling the non flush edges that arrive with the seasons.  My friend has a table from the great Christian Becksvoort and he insisted on bread board ends.  He can feel with his fingers that the top has moved.  I like these oddities and have added divots and ridges under the arms of chairs for a person to finger when sitting.  These subtle aspects humanize a piece. 

First thing to do was to determine the size and layout of the tennons.  Since we have a cross grain situation I am only going to glue the middle tennon,.  I decided on three tennons because it gives me a middle.  I think five tennons would work if the width would accommodate it.  I also used a stub tennon on the entire width of the top.  This stub is 3/8 inch in length.  The thickness of all tennons is a ¼ inch.  A rule of thumb in deciding the widths of the tennons is the have all of them equal ½ the total width of the table.  For me, I made them 5 inches for a total tennon width of 15 inches.  It is also important to have enough wood at the ends of the bread boards so I started the tennons ¾ inch in from the edge.  I marked the mortis locations from the tennons.  I increased the mortis for the end tennons by 1/8 inch on each side to allow for movement.

One thing about mortis and tennons that is finally sinking in is that they are related.  What you do to one has an effect on the other.  For example, my first idea was a tennon that looked like the tongue from the Rolling Stones symbol.  From the tennons? perspective I was right, but what about the mortis?  Chris pointed out that the walls of the mortis are just as important as the tennon.  If the walls are too thin, the tennon will crack them and that old sinking feeling arrives.   At least this time I learned a lesson without cutting wood!

Regards
John

As a kid, probably the first furniture style that I ever became aware of was the Prairie style, the strongly rectilinear forms that most people associate with Frank Lloyd Wright.

My dad had lots of books about architecture lying around the house that he used to help him design the two houses for our farm outside Hackett, Ark. I used these books to help me design model houses that I built using Legos and wooden blocks.

Lucky for me, Prairie-style houses and furniture are easily built with rectilinear Legos. And Wright's system of proportioning favored 2:1 ratios ? that's the ratio my wooden block set used.

The last piece of the puzzle was the cape that my mom made for me when I was 5 so I could be Superman at Halloween. After seeing photos of Wright wearing a cape, I also took to wearing my cape when I'd build houses and furniture in my room.

I know what you are thinking: It's amazing that I ever married.

In any case, I've always been drawn to Wright's aesthetic. I've visited houses of his in many cities, I've been through his furniture and papers at the Prairie Archive at the Milwaukee Art Museum, and one of the highlights of my young life was sitting in one of his original barrel chairs.

So I'm quite excited to get started on a new project for an upcoming issue of Woodworking Magazine ? an end table designed in the style of Frank Lloyd Wright. I didn't want to slavishly copy one of his designs, and so I'm hoping to build a piece that is inspired by a table at the Dana House (one of my favorite tours), and uses geometric forms found at the May House in Grand Rapids, Mich.

I've drawn a bunch of sketches, but I decided that this piece really calls out for a full-size prototype in wood. Luckily, we have some thick ash lying around the shop that's left over from a co-worker's bench-building project, so there was only a little bit of machine work required to get the parts in shape.

My favorite tool for building prototypes is my Kreg pocket-hole jig. This sucker allows me to assemble and disassemble projects quickly. I screw them together, shake my head at the stupid design choices I've made, unscrew the parts, trim them down and then start the process over.

This weekend I got the basic form real close after about three hours of work. My top started out entirely too thick. It was 2" thick and now it's more like 1-5/8". Now I just need to fuss around with the inside guts to get the geometrical designs inside looking good. My No. 1 concern is where I place the large suspended square. Because end tables are typically viewed from a standing position, I need to get it close to the floor.

I'm also a bit worried that things will look too busy inside the table if I put two of these squares in the base. Perhaps I need to go home tonight, put on my old cape (yup, I still got it) and page through some more picture books on Wright.

? Christopher Schwarz

John is at it again.  We just finished a brutal month of traveling and teaching and John has got back in the shop!

There is a certain order or Karma to life, and when you violate this flow events let you know.  Like the time I saw this woman and said ?when are you due? to wit she said, ?I am not pregnant!?   Now the natural order would have flowed thus, a woman appears pregnant, you keep your mouth shut until she admits being pregnant, at which time you hesitantly congratulate her.

Anyway, I am hard at the Trestle Table and got the top supports fitted to the leg via a bridle joint.  When all looked great and fit perfectly I took the assembly apart and put the final touches to it with the jointer and smoother plane.  Can you guess what I wound up with?  Yep, my final touches with the jointer and smoother caused the perfect fit to become a 1/16^th gap!  I went out of order.  I should have made the leg complete then laid out the bridle joint.  Oh well, out of the Karma flow and back to plan B.

I learn through mistakes.  I could be in the minority here but when I mess something up, I remember why and am less likely to repeat it.  Like cutting on the wrong side of a line or jamming a perfectly sharp Barr chisel into my hand and cutting a tendon.  Chris and I have been on the road a lot last month and I have not been in the shop much.  The project shows my ?learning? and I hope someday to make something without learning anything.

To fix the problem I re-sawed a ¼ inch piece of wood and glued it to the full length of one side of the leg.  After the glue up was dry, I snuck up on the fit.  It now looks like this.

Can you guess which side has the wood glued to it?  If you can, I will say that there is another learning experience in here.  If you see a small glue line it is a result of that part of the piece not being clamped down to the leg.  It could be that the piece was not flat or maybe the clamp is a bit off.  Nonetheless, next time I will ensure the ?show? side has a seamless glue joint, and yes I am already fixing that nice nick off the bottom edge.  Fortunately this will be painted!

-John

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'The Woodworkers' Week 2008' takes place in Nagoya from 3rd to 11th June.
It consists of three exhibitions and a forum.

The three exhibitions are:
Chairs -designer/makers' work 2008-
Works of Shin-ichiro Tani, Santaro Takahashi and Tomio Murakami
5-11 June 2008
9:50-20:00
Maruzen Book Store Sakae 4F
3-2-7 Sakae, Naka-ku, Nagoya

30 Woodworkers '08
3-8 June 2008
11:00-18:00
Denki Bunka Kaikan 5F
2-2-5 Sakae, Naka-ku, Nagoya

Wooden Spoons
3-8 June 2008
11:00-21:00
Lachic 5F
3-6-1 Sakae, Naka-ku, Nagoya

The Forum:
The works of furniture workshops
Mr.Daisaku Choh and Mr.Masanori Moroyama
8 June 2008
14:00-16:00
Denki Bunka Kaikan 5F
2-2-5 Sakae, Naka-ku, Nagoya

This is probably the first attempt in recent years for the Japanese woodworkers to make a network and launch events. It is going to be a rare opportunity to see many designer/makers' work in one place.

I will be exhibiting my works at 30 Woodworkers '08.
Shinsuke Kato, the director of Japan Green Woodwork Association, and Kaya Nagoaka, a graduate of Forest Academy, will show their spoons at the Wooden Spoons.
Come and see our latest works.

It?s safety week at Popular Woodworking. Reading their blog this week took me back to my start in woodworking.

When my wife and I bought our house, we decided that we wanted a tile-top kitchen table. I opted to try making the table after we failed to find what we had in mind. I enjoyed that experience so much that I thought I?d get more involved in woodworking.

I started slowly. No multi-thousand-dollar trips to the woodworking stores, I got some handheld tools and went about reading everything I could find. Before long it became clear that a table saw would be a useful tool. I shopped around for a used contractor?s saw and found a Delta at a reasonable price (though I had to drive to Pittsburgh to get it). ?Now,? I thought, ?I?m a real woodworker.?

I got the saw setup in short order. While I had read about table saw use, I don?t believe that I had ever before used one. I set the rip fence, fired it up and began pushing a piece of oak through. After a couple of seconds the oak was on the other side of the room, striking the water heater with a very loud noise. Unhurt but a little shaken, I shut off the saw and went upstairs. My first (and only experience with kickback).

I don?t remember what I thought about -- if I considered selling the saw and taking up golf -- but after a while I ventured back down to the shop. The water heater sported a nice new dent, a convenient reminder that I could have been sporting a nice new dent. Luckily something made me decide to give it another try, to climb back on the horse.

Woodworking has been an important part of my life since. An inauspicious start notwithstanding. It?s good to think about such things once in a while, to remind ourselves that our hobby (or profession) involves inherent risks. Fortunately, the risks are balanced by great rewards.

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:

A block plane makes quick work of chamfering the edge of a workpiece. To ensure a constant width and angle, I built the base shown in the photo above. It slips over the plane to make ¼? chamfers and doesn?t require any setup.

The base is simply two triangular-shaped runners glued to a pair of side pieces. Then cross supports are glued into notches in the front and back to hold the sides together.

Two rare-earth magnets glued into recesses in the runners hold the plane securely in place. A shallow dado is cut in the top of the runners at the mouth of the plane for the exposed iron.

The base is easy to use. With your block plane in the base, position the V-shaped groove formed by the runners over the edge of the workpiece. Then plane the workpiece until both runners sit flush. It worked so well I made a second one for ¹/₈? chamfers.

You can learn even more simple shop techniques, just go to PlansNOW.

Good Woodworking,

Phil Huber
Online Editor, ShopNotes

Send for a preview issue of ShopNotes magazine

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Our annual exhibition is taking place in Nara from 1st to 6th May.

Craft and Furniture Exhibition of Gifu Academy of Forest Science and Culture
1-6 May, 2oo8
10:00-17:00
Nara-machi Monogatari Kan
2-1 Nakashin-ya Machi, Nara, Japan


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Last week the second year students finished their works for the exhibition and presented them in front of the teachers.
They are requested to make their original products according to what they learned during their first year.
They need to produce them in a batch within a limited shedule, calculate the cost and assess their productivity.
This 'merchandising' lesson is a part of our curriculum.

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The venue, Nara-machi Monogatari Kan is in the city centre of the old capital Nara. Hundreds of people come and see our exhibition every day. Students show their works to the public for the first time and receive many comments from them.
Please come and see our exhibition. Students are waiting for your compliments!

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Unique oval floor lamps by Ken-ichi Matsuoka


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Plates by Hajime Hoshino. Designed for his grand child.


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Stools by Atsushi Yokoi. He was commissioned them from an adult education centre in Gifu.


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Stools for backache patients by Yosuke Ueda. Easy to stand up with handles.


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Hand mirrors by Keiichi Fukushima. Inspired by details of architecture in Hida.


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Hairpins by Mako Taniyama. An image of cherry blossom falling.


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Parquetry butter knives by Hiroshi Okabe.

June marks the 4th anniversary of the completion of my new workshop. Prior to that, I worked in a basement shop with concrete floors, 6 foot ceilings, exposed lightbulbs, and exposed knob & tube wiring. Dungeon-like.

Yet it was still my favorite place in the house.

I dreamed for 10 years of having an above-ground shop and when I finally decided to have one built, I spent a full year researching heating systems, insulation, material, lighting....everything.

I even built a to-scale model of the shop, complete with all my equipment, just to make sure that everything would fit and that I would be able to tell my builder where to put the outlets. I determined where to put the 18" bandsaw in relation to the back window, so that long boards could stick outside and rest on the sill while I ran them through the blade. The model also helped my builder work up pricing.

The first design had a second story and a finishing room closed off by a sliding door. After my builder told me how much it would cost, reality set in, and both those luxuries were crossed off the list.

The model itself was built hurriedly?just plywood tacked together with brads?but it helped immeasurably when I was able to tell my builder where to put my 300 pound band saw and 400 pound table saw, as he and his helper carried them out of my basement shop and into the new one. They were able to plop them down exactly where I wanted them. I doubt they would have appreciated some lady telling them to "Move the table saw to this wall. Nah, that's not right?move it to that wall instead. A little to the left, no right."

The next sound I would have heard would have been my contractor and his helper slamming the door shut behind them, leaving a trail of expletives in their wake.

Planning for and designing my shop was an exciting journey, and I ended up with a cute little woodworker's dollhouse in the process.

Popular Woodworking Magazine is hosting a woodworking conference this November devoted exclusively to hand tools, called Woodworking in America. The list of speakers is an all-star line up of hand tool experts and the 3-day weekend will be filled with 40 short classes, a marketplace for toolmakers to display and sell their wares, and social events with demonstrators and toolmakers.

Registration begins in June, but I wanted to give you a heads-up on what will most certainly be an awesome weekend.....and I hope, an annual event!

Read more about it here.

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Mr.Hiraide visits our college at this time of the year.
He comes from Sanjo, Niigata, a production centre of knives and blades. He is a famous tool shop owner who travels around Japan with his van full of hand tools.

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The freshers buy hundreds of dollars of hand tools at this time. A couple of hand planes, chisels, sharpening stones, scales...these are the tools they must have at the beginning. They build their own collection of tools from here.

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Mr. Hiraide doesn't stop talking while selling his tools.
He talked about a short stop in Osaka to see cherry blossoms, a visit to a carpenter in Shiga whom he saw on TV just the day before. He loves chatting, traveling as well as his business.

How you dress your windows is an important piece of your overall design and a lot of thought should go into the style and fabric used for your bedroom window treatments.

How do you know which window treatment is right in your bedroom?

There are 3 basic types of window treatments that can be used alone or in combinations. Here?s some tips on these basic types and what style of room you might choose them for.

Curtains and Drapes

Curtains and drapes are a style of window treatment that most of us can recognize but there?s many variations on this old standby. If your bedroom design is simple, you might choose just plain sheers as these will go well with many themes including a romantic theme, a modern theme and anything in between.

Valances can be used to soften the top of the window. They are great if you don?t want to cover up a great view but also don?t want the window to look too bare. Typically valances are made from fabric but you can build them form wood and decorate them with an aged or stencilled paint to go with your Tuscan or French country design. Fabric valances can go with almost any bedroom decorating theme depending on the fabric you choose and can be used in conjunction with sheers to give you a bit of privacy.

Drapes are an elegant bedroom window treatment. If you have a romantic, French or Victorian theme some heavy drapes in rich fabrics can transform your bedroom into one fit for a queen. Heavy drapes look best on tall windows, but if you short squatty windows like most homes built in the 60's - 80's don?t let that deter you from using great drapes. You can always just keep them closed to hide the window behind and no one will ever know the difference!

Wooden Shutters and Blinds

Indoor wooden window blinds are a great way to add privacy to your bedroom and can be used alone or with curtains, drapes or valances.

There are 2 styles of shutters - plantation shutters and café shutters.

Plantation shutters cover the whole window and have louvers which can be opened and closed to let light in or provide privacy. These shutters go great with a plantation style look, a country look or a coastal cottage look.

The café shutters are the kind that cover only the bottom half of the window and swing open to let light in. These also look nice in a country or beach style bedroom and are perfect for a Paris apartment style as well.

Fabric Blinds

Fabric blinds add a nice touch to any bedroom and can be decorated and embellished with whatever you want. Fringe, pom-poms and ribbon are just a few of the great ways to make these bedroom window treatments stand out.

Roman blinds work well for childrens rooms and informal styles such as cottage or beach style decor. These shades fold up to expose the window during the day and roll down at night.

Festoon blinds are puffy with lots of fabric. They are quite ornate and work best in a romantic style bedroom such as a Victorian, French or Italian motif. Festoon blinds look best on wide windows and might not be good for small rooms as they can tend to be a bit overwhelming.

Lee Dobbins writes for http://www.bedroom-designs-and-decorations.com where you can learn more about popular bedroom decorating styles.

Designing your rooms around an ethnic theme can be exciting and fun and allows you to bring elements of other cultures and distant lands into your home. You can be more daring in your approach to colour and with such a wide variety of textures and patterns available, this can collectively add a whole new dimension to your interior design project. Unusual artifacts from different cultures can work very well as focal points in a room and as there are no hard and fast rules to stick to and because there are so many variations, you can go beyond the usual or traditional to portray a style that is not only beautiful, it is unique.

So what do we mean by ethnic?

Ethnic basically means native or indigenous people from a particular area so in relation to Interior Design it means to bring the natural elements that are representative of whatever culture, land or peoples you choose to portray into your own home to define your space.

Naturally the world is your oyster as they say so there are countless cultures to choose from, all you have to do is bring a particular ensemble of colours, patterns, materials and artifacts together to create a "look" that is recognisable and distinctive. What about a Mediterranean flavour, Native American Indian symbolism, or perhaps Tibetan Buddhism? Popular themes include African, Mexican, and Asian but you can go with whatever inspires or appeals to you. Here are a few ideas to get you started.

African Theme

Think of Africa and all that it conjures up in your mind, the landscape, the sounds, the smells, the colours, the mood, and then if you try to pick out the key points, what would they be? Colour schemes might include earthy colours like green, beige, browns and tans, set off with orange and splashes of red. Think about floor and wall coverings, natural substances would probably work best. Finishing touches can include wall hangings, African artifacts, drums, rugs, African fabrics and prints, animals made of stone, clay or wood, ceremonial masks hung on the wall, brightly coloured African bowls and pots, and so on.

Mexican Theme

What does Mexico mean to you? Perhaps desert colours with sandy tones, beige and khaki, along with reddish, rustic colours and hues. Blankets and woven fabrics in bright colours, perhaps terra cotta pots and bowls, pine wood is popular for furniture. Artifacts can include symbols of the South West or from the Spanish influence, or from the Aztecs, Mayans and other ancient civilisations, all of which can add an interesting and authentic Mexican look and feel.

Asian Theme

There are many variations within an Asian theme but two quite popular ones are Japanese and Chinese. Japanese themes tend to lean towards a more minimalist look and have a tranquil and peaceful feel. Consider a futon and using screens to get that Japanese ambiance. Colours tend to be natural and objects from nature often feature as focal points, for example, smooth stones and pebbles, water fountains and bonsai trees. Chinese themes on the other hand might involve brighter and bolder colours, lanterns, dragons and other mythological creatures, artwork depicting the traditional people colours and landscapes and Chinese handwriting.

How to get started

Once you have established which particular ethnic culture appeals to you, browse through books and magazines and the Internet to get ideas that will spark off your own imaginative flair. Identify what elements go together to make up that particular look or feel that you want to create.

Consider the walls, ceilings and floors carefully as this will provide a base for you to work from and then you can add in the details to finish it off. For example, is the texture and appearance of the walls and ceilings rough or smooth? What floor covering is appropriate, should it be wood, stone, tiles or carpets? Will rugs and mats make a difference and if so what are they made of? Are the windows better suited to drapes, blinds or shutters? What style of furniture works? What about plants, motifs, pictures and wall hangings?

The theme you adopt and the way that you choose to portray specific elements of that theme is entirely up to you and your imagination, the end result will be your own unique interpretation of a culture or a place and you will have added a touch of the exotic to your home.

David McEvoy is an expert in interior design. If you are looking for a leather sofa to give the finishing touches to a newly decorated room then please come and visit our site http://www.leathersofa.uk.com/

The list is almost endless: Mini Blinds, Value blinds, wood blinds, faux wood blinds, plantation blinds. Which should you choose? Here is some information that will help you to make a decision about which is the right blinds to purchase. Quality and style can vary, so made sure you understand what you need and want.

When people speak of "Express" blinds or "Value" blinds and "Cut Down" blinds are all basically the same thing: pre-constructed blinds that are partially finished and can be used after a Little intervention on hate part of the store. The come in 2" variation in size and the clerk will pull them out of the inventory and trim them down a little for your specifications. The same is done for hate length, depending upon the length of you window. The quality may be very much the same as that used in premium window coverings, but since they are not custom ordered, but already manufactured in the factory (usually in China), they are much less expensive. You do not have any customization choices, for example as to where the tilt mechanism will be located or the way to raise or lower the blinds. In other words, you don't have a choice which is on the left or which is on the right. The color range may also be limited. We are able to offer both faux and genuine wooden blinds in our value line that are made right here in the United States, in McKinney, Texas. You don't have to settle for cheap foreign imports.

There are discount stores that are able to sell the standard sizes of blinds. They are made to fit common window sizes. The materials used for these are not of the best quality and the fit is rarely perfect. You can get a Value blind for about the same cost, and it will fit perfectly and look great. No window is the same; there are always variations in width, Lent and other dimensions. It is impossible for shelf blinds to fit all windows, so they "sort of" fit most windows of that dimension. Both the length and the width of stock blinds have to accommodate a very wide variety of different windows. When you order stock blinds, you will probably end up with gaps at each side because the width is not perfect, and a big bulge of slats at the bottom because you have too much length.

The lowest cost blinds you can buy are shelf stock blinds. IN order for them to be so low cost, the quality must suffer, and you end up with light weight, cheap material, poor hardware and mechanisms, small choice in both size and color and of course, no warranty. Blinds such as these will not last more than three, maximum five years.

When you order custom blinds, everything is quality from the beginning. The window is properly measured, and the blind is manufactured to perfectly fit the opening. The error factor is only 1/4 inch on each side, and the length will be the correct length, with no bunching before the strong bottom rail. They are made with quality material and fixtures. The companies that supply such quality blinds are Bali, Prestige, Graber, Royal, Levelor, Hunter Douglas and Timber Blinds. They all have the widest range of colors to choose from, including wood hues. You can also choose faux wood in many wood looks, Tris Basswood or Asian wood and composite wood. Quality design centers, upscale retailers and of course on line companies all offer these kinds of blinds.

Adam Peters is a syndicated columnist on different resources like http://www.home-decorating-reviews.com Find more publications about window blind tips at his website.

Yes now you too can ward off evil with your exterior bamboo blinds. Actually, culture is rich with the uses of many natural growing woods and plants being used around the house. The reasons behind these items being used around the house have changed significantly from ancient times. The Japanese culture used to use exterior bamboo blinds to ward off evil spirits. If you were to study the Chinese culture, you would find that bamboo means long life and in the India culture it means friendship. While in today's world, we may see exterior bamboo blinds as a way to ward off the evil sunrays washing out the television or creating unwanted heat, they have had their purposes in the ancient cultures.

For instance, in Asia, huts were made of bamboo and grass; even the window coverings were bamboo. The use of bamboo in Asia was to keep out inclement weather. So yes, our world has changed to where we find bamboo a signature of the tropical worlds such as Japan and Asia and we find we want to create that atmosphere in our backyard.

Exterior bamboo blinds are great for your backyard, not only because they offer you more shade on your porch and are the envy of friends for decorating your home in a new fashion, but because they hold up during any type of weather. The bamboo does need to be treated for weather resistance every year, and you will want to switch the side that is exposed to the sun every once in a while, but you will be protected.

You will be able to have those indoor barbeques on your porch during a rainstorm and be protected. The bamboo treatment allows for the reduction of mildew not only on the blinds, but also in the area you are protecting.

Not only can you switch, which side is exposed to the sun whenever you need to, but also the installation of these blinds is extremely easy. You do not have to hire a contractor to help you. The instructions are very easy to follow and you just need an electrical screwdriver.

There are two styles of exterior bamboo blinds, the venation and the roll up. The roll up bamboo blind is easier to deal with because you simply roll it up and secure it to the straps on the ceiling. The venation works off the rope system typical of most mini blinds so they tend to get tangled.

You can also find more info on Vinly Mini Blinds and Wooden Window Blinds. Windowblindsreview.com is a comprehensive resource to know about Windows Blinds.

When shopping around for arch window shutters, there are some important considerations to keep in mind.

Traditional shutters, sometimes referred to as the colonial style, have a one-inch to one-fourth-inch wide movable louvers. These are normally used in colonial and traditional styles of American homes. You may want to order cafe shutters as coverage for the bottom part of the window to create that quaint, cottage-style mood.

On the other hand, plantation shutters have a three-inch wide movable louver and have a more modern design. They are versatile enough to be used in any window in almost all homes. They permit you to see more and allow for more closing of the panels most of the time. They can be made as café-type units or double-tier units.

You may also choose whether to paint or stain your window shutters. In general, paint colors include a variety of whites and other light colors. Stains can enhance wood grains by use of a number of tints and tones starting from a light natural tone to a tone close to black. Please note that synthetic and wood composite shutters should not be stained.

Remember that the quality of the finish is almost as important as the color. Window shutters that are finished with poor quality will easily deteriorate. A paint finish needs to be thorough, thick and smooth, and it should cover all surfaces. Stain finishes needs to have a sturdy protective coat finish.

Owing to various options in materials, window shutters come in a wide range of prices. A lot of suppliers calculate the price per square foot, a strategy that is not beneficial to consumers. Since sizes are normally rounded up, consumers end up paying more for what they actually got.

Estimating prices based on exact window size, the number of shutter panels, and the finish and style are better because the price will not shortchange the customers. You can also save some money by ordering the shutters directly and measuring and installing them yourself.

Keep these guidelines in mind to ensure that you will get the best bargain when looking for window shutters to install in your home.

Window Shutters provides detailed information on Arch Window Shutters, Custom Window Shutters, Exterior Window Shutters, Hurricane Window Shutters and more. Window Shutters is affiliated with Window Roller Shades.

When it comes to many home improvement projects a lot of people are fearful or apprehensive about doing them on their own just because they have never done it. When it comes to installing your own shutters this doesn't need to be the case, installing your shutters isn't a difficult process at all. The main thing to remember here is to work with shutters that are specifically built for each individual window opening in unison with the detailed instructions from the manufacturer.

The first thing you need to do is measure the window opening where you want to install the shutters. Depending on whether you will mount them on the inside or the outside this is where you will need to measure.

If you are going to mount them on the window jamb on the inside of the window opening, which is the preferred method, you will need to know the width and height across the inside of the window framing. The reason this is the preferred method is because it makes for a cleaner installation and doesn't require additional hang strips or frame strips, you just have to be sure the window you are working with is square and has a solid window jamb to screw into.

Next you need to determine the depth of the window by measuring from the front plane of the window back to the nearest obstruction that will obstruct the louvers and keep them from rotating. If you prefer, the manufacturer you bought your shutters from can also tell you the window depth for the style you ordered. Sometimes the manufacturer may suggest an alternative installation method to use in case the window is out of square or if it has a drywall opening without a solid wood jamb using rear hanging strips concealed behind the shutter panels that will allow adjustment up, down, left, and right for easier alignment.

If you choose to mount outside of the frame you will attaching to the wall or existing trim just to the outside of the opening of the window. Usually the frame will surround the shutter panels on three or four sides, depending on whether or not a lower sill exists.

Hanging strips are used if you decide to install a cafe type shutter style, the hanging strips will be screwed directly to the wall or trim, and the hinge of the shutters attached to the frame or the hanging strips.

The old adage of measure twice cut once applies here too, also be sure to use a steel tape for the most accurate measurement possible.

Gregg Hall is an author living in Navarre Florida. Find more about this as well as Shutters Plus at http://www.shutters-plus.com.

Well-crafted, durable wood shutters - whether interior or exterior - represent an investment in your home you will never regret. Apart from contributing to the elegance, grace and atmosphere of your dwelling, wood shutters will prove their worth in many practical ways over time - not the least in protecting your home from the harsh extremes of sun and storm!

Exterior wood shutters are available in a number of basic designs. These range from the raised panel that is particularly popular in coastal areas, to the familiar fixed louver. Alternatively opt for "country style" board and batten, or an exotic, but practical bermuda wood shutter installation.

What should you take into consideration when deciding which wood shutter set to order?

To start with you will need to decide what look you are trying to achieve, and this will depend largely on the style of your home. Wood shutters can be designed to complement just about any residence, but cost will of course play a much bigger role in highly customized, and fully functional wooden shutters.

Before making this major home improvement decision, look at your general interior design, patio design, and patio furniture. Your window shutters should blend into, and enhance these aspects.

You will also want to ensure that the right wood is used for a durable, and warp-resisting wood shutter. Although many woods are used in the construction of wood shutters, the woods of choice are Western Red Cedar, or Mahogany. Vertical-grained wood is also more resistant to warping.

If wood-work isn't your cup of tea, take a carpenter-friend along to check the quality of construction, especially the joints. Mortise-and-tenon joints are much more durable than screwed, or butt-glued joints. While you're at it, also ensure that you get wood shutters with copper or aluminum capping for more protection from the elements.

Interior wood shutters can be considered part of the furniture, and if the right design is chosen, they contribute greatly to the atmosphere, elegance and warmth of a room.

Even though interior wood shutters are not directly exposed to the same range and intensity of the elements as exterior shutters, they will still need to properly deal with temperature changes and design stresses. To avoid warping and other alignment problems, wooden shutters constructed of 100% hardwood, such as American Yellow Poplar and Elm, are well suited to the role.

Of course, interior wood shutters are also more than mere decorations! They are excellent insulators to keep temperatures at a comfortable level.

Don't go for the first fit-all-sizes window shutters you come across. By doing some research, and getting lasting, stylish and functional wood shutters, you will greatly increase the value of your home!

Awnings-and-Blinds.com - Read the Plantation Shutter article at Awnings-and-Blinds.com - also by Rika Susan of Article-Alert.com.

Copyright 2006 Rika Susan. This article may be reprinted if the resource box and hyperlinks are left intact.

Alan Turner and Mario Rodriguez*, two well-known and talented woodworkers, were the guest speakers at our most recent woodworking club meeting, a combined meeting with another club. Alan started his own woodworking school several years ago, The Philadelphia Furniture Workshop, where both he and Mario are instructors.

Mario demonstrated mitered through-dovetails and Alan demonstrated how to sharpen a scraper. Alan sharpens them a little differently than I do, so I decided to have a showdown between his technique and mine. I used the same scraper, a Sandvik, and sharpened one edge with my technique and the other edge with Alan's.

Here?s my process:

Chuck the scraper in a vise, and using a smooth file, square each edge 90º to the sides. Switching to an 8,000 grit waterstone, hone the edge. Skew the scraper as you hone, so you don't plow a groove in the waterstone. Next, hone 1/2" of the face of both flat sides. Put some oil on a burnisher (some people use the handle of a screwdriver, but I have better luck with a burnisher), hold the scraper in your hand** and, using a fair amount of downward pressure, slide the burnisher 3-5º along both sides of each long edge, 5 or 6 times. The idea is to create a hook on both sides of the edge so you can use both sides to scrape.

Here?s Alan?s process:

First, he oiled the scraper and the burnisher. Then he laid the scraper flat on the workbench near the edge and used the burnisher to draw the metal out along each long edge on both sides of the scraper, creating a ?U? shape of metal along each edge. Then he chucked the scraper in a vise and filed the edges to 90º. He added more oil to the scraper and burnisher, then he drew the metal out once more on the workbench. Back to the vise, he burnished each side of each long edge 2-5º.

To use the scraper, flex the blade between your thumbs and hold the scraper at 45º to the work surface. The moment of truth....

They looked the same to me. I was surprised because I thought Alan's would work much better. I still think his is a better sharpening technique that will produce more consistent results. But, take your pick!















*Photos of Alan and Mario courtesy of Robert Aspey.
**It's possible to cut yourself by holding the scraper in your hand while using the burnisher, so to be totally safe, you can secure it in a vise instead.

Lie Nielsen now carries tools to create string inlay* (pictured at right) based on Steve Latta's innovative designs.

I took Steve's inlay class a year ago at Olde Mill Cabinet Shoppe, where we made simpler versions of the tools (pictured below).

While I won't show you how to make the tools since they are Steve's original designs, I will tell you that they are simple to use, if you're thinking about taking Steve's class, buying the L-N set, or making your own. I practiced for only about an hour before starting a Chester County line and berry design for a spice box door. It only took about 3-5 hours to do all of the inlay for this panel, although the "berries" aren't finished yet, nor has the surface been finish-sanded. It's far f