A crosscut sled is an improvement to the design of the typical table saw. It allows the "table" to slide over the spinning blade, taking the workpiece with it, rather than sliding the workpiece itself over the blade. It also provides a convenient place to mount stop blocks, T-track, and other gadgets, if so desired.

This allows for a safer and more accurate cut, especially on small pieces. No more needing to hold your hands close to the sharp blade, trying to control kickback, or needing a Rube Goldberg-esque configuration of blocks, clamps, featherboards, and fences.

First I cut a scrap of 3/4" birch cabinet ply from the BORG. It is only 5 ply, but works fine for many uses. I didn't measure the base of the sled, but it is around 30" x 18". For a sled the exact measurements aren't as important as squaring it to the blade is.

I next cut some 1/2"x4" reclaimed oak boards to make the front and rear fences. I like to use reclaimed wood whenever possible. Partly for cost and partly to preserve the good wood on the market for a little longer. These boards had some embedded nails that could not be removed. So I cut them out on the table saw, leaving several shorter boards. Two were more than long enough so I cut them to match the base.

I jointed them on my 4" Rockwell jointer, making sure the unfinished face and the bottom were exactly 90*. The bottom will be glued to the base, and the face will control the workpieces. I used a homemade pushblock for the face jointing. It is just a scrap of plywood with some rubber shelf liner stuff attached with spray adhesive. No fancy handles. Just enough to keep control of the workpiece.

Once the oak boards were jointed, I checked for square on the sled. My digital angle gauge is perfectly square, and makes for a convenient square when I'm too lazy to walk across the garage to get a "real" square. If the fence on the jointer is square, the workpiece will be too. And this jointer is perfectly square.

I cut some thin strips of oak 3/4" wide to use as rails. I placed these in the slots on the table saw and used shims to raise them just proud of the table saw surface. I then set my fence to fit the sled base so the blade is centered. A square table saw fence will also ensure the front and rear edges of the base are also square to the blade. This is critical because those edges will set the alignment of the fences!

I applied glue to the rails and clamped the base down to the table saw. I was unable to get a clamp on the front left corner so I piled a bunch of weight on that corner. Surprisingly it worked well!

After the glue dried I trimmed the rails to fit and tested the glide. As is normal, the glide is too tight. I used a cabinet scraper to pare down the rails until they would slide in the slots on the table saw with just a medium amount of force. I want the fit tight because once the rails are waxed it's perfect.

I had debated about using mechanical fasteners to hold the fences on, as I have for my previous sleds. I decided against them because they would add complexity without much strength. For a sled this size there is no need for screws.

I set the boards on the sled base again and drew lines so I could easily tell how wide to make the glue on the base. I then applied a nice even layer of glue to both the sled base and the rail, one rail at a time. Several clamps hold it together to dry.

Check the square several times throughout the process. The clamps will often draw the fence one way or another (a good argument for "parallel clamps" that don't do this) and require adjusting. Small position adjustments will usually resolve any angle issues.

Once both rails have been glued and allowed to fully dry, use a card scraper to clean up any glue. Especially on the inside of the sled. Bumps of glue squeeze-out will throw off the perfect square you are going for!

Now is the time to apply wax to the rails. If you haven't waxed your table saw lately, this would be a good excuse to get that done too.

Smear the wax on liberally and allow to dry 5 minutes. Then buff with a clean cloth. I prefer microfiber cloths for both tasks, but any soft cloth will work just fine.

Check the glide again on the table saw. There should be zero side to side play, yet the sled should move smoothly the entire length of the saw surface with just a push from your pinkie finger. Feel free to scrape the rails a bit more and re-wax if needed.

Check your saw blade is a good one for plywood or laminate so you don't get any tearout when cutting the initial kerf. I forgot to check when building this sled, so I got some tearout from using a 24 tooth ripping blade. It may not be critical, depending on the location of the tearout. Luckily for me the tearout was in the middle of the sled, not at the fence.

Sneak up on the cut, moving the blade up just 1/8" of an inch at a time until the kerf is exposed in the sled bottom. Don't worry about making kerf cuts up into the fences. You'll do that automatically when you start cutting workpieces with the sled. Right now you just want a clean kerf to begin with.

Take your time, moving the sled over the blade slowly. There are no awards for speed, and you will just risk tearout of the plywood or fences.

Check that the rear fence is square to the blade. Use your square (a real one this time) and hold the edge to the face of the blade, not the cutting tips. If it is not square you'll have to cut it apart and start over. But if you followed these instructions, you should have a rear fence that is perfectly square to the blade. Do some test cuts to confirm.

At this point you can either be done and call it good, or apply a finish. For small "throwaway" sleds like this it really doesn't matter. the bed of the sled will be chewed up before the wood surface shows any signs of wear. So a finish will be just for appearances. My reclaimed oak boards had a poly finish on one side, I didn't apply one. And I saw no need to remove it either. On some of my sleds I apply two coats of shellac, especially if they're made from MDF to provide some moisture protection. Like, in case I spill coffee/tea/kool-aid on it.

But I'm perfect and would NEVER do THAT!

I'm sure most of you remember and miss Stephen Shephard's website Alburnum's Archive. I recently got an email from Stephen and he is preparing a new site which will be called fullchisel.com. Good news indeed!

Playing with inlays. This is powdered copper in walnut with 4 coats of lacquer.

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.

Ever wonder how Google Books and some of those other freebie book sites manage to produce those anemic looking book pages? You know, the ones that look as if someone...

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Sometimes I spend time researching past furniture styles. I often read that much today has already been done before, and after seeing some good examples of period furniture, find some truth in this old adage. My favorite influential maker is George Hepplewhite and the associated furniture of his era. Furniture of the late 18th century has been mostly characterized by Chippendale and the cabriole leg design element. George Hepplewhite, however, is much less written about and known, and was characterized by the slight, tapered legs of his furniture and lightness and delicacy of his pieces. A considerable amount of 20th century furniture has been derived from this late 18th , early 19th century period and in particular the makers Chippendale and Hepplewhite. American Federal style furniture had its origins in the Hepplewhite style. Much of the design elements of this particular period have made their way into furniture of the past century. This can be considered a "revival" of a previous style in time, but I like to think of it as simply embracing design elements which were and continue to be pleasing to the eye..

When I flip through examples of furniture representative of previous periods and styles, it is easy to see what worked and what didn't work. The design elements which are pleasing and well-proportioned are carried into later periods, whereas the not so pleasing styles typically die off. Another trend which I notice is how previous styles of furniture are sometimes renounced and discarded only to be replaced with a radically different style of furniture. We see this very same phenomenon today in everything ranging from fashion, automobiles, and continue to see it in furniture styles. A "revival" of a previous period or style of furniture then occurs, much like what occurs in the fashion world today.

The reason I raise this is that this is something to consider for furniture makers today. We all have our favorite style as makers, but it may be important to incorporate proven design elements in our designs, the elements which have demonstrated the most success over the past few centuries. Since what we are designing is often derived from a previous style or work, it makes more sense to derive elements from the successful styles of furniture.

I'm a big fan of clean, simple lines with minimal adornment, although I like to incorporate some inlay into my work. The inlay work sparks my creativity and in a strange way provides me the impetus to complete the furniture so as to add the inlay detail. I can relate the piece of furniture to a large canvas and the inlay is the artwork. Other makers might define themselves through another feature on their work, perhaps some carving or marquetry. George Hepplewhite often distinguished his work with added inlay. A large proportion of Hepplewhite and Federal style furniture is inlaid with the exotic woods which had come into popularity by the late part of the 18th century and early 19th century.

More on this later...

I have two pretty and small bags I made last week to show you. I used “unuseful” pieces of felt (that were useful in this case). Using my sewing machine I made, in no more than ten minutes, two little bags.

The handles are made, as you can see, of crochet (just a simple chain with a combining color).

The eyelets are made of crochet too… I made both of them and sewed them with my needles and thread, that´s all!

Well, it seems my brother had been keeping great great granddad's old spinning wheel - I had forgotten the box that it was in when I left the homestead, and he had been storing it for me. After reading the last piece I did on spinning wheels, he must have read it and remembered he had it -and got it out in the mail to me - because it arrived a week or so afterwards:

It's missing some pieces, but there's a good majority of it still there. The legs and pedal are gone, and it's missing the two pieces that hold the bobbin/axle.

It's an interesting piece to me on several counts... First, it was made by great great grandad... Second, it's a study in wooden machinery - everything has a purpose and yet it's still elegantly constructed. Third, it's an example of true frontier craftsmanship. I'm not sure of the exact date, my best guess would have been somewhere near the 1870 to 1890 range, in the Dakotas. This would have been made with the most meager set of tools, and quite far out in the country... I think I remember reading the nearest flour mill at the time was a full day away.

Parts of a Spinning Wheel

To have a discussion about the construction of the old wheel above, it would probably help to review just what the parts are called... I got much of this information off of various web sites, including The Joy of Handspinning, which is a wonderful resource for the enthusiast - I'm more interested in the construction, but that doesn't do you much good if you don't know how the thing works!... I'm using dad's wheel, which is a replica of the old one I'm looking at:

Tension Knob: A threaded knob, turned to raise or lower the bobbin and flyer assembly thusly reducing or increasing tension on the drive bands. Maidens: The upright posts that hold one end of the bobbin and flyer assembly Flyer Whorl: The pulley that drives the flyer - it has several different diameters so different speeds can be achieved Flyer: The U-shaped piece with hooks - the hooks are there just so the fiber can be spooled evenly onto the bobbin. This is what spins the fiber. Bobbin: A spool that collects the spun fiber Orifice: Where fiber is fed into the wheel as it is spun Drive Bands: Twine or string that drives the flyer whorl from the fly wheel Mother of All: The upright piece that holds up the tension knob, bobbin, and flyer Fly Wheel: The main drive wheel - the large wheel that is powered by the treadle Footman: Hard to see in the photo above, it's behind everything- it's the wooden piece that connects the treadle to the fly wheel Treadle: the foot pedal at the bottom

 

It's made from at least three, but more likely four distinctively different woods, from what I can see - and I think you can tell somewhat in the top photo. I'm not positive of the exact species, but from my experience with wood and my knowledge of the trees native to the area in which it was made, my best guesses would be birch or elm, maple, and basswood or poplar. I will get into where each was used as I deconstruct the thing.

Metal pieces would have been difficult to fabricate and expensive to purchase, so their use was kept to an absolute minumum. Could he have bought the metal pieces, or had a machinist make them for him? It's a possiblity. The pieces could have been ordered via mail order and shipped to the closest dry-goods store... yet they do all show at least some amount of fabrication. That eveidence could just be the technology of the time showing through, however - I'm just not qualified enough to say.

The only metal pieces are the axle/treadle drive on the fly wheel, the metal hooks on the spinner/flyer, and the axle for the flyer/flyer whorl assembly. The metal reinforcement on the flyer (the U-shaped piece in the photo below) shows signs of hammering to shape, and is riveted in place with metal pins and is surely of his own making.

The part that would have probably been the most difficult to make would have been the axle for the bobbin/flyer assembly... It appears it was made from something else, and made to work. I'm not exactly sure what it would have originally been had he fabricated it - it might even be two pieces, I can't really tell. The center was drilled out from the end and from the side to create the orifice that allows the fiber to be fed through it.... Both holes are off center, and show some evidence of being drilled and filed by hand.

You can see the orifice on the axle of the flyer on the right in the above photo, where the fiber is fed into the wheel. The far end of the axle in the photo above has a small taper to it - and is also threaded to hold the bobbin and flyer whorl on. It looks to me like the tapering was done by mounting the bolt in a wood lathe and tapering it using a file while turning. Fine metal work would have been difficult on the prairie in those days... and this is one of the things that lead me to believe this piece was at least partially fabricated by old great great granddad.

The bobbin (on the left in the above photo), the flyer, and the flyer whorl are all made from a very dense, close-grained wood - my guess is maple, though it could be just about anything of a similar nature. It needed to be, as the walls of the pulleys on them as well as the U-shape of the flyer makes using a strong wood imperative. The bobbinis made from a single piece... You can see by the breaks that it was made from a straight piece of about 3" round wood. The hole the axle slides through goes all the way through the bobbin, obviously - my best guess as to how this was made would be to first drill the hole through the rough blank - then mount the blank in the lathe and turn the bobbin to its final dimension. This would assure the axle hole would be centered on the bobbin. The far end of the bobbin is actually the first pulley you would use as part of the flyer whorl assembly - you see it in the next photo and the one two down that shows the whorl in it's place.

Here you can see the far end of the bobbin and the leather "bearing" that the axle is pushed into (the flyer whorl is not in this photo - it would take up the space between the bobbin and the adjuster piece the leather bearing is pressed into):

Both ends of the axle were mounted in leather bearings... but unfortunately the maiden that holds the closer end was missing on the original. Using another wheel made by granddad's brother, he fashioned the maiden with a leather bearing similarly to how that wheel was constructed:

You can see that it was simply a thick chunk of leather, glued into the maiden. This allows for the bobbin assembly to be easily removed from the wheel, simply by turning the maiden. There's not a lot of pressure on these bearings so they function quite well (as evidenced by dad's copy), and the leather would simply have been replaced as it wore out. Lubrication, if any, would have been tallow or beeswax.

The flyer whorl is made with two different sized pulleys so you can adjust the speed of the flyer - faster for more twists per inch in your yarn, and slower for fewer. More twists made for a stronger thread - but took more raw fiber. Fewer produced more "fluffy" yarns, good for sweaters and the like.... at least that's what I think - I have no experience spinning my own yarn. I still have the flyer whorl for the original, though unfortunately only half of it - but it does show how it is constructed pretty well:

You can see the differing diameters of the pulley to allow the flyer to spin at different speeds depending on where you placed the drive bands. The bobbin spins freely on the axle so is independent of the flyer whorl.  It is driven by its own pulley on the end next to the whorl that is a slightly different diameter - this is so the bobbin would spin at a different speed than the flyer.  Otherwise the yarn would only spin in place - with the different speed it slowly spools onto the bobbin as you feed more fiber into the orifice.

This is known as a "Scotch Brake"...  it basically means the yarn spools quite slowly onto the bobbin, while being twisted (for strength) many, many times for each single time it spools on the bobbin - which is the major function of the wheel.  It is this twisting that gives the yarn it's strength - without it, it would simply pull apart.

A good spinner feeds fiber into the orifice at a steady rate, thusly avoiding thinned out or lumpy yarn that is strong enough to knit.  More twists per inch results in a thinner, stronger thread - fewer provide fluffier, more insulating yarn.

The drive bands would have been simple twine or leather strips, or possibly even yarn - it didn't need a great deal of force to twist the fiber, so grip wasn't terribly crucial - speed was.

You can also see the tensioner knob assembly in the photo above at the top of the aptly named "Mother of All". It's broken as well, but it shows how it was made... A threadbox would have been pretty standard fair in most shops of the time, so that's not too surprising to find. It still works quite well, even after being exposed to the elements for many years.... The Mother of All is broken here as you can see in the photo above and below, but again at least we can see what it looks like:

The Mother of All is so aptly named as it is the main structural element of the wheel - everything pretty much hangs off of it. It, along with the maidens and most of the spindle work (with the exception of the spokes in the wheel) are made from a hardwood I would say is either elm or birch - it's hard to tell exactly as the wood is aged so. But those were common woods used in local furniture of the time - especially turned furniture. Oak was available and used extensively for standard casework, but wasn't preferred for turning because of it's open grain and it's tendency to tear out. I would imagine the elm or birch was riven and turned green, much in the fashion of windsor style chairs, and wedges were used to fasten the tenons to the half-moon shaped base (which I think was made of either poplar - but could be basswood)... There would not have been any kilns in the area, any dried lumber would have been air-dried.

Which brings me to the fly wheel, the most prominent piece of the spinning wheel, has some interesting construction methods. The outer wheel was constructed from four separate pieces. The wheel is made what I think is basswood, though it could be poplar, I suppose... both are plentiful in the area. There are a couple ofreasons that basswood would appropriate here. First, a lighter weight wheel would be easier to spin. Women using these wheels would often spin for many hours on end, for many days in a row... ease of use was paramount in their design. Second, basswood is a very easy wood to work... Mounting a wheel this size and turning it in a treadle lathe would have been quite a task... the easier one could make the task, the better. Third - since these wheels didn't carry a load, like say maybe a wagon wheel would, there would be little or no structural stresses on them, so basswood met the bill.

The pieces for the outer rim were first assembled before they were turned using splines and wooden pegs to hold them in place. You can see here where one of the pegs was placed too far out and was turned into:

The outer wheel itself was not constructed in the same manner as a wagon wheel - where the spokes have tenons that mount into the outer wheel - for the reasons mentioned above. It was first assembled and then turned without the spokes - they were added afterwards. Here you can see one I've pulled out:

After the main hub was turned, the spokes were made to fit inside the outer rim, then holes were drilled through the rim into the spokes - and a wooden dowel was driven in to hold the spokes in place. There just one problem with that - how do you make sure the hub is centered in the outer rim? Well - my best guess is that the hub and spokes were made first. The hub first, then the spokes, which could then be glued into the hub. The hub could then be mounted on a temporary axle and turned, allowing you to mark the end of the spokes in the same location as you turned the hub. The outer rim could then be turned to match this dimension... It's just an educated guess, mind you - but the best I can come up with given the circumstances.

As for the hub, it's one piece, with an axle that mounts into the adjacent spindles thusly:

The far side of the axle has an offset that attaches to the footman, which then is attached to the treadle. And yes - at the lower left of the hub in the photo above, that is a knot... As a matter of fact, it continues through to the other side:

Why would he have used a piece with a knot like that in it, you might ask? I would put forth that it was a matter of convenience... As I mentioned above, a lot of the wood used for the contruction of this wheel would probably have been worked green. The wheel would have had to be dried wood though. Most likely that meant that it was was harvested from already dead wood - possibly even seasoned firewood. There wasn't storage space available for storing wood while it dried... The house they lived in would probably have been the size of your living room and housed 5-7 people... The barn would have been similarly small was soley for livestock. The shed that served as a shop would have been more like a lean-to, perhaps with a pot-belly stove if the owner was well-off. So dried wood was a luxury most couldn't afford, but for the wheel it would have been necessary as green wood would have shrunk and rendered the wheel useless. So it's my guess it came from whatever was available - and since it didn't need to be all that strong, it wasn't a problem structurally. Also, I should mention that the knot would not have been this pronounced when it was made - this particular wheel was exposed to the elements for many years, so has weathered quite a lot. Originally, it would have been a very tight knot.

About all that's left is the base, legs, footman, and treadle - and all I have of those is the base... The base is made of poplar, it appears. I remember hearing the half-moon shape was a sort of trademark of his, but I'm not sure of this... compared to the other his brother did later, its a unique feature and was supposedly preferred by the people who used them as they were stronger. I do recall hearing that this makers' work was highly prized by those who received it, at least within the area he lived.

I may restore this old wheel someday - no, it will never be in working order again, but I may try to get it just so it is all in one piece and has all of the parts, just for display. I doubt it's worth much to anyone but me - but it sure is fun to have around to look at and to study, to give one appreciation for the original maker and the methods and material he used in creating it.

The maker, my great-great granddad, was a very adept turner, furniture maker, and woodoworker. He used green wood quite a bit, as I think can be seen in another of his works which I will show just for reference - a crib made of elm:

It appears he also used steam to bend wood, as you can see - obviously a very industrious fellow for someone truly out in the sticks... This crib was used all the way into the 1960's as I recall... It's been retired for obvious reasons since then, but still remains in the family, well over a century after it was made.

 

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

It did. It was No. 30.

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

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

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

— Christopher Schwarz

Three days before Christmas, my son Jo arrives with many sheets of exterior ply, the raw materials for several Owl nestboxes to be ...

Well here they are - the “mystery planes� I have been teasing about.

Here is the deal... in 1941, Norris was commissioned to make a plane to be awarded as the first prize in a furniture making competition. The recipient of the plane kept it in new condition all these years. It was sold at auction in 2006 for over £16,000. Shortly after the auction - I was commissioned to make a reproduction of this plane with one change - infilled with ebony (the original was infilled with Brazilian Rosewood).



It was a fantastic and challenging commission to say the least. The only reference I had was a series of photos and two dimensions - the overall length of 13-5/8" and the width of 2-3/8".



Norris clearly emptied the bag of tricks on this plane. The handle tilts to the left and right just like the Stanley No.10-1/4 - but it also pivots left and right.



I was also excited to try a wedged plane with an adjuster. The screw that passes through the keeper engages a brass insert in the wedge. The mechanics of this is very cool. The brass insert is offset and when the screw is tightened - it acts as a drawbore - driving the wedge tighter into the body of the plane. Very cool indeed!



After studying the photos I agreed to the commission. I also decided I would make a prototype to work out any unforeseen bugs. I did not want to “prototype� the commissioned plane. Infilling the prototype with Brazilian Rosewood seemed like a logical choice.

Everything worked without a hitch for the most part - and keeping the prototype ahead a few steps certainly helped refine the building process.

The mouth was one aspect that I really had to psych myself up for. I use what can only be described as an antiquated method - but it has always worked for me, and I did not see any reason why I should re-invent the wheel now. Here are a series of photos of cutting the mouth.



I still use a hacksaw to cut the mouth on shoulder and rebate planes. The difference with this plane is that it is 2-3/8" wide as opposed to the widest shoulder at 1-1/2". I was a little nervous.

My friend Steve had stopped in a few times as I was working on the pair of planes and he asked how I was going to do the mouth. I handed him the hacksaw. His only comment was “ I gotta see this!� I guess his response freaked me out a little bit more, so I decided to cut and file the mouth on my own (sorry Steve). I was not sure I would be able to handle an audience if I messed it all up!

As it turned out - it worked perfectly and I felt bad for not inviting Steve to be there for it. He was on hand as I was finishing it up though - and I handed him the triangular piece of waste from the sole.

Here are a few detail shots of the mouth being done;





Two of three cuts are done - the last one is the “easiest� :)

Here are some further photos of the two planes.

















I should also mention that I have decided to sell the Brazilian Rosewood filled prototype. This is only the second prototype I have sold - all the others live on my bench. This plane is marked KP30-08 on the bed - KP stands for “Konrad Prototype�. The price is $9,000.00 Cdn.

Notice the chisel (my thinnest) and how it compares the the waste area next to it. If your thinnest chisel is a 1/4", you cannot cut pins that run to the width of the saw kerf: your chisel will be too wide to remove the waste.

I wrote once before about the generous gift I received from Kori Capaldi, Operations Manager of the Gamble House. I met Kori when I was in Pasadena for Pasadena Heritage Craftsman Weekend in October. Because I spent quite a bit of time at ?THE house? for various tours and receptions, I got a chance to talk with Kori for a while. I told her about the chest I was building and that the lid would be restrained by a leather strap. A month or so after I returned home Kori sent me an email and asked if I?d like a piece of the leather that was used in the Gamble house when the leather straps on the lighting fixtures were replaced several years ago.

Of course I said ?No? and that was the end of it. OK, maybe I said ?Yes? and tried not to appear overly anxious in the process. You see, the Gamble house is tantamount to a religious shrine for those of us afflicted with serious cases of Greene-itis. It is indescribably beautiful. I mean that literally. No attempt to convey, using words, that amazing vision can end in anything but utter failure. Thus, to have a tangible link between the core of the G&G universe and one of my pieces of furniture is very special indeed.

Though I?ve had the leather for some time now, I?ve just completed installing it. I didn?t want to be hasty -- it had to be just right. I spent hours scouring the internet for the perfect rivets to use to attach it and the search paid off. I found a product even better than I had hoped for. Screw posts are similar to rivets but because they screw together they are removable. So if I ever have to remove the lid of the chest I won?t have to cut the leather (Actually, I wouldn?t have been able to cut the leather I would have asked my wife to do it. When I wasn?t home.). And with persistence I was able to find them in solid brass with an oil-rubbed bronze patina. With that final piece of the puzzle in place, the installation is complete. And it was worth the wait. Thanks Kori.

By the way, this chest is the subject of an article to appear in the April issue of Popular Woodworking (available early March). Unfortunately, I didn?t have the Gamble leather when photos were shot for the article -- in the magazine you?ll see a piece of upholstery leather leftover from a Morris chair project.

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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

Todd Austman of Calgary, Alberta, won the miter plane from Philly Planes in our "Quote of the Year" contest for this little jewel:

We had hundreds of entries, which we narrowed down to about 75 of the best quotes that we plan to use in the coming year. (When we use your quote, we'll notify you and send you our latest hardbound book. It might take a bit of time for your quote to come up, so please be patient.)

There were a couple other quotes that came very close to snatching the top honors. Here are a few of them for your enjoyment:


Thanks to all of you who entered the contest. Your contributions, suggestions and scoldings are what make it a better magazine and inspire us to make each issue better than the last.

— Christopher Schwarz

Hi Folks
Been making real progress on the guitar project (although the Wife is getting suspicious when I keep disappearing off to the workshop). Finished the soundboard yesterday (that's the top) so I have to move onto the back next, whilst preparing for the toughest part - hot bending the sides. More on that when the time comes.........
Here are two more pics of the Madox hollow plane. The crispness of the construction still amazes me - don't forget, this was made with hand tools! And the stock is still straight as a die - the amount of wooden planes I have looked at that are banana shaped tells me that this guy really new his stuff!
The Yandles Woodworking Show is this weekend - where did the time go!?? I am beavering away in the workshop making stock for the show - hopefully there will be plenty for people to see, as well as a prototype 70 degree supersmoother ;)
Cheers
Philly

Now that the frame is even with the face of the case, Tommy can attach the crown molding. Wax is placed on the frame, the ends of the molding have been cut to fit, a little glue is applied and Tommy crosses his fingers hoping everything will work out. When the molding is put in place and the glue dries, Tommy reviews how it connects the upper case to the lower case. The upper case slides in from the back and is held by the crown molding. It's difficult to tell it's two separate pieces.

I've begun creating "mini" pencils. 4 1/4" (including eraser) it is quite a bit smaller than the original PaperMate Write Bros pencil.

The mechanical pencil was disassembled and the barrel tossed. Using a very sharp bench chisel and just hand pressure I cut the mechanism down to 2 7/8". This also required shortening the leads by approx 1/4".

The barrel is made from purpleheart. I drilled a 1/4" hole through it and turned it on a standard pen turning mandrel. (1/4" hole fits the mandrels made to be used with 7mm brass tubes.) The barrel is 2 5/8" long.

The mechanism from most click-type mechanical pencils requires a small lip at the tip end of the barrel. I created that lip by gluing a tiny piece of 1/4" brass tubing into the tip. It is around 1/8" long, the longest I could make it and still have the threads of the mechanism protrude enough to catch the plastic tip from the original pencil.

The close up shows the piece of tubing used. Note that I used 1/4" tube NOT the standard 7mm tubing. 7mm tubing isn't narrow enough to stop the mechanism.

The finish on this one is just some CA glue slapped on with a small plastic baggie wrapped around my finger. No effort at properly finishing this pencil was made because I was in a hurry.

So no comments on the poor finish, OK?

The Write Bros pencils make perfect practice parts for experimentation because they are inexpensive and easily modified. They are not terribly durable since they're all plastic, but are still useful. And at approx 30c a piece, if one breaks, or I screw it up, I'm not going to cry.

The one pictured here was given to my 5 year old daughter. She loves it and has been using it heavily since I gave it to her. So far it's holding up well.

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.

This week’s question comes from Mike. He writes:

My most recent project as I’ve mentioned to you before is a baby crib for our first child. This crib will later convert to a day bed and then a full size bed. Therefore there are several legs that must be built first, 6 in total. These legs are built up of 3 pieces of 3/4″ maple laminated together. The center piece is planed slightly thinner to match the thickness of 3/4″ maple ply for the rails that will be mortised into the legs. Once I began to glue the boards together I realized I have some difficulty when it comes to clamping, more specifically knowing how to clamp properly.

I recently purchased some of Rockler’s F-style clamps. I love them and started with them however I quickly realized that they were probably not the right clamps to use for this application. I then grabbed some of my hand screw wood clamps. They seemed to give me a better spread across the boards which are 2 3/4″ wide. I supplemented with the f-style clamps using wood blocks to spread the clamping pressure evenly I do not own any small parallel jaw clamps or I would have used them for this job. What I ended up with was some of the legs went together well with no gaps in my glue joints while others has small gaps in the glue joints the full length of the legs that will have to be filled. How can I avoid this in the future? I’m not concerned that they will come apart because there will be some fasteners that go through the legs to attach the railings, but I would like to have tight glue joints when laminating several boards together so I don’t have to do so much gap filling before I go to finishing.

And here was my reply:
Hey Mike. Excellent question. Using “less than optimal” clamps is something many of use have to deal with. And there really is no big secret. It just comes down to lots of clamps and lots of pressure. I would recommend using cauls that are at least as long as the leg is wide. Then, I would use the F-style clamps to clamp down over the cauls. And since one clamp in the center of the caul may still not apply enough pressure at the edges of the leg, I would recommend putting two F-style clamps at the ends of the neighboring caul. So in effect you will alternate: one centered, two on the edges, one centered, two on the edges, etc… Do this across the leg every 4-5 inches (the closer the better), and you should have enough pressure. From your description, it really sounds like you had enough pressure at the center of the leg, but not at the edges. Of course this means you need a lot of clamps! But as they say, you can never have too many. And kust so you know, the way I do this: I use the parallel clamps and alternate the sides they clamp from. Then I actually reinforce the clamping with F-style clamps in between the parallels. Good luck.

Tommy's ready to start the upper pediment of the secretary and shows the drawing for the upper case as well as what's left of his wood to make it. He now has to figure out how to make the frame. He's hoping that he's found his stride and he'll "get this thing done" because the bombe is "way more complicated" than he ever expected.

All the dentil molding is on and now it's time to add another layer. Tommy shows how the applied dentil molding looks and how the soffit and quarter round fit over it. He then attaches them to the case. Tommy cleans up the dentil molding with a chisel so it is flush with the quarter round. After gluing the final corner in place, the first part of the crown is done and Tommy can enjoy a victory cigar.

Tommy demonstrates how he is cutting the shell. Using a chisel, he shows how working with the grain poses a unique set of challenges. He then utilizes the V-tool on the design and laments his lack of carving skills.

It’s safety week on The Woodwhisperer Network.

I covered the vast majority of my safety knowledge last year when I posted about the guy who has to remove a shoe if he wants to count into double digits.

However, I did come up with an important safety thought that I should share:

Differentiate between woodshop tools and toolshed items before someone gets killed and someone ends up in prison. (I know that doesn’t make sense, so I�ll explain.)

It starts with the dog. Our dog Peyton is obsessed with chewing lumber. He’s always grabbing rough sawn cut-offs from the shop and running off to gnaw on them. When he’s out in the back yard, he will jump up and tear the lowest limbs off of the trees. He’s an insane little pruner who leaves jagged limb spurs for any tree appendages he can reach.

Last week my lovely wife Gail decided to clean up some of the trees in the back yard that Peyton had roughed up, so she asked me for a saw. I suppose I should have paid closer attention to her, because Gail is a go getter. After giving me plenty of time to respond to her request for a saw, Gail grabbed one out of my woodshop and went to town on the trees in the backyard. She said that saw sure cut through those branches even though it was not a saw specifically designed for pruning trees. Can you guess what kind of saw she used?

Was it my dovetail saw? No.

Was it my Carcass Saw? No.

Was it my Tenon Saw? No.

Was it a DeWalt Reciprocating Saw? No.

Was it a Coping Saw? No.

Was it a Fret Saw? No.

Gail has style. When the dog jumps up and buggers up the lower limbs of the trees in our back yard, Gail cleans them up with a Panther Saw.

At first I was a little upset, but after hearing her describe how well it cut, I decided to try for myself. Wow…that Panther really does cut!!!!!

My safety advice is to pay attention when a loved one asks to borrow a tool. Gail and I got lucky. The borrowing of the Panther Saw worked out this time, but it could have easily had a disastrous outcome. A kinked blade or a dinged horn would have clearly led to a rumble in the backyard, and only one of us would have walked away.

Gail, you’ve been warned. Touch my Panther Saw again, and I’ll cut you!!!!