A Special Holiday Offer

I have a special offer for all the woodworkers that read my blog.

What we will do:
Kashley, Megan and I will sharpen your handsaws for you for $15 each. Actually, Kashley or Megan will sharpen your saws while I keep a close eye on them. Don't worry, yours is not be the first saw they have sharpened. They will joint your saw (you still aren't using the full length of the saw are you??), re-shape the teeth (where necessary), sharpen the teeth, adjust the set (if necessary), true the run of the saw (adjust it to saw straight), and wax the plate. They will then repack it carefully with the test board and return it to you. They will not re-tooth, straighten or de-rust your saw. They will also only sharpen western saws, no saws that cut on the pull. They will not repair totes.

What you have to do:
Arrange for delivery of the saw to me by December 15, details in a moment. Include a check for $15 PLUS the cost of getting the saw back to you. I do take credit cards but only in person. It should cost the same to get it to you as it did to get it to me. Include the following information for each saw; your name and address, whether you are using the saw for hard or soft woods, if it is a cross-cut saw and you know the amount of fleam you like include that information, a method to contact you in case we need additional information. If it were my saw, I'd write that stuff on the saw plate with a sharpy, you may want to write it on paper and tape it to the saw plate, your choice.

How to make it happen:
Contact me to reserve your place in line, email me at billsias (at) gmail (dot) com.

We will sharpen the saws on December 16 ONLY, therefore we are limiting the number of saws in this offer to 10. After the ten saws the price will go back to normal rates and will be sharpened by me. During this offer either Megan or Kashley will receive the entire payment (other than the shipping costs).

If you have a saw that needs more than just a sharpening contact me to set that up as well. I can make Grandpa's saw look like it did when he was using it.

A toolbag is more than an interesting title for an uninteresting person

It's been a while since I last posted. I'd like to have a really cool excuse but I don't, I've just been busy and lacking in motivation as far as writing is concerned. For verification of the lack of motivation to write see my last post.

The Woodcraft class has met twice since I last posted. They had dimensioned the plinth boards and were ready to layout and cut dovetails. Upon parting Steve wrote the process of dovetailing on the whiteboard in the shop. I find it very difficult to recite the process, I just do it. I visualized cutting the joint while Steve wrote it out. It is reproduced here just in case you are interested.

When we parted the homework assignment was to be ready to dovetail plinths, have the carcase supports ready except for length and perhaps a width adjustment and carcase components ready except for length and glue joints.

Meanwhile, the class in my shop started with the discovery that a tool bag is not merely an interesting title for an uninteresting person.

Tails and pins are cleaned up.

Kashley's plinth is assembled. The glue-up went extremely well. I find glue ups with hide glue to be exciting. I sometimes offer suggestions in a manner that is louder than my usual demeanor. Megan and Kashley can verify this for you.

Successful assembly must always be followed by an announcement of same.

A little more clean up and

Megan's plinth is assembled as well. This was the first time I had used corner clamps...probably the last as well, at least on dovetails.

Fast forward two weeks and we are back at Woodcraft. After cutting the tails we need to cut a groove to hold the carcase supports. Since we are using through dovetails great care must be taken to assure that we do not clip off a piece of tail while using the rabbet plane. Therefore, we dive in and out of the rabbet with the plane and finish the ends with a router plane. Not as fast as just using the rabbet plane but much faster than repairing square holes in the tails.

Meanwhile, Steve reshoots one of his long plinth boards to correct for a variation in width from the opposite plinth board. Since he has very little to remove and only from part of the board he shoots with his smoother.

Then he is ready to cut his tails.

Here is sets up for a first class saw cut to remove the hald-pin socket.

After Dave's glue has set (but not yet cured) he cuts the rabbet in the end board. This is just a small ledge to help hold the carcase support. It's cut after assembly because it must not show or weaken the dovetail joint.

Back in my shop, Megan starts to plane the piece of poplar that she will use for the carcase support for thickness. She commented that it seemed a shame to bury the green, blue, purple and white wood in the base of the chest where it will never be seen again.

Then it was time for Megan to start on the carcase of her chest. Below she is sawing the cherry board that she selected for the front of the chest.

I quickly hit it with a smoother plane just to show how good her eye is at spotting interesting lumber.
She also selected a piece of walnut with both heart and sapwood. She will rip that in half and border the cherry with it.

So, there you are all caught up on the action.

Schedule:
11/26 I will be teaching SketchUp II at Woodcraft in Grand Rapids. The class runs from 4:00 to 7:00. You should be competent in the basics of SketchUp to take this class.

11/28 I will teach 'Sharpening for the Woodworker" at Woodcraft in Grand Rapids from 4:00 to 7:00. This class is the basics of sharpening and then practice on a chisel, block plane, bench plane and a striking knife. We will also discuss/demonstrate sharpening other tools. This is a hands-on class so bring dull tools and your sharpening kit.

Comments and questions are always welcomed.

Cheers,
Bill

Southwest Michigan Woodworker's Guild

On 11/13/2012 I traveled with Gary Foote, the owner of the Woodcraft in Grand Rapids, to the November meeting of the Southwest Michigan Woodworker's Guild. I apologize if the name is incorrect.

It's an interesting group. They meet in the home of one of their members. The fellow has a well-equipt power-tool workshop. He and his wife were excellent hosts. There were about 35 members in attendance. After a short business session they did show and tell. It apparent that this club is full of woodworkers, not woodtalkers. They also have a couple of club-wide projects making toys as Christmas gifts for two local charities.

Everyone adjourned to the shop when I was to speak. There is an overhead camera and monitors both in front of and behind me. This allowed close-ups of my hands as I worked. After an inspiring introduction by Gary I began my usual introduction to sharpening. I always ask people that attend my sharpening classes and lecture to tell me how long it takes to bring a chisel from flat-out dull to sharp enough to put a finish ready surface on end-grain. Apparently I've been been doing this for a while, one of the attendees spoke up and announced, "You can do it in 8 seconds but you'll tell us it will take you 12."

He was right...on both counts.

I demonstrated many techniques and spoke about steel for about 90 minutes I think. I answered a bunch of questions about hand tool only woodworking and about developing speed in various hand tool tasks. It was great fun. If they weren't 3 hours away I'd attend their meetings regularly. If you are in the Kalamazoo area I will be happy to get contact information for you, just drop me an email.

Bill

Some times the plane shavings are just too cool

There aren't many pictures this week, after all sawing and cleaning pins isn't a lot different than the equivalent operations with tails.

Some times the plane shavings are just too cool to not play with. Earlier in the day I had cut some dados that left some very curly shavings. When Megan arrived they simply begged to be attached to her finger tips. Halloween costumes are everywhere.

 Other than the spacing be much larger, the process of cleaning out between pins is much the same as cleaning out between the tails of Kashley's dovetails.

 The top of the sides of the plinth needs dados cut to install the carcase support rails. Kashley is holding the wood that used to be where the dado is now.

Next week we are committed to assembly!

Bill

Cutting our tails.

With much anticipation the ladies started dovetailing their plinths on Sunday afternoon.

I essentially use Alan Peters' method of laying out and cutting dovetails. I do it tails first. I know many people prefer pins first but I think the tails first vs pins first argument is silly. Do it the way you are most comfortable which is probably the way you first learned to cut them. Save the emotional energy for something that actually matters.

We start by marking the width of the pin board around the ends of the tail boards by setting a marking gauge to the width of pin board and running it completely around the ends of the tail boards. We continue by determining the size of the half-pins on the ends. I seem to tend toward 1/4" varying larger or smaller with the size of the board. I set one divider to the size of the half-pin and set it aside to mark all of my boards at once.

Next I determine the number of tails I want, stepping that off on the end of the first board until I have set the opening on the second divider to the size of one tail plus one pin. Then I mark all of the tail cuts using an extra fine point pen and bevel gauge. Do not use gel ink, it soaks into the wood ruining the piece (guess how I know that little fact...). I mark the angle by running the pen up from the mark we scribed with the marking gauge and straight across the end of the board.

Since the girls have been practicing sawing to a line and are now quite good at it, the tail board is positioned plumb in the vice. Sawing straight across the top and down at the marked angle, they carefully stopped right at the scribed line.

Most of the waste is removed with a fret saw and then cleaned up with a chisel.

I was impressed with both ladies sawing abilities. If you look back at where we started compared to today you would not guess that both have only a few sessions experience. When it comes to handling a chisel neither is taking a back seat to anyone.

As always happens we ran out of time before we ran out of enthusiasm. Next week we'll layout and cut the pins and plow the grooves and dados for the carcase rails. Then we will assemble the plinths.

Bill

First Night of the Hand Tool class at Woodcraft

Another short post because I need to pack up for the Open House at Hickory and Oak tomorrow.

My "Becoming a Hand Tool Woodworker: Build a Blanket Chest" class at Woodcraft began last night. The class is smaller than I expected but both students are ready to go.

Ready for students

We begin by assembling bench accessories and then jump into stock selection. Since the plinth for the blanket chest is 5" high and our stock was between 5" and 6" each student cross cut parts using a hand saw for half of their parts and then a tenon saw/bench hook combination for the remainder.

 I was a little disappointed that they didn't have a long rip cut to do, so I had them rip a 10' board down the middle.

Nothing like ripping 10' of poplar to get the evening going.

We working on creating the reference face of our boards and called it a night. Nice short three hours class. I hope they enjoyed it, all the rest of the sessions are eight hours long.

Bill

A very short update

Kashley and Megan are both ready to cut dovetails on their plinths. The lumber is completely dimensioned and all of it looks good. There are no pictures this week because it was all about thicknessing the boards and laying out the tails. There will be a ton of pictures next week since they will be cutting tails, laying out pins and assembling the plinths. The project is all smooth sailing from here. No new techniques to learn just applying the skills they have developed to larger pieces. Oh, and a ton of dovetails.

Megan is going with me to the class that starts tomorrow in Grand Rapids. She will help students learn to saw by hand and select/markout lumber.

On Saturday I'll be at Hickory & Oak. Stop by between 10:00 am and 2:00 pm if you want to save some money on lumber. Steve will show you how the sawmill runs and I will answer woodworking questions, teach sharpening and do some hand tool joinery.

Bill

A Twofer

Last night I taught SketchUp for Woodworkers I in Grand Rapids at Woodcraft. I didn't get any photos but it's really not a "Let's get a picture" sort of class. Everyone seems stoked for the second class despite that fact that we didn't get as far as I usually do. We ran out of time just before we added dovetails and mortise/tenon joins to the table we were building together. Due to that the November 26 SketchUp for Woodworkers II class will begin with joinery and then progress into designing from photos, photo-realistic output, templates and more. If you have taken any of my SketchUp for Woodworkers classes and want access to the notes and models I used just send me a request and I will share it with you via google docs. Everyone in the class signed on to the newsletter so welcome to all the new folks.

Last Sunday the Becoming a Hand Tool Woodworker: Build a Blanket Chest class continued. In this session I had Kashley build a small box to give her some pre-carcase construction dovetail practice. As she worked I managed to get what is my current all time favorite photo of dovetailing.

If you look at the full sized image you can see the reflection of the wood in the saw plate. Notice the wood in the reflection is perfectly straight relative to the actual board. This is how you can tell that she is holding the saw perfectly plumb. I also like that you can feel her focus right through the picture. Kashley's knife layouts were spot on and all of her saw cuts were dead plumb.

A little chisel and mallet work.

Followed by some precision clean up in the vise.

And...we ran out of time.

Mean while Megan practiced sawing plumb and to a line.

Megan's sawing is getting quite good. All but 1 (out of 30-ish) were perfect. It looked like a hair pick when she was done.

I try to teach at least two skills that will perform each operation that is needed in building the project. Megan is now dimensioning her plinth pieces for width. After sawing as close to the line as she was comfortable last time I had her use a scrub plane to remove most of the waste. This time she used a draw knife. The expression on her face is priceless.

But it wasn't long before she was quite comfortable pulling that big old knife toward herself.

Next she sawed them to length and then shot them with the #51.

 If you've noticed the blue left handed glove, that is not a fashion statement. It is the result of getting bitten by a tenon saw. The lesson was well learned and she jumped right back up on the horse.

It looks like we may start cutting our "for reals" dovetails next week. First, however, we have to dimension the lumber for thickness.

As always, comments are welcomed and questions are answered.

Bill

Schedule update

Out and about:
On October 20 from 10:00am to 2:00pm I will be at Hickory & Oak Sawmilling and Lumber Company. Steve will give tours of the sawmill. I will demonstrate sharpening (chisels, plane irons, gouges, hand saw) and hand tool joinery. Lumber will be on sale and there will be special sales on project packs of lumber, It's rumored that there may be cider and donuts as well. This is a great opportunity to get your hand tool questions answered, see a working sawmill and pick-up some lumber. Map Contact Steve Van Osdol at 269-436-0039.

At Woodcraft in Grand Rapids:
On October 8 I'll be teaching SketchUp. How strange is it that the hand tool only guy teaches computer aided design? Seems about right to me.

October 18 will be the first session of "Becoming a Hand Tool Woodworker: Build a Blanket Chest." This class will run all day nearly every Saturday for five sessions after the introductory Thursday night session. You are invited to attend the Thursday night session for free. If you like what you see you can sign up right there (assuming seats are still available). The project is a Pennsylvania Blanket Chest/Shaker Blanket Chest/Tool Chest. It contains 60 dovetails so by the end you will be a dovetailing wizard. This is the same class as is currently happening in my shop except the students will have less latitude in design.

The 25th of October I will be Sharpening for the Woodworker. This is a fundamentals class. I teach the principles of sharpening and then the details of chisels, plane irons, gouges, hand saws and most anything else students happen to bring in.

November 26 will be SketchUp II. This is not a continuation of the first SketchUp class but begins at the mid-point of the previous and continues into topics like scaling, reproduction from photographs, photo-realistic output. You must be quite comfortable with SketchUp to take this class.

In my shop:
Every Sunday in November we will build a Shaker side table. The table includes a drawer. This class teaches hand tool lumber prep, dovetails, mortise and tenon joinery and drawer fitting. This class is full.

In December we will build an Arts & Crafts (Mission Style) side table with a drawer and shelf. This class teaches hand tool lumber prep, dovetails, mortise and tenon joinery and drawer fitting. The table is built from quarter sawn white oak and is, therefore, physically more demanding.

In January we will build an Arts & Crafts (Mission Style) Sette (Love Seat). This class teaches hand tool lumber prep and mortise and tenon joinery. The settee is built from quarter sawn white oak and includes approximately 20 mortise and tenon joints. Hand cut mortise and tenon joinery will never be a problem again after completing this class.

Questions?
Ask them here or contact me.

She killed the bird

Session Two of Becoming a Hand Tool Woodworker: Build a Blanket Chest continued on 9/23/2012. The goals for this session were to complete creation of the reference face of all the plinth boards, create the reference edge for all of the boards and to begin to dimension the plinth boards for width. First, however, we needed to solve a problem with the bench that Megan is using.

The bench that Megan is using doesn't have a tail vice so she was having issues holding the boards for planing. The simple solution was to make a planing stop. We discussed various ways of making the planing stop. Those discussions included analysis of the physics of the forces generated and way to counteract the force successfully. We talked about screwing the boards together, but being a handtool guy I only have iron screws and I don't want to use those on a bench accessory, plus I don't want my planes to meet a chuck of iron. The design decided on was to dovetail two boards together and then clamp that 'L' to the bench to butt the boards she is working on against. So Megan's first task was to dovetail those boards into a planing stop.

I use the Alan Peters method of dovetail layout. I cut my dovetails tails first. Because I do. So together we did the layout and Megan did the labor.

Sawing out the tails

Removing most of the waste with a coping saw. 

Cleaning up the pin board with a chisel.

Megan spread the hide glue with a palette knife, we put the joint together and like real woodworkers solved our problem.

Next they both continued to flatten one face of their boards to create the reference face. This face of the board must be dead flat, untwisted, unbowed, and is the reference for all other dimensions of the board.

Kashley creating a reference face.

In the past, the plane used to create the reference face was called a try plane. Using winding sticks and a straight edge they both verified that their reference faces were correct. Then they moved on the creating the reference edge. The reference edge is absolutely perpendicular to the reference face. Making the reference edge is referred to as truing the board. When that is completed the board is "tried and true."

Kashley is shooting the board to create the reference edge.

Now that their boards are tried and true we can move on to dimensioning the boards. We chose to set the width first since that would remove the need to thickness material that wouldn't exist in the final board. We set my panel gauge to the correct width and scribed each board to the precise width. The next step is to remove the waste by either sawing, planing or both.

Kashley removing unnecessary width from one of her plinth boards.

Both ladies have proven themselves to be excellent sawyers so we tried a different method of sawing this time. We mounted the boards in the vice and cut off the waste with a rip filed panel saw.

Both Kashley and Megan know that the secret to fast accurate sawing is a gentle grip and to allow the saw to do the sawing. When I teach sawing I tell them to hold the saw handle like you would hold a baby bird, firm enough to keep it from escaping, gentle enough to not injure it.As Megan was sawing her board beads of sweat were forming on her forehead. Kashley accused her of "killing the bird."

Staying away from the line with the saw allows you to sneak up on it with a plane. We started with a scrub plane until we got close and then put the board back in the shooting board to get "down to the wire." When you plane to a scribed line a wood wire will come off the wood at the scribed line. If it will comes at once you know that you are perfectly straight and right on the mark. Since Megan sawed first, she managed to get two board to width while Kashley was sawing her boards (as opposed to the fact that Kashley had to wait for Megan to finish sawing).

Next session we will finish setting the width of the boards. Then they will plane them to the proper thickness. Followed by squaring one end and setting the length. We probably will not get to layout and cut the dovetails until the following session.

I ran into both of them this morning while getting my morning espresso. It was verified by the state of soreness that Megan had indeed, killed the bird.