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Experiences

A link to our roots

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Part of what I love most about blogging are my Links of the Week.  I spend a good bit of time surfing the web for the most useful or interesting links I can, and feature one of them each Friday.  Who knows, maybe you will find a fun weekend project you could knock out or read more about a particular woodworkers to see if their style interests you.

But, this past Friday’s Link of the Week brought a reply from the moderator of the Tool Crib power tool blog.  Tool Crib had posted a quick question on several woodworking forums asking who or what were the greatest influences in getting the readers involved in  the craft. The responses were very enlightening, and made for some very interesting reading.

He also told me that it had been two years since the conducted the survey, and that I was more than welcome to conduct it again to get a wider sample.

So, this weekend, I started posting on a few forums asking the readers to name the top three influences in their woodworking adventures.  So far, the response has been very brisk, and there have been some funny, thoughtful and touching responses.

I will leave this survey ‘open’ through August 15 (but, I also reserve the right to end it August 1 if there’s no more input coming in) and then analyzing the responses for a later post.

If you would like to participate in the survey, or you would like to read some of the comments which have already been posted, you can see the question at:

If you are not a forum member and would still like to get involved, you can always use my contact form to send me your input.

This could be a very interesting survey…

Quick Polls

Quick Poll

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Most woodworking tools do their jobs through the use of very sharp edges.  Woodworkers can spend countless hours grinding and honing their tools to a razor sharp edge.  Manufacturers can get a keen edge on carbide router bit cutters or table saw blades…

And, then there are rasps and files.  These oddballs don’t slice the wood they are cutting – they tear the fibers off and leave a pretty rough surface that needs to be refined with planes, scrapers or sandpaper.

There are times when the only tool that can do the job is a rasp or a file, yet they aren’t normally the first tools a woodworker will purchase.

This week, we want to know what you think about files and rasps…

[poll id=”81″]

Link of the week

Link of the Week

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Tool Crib’s 31 Most Influential Woodworkers

Mentoring another generation of woodworkersThis was one of those ideas I wish I would have thought of.  The folks at Tool Crib went to three different woodworking forums and posted a simple question – who are five most influential woodworkers who started you on your path to woodworking?

The readers posted more than 100 different names, and 31 of them received two or more votes.  Using that information, Tool Crib ranked the woodworkers and listed them for all to see.

The top three influences – according to the woodworkers who participated in the polling – are:

  • Norm Abram
  • ‘Dad’
  • David Marks

Follow the link above to read more about this very interesting poll…

How-to, Joinery

Mortising Magic

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Step right up, ladies and gentleman.  I, The Great Trained Shop Monkey,will amaze and astound you with the paranormal mortising abilities taught to me by the mystic woodworkers of Exotic Imperial China and the Indian Subcontinent.  Using no more than a common table saw, I will cut a crisp-shouldered through mortise with absolutely no tear out which can accent any piece of work you want to add it to.  That’s right, folks.  No mortising machines.  No fancy chisels. No router jigs.  No new expensive tooling of any kind. Notice… nothing up my sleeve, nothing between my ears…

First thing I’m gonna do is cut some pieces of mahogany and maple.  That’s right, the mahogany will serve as the bulk of the leg stand for a bench, and the maple strip will serve as an accent piece to show some interesting contrast.  I also cut a length of tenon stock the exact dimensions I need the mortise to be.

From there, I set up the two side pieces of mahogany on the clamps, giving some room for the maple accent strips to be glued…

Then, I glue up the first maple strip, set it to the magic line of measuring, and clamp it in place, keeping the faces flush.

Without further ado, I wedge the tenon stock in and glue up the second maple strip, insert the tenon stock in the gap and glue the top maple strip into place, again keeping it flush with the faces.

Now, I say the magic works – Abra cadabra, hokus pokus, alakazam –  and blammo – I knock the tenon stock out of the hole leaving a perfect nothingness surrounded by a square-shouldered mortise with absolutely no tear out.  No mirrors, no tricks, no sleights of hand…

Now, all I have to do is work a little magic on shaping the legs of this bench….

Shop Talk

One sweet board…

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A few weeks ago, I was marveling at the design of some benches built by Japanese woodworking master George Nakashima.  He had a way of blending crisp joinery with the natural raw character of some choice timbers.

Woweee… wouldn’t it be great if I could find some cool looking lumber like that.  Some figure.  Some color.  Two awesome live edges.

I started poking around my lumber suppliers here in Florida, but I was out of luck.  Most of the lumber that comes in here is already at least rough cut on four sides, leaving just a stray bit of wane on the outside of the board.  The timbers were very nice, but they didn’t do it for me.

That’s when I asked Eric Poirier of Bell Forest Products to take a peek around his inventory.  At first, things didn’t look so promising, but he assured me that there was a new batch of wood in the kiln that might have some likely candidates.

Would this count as a likely candidate?

This is a piece of gorgeously figured bird’s eye maple.  It is about 36″ long by 14″ wide by 2″ thick.  The best part of this board is that it has a live edge on both sides… which means this bench will be viewable from both sides… pretty striking.  There is a dark mineral streak running about half the way across the board, giving an interesting contrast across the face of the board.

According to Eric, finding a piece of wood like this is pretty rare for his operation.  “Most of our 8/4 Birdseye gets edged to sell as grade lumber, so finding a live edge board like that is something special! ”

As many of you have discovered, while bird’s eye maple is beautiful to behold, it’s a pain in the rear to work.  Even my sharpest smoothing plane gave me very bad tear out.  So, I have resorted to my belt sander with a coarse grit belt to get the faces of the board ready to work, and I’ll go to finer grits and ultimately a scraper to get the surface ready for use.

I took some time over this past weekend to start working on a simple mahogany base for this bench.  That should provide an interesting contrast for the top.

More to come…

Quick Polls

Quick poll

4 Comments

There are few tools as basic, ancient and effective as chisels.  A stout metal body with one end ground to a seriously sharp edge, connected to a wooden or plastic handle.  No fuss, no muss.

While chisels may seem so basic and elementary, they are frequently used on just about every project.  Trimming tenons to fit.  Mortising out for hinges.  Squaring rabbets to accept a crisply cut back panel.

The only problem with chisels is that they seem to reproduce when you aren’t looking.  Soon, you can end up with a huge collection of bench chisels, butt chisels, paring chisels, mortisting chisels, Japanese chisels and other models in a wide variety of sizes.

This week, I want to know how you store the chisels you use most frequently. In the wooden box you bought them in?  Loose in a drawer in a rolling tool chest?  Organized by size in a custom built chisel rack?

Now, I know you may have a set of special chisels you have tucked away somewhere, but I want to know about your most frequently used set.

[poll id=”80″]

Link of the week

Link of the week

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VetMade Industries

Click to see the video story produced by the St. Petersburg Times…

With the Independence Day just around the corner, I want to wish my fellow countrymen and women a happy, safe and healthy July 4th.

Just outside of Tampa, Florida, Retired Army Lt. Colonel John S. Campbell runs a very interesting woodworking operation.

After spending over 27 years in the Army,  John decided to pursue his life-long passion for woodworking in retirement.

During an annual woodworking show in Tampa, John saw a demonstration of garden furniture production put on by Eureka Woodworks of Dallas Texas.  John signed up to be a producer of this high-end garden furniture in order to augment his normal woodworking business, Black Bear Woodworking.

One day, while working alone in his shop, John was struggling with how to hire motivated and trainable workers to help produce quality woodworking items when the “light” went on – why not open the workforce to disabled veterans?  VetMade Industries seeks to prepare disabled veterans for reentry into the workforce; and then place them in meaningful long-term careers.  

After a few phone calls to the U.S.Veterans Administration (VA) and a conversation with the VA Compensated Work Therapy Program, Black Bear Woodworking hired its first disabled veteran. With some basic training in woodworking machines, safety and production processes, the first Adirondack chair rolled off the assembly line

In July 2008 VetMade Industries, Inc. was formed as a non-profit 501(c)3 organization with the charter to return disabled veterans back to work; not only to make furniture, but to also make a difference in the lives of men and women who selflessly protected our country; asking nothing in return except for a chance to regain their productivity.

The veterans who work at VetMade Industries turn out some beautiful Adorondack-style furniture as well as flag cases, hand-made baseball bats, custom bird houses and hardwood cutting boards.  The site is definitely worth a visit.