hand tools

Der Aufbau des Champion-Tisches, Teil 2: Rand

surface preparation with a Stanley #80 scraper

the swirly walnut grain is difficult to plane but the scraper is able to deal with it efficiently

beginning to fit the side rails and bread-board ends

marking the end cuts with a sharp knife

then creating a shoulder along that line with a chisel assures a clean cut without tearing the grain

cutting along the shoulder with a sharp crosscut saw

a small array of saws to do this job

cutting the central breadboard tenon

coming up to the other side with a pull-saw

both ends of the table are now cut

cutting the base of the tenon “cheeks”

really no other position to accurately make this cut

cutting away the “cheeks”

the finished tenon, and a groove has been cut to receive a floating tongue to align the breadboard

laying out the positions of the mortise and tenons on the side rails and breadboards

cutting the tenon on the side rails

checking for a tight fit. the side rails are attached with glued tongue and groove joints, while the breadboards are “floating”, held in place by a tongue and groove joint and two “draw-bored” mortise and tenon joints, which will allow for expansion and contraction where the grain intersects perpendicular rather than parallel, yet holding the boards tight to the edge of the table. Two opposing corners are pinned miters and the other two are mortised. imagine the table being able to expand in width along the length of the two boards left long to see the allowance for seasonal cross grain movement.

treating the edges before the final assembly

drilling for the dowels for the pinned miter joints where the live edges come together

a brad point drill marks the center of the tenon inside

re-marking the tenon with an offset so that the dowel pin will “draw” it tight to the edge of the table. the holes will be elongated laterally to allow for joint movement.

altering geometry with violence

shaping the dowel pins by pounding the straight oak through a succession of smaller holes drilled in a steel plate until they are round and the size I need

nearly there

a batch of pins

planing a taper

the taper will allow the pin to engage the offset hole in the tenon and slowly pull it tight

pounding the pins home for the final assembly

a little help form a ratchet strap to pull the center tight

cutting away the exposed ends with a saw

a tightly pinned joint

the top all joined. there will be a considerable amount of detail work on the top yet, but first the base

A Portrait of the Workshop in April

The provision for me in my shop this past week: cutting dovetails in black walnut for a chest, some goat-milk and lime paint for the butcher block legs, and finishing up the milling of the mighty locust.

Carved Bowls in Cottonwood and Birch

Carving bowls helps me to live on the land

Table Build in Red Oak Part 1

The following is part 1 of a photo essay on a rustic and a little bit twisty red oak hall table build.

Composing

Roughing out the leg spindles

Cutting the tenons to width

Establishing taper with a gouge

Breather, almost there

Leveling out with a jack plane

Down to size with the spoker

After shaping with an angle grinder and hand sanding through many grits

Leg # 2 at dawn

Side by side

Composing again

About 11 days left and a lot of work to go

Wood-rick and Dressing Oak

Here is my small woodrick inspired by the folks at Plimoth Plantation. With a small door to admit the chickens.

From the top.

From the west

Dressing a plank of red oak. The radius of the iron leaves tracks.

The iron with a pail-bottom radius takes heavy shavings.

Chainsaw-milled and well seasoned,

Cut just north of the heart with enough character to remain functional.

Hope Chest Drawer Case

Below is a group of photos of some details of the construction of the black walnut drawer carcass and the drawer fronts for the cherry and walnut hope chest. Please click on any of the pictures to view larger.

The lower web/ frame for the bottom of the drawer unit, it is constructed of white oak with the front (visible) rail being walnut.

The drawer case with the web installed with tongue and groove

The main chest rests upon the drawer case

Flattening walnut drawer fronts with a jointer

A forged bench hook (I learned from Peter Follansbee)

The flattened and drawer fronts ready to be marked and cut to length

The drawer fronts wedged in their spots to see how they look. Also the dividers have been installed with stopped dovetails.

Hope Chest

Pictured below is the beginings of a hope chest in cherry and walnut, primarily. The pictures depict the joinery of the upper case of the chest, which is cherry, and will lit atop a narrower walnut case with a row of drawers.

Here the dovetails have been cut and the piece is clamped together in order to mark precisely the corresponding pins.

cutting the pins with a dovetail saw…

cutting out the majority of the waste with a coping saw…

chopping out the rest of the waste with a paring chisel…

the board with pins cut out on both ends…

the case dry fitted.

Chair Repair

Repairing a hickory and oak chair that was brought to me with a broken front leg.

Riven white oak leg, turned on the lathe then bent green in the form.

Marking the tenon on the top of the leg.

Splitting the waste from the tenon with a chisel.

Cleaning up the tenon with a rasp.

Workbench top with the leg and tools.

Drilling the holes for the stretchers with a brace.

The chair with its new leg.

Walnut Burin Handles

After snapping the shaft of my smallest lozenge shaped burin, I now have two with longer handles to makeup the distance left by the shortened steel.

Making New Scratch Stock Cutter

In order to make a bead detail for some frame molding I could either buy a router bit or make a new cutter for my scratch stock (a traditional shop-made molding cutter or scraper). I believe that it is good to make your own tools when you can.

Below is the new cutter in the body of the scratch stock (similar to a marking guage), a piece of scrap walnut that has recieved the molding and an old triple flute cutter I made last winter.

The profile is marked on the blank before cutting. The blank is roughly cut from an old handsaw blade with a cold chisel then filed smooth.

The profile is then cut out with a dremel cut-off wheel…

then cleaned up with files.

The finished profile cutter in the scratch stock body and the resulting bead cut into the walnut.

The School of the Transfer of Energy

workshop studio land