As I’ve stated before, summer is usually a slow time of year for me in the shop.  There are just too many other things vying for time in the summer months – and in Upstate New York we have to take every advantage of the little bit of nice weather we get!

I’ve mentioned in a previous post that I’ve been doing a bunch of turning lately.   I have been working to improve my skills and focusing more on the design aspects of various types of turned forms.  I’ve done a bunch of open bowls and also some semi-closed forms en route to developing my skills to do hollow-forms.

What you see in the (somewhat poorly photographed) pictures is a sampling of some of the pieces that I’ve done over the summer.  I did do a few more, but have already given them away to folks that offered up some freshly cut wood for my efforts.  As you can see there are open bowls, and semi-closed forms that I used to help develop the ability to cut away under the rim of a bowl.

I recently tried a hollow-form with some green Maple.  This was done with the limited hollowing tools that I own (the Sorby Multi-tip scraper and Sorby Hollow Master – the Multi-tip is a decent tool but, I would not recommend Hollow Master).  Well, let’s just say that I have more work to do to refine my skills.  I had a catch while hollowing and nearly tore the tenon right off the bottom of this piece (sorry for the somewhat blurry pictures).  Luckily, the piece did not go into orbit, but the catch was still exciting to say the least.  I think this was caused by the awkward curve of the Sorby Hollow Master tool as my not clearing out the shavings frequently enough.

Oh well, the wood was free and I’m learning with every piece that I spin on the lathe.  This event also gave me the impetus to order some real hollowing tools to satisfy this addiction…I mean hobby.

I tend to agree with this.  From my perspective, when we design, we should  start with a blank canvas and design from the top down, thinking about the statement we want a piece to make as well as its function, as necessary.   We should design from the top down without undue constraints (as much a possible) and when we build (the implementation phase) that  should be done from the bottom up.  This is where we must exercise our skills and problem-solving abilities as we endeavor to realize the design that we desire.  For me, tools do not enter the picture until the implementation phase.  If I do not have the tool for the job, then I have to try to find a way to execute the design by some other means. or in rare cases by purchasing a tool.  However, I try to never let the tools that I have on hand limit what I design.  I posted a comment on Doug’s blog in response to his post that I’ll reproduce here:

Doug,

Interesting thoughts…I agree with what you have said.

I am constantly amazed while reading at woodworking blogs and message forums about all the new tools and gizmos that woodworkers are buying with reckless abandon – often times with no real need!

It sometimes seems that tool acquisition (and display) is the goal as opposed to the use of the tools in pursuit of our craft. I routinely see shops full of all manner of new tools (both hand and power) and purchased jigs and often very little production of woodworking objects.

It is interesting to see woodworkers frustrated and avoiding building pieces that they perceive to require a specialized tool to complete. Ironically, many times all that is needed is to build a simple and quick jig or fixture to accomplish the task.

Woodworkers are missing out on an important aspect of the craft that requires developing skills of problem-solving and design when they avoid creating simple jigs and fixtures as part of their build process. As you stated, without the ability (and/or desire) to do this, our designs will become limited by what we have in our shops and/or what we think we can buy at the nearest woodworking tool outlet.

So, I thought I’d take the pulse of the internet woodworking community regarding this topic.  Please let me know what you think by responding to the poll.   More importantly, expand on your thoughts in the comments of this post.  This is an interesting topic regarding design that I think deserves some discussion.  So, don’t hold back, let’s hear your thoughts!

I was working with some pieces of Walnut today and nearby there was some white chalk on the bench that I was using for marking out parts on the dark wood.  The pieces I was working with were about 2 inches thick and 8 inches long and I needed to edge glue them. As is the norm, I held two of the pieces together edge to edge and inspected the joint it offered after a pass over the jointer knives – it looked OK, but not perfect.

I spotted the chalk again and thought maybe I should see just how good that jointed surface was. In the pictures you can see the surface of one of the boards after rubbing the edge lightly with the white chalk (the second one is a close-up of the same board). You can clearly see the uneven surface left by the jointer.  As you can see, the rotating knives of this tool leave little scallops on the wood surface – in fact the width of these scallops changes depending on how fast the piece is moved over the knives. The slower you go, the closer together the scallops are and the better the resulting surface – better yes, but not perfect.

After seeing this, I felt I could make the surface better. I don’t have a jointer plane, so, I pulled out my #4 smoothing plane to see what I could do. I made a few passes along the edge of the board watching as the plane removed the white chalk leaving a stripe of chocolate colored wood in its wake.   The first picture is the resulting surface (the second picture is a close-up of the hand planed edge). I put some Naptha on a paper towel and wiped away the residual chalk that was still in the pores of the wood. The smoothing plane only removed one or two thousandths of an inch of material, however, as seen in the pictures, the surface quality was now infinitely better.

I often use my smoothing plane on the faces of panels and other parts that have been face jointed in order to remove these milling marks. However, I don’t always edge joint with a hand plane after using the jointer.  My edge-glued joints are usually pretty good but, I sometimes think that they can be better.  After this little experiement, I’m sure of it.  Of course, a smoothing plane is not the best tool for this job…so, it looks like I’ve got a good reason for a jointer plane to be the next entry in my hand tool arsenal!

The basic steps from Rough to Ready

Lot’s of articles have been written about taking a board from rough to 4-square. The basic steps that I follow are:

1. Crosscut to rough length
2. Rip to rough width
3. Joint one face of the board
4. Joint an adjacent edge square to the previously jointed face
5. Rip to final width
6. Crosscut to final length and/or add joinery details such as tenons, etc.

In this post, I’d like to focus on the first two steps of the process and to discuss how I typically approach them, and why.

As a point of clarification, the process and order of operations that I follow is deliberate. Some might argue with the first step of crosscutting to rough length so early in the process. My rationale is as follows: I try to get each piece as close to finished dimension as possible before any surfacing with the jointer or planer. Smaller pieces are easier to handle and the inevitable task of removing imperfections in a board (cup, twist, bow, etc.) are easier remove and with less wasted stock when the pieces are smaller. In some cases, a piece of stock that is basically unusable due to a condition such as bowing while in its long state can be successfully managed when cut down to smaller lengths because the condition is less pronounced in the shorter pieces.

Crosscutting to Rough Length

As I mentioned, the first thing that I do is to crosscut pieces to rough length. The only time that I deviate from this is when the finished parts may end up too short to rip, joint and/or plane in future steps of the milling process. My rule of thumb is a minimum of about 16″ in length. Shorter than that and I will usually try to layout and group like pieces within the same piece of stock. Then I will safely mill the longer board until the final step where I can crosscut to final lengths and add the joniery.

My tool of choice for this cross cutting step may surprise you. I typically use the hand held jigsaw for this operation. I do this because the jigsaw is portable and easy to maneuver in my small shop. I can also choose to crosscut in a larger area if necessary if the piece is to long to easily get into my shop. Those are the practical reasons however, the more important reason is safety.

Rough stock by nature is uneven and uncooperative when trying to hold it against a tool’s table or fence. It tends to wobble and shift in those situations. Of course, those conditions are a problem for tools such as the table saw, radial arm saw and/or miter saw. The way that those tools work with their relatively thick rotating blades tends to allow for conditions that support kickback to occur. Because the jigsaw is portable, I can set the rough stock across my workbench and with the aid of a roller stand for support, crosscut pieces as necessary without any worries. The jigsaw also has a very narrow blade that reciprocates rather than rotates. Thus, kickback is rarely a concern.

Ripping to Rough Width

Once the pieces have been crosscut to rough length, I can rip them to rough width. I can hear you out there saying that if I do this now before the stock is smooth I will either have to use a jig or risk kickback on the table saw. Well, the reason that I can do this now without the need of any special sleds or other jigs is because of the tool that I use.

My tool of choice for the rough ripping operation is the band saw. Because of the same dangerous condiitons that I described which can promote kickback during crosscutting rough stock, using the table saw for this operation (without the use of a rough ripping sled or some other device to make it safe) is not advisable.

I use the band saw to rough rip for much the same reasons that I use the jigsaw for rough crosscutting. The blade is thin and moves in a single direction toward the table. Even with the tendency for rough stock to close in on the cut while it is ripped (caused from relieving stresses in the board which develop during the growing and/or drying process) there is virtually no danger of kickback. The worst thing that may typically happen in severe cases is that the blade can bind requiring the kerf to be propped open with a wedge in order to complete the cut.

Other merits of using the band saw to rough rip are numerous. Some examples are: the ability to follow certain grain patterns in a rough board rather than ripping parallel to the edge in order to have the best looking piece result; to easily work around defects in stock; to get maximal use of a board due to the very narrow kerf of the band saw; and finally to more easily work with and rip thick stock avoiding potentially risky operations at the table saw.

Again, with the band saw I will sometimes group parts when I lay them out on the rough stock so that the ripping operation is safe both at this tool as well as later during final ripping on the table saw. I do not like to rip anything on the table saw that is shorter than 16″ in length and/or with a finished width narrower than about 2-3″. Generally, I do these dangerous ripping tasks safely at the band saw with a longer piece of stock and then joint or plane to finished width before the final cross cut.

If you don’t have a band saw, you could also accomplish these rough ripping tasks with a hand held jigsaw. Alternately, if you do not have a jig saw, you should build a rough ripping sled for your table saw in order to rip rough stock safely.

Hopefully, this sheds some light on the process that I use and why I do it this way. My main goal is to stay safe and to make the process as easy as possible within the constraints of my shop. I’d like to hear your thoughts on the subject. Please leave a comment with the comments field at the end of the post or send me an e-mail.

I spent a considerable amount of time scraping and sanding all of the parts of the table. There were areas on the legs where the knees transition into the posts that needed some cleanup. I carefully worked these first with a card scraper and then followed up with hand sanding. Of course, the rest of the table also required a bit of sanding as well. Because all of the parts had previously been smoothed with a plane and/or and scraped, my sanding schedule for the table started with 150 grit and finished with 180 grit. I tried going to 220 grit but, it seemed to be burnishing the Cherry so, I do not think I will continue to that fine a grit. When all of the sanding is complete, I will give the table a thorough vacuuming and then a final rub down with Naptha to remove all traces of sanding dust and to determine if any areas need further attention.

In the picture (click for larger view) you can see the Queen Anne Side Table in its current state. All that remains for the construction is to put a decorative edge on the top, attach the top to the base and add the hardware. Speaking of hardware, I recently ordered a set of drawer pulls and a matching escutcheon from Horton Brasses. The style is reminiscent of the hardware typically on antique Queen Anne furniture and should work nicely on this piece.

I have also started to consider how I will finish the table. Most Queen Anne furniture that you see is stained dark. Generally for Cherry, I like to use a natural finish allowing the wood to oxidize over time with exposure to sunlight, darkening naturally to a rich patina. However, for this table I am considering adding just a slight bit of coloring with Garnet shellac to even out the tone all of the components.

A quick primer on shellac:

Shellac is a universal binder and a very good finish in its own right. The substance is made from refining and drying the secretions of the Lac bug which is found in India and Asia. Essentially, any finish will adhere to shellac and shellac will adhere to almost anything. Additionally, shellac serves as a perfect sealer between different stages of the finishing process. For example if a dye or stain is used and then sealed with shellac, none of the dye or stain will be removed when the topcoat is applied. One important thing to realize is that only dewaxed shellac will support all topcoats. Most pre-mixed shellacs (aside from Zinsser Seal-Coat) contain wax and will cause problems with adhesion when another topcoat is applied. Shellac that is purchased as dry flakes is dewaxed and must be dissolved in denatured alcohol to produce the finish. Because alcohol is used as the solvent, shellac has the benefit of drying in minutes. Also, shellac has the properties of dissolving into previous coats effectively creating one single thicker coat when multiple coats are applied.

Shellac solutions can be mixed to different strengths or concentrations. This is referred to as the “cut” of the shellac – the premixed stuff is usually about a 3 lb. cut which would equate to 3lbs. of shellac flakes by weight mixed in 1 gallon of alcohol. I usually mix to around a 1 or 1 1/2 lb. cut. This produces a good workable consistency and fairly light coats. I only mix what I will use within about 6 months because shellac in the liquid form has a limited shelf life after which it will have a tendency to not dry or harden. For me, this means a 1 lb. cut is 2 oz. of shellac flakes (by weight) mixed with 16 oz. of alcohol (by volume).

There is nothing real scientific about mixing shellac – it will work no matter what strength you mix it to. It’s easier if the flakes are ground to a fine consistency before dissolving in the alcohol. Using an old coffee grinder would work well, or you can do what I do – put the flakes in a plastic bag, seal it and then hit it with a rubber mallet until you have very fine pieces left. Put the alcohol in a glass jar, add the shellac and seal the jar. Swirl the mixture around every half hour or so for about the first four hours and then let it sit over night. The next day it should be ready to use. The last step before use is to strain the shellac mixture through paint strainer or coffee filter to remove any impurities left after the refining process.

I took some time to create some finish sample boards from scrap Cherry following the same sanding schedule as the table. On the left half of the top board I used Watco Natural Danish Oil followed by two coats of Garnet shellac and then a top coat of General Finishes Arm-R-Seal. The other half of that board did not receive the Watco. On the lower board I used Boiled Linseed Oil followed by the same sequence of Shellac and Arm-R-Seal with the right half of the board not receiving the BLO. Sorry for the picture – it does not really show the variations too well. I am considering the using BLO/shellac sequence because it is not showing the blotching that the Watco seems to. Some of the Cherry on this table is a bit curly and may be prone to blotching – I do not want to obscure any of the curl in the boards.

It’s very easy at this stage of a project to speed through the final finish preparation steps and finish process in an attempt to get the thing out of the shop. I always find myself battling this. In the long run it’s always best to spend the necessary time to prepare the surfaces as well as possible and to test all of the finish steps to assure a desired end result. Of course, this takes more time and delays moving on to the next project but, in the end it yields the best results.

I had been giving some serious consideration to two of the Veritas planes: the Low Angle Smoother and the Bevel Up Smoothing Plane. I have the Veritas Low Angle Block Plane and also the Veritas Medium Shoulder Plane and they are both beautifully made and well performing tools. However, I was not sure whether to get the dedicated smoother or the low angle smoother which could also be used with a shooting board. My immediate need was for a basic smoothing plane but, I did not want to look past the other possible uses of a multi-purpose tool like the low angle plane. The other thought I had was to try for a vintage smoothing plane in need of a little work, while saving a bit of money for the multi-purpose tool at a later date.

I decided to check Ebay for some possible smoothing planes that might be easily rehabbed into service. I ended up finding one that looked like it was in reasonable shape. I bid on it and ended up winning the auction! I paid for it and it was in my hands within a few days. Never having purchased a vintage tool on Ebay before, I opened the package not knowing exactly what I would find. What I received was a Stanley Bailey #4 Smoother that was most likely manufactured in the early 1930′s. It’s condition was just as described.

There was a bit of rust on the plane and what looked to be minor pitting, but all of the parts seemed to be in good shape and looked to be very serviceable. The knob and tote were both intact with no cracks. After a quick examination with a straight edge, the sole looked to be fairly flat and true. The sides were not 90 degrees to the sole but, since I was not planning to use this plane with a shooting board this was not a real issue. In the pictures, you can see the plane as I received it (click for a larger view).

I ‘ve tuned a couple of planes in the past, but those were new Record planes that needed some work out of the box because of inferior manufacturing. Rehabbing this vintage #4 smoother was uncharted territory for me. I disassembled the plane completely and examined the parts closely. Luckily, there were no surprises. However, I quickly realized that the first step in the rehab process was going to be to take care of the rust. The pictures show all of the parts after disassembly.

On the Internet I’ve seen several folks effectively eliminate the rust on their planes using an Electrolysis technique. I was contemplating this technique but decided to look for some alternatives. In doing so, I stumbled onto the information for a few rust elimination products. One product, called Evapo-Rust, was sold at Auto-Zone and had a money back guarantee. This stuff was supposed to be environmentally friendly and reusable as well. I decided to get some and give it a try thinking that if it did not work I could always go the electrolysis route. To use this product all I needed to do was to soak the parts for 30 minutes or more depending on how much rust there was. The hardest part was finding a container that could hold the plane body for soaking! As you can see in the pictures, I ended up cutting up an old soda bottle. I soaked the screws, blade and chip-breaker first to see how well the process would work.

After about an hour, I removed the parts, rinsed them with water and gave them a light scrubbing with Scotch-Brite. All I can say is: I’m amazed at how well this stuff worked and how easy it was to use. I gave the de-rusted parts a light coating of 3-in-1 Oil to keep any surface rust from forming. Next to soak were the plane body and frog assembly – I left these in the bath over night because of the amount of rust on both. The next morning after a rinse and a quick scrub, they both looked great! The frog received some oil and the plane body got a coat of paste wax on the sides and bottom.

With all of the parts now relieved of rust, I set out to rework the edges on the blade and the chip breaker. The blade had a small amount of pitting on the back and a few significant nicks in its edge. I started the process by flattening the back on my water stones. After getting the back in reasonable condition I went to my Jet Wet Sharpener to remove the nicks and to put a fresh bevel on the blade. I recently got this tool during a super sale at Amazon.com. I could not justify the price of the Tormek Wet Sharpener (even though it looks to be a very well-made tool). However, during the sale this Jet Sharpener was available for the equivalent of a couple of good Water Stones so, I decided to give it a try. I’ve been reasonably pleased and it does speed the sharpening process. This situation was no exception. Within fifteen minutes I had ground a new primary bevel of 25 degrees and a micro bevel of 28 degrees. The last sharpening task was to grind the chip breaker so that it had a crisp edge where it contacts the back of the plane blade.

With the de-rusting and sharpening completed, I decided to see how the lpane might perform without doing anything more to it. so, I assembled the plane. I fiddled with the placement of the frog until it was in a position where it was just ahead of the back of the plane mouth – this assured that the blade was totally supported by the frog and did not contact the back of the mouth. I adjusted the chip breaker to sit back from the blade edge by about 1/32″ and installed the blade. After advancing the blade slowly while taking swipes of a Cherry board I was making nice shavings and leaving a polished surface on the face of the board!

I think eventually I may want to invest in a thicker iron for this plane and maybe a new chip breaker, but all in all I would say that this effort was a success. I received a good specimen to begin with and I did minimal work to rehab it into working order. Best of all, I have a new tool to use now and saved some money toward another tool in the future. If it always goes this well, this could get addicting…

As always, if you have any comments or questions, please leave them here using the comments link at the end of the post, or email me at thecraftsmanspath@gmail.com.