This is my idea of time well spent in the shop.

Today in my shop, I realized that I was proving the point that I made yesterday about when I choose to use power tools over hand tools and vice versa. Today I was preparing legs and aprons for finish and I chose to do this with hand tools rather than power. 

Here is what I did:

• removed all the machining marks with a smoothing plane
• removed the arrises on the corners - effectively applying a 1/16" round over
• applied the first coat of linseed oil to all the parts

Parts are oiled and waiting for more. 

All of this took 90 minutes to complete. Now had I decided to do this with power tools things would have been different. The sanding alone would have taken 1.5 hours and I would have filled the shop with dust and noise. Not to mention the challenge of sanding narrow surfaces like the tapered legs without ruining the facets by rounding them over. If I used the router to put a round over on all of the edges, I would have had to set the router up, did some test cuts and then shape the edges - the whole time hoping that the router bit didn't rip out a huge chunk of wood that could ruin the piece. 

The legs are made from cherry with an edge band of hard maple seen in the shavings. Ever seen someone taking pictures of sanding dust?

This is why I do the last 40% of the work at the bench with hand tools instead of with power. It's faster and the surfaces are superior, letting the chatoyance of the cherry through - not to mention the lack of dust in the shop and the only noise was 'The Black Keys' coming from the stereo. 

 - To understand, you must do.

V

There is no doubt that the router is one of the most versatile power tools in the modern shop. Today I was using one to cut floating tenons in a set of legs and aprons for a display table that I'm working on. As far as I'm concerned, chopping out mortises by hand is right up there with thicknessing a board with a jack plane. If you have the power tools to do it why wouldn't you? As my friend Ron has always said "If the Shakers had plywood you would have seen it in the bottom of their boxes". Don't get me wrong, some people enjoy working solely by hand. In some cases like my freind Tom, you have no choice but to only use hand tools because your shop is 12' x 12'. Personally I think you can be much more efficient and accurate if you blend a little from the power side and a little from the hand side.

Every solid-wood project from my shop gets surfaced with a hand plane and the joinery will have been tuned by hand. You will never see me sanding solid wood. Why? Because it doesn't make sense to take the long way with a sander when I can get a superior surface in less time with my trusty bevel-up smoother. 

Ooops...went on a bit of rant there....I apologize.

Anyhow...instead of buying an expensive jig or worse yet, making one, I use my bench to hold the work. Check out the photos below to see what I'm talking about.

The router is guided by the fence and the two Bessey clamps are acting as stops.

I always want to reference the same side of the apron, in this case the outside. Note the registration mark on the bench that I use to center the apron between the stops.

No fancy fence system here - just a piece of Baltic birch hot glued to the router base. It doesn't get any simpler than that.

I've never been a huge fan of jigs. I tend to prefer making temporary work holders that are held together with hot glue and brads. In this case, the tear down was simple: remove the fence from the router and put the clamps away. It took me about three minutes to set it up and about five minute to cut all the mortises. Perfect. Nothing worse that spending more time setting up for a cut than actually making the cut. 

 All that is left is to hand plane all the surfaces, apply an oil finish and do the glue-up.

I use my machines for the grunt work which adds up to about 60% of the work. The remaining 40% gets done at the bench with hand tools. Even though building furniture is a hobby now, I still don't enjoy wasting time. For me the work is a means to an end...after all, my calling card says 'Furniture Designer/Maker' not 'User of Tools'.

V

Woodworker I am...tech savy?...it's hit or miss.

V

We started on Friday night with a two-hour glue-up session to make sure that everybody had a deck pressed up for the next day for shaping. We were using kits from Roarockit including a hand pump vacuum press system, forms and pre cut lams. I discovered these kits about a year ago and love them. The kits are a great way to get into vacuum bagging and into making skate decks at a reasonable price. Roarockit is a Canadian company operating out of Toronto, Ontario and is owned by two awesome folks - Ted and Norah. They are deep in the Canadian skate scene and have been teaching kids all around the world how build skateboards. Despite having eight glue-ups to do, we got through it without any problems...not a single swear word was uttered.

Saturday was a full day of deck shaping. Armed with block planes, rasps, files and sandpaper, the makers and their helpers worked hard to get all of their lams evened up and the bottoms preped for art and/or finish. We took a break from all the hard work to talk hardware. We looked at different types of trucks and wheels as well as bearings and different set ups for different types of skating.

Once everyone had their decks shaped, we moved on to grip tape. The makers really challenged my gripping skills by coming up with some cool designs for me to grip their decks with. I hate to brag but not one grip job needed to get redone…I'm not sayin'…I'm just sayin'.

The makers with their newly made decks - sorry for the shaky photo

All in all we all had a great time learning how to do bent laminations. It's always a lot of fun teaching a challenging technique like vacuum pressing bent lams by doing a cool project like a skateboard deck. It was also a great chance to meet some great folks, young and old, and to spread the stoke in the nations capital.

BTW ~ I composed this whole bog entry on the tiny keyboard on my HTC Desire...and boy do my thumbs hurt. The pics were done on my phone too...sorry for the shake. I also shot some video but my galoot skill set is slowing down the posting process (read - don't know how yet)

V

So what are you doing April 9^th, 2011?

Nothing?

Great!

Why don’t you join us for Woodworks 2011? Woodworks is a one-day woodworking conference that is hosted by the Ottawa Woodworkers Association. This year we have a great line-up of topics given by some great presenters. We have topics on everything from machine techniques to design to hand tools.

We also have a Tool Bazaar featuring a couple local antique tool dealers for you to check out. Come in and buy some vintage tools or just ask questions and get answers from two very knowledgeable guys.

We also have some cool prizes this year and a ‘name that wood’ competition with the winner walking away with a gift certificate from a local wood seller. There are also some early bird prizes to be given out for those who register early on the Friday prior.

Visit the OWA site to get all the deats on the conference (including the topic schedule) and come on out and spend a day immersed in woodworking. There is even talk of a pub night...nothing better than spending a day talking shop and finishing it off with a BEvERage.

It wasn't until I started reading The Saw Blog that I figured out that the solution to my problem was simple – hand saws (duh!). A coarse rip and cross cut would allow me to break out my rough lumber into more manageable pieces that my small table and band saw could handle. Now, I'm not really worried about speed in my shop because I mainly woodwork as a hobby these days ... and it would give me a chance to learn and master more hand tools. Too bad the Shakers hadn't thought of dust collection when they invented the circular saw.

My experience with saws has centered on joinery saws so I had to research my purchase of a couple of saws before I went for it. After talking to Matt from the saw blog, I decided on a pair of Disston D-8's. The rip has five TPI (teeth per inch) while the cross cut has eight TPI. Both saws are on the coarse-side and will perform well for the kind of work I have in mind for them. So off I went to Doug's Happy Tool Hovel to see how much money I could give him. The saws I bought are in great shape and remarkably sharp so I can only assume that the last owner of these saws knew what they were doing. A fellow named J. Heroux judging by the stamps found on both handles. I find it very cool that both saws I bought were owned by the same guy. You can tell that the teeth are hand-sharpened because each tooth is not perfectly shaped, yet sharp. If saws are anything like any other edge tool in woodworking - it's less about the look and more about the results that is important. I plan on learning how to hand-sharpen my saws but I'm going to practice on an old saw plate that I was keeping to use for making scratch stocks.

Both of these D-8's where made in Toronto, Canada almost 100 years ago

Despite the look of the teeth, this saw cross cuts easily and true. 

The apple handles are also in great shape but the varnish is starting wear off. Functionally this isn't a big deal but why not have these saws look their best? I'll strip the remaining varnish off of the handles and give them a few good coats of linseed oil so I will be able to feel the wood while I use the saws. I'm a big fan of oiled tool handles because I find that they have a warmth to them that you just don't get from a varnished handle.

This handle will look great once it is stripped and finished with linseed oil

So now the next step is to build a saw bench. A saw bench is simply a knee high bench that is stable and will allow you to use handsaws in a comfortable way. You can use your own body weight to secure the wood that you are sawing and your saw strokes will feel natural. Matt has more on this on his blog if you're interested in reading more on saw benches. As for my saw bench, I'll post some photos when I'm done with it.

So my circular saw gets demoted from the shop to the shed to be used the next time I have to cut 2 by's or other construction grade material. So long Skil ... you just didn't make the cut.

V

So if you are in the market for a plane or just want to learn more about hand tools, Lee Valley is going to be hosting a Veritas Plane Event at all of the retail locations across Canada this Thursday to Saturday (13-15 Jan). This is a great opportunity to test drive some tools, ask questions, and best of all – get answers.

I'll be at the Ottawa store (along with other knowledgeable staff) most of the day Thursday and Friday 9am-2pm. I'll be demonstrating Veritas tools and will be available to talk about all things hand tools.

If you have a store near you, go check things out. For more info check out this link.

Oh and did I mention that with every purchase of qualified Veritas product you will get a gift card in return? How did I leave that part out?

See you there...

V

An even cut is essential for success in the installation process

I find that I tend to support the work on sawhorses instead of my workbench because the work is usually longer than the 60" of my bench. Even if I could get the work to fit on my bench the work doesn't lend itself well to being captured between the dogs anyway. Fortunately the work is heavy enough to only require hand-holding during sawing.

Sawhorses are a better choice for supporting the work

The end result is definitely worth working with green wood. While I don't think I will be trading in my cabinet makers tools anytime soon, my Swede saw will be on the ready for my once-a-year foray into wet wood.

It's hard work but well worth the effort

Hopefully all you woodworkers will get your presents done in time for the 25th. I know I won't be in my shop this 24th wishing for elves to show up and help with the work. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you all. 

V

The other day I was installing the new Veritas quick-release tail vise onto my work bench. I’ve been waiting for an excuse to make my bench a bit smaller since I moved into my home studio a couple of years ago. After ripping the old dog hole strip off, replacing the apron and installing the vise (which only took a few hours BTW) I was left with the task of drilling the new holes for the dogs. I know what you’re thinking, why didn’t I do that before I attached everything using the drill press. At the moment my drill press is the smallest drill press offered by Mastercraft and I was fairly certain that the weight of the apron would have crushed the poor thing ... *note – buy a decent drill press.

So I chucked up a 3/4” brad point bit into my 1/2” hammer drill and started drilling the dog holes. About half way through the first hole the bit started to smoke, I mean seriously smoke. So much smoke that I had to haul the smoke detector down and beat it senseless with a scrap of ash to get it to stop warning me of the impending inferno. Now before my comment box fills up with advice, I know what the problem was – I was spinning the bit way too fast. In a drill press I would have set the speed to about 450 RPM or slower and drilled the holes without difficulty.

That not being an option at this point, I went back to old reliable – my brace and bits. I touched up the bit before I started with an auger file.

An auger file has two safe edges on one side and two safe faces on the other. This configuration of edges and faces are necessary for sharpening auger bits. I took me about two minutes and a substantial amount of elbow grease to get through each hole but in the end the job was done and as with most hand tool operations, I really felt like I got something accomplished.  To finish the holes off I used a large counter sink bit to chamfer the hole entrances to ease the installation of bench dogs and various other bench paraphernalia.

The key to balancing hand and power tools is to know when one will be more effective than the other. I could have kept going with the power drill until smoke inhalation would have been deemed my COD, or I could switch to the brace and live to use the new vise. Carrying on with the power drill probably would have taken longer in the end with time wasted letting the bit cool and having to air out the shop ... Score another one for the hand tools.

V

As I walked around the show, I noted that there weren't that many "deals" being offered by many companies. Of course Bert at Grantham Books did alright with me being there – I bought another five books from him at this show and that brings the grand total for the year to around a dozen or so. It got so bad that he started giving me a 'frequent flyer' discount. Bert carries many new and used book titles that focus mainly on woodworking but he carries books on anything from trees to birds. He has great deals on books, in some cases his prices are 75% off of the sticker price.  He knows I have a weakness for books and always seems to know what I will be interested in.

As I was saying, there weren't many great deals there but one thing I did notice is that the show organizers had stages dotted amongst the selling booths. On these stages there were many seminars being presented by experts of many different fields including contractors, woodworkers and foresters.

Personally, I think that passing on knowledge is the true 'great deal'. I've always believed that it is important to pass on my woodworking skills and it's good to see that wood shows are starting to catch on. I was fortunate to have been trained by some of the best woodworkers and designers in North America while at Rosewood Studio and I think that it's important to share that skill. People aren't exactly lining up to learn woodworking so I will pass on what I know to anyone who will listen. At the same time, I take any opportunity to learn from other designers and woodworkers. You can never stop learning or know too much.

So in the end I guess there were some good deals to be had at the show. The only bummer for me was that I couldn't attend any of them because I was busy demonstrating hand tool skills in our own booth. Although, I'm sure I will pick up many gems of information from the five new books I bought ... I guess I should be thanking Bert instead of cursing him.

- Thanks to my friend Doug Orr – antique tool dealer and superhero for busting my chops today for not blogging about the show in TO. You're right Doug ... I should write more often.