By Hammer & Hand

I recently attended the Marc Adams School Of Woodworking and attended a class taught by Chris Schwarz called By Hammer & Hand.  This class was based on a book compiled by Joel Moskowitz and Chris Schwarz called The Joiner and the Cabinetmaker.  The book consists of a reprint of and old text by the same name plus background and discussion by Joel and Chris.  In this book we follow the early career of a cabinetmaker apprentice.  The project we focused on was the second project the apprentice was allowed to build on his own, the school masters box.

Let me start with my experience at the Marc Adams School.  This was a week long class and it was a great experience.  I had never taken a woodworking class and didn't know what to expect.  If you have a little vacation time coming, it's worth the money.  Everyone at the school was very nice.  Our shop assistants that helped out were very knowledgeable and a great help.  The lady's that worked in the lunchroom put out very tasty food, not your typical cafeteria grub.  If you are considering attending for the first time, give me a shout and I can give you and idea of what to expect.

I wasn't sure how much I would get out of the class.  I thought I might not learn a whole lot but it would be a good time and fun to hang out with other woodworkers.  I knew how to dovetail, that seemed to be the greatest hurdle for this project.  I was wrong.  I did learn a few things, more importantly, I learned a little about the process.  I spent a lot of time focusing on grain direction, wood orientation, and how to use a woods natural beauty to your advantage.  I wasn't able to finish my box for a few reasons.  One was I had a difficult wood to work with and it took more time to lay out everything.  I also had to spend a lot of time in wood prep.  Most folks brought their wood already planed and ready to go.  I brought rough cut, highly figured wood that demanded some careful planning.

My box still needs the moldings and hinges.  I am looking at having a local blacksmith make the hinges and hope to have the box completed soon.  The box is made from spalted quilted maple.  Very beautiful wood.  It took a while to wrap the spalting and to really take advantage of the figure.

Chris did a great job with the class and I think we all loved our time there.  Here a quick video Chris shot of the class...

Back In Black

Back from the dead!

I am reviving the blog.  A lot has happened while I have been away.  Changed day jobs, attended Marc Adams school and took a class with Chris Schwarz, finished my workbench (well mostly), and recently have been working on my hand skills.  I'll cover a few of these things and try to get everyone caught up.  Glad to be back...

Workbench: Top Glue Up Update

I'm making some serious headway on the top glue up. Only took me about a 1 1/2 gallons of glue and a little over a week. One of the worst things about working on a bench is that you probably lack a decent place to do your work. Especially your planing work. My current workbench is a 4' Harbor Freight bench that weighs about 50 pounds soaking wet. If you look at this photo you can see what I had to do to brace up my bench so I could do some planing on part of the workbench top.

I know what your thinking..."Where can I get a set up like that." Hopefully this setup will be available for purchase in the near future. Make me an offer I can't refuse!

Making this bench top has been a work out for all my tools. Someday I'll get my dust collection pipe run to all the tools so I don't have such a mess. Believe it or not, this shop was cleaned up before starting this project. As you can see it is certainly in need of maid service...

Have you ever started a project and had a few tools that just come in so handy? I had a few tools, under-appreciated tools, that really come through for me in a pinch. In the picture below you will see a few tools on the right. Its a Sandvik scraper, Crayola sidewalk chalk, and a Do It Best square tooth spreader.

If you haven't used one of these carbide scrapers your missing out. In my opinion this is the best scraper on the market. Chalk is a fairly new concept for me in woodworking. As a kid we always used it in our upholstery shop. It just never crossed my mind that it could be useful for wood also. This is from a box of Crayola sidewalk chalk. It works wonderfully. Its large enough that it doesn't break all the time. In addition to general marking I have been known to cover a board with chalk before planing it so I can see exactly what the blade is removing. I just place the chalk on its side and mark. You can cover a board in a few seconds. It has been a help for me when learning some new hand plane techniques. Finally the flat tooth spreader. I happen to stumble on this while I was at the hardware store. This made covering the boards with glue a snap. It was messy, but it got the job done. I never had any issues with my glue trying setting up on me. I felt it might be nice to pay homage to some of the under appreciated tools in the shop.

So far this is as far as I have gotten with the top. It is still in two pieces.

The top is measuring about 26 3/4", a little more than I had planned on. I have run both pieces though the planer and I'm ready to get them joined together. A little trimming and it should resemble a bench top.

David B.

Workbench: Top Glue Up

Some of you may remember me rambling on about building a workbench a while back. Life got in the way, but I'm back on task. The details of the bench are somewhat up in the air. I think I will build a plain bench with no vices, bench holes, etc. Then I will decide what kind of hardware I will need. The bench should resemble Chris Schwarz's Roubo workbench (below).



I have started milling and gluing up the bench top. I plan on my top finishing on 2'x8'x3". I wish it was going to be a little thicker but I'm working with what I've got. I am using red oak which I hope will give quite a bit of heft to the project. I'm gluing up the top in 5 sections. Each section being about 5 1/2" wide. This way I can still run it through the joiner, if need be. I'm using #20 biscuits between the boards just to hold them in place during glue up. I am also trying Chris's Method of applying glue. It's been messy but effective. I believe the building the top will be the most stressful part of the build. Trying to get 9 foot long pieces of wood perfectly straight on a 6" joiner can wear on a person. Since I only have enough clamps to do one glue up at a time, it may be a week or two before I have something that resembles a workbench top.
I'll try and get some photo's together and post them.

David

REVIEW: Rob Cosman Video Series

Since my first dabbling in hand tools I saw a lot of references to Rob Cosman's video's. I recently had an opportunity to see what all the hub-bub was about. I'm am a connoisseur of sorts when it comes to woodworking video's. I find myself to be a visual learner. So I was quite excited to get started. The videos I have are Dovetails, Advanced Dovetails, Rough To Ready, Hand Planing, and Drawer Making I & II.

Since I have been learning to cut dovetails recently, I got started there. Rob uses a tails first method. I am a pretty avid fan of Frank Klausz's pins first approach but I am always looking for a better way of doing things. Rob also advocates the use of very small pins. This I'm not a fan of. I have a more shaker/utilitarian approach to my work. I don't think you should sacrifice strength for aesthetics. I'm not going through all the trouble to hand cut dovetails to purposely make them weaker. One thing that I did think was great is that he covered Hounds Tooth dovetails. This is something I haven't seen in other videos. Overall I found Rob's dovetailing method to be slow but deliberate. It will give you beautiful dovetails but the extra layout and tools may slow you down.

I would have to say that I wasn't a huge fan of his hand planing video's. His methods here seemed painfully slow. So slow in fact that in places they started playing music to distract you from the fact it was taking forever. I have seen several people true a board from the rough. Rob's method by far took the longest. Rob also failed to adequately explain his philosophy on hand planes. He only discussed the few hand planes that he was using in the video. Shouldn't we have at least discussed other hand planes?

The drawer making videos were not of great interest to me. First off this should have been one video. You can't walk someone halfway though creating and fitting a drawer and call that a video. Anyway, these video's are based on the idea of creating "piston fit" drawers. I feel this video over complicates the drawer making process. Again, I feel Frank Klausz described this process better. Build the drawers to fit the hole tightly. Then when you clean up you clean up your dovetails with the plane you will have a tight fitting drawer. Rob's method will work, but I found it overly complicated and as a result...slower.

Overall, I didn't find that I cared much for the video's. This isn't a reflection on Rob's skill or knowledge. I simply found that Rob overcomplicated some issues and didn't discuss others enough. I just think there are superior woodworking videos out there that cover the topics more clearly. Speed is a big issue for me also. I'm coming from a cabinetmaker's point of view. I have to be able to make money doing this.

My choice video for hand planing is still Chris Schwarz's "Coarse, Medium, Fine." My favorite for dovetails and drawer making is still Frank Klausz's "Dovetail A Drawer."

David B.

Coopering 101

This is a great video I come accross today. While parts of the video come off quite comedic the results are remarkable. After watching this guy build this bucket with minimal tools in what seems to be his mother-in-laws living room, makes me ashamed that I don't do more with the shop full of tools that I have. It reminds me that I need "a little less talk, and a lot more action."

David

Mallet Of Necessity

After coming home with my new Lie-Nielsen chisels I had a problem. I didn't have have an mallet to use with the chisels. I did a little research and found one mallet that I simply loved. It was the Blue Spruce Toolworks Mallet. I had a chance to hold one of these mallets at the Popular Woodworking open house. It felt wonderful in the hand. It had a great balance and beautiful finish. Since Tom Lie-Nielsen had all my cash, I had to come up with a low cost solution.

I built a joiner's mallet a few years ago that was made of the laminated pieces of wood. One day while using it, it broke at the glue seam. I'm not sure why it failed but I didn't want that to happen again. While cruising around the forums I saw a thread on making mallets out of fire wood. Sounded like a great idea. One thing the ice storms left plenty of this year was fire wood. So I went out and picked up a piece of wood that looked like the right size. I would probably qualify for the turning Special Olympics so try not to laugh. I turned out something that looked vaguely like a mallet. It was to big and the handle was to thick. It looked more like something you would hit a froe with rather than a chisel. Round 2...I got another piece of wood and got to work. This mallet shaped up to be very nice. It had about the right weight and handle was comfortable. I decided this one would work fine. I put it in a cup of linseed oil. Letting one end soak for a day or two, then the other end. I tried to keep the whole mallet wet. I ended up with a nice usable mallet. Not exactly a work of art, but it chops out those dovetails all the same. I'm pretty sure the wood was from a fallen limb from a Hackleberry tree in my yard. I was surprised how tough this little mallet is. I have given it some pretty good smacks. The only evidence is some very light flat spots. You can see the flats. They are so light you have to feel for them. Another nice addition to the tool chest.

David B.