The Renaissance Woodworker

I’m back from another trip down to Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia. The Liberty passes we bought last October have definitely paid for themselves since this is our 3rd trip down there. For a woodworker this is a great place to go. For a woodworker like me who is fascinated by history and proud of my American forefathers, this is like Disneyland! This time around was a little different. The weather was glorious with sun and upper 60 degree weather. It was the last week before the official season begins so the crowds were low and the interpreters were warming up their presentations for the bustling masses that will descend in the coming months. This meant that we were fortunate to get the “extra” bits of history that they normally don’t have time to tell you. The house tours that normally run 15-20 minutes during peak season can sometimes run 45+ minutes when there isn’t a line forming outside.

This means that I got to spend a lot of time in colonial interiors and up close and personal with southern Queen Anne or “Neat and Plain” furniture. I particularly recommend the Peyton Randolph and Everard houses for a look at fine furniture of the Virginian Gentry. Another great spot is the newly opened Charlton’s Coffeehouse where you can sample coffee or chocolate and get to see and use some more common furniture.

And don’t forget the DeWitt Wallace museum. This is like Winterthur south of the Mason Dixon line, where you can really get a look at southern furniture.

I also got to chat with the historic tradespeople extensively. Over the next few weeks I will be putting up individual posting on the woodworking related trades practiced in Williamsburg. I also will be heading back for a full week in early June once school lets out for my wife and will have an opportunity to ask more questions put forth by any of you who follow this blog.

In the meantime, I urge you to head over the Williamsburg website where you will find a bounty of information. This is an organization that has ironically embraced 21st century multimedia marketing and has well over 300 podcasts in audio, video, and enhanced formats. Pay particularly close attention to the episodes on the historic trades and you will learn a lot about cabinetmaking, brickmaking, wheelwrighting, coopering, joinery, etc, etc. There are also several trade slide shows and videos that contain great pictures of the tools and processes for each trade.

The motto in Williamsburg is “that the future may learn from the past” and it is indeed a noble pursuit. Regardless of our woodworking passion, there is so much to see and learn from this trip and you cannot but be proud and impressed with our founders and what they have wrought. You may be surprised at just how little things have changed in 250 odd years politically and socially.

The sights are beautiful to take in and you can easily get lost in the moment and be transported back to the last half of the 18th century. Most of the trades still practice the apprentice system and this is run by the Historic Trades department. Apprentices are taken on for 7 year contracts and in almost every case the folks I spoke with had little to no knowledge of their craft when they started their apprenticeship. Many of them either joined the foundation as an apprentice or had spent time working as a tour guide or retail shop worker before making the leap into a lifelong pursuit. This was inspiring to see and the extremely low turnover in the employee ranks is a testament to the experience each of these tradesmen live. I must admit that my thoughts are turning to making my relationship with Williamsburg more of a professional one and you can believe that I will keep my eyes open on this apprentice program and will be the first in line should something come available. Anybody want to put in a good word for me?

As a parting thought, the woodworking world seems to have gained an interest in design lately. This is largely driven by the intelligence of fellow SAPFM member George Walker. For those of you who follow his column and blog you will appreciate the proportional ecstasy provided by this structure.

Can you tell I really like this place???

The piece I’m dubbing my Studio Table was the first project I have completed with my Roubo workbench completely finished. After investing so much time in building this bench it was a very affirming experience to build a piece of furniture using my newest and easily most valuable tool.

Granted this little Stickley table hardly taxes the hand tool woodworker with work holding problems and complex joinery but to me what was most rewarding was the simple fact that I didn’t think once about how I was going to hold something for an operation. It all just happened.

When milling the stock I was faced with edge planing, face planing, twisted boards, and out of square ends. The stock just flowed across the bench from end vise and dogs to leg vise to bench top without a thought about how I would accomplish something. On top of that during all of this work, the bench stayed complete immobile. I might as well have been working directly on my concrete floor.

During joinery, I had to cut half blind dovetails, mortise and tenons, and half laps. My chisels sang and shoulder planes hummed. My sawed cut straight and true. Not once did a cut go a foul because of a shifting work piece.

During assembly and glue up the bench was my rock. Flat, never moving, and spacious enough for all my parts, glue, and accessories.

The top is solid, the vises strong, fast, and efficient. I never once stopped working to set up a jig or an operation. This is what our workbenches are supposed to do: allow us to focus completely on our work piece and assist us in our work. In essence I have spent a great deal of time to make a tool that is so effective as to be completely invisible.

Strange praise, but high praise indeed. This past weekend I spent time in Colonial Williamsburg. I chatted extensively with Joiners, Cabinetmakers, Coopers, and Wheelwrights. I saw a different style of bench in every shop I visited. I saw different ways of using those benches too. What I never saw was a craftsman stop his work to set up a tool or secure a piece for chiseling, sawing, shaving, etc. With such a variety of work being done it seems sensible that there would be a variety of workbenches to be seen, and this was certainly the case. What is common between the Cabinetmaker’s bench and the Cooper’s shavehorse is that the tool is suited for the work at hand. I think you would see a lot of standing around and scratching of heads if the Cabinetmaker was trying to build a side chair at a shavehorse, and likewise that Cooper would really be slowed down tapering and bending staves while at the Nicholson bench.

So have I uncovered the holy grail of benches with my Roubo? Not at all. But I did think about the type of work I do and how I do it when I designed the bench at the outset. I listed the tasks that I would go through in a typical piece of furniture and began listing next to it all the ways I would hold the work. From there it was simply a matter of determining which methods had the most overlap and adding them to the bench.

Long story short, I could not be happier with my workbench. Now I’m ready to stop talking about it and just let it disappear and do it’s job. There are masterpieces to be made!!

I spent so much time building and perfecting my Roubo workbench that it seemed only fitting that I retire my cobbled together shooting board and bench hook for newer, smarter, and faster models. In the digital age we are blessed with a plethora of information when you embark on a new project. In this case it was more curse than blessing. The sheer volume of great data on bench hooks and shooting boards is astounding. Hardwood, softwood, or plywood? Length, width? Fence height, fence material? Jeesh so many opinions and so much talking about what are supposed to be simple appliances.

I guess I shouldn’t really complain because I am one the masses contributing content and opinions to the whirlpool. I just didn’t want to spend a bunch of time considering how to make them when I had some high quality scrap baltic birch ply sitting in the corner of the shop. It’s flat and already cut in sizes that make sense.

I made two hooks, a low profile and a miter hook. Both are sized to accommodate the average work I would be doing.

The low profile hook has a fence that is only 1/4″ tall and I will be using it for small parts work. This is a quick way to plane small parts by butting them up against the fence and still being able to plane across them. I made the bed of the hook 12″ wide and 18″ long to give me plenty of space the work. I may end up using it as a backer board when chopping dovetails too.

The miter hook is really just a normal bench hook but I made the fence 1.5″ tall and cut two 45 degree and one 90 degree kerf in it. I also stopped the fence short of the left side of the hook to allow cutting there too. With the taller fence I can register a back saw in the kerf and make very accurate cuts. Like the low profile hook the fence is attached to the base using Miller dowels.

Finally I made a new shooting board. My old board was no longer flat and I can never get the fence right. I had screwed the fence in place and with years of unscrewing and screwing the holes don’t keep the fence steady. So here I made the shooting platform out of 1/2″ ply set on 3/4″ ply for the chute. I can shoot wider stock now as more of the plane blade is exposed. The board is 18 by 15 with plane chutes on either side of the board. I am a lefty but my Philly skew miter is made for right handed use. (my oversight, I should have told Philly my gaucheness) No matter and it is still easy to use and works like a dream. I added the left hand chute in case I wanted to square up another end of the board and could keep my same 2 reference faces against the fence. Thanks for the tip Bob Rozaieski!

The fence is hard maple and it is attached to threaded inserts in the base. I drilled over sized holes in the fence so that I can adjust the fence to keep it square.

In use the board works great. I was a little concerned that the fence might shift but so far it is rock solid. I guess if it becomes a problem I can add some sandpaper to the bottom.

So those are my new appliances and I have already gotten a lot of use out of them since I started my end table for The Wood Whisperer Guild Build. I’m sure you will be seeing these boards a lot in the future.

We have the full year Patriot pass so why not take advantage of it and scheduled another trip down to Williamsburg for this weekend. It is spring break for my wife so I am taking a few days off so we can get out of town. I feel continually blessed to live in the mid Atlantic in such close proximity to historical wonders like this and remain committed actually taking advantage of it.

This trip we are hoping to spend a litte more time in the DeWitt Wallace museum up close and personal with some incredible 18th century southern furniture. There are regular furniture tours taking place and I hope to catch one of them. The weather is expected to be warm and nice so we are both looking forward to strolling up and down Duke of Gloucester street and just relaxing. I am also curious to check out the new coffee shop Charleston’s since that last time I was there the Carpenters had just raised the roof.

Of course no trip would be complete without a stop into the Cabinetmaker, Cooper, and Carpenter shops. So my dear readers, please tell me what you would like to know about the 18th century cabinetmaker and joiner. I have plans to spend some time talking with these fine folks and I would love to be armed with questions from you all. Submit a comment here or send me an email at shannon@rogersfinewoodworking.com and I will do my best to get your questions answered.

I would estimate that I am doing 85-90% of my work with hand tools these days. Because of that I am constantly looking for better lighting so I can truly see my work. Lately I haven’t even been turning on my over head fluorescent lights instead favoring to turn on the incandescent work light right over the bench. I point the light at the white ceiling and work with only the reflected light. Sometimes, I’ll turn the bulb right on the work for a spotlight effect. It is really amazing how little light you need to woodwork, and I can’t help but think of my forefathers in the cabinet shops working in the waning light of day.

I can’t really put my finger on it, but there is something very calming about working in a semi dark shop. It feels more intimate and just feels wrong to be making a lot of noise like I might wake up someone so it seems that this low lighting actually lends itself to hand work. The weather is still a bit too cold for me to open my garage door and the two windows I do have shed some natural light on things but not quite enough; hence the incandescent task lights.

All of this preamble leads up to an experience from this weekend. I was working in my shop most of the day on my Wood Whisperer Guild build table with only this one light on over the bench. I continued to work until just before the sun went down when I took a break to walk the dog. That led to dinner and a few other things in the house and I was not able to get back down to the shop until it was fully dark outside. As I walked through the door into the shop I was greeted by this sight:

Behold my shrine to hand tool woodworking! How can you not be inspired to produce your best work when confronted with this setting!

I have been using a Veritas bevel up smoother for a few years now with no complaints. The stock 25 degree blade was great but I switched over to a 38 degree for a combined 50 degree “York” pitch after a while and dedicated this plane to tough grain situations. I have a refurbished Stanley #4 that I used for everyday smoothing stuff, but as soon as I run into anything figured or with reversing grain I turn to my Veritas.

I just celebrated by 35th birthday this week and my lovely wife gave me a new 50 degree bevel replacement blade for the Veritas. This was something I was interested in trying ever since trying out some of the really premium planes like Brese and Sauer & Steiner while at Woodworking In America last year. These premium tools have their irons bedded at 55, 60, or sometimes higher for that tearout free cut. With this new 50 degree blade bedded bevel up at 12 degrees I now have a smoother set at 62 degrees.

A very little bit of honing and polishing of the primary and micro bevels and the iron was ready to work. I had just finished up a miter bench hook where I crafted the fence out of a scrap piece of maple turning stock that was 1.75″ thick. This particular piece was cut off a highly figured larger piece so while not heavily figured it had some curly grain nonetheless. I had secured the fence and cut the two 45 degree slots and a 90 degree slot. I secured the fence to the hook using glue and Miller dowels so while flushing the pegs to the surface I really began to uncover the wicked grain beneath. This was the perfect test for my new “premium” smoothing plane.

Schnick, schnick, schnick and with three short passes the pegs were flush with nary a torn grain and beautifully glowing curly maple appearing as if from no where. I immediately turned to the other bench hook I have just created. This one I call my low profile hook because the fence is only 1/4″ high and it is meant for working with small pieces. The fence was crafted from left over Bubinga that was already planed to 1/4″ thick. This stock has wicked hard grain with early and late growth rings intertwining throughout. The wood is hard and unforgiving. I had already planed the pegs flush using my old smoothing set up of 50 degrees and it smoothed it but left some tearout in the expected places. I ignored it because…well…it’s a bench appliance. Flush with success using my new 62 degree setup on the other hook I tried to tackle the beastly Bubinga.

Schnick, schnick, schnnnniiiick again and…WOW! What a difference 12 degrees makes!

So here is the final work holding touch to this workbench. Really an accessory to help with wide panels or edge work on long boards, but something that is indispensable when those needs arise. Much of the work is the same as the leg vise except for the sliding mechanism which I detail in this episode. Finally I apply leather to the jaws for that little bit of extra holding power. Enjoy!

I added a new toy to the tool cabinet this weekend. An Iwasaki Carving File purchased during the big Woodcraft sale. These files are extremely sharp as they have been chemically etched. Their diagonal tooth pattern cuts much like a plane would cut including a form of tiny chip breaker which actually clears the chips from the file and prevents clogging.

I chose the medium cut, round file since most of the time I reach for a file is when trying to refine a curved surface. The edges are safe so that you can cut right up into a corner which I really like when trying to clean up a sharp corner.

My first impressions are that this file cuts really smoothly and just glides across the wood. I grabbed a scrap of hard maple to put the file to the test and before I knew it I was pulling long curly shavings off the wood with little effort. The stock removal was really fast and still left a clean surface that wouldn’t take much to clean up.

I am really impressed with how easily and quickly these files work and I am anxious to try out the fine and extra fine versions to see how clean they leave the stock. The file I currently own will be invaluable for rough shaping and I imagine I could knock out some cabriole legs pretty quickly with it.

The concerns I have at this point is how durable the teeth are over time. At around $30 a piece they are not super expensive but not throw away either. I’ll have to report back on that in time. For now I have some cool shavings to make with my new file.

Here in the US we tend to be a little ethnocentric. Call it American swagger, call it geographic isolation but we often forget that things are different elsewhere in this big world. So it is nice every once in a while to be shaken out of our preconceptions.

Last weekend I made a trip up to Hearne Hardwoods to pick up some 12/4 Walnut for the table I am building for The Wood Whisperer March Guild build. While the Hearne folks were tallying my total I noticed this column that looks like it came off some kind of temple. It was broken at the bottom so it looked like it was just snapped off in demolition. It is elegantly shaped and faceted and I can imagine that the structure it once adorned was a thing to behold. The curves evoke something from Asia and once I looked closer that was confirmed when I realized that the entire column was made from solid East Indian Rosewood!

…Paradigm shifted…

Just because it is exotic and hoarded in tiny parts for pen turning and the like here doesn’t mean that it couldn’t be someone else’s 2×4 construction lumber somewhere else in the world where Rosewood grows naturally.

Suddenly this digitally small world just got a whole lot bigger.

It’s time for another hand tool tip. You have crosscut that board and now you notice it isn’t square or parallel to the opposite end. Yes you can use a shooting board to fix it, but this gets hard with larger boards. A shooting board is really just a jig that makes a fundamental skill easier. Isn’t it best to learn that fundamental before relying too much on the jig? Let’s show you how to do it the real way without the “crutch”

Click To Play