Hand Tools

My best selling oud strings are Aquila, made my Mimmo Peruffo and company at Aquila Corde Armoniche in Vicenza in Northern Italy. The Italians know a thing or two about making strings for musical instruments. As you'll hear in the video, most of the strings you buy, whether they be LaBella, D'Adarrio, Pirastro, originated in the same town in Italy. Also note the historical string engravings and plates from past centuries. Neat!

Mimmo also makes gut strings. I do not sell these, since they are quite expensive. But they are, without question, the best-sounding strings I've ever used. If you've never tried gut strings before, I suggest you try out a set.



In this video Mimmo shows the process for making Nylgut, the synthetic gut strings that Aquila is famous for.



Here Mimmo shows the beginning steps of how real gut strings are made.

I procrastinate. Always have done, always will do. I put off those slightly irksome or difficult jobs 'till I'm in the right mood or have the mojo to do something. The preceding days were no exception 'cos I'd been delaying sawing the veneers for the media unit...I'd had the new blades for a couple of weeks, but you know what...I just didn't want to do it.

Until today.

The grey, dismal rain clouds of yesterday had gone and it was a lovely, sunny Spring day...just right for sawing up veneers.

I'd already prepared all the material as can be seen in the pic...the big lumps at the back were the pieces in question being about 1.4m long and 100mm wide, so you can see that I approached the task with a little trepidation on my little bandsaw!

Having had a recent enlightenment regarding my 'digital' well-being, the cynical amongst you will no doubt note with some profound glee the use of suitable push-sticks on the bandsaw....this was to set up the thickness on test piece against the re-saw fence.














It took about thirty minutes to get the 'set' absolutely spot on (which was having 2mm veneers cut true and straight) but having got everything 'just right' and taking a deep breath, I started to cut the main pieces of oak. To my surprise, it all went very well and an hour later...




















I was left with a rather nice fanfold display of 2mm thick oak slices...and one blunt bandsaw blade!

Today’s episode is being posted a day earlier than normal, but with good reason. I wanted to give everyone a chance to clear their schedules for the next Live Wood Talk Online, which will be Monday March 23rd, 2010 at 9PM ET. If you can make your way over to www.thewoodwhisperer.com/live join us in the chat room for all the fun of a live show.

A few other announcements on today’s episode include a chance to win your share of the $10,000 in tools and accessories from Festool and Fine Home Building Magazine. For more information about this contest visit Festool/FineHomeBuilding Giveaway.

Todd Clippinger of www.americancraftsmanworkshop.com sent us a heads up on a limited time offer by Scott Morrison of www.finewoodworker.com. Scott’s offering a 15% discount on his “Building a Maloof Style Furniture” DVDs, templates and Buterfly joint kit. More details are in the show.

April 9-10, the Lie-Nielsen Toolworks Show will be stopping in Chicago for a visit at Jeff Miller’s studio. I’m planning on being there on Saturday the 10th, hope you can make it! It’s a great opportunity to get real hands on experience with their whole lineup.

And last but not least, although totally forgotten in the show, Hendrik is back in April and we’re looking for your questions. Do you have questions about wood selection, wood movement, etc? Submit them before April 5th!

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Length: 25 1/2” (measured at teeth). PPI: 5 1/2 (graduated). Tapered saw plate (0.035” at teeth, 0.025” at top, tapers about 0.005” toe to tail). Handle wood: Madrone (I think). Finish: Minwax gloss Polyurethane (infused under vacuum then top coated).

The saw plate seems like a pretty nice chunk of steel, it tapers from about 0.035” at the teeth to 0.025” at the top and also tapers from toe to tail (about 0.005”). It has graduated teeth and is stamped at 5 1/2. The hook angle looks to be about 0º. I kept those numbers when I sharpened it.
So how does it cut? Well, this ain’t no girlie man saw but I’m not a he man saw stud; I find it really hard to use on hard wood, those big teeth and aggressive rake tend to grab and the thin plate does not like that and bends. It is probably my lack of technique but it isn’t fun. On soft woods, once it gets started (which can be a PITA), it flies. I might change the rake to 4º and see if that mellows it out. However it does cut straight and there isn’t much blow out on hardwood (lots of blow out on soft woods).

Here is the front and back of a piece of Elm I drew lines on and cut (my hard wood test case):

      

Oh yeah, I do think the hang angle is on the high side.

I have been testing  Ecopoxy as an adhesive. They are not marketing it as an adhesive, but I think they really should. I love this stuff.
Here is a fairly wicked test of a glue. any glue you choose to name.

This nice jagged chip is about to be glued.

To this chair leg.

I waxed my clamp first so it wouldn’t become part of the chair leg, and then I smeared the epoxy.

The resin component of the ecopoxy had  crystals in the bottom, kind of like the crystals that will form in honey.  I crunched them up with a Popsicle stick and stirred them in.  I was a bit nervous, with this, but a test is a test.  It stirred up a bit cloudy, but as you can see, after adding the catalyst the glue became transparent with no evidence of cloudiness.

The epoxy was not thick, so it went into the pores and gaps without too much work. The setting time is quite long, so I was able to paint both surfaces quite well, join then and even dabble a bit more in to fill holes. There was no smell at all. I also painted a bit onto the surface of my worktable, where it was a bit lower than the rest of the table. An odd sort of fix and test. My worktable is juniper, so I managed to do a test of Ecopoxy on a fairly acid wood as well.

As another rather vicious test, I added five new mallets to my mallet collection.

Mallets tend to get a bit of impact, so using a glue to make a mallet is cruel. Osage has a bit of oil to it, so it is also a rather cruel test. Using Aluminum Bronze, and joining it to osage is rather going over the top as far as pushing a glue. I also used some ash, since that is kind of expected as a handle and will work as a comparison if the rest fails.

So far the chair and the mallets are all holding up fine. I have not gone easy on them either.

I have to say this is a very good glue, long setting time, rugged finish, unlimited shelf life, forgiving mixing ratio, no smell to speak of, and it  takes weight and impact well.  When you throw in that it is food safe, and marine grade water proof, this stuff is a hands down winner.     I have quite a few other tests about, but it will take a bit of time before I can say how well they have held up.  The chair and the mallets are the sort of thing that I have seen other glues immediately fail from.

Bob

If you have read much of this blog, or listened to me or Alexander at any length, eventually you hear us come around to Moxon.  For those who are not familiar with his name, Joseph Moxon (1627-1691) was a printer in London, and in the last quarter of the seventeenth century he wrote a book called Mechanick Exercises, or the Doctrine of Handyworks. Chapters covered include joinery, turning, carpentry, as well as blacksmithing, “bricklayery” and Mechanick Dyalling (the making of a sun-dial).

 

Moxon won’t teach you how to build a piece of joined furniture; but he illustrates and discusses the tools necessary for the work, and describes the techniques of making a mortise and tenon joint, how to plane the stock, etc. The book has been out of print again for the past few years; after going thru several reprints in the 2nd half of the 20th century.

Now Gary Roberts of Dedham, MA has brought it back again, in a facsimile edition. About a year or so ago, Gary released a CD version; I got that too, then when the book came along recently, I grabbed that as well. I already have a couple of editions (modern ones, not antiques!) and Alexander has others I don’t have. But better to have too many, than not enough. It’s not like there’s a lot of 17th c books on the subject.

If you don’t have a copy, bop over to Gary’s site & get one. cheap and clean. If you have one, maybe you need a shop copy in addition to a shelf copy.

http://shop.toolemera.com/shopmechanickexer.html

(all that disclaimer stuff – I have never met Gary, tho we have exchanged some emails. I have no interest in this gig, and I paid for my copies…so there. If it stunk, I would have said little or nothing. It’s worth getting.)

If you have Schwarz’ version of Moxon, http://www.lostartpress.com/product/da5ef04d-4805-4b1e-aed4-9bfc84c19591.aspx  you still need this one, that one is only the chapter on joinery.

I added some leather to my leg vise, and to my dogs. I can tell that the gripping power is much improved. I also built a new shooting board. It is more robust, and has a low friction plastic strip screwed to it so the plane's side will slide smoother. And lastly, I cut off part of my wagon vise hand crank because I was tired of it protruding above the bench top. That's all for now, I have to figure out what to do with all of this leftover leather.

The Mastercrafts TV programs have generated tremendous interest in traditional crafts and highlighted the dedication required to learn the skills. What comes next? another series? we hope so. An end of show mastercrafts party? well sort of.

The Heritage Crafts Association have been working hard to raise the profile of these crafts and bring all the crafts together to campaign for better support and work out ways of keeping the crafts alive and flourishing in the future.

Next Tuesday at the V&A in London things come together. The HCA are holding a forum and press launch event and most of the Mastercrafts mentors are coming along with members of the production team and the book publishers. There will be editors from Crafts magazine, Craft and Design, Country Life, and Jon Henly from the Guardian amongst other journalists who write on crafts. 

At the morning Forum we have representatives of a wide range of crafts organisations from the Basketmakers and Pole lathe Turners to the Craft Potters, Calligraphers, Woodcarvers, Feltmakers, Lacemakers, Upholsterers, Weavers Spinners and Dyers, Artist Blacksmiths and many more. These folk will discuss what we feel is important about traditional crafts and why they should be promoted, we'll discuss what the issues are that face the traditional crafts today and find out if they are the same for all of us or differ across our different areas and finally we will look at how we can work together to ensure the best traditional craft skills survive and flourish in the future.

In the afternoon we have the official press launch with working craftspeople showing off their skills to invited guests including politicians from the Lords and Commons, Craft consultants from funding agencies and trusts, directors of Crafts Council, Craft NI and Craft Scotland amongst many others.

So what will come of all this? What is the aim of the day?

Well it's difficult to say really, we do not want to preempt or impose our ideas on the outcomes of the forum. We will be as interested in listening to what all these crafts have to say. We suspect there are common issues and we hope that there is a feeling that we are all in this together and can work together to share the best of what we do and pass it on to the next generation.

We are very sorry that since the forum is being funded primarily from the committees own donations it has had to have a strict limit on numbers.  We wish many more of our supporters could have been there and we hope to run a larger more inclusive event not too far in the future.

The other exciting news of the day is that we will be launching our friends scheme. Our supporters will now be able to take a more active role in the organisation but signing up as a friend and paying a small annual sub of £12 folk will be able to help us take the work of the HCA on to the next stage. We will not spend this money on expensive membership packages and we will not be spending much time and money actively recruiting. Rather we hope word will spread as it has done so far by word of mouth, we wish to return I guess to the original idea of charities where folk join and give money because they believe in the good cause rather than for the attractive membership package. Friends will all get a vote at the AGM of course and priority invitations to  future events. If you have been waiting to be more involved I am afraid you have to wait just a little while longer. The friends page will go live on the HCA website on Tuesday.

I like William Pain, as some previous posts have intimated. Usually I can't afford William Pain. Once in awhile the Fates look my way (although some people have surmised that a Fate looking your way is not a good thing) and Mr. Pain finds his way to my bookshelves. Twice this has happened. Not thrice, but twice. Mr. Pain was quite the 18th Century writer: William Pain (c.1730–c.1790) The Builder's Companion and Workman's General Assistant (1758) The Builder's Pocket Treasure: or, Palladio Delineated and Explained (1763) The Practical Builder (1774) The Carpenter's and Joiner's Repository (1778) The Builder's Golden Rule...

Der kleine Fuchsschwanz entwickelt sich: Klaus hat mir den Grif geschickt, damit ich die Zähne testen kann.


Subtitles:

Klaus send me the handle. Now I can finish the saw sharpening.

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???

Have you seen this man?

We chose the dividers from Moxon, our first publication, as our corporate symbol.  I say corporate as a joke because if you know us you know we are hardly corporate.  Our lofty goals for Lost Art Press are to publish information that other companies won't and to make enough money to support our tool and alcohol purchases which by the way, are substantial.

Anyway, I wanted to refer you to a podcast that I have found called The Logan Cabinet Shoppe.  The purveyor of this blog is Bob Rozaieski.  He is a Sith from the dark side of woodworking i.e. hand tool only guy.  On his site he has put a video chronicle of the building a porringer top tea table.  If you go to Quick tip #4, you get to see how he designed the tea table using proportions based on column orders.  The entire design starts with the height of the table which was restricted to fit a particular space in his house.  From this known limitation he then designs the remainder of the piece using only dividers, to include determining the curves of the cabriole legs.  The video is done in a clear color coded manner and is easy to understand.

I wanted to thank Bob for taking the time to put this information out there for us and let others know about this great video podcast.  In case you want to know what a hand tool only Sith looks like, here is a picture of Bob from his site.

Regards
John

I have a good friend whose has spent a lifetime collecting arrowheads. He’s got scores of display cases with wonderfully colored flint tools, and many more boxes of broken cutting tools, stone hammers, axes, and various tools for grinding corn. Here’s a nugget of wisdom. Don’t be too quick to volunteer to help an arrowhead collector move. Anyone, whose collection is primarily made of stone, makes for a lot of heavy lifting. What never ceases to amaze me is how humans were able to take the most basic simple materials and create wonderful and useful objects. This brings me to my favorite woodworking tool, the lowly dividers. What could be simpler? A pair of pointed sticks joined at a fulcrum. No wires, chips, servo motors or sensors. Yet for centuries this simple tool was fundamental to science, art, and building (including crafting furniture).

I was pretty excited when the folks from Popular Woodworking Magazine contacted me about the upcoming Woodworking in America Conference this Oct 1st – 3rd in Cincinnati Ohio. Chris Schwarz wondered if I could put together a session on using dividers in the woodshop. Shazam! That sounds like fun. I’ve got more than a few tricks up my sleeve about how to use dividers to make quick and accurate (math free) layouts at your workbench. Most exciting of all is I plan on assembling some material to help you visualize how to “think proportionally”. After all, what makes dividers really powerful is they can be used to collect data, but not the kind of data we are used to. We are used to collecting numbers with a tape or digital calipers that help us comply with a plan or specifications. Dividers help us collect and manipulate proportions. How is this door frame in proportion to the raised panel? How is the thickest part of this leg proportioned to the thinnest and to the overall height? If sharpening is the touchstone for unlocking hand tool skills, using dividers i.e. thinking proportionally is the key to design.

George R. Walker

I dislike the look of saw screws that sit on the surface of the wood, so they need to be inset. Which isn’t all that easy if you try to do it with Forstner and regular bits (drill a small (1/16”) pilot, counter sink both sides, then drill out to screw diameters). One of the blogs on back saws mentioned using a piloted counter bore, these are usually for metal so I was all over it. It consists of two parts: the counter bore (sorta like a end mill in that it bores a flat bottomed hole) and the pilot, which has two diameters: one that fits in the pilot hole to center the counter bore and the shank that fits inside the counter bore itself. The counter bore I use is 7/16” and a 3/16” pilot with 5/32” shank.
Using the saw plate as a template, I drill (use a drill press with a depth stop!) a 3/16” hole at each plate hole (3/16” because it is close to the body drill for a #10 screw (which is a #11 drill, 0.1875” vs 0.1910”) and you can get a 3/16” pilot), then counter bore each side. I use 7/16” because that is the size of Lee Valley counter sink washers. I make the T nuts out of brass rod with a 1/4” shank so I have to drill out one side from 3/16” to 1/4”. I usually screw this up (need another counter bore!) but not too badly so it works OK (if not, I just drill out to 17/64”).

               

Well I caught up with the weaving episode last night, very interesting and different again. It was good to see Monty getting to grips with a subject he knew nothing about, I learnt a lot too.If you missed it you can catch up on iplayer here

I would have liked to see more different aspects of the craft, to visit some yarn producers or some folk that did natural dying or spinning. To see the industrial processes Margo designs for would have been interesting too, I really enjoyed seeing the blown plate glass made in the glass episode, large scale production can be interesting as well as small scale handmade. I would have loved to see a Harris tweed weaver.

Having said all that I loved the show, I got completely drawn in to the emotional side of it as no doubt many less craft obsessed viewers would do. The finished fabrics were glorious and astonishing to have been made in such a short time. Were the final pieces judged as art or craft or design? It has been interesting to see the variety of judges and the way they have set their own differing criteria, some attempting some sort of objectivity, whilst others respond completely intuitively and subjectively to the pieces that speak to them. Some have rated function and technique most highly (will this roof let water in?, are these joints tight?) whilst our Arts council and Weavers guild ladies clearly wanted to see something innovative that they had not seen before. I guess this tells us something about the various crafts and what is viewed as important in those fields at the current time.

Looking forward to stone, Andy has taught both of my kids stone carving and he is fun, patient and I suspect it will be a great episode to finish on.

For folk who are interested to learn more or try their hand at weaving the Association of Guilds of weavers spinners and dyers is a great place to start with many active local groups around the country. http://www.wsd.org.uk/guilds.htm

Feel free to add links to other useful or interesting weaving sites in the comments below. I'll add a plug for my friend Anna Champeney who runs weaving and natural dying couses from her idyllic home in Northern Spain, she has an interesting blog too.
 http://www.casa-dos-artesans.com/courses08.html

http://www.textilesnaturales.com/

Hi all,

Not sure why, but I wanted to let you know what’s going on around here.

Dad-in-law is still decidedly unwell, but has picked up quite a bit. Unfortunately he isn’t eating anything but pudding because his saliva has dried up. If we can get that sorted, he can eat and should make some big strides ahead. It won’t change in inevitable, but we will have him for a while longer and in reasonably good health.

Here’s hoping…

The store is bopping along nicely. Never as busy as I would like, but busy enough to keep us happy. In the last month things have been off the charts, so I could complain but there would be no reason to do so. Always growing is a good thing.

Some of you may have noticed that I have mentioned something about things ‘changing’ in April, and that is true. There will be some significant changes come April (2 weeks now) due to our home situation, and it’s because our two children, Tom and Koko are starting ’school’.

Here in Japan, you have three choices when your kids are young, look after them yourself, shuffle them off to daycare or send them off to kindergarten when they hit 3 years old if your chosen kindergarten will accept 3 year olds AND you can get in.

Sounds simple enough, but it is nothing of the sort.

Good kindergartens are in short supply. There are the ’state’ kindergartens that there are not many of (one per ‘town’ maximum, read that as suburb) and will take and teach your kids from 9AM to 2:30PM or thereabouts. No different to school really.

Then there are private kindergartens that will take your kids and teach them, but they often have a bit of daycare involved so they will take younger kids and look after them from 8AM to 6PM if you need it.

Looking after them yourself needs no introduction, and very often it’s grandma and grandpa doing that job if mum and dad need to work.

Daycare is just that, you drop the kids off in the morning and pick them up later. Good daycare is easy to find, but very VERY difficult to get into. You need to pass an interview, have a genuine need to have your kids looked after, be able to pay for it and all the rest of it. Not everyone can get their kids into daycare.

(And the government wonders why folks are not having kids. It’s because it’s a right PITA to have kids if you need to work for a living! Especially around here)

The interview is about mum and dad, and the kids. Do they give off the right kind of ‘vibes’ and will there be problems. What is the financial situation in the household? Kinda personal really, but understandable. The daycare doesn’t want any trouble because of unreasonable parents. Because they are predominantly private institutions, they can afford to be selective, and they always are.

Genuine need is just that. Why can’t the parents look after the kids? Dad goes to work, mum stays home (or vice versa). Mum wants to work? Why? Does dad not make enough money? Is Mum really needed at her work? Just because mum ‘has a job’ doesn’t mean squat, she needs to be working full time, and in these times, a real, proper full time job isn’t a common thing.

Why can’t grandma and grandma look after the kid(s)? Who else can look after them while the parents work? If grandma is not too old and in good health, that’s enough to be refused daycare. Even if grandpa is still working…

(And the government wonders why folks are not having kids. It’s because it’s a right PITA to have kids if you need to work for a living! Needs repeating!)

What about the money? Do BOTH parents need to be working? If one makes enough money (in their opinion) to pay all the bills, the other parent doesn’t need to work and you don’t need daycare. If mum or dad has a ’special’ occupation of some kind, then the money matters less but if you make lots of cash, then be prepared to part with heaps of it for daycare too.

(And the government wonders why folks are not having kids. It’s because it’s a right PITA to have kids if you need to work for a living! They won’t listen, but I’ll keep shouting it anyway!)

So, here are some examples I am aware of.

Dad works full time. Mum gets a job 9AM to 3:30PM as a school librarian. Grandma does not work, grandpa does. They don’t have a lot of money coming in, but they are comfortable.

No day care for you, and no kindergarten until the kid turns 3, if you are lucky.

Dad works full time for a family business. Mum works part time for the same business. Grandma is over 60, grandpa has passed away. 2 kids, under 4. Business is good and there is plenty of money. You get day care until they ask ‘why is mum working part time’? Daycare is pulled, but mum starts going to work full time, daycare is approved and all is good except that they can buy a car with what they are paying per year.

Dad works full time, and then some. Is a university researcher. Mum has a special job with unique skills. Baby comes along and throws a spanner in the works. Grandparents are far away, and mum is being pestered to get back to work. Money is not a problem at all. Baby gets into daycare, no eyelids batted but they end up coughing up a large house payment worth of cash for the privilege.

Now take our situation.

Dad works sometimes, but gets paid very well for the time he works. (English teacher, hourly rate is impressive but not too many hours) Is pushing another time hungry business in an effort to improve the situation, but that takes a lot of time and the monetary return is slow in coming.

Mum takes a full time job, 9-5 to help make ends meet. Again, the money is not great but the job is very flexible and forgiving.

Grandma is in great shape, but grandpa is ill (see above) and due to the medical system here, grandma spends a lot of time looking after grandpa. She has looked after the kids, and it’s just too much for her.

Two kids, 2 and 3 years old, which makes getting a place in daycare more difficult by a factor of 4 because they have to stay together. Finding one place is difficult, two at the same time/place is nearly impossible.

So that’s where we were last April, and the kids were not accepted for full time day care anywhere. We could get them in part time, but that’s expensive and we could only afford to have them looked after when I couldn’t look after them. The rest of the time, I took care of them AND made this site run at the same time. I also had to prepare for my classes and all the other stuff that running a household entails.

(I have coaxed myself back from 7 hours sleep to 4-5 being enough just to get enough time to get things done. And even then, not enough time in the day.)

We took the part time option at a daycare that is very highly sought after within a 20km radius. We also looked at a kindergarten that is also highly sought after in a 30km radius (these are HUGE distances here in Japan, so both places are waaaay above average). The kindergarten would accept them, we just had to say yes and they had to be of age. Age was a problem, and the time of care was a problem too. I work there, and they love me so getting in was easy. Nice, but we can’t take advantage of it yet.

Come this year, we reapplied for the day care, and temporarily accepted places at a private kindergarten for the kids. We hated the kindergarten, too much like a money-maker than somewhere fun to be. Really bad, because where I teach is so good, and this one was horrific.

What we really wanted was to be accepted for full time daycare where the kids were going part time. What made this difficult was my ‘proper’ work, not a lot of money (not a big issue, but still) and that there are two of them.

And in 30 years, no kids had ever gone from part time (or full time, fully paid) to the government subsidised full time daycare in the same facility.

And I am not Japanese either. That’s a big flashing neon sign sometimes…

(I’ll point out that I was unaware of most of the problems until recently. I knew it would be difficult, not that it would be one in a million and that’s an understatement.)

In short, we had hopes but we pretty much accepted that they wouldn’t get in.

The daycare this year accepted 12 ‘new’ kids out of over 300 applicants.  ‘New’ meaning that nobody in the family had gone there before.

Tom and Koko included.

Everyone we tell about it is shocked. The principal at the place said that Tom and Koko were the first two kids to ’skip across the playground’ in her 30 years there. Amazing that one of them could, she was shocked that both of them together were accepted.

When I said one in a million, that was an accurate estimate of the odds that they would get in.

And they did it.

We are not sure why or how. Maybe it was that Tom and Koko are VERY well behaved, always saying please and thank you. Not at all selfish with other kids (but towards each other, different story!) and play well with others.

Maybe it was that we, as parents are also ‘well behaved’ being thankful for anything we can get.

Maybe it was me, not doing great but not giving up and could really use the time to make something good happen.

Maybe it was divine intervention? It is a Catholic daycare (yes, in Japan even) and I did go to a Catholic high school.

Whatever the reason, we have been given an opportunity and I hope I can make the most of it.

I am sad that my babies are growing up and running off to ’school’ and that they won’t be here all the time. As difficult as they can make things here while I am trying to ‘work’, it’s usually good fun and I get to spend quantity time with them. It has made me a better dad, of that there is no doubt.

So, when I say ‘things are changing come April’, that’s what I mean.

Maybe too much information, but since you folk out there have been at least partly responsible for how things are turning out, I figured you all should know.

That, and I had to tell someone.

Thanks for reading,

Stu.

Today’s episode is the 5th part of the series on the Child’s dresser. We’ve jumped ahead a little bit as in real time I started to fall behind so I did some assembly work with the camera off. I’m trying to document as much as I can on these projects, but occasionally things kind of fall through the cracks.

For the most part, today’s episode covers drawer front construction from rough to finish. And glue up of the dresser top.

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Today’s episode is part 1 of a 2 part series that was originally posted on Popular Woodworking Editor’s Blog on Monday November 16, 2009. It’s titled “Shaker Cupboard Sleuthing” and it was written by Glen D. Huey.

You can find this article or many of the other great posts written by Glen and the other staff members of Popular woodworking by visiting blogs.popularwoodworking.com/editorsblog.
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It is hard to believe that this is the first adjustable shoulder plane I have made - but here we are. Several people have asked about them over the years, but there were a few “issues” I needed to resolve before I was comfortable saying I could make one. The adjuster and the threaded sleeve (and top screw) were the biggies. Building the pair of Rebate mitre planes solved both of these issues, so it was only a matter of time before the A7 shoulder plane came to life.

I have kept my camera close at hand this last week as there were a few sequences that I thought might be interesting.

The first one is rather generic - but it illustrates the manner in which I work.



After the shell has been piened together - I measure the gap between the sidewalls. As long as the sides are parallel to each other - I don’t really care what this number is. Well... unless it is 1.124" and I am making a 1-1/4" wide plane - then I would have a problem. Although Riley would be happy... he would be all over the “scrap” bronze! Anyway - the plane is .002" wider than 1.000" which is a non-issue for me.




Because this is what matters to me. Early on in the planes construction - each part becomes specific to that particular plane. The front bun to “identical” planes are not interchangeable - they are individually fit. There are variations from one plane to the next - measurable in thousandths of an inch - but still variations. I have no interest in going the extra mile (or charging you to do so) to get rid of the .002" of extra space between the shoulder plane sidewalls. I care that the sides are parallel to one another, square to one another and that the fit between the infill and the metal shell are gap free.






These three measurements are taken from three different points on the front infill. They are close - and slightly over sized. Perfect! It is kinda hard to tell from the photos - but the two readings from the front section are the same and the back portion is slightly narrower.



One of the true joys of woodworking is knowing your tools so well that you know how many passes it will take to remove .002" from the front of the infill and taper it back to the desired thickness. Once the piece has been made parallel - I can start working on the overall thickness. And that is how all the infill pieces are “fit” to their corresponding shells - on everything from this shoulder plane, to a 28-1/2" long jointer.





Here are a few photos to show the keeper (the bronze plate that supports the top of the wedge and registers the threaded sleeve).

The sleeve houses the bronze screw that engages a small cup that is inlayed into the top of the wedge. The cup is offset so the tip of the bronze screw works as a drawbore - as it is tightened down, it pulls the wedge in.



The two tenons of the keeper.



The underside of the infill showing the recess for the shoulder on the threaded sleeve.



The keeper and the bronze sleeve.





The next sequence shows the shaping of the back of the rear infill. I apologize - there are a few steps missing here. In the above photo - the back of the infill is still “off the bandsaw” and needs quite a bit more work.



I use the bandsaw to cut the above radius and then refine it with rasps files and sandpaper. I have always found it is worth the effort to maintain square edges, clean transitions and smooth lines. Most of this clean radius will be removed during final shaping, but I am convinced that going through the process of working accurately prepares my hands and mind for the next really critical steps. Having clean crisp edges is also crucial because those are the reference edges for all other layout lines.



Here are the layout lines for the compound radius on the bottom edge of the rear infill. If you click on the photo - it will be easier to see the line on the side of the infill - graphite does not like to be photographed.



This is about 8 minutes and two files later. I start with an 8" half-round and then finish with a very fine half-round. From here I proceed to some sandpaper wrapped around a hard rubber form.


The last sequence shows the shaping of the front infill section.



Here is a shot showing the front infill section already pinned. At this stage - I have already started refining the arc of the front infill that transitions from being flush with the bronze sidewalls into the raised section that houses the sleeve. Note that the infill is still quite rough at the front of the plane.



This shot shows the refined radius in front of the keeper and the keeper now flushed with the top edges of the sidewalls. This was slow delicate work with files and then finished with sandpaper. Again - note the crisp lines of the edges.



This is a photo taken from the back of the plane looking forward. I use a paper template to layout the radius across the back of the front infill.



Here I am using a specific radius template to define the other side of the compound curve. When I was in design school - part of our kit included this great set of ellipse templates. They range in size from 1/8" to 2" and in projections of 10 degrees to 80 degrees in 5 degree increments. I cannot believe how many times I use these in my day-to-day work!





Here are the layout lines and some blue tape - just in case the file wanders a bit.



The first stage of shaping with the 8" half-round file.



Another view to show the end radius taking shape.



After the second file - it looks like this. I used a 6" single cut, mill bastard file for this work. From here it is onto a bit of final sanding.



And here is a shot showing the fully shaped and sanded section. You will notice there is a fair amount of sunlight in many of the photos. Good strong light is a key to shaping complex curves. Watching the light roll across an arc is a very fast and accurate way of judging if the curve is right or not.




I am not sure where this last photo fits into the order of things, but it was a good shot to show the fit between the infill and the shell.

That is it for now, but part II should follow in a week or so.