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When I visit antique shops, I’m always pulling out drawers and looking underneath pieces to see how–and when–the thing was built. Most of the older, handmade pieces are way out of my price range, so I’m just looking appreciatively.

But once in a while, I find something I can’t pass up.

My wife and I found this old sideboard at a local thrift shop. After giving it a quick once-over, I decided it was well worth the $120 they were asking for it.

Although it was pretty beat up (more on that below), I could tell there was something really good underneath the grime and the old, dark finish.

And I’m going to spoil the ending for you right now, in case you’re more interested in the product than the process of the restoration.

This is what was under all that:

Getting from here to there took a lot of work, and it was totally worth the time and effort.

In this post and the next, I want to walk you through some elements in the process of examining, repairing, and refinishing this sideboard.

Why I Chose This Piece

What first attracted me to this sideboard was the construction. Everything about it says late 19th century. There are no maker’s marks or factory markings on it anywhere. I think it was probably made professionally somewhere in the eastern USA, but there’s no telling exactly where. I have not seen furniture in quite this style before (note the carved drawer pulls, for example!) but all the construction details suggest it was made sometime the 1880s or the 1890s.

The first thing I do when examining an old piece of cabinet work is to pull out a drawer and look at the corners. These are hand-cut dovetails. As soon as I saw them, I knew I had to have this piece.

Predictably, the ones in the backs of the drawers are a little rougher than the ones at the front. But they’re all still solidly together. You can tell they’re hand-cut not only by the shape but also because a couple of the lines are over-cut.

The wood, by the way, is all poplar, except for the oak fronts.

Drawer bottoms are full of interesting information. I will admit, though, that I’ve never seen one quite like this.

The drawer bottom is solid wood (not plywood). It’s uncommon to find a multi-drawer unit this old with intact drawer bottoms. Drawer bottoms are often split or otherwise damaged, but these are all in great shape.

Most such solid bottoms drawer bottoms are either rabbeted or planed on three sides to fit into the groove in the sides. These drawers, however, have both. Each bottom panel is rabbeted on two sides and then beveled (with a handplane) on the third side. I’ve never seen that before.

There are two other things to notice. One is the use of cut nails to affix the drawer bottom to the back. (Cut nails generally predate the more modern wire nails we’re familiar with.) The other is the saw marks from a rotary saw blade. Notice that the panel is a single, wide board, but it was cut from a thicker board in two passes: the board looks like it was passed through the saw once to cut halfway through. Then it was flipped end-for-end and passed through again to finish the cut. The two cuts didn’t line up exactly, but they were good enough for drawer bottoms.

The back of the case also had some interesting information.

The back panels are all solid–not plywood. These boards are also rabbeted on each end, even though there’s no reason for them to be. They don’t fit into any kind of groove. I begin to wonder if the maker was working with boards that already had a rabbet machine-cut into the edges for some other purpose. That would explain the drawer bottoms.

All these back boards are attached with wire nails, not cut nails. I was surprised to find both kinds of nails in this case, but the presence of both suggests the sideboard was made at a time when both kinds of nails were in widespread use, which is the end of the 1800s.

After we got this sideboard home, I discovered a fun feature. It has a secret compartment attached under the top!

To access this secret compartment, you just remove one of the drawers, and then you reach underneath and slide your money or documents into the compartment. (Unfortunately, it was empty.) There are also the remnants of some decals on this compartment, but it’s too bad they aren’t in better shape.

Here, I’ll save you the trouble of flipping the photo upside-down.

At first I thought perhaps this was some kind of maker’s mark or factory identifier for the sideboard. But after looking at it for a while, I realized the secret compartment had been made from a bit of an old cigar box. I didn’t have much luck searching the Internet for information on this stamp, but if you know something about how to identify and date old cigar boxes based on factory stamps, let me know in the comments!

Anyhow, despite the cool features showing that this whole sideboard was handmade in the 19th century, I have to admit that it was also in pretty rough shape.

The biggest problem was the top.

Not only were there a lot of stains and burn marks all over it, but there was also one place on the right where the top had been almost entirely burned through! (The extent of the damage only became evident once I did an initial strip of the finish.)

This hole had been filled in with some sort of putty or plaster, which had long ago come loose. After removing much of the remaining filler, it became clear that some kind of burning liquid had once spilled onto the wood and run down the front, eating/burning almost through the top and leaving char and burn marks elsewhere. I don’t know what sort of chemistry would have done this. The damage was severe, but localized. If you have a guess on the cause, let me know in the comments!

I knew I was going to have to repair this damage somehow.

Also, each of the three door panels had cracked, and all of the cracks had long ago been filled in with the same sort of putty.

When I first opened the doors, I saw why they had split. The panels were solid pieces just screwed onto the backs of the frames.

But the insides of the doors also gave me a clue as to what kind of wood was underneath the old, murky finish. The whole case is indeed made from solid oak. I knew it was going to take a few days’ work to get this sideboard into working shape, but I hoped that the results would be worth the effort.

Repair the Wood and Remove the Old Finish

The first step was to remove the door panels, clean out the splits, and glue them back together. Fortunately the patches were shallow, and the splits were still fairly clean deeper inside. So I was able to glue everything right back in place.

I also enlarged the screw holes on the sides so as to allow for a bit of wood movement–which had not been done as originally constructed. That’s why the panels all split in the first place.

I did some other little repair work–reinforcing a loose piece with a screw here and a nail there. My goal was not to fully restore this piece to like-new condition, but to make it stable and functional for the next hundred years or so.

The major work was taking off the old finish. I haven’t done this much before, so after reading some online tutorials, I just experimented a little bit to find a process that worked for me. After a couple missteps I got pretty good results. I don’t have enough experience to tell you how to go about your own job like this, but I will tell you what worked for me.

First, have the right the tools. This includes…

• A cheap, natural bristle brush to apply the chemical stripper
• A couple plastic/nylon putty knives to scrape it off. (Lowe’s had the blue tool shown above, which I found really useful.)
• Coarse steel wool
• Lots of paper towels
• Nitrile gloves (not pictured)

For the stripper, I used the “Kleen Strip” brand. I also found it really helpful to use the same brand of “After-Wash.”

I did the whole job in my garage with the door open and the wind coming in. Even so, the fumes were strong at times.

After disassembling the piece as much as I could (e.g. removing doors and drawer pulls), I applied the stripper liberally over just one surface (like the top or the door panels). Because there’s a limited timeframe in which to work, it’s best to do a section at a time, rather than try to do multiple surfaces at once. After letting the chemical sit 15 minutes or so, I scraped the sludge off.

On most surfaces, I scraped off as much as I could, then immediately applied a second coat of the stripper and let that sit another 15 minutes to finish the job.

This is after an initial strip and scrape.

This is after the second application.

I used the steel wool, as well as the corners of the scraping tools, to get into corners and into moldings. Make sure you loosen every bit of sludge, especially in corners.

Once I had scraped off as much as the gunk as I could, but while the surface was still somewhat moist from the stripper, I flooded the surface with the after-wash and wiped off the residue with more steel wool and lots of paper towel. Again, go over every surface carefully to make sure you’ve gotten off every last bit of the sludge.

As it turned out, both the drawer fronts and the door panels were veneered with figured oak!

Part of the fun is getting a first look at the wood grain underneath.

I learned that it’s much easier to do this kind of cleaning work on horizontal surfaces. As you can see above, I set up a folding table and wrapped the top with cling-wrap, which provided an ideal work surface for the drawers and doors.

To clean each side of the case, I tipped the whole case on its back and then onto each end in order to work on each respective surface horizontally. I’m very glad I went to that trouble. It’s much easier to do this work on a horizontal surface than on a vertical one.

Once I had the old finish removed, I was able to move on to the major repair issue.

In my next post, I will show how I repaired the gap burned into the top, and I’ll give a short account of the refinishing.

 Day two at home and things aren't exactly a Disneyland movie yet. The left side of my chest is swollen. Parts of it look like an inflated balloon and it it firm to the touch. That is causing heart problems - my heart rate is fluctuating from 70 all the way up to 130 and above. The highest it hit today was a brief 172. It doesn't feel bad, no shortness of breath, and no dizziness. However, the heart rate numbers are in the A fib territory.

That aside it is the coughing that is crippling me. That hurts like hell but not quite as bad as the pneumonia coughing I did back in november. The chest tube hole doesn't like it and expresses it so with pain that brings me to my knees.

The last headache I'm dealing with is sleeping. I got maybe an hour last night. I tried to fall asleep on back and after 4 hours I gave up and watched You Tube vids. Between 0200 and 0545 when I said fxxx it and got up, I think I got an hours worth of shut eye. Tried not to nod out today so maybe I'll be so )#)^&*^#_# tired I'll pass out. The )@&%)@&%@#)__+)# heat wave ain't helping much neither.

hmm......

I got maybe an hour total in the shop today. One thing I have to guard against is repetitious arm movements like sawing etc. Got the top and sides of the dresser to size. Noticed that is appeared to be shrinking but I could be wrong. 

first change

Initially I was going to put a solid bottom on dovetailed into the sides. Nixed that and I will now put a rail at the front and back. A solid bottom isn't needed because I am putting a base platform on the bottom.

yeah, it is shrinking

I did something wrong on the layout and I'm losing over an inch of depth on the sides. The front/back depth is now about 11 3/8 " instead of 12 1/4".

almost

Just need to flatten the first dado and rout it down to final depth. After the top is clamped in placed I will size and install the two bottom front/back cross rails.

No problems with the brief time I was in the shop. It didn't feel any different now then before the surgery. I had contacted a tool seller before the surgery and he is willing to buy out my shop. This is something I don't want to leave to my wife to have to deal with. Now that I know I can still woodwork, the buyout is on a back burner for now. That is subject to change if my health decides to go south on me again.

accidental woodworker 

I re-melt the 75% clean blocks in my cooker and then filter them through my favorite medium for the task, Bounty *full sheet* paper towels.

The paper towels are placed inside a kitchen pasta strainer for support, which is then placed inside a section of stovepipe that is held up on the edges of the cookie sheet, and then the molten wax is ladled through.

The output is drizzled into cookie sheets dedicated for that purpose.

I replace the filter membrane for each new cookie sheet casting.  This is what the used filter sheet looks like after one cookie sheet casting.  This does not get discarded, it is re-used as a firestarter in the wood stove in the winter.

The result is a full-sheet roughly 1/4″ thick that is wonderfully clean and pure.  Since the cast sheet is so thin it starts cooling immediately, resulting in an uneven thickness.  It’s now ready for whatever comes next, casting the 1/4 lb. beeswax blocks, formulating and casting Blend 31, or playing with new concoctions.

Up next – Blend 31.

 The surgery went  well and the doc said the tumor was removed in its entirety. I'm a little short in the breath department. It was a chore to  walk from the 3rd floor in the hospital to where my wife parked her car. My marching orders are to  start walking in 20 minute chunks every day and  work up  from that.  Based on today it will be a  while before that will happen. Hard to type too because of my bandaged right thumb.

survived

No headaches going to the shop up and down the stairs, No issues and my drawer runners  and front rails still look to be straight and flat.

I can't drive for at least two weeks which sucks. I can't lift anything heavy then 10 lbs. So I can't use my lunchbox planer for the 1/2" thick stock for the drawer boxes. Not sure what I'll be able to do with the carcass until then.

hmm......

Carcass parts look good. I should be able to size them and do the layout for the rails and drawer runners. Fingers crossed that I can knock that out. I have to stay active and avoid laying down in bed and sitting for prolonged periods. Blood clots aren't something to mess with.

I want to personally thank all who commented. I normally read and reply the same time I see them. I was in a bit of fog with the up coming surgery and spent the 3 days before it getting my affairs in order. 

 The doc was surprised that I wasn't eating pain meds like candy. I didn't feel any pain just discomfort from the drainage tube in my lung.  On a scale of 1 to ten, the pain never made it past 2 and I don't like taking pills if I don't have to. The drainage tube in my chest was a @_)*)_%&_*)^)@&%*$ ROYAL PITA squared - very painful, hurt when I coughed, and whenever I moved. The surgery was easier to take then that _@(%$_Q@)*%$_ tube.

Until my thumb heals some more I think I'll keep the blog short and sweet. Thanx to my wife for stepping in and keeping daily blog record intact.

accidental woodworker 

A couple weeks ago I presented a problem I was having with my wooden plow plane, especially when trying to plow a groove in end grain.

Right side of the plow, showing skates and iron

A closer pic of the skates and iron

After a bit or playing around and then noodling about it for a while, I realized that the underlying problem was that the iron(s) were not well supported by the skate.

On this 3/16" iron, I was able to slip a couple thicknesses  of paper between iron and skate

Let's step back a moment.  The lower portion of the front edge of the rear skate has a 90° V-shape that is supposed to fit into the V-shaped groove on the underside of the iron.  But I had gaps there with some of my irons.

The front edge of the rear skate, between the green arrows, protrudes a little further than the upper edge and has a V-shaped edge. The yellow arrow points to where the heel of the iron's bevel rests.

Here's a typical iron's groove.  The pencil points to the spot that mates with the uppermost part of the V-shaped protrusion on the skate.

Based on some comments I got on a Facebook post, I first tried to file the groove to allow the skate to support the groove better at the heel of the bevel (where I think it would do the most good).  But this got nowhere and I was really afraid of causing irreparable damage.

Trying some judicious filing

Another comment was about trying to bend the iron by peening the flat side.  This would theoretically make the flat side slightly convex and force the heel of the bevel to make better contact with the skate.  I did some work on one of the irons, but either I didn't peen enough or I was afraid of peening too much.  All peening was behind the location where the harder steel of the laminated irons ended and went to the location where the iron exits the plane's iron/wedge mortise.

You can see the peening marks

In the end, I just added some 0.005" brass shim material in the irons' grooves.  In some cases I needed more thickness than the 0.005" shim, so doubled it up.  It's held in place with superglue, so time will tell how that holds up.

Seeing how it fits

Glued in and excess glue scraped away, brass filed close to flush

Here's a test groove in end grain pine - much cleaner!

This was certainly not an optimal fix.  I wonder how someone might have handled this 150 years ago.  If anyone has further ideas about how best to deal with this, please let me know.

At least this ordeal did teach me one thing that I really ought to have known by now: check your specialty tools on scrap before committing them to the project wood.  If you start on a project and then find that the tool needs to be adjusted or modified, it could be very tough to get it back to the exact settings that you started with and so some parts may not align properly - in this case, grooves.

The latest installment of the forty-year-long conversation with my friend “retired” broadcaster Brian Wilson (who cannot shake the habit), was posted at his Brian Wilson Writes Substack.  If you enjoy provocative strident discussions about forbidden topics, give it a listen.  If you do not, don’t.

Ralph is hoping to respond to your comments soon.

Meanwhile, here is a picture of a Lenox Spice Cabinet you may have seen him making last fall.  

Mrs. Ralph 

 

We get large and frequent deliveries from Festool, which is why our showroom routinely has a pallet or two, and a forklift in the way.

Festool is releasing a range of new cordless tools next Wednesday, June 17th, and some of these tools are even catching the eyes of woodworkers who typically work in a shop or on a jobsite with no shortage of dependable electricity.

Of course woodworkers have long used cordless drills and jigsaws as a matter of course. Whats more novel is the serious consideration of cordless planers, saws, vacuums and trimmers that Festool is promoting. As a New York City merchant, we are accustomed to working with customers from all over the world. One of our customers who immigrated to the US from Poland once told us that in many European countries it was assumed that contracting professionals would supply their own power on the job - electricity is expensive, so it would be unusual to use or count on using a building owners or homeowners electricity. The standard solution: battery-operated tools, which are ubiquitous in Festools home in Germany and elsewhere in Europe.

But are these battery-operated tools right for you?

The latest crop of cordless Festool tools includes both counterparts to existing Festool tools, like the cordless DFC500, a counterpart to the corded Domino DF 500, and the MFKC, a counterpart to the MFK trimmer. For these cordless tools, the primary advantage is freedom from the tether of the cord, which translates into the ability to work in tight spaces or where folks fear tripping over a mess of cords (their own or other peoples). To use the Domino 500 as an example, the plunge depth, choice of tenons, mortise widths, etc. are the same. The ergonomics of the tools is somewhat different: the cordless DFC has a soft-grip D handle (good for big hands or glove-wearers) and the cordless balance and weight are different as well.

But other tools differ more markedly - not just for mobility and power source.

One of the stars of our recent Festool Fest was the HLC82 planer. Since Festool announced the launch of the cordless planer, we have thought of it dozens of times as the solution to various problems mentioned by customers and callers. I dont know what happened, but the doors are sticking. Whoa - whoever did the cabinets left them kinda rough. To be fair some of those callers are looking for a miracle-working $20 scraper, but the HLC 82 is impressive and a nimble, hardworking asset at the jobsite.

Likewise, the OFKC laminate trimmer has no counterpart in the corded Festool USA world (the corded OFK is available in other countries). If you are in the market for a router for chamfering, routing trenches, roundover, etc., go with the MFK or MFKC. The OFKC is a specialist in laminate trimming. It is ideal for routing laminate, plastic and solid wood edges in the shop or on the jobsite.

A final note: as Festool increases its line of cordless tools, it has stepped up the capacity of the batteries that support the tool system. The new 4 Ah Tabless and 5 Ah High Power batteries are overachievers determined to upstage previous generations of Festool batteries, with higher output, less overheating and longer run time. The batteries are available individually and in a variety of sets with chargers and Systainers. All batteries are Bluetooth enabled to communicate with Festool Bluetooth vacuums and the Festool Werk app.

(Anticipating what some of you are thinking: yes, hand tools also don't have cords.)

 Well the boneyard is somewhat cleaned out since we got a mover to take three pieces of furniture headed to daughter number 2 in North Carolina.

Meanwhile, this is Mrs. Ralph, I plan to visit the patient today and I know he appreciated your kind wishes. You will hear more from him soon.  He is doing well.

Once the molten beeswax cools in the cake pan after filtering for gross contaminates, the next day I pry out the now-solid blocks from the pan.  The contents of the pan are in two phases, the water and the block of wax that forms on top of the water.  By not disturbing the molten concoction once it is poured, the contents settle into their respective layers.  That which is compatible with water goes into the water.  That which is not water compatible remains in the wax block after having settled to the bottom of that fraction.

Flipping the now-solid block gives access to the contaminates that aggregate along the interface at the bottom of the wax.

These contaminates are easily removed by ultra low tech methods; I simply scrape away and discard the bottom layer of the wax block that contains the particulate contaminate.

Behold, the almost thirty pounds of partly purified beeswax.  At that point the material has had perhaps 75% of the particulates removed and is ready for the next step.

Stay tuned.

This is Mrs. Ralph. Ralph is doing well and expects to be back in the workshop way sooner than would be advisable. 

Thank you for your kind messages and he will respond to comments when he can. 

I wasn't going to start anything today but it just fell into place. Started it and fingers crossed, I'll be finishing it sometime next week.

hmm....

I have 39 of these plastic containers. They are phillips head wood screws, sheet metal screws, and machine bolts along with picture hanging do dads. Way too much crappola to put into the mini 3 drawer dresser from yesterday's post.

story stick

Initially I thought I would keep everything in the plastic containers but nixed it. Zoomed past that idea and settled on individual compartments. This story pole is for a 9 compartment drawer, with 5 drawers total. The number of drawers is subject to change, up or down.

rough sketches

Thinking ahead, I really don't have a  hole for this (when finished) but I'll find one. Rough measurements are 12" across, 12" deep, and about 14" high.

sigh

I missed it again. I should have sawn the two long edges parallel before squaring the end grain ends. Fixing that boo boo cost me a little more then a 1/4" lost between the end grain ends.

couldn't avoid it

I had to glue on a 2nd board to get the length I needed. I'll put that small glue on towards the back.

made a Lowes run

The 1x12's at Lowes were complete garbage. I found some decent 1x8's that I'll use for the top and bottom. Snagged ten 1/4" poplar slats that I'll use for the dividers. I might need to get more because I'll need 3 per drawer and I'm short for two drawers.

cooking away

That is the dresser carcass - two sides, a top and bottom. 

hmm.......

Got 3 boards left over, not that they will go to waste in my shop. The heat wave must have scrambled the synapses firing in the brain bucket.

yikes

That is my bandaged right thumb. I got careless clearing a scrap of wood from the saw blade. The blade grazed the inside edge of it - a superficial wound that the ER took care of lickety split. I was in and out of the ER in less then 30 minutes and back in the shop.

drawer cross rails

Mr Thumb shook hands with Mr Saw Blade while I was sawing these out. I had to saw one more - incident free.

hmm.......

The R/L opening is about 12 1/4" and these are 24" long. I will only be able to get one front or back from these. I'll have to rethink the drawer stock. I could use 3/4" pine and thin it down to a 1/2". I'll start with the three 1x8's from above.

checking for twist

The first one I checked was twist free but the next two had a wee bit that I see sawed knocking out.

needed a couple of more

These will be used for the drawer runners. That don't have to be 12 plus inches. I think they will be about 11".

stickered

The thinner ones will be the drawer runners and the wider ones are the front cross rails. I will put only two rails on the back. All of these will get thinned down to a 1/2".

hmm......

A little awkward but no headaches using the #3 to flush and smooth the glue joints on the sides, top, and bottom. This is where I left off for the day. No idea when I'll get back to this. The doc said I can work in the shop once I'm home but I shouldn't exert myself for at least a couple of weeks. And I can't lift anything weighing more than 9 lbs.

accidental woodworker

So, the exhibition will be taking place at Birdwood House, Totnes 12th-18th July. These geese will be winging their way there, so time for an oiling.

There will be woodworking demonstrations and stuff for sale, big and small. Drop in and say hello.

 Didn't get much shop time today. Spent most of it nodding out at my desk and watching You Tube vids. I don't get this way often but with what is looming on the horizon....

it is 13 years old

This is something my wife kept in her office that is now an orphan. I used it at the VA for to keep my binder clips in them. My wife used it for the same purpose and now it is back in my care. The finish is a little worn but the drawers still work silky smooth. 

This was my project for the day. Sanded, scraped it, and applied 3 coats of shellac to it over a period of 7-8 hours. I am thinking of using it to hold specialty hardware items or screws, etc etc.

After I had made this I had to fix a couple of stupid wood tricks it threw at me. The right side had cupped and the top right and bottom drawers were binding. I shaved the inside of the right side with a chisel and eliminated that headache. In the time since then it hasn't come back. 

The 2nd headache was the middle rail came loose at the ends. I know I had nailed each end through the outside into the rail but not if I glued it again. It doesn't  matter as the repair has held up but I never set and filled the nail holes. I did that today with wood putty. 

see the white dot?

Got two coats on the body and the wood putty filled nail hole popped like a neon sign. Normally this would send my OCD into overdrive but this is a shop piece of furniture. I can deal with it. This will be done definitely by tomorrow. I don't expect to burn up the shop on sunday doing much of anything beyond sweeping and cleaning things up a bit.

accidental woodworker 

I spent a good deal of time and effort this past week processing beeswax and shellac wax in preparation for the upcoming Handworks 2026 in Amana IA over Labor Day Weekend.  My polissoir inventory is lacking and my broom maker is struggling with some health issues so I do not know exactly how that will be resolved.

Since the shellac wax arrives already purified straight from the factory in India, all it needs is to be melted and cast in the silicone molds I made for this purpose.

The beeswax is a different story as it is the opposite of purified when it arrives.  My end product is something that is purified using essentially old-fashioned technology.

I start with a block of raw beeswax, straight from the honey processing plant.  As I recall, the slang of the bee/honey trade is to call this mass of by-product “slum gum.”  It’s got residues of honey, lotta dirt and bee body parts.

My first step is to break up the blocks of slum gum and melt the mass 50/50 in a water bath in my largest cooking pot.

I then pour the molten mass through a kitchen strainer to get the larger particles and body parts out.  Downstream from the strainer is a cake pan, into which the remainder goes to cool.

A day of work yields a stack of cake pans that cool over night.

Stay tuned for the second day.

 I just finished the miniature cherry chest and the cherry bench/plant stand. BTW, daughter #2 said yes, I'll take it. Getting back on track, finished two and there is no project on the horizon at the moment. I have to take a step back and wait until I see what this coming monday says to me.

I have surgery scheduled at the Roxbury VA on monday at 0600. The CT guided biopsy last month confirmed that I have lung cancer in my left upper lobe. Before the surgery they will take a sample of my lymph nodes to confirm that they are cancer free. If they are they will remove the cancerous portion of my left lung. If the lymph nodes are cancerous, it is toast for me and there will be no surgery.

Either way the wind blows this, all I am really concerned with is being able to continue to work in the the shop. Fingers crossed that the lymph nodes come out negative, the cancer is removed, and I'll be able to figure out what the next project from Ralphie's shop is.

I would have started something now but I would only have two days to work on it. I also don't know if the blog will continue after monday - my wife will be posting while I'm in the hospital. I'll make that call after I get back to barn, hopefully on thursday at the latest. 

hmm........

The blackening solution worked. The directions were straight forward and the screws matched the color of the hinges. This solution has scary chemicals and I took a lot of precautions using it. If push comes to shove I'll try to get steel next time and use heat to blacken the screws.

happy with this

There were a few spots of shiny brass peeking through that I dabbed with a cotton swab to darken them. 

the honey do project

The back was a plywood wanna be thing secured with staples, no glue. It came off easily and I had no problems pulling out all 23 bazillion of them.

1/4" staples

These staples barely held the plywood back on the bookcase. Just about everyone of them remained on in the bookcase. 

hmm.......

I had to cut off 15" according to my wife. That went off without a hitch. The bottom and the center shelf were still attached keeping the bookcase reasonably square and together.

hmm.......

I got lucky that the rabbet was in the top and not the sides. The joint came apart cleanly and the glue residue scraped off with no headaches.

sigh

I forgot that I had put my penny nails in these miniature japanese toolboxes. I had made a run to ACE and bought a pound of 5 penny nails. I now have about two pounds of them.

Glued and nailed the top back on with the 5 penny nails through the sides and the top. It should be ok because it was only previously held together with 3 staples and a bit of glue.

top on and cooking

I stapled the back on and nada. The plywood was thin and the staples blew right through them like I was stapling paper. I had to attach the back with 3/4" brads.

done

This bookcase is going here in the boneyard. This is the space my wife has decided to turn into a reading room. The left wall has all of my crappola that is facing eviction. Some hard choices coming.

100% done

I mixed up a fresh quart of shellac and put two coats on the bench/plant stand. My wife will be bringing this to daughter #2 in august. On monday the movers are coming to pick up the desks and the dresser to ship them to her. That is the downside of living so many states away from daughter #2.

experiment time

I've noticed lately that a lot of the You Tube woodworkers I watch use this saw to rip and crosscut. I am in between so I ripped this piece of pine off following a groove I had plowed in it.

hmm......

Cross cut #1 and it ain't pretty. It is square across but wee bit out to lunch on the plumb cut.

2nd crosscut

Cross cut #2 and it wasn't any better neither. It was square across (no problems there) but still off on the plumb cut.

3rd cross cut

No problems sawing it square across the face. It doesn't matter if I use the japanese or western saw. The problems come when sawing the plumb part. The plumb pencil line helped a lot.

square

The easy part of the sawing for me. All of the crosscuts I did were all square.

better

The plumb line helps me a lot to saw plumb. I did 8 crosscuts total and went 8 for 8 with square crosscuts and 5 for 8 with square plumb cuts.

hmm.......

I bought these clamps a couple of years ago specifically made for using with these machinist's blocks. Today was the first time I used these. Made a cross cut and edge plumb cut with it. Both of them came out dead square. The 2nd set up was making a practice tenon.

hmm......

This is my preferred way to make tenons. Saw the shoulders and split off the cheeks.

done

After splitting off the cheeks I use my LN rabbeting blockplane to get down to the knife lines. I should have made a mortise to test fit this but I didn't. Maybe I'll do that in the AM because there is nothing else on the hit parade.

My sister and brother in law stopped in again today for another visit before they head back to Indiana. I'm thinking of driving out there because once you get past New York it is basically a straight shot to where they live in Indiana. Maybe, that is what I told my sister.

The weather lately has been out of sorts. There was a mini heat wave and then it got cold, the kind of cold where I had to turn the heat back on. Now we are back to a mini heat wave. I went to Wally World and bought an AC. The temp at the house hit 93F 34C at 1430. I got the AC now because I will have a weight limitation after monday if the surgery goes through. Got it installed and it is working good - the bedroom temp is down to 70F from 88F. 

accidental woodworker 

A follow-up to the previous post about that 19th-century door. One reader, Dennis Santella, was able to create very clear images from some of my photos. How he did it is hocus-pocus to me – all that matters is he did it. I’ll post a few of them here with some partial transcriptions. Thank you to Dennis – and if anyone can fill in my blanks, I’d love to hear from you. The transcription I put in italics, to distinguish from my comments.

#5814 top batten, left #5815 top batten 2nd photo from left

Across part of this batten I can make out the following:

First real snow of the season Dec 4, 1886

First white frost season  Sept 21, 1886

Heavy freeze Oct 4, 1886

—————————————————————-                           

1891 Robins and blue birds Mar 15

Frogs Mar 20

Crickets [evening of?] Oct 2? [7?]

      “              “              “  14

      “             “             “  18

                  “               “            “   20

Crickets heard first time on Aug 9

First frost of the season Oct 2, 

Total eclipse of the moon Nov 15, 1891   [illegible beyond date]

Dennis showed me the part about the eclipse. I looked it up & there was an eclipse then visible in Massachusetts – over night on Nov 15/16. The next photo of that batten shows a small area blocked off in 2 squares:

#5816

June 15, 1887

White frost this AM. No damage to Garden

First frost of the Season Sept 16, 1887

No damage to Garden

I’m pretty sure that first date is 1887. One pass through I recorded it as 1889, but that doesn’t make sense. The last photo of that batten has a few entries on it –

#5817

Crickets distinctly [heard?] for first time Aug 5 [?] 1887

Crickets on Oct, 8, 1887

          “    “      17     “

          “     “    18      “

The last part of that batten has records from two different years, much of it I can’t make out. 

The worst and longest ____ ____

Of the year with ____ _____ ___ in the 

Night of Nov 7, 188_

Thunder Storm & very heavy rain Nov 18, 1886

First Snow of the season  Nov 13, 1886

Heavy [thunder?] & ____
Feb 18, 1887 ____ ____

[bottom bevel on right-hand end of batten:]

Bad NE Snow Storms _____

April] 13, 1887 4 or 5 inches _____ 

____  to 9 PM _________

Some of that beveled section shows up better in a later photo – I cropped it & insert it here:

As you’ll know, once in a while, I like to do resto project: just for fun really! I’d been hankering for a Westone bass made in the legendary Matsumoku factory and I finally managed to get my hands on one. So, this series of videos is all about bring a 44 year old bass back to life!

Part 1

squirrely grain

The grain on two of the faces of the legs have an interesting grain that I like. A downside to it is that it is full of shallow tear out pockets. It is/was very difficult to remove it. Sanding did diddly squat and scraping was the only thing working. Even that wasn't nice sailing trying to remove and smooth it out. Wiped it with alcohol to show me where it was still and how well I was doing removing it.

bottom is done

I got three coats on the underside of the top and I'm calling it done. There isn't any need to put anymore on it.

stretcher

Got three coats on the bottom and sides of the stretcher. After I install it I'll finish the top of it.

sigh

I thought I was done with scraping the base but it ain't so boys and girls. I was getting ready to shellac this when I caught several spots of tear out in raking light. Spent another hour and a pound of calories dealing with it.

oops

I forgot to or rather I thought I didn't have to sand the ends of the stretcher. The angled saw cut was pretty smooth but this piece of end grain was raw and rough. Sanded it and the saw cut up to 220.

not waiting

The last screw for the hinges. This chest had been done except for this for a couple of days. The back stop on the lid increased the real estate for driving screws on the lid. I'll deal with replacing the phillips head screws after my #4 screws come in.

lid stay

I have several bent arm lid stays but nixed using them. My track record for installing them is dismal. Chain stays are very forgiving and almost impossible for me to screw up.

eyeball is off

Got the upper part of the chain on the lid a wee bit too far over to the right. I'm leaving this as is because I don't want to fill in any errant screw holes.

extremely happy with this

The front of the chest had the most work fixing the gaps on the pins/tails. From a foot away I had to stare and concentrate to pick out the shims and hide glue/sawdust filler. The latter blended in seamlessly too. From 3 feet or more away the pins/tails look flawlessly tight.

lead off glamour pic #1

I absolutely love these handles. This chest is heavy (due to being made from 3/4" thick cherry) so handles of some sort were necessary.

glamour pic #2

Don't know if the back will be visible but it is finished so it can be viewed. The tails/pins look good here too.

left side glamour pic #3

I prefer the larger handle but the price of them is prohibitive IMO. One handle is about $70. These two are 4 1/2" and cost me $21 each including S/H.

left side pins/tails

Up close and personal and almost nothing to pick out. I had my doubts about the pins/tails being presentable after what I had to do to close/fill all the ugly gaps I had. Couldn't be happier with this. I have no issues with giving this away as a present.

final glamour pic

I like the top of this chest. It has cathedral graining, sapwood, and black gum streaks that matches the rest of the chest. 

bench/plant stand

Glued the stretcher to the end rail and I'm adding screws to give me a warm and fuzzy.

ran out of shellac

The can is bone dry but I have two spray cans of shellac. This one is about a 1/3 full and the other is full to the brim. More then enough to finish the bench/plant stand.

calling this done

The top of the stretcher is all that needs to have some shellac slapped on it. I will do that with spray shellac and it will probably take 6 or so light coats.

bench/plant stand glamour pic #1

This looks better than I expected. The top of it is 15 5/8" up from the deck.

side view glamour pic #2

I think not putting a bottom shelf on this was a good call to make. The size of this would be perfect for the grandsons to use as bench.

glamour pic #3

It is hard to pick out the double bung holes I did on this side and the opposite one. At first glance I didn't notice them. 

glamour pic #4

The top has some interesting grain and my first attempt at a butterfly tie (also called a bow tie). In hindsight I should have used walnut rather then cherry.

hmm......

There is a slight bit of rocking which I wasn't expecting. When I checked this yesterday there was none.

high spots

I put a piece of blue tape on the high legs. After the shellac is done I'll trim these two down until the rocking goes bye bye.

sigh

My #4 screws and shellac flakes were waiting on my desk when I killed the lights for the day. When I put the #4 screws away I found that I already had 50 #4 x 5/8", flat head screws and now I have a 100. A little later on the Birchwood Brass Black came in early. When I had checked it at lunch it was scheduled to come tomorrow.

I'll check it out in the AM and see how well it works on turning my brass #4 screws black.

a honey do quickie project

My wife wants this bookcase shortened by 16". I'll be taking it off at the top and she knows that she will be losing at least one shelf position. She said she didn't even care what it looks like but of course I will give it my best shot.

 accidental woodworker 

There are a few well known tricks in woodworking, such as using a deliberately blunt chisel as a scraper, using a slightly dulled chisel for hinge mortises to reduce tear out, the old cabinetmaker’s trick of burnishing end grain with the back of a chisel, and various tricks popularised by people like Paul Sellers and Rex Krueger.

But the one I’m particularly thinking of is one nobody really knows who invented.

Using a chisel sharpened to a square 90 degree edge so it acts as a scraper rather than a cutting tool is an old workshop technique. It appears to have been known by toolmakers and cabinetmakers long before it became popular on YouTube. There is no documented inventor that historians attribute it to. I actually wrote about it extensively in the magazine on planemaking and demonstrated it on YouTube eight years ago before my account was hacked.

The person I learned it from, and most responsible for popularising it among modern hand tool woodworkers, is probably Bill Carter. He demonstrated grinding a chisel square and using it as a scraper, particularly for planemaking and fine fitting work. Modern references to the blunt chisel technique often trace back to him.

The idea itself is not unique to woodworking. Metalworkers have used scraping tools with blunt cutting angles for centuries to remove tiny amounts of material with great control.

At first glance it sounds ridiculous. Why would anyone intentionally ruin a perfectly good edge? The answer becomes obvious the first time you use one. A sharp chisel wants to dig. Even with careful control it can suddenly follow the grain and remove more material than intended, which can be a costly mistake. A blunt chisel behaves differently. Because it cannot slice into the wood, it removes material slowly and predictably. Instead of taking shavings, it scrapes away fine dust and tiny fragments. You can work right up to a line with a level of control that is difficult to achieve with a sharp edge.

This makes the technique especially useful for planemakers. Bill Carter used blunt chisels when fitting plane beds and mouths where removing even a fraction too much material could ruin the geometry of the tool. The technique also works well for cleaning up difficult grain, removing small high spots, and fitting parts that require absolute precision.

If you want to try it yourself, take an old chisel that is no longer your favourite. Grind the bevel away until the edge is square to the back. There is no need to hone it. Hold it almost upright and push it forward like a scraper. You’ll notice immediately that it behaves very differently from a normal chisel.

If you’re not sure what I mean, I’ll leave some video links below. Bill demonstrates his quick method of blunting the edge and raising a burr, and Richard Maguire from the English Woodworker goes into considerable detail about it, though in good jest I’d say he does somewhat overcomplicate the sharpening side of things. Richard is one of the most knowledgeable and pleasingly pedantic woodworkers I watch, and I trust that what he tells you is accurate and properly researched. That matters more than it might seem. Far too many content creators have jumped on YouTube hoping to make money without giving much thought to the misinformation they spread, particularly around history. The claim that carrots were purple and genetically modified in the 16th century to become orange springs to mind.

http://www.billcarterwoodworkingplanemaker.co.uk/select-a-technique-below/1-using-a-ground-off-chisel/