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Last weekend, my wife Anita bought this old side table at an antique mall. She loved the way it looked, but it was pretty wobbly and ready to fall apart. She asked me if I could stabilize it and I told her I could so she bought it.

The issue with the table was that it was coming loose in the back and the legs were wonky so she asked me to put a stretcher in the back to stanle everything.

A bigger problem with the table was actually its drawer. It was somewhat repaired back in the day but done improperly, so it really didn’t work at all. The one drawer bottom side was completely gone, so I had to deconstruct the drawer in order to fix it.

I grabbed a piece of scrap pine that matched well enough to use for the parts of the table I was going to fix. Then I cut and glued everything together.

I added a stretcher to back to stabilize the legs. I cut the piece to fit, and then I used my Festool Domino to cut the through tenon. There is nothing like using a 21st-century tool to repair a 19th-century table.

After the glue dried, I cut a Dao down the side of the drawer to fit the drawer bottom in. Then I nailed the bottom to drawer so that it would fit better and not fall in.

A couple of hours in the shop and the table is ready for another hundred years of service. I’m not going to do anything to the back stretcher to make it match the rest of the table. I doubt no one will even notice it.

giantcypress:

giantcypress:

“In Flanders Fields”, by John McCrae, 1915. For Memorial Day.

Making this a tradition.

A giant California redwood tree located at the time of this photo near my former home in Forestville California. The gentlemen shown have done a marvelously clean bit of work up to this point using only a two-man saw and their axes. A serious job performed by serious men.

All that is gold does not glitter,
Not all those who wander are lost;
The old that is strong does not wither,
Deep roots are not reached by the frost.

From the ashes a fire shall be woken,
A light from the shadows shall spring;
Renewed shall be blade that was broken,
The crownless again shall be king.

J. R. R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring

Thank you for visiting our humble website, focused primarily on woodworking tools, especially those made by Japanese craftsmen for Japanese professional carpenters and woodworkers.

Consistent with the educational and contemplative nature of this website, in this article we will examine the nature of wood itself including the trees that produce it, two of their controversial by-products, and a couple of techniques for dealing with wood’s inherent weaknesses of which Gentle Reader may not be aware. It will a useful read without being boring, I swear by Grabthar’s Hammer!

The Miracle of Trees

As a matter of common sense, most people assume that trees, such as the California Redwood shown above which once grew very near my old house in Forestville, grow to such height, diameter and mass by extracting minerals from the ground at their roots. That huge mass must come from somewhere, right?

Of course trees do extract some minerals from the ground, along with many tons of water. But if it’s as simple as that, please consider why trees don’t create correspondingly huge depressions in the soil into which they are rooted, depleting minerals and biomass from the soil. Moreover, please consider how trees add biomass to the soil they’re rooted in instead of making a hole. You’ve heard of conservation of energy, no doubt, but is conservation of mass a thing?

Most people think plants and trees are made of minerals robbed from soil, but the fact about trees and plants so heavily hushed-up nowadays is that they are built almost entirely of carbon extracted directly and entirely from the atmosphere. Yes, from thin air.

Clearly, despite what the doom goblins wail on TV in order to shame and cooerce actors and politicians for support, to solicit clicks, and to extort donations, carbon dioxide is a useful substance critical to all plant life; it’s not the poison the smelly, screeching doom goblins claim it is. Consider what would happen to this planet and all creatures who live on it if carbon dioxide went away. Or if oxygen went away. Ah! Could it be there’s no money to be made by speaking the simple truth rather than inciting panic?

A climate scientist fleecing the ignorant (and gullible) masses. I wonder if he has any of my favorite Idiotbegone pills in his wagon?

Of course, plants do extract a few minerals from the soil along with great amounts of water. Powered only by sunlight, plants and trees remove carbon from the air and use it to create cellulose, a material very similar to sugar, BTW, and which many insects and animals, but not humans, can digest. Think grass and other plant matter.

Show me a single “scientist” that can replicate this miracle in a lab and I will bow down and kiss his bulging bunions. Good luck in your search for that miracle worker, but in the meantime, I won’t be needing any scientific kneepads.

Plants need free carbon dioxide in the atmosphere to grow, and animals, including me and thee, need both plants and oxygen. Indeed the greater the concentration of CO2 available, the more plants grow, the more CO2 they remove from the atmosphere, and the more oxygen they produce. Indeed, every molecule of oxygen surrounding planet earth was respirated by a plant. Hmm, sounds a lot like an endless, natural cycle, one that animals and humans rely on unconditionally. Imagine that…

Plants are marvelous sunlight-powered miracles. And don’t forget, except for the salt, every crumb of every ingredient in your peanut butter, humus and boiled mutton sandwich on rye originated with plants produced using sunlight, carbon, and water.

The Importance of Wood

Wood is a wonderful material, used by humankind since well before the archaeological record to produce heat, light, shelter, clothing, tools, weapons, food and water. Even today it remains the supreme catalyst.

Although computers, concrete and carbon fiber get all the attention nowadays, and those who evaluate the complicated “environmental” impacts of materials on this world carefully ignore it, there would simply be no human civilization without wood.

There are those who disagree with this statement, mostly highly edumacated individuals affiliated with supposedly serious organizations, many of whom are short-sighted, financially-conflicted souls with short attention spans that never exceed the news cycle, and who, despite clear evidence to the contrary, choose to equate the use of wood with the destruction and/or pollution of the natural environment for fun and profit.

Of course, they believe, or at least profess, that the carbon released by the combustion and decomposition of wood is wholly poisonous. These nitwit geniuses instead promote the supposedly “ecological” use of steel and concrete and petroleum products instead, all materials that require huge amounts of energy to fabricate, transport and recycle, all while while releasing millions of tons of truly (versus imagined) poisonous substances into the natural environment annually. Alas, the medicinal cure for idiocy your humble servant strongly advocates is apparently not yet widely available.

Wood contains a tremendous amount of energy, as Gentle Reader has observed in wood-fueled fires. The immutable laws of thermodynamics state, in essence, that all heat comes at a cost. Oil costs money to pump, transport and refine as well as special machinery to use it, but the heat given off by wood is simply the conversion of sunlight gathered by the plant while it was alive back into heat and light. A complete and pure circle.

Sure, the combustion and decomposition of wood releases carbon back into the ground and atmosphere, but every molecule of carbon released by wood was originally extracted directly from the atmosphere by many, many plants over many many cycles. Therefore, plants remove carbon from the atmosphere, and only release that carbon when they return to the big lumberyard in the sky. This is true “net zero,” without the production of an ounce of pollution, unlike steel, concrete, oil, coal and every other fuel and material used by mankind without exception.

I’m not suggesting the use of petroleum and coal and windpower, within limits, is irresponsible, but if the environment is important to you, as it should be, then using organic materials and fuels instead of oil, coal, steel, concrete and wind turbines should be a high priority.

Furniture Pests

Our Beloved Customers use our tools to make elegant, useful stuff out of wood. This wood is formed of cellulose, the most abundant organic compound on Earth, one very similar to but fundamentally different from the sugars we consume for energy. Many animals, including herbivores such as elephants, cows, rabbits and termites have the built-in ability to convert the cellulose in the plant matter they eat into energy by a process we cannot replicate. Humans can’t do this, nor have we figured out a way to accomplish this apparent magic without the intervention of animals, insects or fungus. Once again, puffed-up prideful science can’t do what every carpenter ant and every mushroom obediently does without even be asked to.

A part of the “carbon cycle” relies on such animals, bugs and micro-organisms. If left to their own devices bugs and fungus quickly recycle wooden objects, including houses, furniture and parts of our tools made from wood. You may not have noticed these pesky critters, but you’ve probably seen the holes they chew and the wood dust they excrete. Check an old tool handle, handplane body, or antique table leg for evidence of death watch beetles of powderpost beetles, two common varieties of bugs commonly called “furniture beetles.”

I don’t know about you, but I hate the very idea of icky bugs eating my furniture, tools and handiwork. But what to do?

There are plenty of chemicals manufactured to make wood taste yucky to bugs and fungus, but most of those are toxic and/or carcinogenic so you wouldn’t want to leave them in contact with your skin or lungs for any period of time. But what’s a safe way to keep bugs and fungus from chewing on your workbench, furniture, tool handles or plane bodies? And what can be done once some of them have taken up residence therein?

Termites are are problem bugs, too of course, but most of them prefer a higher moisture content in the wood they dine on than is typically found in houses and tools. That said, I’ve seen subterranean termites and Formosa termites in Guam swarm and eat interior furniture and wooden doors down to hollowed-out toilet paper tubes in front of my eyes. Scary stuff. This is precisely why people don’t build much of anything from wood on that island but spend lots of money on chemicals to prevent termites from turning cellulose into bug crap.

For example, while living on Guam, I had a neighbor in the US Airforce stationed there who’d imported some beautiful Amish furniture made of American Cherry wood from his home in Pennsylvania. Unfortunately, there was a crack in the concrete slab-on-grade floor underneath his beautiful dining table with a corresponding gap in the ceramic tile on top that allowed the local termites to access a single cabriole leg of that table unseen. The table collapsed into a pile of sticks and red termite crap after a year. I kid thee not. Vicious, voracious, vile bugs.

If Gentle Reader has ever frequented flea markets and antique shops, or even perused photos of antiques, you will have seen the many holes left by furniture beetles. I own several old hammers, axes and planes with their wooden components riddled with bugholes. But how can you prevent bugs from infesting your valuable wooden objects in the first place without using highly-toxic, corrosive, and expensive chemicals containing lead, chromium and/or arsenic? Easy peezy. Borax is the answer.

A Non-toxic and Inexpensive Method of Wood Preservation

There are any number of effective chemicals available for wood preservation. Borax is what I recommend based on direct workplace experience. Its a naturally-occurring white powder sold everywhere as a laundry detergent additive. But it’s not just for washing Gentle Reader’s socks, oh no. It’s essential in many industrial processes, including blacksmithing, where it’s used as a flux when forge-welding iron and steel. Japanese blacksmiths use it too.

The vast majority of borax is mined in California where there are huge deposits in ancient lake beds. You may have heard of famous “Twenty Mule Team” wagon trains once used to transport borax from Death Valley.

For this application you don’t need wagons or mules, just water and borax powder, but NOT Borax-brand washing detergent. Both are sold as laundry additives, so don’t confuse them.

2 mule team wagon A borax mine in Boron, California USA

To prepare this wood preservative and insecticide, dissolve borax powder in warm water to make a 7-10% mixture. Then spray it onto wooden objects at-risk, or better yet, soak the wooden objects in this mixture and let dry. Be careful not to spray the cat or the carpet.

Borax messes with the internal functions of bugs and fungus, but it’s harmless to humans and domestic animals to handle, so long as you don’t soak in it and ingest it. Indeed borax and its variants are the only sure way to protect wood against bugs and rot without putting human life and health at risk. No VOC risk. No carcinogens. It won’t pass through skin. No environmental contamination risk (that’s important). Won’t corrode metal fasteners. It has no odor. And it’s cheap. These are all important reasons for woodworkers to use borax.

There are only two downsides to using borax. First, since it’s water soluble, you need to keep wood treated with borax from repeated wetting or the borax will leach out. Second, you need to keep wood treated with borax out of direct contact with soil because moisture in soil will, once again, leach borax out of wood.

I add borax to the water I soak my sharpening stones to prevent crud from growing. It works for years at a stretch, and doesn’t harm any variety of sharpening stone, synthetic or natural, nor does contact with dissolved borax harm me, or even irritate my skin, so long as I don’t drink it (see the Wood Finisher’s Pledge above). That said, I don’t bathe in it, and I understand that some people have a reaction, so don’t go crazy.

Borax also makes the water alkaline preventing rust.

But before using this mixture to treat wood, please recite the Wood Finisher’s Pledge along with me now: “I will not drink wood preservatives, use CCA impregnated toothpicks, nor wash my face with oven cleaner.”

A Quick, and Cheap But Slightly Toxic Way to Eliminate Bugs from Wood

Borax will kill bugs already in the wood given time, but is there a quicker way to get rid of those voracious beasties?

Here’s a technique to deal with wood-eating bug infestations I learned from woodworkers in Japan. I’m sure its not unique, but I’ve never heard of it being used elsewhere.

Before employ this methodology, please recite the Wood Finisher’s Pledge again, but with more feeling this time.

Simply find the entrance/exit holes bugs chew into and out of an infested wooden object and, using a syringe or pipette, squirt or drip a little gasoline into each of them. You might even soak the wood overall in a bit of gasoline.

But, be warned, because Murphy rules the universe and truly wants to hurt you and yours, be sure you do this outdoors well away from anything flammable. Also be sure to put out your stogey, give your Puffco Cupsy bong a rest, and dial down your “electrifying personality” because “hair on fire” is not simply a real risk around uncontained gasoline, it’s practically garan-frikin-teed.

After judiciouly and carefully applying this small amount of gasoline, you can wrap the object in plastic, or place it into some kind of airtight container, to allow the gasoline vapors to permeate the wood. Do this outdoors, once again, and refrain from smoking. The gasoline fumes will promptly send the bugs, their eggs, and all their chilluns to the big lumberyard in the sky. In nomine Patris et Filii et Spiritus Sancti, Amen.

After a few days, unwrap/unseal the wooden object and place it outdoors in the sunlight to remove the smell of gasoline.

This technique works perfectly, everytime, and cost almost nothing. The chemical companies don’t make a penny on this process which is why you’ve never heard of it.

YMHOS

If you have questions or would like to learn more about our tools, please click the “Pricelist” link here or at the top of the page and use the “Contact Us” form located immediately below. You can also reach us at Covingtonandsons@gmail.com

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My dad had an upholstery workshop. As a student I worked some Saturdays removing a few hundred tacks. For tacks this is the best tool:

 

For nails the clawshaped tools wit a screwdriver handle are better

 In with the new panel.

It has been agreed with CCT to take a SPAB (Society for Protection of Ancient Buildings) approach to this restoration. I.e. minimum intervention/leaving the new timber unstained. It will mellow in in 50 years or so.

The joints drawbored/pulled tight as they were before. It's amazing what oak will put up with!

Shape the ends of the pegs to the moulding, and then a look at the back. The rear of the panel matches the original panels now, with axed chamfers.

When you’re looking at where to buy old tools, you need to decide where to go. When I started collecting tools back in the 1980s, the main places were antique shows and flea markets. Even after all these years, these are still the two easiest places to find general woodworking tools at a good price. You get to look at what you’re buying to see how good the condition is. Then you can barter on the price if you want with the seller. Large antique shows and flea markets have hundreds of vendors during the show. If you’re looking for common planes, chisels, and saws, this is the best place to be. After buying tools for forty years, this is still the primary place where I buy tools.

However, since the ’80s, numerous other places to buy old tools have opened up. Mainly because of the internet. eBay is by far the easiest way to find what type of tool you’re looking for. A simple quick search can lead you right to the type of tool you’re looking for as well as its vintage. Prominent eBay sellers will take multiple pictures of the tool and include a solid description of what you’re buying. On eBay, you can either wait for the auction to be over or simply buy it with a Buy It Now button. eBay is where I’ve been selling my restored tools for the past twenty years and will probably continue to do so for the next twenty.

Antique tool sellers’ personal websites are also another resource. They, too, will categorize their inventory into a search format so that you can easily find what you’re looking for. Tool collector websites often sell tools that are in good to mint condition, so little restoration may be needed. With this, the pricing on their tools will often be more than what certain eBay sellers will have, but not always.

Online classifieds like Craigslist and Facebook Marketplace are another option. In my experience using those platforms, I’ve I have found that sellers are often very vague in their description and only include one or two pictures of what they’re selling. I rarely buy tools through those two platforms as I don’t like having to schedule a time to meet up with the seller, and prices are often too high anyway.

Along with Facebook Marketplace, Facebook tool groups is another way to buy old tools. There are dozens of tool collecting groups on Facebook that specialize everything from restoring workbenches to using stanley planes to collecting infill planes. The members of the group will post pictures of the tools they want to sell along with their price. There are also Facebook groups where you can bid on tools like an auction or even swap tools for trade. I have never bought anything from any of these groups as I have heard and seen too many scammers listing tools they don’t even own just to take money from the buyer and split. Others may have had luck with these groups.

Yard sales is another way to buy old tools. However, the yard sales around me are always filled with clothes and baby toys. Driving around town from a yard sale to yard sale is a painful way for me to spend a Saturday afternoon. Unless it’s a barn sale out in the country, I generally skip any community yard sale, with one very large exception,  The US 127 World’s Longest Yard Sale!

The US 127 World’s Longest Yard Sale runs from Michigan to Alabama on state route US 127 the first weekend of August. This sale is hundreds of miles long and has thousands of vendors who set up from the Thursday through Sunday of the show. In fact, the sale is so large that many sellers will set up the weekend before the show even starts. Anything and everything is sold during this show. Every year, I spend several days traveling up and down US 127 between Ohio and Tennessee looking for old tools. Some years I hit the jackpot, others I get skunked only coming home with a handful of tools. But the show is amazing. I call it the Super Bowl of Antique Shows.

Another good place to buy old tools is from tool collector associations. The largest is the Mid-West Tool Collectors Association, but there are a few smaller regional assoctions like The Ohio Tool Collectors and PATINA. Each association will have shows several times a year around the country where members meet up and show and sell their tools. It’s a great way to meet fellow tool collectors and learn about the tools they own. It’s one of the best ways to learn about old tools and how they work.

The most fun I have buying old tools is from antique tool auctions. I prefer the live ones, but their are a lot more that appear online that I participate in. Live auctions are full of action as the auctioneer bids out the tool to the gallery. I get a rush trying to win something I’ve been waiting several minutes to hit the auction block. I’m always hoping that I’m the only one who wants the tool, and in some cases, that has happened, but for the most part, I have to bid against my fellow tool collectors.  I always have a set price of what I want to pay and also take into consideration if there is a buyers premium and tax taken on top of my bid. Buyers premium is a fee many auction companies will use in order to cover some of the cost of setting up the auction. Many times, the buyers premium will be 10-15%. However, I’ve seen some as high as 20%. You’ll need to be careful when bidding so you don’t inadvertently overpay for your tool. If a buyers premium is 15% and they charge tax, I automatically adjust my bid fees to 20% in my head. So, if I’m willing to pay $100 for a tool, my max bid will be $80.00. $80.00 bid + $12.00 buyers premium, + $6.00 tax comes to $98.00.

 So far the router box turned into a toolbox is moving along swimmingly. I'm on the fence about making a new box for the plunge router but we'll see what shakes out when I'm done with this box and the cherry chest.

I spent the day in the shop but when I killed the lights I was surprised by how little I had accomplished. I was expecting to see a lot more done based on the time I had spent in the shop. 

hiding the plywood

Used the LN 140 to plane a rabbet for the cherry banding. The cherry was left over from Leo's desk. I glued it in the rabbet with yellow and super glue.

last one

Because of the thinness of the banding I didn't miter it at the corners. I used butt joints and they are small enough that they aren't that noticeable.

top done

I picture framed the top of the box in cherry. I banded the inside of the top in cherry too. 

done

I thought of putting banding on the lid/bottom joint line but didn't.  The big thing IMO was hiding the plywood edges at the bottom. Thinking ahead after looking at this was what about handles? Should I put one on the top or on the sides. This is a substantial box with a 1/2" bottom so it will handle a lot of weight. So handles on the sides gets the cigar.

single dovetail

I am going to put two tills in the box. The box is deep and the two tills will make stowing things in more efficient. The top till will be about 1 1/4" high. the 2nd one beneath it will be about 2" high but that is subject to change.

hmm.....

Went together off the saw with one corner a wee bit loose. These single, small dovetails have always caused me problems. The 1/4" plywood bottom will be glued on and that will add a lot of strength to the till.

it fits just shy of snug

The fit should loosen up once I plane it after it has cooked. Both of the tills won't extend fully R/L because of the chain lid stay. The till beneath this one will also be shorter on the width so it can be lifted out/in.

sigh

I thought the plywood I had was enough to both till bottoms but it wasn't so boys and girls. The left over was wide enough but 1 1/2" short on the length. A Lowes run is upcoming.

waiting

Haven't forgotten the cherry chest. I managed to get one tail board in the Moxon and then nada. I turned my attention back to the toolbox build. The idea was to work on the two together but that ain't happening so far.

accidental woodworker 

 It is actually a left turn project for one, and a new start for the 2nd one. The left turn one started at as a box for my plunge router that turned into a possible toolbox. That one is progressing nicely. The 2nd project is a miniature cherry chest. I have churned out a few of these lately in pine, This will  mirror what I have done but in cherry. Looking forward to how this one turns out.

repurposed box

I had to fill in 8 holes left from plowing the top lid groove. I didn't bother to try and bury it in the tails/pins. I don't mind the look of the plugs.

1/2" bottom

I glued the bottom on rather then installing it in a groove.  While this was cooking I started on the cherry chest.

breaking down the cherry

I had two wide cherry boards for the main carcass and two smaller width boards for the base. I think I have a cove molding plane that I'll need for the molding on top of the base. If not I'll look into buying a cove bit.

hmm......

Put the chest together to eyeball the dimensions. When I laid the corners for dovetailing the size of the box looked awkward. I was thinking of making it smaller in the height but changed my mind after seeing it like this on the bench. 

done

Took me a while to layout the tails. I didn't want a boatload like I have the repurposed dovetailed box. I settled on 6 tails and 5 pins. Not too wide apart and not to close together. 

went with quick and easier

I had about a 16th overhang of the bottom all around to flush. I started planing it and stopped. Planing this 1/2" plywood felt like I was trying to plane stone. Zipped it flush with the small battery router and a flush trim bit.

adding screws

I didn't use a lot of glue securing the bottom on. To make sure it stayed home and played nice nice, I added screws.

hmm.......

The bottom is flat and not rocking but the top still has a wee bit of it. I'm leaving that as is. There isn't any compelling reason to knock it back. Nothing will be married to the top so it doesn't matter.

awkward

Cleaned up the outside of the box with the #4. I planed half this way, flipped it, and planed the other half. Didn't get any appreciable tear out and I followed the planing sanding it with 80 grit.

lid is free

I was going to saw the lid off by hand but nixed it. I couldn't figure out any way to secure it so I could do that. Zipped the lid off on the table saw. Bonus is I didn't have to plane the lid or the bottom to fit.

hmm.......

A couple of weeks ago I watched a YouTube vid on someone making a display case where he surface mounted hinges like this in shallow mortise. That left the hinges flush with the surface. I decide to give that try on this box. Unfortunately these hinges set me back almost $50 and I was a bit reluctant to use them. But they were the only hinges I had on hand that weren't thin stamped crappola. 

done

I like this look a lot. They look so much better than just being surface screwed to the box. 

flush

I was concerned about this aspect of the hinging. The lid is flush with the bottom 360.

ta da

Opens and closes smoothly. No binding, creaking, or complaints.

yikes

I went searching for a latch for the box and this box that has my threaded rod clamps fell off the drill press cabinet and this end popped off. I had to make a detour and glue it back together.

latch installed

This brass latch was the only one I had. It has a locking option that I really didn't want. I had 5 sliver ones but the hinges are brass so the latch has to be brass.

cherry off cuts

I'm going to use these on this box. The first will be to cover the plywood edges of the bottom. Thinking of picture framing the top in cherry also. I have the time and I want this box to look nice. Also thinking of putting one or two tills in the box.

accidental woodworker 

 Slowly take the stile off the tenons. When you can see the light, you know you're winning!

Gentle taps and leverage; these mortices possibly haven't seen the light of day for 400 years.

What a joy to see the evidence of the original joiner working the wood. The runout of the plough plane through the tenons, shavings made when chopping out the mortices still in the bottom of the mortice! If you've been careful ,the holes in the tenon should be intact enough, to pull the joint together again.

Place the half of the pulpit to one side and set about removing the broken panel.

Temperatures are rising, here in South Devon, so it was pleasant to be working in the cool of this charming little church today.

I have been working next door and visited the church, on my lunch break. The church does not have regular services, or a congregation and is looked after by the Churches Conservation Trust. Even though it's out of the way, someone had vandalised the pulpit, smashing one of the panels. There was a sign asking for donations, so I got in touch with the Trust and went one better, offering to fix it. I fell in love with the pulpit straight away. It's 17thC and made from riven oak, how could I not!

Guilloches and arcading. Lovely.

The panel that was smashed, was itself a modern replacement; a flat thin piece of oak, which was probably why the miscreant was able to smash it. The original panels are all thicker, with axed chamfers on the reverse, as we would expect on 17th C furniture.

So, first up, drill out the pegs, carefully, with spoon bits and brace.

And extract any remaining pieces.

My circle of friends is mostly populated with men who inspire me due to their knowledge, skills, talents, temperaments and character.   No person better embodies this than my long-time friend Ripplin’ John (you can meet him at my booth at Handworks).  Engineer, craftsman, and theologian, his company is a treasured enrichment to my life.

Mrs. Barn and I recently traveled to attend his exhibit as he received his Sculpture MFA safely into his eighth decade of life!  He is indominable rather than monomaniacal, a distinction worthy of note.  The exhibit attendees were treated to an impressive compilation of work and creativity; his thesis dealt with the question “What Is Art?”

Congratulations, John, and thanks for being my friend and fellow Christian soldier.

Here are some pics from the exhibit.

first one fitted

Off the saw the pins and tails were too snug. It took a while before I got it to come together.

hmm......

Tried sawing the pins a different way and it didn't work out. All of the left side cuts were tapered. Some I could straighten and remove, a few I couldn't.

better pic

I usually saw the left vertical saw cut by looking at the saw on the right side. These cuts I looked on the left side of the saw as I made the cut. I sawed the other end cuts the way I usually do and had better cuts. Need more practice sawing on the left.

sigh

The glue up looked good but it is a wee bit short. Note to Self - double check eyeball measurements with a rule/tape.

off the saw

This side was easier to fit. It fit off the saw but I wasn't happy with the tightness of the pins and tails. I didn't think I would be able to glue it up with yellow glue. I felt the glue would swell the pins/tails and make it impossible to seat the two. Trimmed all the pins with a rasp to loosen the fit.

yikes

Had a brain drain on the measurements. The R/L should have been 11 inches but this is 9 5/8". The edge guide fits but barely. There is zero wiggle room but it will still work.

one more to go

No trimming needed for this one to come together. 

hmm......

Last one fitted, box together, and the guide still fits. The plan was to put this in the underside of the lid.

won one, loss the big one

The long rods fit in the interior. These were planned to keep the guide in the lid company. The big loss is the router. It is too tall to put in the box upright but that wasn't a problem. The plan was to lay it down on the bottom.

nope

Remember the R/L being 9 5/8"? Well it is biting me on the arse here. The router is wider then the width of the box. The router won't fit upright and it won't fit laying down. I couldn't think of anyway to salvage this for the router.

got lucky

Found a piece of 6mm and 1/2" plywood for the top and bottom for the box. At Lowes yesterday a 2 foot square piece of 1/2" birch plywood was $22. The 6mm will be used for the top and the 1/2" for the bottom.

rocking

I don't understand where this is coming from. All the corners are flush or less than a frog hair off. It is rocking on the high corners a healthy amount. Removing the rocking was batting next.

doesn't fit

I have a 6mm iron for my Lee Valley plow plane, The 6mm panel doesn't fit in the groove I plowed.

groove width

 

plywood thickness

It ain't going fit. I wonder if my fellow metric woodworkers have these same headaches?

plowed a shallow rabbet

I ran the rabbet plane 3 times on each side. It was a self supporting fit.

glued and cooking

Needed some help seating the pins and tails. Because of the snug fit and the number of tails, I used hide glue. Hide glue doesn't swell the pins/tails like yellow glue does.

Leo's desk

I'm happy with the dowel joinery I used on this desk. It feels as solid as mortise and tenon joinery. The only downside is what will the desk look like in 20 years?. Will the dowel joinery hold up as well as mortise and tenon joints do.

glamour pic #2

I like the front drawer rail a lot. It doesn't look out of place (IMO) with the rest of the desk.

glamour pic #3

I didn't know if the desk will be up against a wall or not. The back is finished so it can be if needed.

side by side

Both of the grandsons wear the same clothes and share a lot of other same things. The desks hopefully won't be a sore point between them. I don't what one thinking the other got a better deal him.

accidental woodworker

 It has been unseasonable warm for the past 3-4 days. For the past two days the temps got into the low 90's with today topping out at 96F-36C at my house. The official temp for Rhode Island is taking at T F Green airport. That temp was 88F-31C. Normal temps for this time of the year are a high of 69F-21C. According to the blurb I read the temp rarely exceeds 82F-28C. This mini heat wave is supposed to break tomorrow. Fingers crossed on Mother Nature cooperating.

this ain't going to work

 Realized after I got screwed in that it won't stop the drawer from being pulled fully out. It needs another stop between it and the biscuit.

done

Got both of the drawer stops installed without any hiccups. I should have done this on Miles's desk - putting the stop on the tilt rail. Something to remember for the next one.

sigh

I really like how the drawer pulls look against the cherry. Unfortunately the supplied screws are phillips heads which I don't like. I had #5 slotted oval head screws but the heads are too small. I'll get some #6 ones on order ASAP because I can't give this desk to Leo with phillips head screws.

sigh

I was hoping to post the glamour pics of Leo's desk today but that ain't happening boys and girls. I had put a moving blanket on the workbench before I had put the desk on it. There are two drag divots on the top, one small and thin with the other being longer and wider. I couldn't see anything on the moving blanket or something underneath it on the bench that caused it. Regardless I will have to deal with it and for it delaying posting glamour pics.

can you see the router box?

Went to Lowes and bought three 1x12 x 4ft pine boards. The box the router came in gave me the minimum measurements but I had to up them some. There are two router fence guide rods that are 15 inches log - that drives the minimum interior dimensions. The OD measurements are 17x 13x 11 (roughly).

split

I was able to get both long sides and one end from one board. This end had a split that went across the entire width. I broke it in two cleanly and glued it back together. I will let this cook until the AM. 

hmm.......

I hope I never tire making dovetails. It still revs my motor sawing and chopping on two different boards and then having them come together at 90°.  Usually I layout dovetails with a larger pin but I went for a smaller ones because I will be sawing the lid off after the box is cooked.

one side done

When I sized the sides, I did it so any knots or other defects were 4" or more from the dovetails. In hindsight (which sucks sometimes) I should have done one wide tail where the lid would be sawn out.

long sides done

Been a while since I have done so many tails on the ends. Pins on in the on deck circle.

pins laid out

I am a little wary with these boards. Most of the time pine boards I get from Lowes do stupid wood tricks within a day or two. Fingers crossed that these will behave themselves. The remaining two boards will be used for the top and bottom - I'll thickness them down around a 1/2" or so.

The plan is to return the shop after dinner and at least saw out the pins. If I feel ambitious I'll chop them out. Pics on the 11 o'clock news update.

accidental woodworker 

I enjoyed some instruction classes in the mid-1980s by the late, great Tage Frid at the old Woodcraft store at 313 Montvale Avenue in Woburn, Massachusetts.  That store then was still the only Woodcraft, having moved north from Boston in 1968. Woodcraft started as a one-room shop in Boston’s North End in 1928 and later […]

From "The Village Carpenter" 1938
Although the table saw and planer were invented in the early 19th century, it was only in the 20th century - with the invention of small electric motors and ubiquitous electricity - that professional shops, and later, amateurs, started using saws, planers and jointers on a mass scale.

This development substantively changed the process of sourcing wood. If you're imagining woodworkers buying wood in rough thickness and then substantially planing it down by hand, think again. Woodworkers typically bought material, or had it custom sawn for a specific purpose at close to final thickness. In "The Village Carpenter Walter Rose describes having sawyers saw green wood to the right thickness from the get-go for drawers and carcasses and other uses. It was important that the wood was well selected so it was stable and didn't need a huge amount of hand planning to be flat. With the introduction of machines, that was not only unnecessary, but the selection and seasoning of the wood was no longer critical. With the elimination of finicky steps, processing wood became much less expensive. The savings associated with using machines was huge. No need for labor just to plane things flat. And sawing accurately entailed far less mandatory skill.

The first companies to have these machines were lumber yards. "Sam, an East-End cabinet-maker: the pocket-book memoir of Sam Clarke, 1907-1979," includes Clark's description of laying out material for a bedroom set and taking it by cart (no cars) to a nearby lumber yard to be planed. This was London in the early 1930s.

By the 1950s, the revolution was complete. With the gains came losses. The most obvious losses were the growing use of less stable wood and the steep reduction in the range of sizes of materials. If the wood was going to warp anyway, you needed extra material to flatten the board in your shop, so instead of stable material nearly the thickness you wanted, you bought material in 1/4 increments and planned away 1/8" or so. Easy by machine, but not so easy by hand. The machines also allowed a new generation of hobbyists, ones without years of training, to be able to build work in a reasonable time.

This change represented a massive revolution in the way woodworking was done from ancient times to the 19th century. We can argue the pluses and minuses, but the massive changes in the way furniture is made are here to stay.

We are now on the cusp of another profound revolution. Or revolutions. Additive manufacturer (3d printing) is becoming better and better and more shops are using it for a variety of work. Jigs and fixtures to speed up assembly are a typical use of 3D printing, and 3D printed hardware is becoming more and more common. Some designers are experimenting with totally new forms of furniture, some of which is totally 3D printed. In another area, AI tools, which are filling the headlines these days, are helping designers quickly prototype designs to show clients. More importantly, AI tools have the potential to increase the efficiency of the office work of any shop. How these new tools are changing our work - for better and worse - is an important story I will save for another day.

From "The Village Carpenter" 1938
From "The Bench Saw Jointer and Shaper" The WALKER-TURNER CO 1934

fresh batch

Mixed up some shellac after dinner last night. Brought it to my desk to shake it so it would be ready in the AM.

done

Got the right drawer fitted moving in/out smoothly. This one went quicker than the left drawer did. Next batter was flushing the front face flush with the rail.

ready

The on hole  centers is 3 3/8". Center punched the holes for the screws now. I'll install the pull after I'm done applying the shellac. 

easier

Gravity at my age sucks pond scum. Rather then do my dance steps trying to kneel and slap shellac on the base, I put it on the workbench to do that. It made for a slow day getting 3 coats on it to finish it up.

hmm.......

Attaching the top was so much better and easier then doing Miles's. Predrilling and attaching the table top clips paid dividends. I only had to use this ratcheting wrench on 4 clips. 

Got ahead of myself on attaching the top again. I wanted to get the drawer pull out stops installed before top going on. Totally forgot about them and it is going to be a PITA to do it now. I'm not looking forward to that.

hmm.......

I forget how many coats of shellac I have on the top already. Regardless I smoothed the top with a card scraper first followed up with a good rub down with 4-0 steel wool. Put on a coat of shellac. I'll evaluate it later to see if I'll slap on another one.

hmm......

I got 3 coats on the inside and outside and I'm calling that done. There are four coats on the front and I'll be doing one more before I attach the pulls and calling the drawers done.

Already thinking ahead to the next project. It will either be the miniature cherry chest or a box for my DeWalt plunge router. Or it could be something else thrown in from left center field.

accidental woodworker

The last several months I’ve been quiet, mostly. I haven’t been posting much, not because I stopped woodworking, but because I’ve been moving a bit slower lately. My back has been giving me trouble and it has made it harder to work the way I normally do, so I’ve had to slow things down quite a bit.

But slow isn’t the same as stopped.

Even so, the passion for the craft is still there. And so is my interest in sharing what I’ve learned over the years.

I was first introduced to woodworking at the age of seven by my father. He never allowed me near machinery for safety reasons, so from the very beginning I learned to do things with my hands. I remember in primary school my teacher was having a baby girl, so I built a dolls cradle as a gift. He thanked my father for it, when it was actually me who built it.

Handwork stayed with me throughout my schooling. My shop teacher placed strong emphasis on hand tool skills, but machinery was off limits to us. So hand tools were what I had, though if I’m honest, I secretly yearned to work with machinery. Not from any real experience, just assumption. I believed it would produce truer, better quality work, and if I’m being completely honest, I thought hand tools were outdated.

That mindset carried into later life, and it shaped the decisions I made for years.

In 1998, I started a clock making business. Back then I owned almost no machinery apart from a handheld power sander, which I admittedly used a lot. As time went on and I saved more money, I started buying hand planes and more hand tools, mostly because they were the more affordable option, and throughout most of my woodworking life that’s how I worked.

My hand tools displayed proudly on the workshop wall cabinet.

Now I’ll be honest. For a long time I still had that high school mentality that machinery would make life easier. I thought once I could finally afford machines everything would suddenly improve.

So eventually I bought them. Nothing fancy because money was tight. A contractor tablesaw, a pedestal drill, a bandsaw and a few other machines. The pedestal drill barely got used because most of the time I could bore dead centre with a brace anyway. The only thing it really helped with was drilling metal. After about twelve months I realised something surprising. They made me miserable. My eyes were now open to the fact that I never actually needed them. Not for accuracy. Not for the kind of work I actually do.

The serenity I had grown so accustomed to in my workshop was gone. The footprint each machine took up was significant and my workshop became tight to move around in. I was covered in dust. My workshop was covered in dust. The thicknesser screamed so loud I had to close all the doors and windows and clamp ear muffs over my ears. I was constantly checking and rechecking whether the saw was cutting straight, and because of that my production actually slowed. In the end, I sold them.

The one machine I do regret letting go of was the bandsaw. That is a machine I genuinely think belongs in a hand tool workshop. It is practical, versatile, takes up less room, and saves an enormous amount of labour when resawing timber or ripping thick stock close to size before finishing with hand planes.

But apart from that, I realised I did not need machinery for accuracy or efficiency. I had already been doing that for years with hand tools.

It’s not that I dislike machinery, I’m just not a fan of dependence on them. For me, handwork is about attaining and then maintaining skill through continual practice and repetition. It’s also about freedom from relying on machinery to do the work for me.

There’s a deep satisfaction in standing back and knowing the work came directly from your own hands and your own effort. That matters to me. Maybe that’s also why I’ve become more thoughtful about what the word handmade actually means.

And this is where honesty comes into it for me, because it’s something I think about more than most people probably expect.

Especially today when I see so many things labelled handmade that clearly aren’t. If timber goes through a tablesaw, jointer, thicknesser, drum sander and everything else, and someone then says it’s handmade because their hands pushed the timber through the machine, personally, I struggle with that definition. To me, handmade means the skill of the hands carved that piece, turned that ornament, or cut those dovetails. Not a machine.

That’s the honesty I’m talking about.

I completely understand why businesses use machinery. If you’re producing work at volume and trying to keep up with demand, then machinery becomes necessary. But for me personally, I realised I wasn’t chasing speed. I was chasing skill. I wanted to know what my own hands were capable of.

And I think that’s why traditional apprentices were often taught by hand first. Because handwork develops skills that machines never can. Things like reading grain direction, avoiding taper while thicknessing by hand, learning how to deal with reversing grain, and understanding the difference between a planed surface, a scraped surface, and a sanded surface. These are things you only really understand by doing the work yourself.

And I think that’s what keeps me excited about going back into the workshop the next day. It’s not about sales. It’s not about filling orders. It’s the handwork itself.

Making something with my own hands, using my own skill and knowhow, and knowing at the end of it that the work came from me and not from a machine. That’s where the satisfaction is. That feeling of accomplishment.

Ripping a board by hand and not wavering in the cut. Planing it true and square. Making sure it’s parallel to the other side. Taking your time in the process and actually enjoying the moment instead of rushing through it.

It’s about being able to execute operations cleanly. If I’m ploughing a groove, for example, I make sure the blade is surgically sharp. I prepare the surface beforehand and sever the fibres first so there’s no tearout. You take the necessary steps to ensure the operation is performed properly. With hand tools, that preparation matters.

With machine work you’re often forcing timber through using brute force. You lose that connection. And maybe that’s what’s been lost in modern woodworking. The connection a craftsman once had with his materials and the tools he worked with.

With hand tools you’re involved in every stage of the process. You maintain that connection with the wood every step of the way. With a handsaw, you’re following the line, adjusting as you go, paying attention to what the saw is doing in the cut. Each tool becomes an extension of your arm. Each material you approach like an old friend, knowing what it likes and dislikes. Because of that, the relationship between the maker and the work changes entirely.

There’s a real tranquillity in it. No noise complaints from the neighbours. No rushing to get it done.

Handwork teaches you to slow down. And it teaches you one very important fundamental, how to work in harmony with the wood. That’s the beauty of hand tools. These days I work more at a hobbyist level, making the things I want to make, not because I have to, but because I enjoy the process. It’s about the journey more than the destination.

I feel that in the modern home workshop, that mindset has almost disappeared. Everything now revolves around speed. How fast something can be produced, how quickly content can be uploaded, how much can be sold. And this is where The Lost Scrolls of Handwork comes into it, but here’s a brief history first.

The Lost Scrolls of Handwork began years ago as a magazine run by Matt McGrane and myself from 2017 through to 2020. The idea behind it was to create a community based magazine where woodworkers from around the world would contribute through how-to projects, articles on various woodworking topics, and showcases of their work, much like how people contribute their time and expertise to open source projects and web browsers like Mozilla. It was a grand idea that had real potential, had people actually gotten involved. Sadly no one did, and the responsibility of running the magazine fell on the two of us to see it through.

Handwork Magazine in the workshop.

The work became exhausting. Building projects, photographing them, writing articles, editing late into the night. At some point it stopped feeling like creative work and started feeling like factory work. So we stopped and went back to our own projects.

But the idea never really left. Because The Lost Scrolls was never about nostalgia for the sake of nostalgia. It was about preserving an understanding of traditional woodworking and reminding people that handwork still has a place today.

Especially when the day is over and you finally make time for yourself. An hour or two at the bench late at night, or on the weekend, with nobody around. Just the tool, the timber, and your own two hands.

There’s a kind of tranquillity in it. And a real sense of accomplishment that comes with it.

It reminds me of something cabinetmaker and author Tony Konovaloff said to me once, and it’s stuck with me ever since.

“What I make is for others, but how I make it is for me.”

A quiet moment at the bench before the work begins.

This article is now available on:

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/47WEVj8A5O8v9ihV1YeiP2?si=z_ECSnEHQVamjVQobAJyng

Youtube: https://youtu.be/JgE-6UeX-gE

 Wasted the first part of my day with a ghost appointment at the VA. The appointment call was in the system but the actual appointment with the doc didn't exist. What a waste of gas and time. At least I was able to straighten out were my missing Rx's were. Got back to the shop a little after nine.

On a brighter note I am getting real close to the finish line on Leo's desk. Just the drawers need to be done, slap on some shellac, and attach the top and fini. I wonder how long that is going to take me?

I got a quote to ship Leo's bureau and the two desks to North Carolina and the estimate didn't disappoint me. I figured about 2500 to 3000 and the estimate came in at 2800. It is making me rethink renting a U haul driving it NC and flying back home. I'll have to crunch the numbers.

blurry pic lead off

The left drawer is glued and square - less than a 16th off. The blurry pic fits in with the start of my day. The tails were snug and I didn't need any clamps.

oops

Had a mind fart thinking it was through dovetails. Easy fix to knife the proper line and then saw and chop the waste again. The only boo boo is the double knife line. One will be hidden in the pin socket but other won't. Not sure if I'll remove it when I plane the sides to fit the drawer opening.

sawing to the new baselines

Easy going - just laid the saw against the existing tails and sawed down to the line. Chopping the waste was super easy too.

hmm.......

What awaits me when I chop the waste? I filled up the voids with super glue - it is the whitish, gray spots. Chopping the same stuff on the other drawer was drama free but this drawer is worse.

hmm.......

No problems so far. This pin socket has most of the defect crappola. No headaches or hiccups chopping the waste out. 

wee bit too snug

I think I could have made it fit but why risk cracking/splitting a tail? I trimmed the pin socket because I could still see a wee bit of the knife line. That eased the fit enough that I left the tail alone.

the other end

Snug fitting again. These I seated and had a small chip out on the right tail. I trimmed the tail this time and left the socket as is. Glued the chip when I glued up the drawer.

back tails

I was more confident sawing the back tails this time. I double checked myself by eyeballing the first drawer before sawing.

off the saw

Snug and gap free even on the half pins.

loving this prefinished plywood

I don't know what the finish is but it shiny (I like) and tough. This has been hanging out in the shop for months and nada. The finish is still pristine and it looks good as the drawer bottom.

yikes

Houston we have a problem. Both sides taper out from the front to back. The drawer bottom is dead nuts square but I couldn't get it to seat in the drawer front groove without pushing the sides out of the front pin sockets.

what I thought the problem was

I would have bet the ranch that the back length matched the front. Obviously I didn't do that. I don't mind me-steaks like this because they are easy to recover and don't involve free flying lessons and making a new part.

happy face on

I only had to do the pins a wee bit deeper on one side only. Both sides are now dead square to the front.

done

Dry fitted and the diagonals are less than a 16th off. Got it glued up and set aside to cook. Like the left had drawer, didn't need clamps on this one neither.

didn't forget

This is something I usually miss and forget to do before I glue up. I only plane in between the tails - I don't plane in or off the board.

back fits

The top/bottom has breathing room but the sides don't have any. 

hmm.......

The front fits on this side but doesn't on the other one.  I'll try and get this fitted after dinner today. That will give this about 4-5 hours to cook.

sigh

I put the left drawer on the bench to start planing it to fit and stopped. It was rocking a healthy amount. I didn't notice and didn't check this after I glued the drawer up. Planing the twist off isn't the problem. The problem is how much I'll have to plane and if that will make the drawer margins too large. I don't have any figured cherry to match this if I have to make a new drawer.

fitting the left hand drawer

I knocked down 90% of the twist off the bottom. I want the bottom to be flat across the bottom of the drawer opening. I left that and worked on planing the sides and the top getting the drawer to slide in/out easily.

took a while

It took about 30 minutes before the drawer slid into the drawer opening. The drawer front fits snug but I'm not entirely happy with the margins. The flops a bit R/L too that is annoying.

hmm.....

There is still a wee bit of rocking but if I address that I think my margins will go south on me. The drawer slides in/out easily as is so I'm leaving it as is.

checked the right drawer

It has a small amount of twist in it but no where near what its sibling had. I'll hoping that planing it to fit will make it go bye bye.

hanging a bit

The drawer runner shifted on me. It is a wee bit out of square and the drawer is binding around the last 2-3 inches of the back of the drawer. The 073 shaved a wee bit off and removed the binding headache

because of the twist?

This was the best I could get trying to flush the drawer to the front rail. It is either caused by the twist or the small amount of bow in the rail. I marked it so I could plane it fit flush.

hmm.......

I installed the drawer stops now so that the taper I have to plane doesn't change on me. I should have used this drawer stop on Miles's desk.

got it

I wanted the large part of the taper facing me. I stood to the right of the drawer pulling the plane towards me. I was better able to keep an eye on the pencil lines this way.

done - ish

Not 100% happy with this drawer. The margins aren't even and change as the drawer slides in/out. The front face isn't quite flush on the left side end and it is a few frog hairs inset on the right end. As I am looking it from 3 feet away it looks acceptable. Big sigh......

accidental woodworker

Yesterday, I did something that I have never done in 20 years of selling antique tools. I set up a booth at the Burlington Antique Show in Burlington, KY.

The reason for my booth was that my wife, Anita, is down sizing her booth rentals at the new antique mall she is in. She’s been renting two rooms for the past few months. While her sales have been phenomenal,  she found taking care of two rooms, filling it up with antiques was too much to bear. Plus, the majority of the sales were coming from the one room by the register.  The furniture she was selling in the back room, she was getting off her Facebook Marketplace ads. She told me she doesn’t need to spend $400 a month in rent if she could just as easily sell it in the garage instead. Makes sense to me.

So Saturday night, we loaded some of the stuff that was still in the back room and shoved it in my truck to head to the antique show in the morning. Since I was going to work the show, I decided to bring some of my tools with me and put them out for sale.

I decided to bring tools that were too big to ship. I sell planes and smaller items on eBay all the time, but shipping large items has always been a pain in the ass. First, it’s hard to find a box to fit the tool, and then  it’s hard to estimate total shipping if I don’t have the box on hand. I’ve been burned more times than not when it comes to shipping big tools.

I woke up at 4:00am and headed out the door at 4:45, arriving at the fairgrounds at 5:30 am. This gave me 30 minutes to unload and set up the booth. I didn’t have too much stuff as all I had was what I could fit in my pickup truck, but hopefully, I had enough to make it worth my time.

I put most of my tools on a white metal shelf Anita had in her booth. On top were big panel raising planes. On the two shelves were smaller tools that I sold for $5.00 each. I’ve found over the past year that cheap tools don’t sell well on eBay anymore. The buyer will pay $5.00 for the tools but will spend $13.00 in shipping. I mainly ship USPS Priority Mail for the free boxes, but I’ve been rethinking about buying my own boxes and switching to UPS.

The tool of the day was this Stanley No 100 Picture Framers Miter Box. I had $50.00 on it, which was a steal. Even though I could probably sell it on eBay for more, the shipping would be outrageous. In fact, I checked eBay recent sales, and one sold for $50.00 with $120.00 in shipping. No thanks! I’ll sell it here and let the buyer save the money.

I sat out all day sitting on my trucks tailgate and spoke to numerous customers. Everybody was nice and thankfully had cash. I don’t have Venmo, so cash was the only payment I would take. I negotiated with customers all the time, making sure they felt they were getting a good deal. A lot of time, if I had $20.00 on an item, they would ask if I would take $15.00. I always said yes and never missed out on a sale.

My goal was to sell $400 for the day. By 10:00 am I was close at $280.00. The $5.00 tool shelves were the most popular as customers were looking for deals. People would look at the panel raiser planes, but no one offered me anything for one. Anita’s stuff was more popular with customers than my tools, but I expected that. Most of my customers were women.

By noon, I hit my goal as I surpassed $400. There were plenty of customers left still walking around, so I was happy to still sit on my truck’s tailgate. Nearing the end of the show, a guy came back to look at the Stanley No 100 Miter Box. He asked me what my bottom price was for it. I told him $40.00, and he took it. It was a little less than what I really wanted for it, but I was glad it was going to a good home.

In the end, I sold $641.00 worth of stuff. Out of that, $263.00 were my tools. There was an old file cabinet and that white metal shelf that came home with me. Anita didn’t want either one back in the garage, so I took it to the recycling center this morning and got $18.25 in scrap metal for it.

Doing the show was a lot of fun. It was nice sitting out and relaxing a little bit and talking to people all day and making new friends. I’ll definitely do it again. In fact, I’m considering buying an enclosed trailer so that I can bring more items with me in the future. If I had a lot more inventory, I think I could sell thousands of dollars during the show. I know several people who do the same.

I've had this Ohio Tool #96 plow plane for a number of years now and I really love using it.  So much so that I haven't used my Lee Valley plow plane since I fixed up the wooden plow.  But recently I worked on a project that required cutting a groove in the ENDS of a board, and the Ohio Tool plow was not up to the task.  It cuts great (usually) when going with the grain, but across end grain was not good.

Ohio Tool Co. #96

Left side view

My set of Ibbotson irons From right, numbered #1 (1/8"), #2 (3/16"), etc. through #8 (5/8")

Probably 99% of the grooves I make are 1/8", 3/16" and 1/4".  The iron that inspired this post is the 3/16".  I'm trying to figure out why it's not performing as well as I would like.

To get a comparison, I pulled out (for the first time in several years) the Lee Valley plow plane to test it making an end grain groove.  It performed very nicely, with the groove having a smooth bottom and walls.

Nice clean groove in end grain - Lee Valley plow with 1/4" iron

So this had me take a close look at the wooden plow.  It wasn't that my irons weren't sharp - they were.  It just felt like the iron was not well supported well.  This hasn't seemed to affect the plane at all when grooving with the grain.  But with the extra resistance plowing end grain, the plane had a really hard time.  And this was true with a very light set.

I had a close look at the business end of the plane and the first thing I noticed was that there was a little gap between the wedge and the iron.

Showing the skate, iron and wedge

Pencil pointing to a small gap

That gap did not go all the way to the other side of the wedge and iron.  So there is good contact for the unseen part.  I trimmed the wedge a tiny bit to try to get a better fit, but didn't go far out of fear that I might ruin the overall fit of the wedge.

Looking further, I saw that there is not very good contact between the iron and the skate.  Most of you will know that the back of the iron has a V-shaped groove that fits on an inversely similar shape on the front of the rear skate.

Showing the V-grooves on the backs of the 1/8", 3/16" and 1/4" irons

This is where I don't have good contact

A piece of paper easily fits between 3/16" iron and skate

I was able to place that single thickness of paper about 3/8" - 1/2" up between the iron and skate.  This gave me an idea.  I stuffed a double thickness of paper between the iron and skate and trimmed it so that it wouldn't get in the way when I tried to plane a groove.

The double paper thickness went about 3/16" up between iron and skate

But it allowed me to plow a better groove in end grain

I decided then to look at the other irons.  I found the 1/8" iron fit well with the skate - no gap at all.  But the 1/4" iron also had a gap.  When I plowed a 1/4" groove with the grain, I could see the telltale sign that the iron is not supported well.

See the juddering lines in the bottom of the groove?

That means the iron is flexing and jumping as it's cutting - it's not well supported.  And while I was able to cut an end grain groove, it wasn't as smooth an operation as it could be.

1/4" groove in end grain

I ended up testing the 3/16" and 1/4" irons with a couple thicknesses of blue tape between the iron and skate.  I got much better cuts, but that is not a good permanent solution.  Somehow, I need to move the rear skate forward or get the iron to move back toward the skate.

If anybody out there has ideas of the best way to handle this situation, I'd love to hear them.  Please leave a comment.