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Woodworking minus patience equals firewood. 

– Author Unknown

In the previous article in this series, we selected and prepared the wood for our gennou handle and layed-it out in accordance with our design drawings.

The next step in the process is to gather our tools and begin the fun work of making sawdust.  Yeeehaaaa!

Tools

I prefer to use the following tools when making a gennou handle. You will need to have similar tools on hand for layout and fabrication, but the specific choice is entirely yours. 

1. Divider with sharp points (transferring dimensions and tenon layout); 
2. Sharp pencil (making pencil marks (ツ); 
3. Small try square (laying out and checking tenon); 
4. Marking gauges (Titemark and kama kebiki. Marking tenon and centerlines) ; 
5. Marking knife (layout); 
6. Rip handsaw for roughing out; 
7. Hozohiki rip saw and/or dozuki crosscut saw and/or rip saw for cutting the tenon (in hardwood, a sharp hozohiki rip saw frequently makes both rip cuts and crosscuts cleaner and more precisely than a crosscut dozuki saw);
8. A fine saw such as a fret saw or coping saw with a fine blade for making curved cuts;
9. Auriou cabinet rasp (Lie-Nielson) (optional); 
10. Bogg-pattern flat-sole spokeshave (Lie-Nielson) (optional but really handy);
11. Sandpaper; 
12. Satin Polyurethane finish (optional); 
13. Mineral spirits (optional.
14. A board to support the handle-in-progess. I suggest dimensions of 300-400mm long x 50-60mm wide x 40-50mm thick, with a “V” groove cut full-length and a cross-stop inlet about 2/3 its length. The handle will rest, more-or-less securely in this groove, and be restrained at one end by the stop when using spokeshaves and rasps. This support board can be clamped in a vise, or clamped to a workbench with a C clamp. I also find it most efficient to place this board on my benchtop with the gennou handle resting in the v-groove with one end touching my chest, perhaps cushioned by a rag, and use rasps and spokeshaves pulled towards me to shape the wood.

The Tenon and the Unblinking Eye 

Let’s start by cutting the tenon and fitting it to the gennou head’s eye. 

You’ve already layed-out the tenon, so use a fine precision rip saw like or 210mm hozohiki to cut the four cheeks being extremely careful, like a big-eyed kitten stalking a grasshopper, to stop short of the layout line. Be careful to work very precisely with your saw to not cut too deeply as any excess meat removed from the tenon, or sawcuts left in the tenon, will fatally weaken it. I’m not kidding!

I’ve made this mistake more than once, ruining all my work to that point and wasting some nice wood. Indeed, it may be best to cut the shoulders shallow and trim with a chisel, once again being careful to not cut too deeply. Ruthless, merciless, unrelenting control of your naughty inner-badger is critical!

At this point, the handle is a chunky, graceless block with square edges and flat surfaces. That’s alright. There’s no need to contour the handle yet.

Cut itsy-bitsy teeny-weeny chamfers on the end of the tenon to help guide it into the eye without cocking and binding. A big chamfer will benefit nothing and look ghastly.

Mark the reference face annotation on the corresponding tenon cheek because you don’t want to mistakenly force the tenon in bassackwards.

Test fit the tenon into the eye a few millimeters but without driving it all the way on. It should not start by hand pressure. 

Although you shouldn’t have to try tried a full-power test fit, when you are satisfied that the tenon will fit into the eye of your gennou head without the driving forces shaving off much wood, and marked the reference faces, then tape the tenon with masking tape so you don’t accidentally knick or shave it. Don’t ask me why I know this risk exists.

With the tenon close to completion, let’s next shape the curved front, back and side surfaces to fit.

The Back and Front Edges 

Cut the back and front edges (surfaces parallel with the long axis of your gennou head) to your design profile using saws, rasps and/or spokeshaves. The two guiding details in this process are the butt and the tenon, with the tenon being most important. These two surfaces should be shaped to smoothly connect the butt with the tenon, not the other way around.

However, leave the corners square for now to help guide you in shaping the critical back and side surfaces because, if you start rounding and smoothing edges and corners now, it often happens that the geometry which aligns the hammer’s face with chisel and nail will be compromised.

The tools you use don’t matter so long as when this step is complete the back edge is perpendicular to the reference face, the opposing side face, and is consistent with the layout lines. 

I recommend you cut outside the layout lines plus a millimeter or two because accidentally cutting deeper than your layout lines will not only disrupt the even flow of the design but may damage the structural integrity of this elegant, minimalist tool. 

Do not cut or shave the handle’s sides flush with the tenon yet, but leave them just a hair proud. 

When done with the this, lightly remark the centerline and extended the eye’s lines. 

The Sides 

At this point in the process the right and left sides should still be flat and parallel, perpendicular at any point with the back surface, and have neat, square corners.

Use the paper/cardboard profile pattern from your design drawing to mark the handle’s layout on the back and front edges. 

Just as with the back and front edges, cut the side surfaces using saws, a drawknife, rasps and/or spokeshaves.

The transition from tenon to butt should be uniform and smooth. As you approach the final dimensions, be careful to avoid tearout or gouging in the neck area since removing these irregularities may require you to reduce thickness too much. 

Do not cut or shave the sides flush with the tenon’s cheeks yet, but leave them just a hair proud. 

Smoothing and Rounding 

I find it most effective to leave the back edge (opposite the flat striking surface of the head) flat with slighty relieved corners. Some people like to make the back edge of the handle oval or egg-shaped, but I recommend you leave it flat at first and then adjust it to fit your hand as you use the gennou. 

Common sense will scream at you in a voice like a nazgul to round the the back surface or to make it oval-shaped, but while such surfaces might look better hanging on a peg in a hardware store, or feel better when using your hammer to kill coackroaches, it is counterproductive when doing serious work, I promise you.

Why? Because, despite what you may think, a flatter back surface does not bite into the hand in-use, but because of the greater surface area in contact with the hand it provides, actually reduces the pressure of impact reaction forces on the hand reducing fatigue and bruising. More importantly, it helps with quickly and unconsciously indexing the striking face of the head correctly.

With the back edge where it needs to be, next round the front edge into the design profile. I prefer this surface to be more-or-less a perfect radius at any point in the handle area, but some guys feel an egg-shaped cross-section fits their fingers better. Six of one half-dozen of the other.

In any case, this surface must smoothly morph into a flat surface with slightly radiused corners in the neck area, and finally with no radius as it approaches the tenon. Yes, you read correctly: no radius.

I usually round-over the flat on the back edge right where my index finger wraps around to the side just a little to avoid developing a blister. But keep in mind that the only way to tell what small details works best for you is trial and error. 

Doming the Butt 

The butt should be flat with sharp edges at this point in the process. 

You may find a domed butt strange, but it has both a practical purpose and an aesthetical one.

Let’s consider the structural, practical purpose first. If the wood is adequately hard, and the tenon is not too skinny, you will need to hammer the butt like a son-of-a-gun dozens of times to get the tenon into the eye. Don’t start yet, but when the time comes you must be careful with the direction of your hammer strikes to avoid breaking the tenon.

If the butt is flat with crisp edges, unless you have perfect aim with every swing, your hammer might chip or even split the butt. A domed surface directs impact forces away from the edges of the butt and into the neck, helping to prevent chipping. Likewise, a curved butt will also reduce damage to the handle over many years of hard service.

With regards to aesthetics, a domed surface is more organic and, to my sensibilities, more elegant than a flat one because straight lines seldom exist in nature, are boring to the eye, and seldom please it.

A warning. Everyone has different opinions about what pleases the eye, as you know. Beauty is in the eye of the bean holder, or something like that, so I entirely understand if you dismiss the aesthetic reasons I’ve suggested. But please don’t ignore the practical, structural reasons if you want to avoid wasting your time and wood.

Assuming the butt is flat and its surface is more or less perpendicular to handle’s centerline, use a marking gauge set at ¼” to scribe a shallow line along the handle’s edges and sides. Lightly scratch another shallow line the same distance around the perimeter of the butt. These lines will be the limit of the chamfer between the grip and the butt. 

Next, mark a cross on the butt using the front and back edge’s centerline, and a perpendicular line parallel to the back edge. This cross will be useful in profiling the butt. 

Use a knife, chamfer plane, block plane, files or other tools to chamfer to the lines just scratched.

Next facet the butt using planes or a sharp kiridashi kogatana knife and remove all tearout and filemarks. The time for using sandpaper will come later in this adventure when we apply finish. 

Fixing a Loose Head

So here’s the “I toljaso” in advance.

If you were not a clever little big-eyed kitten when fitting the tenon, you may find the tenon becomes loose and the head begins to wiggle with the passing of a few seasons. A Sergent Elias moment!

I won’t say it out loud, but just between you and me and CCP you can remedy a loose head by removing it and shimming the eye with quality high-rag-content typing paper. Don’t have any such paper in your bat cave? Don’t tell the Secret Service I said so, but a strip cut from a dollar bill works best. Crane Stationary makes the best paper in the world.

In the next post in this series we will attach the gennou head to the handle.

Until then, I have the honor to remain,

YMHOS

Lena Dances With the Knight by John Bauer 1915

If you have questions or would like to learn more about our tools, please use the questions form located immediately below. To see a list of our tools and their pricing, or to contact us, please click the “Pricelist” link here or at the top of this page.

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Previous Articles in The Japanese Gennou & Handle Series

• Part 1 – Introduction
• Part 2 – Ergonomics
• Part 3 – What is a Gennou?
• Part 4 – The Varieties of Gennou: Kataguchi, Ryoguchi & Daruma
• Part 5 – Kigoroshi
• Part 6 – The Ergonomic Anaya
• Part 7 – The Unblinking Eye
• Part 8 – Head Style & Weight
• Part 9 – Factory vs. Hand-forged Gennou Heads
• Part 10 – Laminated Gennou Heads
• Part 11 – Decorative Gennou Heads
• Part 12 – The Drawing: Part 1/6
• Part 13 – The Drawing: Part 2/6
• Part 14 – The Drawing: Part 3/6
• Part 15 – The Drawing: Part 4/6
• Part 16 – The Drawing: Part 5/6
• Part 17 – The Drawing: Part 6/6
• Part 18 – Wood Selection
• Part 19 – Laying-out the Handle

cooked overnight

This was going to be the ends for the new miniature chest. Didn't know it here yet.

eats up a lot of real estate

The bottoms are done on all of them. Next up is getting 4-5 coats on the rest of them.

yikes

One of the ends and this decided to shake hands with me. There was a split/crack on one end what when I tried to open it up so I glue it, it split opened from end to end. It didn't separate entirely making it easier to fill it with glue and clamp.

I made another end but it was thicker than the other original one. I had the stock so I just made another end panel so the two would be the same thickness. 

one miniature chest

There is surprisingly little stock required to make this chest. Two ends at the front with the front, back, and lid behind them.

came yesterday

This a 1/2" timber wolf wood slicer resawing bandsaw blade. I got it from Highland Hardware. Can't wait to see if this is the cats meow for resawing.

hmm.....

The fence and the blade ain't square to the table. Fixed that boo boo before I tried resawing again.

big negative on that Houston

The 3/8" chinese bandsaw blade had zero problems ripping through this pine. Unfortunately for me the cut was far from stellar. Parallel at this end (the entry) but angled on the exit.

this ain't good

Again, the blade eased through this better than a hot knife going through a tub of cheap oleo. This cut is something new for me. I had tried to push the stock through the blade like I have seen on a bazillion You Tube vids. The saw cut had a mind of its own than this was what it wanted to do. 

yikes

This was the last resaw I attempted. I pushed the stock through the blade. I didn't go nutso pushing the stock tight against the fence as I pushed it forward. I have yet to see one You Tuber pushing against the fence as the stock is fed into the blade. Time to step back, resist the urge to give free flying lessons, and think about what the (*^)(_*(!@$^&*)_@(+$ am I doing wrong.

need a dutchman

The grain is uplifted here and it will be a catch hazard. A dutchman will cure that hiccup.

good fit

It is ready to glue with a few gaps. My initial knifing of the dutchman was faint and I had trouble refining them when I chiseled the outline.

glued and cooking

No need to clamp this. The dutchman fit snug.

why?????

One continuous cut, smooth with zero binding or hesitation. Why can't I duplicate this cut with resawing?

comparison

Sawed these notches on the bandsaw. Smoothed one and the top one awaits its turn. The amount of scalloping wasn't effected by pushing it slowly or fast through the blade. Rough as it is/was, it was square to the face.

hmm......

The side panel is proud of the leg on the end. This is harder to fix then if the leg was proud of the side panel.

fixed

The side panel and the leg are flush now. I used the same fix on all four legs.

the fix

Planed four strokes with the LN 140 making a shallow rabbet. I wasn't too concerned about an exact depth. If it was a little too deep, a few strokes with a plane on the leg would flush it. Nailed the front and back on with 5 cut nails on each end with a wee bit of glue.

ledgers

Nailed and glued the ledgers on that are for the plywood bottom to be secured to.

bottom in dry

Thinking on whether or not to put a molding here to keep the bottom in place. I did that on the previous miniature chest and I like it.

lid and the back doohickey thing

I like the proportions of this miniature chest more than the previous one. The length to width ratio looks better to the eye IMO.

hmm......

The doohickey thing has a healthy cup to it. I was able to clamp and flush it with the back edge of the lid. Not getting a warm and fuzzy with it in spite of the ease with flushing up. I would rather have doohickey thing be straight and flat from the git go. 

I hadn't expected to get this far with the chest today. After I got the front and back nailed to the ends, everything else just fell into place. No hiccups or road blocks. This will be painted with milk paint and the pigment dyes I bought. Blue for the main body and red for the lid. At least that is the plan as of today.

accidental woodworker

 The old body isn't screaming at me but it is achy through my back into my upper thighs. What surprised me was my left shoulder didn't hurt. There was a wee bit of achiness but no rip your face off pain. 

The plow  truck came through overnight and it was expected. They blocked off the end of the driveway and the front door walk way. They also only plowed my side of the road. They made another run around lunch time. So I had to shovel twice more today but I lucked out because it wasn't nowhere near the blizzard level snow dump.

sigh

Not too bad and it took me a little less then an hour to clear the driveway and the front door walk through. No hiccups with the left shoulder, I was expecting it to start singing arias within a heartbeat but it didn't.

hmm.......

It is signed 2023 but I would bet a lung that it was older than this. I think I signed this when I hinged it. I know this sat in the boneyard for several years without hinges. This is the pine/cherry jewelry box and I'm slapping shellac on it finally.

sigh

The banding is offset on this corner. It looked like crap and was setting off alarm bells in OCD central. Chiseled it off and glued on another piece.

wow, and wow again

I can't believe how dark the legs and bottom banding on the small box popped after just one coat of shellac. I think this is ebony but I'm not sure. Regardless, I am in love with the color.

flattening

I didn't go nutso on this. I planed the hump on one face and the cup on the other. Made no attempt to make the faces dead nuts parallel. No pain working with 3 different planes flattening this board. I wasn't sure if the left shoulder would protest or not.

done

Happy face on. The board ended up 11/16" thick which was my target.

resaw time

The blade is only 3/8" but it didn't protest resawing this scrap of pine. The blade effortlessly glided through the board with no binding or hesitation.

hmm....this sucks pond scum

In spite of the ease sawing the stock it didn't come out okey dokey. The saw cut is angled. The outside cuts aren't usable but the middle one is.

why I was resawing

This board will give the ends for the miniature chest. I am going to dutchman this pitch pocket but not the knots. Pitch pockets can bleed and run when the temperature gets hot.

second step

Knife and the chisel the outline of the dutchman. I chiseled it out and checked the depth with an adjustable square.

good fit

There is a bit of a gap on the top long edge. It isn't a big deal and I'll fill it with wood putty. This is going to be painted and won't be seen.

glued and clamped

Tomorrow I plan to go to Lowes and buy a couple of  1x12 pine boards for the miniature chest. I'll whack that out before I start on Miles's desk.

two coats of shellac

Two coats on the body and three coats on the feet. One more to go on them and they I can finish the rest.

accidental woodworker

I had been having trouble getting this plane to work properly.  The front of the frog does not make contact with the plane's main casting; it is essentially cantilevered over the casting forward of where its seat mates with the casting's frog receiver.

With frog bolted down, can fit cardboard under the toe of the frog

And this caused the plane to shudder as it tries to glide over a workpiece.

You can see the waviness of the cut

I thought if I filled the gap under the frog, the cantilever would be eliminated and maybe the plane would be more stable and cut better.  First, I stuffed a few layers of business card under there to see what the gap measured.  Turned out to be about 0.052".  I planed some maple to 0.056" thick - no small feat - and stuck another block to it to fill not only the space under the frog's toe, but also the space under the frog just forward of the casting's frog receiver.

The block and a piece of thin maple

My intent was that the top of the block would be in line with the top of the frog receiver, the slanted part would match the roughly 45 degree angle on the underside of the frog, and the thin base would support  the frog's toe.  This turned out to be a major pain in the ass, as I had to fit the piece, bolt on the frog, test it out, take it apart, make minor adjustments and repeat - many times.

In the end I would have needed to whittle away most of the slanted part of the block to allow the frog to be far back enough to bolt it down.  So I tried something much simpler - just go with a thin piece of maple, 0.056" thick, under the toe of the frog.  In the following picture, you can see the piece of wood in place.

Looking at the sole from toe end - the white is the maple piece

Well, time will tell if this fix works for the long haul, but for now, the plane seems to be working fine.  I planed some pine with no juddering, then some red alder (a relatively soft hardwood) and some pretty hard red oak, all with a nice smooth surface finish.

Planing some fine shavings of red oak

Nice smooth surface!

Could it really be as easy as that?  Maybe I'll keep this plane after all.  But if there is anybody out there who collects Dunlap planes and would like this one (for free), please contact me and I'll be happy to let it go.

A few days, ago my longtime friend retired broadcaster Brian Wilson and I had another of our long-form chats, commenting about the state of the world.  He posts these and other musings on his Substack account, Brian Wilson Writes.  Feel free to indulge (or punish) yourself as our conversations are definitely no-holds-barred, not for the easily offended.

I must have gotten some snow blindness because I was way off on how much I had to shovel. 16' didn't even make it to the end of driveway. I measured once I cleared it out to where the plow trucks dumped their stuff. From where I left off yesterday to the snow line in the road was almost 42 feet. I would have gladly accepted it being 16'. I started shoveling it at 0738 and I got done with it at 1248. I worked right through lunch because I just wanted it over and done with.

a little over 3 hours

I still have a chunk of snow on the right to shovel. My shoulder was starting to hurt a lot here. To add an insult to injury, it snowed for most of the time I shoveled. It turned to rain briefly before ending. On a brighter note, Mr Sun said hello around 1400.

awesome helpers

These are like football cleats that went on a super crash diet. Absolutely no slipping and sliding with these on. Because they slightly elevate your shoes they don't get soaking wet. I wouldn't have survived shoveling the driveway without them.

almost forgot to snap this pic

The fruits of my labor. I am going to be sore for a while. I can't lift lift my arm up above my left shoulder. Can't remember whether to ice it or apply heat. I'll google it later on.

I went to Shaws to get some vittles and my street was barely a single lane. There is no way two cars could pass each other. I noticed that a couple of side streets weren't plowed at all. The main road going to Shaws was clear but the left lane (4 lane road) was a wee bit short on the width. That made for an interesting drive dealing with the morons in the right lane. 

hmm.......

This walnut bookshelf didn't want to get its pilot license. It isn't rocking here at all. No rocking when I checked on the tablesaw top neither. I'll be keeping an eye on it to make sure it behaves.

been two days

I was too impatient to wait another day because I had to see how it looked right now.

about the same

I really couldn't see any difference after this second heat and clamp. There is still a wee bit of a cup on one face and a hump on the other face. Still much better than what it was before I tried this. When it comes time to plane the hump/cup I shouldn't lose that much in the thickness. Hoping it will be about a 16th or less.

almost done

This almost didn't get the final check mark today. My shoulder stopped singing arias and was screaming at me. I stayed in the shop long enough to get the last two bandings on and clamped. This was all I got done in the shop today. I don't expect to light the world on fire with shop time in the AM. That is dependent upon how much use my left arm will have to render.

accidental woodworker 

Last March, I was teaching a bowl-from-a-plank class at Pete Galbert’s. After the students finished their longer bowls, we made what I call an “ice cream bowl.” It was a good opportunity to reinforce the skills and techniques we had … Continue reading →

Hulot, pere "L'Art du tourneur mecanicien" 1775
Prior to the Industrial Revolution, the two most common styles of lathes were pole lathes and great wheel powered lathes. Pole lathes featured a string looped around work held between centers. One end of the string was fastened to a springy wood pole and the other was attached to a pedal. The turner would press down on the pedal and the work would rotate in one direction. The work would be cut and then the turner would let up on the pedal so that the pedal would be pulled up, rotating the work in the wrong direction, and concurrently resetting the string for the next cut. This method worked well -- and a pole lathe was very easy for a capital-deprived turner to afford. The image above features a pole lathe in action at a French shop for wood and ivory turning. Interestingly, while the person in the back is sawing out stock, two people, one looking pretty young, are roughing out stock before it gets turned. Pole lathes work with an interrupted motion, and rounding the stock saves oodles of time. The lathe itself, with a springy pole attached to the ceiling, was pretty standard. This image from 1775 isn't the earliest image of turning, but it is representative (and also makes for a great opening picture for this blog post).

Joseph Moxon's "Mechanick Exercises" 1680
The second way of powering a lathe was using a great wheel (as in the picture above). A large wheel - as large as the turner had space for - was mounted in line with the lathe and connected with a string belt. A second person turned the wheel, powering the lathe while the turner cut wood. This model worked very well, giving the turner continuous motion, but had the downside of requiring a second person's involvement.

At the time of the picture (1680) water and water mills could have been used to gear up a wheel to power a lathe, as it was used for all sorts of larger machinery. I do not know know of a specific case where this occurred, and I am not sure if the mechanics at the time were precise enough to drive a line-shaft fast enough to be practical for a lathe.

Many permutations of the pole and great wheel lathes existed. The spring of the pole could be replaced with a bow, and all of the early books on lathes show pole type lathes with small crankshafts on the ceiling which could be pumped by a second person with the cord attached to the crank.

The main problem with a pole lathe was the interrupted rotation. The main problem with a great wheel lathe (and its derivatives) was the need for a second person. You could, I suppose, also use a treadmill apparatus for an animal, but I haven't found any examples of lathes being powered in such a way.

There exists a drawing from 1480 by Leonardo da Vinci that shows a treadle lathe. Was it something he saw, dreamed up but didn't build, or actually built what he designed? There is no proof one way or another for any of these options. The earliest image I have of a treadle lathe dates from 1680 and appears in Joseph Moxon's "Mechanick Exercises." That might be the first published image of a treadle lathe in literature, but I'm not sure. Considering how many pages are devoted to pole lathes and great wheel lathes in the few lathe books that exist from the 17th and 18th century, you have to make an assumption that treadle lathes were not that common. Moxon shows the treadle (below) on a special lathe for oval turning. It's doing fairly light work, but Moxon says that the treadle is useful for turning oval work, as is a great wheel lathe, because you needed continuous motion.
Joseph Moxon's "Mechanick Exercises" 1680
Charles Plumiers "LArt de Tourner" 1701
Plumier, writing in France in 1701, has drawing upon drawing of pole lathes, great wheel lathes, overhead drive mechanisms. The first illustration in his book is of a large lathe which has an overhead hand cranked wheel and a pole option. But a few pages later, a large illustration (above) of another main lathe shows the same hand-pumped flywheel mounted on the ceiling as before - but no spring pole option. Later in the volume, he detailed the parts of this lathe, and the detailed drawings shows something interesting.

Charles Plumiers "LArt de tourner" 1701
Whereas in the main drawing the pull cord for the flywheel is clearly meant for hand action, the drawing above shows how to connect the flywheel on the ceiling to a floor pedal. As near as I can see from the drawings, the flywheels are just heavy wheels of solid wood and would work but are pretty light for a general purpose lathe. This is a big deal. Part of the advantage of a flywheel is that the flywheel stores energy and evens out the footwork so the lathe is powered all the time, not just on the downstroke of the pedal. The pedaler might be coasting on the way up, but the lathe is still drawing power throughout the entire stroke.

Later in the book, Plumier shows a light duty treadle lathe. This makes sense: a lot of the fancy work Plumier described required continuous motion and many of his readers were hobbyists who would want to work alone.

But these circumstances changed. By 1800 (and certainly by 1840), treadle lathes became all the rage - from the high end of Holtzapffel, to random low-end lathes for homeowners and hobbyists. I found many advertisements for these lathes. If you were a small shop or a hobbyist, the treadle lathe was the way to go. Great wheel lathes disappeared and factory line shafts appeared in mills. Pole lathes remained in use at least until the middle of the 20th century by bodgers working in the forest, where it was easier to turn chair parts in the forest then haul out raw wood.

What changed?
What happened?

It's easy to point to the nature of invention, to say that things have to be invented piece by piece by piece by piece. And the treadle is a natural evolution for small lathes. But I don't think that's the real case. If you're in a production environment, a great wheel lathe allows you to have continuous turning - as long as you have someone to do the powering. With the overhead drive motion seen in Plumier and Moxon and even earlier in Felibien (below), a turner could be very productive cranking the overhead crank if you had somebody else helping. In a production environment, a great wheel made a lot of sense. Pole lathes made a lot of sense as well because they entailed very little capital to build one, and they worked well for a one-man shop. Moxon's treadle lathe is a dainty little thing, with Plumier is not far behind. Plumier's overhead flywheel powered by a treadle could be operated by one person. The wooden flywheel could be big and store more momentum, but it would far from ideal. Plumier also illustrates a fairly lightweight treadle lathe, but it had a wooden flywheel.

I think the key is that there's a technical problem with all treadle lathes before 1780. The flywheels that you see in Moxon and Plumier are of wood - and they are simply not heavy enough. Holtzapffel tells us that the flywheel should weigh anywhere between 30lb and 100lb (for a big metal turning lathe). The flywheel also has to be machined and balanced, otherwise the entire lathe would shake and wobble. The cast iron flywheel on our treadle lathe weighs about 30lbs. But the operative word is cast iron. Cheap cast iron is an 18th century invention, and the ability to machine the grooves easily is a very late 18th century invention. While a great wheel lathe can be huge and made of wood, it gets its momentum from its diameter, not its weight. A treadle flywheel that has to live under a lathe bed and has a maximum diameter. It gets its momentum from mass. While it was certainly possible, even in the 16th century, to make a heavy bronze flywheel, accurately machining and boring it would be very difficult before 1800. And if the flywheel isn't machined, it's useless.

Up until the late 18th century it was possible, but very difficult, to can make a balanced cast flywheel except on a onesie-twosie basis, so it wasn't until the 19th century that machining a cast iron flywheel was cost-effective.

We actually tested a wood flywheel in an early prototype of the lathe. It worked, but not as well as the same same flywheel did when we bolted some metal plates to it. There are of course tradeoffs in weight, and some basic physics involved. If you have a light flywheel, the lathe is easier to start and spin, but it doesn't hold a lot of momentum, so heavy cuts slow it down a lot. If you have a heavy flywheel, the lathe is hard to start and you have to pedal for a few seconds to get it up to speed, but then it can power through work and its overall performance is better. In other considerations, a heavier flywheel is harder to move around, and it and costs more. Flywheel design is a compromise between usability and cost.We thought the learning curve would be easier with a cast iron flywheel, ideally in the sweet spot of a good bit heavier than a wood one, but on the lighter side of the weight range.

Incidentally, there's almost no literature on the design of treadle lathes. Part of the interest fueling this project for the past 3 years has been understanding the engineering why something was done and then actually testing it out - i.e., reinventing the wheel.

The drawing of a treadle-powered grinder (below) from Hulot is interesting. Chronologically, Hulot is later than the other references in this blog. The book published in 1775, with parts written very significantly earlier than that. But the grinder, unlike the traditional pole turning lathe at the start of this blog, is high tech. I can't tell if the flywheel is metal or not, but it looks metal to me, and in 1775 or earlier making it would have been quite a trial.

Lastly, Flibien's book is slightly earlier than Moxon's, but the lathe is nearly identical to the other lathes shown here. And we have the combo power option of pole or wheel. I originally thought that this was a drawing convention with a weird perspective, but I wonder if having a pole made it possible for one person to do pretty heavy turning, but having a wheel option allowed for faster, lighter work, if a second person were available to pump. (Lighter work because it's a wooden flywheel)

Hulot, pere "L'Art du tourneur mecanicien" 1775
Andr Flibien "Principes de l'architecture, de la sculpture, de la peinture, &c." 1676

The last big blizzard was in 1978 and I missed it. I was somewhere in the north Atlantic onboard the USS Cavalla SSN 684. My wife had to deal with it but she survived, She had gone to her mother's house to ride out the blizzard. The snowfall from this blizzard was over 2" more than the 1978 one. Kind of wish I had gone to north carolina with my wife now.

this sucks

I shoveled the spot in front of the truck and my wife's parking spot first. I waited until after I made a trip to the shop first.

this is going to hurt

The city only plowed a single lane down the street. The end of my driveway has an extra 5 foot wide mountain of snow I'll have to shovel . The headache is there is ittle real estate to dump snow. On a brighter note, about a 1/3 of the driveway had almost no snow. The wind blowing pushed a lot of snow down to the end of the driveway.

hmm.......

Starting the banding yesterday and before I went out to shovel all that white crap, put on two more pieces. I attached the banding with super glue and fingers crossed that it holds up over time.

wife's spot

Shoveled the back stoop and this spot. The sun was shining and it was kind of warm, the temp was above freezing (0C). Almost 2 hours of my life that I'll never get back.

21"

When there is this much of the white stuff, this is close enough. The back right corner was over 24". This is the foundation of the old garage and it is where I park the truck. Shoveling my wife's spot and mine took me a little over four hours.

welcomed

The bare spot was nice not having to shovel. This part of the driveway is a ROYAL PITA. The left side doesn't have any where to dump snow. So I have to shovel and walk it over to the right and dump it there. It was good work out. I quit here with about 16 more feet to go before I hit the road.  

90 minutes

Cleared it from the front door to road. At least the postman and deliveries can be made. I didn't do the front sidewalk. I'm sure the plows will be coming through again to widen the road, or I hope they do. Then I'll shovel a path to walk in.

hmm......

Banding is almost done. There is one more going around the top of the lid. This would have looked better if I had inset the banding into the box. This being plywood, it would have been a nightmare plowing the dadoes for that. 

WTF?

The walnut bookshelf is rocking still. The left rear leg is a 32nd off the saw table. I am at a total loss as to what is causing this to lay flat on one day and the next day rocking again?

awkward

I had to sand the left front leg to eliminate the rocking. Moving the bookshelf over the sandpaper and trying to hold it at the same time was difficult. I finally got it to lay flat on the tablesaw and not rock. Also didn't rock on the outfeed table and the workbench. There is free flying lessons available if this rocks on me in the AM.

done

These were done a few days ago but I forgot to post it. I am going to have to figure out a stop of some kind for kickstand leg. As is it goes back to far, thinking of gluing a ribbon as a stop. Other than that I like how they turned out. 

Didn't finish the shoveling. I will be back at in the AM. My back doesn't hurt right now but my arms and shoulders are a wee bit sore. How I'll feel in the AM is a question mark.

accidental woodworker 

Not all those who wander are lost.” 

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

 

Introduction 

In previous articles in this frightfully sexually-charged series, Beloved Customer produced a design drawing for your gennou handle based on the parameters of your actual gennou head and your body. You should have also selected, or at least rolled out of bed onto the floor, opened on eye, and seriously considered, an appropriate stick of wood. Assuming you’ve procured said stick, let’s get to the layout. 

Tools 

There are as many ways to layout the shape of a hammer handle as Carter has pills. I won’t tell you how to do it or what tools to use, but after making dozens of gennou, hammer, and axe handles for myself and customers, I prefer to use the following tools. You will need to have a similar set of tools on hand for layout and fabrication. 

1. Divider with sharp points; 
2. Sharp pencil; 
3. Small try square; 
4. Marking gauges (Titemark and kama kebiki); 
5. Marking knife; 
6. Rip and crosscut handsaws for roughing out; 
7. Handplanes for creating the flat sides and edges in preparation for layout;
8. Dozuki crosscut and/or rip saw for cutting the tenon;
9. Auriou cabinet rasp (Lie-Nielson); 
10. Bogg-pattern flat-sole spokeshave (Lie-Nielson); 
11. Bogg-pattern curved-sole spokeshave (Lie-Nielson); 
12. Sandpaper; 
13. Satin Polyurethane finish; 
14. Mineral spirits. 

Can you get by with fewer tools? Of course. A pencil, handsaw, hammer, marking gauge, dividers, and pocket knife are a minimum set. Will this minimalist set take more time, produce more blisters, prove frustrating, and produce an inferior handle? Absolutely yes. But it can get the job done.

Layout 

Select a board or stick with dimensions a little greater than the length, height, width, and thickness of your handle design, with 6 flat, parallel, square sides. 

You can prep this board or stick using electrical tools, but if you can’t do it with handtools alone, I strongly encourage you to work on your basic skills. In this age, surprisingly few have these skills.

Looking back on the old texts, one of the first tasks assigned trainees in cabinetmaking technical schools and apprenticeships was making a number of sticks or boards like this because this job combines many of the essential tools skill while developing an understanding of the material. I can attest to the bullet-proof validity of this concept.

1. Begin your layout by selecting and marking a flat and wind-free side of the selected board corresponding to a profile view on the drawing to be the “reference face.” Don’t forget to label this critical surface somehow so there will be no confusion moving forward.
2. Plane the surface of the board that will form the handle’s back edge (seen from above in plan view) flat and perpendicular to this reference face. All further layout will be indexed from these two faces. 
3. Mark the maximum thickness of the handle on the surface opposite the reference face, as determined by the widest dimension of the butt, using a marking gauge against the reference face.
4. Plane all the surfaces flat, free of wind, and where appropriate, planar. This needs to be done pretty precisely.
5. Use a marking gauge to draw the appropriate centerlines on both sides, edges, ends of the board/stick.
6. Use dividers to measure and layout the width of the eye, centered on the centerline you just marked, and spin this around the eye, butt, back edge and front edge. 
7. Make paper, cardboard, or wood patterns based on your design drawing of the handle’s elevation and profile views. Paying close attention to minimize grain runout, especially in the tenon and neck area, position the patterns and mark the board. 
8. Using these cardboard patterns, carefully layout all the tenon’s dimensions on the board, measured from the reference face and back edge. Be sure to make the tenon a half-sheet of copy paper too large in width and thickness. This can be trimmed down later if the fit is too tight. 
9. Adjust the lines of the handle design to meet your requirements for beauty.

In the next post in this series we will begin making sawdust. Oh joy!

YMHOS

Two Trolls by John Bauer, 1909. Not wanting to pay for the bread oven your humble servant has just installed, Granny Troll is trying to convince me to climb inside and do a closeup inspection. Will I fit? Do you like my fetching new shoes?

If you have questions or would like to learn more about our tools, please use the questions form located immediately below. To see a list of our tools and their pricing, or to contact us, please click the “Pricelist” link here or at the top of this page.

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Previous Posts in The Japanese Gennou & Handle Series

• Part 1 – Introduction
• Part 2 – Ergonomics
• Part 3 – What is a Gennou?
• Part 4 – The Varieties of Gennou: Kataguchi, Ryoguchi & Daruma
• Part 5 – Kigoroshi
• Part 6 – The Ergonomic Anaya
• Part 7 – The Unblinking Eye
• Part 8 – Head Style & Weight
• Part 9 – Factory vs. Hand-forged Gennou Heads
• Part 10 – Laminated Gennou Heads
• Part 11 – Decorative Gennou Heads
• Part 12 – The Drawing: Part 1/6
• Part 13 – The Drawing: Part 2/6
• Part 14 – The Drawing: Part 3/6
• Part 15 – The Drawing: Part 4/6
• Part 16 – The Drawing: Part 5/6
• Part 17 – The Drawing: Part 6/6
• Part 18 – Wood Selection

I don't know where this official level was done, but it wasn't in my part of the universe. The drifts here might be that high but the actual amount of snow on the ground is probably less than a foot. The wind blew all day long blowing snow into drifts and then blowing them away into a new drift. I didn't shovel at all today because of the wind. I'll do the shoveling  tomorrow, as long as the wind has died down.

hmm.....

The two walnut bookshelves side by side. Initially I was going to leave the left one with flat feet. Nixed that in favor of having the shelf tilted backwards. There are slight differences between the two of them as I didn't want to make clones.

back slats

With the angled fronts this design allows for the back slats to be positioned higher. With the rounded ends I have to be careful about how close I place the top one to the round over. 

On Miles cherry bookshelf I put the top back slat a wee bit too far down. It has no effect on the bookshelf's function it is more of an aesthetic option. 

needs help

I sawed the front and rear legs with a dozuki saw. First look was good but it was rocking some. Trying to plane the front leg was difficult and I switched to a 80 grit sanding stick. 

99%

Took 5 sand/plane and check steps before 99% of the rocking disappeared.  Called it done here.

yikes

The holder for the saw went south on me. I stapled the heel of the plastic for now. If it fails again I'll go to plan #2.

sweet

Wow. This came out much better than I expected it to. The cup on this end was more than an 1/8" at the middle. Now it is about a 32nd and to the eye it looks flat. I'll try this again hopefully with the same results.

not square

I should have planed the angle on the ends before I glued the bookshelf. I didn't and it was awkward trying to hold the bookcase and plane the angle. Got it done but it ate up a lot of calories and time.

no twist

The bookshelf was rocking again. )@&#Q%_*_^_)*(^@%& Checked for twist and there was none. On the workbench it was, with the back left foot a good 16th shy of it. Did I cause it by planing and sanding it after I did it the first time?

done, again

No plane this time. I got it done with a 80 grit sanding stick.

double, triple checking it

Tried it for rocking on the tablesaw, the out feed table, and the workbench. This time I installed the Miller dowels before I sanded the feet. That added a more rigidity to the bookshelf.

new batch of shellac

Used the last of my shellac flakes and I'll have to order some more. I think I have enough to finish the current 3 bookshelves.

why I'm banding it

I have to cover the screw holes I plugged because they look like crap. I have enough of this banding left to do the top of the bottom and the bottom of the lid. I am using super glue to attach the banding.

hmm.....

 The end that wasn't cupped, decided it wanted some attention too. I heated both ends with my heat gun and clamped it again. This time I'm going to leave it clamped for a few days.

My wife just emailed the snowfall tallies for Rhode Island. Warwick, where I live, had 30 inches fall. I just looked out at my driveway and I still don't see 30 inches. The wind is still blowing and drifting the snow. 

accidental woodworker 

With a break in the brutal winter weather I got myself up into the woods to chop up that grove of black birch trees that came down last winter.  The amount of firewood from this one incident of windfall is about what we should need next winter, but even when done here I’ll keep at it.  It’s fun and good exercise.

The work site was quite the mess so I spent most of the first day just clearing brush, then got to work chopping my way up the trunks.  I got two good truck loads of 6-8″ 16-inch bolts with the occasional 10-12″ piece, but those were almost outside my lifting ability.   I followed those two loads with two more today.

Once I get to the biggest section of this tree, about 20 feet from the root ball, the pieces will be 20-inches in diameter or more.  Those will be so heavy I will have to roll them to the tailgate and up the ramp into the truck.  If past experience is any indicator each one of the biggest sections will yield 32 pieces of firewood that are manageable in size.

Another couple days and another couple truckloads and I will be done with harvesting from this site.  Then on to splitting and stacking.  I’ll use a system new to me I’m adapting from Mike Wilson, whose yootoob channel is one of my favorites.  Previously I just spent way too much time stacking carefully to make everything “just so,” crisscrossing each layer for good stability and air flow.  This new system should cut my time by at least half with even better air flow.

Then on to harvesting some more windfall elsewhere on the homestead.

Good thing my little 4WD S10 is strong and nimble.  It may be dissolving before my eyes and maybe not reliable for long trips anymore but I’ll keep it until it runs no more

This is my basic made-in-the-garden English Joiner's Workbench. Made from very common construction grade softwood, but there is nothing soft about this workbench. Thirty-five years ago, some people kinda dissed the idea. "Not heavy enough.", "Wouldn't last.", "Will move all over the place under the forces of sawing and planing." Balderdash! They were simply looking for fault. I doubt that many put more duress on a workbench with hand tools than I do. It's a gutsy little bench and I refined it to be made by any Newby woodworking starting out in their back garden with only hand tools, That's who I am!

I made and started to use my plywood workbench in 2019. My first Paul Sellers workbench video came together in 2012 and went out in 2013. I think some people saw it as an interim workbench until they could attain the status symbol of something to match their as yet to be established skill levels. The reality became obvious: you cannot achieve any more or even as much as you can with any other workbench, and especially one without a quick release, Record-type vise like those that I use and advocate for. Nothing else comes close to the speed and the clamping power.

And then there are those who look for other problems. Birch plywood is not cheap, but it is good value for money. Someone commented on the prohibitive price of good plywood. Here's my response: £250 pounds for the two sheets of the top quality birch plywood it takes is not prohibitive if you amortise the cost of a bench that will last a hundred years of full-time use. Let me see, even if I just divide it by a hundred that’s £2.50 a year so 5 pence or so a week so let’s reduce the life span to 25% of my estimated 100 years (and it will likely last 300 in a dry and well-kept workshop), even so, we come out at 20 pence. Come on now. A single coffee now costs over £3 per day. Let’s put this in proper perspective here.

Thankfully, my articles have never been sensational, even though some things I have done have caused quite a sensation through the years. Imagine, my eleven-part series making a softwood workbench grossed 5M views to date. And get this, the reviews were so good that 98% found that the bench would do everything they ever wanted to do and stayed with that one alone. You see, my work is not about sensational woodworking, but the nuts and bolts of what it really takes to become a real woodworker. Cut out the quest for being validated by owning a machine shop with half a dozen machines, dust extraction equipment and the 'etc' of it, and suddenly, you start mastering the skills of real woodworking. No one really needs anything bigger than my five footer, and I have never used a tail vise in my life. "Don't know what you've missed, Paul" Well, I don't use any kinds of bench dogs or holdfasts either. My woodworking life as a maker of fine furniture and every kind of joinery has been highly successful without any of this stuff. You don't need it, either.

The Paul Sellers workbench is perfect for training anyone to start out woodworking with hand tools only. Use it as a personal training exercise where you can master your introductory skills in developing something you might just use for decades to come. . . Both the workbench and the tools.

The softwood bench has been great. I've actually used one for 61 years as the benches I worked on as an apprentice, the ones ten other makers worked from when I was an apprentice, were all made from what was then called Russian redwood. Redwood was also known as Scots pine (UK), Baltic redwood, Finnish redwood, Archangel redwood, Russian redwood, Polish redwood, red deal, yellow deal For the bench in my first videos filmed in the garden of my then North wales home, I used construction studs. I had just made ten benches to start my UK school with and made these from the same wood. This wood was basically spruce, not the kind of wood people looking for status make their workbenches from but a truly practical wood for any serious woodworker or a beginner too.

Lukas Brütsch made this workbench from my intsructions. He said, "I used "Fichten-Holz" (i guess in english its "spruce") for my workbench."

Whereas I have no need to prove my first UK versions of my unchanged workbenches, they are still going strong with not deterioration and for a bench costing less than £75 my divergence to plywood was an interesting experience. This bench has all of the essence of using say solid maple and then some. There is both a simplicity and solidity to this bench I have not experienced in other benches. It's the cross-ply striations that make the difference. No shrinkage or expansion anywhere, no flex nor movement between any components. The six years of use has surprised me because it still feels like a new workbench with little more than the usual staining benches and use will incur through normal, six-day-a-week daily use. It is weightier than my spruce versions, and it rests squat-tight where it sits. I'm not treating mine like some do theirs, as a piece of furniture, a chisel and saw slip happens, a drip of finish and stain from restoring a rust saw will tarnish the new look. That's not my world. A bench needs to be a workbench. Periodically, I take a card or a #78 cabinet scraper and skim off the lightest pass. That's always enough.

This version has been relegated to a friend's kitchen as a conversational decorative feature and it looks great there. I don't think it would work for me, but we have made progress with QR vises and some of the best now come from Asia.

I am an advocate for hand work in woodworking. When I tell you to go and buy a tablesaw and a power planer, you'll know PS has lost it. To make this workbench, unlike the all wood version, I used a bandsaw to rip all of my strips. Beyond that, I used handsaws of different types and then hand planes for the final surfacing. That means I (and most likely you) can make the whole workbench in a couple of days. Obviously, installing a vise can take a couple of hours, and you might want the apron drawer and other accessories to make the bench efficient. That's the fun part, though. I have customised my bench for efficiency. Oh, and if anyone tells you the apron drawer is inaccessible most of the time, just ignore them. 98% of the time you will find it the best tool in your workbench bar none. This single piece of kit stows every small tool you might otherwise never find a home for.

In March 2019, I wheeled out my softwood workbench to install the new and innovative birch plywood version for trialling. I have used it daily for six years now and customised it for convenience and economic working. It's staying!

So, my workbench? All of my advice on woodworking and working mainly in a machineless way has always been about dismantling industrial processes and establishing the real skills of real woodworking. This work started back in the late 1980s, when I held my very first class. When I saw the demise of skilled woodworking, I made a decision that woodworking with hand tools needed to be put to the forefront in a serious way. Colleges and educational institutions are compelled to produce workers for industry, and everywhere I have ever seen as a training institution caters to that end by training people to use machine only methods and give only a token nod to hand tools in a one or two day class using hand tools. The men teaching and training are almost always non-expert hand tool woodworkers. They may tell you differently. I can identify a dozen training centres close to home and abroad who don't have a clue. My task in this has always been to democratise woodworking through a strategy I have developed over three decades. The workbench is a democratised alternative that gives every ounce of support to any big and heavy behemoth you care to name. No hounds tooth dovetails here, not a one and installing the best vise in the world, a quick release 9" vise will support everything you care to want to hold. Imagine this. Sixty-one years in the saddle of daily furniture making and woodworking of every type and all from my basic workbench and a Record-type QR vise. Why fix what ain't broke!

And here is that first real video we did that plunged us into teaching online. When everyone back then that we were just a bit mad, we didn't know we couldn't do it so we went ahead and did it. And remember this in the mix of it all, we never took sponsorship or freebies and never allowed product placement hovering somewhere in the background to make money from. Why? We just wanted the freedom to be real and have no obligation other than to our audience.

I made and started to use my plywood workbench in 2019. My first Paul Sellers workbench video came together in 2012 and went out in 2013. I think some people saw it as an interim workbench until they could attain the status symbol of something to match their as yet to be established skill levels....

Source

The snow fall dump forecast has increased. It now stands at 18" to 24" with drifting up to 4 feet. Sounds like lots of fun will greet me in the AM. The governor has declared a state of emergency. There is a ban on driving after 1900 today into tomorrow. Fingers and toes double crossed that it won't be as bad as the weather seers are saying.

oh what a relief......

The epoxy has hardened and set up. The color is fantastic. I have used liquid dyes and stains before with epoxy with mixed results. This pigment color is rich and deep. There are zero occlusions and no dead spots in the epoxy. Very happy with how this came out. 

sigh

This pine board is cupped but only on this near end. The other end is dead flat. Why I don't know. I had clamped this end yesterday and it didn't take out the cup. Helped a little but still too much to be usable.

worth a try

I remember watching a japanese woodworking You Tube vid where  he ran a cupped, bowed, and twisted boards over a kerosene heater to straighten out the board. The boards were used to make a 4 drawer dresser with doors. I don't have a kerosene heater but I do have a heart gun. I warmed up the 4-6 inches on this end on all four edges for about 5 minutes. After that I clamped it again. I'll check on it in the AM.

2nd walnut bookshelf

Got the layout done on the 2nd one. Having a lot of squares was helpful with each one set to a specific measurement.

looks good

There is still a gap but I did get the larger part of it plugged. Not sure what to do with small gap. The cherry putty I have is too red to fill it. Hide glue and cherry sawdust sounds like a better choice.

self supporting

Ok with that but having no gap is much better.

hmm......

Tried this and it worked. This is my small saddle square. I used it to ensure that I had the last 1 1/4" (the chisel width) at the end was square. I didn't use it on the rest of the dado. 

first one dry fitted

Two left side back slat mortises were loose on the cheek walls but snug on the top/bottom. The clamps didn't have any issues with fully seating the shelf in the dado leaving the front gap free.

wow and wow again

Not at all what I was expecting. I put the 3/8" blade on the bandsaw and I prayed it would stay sharp for the two cuts I had to make on the bookshelf. It was like a hot knife going through a tub of butter. Smooth, effortless, fluid, and with zero hesitation. I have never made a continuous round cut like this ever on this bandsaw. It didn't bind and easily made the curve all in one stroke. Did I say wow already?  

sneak peek

Eyeballing the cheery shelf against the walnut. Decided against staining it and I'll leave it natural. As this bookshelf ages the cherry will darken and the walnut will lighten another reason to leave the cherry  natural.

caught it

Went to adjust the depth on the router and noticed that the depth stop doohickey was MIA.

got lucky

Found it on the deck covered almost hidden in walnut wood shavings. I bought the depth stop from LN for $10 years ago. Checked their website and the stop now sells for $20.

2nd walnut bookshelf dry fitted

It was looking pretty good that I would get two bookshelves glued and cooking before 1500 roll around.

hmm........

A lot closer to the dado bottom than I would like to be. At least with this one I remembered to saw the angle on the bottom. I think I should be ok with the shelf and the dado, there will be Miller dowels helping out too.

Besseys suck

I rarely use the big Jorgensen bar clamps. I had to because the Bessey wouldn't pull the ends in to fully seat the shelf in the dado. The bar clamp did with with barely a 1/8 of a turn of the handle. The 'J' bar clamps have a large clamping head - bigger than the clamping head on my aluminum bar clamps

hmm......

The glue is bleeding through the saw cut out. Not a lot just a few little beads of glue. I'll clean them up when I take it out of the clamps.

accidental woodworker

 The weather seers ain't giving out good news. Snow starting on sunday with a blizzard on monday. The predicted snowfall for the two days - 12-14 inches. This is the lowest estimate from the three weather stations I checked. I have a plenty of projects on my plate to wait out anything Mother Nature throws at me in my part of the universe.

done

Kind of like this one considering it went south and came back up north.

cooked overnight

No hiccups when I took the clamps off. The headaches come from it moving as you loosen the clamps - not a good sign. Creaking and moaning could go either way. None of those symptoms today.

done

12 Miller dowels, 6 on each end. I will need to buy more cherry dowels, I have enough to do the remaining 3 cherry bookshelves. 

Yikes

Blew out a big chip rasping the cutout. Put a damper on getting this ready for shellac.

small cutout

The important thing is that it isn't rocking. I don't understand why this cutout is so much smaller than the previous ones. 

sigh

When I had clamped this I didn't see a gap on this side. Out of the clamps and the gap was shaking hands with me. Used the cherry in the vise to saw off a shim to fill the gap.

filled

This was the second shim. The first I did had the end grain facing up. This one has the face grain up.

2nd walnut bookshelf

Prepping the  stock for the next walnut bookshelf. Thinned the back slats to 5/8" and planed the four edges smooth.

cherry shelf

I went to Kosezla lumber this morning to check out the black walnut. They only had two 4/4 boards but both were only about 4" wide. There was a lot of 8/4 but I wasn't interested in resawing stock that thick. She told me more walnut was coming next week but I don't want to wait. This bookshelf will be cherry and there is also the possibility that I could stain the cherry walnut.

black pigment

Trying out the black pigment mixed with epoxy. Not sure how this will look. I don't have doubts about it mixing well with the epoxy.

wow

This color is incredible. It is a deep, edge of space, rich black. I filled in the voids/defects in the back slats. fingers crossed on this epoxy setting up because the last time I used it, it didn't harden. I put the two back slats on the furnace to help keep them warm.

accidental woodworker

2025 Wilson Burnham Engelmann Spruce/Wenge double top classical guitar with an elevated fretboard. 

Ebony fretboard, East Indian rosewood bridge with MOP tie block cover, Manuel Ramirez style rosette.

Back and sides are laminated with curly Spanish cedar.

650mm string length

52mm wide at nut, 58mm string spacing at bridge. Please scroll down the page for more photos of this stunning guitar!

Regular price was $8000, price reduced to $4000! I am moving to a new studio and I want to liquidate my current stock of guitars!

For more specifications on this guitar, please click here!

Watch Juri Yun play this guitar! Please visit my YouTube channel, @wilsonburnhamguitars8563

"Wilson's guitars are outstanding! They have incredible voices and are easy to play! They are easy to play because the treble strings are there, they are present and you can hear them above the bass strings! You don't have to work hard to make these guitars sing!"

Nathan Fischer, president of the New York City Classical Guitar Society

The honeycomb Nomex in this double top guitar is cover with a veneer of old growth redwood to enhance the guitar's voice.

The sides are attached to the top with blocks of ebony, these ebony blocks make the guitar louder in sound!

Laminating the wenge back and sides with curly Spanish cedar stiffen the guitar to increase the volume and beauty of the guitar's voice. The sound of this guitar reaches out to the hearts' of your audience to bring them to you and the music you are playing!

One down and five to go on the bookshelves. If I keep up this rate I will whack out one a day woodworking wise. Applying the shellac will take a couple of days. I can see them piling up in the shop as wait to finish them. And it will be something else to find a hole to stick them in. Of the eventual eleven of them, only 3 have been adopted.

Highland Hardwoods haul

I'll start on Miles desk next week sometime. Until then I'll let the haul hang out and relax. That will give it a chance to acclimate from Highland to my shop.

done

Happy with the shine on the end grain. I had slapped the last coat of shellac on it last night after dinner. 

2nd glamour pic

All of the bookshelves are finished 360. They can be viewed and placed without regard to the back of it being seen.

2nd cherry one

Got this one laid out, chopped and dry fitted before lunch. I couldn't close it up with hand pressure on the shelf. The back slats fitted ok and all four, including the shelf, fit in their respective spots snug.

hmm......

This left side isn't bottoming out even with clamp pressure. After playing with for a while and clamping it with different clamps I got nowhere with closing it up. I was getting frustrated so I left it be to go have fish 'n chips. That gave me while to think about what might be the problem.

came today

These walnut dowels ain't cheap. With S/H, 200 dowels are .36 cents each. You can do the math to get the cost.

better

The wall on the bottom of the dado was a wee bit off 90°.  Straightened that out and got it to close up.  Fingers crossed that I can repeat this when I glue it up.

hmm.......

No round overs this time. Instead I put a small angle on the front. I used the cherry bookshelf I keep by my desk for the pattern.

glued and cooking

Had a senior moment aka, a brain fart. I forgot to do the cutout for the legs/feet. Oh well, I'll have to put on my big boy pants and do it after it comes out of the clamps.

hmm......

Got the walnut for the first walnut bookshelf prepped. The back slats look too thick to my eye. As is they are 3/4" and I planed them down to 5/8". That thickness looked like the winner IMO.

not easy

Doing layout on the walnut was a bit difficult. Lead pencil doesn't show on the walnut and my 71 year old peepers were almost useless. I got it done by using a different square for each layout line. Took me twice as long to do as the cherry and pine ones.

layout done

It was past quitting time when I got the layout done. I'll chop on this in the AM.

hmm......

There is some wane on the left end but that will be removed when I do the angle on it. Decided to nix the round over and do an angle like I did on the cherry one. The defect on the back slat I'm keeping. I will fill that in with epoxy and black pigment. I just have to remember to keep it facing up when I do the glue up.

accidental woodworker

Accoya timber is one of those materials that quietly changes the way you think about woodworking. It looks like any other softwood at first glance, but what’s happening beneath the surface is entirely different. This timber is essentially radiata pine that has been modified through a process called acetylation, which changes the chemical structure of the wood. The result is a material that is incredibly stable, resistant to rot, and surprisingly durable, even in harsh outdoor conditions. For a hand tool woodworker, this makes it both a joy and a challenge. It planes, saws, and finishes beautifully, and because it doesn’t move much with changes in moisture, you don’t get the warping or cupping that makes other softwoods frustrating for work.

What’s also fascinating about Accoya is its environmental story. Unlike some exotic hardwoods, it comes from sustainably managed forests, and the acetylation process itself doesn’t introduce toxic chemicals. This gives you peace of mind, especially if you’re making furniture or joinery that will be in contact with people, animals, or even food. The stability of the wood also opens up possibilities for projects you might have avoided with traditional pine or cedar. Decking, window frames, cladding, or outdoor furniture all benefit from the low maintenance and long lifespan Accoya offers. You’re not constantly worrying about sealing, staining, or replacing pieces after a few years.

Using Accoya doesn’t feel like using a compromise. It’s strong yet lightweight, easy to work with hand tools, and takes finishes well. You can glue it, screw it, and even carve it with the kind of predictable behavior that makes woodworking enjoyable. It’s the kind of material that rewards patience and craftsmanship because what you craft from it will last decades without the usual problems of movement and decay. Every cut, plane, and joint you make holds its shape, and over time, you realize that the effort you put into crafting something is protected by the wood itself.

Accoya isn’t cheap compared with ordinary softwoods you might pick up for a quick shed or internal project. It’s marketed as a premium engineered wood, and that’s because its performance and durability come from a chemical modification process that makes the wood resist moisture and rot far better than untreated pine. Accoya’s own site says it is a premium product and not the lowest cost option, but the trade‑off is longevity, less maintenance and strong warranties that ordinary timber just doesn’t offer. You can read more about that on the manufacturer’s site here: https://www.accoya.com/au/faq/is-accoya-expensive/

Actual prices in Australia give a sense of what that means in practice. For example, Accoya cladding boards listed at one timber supplier are around forty to fifty dollars per metre for thinner pieces and just over fifty dollars per metre for wider boards. Another supplier shows decking starting around thirty eight dollars per metre and running up to around seventy six dollars per metre for some profiles. A third local dealer lists sample retail prices including decking and cladding from roughly thirty to over a hundred dollars per metre depending on size and thickness.

Those numbers put Accoya solidly above untreated pine or basic timber products but in a range comparable to durable hardwoods and high‑end engineered materials. What that means in a build is a higher upfront material cost, but with the benefit of reduced movement, fewer refinishing cycles and decades of performance that often makes the initial spend feel worthwhile to people building long‑lasting work.

Here a link to where I sourced the prices from :

https://www.canterburytimbers.com.au/collections/accoya-decking
https://www.canterburytimbers.com.au/products/accoya-natural-cladding-185x21mm
https://austim.com.au/pricing/

To get a closer look at Accoya and see what makes it special, watch this video from the makers themselves.

NB. For the regular home hobbyist who isn’t a banker, Accoya’s cost may put it out of reach. Many of us are now forced to scale down our projects rather than creating the furniture and larger items we once enjoyed. Timber prices have risen sharply over the last five years and continue to grow, which makes some of us question whether woodworking can remain a financially viable hobby.

Rolled out of the rack at oh dark 34 and I was headed north to New Hampshire at 0501 I arrived at Highland at 0734. It took a little over 2 1/2 hours which was dead on with the google driving estimate. Traffic going up on 95 was busy and thinned out a little on 495. Not bad for a weekday. 

I went to the McDonald's about a mile from Highland and got a coffee and an egg Mcmuffin to kill the 20 minutes until Highland opened. When they opened I went nutso buying cherry for Miles desk. Added poplar and shorts of walnut to round out the bill. I left Highland $460 lighter.

I got back to the barn at 1130 which was about right for the round trip. I haven't been to Highland since COVID shut things down. Memory muscle kicked in and no problems driving up and back. Other than the exit numbers being changed there wasn't anything to throw me a curve ball. Decided to buy the wood for the desks one at a time, so I'll be making a 2nd trip up north for Leo in march/april?

what $460 looks like

From left to right - 1/2 poplar for the drawers, should be enough for Miles and Leo's desk plus extra. Next is 8/4 cherry for the legs (again for Miles and Leo) with the walnut shorts on top of it. The walnut came from the shorts bin and it cost over $50. I got it to make a walnut bookshelf. The next batter is 5/4 cherry, dressed to 1" thick. This will be used for the desk top. In the clean up slot is 4/4 cherry for the rails and slats. I went overboard on this getting much more than I'll need. Whatever is left over will go to Leo's desk.

breaking down the poplar

I sawed all the poplar into 2 foot lengths for the drawer stock. I was shocked at the BF price for 1/2" poplar. I should have looked at it before I bought it ($62 for six, 6 foot boards).

cherry back slats

I found some left over 1/2" cherry to give up the slats I needed. I sawed them to 7/16" on the tablesaw and planed it smooth.

hmm.......

I kind of like this uneven width between the back slats. It is a few frog hairs less than 1/8". The wider one will go on the bottom and thinner one on the top.

walnut

This is long enough to get two sets of ends from. There is some wane but I can saw it off and still have the width I want for the ends.

reference edge

I planed one rough edge flat and smooth. The opposite face it still rough sawn. I'll have to thickness because as is it is about an inch thick.

hmm......

There was enough walnut to get two bookshelves. When I got it at Highland I thought I would get one from it.

sigh

This chunk of wane puts a damper on this piece of walnut being used as a shelf. I want a shelf that is a minimum of 5" wide. Sawing off the wane would leave a width of roughly 4". I ain't driving back to Highlands to buy another walnut short.

oops

Need two more slats for the 2nd bookshelf. Don't know how I zoned that out.

going nutso again

I have whacked five bookshelves already. I have 6 more waiting for me to build.

why not?

Thinking of using this piece of cherry as the shelf. Cherry and walnut have a good contrast between them. Another option is to go to Koszela lumber which I might do. I really would like these two to be all walnut if possible.

milk paint dyes

This is for another project I have in the queue. I want to make another miniature chest and use these to color the milk paint. I need to get a few more colors, red and yellow being on the top of the list. I couldn't find these on Amazon where I got these 3. I'll search again tonight.

hmm.......

No more Gurney's sawmill pine left excepts for small scraps. This is Lowes pine and I'll have to make another run to buy a couple of more boards. The EWP (eastern white pine) bin at Highlands was empty as in no pine at all.

hmm.......

The top board will give up the sides and the bottom board can be a front, back, or lid. The current project queue is full to bursting. I'll be busy for a while.

accidental woodworker