Simple Jig for Carcase Dovetails

Here's a photo of a jig I put together to make it easy to use my plunge router to create sockets for half-blind carcase dovetails. As the photo shows, the jig is made from common cut-offs, including a length of 2x4 and a throw-away sacrificial fence. Two 3/8" carriage bolts (6" long) and matching wing-nuts are the only hardware used. In the photo, the long piece in the vise is the workpiece. You can see the sockets marked out on the upper edge. After ensuring that the router has a flat surface to ride on, and that the open end of the sockets faces the operator, careful handling of the router (I use a 1/4" spiral up-cut bit) all but competes the sockets. A little chiseling is needed to ensure crisp inside corners.

Cabinet scrapers are so-o-o-o "low tech"

Some tools are so simple they hardly seem worthy of the name "tool". Cabinet scrapers fall into that category. But make no mistake: these are serious tools -- and seriously useful ones. Mine are rectangular-shaped. I haven't had occasion to need the curved ones yet.

Used properly, cabinet scrapers make it possible to clean up a surface -- for example, to eliminate marks left by a plane -- with relatively little effort. They can also be used to erase the kind of minor scratches and dings that are inevitable as you handle wood during the building process. If your glue-up is fine, and you only need to remove some squeeze-out, then a scraper will do the job quickly and easily. Some people even use them to prepare a board for finishing, instead of sanding.

I recently glued up some boards to make the top of a small display cabinet. The glue-up had a slight crown. In the course of planing down the crown, I left fine ridges that needed to be removed -- not all that unusual, but a nuisance. I reached for my favorite scraper, used my thumbs to create the necessary "bow" shape that makes it possible for the scraper do its job, and within minutes I had removed all the ridges. I also had a flawless, smooth surface almost good enough to call "done". Incidentally, you may wonder what I meant when I referred to my favorite scraper. Scrapers vary in thickness. Really hefty ones are tough to use, so I prefer fairly thin ones (.8 mm, I believe) that can be bowed with only a moderate amount of thumb-pressure.

For users there are several nice things about scrapers. They are inexpensive and readily available. They require little practice to learn to use. They make no noise. They require no dust collectors. They are also easy to read -- you can feel immediately whether they're cutting properly or whether they are dull and need to be sharpened. Fortunately, they are also very easy to sharpen -- no special gadgets are required. Sharpening involves placing the scraper in a vise, flattening the cutting edge, then using a burnisher to create a burr. (There are several good videos on the topic on YouTube.)

For retailers, scrapers have several disadvantages. They are inexpensive and readily available. They require little practice to learn to use. Wait a minute! I just said that! Ah ha! maybe that's why so few people know about cabinet scrapers, and even fewer use them. The fact is, cabinet scrapers are rarely featured by retailers. Why not? A businessperson might talk about profit margins, demographics, and marketing strategies. A person with a suspicious turn of mind might say that our friendly tool hawkers prefer selling pricey tools over simple, less expensive ones. I don't know the reason, and I won't hazard a guess. But I do know that cabinet scrapers are one of woodworking's better-kept secrets. If you work wood, then take my word for it: with just a little patience and practice, you can learn to use this tool that is almost ridiculously simple, but does a slam-bang job!

Leather-topped Writing Desk

It's fascinating to see how a few small changes in the design of an object can transform it. This desk differs from others I've made, such as the one I posted last year. A careful look at each shows a few major but subtle differences. For example, the legs are thinner (I'm moving toward less massive legs). In addition, the desk profile is inverted: the latest desk has the profile below the writing surface.

The bowls and vase, none of which are lathe-turned, are Carole's work. They come from her first book for Fox-Chapel, called Wooden Bowls From the Scroll Saw. Her second book for this publisher is almost completed and should be out in a few months.

What you need . . . and what you want

I read an account recently of a man who visited his successful son's newly-built high-tech home. Gadgets and "conveniences" were everywhere -- and some of them actually made life easier. When the elderly gentleman returned home, a friend asked him what had impressed him most about his son's home. His answer was quick and to the point: "I was most impressed with the fact that my son is working so hard to accumulate things he doesn't need."

As I page through the blizzard of woodworking catalogues I receive regularly, I am increasingly impressed with how aggressive these marketers are in selling stuff that -- in my view, anyway -- isn't necessary. I realize, of course, that improvements in technology, safety, precision, and convenience are often significant. And I'm certainly eager to replace or supplement my existing tools and equipment with items that make my work more accurate, safer, or more convenient. The problem is, too many of the "innovations" being marketed simply don't do those things. In fact, a few I've made the mistake of trying actually made my work more difficult and complex, not less!

So I suppose the bottom line is: know what you need, and buy the best you can. But be skeptical about new gadgets that promise the world. Remember, woodworkers created beautiful products for centuries without the innovations so often touted nowadays. And finally: in our craft, you learn more by doing things by hand first, then by moving on to the "power" assist provided by modern technology.

Television Stand

Here's a recent project which was both technically challenging and wood intensive. It's solid cherry, finished with several coats of shellac rubbed out after a few weeks' drying time. The fact that it's hardwood meant I had to allow for seasonal changes in wood movement. The piece here is the main component of what will become a three-part entertainment center. The two additional pieces -- small shelf units with one adjustable shelf -- are in the early stages. They'll be used to display Carole's scroll saw creations: wooden bowls, vases, and boxes.