New Book on Scroll-sawn Boxes

Here's Carole's new book. I'm not selling it, and you won't find a link anywhere on this blog that would make it possible to go to some retailer who is. I just thought that those of you who have seen her work on this blog or elsewhere might be interested in knowing she has a second book out.

A Desk for My Daughter

The photo on the left shows a Shaker-inspired, leather-topped, cherry desk in its final stages of completion. The top is frame and panel; leather will be glued to a 3/4 inch plywood substrate. The drawers are traditionally made, guided by runners and kickers, hand-cut dovetails front and rear. (See photo below.)

With the exception of the frame for the top and the drawer front, the finish is multiple coats of shellac, rubbed down between coats. Because the top frame and the drawer fronts will be subject to quite a lot of wear and some soiling (skin oil deposits), after the shellac was applied I coated those components with several coats of shop-made wipe-on poly. Other desks I finished that way have held up for several years of heavy use.

The frame and panel desk top, with the leather being trimmed to fit (by Carole, whose bowls and boxes are displayed in earlier blog posts), is shown in the photos below.

There are few things I enjoy more than seeing a project like this through to completion. My daughter is picking the desk up this coming Friday. My hope is that she will enjoy it for a long, long time.

Measuring Progress

Getting better at any activity -- from baking bread to woodworking -- is usually accompanied by an awareness that things just seem to work out more efficiently, with less frustration and difficulty. Rather than being a slave to formulas and prescriptions, it becomes possible to "tell" when a bread dough has risen just enough, or when a dovetail pin is hand-cut at an optimum angle.

On YouTube there's a brief teaser video promoting an instructional DVD on dovetailing by Frank Klaus. (Here's the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-o4jryTkUc .) In the video, Klaus makes a comment that clearly indicates he does not rely on aids and measurements in determining when a pin is cut at the proper -- roughly 11 degree -- angle. Instead, he makes his own judgment, based on experience. I find his off-the-cuff comment refreshing, since it's a reminder that woodworking is a human activity accomplished by human beings who think, feel, and make judgments.

Unfortunately, there are two problems that result from becoming really good at something. First we take our competence for granted. (One author has dubbed this the "unconscious competence" phenomenon.) We just know how to do things, and expect that others know, too -- or that they can learn quickly. The other is that having forgotten the learning process we followed, we have no clue about how to teach others to do the task at which we excel. Returning to the "beginner's mind" is a gift outstanding teachers possess. Few teachers, indeed, can claim to have that gift.

So if you are reading this blog post as a hobbyist woodworker, I would urge you to enjoy -- and even keep track of -- the process you follow in learning various skills. Enjoy the journey of learning. And if you're lucky enough to have the opportunity to teach someone else what you've learned to do, take full advantage of it. It's not just an act of generosity. It's also pleasant, reinforcing, and rewarding for you.

Framed Stained Glass

A friend asked me to make a frame for a stained glass work that her deceased father made many years ago. The leaded glass work lay in her attic for a long time; but she is moving soon and wants to give it a place of honor in her new home. It's a small piece (11"x18"), and I certainly didn't want to have the frame compete with it. The accompanying photo shows the simple, unobtrusive result. The frame will be hung in a window well, from narrow chain. The rear side (not visible in the photo) is also framed out and finished off as carefully as the front. As a result the piece can be viewed from either side. The wood is pine; the finish is multi-stage: a few coats of 2 lb. cut super-blonde shellac, followed by some Minwax cherry stain, then a few more coats of shellac. My hope is that I honored her father's craftsmanship, and that she likes the end product as much as I.

Re-sawing Tips You Can't Afford to Ignore

Any motivated woodworker has read the advice usually given about re-sawing. Unfortunately, the advice commonly disseminated is incomplete. This often happens when experts, who forget what it's like not to be experts, offer instruction that is built on assumptions.

This post will give you information you've NOT read elsewhere. If you've done everything "according to Hoyle" and still found yourself upset and frustrated, I think you'll find it particularly helpful.

To prevent confusion and clarify some basic facts, here are a couple of things you need to know in advance: (1) I use a 14" bandsaw with a riser block. (2) I use a 3/4" wide Timber Wolfe re-saw blade (3 T.P.I.). Most of the workpieces I re-saw are several inches high, 24-30 inches long, and about two inches thick. My re-sawn pieces vary in thickness from 1/16" to 3/4". (3) I use a shop-made, flat guide fence, not the kind with the pivot point. The fence is about the same height as the workpieces I re-saw. (4) After ensuring that the table and the fence are both at 90 degrees to the blade, I clamp the fence to the table, following the "drift" line which I've marked on the table in pencil. (5) I make all adjustments to thrust bearings, side guides, etc., both above and below the table, after the upper blade guard/guide post is set at the appropriate height. (The order of operations makes a difference.)

RE-SAWING TECHNIQUE

Faulty technique causes two cutting problems. Trapezoidal cuts result in a finished product is wider at the top than the bottom or vice versa). Trapezoidal cuts are a special problem when re-sawing tall workpieces. Cuts that are uneven along their length result in a finished product is wider where you started cutting than at the rear, or vice versa).

To prevent these problems, observe these cautions:

1. Be aware that as you feed the workpiece, there are two sets of forces being applied to it. One set is a “forward” push (like feeding wood into a table saw blade) that moves the workpiece into the blade. This force determines how quickly you cut. The second set of forces are “lateral”; these keep the workpiece flush to the guide fence. Most problems develop when too much pressure is applied laterally.

2. When feeding any workpiece, but especially a tall one, how you use the push-block that helps keep the workpiece flush to the guide fence (lateral forces) is critical. Exert firm but not very heavy pressure evenly across the “top-to-bottom” face of the workpiece. If you push too hard, or if the force you exert is above or below the center point of the workpiece, a trapezoidal cut will result.

3. For cuts that are straight along their length, the “front-to-back” location of the pressure exerted with the push-block to keep the workpiece flush to the fence makes a huge difference. If lateral pressure is applied on the “fore” side of the blade, the cut will go off and you will wind up with a tapered end product. If lateral pressure is applied on the ”aft” side of the blade, the cut will go off in the opposite direction, but you'll still wind up with a taper. To prevent this, apply pressure only at the point at which the workpiece passes through the blade. In other words, lateral pressure should be applied only where the blade intersects the workpiece.

4. To ensure that the blade is cutting exactly as you want it to, use your eyes, and also gauge the strength with which you are applying pressure(s) on the workpiece. If the blade wanders, even a little, stop immediately. If you do not stop, the situation will only worsen. After stopping the machine, figure out what is going on and why. Then correct the problem. Most often you'll find it's an error in either where force is applied, or how much force is applied, or both.

If there is sufficient interest in this post, I will make a video and post it here.

Why Can't I Do That?

Read a woodworking magazine or watch a TV show like the Woodsmith Shop and you're bound to come away feeling both inspired and embarrassed. It's entertaining and inspiring to see the pros complete projects efficiently -- almost magically -- or to read descriptions of their seemingly effortless excellence. But more often than not the reader or viewer is left with two impressions. The first is that the task is straightforward, even easy. The second impression is that the level of excellence the pros display is within everyone's grasp. When we try to replicate what they've done (and, being optimists, most of us do try) we find ourselves frustrated and disappointed. "Why can't I do that?" we ask ourselves. The anwser we don't want to hear is that we are simply less able, slow learners, inept, or clumsy.

Newer woodworkers are particularly suseptible to these confidence-sapping messages. In fact, the less experienced we are, the more likely it is that we'll attribute the excellence we observe to innate talent alone.

Here's my beef: A few critical details are missing in the accounts we see and read. The first is any sense that noone is born with the kind of skills displayed by the pros. The competence they possess is the result of years of effort, learning, and skill-building. We don't see the work that went into developing the skills; we see the results.

Second, nobody shows their mistakes -- the miscuts, the sloppy joint caused by a lapse of concentration, or the mismatched mortise and tenon that had to be shimmed or re-done. I'm not naive enough to believe that a pro would willingly display less than perfect work. But to convey the impression that every step associated with every project goes perfectly all the time is downright misleading. I think it would be a kindness to point out the sticking points that even the most skilled woodworkers confront. For example:

1. Readers or viewers could be forewarned that certain tasks will be challenging, especially if a person is new to them. "Expect to make a few miscuts," we might be advised. "Make the cuts on scrap a few times before touching your workpiece."

2. Fess up. When a task can't be mastered without making errors, say so. "It may look like this is simple, but it took me quite a few tries before I got it right -- and a lot of practice to reach the point where I was able to do this as easily as I just did." How refreshing and reassuring it would be to hear such a comment.

3. It would be kindness to point out the typical errors beginners make. For example, the pro might say, "You may find that you have trouble at this point. Almost everyone does. Even a slight error in your measurement will pretty much ruin this joint, so you need to take your time and double-check your measurement."

Such comments can be both reassuring and kind -- and can actually encourage those of us who are not professionals to persist even when frustrated. Pros without fragile egos or the need to prove themselves superior to "the rest of us" would be well-advised to humanize the process by which they make the building of beautiful objects look so simple.

Everything Old is New Again

Recently, for a variety of reasons, I've begun looking again at my older issues of Fine Woodworking. Some issues date back to the late 70's; others are just a few years old. While most of the product reviews are out of date, as are some author photos(!), I have been delighted and surprised by the amount of useful information each issue contains. It's clear to me that our craft is largely the same as it was thirty -- and more -- years ago. There are changes, of course, mostly in machinery and other aids. But in its essence the craft of woodworking is virtually timeless, as are the skills and temperament it requires.

But another idea warrants mention. As my woodworking skills and interests have developed, so has my interest in topics that would not have interested me several years ago. (Or perhaps such topics were clearly above my head back then.) The old saying that "everything old is new again" applies to back issues of FW -- and I'm certain of other woodworking magazines as well. So, if time permits, and you've been wise enough to hold on to back issues of your favorite woodworking magazines, take a look again. I think you'll make discoveries there that will please and impress you.