Sauer & Steiner

Abs of destruction part III

2009-12-31T14:54:00.003-05:00

Lapping a 28-1/2" jointer is no walk in the park and it took me a few days to psych myself up to do it. Once it was all taped up and looking Smurfy - it was time to start.

After day one, I had one side just about lapped, the other side close behind and the sole was well on its way. I decided to pace myself and not even attempt to do it in one day.

Day two went very well - the plane is just about done. Both sides are lapped, the chamfers are completed and the toe and heel are fully rounded and polished. My impression was this plane lapped a little faster than the Ebony filled A2ss. I suspect the slight reduction in weight is what helped. The smaller front bun may have helped as well - it was easier to hold the plane when I was lapping the sides. Either way - I am glad the lapping is just about done.

Here are a bunch of photos.

This was the last plane of 2009 and a perfect ending to the year.

I switched from small bottles to larger ones. This one got finished while lapping the plane.

PS - The official lapping soundtrack was Joy Division’s - Closer.

Making buns - a little more Mathieson and a dash of Norris

2009-12-20T09:39:00.005-05:00

The front bun of the 28-1/2" A2 jointer has a few modifications to it. The “bun” portion has been pulled forward, which allows it to be lowered and creates an area just behind it for a thumb grip. I made a quick mock-up out of basswood - man is that stuff easy to work with! This forward and lowered bun is pretty typical of the Mathieson jointers I have seen.

I usually have an Ogee on the inside of the bun facing the lever cap (ala Spiers), but we wanted that inside ramp to be a bit steeper so it reached the sidewall before the small curve. This detail is typical of Norris. Softening that area is helpful when the back of the bun is used as a thumb hold.

Once the mock-up was done, I sent it to the client to make sure all the details were right. Everything was great so I proceeded with the real bun.

Shaping the bun uses quite a few tools. Fitting the block is done with handplanes - a few thou at a time. It has to be perfectly square - all other dimensions and measurements are referenced from these faces. Thankfully - I have a few decent planes to use. I use my bandsaw, tablesaw, lots of chisels and sandpaper to do the actual shaping. I do not use a router because very few of these profiles lend themselves to router bits, not to mention the idea of 20,000 rpm’s on dense brittle endgrain strikes me as an invitation for disaster. Plus, it would be really slow.

Here you can see the inside ramp and the transition area to the back of the bun.

Here are a bunch of photos of the fully shaped front bun. The next step is a dozen coats of french polish.

The french polishing went extremely well and the color and grain of the wood really came alive. At this stage, the infills and lever cap have been installed.

Next... lapping - aka abs of destruction part III.

One of the funny things about these massive planes is they are hard (for me) to photograph properly. Here is a quick photo to try to give a sense of scale.

Just in time!

2009-12-18T12:46:00.016-05:00

I am just finishing up three special XSNo.4 smoothers. Here are the details - in no particular order.

First - a Figured Brazilian Rosewood filled XSNo.4ss smoother. This is the first plane in a series from this piece of wood and the other planes should be equally spectacular.

The grain in the rear infill is just insane! When I was roughing these planes out, I had no idea they would be this killer.

The next XS is infilled with some birds eye/curly English boxwood (oh to be so lucky!). This came from a piece of boxwood I picked up in England several years ago. Like the Brazilian above, the figure exceeded my earlier notions.

And last, but certainly not least is one of the last Mystery Rosewood planes. This is also one in a series and I am very pleased about the homes these last few Mystery Rosewood planes are going to.

The 28-1/2" A2 jointer is coming along nicely - I should be posting some photos in a day or two.

Hmmm... picking one favourite board?

2009-11-30T17:08:00.002-05:00

This past Friday was sanding day. Well... part of Thursday too - but it was a tough day and we are trying to forget about it.

There was one issue with this room that we were a little concerned about - the floor was not perfectly flat or level. I debated on tearing out the sub-floor, leveling and re-installing a sub-floor... but that seemed like too much work - even for me. The uneven height and gentle curve to the floor did cause problems for us in both the installation as well as during sanding. We found that many of the nested board ends were not level with the adjacent boards. Part of this is likely the nature of a herringbone floor - any variation in board thickness will cause this, but everything was likely compounded by the curve of the sub-floor.

We used a random orbital floor sander with 4 discs. It was quite a bit slower than the belt style sander, but it was the right choice given all the crossing grain. After several hours we were ready for the first coat of finish.

After much deliberation, we opted for a light coat of oil followed by a few coats of satin Fabulon. At the end of the day, I am not really interested in removing all the furniture once a year to re-apply a coat of wax and polish to the floor. Add in two active kids, and a durable film finish seemed to be the right choice.

This floor is the first time I have ever worked with white oak. Over the last half year I have grown quite used to the light straw color of unfinished white oak, so when we poured the oil onto the floor - I was taken by surprise. There was texture, color and grain in there that I had not seen nor anticipated. The floor came alive. As we sloshed the oil around it became more and more impressive almost to the point where my head exploded. The beauty of this floor exceeded my wildest expectations.

We let the oil sit for a bit before wiping up the excess and buffing everything with clean cloths.

Here are a bunch of photos.

I suspect it will be nearly impossible to pick a single favourite board - but this section right in front of the pocket door is particularly stunning.

An incredible piece of Brazilian Rosewood

2009-11-28T20:24:00.006-05:00

(and another honkin’ big plane!)

I have been working on a 28-1/2" A2 jointer for the last several weeks. The infill is Brazilian Rosewood, steel sides and a bronze lever cap. The set was roughed out almost 3 years ago. When I took the first cut off the rough piece I had selected, I saw this amazing pair of black lines. They were unusually straight and I knew right away that I was morally obligated not to screw up this special grain. I immediately roughed out a set for a 28-1/2" jointer. My goal was to preserve enough of the line to carry it from the front bun all the way to the rear infill.

I started on the rear infill first and was very pleased to find that the line did not disappear as the wood started to take shape.

A long view of the rear infill...

(click on the photo for a larger view)

... and a close up of a particularly nice section right beside the handle. It is hard to see it from this angle, but there is a black line in the handle that lines up perfectly with the black line on the deck of the rear infill. The planets had certainly lined up for me!

The block for the front bun is also fit, and the grain looks to be equally stunning.

And here is what I was after - that black line running from front to back.

And a close-up of the rear infill where it terminates into the sole.

The chamfers have been “roughed” on the sidewalls and the dovetails have been ground off using a bench grinder. The next step is the front bun.

Border & banding details

2009-11-18T17:05:00.018-05:00

Here are some further details of the inlay in the border. I decided to integrate the inlay into the floor as opposed to try and add it after the border was installed. The process worked amazingly well - here is what I did.

The above photo shows the rabbet I cut into the floor boards just above the groove. I did this on the table saw with a dado head. I debated on using a router, but the table saw was much faster (I needed 170 linear ft). The rabbet was 7/32" deep and 1/4" wide.

Here is a photo of the banding “sandwich”. I started with three, 9' piece of black dyed Swiss pear veneer. They were 4-1/2" wide and .9mm thick. I cut them in half to yield six, 4-1/2' long pieces. I then found a really curly piece of hard maple and milled three pieces that were 3/16" thick, by 4-1/2" wide and 4-1/2' long. I glued up 3 “sandwiches” consisting of a piece of black Swiss pear, a piece of curly maple and then another piece of black Swiss pear. I put a layer of wax paper between each layer and put a caul on the top and the bottom of the triple-decker sandwich.

After 24 hours, I took off the clamps. I edge jointed each layer and went to the bandsaw where I ripped off as many 9/32" wide pieces as I could. I did not re-joint each piece between strips - but the over sized height made up for any variation in the bandsawn edge. I glued each strip in, and held it in place with blue painters tape every 2" (it took 2 rolls!).

Here is a shot of the underside to see what it looks like. Note that the width of the banding hangs beyond the white oak. This was intentional so that the banding would be snug against the next piece. The photo below shows what I mean.

(note the gap between the pieces at the bottom)

Here is a photo of the banding after cleaning up the miter.

This photo is out of order, but after the banding was glued in, I took a few minutes to plane it flush with the tops of the flooring pieces. It made installation a little easier and also allowed me to make sure everything worked according to plan. Plus it made for a great photo!

The end of the floor installation

2009-11-15T21:28:00.009-05:00

The border and thresholds are now installed - the next step is to sand and finish the floor. Thanks to everyone who has offered their opinions on the finish. Your advise has positively influenced us for sure - and we are going to go with a very simple finish. I made up a small test section of floor, sanded it to 120 grit and applied a single coat of double boiled linseed oil. Everything came alive and the ray flecks and curly hard maple look amazing.

Installing the mitered corners

Unfortunately, I did not get a photo of the “miter station”. I clamped a shooting board to our kitchen island and used my large mitre plane to shoot all the mitres. The plane performed wonderfully.

We had to do some face nailing on the outermost courses of the border - the stapler could not get in that tight.

Steve and I were pretty surprised at how slowly the border went. The installation took almost as long as the herringbone did. We also realized that there were 14 mitered corners in this room - as opposed to 4 in a square space. I do not regret all the corners though - they really make the space pretty amazing.

There were a few high spots in the floor but a small smoother made very quick work of it. This should greatly reduce the sanding time.

I used some curly quarter sawn white oak for the thresholds. These were a bit tricky to install - the new floor had the tongues facing towards the existing floor, and the existing floor had the tongues facing the new floor. I ended up cutting a dado in both edges of the threshold and pushed it in place with the adjacent white oak strip still loose. It worked very well and the joints are very tight. Oh, and to add yet another twist - the threshold had to be tapered a bit to square the two floors to one another.

At the end of day 3 (with a little bit of day 2 in there)

2009-11-05T13:23:00.020-05:00

The floor progressed very nicely on the second day, and by lunchtime, the herringbone field was done. Well... all the full length pieces anyway. I then doubled back and filled in all the ends of the peaks and valleys with shorter lengths. All of these shorter pieces were glued to the adjacent pieces because many of them could not be safely nailed. There was a blue line around the perimeter of the room to define where the border would start. We were careful not to nail on the outside of this blue line.

When Steve and I were discussing this floor several years ago - one of the aspects that stumped us was how to cut a clean line around the perimeter. Then we saw the Festool TS55 and the lightbulb when off. This was the perfect tool for this challenging job. It was this realization that started me down the Festool slope (did I mention I bought a Domino? :)

The saw and rail system did not disappoint. In fact, it was the easiest step so far. I was a little worried about how to deal with cutting the inside corners, but they were no problem for one simple reason. Dust extraction. Because the extractor is so good, all you had to do was look to see where the blade was cutting and when to stop. What a novel idea - using your eyes to watch the cut! I was able to “kiss the line” on the inside corners and am waiting for a friend to lend me his Fein Multi-Tool to finish it off.

Here are a few views of the herringbone with the perimeter defined (and the few inside corners left to be trimmed).

Thankfully - I did not hit any nails while cutting the perimeter. The shot above shows a nail that had been placed really close to the line. We used a nail set to bury it as deep as we could and marked it on the top. After the cut, I took a look to see how close we were. If we had not used the nail set - we would have hit it for sure. Note the blue line just in front of the cut.

The next step is the border. This has been a little troubling to be honest. We do not want something that stands out too much - we are worried about visually shrinking the room. After some samples and test borders we have settled on the sample above. It is a layer of dyed Swiss pear (looks like ebony), then a layer of 3/16" curly maple and then another layer of black Swiss pear. The Swiss pear is over sized veneer - .7 mm thick. It is going to be subtle - but that is what we are after. I figure I have to make 150 linear feet of the banding.

I am going to need more clamps.

Oh, and I am still working too. I have been applying the last coats of french polish to a Desert Ironwood filled SNo.4.

At the end of day one.

2009-11-03T18:41:00.027-05:00

There is a particular line in one of the installation documents I found that was very fitting;

“This pattern is best left to the skilled craftsmen”

My friend Steve and I have been talking about this floor for a few years now, and when he arrived at 8:30 this morning - it was strange to be finally starting. There were several false starts. Then there were a few starts that ended badly and had to be started again. But... after several hours of head scratching and talking it through - it started to come together. 10 rows in... it fell apart... again.

after 5 rows - we thought we had it

So we had some lunch and continued to talk it through. We returned with a new strategy and thankfully - it worked. Steve changed the way he was nailing and I set up a quick workbench on the mantel and took a few shavings here and there to bring everything back into square when gaps showed up. We were both really surprised how sensitive the flooring was to the order of the 3 nails in each board. What seemed to be working was to put a nail in the middle of the piece, then one on each end. Steve alternated the order of which end he did first - and that really seemed to help. Every once in a while, I would have to take 6 shavings off a board - introducing a slight taper. Neither of us could figure out what was happening to the floor to cause this, but 6 shavings seemed to do the trick. We quickly found our pace and the floor really started to come together - for real.

taking 6 passes

the center line

We figured this would take us 2 days - and we knew we were being hopefully optimistic. By 5 pm we stopped and had accomplished much more than either of us thought we would.

My Japanese hammer was the perfect tool for this job. The domed end has just enough curvature to keep from damaging the ends as they are tapped into position.

There are 261 pieces left and after doing a quick measurement and count - I think there will be just enough.

And as I was downloading these images from Jill’s camera - I found this shot. She took this just after I finished sanding the drywall. Curiously - my back does not seem quite as sore.

Mystery Rosewood update

2009-10-31T20:37:00.010-05:00

Here is what is left. I feel quite proud of the fact that there was this little waste from that great piece of timber. The box has quite a few small pieces that would be suitable for wedges and other small plane parts. I think there is one piece that will make a killer wedge for a mitre.

(The killer wedge piece)

I am also reminded of an incredible A2 jointer I made several years ago - infilled with mystery Rosewood. Here are a few detail shots.

I have two panel planes left to make - one 16-1/2" and the other is 14-3/4". The rear infill on thees planes will look just like this. I can’t wait to get started on them.

825 herring bones later

2009-10-23T16:22:00.000-05:00

The herringbone flooring is now prepared. The QS white oak was supplied in three different lengths - 17-1/2", 35" and 52"... give or take a quarter inch. These dimensions were then cross cut on a dedicated sled to produce pieces that are 16-1/2" long.

After that - I needed to cut a dado in the ends to house the tongue. This was also done using a cross cut sled. The flooring is 3/4" thick with a 1/4" x 1/4" tongue and corresponding groove. The dado in the end is not really functional - it just needs to provide enough clearance for the pieces to fit together properly. I chose to cut a slightly over sized dado - just under 5/16" x 5/16". I used a stacked dado head in the table saw. Here is the setup.

I have several different cross cut sleds - some for cutting dados, others for various types of cross cuts. I used a small cross cut sled as a base and then built a simple but accurate jig to fit within the sled. Above is a photo of what it looks like.

And a top view.

And a shot of how the flooring piece was oriented for the cut. I chose to reference the bottom of the flooring instead of the top. Slight variations to the top will be sanded down once the floor is installed... the bottom is a fixed surface. In hindsight, the flooring was so consistent in thickness, that it likely didn’t matter.

I was pleasantly surprised at how quickly everything went. I broke the slot cutting into smaller bits - batches of 100 pieces. I would do 100, take a break and work on some Lego with the kids, do another 100... stop for some lunch. It worked out very well, and all the pieces were done over the weekend.

Here is a screen shot of the scale drawing. There is a pesky offset to the room - you can see it along the bottom edge of the drawing. This posed a bit of a problem with regards to the patterning of the herringbone. The solution was to remove a single strip of the border along the left bottom edge. If you look closely, the border changes from 3 strips to 4 strips in a few places, but I don’t think this will be noticeable once the room is done and the furniture is in. Well... now you all know.

Confession time. I wrote this post last week and have been sitting on it. Jill and I decided to bring all the herringbone flooring into the livingroom to let it sit (but really - I needed my workbench and shop space back). We made about 4 trips and had about 250 pieces in when for some strange reason, I decided to sit on the floor and see how everything fit together. I made a jig to help start each new row and used this to put a few bones together.

“left side, right side, left side, right side... this is looking wicked!”

Next row.

“wait a minute... where did that tongue come from - this doesn’t fit?”

“ what the... I need a slot in the other end too?”

“maybe there is a left hand piece and a right hand piece?”

So I went to the computer and did a search. Found a Bob Vila video showing how a herringbone floor is installed. Within the first minute I hear “...there is a groove on all 3 sides.”

I walked downstairs with my tail between my legs, dragged out the 250 pieces we already had in the livingroom, and cut another 825 slots in the other ends. Better now than after the first row is installed I suppose.

The last of the Mystery Rosewood

2009-10-17T16:06:00.014-05:00

This is a very sad “first” for me - using up the last bit of a particular species of wood. I have been slowly eating away at this large piece of unidentified Rosewood... aka Mystery Rosewood. There is a precious little bit remaining - the photo above shows what is left. I do have a set roughed out for an A5 and an XSNo.4 that are not spoken for. And I still have to rough out an A1 panel from the above piece. Whatever is left over is all there is.

Below is a photo of the original piece - the one on the far right (along side three amazing pieces of almost quartered Honduran Rosewood).

Here is a detail shot of the rear infill of an XSNo.4 infilled with Mystery rosewood.

And another shot of the entire plane along with another interesting example. The XSNo.4 in the foreground is infilled with some very old East Indian Rosewood. It has been quite some time since I have worked with East Indian and it was a real treat. It works much like Brazilian Rosewood - the same ease of workability, amazing color, and a pleasant smell. I am surprised East Indian Rosewood does not show up more often in old tools - it is a wonderful material.

French polish

2009-10-10T11:02:00.027-05:00

A few people have asked if I could give a tutorial on how I apply french polish. But before I do that - I think a little explanation of why I use french polish is in order.

Wood clarity.
Of all the finishes available to me - french polish does the least damage to the overall color and clarity of the wood. Oil is a sure fire way to darken Brazilian Rosewood to oblivion and all the color and vibrance that makes Brazilian rosewood so stunning is killed. Oil also kills East Indian Rosewood, turning the vibrant purple and red tones into mud. Oil does not affect Honduran Rosewood as much, but it does darken it. I do use warmed double boiled linseed oil on boxwood and then a coat of paste wax. For some reason - that finish seems a perfect “fit” for boxwood - and the darkening is not a bad thing.

French polish will wear with use - and I don’t mind that because as your hand rubs the finish, it will burnish the remaining french polish and wood to a similar luster. It is also a welcome part of the planes patina - its story if you will.

French polish is also a very pleasing tactile finish, it has a bit of a sheen to it, but not a plasticized look.

Not to mention it is a fairly safe finish.

Ok. On with the show.

I sand all the infill pieces to 600 grit. I start at 220, then 320, 400 and finish with 600 grit. A fellow planemaker once suggested the reason I use french polish was to avoid having to be particular about sanding. I just said “hmmm”. The above photo shows the inside surface of the front bun without finish applied.

Here is the kit. The white(ish) piece on the bench is foamcore which I use to test the mixture of the french polish and the mineral oil. I used foamcore because the surface is very smooth and not absorbent... and it was lying around from my design days. The shellac in the mason jar is a 2lb cut - roughly. I mix my own shellac using super blond flakes. I write the date of mixture on the top of the jar and a few months in, will add a splash of shellac thinner to compensate for evaporation. The film canister holds the rubber and the clear bottle with the white lid is drugstore mineral oil.

The rubber is made up of two pieces of cloth. The piece on the left is a 2-1/2" square of 100% cotton bedsheet (no really - it is an old bedsheet). The other piece is some other cheesecloth like fabric... but it is not cheese cloth.

I fold the cotton into thirds and then thirds again, place it along a center line of the “cheese cloth”, fold the cheese cloth down, then each side over. This is the rubber. It is flat for a reason - it lets you get into corners and is quite flexible and agile.

This is the grip I use. The section of the rubber at the tip of my thumb is held to the edge of the mason jar of shellac. I tip the jar until the shellac touches and charges the rubber. There is a small pool of mineral oil to the right of this brown spot. I touch my finger to the mineral oil and then transfer this drop to the rubber.

I place the rubber on this brown area (created over the last 8 years) and start circling it around. What I am looking for is a vapor trail. I want to see the alcohol flashing off just behind the rubber. It is kinda like the tail of a comet. When the trail is continuous as I go round and round - it is properly charged (at least for what I am using it for).

This is what a charged rubber looks like.

Very quickly, and with a fairly light touch, wipe the surface of the wood. There should be enough shellac and oil mixture to change the color of the entire surface of this front bun. You have to be quick and keep things moving - if you pause, the rubber will stick and will make a mess of things. As a point of reference - the inside of this bun should take about 10 seconds to apply a single coat.

Here is the surface after the first coat.

A few other points. I apply two coats a day - no more. This gives the shellac enough time to harden a bit and the next coat will not soften and remove too much of the previous coat. This process of softening the previous coat is what makes french polish so repairable. A little bit of the first coat is softened during the second coat and this is what allows french polish to build and fill the pores of the grain.

The flat profile of the rubber is what allows me to get into the corners on the front bun of a panel plane for example. The bun of a panel will take about 4 charges of the rubber - one for each side. After about the 6th or 7th coat, there is usually a little bit of oil on the surface of the infill so I don’t always need to put a drop of mineral oil on the rubber for the remaining coats.

Some woods like Ebony, African Blackwood and Honduran Rosewood build quite quickly because their pores are so small. Brazilian and East Indian rosewood take a bit more time. On average - I apply about a dozen coats to each plane.

On the 166th day - there was light.

2009-09-30T15:43:00.029-05:00

(and drywall, and a coat of primer and two coats of paint - but the lights... they were the big moment)

It has been a very busy fall. Once again my friend Andy jumped in and helped out with the 4' x 12' x 5/8" (fire code) sheets of drywall for the ceiling. We rented a drywall lift and managed to hang all 6 sheets in a night. My Dad and Jill helped hang the drywall on the walls, and I must say - the whole thing went pretty quickly and painlessly.

Then the taping and mudding - which I decided to do myself. This is our second house and over the years I have gotten fairly good at mudding. I am not extremely fast, but I have it to the point where I only sand once at the very end. I managed to get the first two coats on - then I hopped on a plane, and headed for England to the European Woodworking Show.

Ok - I have written about Westonbirt being the best woodworking show before - but I think this one was even better. First off - the setting was absolutely incredible. How can a woodworker not fall in love with demonstrating inside a medieval barn? These things were amazing and the first hour was spend with my head cranked back staring up at the structure. The sad news - I forgot my camera, but there are quite a few photos on the UK forum here and here. It was great to catch up with so many good friends and familiar faces. I was sandwiched between John Lloyd and David Charlesworth. David and I had a great discussion about bed angles, bevel down vs bevel up and sharpness. Phil Edwards had a few new beauties to check out - I think he has developed a weakness for Blackwood. One person I wish I would have had more time to visit with was Richard Maguire. He had two stunning workbenches at the show and I was delighted to see the Benchcrafted tail vice and leg vice. These are amazing vices and may just push me over the edge to make another bench or try to retro fit the tail vice to my shaker style bench.

One of the things that really impressed me about the show was the number of people from outside the UK. I spoke with people from Sweden, Denmark, Portugal, France and Austria.

Hats off to Mike Hancock and the rest of the Classic Handtool folks for such a fine show. And my deepest thanks to Peter and Helen for helping me get around and to Mark, Helen, Ella and Helen’s father Robert for helping to make my last two days in England most enjoyable. I look forward to the show again next year.

For some strange reason - I recovered from jet-lag quite quickly and was back in action. I finished off the third and final coat of mudding, sanded it and we then started the painting. Oh, I should also mention that Riley was very interested in this “mudding” thing (I think he loved the idea of being able to do something that sounded messy) and so he asked if he could help. One day after school, he had a friend over and the two of them helped me fill all the drywall screw holes on the lower walls. It was really great to see their interest and hopefully it will lead to a level of confidence and self-suficiency later in life.

There has also been some progress on the livingroom floor. I made a dedicated single purpose cross-cut sled for cutting the QS white oak herringbone pieces to length. Thankfully it went faster than I expected. I am not quite finished, but above is a shot of the first 528 pieces. I still need to cut a slot in the ends, but it looks like the flooring may just happen some time in October.

And if all this doesn’t sound busy enough - I am leaving tomorrow for the Woodworking in America conference in Valley Forge PA. If this show is anything like the one in Berea - it is going to be fantastic. The line-up of speakers is amazing - quite a few of whom I will try and listen in on.

PS - the camera is already packed.

No.4 madness!

2009-09-13T19:03:00.001-05:00

It has been unhandled smoother madness over here the last several weeks. I am just finishing up my SNo.4 smoother (second from the right - more pictures below). Here are a few quick pics of three XSNo.4’s and the first two SNo.4’s.

Here is yet another variation of the XSNo.4. This is an all steel version infilled with African Blackwood instead of Ebony. I am extremely pleased with the results.

I wasn’t sure how the warmth of the blackwood would work with the cold look of the steel - but they work wonderfully together. It is also nice to see the little bit of grain showing through - a subtle departure from the dead black of Ebony.

And here is my SNo.4 smoother. I was looking at my own planes a few weeks ago, and realized that I did not have a typical traditional British plane - steel sides, bronze lever cap and Brazilian Rosewood infill. I was a little relieve to be honest - it is getting tough to come up with new combinations of sidewall and infill material.

I decided to treat myself to a wee corner of some Curly Brazilian Rosewood. Here is a detail shot of the rear infill after the first coat of french polish. I can’t wait to see it after 12 coats! And it looks like I will be able to complete it in time for the show in England later this week.

Finishing the firewood drawer

2009-09-07T20:09:00.017-05:00

I have found a few spare moments here and there between planes and coats of french polish, and have used the time to finish working on the firewood drawer. Other than a finish on the white Oak door - it is completed.

This was one of those odd notions that led to much head scratching but ultimately, I hope a very useful solution. Here are a series of photos to show some of the detail.

One of the big issues was how to keep this from being a huge source of heat loss in the winter. The cavity around the drawer was filled with spray foam insulation when the rest of the room was done. Below is a quick shot with the cover off.

The large red box on the end serves 2 purposes. First, to push the handle into a more convenient location. And secondly to store six, 2" pieces of high density insulation.

With the drawer in a closed position, the air gap is 3/16" around the perimeter of the drawer and 1/8" gap on each side of the glides.

The first test piece of firewood...

... and its new home under the hearth. There is a 3/4" lip on the front edge of the aluminum drawer, but this should be visually blocked by the 3/4" flooring.

And a wider shot to show the drawer in context.

The white Oak door posed another challenge. The door hardware was a little limiting - the door could not be thicker than 1-3/4" and the stile had to be at least 4" wide. I managed to create a 3/4" cavity between the panels to put a single piece of Johns Manville insulation (R5).

The cavity.

And the insulation.

And speaking of insulation - the two exterior walls are now done. Next step...12' sheets of drywall.

Following up with sapwood

2009-09-01T09:53:00.009-05:00

A recent comment from Tom got me thinking about how close I sometimes “cut it” with roughed out infill blanks and proximity to the sapwood. There was a fairly large area of sapwood on this Brazilian Rosewood infill blank but I was pretty confident it would be removed by the time the plane was completed. Here is a little sequence showing the progression.

Good gravy this is going to be close!

With the rear infill fit, I can bandsaw off the waste to see what is going on. At this point - I am quite confident everything is going to work out.

With the sides lapped - I know I am out of the woods.

A quick shot of the rough layout line to mark the radius.

And the fully shaped plane with the first coat of french polish. One of the reasons I often risk cutting it this close is the best color and grain is often hiding just under the sapwood.

Introducing the SNo.4 smoother

2009-08-30T09:15:00.011-05:00

I am a little embarrassed about how long this has taken - but I think it was worth the wait. I first mentioned this plane in March and have just finished the prototype. This is one of the few times where the person who commissioned the plane is getting the prototype (I typically build 2 and keep the first one).

This plane is called the SNo.4 because it fits perfectly between the No.4 smoother and the XSNo.4. The No.4 smoother has a sole length of 7-1/2" and a blade width of 2". The SNo.4 has a 6-1/2" long sole with a blade width of 1-3/4" and the XSNo.4 is 5-1/2" long with a 1-1/2" wide blade. Here are a few photos of the 3 different sizes.

(please note that this No.4 smoother is a very early plane. Most of the current models do not have a cap iron and have a single shorter iron - like this).

This particular SNo.4 is infilled with Mystery rosewood, has bronze sides and a bed angle of 52.5 degrees.

I am going to be in England next month attending a show at Cressing Temple Barns and am planning on finishing my SNo.4 in time to bring it along.

Tomausmichigan - this one is for you!

2009-08-20T11:38:00.005-05:00

Your earlier comment about cutting it close with the sapwood was still fresh in my memory when I returned to the shop this morning. I had to smile when I realized the XSNo.4 I was working on had a similar “cutting it close” adventure in store.

I will post a photo when it is done... fingers crossed:)

seventy-five 2x4’s later...

2009-08-08T15:20:00.027-05:00

... we have a framed living room and fireplace.

The french polishing stages of 5 planes provided an excellent “window” for working on the living room/dining room. My Dad was able to offer a welcome and much needed hand with all this. The basic set-up was to stack the lumber on the front porch and pass it through the window as needed. Dad was in charge of measuring and piloting the chop saw (and sadly, it is not a Festool). He was also a great sounding board to figure out just how to build a 48" full extension drawer under the hearth. He played a vital role in getting this done - thanks Dad.

Here is a quick shot of the bulkhead to return this space into two rooms. The bulkhead drops down to the same height as the pocket and double beveled glass doors. That trim line will be carried from the doors to the bulkhead. The effect of the bulkhead is amazing - the space does not feel like a dark bowling ally anymore - it feels much wider (which is exactly what we were hoping would happen).

This is a shot of the early stages of figuring out the fireplace framing. Dad kept shaking his head and I swear I heard him mutter under his breath “nothing is ever done simple in this house!” There were a few frustrating moments, but I think we both enjoyed the challenge - and certainly the reward of solving the issues. I will post more photos once the drawer is completed and installed.

Another shot a little further along.

We also took time to do some new wiring in the two bedrooms above this room. We ran several new receptacle lines and cleaned out the last knob and tube circuit in the house.

The next step is to create a barrier between the windows and the new 2x4 framing to contain the spray in polyurethane foam insulation.

There was also quite a bit of work going on outside. The chimney was taken down to the last few courses of brick and then rebuilt.

Here is a shot of the completed chimney. See the line where the color changes? The lower section is not the actual brick color... someone painted it! The 70’s were not good to this house.

The two new windows were also installed - and we are thrilled with the results. We would not have removed the original windows if it meant loosing the stained glass. We worked with the window manufacturer and based the upper picture window on the dimensions of the stained glass window frame. A few plane strokes later, the original frames dropped in from the inside.

One of the biggest challenges was figuring out how to support the two courses of brick given that the original window frames were structural. We did not want to leave the original frames in because they would reduce the amount of glass, so we had two very large 1/4" thick steel “L” brackets made. The brick was notched out from the inside and the bracket was carefully slid in place. The bottom of the “L” supports both courses of brick and the vertical part keeps everything rigid. Thankfully the brick held fast and nothing moved.

If you are wondering what’s up with all the cross bracing - here is the scoop. We had considered using LVL’s - but they are about 10x’s as much - so we used regular spruce 2x4’s. To combat the inevitable twisting, warping and cupping we cross braced everything. Maybe a little more than we needed to - but nothing makes me more mental than drywall screws popping and walls moving.

Making a handle for a Japanese hammer

2009-08-04T15:52:00.000-05:00

About a year ago this stunning Masayuki hammer head arrived - just before I left for Westonbirt. While I was in England, I picked up a small boxwood branch with the intent to use it to handle this hammer. I squared it up and set it on my bench to let it dry out. You can likely see it in the background of many of the photos over the last year.

I grew tired of waiting and decided to begin. I followed So’s advise (from his excellent website) for the traditional method of handling a hammer. You can follow it here - click on “hammers” on the left hand side and then scroll down to the third last entry titled Quince and Gumi handle.

I prepared the blank in a similar manner, took a deep breath and started. What makes this process so amazing is the mechanics of it. The mortise through the hammer head does not have parallel edges - they curve inward slightly in the middle and then outward again towards the top. The prepared end of the handle is made to the same size as the opening of the mortise and then each day, the head is pounded in aprox. 1mm. The curved edges of the mortise compress the wood fibers - hence the week long process. Once the handle is past the narrowest point, oil is added to the exposed wood at the top to re-expand the wood as the mortise opens up. This locks it in place and eliminating the need for wedges.

Here is a shot of the 1mm marks on the handle.

The hammer is now done and I have to say - it is an amazing tool to use. The weight is wonderful. The handle is quite thin when compared to Western style handles - but this one feels quite amazing... I am sure the boxwood is playing a role in this.

Hand work... glorious hand work!

2009-07-23T16:59:00.014-05:00

I am finishing off a few A5’s right now, and thought a little “how-to” series might be interesting. My favourite aspect of planemaking (by far) is the shaping of the various infills. There are very few infill pieces that lend themselves to router bits or other mechanical shaping methods. And besides - shaping it by hand is way more fun. The front bun of an A5 is a perfect example.

The A5 in the above photo has just been lapped, the sides are fully shaped and the next step is to shape the bun.

Here are a few quick layout lines. The first radius I work on is the front one - connecting the line on top of the bun and the one of the front face. As I am rounding this over - I am watching the light reflect on the curve to help maintain a consistent curve. Once the front is done, I round over the edges - following the profile of the sidewall.

Here is a shot of the front rounded over as well as the sides. Note how rough the shaping is at this point. It is also fairly parallel to the overall shape of the sidewalls.

This photo shows the transition into more graceful complex curves. The front corners have been rounded over. They also “sag” a bit as is shown by the white layout line across the front - part of it is removed in the corners.

The coarse file marks are removed with a finer file - and the “sagging” corners can be seen a bit better in the bands of light reflecting off the bun.

Now the bun is fully shaped and sanded. From the fine file, I use 220 grit sandpaper, then 320, 400 and end with 600. The above photo shows the finish from 600 grit.

And close up shots to show the finished surface, as well as the organic compound curves to the bun.

And finally - a shot of the plane with the first coat of french polish on the bun and the overstuffed sides.

Birds-eye boxwood

2009-07-04T10:20:00.001-05:00

In August of 2008, I had an opportunity to acquire a very rare piece of wood - some Birds-eye boxwood. Finding real English boxwood is tough enough - but to find a piece of birds-eye is kinda like finding Brazilian Rosewood burl.

The above lump has been sitting in the shop for almost a year and it was time to cut into it. What was even more astonishing is that it appeared that the “eyes” went all the way to the pith instead of disappearing 1/4" under the surface. This was one amazing piece of wood!

A close-up of some of the “eyes”.

The first cut is always the scariest - and the most exciting. This piece did not disappoint - the eye were more intense 1/4" in.

This was a very irregular piece - and I did my best to save as much wood as I could while still finding the infill sets I was after. The above book-match was really striking - and provided me with a lot of information about how to proceed. And on top of the birds-eye - there was some curl.

After a few hours of flipping the pieces over, outlining parts, erasing parts, taking a small cut here and there - I had 3 sets roughed out. There are two sets for XSNo.4’s and a set for a SNo.4. There are still a few really good sized pieces left over for other small plane parts.

Here is a shot of the top of the rear infill for the SNo.4. This set is going in an all steel version - an SNo.4ss.

The toughest part now is going to be the waiting.

Karl Holtey’s new blog

2009-06-26T11:55:00.006-05:00

I just became aware of Karl’s new blog a few days ago. It is great to see and read about his perspective on planemaking and will hopefully further inspire people - he certainly inspired me when I started.

The pieces are slowly coming together

2009-06-13T10:37:00.023-05:00

(A quick sketch-up drawing of the fireplace and surrounding built-in)

The livingroom renovation has been on pause for the last month - at least that is the way it looks from the inside. There has been a fair amount of time spent with various trades and suppliers though - and things are coming together.

The two new windows have been ordered - they should be here by the end of the month. They are aluminum clad double casement windows with a fixed picture window on top. The fixed window has been spec’d in a way that the original stained glass windows will slide in from the inside. We are most pleased about this detail as we would not be replacing the windows if it meant giving up the stained glass.

Once the windows are in - I can frame the two new walls for the exterior walls, do the wiring and then insulate.

The zero clearance, woodburning fireplace has also arrived.

Our masonry guy stopped in this morning to discuss the firewood drawer. This is something I am really excited about. I grew up with a woodburning stove and one of the many childhood chores was bringing in the firewood. It was always a messy job - knocking off the snow and trudging through the house to stack it by the fireplace. We are going to be incorporating a spot under the hearth to store about 3 fires worth of wood. Instead of walking through the house, we are going to incorporate an open sided drawer that can be loaded from the outside and then accessed from the inside. This will involve cutting a hole in the exterior of the chimney (which happens to be at a perfect standing/loading height). The photo below shows the opening from the outside.

The photo below shows where it is on the inside. I am going to have a 1/4" thick steel frame made to fit inside the brick opening to support the weight. It will be 17-1/2" deep to extend the full depth of the chimney. I will need to make an insulated door to put in the steel frame - I think this will be a great solution.

I found some extra heavy duty, full extension drawer slides rated for 400lbs. They are 48" and should work perfectly for this. In the slides description, they make a note that these are not meant to support human weight... sorry Riley and Lucas (cause you know they will try!).

And last but not least - the quarter sawn white oak is starting to arrive too. Above is the 320 bd ft for the trim and the built-in cabinets around the fireplace.

Here is a quick shot showing some of the fantastic ray flecking - I can’t wait to get to the woodworking part of this project!

I also lucked out and was able to purchase a large pile of very wide quarter sawn white oak boards. All 15 are from the same tree and are quite spectacular. I placed my 12" Starrett on the floor for scale - they are all 8' long.