The Hard Way

By John, 6 October, 2011, No Comment

Resawn Door Faces

Our new home (30 years old) came without medicine cabinets. I decided to put aside other projects and make some. We love Arts and Crafts, so I searched about for a few ideas.

Funny thing, they did not have medicine cabinets a hundred and 10 or so years ago. So, you take some ideas and borrow a few traditions and go for it.

I want some thin panels for the doors, but you can’t just walk into the local box store and buy such a critter in quarter-sawn white oak. I could have ordered an entire sheet of plywood, but that would be more than I need right now, and I want to see it before I buy something like that. I also had the option of veneering it onto something that would give me what I want.

But, I decided to take the cheapest path, and use some existing stock. Using two feet of a 10 inch wide rough sawn board, I cut off an end with nice ray and fleck patterns. I do not yet possess a bandsaw, so this was going to take some hand sawing. I used the table saw to cut nearly two inches around the circumference of the board, and then stuck it into the vice and went looking for my handsaws.

The only sharp one I own is one bought last year that is labeled ‘fine’ — obviously a crosscut saw. I knew that I would be in for a few extra strokes. Wow, I wish that I had counted them! It felt like it took about 2000 strokes to saw through that piece. Before I do the next one, I am going to invest in a rip saw or beg my wife for that band saw that I keep talking about.

I like hand tools, but that is more hand than I want to apply.

Lie-Nielsen #4 Plane

By John, 3 October, 2011, No Comment

Shavings from Lie-Nielsen Plane

I invested in a #4 Lie-Nielsen plane. This plane is different in a few way from the traditional Stanley/Bailey plane. The number one difference is that the frog holds the plane iron at a 50 degree pitch as opposed to the 45 degree angle found on most Stanley/Bailey planes. The higher pitch is referred to as the York or Middle pitch.

The steeper angle helps reduce the tear-out that comes with difficult woods. Here is a great blog about the whole issue with planing and potential for tear-out.

I am working on medicine cabinets for our two bathrooms. I chose quarter-sawn white oak to match most of our Arts and Crafts style furniture. I included a picture of some of the shavings from the oak pieces that make up the doors. Call me a sucker for wispy thin shavings of wood, and this plane is a champ at making them. I like using this plane on this oak because I get tear-out on quarter-sawn wood from time to time and this plane really helps.

I have several planes from several manufacturers. Some are new, and some are a hundred years old. I use a number of them on my projects. This plane however, is like an old friend. Although I have not possessed it a long time, it simply fits my hands so well, and is such a pleasure to use.

New Kid in the Crib

By John, 23 September, 2011, 2 Comments

London in the Crib

London Elle, the sister of Titus is here! She is a couple of weeks early, and today she took a snooze in the crib. She looks sooo tiny! Titus has become a big boy in comparison, and he is quite capable of standing and looking over the top rail.

By the way, London is wearing hand-knit booties that my Mom, Betty made for her. They have received a number of praises.

More Wood

By John, 1 September, 2011, No Comment

My wife and I drove to the sawmill yesterday in Dunlap, Iowa. Our new home does not have medicine cabinets in either of the upstairs bathrooms, so I plan to build some to fit our tastes and space.

Mostly I picked up white oak. Unfortunately, the sawmill did not have wide enough pieces of quartersawn for the sides, but they had some wide pieces of white oak that I can use. Since the sides will be barely visible in their locations, I think I can pull it off with them. Quite disappointing actually to get there and only have narrow pieces available.

I also picked up some nice walnut that I am going to use for a couple of projects. One of those projects involves wrapping the rough wood used for the fireplace mantle. The wood in place is very crude and dark. This wood will provide beautiful lines.

Dying With Water

By John, 24 August, 2011, No Comment

In my new shop, I am far from being ready to do any serious work, so I have been experimenting some with the combination of water-based wood dyes and oil stains. The combination of the two stains can give your wood grain an appearance boost from what I read. I thought I would take advantage of this downtime in my shop to do some experimenting.

So far, frustrations reign. My normal process is to sand the wood to a very nice state and then stain. Water-based dyes raise the grain on what was a nice smooth piece of wood. So sanding is required again. This is bad.

I consulted some of the woodworkers on a Greene and Greene forum for advice and got some good responses. I am close to being ready to try another sample, so I will try some of the tips that I got from the group.

I want this to work. I have seen some of the value already from my first experiments, and I like some of what I am seeing.

Right now, I am using products from General Finishes if you want to check out their product line. Also a link to their how-to page.

I am going to include a couple of the links passed along to me for others to read as well.

Dorset Custom Furniture

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IWCptCxNx4I