More Shaving Horse progress and other happenings

So, a bit of progress on the shaving horse this afternoon.  I’ve had very little shop time over the past couple weeks, but more on that later.

I’ve almost got it finished up.  I still need to fashion a seat, and cut the dowels to size and wedge them, but that’s pretty much it!  Here’s some pictures in the meantime.

I left some bark on the ratcheting lever and liked it, so I decided to leave some on the bottom of the foot bar as well. I’m not totally sold on it, but I think it looks ok. For whatever reason, chair making seems very “appalachia” to me, so I’m more inclined to leave these folksy details on.  I dunno.

One very important detail that I copied from Greg Pennington’s horse was a place to put your drawknife / spokeshave while you’re working.  After using his horse for a week, it was obviously a very good modification, and almost an indispensable one.  If you don’t have a place to set your tool, you’ve got to have a little bench or something next to you to sit everything on.

All in all though, it seems to have come out pretty well. Another afternoon in the shop and I’ll be done. One final detail that I added was on the bottom of the ratcheting head.. It’s the same detail that Chris Schwarz puts on his English Try Square. I thought it looked nicer than just a squared or rounded over end.

Moving on, the reason I haven’t gotten much shop time lately is because another project that has been in the works for a long time finally came to conclusion..

Porter Edward O’Neill is here! Arrived Nov 29th, 8lb 8oz.  Gratuitous fan back rocker picture, of course.  Hopefully I’ll be able to impart to him that “shabby-chic” is not a style of furniture, something I’ve been unable to do with my wife.

So, that’s what has been happening around here.  I’ll post some finished pictures of that shaving horse in a week or so; I’m building a walnut trestle desk next, so that should be a fun project to document (and won’t be too hard either).

– Matt

Shaving Horse pt. Deux

I got the ratcheting head working.. I was a little worried about getting the lever placed in the right spot, but everything worked out just right.  There’s a length of bungee cord to pull it back into place, so all you need to do is pull the head up, or press down on the lever to lower it.  It works really well!

I’ve still got another 5-6 hours before this is done.. It’s not the most exciting thing in the world, but having good tools inspires you do great work. And building something like this is definitely a change of pace!

– Matt

Breeding Shave Horses

If I want to be a REAL chair maker, I’ll need a shaving horse.  What’s a shaving horse? Well, it’s basically a specialized bench for clamping and working with chair parts; specifically, spindles, crests, anything you’d be using your drawknife or spokeshave on.

Didn’t I just build a sweet bench with awesome vises though?  Yes, yes I did.  And I could technically do everything with a regular vise that I’ll do with the shave horse, but it would take waaaay longer, and be super annoying.

Here’s a good video on what a shavehorse is used for:

In fact, that whole series is fantastic, and Curtis Buchannan is like the Mozart of windsor chairs, so I’d recommend watching all of them if you’ve got time on your hands.

Anyways, I drove up to Greg’s yesterday, and bought a couple big pieces of cherry.  I whipped out my circular saw and started cutting some of the pieces down to size…

And, eventually I go them both cut out, and jointed and planed…

I’m building a Brian Boggs style shaving horse.. The main difference between his and others (that I can gather) is that he doesn’t have open sides on the head.  Well, since his style is the only kind I’ve ever used, I figure I may as well stick with what I know. Like usual, I’ve got the plans within view;

Those plans don’t have all the lengths listed, so I was having somewhat of a difficult time figuring out dimensions based on angles and heights. You know, basic geometry that I’ve long forgotten. So, I thought, why not just draw this thing out on the floor?  I don’t really care about pencil marks on the concrete, so I drew out some of the full size dimensions and it made things much easier to figure things out.

So, I got the front leg cut, and also the correct bevel on the main body. Tomorrow, I’m hoping to get some legs cut, and also the rocker sides.  Hopefully this project will go pretty quickly, I’ve got a few other things I’d like to finish before the end of the year..

Thanks for reading!

– Matt

What I’ve been up to…

Sorry for the lack of posts (I don’t think anyone actually reads this anyways).  But since July, I’ve moved to a new house and started a new job, so I’ve been a little bit busy.

That doesn’t mean I haven’t been building anything though!  One of the great things about our new house is that I’ve got a detached garage that largely dedicated to woodworking.  It’s pretty sweet.

I’ll post some more details on that later, I haven’t quite got things pretty and organized yet. Anyways, here are a couple things that I’ve finished, and will post more build details later on.

First up, a windsor chair:

I took a week long class with Greg Pennington, and it was one of the funnest things I’ve done in a long time.  Greg is a great teacher, and an incredible chair maker. He’s one of those guys who just does stuff so fast it makes your head spin.  I’ve got a lot to write about that week though, so more on that later.

Next, a coffee table for my wife’s vet practice:

This is made from maple, and stained a dark walnut or something.  I honestly don’t really love this thing, but it’s what the interior decorater specified. Staining wood just seems to take all the natural color variation out, and leaves really monotone look. Also, it’s a little glossy for my taste.

Third, one of those C. Schwarz squares..

This was actually pretty easy to build, a lot easier then I thought.  BUT (there’s always a but) after glue-up, I took the smoother to it and discovered that both sides had bowed about 1/8.  Now, the GD thing was dead flat when I put the clamps on.  They both bowed in the opposite direction of the half-lap joints, so it doesn’t seem like bad luck.  I’m going to email Chris and express my displeasure.  I’d take a picture of the bowing, but I was so annoyed I got out the no8 and tried to flatten the damn thing.  Of course I wasn’t really successful.

Anyways, that’s what I’ve been up to.  I’ll post more frequently in the future, promise.

– Matt

Shaker Side Tables in Cherry pt. 2

Didn’t I say something about a quick project?  Well, they are done, in any case.  I figured they would take me like a week, but obviously I was wrong.

First, a couple pictures of them done.

They came out OK. Like usual, I can point out a bunch of mistakes.  #1 being that I oriented the breadboard shelf the wrong way.  Or, actually, I captured the end of the shelf in the legs incorrectly. If you look at the following picture, you can see how I did it (wrong)..

It’s kind of hard to explain what the problem is here, but by not fully embedding the shelf in the leg, you’ve got the potential for some gappiness, which I had.

Other then that, things went generally pretty well. I’m still terrible at making pegs with a dowel plate, and I swear half of them busted off 2/3rds of the way through the joint, so I’m either using too much of an offset when drawboring, or not using my drawbore pins aggressively enough.

One other lesson I learned during this was about sawing.. I forget where I read it, but somewhere I learned that you should pick up your saw a little on the return stroke.  I’m sure there are ancillary benefits, but the main one is that you wont’ get sawdust all over your knife or pencil line.  So, I tried to do that, and it actually made quite a bit of difference.  

Picking it up on the return stroke:

Not picking it up on the return stroke:

Mainly, it saves you a lot of huffing and puffing blowing the sawdust clear of your line every few strokes, and speeds things up.  It’s the little things, I tell ya…

I picked up a load of soft maple and some more cherry while up at my uncle’s last weekend, so hopefully I’ll get started with some more projects soon!

– Matt

ps. My Uncle Denny VERY generously gave me his grandfathers mint, almost unused and still in the original packaging with all the cutters and accessories Stanley no. 45 plane.  I am very very happy, and any tool that has some family history behind it makes it all the more special.  I’ll post some of my experiences with it shortly.

Blanket Chest.

I’m not really going to go into the construction or anything, just show the results. This is probably the most complicated thing I’ve made to date besides my workbench. I made a 1/2 dozen mistakes, but it came out pretty well in the end. Like with everything, the next one I build will go much quicker.

And just so noone thinks I’m actually a good designer, I copied Thomas Moser’s blanket chest as best I could.

You’ll also notice that there are no knobs on the drawer. Well, I don’t have a lathe, and all my attempts at shaping a knob by hand or by using my drill press went pretty bad pretty fast. So I’ve got some knobs coming my way via UPS. The recipient of this chest is supposed to be picking it up this weekend tho, so hopefully they get here quick.

I think it came out pretty well. The case is walnut harvested from a dead tree I had taken down when we lived in Knoxville. Drawer and other interior parts are maple and ash, and some aromatic cedar for the inside bottom. Dang thing is heavy, too.

UPDATE: I just got the knobs and threw them on.  NOW it’s complete.

– Matt

Dogs, Square.

I guess this isn’t really a benefit of square dogs over round ones, since the same thing could be accomplished with either.

I was chopping out a spot on a leg for a shelf to rest on, and it popped into my head that the dogs could keep the leg from shifting backwards. I suppose I didn’t think of it before because I’m used to thinking of using the dogs only in their “proper” orientation, IE inline with the wagon vise.

Anyways, it worked great. This does underscore the convenience of putting a dog in every single dog hole..  If you are making your own, it really pays to take the extra hour or 3 and make all of them.

– Matt

Fences.

I’ve had the veritas plow and rabbet (rabbit?) for a while now. Whenever you order something you’re like “ohhh, I’m going to treasure this forever. I’m going to build all the accessories and jigs for it, I’m going to dip it in camila oil every night, blah blah”. Then you get it, you set it aside for a few days, the euphoria wears off… All of a sudden you have a plane that needs setup, the blade needs honing, and you’ve already got some surface rust.  SUMABITCH!

Anyways, I needed something to do the other night while my wife was watching “So you think you can dance”, but I didn’t feel like doing anything major. So I finally made the fences for the plow and rabbet plane that I promised myself I would make like a year ago.

Nothing fancy here. Some scrap walnut, planed to size and some rounded edges put on with a rasp. I probably should have made them bigger, honestly, but whatever. These will do for the next 5 years.

My first plane was a veritas BU jack plane. I loved it (still do). I would read reviews of people bad-mouthing veritas handles, and I would be all “what-EVER you whiners. Do the handles make your virginia hurt too?”

Well, then I got a LN No8. And a couple handmade saws. Knowing what a nicely shaped tote feels like, I’m now in the cry-baby camp. Grabbing the veritas planes now is an exercise in grimacing. I pout when I use them. I’m not sure I’m so much of a dork that I’m actually going to replace the handles, but I may.  I know I can get replacements for my jack and smoother, but the plow and rabbet are another story. I may get out a rasp to try reshaping them one of these days, but lord knows how that will turn out.

If I do, I’ll be sure to take pictures.

– Matt

Split Top Clamping

I took this picture a few weeks ago, but forgot to post it… Here’s exactly why I ended up going with the split-top design. You can just slip your piece around the front part of the bench and grab it with the wagon vise. Bingo-Bongo, it’s not going anywhere.

Honestly, this drawer was a little huge and awkward, and it still worked really well.  Sliding smaller drawers and casework around the back and clamping it down for finish planing is going to be a complete joy.

,

– Matt

Shaker Side Tables in Cherry pt. 1

After finishing up looooong projects, I’m always looking for something relatively quick and satisfying. So, since my last two projects have been the roubo bench and a walnut blanket chest (post coming soon on that), I needed a break.  Not a break from woodworking, of course, but a break from thinking!

I had built a shaker side table last spring, based on Chris Becksvoort article in Fine Woodworking magazine, “Shaker Classic, 2 Ways” (FWW #210).  In fact, it was the first real piece of furniture I built. I had built a humidor before that, and a toolbox, but this was certainly the first thing that made my wife remark “hmmm.. maybe you aren’t terrible at this after all.”  Here’s a picture of how it turned out.

It came out ok, and didn’t take too long. So, I figured why not build a couple more? If I’m building one, I may as well build two coz I’ve got a decent stack of cherry sitting idly by.

Well, like usual I started taking pictures late in the process. But, you all don’t need to see a bunch of pictures of me milling up the stock anyways, right? The first night I milled the stock for the legs, the 2nd night I milled up the boards for the top, skirt, and shelf, and the 3rd night I glued everything up.  I didn’t have any 8/4 stock, so I had to glue up all the legs. I took a chance and clamped up four legs (8 pieces) at a time.

I think it will turn out fine. Here’s the tops and shelves (oh yeah, I decided to add a shelf to the tables) after glue-up.

So, I sort of lied when I said I had milled the skirts (front, back, side pieces). I milled up a single board, but didn’t cut it into it’s individual parts yet. 

First, I mark up the board where I’m going to cut, adding 1/8” to each length for the saw kerf. As I progress in my woodworking adventures, I’m getting much more confident about cutting to the line/correct length right away. It saves a lot of time in the end. Now, it will look nice if the grain runs continuously around the table, so I marked the pieces in order, and then coded them accordingly so I would know what went where (notice the article laying on the bench there? I told you I didn’t want to think. Read a paragraph, make the cuts).

Btw, after reading Jim Toplin’s new book, I decided to order some grease pencils because I saw him using them. They work great. I ordered a pack of black ones, but also a pack of white for using on walnut.

So, onto cutting. I really enjoy cutting with my panel saw. I got an old disston panel saw from Mark Harrell (of Bad Axe Toolworks fame), and it works fantastic. Well, it used to, at least. One night my batteries died on my sawzall, and I just started using my panel saw because, frankly, it was almost as fast cutting through 2x4s. Well, I was getting a little carried away, and I kinked the crap out of it. Take a look at the poor saw now.

See that wicked bend? And it’s hard to take a picture of it.. Trust me, it’s much worse in person. That being said, I can still cut a remarkably straight line with it. 

Anyways, let’s get to cutting. First drag out the sawbench.

Then wax up the saw, and get to cross-cutting. Hmmm… Can I really cut square with this mangled saw?  Yup.

I shoot all the ends anyways, so’ve I’ve got a nice clean area to mark and cut the tenons.

Well, now I’ve got all the boards almost ready to go. Next up is cutting tenons, and chopping mortises. I’ve told myself that I want to cut these all by hand for practice. Let’s see, that’s 8 cuts per tenon multiplied by 2 tenons per side multiplied by 3 sides multiplied by two tables… 96 saw cuts!! Man, I better be a first class sawyer by the end of this. I’m still waffling on the mortises.. I’ve only chopped a few mortises by hand, and I’ve done it poorly. I figure 12 per table, so that’s not too bad I guess.  We’ll see.

– Matt