Today, I completed a pair of plane maker’s floats.  If you’re unfamiliar, floats are a sort of a hybrid between a rip saw and a file.  They are used to produce a flat surface in the recesses of a wooden plane body.  I have long wanted to try my hand at making traditional hand carved wooden planes, and so a few specialized tools are needed.

The top float pictured will cut on the push stroke; the bottom one, on the pull stroke.  They were made by two slightly different methods, resulting in a slightly higher tooth per inch count on the pull stroke float.  Time will tell if it makes any difference.  Both are made from O1 tool steel that is not hardened beyond the temper that it was shipped with.  They are manufactured and sharpened by hand filing (lots and lots of hand filing).

Since this was my first attempt at making floats, I’m not completely satisfied with the result.  On the other hand, they are quite serviceable and should do the job as expected.  

Thirty five years ago I made a dining set out of cherry.  Since then, it’s been moved three times and seen almost daily use.  So I’m inclined to be charitable when one of the chairs cries out for help.  The glue at one of the most highly stressed joints has failed.

Fortunately, I use hide glue for nearly all my projects.  Hide glue has the distinct advantage over other glues, of being reversible.  Moist heat will dissolve it.

Some saturated bar towels heated in the microwave for two minutes and wrapped around the joint will do the trick.  One on the joint and another heating; repeated as needed until the joint is pried apart with a reversed clamp (the measuring cup is for transporting the scalding hot towel from the microwave to the bench).

A touch up of the finish and it should be good for another 35 years, or more.

After finishing a project that has left the shop, I usually try to make something that will stay in the shop.  However, this time I decided to make something to go to someone else’s shop.

Every year about this time, the Phinney Neighborhood Association holds its annual fundraising dinner. The event includes a silent auction of donated items.  So in order to generate interest in our community wood shop, I decided to make a James Krenov style smoothing plane and to put it up for auction.

The 1 1/2″ wide blade is a Ron Hock, O1 steel with chip breaker.  The body is black cherry and the cross pin and wedge are wenge.  The only finish is a couple of coats of Anarchist’s Daughter Soft Wax.

Hopefully, it will generate some interest, as an auction item but also in the wood shop as well.  I’m toying with the idea of offering a class in how to build one.

It’s no secret that I dislike deadlines. It’s one of the reasons that I have, for the most part, stopped taking commissions at the shop. I like to make things in my own time and as my inspiration dictates. Many of those inspirations come as gifts to loved ones, which can lead to a conflict of motivations. This is because babies come when they’re ready, whether you are or not. Babies have in effect, non negotiable deadlines.

So when my nephew informed us that he and his wife were expecting their first child in March, I was both delighted and dismayed. Delighted because of a new member to the family and the opportunity to make an heirloom project; dismayed, because I now have a deadline, …one that is non negotiable. Babies can be such tyrants, and this one’s not even born yet. Just wait.

In order to ease this traumatic transition in the lives of all involved, and to satisfy my heirloom lust, I started work on a bassinet for the baby. I looked at traditional cradle designs, both rocking and swinging types, but eventually settled on a glider style. It has the advantages of being taller, so the parents don’t have to bend over so far to retrieve the child. It is also more comfortable and safer for the baby because it doesn’t tend to roll the baby and is less likely to tip than a swing type. It also incorporates a low table for necessary items.

The design is from the now defunct Meisel Woodworking Plans and is available from several retail websites. After adding up the area of all the components, I made a cut list and added 20% for waste and contingencies (mistakes). Since Kris was scheduled to be in Port Townsend for a board meeting, I decided to tag along and stop in at Edensaw Lumber. Unfortunately, her meeting was on a Sunday and the Edensaw warehouse is closed on Sundays. Their lumber showroom however was open and I was able to find 41bf of S2S black ash that looked very nice.

I built the base first and the cradle section last. The plan called for using commercially available pre-turned spindles but I instead opted to make rectilinear spindles that resembled classic craftsman detail. All told, 60 mortises and 60 tenons. Usually I prefer to cut mortises by hand, but given the size (1/4″) and number I instead opted use the bench top mortiser at the Phinney Neighborhood Association’s Community Wood Shop.

No joinery technique was specified in the plan but a fastener schedule was included, suggesting that only screws should be used to hold the components together. I decided that floating tenons would be an improvement and so used hide glue and floating tenons in addition to the long screws. My only other deviation from the published plan was to add some heart shaped cutouts in the crest at either end. One edged in pink and the other in blue.

The entire assembly was sanded, sponged with water to raise the grain and sanded again. Then Zinser’s Seal Coat ™ was used as a sanding sealer and the entire project was sanded again. The final finish was four coats of Daly’s ProFin™, sanded between coats, then buffed with abrasive wool and Mother’s California Gold™ carnauba wax.

The hardware was stock glider hardware from Rockler.

In all, I am quite pleased with the outcome, but now I have to construct a pallet and crate, secure it for transport and ship it across the country in time. Babies can be such tyrants.

Only I really did say, “fudge” (Apologies to Jean Shepherd, author of A Christmas Story).  

Since all of this year’s Christmas wood shop gift oddities have been opened and accounted for, it’s safe to disclose what came out of the shop (and our kitchen) this year.  It’s been over 40 years since I made a large batch of telescopic lid gift boxes, so that was this year’s choice. When I last did this, was a time before personal computers and so I made recipe card boxes for 3″x5″ recipe cards.

Recipe cards are not used much anymore so I thought that it might be nice to make smaller boxes and enclose some kind of sweet treat from the kitchen.  We make Christmas cookies with friends as a holiday tradition but I didn’t want to usurp that event for my shop gifts.  So I decided on home made fudge for the contents of my boxes.  Not just one fudge, but six varieties in each box, kind of like a sampler box of chocolates.

Naturally, as a woodworker, I focused on the task of making the boxes in time for Christmas.  The wood I chose was a pre cut pine stair tread from the neighborhood lumber yard.  Stair treads are a good source of 1″ thick clear lumber and a favorite starting point for me.

This stair tread however was a particularly resinous piece and after I had made all my little boxes the place smelled like I had washed up with PineSol™.  Fortunately a good airing over the fireplace with the lids off removed most of the “Christmas tree” odor and it didn’t affect the fudge.

The next step was to enlist the help of a friend and co-steward from the Phinney Neighborhood Association Community Wood Shop who just happened to have a Glowforge laser plotter.  He was able to burn a clip art design onto the lids of all the boxes for me (thanks Kevin).

Then came the fudge, starting with a very simple and tasty recipe found on the wrapper of Ghirardelli™ 100% cocoa bars. I then proceeded to adulterate the recipe in every way imaginable, fudge with walnuts, fudge with orange peel (and some orange liqueur), fudge with dried pie cherries (also with liqueur), with peppermint, and with candied ginger.  I also included my mom’s recipe and a version of white fudge with cranberries and orange peel. In all, eight varieties all wrapped in large blocks and vacuum sealed in the fridge for later processing.

I had thought at this point, that the hard part of this project was done.  But as the saying goes,

“When you’re 90% finished, you have 90% left”

Cutting, wrapping and labeling 192 pieces of fudge was something I was not mentally prepared for. My fingers are not generally what I would call “dexterous”, and my talent for wrapping things is why I usually prefer to employ decorative gift bags with stick on bows. Never-the-less I was committed, and by the time I was finished, I was ready to be committed, …to the nearest asylum.

I was a miserable failure at first, but with time I will admit to some facility at wrapping fudge; something I hope never to do again. Imagine the torment of King Midas, only instead of gold, everything you touch turns sticky.  You get the picture.  Thankfully, it’s done and everyone was pleased with the gift, …except one.

As a lark, I had also decided to make a batch of home made licorice.  I cut the licorice into coal shaped chunks and packed one box with it.  The boxes were shuffled and the coal was sent out blindly with a note explaining that it was at random, not a personal judgement and that If you really didn’t like licorice a second box with fudge would be sent.

Well, as I indicated earlier, coal (licorice) was not appreciated so, …fudge.

Busy times!

What with traveling, preparing for the holidays and making Christmas gifts I clean forgot to report the success of another Phinney Neighborhood Association (PNA) wood shop class.  This time we made shaker style bentwood trays.  They are shaker style because the Shakers are not known to have made trays.  But that didn’t stop us from using shaker bentwood techniques to make them.

Four students  made three trays each of differing sizes. During the two day process they learned to used the bandsaw, the combination sander, how to clench nail and steam (boil) bend wood.

Everyone had fun, learned some new skills and went home with a set of hand made trays.  I think that we may also have recruited some new wood shop members for the PNA.

Well it’s done. Or at least the construction of the bench as designed is done. I still have to bore some holes for the new Crucible Tools™ holdfasts that I’ve ordered. I’ll wait to do that when I have them in hand as they are quite large and the bench is too narrow for a conventional layout of the holes. I am also contemplating how best to install the iron planing stop, but these are add-ons to the basic design.

Overall, I’m pleased with the bench so far.  The proof is in how it functions down the road. The height is about 33″, or right to the first knuckle on my hand with a relaxed bent arm.  About 2″ lower than my main workbench but better suited to hand tool wood working.

The bench might seem narrow but the actual working surface of most benches is far less than their whole surface.  If I look over at my main bench, I see all sorts of tools and glue and finish pots and scraps that take up most of the horizontal space.  The tool tray on the Moravian bench should help to manage the clutter and I’m looking forward to seeing how it works.

The bench knocks down or sets up in about two minutes, and the tusk tenon joinery of the legs is incredibly stiff and strong.  This allows an otherwise immovable bench to be knocked down and moved easily by one person.

I’m hoping that our local neighborhood wood shop will be able to support the building of a number of these benches, so that we are able to hire professional instructors in hand tool skills and techniques.

Approaching the completion of my work bench project, I’ve discovered that I have one heck of a clean-up ahead of me.  This comes as something of a surprise as I normally work with machines for much of my woodworking, but for this project I have tried to use mostly hand tools. Machines have dust and chip collection attached to them, hand tools don’t.

The problem is also compounded by my tendency toward binge cleaning.  By binge cleaning, I mean that I work on a project until its completion or until I can’t stand the clutter or it’s unsafe to work. Then and only then, do I stop work and clean up. If I’m on a roll and making good progress I am loath to interrupt the groove in order to clean up.

Don’t get me wrong, I love a clean shop, and I know that it’s safer and more efficient to keep a clean shop.   But if the work beckons me, I cannot help it.  After all, I do this work because I enjoy it, and I don’t enjoy cleaning.

When I was a youngster in junior high school, my metal shop teacher (Mr. Gillespie) would call for clean-up ten minutes before the period ended.  Anyone who did not stop work was told to plunge their hands into the coal bin up to their elbows.  No matter how much you scrubbed, you wore black gauntlets to your next classes for the rest of the day, and everyone knew why.  You only needed to do that once to learn to clean up at the end of the work day. I have often wondered if this is perhaps why metal work is not my forte and I clean up when I feel like it.

So, in my last post, I mentioned that my current project is a Moravian workbench, as described by Will Meyers.  I have finished the leg assemblies and connecting stretchers, started on the face vise assembly and now I need to start on the bench top.

The challenge here is finding suitable piece from which to make the top.  Ideally, for a period designed bench, you would use a single huge slab of hardwood lumber.  Unfortunately, in my neck o’ the woods, large slabs of oak, maple or cherry are hard to find and very expensive when you do find one.

On the other hand, large timbers of Douglas Fir are more prevalent.  Doug Fir is a good structural wood but in comparison with hardwood species it is softer and tends to be a bit splintery. Never the less, the fact that outstanding grades of salvaged DF can be had at a mere fraction of the cost of hardwoods dictates that I at least give it a try.  I mean, if it doesn’t work out, the piece is large enough to rip down into lumber for other things and the grade quality is exceptional.

When I refer to the grade, I mean the closeness (or tightness) of the grain, its run out (or straight and parallel with the piece) and absence of knots.  To put it simply they don’t make trees like this anymore. Thus, salvaged lumber from the demolition of an antique (if not ancient) building, built when old growth, climax forests where still available for harvest.

Yesterday, I made a trip to Pacific Northwest Timbers (PNT), in Port Townsend, Washington.  PNT has a large selection of massive salvaged timbers, almost  exclusively DF.  Some of which was recently salvaged from a shipwreck in British Columbia, after nearly a century buried in beach sand.  The timbers are huge and are impregnated with sea salt.

The piece for my bench top was cut from a floor joist salvaged from an old building in Seattle.  That’s all the provenance I have for the moment, but PNT has said that they will have more in the future.  It won’t improve the performance of the bench but it will make it more fun and interesting to use.

So yesterday, my iPhone recorded 8,000 steps while at work. So what?, you might think. Well, I didn’t take a walk but instead worked in the shop all day. On a typical day in the shop without a walk I get around 4-5k steps and a couple thousand more before and after work. So what was different yesterday? Hand tool woodworking.

My current project is a Moravian workbench as built by Will Meyers. Will’s video teaches how to build the bench using classic hand tool techniques. Although I have a full suite of woodworking machines, I know that some day (if I live long enough) it will be unsafe for me to do machine tool woodworking. So I am working on improving my hand tool skills (It’s much more difficult to cut off your finger with hand tools).

So how does hand tool woodworking increase my step count? Ripsawing long tenons. The bench design utilizes tusk tenons to secure the long stretchers to the legs. Each tenon is 10 plus inches long. Ripsawing with my trusty Diston #12 appears to have contributed approximately two steps per saw stroke to my step count. Now, there was also some crosscutting cuts with a panel saw as well, but somehow I don’t think that it contributed as much as the long rips.

My upper body work out continued with boring out the void space in the corresponding mortises.

I suppose that I shouldn’t be surprised at how being out of shape accompanies the loss of a perishable skill, but I remember being better at this in days past. When I was a youngster, my father taught me woodworking using hand tools because I was too young to safely use the machines. So it somehow completes the circle to prepare for the day when I return to hand tool work for the same reason.

PS. Hand tool work is much more dependent upon the keenness of the tool’s edge (as well as your own). So another essential skill is sharpening those edges, again something best done before the need becomes obvious.

PPS. The next day, I cleaned up the faces of all the finished parts of the workbench with a smoothing plane and recorded 14,881 steps but only 2 miles travel.