Finally Back

Well it's been a while, I've been inundated with projects, one a big table for a client I got through my Aunt. It's made of cherry and took me way longer than I thought it would. I drove up to NYC with my buddy to deliver it. Here's the shot...

The next is of a Nostepinne, a tool used by knitters/crocheters and other yarn workers to make center-pull yarn balls. This is turned from puprplehart and finished with several friction coats of shellac and wax. I can post this now, even though it was a Christmas present for my girlfriend because she likes to open her gifts early, there's no lost surprise now. 

This was a really great turning project, and I'm very happy with the finish on it so I can't wait to make a few more of them. I also checked out some great woodturning books from my library, Woodturner's Bible and Course in Woodturning (Free from Project Gutenberg, btw). Both are excellent books, CiW has some particularly great shop drawings for a wide array of practice cuts and projects. 

Turning for X-Mas

I wanted to let you know that I'm not dead, I've been really busy finishing up the semester, grading, and working on this table I'm building. I've gotten on the lathe with some nice wood, and really got my finishing down. I'm proud of the piece, but I can't post it yet, as it's recipient reads here occasionally and I don't want to ruin the surprise. Stay tuned for the unwrapping as it were.

Frame and Panel Cherry Table

Here are the images for a table I've been commissioned for. I'm excited as it's my first full fledged commission, and I've gotten to buy a few new tools to help build it.

Not all the details are in there, because some of them weren't finalized yet. Also some details have changed, such as the stile arrangement. Which is now like it is below.
 

Inspiration and Skill

My girlfriend just sent me this link, I'm in love. I want to commission some hardware, I want to visit.




The name of the company is P.E. Guerin, they specialize in decorative hardware and fixtures and were founded in New York City in 1857. It's the oldest dec. hardware firm in the US and operates the only foundry in NYC. I simply must visit.

Making the Best Butter

I haven't talked about this side of my life much on this blog as it's about woodworking, but food is one of the all important aspects of [my] life. I've got particular convictions about eating, one of which is cooking from scratch. I leave out all the other parts for now...

This is a photo of a mostly empty cream container, and butter. Now you may be more familiar with the piece of butter on the left, it's paler and rectangular. The butter on the right? Well that's something you can't just buy in the store, it's home made butter. It takes very simple tools (or fancy traditional ones if you're a woodworker) and only about 10 minutes.

Basic instructions are theses: Take a pint of heavy cream (mine is organic from a local creamery), let it sit out at room temperature for 6-12 hours, pour into quart sized mason jar, shake (steadily not violently) for three or so minutes, it should clump and start to look like well butter, drain off liquid (you can save this, it's buttermilk, great for omelets, biscuits etc.), wash with cold water, dump into bowl and work with the back of a spoon to remove the extra water/buttermilk, then salt to taste.

The butter in the picture is about a third of the butter made, my guess is $6 of cream got me 3/4c of buttermilk and a half pound of butter. You may notice that the butter is very yellow, this is from carotene in the cows diet, usually butter is yellower in the spring with better food and paler in the fall/winter. I know this cream comes from well fed cows, and is free range... making the best butter I've ever had.

I don't think I'll be buying butter from the store anymore, making it is just too easy and infinitely tastier, plus now I have an excuse to make all kinds of specialty butter making tools. Let the fun begin!

Working with other Materials

In the first semester of my senior year in college we partnered with the Philadelphia based C.H Briggs office to work with a material called Corian. You may know it as a solid surface counter top material made by DuPont.

Anyways the material is really cool (for not being wood), in all seriousness I thought I would hate due to its lack of cellulose, that wasn't the case. It was amazing stuff. It can be heat formed, printed on (in a process called dye sublimation), glued with special glue, cut with a CNC etc. Signmakers use rather extensively I've noticed. Our task was to work with it and find new uses for the counter top material. Because of its properties I knew I wanted to do something with food. I also knew that heat forming it was a process I was going to love.

I had about a zillion ideas, but didn't hit my stride until I chose a food culture to work with. I chose sushi, it had a lot of positive things going for it, sushi is about plating, it has tradition, it tastes awesome. Here is what I came up with after about 4 months in the design process...

Okay that is just the rough mock-up out of foam-core, with foam stand-ins for actual sushi. I'm liking it so I went ahead and built molds in CAD then cut them out on a CNC routing machine. Then I threw some Corian blanks into the oven and got the hydraulic press ready and SQUISH, here's the final thing...complete with freshly dead fish.

 
I have mileage left to go on my ideas for this process, and I'll be posting about those products as I get them ready for production.  Also check out this great write-up about our installation on the Surface&Panel blog.

Gramercy Tools 12" Rip Carcass Saw Build

I found someone on eBay selling a Gramercy Tools 12" carcass saw kit, I bought it. After testing one at my dovetail class I was sold. 

Tote cut, and the slots cut for the plate and spine. 

 Shaping the tote, on a refinished bench, I just added a layer of plywood and a brace to prevent sagging.

Put together, shaped and just a little left to finish.

Great tracking, and the build only took about an hour. Now I've got a new saw! It's going to come in handy for a new project I've got cooking. 

Dovetail Class at PFW

I went to school at Philadelphia University, and I now teach at Philadelphia University...little did I know that not 1 mile around the corner from campus lay the Philadelphia Furniture Workshop, run by Mario Rodriguez, and Alan Turner. This past weekend I got some help on my dovetails, all I can say is that PFW is a great school and their style and teaching methods are great. Here are some photos from the class.

Here's a shot of the teaching space, benches with Record vises and bench on benches. I got to use all kinds of new tools, the Gramercy Dovetail Saw , Veritas Dovetail Saw, and the Lie-Neilsen Dovetail Saw. I also used Shapton water stones, which were pretty cool. They out a great edge on chisels and plane irons really fast. I do have to say though, my favorite tool of the whole class was the Gramercy 12" Carcass saw... I fell in love with it. I need to have one. I have a commission coming up so I think I'll spring for it. I also loved the LN bronze No. 2 plane...super sweet.

Here's a shot of my space, I had to build a few tools, including a cutting gage, a marking knife a fret saw, and some chisel and plane rehabs.

Here's my first set of through dovetails, I have a bit of a gap, but I'm otherwise very happy with how they came out.

And here's the set of blind dovetails, we cut today. I had a chisel slip on the left side, and my houndstooth baseline is a little rough. I'm still happy with them.

I also left with a Starret double square...I love this tool too.

Making a Butter Mould

One of my other passions is eating good food. I define good food as organic, mostly raw, free range, and entirely homemade, even the little details. In preparation for Thanksgiving I'm making a butter mould to make individual pats of butter that I'll make from scratch.  

Butter molds, at least the round ones are simple, only three pieces. I haven't done research into buter mold makers or what they call the different parts so I'll make it up as I go along. First I turned the Bell that's the cup looking part. It's 2" in diameter and 1 1/2" high. The cavity is 1 1/8" deep and tapers from the wide end to a square shoulder, there is also a 1/2" through hole in it's center. The Press has the impression in it. and tapers for a close fit around it's molding edge. Lastly there is a Plunger which is used to press the Press and butter mold out of the Bell. There is a blind hole in the Press to register the Plunger. On a traditional butter mould, I think the Plunger would be longer and it is threaded into the Press.

The Bell and Press are turned from sugar maple, the Plunger from cherry.   

I had a staggering amount of ideas for what to carve into the Press, I went with a pentagram, which is a symbol of nature, the elements, and also found on an antique butter mold I didn't buy. I think the mold is too plain, and plan to turn a ring around the outside of the pentagram when it dries.

Here are the finished pats of butter, it took some experimenting, and reading of arcane butter moulding passages to learn that slightly chilled butter and moulds primed in ice water make removal about 1,000,000Xs easier.  I still have to figure out a method of packing that reduces air gaps.

Etsy Store Finally Running!

So I've been a member of Etsy (a Handcrafted ebay pretty much) for a number of years now, I've had some things for sale, completed some Alchemy listings (where you bid to make buyers projects), but mostly let it sit empty. Well not anymore. I listed some of the bottle stoppers I was working on a few posts ago. I'm far from a fully stocked shop, but this is as good as I've gotten for a long time.

So please hop on over via The Link and take a look at my "for sale" work. Maybe even buy something? Thanks for looking.

2,000 Pageviews, wow.

I wanted to say thank you to everyone following, browsing or mistakenly accessing my blog. I've been having a good time writing on it; met some very good people and learned a lot. I've got a lot more going on soon which I can't wait to post about.

Thanks for reading,
Trevor Walsh

Working on a Fret Saw

In preparation for my handcut dovetails class turned the parts for this fret saw. I still have to figure out the hardware for attaching the blade. I've done two versions already, and I think I have it figured out. I just have to get some brass sheet.

It's turned out of cherry, no real plan other than some photos of antiques. I like how the inner stretcher came out. My only regret is that the top arm is a little fat and less attractive than the bottom one.

Sycamore Score, and What I've Been Up To

 I was driving from school to my other job (very close) to get some work done during my two hour break between classes. I took a wrong turn, there are three turns that all go to the same place and they all look similar. Oops. Lucky for me some surgeons were taking down a beautiful sycamore. They let me take some, unfortunatly I didn't have a giant flatbed and the ability to take a huge burly (figured) sycamore trunk to a sawmill I know. Damn.

I sawed this guy down the center, and painted the ends. I'm hoping I'll get to take it over to my bosses shop, he has a large resaw capacity Rikon, to QS it into boards and turning blocks.
   

I really like the wave this piece has, there is some reaction wood, so we shall see how it goes. I got it split and painted within about 4 hours of it coming down so I'd hope things are off to a good start.

Here is a shot of what I spend my Sunday morning on, they are maple and rosewood. I start by cutting blocks and drilling for a 3/8" pin. Then glue the pin and let dry. Then I turn, finish with beeswax, polish and glue a drilled cork on. I cut about 85 pins from dowels in a little miter box I made to cut two 1" long 3/8" pins for my class, I just used one slot and cut 2" long pins. The corks get drilled in a special chuck on the lathe. A wooden block turned round, with a #8 cork taper cut into it spins in the lathe, With the machine running a cork is forced into the chuck with a block of wood. The block applies even pressure and allows you to adjust the cork for runout. Then drill and presto! I drilled 50 corks in about 20 minutes with this technique. 

Moulding Planes and an Endevor

A group of mixed hollows, rounds, two rabbets and some other moulding planes, sitting along with a generously loaned copy of "Wooden Planes in 19th C. America" at my new (read, cleaned) planemaking bench. I've got a sash moulder, and covette, 7/8th and 1" rabbet, a pair of #'s 5, 6 and 12 H&R, a #2R, a #8R, a spare #6R and some unmarked without irons. They will become the base of a quarter set of H&Rs I'm building, the ones missing parts will be practice for fitting irons and wedges.
 

Using illustrations and photos from  Wooden Planes in 19th. C. America, I recreated this planemaking vise. It uses two different sets of wedges to hold planes in different orientations for the various operations. It's very easy to maneuver around the vise and change the position of the plane within it.

I cut the U section out of a split pine 2x12, it's about 15 inches long and 6 inches wide. The channel in the center is approximately 4" wide and 7/8 inches deep. It runs the full length. While you night be tempted to mortise this section don't, the gap under the end, clamping blocks are useful for blowing chips and sawdust out of the mating surfaces. I cut the channel with a plow and cleaned it up with a #78 rabbet plane sans fence.
   

The clamping ends are oak, and the wedge (sort of visible on the left hand side) is also oak. The wedge meets the end piece at a taper (not the taper of the wedge) like a french cleat so that the wedge can't be pulled up and out of contact. The plane I was working on here is going to become a #10 round, it is made of cherry. I've designed my H&Rs with shallow champers and deep notches, I still have to design the wedge profile, but I think a round finial with a curved return is going to be my preferred design here. 

It's working out really well, I still have to make a few more floats and other tools but I'm pretty much set for planemaking. I'll work mostly in cherry and maple because I have quite a few plane-sized blanks ready to go. I also love how cherry looks in plane form.

After a few H&Rs I plan to make some snipes-bills, boxed and sprung moulding planes, rabbet stick (for window sash), and sash coping planes. I plan to sell some of these odd planes, particularly matched sash and coping planes.

He Can't Be Serious, More Chisels? Yup.

Well, when you come across a 1" Wetherby BEC for $2, a 1/2" Foulton socket firmer for $1, and a 1/2" B.S. and W. Co. (or maybe it's P.S. and W. Co. can't tell) for $.50 you have to get them. Even if you have to steal a dollar from that 5 year old staring at you rooting through piles of ferrite and carbon.

Then when some guy'll take $8 for a 2" slick ('nother hard to read'er) blade with some mushrooming and a pair of calipers (not shown) you should grab that too.
   

This morning I turned an oak handle for the slick, I finished it with straight beeswax on the lathe. I grab a big hunk, and hold it against the spinning part, until I get a decent coat. Then I take a rag, cotton tee shirt works best, and holding the ends like I'm buffing a shoe, buff the wax. The friction from the rag melts the wax and forces it into the pores, after a while the wax really makes it's way in and shines up really good. Then move to a clean portion of rag to take off any extra. After a while, your rag has enough built up wax in it to wax and buff parts as is.

The bottom tool in the above photo is an edge float for planemaking. Which will be the topic of my next post.

Stanley #47 Gages

Finally worked out a deal with the hardware store to secure a quantity of these Stanley #47s. A depth gage for auger bits. I only have a limited quantity and many are owed to OldTools list members. I may have some extras, comment if you'd be interested in one.

A Bit about the Why

I woke up this morning thinking about a lot of things; I thought about the debate between Art, Craft and Design, one of my favorite topics in design school. I thought about how my life might go ( a little heady for 6 AM but there you have it), and I thought about why I do what I do. Why am I compelled to make things? Man is a toolmaking animal, I guess a cupboard, shelves, a coffee table might be considered tools for living right? I'm not so sure it's as simple as that but it's a strong link to me that ties all creative efforts to a common cause in my mind.

Then I thought about a quote in the PW #182, in the Clark & Williams article, on page 39 Schwarz quoted a line by  H.D. Lawrence. It said, "Things men have made with wakened hands, and put soft life into are awake through years with transferred touch and go on glowing for long years. And for this reason, some old things are lovely warm still with the life of forgotten men who made them."

I was floored. This touched on something I'd thought about a long time ago. I wanted to build things, put a little piece of my life in them, and build them well so they would last for generations. In that way I would in the spirit of the "transferred touch [of life/passion?] live on long after my death.

How inspiring? I need to go to the shop. Right now.

Tool Trays, Work on my Joiners Chest

I started building a tool tray for my joiners chest last night. I got the grooves plowed, and the side supports nailed in place.
 

This morning I cut a dado for the separator/support. Then cut the miter dovetails, they are okay, but I'm proud of the first wholly dovetailed thing I've done yet.

Here's a shot of the empty tray, the bottom is cedar closet liner. Some grain on it is really clear and nice. and it smells good.

The underside at the midway support. I've tacked the bottom to the support and driven (with my small push screwdriver, that I just got bits for) brass screws through the sides to hold things together.

Now I just have to figure out where I'm fitting what. Only chisels on one tray; marking, measuring and other small goodies in another? Squeeze some measuring tools in the chisel tray? Chisels on top or marking tools on top? Who knows? I might just pressure fit the dividers to try it out and see if I like it the way it is. 

Getting a Handle On It: Socket Chisels

     Today I decided to get cracking on some handles for a group of socket chisels I've had waiting for me. On the top, left to right is a 2 inch Buck Brothers BEC, a 1 1/2 inch Buck Brothers BEC, then three Stanlet No. 750s in 3/4, 1/2 and 1/4 inches. The 1/4 is horrifically abused, a long 15ish degree primary bevel? WTF is that? I may grind it back to remove this mark which will leave me about 2 inches of usable blade or try to find more 750s for the set. I'm going antiquing tomorrow so I'll wait to handle that and see what turns up. Below those are two that I handled earlier, a long 5/8 inch Craftsman paring chisel with some chips, and an unmarked 3/4 inch former.  

The handle stock is a bunch of blanks cut from a maple science lab table that found its way into our school shop, pretty grimy and wild I wasn't going to use this for anything else. Blanks were cut months ago when I found the wood. I have two stiles, longer and skinny and shorter and thicker. Using this v-block hook, I cut a rough tapered octagon on the blanks.
   

I don't care if it's not perfectly symmetrical, as long as it has 8 sides it will be comfy and work. 

The first buck I get to cheat on, it still had a "handle" on it, I took most of the tenon measurements from it. You need the depth (measure with a drill bit), the large diameter (outside calipers), and the small diameter (drill bit again, or guess and check). I use outside calipers because it's faster than using inside and transferring them to outside and I have to fit the tenon to the socket anyway, make it a touch oversize and you'll be golden.

Now the easy part, strike a baseline for your shoulder and cut the major and minor diameter, bam you have a tapered socket. I've done these on the lathe, and by hand. The lathework is simple spindle turning two your two diameter measurements, followed by a skew to fair the transition. By hand I like to saw the large diameter depth all the way around then chisel and file the taper. Either way will get you there, what you're looking for is something that mostly fits the socket of your chisel like so...
 

As you can see there is a bit of a gap, this means the socket hasn't bottomed out yet. This could be from any number of things, irregular side walls on your socket, irregular tenon. a too-fat portion etc. Fortunately they are all easy to fix, mark a spot on your handle so you know where it will orient to the blade, and lightly tap it down. Then pull the tenon off, if your chisel is older there will be enough dust/rust/grime to mark the tenons interference spots, if you're doing this with brand new chisels or they are too clean, wipe some soot in the socket and try again.

Here you can see some light spots indicating where to take off material, lather, rinse, repeat until a little gap remains. Then hold the chisel by the steel and slam it butt down into a stump or other mass until it seats fully, have a little gap so that the tenon can compress and move into the socket a little more.
 

The end product. The only thing left to do is to trim the taper so that it blends into the taper of the ferrule. Then bevel the end (if you don't plan on hitting it with something) or cut a tenon for a hoop and fit the hoop (for say bih heavy duty whackers).
   

 
After all was said and done I scraped the handles with a shard of glass and wiped on some mineral oil. They look amazing and rustic and I can't wait to do more.

Stanley #78 Rehab

While on vacation my eBay account was kind enough to win me this SW 78 (rabbet and fillister plane, Jeff). The photos were blurry, only two pictures, and not of the interesting parts we need to see. I had enough hints to think this was going to work out great so I put a low ball bit in and won.

It arrived the other day, but I had errands to run and teaching took up my time on Thursday. Today I set out to do a bunch of sharpening and rehabbing. I cleaned the body in soapy water and made new sandpaper "stones" by glueing various paper grits to pieces of Corian and birch ply. I think I have to switch adhesives, my paper buckles. I'll try Super 90 next. I'm getting pretty good at sharpening freehand I like it better because there are less "things" involved than guides and all of that. It also builds confidence in the eyes and hands I think.  I have some sole lapping to finish, and the nicker doesn't sit nicely in its various positions.

I'm in love with this plane, the 78 is comfortable,  works beautifully and looks great. I'm going to be selling the Moving Fillister I posted about, if your interested contact me. Actually I'll be selling all three in that photo.

New Lathe!

As luck would have it I had some disposable income waiting for something good to come along (read: didn't get a chance to put a LV order in) I saw that woodcraft was having a sale, on lathes and chucks. Lathes are one of my favorite tools and one of the only powered tools I really enjoy using. Luck also drove my girlfriend and I to Allentown to meet a mutual friend, 8 minutes from a woodcraft store. This is called fate. Picked up the Rikon mini-lathe and the Nova chuck spent time with the friend, then drove home. This morning I rearranged my shop a bit and set up the lathe. I'm in the process of sawing out a bowl blank to try on the chuck, I haven't used a chuck or WoodWorm yet so I'm very excited.

Below is a shot of my current workspace, boxes are smothering part of the shop in front of the metal lathe but I'll sort it out soonly.

Coffee Table: Fin

After looking at it in the room, the pulling of the color wasn't such a big deal.

Blacksmithing and a Problem

Here is my small forge setup, I use if for small items, hooks and knives etc. Today I made a holdfast, a knife and the body for a nail header. I plan to make some hand wrought nails and brads for projects to be totally authentic. Maybe I'll sell some on Etsy.com, more about that possibility some other day.
 

I followed the Schwarz on this one, reading about holdfasts was interesting, and I'll have to make more before I find something that works perfectly. The knife is there too. He's been sitting around waiting to be finished for a while.

The holdfast in a chunk of the leg offcut, approximating my future benchtop. I bored several different holes. This one, that's holding pretty well is 11/16th, the holdfast is 5/8 dia. I have some 3/4" square barstock and I want to forge that into an octagon 3/4 across flats and see how that holds. I might need a little larger hole for the depth I have. More fiddling.

Here's the coffee table all finished, sort-of. It looks good huh? Actually, I didn't realize the paste wax was going to pull some of the darkness out of the stain, so it's too light now to match the room it's for. I have to strip it down and refinish it. I think I'll fume it, tried, true and old. I think I'll have more luck with that.