Welsh Stick Chair-Drilling

If you're not familiar with Peter Galbert, or his blog Chair Notes, I suggest you check it out. Since about a year ago when I started compiling project photos for Windsor/stick chairs I've been following him, and today it paid off in a big way. This post, has a great explanation of sightlines and computing the resultant angles based on orthographic views. I'd also much rather do some geometry than bust out the trig.


I'm shooting from the hip here, doing something like what Krenov called composing. Working this way is really nice, compared to a very regimented project working by eye and your sense of relationships. It's like sketching with a solid piece of wood.

Hole Digging

This post has nothing to do with digging, holes, dirt or any of that. It's more of a phrase that sums up my relationship with my project list. I finally started working on a pair of Welsh stick chairs, a form I've always wanted to build.

Half of my morning was spent going through several different photos of seat shapes and drafting out one that looked good. The sight lines are my best guess so far based on examples I've seen. I still have to come up with the final angles along those lines though. The blank is a glue up from 8/4 poplar. The board I bought was a bit too narrow, I wound up having to glue a 2x2 turning blank and a piece of 4/4 to get the seat depth needed. This may wind up looking like dog meat, but it should do well as practice.

A shot of the seat with all the sight lines. I'm sorely tempted to buy the LV tapered reamer, though I'll have to build a tapered tenon cutter as the small diameter for the leg joint will be 7/8".


One shovelful of dirt did make it's way into the hole though. Yesterday, amid other work I managed a few more coats of shellac and the fitting of the leaf supports. I'm so happy with this project, it came out great. If you don't recall, this was a project I started in November at the Philadelphia Furniture Workshop.

Return to Planemaking

Well I've taken off long enough, not that I haven't done any woodworking, just that I've been busy with a few different things like not blogging, but now I'm back.

Work is progressing on several projects, I've only got one lock left to install in the tool chest, the Pembroke table is about to get it's leaf supports and finish, and I've started turning legs for a farm table. But more on those later.

The first two photos show an example of what's called an Iron Shod miter plane. Sort of the transitional plane equivalent for infills.



I may have mentioned that I'm commissioning a miter plane from Raney Nelson, at Daed Toolworks, and I've been so excited about it I've been looking at a lot of miter plans lately. My planemaking interest struck hard when I saw this example, I couldn't hep but want to start it. Maybe you're thinking, should you slow down? You do have at last count 21 plane blanks of various descriptions waiting in various states of beginning. I'm glad you're wondering. It's true I do have a tendancy to start lots of projects, and it takes me a while to finally chug through them and finish everything. Sometimes you just loose interest in something for a bit and need the right kick to get back to it. As I was working on the #8 H&R planes I got really disinterested in the metalwork that I was almost ready to tackle. I'm back and ready for it now.


These last two sketches show the geometry involved in the applied steel sole for this plane. Currently I'm working on the milling fixture to rough out the bed and ware surfaces in one shot.

Finishing the Honey/Jelly Cabinet

We've finally gotten to painting this cabinet. We're using The Old Fashioned Milk Paint Company's Tavern Green, with a top coat of boiled linseed oil. This paint is awesome. Unlike modern paints it doesn't smell like chemicals (it has a pleasant lime/earthy smell) or have VOCs, it's completely friendly and cleans up easily. That alone makes it a great product for our uses because we do the finishing in our living room.

This is the paint partly dry, that's why it looks so streaky, in actuality there is still some streaking and the texture of the wood shows through, but that's another reason why we like it. Milk paint has character that a latex paint glosses over.

And here's a color shot so you can see what color I'm actually talking about. We installed the door and oiled it, it might need another coat of oil. The top is going to be soft maple, which I have to pick up when I get the lumber for the dining table. I'll post another update with the finished piece soon I hope.

#8 Hollow Plane with Wedge Fitted

Yay! I finished putting handles on two of the floats I just made today and had to work on the #8 that I was working on. I'm almost at the point where I can spend most of my shop time on planes. Very exciting for me.

It's by no means perfect, but I'm surprised at the fit for my first completely fitted wedge. I have a long way to go though, I took apart a 1/4" dado plane last night, one with a wooden friction fit depth stop. It's an amazing piece of work, the stop itself is perfectly square and parallel in all four sides and the mortise is equally well made. I expected the mortise to be undercut, and it wasn't. I hope to be that skillful one day.

Jelly Cabinet Progress

The girl had work today so I'm by myself. I did some prep work so that when she gets back we will be ready to chug along on a few things.


First off was flattening the glue joints and jointing one edge of the door. I love this bench by the way it's amazing compared to some of the "things" I've worked on in the past.
The back boards will have beads and champers, I filed the scratch stock and ran a test bead on a board to ensure the thing was set correctly. I still have to bust out the side rabbet to chamfer the quirk.
And we clamped the legs on to get an idea of the piece. I've been contemplating different ways of attaching the top, I think I'll glue corner blocks where the sides and legs meet and screw through those. There will be a small amount of cross grain glueing going on, but I don't think it will be an issue, only 1 1/2 inches or so at either end will be cross glued.

Small Jelly Cabinet

In need of more pantry and some dish space, and after having seen some images, my girlfriend absolutely fell in love with some small jelly cabinet type pieces. So while at the yard, getting wood for the bed project I also got some mineral stained pine for cabinet we would one day make.


My girlfriend is a great sawyer, just mark the lines and stand well back.


Laying out the shelves, this tree was kind enough to space it's rather large knots shelf widths apart. We got the whole carcass and shelves out of one 11 foot board with some goodies left over.



The shelves turned out prettier than the sides, their staining was a little more regular and a bit more tasteful.

Showing us a rough mock up of the piece.

Now one with the back boards. There is a hodge-podge of woods in this thing. White Pine (I believe) for the sides and shelves, poplar for the door and two of three back panels and some Radiata Pine for the legs. April is largely the stylistic director of this piece (I'm offering the technical support) and plans to go with a two-tone cream over green milk paint job, which I think will look awesome. I think a wash of shellac (Krenov calls it polish) would do well on the shelves to make for easier cleaning.