Workbench Updates

Here's a quick update to the bench build, as you can see I've got my end vise chop installed and dogs made. I agonized over spending holiday money on nice brass dogs or other tools, in the end I went with wood dogs and spent that $40 on other goodies which should be arriving soon.


To keep my organizing going I built a quick and dirty chisel rack and installed a french cleat for more storage bits as I get time, I think a small chest of sorts will go on the cleat providing two or three little cubbies, two thin drawers and a shelf for finishing or sharpening things to live.

Secret Project Revealed

Now that Christmas has come and gone, I can reveal this project I've been working on so vigorously. It's a backgammon set for my parents, inspired largely by the board built by Jameel Abraham. Here is the finished board.


Sometime soon I'll be starting another one for myself, but I've got a few things to finish before that happens.

Secret Project

So I couldn't resist posting a bit about the secret project, I don't think I'm in danger of giving it away though as I'm only giving the outside shot...

This is half, by the way. Any guesses yet?

Six Planes

Three pairs of planes to be exact. #2, #4 and #8 Hollow and rounds, in beech. I'm rounding out a short set of H&Rs 2-12 evens. I have a nice pair of #6s and #12s and a few odd larger sizes, I have some cherry blanks for #10s but I'm on the fence about those.

Here they all are... after making a template for sawing the throats, I couldn't wait to start. I sawed the 8R and made two wedges then migrated back to my other super secret project. The #4s are from the same blank and have gorgeous ray fleck. I have to make a few more floats and finish my 1/10th chisel before I get too much farther on these.

This air dried beech is fantastic. I love how it works.

Secrets, Secrets are No Fun, Except...

When without them, you'd spoil a great surprise. So this post will be light on the details, I'm keeping it vague because the future recipient has been known to frequent this blog on occasion.

Now that that's over with, here is some of the progress on a new project, I know there are other projects currently unfinished, but I'm working on it. There is only so much a guy can do with that pesky full time job getting in the way all week. This is to be a hammer veneered, well "thing" since we're being vague.

First up is the French pattern veneer saw I built using some scrap beech and old sawplate. it's filed with the 15/60-60 tooth configuration that Gramercy Tools has on their veneer saw. I'm sort of amazed at how quickly and cleanly it cuts.


Here is my sawing station to cut wedges of padauk veneer. The thick wedge in the foreground is a template to guide the saw, the walnut is a straightedge and the board there is just trash to keep from cutting into the bench top.

All of my veneer is from Certainly Wood, which was a wonderful and painless way to by the small amounts I needed for this project. I spent about a half hour on the phone with the guy talking about my project and what to look out for, and talking about the pros of different cuts and my species selection.


A stack of wedges and the Veritas Apron plane I love, and use to shoot the edges of the parent sheet before I saw off the individual wedges.

The last photo is a sample I did to test the methods I was reading about. It is a piece of rift pine, cross banded in poplar then veneered with holly and padauk with a taped joint. I goofed and tried planing it when it was dry, the padauk tore out hideously on the reverse side. It actually ripped up a whole chunk, which frustrates me, this was going to be a wonderful little sample. Oh well.