For the past few months, I’ve had a half-dozen hand planes sitting on my workbench. They’re the ones that are regular “users” and I never quite seem to get around to putting them away, at least partly because they don’t have a regular home in my larger plane till.

The planes are a transitional jack plane, a few smoothers, three block planes, and a shoulder plane. There’s also a small, Stanley #1 sized plane I got in the most recent plane swap. This ended up taking quite a bit of space on my bench.

I started yesterday by figuring out how much room I needed for the large transitional plane, then having enough room for the smaller planes on some shelves. Next was dovetailing together the carcasse, then cutting dadoes for the first divider.

Next up was cutting sloped ends on the board that would hold the transitional jack in place. I laid the board against the case and set a bevel gauge to the angle I needed. Set the table saw blade to that and nibbled away until the board fit into the case. I ended up “wasting” about a half inch of board, but it was a lot quicker than doing trig and making a mistake.

With that in place, I called it a night.

This morning, I realized that I wanted the transitional plane to sit entirely within the case, in case I later decided to add a door to keep the dust out, so I changed the angles on the end of the board and shortened it a bit more so it only used about ¾ of the depth of the case. I also made a sloped piece to sit on the bottom of case for the toe of the transitional plane to sit on.

With that done, I cut the dadoes for the shelves on the right, spacing them more or less equally within the available space. I had a little math problem with the dadoes in the right side of the case because I measured from the end of the board, which came up a little short of the end of the case. Oops. One of the shelves is noticeably sloped due to this.

I measured some boards for the back of the case, and got them ready, then with all the lumber done, I decided I wasn’t going to put a door on the case immediately, but I would decorate the front of the case with my trim router after it was assembled. I had thought about carving decorations onto the front of the boards, but I couldn’t come up with any design I really liked.

Finally, just before lunch today, I glued everything up, glued and nailed on the backboards, and screwed on a cleat and a spacer so I could hang the case on the wall.

After lunch, I trimmed a little extra length off one of the back boards and off the cleat, and used my trim router to “fancy up” the front of the case. The case is done, except for a coat of oil, which I’ll put on after I clear a few other projects from the shop. I may end up deciding to put a door on the case yet, too.

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Update June 15, 2023

I added a door to the till today. It’s constructed from some pallet wood and a bit of plywood. Half-lapped corners with miters, and a floating panel. Should help keep the dust out, and give me a place to hang my spokeshaves, too.

#woodworking #project #shopFurniture

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Originally written Mar 27, 2020

The spring swap this year was a surprise swap, so we could make anything we wanted. Since my shop was being built, and would not be complete until reveal week on the swap, I spend a while thinking about what I was going to build for the swap. I decided I'd make a skew rabbet plane. I have an old one which I use, but it's hard to find a nice old plane, and I felt I had okay chances of being able to make a nice-looking plane that was functional.

So I started trying things. I had a bunch of pallets from the hardware store, and used some of the lumber from them to experiment on. The first try had some issues. I couldn't drill the holes for the mortise as precisely as I needed with a bit and brace and without much better workholding than I could achieve on the tailgate of my pickup using a pallet as a workbench, and with only a half-dozen three foot long bar clamps.

The second try didn't go a lot better. The mortise was maybe a little less raggedy, but I had geometry problems with the multiple angles for the skew and the bedding angle and the different sized escapements needed on the two sides. I'm glad I was practicing on pallet wood while working out the details, since it was pretty clear I still had to so some more thinking.

My third try, I decided I'd make it a composite plane. I could then cut the mortise with a hand-saw and get good angles, and drill the sides separately, and most of the complicated geometric issues could be simplified. So I started by gluing a piece of poplar to a piece of ipe that I was planning to use for the sole. I went with the poplar because I still wasn't sure this plan was going to work, and I should have used something a little more stable.

It was about this point that I found that I was sending the plane to Brian in Spain, so I decided I'd keep my schedule as tight as possible so that he wouldn't be waiting on international delivery while everyone else was revealing the goodies they'd received in the swap.

Since clamping (and really any other operation) on this T-shaped piece of wood was difficult, I used a few drywall screws to screw some pallet wood to the sides of the poplar. That turned out to be the real trick, and I started making good progress. I got the mortise and the bed for the blade cut, and was feeling pretty good. The picture below shows the cutting, which was made easier by clamping the piece so I was cutting more or less straight down.

Since I don't have a forge for heat-treating, this was when I roughed out the blade, too. It's a rabbet plane blade from Lie-Nielsen, and while it was a little expensive, there's no way I could've succeeded without it. Then I sent it off to Dave Kelley in AZ for heat-treating, as he volunteered to help out. Thanks, Dave!

This was also the point that I realized I'd made an error in my geometry, and had cut a left-handed plane body. On a skew-rabbet plane, you want the forward point of the blade on the inside edge of the rabbet, since that will tend to pull the plane tightly into the rabbet you're cutting. I decided that I was far enough along that I didn't want to change things to make it a right-handed plane. I've used both left and right-handed, and I can usually manage, even with a plane that goes the wrong way – it's only been a problem when I'm also fighting the grain, and that's why I have both left and right-handed skew rabbets in my collection.

Once I'd gotten the core of the plane cut, I removed the pallet wood sides, and started working on the nice cherry sides that were going to make the final plane. I laid out and drilled holes for the escapement (pictured below), cut a wedge from alder, then drilled in some indexing holes I could use when gluing all the pieces up (also below) so I could keep things from creeping while I was clamping all the pieces together.

Now that I had an idea of how all the pieces would go together, it was time to get the wedge cut and tweaked for thickness. It's not rocket surgery, but it's a lot easier to do when you can take the sides off the plane and look at the angles and draw directly onto the wedge with a pencil so you get things right. With that done, it was time for the glue-up.

Once the plane was glued together, I had a few days to wait for the blades (I made two, in case I screwed one up) to get back from AZ. I rough-carved the escapement at this point, but I needed a blade to know exactly how tall the escapement needed to go to make room for the blade.

I then cleaned up the blade (removing scale from the heat treat, mostly), and put the final edge on the blade to match the actual glued-up plane body. Once that was done, I could fettle the plane, flattening the bed for the blade with floats, opening the mouth up enough to handle the blade thickness, carving the end of the wedge to help steer shavings out the escapement (they curl because of the skew, and I'm still not enough of a pro to know just how tightly they'll curl), and using my belt-sander to bring the plane down to final thickness (you want the plane to be just a hair thinner than the width of the blade so the blade edge protrudes just a bit). With no shop, the belt-sander just got wheeled out into the driveway, and I let the New Mexico winds blow the dust to Texas.

With the thickness right, it was mostly finishing work. Cut the chamfers on the edges of the plane so it feels nice in the hand, carve a little detail in the wedge because I knew Brian would appreciate that, and hit the various pieces with some linseed oil and paste wax.

And here's the note that went in the box:

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This was a spokeshave I made as a bonus for the 2020 surprise swap. I started with a Hock Tools blade, and these instructions for making a spokeshave. Plus a piece of ipe I had on hand. It went to Brian Johns, and I hope he's happy with it!

#project #swap #woodworking #toolmaking

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Originally written Apr 2, 2019

Another through-tang carving knife using a Morakniv 120 blade blank. Stabilized sweet gum from a friend's place in St. Louis, with blue and black dye. Also brass bolster from a batch made for me by a friend with a mill.

Learned a few more things not to do while putting this one together, but it came out pretty well. Think I'll hit it with a thin coat or two of shellac before I call it completely done.

#woodworking #project

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During the last surprise swap, Bill Berklich made Squares Everywhere and I thought that was fairly neat. I'm going to be building a bunch of bookcases for our home, and rather than dive right in, I figured I could procrastinate by building some of my own. I went back and looked up Chris Schwarz's writeup online, and then started digging through my scraps.

I found a fairly nice scrap of mahogany, and a birch 1×3. Since I wasn't sure what I was doing, I slapped together the square you see above. Nothing fancy at all, but it's actually square and I can use it to mark edges, but only in one direction. And shaping the mahogany got me some practice cutting curves and such (and encouraged me to finish my spokeshave so I could clean up the curvy edges).

Next was putting a profile on the birch board so I could make a fancy handle. I cut a rebate and plowed a groove in the birch, then got out my hollows and rounds and made the profile you see on the handles in pictures 1 and 2. Then I cut another rebate in the back of the board and sawed off a couple lengths in the section where my profile worked cleanly. I got the mahogany shaped, and carved a few patterns in it. The longer lines are done with a straight gouge, stabbing in twice to make a V, which is a technique I want to get better at for carving letters. And it meant I had to find my gouges and carpet tape so I could hold the piece while carving it.

Then it was time to glue things up. I drilled a couple 4/16th holes, and used some dowels to align the pieces so they'd stay square. After gluing them together, I had to run a plane along the edges to get things actually square, and run a chisel along the joint to clean up the glue squeeze-out.

Then a coat of linseed oil, and a light coat of wax, and it's done, and I managed to put off the real project for almost a full week.

Update Jan 26, 2023: I still use these two squares on a regular basis. They're a gateway drug into making your own tools, and I'm definitely hooked.

#woodworking #handyTools

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Originally written Apr 18, 2020

Started with a piece of katalox from Savage Woods, a spokeshave blade from Ron Hock and some directions, which I mostly ignored, as I've done this before.

I found that working katalox is pretty challenging. It's a very hard wood, and while attempting to drill a pilot hole before drilling the larger radius hole for the curve in the handle, I snapped off the drill bit in the wood, and then had to work around that until I cut away enough wood to free the bit.

Shaped the handle with drills, turning saws, rasps, files, a knife, and probably some cursing, too. Not sure which was the most effective, but I got there in the end. I mostly finished with the knife and a file. Hit the shave with a coat of oil, and here we are. It needs a little fine-tuning yet, but I sliced a bit off my finger testing how wide the mouth was, so I'm going to write it up and call it a day.

Update Jan 26, 2023: This is still one of my most-used spokeshaves. This is my low-angle one, and the small shave from HNT Gordon is my high-angle version. Really glad I made this one, though.

#woodworking #handyTools #toolmaking

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Originally written Jun 21, 2018, modeled on my shop dustpan

I've got a friend who's opening a new shop soon. She cuts hair, and I thought that a dustpan on a stick would make a nice shop-warming present.

Hand-resawn poplar sides and back, dovetailed together. Mahogany? plywood top and bottom, a doug fir piece of molding on the back to tip the front down so it rests securely on the floor, an ash front strip and handle, and cherry “hubcaps” on the ends of the pivot.

Finished with a coat of BLO, three coats of platina shellac, and a coat or two of orange shellac.

#woodworking #project

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Originally written May 9, 2017

Back in February, I bought a large slab of spalted elm I'm using to build a new workbench. A piece from the end of the slab was big enough for a stool, so I decided to build a tall and sturdy shop stool for myself.

I cut two corners off a rectangular piece, then shaped the legs from red oak using a jig and a jack plane. Took another piece of red oak and spoke-shaved it down to make a stretcher, and built another jig to drill the angled holes in the legs for the stretcher. Then made the final stretcher from a scrap of white oak, and built yet another jig for the hole in the back leg, as that's at a different angle than the first two legs.

Some holes and some glue, a little clean-up with a card scraper on the legs.

Carved the seat using spokeshaves and trial and error. Finish it all with three coats of BLO and I have a completed stool.

The design is loosely based on a stool made by Chris Schwarz.

#project #woodworking #shopFurniture

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Originally written Jul 4, 2017

Lately all of my woodworking projects seem to take a long time to wrap up. Last Saturday, I noticed Dave Rutan's five board bench post, and said to myself, “Hey, I could make one of those pretty quickly!”

I set up my 7” miter saw, dug out an 8' 2×12 and an 8' 2×4 and got to work. First two cuts (with a hand saw) were the legs. 20” seemed about the right length. Then a 48” seat left me with an 8” long scrap. The 2×4 got one end chopped off at 45 degrees on the miter saw, then cut to 48” on the long side, and another 48” long chunk of 2×4, which left me with a 6” long piece of scrap.

With my five boards cut, and the miter saw already set to 45 degrees, I cut the wedges out of the bottom of the legs. I made the straight bit 3” wide, with a 6” wide cutout in the middle. I didn't worry about the depth of the cut, figuring that this is a quick and dirty bench. I also cut the notches in the tops of the legs to put in the 2×4s down the sides of the bench. Again, I didn't worry about the depth of the cut, figuring that it wouldn't be too big. I did cut off the notches with a hand-saw so I didn't have too many stray cuts.

Two cordless drills, one with a drill bit for pilot holes, and the other with a Torx bit, plus a couple dozen deck screws left over from another project and I was into the assembly. The legs and sides went together first. Drill, screw, check for square. Two screws at each corner and things seemed square enough. Drop the seat on top and screw in one corner. Check for square, adjust a little, and drive in the screw diagonally opposite the first one, and things should be good. Four more screws and the seat is on.

Then I sat on the seat, and took a 6tpi rasp to edges, corners and such, rounding things off to make it less likely someone would get a splinter. As I worked, I noticed that there was a little wobble in the bench, so I grabbed the 8” chunk of 2×12, and cut it in half diagonally, then put that between the leg and the seat with four screws holding everything in place. Went to the opposite corner of the bench and did the same with the 2×4 scrap I had (the other half of the 2×12 had a knot that looked like it might be weak, so I tossed it).

Everything together and smoothed, I cut two handles in the top. Two sets of five holes made with a 1” spade bit, then a little rasp work to clean them up, and I had handles (or flatulence slots). Used the bench that afternoon at a neighborhood picnic. It's nice to do a project that's usable in a single day!

Sunday I primed the bench. Monday I painted the underside and today I painted the top.

Updated Oct 7, 2020: Here's the bench after we moved to Santa Fe and repainted it with a sea-green enamel rather than leftover house paint. It sits next to our front door, and many of our neighbors have commented how nice it is.

#woodworking #project

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Originally written Oct 29, 2017

I've been needing a dust pan for my shop for a while. I have a cheap one, but in order to sweep up, I end up having to bend down, and with my bad back, that's no fun. So when I saw the one in Popular Woodworking by The Schwarz, I added that to my to-do list.

I cut a couple pieces of elm for the sides. They've been rattling around my shop for a while, and I wasn't sure what to do with them. A piece of scrap hemlock served as the back. The handle is the leftover legs from a failed shop stool rounded off with a 1” circular plane (aka dowel maker) and then tapered down to 9/16”. I wedged the two pieces of handle together, then drilled 11/16” holes in the elm sides, figuring that the tapered bit would fit in there pretty well.

A piece of 3/16” plywood made the top and the bottom of the dust pan. The sides sit in rabbets on the back, as I'm no good at dovetails. The back sits about a half-inch below the bottom, tipping the pan down so the front edge is flat on the floor, and I tapered the front end of the bottom by planing it a bit. The bottom isn't held in especially well, but the back of it sits in a groove in the back. If it fails, it should be easy to make another and replace it. The front edge is a little fragile, and I expect it'll wear out over time, requiring me to plane it down every once in a while. Maybe I'll make a metal edge at some point.

I made a couple “nuts” out of walnut I had laying around to dress up the ends of the pivot in the pan. Glued them on and then finished the dustpan with a couple coats of BLO. I'll probably wax it at some point.

Update: Jan 26, 2023: This dustpan still gets used almost ever day I'm in the shop. The only complaint I have with it is that the handle should be about six inches longer so I don't have to bend at all to use it, but otherwise it's a champ!

I also made a second version of this as a gift for a friend.

#woodworking #project

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I took some time off from bigger projects in the shop lately to play with my lathe.

Pictured above, from left to right:

• A eucalyptus and ash shaving brush. The brush is silvertip badger, and is pretty nice. The eucalyptus was cut and the kerfs replaced with pieces of ash microlumber the same size as the kerf of my table saw, and then I turned the resulting piece to make a Celtic knot. This was the second shaving brush I made in the past week.

• A russian olive bottle stopper / pourer. This was the third of three bottle stoppers I made. I had a little fun with the shape, trying to enhance the look of the grain of the wood.

• A maple and pernambuco bottle stopper / pourer. My second of the three, and first attempt at a two ring celtic knot. The pernambuco tends to chip out if I’m not super-careful in my turning. Lesson learned…

• A maple bottle stopper / pourer. This was my first attempt, and I was mostly concerned with getting the hole for the stopper the right depth. I decorated the maple a bit with a Henry Taylor Decorating Elf which uses a spiral bit to make different patterns depending the angle you hold it in relation to the moving wood on the lathe. I also used some markers to add black and red rings.

• A mimosa shaving brush. My first attempt, and I didn’t get too fancy, just letting the wood do the talking. I think it came out pretty well. Mixing the very small amount of epoxy needed (about 7.5ml total) to glue in the metal cap and the knot of the brush is tricky, but I did discover that if I wax the wood really well first, it’s easier to clean any slop off afterwards.

#woodturning #woodworking #project

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