A Learning Adventure in the Workshop

Chester Toolworks Birdcage Awl

I recently purchased a snakewood "birdcage" awl  from Chester Toolworks in New Hampshire.

The awl is beautifully made. The craftsmanship, finish and shape are all excellent!  I love the short, fat length with the large rounded end on the handle.  It makes the tool very easy to use because you can put your weight behind it with the palm of your hand. I've seen other birdcage awls that look like regular awls with a squared-off tip.  These would work fine, but the Chester awl was obviously designed from the ground-up to be a birdcage, and it shows in how easy it is to use. Excellent product and recommended!

The birdcage awl is an under-appreciated tool.  I end  up using it for a variety of non-glamorous tasks from starting screw holes to sweeping the saw dust out of the slots left by my biscuit cutter.   It is not as refined a tool as a standard awl or a marking knife, but I find myself using it just as much.  I've not tried the Chester Toolworks standard awls or marking knives, but based on the birdcage they are likely very good.  I also really like the Blue Spruce Toolworks products (marking knives and awls) that I have reviewed before in the blog, although I think the Chester birdcage design is more intuitive.

It may seem like I only give very positive reviews on this blog, and to some degree that is correct.  If a tool is only average, I don't bother to write about it.  So, if I post it here it is either a very good tool or very bad tool.

Snake Bit

Yesterday was Saturday, and once again I tried to spend some time in the workshop...and once again our house intervened to stop me.  Two weeks ago when I entered the workshop I found an inch of water on the floor from a plumbing leak and spent the weekend getting it fixed rather than woodworking.

Last weekend was Halloween parties for the kids. Fun, but a lot of work.

Yesterday, I tried again to go to down to the workshop and it was filled with an overwhelming smell of natural gas.  Turns out our internal gas meter was leaking gas a significant rate.  By the end of the day Saturday we had a new gas meter, and the shop was no longer ready to explode...close call.

No woodworking again.  Frustrating.

Greene and Greene is good for wine too...

Those that read this website know that I am a fan of the Greene brothers' style of architecture and furniture from the Arts and Crafts movement.

I've now found that one of the Greene's California houses has become an outstanding winery! 

The Casa Barranca winery has excellent organic wines, and the fact that it is a historic Greene and Greene property is only a bonus.

See their website at:  Greene and Greene Wine - Casa Barranca  .  I've tried the 2004 Craftsman Red which is a blend of  75% Cabernet Sauvignon and 25% Merlot.   It is an EXCELLENT wine and I have now ordered a whole case.

From their website:

"Casa Barranca has long been hailed as a triumph of the Arts and Crafts movement — incorporating high principles that first evolved in Victorian Britain, in reaction to the human misery and environmental blight caused by the Industrial Revolution. Today, we proudly carry on the Arts and Crafts values on which this estate was founded. Fine craftsmanship, durability, sustainability, simplicity of design and lifestyle, an intimate working relationship with the land—Casa Barranca embraces and extends these time-honored traditions."

"Now the handcrafted wine we make here is offered to you. The ethos of Open Mind, Open Heart, and Skilled Hand lives on at Casa Barranca."

"Nowhere was this more true than in California, where the welcoming climate and natural abundance seemed a promised land to Arts and Crafts followers, including Charles and Henry Greene. For centuries, the homes of the wealthy had been power statements—built to stand out from their surroundings, visually reflecting domination over a tract of land. Arts and Crafts architects sought a different kind of statement, one that honored domesticity, the terrain, the region’s history, and indigenous building traditions—an aesthetic of integration, rather than subjugation. The brothers Greene took this design ethos to heart, embodying it in a house like no other, a haven of simplicity and natural richness that has endured nearly a century: Casa Barranca."

Back to the Desks

I've return  to working on the Greene and Greene desks as the primary project in the shop. 

This past weekend I drilled the holes for the decorative ebony plugs in the tops of the breadboard ends and then mounted the breadboard ends to the desktops using biscuits.   Next I will route the slots on the front edges on the desktops to receive the decorative ebony splines.  I will not install any of the ebony accents until the desks are fully completed to prevent damage to them during construction.

Shop time was then interrupted when a cast iron pipe from the main floor of our house ruptured above the shop and discharged a lot of water onto the shop floor overnight.   So, I spent a few hours shop-vacing out the water and throwing out the damaged cardboard boxes and other stored items that were damaged by the water.  Luckily no tools were damaged this time...

I'll leave the replacement of the pipe to our plumber, but since he needed to open up a sizable portion of plaster wall on our main floor to get at the leak...I've got a plastering job in my future.

"Cooler" Light

I made a small but significant improvement in my workshop this weekend.  For a number of years I have been using a series of clip-on task lights that allow me to "point" a 100-watt bulb at the area or tool on which I am working.   I usually clip the lights to the rafters above my head and point them directly at my work. I sometimes I use two or more of these lights at once (like when I am using the lathe).

The lights have always worked great, but I always end up breaking a sweat from all of the heat that they generate just above my head.  This weekend I replaced the regular incandescent light bulbs with 100-watt equivalent compact-fluorescent light bulbs.  The compact-fluorescent bulbs generate almost no heat and are every bit a bright.  Plus they use 47% of the energy and last 10 times longer than the regular light bulbs.   Nice change.