A Learning Adventure in the Workshop

"Woodwork" Magazine Discontinued

Apparently, our hobby lost a great magazine this month. 

"Woodwork" magazine, had been sold during 2008 to a new owner, and issued an excellent just-like-old-times "new" issue under its new owner a few months ago...but , NOW it is fully dead.  A letter from the publisher indicates that unforeseen problems have occurred, and that the recently restarted publication has been permanently discontinued.

The letter further stated that my paid-up subscription to "Woodwork" has been converted to "American Woodworker" , a sister publication of the parent company.  Yuck...

Woodwork had personality and depth of content.  It was unique and worthwhile, and had content for woodworkers of all levels and styles.  American Woodworker is an also-ran at best, and clearly targeted at beginning woodworkers.  Not at all an equal substitution. Oh well, my subscription will run out soon. I'll give it an issue or two to see if it improves or is influenced by the old Woodwork.

Over the years, I have subscribed to basically all of the major woodworking magazines and I have developed definite favorites.

Hands down, my favorite is Woodworking Magazine.  No advertising, great content. Worth every penny.

Woodworking Magazine's sister publication "Popular Woodworking", is my second favorite.  By far the best of the "general" woodworking magazines.

A distant third is "Fine Woodworking"...it is a very good publication, but seems to me to have lost its personality in recent years.  It is a bit too polished, a bit too Martha-Stewart-perfect.  It seems almost formulaic to me.  But, I still like it, and learn from it.

All of the rest of the mainstream woodworking magazines, are only OK at best.  I still get several of them, but usually can read them cover to cover in under an hour.

"A Marquetry Odyssey: Historical Objects and Personal Work" by Silas Kopf

I recently met Silas Kopf at  a local book signing event.  I was fascinated with Silas' marquetry work already (from magazine articles), but his new book  "A Marquetry Odyssey: Historical Objects and Personal Work" is rich with color photos of his work and the historic work of others in the field of marquetry.  This is one of my new favorite woodworking books.  It is partly about Silas and his work and career, but equally a primer on the history of the craft.   Silas knows his stuff, both historically and with his tools.  Plus, he was a very open and personable guy.

More images, etc here at his website.

I have yet to try my hand at marquetry, but it is now high on my list of techniques with which to experiment.  Click on the image below for more info on the book.

Woodworking in America 2008 Conference, Berea, KY

Last week I got to attend the "first" annual (I hope) "Woodworking in America" Conference sponsored by Popular Woodworking Magazine and held in Berea, KY.  Click on the image below to see the conference website and details.

Probably, many of you were there, or have already read a lot about the show, so I will not go into any great detail other than to say it was "FANTASTIC".   If you can go next year.  DO IT!

The presenters, vendors and the attendees were some of the nicest people that you will meet, and it was a rare occasion to spend time with people that are even crazier about this stuff than I am.  A veritable army (or maybe  feeding frenzy) of hand tool nuts.

Someone mentioned that the conference organizers might be considering doing either a bigger show next year, or several around the country.  My vote would be for them to do several smaller shows (no bigger than this year and charge more if they need to) around the country, if those are the two options.  One of the best things about the conference was that it was a manageable size and attendees got to interact personally with many of the presenters and vendors.  A larger show would make that harder.   Also, the hands-on sessions (that everyone wanted) were hard enough to get into as it was.

I know that the organizers need to balance this with the economics of the conference, and I will likely attend again either way.  But I like the conference smaller and am willing to pay a higher entrance fee for it.

It was great to meet many of you last week in person and I hope to see you at the show again next year!

Workbench like a ship-in-a-bottle

Building my new workbench with a 8' laminated top in my tight, low-ceiling basement is a bit like building a ship-in-a-bottle.

Cutting, jointing and planing the 10' rough boards for the workbench's top within the low ceiling and vertical steel support posts ends up being a real dance (similar to my post about long clamps).

Funny how building this new bench that will allow me to use more hand-tool techniques has required more power tools than any project that I have done lately.  LOTS of ripping and planing.

I can't say that this project is a lot of fun (although it is not difficult or complex), but I look forward to the end result.

Ernie Conover Hand-Cut Dovetails Class

This past weekend I had the pleasure of attending a one day hand-cut dovetails class with Erie Conover at his shop in Ohio.

The class was excellent, and I met some interesting people.  I will take more classes from Ernie in the future.  He has a great classroom/shop with a teacher's bench for him and 8 full benches for the students (one each).  Lots of natural light.  A great environment.

His website is here: http://www.conoverworkshops.com/

I will post more later about the class, but one of the side-items  that I took away from the class is that I REALLY liked using a workbench with a tool tray after-all (or hamster run as Chris Schwarz calls it).   I've never worked for any period of time on a bench with a tray, and I had no intention of building one into my workbench project...but now I am reconsidering.  Having a place to put my tools where they will not roll onto the floor was very nice.

If I do install one in the bench, it will have a removable bottom.  At the end of only one day of class at Ernie's, mine was full of shavings.  So, Chris was right...but it may be worth it anyway.

By the way, Ernie let slip that he is in the final stages of writing a book on dovetails (including the history of their use and styles).   He says that it may be out by late 2008 or early 2009.

Newly turned woodcarver's mallet and pepper grinder

I've managed to spend a little time in the shop over the past two weeks and "turned" out a couple of small projects (pun intended).

First is a woodcarver's mallet.  I needed a traditional round faced woodcarver's mallet for an upcoming hand-cut dovetail class that I will be taking at Ernie Conover's wood shop in Ohio.  He recommends this style of mallet (rather than a square faced carpenter's mallet)  in his tool list for the class, and I just couldn't see buying a mallet when I could make one.  Besides, I wanted a tradition lignum vitae wood head, and you can't buy those easily now-a-days.  Hard maple seems to be norm for purchased mallets these days unless you get one with a man-made material wrapped head.  Ernie does not recommend those due to "bounce."

I turned this one with a hard maple handle attached to the head with a  wedged through tenon.  The head is made from Argentinian lignum vitae wood that I got from the local Rockler.  I was surprised to find a large enough block of the lignum for this project.

The wedge is a scrap of ebony, and then I buffed on a carnauba wax coating.

The mallet is about 10" long with a 3" radius at its widest point.  It weighs 20 ounces overall.

Turning the lignum was easier than I expected given its incredible density.   BUT....don't try and saw through it  with your delicate Japanese hand saw.  The teeth of the  saw with lose the battle with the wood.  Don't ask me how I know.

Below is my first attempt at a pepper grinder.  I turned it from Kingwood and then buffed on a carnauba wax coating.  I used a "crush grind" ceramic mechanism for the internals.  This type of mechanism allows for you to adjust the grind from the bottom of the mill, so that you do not have to have an adjustment know sticking through the cap.  I found the mechanism to be first-rate.

I enjoyed doing the mill, and will likely do more of these.  They are fast , fun and useful.

 

Not really woodworking

Well, this isn't quite a woodworking project, but...

My wife and I have a pine hutch that was used as display shelves in a store that she used to own.  The hutch isn't old, and it isn't well made.   It is mass-produced, about 10 years old and is made of "pallet" grade pine...ugly.   I'm not sure exactly where it came from, but it was called "French Country" in style.   It was bare pine with a very thin coat of some sort of clear finish. 

It made its way into our dining room a few years ago because we needed a piece like it, and it was to be  serviceable until I got around to making a better one.  I haven't  gotten around to making a better one yet, and likely won't for some time to come.

I have always hated that hutch...

So, my wife suggested that we paint it, and even though I am generally against painted furniture, I figured that it could only help this piece.  On Sunday, in one day, we put on a coat of thick primer and one coat of latex paint.  I then "weathered" it with a wash of dark brown latex paint that I quickly wiped off to give it an aged look.

I have to admit that I like it.  I won't be so embarrassed to have this piece in our dining  room now.  I still don't care for painted furniture, but this piece needed to be painted.   See finished pictures below.  I wish that I had a "before" picture to post also, but I don't.

Water-based vs. Oil-based Top Coats

Now that the dust is settling from completing the two G&G desks, I have been thinking through some of my experiences on this project.

I had noted in an earlier post that I had used a water-based finish for the first time on the first G&G desk and that I generally liked it (particularly the lack of smell).

I did the second desk with my old-faithful GF Arm-R-Seal oil-based finish that has long been my favorite.  When the desks are side by side there is no question in my mind...the oil finish is still better.  It has a more even satin finish, more even build, less grain-raising, etc.  The two finishes are not significantly different, but they are different enough for me to switch back to my old favorite oil finish from now on unless I really need to avoid the odor and fumes.

I like the new water-based finishes, but for me, they are not quite there yet (but they are close).

G&G Desks...Finished at Last!

I have finally finished the "almost"  matching pair of Greene & Greene inspired desks for my wife and me.  The photos below are of my G&G desk #2, made based on the Aurora desk by Darrell Peart at www.furnituremaker.com.    Darrell sells the plans for this desk at American Furniture Design website.

My desks are made from African mahogany and ebony. I finished this one with General Finishes brand Arm-R-Seal that I tinted with a little General Finishes “warm cherry” stain.

These took almost 2 years to complete because other small projects kept intruding and I would get distracted away from the desks. I am very glad to be done!

I started these desks before Darrell had his plans for sale, so after emailing him for permission, I made my own drawings to build my desk. During the two long years of work, Darrell’s plans hit the market and I bought a set of the plans. Boy would I have saved time if I had those from the start!!

My drawings were very close to Darrell’s dimensions, but were off just enough to make it impossible for me to follow his plans exactly. Since I had already started cutting parts to my dimensions, I stuck with my plans and only used Darrell’s plans for reference.

My shop now looks huge without these two desks sitting in the middle of it as they have been for a long time now.

Photos below are of G&G desk #2.  As I said in my recent posts, G&G desk #1 came out darker than I'd like (it was done with aniline dye).  I will post photos of that desk soon.

Front

Front right

Front left

Top

Front

G&G drawer detail

G&G drawer joint

2nd Desk Nearing Completion

I made progress this weekend toward finishing the 2nd desk.   I decided to do the 2nd desk with a different finish than the first one, since I was disappointed with how dark the first desk turned out.  I like the finish on the first desk, but it is too dark to really appreciate all of the ebony accents in the desk.

For the 2nd desk, I decided to try tinting General Finishes oil-based Arm-R-Seal with a General Finishes oil-based stain.  I used 0.75 ounce of  GF  "warm cherry" to one quart of Arm-R-Seal.  So far, I am VERY pleased with the results.

Two coats are complete and a few more to go.  Pictures coming soon.

Oh, I almost forgot,  the drawers for the first desk are now done and installed also, so the 1st desk is now fully complete.