Welcome to Resaw

  I have just began a new project. Sawed some mahogany this weekend. This post will be short but I will have much more coming soon.

Just wanted to show the start of the project and how I resawed a plank of wood.

And a little surface planing.

I also got to teach the next generation of woodworker a thing or two.

Craftmanship

"Of course, one of the great troubles has been that people have not always understood that this kind of craftsman usually does fine, honest work-work that will last a long time and be fine to experience. And the craftsman-a vicious circle- the craftsman gradually becomes alarmed and saddened, and even humiliated by his inability to make ends meet. At that point something happens to all but a very few. Things change somehow. A small compromise leads to another small compromise, and finally we wind up doing something that we do not really love. It's a sneaky thing."

James Krenov
A Cabinetmaker's Notebook

The Impractical Storm

I've got a few projects in the works. Sometimes in my work I tend to jump around. Whether or not that is a good or bad thing I'm not sure.

 
 One of the projects I've started on is a small cabinet. It has marquetry on the doors which I have begun drawing out as well as doing some initial cutting.

   I tend to cut my marquetry while I'm still drawing it out. It breaks things up. Did I mention I like to jump around?
   I've got a few other small projects going on that I'll try to do some posts on over the next couple days.
 
And the shop is looking like it was hit buy a small storm.

 

Setting Up Shop

  Trying to get things set up so I can start my first project. I realized I haven't posted a picture of the bench in its space since I glued it up and flattened the tops.

Lonesome Dovetail Part Deux

   I haven't tried to cut a dovetail in the better part of a decade. Sad but true. My first efforts are leaving a little to be desired but  tapping a joint together is always satisfying.

Cherry, by the way, is not a good practice wood.

Like Father, Like Son

  When people learn that I do woodworking for a living I'm usually asked how I got started. There are many reasons I continue to do this craft that I love. There is however only one reason I got started in this craft.
   My Father.
   My small woodworking shop is in many ways inspired by his home shop. A small red bricked one car garage. Hardy enough room to do anything really. Yet he turned out furniture for our house and others with what seemed like ease. I took it for granted that the work he did was just what a man does in his spare time.
   It was not.
   Looking back my dad's passion for woodworking was apart of who he was. Who he is. He was never far from it. I remember evenings watching television and he would have his carving tray in his lap. Long days at work yet still finding time for his own work.
For people like my dad, like me, woodworking isn't a hobby or a job. It is a lifestyle. Its part of are identity.  It shapes us as men.
  Thank you dad.

 

Lonesome Dovetail

     I made my first dovetail joint nearly fifteen years ago.  It was not cut with a hand saw or even a router.
My first dovetail joint was cut with a CNC machine.
  I was twenty and working at my first professional woodworking job.  At the time I was amazed that a machine could do this with such ease. All I had to do was punch in some numbers and push the wood in place.
   I quickly got excited about the new technology that computer operated woodworking machines could offer. A shop full of them I imagined. They could do everything with ease. Why, I would hardly need to be there at all!
  My excitement was quickly replaced with boredom after I had mastered the tasks of number punching and wood pushing. As a young woodworker my attention quickly went elsewhere.  I began to question whether I wanted to do this craft at all.  If you call what I was doing craft. I suppose if  I had to answer I would not.
   So, I struggled with the dreaded noose of blue collar work for years. I looked to the technology fields. After all that was the future. At least that is what I kept hearing.
  I quickly learned that that was not much different than number punching or wood pushing.
   Eventually I found a more balanced approach.
   I can certainly appreciate technological advances, I have just chosen to not  push the button just because there is one to be pushed.
 
 

A whisper or a shout ?

  I spend I a lot my time when I'm not doing woodworking myself looking at what others are doing. Watching the few available shows on TV and what people are doing on the internet.
  What is fascinating to me is almost all of it involves machine work.  When a project is started  you better have a table saw in your dining room or how  else are you going to cut those tenons. Machine woodworking has become so ubiquitous that there isn't usually an alternative offered.
  Wood Whispering it seems involves lots of heavy machinery.
 

Something Old, Something New

   I'm finsihing up my workbench this weekend and moving on to other projects. I already have about half a dozen started in some form or another. Everything from just an idea to an already started project.
  Marquetry is my passion though, and building my bench has really cut into that work. So I'm hoping to get back on to one of several marquetry projects I've already started.
  Along with all the other projects too.

SE7EN

Dry fitting my bench.











                                                                                                      
                                                                         
                                                                                            Tools I used to make my bench. Not a plug in sight. This is woodworking.

As The Tenon Turns

I'm making the tenons on my cross rails
that go into my mortised legs. If a piece has knots or wild grain in it I'll saw the tenon.

However, if it has straight grain I can split the tenon faster using a chisel.

I then pare away the excess waste and do final trimming to fit the mortise.

I've made a router plane of sorts to do the final fitting.  It's nothing more than a chisel  in a board. Simple but effective. I then do a complete dry assembly and then it's time to glue up.



                                                                                   

Buy the ticket, take the ride

  Technology seems funny to me when I really think about it.  It seems to me that in our quest to make our life's easier we have become nothing more than button pushers.
   Since I'm a woodworker, I can best relate to the current state of my profession. Skill it seems is seldom necessary anymore. Need to make a certain joint? Just buy a machine to make that joint. Why then do I need to be there at all ?  What am I really accomplishing ?
  If all we are looking for is a means to an end then what the hell do we do with the rest of our time?

JOINERY HO!

I'm starting on the joinery of my bench.   
First up mortise and tenons for the legs.

I am chopping the mortises first. I'm using a bevel edge chisel instead of the usual mortising chisel. When the mortising chisel used to be used that is.









I can chop just as quickly as long as I'm aware of how much leverage I'm putting on the chisel.












  Seven more to go then on to the
tenons. 
                                                                                              

A cabinetmaker is a cabinetmaker is a kitchen cabinetmaker?

   I was wandering today as I often do, when did the term cabinetmaker get so turned around. I consider myself a cabinetmaker so when people assume that I just make kitchen cabinets it hurts my feelings.
   Traditional apprenticeships don't really exist anymore but I still try and follow them and I consider myself a journeyman cabinetmaker.
  Today everybody wants instant gratification. Maybe that's one of the problems. Things are made easier therefore presumably better.
  Certainly life is easier today than 100 years ago.  The real question is does making life easier always make it better? 

Twisted Sister

  You know that saying one bad apple....   Well it goes for lumber too.  I had picked the lumber for the tops of my bench pretty carefully.  However when I went to glue up my second top I was left with a couple of boards that were less than desirable.
  Now being a bit lazy and a bit cheap, I decided that instead of buying a couple more boards I could make the ones I had work. Not the best decision. Even worse I knew it was a bad decision.
  So a good part of my Saturday was spent getting the twist out of my second top.
Now I have been making my bench with a pretty basic set of hand tools just to show that you don't need a lot of specialty tools.
  But man. Trying to flatten, straighten, and square a 12 inch by 8 foot lamination with nothing but a number 4 plane?  That was trying.

Hip to be square

I've started cutting my work bench parts to size.
I started with my tops so I can use them as a makeshift workbench for cutting and jointing my other parts.
I start by squaring the ends up.  I'm doing this using a square and a knife to mark around my my top.
 I'm starting my sentences with start far to much.

 I then use a chisel to define my line.

Then it's time to break out the handsaw. I'm cutting slightly off my line on the waste piece. Just enough to square and smooth the saw cut with a handplane. 

It can be a bit of a struggle working the pieces. That's the challenge before us though. How do you make your workbench without a workbench? chicken or egg?


You use what you have at hand. You persevere and eventually.....

......you do things you were not sure you could.


I think accomplishing things is often overshadowed with making things easier or faster.

There is definitely something to be said about a sense of accomplishment.

A tablesaw is not a workbench

   Companies that make woodworking machinery have tried hard over the years to pass off their machines as "power tools".  They have in fact done a terrific job.
    Step up to the table saw, set the fence, cut a board to the perfect dimension. Machine manufactures want and need you to believe this is woodworking.  Its what makes the big bucks.  The reality is these power tools aren't tools at all.  They are machines. Made originally for the sole purpose of mass production.
    Now before I go to far I want to make clear that I  understand and work with these machines almost everyday.  I appreciate what they do. What they don't do and what masses of of miss informed people don't understand is that they do not make you a woodworker.