Review: 52 Boxes In 52 Weeks, By Matt Kenney

52 Boxes In 52 Weeks, The Taunton Press, $24.95, 224pp, May, 2018

Full disclosure: I was given a copy of this book by the publisher for review.

This is a wonderful design book by Fine Woodworking senior editor Matt Kenney. It's the result of a challenge he set for himself to practice his design skills: design and build a small box every week for a year.

The boxes are largely simple in construction, using a limited set of techniques, since the construction process was not the main point of the exercise. Instead, he explores a wide range of shape, proportion, materials, and decoration.

The idea is that like any other skill, practicing design allows you to refine it, analyzing what you like or don't like about each iteration. That also broadens your perspective as you explore the limits to a wider degree than you might otherwise.

The end result is a collection of boxes with different appeal to different tastes. Reproducing these boxes would make great gifts. They are beautiful, with a clean, spare design.

But more to the point, Matt wants to encourage you to explore your own design space. This was his result, his personal aesthetic. Yours may be different.

Design Principles

He follows several design principles, outlined in the introductory chapter.

First is proportion. He says this is critical. Good proportions result in intuitive beauty. Poor proportions can turn even the finest project clunky.

Second is simplicity. These are not heavily adorned. He limits them to just a few distinguishing design elements.

Third, he ensures that all elements are in proportion to the scale of the box.

Fourth, he develops the details, thinking about every little one from the joinery to the widths of rabbets and the amount of shadow line and reveal.

Fifth, he chooses the wood carefully, including its grain and imperfections. Every little knot or wave in the grain is meant to be where it ended up. Design is intentional, not accidental. Wood is a natural medium with natural variation. The design challenge here is to make use of that variation.

He further utilizes the grain by making it continuous all the way around each box. That provides a natural flow and continuity rather than a jarring transition. Achieving continuous grain is one of the few technical descriptions in the book.

Sixth, he adds a small degree of color. He uses milk paint to add to the natural wood color, sometimes harmonizing with it, sometimes contrasting.

The book itself follows this. The various page elements adorning the text and photos pick up the color flash of each project.

Finally, he softens the inside with a carefully fitted piece of fabric. The proportion of the pattern and the color must complement the scale of the box and the color of the wood.

These provide the parameters for the variation in design.

Techniques

In general the construction techniques are simple, but a brief chapter on box-making techniques details the following:

• Resawing to achieve continuous grain.
• Crosscutting and mitering.
• Lids that don't need hinges.
• Stable bottoms with various decorations.
• Finishing with shellac and milk paint.

Several of the box projects include specific techniques such as wedge-shaped sides, drilling out round interiors, fitting lifting strips around a lid, and making pulls, feet, and bases. The most detailed one shows the steps for making kumiko, a Japanese decorative lattice.

One thing to note is that these are mostly small boxes in thin stock, so the work requires precision. I had the pleasure of watching Matt work on several of these when we happened to be demonstrating at the same Lie-Nielsen Hand Tool Events. Watching him fit the joints and dividers, carefully shaving them on a small shooting board, was fascinating.

Building boxes like this will not only improve your design skills, it will improve your fine hand skills.

The Boxes

The remainder of the book shows several pages on each box individually. Matt describes what went into the design and what he was trying to explore with it, then describes how he constructed it.

This portion of the book opens with a two-page spread showing all the boxes. It's especially nice to let your eyes range around this layout to compare the variations. Different things will jump out at you.

There are flat boxes, wide boxes, short boxes, tall boxes, divided boxes, stacked boxes, and boxes with drawers. Each features just a couple of design elements of color and fittings.

My favorites were the divided boxes. I like compartments. I guess they appeal to my sense of organization.

It's interesting to come back to this spread after having read through all the box projects individually. That changes what jumps out at you.


One of my favorites, a flat divided box made primarily of cherry, with a green milk-painted lid in the center.

As Matt notes, the idea of the milk paint and fabric may put some people off at first, but seeing them used with the other design elements, all in careful restraint, is convincing.

I would never think of hiding cherry under paint, yet the warmth of the wood and the green milk paint in the photo above complement each other nicely, contrasting with the dark kingwood pulls. The result invites you to lift the lids and see what they contain. It's just beautiful.

These projects all have a delicate, graceful elegance. Some may appeal more to you than others, but they would all make wonderful gifts. The book is an excellent starting point for exploring and refining your own design aesthetic.

Review: Woodworking With Hand Tools

Woodworking With Hand Tools: Tools, Techniques and Projects, The Taunton Press, $24.95, 240pp, April, 2018

Full disclosure: I was given a copy of this book by the publisher for review.

This is another gorgeous book. It's an anthology of 33 hand tool articles collected from the past 10 years of Fine Woodworking magazine, by the following authors:

• Christian Becksvoort
• Brian Boggs
• Tom Calisto
• Dan Faia
• John Reed Fox
• Chris Gochnour
• Garrett Hack
• Andrew Hunter
• Matt Kenney
• Philip C. Lowe
• Tim Manney
• Jeff Miller
• Norman Pirollo
• Timothy Rousseau
• Matthew Teague
• Vic Tesolin
• Bob Van Dyke

They all do excellent work. Phil Lowe and Garrett Hack in particular are a couple of my woodworking heroes, whom I've been following for years.

The book is divided into 3 parts, with excellent photography to capture the fine details. In addition to western style tools, there are several articles on Japanese tools. It's an excellent resource for anyone interested in learning or expanding hand tool woodworking skills.

In general, the articles cover the details of fine work after the parts have been roughed-out and dimensioned, although there is one article on rough stock preparation with Japanese tools that applies equally well to western tools.

Most of the authors use a combination of power and hand tools in their day to day work. They typically do the rough work of breaking down lumber and getting it close to final dimensions on machines, then shift over to hand tools for the final dimensioning and detail work.

Tools

Part One contains 14 articles on tools. In addition to a general article covering an essential hand tool kit, they cover squares, gauges, and calipers; and scrapers, specialty planes, chisels, and small handsaws. Three of the articles cover sharpening: card scrapers, cabinet scrapers, and using diamond sharpening stones.

Vic Tesolin's article "4 Planes for Joinery" is my favorite in this section. These specialty planes are invaluable for fine tuning precise joints.

Techniques

Part Two contains 12 articles on techniques. They cover general tool use techniques, stock preparation, fine fitting and cleanup, mortise and tenon and dovetail joinery, and custom moldings and scratch stocks.

My favorite in this section is Phil Lowe's "4 Chisel Tricks". This article changed the way I made tenons when I first read it in the magazine.

Projects

Part Three contains 7 articles on building tools and jigs used in hand tool work. They cover building custom handsaws and scrapers, specialty grooving planes, a cutting gauge, bench jigs for precision planing, a Japanese tool box, and a shaving horse.

In this section, my favorite is Norman Pirollo's article "4 Bench Jigs for Handplanes" (I guess the reason my favorites follow a theme of 4 is that they reflect versatility!). These jigs are critical to efficient and precise work. I always tell people the shooting board is the precision secret weapon for hand tool work.

While I've called out a few personal favorites, all of the methods shown in all the sections are excellent. They reflect their authors' long experience with the craft.


The layout is easy to read and follow. Here Phil Lowe explains how to sharpen and use a cabinet scraper.


Closeup photos capture details of the tools in use. Here Chris Gochnour shows how to tackle concave and convex curves with a spokeshave.

What's great about a book like this is that no matter how much you know, there's always something new to learn. It might be an entirely new way to tackle a task, or a subtle refinement of a method you already use.

These increase your versatility, allowing you to adapt to the situation when things aren't going as expected.

In my case, this book finally gave the best explanation I've seen for why to burnish a card scraper on its flat faces, and the result of that step. I joke that I collect scraper sharpening methods the way other people collect baseball cards. This was a refinement of my current method, and it worked wonderfully when I tried it.

There were several other instances like that where just one or two photos were sufficient to add to my repertoire. Each increment in technique like that improves my capability.

The key to making these skills work is to practice them. In fact, the first article on techniques covers a set of skill-building exercises.

It's useful to take the methods outlined in all the articles and first try them on some softer wood that won't fight you so much, then try them on the harder woods you plan on using for actual projects.

This book is an excellent compendium, covering a broad range of techniques.

We're very lucky in New England to have a rich concentration of these excellent instructors. Through membership in the Society of American Period Furniture Makers (SAPFM) and participation in Lie-Nielsen Hand Tool Events and open houses, I've had the privilege of meeting and watching 6 of the 17 authors, particularly Phil Lowe. I've incorporated a number of their techniques into my work.

As a bonus, here's a video of Phil showing the cabinet scraper sharpening method in his article. I recorded this for him at one of his SAPFM demonstrations.

Review: How To Whittle, By Josh Nava

How To Whittle, The Taunton Press, $19.95, 144pp, March, 2018

Full disclosure: I was given a copy of this book by the publisher for review.

This is a gorgeous book. It features 25 projects that are a mix of functional and decorative items, carrying on a centuries-old tradition.

Josh Nava is a hand carver in Nashville, TN, and is the co-founder of Suburban Pallet, which specializes in hand-crafted goods made from repurposed timber.

Whittling may bring to mind sitting around the campfire or on the porch, carving on some fallen twigs with a pocketknife to pass the time. The end result may be a memento to keep or just go into the fire.

The items in this book are of a more permanent nature. This is what I know as treen or treenware, treen meaning "of the tree". Treen was common when everyday household items were carved from wood.

The book starts with a 20-page chapter on techniques, covering choosing wood, tools, sharpening, safety, knifework, preparing blanks, and finishing.

The projects are covered in 112 pages, 3-5 pages each. It ends with a page on resources, and an index.

One of the points Nava makes is that whittling is a very accessible craft. It requires few tools, and the work is done in green wood, using mostly found material.

The results are beautiful and practical, useful for decades. Whittled items show a distinctive faceting that lends a rustic elegance and reveals their handmade provenance. These are personal. Meanwhile, making them teaches you properties of wood, elements of design, and hand skills.

"Green woodworking" means using freshly cut or fallen wood that hasn't yet been processed or dried. I'm familiar with it from the books of Drew Langsner, as well as demonstrations by his protege, Peter Follansbee, and the work of Robin Wood.

Nava does a wonderful job of distilling this into a concise, easy to follow book. The projects provide enough coverage to give you a wide range of capabilities.

This book will have you scouring the neighborhood and countryside for fallen trees and branches. Wind storms will mean good harvest days. Here in New England, there's ALWAYS someone who has something down.

It's a good way to use urban timber, so you might want to check with tree services and municipal maintenance departments for material.

Tools

The tool list is short:

• Knives: used for medium and fine shaping. These are somewhat specialized, particularly the hook knife. They're not common pocketknives.
• Small hatchets and hand axes: used to prepare blanks (that is, preparing tree trunk sections or branches to the rough blanks that will be shaped into objects) and for rough shaping.
• Folding saw: sufficient for most harvesting.

You can find the knives, hatchets (including some very fine ones) and saws online, with a variety of commercial and custom products available.

Remember that this is for green wood, possibly some fairly large branches, so a longer saw with coarse teeth is best; he recommends 10-14".

Robin Wood covers some information on where to obtain knives and axes. While it is somewhat dated, you have the benefit of experienced opinion.

As with any tools, investing in quality items will avoid heartache later, so beware of buying the cheapest based on price alone.

Techniques

The skill list is similarly short. For knifework, Nava goes through five cuts that he uses throughout the projects. To prepare blanks, he outlines five general steps.

Projects

Nava opens each project with a page showing a photo of the finished item and a list of materials and tools.

This was my favorite item. Look at the gorgeous faceting of that fork.

He covers each project in a series of steps over the next several pages, using clear captioned photos. The writing is very easy to follow. The whole process has a wonderfully relaxed, organic feel to it.


The layout is easy to read and follow.

Whether you use the item yourself, give it as a gift, or sell it, the user will always be reminded of the person who made it. That's the personal connection in such handcrafts.

One thing I like about this is that you can use almost any wood. That means if there's a cherished old tree at a family house that you remember growing up, if some of it comes down, you can turn it into something that the family can continue to use for decades.

It's also a completely portable style of woodworking that offers great satisfaction. A small canvas bag of tools can go with you anywhere, and you can leave behind works of art and function.

If you sell your work, this is something you can do at fairs and craft shows. With your wares displayed for sale in front of you, you can be working on more the whole time. Then it's production and demonstration as well as commerce.

This also offers an opportunity to engage an audience and pass on the craft. You can let people try the tools after a quick lesson on safety and technique if you're comfortable doing that.

This is a wonderful book that will give you hours of enjoyment.

Psst: Don't tell my wife, but I ordered the set of Mora knives, the Marbles camp axe, and the 14" Silky Bigboy 2000 with extra large teeth that I linked above. This looks like fun!

Review: Nick Offerman's Good Clean Fun

Nick Offerman's Good Clean Fun with my travel toolboxes at the Lie-Nielsen Hand Tool Event at Shackleton Thomas Furniture, in Bridgewater, VT this weekend.

This past week I got the opportunity to review Nick Offerman's new book Good Clean Fun: Misadventures in Sawdust at Offerman Woodshop, published by Dutton. It goes on sale October 18.

Most people know Offerman from his role as small-town functionary Ron Swanson on the TV show Parks And Recreation, whose desk trinkets include a Claymore antipersonnel mine facing anyone approaching his desk.

But woodworkers know him from his Fine Woodworking articles as a fellow woodworker who has a nice side gig as an actor and humorist.

Ok, you probably mainly know him from the show as I did, and were tickled to find out he's also an honest to goodness woodworker, running the real business Offerman Woodshop. I was just as tickled to get the opportunity to review his book.

This is his third book, the first one that is wholly about woodworking. His two previous books were Paddle Your Own Canoe: One Man's Fundamentals for Delicious Living and Gumption: Relighting the Torch of Freedom with America's Gutsiest Troublemakers.

He writes with a reverently irreverent style. If Mark Twain had been a woodworker, this is the book he would have written. Informative, yet informed by a dry and acerbic wit.

His reverance is for the craft and the skill. Yet he doesn't take himself too seriously. Much of the character of Ron Swanson is clearly imbued with Offerman's true self.

The book is a combination of brief autobiography, woodworking knowledge (including a great chapter on wood, with an excellent analogy for understanding grain and wood movement), profiles of woodworkers he admires and those who work in his workshop, and projects. There's a lot of solid, practical information.

Plus, as it says on the cover, assorted tomfoolery. It's all good clean fun, with some recipes thrown in to enjoy while you're having it.

I always love finding the connections between people, and I'll point out a few here. Some tenuous, but they bind us together nevertheless with a sense of community. That's another strong theme in the book, community.

Offerman got his early woodworking knowledge from his Dad. That ability to swing a hammer got his professional woodworking career started as a scenic carpenter in the theater, and he admits to an affinity for scenic carpenters in his workshop today.

One thing that's clear, he's on the same page with most of the woodworkers I know who value working with your hands. And lament the loss of that in our present society and educational system. And wish to restore that capability. That's the first connection I'll note. Right there with you, brother.


Nick squaring up the leg mortises in the Berry Stool project. Photo by Josh Salsbury, courtesy of Dutton.

Inspiring people to learn how to do things with their hands appears to be one of his main goals in writing the book. That's just as clear, based on his choice of profiles and projects. I'm also very happy to see Offerman promote and encourage the work of others in his profiles. The book isn't just about him. Like I said, it's about community.

Among the profiles is Mira Nakashima, daughter of the late George Nakashima, who specialized in Japanese-inspired works featuring live-edge tree slabs. In 1976, I lived two towns over from Nakashima's workshop in New Hope, PA, and would often ride past on my bike. Those were the days when schools still had shop class, and as a high school student I loved woodshop. I would see the sign and wonder what they did there, but never stopped to find out. Of course, that's just random coincidence.

Another profile is Chris Becksvoort, the "modern master of the Shaker style", as Ron Swanson giggles with glee in one episode of Parks And Recreation. I've had the pleasure of watching Becksvoort demonstrate techniques at several Lie-Nielsen Open Houses in Warren, ME.

The strongest connection among the profiles is Peter Galbert. I've demonstrated at several Lie-Nielsen Hand Tool Events where Peter and his colleague Claire Minihan have also been presenters. I think of Peter as an inventor as much as a woodworker, for his innovative tool designs. It was Peter who taught me how to finesse a wooden spokeshave to vary the shavings from light to heavy, and watching his YouTube videos led to an order of magnitude improvement in my lathe turning skills.

These are people worth learning from. The profiles are all interesting reading as Offerman outlines what he admires in them. There are some good tidbits of professional woodworking business knowledge thrown in, and some inspirational surprises.

Here's the full list of profiles:

• Laura Zahn
• Jimmy DiResta
• Mira Nakashima
• Christian Becksvoort
• Bear Mountain Boats: Ted Moores and Joan Barrett
• Laura Mays
• Peter Galbert/North Bennet Street School
• Garry Knox Bennett

Josh Salsbury clamping the top of the Jupiter Side Table project. Photo by Christine Fuqua, courtesy of Dutton.

The projects span a range of skill levels. Nakashima-style slabs feature in several of them, that's clearly a major influence in his shop. Even the simplest ones impart useful knowledge to entice the beginner, and there are a number of nice projects to engage the interest of more experienced woodworkers.

The styles are contemporary, reflecting what I would consider a California esthetic, considering the strong influences of James Krenov and the College of the Redwoods among the people profiled, similar to the work of David Marks.

The methods of work are a combination of machine and hand tool woodworking. There's also a bit of metalworking that would be fun to explore. Even if the designs aren't to your tastes, these make good projects to acquire skills you can apply to other designs.

In addition to furniture-making techniques, there's information on finishing and ebonizing, and strategies for avoiding or correcting mistakes. If you're interested in working with big natural-edge slabs, there are several tips for working on them.

My favorite project is the slingshot dining chair by Michele Diener. Chairs are a particular challenge, because they take a beating. They have to survive being kicked, pushed, dragged, and bumped daily for years, yet not collapse under someone sitting on them. Meanwhile they have to be comfortable and lightweight.

Here's the full list of projects:

• Matthew Micucci: Pop Top
• Krys Shelley: Pencil Holder
• Matty Micucci: Kazoo
• Krys Shelley: Whisky Coasters
• Nick Offerman: Berry Stool
• Josh Salsbury: Jupiter Side Table
• Nick Offerman: Beaver Tail Paddle
• Rick Offerman: Scrappy Birdhouse
• Jane Parrott: Craftsman Lamp
• Matt Offerman: Slab Cribbage Board
• Thomas Wilhoit: Claro Walnut Slab Table
• Michele Diener: Slingshot Dining Chair
• RH Lee: Slumber Jack Bed

Nick shaping the blade of the Beaver Tail Paddle project with a Lie-Nielsen Brian Boggs spokeshave, one of my favorite tools. Photo by Josh Salsbury, courtesy of Dutton.

If the excellent project drawings cause a ping of recognition, it's because they're by John Hartman, an illustrator for Fine Woodworking magazine, among others.

Before the last project, the book finishes up with an assortment of recipes contributed by the shop denizens for their lunches and cookouts.

That final project is another interesting one, a knockdown bed. I always find knockdown furniture fascinating because it goes together and comes apart like a puzzle, yet has to be sturdy in use. That poses significant challenges in design and execution.

Nick will be going on a book tour from October 17 through November 5 if you'd like an opportunity to see him.


Tour information, courtesy of Dutton.

Review: Fine Woodworking SketchUp Tutorials

I first tried to use SketchUp several years ago. I could see that it would be a very useful tool, but I never got the hang of the user interface. It just seemed out of control.

When I got an email last month about holiday discounts at Taunton Press showing a book on SketchUp, I decided to take a look. I found two eBooks and a video, all instantly downloadable. I couldn't choose, so I bought all three; after all, the price was right, and I could get instant gratification. Having gone through them, I can tell you unequivocally it was money well spent.

The two eBooks are by Tim Killen: SketchUp Guide For Woodworkers and the follow-on SketchUp Guide For Woodworkers: Traditional Cabinets. The video is by David Richards: Google SketchUp Guide For Woodworkers - The Basics (note that Trimble Navigation bought SketchUp from Google in 2012).

As I started going through Killen's first book, I realized that I recognized the logo on his drawings. It was his excellent drawings of Mickey Callahan's design that I had used to build my Queen Anne foot stool! Turns out he's a fellow member of the Society of American Period Furniture Makers and is passionate about reproducing period furniture.

Killen's first book, 145 pages, consists of 16 chapters covering SketchUp tools and techniques, from basic navigation to creating original drawings to making drawings from imported photos. He uses a variety of different furniture projects for examples, including simple cabinets and tables and a Windsor chair. It's copiously illustrated with step-by-step diagrams and is a fabulous example of written instruction.

His second book, 197 pages, consists of 7 chapters focusing on using SketchUp for cabinetmaking. It includes some review of basic usage, then covers three cabinet projects in different traditional styles down to the last detail. One of them shows how to work from scanned images. He also uses several other projects as examples. Like the first, it's packed with diagrams. Both books include information on creating a set of shop drawings and templates.

An interesting feature, taking advantage of the electronic format, is that the second book has several videos embedded in the PDF. So you can watch a video and see SketchUp in action, then read about the process in detail. The combination of video and text makes it suited to all types of learning styles, whether you prefer to read it or watch it.

Richards' video, 67 minutes, consists of 5 episodes that show basic navigation and usage, then go through the complete process for a hanging cabinet design. The download includes a PDF containing the complete transcript so you can jump around to find things easily.

What's nice about all of these is that they narrow the focus of SketchUp usage down to woodworking. It's a very powerful design and drawing program, applicable to a broad range of creative disciplines, but without some guidance, it's difficult to get started and use it properly. These do the trick.

I would be hard-pressed to pick just one of them. Both authors do an excellent job. There's plenty of overlap, but I'm a big fan of seeing different approaches to the same task. Each will contribute unique insights, and that's true here. Killen's second book is the most comprehensive, so perhaps that would be the best choice if you could only have one. But really, the cost is very modest, it's worth getting all three.

Working With SketchUp

Now that I know how to use it, I have to say that SketchUp is an absolute tour-de-force of software. The problem before was that I didn't understand how to operate its user interface. It was like I was trying to steer a car by using the pedals.

The zoom, pan, and orbit tools are critical to operating SketchUp, and those are the things I didn't understand before.

What's fascinating about SketchUp is that it truly is intuitive to use. And by intuitive I mean that when you use one of its tools and click on something, it understands what you want to do. No "you meant this and it did that" fussing around. Its drawing paradigm is to form faces from lines, rectangles, and circles, and then with the amazing push/pull tool, extrude those faces into the third dimension.

Connecting lines and arcs is very natural to form more complex shapes. Cleaning up lines and faces with the eraser tool is simple. Copying and duplicating bits of shapes is easy. It just works. It's very intelligent about selecting what you click on. Every intersection forms a new selectable segment.

The other thing that's absolutely fascinating is that you build up a drawing from components almost exactly the way you make the real thing. You form a squared-up piece, cut dovetails in it by drawing outlines and using the push/pull tool to push out the waste, form mortises and tenons by drawing outlines and pushing in or pulling out shapes.

One big difference from working the real wood is that you form parts in place, overlapped at the joints, then go into x-ray view to form the joinery and transfer the lines to the matching piece. The ability to copy components also means that duplicate parts can be formed instantly. Any change you make to one copy is reflected in all the copies.

The ability to compose alternate scenes showing different views and details is a huge benefit. Once you've drawn an initial perspective view, it's easy to add exploded and orthographic views. You can add any number of detail views with dimensions and annotations.

My First SketchUp Project

This all turned out to be timely because I had recently drawn up a project for a class I'll be teaching next year. Until now I've been focusing on skills-based classes; this will be my first project-based class.

The project is a simple Shaker-style step stool incorporating both dovetail and wedged mortise and tenon joints. While that may not be strictly Shaker style, it allows me to cover more joinery skills. Killen's first book also includes a version of a Shaker step stool.

I originally did a freehand drawing of what I had pictured in my mind. There I focused more on general shape and not on specific dimensions. Then I drew up a measured drawing with good old fashioned drafting tools on a drawing board and colored it in with a pencil.

I would have left it at that point had I not seen these SketchUp resources. I downloaded the free version of SketchUp Make and set it up according to Killen's specifications (that's another major hurdle to overcome, because there are a lot of settings that you can get lost in). After going through the exercises in his first book, I was anxious to try it out, so the stool was a perfect opportunity.

My progression of drawings is below. I was quite happy with the results. I was able to do it reasonably quickly for my first attempt as I got used to controlling SketchUp, very little struggling involved. The drawing process flowed very naturally using what I had just learned.


My initial freehand sketch to capture the concept.


Hand-drafted isometric drawing with dimensions.


SketchUp perspective view.


Exploded view.


Orthographic view with dimensions.

If you'd like to learn how to use this powerful tool, I highly recommend these resources. There are others available as well, including free ones. It's a worthwhile investment of your time.

Review: Veritas Gent's Saws

This past Spring, M. Scott Morton, better known to fans of Highland Woodworking simply as Morton, asked me to try out a pair of the new Veritas Gent's Saws. Morton does video reviews of tools for Highland.

After spending a couple of weeks working with them, I stopped by his shop, just 10 minutes away, to record a review with him. Highland has just posted the video here, in time for their Black Friday Savings.

The saws did a great job, far nicer than any gent's style saw I'd used in the past. Watch the video for the details.

Review: Paul Sellers' Working Wood DVD and Book Series

Paul Sellers' Working Wood book and DVDs, and one of my practice dovetails using his method.

Paul Sellers has released an excellent and thoroughly enjoyable DVD and book set on hand tool woodworking.

I first found out about Paul when his blog posts starting appearing on Luke Townsley's excellent aggregator site UnpluggedShop.com. I quickly realized he and I are on the same wavelength.

Paul has been a woodworker for over 45 years, apprenticing at the age of 15 in the UK. He's been published in Woodwork, Fine Woodworking, and Popular Woodworking Magazine, and now runs the New Legacy School of Woodworking in North Wales, UK. The school is in Penrhyn Castle, which is maintained by the National Trust. I think he wins the award for most amazing workshop venue!

In one of those minor coincidences of life, I was living in North Wales, PA, when I took my first woodshop class in 8th grade (from the first of three shop teachers missing a fingertip; jointer accident).

That was a couple years after Paul had completed his apprenticeship. So for most of the time that he's been a woodworker, I've been wishing I was a woodworker.

Paul is currently in the process of launching a US New Legacy School of Woodworking in upstate New York, scheduled to open in the Spring. You can read about it here. You can also see him this winter at several of the Woodworking Shows. He'll have a New Legacy booth at the Baltimore, Springfield, Somerset, and Fredericksburg shows. I'm hoping to meet him in Springfield.

There are several videos of him on YouTube, both in his workshop and at shows. These give a hint of his skills and presentation style. Note that for demonstration purposes, they emphasize speed more than accuracy. His DVDs show a much more accurate method for dovetailing, the results of which you can see in the following photo:


Closeup of my practice joint, the best I've ever done (ok, so this was my sixth attempt!). That black speck along the middle pin? Always be sure to THOROUGHLY wipe the honing oil off your chisel before returning it to the wood.

After watching the videos and reading through his blog, I saw that he offers the newly published Working Wood 1 and 2 DVDs and companion book. I promptly ordered the full set.

There are 7 DVDs total. They're available individually or as a set from Amazon, Lee Valley (US), Classic Handtools (UK), or directly from Artisan Media (full disclosure: I earn a small commission on sales through Amazon and Highland Woodworking links via their affiliate programs, though not through other links).

I watched the DVDs over a 3-day period, about 12 hours total viewing time. Series 1 consists of two DVDs, Woodworking Essentials 1 and 2. Series 2 consists of the remaining 5:

• Master Dovetails
• Master Housing Dadoes
• Master Mortise and Tenons
• Master European Workbenches
• Master Sharpening

The production style of the transitions and interstitial elements borrows from video gaming and Who Wants to Be A Millionaire, which some people may find distracting, but it keeps things dynamic. The workshop segments are filmed well, with good pacing. And that castle!

The book is gorgeous, suitable for the coffee table (at least in a woodworker's home). It's best treated as a companion volume rather than a standalone text. In addition to background information, it has matching chapters for each of the DVDs. The whole package works best by seeing and hearing Paul work, then referring to the book when following along in the workshop.

Paul's educational philosophy is a bit different from mine. After briefly introducing methods, he likes to use projects to develop the skills. I like to focus on skills separately, removing the fear of mistakes ruining a project. But that's why there's chocolate and that's why there's vanilla. There will be those who prefer to learn by one method and those who prefer another.

The methods he presents are a mix of elements I've seen before and some new things. If you're a beginner who's never used hand tools, this would be an excellent series to use as your primary reference. If you're an experienced hand tool woodworker, it adds versatility and reinforces things from a new perspective. 

Just remember that you're seeing a practiced hand here, so don't be upset if you don't immediately get the same results he does. As always, good dovetails require accurate sawing to a line. The reason it took me 6 tries to get the joint pictured above is that I was homing in on that with each one. How do you develop a practiced hand? The same way you get to Carnegie Hall: practice, practice, practice, like this!

I like learning from a variety of instructors, because each one will have a favored set of tools and techniques which he emphasizes, and those he glosses over. Comparing and contrasting different instructors fills in the whole picture to give me the broadest range of skills.

In this case, Paul starts with lumber that's been dimensioned and squared up with machines (of course, you can do it with hand tools as well if you don't have access to machines). He introduces a minimal set of tools necessary to produce fine joinery, emphasizing three concepts: accuracy, sharpness, and technique. He present three fundamental joints, then use those to build a series of projects.

He presents a number of fine details in the process. Throughout, he emphasizes listening to the sound the tool makes, as well as the feel of the wood. These sensory aspects not only make the work more satisfying, they are critical to achieving the best results.

In Series 1, the first DVD is actually somewhat more organic than the rest. While the main focus of the overall series is on joinery, this starts with shaping wood to get an understanding of grain and how the tools interact with it.

He uses chisel, gouge, spokeshave, and axe to quickly shape a spatula, a spoon, a bowl, and a three-legged stool. These are great introductory projects, quite a treat to watch. If they don't have you itching to put tools to wood, nothing will. They remind me of the work of Robin Wood, Drew Langsner, and Peter Follansbee.

The second DVD introduces the tool set and techniques for accuracy. Paul goes through making a housing dado, a single-tail through dovetail, and a mortise and tenon (with multiple ways of forming the tenon).

Series 2 expands upon the information from Series 1 and applies it to several projects. Simple in design, they do an excellent job of focusing on a particular joint. First is a dovetailed box in the Shaker style. Second is a four-shelf wall unit in the Arts and Crafts style, using interlocked housed dadoes and through mortise and tenon. Third is a small side table, using haunched mortise and tenons. From here you can use these techniques to build anything.

The last project is a very nice English workbench. Paul addresses the logistical problem of trying to build a workbench without a workbench. The bench uses a classic Record-style quick-release vise. While Record is no longer in business, Anant versions of the vise are available from Highland Woodworking and Tools For Working Wood.

The final DVD covers sharpening of a variety of tools. Interestingly, Paul uses a convex bevel method similar to Jacob Butler's, which I wrote about in the Grimsdale Method. Jacob encountered quite a bit of negative reaction when he discussed it on woodworking forums, yet here we see another professional who has used it to great effect for decades. The DVD is organized differently from the rest, as a series of short reference videos by tool rather than a linear presentation.

If you enjoy reading this blog, you'll enjoy this set. Paul is currently at work on Working Wood 3.

Review: Gramercy Tools Cabinetmaker's Rasps

10" Gramercy Tools hand-cut cabinetmaker's rasps, 16TPI and 25TPI, flat side up. Click on any of the photos for higher resolution view.

You might wonder why you should spend over $100 each for rasps. Or more likely, your spouse might. What could be simpler than a lowly rasp? Well, it turns out there are higher order rasps.

Last week I shaped the first cabriole leg for my Queen Anne foot stool project. My sculpting tools were a rough Nicholson rasp, a cheap 4-in-hand rasp, a round Surform rasp, and a half-round metal file. It took me quite a while to do the final shaping, primarily because the first two rasps left such a rough surface that I was afraid to go too heavily with them. The Surform was much lighter cutting in the hard walnut. The file left a nice surface, but cut very slowly.

Having seen Phil Lowe using good cabinetmaker's rasps in his videos, I decided it was time to upgrade. I went to the Tools for Working Wood website to see what they had. The only name I really knew for high-quality rasps was Auriou. I knew they were expensive, but I was prepared to pay for quality. However, Tools for Working Wood also carries their own Gramercy Tools rasps, which looked very nice.

I agonized over the choice. I've been impressed by other Gramercy Tools products, so I knew their rasps were worth considering. The price difference between the two was negligible. The deciding factor was in Joel's blog post More Stuff About Rasps, where he compared them. Because the Gramercy rasps are made from stainless steel, the teeth are stronger, so there's less chance of breaking them.

I ordered the Gramercy Tools 10" 16TPI and 25TPI rasps on Friday, and with their usual alacrity, they arrived today, Monday. I put them straight to a quick test, comparing them with my cheap rasps.


The contenders in order of coarseness, round side up: unnumbered Nicholson, no-name 4-in-hand, and the Gramercy Tools rasps.

For the first test, I took 10 full-length straight strokes with each tool, trying to use consistent force, along the radial axis on a piece of the walnut I used for my stool legs. For the second test, I repeated that sequence on the heart-side tangential face.


On the radial axis (i.e. across the rings).


On the tangential axis, heart side (i.e. the concave side of the rings). This was the face I had found most time-consuming shaping the stool leg.

The photos show that the first three rasps remove rougly the same amount of material. However, the Gramercy leaves a much finer surface. The Nicholson was by far the worst, leaving a ragged surface that looked like it had been clawed by rabid dogs. Even the no-name 4-in-hand was a better choice than that one.

The fourth rasp, the fine-tooth Gramercy, left a very nice surface that would clean up easily.

For the third test, I spent five minutes sculpting the two faces with the 16TPI Gramercy, then 1 minute cleaning it up with the 25TPI Gramercy.


After sculpting the same two faces.

The coarser Gramercy cut quickly, and the finer one left a very clean surface. If this had been a rough-sawn cabriole leg blank with just a little stock left to remove, that probably would have been enough time to do most of the final shaping, leaving an easy scraping job.

I'm certainly not an experienced judge of rasps, but I'm very pleased with my purchase. These should do a much more efficient job on the remaining legs for my foot stool. I'm sure my spouse would approve!

A Visit to Artisan Lumber

A stunning slab of Bastogne Walnut. This is destined for a guitar maker.

I've found another candy store! I've mentioned a few times getting lumber from The Woodery in Lunenburg, MA. A reader asked if I was familiar with Artisan Lumber, also in Lunenburg. I wasn't, but I looked up their website and was immediately intrigued.

I got in touch with owner Brian Brown and arranged a visit. Amusingly, after Al Breed and Phil Lowe, this is the third person I've met in recent weeks who was featured on the new PBS woodworking show "Rough Cut", though I haven't yet seen those particular episodes.

Artisan Lumber is a boutique operation on an old farm lot, specializing in big slabs and full log sets. They use a large Wood-Mizer bandsaw mill to process mostly local logs. They stack and sticker most of the lumber for air drying, and there's also a small kiln on-site. This is what I had dreamed of doing back when I read Harvesting Urban Lumber, but I don't have the room.

They also do a lot of quartersawn lumber. That's what particularly interested me at the moment, because I've been looking for a source of thick quartersawn stock for making molding planes.

Another specialty is figured stock, relying on Brian's eye for figure hiding under the bark. There are jaw-dropping pieces all over the place, in the stacks and lined up along the walls of his garage and workshop. The one in the photo above is a particularly fine example.

These are premium pieces, commanding premium prices. For now, they're out of my league. However, Artisan has a range of woods, as well as odd pieces and logs that didn't turn out well enough. Brian says he's too much the thrifty Yankee to let anything go to waste, so he gave me good prices on several pieces that I can break down.

My take for the day: two thick slabs of hard maple (we had to cut one in half to fit in my van), approximately center cuts from two flatsawn log sets. The center cut is effectively quartersawn.

I'll process these into plane blanks. For those small sizes, I can work around the various defects and get the best grain orientation. They're also thick enough to resaw into thin plane bodies. So now it's time to finish building the Hyperkitten framesaw. Resawing this stuff will be some real work.

If this stock turns out well, I'll offer blanks for sale here. I see people looking for them online, and they're hard to find. I'll also pick up some other quartersawn species.

Here are a few pictures of what Sam Talarico calls "wood porn" in Brian's workshop. Brian ships via UPS or common carrier, so you can have some of this in your workshop! Whether you're a turner, instrument maker, cabinet maker, or furniture maker, get in touch with him and let him know what you're looking for and your price range; he has the experience as a woodworker to pick out what you need.

More guitar stock. A figured piece of curly maple from a guitar set, and a bookmatched solid guitar body.

A big beautiful figured maple slab.

A log set featuring some lovely figured crotch.

Another beautiful curly maple slab.

These photos show some of the stacks of stock available.

Some of the stock in the garage.

A stack of spalted maple.

More figured crotch.

Walnut crotch.

The lovely orange wood in the center is wide curly cherry. The narrow pieces on top aren't as valuable, so Brian gave me a good price on them.

Huge thick slabs.

Full walnut log sets.

Here are some logs ready for milling, and the bandsaw mill. Running it can be an adventure. They never know what they might hit. Brian showed me where some debris lodged in the wood had torn through his jacket. He said it's like sawing shrapnel.

A short walnut log ready for processing.

Another section with the bark stripped, and a few tools of the trade. This is a laborious process.

This magnificent log is veneer quality, on its way to a veneer mill in Germany. The muscular ripples in the sapwood hint at the figure hidden inside.

The bandsaw mill.

One of the things I love about a place like Artisan is their attitude toward the resource. Brian is passionate about the wood, and he loves to see what he can bring out in it.

Just Say No To Cast Iron Holdfasts

I've said before that cast iron really isn't the right material for holdfasts, and here's the proof:

FAIL!

I've had this one for about 4 years, though I haven't used it much because I bought a pair of Gramercy Tools holdfasts that work much better. However, I'm working on mortising the legs for a second portable workbench for the class I'm teaching, and those were out in the van with the other bench.

No problem, I thought, I'll just use this one. It only survived two mortises. Give it a bash, work on the mortise, the stupid thing slips, bash it in again. Then the top just popped off, clean break at the neck.

Cast iron is just too stiff and brittle for holdfasts. Stiff means that the holdfast doesn't hold well. It sets poorly and then slips out easily. Brittle means that it doesn't stand up to the repeated resetting required. A holdfast like this is just annoying to use. It's one of those cheap pieces of junk that reinforces the belief that hand tools are hard to use.

For a proper holdfast, get thee down to the spreading chestnut tree where the village smithy stands. He'll forge you a wrought iron holdfast with the ductility and spring to set well and take a beating.

What, no village smithy? Then the modern equivalent is the Gramercy Tools holdfast. Made from mild steel rod and shaped in an automated wire forming machine, these things work great and will take anything you can dish out (read the patent for the manufacturing process here).

Gramercy Tools holdfast: the right material for the tool.

Get at least two. Might as well order a couple extra, so you can keep a pair in the shop and a pair in the van (I'm sure you can come up with a valid reason to drive around with them). When they arrive, wipe off any machine oil residue, then wrap some sandpaper around the shank and give them a spin to roughen the surface with scratch rings. They'll hold like pit bull velcro.

Taking Al Breed's Ball And Claw Carving Class

A gorgeous fall weekend in South Berwick, ME, and Rollinsford, NH.

This weekend I got to take Al Breed's Ball and Claw Carving class at The Breed School in Rollinsford, NH, just across the Salmon Falls River from South Berwick, Me. The class was fantastic. Al has spent over 30 years doing high end furniture reproduction. If you ever get a chance to spend some time with a museum-quality woodworker like Al, take it!

I found out about the class on the SAPFM forum. I hadn't been planning on doing anything like it, but the opportunity was there, and I've always had an interest in trying carving. After a brief e-mail exchange during which Al assured me that it was suitable for a complete novice, I signed up. This was actually my first woodworking class, and my first attempt at carving; I couldn't have asked for a better start.

He turned out to be an excellent teacher, patient, full of experience, and generous with his knowledge. His school is located in an old mill. It's jammed full of hand tools, patterns, and examples. There are 5 student workbenches and a sharpening area. Portable point-source lighting is available at each bench. Students can bring their own tools or use his. He graciously gave me permission to photograph anything I wanted to.

The mill in Rollinsford.

The falls above the mill.

My workstation. Note the stackable risers under the legs. These can be added or subtracted to adjust bench height for each student.

My workpiece and carving vise. The practice blanks are pine.

Remember I said Al is generous with his knowledge? He also gave me permission to do a blog post on building his carving vise, so I took plenty of detailed pictures. It's a simple, practical design that can be clamped or screwed to the bench. He said he designed it based on an old iron carving vise someone showed him.

Four of the student benches.

Opposite view.

Another view showing some of the many carving examples.

The sharpening station. Al does most of his sharpening on waterstones and leather-covered strop paddle.

Patterns for various legs.

A selection of planes and gauges, including a number of planes Al has made for reproducing period moldings.

Time to get to work. Al took us step-by-step through the operations. Throughout the two days, he constantly moved from bench to bench, checking on progress, helping us work through problems, and demonstrating cuts.

We each had a casting of the ball and claw version we were making. When I had first seen these castings online, I didn't appreciate them. However, I quickly learned to! Having a three dimensional object to turn and hold up to the work was much better than photos. Plus, you can hold carving chisels up to the casting to pick the right size for a particular cut.

Initial V-tool work.

Making good progress.

What happens when you take a class at a museum-quality studio? Your lunch table is insanely gorgeous!

For lunch, Al pulled out this magnificent reproduction of a Newport tea table he keeps at home. The original sold for eight million dollars; Sotheby's commissioned him to build copies for the family. However, he said the leg carving detail on this one wasn't good enough, though it's still worth ten thousand dollars. No one wanted to put their food down on it! After lunch we flipped it over on a blanket for closer examination.

Al compared learning to carve to an artist's gesture drawings, in which the artist tries to capture a subject with a quick 30-second sketch. Bold shapes define it, the details can come later. Repeated practice is what builds improvement. So once I had the first carving done, rather than spend time cleaning up tool marks, I started another on the other end of the blank.

Roughing in initial reference cuts with a saw. I was just able to finish this one yesterday.

I managed to complete two more carvings today. They're full of little gouges and tool marks, but I got the general process down. The rest is just refining.

I bought three castings from Al, one foot and two sequential fan carvings. That means they show the order of operations in sequence.

One of the other students, Rob Champagne, brought some cherry legs to carve. They're for a highboy he's building from one of Al's plans. He's already built a beautiful lowboy. Photos are here on The Breed School website.

Al, left, with Rob Champagne.

Remember I said Al was generous with his knowledge? Here's a final bonus. During lunch, he had mentioned that the new PBS show Rough Cut had filmed a segment with him, where he demonstrated cutting dovetails. So just before I left, I asked him about how he cuts them for fit. He said, "Here, I'll show you!"

No layout, just gauge the ends, mark indentations with chisel sides for width, and go, pins first. A unique way of holding the saw like a plumb bob that guarantees the tails will be cut square to the edge. Fast, and a nice snug fit that he called too loose!

During the hour-and-a-half drive home, I kept looking at the sweep of the roadway and visualizing cutting it with a carving gouge. I'll probably dream about it.

Al teaches several other carving and furniture-building classes. Some of the them are quite intensive, lasting a week or more. He said he plans to do more weekend classes. I hope to be able to take them!