Sandal Woods - Fine Woodworking & Cabinetry

The router joinery theme has been very popular; as a result, we continue with the joinery theme in October.

To register for the drawings, send me an e-mail to sandal_woods@bbwi.net with your name and full address. And please remember that if you have registered for the monthly drawings before, you do not have to register again. Good luck to everyone!

The lucky winner this month will get the Sommerfeld Tools 2-inch drawer lock bit:

From the Sommerfeld online catalog page for this bit:

This bit allows you to make drawers faster, easier, and safer, but yet strong and durable. Again, use your SOMMERFELD’S OWN Easy Set to accurately set the height of your bit. Route the drawer front with the inside face down on the router table. Route the two side ends of the drawer with the inside face against the router table fence. The sides should be placed vertical to the bit and fence, and perpendicular to the table.

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Sandy and I took a short break and headed for the Sparks Flea Market on Thursday, to attend the 2008 opening day. We were there two years ago, and looked forward to finding some unique hand tools, or unusual cabinets. Sparks, a tiny, unincorporated town, is located in NW Kansas; it is nestled amongst some low and rolling hills; it is surrounded by beautiful corn and soy bean fields. Make sure to read about the Sparks Ghost Town; the story is written by Elmer, the Night Guard for the Sparks flea market.

We ran into Rick, a tool collector and tool maker from St Joseph, MO - he is practically our neighbor. He had on display a vast array of hand tools, but not one I was looking for this time. Nevertheless, we will be visiting him in St Jo soon. He makes metal tools, too, from plumb bobs to enormous punch centers - all of recycled materials. Here is Rick with a portion of his large display of hammers of every imaginable type:

We found two cabinets I loved. The first I liked because I had never seen one like it; and the second one, because we already have a similar one, and Sandy would like nothing better than for me to build a similar upper cabinet and base, as a - matched - set.

The first cabinet is a pie safe, possibly made by an Amish craftsman. It was different from any pie safe I have ever seen; this one has a mesh screen on the door (is the mesh a replacement for original tin panels?). The back was (my guess) shiplapped construction; I was unable to move it to look at the joinery, because other stuff around it meant moving more than the nice lady owner wished to move (its price was astronomical):

And the second piece, a bakers table and storage cabinet, caught our attention. Sandy already has in the kitchen an antique bakers table, minus the storage cabinet. First, our find, with dovetailed drawers and mortise and tenon joinery on both the top cabinet and the table:

Sadly, the drawer pulls had been replaced with gaudy plastic-looking handles, and the finish had been redone in some non-traditional finish. A shame, as a collector might not want it in this refinished condition.

Regardless, my excitement grew as I looked at this table and storage unit on top, as it reminded me of ours in one corner of the kitchen:

I have no idea whether ours is older or newer. But the drawers are put together with nails:

I suspect I might be making a reproduction bakers table and storage cabinet at some point in the not-too-distant future. If so, I relish the opportunity to making a matched set of these two pieces.

I have a request for everyone reading this: Please help me nail down a good reference for the pie safe above. I look forward to learning more about this type of cabinet. Thanks!

Or is it bush…?

Summers in NW Missouri involve many outdoor activities, including setting aside time to collect berries from blueberry bushes and mulberry trees. Our trees are loaded with berries! And the blueberries should be ready to pick in a few days, if wild animals don’t get to them before we do.

This weekend we had wonderful weather, everything is green around us and, for a change, no storms have hit our area in the last few days. The ground has dried to some extent, at least sufficiently so that driving the truck in 4-wheel-drive mode was a cinch. Time to get the girls on the back of the pick-up, and head for the two largest and most prolific trees:

Procedure:

1. First, a tarp of similar implement is placed on the ground, closest to the area where one suspects the berries are most likely to fall.
2. Then one must shake the living daylights out of the limb(s); no climbing is allowed for older folks, and was ruled as unsafe for the little ones.
3. Collect as many berries while successfully avoiding stepping on them. Better yet: Fold the tarp into a smaller area, from which one scoops the berries carefully - no smashing is allowed at this point
4. Maximize the take by shaking the limbs a little more, to see if more have loosened since they were first shaken.
5. Count the number of quarts, or gallons, or buckets, etc., and take home to render into delicious jams and jellies.

Results:

The following is a photo summary of Saturday’s event - we should be able to savor the results in a few days, after our daughter is able to wash them and can them:

YUM! I can already taste them! These trees have enough berries in them for at least another 5 gallons’ worth…

You ARE here! It IS the same place, just a different look.

I decided to change the look-and-feel of the site. I did a little work, and spent some time revamping the site. I wanted a way to make reading my blog content more seamless, and hopefully this new look accomplishes that.

Let me know how much you like it. As always, I appreciate the time you spend here, and your help in supporting my work.

Thanks for dropping in!

Edit to add: Several people have already asked me about the image on the header. That is the shop on the left; our granddaughters love the little playground area on the right. We love the setting!

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This is a wonderful time of year - renewal is in the air, all the snow has melted, and rain comes and goes in NW Missouri as it does every Spring. And the trees are getting ready to pop; but we have yet to see any evidence of flowers planted last Fall, following so many weeks of solid snow on the ground.

Today was rainy; a cloudy, dreary day, spent designing some furniture for clients. But they came in rafters - the turkeys!

Every now and then we get large rafters of turkeys in our back yard. Yup! I had to look it up - a group of turkeys is called a rafter, according to The Nutty Birdwatcher, on its Bird Group Names page. Here is the flagrant evidence, with the tom in full regalia near the top-right of the line of birds:

Download Quicktime (*.mov)
Download Flash (*.flv)

The 2008 Kansas City Woodworking Show took place in the Exhibit Hall of the Overland Park Int’l Trade Center.

I attended Friday afternoon, and most of Saturday. In Episode 7 I share the following (next time I am taking a Unipod, or something similar to steady the camera!):

1. The breakfast at a local restaurant, attended by several members of WoodNet and Saw Mill Creek online woodworking forums. You have a chance (finally!) to meet some of us, together in one place. Some identities have not been revealed, to protect the innocent.
2. Some comments about attendance by tool manufacturers large and small.
3. The sights and sounds of the Show.

Prior to the show, a group met for breakfast at a local restaurant. For me it was a great pleasure to meet so many woodworkers I knew only from the online woodworking forums. I asked everyone, and they graciously agreed, to identify themselves, with their affiliation. One or two were highly reluctant, as they claimed to be in the WPP (Witness Protection Program). If I have revealed any identities that I should not have revealed, it is strictly MY mistake. Please notify me ASAP!

For me this gathering was proof of one thing: The Shows are not only about tools, but also about the people who use them. Networking should be something we learn to do better, as it will eventually help us become better woodworkers, as it does in our everyday lives.

After all, what would the tool manufacturers do if no one wanted to buy them? Or, worse yet, if people wanted to use them, but could not afford them? Interesting thought, as the implications could reveal much of what we might not know about ourselves, least of which is our ability to improvise and invent. I don’t even want to go there…

I won’t list the names of the attendees, as I don’t want to bore with a bunch of names. You can make a list if you wish. We had a great visit, and great food to boot.

This gathering also developed into a Show-and-Tell, as several fellow woodworkers brought pretty special items: An old Disston saw without a number (made before Disston started using a numbering system); several craftsman-made routers in various sizes, a gorgeous shoulder plane the size of a Stanley 9-1/2 (I almost “borrowed” it permanently), an all-stainless steel skew plane… I am sure I forget what else. C’mon guys, help me complete the list, please!

We finished the breakfast gathering with about one hour to spare before the start of the show. Steve Roxberg invited me to visit his shop. He has a terrific basement workshop, complete with a brand-new yellow/mustard cyclone dust collection system. He even gave me a wren bird house to bring back to my wife - she loves to build bird houses, and our granddaughters love them too. Thanks for the invitation, Steve; I enjoyed the tour of your shop tremendously, and your tips on making the jigs to make the bird houses!

Now, some of the highlights, and my reflections of the 2008 Show. You can see and listen to some of the sights and sounds in Episode 7, above.

• I talked with several reps, distributors, and small business owners (I will call them collectively “this group”). One theme was pretty much the common thread: They not only wish for, but have a good feeling that the new Woodworking Show owners truly want to make them real winners. It will be quite interesting, in the remaining of 2008, to watch the trend in the sentiment of this group, and compare it to the sentiment of the people attending the Shows.

• My extremely informal and (definitely non-scientific) survey of people I met at the show was that they also sensed “some”, or “much”, improvement over the Shows they attended in previous years.

• Metro Hardwoods: The newest supplier of hardwoods in the Kansas City area. This is where I bought the spalted maple for the Krenov-inspired cabinet I am building. Terrific place to look at some of the nicest lumber, and some nice exotics too. Some people might wonder about the pricing structure for the exotics; but try getting them elsewhere… I use limited quantities of these, so I am not an expert in exotics, not by a long shot.

• A little gold nugget: Powercrafter’s air-powered carver. This is a little marvel of fluid flow technology, spinning the bit at 500,000 RPM to do its thing on wood. I bought one for my wife last year, when they introduced the current model. It is not only a terrific engineering feat, but a wonderful tool to use to enhance your workpieces. I don’t use it, because carving has never been my thing - but this might change now that we have this carving tool. Episode 7 shows several examples of what one could accomplish, given a little carving talent <sigh…I lack this totally>.

• I hope Episode 7 will give you a sense of attendance on Saturday (I did not shoot any video on Friday). There were good vibes in the air, as if people felt as I did - that something was better, with this year’s Show than in the last two years. The booths showing live demos were definitely better attended, people were buying a LOT more than in recent history (per my meager observation capacity), and the vendors had plenty in stock.

In summary, based on my attendance, the Woodworking Shows seem to be off to a better start than in recent years, and I hope the owners will stick to their plan to make them better. I wish them the best, as these are possibly the best way to bring to the general public the latest in the woodworking tools we all use, whether it is heavy iron or smaller hand tools. I also hope that the new Show owners can get more tool manufactures signed up to bring their wares on the floor. It will be good to once again see the manufacturers themselves be the ones showing their tools and talking to the people. I do not mean to imply that the distributors cannot handle it; on the contrary, they did a great job. But it will be the message the representatives of the companies that make the tools bring to us that will make the biggest difference. That, and having the *major* players present at the Shows sharing their latest tools.

If none of this happens, I might attend next year’s Show and it will be my last. Will it make any difference? It will, if enough people believe that not much has changed.

If you wish to read someone else’s point of view, and you have not seen it yet, I invite you to read the December 1, 2007 review by Marc Spagnuolo (The Wood Whisperer) of the most recent Show in his part of the country. On January 4, 2008, he wrote an Update. These will be worth your reading.

Happy Super Bowl, and may your favorite team win!

Don’t miss out on the Rockler Winter Clearance Sale:

I have received several questions over the last four weeks (via e-mail), asking: “How do you capture the computer screen, to generate the videos you make to illustrate the designs/modifications, using your 3-D modeling program?”

My answer: I use Camtasia Studio 5, a product from TechSmith. I let TechSmith tell the story of what this nifty program is, as follows (from their web site):

So, what IS Camtasia Studio?

The smart, friendly screen recorder and more.

Imagine being able to show exactly what’s on your screen to anyone, anywhere. Imagine that it’s easy. Now you’ve imagined Camtasia Studio.

With the smartest screen recording tools on the planet, Camtasia Studio makes everything from training videos to PowerPoint presentations to lectures look better, reach more people, and pack more punch. Which makes you look even smarter, too.

I especially like the last sentence above…

I purchased this screen recorder to develop some tutorials in Corrosion Engineering, my specialty, from 25+ years in this field. I am glad I got this tool, as I can now produce videos that document, inform, and teach woodworking techniques and procedures. Woodworking has been my passion for many years, and now I get to enjoy it more than I ever have at any time in the past.

As many of you have seen, I use this product to document procedures and techniques, and modifications in the design of my woodworking pieces. I have called the 3-D program my “visualization tool”; Camtasia allows me to share the results with you. I use it this way, the simplest way to get results; but it can also create fully interactive tutorial sessions, with quiz sections, Q&A, etc.

If you are interested in pursuing it further, please contact TechSmith. I am not associated with the company - I am simply a happy customer!

Edit to add: I learned just a few minutes ago that the TechSmith people will be in San Francisco at MacWorld, January 14-18. It looks at if some of you will have a chance to meet the Camtasia people in person.

I have received several get-well wishes for my wife, who is recovering from total knee replacement surgery. I posted about this earlier - you can view that post here. This is an update.

I picked her up at the hospital and brought her home Sunday afternoon. She walked from the truck to the house and into bed on her own, folks. She has always been a trooper, and a tough cookie. She has been doing well since returning home; the road ahead may be tough for her, due to physical therapy, but we are both certain she will pull through this in great shape once more. She has even managed to sneak to her desktop computer to check e-mail and other stuff - using her walker, and on her own. If I have to judge from previous experience with her last knee surgery, the walker will be history about this time next week.

Thanks for all your thoughts and get-well wishes. She appreciated them all!

Greetings, everyone, and Happy New Year!

First, an apology. I apologize to all my readers and visitors, and to the members of The Wood Whisperer Network, for “disappearing” for several days. I must explain: In late December I decided to update the look-and-feel of this blog, to provide better functionality. As a result, I changed my publishing platform. As a total newbie to the new system, I made a huge mistake in the installation, which resulted in several days downtime. I will not bore you with the gory details. The bottom line: I am glad that I am back.

Thanks, Marc, and the rest of the network members, for putting up with my huge Duh!!!

But I am back, for better or for worse.

Now, for the better.

Of course, I totally missed the launch of The Wood Whisperer Network! I am very proud to have been selected to participate, and will do my best to live up to it. I hope to see my readers come back, as I have enjoyed reading your mail and your comments. It is YOU that keep me going, and the blog effort going!

Over the next few days and weeks I will be finalizing some exciting plans I have had in the back burner for some time. Once I have those fully defined, I will share with you the details. All I request is that you let me know what you think, as some of this involves specific projects, and videos.

And the worse:

A few things have kept me distracted and concerned, to a larger or lesser extent. As you have already read here, the ice storm, extended power outage, the clean-up following the storm, all kept my mind away from important things in the shop. We had a terrific bunch of guys that handled the massive clean-up effort very well.

But the most recent happening is my wife’s total knee replacement surgery on January 3, 2008, her second such operation since May of 2007. In May last year she had the right knee replaced; this time, her left knee. She is doing well, although the pain is unbearable at times. She should be coming home on Sunday, January 6. Hopefully, as before, I will be able to help her get through this once more. It will mean (less?) time away from here, but I will not compromise on helping her out in whatever way I can help her.

Thanks for coming back to read about my doings. I look forward to many nice things in 2008, and hope that everyone will have a terrific year!

Edit to add: In the move to this new blog I lost some of the comments, in particular comments in the most recent posts. I will attempt to restore these from ar archive of the old blog. Thanks!