Sandal Woods - Fine Woodworking & Cabinetry

The harvest table in our kitchen had become too small when our daughter and her family come to visit. As a result, a few months ago Sandy asked me to make an add-on top, to make the table top longer and wider. With five girls around, every inch of table top is needed at meal time - or when the crafts come out.

To make the modifications I used four 8-foot pine pieces from the home improvement center for the actual top, and 4-inch stock for the aprons. I installed cleats under the top, to ensure perfect alignment with the harvest table that would now support the new top.

This arrangement worked for several months. But recently, with the arrival of granddaughter #6, getting around the table to the back of the kitchen became hazardous - i.e., it became almost impassable, with two or three girls moving toys in and out of the kitchen while adults moved hot dishes to the table.

It was time to make the wide table top a little narrower. Sandy requested I remove one of the boards and make it a folding one. I moved the top to the shop, and started work. First I moved the cleats that allowed tight fit in the narrow direction; and I had to move only one of the end cleats. Then I used a hand saw for the first time in possibly two or three decades, and made short work of cutting the aprons to the new dimension, allowing a two-inch overhang.

I wanted to salvage the removed apron and the fourth board (the one I removed), as they were already painted to make them look 100+ years old. It turns out that pine, and most lumber, does not take well to hard pounding with a mallet, as it splits along the long grain.

Scrap the idea of a folding piece.

I did manage to salvage the apron that was attached to this board with cut nails, by carefully pounding on the wide board with the mallet while holding the apron in my hand.

Ultimately I re-assembled the now narrower top to fit over the very old harvest table. And we can now navigate around the table much more safely.

Just getting started:

Removing one board - sawing the apron:

The top is now only 3 boards wide:

Lessons learned:

1. My practice sessions with the dovetail saw helped me tremendously using the saw for this job - I was able to saw to the line!
2. Don’t pound on pine, or it will split along the grain, on either the first or second strike.

This might not seem like a big deal to many of you. But to me, it is huge! The following photos show the first hand-cut dovetails I have ever produced:

Recently I started working, and practicing, to be able to cut to a line. Although I have improved in this area, I still:

1. Must refine how close to the line I saw, and
2. Be careful not to overshoot the dovetail depth, or it shows immediately.

In this instance I cut the tails first, and used the Kerf Kadet marking knife to layout the pins from the tails. Although this worked nicely, I left too much material on the pins, which resulted in an exceedingly tight fit. At this point I had only one choice: Use sharp chisels, and do some paring to get a good fit of the pins to the tails.

I overdid the paring in the three pins, and it shows in the top photo: I did not hold the chisel perfectly flat, and the pin looks funny on the tip; for the middle pin I also overdid it, and created a gap that shows on the bottom edge of the pin. And the same goes for the top pin. Grrr!

In the profile shot I show that both pins and tails are a little proud of the surface, as it should be. I will be able to take this down with a block plane. But this photo also shows that the tails are resting perfectly square on the pins board, which was a concern I had while chopping the sockets on this board. However, using a nice, square block perfectly aligned with the layout mark helps keep the chisel square to the work piece.

End result: I need practice, then some more practice, followed by additional practice. As a result, I will be making little boxes, in preparation for small drawers for the Krenov-inspired cabinet. And *now* you know the rest of the story.

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In my previous post I showed the beginning of my journey into hand-cut dovetails. Many of the comments I received addressed the heavy set on the teeth of the new dovetail saw:

Recommendations from experienced hand-tool users addressed one specific solution to reduce the saw set: Stone the saw. Doing this makes it easier to follow a line; and it will also clean up the kerf, and thus leave a much smoother cut.

I took everyone’s recommendations at heart, for I respect the advice of the people who commented and made the suggestion above. Once I got a little time in the shop I prepped some red oak cutoffs and made some test cuts. In between each numbered set of cuts I stoned the saw once on each side with a fine diamond stone, until the cuts were straighter and the kerf looked much cleaner - about dinner time:

Note: The earliest cuts, #1, is on the bottom left, and the most recent ones are at the top-right in the photo above.

For these practice cuts I switched from using dovetail-shaped lines, to straight lines following the grain direction. Based on my experience thus far, my admiration for the craftsmen who can do beautiful hand-cut dovetails has grown exponentially!

I think the dovetail saw needs a little more fine-tuning. As a result, I will have one more session of cut… stone the saw… cut…

In this context, I quote Kari, a.k.a The Village Carpenter, who in January 2008 wrote the following in her blog, addressing stoning the saw:

By stoning, I don’t mean that if your handsaw is misbehaving, you should go all biblical on it. Instead, I mean there is a way to gently persuade it back to the straight and narrow by using your sharpening stones.
– The Village Carpenter, Stoning your Saw, January, 2008

I chuckled about her opening statement… But at the time I did not realize the importance of this technique.

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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!

A woodworker at Lumberjocks, Martin, aka Woodhacker, documented in a wonderful photographic procedure how to make inlaid dovetails using hand tools. This is the first time I have ever seen inlaid dovetails done exclusively with hand tools; and Martin’s results are terrific!

The following is the outcome of Martin’s effort - you can read the entire process at Woodhacker’s blog at Lumberjocks (the images are linked back to his photos, on Photobucket):

Thanks for sharing this with us, Martin! I provide the “Bookmark” link below, to allow easy sharing of Martin’s efforts with others.

Click on the image above to go to the General Menu.

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Relevant links:.
Woodworking in America, my May 25 post

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