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One year already!

September 18, 2008 By

It is hard to imagine an entire year has come and gone since I published my first entry in this blog. And what fun it has been!

On September 18, 2007, I wrote:

… I want to share my woodworking and cabinetmaking experience. I make stuff, from small boxes to chests, to cabinets, to entertainment centers. I will be sharing with my readers the steps in each of these, providing photos and video to convey the message and to make it a good experience for the blog readers…
Sandal Woods, September 18, 2007

Writing has been fun, and sharing some of what I know has been good. But what has been great is the response from you, the readers, to some of the things I love doing. Many of you have written to me about the things you have learned from my posts, and that alone is very gratifying.

Making boxes using dovetail joinery turned out to be very popular; and the use of the Leigh D4 dovetail jig was possibly the most popular individual “thing”. But I also received many questions about plans for, and the actual building, of the changing table.

During Woodworkers Safety Week I received many comments, both on the blog and via e-mail, on several of the topics I wrote. Overall, the response to Safety Week was overwhelming, both from reader interest, and the sheer number of pages read during the week.

Possibly one of the most enjoyable series to date has been my build of the Krenov-inspired cabinet. Questions ranged from veneering to matching, from substrates to glues, etc. As I set aside this project to get other things done, I started receiving questions about the state of the Krenov-style cabinet. I assure you, I will continue to publish about this wonderful project in due time. My priorities have been dictated by other happenings, and I responded accordingly. I promise I will get back to that project.

I was quite surprised by the interest in the design work using the eCabinet Systems software, and the apparent ease with which a specific design can be changed. I hope to follow up on your desires, and publish much more on design. More on this as I develop a plan.

As I close, I would like to thank my sponsors, Leigh Industries, Sommerfeld Tools, and Czeck Edge for their support of my work, and for believing in what I am trying to do with this blog – sharing with my readers some of the woodworking things I know.

And the biggest thank-you of all goes to my readers. After all, without you, these would be only electrons floating out there, somewhere. I suspect that would not be fun at all.

Filed Under: Anniversary, Blog, Dovetails

Cut…stone the saw…cut…

September 14, 2008 By

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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Filed Under: Blog, Dovetails, Hand tools, Safety Tagged With: , ,

Practice should make perfect: Hand-cut dovetails

September 11, 2008 By

The cat’s out of the bag: I have started practicing hand-cut dovetails.

I started my practice sessions with this gent’s saw; in retrospect, I should have practiced starting the cuts with a much lighter touch than I used, as I could see a curve in some of the kerfs as the cut went deeper:

I am certain ignorance on my part played a big role, but I just could not get comfortable with the grip on the gent’s saw. As a result, I ordered an E.T. Roberts & Lee Dorchester 8-inch, 21 ppi rip dovetail saw. As soon as the saw arrived I started practice sessions, cutting parallel lines marked on the end grain of the board:

Problem: At first I was unable to remove the protective coating from the steel – Grr! It turned out that this company uses lacquer on their steel, to minimize the risk of corrosion between manufacture and delivery; a few drops of lacquer thinner removed the coating completely, and made a huge difference in performance! My bad, of course. Isn’t ignorance bliss? I understand that most (?) American manufacturers use a wax coating, which is easily removed with mineral spirits.

As I started using the new saw, it seemed somewhat difficult to get the cut started. My intent was to make practice cuts, targetting 1) a pre-set depth, and 2) perfectly parallel cuts. I noticed, as my practice session got longer and longer, it became much easier to start the cuts. And toward the end of the session I was able to start a cut and finish it in seconds. I have read somewhere that this is normal behavior for this type of saw.

However, I will have to practice a lot more, for I noticed two serious problems:

  1. I have a tendency to overshoot the depth, and
  2. I can cut better parallel lines when the saw is tilting to the left, as in the last photo.

Next step: Cutting to a line.

I hope I can get better when cutting with the saw tilting to the right. Practice should make perfect – I hope!

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Filed Under: Blog, Dovetails, Shop tools Tagged With: ,

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