Christopher Schwarz — Sandal Woods

A nice project for the shop: Moxon’s double-screw vise

With thanks to Christopher Schwarz for shining a bright spotlight on this tool! It was the perfect project to get me going in the shop once again, after the Woodworking in America conference (and the long deck build before that).

Whatever you do, do NOT misinterpret my objective in building this vise.

I will not sell my Leigh D4 dovetail jig!
Nor will I be selling the F3 finger joint template for the D4!!!
I do have a lot of boxes to build in the next few weeks
Some of these boxes will be tiny, and therefore will require hand-cut joinery
I won’t have to stoop to cut the joinery
My back will thank me…LOTS!

I would love to hear from you; let me know:

Have you built one of the double-screw vises?
Are you using it in the shop?
If you are, what are you making with it?
Do you like the video below? The music is “Jolie”, track #4 on the “Notes” CD by my friend Jason Riley.

— Al Navas

Impromptu gathering of three great minds in Cincinnati

Witness The indefatigable Schwarz, Dr. Wilbur Pan, and the great Frank Klausz (clipped from a short video):

Left-to-right: The Schwarz, Dr. Wilbur Pan, and Frank Klausz.

The Schwarz requested Wilbur’s help with Japanese hand planes, and Wilbur obliged. Then Klausz joined in, and provided the following thought toward the end of the gathering – I transcribed from a short video I filmed while this happened (you must wait for the full content, most likely on Wilbur Pan’s blog, giant Cypress):

…I don’t know who is going to do all these things by hand… So, when you see somebody younger, cutting all these things by hand, you just wanna to see – this thing is not gonna die. (And, turning to The Schwarz, pointing a finger at him:) If YOU guys keep doing what you’re doing (my read: the Woodworking in America conferences), it’s NOT gonna die…

Frank Klausz
At impromptu gathering
Woodworking in America 2010 – Cincinnati