Wedged tenons - part 2

I wanted to make a series of posts about wedged tenons, but never got past the first one... And now Brad Ferguson just made my live a lot easier with his latest post where he covers a few other wedged through tenons.

You must remember that the wedges must go perpendicular to the grain of the piece that has the mortise or there is a risk of splitting the piece when you drive those wedges into the tenon.

Sharpening a handsaw

Sharpening ones tools can be a skill on its own and every woodworker will soon discover that to get the best results, learning how to sharpen will soon become a necessity.

While we are on the subject of saws, here is a link to the best essay I've read on how to sharpen a saw blade:

• Saw Filing - A Beginner's Primer

Enjoy!

The forgotten bowsaw

The bowsaw is one of my favorite saws when I need to do some major sawing. It may not be as fast as a jigsaw or a circular saw, but it gets the job done and I can still listen to some music while I rip through an eight feet long board.

Pictured on the right is a small bowsaw, which are usually found in the US and the UK where most bulkier sawing would be done with a large handsaw like a Disston D-8 or similar.

This type of saw will have a thin narrow blade and is most useful to cut curves.

On the other hand, traditional European bowsaws are larger saws, usually between 24" and 26" long.

This type of saw would be used in the continent to cut just about anything.

This saw has a clear advantage over a large panel saw. Because the blade is kept under tension it can be quite thin and the cutting goes much faster since there isn't so much wood to remove.

Check out Bug Bear's website for the famous bowsaw plan and you can make your own bowsaw.

A basic set of hand tools - Part II

With so many types of saws to choose from, it may be difficult for the beginner woodworker to decide where to start shopping and where to stop. To make things worse you have both western and Japanese saws to choose from.

Saws

Every toolbox should have at least two handsaws, one filled for rip cuts along the grain and another for crosscut. The rip saw, if used for ripping rough lumber, should be around 26" long with 5 tpi.

The other essential saw should be a smaller crosscut saw like a 12" long backsaw with around 13 tpi.

To complement your set of handsaws, and if you want to cut your dovetails by hand, you could add a dovetail saw which is a smaller backsaw with it's teeth filled for rip cut and with a higher teeth ratio, usually around 16 tpi.

A small coping saw is also a good addition to any toolbox for those moments when you need to cut a curve on a small piece of wood and want to keep your fingers away from the bandsaw blade.

If you want to try the Japanese saws, the ryoba will be a good starter. This type of saw has teeth on both sides of the blade, one for rip cuts and the other for crosscut. You can pair the ryoba with a dozuki which is the Japanse equivalent of a backsaw. These can be found with both crosscut and ripcut profiles, the later being a great dovetail saw.

Next installment: Chisels

Small mahogany handplane

More than 10 years ago Popular Mechanics published a very informative article on making a small wooden handplane which I'm very fond of.

I haven't built mine but I keep revisiting this article over and over again: Hand Made Hand Plane.

At just over 6" long and with a 1 1/2" iron it can be used as a block plane to trim edges and surface small pieces.

Enjoy!

New blog by Christopher Schwarz

In case you haven't noticed, Christopher Schwarz is now writing a new blog at Lost Art Press, his new publishing company which is devoted to help the modern woodworker learn traditional hand-tool skills.

Besides Chris' usual essays on workbench design, there is an excellent series on handplaning which focuses on different techniques (seven at the time of writing) to reduce tear-out.

The blog can be found at: http://blog.lostartpress.com/

For those that have been following Chris' posts on the Woodworking Magazine blog, the good news is that this blog is still active with the usual high quality content!

Tuning and using a card scraper

Card scrapers can be a very useful tool to handle wild grain, but tuning them properly can be a daunting task even for the experienced woodworker. If you turn a very long burr it will break easily but if the burr is too short will will only produce dust.

A properly sharpened scraper attacking the wood at the right angle will produce thin curly shavings and will yield a perfectly smooth surface even on difficult woods like curly maple.

I searched the web and found four great videos showing slightly different techniques for sharpening a scraper and another two on using them.

• Barely Scraping By
  by Marc Spagnuolo
• Tuning-up a Scraper
  by Tommy MacDonald
• Tune Up a Card Scraper
  by Brian Boggs
• How to Burnish a Card Scraper
  by Bob Van Dyke

• Using a Card Scraper
  by Brian Boggs
• How to Use a Card Scraper
  by Bob Van Dyke

I hope you enjoy them as much as I did.

A basic set of hand tools - Part I

A common question from many beginner woodworkers is what tools they should buy first so they can get started. What are the essential tools in everyone's toolbox? But the answer is not that straightforward.

Every woodworker will have a different approach to the craft and will develop a preference for some tools as he or she gets more experienced. For instance, I prefer to work with a folding rule instead of a tape measure. Some will prefer western saws over Japanese ones, and so on...

Layout tools

Good joinery starts with precise measurements and clean layout lines. Sharp pencils, a birch folding rule, a trusty combination square like the Starrett 6" model and a wheel marking gauge are absolute essentials in my workshop. I also use a tape measure when I'm dealing with large stock and when measuring boards at the lumberyard.

If you want to go a step further, I'd advise to replace the pencil with a marking knife when you want that extra precision and add a 3" engineers square to check your tools against. I find the 3" square quite useful to layout tenons on small pieces and whenever the 6" one feels too cumbersome for the task.

To complete the kit you should add a bevel gauge so you can layout some angles and a 12" combination square. This can be used to layout larger pieces and the ruler alone can be used as a small straight edge.

Next installment: Saws

The mystery of fiddleback maple

While I was doing some research, trying to understand the diference between fiddleback maple and curly maple, I came across this very informative text:

Demonstrating a rare depth and dimensionality, Fiddleback Maple is one of the world's most-prized hardwoods. The Fiddleback Maple figuring is occasionally found in other hardwoods, including walnut, koa, ash and, rarely, other domestic and imported hardwoods.

Fiddleback Maple is also known as 'Flame Maple', 'Tiger Maple', 'Curly Maple', or 'Tigerstripe Maple'. Fiddleback Maple exhibits a dramatic change in the individual stripes or lines. As the incident angle of the light is slightly altered, the dark stripe becomes a light stripe, and the light stripe becomes dark. This visual phenomenon is known as 'chatoyancy' in the gemstone world, and its most dramatic form is seen in catseye chrysoberyl.

In the United States, most use the terms Fiddleback Maple and Curly Maple synonymously. Fiddleback Maple boasts a three-dimensional series of alternately bright and dark stripes that shade into one another as the wood is slightly moved, thus producing an illusion of actual waves. Changes in brightness result from differential light reflection. Relatively high absorption by exposed fiber ends produces dark bands; reflection and diffraction from fiber walls cause bright bands. Because the fiber walls are curved sharply and act as concave or convex reflecting surfaces, any change in angle of view or incident light makes the apparent waves seem to shift. Again, the same light stripe becomes a dark stripe and vice-versa.

While the precise cause of the Mystery of Fiddleback Maple must remain, at present, unknown, the result is well-known, greatly esteemed, and eagerly sought by wood aficionados as Fiddleback Maple- one of the world's most transfixingly beautiful exotic hardwoods.

in: http://www.figuredwood.com/products/

Diamond stones

There seems to be some confusion regarding diamond stones, one of the reasons being the fact that the system used to grade them is different to the one used for Japanese waterstones and many of the natural stones like the well known Arkansas stones.

Diamond stones from DMT, probably the best and most popular around, have the following grits:

• Extra coarse ~ 220 grit
• Coarse ~325 grit
• Fine ~600 grit
• Extra fine ~1200 grit

As you can see from the above list, diamond stones will be most useful as a first step in the sharpening process, followed by the higher grits provided by waterstones and oilstones.

Because diamond stones cut extremely fast and their surfaces remain perfectly flat they're well suited for flattening the back of plane irons and chisels and establish the bevel. This is what I use my extra coarse stone before moving to a 1000 grit whaterstone for the sharpening and 8000 grit stone for the honing of the cutting edges.

I must say that so far these three stones have served me well and with this small sharpening kit I've kept my plane blades and chisels sharp for a very long time.