Just Build Stuff

I promise I won't be too long with this post.  I just read this blog post from Popular Woodworking Magazine.

http://www.popularwoodworking.com/woodworking-blogs/chris-schwarz-blog/screw-this-anarchists-tool-chest-stuff/comment-page-1

A version of a traditional tool chest made from plywood and screws instead of the traditional wood and dovetails.  A comment from a gentleman named Kenny got me a bit riled up.  Kenny wrote "Looks like a comparison of fine woodworking and Ikea. A keepsake and a throwaway. I guess to each their own."  Maybe I'm not reading it as he intended it to be read, but my first thought was "Jeez, man, don't scrape your nose on the ceiling."  Firstly, I found the Ikea crack to be uncalled for.  If Ikea sold tool chests (which makes me laugh just thinking about it) they would be made out of the same laminated particle board they use to make everything.  A homemade tool chest, even a tool chest out made out of boring 'ol birch plywood, is still going to be better than a store-bought tool chest.  It's effectively someone flipping the bird to corporations.  I don't care what someone builds their stuff from as long as they're building stuff.  Anyone looking down on the plywood and screws crowd is missing the point.  It's all a matter of context.  For example, if I had wanted to build a tool chest five years ago, it would have been plywood, screws and rabbets because I couldn't make a dovetail to save my soul.  I hadn't the skills, nor the tools, to make a dovetailed tool chest out of solid wood.  I have both the skills and tools now, but is a traditionally built chest worth the effort for a hobbyist such as myself?  I don't think so.  I got over my snobbery period a long time ago.  A friend had me over to his house one day to show me the sliding pantry shelves he made.  I saw the chop saw and Kreg jig he used to build them and thought "Oh God, a Kreg jig?  Really?"  I corrected myself immediately by reminding myself that my friend had needed something then went out and made it with what he had available.  That's awesome!  I can appreciate the woodworker who wants to use walnut and blacksmith made hardware to build something with only hand tools.  If they have the budget, resources and time to do it that way, do it.  Just don't be a snob about it.  Some woodworkers have a family to attend to.  Don't look down on the guy for using screws and power tools if that's all he has.  I commend Christopher Schwarz for taking all woodworkers into consideration.  He prefers traditional methods, but is wise enough to realize that not everyone can use traditional methods.  He knows the goal is to get people building their own stuff.  That's why I continue to support him, his company (Lost Art Press) and also Popular Woodworking Magazine.  So, if you're a woodworker and one day someone proudly shows you the bookshelves they made with particle board and L brackets, don't diss them.  Say something like "Good job!  Let's go out to the garage and I'll show you a little trick for the next one."  Then teach them something.  Don't forget, you were a noob once too.

Hand cut dovetails

I spend a lot of free time on woodworking projects of all sorts. I find it relaxing (most of the time) and it's a great way to de-stress after a rough day of fixing trucks. Last summer I started to do more work with hand tools and it has been quite a learning process. I've been concentrating on getting better at cutting dovetails and, for the most part, I'm improving. Slowly. If you go to YouTube and watch videos of a pro cutting dovetails or read about it in a woodworking magazine, it seems to be a very simple process. It is an easy process, but the execution is much more difficult. You'd think that something as simple as sawing to a line wouldn't be very difficult but it is. Another thing that can make dovetails frustrating is not knowing what a sharp tool is. Cutting dovetails with hand tools involves many different skills, and those skills don't come without some practice. For example, the previously mentioned sawing to a line. I thought it would be a simple matter of buying a backsaw, marking a line and then following it. As I found out, there's a lot to learn. It took a lot of practice to finally see that I consistently deviate from the line in one particular way. After more practice I learned how to prevent that deviation. I'm still not great at sawing, but I'm a lot better than I was a year ago. Oh, the saw itself plays a key role. I've found that a Japanese style pull saw (without a back) works well for me versus a traditional western style back saw. There's one style of western saw I've yet to try, but money is short and a new saw isn't in the cards at the moment. In the photo (it's a tailboard) you'll see the tails marked out. The shaded areas are the waste which needs to be removed. I use the pull saw to make the vertical cuts and then use a coping saw to make the horizontal cuts. If you are like me, you would probably mark a line and saw right down that line. That method doesn't make for nice fitting dovetails. The vertical cuts are made on the waste side of the lines and the horizontal cuts are done in a similar fashion, but I leave a little more waste. After the waste piece is cut free, I use a chisel to pare the wood down to the horizontal line (it's called a base line I believe.) Chiseling, there's another skill that didn't come naturally. The biggest problem with chiseling is having a properly sharpened tool. When I bought my first hand plane (a Record smoothing plane) and first set of chisels, I had no way to sharpen them. Hell, I thought they came out of the box ready to go. They don't, trust me. A trip to the "Big Orange Box" for a sharpening stone and I thought I had it made. Nope, not yet. After digging through the stacks of old woodworking magazines, I learned that the back of a chisel needs to be flattened before working on the bevel. The same goes for plane irons. After a few hours flattening chisels and plane irons, my arms felt like Jell-O and my fingers were raw. But, I had flat tools. Next it was on to the bevel. I used the side sharpening method on the bevels because it was easier for me to hold the tool in the proper way. Two hours later I had what I thought were some razor sharp chisels. Any professional woodworker would have declared them dull. I didn't know it at the time, but the cheap sharpening stone I bought (the only one I could find locally) was pretty shitty. I also had a hard time keeping the chisels in position while sharpening them. Mail order to the rescue! I bought a honing guide which eliminated my problems with holding the chisels, but I still had a crappy stone. The chisels were sharper than before, but not much. Last weekend I finally decided to give the "Scary Sharp" method a try and wish I would've done it years ago. It is nothing more than putting various grits of sandpaper onto a reliably flat surface (i.e. plate glass, marble, granite etc.) with spray adhesive. You start with the coarse grit and then work your way through the grits in succession until you reach the final one (2000 grit in my case). The combination of the honing guide, flat glass and the many grits of sanpaper yielded a mirror surface on the first chisel I sharpened. I gave that first chisel the age-old test of trying shave some hair off my arm. Shave it did, and cleanly at that. My plane has also been a joy to use. Right now, all of the skills I've been working on are beginning to come together and are yielding better work. I put the dovetailed box together the other day and it looks very good (for me that is) with only a couple of really bad gaps. Those gaps are because I cut on the wrong side of the line on a pin board. Stupid mistake, but I learned from it. I'm looking forward to getting the box glued together and using my razor sharp plane to trim the joints flush. That will have to wait. I got sick of my workbench racking and squeaking so I disassembled it (I didn't build it) and decided to renovate it with mortise and tenon joinery. I plan on building a new bench in the near future, but reworking my old "squeaker" is turning out to be a good learning experience. But, that's a whole other story.