Table of contents for April 2013 in Woodworker's Journal

LUMBERING ALONG WITH WOOD CHOICES ... The cost of lumber is always a topic that sparks conversation among woodworkers. Personally, I lean towards spending a little extra to get a great-looking piece of wood, because I think it pays dividends when people look at my work. (I somehow get credit for growing the tree so prettily!) But lumber can be expensive, and we woodworkers are a “thrifty” lot. So in the next few issues, the Journal will look into finding lumber outside of the normal lumberyard routine. Our first article in the series examines a major concern when procuring wood from alternative sources: moisture content. When you leave the services of a lumberyard behind, how can you be sure your wood is well seasoned? I only know of one way,…

Although Jared McLaren of Ashland, Oregon, had purchased the mystery tool shown in our December 2012 issue to practice sharpening, he still wanted to know what it was. Merlin Ryan of London, Ohio, suggested it could be identified as “a pruning knife, for small green branches, in tight places.” Warren Allen of Cedar Hill, Texas, thought the item was “used to groom dogs and other animals with long hair.” And Ken Wagner of St. Paul, Minnesota, thought it was “some sort of opener, perhaps a very early can opener.” Ricky M. Schlatter of Stacy, Minnesota, however, chastised us with the comment, “Being from Minnesota, you have to know what this is.” Mike Walrath of Auburn Hills, Michigan, added that he has “spent lots of time using one of these over…

I was asked a short time ago to make an exotic wood box using some reclaimed timber and wooden hinges. I have found in the past that the usual wooden hinges can sometimes seem clumsy and oversized and can take quite a bit of time to make, so with this in mind I set out to develop an elegant and easy-to-make hinge that would also be strong enough for their purpose. The following is a step-by-step guide to my construction process. Dimensional Flexibility As you may have already surmised, the exact dimensions of your hinges are a matter of scale and personal taste. My preference, as you can see at right, is for larger hinges that add a certain amount of decorative flare. I like to use 1/4" stock to…

This small puzzle box doesn’t eat up a lot of material, it’s fun and a little challenging to make but won’t keep you in the shop for weeks, and it will appeal to anyone who tries to open it. It’s symmetrical, with interlocking dovetail slides and keys. The sides are alike, as are the ends and the top and bottom. Which is really the top? How do you get it open? The answer may not be immediately obvious. For now, don’t try to solve it. Think about getting it made. You’ll only need a couple feet of stock, depending on board width. So rummage through your stashes of scraps too good to toss. Joint and plane all the stock for the box to a 1/2" thickness. Rip the sides and…

Have you ever thought to yourself: “It would be so much fun to cut down a tree, slice it into lumber and make something from it!”? If so, you are not alone. We’ve heard from many of our readers saying that going from tree to fine furniture is something they’d really like to try. Even if you are not interested in the soup-to-nuts idea, perhaps you like the concept of getting lumber from a local sawmill. Often, the price and unique selections of local wood species found with these smaller production sawyers can deliver a real bargain. (And who does not like a bargain?) But with the great price and added enjoyment of an excursion to a non-typical lumberyard comes the must-know question: “How well is the wood seasoned?” Water…

No-slip Straightedges I improved the convenience of my metal rules and straightedges by affixing strips of non-slip foam kitchen shelf liner to their back sides. I used glue to attach the foam, but double-sided tape works well, too. Now, the liner holds my straightedge or rule firmly in place when I’m taking measurements or drawing layout lines, and it doesn’t scratch the contact surface on which I’m working. It’s a simple, helpful fix. Bill Wells Olympia, Washington Weatherstripping Beats Space Balls Adhesive-backed foam weatherstripping is a good substitute for those little “space ball” rubber balls used to float panels in cabinet doors. It’s available at any hardware store or home center in various thicknesses and widths and comes in 10 foot rolls. Here are the advantages over using space balls:…

David Esterly is a woodcarver, but a few years ago, he said, “I found myself in the middle of a mystery.” His new book, The Lost Carving, is in part a tale of his true-life detective work in recreating a piece from a famed historical woodworker that everyone had thought was destroyed. David was already interested in 17th century British carver Grinling Gibbons, who frequently worked with Christopher Wren to provide decorative elements for many of the famed architect’s work, when a 1986 fire at Hampton Court Palace near London severely damaged one of Gibbons’s carvings. Due to that interest, plus the fact that “it’s a small field of people who carve limewood high relief foliage for a living — I think you’re talking to the field,” David was hired…

I think of this piece as a ladies’ desk (it was made for a lady) perhaps because of the feminine curves — as opposed to the more usual straight lines and hard corners of most desks. I did not intend this, but it was one of those designs that just evolved on its own. Anyway, the lady was pleased, which was just as well since we share an apartment in San Francisco. I used mahogany for the desk, with ebony inlay, but other combinations would be equally suitable — walnut with maple inlay, for example, or cherry with rosewood. Cutting slots for the inlay is tricky ... one slip of the router and you’ll have to start over. But I feel adding inlay to the top and carrying that theme…

Abig drill with a modern 4-pole or brushless motor fed by a powerful lithium-ion battery churns out enough torque to drill monster holes and drive the longest screws. Plus, the high amp-hour ratings of the battery packs that come with these tools allow you to do enough work on a single charge to vanquish even the most challenging projects. So, which one should you buy? There are a number of models in the 18-to 21.6-volt range currently on the market, and my challenge from the Journal team was to evaluate nine of these drills and pick my favorite. To maintain an “apples to apples” comparison, I’m not including drills that come with lower-capacity slim-pack-style batteries, such as Craftsman’s C3 35704 or PORTER-CABLE’s PCCK600LB. Although these are also plenty powerful, they…

The construction process that you choose as a builder is often constrained not only by the size of your workplace, but by the tools that you have at your disposal. In this version of our small shop, we have no table saw, planer or jointer — with the centerpiece tool being a 14" band saw. Even so, the critical path of woodworking remains the same: harvesting the stock, marking and making the joints and so on. To make this chair, we used solid cherry lumber surfaced to 13/4". There are no metal fasteners used here ... just dowel joints and a form of mortise-and-tenon joinery. The primary machining on this chair was done with a router guided by shop-made templates. The back legs, back slats and the seat (pieces 2,…

Q What is the purpose of using a cone-shaped mallet for carving as shown in the photo (upper right picture) on page 20 of your December 2012 issue, as opposed to a regular rawhide or wood mallet? This has always bugged me, and hopefully you’ll supply a good, logical answer. Bernie Petrasek Kingston, Pennsylvania A You mention three mallets in your letter: a “cone-shaped mallet,” known as a carver’s mallet; a “rawhide” mallet and a “wood” mallet. This last one I’m going to assume you have in mind a “joiner’s mallet.” The family of hammers and mallets has more variations than any other family of hand tools. Every craft or trade that has a need to hit something, whether it is material or the end of something, has a hammer…

New techniques can add interest and beauty to woodturning, or really any type of woodworking. One that I find useful is pyrography (or “woodburning”). While you may think that woodburning is simply drawing with a blowtorch, that is far from the case. It is an art form in its own right that can add shadow, texture and color that support your turning in new and intriguing ways. With that said, you don’t have to possess Leonardo daVinci’s powers of sketching to do great woodburning. Impressive design can be accomplished by burning various patterns and textures into surfaces, making them startling and intriguing to the viewer. Let’s look at the road to becoming a pyrographer as well as a woodturner. Woodburners can be had at prices ranging from less than $20…

Benchtop mortisers sure beat chisels and mallets, but their features can be a bit underwhelming. For one, their bases are low on a benchtop, making it tough to see what you’re doing without bending over. Most models lack side supports to keep long workpieces from tipping off. They’re ungainly to move around the shop, too. Grab the wrong spot when lifting the tool, and that feed handle can crack you in the kisser like you’re stepping on a rake. If you lift from the base casting instead, the edges can be sharp and painful. Either way, it’s not pleasant. Well, friends, take heart: this project is designed to give your mortiser a helping hand. It features a pair of pullout support arms that extend the machine’s “wingspan” up to about…

HART® Hammers, such as the HH21HCM 21 oz. Milled Face Hickory Framing Hammer and the HH21SCM 21 oz. Milled Steel Face Framer, have an Angled Face Design to drive nails more efficiently with every swing, as well as a Side Nail Strike for driving nails in tight spaces and a Side Nail Pull with enough leverage to remove 16d nails in one fluid motion. The Hickory Framing Hammer’s handle is made from “Grade A” hickory, for anti-vibration absorption, strength and durability. Both of these hammers have 18" handle lengths, a magnetic nail set for duplex and standard framing nails and a thumb indent for a better grip and maximum control on a precision strike. Both hammers cost less than $30. Milwaukee’s M18™ Six Pack Sequential Charger sequentially charges up to…

As your woodworking skill advances, your finishing abilities will surely follow. Ideally, you’ll go from applying finishes that merely cling to those that fairly sing. It’s a gradual process, but this checklist may help. Here are five tools serious finishers keep close at hand. Your Touch-up Kit Good touch-up skills can spell the difference between inevitable mistakes and adroitly hidden ones. A wise mentor once told me “great finishers aren’t flawless; they just hide their slip-ups well.” My touch-up kit contains fine 0 and 00 sable touch-up brushes, a box of powdered colors containing both pigment and dye powders, dewaxed shellac as my touch-up medium, and a piece of glass as my mixing palette. There are also several colors of putty which can be tinted to make any other color…