I haven’t got the time but to peruse it a little and it really looks fantastic. Why they don’t make books like this anymore? I’m tired of cheap paperbacks. I love the feel of the good ole hardcover, fabric bounded, gold embossed books. Specially when they sport the signature of ”The Schwarz” on page 3. :o)

It’ll cost you the same as two disgusting italian-named pseudo-coffees from Starsucks and not only will it give you way more pleasure but it is healthier and it helps support the great folks at Lost Art Press. What else can you ask for?

Man, am I in awe… And I still have to read it!

PS: the cute little handmade bill is so retro cool that fits in very nicely with that book.

As most of you would know by now, Lee Valley’s Veritas brand has come with a couple of new block planes, the first of their new ”Premium” Series. Aesthetic considerations apart—I am not very fond of the way they look, actually—they sure are a fine example of the highest precision engineering out there. As they claim in their website, ”the sole and sides are flat and square to within +0.000” and -0.0015” over the entire surface”. That in itself is quite amazing if you ask me but, at the same time, a question arises in my mind:

Do we really need such extreme precision?

Don’t get me wrong, when talking about precision, the more the better, I’m all for it. Alas, everything comes at a price in this life and there’s no such thing as a free lunch, thus this precision has a steep tag attached to it: $279 or, what’s the same, a merely 92% increase in price over the Standard Block Plane of the same manufacturer (which isn’t exactly cheap already).

What tickles me is that we seem to have lost sight of the big picture, enticed as we are by shinny new toys. To put things in perspective, people like Hepplewhite, the Chippendales and their contemporaries produced some of the world’s finest examples of fine furniture, some of them still unrivaled today in their craftsmanship… and they did it with simple wooden planes. In most of Europe the wooden plane is still the norm. Nowadays is hardly posible to find a metal plane in any hardware store in most Asian countries, all you get is a rectangular square-cornered block of oak or some exotic or another with the iron held by a metal wedge. No chip-breaker needed as they are all bevel-down affairs. Do you really think that those plain blocks of lumber are engineered to one-tenth of the precision of any Western Style plane? For once, they are made of wood and, remember: Wood moves. Constantly. Somewhat unpredictably. Wood also wears and nicks. Yes, even the hardest do. And still, I can show you examples of precision joinery made 300 years ago by Japanese Master Craftsmen that would leave you speechless. The modern metal plane as we know it wasn’t introduced until the mid 1800s.

Somehow, something tells me the average Joe Woodworker won’t be able to reach this level of exactitude during his/her lifetime. Even armed with the latest and the greatest tools available today. And even if he or she could, once finished, that piece of furniture would continue to move, expand and contract at the rhythm of the seasons for as long as it is still functional.

So, aren’t we probably splitting hairs here?

Now, the cynic in me is whispering in my ear what a wonderfully timed release it was. Exactly three days before Black Friday they release a couple of new, shinny, ”expensive-but-not-in-the-Festool-range” toys… I mean, tools. You can almost hear the credit cards hiding away behind the poor turkey’s carcass. And to top it off, in case you can’t convince SWMBO that you ”really, really need it to make those X’mas gifts for your mother”, they dangle the new carrot/dovetail saw too. And if everything else fails, you still have a whole month ahead of you to leave the LV catalog accidentally open on top of the kitchen island. Hey, after all, those stocking need to be stuffed, don’t they?

Yes guys and gals, I hate to be the one that breaks it to you, but we are a bunch of big boys & girls that love to play with big expensive toys and there’s nothing that would change that. And the manufacturers are well aware of that too.

Now I’m afraid I have to leave you, I need to check if the mailman has already brought me my copy of Chris’ old/new ”Moxon”.

We woodworkers are always struggling with proper design and proportions. Luckily there are a few standards set more or less in stone that help us cover the bases of our furniture drafting process. On the other hand, we Lumberjocks are always either on the workshop or with our faces glued to the screen, so today I thought useful to give you a little tip that would ease that elusive search of the El Dorado (no pun intended) of design: calculating The Golden Ratio or The Golden Mean, whatever name you fancy to stick to.

Just remember that Google is your friend so, in the standard search box, type either one of the following, substituting the # by your known dimension:

#*golden ratio

#/golden ratio

Obviously, you’ll type the former to find the length and the later to get your width.

Also, remember that you can use the very same search box as a calculator or a conversion tool using the usual modifiers * / + - (), etc.

I know it’s just a quick one for today but it’s been a long while since my last post and I though that giving my blog a quick brush and some dusting wouldn’t hurt it. I guess not much is going on on the woodworking side of my life nowadays. I’m designing quite a lot in SketchUp—by the way, version seven is out since yesterday—and I’ll probably start building some small project soon. Nothing fancy, just a quick and dirty prototype. We’ll see but, in any case, I’ll keep you all posted.

Take care and strive to get the same amount of fingers in and out of the shop.

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Hi folks,

Today I come to you asking for some help and guidance.

I’m researching woodworking schools in the state of Washington (or the Portland, OR area). The kind of school I’m looking for is the one that has full-time programs for a whole school year or two. I do know some of them but not enough and, anyway, I’m sure there are plenty still that I have no knowledge of.

By the way, my main interest is in cabinetmaking rather than boat building.

I wish to enroll in such a program as part of my career change and I can’t think of better “personal” advice than the one I can get by the fellows hanging around the LJ community.

This time I really need you to help me guys and gals. Thank you all beforehand. America, here I come!

I often see projects posted here tagged with ”asian style”, ”asian influence”, ”asian inspired” or even ”my japanese take on…” and I inevitably wonder where exactly these people go gather all those exotic influences. As you all know I am immersed in the japanese/asian thing so I tend to take all those tags with a pinch of salt to say the least.

Don’t take me wrong though. I appreciate those forms of art and oftentimes they are great on its own way, but the funny thing is that I really can’t relate to them as being actually “asian” in the sense of something you could find here in any furniture store.

I guess it is the eternal grass-is-greener syndrome or maybe it is that the world as we happen to know it, it is strongly tinted by the glass of the mass media. Thus we think we know a place or a culture pretty well… until we dive in it and suddenly realize how few we knew beforehand.

Anyway, enough of my rant. I don’t want this post to be controversial, I just want to show you some things that are going on around here nowadays.

Kyoto is one of the most ancient and traditional cities of the country and even with that background woodworking craftsman are doing pretty modern things here. Let’s say that the actual ’Japanese Style’ of today’s Japan is closer to Kaleo's than to the traditional ’stepped tansu’ we all have in mind when we think about furniture of The Empire Of The Rising Sun.

Here are a couple of URLs of professional woodworker’s blogs so you can take a look at their works. Albeit I like some of the pieces shown in them, the general feel of this style it is not quite my cup of tea.

• What does a minimalist and easy-to-make chair looks like? Here you have the answer. A blog on woodworking with a strong take on architecture. Interesting nonetheless.

• For a dose of some interesting designs mixing live edges with more rectilineal stock, half western/half eastern, go to the 'gororonki' blog.

• Here is the actual web gallery of the former. Click on the ‘Works’ button on the lower bar… and forgive the “Engrish” (By the way, allow me a non-sequitour here: if you really want to have good fun, take a look at the Engrish page. I promise you that tears will flow)

I guess that the bottom line would be that the present ”Japanese Style” is closer in look to the IKEA than most of you could have though… Food for thought!

PS: for those of you that are on a Mac you’ll have no problems on viewing the Japanese fonts, on the other hand, those of you who are on Wintel machines can choose between installing the asian-font package or just go on looking at the pictures and ignore the little squares that would replace the missing text.

I only got to explore a few of the buildings but this is what I saw at the entrance of one of them… Talk about serendipity!

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To put things in perspective it is over 8 ft long (in its horizontal dimension in the picture) by 4 ft wide and 3 inch thick and it is finished in what looks like french polish or some kind of hi-gloss poly. In any case, the grain is amazing and made me wonder how to abscond with it without being noticed by the janitor… who was sitting just off the right edge of the picture. ;o)

Doesn’t this make you think about how was the whole tree in its entire majesty? And also what could be done with the slab, of course…

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DISCLAIMER: The link provided below will lead you to a page that contains material that could be ‘R’ rated. It is of a explicit nature so if you are easily offended you’d better avoid it.

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http://www.sexyfurniture.nl/

At least, you can’t say his work isn’t original! ;o)

In any case, and even if it is not your cup of tea, go check the link and don’t forget to take a look at the video, it is really interesting to watch. You’ll find a link in the upper right hand of the main page at:

http://www.AndySanchez.com/

Don’t imagine a Stanley or a Veritas lookalike here. The two major differences with Western planes are:

a) They are all made of wood, mostly oak for obvious reasons. No metal but in the irons and caps.

b) They cut on the pull stroke. Historically there has been a few models that shave on the push but it is almost impossible to find them nowadays.

Now, you could argue that this is subjective and they could as well be used pushing… Yes, it is absolutely true. To a certain extent at least. Once you get used to its ergonomics you’ll find that they are more easily handled and better balanced while pulling them though.

Our guest today is what I loosely translated by shoulder plane even if the most accurate translation would have been ”groove plane”… because that is what it is designed to do and what it excels in doing. Grooves. Here it is:

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As I told you above, it truly follows the design principle that states that the perfect design is achieved when there is nothing else to eliminate rather than to add. KISS principle in all its wonder.

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The natural flexibility of the oak and the precision cut bed make for a surprisingly strong hold of the iron. Yet it is extremely easy to adjust with a few slight taps on top or the sides of the blade or on the heel of the body itself. Remark also the clever design of the throat that allows for a quick and easy ejection of the shavings while simultaneously giving you a place where to grab it with your thumb while pulling.

Have you ever seen a plane with least pieces? Only two of them, no dowels, no cap iron, no screws, no nothing. A body. A blade. Zen.

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This is a 18 mm version (or approximately 11/16 inches for those of you internationally challenged) and its intended purpose was cutting the groves in which the ”fusuma” of the ”shoji” panels slide. I use it to pare and trim tenon shoulders as well as to make rabbets from time to time. It is amazing how fast and effortlessly you can cut a grove with such a simple and small tool. Even if you use to do it with a dado set, this cleans up the bottom of them in a few strokes, leaving a perfectly smooth surface. It exist in many different sizes too.

As most, if not all, of the Japanese planes, it is a bevel-down affair and this one has an angle close to 45º, what makes it particularly versatile. I often trim end grain with it and it is smooooooth. Of course, the iron being made of Japanese steel, it holds the edge for an amazingly long period of time between sharpenings and comes razor-sharp ‘n’ ready to use from the store.

If you are interested in knowing more you can send me a private message and I will tell you all you always wanted to know but never dared to ask about it. :o)

http://www.jefflohr.com/news.htm

It’s a lifetime dream to be able to work on a piece like this… without having to paid for the slab and, in addition, being payed big bucks for it (I guess).

On the other hand, what a source of stress though. I bet it is really nerve-wrecking until the slab is sliced and dried out.