Chest of Drawers - Work in Progress (50%)
Dear fellow jocks, I want to report to you all the “odd” woodcarving methods (with photos) that I have been using in the completion of the announced chest of drawers. So, please, click here.
Eureka! Receipt says what wood I bought!
The other day I enthusiastically bought some fancy wood since I was making small stuff and wanted to try out some other material. And then I promptly forgot what I bought. The receipt appears: —Bolivian Rosewood—Figured Santos Mahogany (“Bee’s wings” I think)—Mesquite (knew that) Any tips for working with these beauties? I’ve already resawed them down to get bookmatched 1/2 inch boards…. The mahogany in particular seems a bit brittl...
Segmented Bowl - 1st try
Until recently my lathe experience has been 50 or so pen/pencils, a few miniature goblets, and a couple small 5 inch bowls over the past few years on a Jet mini lathe, enough to want to try other lathe work. This past fall I was fortunate to have the opportunity to acquire a PM 3520B, but due to other work and priorities I’ve not had a lot of time to use it yet…and that’s “killing me”. So this blog documents what I consider my first significant lathe project. Recently a partially segmen...
The Journey #1: After a long time
I was 22 years old in 1976. I had was in college to get a teaching degree and at the same time also attending the Maine school of Guitar making (luthiery). For the next few years I made guitars and sold them to college students. I finished about 20 of them. When I graduated from college I had to live out of state and after two years of that got married. Work and family took me away from the smell of brazilian rosewood and sitka spruce. Move ahead to 2008. I’m back in Maine at the old...
Houndstooth Dovetails
Houndstooth dovetails use varying sizes of tails (or varying sizes of pins…depending on your perspective). I’ve wanted to try them for quite a while now. This blog shows most of the process I’m currently going through. To get the effect it seems to me you need more tails/pins per corner than one would normally think about. In this case like a few of my other recent boxes posted, I’m using Caribbean rosewood and curly maple. Most often, (when you see them at all) these are done by alte...
Radial Dovetail Box Construction
Some time ago I posted a blog about a dovetail joint I came up with. I call it the radial dovetail. It incorporates handcut dovetails, but rather than using the traditional 1:8 ratio for the dovetail angle for hardwood, each side of each tail varies and is drawn from a perspective point. Then the sides of the box were contoured to blend with the dovetail design. Here’s a picture of the nearly completed box. It is made of curly maple, Carribean rosewood, and hickory.I like to think of t...
Handcut "Radial" Dovetail Experiment
I’ll call this a radial dovetail (for lack of better name). This is a practice handcut joint for a future keepsake box. It’s curly maple and Caribbean rosewood. My initial thought was to have all the sides of the dovetails in the maple point to one common perspective. However, during layout I quickly found out some of the angles would be far too severe, putting the integrity of the joinery at risk. Thus I used two perspective points for this joint. Note there are four tails in the...
Cutting Board Learning #2: Making Progress
BEFORE I START, IF YOU READ THIS, AND CAN OFFER ADVICE, I’D LOVE TO HEAR IT. THANKS IN ADVANCE!!!!! Ok, after collecting information from a couple key people, and looking carefully at my pieces, I’ve moved on to Sample #2. First things first. NEW CLAMPS!!!!! Not the best, but all I could get for now. On to business. More blanks, 10 this time. For these, I used a sanding block and norton 3x sandpaper. This was slow, but quiet as it was about 9:00PM when I started, and I’...
Cutting Board Learning #1: First Steps
BEFORE I START, IF YOU READ THIS, AND CAN OFFER ADVICE ON IMPROVING THIS WITHOUT BUYING ANYTHING OVER $25, I’D LOVE TO HEAR YOUR ADVICE. THANKS IN ADVANCE!!!!! I bought some clearance pen blanks from Rockler (Pau Ferro, Indian Rosewood, and Cherry, I think). Not having any “larger” tools or super-fine precision tools (band saw, table saw, router table, etc.) I decided I would begin the adventure the “backwoods” way. I Started by laying them together, checki...
Hand Cut Double Dovetail Experiment
After admiring the double and double-double dovetail joints that are capable with the Incra and other jigs, I started thinking, “Why not try this by hand?” So this box is my first experiment with handcut double dovetails. It took me some time to figure out the joinery process, but once I realized a few things about this type of joint, it seemed do-able. It was quite challenging but also a ton of fun. It also does take some degree of patience and precision…which I’m still working on. In...
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