grain damaged

2012-01-24T17:42:00.000-08:00

Finishing anything, for me, is heartbreaking. Each piece, and I usually have a couple going at one, grows and evolves and becomes so much more than just a piece. I love woodworking possibly more than sand sculpting, and that’s hard to admit. It could simply be the shorter duration I’ve spent, but it seems more to be the level of involvement. Sand sculpture is over rather fast, a few day, maybe a few more in planning. With woodworking months are spent on each piece, and there’s no deadline, well, not yet.

When that piece is done and its in its new home, and its as if someone breathed life into these slabs and shapes and details. And it’s still there in a week, and a month and for years, and you have to live with it, use it, touch it, move it to vacuum, and you see all the flaws somedays and it’s purity the next, and most of all its honesty. It’s like having a loved one around.

I stepped away after the wine rack, partly just to decompress, partly because of a string of exhibits at the museum, and in sand. And then the holidays set in.

This years gift tool confounded me for months, I’d seen plenty of examples of center finding squares, all in plastic too cheap to even consider, or in metals too expensive for gift giving, the Stanley I have at work is so sadly out of whack, I’m not sure why it still hangs on the wall.

In line with previous years each recipient has a specific set, one in Rosewood, one in Purpleheart, and one with bits of Curly Cherry, each is contrasted by some unbelievable Fiddleback Maple.

Two years ago I adapted Chris Schwarz’s Roubo square to these constraints and I needed matching center-finding squares. Each profile is different, and designed to visually balance the off center blade.

Really the toughest part was the triple lap joint, and designing a planing jig for thin strips of Curly Maple, and pounding in the pegs without blowing out any one of three layers, oh, and learning to french polish.

Oh yea and Santa left me something in the mailbox (sorry, no tree this year either)
Guess this means I need a new shooting board

Leftovers rock! Off-cuts from the crazy Cherry wine rack drawer fronts and some nice gift (yes Santa does go to Woodcraft too) Tiger maple blanks.

Took care of the two inch wide rabbet by making several grooves with a plow plane, chiseling the remaining pieces and before removing the last flattening the whole thing with a router plane.

Plans continue for the next piece, I'll keep you in tune.

end

2011-09-26T16:45:00.000-07:00

they may be small but I made 'em!

So this is how it feels

to carry something for nine months,

every waking moment in awe and wonder

and fear and whatever else you might assign to its despicable yet haunting existence

the light of day only a footstep outside your understanding

a glimmer in the distance

these dovetails will NEVER come apart

when it's over that's it

it's just over

why does it have to be?

funny thing is, when one project ends, another begins

the former piece of furniture was lovely

beautifully made, exquisitely finished

but so completely wrong for the room I'm (oh so freaking) slowly creating

as it was relocated to a more appropriate part of the house, I decided to check what was under the carpet

mmmm oak

unfinshed oak

oh man

lucky for me dewaxed shellac and water based poly's are quick, easy, and durable

hey look, a new floor!

thanks, Arielle, for being understanding of my obsession

so here it is, a new room

sans paint

and a stepback

and some new moulding

and the table I started two years ago

and the other three chairs

oh crap

An Open Letter to the Schwarz

2011-09-14T21:33:00.000-07:00

What have you done!?

Created a monster you have

I figured it out tonight

I'm not an addict

I'm a user

BIG difference

perfect dovetails made easy

an addict keeps taking more and more to satisfy that ever increasing craving

a user takes what he needs and only enough to get off

a user takes a break occasionally to recharge

or rather purge the affect

to make it better the next time

I still have to buy

but only to get er done

a week ago my first square

turned out to be not square

every other damn first tool I bought met pretty much the same doom

Jer's chair

I replaced it

although only a small square; four inch overhang

it seems to be the single most used tool in my shop

well, there is the pencil

so i scoured the bay for good BCTW rosewood square

then PWM published a transfixing article by none other than god himself

and I realized

sure would be nice to make my own counterfeit BCTW try square

could take weeks, like my custom infill smoother

but it's gotta be SQUARE

then I remembered that little nagging voice in the dark nether region of my primate brain

just go buy one!

but the Schwarz spoke from beyond and said unto me

buy a damn good one you moron!

so I journeyed to where the trees are like gumdrop pillows, and unicorns and fairies play beer pong among twizzler tufts

and put my cash on a Vesper

even sounds cool huh?

this will be my fourth Vesper

yea, I'm a user

some of my best tools, my most reached for tools, my most beautiful tools

bear his title

and all you internet power tool junkies can scoff and bitch and troll at how much a Vesper costs

then you can use one every day for a year

then write me back and apologize

and apologize to Chris while you're at it

yea both of them.

2011-08-11T20:12:00.000-07:00

i knew it would come to this

the time would come

I'd have to face the mistakes

how do i cut a rabbet to house the case back after I've already glued up the carcase

I thought up a hundred ways, each more ridiculous than the last

how long would it take to cut it with a coping saw, let see, nope that would take forever

but then again, if I take the kerf long enough to get my Japanese saw in

but really, maple?

well there's no time like the present, and BCTW still sells replacement blades

umm, and then there's the hinges

oh yea, the hinges

I got these really cool (expensive) invisible Swiss hinges and realized they need to be morticed in, but not just regular mortices, round ended mortices with a stopped hole in the middle inside!

time to make a new tool!

there were just enough resaws to supply the back

a series of ship laps

don't forget this stuff WILL move

a quick set of drawer stops

and a slot and screw for each drawer bottom

my new rasps have arrived so i can finally move on to the 68 bottle nooks

and yes a hand cut French rasp of the finest calibre is a thing of beauty

but rasps still rasp, and these guys are way too small to scrape

the rule of power tools still applies, but power tool accessories, now we're talking

intense debate over the wide chamfers raged until I finally caved I did one, then ten, then realized I really liked the softness they conveyed

not to mention the added ding resistance

It's almost there, another week of bottle stretchers and pre-assembly finishing can begin

damn good thing i checked the supplies

not a drop of finish to be found

crap

lessons

2011-07-14T19:30:00.000-07:00

the beauty of this piece lies in its complete lack of electronic assistance

countless weeks have been spent doing what a power tool could in a few hours

and certain duties common and easy in the power tool shop have required research and pondering

instead of jigs there exist techniques

clever ways to hold down the piece

so hand tools could do the job

I love my plow plane, in fact I think I'll never again touch the table saw to cut a groove

but what to do when there's no reference face to guide the cut

duhh,

same thing you do when you cut a dado in a carcass.

strike the line, chisel a kerf, cut it with a saw,chisel out the waste, then use the plow (sans fence) to even out the bottom (even though on a carcass you would use a router plane)

so many lessons, taught so many times

I actually caught myself today saying to a co-worker, "dovetails are easy"

and I heard him reply "yea well, you've got practice"

yea, every day, plus all day on weekends

no matter how tired, sore, hot and humid it is, I can still find the time for a few steps

I've been waiting for an Aurou rasp to arrive from France so I can finish the bottle racks, there's sixty eight nooks that need refining and smoothing, and I'm NOT going to do it with sandpaper

that means the outer carcasses can't be glued up, thus the final refinements to the undertop mortices, thus the finish smooth to the top

in lieu of all this, the drawers must go on

each piece must be resawn from 5/4 to 3/4 and a 1/4, the last bit being taken up by the kerf of my D-8 thumbhole ripper

one side becomes a side or back the other a bottom

two drawers are now complete and the matching ambrosia Maple is stunning

the back dovetails are pure function while the fronts are all about style

update

2011-06-20T19:45:00.000-07:00

As I wait for my primrose to blossom (and by the way there's a video but it's well beyond the capacity of both the blog server and my abilities as a videographer) I'm reminded of why I work wood by hand.

It's the dedication, the patience, the knowing that is will all work out in the end, whenever that might be.

And just like the primrose it seems to happen all of a sudden after weeks of wait and toil or months in the case of wood working, years sometimes in gardening.

It's been over a month since my last update and that's OK by me, a lot of the work had been simply redundant, photos you've already seen directions you've already ignored. It is after all, a mirror image of the left side.

Some aspects, however, have been groundbreaking

how to cut the big bevel along the front

devising a sixteenth of an inch wide drawer divider

really learning my Stanley 113

Sucking it up when I know I could do this in five minutes with a power tool

I'm finally to the point of assembly, dry though it is, the sucker is strong, I could practically smooth the top

it has been six months now, learning and mastering tools long forgot, discovering techniques no longer taught, with tools someone found in grandpa's shed and didn't know what price to put on them at the yard sale

as I've said before, I'll say again, there is NO substitute for experience

the stretchers are finally in place, the drawer fronts cut

spacers made (these will come in handy down the road!)

the biggest problem I have right now is horizontal surface on which to stack the ever accumulating pile of parts

I know I said 124, but it's final at 122, all done, no more mortices to hog, thank whatever deity you worship

and I'll talk again in another month, there's a bunch of smoothing, scraping, rasping, and sanding
oh yea, then finishing and glueing
then maybe I'll have something to write about again.

mist

2011-05-18T19:15:00.000-07:00

grandma's quilt drapes my gardens lush and crowded and so green it stings

the road beyond shrouded in Seattle slumber

inside the shop everything that can rust glistens oozing with oil

shavings damp and pungent litter both ground and bench

a drift in the corner knee deep

great stacks of rich dark walnut facets wink as I pass

new born dust settles fast as it embraces the heavy air

fibers slice easily no rumble of protest as my saw cuts clean

the mirrored side a time machine, all those cuts are like memory

I dance as I saw

124

yes that's the magic number

I finally figured out how many tenons and their mates

maybe

somewhere in the meantime I made this, guess I should have documented its progress, listed step by aching step how I reached this point

but I aint here to teach

hiatus

2011-04-24T20:46:00.000-07:00

One step at a time...
I finished (well, cut and fit) the left side of the wine rack...

and then I stopped...
the gardens are in need of attention
sand needs to be carved
this pile needs to not be knee-deep in water

major exhibits need to be dismantled and shipped out
I really want to devote some serious time in this piece, but now seems to not be that time
I still, however, find the odd moment or two to do some work.
seventeen stretcher pieces all need to be cut, edged, planed, taken to thickness, and smoothed in preparation for the next step

the core carcasse is ready to be tackled, facing panels are leaning drunkenly along the drill press table, my camera is at the ready and software online to help figure those transitions, get the grain just right.
I still don't trust my own head
there's just so damn many weeds!

transition

2011-03-25T19:50:00.000-07:00

snow recedes, mounds becoming mole hills, everything that can bathes in the lengthened days, more frequent sunlight, graceful necks of ballerinas pierce last autumn's blanket, pillbugs frolic as the mat is puled away.

My thoughts are divided. I have a piece to make,

but so many steps left.

not steps

entire journeys

starting all over, scrub plane in hand, make this board flat

square

straight

sharpen the jack, sharpen the fore

get it close

that tiny thin line of perfection slivers away at the edge

the ruler no longer spins

no light along the board

it is true

now it is whole but will become many

it scares me

and I love this

persevere

2011-03-07T04:37:00.000-08:00

Houston, we have a carcace

once again I fall into despair, I could have done all this with butt joints and screws!

but then again, these would never have happened

the front stretchers are ready

and it looks like it'll work, my tirade from the last post has subsided only to be replaced by other nagging thoughts

why is it plumb and square on one end and a sixteenth off on the other, all the joinery is taken from its corresponding mate, it should be absolutely perfect!

why did my plow driver plow my yard and not my drive today

how am I going to cut a five by five pegged mitered bridle joint and not have to pair the inside

with one damn big saw that's how!

and let's not forget to refer to my previous post "to the line"

this is a monster cut

starting at an acute corner with a thick bladed rip filed carcace saw and begin the kerf, a little aimng up and along the closest line, then down along the farthest, bring it even to join the two and any irregularities at the top can be shaved off with a markng knife, when it's right on both sides and everything's running smoothly in between, it's time for the big guns

and I wondered why I bought an eighteen inch four pound tenon saw

the real trick is to remember which side of the line to cut on

and once again, practice really does count in this adventure

almost bottoming out

If everything is marked well and the line just disappears under the blade it should fit together fine

problem

2011-02-26T07:09:00.000-08:00

Yea I know I have a problem

I have a few of them, but the most disturbing is my affliction to hand tools

my collection is now worth more than my car, I have more planes than years to my life, and more saws than I have chairs in my house

my most problematic problem is my lack of foresight, coupled with my reliance on 3-d design software

my first thought the day I discovered Google sketchup, Damn what a great tool, and it has been, the scale of work I can imagine has not only found no end, but has augmented the visual designs beyond anything I could have sketched on paper

Great piece of software yes indeedee

but it doesn't tell you if a wine bottle will fit through the opening you've created

I spent the day (another snow day here in the great white north, yippee!) learning to use my bowsaw

it wasn't easy, I broke a string trying to find the tension, couldn't start a cut to save my life, had to figure how to secure the piece while leaving clearance from the bench, and what stroke best suited both the saw and the material. Once I found it, lookout, it cut through that 4/4 walnut like Sweeney Todd through one of his victims, I mean crap, it was close to band saw speed!

within three hours I had all ten front rack stretchers rough cut

a quick run from the draw knife and a bit of spokeshave magic and I was ready to cut tenons

after three months cutting hard maple, this walnut was like balsa, the former being close cousins with alabaster, the latter smooth and buttery, I didn't have to re-sharpen a tool all day

having a smidgen of energy left and a couple hours before Arielle would be home I figured, what the hell, let's cut out those neck nooks (well, what would you call them?)

using what foresight I DO posses I trooped through the (hey this shit wasn't here when I came IN the shop) foot of snow to check the dimensions of the entire range of bottles already overflowing from our completely inadequate (the whole reason I'm putting myself through this torture:) winerack. back out to the garage with a much better (you know, I'm pretty sure I measured those damn things before) understanding of how big a wine bottle really is. laid out a few (five) nooks and cut out with my new BFF coping saw. Figuring I hadn't had enough strenuous exercise today (I WILL feel this tomorrow) I rasped and filed the nooks to a hair's breadth of perfection, laid out the two pieces on a nice square surface and thought, Huh, how'm'I gonna get a wine bottle through there.

oops

should have seen that coming, it was all going so smooth

I don't even know now whether I can change the design subtly enough to not affect the balance, I'm not sure whether this computer has enough memory to allow such a change, hell at this point we'll see if my sanity can even hold out.

damn snow days!

join

2011-02-11T21:25:00.000-08:00

It all seems a little silly, three weeks in the shop, in the freezing (mostly sub-freezing) cold, bundled up so you can't put your arms down (just think Randy from Christmas Story) sawing wood that at eight percent moisture is more likely eight percent ice. Planing wood so temperamental you have to hone your plane irons every ten to twenty minutes, boards that started out at 4/4 are a little closer to 3/4 now. Sweat does freeze to metal and skin freezes to ice even when it's made up of sweat. But if you use the tool long enough it warms to your hand, becomes comfortable, true again...
or is that just the frostbite talking?

All this work for a board that looks like you got it at the B.O.R.G. store. It's really kind of a downer...

But then it becomes yours again, mark those tails...

use them saws...

learn a few new tricks from some guy who started something called the Schwarz Effect...

chop...

don't forget where you started...

and don't be surprised how fast you can do joinery by hand!

snow day

2011-02-02T15:28:00.000-08:00

Thank you Mother Nature! A nice change of pace, in the form of a day off. Of course it's not a day off when there's a big project in the shop.

but I should have heeded those cryptic words from the guy at the woodworking store "hard maple, by hand, god help you, boy"

For the last few evenings I've been battling this wood, every combination of planes in my arsenal. I could get a great surface on the straight grain parts, but when it came time to do cathedrals or figure, a tiny nuclear bomb would go off beneath my iron.

BAM

tear-out, big honkin chunks of wood, so deep a dark shadow had begun to descend. I started to dread this stuff, even considered breaking my vow to do this one all by hand.

There's a small planer at work, if I just take really tiny passes, it'll be OK

but deep down I knew this was a lesson, Yoda P. Miagee was staring me down, that lethal pair of chopsticks poised at the ready. So I read up, tried the books, they just said sharp iron, tiny mouth, try working perpendicular to the grain. I tried the web, same thing. And then low and behold the answer, on a popular chat room someone said hone often, know what sharp really is. Rather skeptical (they're sharp, I'm sure of that) I trekked through the blizzard back to the (now nice and toasty warm) shop and honed all the irons (I'm not stupid, not ALL of them, just the ones I needed: Smoother, low angle Jack, and Fore.)

Then I hit it again, and it hit me, that's it!

Every thirty to forty strokes in hard maple and the edge is more like a ball peen hammer, nail the wrong spot and a rock hard wedge jams in the throat and releases itself from its arborial abode, with a rending sound of splintering storm damaged limbs. But freshly honed there's little sound at all but a faint swish, the fibers part and a glass surface appears. Now that means disassembly, a minute's honing, reassembly, tuning, fine tuning, back to work for another ten minutes, then all over again. The pratice of this little dance has led to an intimate understanding of the geometry of all these tools, I know a volume more than I did yesterday.

The real satisfaction is the accomplishment, master is proud.

wash, rinse, repeat

2011-01-30T16:22:00.000-08:00

How to go from this to this in three easy steps:

Step 1: PRACTICE

Step 2: PRACTICE

Step 3: PRACTICE

Seriously, I don't care how many fine tools you own, all glittery and sharp, or patinaed and worn, if you don't use them, well, you know.

No amount of book reading, magazine subscriptions, sacrifices to a pagan god (though they do work great for me) web sites, chat rooms, blogs, or Tweets will ever get you a fine, smooth, properly dimensioned board like practice. Maybe you'll get lucky once, or have an easy grained piece, but to get consistent, equally dimensional (at least as far as need be) results, you need to spend hours a day, days a week and every damn moment you can squeeze in.

You already know the process.

grab the lowest tpi saws you have and cut that stuff, remember to add a quarter inch on every side

get one good edge and cut another piece

joint that mother to the first

and wait for glue to dry

(or in my case, bring them inside, wait to let them warm up, wait for the glue to set, bring them back outside)

find a good face, whatever planes you need to get there

make the other face good

mark, cut and plane your ends

mark, cut and plane your last edge

now do it how ever many times you have to to get it right!

surprise

2011-01-29T08:18:00.000-08:00

I've begun to delve into the abyss of a new piece

derived solely from this one slab of wood

and actually that piece of wood turned up a most pleasent surprise. Like digging in the back of the fridge and finding some lone exotic beer hibernating behind the month old lettuce, this piece revealed its true face when I simply began flattening the back (which is now the front) Hidden beneath that saw marked, mouse crap crusted, weathered wrinkled warped disaster, heaven lurked, OH CRAP if this face had been planed before, it never would have been around long enough for me to find it. I feel a bit of nervous guilt finding such a treasure.

Finding a fine piece of wood is just as important as using it properly, an incredible lesson I've only begun to discover, why did it take me so long, maybe because I never found wood like this before, but then again, here's what transpired before Xmas.

All found pieces, gift pieces and hoarded treasures, meant to be given away.

Three of these planes were created specifically for individual people...

and this adjustable book stand had a home even before its design

and in return a surprise for me, my brother found this at an antiques market and thought I should acquire it, rather boring... ha ha

but seriously, what a nice gift, I have no idea when I'll build a timber frame building, and I haven't yet found a home for it in the shop, but it sure it cool to look at and play with! Thanks, little brother!

having that out of the way it's on to my next rant: the perils of hand work

Damn that's some wicked tear-out, which direction does this run? Is there a direction, is there an f-ing plane that will even smooth this stuff? Hold on... if I plane a little this way and a little that, hey, it might just work! Yea and a troup of rabid monkeys mights fly out of the tailpipe of my truck and gnaw the wood into shape. Low and behold, a tool I almost forgot... my Lie Nielsen large scraper, I put a hook on the end after buying it and found it chattering like a college freshman, so I put it on a shelf and just gazed at it lecherously. Until now...

It may take a while, can't hog off more than a tissue at a time, but it goes where no other plane will.

Why is this so much work, why can't I joint one simple friggin piece, why does it always lean to the left and end to the right? Maybe it's the style of plane, low angle planes are also low center of gravity, it'll roll like a canoe in the rapids. My personal Krenov inspired jack responds to the waver with gusto, I can feel perfectly when it's true, but it tends to cup along the length, so it's back to the low angle to flatten the ends and give one true shave. (yea I know, but the jointer is just too damn big for these boards)

why can't I clamp two pieces together to the bench and joint the two at once, you'd think I'd figure this one out, my bench sucks plain and simple, yea it's heavy as a tank and doesn't move even when I run my truck into it and I got plenty of holes and hold downs and two vices, and...oh crap...that's it...no leg vice, gonna have to fix that some day. Also, don't use pine for the top, it moves way too much, the number of times I've flattened it, squared up the edges and fixed a sagging vice, someday I'll find some maple to redo the top.

So this next project is gonna be a doozie, lots of different joinery approaches, contrast of material thicknesses, and some stuff I've not yet had the guts to figure out, I'll try to keep up with the posts, if only to document its progress, but maybe someone of you will learn or teach and this will all be worth the voyage.

adolescence

2010-12-05T14:53:00.000-08:00

February 2010...

My lathe was born...

the first few months were rough, we had a lot to sort out, a lot to learn, about eachother...

wood moves, get over it...

maybe the greatest woodworking quote of all time, I'm sure the poet who penned it had no idea I'd forget his/her name...

an all wood treadle lathe moves a lot, but Christopher and Mary over at CME Handworks anticipated this in their construction.

I've had ten months now to get acquainted with this baby, I know now to check the head stock alignment first, tighten all the grub screws. The paver has migrated to its desired home on the right half of the treadle, every thing is oiled, my stool has finally found its destiny...

I don't even need the heater on this side of the shop. It's effortless to spin, till you stick a piece of metal in it, but I've learned to use that metal...

and true to my nature, I'm not a Neaderthal, I've upgraded my technology...

just haven't learned to use it right yet, sorry, I'll get the orientation correct next time.

if you know Santa, please tell him I need a tripod for an iPhone 4...

and if you are the Apple repair guy, pretend you didn't see this video.

eye candy

2010-12-01T20:13:00.000-08:00

this is life...

precious few moments to spend

doing what you love

for those you love

wrenching free a bit of you

to give to someone else

I guess it's worth it in the end.

as promised...

2010-11-05T16:51:00.000-07:00

...although a little later than expected

I had the chance to exercise my left brain for a while, stroke the anal retentive, OCD and sort some hardware

Tiny oval drawer stops are screwed into the back of the front stretcher, accommodating both the upper and lower drawers, a quick swivel and the drawers can be pulled free.

Now this doesn't mean I stop, another ugly piece of plastic needed to be replaced, and this was pretty simple. A few scraps from the tabletop(s) and voila...

nice place to put stuff, a series of holes in the cherry top for screwdrivers and files, and a couple tombstone cleats, and that plastic is gone!

and then there's Xmas. Started early this year with a couple purchases from Ron Bresse, a few chunks of well dried wood and four weekends.

I would show you more but you'll have to guess for now

And my favorite holiday of all!!!

Actually had a whole day to work on these, each little guy found his own personality

If at least one kid refuses to walk up to these and get free candy, then well, I've done my job

process

2010-08-21T22:06:00.000-07:00

as summer flows past in its irregular heartbeat of projects one thing has remained the same, the plodding progression of drawer building. Just when it all appears to be nearing completion, the last dovetail cut, the last groove plowed, widths and lengths tweaked, a few questions arise.

Do I really like these knobs?

well... not really, they interfere with the design in ways I can't quite figure

too small, too busy, wrong color

so it's back to the lathe, a strip of hard maple trimmed from the tabletop, and the lessons learned from the previous bunch. One afternoon is all I need this time, thirteen pieces from one stick, though it was a little hairy near the beginning.

And then it's time! Glue-up...

no wait...

Maybe I should finish the insides of the drawers first, after all sanding between coats will be so much simpler, just don't finish the tails or pins...

where to put all these pieces!

After the insides are complete I can do the glue-up (no I'm not procrastinating) final fitting, and then finish the outsides. Then I can show you the finished pictures, I think you'll agree the new knobs really made the piece!

dog days

2010-07-05T09:59:00.000-07:00

When I say it's hot, it's hot

Hot enough to strip lead paint from cheap plywood

these are the days your planes look worn

drips of sweat tarnish in an instant, grain raises in tiny crop circles on your piece

dust doesn't move, weighed down by the relentless summer dank

a row of pins is all I can manage before taking a stroll in the flower ranked shade

another row, maybe a groove

a little pairing

or maybe it;s time to sit my butt down and spin a few knobs

delicate pen blanks in black and white Ebony, too small for anything else, but perfect in proportion to the drawers, I can pull five from each blank and a failed handle makes two more.

I'm just now beginning to see the enormity of the task, only five drawers fitted and over a month has passed, the worst of the summer doldrums yet to come.

Dare I buy a fan?

or just keep on going despite the heat?

one drawer at a time

2010-06-18T19:04:00.000-07:00

What you are about to witness may confound your senses, cause you to feel emotions youl'd rather not talk about in public, force you like a madman to run wildly (and nakedly if the need arise) out or down or up or over to your shop and set to work

I just spent the afternoon rabbeting five small bits of wood, four rabbets each, plus two pieces with only two, so a sliver over a sixteenth of an inch ran the span between the front and back stretchers. Each rabbet took twenty four to thirty passes with a large rabbet plane, on my fence equipped shooting board, and maybe only twice did the cut have to be mended. A good plane is predictable, true, a good plane should cut a flat surface the same amount so that after thirty two passes, the surface is completely parallel to its origin. It helps to know how to hold the plane, how to push, how to steady, and hold plumb, when to skew or tilt or dip, you learn the sound, the feel, you anticipate a calamity and prevent it.

This is what I love about hand tools, each becomes a part of you. I work all day with routers, table saws, chop saws, radial arm saws, jig saws, sanders of all colors and sizes, a massive dust control system and some really uncomfortable safety gear, it's like getting suited up for a joust, then taking it all off and shutting everything down for ten minutes just to think and measure and yes, actually do math, then don the armor, turn on the noise makers and get er done.

Thank the gods for filler!

There's no finesse in a production shop, it's pretty as long as you don't look too close. I'm constantly heckled for my desire to be accurate, they call it "working too close"

Oh crap, if only they could see my furniture.

Finally making the decision to fab each drawer individually may either be the stupidest idea ever or the best. I considered at length dimensioning all sixty pieces, smoothing and ganging up the dovetails, then realized I didn't want to fall into the production mode. Each step requiring much more than the snippets of time I have available.

So, in essence, I gang up four sides, layout and saw all the dovetails, then find the best matches, prep two backs and two fronts, and put them aside. Dinner sometimes gets made, a movie watched, a beer or two. Some nights I make it back out, chop a few tails, complete the layout (there's a crap-load of layout!) I figure about four hours for each drawer, unless I blow out the spalted maple. Did I mention the front shoulder of the half-blind is 3/16 of an inch. Lesson #7543 always chop the half blind front first in case the just mentioned does occur, because you can always chop the rear fulls while you wait for the glue to dry.

In the mean time I have to show you what I do for work:

From Australopithecines to Zoetroupes I do it all

And I can make matched sets

That is an LED fired, hydro terrariun, by the way.

Oh yea, this post is supposed to be about woodworking

Nice thing about the drawers, each will be unique, thinner walls, different dovetails, attention to its own attributes.

Four down, eight to go!

preoccupation

2010-05-24T19:06:00.000-07:00

Yea yea yea, I know, I haven't done a damn thing with the blog for over a month, well, neither have any of my favorite woodworking bloggers either.

Maybe we have similar afflictions...

The gardens become my obsession as soon as the snow melts away, the days get longer, the weeds taller, spotting the difference between a weed and a prized seedling becomes routine. Each specimen is catalogued, and cross referenced, colors blended in an expressionistic composition. the desire to fulfill the optic pleasure throughout the season.

But I do still get in the shop.

The dining set is on hold for a while, wood doesn't grow on trees you know!

My walnut will be ready soon, but the idea of planing twenty square feet of anything in eighty degree heat really doesn't appeal to my sense of self preservation. Plus a couple tools are still awaiting completion and delivery, so the fun can't really begin on the underside (a nineteenth century #113 did arrive not long ago, though)

So it's on to smaller stuff.

There's a big plastic parts bin, probably Hecho en China, in the most glaring awful yellow, any straight parts now twisted and bent with time (a couple years) right smack dab over my bench, and in my field of vision at all times. And for just a moment I saw this piece of wood there instead:

Of course you know what comes next.

I will admit, the table top has been the cut in the learning curve for hand planing. That and a little potty-time refresher in The Schwarz's Course, Medium, Fine. I was able to dimension, flatten and smooth all the pieces in a weekend. Learning when an iron needs to be honed and the practiced skill of quick and accurate sharpening has also been a godsend. Another tidbit I found on the web suggested ganging multiple dovetail pieces together. Believe it or not they are much tighter and in half the time!

I'll keep that in mind later. There's one hundred (exactly, no kidding) sets of dovetails here; 26 half blinds, 26 through, and 48 dovetailed laps, add in a few dozen mortice and tenons.

May as well get started!

This will be a great summer project, not too much sweat, and lots of small successes. I'll be in sand a good deal, and at the Museum a bit, but when I'm home, I'll have many chances to spend an hour or two.

update

2010-03-31T17:17:00.000-07:00

I've had a good weekend, a few afternoons after work, and a couple odd hours otherwise, after giving this thing a good lube, or two, the action is so smooth it's almost a letdown, I really thought I'd get a workout.

Once it all settled in, it's really no effort at all, just gotta keep the rhythm.

The first piece off the lathe is actually two; "matching" handles for my BIG files.

Figured I'd make a subtle change to each to mark the difference in the tools themselves.

The hard maple cut-offs from the tabletop seemed to be as good a challenge as I could muster, but the results are out of this world! I really can't believe a meat-powered machine could do work like this, total control over speed and depth of cut.

I've been transitioning over for a couple years to pure hand-work, and I love it. Every time I perform the same task without power, noise, and dust, I'm continually amazed at the speed, accuracy and fulfillment I can achieve.

overcome

2010-03-25T17:39:00.000-07:00

I'm always up for a challenge, but this is crazy.

stand there, weight on one foot, Karate Kid crane stance, whuu

free foot bicycles in place, whuuuahh

steady rhythm

force on the push stroke, hyyya

barely disengage at the upper apex

hold a tool

light grasp near the end

the real way to hold a hammer

four fingers and the weight of the other hand

slide it home

hips and shoulders and legs and arms

unison

yea right, I get it, but it's not there yet. I know what to do after just a few hours, but I have the sneaking suspicion that it will take many months of those hours to get it right, long enough to even sail a ribbon

oh yea, one more thing.

square stock!, you can't match the center if the end ain't square!

and when your meat is doing all the work, every little bit counts, every sliver of friction you can loose, every edge, that's why wood turners know planes! (not like I'd even know that, but I'm pretty damn sure I'm right!

You are asking yourself, wait, what the hell is he talking about.

I must have forgotten to tell you.

I finally dove.

After many months pondering, checking the finances and schedules, I bought it.

CME Handworks Inc. Treadle Lathe

It's a pretty little thing, well not so little, but you get my drift

Really beautifully made, great curves and even brand spanking new, pretty smooth.

It's me that's going to take some work.

The design is simplicity in itself, matched with an elegant grace. It really demands to be used. And there's smashing little touches like the Bubinga handles (which by the way look perfect with just a coat of paste wax!)

I will get a good finish on it as the weather warms up but for now it's quite an entertaining workout. Think about it, hand planes really do the upper body some good, now how about a little somthin somethin for the waist down.

Having never turned a thing except some handles on the drill press with a rasp and sandpaper,

this is a challenge indeed.

moving on...

2010-03-20T17:20:00.000-07:00

So the chair is technically finished, I'm going to wait a few weeks for the tung oil to catalyze then try another coat of oil-urethane, then on the paste wax and 0000 steel wool. till then I'm just waiting on my walnut.

Until the time I can commence with the three-chair production, I still have in my possession these amazing pieces of hard maple.

They make bowling alley lanes out of this stuff.

It's supposed to be hard!

I mean, it is, don't get me wrong, but working it is like carving alabaster, but with a very definite grain, changing directions through the board (if you really want to call a two inch by thirteen inch by eight feet piece of wood a board, I like slab myself) I cut three feet off each and joined them up with a half blind, lipped box joint, which will be through pegged before jointing. sounds like a lot of work but the entire middle piece needs to be sound, then all three will be edge joined and bread boarded. I'm figuring four hours work for each side of the joint and a couple finessing it into place.

However, there is a 5/8 inch cup to each long section and a bit of wind as well, so it's off to the jack, then on to the fore and finally jointer. I never realized how much surface area there was to these guys. I can go about a half an hour then need to rest, take a walk, shake it out. I feel like Arnold in Conan, my pecs are screaming, but I feel pumped!

It'll probably take a few more days of this to even get the pieces close enough to join.

As you can see, I'm still working out the base design , I've modelled the whole thing in SketchUp, including a half-assed rendering of the chairs, and have realized the compromise yet again, design vs. aesthetics vs. functionality.

There is one lesson in both gardening and wood working:

PATIENCE

umm...

2010-03-05T19:56:00.000-08:00

What was I thinking?

Holy crap, what a stupid idea!

I even read about NOT doing this...

Walnut...

Tung Oil...

Shellac...

Hell, forget the first two, I've heard; never brush shellac on furniture.

crap...

he whole of last week (with the exception of the culmination and completion of a major in-house exhibit in honor of the 85th anniversary of Balto, yea, I'm sure you know, but seriously, come on down. I managed to get a ton of hand-tool work in... big 14/4 cedar, rather twisted with age, rings like a bell when you rap it, easy to plane, still moves when sawn. Lots of big lap and through tenon joints, married to miters, and a few I just made up, several (REALLY cool ones) that got covered up or otherwise wiped out. Wish I could still see them all.) was spent at work

Then I come home...

220...

nope.

1000...

nope.

400...

hmmm...

maybe.

oh yea, now we got progress...

well, why not a rag soaked in alcohol?

I knew about that one, but I really like the amber of the soaked in shellac.

So it changes yet again, it actually matches the piece from Arielle's dad,

maybe I just keep going.

I really don't want to sand anymore, I hate sanding to begin with, which is why I own all those planes, um...

yea...

so back to sanding...

crap...

do you know what your limit is before sand paper is no longer a viable commercial product?

try sanding shellac over tung oil for a week...

you will know...

oh yes...

you WILL know.

2010-02-21T12:17:00.000-08:00

there comes a time in every step when enough is enough...

enough cutting

enough shaping

enough smoothing

that next step will hold back further progress until it is accomplished

a Cleveland glue-up is a menacing task. It does seem I get more time in the shop during the winter, but it's impossible to glue. Everything gets hauled inside; parts, clamps, chisels, rasps. You'll only know you've forgotten something when you need it most. Care must be taken to ensure the optimum temperature of the wood is achieved before the extreme climate change readjusts all your joinery. After everything is glued, the whole damn thing needs to be transported again, upstairs for the glue to find its happiest set. Then it's out to the shop again to prep for the next glue-up, and it's deja-vu all over again.

I couldn't continue to shape the piece until it was solid, now I can focus on those lines which will flow through the whole thing...

It's seriously sturdy, was so even before the glue-up, but now there's no creaking, less flex, it feels rock hard. At this point I'm more worried about material failure than insufficient joinery.

vision

2010-02-13T12:52:00.000-08:00

There are two ways to see a piece; one with your eyes and one with your hands...

This chair has tested my limits of vision in both senses, a curve feels right but looks odd, and another is visually perfect but has a tactile bulge.

I sit now, astride the piece, atop my saw bench. All the pressure is off the legs, but the joinery is tight. I can work all the parts as one or separately.

Now comes the music, Muse has been mine for the day. The rhythm matching my tools.

This is sweeping work, from simple form, to overall shape, past little details, I see now only the lines, the connections, transitions, breaks, the piece becomes.

Oh yea, and there's a rock...

to glue...

2010-02-08T17:09:00.000-08:00

or not to glue...

I've read that designing a chair is the single most difficult of wood working undertakings. A table needs only to be as structurally sound as that which it faced with.

Remember; glass tables do shatter in movies, but then again shooting a hole around your feet to fall through to the next floor works too.

A chair requires the deftness of shape paired with the strength of joinery and bulk.

Much like a sand sculpture, you can only create within the boundaries of physics. It has to be able to withstand several hundred pounds, awkwardly.

I'm there, I've removed as much bulk and retained enough. I've assemble and deconstructed.

I've eaten breakfast atop the dry fit and checked the lower back support. It feels right, it looks right, but there's still the lap, the hole, the focus. Then again there's still the further deconstruction for documentation, rounding, smoothing planing, and the seat needs to be carved. I'm 100% daunted by that task, but filled with anticipation of its fruition.

Till then, here it is, closing yet further, I really have no deadline.

terror

2010-01-31T17:14:00.000-08:00

That moment, you know you have to cut, you've laid it out, measured, remeasured, scoured the web for any other alternative, checked the books, the magazines and the blogs. Faced with the terrifying prospect of completely and irrevocably butchering that very expensive piece of wood, when do you decide to cut?

Once scrambled, you can never get the yolk out of the whites.

Ah hell, it's just a piece of freaking wood!

Wait though, what if you made an error, how do you correct it at this point?

What if that joint isn't beefy enough?

What if the grain just isn't going in the right direction?

These thoughts are the cancer of woodworking, if you don't overcome these fears, face those demons, you'll never get a damn thing done!

these are some views of my favorite things

2010-01-20T16:01:00.001-08:00

Sometimes I just stand around in my shop...
it's tough to concentrate with all those impeccable hand-made portents of the craft calling out...
pick me up and use me dammit!
sometimes I just sharpen things...
chisels, plane irons, spokeshave blades, marking knives, auger bits, scrapers, haven't made it to the saws yet, kinda scared

or I oil things...
blades, irons, try-squares, adjustable squares, dovetail squares, miter squares, sliding squares, combination squares, rulers, braces, eggbeater drills, hand drills, dovetail saws, carcass saws, tenon saws, panel saws, flush-cut saws, smoothing planes, block planes, shoulder planes, jointer planes, try planes, scrub planes, router planes, rabbet planes, combination planes, plow planes, hollow planes, round planes, transitional planes, fillister planes, I could go on...
It's an almost impossible task to keep everything clean, oiled, sharp, and adjusted, ready to create...

sometimes I make stuff...

sometimes I buy wood,

both my favorite and most dreaded parts.

I just had the opportunity to meet an amazing supplier. At this point he'll remain anonymous until I ask if it's alright.

Urban trees, some hundreds of years old, felled by storms, cars, death, or construction, that would otherwise be trundled off to a mulch plant or bonfire. Trees with character and history, somehow managing to survive as long as they have. It's in the wood, there in the grain, its twists and turns and convolutions, its color and pattern and stain. It's in the sap that pumped through and the branches we can only imagine. And you can ask the story, he knows. He knows how to cut it and dry it and point out spots you may have missed. He used to mill bits of firewood on a band saw as a child. He earned a degree in forestry and now imparts his knowledge in the wood he sells.

May my shop fill with his effort

and his efforts not go to waste

Looking back

2010-01-08T15:39:00.000-08:00

Last year about this time I was waist deep in my own smoother, some folks have seen the pics, some very lucky few have had the chance to hold it, caress it, heft it, and even fewer still have made a shaving with it, no not a shaving really, a whisp..

So here's how it's done..

Buy some stuff...

dense luscious wood (LET IT DRY FIRST!!!!) good thick carbon steel, even thicker brass, and oh yea, an iron (really that should have been your first step, shoulda been mine too, but, well, now you know)

Since pictures say a thousand words, I'm going to shut up...

It is hands-down my favorite plane in the shop, it undoubtedly has its place, only used to put that final show finish on the surface, but damn does it feel good!

oh yea, the chairs...

2010-01-03T15:06:00.000-08:00

So getting back to the shop after a two week vacation has been a delight. Never thought I'd go away somewhere nice, say Napa Valley

and Chicago , and actually miss being home. But a week spent in my girlfriend's parents' house, hearing the whine of the dust collector, snarl of radial arm saw, weed-wacker staccato of random orbital sander, made me miss my shop.

Ideas which I've approached, torn apart, reassembled, thrown out, recovered, seem to get lost in the perpetual separation of vacation. An understanding that drawings aren't always necessary.

Absence from your norm is therapy for your soul.

I learned a lot more about things other than woodworking.

I really picked up the value of other people. What some one else means to me. When that one shines that glimmer of one-ness.

I've decided the chairs will reflect this, four pieces, as a whole each reflecting one. I can't say they will be about another specific person, but each will include a bit of place, that centers each object through a physical artifact of being with another person.

Mysterious, huh? Just you wait.

Of course, I missed my cats too!

quick and dirty

2009-11-26T12:02:00.000-08:00

It's that time of year again, the holidays. If I can get ten minutes in the shop it's only through hard-won persuasion. "oh yea, the turkey needs to sit for a while" "the mashers will cook for at least twenty more minuets" and when I do get out the excuse is "they're Christmas presents"

But I did have at least one good project.

New chairs!

no wait...

I still have to plan them, build a mock-up, test the fit and feel, find the right wood...

Oh yea, there was one other thing I needed to do...

Two moves ago the dining-room table leaves disappeared. They are probably still mouldering away in the damp, rat infested basement of the Gingerbread House. So here we have eleven family members trekking to our cramped little home, and the table's only fifty inches long.

You know how this works.

"honey, I'm going to the lumber yard"

mmm, some nice oak will be perfect...

A couple swipes with the jointer and a painless glue-up, a pass or two with the smoother, and a quick matching edge molding with a shoulder plane and block plane. A matching apron with a small grove near the bottom, stick it on with the Kreg, a few holes with the bit and brace and some dowels, and here we go...

no wait...

something's not right here...

they don't line up with each other

oh crap..

well I got a little lesson in truing a panel, a few strokes with the jack plane and a pass or two with the jointer and flip it over on the table saw to parallel the other side. and bingo, there it is!

Since it's covered with a table cloth it really doesn't matter if the color is even close, but I'll be sitting there, running my fingers over the transition between the leaves and the original and I'll smile a little that I can't tell the difference.

done

2009-10-02T16:53:00.000-07:00

well, not really done.

There's still a bit of work straightening the top (it's a bit wonkey from it's natural viewing angle, one I've not yet experienced till tonight (reminder: work from P.O.V.)) and some bits of finishing left to do. I decided to break from tradition (and Arielle's repeated advice against, and mount the handle beneath the drawer. I did spend the time to shape the handle, clever angles and curves to snag the fingertips, a quick pop and it slides open. I could not for the life of me mar the face of the drawer, it serves as a graphic panel, perfectly flowing with the other three.

and oh man, the color! The curly cherry never sits still, it glimmers and undulates like fire!

The piece of glass was purchased specifically for the table, titled Wave, it was created by Cleveland artist Michael J Mikula

timing

2009-09-23T18:27:00.000-07:00

Timing really is everything.

Don't believe me, look at every major point in your life, when something profound changed, and everything was different from that day forth.

Go on, take a minute to think about it.

So now you get it, just how important timing is.

When did you get into woodworking, when did you really know you would hasten down this path, spend all that money, invest all that time? Did timing have anything to do with it? In retrospect, everything has to do with timing, as if each moment happens and the results are already determined.

I know, you think, this has little bearing in woodworking, but wait there's more! It really does...

Imaging the timing that goes into a piece, if you have a nine to five or a business that you run, there's so little time for wood, but you find the time and treasure it, slave over a piece for just moments, sometimes get to indulge in a day. Hours at a time, honing the surface, stalking a fit. and then it's over.

Well if you are an optimist it's really only half over. Or, of course, you're one of those weirdo's who likes to caress the material before it's entombed, immortalized, in a mercy killing of odd chemicals. You have reached a point when you really are no longer necessary, it is what it is and it's time to let it go. That first application of finish.

Sure you've made a couple test pieces, slathered on a few candidates, picked by juried vote (you do have two halves to your brain, you know) the aesthetic and convenience you require most, but until this point you've not sullied the piece itself. It's then you see it, the oil picks up the chatoiance, light glimmers, your tools reflect in the pool, and OH GOD, the color. You knew it was there, you've planned for it, you've planed for it, you've scraped and pared, and there it is, and it's incredible, then it's gone, it's dull, the grain raises, the streaks happen, the glimmer fades, and you know it's at least another two or three weeks before that moment strikes again...

So back to timing...

it's always a good idea to time those last two or so weeks into a period when you can be there an hour or two at a stretch and have too many other distractions, so you don't drop hair and eyelashes and skin cells and saw dust into your slowly evolving finish.

to the line

2009-09-13T16:34:00.000-07:00

I've had a couple weeks away from the shop, torture to the involved. Concentration on the task at hand, frequently interrupted by thoughts of the piece. After 130 hours of serious labor (and serious addiction-fueling cash) I managed a couple days with my table.

In the interim others' blogs have been my vicarious woodshop pastime. I ran across this article (see if I can dig it up) that stressed cutting to the line, not just cutting , but chopping, planing, paring, etc. The fable here is obvious, if you always steer clear the line is never in reach, how can you progress without a little confidence. If you constantly work to the line, your work load is reduced, and your skill level increases. I spent the last two days to the line, and damn I made good lines. Not only does this technique force you to cut, pare, chop and plane with determination, it forces you to concentrate on the action of the tool itself (and of course,the making of the lines becomes obsession). Like driving (not like the schmoes who simply pilot their vehicles whilst gulping down heaping bowls of Captn' Crunch, or liberally applying stop-light-makovers) down a jam packed boulevard slicked with ice and crammed with Bentleys. You know this is your only shot to get it right, and by god you do. You'd be surprised how good you can get, fast! Sure cut a row of lipped, half blind dovetails in a compound angled front, then simply snore through the traditional and totally uninspiring ones in the back, it does make you pay attention so you don't screw up the ten hours you already spent on this piece of tree.

(I do wish to make a note here, the date is now ten minutes until March 6, 2010, and I realized I had the wrong approach: the front set of dovetails turned out muddy... look closely at what you are doing as you do it. CONSCIOUS DECISIONS HERE, FOLKS! The back set is extravagant! Major contrast, dramatic composition, the front, ehhh, not so much. Goes to show, trust the gut instinct!)

I'd bore you with the details of all the work I've done, all the joints I've finessed, all the unexpected twists and turns in the design, all the ego-stimulating, third world GNP priced tools I've used (but I will say, good tools really are worth it, REALLY!) all the times I've dry fit the piece, only to tap it all apart, remove a thousandth of an inch to make it fit better and stick it all back together, just to do it again (and this gets longer and more involved the further you get) the times I've just stood there looking stupid as a neighbor stuck their head in to see where the dog was (Mini just LOVES my woodshop, and she makes a great broom at only two inches off the ground) the meals I've missed, the aches I feel, because you already know these things. I'm not here to teach, or preach or write magazine articles, I just want those of you who have a loved one with this affliction to know what we feel, and for those of you who have it, to recognize, you're not alone.

So instead of a lecture, here's a series of (not necessarily in order) crappy, boring, low quality images from my Jesus-phone for you to fall asleep to.

By the way, anyone know what this joint is called, if not I got dibs!

-edit 10/8/09-

This morning I found a reference to this joint in the back of the Oct 08 Fine Woodworking, it's a Japanese mitered bridle joint named kane tsugi (right-angle corner) and here I thought I'd made up something new...

working

2009-08-26T17:26:00.000-07:00

There comes a time in every project that planning must make way for working, you just have to stop thinking so much and cut some tree.

After reviewing, revising, tweaking, reviewing, adjusting, compensating, measuring, critiquing, asking opinions of others who could really give a crap less, sleeping on it, reviewing, revising, tweakin.... you get the idea...I took tool in hand (a beautiful hundred plus year old Disston cross cut, and a brand new Lie-Nielsen rip cut) and started butchering.

Now you have to understand, I just started working wood maybe five years ago (seriously started working wood yesterday, and tomorrow I'll feel the same way) and this piece is daunting, many compound angles, lots of odd tennons, miters, slot dovetails, half blind dovetails, pegged blind mitered slip joints, and the dubious "attach a top to the whole damn thing" joints, and I would really rather get the most of the uncountable (unless of course you look at the account books) dollars of tools in my shop, and do the whole thing by hand. Fairly easy, with the right tools.

Of course, I don't yet have ALL the right tools... yet...

The bevels for joining the leg pieces were cut on the table saw, but as my better half said "you did buy those power tools too, you know"

However, there are jobs only a hand tool can do. Lie-Nielsen's Dovetail saw has been perfect for these tiny leg pieces. 80.3 degree compound miters and offset tennons on three by four pieces of walnut on the table saw are not the best insurance of coming out of this with all my digits intact. And to be honest, there's something rewarding in shaping a complex piece by hand, when the tools work exactly as expected, the layout lines are dead-on and the finish face reflects the time spent studying the grain and laying out the cuts accordingly. Even in the beginning I'm satisfied.

emergence

2009-08-21T15:48:00.000-07:00

Where exactly an idea begins I cannot say, this particular one began with a slab of wood.

In the desperation for a new piece from the woodshop I reluctantly trudged to my local woodworking store to mosey down the isles for a piece of wood. There it was dirty, splotchy and saw-marked, but oh, so full of potential. Curly cherry can radiate waves of psychedelic euphoria if treated properly, and I could just see this slab unhindered, glinting in the sun in the front room. So several days behind the computer and one vast departure, then mild return to an old idea and I have the inklings of a vision. I like to work out the idea and joinery in the virtual world, long before even attempting it in the real. Sometimes stumbling blocks such as impossible joints alter the design in ways the aesthetic desire cannot.

So here's the fourth design and it's working well, curly cherry, maple and walnut. And I'm off to the shop to plane this top!

very first post

2009-07-20T15:38:00.000-07:00

I know, this sounds corny, but this is the first. I've managed to fall into so many of modern technology's traps, rewarded at times, confounded at others. This is the result of a great many ponderings, mistakes and triumphs.

I must explain the title

Grain Damaged

it started as a play on words, a sand sculpture for the first ever Doubles World Championship of Sand Sculpture, my friend Brett Stocker and I were sponsored by BTO (yes the real Bachman Turner Overdrive) to enter the event, we did well. The name was resurrected for the first Sand Blasters on the Travel Channel with teammate Kirk Rademaker, and again for the second and third season with now permanent teammate Suzanne Altamare. The thing about Grain Damaged is that it at first referred simply to sand, but then I realized its potential in photography, thus my Flickr stream was born, now it takes on a new life yet again, wood has grain , right?

I'll do my best to keep this thing going, unlike Facebook or Twitter or even my own website, I'll post when I can, bore you at times, and hope you keep coming back for more.

Thanks