frozen

in these depths of winter freeze
the lure of a cozy faux-leather office chair
adjacent to a free blowing hot air vent
is nearly impossible to overcome
 

but I do get my moments

while finishing up a few details the lumber I needed finally was had

I still needed a board jack to support the  big slabs

basically, a stick with holes with another stick stuck through

combined with the crochette, and now very ample leg vise

I can finally do this safely and efficiently

once one edge is flat the cut can be marked with a panel gauge
and ripped

each 70 inch length is trued on the top edge
a careful eye for wind and bow
and at least flat on the bottom

one face is brought square to the true edge
then carefully flattened completely

from there it is a simple job of marking the opposite face
and planing it to the line
re-square the edges if necessary 

I'm going to leave each slab in this state and move on to the next
I'm sure they will keep moving throughout the winter
and will need to be adjusted before gluing is possible again in the spring

this was a one time run tool I purchased over the summer
it finally arrived last week
used in conjunction with the Veritas sharpening jig it sure makes setting up simple

adapt

This past month has brought with it some profound changes
and I've taken my grief and frustration out on my table
the underside has been left in a very raw state
I want to remember this month every time I touch it

cross-grain scrub planing leaves tell-tale texture
but I needed the edges to be smooth
using a block plane I transitioned the underside from the edge in
it offers an extraordinary tactile  experience

to get everything crisp and even requires moving around
a lot
lines change when you change position, the faces interact
and if they are not perfect huge wiggles happen

I could work these edges for another week, but I'm not gonna

except for drilling the round mortices for the base connection the top is done
it needs a few coats of polyacrylic but I can do that anytime

the next step is to get hauling on the base
that means big walnut
and some complicated joinery I have yet to figure out

for no good reason other than being fed up with the beige wallpaper peeling off my walls
I took a week off and ripped, patched and painted the future home of this project

Goodbye, sweet SE

why...

today, after an excruciating day at work I relaxed to a TED Talks
and a beer
Cynthia Lair, an organic food educator discussed her method of introducing people
to the process of cooking
as almost, a technique
to zen with the process
the idea of cooking to cook  at the moment
and I got to thinking that this was the whole reason I love to work wood
or sculpt in sand
or for that matter cook dinner

and there's a bigger thinking behind that
the whole reason I graduated to hand tools (and fell in love with sand sculpture)
was to get a closer relation
to the tools
the material
and the process

I would not have to don protective wear any more
I could plane a board at ten thirty at night if I wanted
though I still have to restrict mortise chopping to normal decent hours
and I could listen to Pandora without need for either external speakers or headphones

most of the time I forget to turn on the tunes
working has it's own rhythm
and it finds itself in the process
which is dictated by the tool
as described by the action
necessary to remove the material
to create the surface
the piece demands

by the way I hone my kitchen knives with each use too

An Open Letter to the Schwarz

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.

persevere

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