Shenandoah Mallets

My friend Jeff Fleisher and I recently started a business we're calling the Shenandoah Tool Works and we've started manufacturing our first wood tools.  Called the Shenandoah Mallet, they are steel-headed mallets for use by woodcarvers .  We are producing them in two weights

Carving a Newport Shell with a Shenandoah Mallet

--1 lb. and 1½ lb.--and fitting them with comfortable handles turned from domestic and exotic hardwoods of especial beauty.

We personally select the lumber for the mallet handles and turn each handle individually, which makes each handle unique.  As a result, specific mallets may be chosen from the Shenandoah Tool Works catalog at www.shenandoahtoolworks.com/nsp.  We have a wide selection of handles available for immediate order.  In addition to these, we have other hardwoods available for production.  We are also able to produce mallets  from a user's own special wood.  The address for information is  info@shenandoahtoolworks.com.  A four-page brochure is available from us at that address or on our web site.

Shenandoah Mallets in crotch walnut and tiger maple

 We've created the Shenandoah Mallets as premium tools for discriminating woodworkers who value both the functionality and beauty of their tools.  The mallets are durably designed for a lifetime of productive use.  They will bring continuing pleasure to the woodworker who chooses them for both their comfortable fit in the hand and their delight to the eye.  We've made the Shenandoah Mallets surprisingly affordable; they are priced in the mid-range between run-of-the-mill mallets and those sold at higher price  points.  To keep our prices low, we are offering Shenandoah Mallets only from www.shenendoahtoolworks.com/nsp.

Why call it Shenandoah Tool Works and name the mallets the Shenandoah Mallet?  It's where we live.  Jeff's woodshop, where we do our production, is located near New Market, Virginia, in the heart of the Shenandoah Valley.  I live in the Blue Ridge mountains only minutes away from the Shenandoah River and the northern entrance to the valley.  So it's a natural.  Besides, we think the name has a ring to it.

Meems Bottom Covered Bridge

Wish us luck as we get our new venture underway.  We think we've got a good product that will be attractive to woodcarvers the world over.  We hope you and our customers agree.  Send us a comment to let us know.

Norm

Carving with Mary May

Mary May demonstrating the convex Newport shell

 Just recently, I returned from a five-day class in wood carving with celebrated carver Mary May.  I was joined by six other aspiring carvers, including three whom I already knew and three others who soon became new friends.  The class was conducted in Mary's light and airy workshop in Charleston, SC.  I drove down from Virginia with Jeff Fleisher, with whom I've taken classes before, first as his student and later as his classmate.  The class was organized by Charles Neil, who wanted to learn more about carving the details on the John Townsend Tall Clock he is currently building on his web-based Mastering Woodworking  classes.

In case you don't know about Mary, she too has a regular on-line class series on carving furniture details, in addition to a line of DVDs and other products.  And of course, she teaches in both her own shop and at various locations around the country.

Some of Mary's many chisels

During our week with Mary, we worked on four projects.  The first was a Philadelphia-style ball and claw foot.   That was followed by a finial that will be used by some of the class participants on the John Townsend Tall Clock they are building with Charles Neil, the Newport convex shell, which will also be used on the clock, and a cabriole leg with acanthus leaves.  All our work was done with basswood blanks, as it is easiest for beginners to carve.

Jeff Fleisher gave us a demonstration of chip carving

I learned a lot during the week.  Here are some of my take-aways, in no particular order of importance:

• A mallet gives you better control of the chisel, especially when cutting on curves
• For stability of action, keep your opposite hand (the one not holding the chisel) in contact with the board at all times, even when working with a mallet
• Learn to hold the chisel in either hand and to work with your non-dominant hand; it will help especially in awkward situations and avoids the need to keep reversing the position of your work
• Use your body motion with the chisel action and not just arm movement; this reduces fatigue and increases control

Carving the convex Newport shell

• Cutting a curve with a V-chisel can cause you to be cutting against the grain on one side of the V-cut; to avoid this, lean the chisel so you are always cutting with the grain; otherwise you will get tearout on the off-side

• Carve the ball on the ball and claw foot with a flat chisel, such as a #2 chisel or a paring chisel

• Good lighting--especially side lighting--is essential when you are carving; Mary bought LED panels inexpensively at Lowes and mounted them on adjustable arms

• Pfeil chisels come with secondary bevels cut at the factory so they are sharp right out of the box; but when they dull, you have to grind off that secondary bevel in order to re-hone them; also, the secondary bevel affects the angle of cut somewhat so they may not be ideal choices

• If you darken the end of the chisel blade with a black marking pen, you can see your progress when sharpening it

Mary also sells various things, and while there I purchased some of her wares: a couple of Dastra gouges, which she is beginning to sell (if they aren't on her web site yet, they soon will be); a brass-headed mallet with cocobolo handle; plaster castings of four of her carvings to use as models; and a couple of Mary's DVDs.  I already subscribe to her on-line program for the low fee of $10 a month.

Carving acanthus leaves on a cabriole leg

Charles Neil brought along his Koch Thermal Reactive Carving Tool system, which has four wheels for honing carving chisels and gouges .  It's thermal-reactive, which means that the honing paste becomes active when it reaches a certain temperature.  He convinced nearly everyone in the class to buy one, and we ordered them from Woodcraft.  In the process, we bought out all Woodcraft's remaining stock, so it may be a while before this German machine is back in supply.  I set mine up the other day and it works wonderfully to quickly hone chisels to a razor-sharp edge.  It will be a joy to use and it will make the carving so much better.

Jeff and I brought our wives with us to Charleston and they had a great time touring, shopping, eating  and generally kicking around that historic city.  In all, a fun time and wonderful learning experience.

Building a Step Stool

A confluence of events led to one of my recent projects.  I saw my wife had stacked up a couple of short stools in the closet that she could use for steps to reach the top of the closet.  And, at almost the same time, Charles Neil did a build of a step stool on his web program, Mastering Woodworking.  So, putting together the need with the opportunity, I decided I would build my wife a step stool.

I chose walnut for my material, partly because I had some in supply and partly because I plan to build her a dressing table for the bathroom, also out of walnut.  I followed Charles Neil's plans somewhat loosely.  I sized the height of the steps to match the height of the stools my wife was using, knowing that the height would work for her.  And I omitted putting molding around the edge of the steps.  Other than that, the plans were quite similar.

I made the steps six inches high, a foot wide and six inches deep.  There are two steps, so after cutting the sides to final dimensions, I cut through dovetails to join the sides with the tops but waited to glue them until later.  I used my Festool Domino to join the side pieces for a glue-up into single side panels.  I then made aprons for under the steps and at the top and bottom of the rear of the stair steps.  I cut arches in the aprons and in the sides of the steps, mainly for decoration though the arches on the sides help to level the feet for stability.  I Dominoed the aprons to the side pieces and glued up the dovetails, completing the assembly, and put the whole thing in clamps to dry.

Meanwhile, I made a handle with a four-foot length of walnut, which I tapered on the jointer and with hand planes, and turned a knob, which I attached to the handle with mortise and tenon.

I finished it using two trace coats of General Finishes Medium Brown water-based dye, flooding the surface with dye, wiping it back evenly, letting it dry, then sanding the first trace coat with 120 grit sandpaper and the second with 180 grit paper.  I followed with a final coat of the same dye.  This dye gives the walnut a uniform dark walnut color and eliminates any whitish streaks from sapwood.  When it was dry, I brushed on a coat of General Finishes Seal-A-Cell and followed that with three coats of General Finishes Arm-R-Seal, to give it a hard top coat.

I'm pleased with the way the step stool looks and my wife is pleased with how it works.  It is much safer to use because she can hold on to the handle while she is mounting the steps.

Norm

Jointer Push Block

Since I got my jointer, oh, I don't know how many years ago, I've been using those orange push blocks to guide my stock across those spinning blades.  But lately, those push blocks have been slipping on the stock, creating an inconvenient if not dangerous situation.  I could have glued on some rubber padding left over from our carpets or even a piece of sandpaper.  But at just the right time I saw a blog entry by Steve Shanesy of Popular Woodworking Magazine describing a wooden pusher he made for his own use.  I liked the looks of it and decided to make one for myself.  The blog has full dimensions and also includes patterns for cutting the parts.

My pusher was made of poplar.  I cut a dado in the base to receive the tenon on the handle, which is oriented cross-grain to the base.  I had intended to cut a tenon on the handle that would fit the dado, but in my zeal to cut dados, I cut one in the handle where the tenon was supposed to go.  Whoops!

I recovered by cutting a piece of white oak to fit into the resulting dado grooves and glued it in place.  I rounded over all the exposed edges with a 1/8 inch roundover bit.  I added a 1/4 inch deep cleat at the rear of the base.  I finished the whole piece with several coats of shellac just to give it a better appearance.  I did not finish the base as I did not want it to be slick.

I've had a number of chances to use it since I made it and I can happily report that it performs very well.  The length of the base holds the wood firmly to the infeed table and gives me positive control over the stock as it moves across the table.

Shanesy also wrote a blog on making a table saw pusher and I plan to build that as well, when I can find time in between other projects.

Norm

A Home for My Handplanes

Over the years, I've built up a fair-sized collection of handplanes.  I've got a block plane, nos. 3, 4, 4-1/2, 5-1/4, 6, 7-1/2, a chisel plane, a shoulder plane, a bevel-up smoother, a low-angle jack plane, a scrub plane, a router plane, an edge plane, and a skew rabbet plane, not to mention a couple of fix-up candidates.  Of course, since I teach using handplanes at Woodcraft, I can justify having them since I need to demonstrate them and let my students try them out.  And, I really enjoy using them in my various woodworking projects.

My handplane cabinet

But storing them has always been a bit of a problem.  For the last several years, I've kept them in plane socks and stored them in a cardboard box.  But the downsides of this are the inconvenience of pulling them out to use them and the weight of the box when carrying it to class.  Frankly, I began to fear the bottom of the box would tear out, putting my valuable collection at significant risk of damage.

That's when I decided I needed a better home for my planes, one where I could grab them easily when needed in my work.  And, frankly, where I could see and enjoy them.  So I decided to build myself a cabinet to house my collection.

The shelf you see in the photo is the result.  I built it out of poplar that I jointed and planed by machine.  I cut through dovetails for the corner joints and joined the shelves to the sides with sliding dovetail joints.  I added small slips of wood to the shelves to lift the plane blades off the shelves.  I finished the shelf with Watco dark walnut Danish oil and coated that with two coats of shellac.  I rabbeted the back (by hand, of course) to house a 1/4 inch plywood back.  The cabinet is hung with a French cleat screwed into the concrete blocks of my basement woodshop wall.

I'm happy with the result.  And, I'm glad to have the project finished.  It stayed on my workbench for far too long.  Now that my bench is clear, I have room to move on to other projects.  And, I've gotten my planes out of that box and out where I can see and use them.

Norm

A Visit to Lie-Nielsen’s Plant

The Lie-Nielsen factory and store in Warren, Maine

My friend Jeff Fleisher and I, along with our wives, had an opportunity to visit the Lie-Nielsen plant last summer. Their shop and factory are located near the Maine seacoast in the little town of Warren. This was a trip we always wanted to make, and it was fascinating to both witness the production of the famous Lie-Nielsen tools and complete line of their tools in the company store.

A box of cap irons, ready for assembly.

There were two attractions—the store and the manufacturing plant. As soon as we got there, we ask for, and got, a brief tour of the plant. As we walked through the facility, workers were busy at such tasks as lapping the soles of planes, operating the CNC machines that make the bodies of the planes and other tools, and inserting plane blades in the large tanks where they are cryogenically treated. We also passed many trays of partly and fully assembled tools of all types, the area where the tools are assembled, and where they are reviewed for quality control and packaged. The plant encompasses several buildings, including a wood shop which we were unable to visit, and employs about 90 staff.

Scraper plane bodies.

We also spent time in the store, where Lie-Nielsen displays their products, plus others' tools, such as Auriou rasps. We took particular delight in examining all the specialty planes, with which we were least familiar. Each of us already has a pretty good selection of standard bench planes, but they too were fascinating, particularly because of their high quality.

Lie-Nielsen saws.

Of course, we couldn't get away without making some purchases. I bought a 1/4 inch mortise chisel and a sock for one of my bench planes and managed not to spend a lot on this trip. Truthfully I already own about all the planes I need, many of them manufactured here in Warren. It was a fun trip and even our wives, who have much less interest in woodworking that we do, enjoyed it.

Norm

Building a Sugar Chest

A sugar chest is a southern piece of furniture, a small cabinet that was used in the eighteenth century to hold sugar and keep it locked up from servants and children who might partake of this valuable commodity.  In the north, they might have been called cellarettes and used to store liquor where it could be locked up.  Charles Neil periodically offers a class to build a sugar chest of his own design and last year I decided to take it and build one of my own. 

Charles Neil explains the construction process.

It was a three-day class (pictures here).  Charles and his helpers had prepared some of the pieces ahead of time and had pre-cut and dimensioned the tiger maple to nearly finished size in order to save building time.  But most of the work of cutting and assembling the piece was ours to do. 

We started by building the base, which incorporated tapered legs and openings for a drawer and pull-out shelf.  Then, using Charles' signature dovetail template, which uses special Whiteside bits with narrow necks to simulate hand-cut dovetails, we dovetailed the case.

Cutting the dovetails in the case.

The finished pieces, ready to

 finish.

 By the end of the three days, we each had an assembled base, a glued-up case body, a drawer, a shelf and a lid to take home and finish.

Finishing involved laying down a trace coat of brown dye, sanding to 120 grit with a random orbit sander, trace coating a second time and sanding to 180 grit, then staining the piece with a New England mixture of water based dye.  The trace coats let you see what needs to be sanded and, by soaking into the soft grain, it helps "pop" the curl in the maple.  

Finally, using a new Apollo spray gun I sprayed five coats of General Finishes High Performance satin water-based finish, scuffing lightly between coats and applying the last two coats in quick succession so they would bond together and create a tough top coat.  Finally, I buffed the piece with a slightly soapy solution using a random orbit sander and Abralon sanding pads, 2000 and 3000 grit, which left a buttery smooth satin finish on the piece.

The finished sugar chest.

The final step was to assemble the parts into a whole.  The result was spectacular.  I learned a lot in the process of building this piece and am proud to have it on display in my dining room.

Charles periodically offers this class.  If you are interested in taking the class, which is held at his New Market, Virginia, workshop, check his web site or contact him to let him know you are interested.  Charles also produced a DVD on building the sugar chest, but I believe it is now out of production.  However, it would be worth contacting him to see if he has any remaining copies.

Whatever you are building, have fun doing it!

Norm