Greene & Greene-Inspired Pantry Shelf

Recently, I completed--with the assistance of my friend Jeff Fleisher--a pantry shelf of my own design inspired by the Greene & Greene style.  The shelf, which measures 24 X 36", incorporates a number of Greene & Greene features, including cloud lifts, finger joints, reveals, and ebony plus and inlays.  The photo shows the finished shelf.

The Greene & Greene-inspired pantry shelf in use

The build for this project is slated to be featured in the August 2017 issue of Popular Woodworking Magazine, so look for it there.

Norm

My Planes are Finished; Well, Almost!

Today was the sixth and final day of the wooden bodied planemaking class with Scott Meek.  The class, held in Scott's basement workshop in Asheville, North Carolina, was a great learning device, not to mention a lot of fun!

Today we sharpened and honed one blade so we would know how to do it.  I already have learned to sharpen freehand on diamond plates so for me, this served more to get one blade prepared for a trial run with the new planes.

Here is the blade I honed, using a solution of Hone Rite on DMT's Diasharp diamond plates

Then we opened up the mouths of our plane bodies just so the blade would protrude through the base with enough room to spare for the desired shaving to pass through.

We spent additional time refining the shape of our plane bodies to fit our aesthetic objectives and also to fit out individual hands, given the differing ways we hold our planes.  They are our unique creations.  We didn't finish this part of the work and will further refine the fit and then the finish at home.

My 22 inch jointer plane, showing it rough shape; I'll refine it further after I put it to use

Finally, we put our planes to the acid test--taking shavings with each of them on the famous 2X6 Scott has taken to woodworking shows for years and that is now closer to a 2X2.  What a great thrill it is so see a wonderful full width shaving curl off the board and feel the mirror-like finish it leaves behind.

My Osage orange smoother, white oak jointer and teak jack planes

In addition to what I learned about planemaking, I got to use a Benchcrafted leg vise and plan to get and install one of these in my own woodshop.

Making Wooden Planes

I'm in Asheville, North Carolina, this week, learning to make wooden planes from Scott Meek.  Yesterday was our first day, and it was a busy one,

Our first job was to choose the woods we wanted and to assemble the blanks. I'll be making three planes, a smoother from Osage orange with an applied sole of Ipe and a wedge and retaining rod of the same wood; a 12 inch jack plane from a nice block of teak and a 22 inch jointer of quartersawn white oak that will have an insert just in front of the blade to help with wear at this critical spot.  The jack and jointer will have wedges and retaining rods from bubinga.

Assembling the wood blanks

 One thing I learned is you don't have to have a 4X4 inch blank to make a plane body.  You can glue up two 2X4 inch boards to get the size needed for a jack or jointer.  Here is my jointer in clamps.  We used Titebond 3 glue for the oak, but an epoxy glue for the woods like teak, bubinga and Osage orange that have more natural oils and would resist normal glue.

Gluing up two white oak boards; squeeze-out is good!

The white oak boards clamped up

Teak blank for jack plane

After selecting our wood, we jointed a smooth edge for the bottom and also one side.  When glue-ups were called for we did those, rough cut our wedges to shape (we'll rasp and sand them later) and cut off the cheese so we can get to the interior.

More to come!

Norm

Handplanes Book Now Available in Europe

My recently-released book on handplanes--Choosing and Using Handplanes: All You Need to Know to Start Planing By Hand--is now available from Amazon in Europe.  It will be priced there in Euros or British pounds.

Front and back cover

If you are looking for information about handplanes and how to get started using them, this book is written for you.  I hope you will find it useful.

Norm

Handplanes Book Now Sold at Highland Woodworking

I'm pleased to report that my recently-released book, Choosing and Using Handplanes: All You Need to Know to Get Started Planing by Hand, is now being sold by Highland Woodworking.  They are a fine family-owned and operated company that sells a wide array of tools and other resources for woodworkers at their Atlanta store and via the web.

If you are interested in purchasing the book from Highland Woodworking, here's the link.

If you do purchase the book, I hope you find it helpful and enjoyable.

Norm

My Book on Handplanes

For the last several months, I've been writing and photographing a book on using handplanes in woodworking.  Titled Choosing and Using Handplanes, it describes the various types of handplanes, how to set them up and sharpen them, ways to hold work for planing and planing technique itself.  It also addresses caring for handplanes, buying and restoring old handplanes and how to diagnose and fix various problems encountered in planing.  The book should be completed in November in a paperback edition that will be sold on Amazon.com as well as on my web site and in a Kindle edition to follow soon after that.

A photo of the book's cover is shown here.  If you are new to handplaning, I think you will find this book a helpful resource for getting started.

Publishing the Handplanes Book

I continue to progress toward completion of my book, Choosing and Using Handplanes.  It has 74 pages now and will probably reach 80 by the time it is finished.  I still have a few photos to make and some appliances to construct.  I hope to have this all completed by mid-August.

That means it's time to start thinking about how I'll get the book published.  I could go for a traditional publisher, but I'm inclined to think that the self-publishing route would be better.  It think that offers the possibility of a lower price and wider distribution.

I do know that I'll be publishing it in full color, both the cover and inside.  That's important particularly for the photographs, which are important for conveying the information I want to share.

At the moment, I'm taking a hard look at publishing through CreateSpace, which will make the book available for purchase via Amazon.  I'll probably also produce a version for Kindle so it can be read on tablets.  That's what I did for my mystery novel, The Hero of Gucci Gulch, and it worked well.

I'll keep you posted on my progress and let you know when it is available.

For now, my offer stands to send a free copy (via email) to anyone who wants to review it.  Just write me at cobblermtnpress@gmail.com and I'll send the latest version by return email.  If you send me helpful comments, I'll also reference you in the acknowledgements!

Norm

An Update on the Handplanes Book

Since my last post, I've made considerable progress toward completing my book, Choosing and Using Handplanes.  The text is completely written, all of the figures are complete and most of some 80+ photos are inserted in their proper places.  I still need to complete the appendices on shooting board construction and build and document a few other appliances.

I have the book out for review with a few people who are knowledgeable about handplanes.  But, I would love to have additional readers.  If you would like to be one of them, send me your email address to cobblermtnpress@gmail.com and I'll send you a pdf version of the book in its present draft form.  Bear in mind, however, that it is about 3 mb in size.

I hope to have the book completely finished in a few weeks.  I am starting to look for a possible publisher.

Norm

A Sharpening Station, At Last!

Many of my tools will benefit from regular sharpening.  This includes handplane blades, bench chisels, carving chisels and woodturning tools, all of which I use often.  It's well known among woodworkers that sharp tools are necessary to achieve the best work, while dull tools are inefficient at best and dangerous at worst.  My problem was that I had no regular place to sharpen my tools.  Instead, every time I wanted to sharpen my plane blades or chisels, I had to get out my stones and set them up on my workbench, then move them out of the way when I was finished with them.  My woodturning tools are sharpened on a heavy slow-speed grinder that was inconvenient to lift from under my workbench every time I wanted to do some turning.  I use a Koch sharpening system and Shapton stones for my carving chisels and, once again, it was stored in an inconvenient location.

The eventual outcome of all this inconvenient, of course, is that the job of honing gets put off until no small amount of resharpening will suffice to restore the tools to peak condition.  And it means that tools get used when they are dull, poor practice indeed, but one I'll admit to practicing.

Gluing up the drawer

The solution is a dedicated sharpening station, something I've yearned for over the years and even planned but never built.  Fortunately, my good friend and business partner Jeff Fleisher came up with some surplus property that provided a solution.  First was a slightly damaged cabinet with a wide drawer opening and double doors leading to a moveable shelf inside.  Then, a local restaurant was renovating and he snagged some thick Formica table tops for each of us.

With these two pieces in hand, my job became simple.  I attached rotating wheels, pin nailed the table top to the case and built a drawer to fit the opening just under the new tabletop.  Then I added drawer pulls and finished it all with a coat of shellac.

My sharpening tools

Even before the drawer was completed, however, I put the station in operation.  The tabletop measures 48 X 30 inches and is large enough for all my sharpening equipment--a Tormek T-7 water-cooled grinder, a Koch sharpening system for my carving chisels, a low-speed grinder and a tray with my Shapton stones at the ready.  My strop is hanging on one side.  Tormek accessories and other small tools are in the large drawer.  Water jugs (I have no water in the shop) and other large items are accessible through the double doors.  Being on wheels, the whole sharpening station can be easily rolled near the workbench when wanted there and then rolled back out of the way when the floor space is needed for assembly and the like.

The finished sharpening station

I feel certain that this improvement to my shop will greatly enhance the speed and quality of my woodworking.  If you don't have a sharpening station, consider building one similar to this.  If you can get hold of a surplus cabinet or tabletop, so much the better!

Norm

Using Pinterest for Woodworking Research

I recently signed up for Pinterest.  I've got to admit it straight out; I'm not a big social media user.  Sure, I have a Facebook account and I read it sometimes but seldom post.  And I'm on LinkedIn as a passive presence.  I don't Tweet.  So frankly, I wasn't sure why I'd want to be on Pinterest.  All that said, I decided to give it a go.

My first idea was to post links to my business, Shenandoah Tool Works, and I created links to photos of the woodworking mallets and birdcage awls my partner Jeff Fleisher and I produce.  But then, upon looking around, I began to see photos of things I'd like to build for myself.  So I created boards in Pinterest for several projects--a cabinet to store hand tools, saw tills, a rolling lumber cart, table designs and decorative boxes.  After creating the boards, I searched each of these topics, scrolled through what I found and pinned the photos I liked best to my boards.

Already I've used the photos to design a rolling lumber rack that combines several features I saw in the Pinterest photos--racks for boards, storage for plywood, bins for offcuts, a panel saw and clamp storage.  I can already see that it will reduce the clutter in my shop and add functionality as well. 

If you haven't tried Pinterest yet, you may find it useful for designing projects.  The good thing is, it is not only easy to use but it's free!  If you like the project boards I've set up, you can always follow me.  My site is my name--Norm Reid.  If you decide to use Pinterest, let me know how it works out for you.

Norm

A New Name, A New Design

If you're a regular reader of this blog, you'll notice that I've renamed it and applied a new design.  Since I've come to call my basement shop the Cobbler Mountain Woodshop, it seemed right that this blog should bear the same name.  And, in view of the fact that I'm no longer a novice woodworker, a changing subtitle and design were in order as well.

Why Cobbler Mountain Woodshop?  Simply, because my home is situated at the foot of Little Cobbler Mountain in Virginia's Blue Ridge Mountains, with Big Cobbler Mountain lying just behind it.  It's a lovely location, the mountain visible out the kitchen window on all but the foggiest of days.

The address for this blog is still the same as it was, normssawdustpile.blogspot.com.  Only the title has changed, though a search on Cobbler Mountain Woodshop will find it as well.

The photo beneath the title and the design are new as well.  I chose the photo--of my no. 4 Lie-Nielsen smoothing plane working a natural edge walnut coffee table--to reflect my growing use of hand tools.  It also represents the fact that I've been teaching hand plane use and restoration at northern Virginia Woodcraft stores for the last several years.

As I see it, these changes represent more than a design upgrade.  Instead, they reflect my evolution from a complete novice--which I was when this blog began--to a maturing woodworker with a number of increasingly complex projects under my belt.

I look forward to describing my woodworking adventures here and hope you'll join me for future installments.

Norm

Making Space for Hand Tools

Like many contemporary woodworkers, I started out with power tools.  I assembled the usual array--workbench, tablesaw and bandsaw, jointer, planer, router table and sanding equipment, among others.  I set up shop in a basement cleared of accumulated clutter and installed my power tools within reach of a good dust collector.  Convinced that power tools would meet all my future needs and desires, I went so far as to declare I'd never need to use handplanes.  I mean, just how wrong can a fellow be?

It wasn't long before I began acquiring handplanes and learning how to set them up and use them.  Then it was chisels.  And handsaws.  And so, I converted from a complete Normite to a hybrid woodworker with a growing desire to build things using hand tools.

But while my woodshop afforded me space for my power tools, there was no good place for hand tool work, no spot where I could use a sawbench to break down lumber, no place for a sharpening station, no open area for assembly, no way to keep my burgeoning lumber stash from frustrating my attempts to move around the shop.  I began to have visions of building a new woodshop outside to meet my growing need for space.  My wife even went so far as to suggest just that.

It took my friend Jeff to see what I could not--the potential for reorganizing the space available right in my basement to yield more usable work area.  And so, with his vision and assistance, we transformed the cellar in a few short hours and opened up at least half again as much space as I was already using.

Now all my power tools are in one area and my hand tool operations in another.  Now I can walk past my lumber rack without fear of tripping.  I can saw a board with plenty of clearance.  I can wheel my assembly table into an open space for four-sided access when needed.  I have room for a sharpening station near my workbench.

My wonderful wife was ready and willing for me to build a new woodshop.  Fortunately, with her support, I've been able to get nearly the same result at little expense.  I think I now need to build something to repay her.  But that's what it's all about, isn't it?  I think it's time to head down the stairs to my cellar woodshop and start something special.

Norm

Update on 2014

Well, so far this year, things haven't turned out as I planned in my last posting.  Early this year I was diagnosed with cancer in a couple of places and in February I had an operation to remove it.  The operations was, by all accounts, successful, but it did take me out of the shop for the better part of four months.  As a result, I haven't gotten very much done on the goals I set out for the year.  Needless to say, when next January rolls around, much of what I planned will remain undone.

Still, I have done a few things.

• Jeff Fleisher and I introduced our new birdcage awls and began selling those via the web.  Sales have been very good.  We continue to sell our Shenandoah Mallets as well.
• Jeff and I are signed up to have a vendor booth at this year's Woodworking in America, which will be held in Winston-Salem, NC, September 12-14.  We will be busy this summer producing enough stock to meet the expected demand for our awls and mallets.
• I built a bird's mouth fixture to use with my turning saw.  I purchased that from Tools for Working Wood at last year's Woodworking in America.  I can't say I've learned to use it effectively yet; that remains an objective for this year.
• I built a pair of shop bents to go with my sawbench.  For these I used salvaged Douglas fir from stairsteps that were replaced in our house.
• I resumed teaching at Woodcraft the other day with my Handplane Basics class.  That is a milestone for me on my road to recovery and I will now be able to teach the other classes I'm planning to conduct.
• I installed my new General router table.  I got the one with the cast iron table.  The router is also new, the 3 1/4 hp Porter Cable router, which should give me all the power I'll need.

I'll still work on the other projects I proposed for this year, though my emphasis will be on preparing to teach several new classes.  For those, I need to first build the projects we will be building in class so I am fully prepared to teach them effectively.  I do want to finish the bedside tables and the natural edge walnut coffee table, at a minumum.  And, I'd like to build a Greene and Greene style clock based on plans from a November 2010 Wood Magazine article.  Other projects may simply have to wait until next year!

Norm

My Goals for 2014

Well, it's that time of year when, Janus-like, we look back at what we've accomplished in the preceding year and ahead to what we hope to achieve in the coming one.  Here are my lists.

2013

This was a very busy year for me, woodworking-wise.  While I accomplished a lot, I also started a number of things that remain unfinished.

My friend Jeff Fleisher and I started a small business, Shenandoah Tool Works, and began production of premium woodworking mallets featuring highly-figured hardwood handles.  The mallets come with steel heads in 1 lb. and 1 1/2 lb. weights.  Business started off well and our mallets have been well-received.  We attended the Woodworking in America show in Cincinnati in October and did a good business there, getting valuable exposure in the process.

I continued working on a pair of white oak bedside tables.  I hesitated over several construction problems that I eventually solved and the cases are now glued-up and awaiting drawers. 

I upgraded my Nova 16-24 lathe to the Nova 3000 DVR model, which seems more powerful and is certainly easier to use with its adjustable speeds.

I sold off my Craftsman radial arm saw, now that I'm using handsaws to dimension my lumber.

I joined Shannon Rogers' Hand Tool School and began learning from Shannon many of the mysteries and skills associated with hand tool woodworking.

I started work on a joinery bench, following plans developed by Shannon Rogers in the Hand Tool School.

With a colleague at the Leesburg, VA, Woodcraft store, I designed a Hand Tool Woodshop class series  that he and I will be teaching on a monthly basis.  The idea is to teach hand tool skills while letting students build new and useful appliances and tools.  Examples are bench hooks, shooting boards, and saw benches, among others.

I was able to locate a natural edge walnut slab that I planed smooth, mostly by hand, for use as a coffee table top.  I also purchased another slab of highly colored maple and was able to get a slab of beautiful red box elder that I also plan to turn into a coffee table.

I undertook a lot of additional, smaller projects that are too numerous to recite or even to recall.

2014

I hope to focus my attention this year on a select number of high priority objectives:

• Complete and finish the bedside tables.
• Build a base for the walnut coffee table.
• Build several Jefferson lap desks  like the one on which the Declaration of Independence was written in 1776.  I have a wonderful mahogany board waiting for that purpose.  I'll follow the plans from Charles Neil's Mastering Woodworking on-line sessions for that.
• Recommence work on a Winchester Chippendale secretary that I started several years ago in a class with Jeff Headley and Steve Hamilton at Woodworking Workshops of the Shenandoah Valley.  The casework is completed but not glued-up, the drawers remain to be built and all the pigeon holes need to be created.  I'm sure I won't be able to complete the project this year, but I want to make significant progress on it.
• I want to learn how to cut dovetails by hand with precision and ease.
• I want to complete the joinery bench I started in 2013.
• I want to build a sharpening station.
• I've ordered a General International router table with a cast iron top and hope to have that installed in late January or February.
• I'd like to turn a number of items using the cherry, hickory, apple, box elder and other blocks I have stored away.

• I want to continue teaching hand tool techniques at the local Woodcraft stores, including the introduction to hand planes, restoring old hand planes, saw bench, shooting board and other classes.

• Jeff Fleisher and I will continue to produce our premium woodworking mallets.  And, we expect to begin offering a hand-forged birdcage awl sometime early this year as well.

I'm sure other things will come up during the year, principally projects from the Hand Tool School that I'll want to tackle, such as the Limbert Table from Semester Two.

Did I say a select number of high priority objectives?  Well, I guess I've put a lot on my plate for this year.  It remains to be seen how much of this I will actually be able to accomplish.  Check back next January!

Norm

A Saw Till

I've been accumulating hand saws over recent months as part of my transition from a fully power tool woodworker to a hybrid woodworker.  What that means is that I'm starting to use hand tools more and more in my work.  I don't ever plan to change over to an exclusive reliance on hand tools.  Power tools are useful and have a good purpose, especially when processing large amounts of wood for larger projects.  Still, I like working by hand and am building up my skills in this area.  Hence the hand saws.

I now have three crosscut saws--two in serious need of sharpening, a skill I am working on but have not yet mastered--two rip saws of differing tooth configurations and several smaller saws.  Those saws are a Bad Axe Toolworks 18" tenon saw with a hybrid tooth filing, an Adria Toolworks carcase saw, a Lie-Nielsen dovetail saw and a Veritas crosscut saw. Each saw has its own purpose, so I feel justified in having them all.  I'm hoping they will meet all my hand saw needs for a very long time.

The problem with having this many saws is where to store them.  That led me to design and build a saw till so I could hang them in a small space on my shop wall.  As the photo shows, this turned out to be a simple affair, essentially three rectangles of birch plywood, two of which are attached at right angles to the back board and supported by a cleat on their undersides.  I sawed grooves in the horizontal pieces for the saw blades to fit into.  As you can see, the saws are held in place by their handles and a bit of gravity.  I screwed the whole affair into the concrete wall of my basement shop, where it hangs between some shelves and a large sheet of pegboard.

This simple design works well and was easy to execute.  But improvements might be possible for others who wish to build something similar.  I might have designed it so the handles are at the bottom and the blades facing upward, for example, but somehow the simplicity of this arrangement appealed to me more.  Another improvement would be to angle the top horizontal piece so it slopes upward toward the front.  This would have alleviated my fear that the saws will--given vibrations in the shop--gradually work their way forward in their slots and eventually fall to the floor.  My solution to that is periodically to push them backward in their slots to rectify any forward creep.  An angled board would have rid me of this concern.

Perhaps some day I'll make another saw till that incorporates improvements.  Until I'm caught up on all my projects--and that is likely to be a very long time indeed!--I'll use the one I have and be glad it is there to project my saws and keep them handy for use.

If you decide to build one of your own, leave a comment and tell me what you did.  I just might want to borrow from your ideas if and when I rebuild my own.

Norm

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

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 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