I just started working on a small Redwood box for an upcoming blog post and I ran into a problem that I have from time to time. I have a 2" square plane stop in my bench. This plane stop works great for most work, because most work pieces are sizable enough to stay put. However, with these small pieces as I plane along the sides they spin right off the plane stop.  So , what to do? 
   Yeah, I could build a small jig to hold small pieces, Yes, I could build a jig to clamp in my vise that would enlarge the planing stop so that it would support the small pieces better. But, why build something when I have a tool that I can quickly use for a planing stop. 

  A Framing Square. That's right. 
  Just clamp your framing square in your vise at a slight angle. The more angle the higher the planing stop. This works great for all sorts of boards. The only thing you need is something to hold the square from moving back, either a dog or a small planing stop. It doesn't require any building of jigs and you don't have to clamp the crap out of it either. Just enough to hold it in place. 

Yeah, I could of spent ten minutes building some stupid jig that would take up room in my shop, or I could just use what is already available and spend that ten minutes planing all the parts for my box. I'll take the later. 

PS. "If the women don't find you handsome, they should at least find you handy." RG 

   
    I don't normally make rustic type furniture, but when it comes to things that are going to be outside in the elements, rustic is the better choice. Where I live, like now, it is over 100 degrees outside and almost nothing can survive for long. No finish will last and bare wood needs to be of a certain quality to really last. 

  
   When I came upon this piece of Blue Oak, which came down in a winter storm last year, I knew it would be perfect for a garden bench. Why?  Two reasons, I could get a piece about 4 feet long and make all the parts from that and  Blue Oak is part of the White Oak genus. As a type of White Oak it is great for outdoor furniture because it will not rot like other woods. However, Blue Oak goes by a couple other names, one of which is Iron Oak. Not so fun. 

   
    Another thing you might notice about this log after it was split is that it has some twist to it. This is another characteristic of this type of Oak. It does much damage every year to those using log splitters, it tries to turn while being split. Many of the Oaks in this area have the same issues including Live Oaks and many of the hybrid Oaks. 

   So, I know what your thinking. Where can I get some of this supper hard and twisted Blue Oak you speak of? Well, unless you live in California and happen to be in the ranges shown in the map to the right, its going to be tough to find. It only grows in certain areas and many of those areas are protected forests  where you can't log. Along with that, the tree itself does not grow very fast, nor does it grow very large. You can get small planks from the main trunk which I have mostly seen used for table tops(made of a few planks). But, you are not going to get the look of traditional White Oak that you see so often in Mission style furniture. It will look a little more rustic even in a well finished piece. It almost always has some knots, dark and light wavy grain, and will undoubtedly look more rustic than typical hardwoods. 

   As far as the building of the bench, it went rather hard. Not that building this simple bench was difficult skill wise, but the wood itself was flippin' hard. Because the top needed to be flat I used my adze to take down the high points. Which really consisted of me wailing away at opposite corners of the top to take out the twist. I use a broad axe for some of the top, moved to the adze for the major bulk, and finished it off with my Jack plane. I will say that the planning wasn't all that bad. It planed well, but you could tell it was harder than the typical White Oak you get at the hardwood dealer. For the legs I bored 4 holes at 1" diameter and about 3" deep to hold each leg. I would of gone for a larger hole but 1" is the size of my largest auger. Also, boring the holes could only be done with the use of a T-handle auger, again because of the hardness.  The legs were quick enough. I split out 4 pieces about 20" long, split off the pith, and used a hatched to trim and tapper the tenons to fit. I should also note that the tenons were trimmed to and oval, so not to split the top of the bench while pounding in the legs.  Leveling the bench legs was simple enough. I placed  shims under the legs to get the bench level. Used a 4" block of wood as a reference surface to draw a line all the way around the bottom of each leg, and then just sawed to the line. End result was a nice level bench, that weighs about 80-90lbs and will last for a long time outside in the garden.

    In all it took me about 3-4hrs total to build this bench. Would of went faster if the wood was green, but I am not complaining. I got the wood for free and it was a very interesting experience. Maybe I just might use some Blue Oak in the future, but next time I think I will have it cut at a sawmill first. 

P.S.  My 4 year old daughter was there for most of the build too. She approves of the fit and finish of this most excellent garden bench. 

Follow these additional links to learn more about Blue "Iron" Oak.  
                                                                           Blue Oak from Blue Planet Biomes.org
                                                                           USDA Blue Oak 
                                                                             

About a week ago Chris Schwarz wrote a blog post on his Popular Woodworking blog (found here)  showing how he sharpens a chisel. A very basic operation that we all must do well, but something we all want to do quickly so we can get back to work. Chris asked that no one respond to the blog with a comment, but that we should respond with a video showing how we sharpen. 

Well, this is my video response to how I sharpen a chisel. I use DMT dia-sharp stones (coarse, fine, x-fine, xx-fine), Green Works All-purpose cleaner (to float the particles, better than water), a simple honing guide,  and a leather strop with compound.   I can sharpen a chisel, plane iron, or just about anything else in quick order. Best part, when I am done my sharpening station is clean and my tools are sharp. 

Just a short video for Friday. 

I found an Ash shovel handle in the dumpster today. It had been broken off of a new shovel. Instead of wasting it I decided to make a new handle for my froe. Mine keeps falling off its original handle. 

Enjoy! Then get in the shop and have some fun. 
Happy Memorial Day everyone. 

       I will keep this short.   When you watch woodworking videos online, where do you view them?  There are a lot of places to circulate videos online today from iTunes, YouTube, Blip.tv, Vimeo, etc.....
The real question I guess is, do you like to download the videos (ie. iTunes) or do you like to stream the videos (ie. YouTube) ?

I am asking these questions because I am strongly considering only distributing my videos via YouTube. If there is a strong opinion for iTunes videos I will continue to send them in that direction too. 

This is a repost of my last episode. However, video is now in HD. 

This video is really a video response to several people who have had questions regarding miter boxes. 
 What miter box do I have?
 What should I look for when buying a miter box? 
 What should I stay away from?
 What makes a good miters box?  
etc etc

Well, in this video I answer those questions and maybe a few others. I go over 4 different miter boxes that range from 1 to 100 years old.

I will preface this video with two facts:  First, these are mostly my opinions. Second, I am not a hand tool historian. 

With that, I hope you enjoy the video and thanks for stopping in. 

Well, I can't even explain why I am so stupid. 

Great start to this blog post don't you think. 

I have been distributing my videos through Blip.tv for a while now. Though this is "convenient" for me, I have found it is bad for you guys. Sorry . I seriously, somehow, didn't realize how bad the video quality was on some of my videos after they went through the Blip.tv system. I was only getting 480p on YouTube and looks about the same on iTunes. again, Sorry . I am an idiot. I just don't watch my videos on YouTube or iTunes after spending , hours editing them. I can only stand so much of me. 

From now on I will be uploading 1080p HD videos to YouTube. There you can choose how high of quality you would like to view the videos based on your internet connection speed. 

If anyone has some tips for me on video distribution please let me know. I want to produce better quality videos. Blip.tv only allows a 1.5G max upload, which isn't very much for a 1080p HD video. 

First video will be up soon. Episode #20 Miter Boxes will be in HD on my next post. 

  Hi everyone. No I am not dead, at least not yet. I know it has been a while since my last post but things are going to start picking up soon. Starting with this video about miter boxes. 

This video is really a video response to several people who have had questions regarding miter boxes. 
 What miter box do I have?
 What should I look for when buying a miter box? 
 What should I stay away from?
 What makes a good miters box?  
etc etc

Well, in this video I answer those questions and maybe a few others. I go over 4 different miter boxes that range from 1 to 100 years old.

I will preface this video with two facts:  First, these are mostly my opinions. Second, I am not a hand tool historian. 

With that, I hope you enjoy the video and thanks for stopping in. 

Shaker Wall Clock
Shaker Style Bookcase
and maybe some outdoor projects

    Whenever a blogger/podcaster builds something it is only a matter of time before the questions roll in. Especially when the item built is something important in the shop like a workbench or a tool chest. Fortunately the questions fall into two categories. First are the specific questions regarding the actual build. Those are the easy questions. The second category is, "If you built this again would you do it the same way? What would you keep and what would you change?". I can't tell you how often I receive this question about my bench, my shop, my tool chest, or fill in the ______. 
     The hard part sometimes is I don't know. This is usually because I don't feel that I have used the item long enough to know just how I actually do feel about it. But, in the case of my tool chest, I know exactly why I built it the way I did and why I didn't build it like Chris Schwarz. Now, I don't have anything personally against the way Chris laid the tool chest out in The Anarchist's Tool Chest. The layout was what He felt was the best for Him and that's great.  I just knew I needed to change some things so it would work better for me. And that is really the point to a tool chest, build it for you, don't just copy someone else's design. Well, unless you just don't really know what you need yet. Some things do take time to figure out and luckily a tool chest can be easily modified. 

              There are two major differences between my tool chest and the one from Chris's book. 
     The first is my vertical saw/tool rack. What this changes is the distance all three of my tills can move from front to back. I can't open all three tills at the same time.  This flies in the face of the "one movement away" philosophy. The one movement away philosophy goes like this. If you have all three tills open, not only can you see and get to every tool in the tills instantly, but you can also get to any tool in the chest by just moving one of the three tills. This is really a great way to work, so why didn't I do it that way. Well...
    The second difference is really conjoined to the first. Because I can't open all three tills at the same time I made the tills larger. What?? Yeah, larger. So, now I can only see in two tills at once and they fill the entire space. What did this do for me? It gave me three larger tills, which is what I wanted in the first place, but made it harder to get to things in the back of my tool           chest. But, that's not a big deal for me and here is why. The 90-9-1% philosophy. 

     What is this "philosophy" exactly.  I know from experience that I use some of my tools about 90% of the time, others only 9% of the time, and the rest just about 1% of the time. Since I know which of my tools fall into these categories I just arranged my tool chest to my tools.    

First are my 90% tools. This includes my top till, the bottom 3/4 of my tool chest and the front saw rack. Specifically, it includes all of my bench planes, my joinery saws, everything I need to mark and/or measure with, and a few other items like my moving fillister, #80 scraper, my choice files, and my router plane.

Now for the 1% tools. These tools I just don't use often at all, so it isn't a big deal to have to move the tills forward to get to them. They are my molding planes. Since I am not really a period furniture maker and I just don't make moldings all that often, I really don't need to be able to get to them, or at least not quickly. 

Well, that's it. I hope for those who asked the questions I have provided the answers you wanted. For those who are just curious or are contemplating building a tool chest, maybe I gave you something to think about. For everyone else, whoever you are, thanks for visiting. 

Now Get out in the shop and have some fun.  

    This is my new Split-Top Sawbench. I consider this bench to be the best version out there for a hand tool woodworker. I do a ton of sawing in my shop. I dimension all of my stock by hand, and in doing so I have to do a lot of rip cuts. Ripping boards between two benches works fine for larger pieces, but it just doesn't work well for small boards. If you have ever tried ripping a 4" wide by 2' long board in half you know what I mean. You can do it in a vise or on a sawbench, but generally half way through you need to flip it around and saw from the other side. This is not the most productive technique when ripping. Ripping boards is a rhythmic experience. To stop and restart from the other side can just about double the time needed to rip boards, not to mention cause possible issues with accuracy  With the Split-Top design however, you can just keep on cutting without stopping. I just pick up my knee and finish the cut with my hand holding the board in place, no loss of rhythm, time, or support. 

    One of the other attributes to this bench is its square sides. A traditional sawbench has splayed legs that get in the way of ripping or crosscutting boards. If you look at the legs on my older traditional sawbench you can see that the legs and the stretchers get in the way. Even if you change the stretcher to a single central stretcher, the legs are still annoying. 
    Another benefit to the split top is evident when cross cutting boards. You can get more control and support by placing the cut over the center of the bench. With both sides supported I have noticed cleaner exits because the board is not solely reliant on me supporting it on the final strokes. 
    All and all I can't wait to put this bench through its paces over the years. If you build one let me know how you like it. 

    Below you will find the two videos documenting the construction of this bench. I do consider the videos targeted more towards the beginner, so realize that I am going to cover tenons, dovetail layout, drawbore technique, and half lap dovetails. I don't cover dimensioning stock because I have done that in the past. 

In the videos you will also hear me say that I will be adding holdfast holes to the bench. I decided not to do that for the moment. I will let time and circumstances dictate if I really need holdfast holes in the bench. The split top allows for the use of clamps, so that may be the best option for now. 

If you just want to see the dimensions and the designs I worked from you can go to this previous blog post: 
New Improved  Sawbench : Split Top Sawbench

Like usual, if you have any questions about the bench don't hesitate to ask. Just leave a comment or email me directly by clicking on the icon at the top of the page.