WoodWorkWeb - Woodworking Community

Sharpening Plane Blades and Chisels

Read Time: 8 mins

Working with sharp tool blades is a MUST in the workshop. Not only is is safer, it is much easier on the woodworker who not only doesn't have to work so hard, but it also makes woodworking much more fun. There is nothing more frustrating than trying to plane a board, or carve out a mortise when you have a dull tool.
Sometimes we think our tool or blade is sharp but really it isn't. When you take a blade that you thought was sharp, then really sharpen it, you will not believe the difference in how easy it cuts and how much less work it is. For years I struggled with what I thought were plane blades that were - sharp enough - . I knew they weren't the sharpest, but I never bothered to take the time to sharpen them properly and always assumed that they were ok.

One day, while visiting another woodworker, who had just sharpened his plane blade, I asked him if I could try it out. I was completely astounded what a difference a really sharp blade was like. It wasn't long after I encountered a more mature woodworker, who I knew was an expert in sharpening, and asked him if he would sharpen my blades for me ... and I would pay him. A week later he called to have me come and pick up the blades and while I was at his shop, I asked if he would give be a lesson in how I could get good results, with the least fuss, and this is what this video is about.

What he showed me is the same thing I am going to show here, what I think is one of the easiest and cost effective ways of sharpening chisel and plane blades and similar blades. This is the best way that works for me, but other people will have many other ways that are also just as good and maybe even easier and I am confident they will all be sharing their expertise with us. There are MANY MANY different ways to sharpen chisels and plane blades, and some people make a real art out of sharpening. It becomes - their thing - in woodworking, and so this article details what I learned that afternoon. The first thing you need to do is ...

Woodworker and Door Maker

Read Time: 3 mins

There are lots of places where you can buy doors, but there are NOT lots of places where you can buy custom designed and custom built doors. It takes a special person who not only has an artistic flare, but also vision for what a finished door or other wood project should look like and then ... have the skills, the determination and the patience to bring it all together. This is what I call a true woodworking artist and such is Arnim Rodeck. When you first meet Arnim you wonder how on earth, someone of his small stature can maneuver such larger timbers on that massive work table he builds these large doors, fireplace mantels and other projects on. Many of the doors he builds occupy 12 foot wide spaces and of course are 7 or 8 feet tall, and some even taller.

If you have ever had the pleasure of making a door, you will understand how important it is that all the parts fit together precisely. Then, remember that in many cases these doors are shipped hundreds or even thousands of miles away and often need to be installed by local finishing carpenters, so all this needs to be taken into account.

There is nothing more outstanding than when you approach a house and the door you are going to enter the house through, literally takes your breath away. It is very majestic to have a front entrance door that not only reflects the environment the house has been built in, but also the unique tastes of the owner. That is the kind of art that Arnim creates. If the house is built in the mountains, those mountains with their wildlife will be reflected in the door, if the house is on lake, river or ocean, then those features will be artistically used to create the door.

All that is on the artistic side, but if you are a woodworker, you are even more impressed with the joinery and the detail of how the door is made. How the 12 foot curved pieces are all finely laminated and glued together so that they look like one solid arched beam. The custom weather stripping slots that are built into a custom insulated doors that he has designed, that help to make the door solid, environmentally friendly and able to last at least as long as the house itself while maintaining the strength and wear and tear that all doors need to be able to withstand.

So, what's secret ... read on ...

Building an Arts & Crafts Style Table

Read Time: 2 mins

There is something rewarding about taking rough lumber and turning it into fine furniture, especially if it is a design you love to make. Such is the case with this little side table, in the Arts and Crafts (A&C) style of furniture. I thought about all the furniture that I love to make and discovered that there are a number of types and styles, starting with the A&C style of furniture. I am a big fan of William Morris, designer of course of the Morris Chair, Gustav Stickely, Harvey Ellis, Greene and Greene and others, but I am also a big fan of Thomas Molesworth who made a very unique type of furniture in the mid-west. All of these people contributed greatly to styles and types of furniture we have today, and they influenced generations of woodworkers.

This little side table is a simple design, and like most woodworkers, I have adapted some of my own wrinkles to, by combining, in a way, the styles of Havery Ellis and Thomas Molesworth. The carcass of the table is recognisable as a typical A&C table, but the top boasts a natural edge rather than a sawn, planed and finished edge. I also like the height and size of the table, all of which was designed using a Fibonacci Gauge in order to get pleasing lines and dimensions.

But there is a lot more than simply building a piece of furniture. It needs to be finished AND with this piece ti has a natural edge top, so what do we do for edge treatment for the top ... click below to see the following videos ...

Building an Adirondack Chair

Read Time: 9 mins

An original version Adirondack chairs as we know it was first designed in 1903 by Thomas Lee. In Canada the chair is sometimes referred to as a Muskoka Chair. The Chair that Thomas Lee designed, he asked a local carpenter to make for him. Apparently the carpenter, Harry Bunnell could see it was great design, so Bunnell filed for, and was granted a patent for the chair, without the permission of Lee. Bunnell then went on to manufactured the chairs under his name for the next 20 years.
The original chair design has been so good it has stood the test of time and over a hundred years later, woodworkers are still making a variety of Adirondack type chairs.

Watch this video directl on YouTube - click here - https://youtu.be/ykU5QUG0qVg

What always amazes me is just how comfortable this chair can be. Now make no mistake, not all Adirondack chairs are comfortable and to a degree it does depend on your body type how well you fit the chair. The features that really make this chair comfortable are the coved back and the scooped seat along with the position of the wide arms. All of which combine into making a great, comfortable out door chair.

The plans we used are the widely published plans from Fine Woodworking Magazine and they even publish the plans on their website, we provide that link at the end of this article, and the reason we did that is so if you DO decide to make this great chair you will have at least scanned the article and give you a few heads-up ideas that we encountered.

Building a Planing or Surfacing Jig

Read Time: 6 mins

Woodworking often seems to be about building or making something to do a job you need done, but don't have the tool for. I would love to have a 20 or 24 inch planer, or 24 inch belt sander, unfortunately I would use either so seldom it would not be a cost effective purchase.
So, when I need to plane a board that is too thick, if it is larger than my 15 inch planer, I have to devise another way of planing the board down. There are a few options, you can find a local woodworking shop to plane or sand the board down (for a price), or you can use a hand plane (which is very tedious if it is a large board), you can take the fence of many jointers and make multiple passes, but then you have re-install the fence and adjust it, you could use a hand power planer (but they can gouge the wood if you are not careful) and the last option ... which is the one I opted for is to make a planing jig or planing sled that I can use my router on.

These jigs are not new and have been around in one form or another for years. I you purchase rough sawn lumber from local mills or suppliers, this is something that will be a Must Have in your workshop. Or if you don't have a planer of any size, this allow you to plane and re-surface boards in fairly short order, and do a great job of it.

Cold Press or Vacuum Press Wood Veneering

Read Time: 2 mins

The next step after understand HOW veneering works, is to try it, and in this video, that's what we have done. To show a bit more about what veneering is all about we actually too three bookmatched sheets of veneers and attached them with veneering tape. The process is quite simple, but being able to watch a video of it being done is much easier than try to explain it.

After attaching the sheets and preparing a back sheet as well (all veneering works best when veneering is done on BOTH sides of the substrate). The next step is simple, coat ALL sides to be glues together with a coating of veneer glue. All glues have what is called an Open Time, which simply means how long the glue can be exposed to air before it starts to dry out. With veneering glue the open time (depending on brand) is normally around 15 - 20 minutes, unless you are working in a dry, hot environment, then it is substantially reduced. All this means is that when you are working with glues, you need work steady, with no lag times.

Once one side of the substrate is covered with glue and the matching veneer as well, they are simply bonded together and it is best now to roll the veneer to make sure no air bubbles are showing.

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