Once the leg/stretcher joints were dry, I bored the holes for the stepped dowels, using a dedicated drill bit in my brace. The dowels I have chosen for this project are made from walnut, which I thought might offer a bit of contrast with the cherry. The dowels were glued in place and, once dry, sawn and plane flush. Continue reading “Sawyer’s Bench #4”
Someone in my local area was having a workshop sale the other day. I don’t know the reason behind it, but they were getting rid of everything it seems; power tools, hand tools, timber.
I wasn’t interested in the power tools, and there weren’t really any hand tools available that I didn’t already have. It was the timber, however, that caught my eye – there was tons of it. I made arrangements to meet the vendor, and I spent about an hour just going through it all, picking out what I wanted. A lot of it had already gone, but there was still plenty left – I could have spent a fortune.
Anyway, I made my selection and then made her an offer. We haggled for a bit and then I left…
My next main project will be a Sawyer’s Bench, designed by Tom Fidgen and featured in his book The Unplugged Woodshop. He hasn’t done a tutorial on the bench yet, but here is a video where he goes through the design of the bench.
The Sawyer’s Bench is basically a glorified saw-horse. It has a split top for rip cutting, a removable fence for cross cutting, and the configuration of the legs is slightly unorthodox in that two are set at 100° and the other two at 90º. This helps with rip cutting, as it not only provides a visual guide for a square cut, it also ensures that you won’t hit the legs with the saw. If my description is confusing, the video will clear things up. Continue reading “Shooting board”
Although I’ve not been woodworking for all that long, I’m pretty pleased with my progress so far. It has not been plain sailing mind you – I’ve made plenty of mistakes along the way – but it would be boring if there was no challenge. Continue reading “Enjoying the struggle”
I’ve just heard that goatboy’s woodshop has been added to the Norse Woodsmith aggregator as well. Happy days!
It was my birthday recently, and I thought I might show you the tools I got given. Continue reading “New tools”
The Unplugged Shop is a blog aggregator for woodworking blogs. It re-posts the posts of numerous woodworking blogs in one convenient homepage. A few days ago, I requested that my blog’s feed be added to the site and, happily, I have just received an email informing me that this has been done.
Hopefully that will mean an increase in traffic.
Fascinating post about saw handles and apple wood, from the Lost Art Press
Yesterday, my brother decided to borrow my chainsaw and prune the hell out of a willow tree. I asked if I could have a couple of the logs.
Coincidentally, I needed to slightly prune a camellia tree yesterday, as it was interfering with a fence panel. Here are the results. The willow is on the left, the camellia on the right.
I’m planning on throwing them up into the shed’s rafters and forgetting about them for a year. I’m not sure what I can do with them. They are branch wood, and I’ve recently read that branch wood is notoriously difficult to work as, by its very nature, it often contains lines of tension that are released, and therefore distort it, when it is cut.
It might be good for turning tool handles, or perhaps for inlay. Any suggestions?
goatboys woodshop 