More Irons in the Fire

Doing the majority of my work with a #7 bench plane, I find it very helpful to have multiple irons handy to just swap out if one starts to feel dull or slow. The late Allen Peters inspired this practice of having multiple irons at your disposal. Allen, know for only using a #7 for all his work, had four irons always sharpened and ready to use. I also use four irons but they each have a special purpose. I have two irons that are cambered and set up for my everyday joiner needs. A perfectly straight iron is set up with its own chip breaker for quick exchange when I need to shoot or match plane long edges. I can shoot just fine with one of cambered blades but it saves edge life to have a dedicated straight iron for shooting. I can also save the edge life of the straight iron by simply using the plane on its opposite edge on the left side of the shooting board exposing a new section of the iron to the work. The last iron I have in the arsenal is a cambered iron with a 15 degree back-bevel for dense and difficult exotic timbers. I began my hand tool career with a Stanley #8 bench plane that was owned by my great father in law. I loved the heft and size of that tool, but when I decided to upgrade my joiner I went with a #7 because of its versatility. I think the #7 is more versatile because the iron width is 2-3/8” matching its smaller brothers the #4-1/2, #5-1/2, & #6. I owned the #4-1/2 prior to purchasing the #7. With the identical iron width I can exchange my straight and back-bevel irons into my #4-1/2 making my limited shop (space and tools) more versatile. I find having multiple irons allows me to continue working with sharp irons without having to stop to sharpen. Concentrating sharpening sessions and sharpening multiple irons at once seems more efficient and allows me to benefit from the repetition. If you own a hand plane you might consider adding some extra irons to your repertoire.

One Last Project

With only about a week left in Grand Teton National Park I finished up my last project for the winter season of 2010. This was a commission from Jon Phoenix and was to celebrate the marriage of a good friend. Jon asked me to construct a toolbox for Scott, the recipient. This will be my fourth toolbox of this style. The first was the Herwiggy toolbox. Each time I construct one of these boxes I learn a little about the design and sometimes tweak a component. For this box I was able to use a small piece of Zebrawood for the handle and it turned out really nice. I cut the tenons this time by hand instead of with the router. Hand sawing the tenons actually seemed much faster and more enjoyable. The bevels on the through tenons are nice and crisp thanks to the dense tropical hardwood. Everything else went together smoothly and as usual it was a blast to construct. I used Black Walnut and Poplar for the rest of the box. I hope Scott is both surprised and excited when it arrives in Pennsylvania next week. Now it is time to pack up the shop for a new vista in North Cascades National Park.

You Figure it Out

A Brace from the Past

Leonard Clarence Hanna Jr. was a self motivated construction juggernaut. LC was my grandfather who passed away in 1997. In my lifetime I knew PaPa as the guy that drove the white Nissan with the topper on the back and the floor boards filled with crushed McDonalds’ coffee cups. He was an early riser with a restless spirit to build. He worked alongside my dad in the family business constructing homes to sell and to rent. I would go to the job site to work as I grew up and there I mastered the skill of pulling nails that were bent beyond recognition and stacking (and restacking) piles of dimensional lumber. But LC had a whole other career that was before my time as a nail pulling expert, he was a lineman for the Bell Atlantic Phone Company.

LC started working for Bell Atlantic when he was 17 years old and dedicated 30 years to the company. I did not know a lot about this career he had prior to building homes except for some tools of the trade that I would stumble across in a two car garage my grandfather stored building materials in. Searching in the “Two Car Garage” was like searching for treasure, you never know what you could find. I have been known to use his climbing gaffs, which were used to climb telephone poles, to climb some of the local trees in my neighborhood.

Just recently in my hand tool woodworking ventures I stumbled across another tool of his trade. A brace and bit. While researching different human powered boring tools I found that most lineman during LC’s day were issued a “Bell System” Yankee No. 2101 Brace to bore holes in telephone poles and the like. The Yankee brace was the best brace of the day. Excellent quality of the craftsmanship and new innovations in the ratcheting head and the wolverine grip jaws set the Yankee brace in its own category. I called my younger brother to see if maybe we still had a brace from PaPa buried in the two car garage. After locating a brace Nick promptly mailed it to Wyoming. The brace arrived over the weekend and it is indeed a Yankee 2101A North Bros Mfg Co., Philadelphia Brace.
This brace, manufactured somewhere between 1946 and 1956, was right after Stanley purchased the North Bros. company as they were attempting to expand into the brace market. “After the takeover, the North Bros braces and other tools were first marked, "North Bros Mfg Co., Philadelphia, Division of Stanley Tool Works." These "Philadelphia –made" tools seem to have retained the construction quality for which North Bros was famous.” (http://www.sydnassloot.com/Brace/Northb.htm) After 1956 the quality of the now Stanly Yankee Brace dropped off. I gave the old brace a clean up and it works like a dream. One of my greatest joys of working with these tools is the heritage and stories that come with them. Now when I go to bore a hole I think I will employ the help of LC!

A Jewelry Box for a Dinosaur

Last July I became an Uncle for the first time. Elise Anne Phoenix was born to Joel and Lindsay Phoenix July 1 2009, and little did they know that they were going to raise the very rare and endangered Elisaurous. After hearing the great news I thought to myself, “All good dinosaurs need a jewelry box, right?” Thus the design for a new jewelry box began. I entitled this contemporary jewelry box Redwoods on the Coast.
I gathered the inspiration for this piece on a trip that Aimee and I took to the Northern California Coast last fall. Driving along, surrounded by the towering Coastal Redwood trees and the seemingly endless view of the Pacific Ocean, the design became instinctive. I wanted to do something different and challenging. This project met both criteria.
The carcass of the box and the framing for the lid were constructed out of Black Cherry. The “waves” of the ocean panel are Curly Maple selected from a lumberyard in Northern California. I cut the waves out with a #16 round molding plane and then cleaned up any tear out with gooseneck scrapers and sandpaper stuck to the bottom of the #16.
The handle, representing the Coastal Redwoods, is Bubinga. This piece of Bubinga was set aside from a previous project to be used at just the right time. I created the small bead with a scratch stock. I think the piece of Bubinga turned just the right shade of red after the finish was applied.
The bottom panel is Yellow Poplar lined with leather to protect jewelry. The carcass was constructed with through dovetails at the corners. Pinned mortise and tenons hold the frame of the lid together. The pins in the lid are Black Cherry. The curved short sides of the box were designed to facilitate picking up the box with ease. The box is equipped with stop hinges to keep the lid rested at 95 degrees when fully open. The sliding tray, intended to resemble the large carcass it resides in, was designed to hold rings and smaller jewelry. I am not well versed on what jewelry Elisaurous’s wear but I hope it fits in the box!

Creating a Convex Curve with Hand Tools

A couple of our neighbors with wood burning stoves have been well stocked with grocery bags of wood shavings the last couple of weeks, products of my busyness in the shop. I can measure the productivity level on a single night on how many grocery bags of shavings I produce. Lately I have been working on a new piece with dovetailed convex curved sides. I began by marking out the arc on the end grain of the short sides and then proceeded to create steps with the #140 Skew Block Plane. Once the steps have been established I switch over to the shoulder plane which is a litter faster. These steps remove excess material and give a guide as you begin to shape the convex curve. I chose to use the large shoulder plane with a tight mouth to accomplish the curve. I left the curve somewhat rough knowing that the lid and the feet would need to be blended into the curve of the sides later. The feet and the lid will be a continuation of the arc on the sides. To accomplish the dovetails I cut the tails out when the long sides were still square on the end. Once the tails were cleaned up I transferred the tails to the curved pin board. I then proceeded to cut the pins out of the curved short sides. Holding the work down to the bench to chop out the waste material became a challenge. Chopping from the face, the back could rest flat on the bench. I created a negative of the curve to cradle the short sides so I could chop out to the base line from the back. I found that using a smaller chisel, about, 3/8” was easier to register in the baseline on the face because of the curve. A deeply scored baseline was crucial for this operation. With the pins cut out, the dovetails could be assembled. Once the glue dried I proceeded to flush off the tails to meet the curve of the short sides. I cut as much waste away as possible and then used a rasp to hog the remaining material away just shy of being flush. With the toe rested on the curved sides the large shoulder plane flawlessly trimmed the end grain flush. Once the hinges and feet are installed I can blend the entire arc into the sides.

Lessons Learned

Over the years I have made my share of woodworking mistakes; from snapping off screws when installing hardware to blowing out a lapped dovetail on a figured drawer front. My latest endeavor has been an exercise in patience. Working with a fresh design that incorporates convex and concave surfaces is new territory for my tools. When working in new territory the learning curve is steep. After milling up and shaping the convex short sides of a jewelry box twice I think I got the hang of it. I was required to double up the production of the short sides due to a re-adjustment of a marking gauge. Keeping a marking gauge set until you are completely done marking out with that setting is a “Golden Rule”, but I committed the cardinal sin and paid the price. The baseline on my pin board sockets was not square to the datum surface (read re-do). Having to make a second set of short sides allowed me to benefit from the previous practice. It took a little bit longer to accomplish but in the end I think it came out better.