Your Table Ripple Mouldings With New Technique: Make We Test Drawbore Pins Don’t Get the Shaft: Them Just-right Tight And 3 to Get 3 Tips for Stout Tenons And How to Stop It Why Warps – It’s a Stinking Lie Finish the Inside? Sideboard Stickley Simple popular woodworkingpresents 0

01020304FnL1 Qy1BDDA3NDQ3MDAxMzU1NgA=JUYrVyBQdWJsaWNhdGlvbnMsIEluYyAocnVlZ2VyAEk3vSkEMTAuNAI4MAExBVVQSW9sYSBkaXZpc2lvbikPR3JlZ29yeSBL 04 0120 47 01355 74470 Filled with Good Craftsmanship, the Best Techniques and No Ads Display until August 17, 2009 A Magazine Committed to Finding the Better Way to Build 6 US $5.99 CAN $7.99 93

-magazine.com ■ SUMMER 2009 “Failure is instructive. The person who really thinks learns quite as much from his failures as from his successes.” Contents — John Dewey (1859 - 1952), American philosopher and psychologist

1 On the Level 27 New Drawbore Pins Are there any true secrets left in wood- We review four new examples of a very working? Should there be? old , and they’re all a little different. Learn how to pick the one that’s right for 2 Letters your work. Questions, comments and wisdom from readers, experts and our staff. 30 Finish the Inside? Period woodworkers rarely – if ever – 4 Shortcuts finished the insides of their drawers and cases, yet many modern makers swear Tricks and tips that will make your by it. Learn the pros and cons before you woodworking simpler and more accurate. decide on your approach. 6 Why Wood Warps 32 Lessons from It’s an inescapable fact that wood warps. Craftsman Farms The challenge is in predicting that move- making frames: page 21 ment and working with that knowledge to Gustav Stickley envisioned a different avoid problems. approach to education than compulsory schooling – an approach that aimed to ensure 10 Stickley Sideboard 18 Wave-form Mouldings the continuation of the woodworking trade. Wood selection is the key component in Replicate this traditional decorative moulding building this handsome sideboard – the using modern machinery; the result makes Stickley No. 802. Get that right and the rest even the blandest wood come alive with detail. falls into place. 21 Making Frames Sooner or later someone is bound to ask you for a picture frame – and it’s not as simple as it seems. Here’s how to get it right the first time. 24 Tuning Tenons Before you can make your tenons fit just so, understand the strengths and weaknesses of the joint, so you can exploit them.

why wood warps: page 6 tuning tenons: page 24 new drawbore pins: page 27 Summer 2009, Issue 14 woodworking-magazine.com Editorial Offices 513-531-2690 On the Level

Publisher & Group Editorial Director ■ Steve Shanesy x11238, [email protected]

Editor ■ Christopher Schwarz x11407, [email protected] Art Director ■ Linda Watts Too Precious for Cash x11396, [email protected]

Senior Editor ■ Robert W. Lang x11327, [email protected] used to wonder if there were any secrets in sionally since high school – and that makes an Senior Editor ■ Glen D. Huey I x11293, [email protected] woodworking until I met Troy Sexton, who runs a enormous difference. Many accidents in shops Managing Editor ■ Megan Fitzpatrick one-man cabinetshop outside Columbus, Ohio. occur because the user is uncomfortable with a x11348, [email protected] I’d heard a tale about Troy from a number of machine or an operation. associate Editor for the web ■ Drew DePenning reputable woodworkers that seemed unlikely. But there’s something else, too. This week I x11008, [email protected]

Illustrator ■ Mary Jane Favorite Here’s the short form: Because of a series of mix- spent a morning with Jim Tolpin, one of my favor-

photographer ■ Al Parrish ups, Troy had to build a full-blown stepback cup- ite woodworking writers (“Measure Twice, Cut board in one day. Once” set me straight) and one of the founders F+W MEDIA, INC. David Nussbaum ■ Chairman & CEO That meant two separate case pieces from of the Port Townsend School of Woodworking James Ogle ■ CFO solid wood, dovetailed drawers and moulded (ptwoodschool.com). Our conversation turned Sara E. Domville ■ PRESIDENT divided-light doors. Oh, and the delivery truck to this topic, and Jim wondered out loud: Is it a Phil Graham ■ Senior VP, Manufacturing & Production was on its way to pick the piece up. good idea for us to tell or sell these shop secrets Chad Phelps ■ VICE PRESIDENT, DIGITAL Media With the help of a couple assistants, Troy to other woodworkers? Mike Kuehn ■ VICE PRESIDENT IT, CIO Sara Dumford ■ Conference Director pulled it off. The stepback went into the truck “Is that the right way to teach woodworking?” Linda Engel ■ Circulation Director on time, the customer was happy and Troy passed he asked. “Students pay me money, and I show Susan Rose ■ Newsstand Director into legend. them what I know?” Vicki Whitford ■ Production Coordinator When I first started working with Troy, I was In many trades, Tolpin said, skills are earned stunned at how fast he worked. We’d start in on a by apprentices who show they are competent, pas- Subscription rates: A year’s subscription (4 issues) is $19.96. In Canada: Add $5 for postage & handling (includes GST/HST). Outside the cabinet in the morning: sionate and ready for the U.S. and Canada: Add $10 for postage & handling and remit payment in U.S. funds with order. He’d build it, and I’d information. I’ve read newsstand distribution: Curtis Circulation Co., 730 River Road, take notes and photos of accounts where a mas- New Milford, NJ 07646 “Whoever wishes to keep a secret must postmaster: Send all address changes to Woodworking Magazine, P.O. the process. By the early ter would hide his meth- Box 420235, Palm Coast, FL 32142-0235. Canada GST Reg # R122594716. Subscription services: Subscription inquiries, orders and address afternoon, the carcase hide the fact that he possesses one.” ods from his apprentice changes can be made at woodworking-magazine.com (click on “Customer would be together and to find out what lengths Service”). Or by mail: Woodworking Magazine, P.O. Box 420235, Palm — Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe (1749 - 1832) Coast, FL 32142-0235. Or call 386-597-4322. Include your address with all Troy would be knock- German poet, novelist and playwright the apprentice would go inquiries. Allow 4 to 6 weeks for delivery. back issues: Back issues are available. For pricing ing out the doors and to in order to obtain the information or to order, call 800-258-0929, visit our web site at woodworking-magazine.com or send check or money order drawers. knowledge. The drive to: Woodworking Magazine Back Issues, F+W Media Products, But I never the whole process. I’d leave for to obtain the skill was almost as important as 700 E. State St., Iola, WI 54990. Please specify Woodworking Magazine and issue date. ©2009 a week, and he’d do some critical operations in my the skill itself. absence. After a while, I figured out some of his In hobby woodworking you can purchase tricks: To cut tenons he had two contractor the knowledge, even if you don’t know what to bolted together. One saw was set up to cut face do with the information or how to apply it. You Highly Recommended cheeks; the other cut only edge cheeks. He kept could argue that spending a great deal of money 3 Before the advent of the steel tape mea- a portable planer set permanently at exactly ⁄4". to take a woodworking class shows a passion for sure, woodworkers used 24"-long folding Every piece of stock went through it for a finish- the craft. That’s true, but simply spending money rules for most of the measuring chores in the ing pass, which made all his dedicated jigs work doesn’t signal that the student has the base skills shop. Folding rules never sag, cup or kink. and left a lot less sanding for him to do. necessary to use that knowledge. And vintage ones are widely available and But I didn’t get the whole picture. Troy could In my heart, I’m terrified that if I don’t show inexpensive. We recommend you find one cut haunched tenons without changing his setups. everything I know to someone (anyone) there’s that is “brass bound,” meaning the wood He could get shoulder cuts on his tenons with a chance this craft will wither away. But then, is entirely clad in brass. Brass-bound rules absolutely no blow-out (which is a typical problem sometimes when I see the furniture-shaped gar- are more likely to be straight. One common when you use a stack to cut your tenons). bage sold in stores, I wonder if we don’t deserve example is the Stanley No. 62, which can And he was faster than I could ever be. that fate. WM be found used for about $20. After a year of working with him, he opened — Christopher Schwarz up. I now know most of the ins and outs of how he makes mortises and tenons. But I’ve always hesitated to put it all down in print. Why? For one thing, I would be put in jail by the safety police. Troy’s methods step over the line in some places. He has all his fingers and a clean Christopher Schwarz safety record; he’s also been building profes- Editor

woodworking-magazine.com ■  Letters IlluSTrATIOnS By rOBErT W. lAng & MAry JAnE FAvOrITE

Should You Sand After ? an abrupt transition between the part of the wood by our eyes as differences in color. As you move, without the flakes and the part with it. or the wood or light source moves, the color seems I see that in many of his projects, Editor Chris- Well, after a couple hours of moving boards to change. Often, features of the figure, such as topher Schwarz handplanes all surfaces with back and forth I gave up on this idea. It appeared the ray flakes in your cherry or the curl in curly smoothing planes. that any time I flipped a board either end for end , may seem to disappear. My question is: Does Chris sand after that and or over to the other side, its hue would change. There isn’t much you can do about it. Some with what grits – or does he apply the finish over Or rather its hue would change when viewed woodworkers will never use a bookmatch, but in the planed surface? from certain angles (it was hard to be sure what the furniture and architectural millwork indus- I plan to use shellac on a piece I just completed was going on). And the mismatch in hue appears try it is the most-often used method of matching that is ready for finish. I handplaned all surfaces much more glaring than the mismatch in grain veneers. The effect can be reduced somewhat and the wood is very smooth. or figure. in the finishing process but not entirely elimi- Luis Martins So do you have any advice on this sort of match- nated unless you or apply a stain that’s Lisbon, Portugal ing? Why does this happen? When can I get away muddy enough to obscure the . Dull Luis, with changing board directions in a panel and film finishes or oil finishes that are wet sanded The answer is: It depends on the work. when can’t I? can reduce the appearance of the effect by reduc- For the interiors of casework, I don’t refine the Adrian Mariano ing the amount of light that is reflected. There surfaces any further than the . via e-mail aren’t any guarantees though, and you’re lucky For exterior surfaces that are not “high-style” you noticed it before you had the panels glued pieces, I will finish the surfaces with a smooth- and the piece finished. ing plane, which leaves a very gentle scalloped Personally, I like the effect of the color chang- surface. This is attractive (to me) and is evident ing as I move by a piece, but others on our staff on a lot of old furniture. are annoyed by it and think I’m nuts. It also makes However, when I am shooting for a surface that our photographer quite cranky. is perfect, I will plane with the , Robert W. Lang, senior editor scrape out any small bits of tear-out, then sand with #220 grit and a cork-back to level the surface. Also, the finish I plan to use helps dictate my Must Drawbore Pegs Extend surface preparation. If I am going to use a dye Clear Through the Mortise? stain, I have found that I get the best results by I read your article on drawbored mortise-and- sanding the entire surface with #220-grit paper. At opposite angle tenon joints (Autumn 2005, Issue 4), and would A surface that is planed seems to soak up dye light reflects from like to use that technique on a I’m unevenly in my experience. cell interiors Light casts building. The legs and cross pieces that form the A clear finish alone can be used with any of shadows on end trestles are made of four laminated 1x4s, these approaches. cell interiors so they are quite thick, more than 3". The tenons Christopher Schwarz, editor are 1"-wide through-tenons. The first time out, my Adrian, joinery was not too good, so the added strength Your observations are correct, and what you are of the drawbore technique is appealing. I am 3 Color Match in Composing seeing is one of the downsides to planning on using ⁄8" oak as pegs. (flipping a board over). This is known as the “bar- Am I correct in assuming that the steel draw- I noticed in your article on matching wood grain ber pole effect” and it will be more pronounced in bore pins work only with pegs that go all the way (Spring 2009, Issue 13) that you didn’t say much some species and in some cuts. The bad news for through the mortise? I don’t see how they would about matching color. Or rather, you suggested you is that cherry, along with maple, is one of the be used with stopped holes. that this was as simple as using wood from the species most likely to do this. The rest of the bad Do you insert the drawbore pin into the joint same board. But in my observation, it’s not so news is that it is more evident in quartersawn and and twist it until it completely fills the hole you simple. The hue of the wood seems to depend on rift-sawn than in plain-sawn lumber. have drilled for the ? I assume this kind of the viewing angle. What you are seeing is the result of light reflect- reams out the offset hole in the tenon? I have been working on a file cabinet with solid- ing (or not reflecting) from the individual cells of I understand that the peg gets tapered for wood panel sides made from quartersawn cherry. the board. Depending on the angle of the light ease of insertion, but doesn’t the peg have to be Some of the wood had a nifty ray flake pattern on source, and the angle of your point of view, the long enough so that its full width, rather than half of the board. My initial idea was to follow the available light will either cast a shadow in the just the tapered part, comes all the way through method in your article and position the boards so canal of a cell, or it will reflect off the face of the to the back side so that the sawn-off peg end fills that the ray flake sides were together. This avoids cell wall. These opposite conditions are perceived the bore completely?

 ■ woodworking magazine Summer 2009 What special considerations are there with a Build Workbench Tops from the tenon that is 1" thick? Widest, Thickest Stock Available Finally, it’s been suggested that I not place both pins in a straight line equidistant from the I am planning to use some reclaimed 4" x 12" edge, but that I stagger their positions. What do Douglas beams for the top, legs and stretchers you think of that idea? of my bench. It seems that the benchtop will be George Roland better if constructed from ripped and laminated via e-mail sections of the beams. Alternatively, I could lay George, the beams on their sides and join them edge to 1. Drawboring works best if all your holes pass edge. Which method would you prefer? completely through your workpieces. However, Second, I don’t have a jointer and don’t want you can use stopped holes. You just have to calcu- to acquire one. Is it folly for a beginning wood- late where the taper on your peg ends and make worker to attempt to build this bench using hand sure that it has passed entirely through the hole tools only? in the tenon. I prefer to use through-holes and Pat Donnelly rarely used stopped holes. via e-mail 2. Except in softer , it is very difficult Pat, to deform the wood as much as you describe. I Personally, I would not rip those beams up to insert the pin and apply pressure until the joint laminate them. Every glue joint is an opportunity is drawn tight at the shoulder. This will deform for failure, and you really won’t gain anything by the hole in the tenon a bit, but that’s a good thing. laminating the top from narrow strips. It creates a ramp for the peg and makes it easier Historically, benches were made from the wid- to bend it through the tenon. est, thickest stuff that could be found – sometimes it was one plank. 3. If the exit hole is visible to everyone, then hard wood. I removed the handle then chucked I’d take two of those 4" x 12" beams, join them yes, you want to make the peg long enough that the in my press. edge to edge and be done with it. It will look you saw off the tapered section in the end. Oth- With the motor off, simply lower the feed arm better, too. erwise, I wouldn’t worry about it. As long as you into the workpiece. The downward force quickly As far as using handplanes for this joint, if you get a good portion of the untapered part of the cuts clean and accurate corners. Deeply incised are going to do just one joint, I’d absolutely do pin in there, you’ll be fine. layout lines have the beneficial effect of aligning it by hand. As to the rest of the bench, it would 4. I cannot think of any special considerations the corner chisel properly for the cut – the chisel be a challenge to do all the joinery by hand, but with a 1"-thick tenon. Just be sure to use the stout- settles in the lines. Turn the slightly if 1 it’s do-able. Other beginners have had great luck est pegs possible. I’ve drawbored 2 ⁄2"-thick ten- needed. Once the chisel is properly aligned, apply and learned a lot in the process. ons with no problems whatsoever. strong downward force. Cut from both sides of Christopher Schwarz, editor 5. You can stagger your pin locations. Or not. the mortise to avoid tear-out. Some people do this to reduce the chance of split- unplug the drill press before you use this tech- ting your mortised piece. If both holes are in nique if you might be tempted to turn it on. the same growth ring, there is a small chance Donald C. Brown Currency Correction the area could split once you introduce tension 3 Havana, Florida It’s actually the penny, not the dime, that’s ⁄4" in into the wood. I’ve done it both ways. I think it is diameter (as was suggested in the Spring 2009 cosmetic more than anything. “Shortcuts” column). Christopher Schwarz, editor What are Recommended? A dime is only .700" in diameter. So the invest- ment in four setup blocks is much less than the 40 I am building the “Hanging Shelves” from the cents Mr. leko suggests. The dime comes up a bit Winter 2008 issue. Could you let me know what 1 short in ⁄16" thickness, too. The penny is slightly “A prudent question is one half size was used in the article? Also, what cut 1 thicker, but a few thousandths shy of ⁄16". of wisdom.” is it and where can I buy it? That’s my four cents worth. WM — Francis Bacon (1561 - 1626) Robert Robertson John Fox English philosopher, statesman, scientist and author via e-mail via e-mail Robert, I used the Gramercy rasps available from Tools for Working Wood (toolsforworkingwood.com). Alternative Technique for Either of the smallest sizes would be a good place HOW TO CONTACT US to start, but if I had to choose only one it would Send your comments and questions via Squaring Through-mortises 1 be the 6 ⁄2" 18 teeth-per-inch (tpi) tool. e-mail to [email protected], or by “Make Clean Through-mortises,” in Winter 2008, The larger ones will work faster but leave a regular mail to Woodworking Magazine, Issue 12 was a good survey of hand- and power- rougher surface; the smaller one will cut more Letters, 4700 E. Galbraith Road, tool techniques. let me offer an additional aide to slowly but leave a nicer surface. I usually use two Cincinnati, OH 45236. Please include squaring the corners of router-cut mortises. or three in succession, but the one I suggest is a your complete mailing address and day- When faced with the task of squaring a large good middle ground. If you follow the rasp with a time phone number. All letters become number of mortises in thick oak, I turned naturally card scraper it leaves a pretty decent surface. property of Woodworking Magazine. to a corner chisel, but progress was slow in the Robert W. Lang, senior editor

woodworking-magazine.com ■  Shortcuts ILLUSTRATIONS BY MARY JANE FAVORITE

Resaw by Hand – the Easy Way I do all my woodworking with hand tools, and I the end grain of my 3"-thick maple benchtop. I take a certain amount of pride in that, along with screwed the other end into the wooden chop of my the fact that I just can’t own power tools because I end . I opened the vise to tension the and move about once every year or every other year. I I made two small spacers to set under the blade wanted to find a way to avoid borrowing a friend’s to establish a uniform and consistent height off band saw every time I needed to resaw stock. the benchtop. The spacer needs to be a bit thicker My first thought was to build a . My than the finished resawn thickness you want, to hesitation was that I can hardly saw straight for take into account the kerf of the blade. dovetails using a let alone a few feet When everything was tensioned and adjusted while trying to track a thin metal blade. (which is quick and easy) I simply pushed and I set out to create something simple, portable, pulled the piece of wood across the blade using consistent, easy to use, easy to move and func- light pressure and long strokes. I found that start- tional. So I turned my workbench into a resaw- ing the cut was easiest while pushing but once ing machine. I was in the cut I could go very quickly with a When all was said and done, all I did was stretch pulling movement while I was standing at the 3 a ⁄4"-wide 3 tpi band saw blade along the length end of the workbench. In a few minutes I reduced of my bench (which is only 48" long). a 6/4 board of hard maple down to two pieces 1 To do this, I drilled two holes, one in either end of ⁄2"-thick lumber – with a small veneer-like of the bench. I screwed one end of the blade into piece left over. Friar Peter C. Tremblay O.F.M. Conv. Get a Grip on the Handplane Baltimore, Maryland You Are Using for Shooting Spacer Whenever I use my shooting board I find it awk- ward to find a comfortable way to hold the plane by its side without crushing my fingers amongst the innards of the tool. Not wanting to drill the sidewall of my plane to install a handle, and not being able to afford a dedicated miter plane or Stanley shooting board plane, I eventually hit on the following solution: an F-style . I simply clamp a small F-style clamp to the plane while it is lying on its side so that the clamp’s bar is pointing up. This gives you a much more comfortable hold for the plane. Alan Ennis Dublin, Ireland

The Holdfasts You Already Own Recently, while pondering the cost and annoy- – and again it worked. Across my shop I spied a ance of ordering a couple holdfasts, I had a eureka different brand of F-style clamp with a slightly 7 moment. The illustration at right should make narrower bar – say ⁄8". I tried this third clamp it obvious. head, and it worked just as well. The wiggle room I ground the retaining rivet off an F-style clamp in the dog hole doesn’t seem to affect its perfor- that had a 1"-wide bar, and tapped it into one of mance. the 1"-diameter dog holes in my workbench. To The best part is, it takes about five seconds to my amazement, it worked perfectly – it held down re-attach the clamp’s screw assembly, and you any thickness of wood I threw at it, and a light have your clamp back. tap released it. Gavin MacRae Encouraged by this success, I tried another Kimberley, British Columbia, Canada

 ■ woodworking magazine Summer 2009 A Bench Modification That Remember Where Your Studs Makes Cross-grain Work Easy Are Without Marking the Wall While building an English-style workbench I When I’m mounting shelves to the wall, I often 1 started thinking about how to have the outside use a couple ⁄4"-diameter rare earth magnets to edges of the top glued solidly to the front and rear search out the stud. I wave the magnet close to boards and still have some way to allow for wood the wall until I feel it find a drywall screw head movement in the top. (the magnets are very strong). Instead of mark- Peter Nicholson, who first illustrated this bench ing its location, I leave the magnet on the wall. in the 19th century, describes the bench as hav- When I’m done I store it in the case with all my ing a 2"-thick top on the working side and a loose screwdriver tips. 1"-thick board at the rear with a possible locker Tim Vogan Keep Your Tools Free of Rust underneath to store the tools. Portland, Oregon With a Custom Applicator That information, and having learned of George Ellis’s “planing board” in his book “Modern Prac- This oiler makes it quick and neat to apply camel- tical Joinery,” led me to decide that a crack in lia oil, a pleasant, easy-to-use rust inhibitor. The the benchtop would actually be an asset rather 1 1 project starts with squared-up blocks, each 2 ⁄4" than a detriment. I left a ⁄2"-wide slot between 1 1 x 2 ⁄4". One is 3" long, the other 1 ⁄4" long. Use the top planks. 3 a 1 ⁄4" Forstner bit in a drill press to bore a 2"- It is very handy for dropping in stops for trans- deep hole, centered on the end grain of the larger verse planing, or as a saw stop at the end of the block. I recommend you remove most of the waste bench. and screwdrivers can be stood up with a smaller bit beforehand and immobilize in the slot for temporary storage. I am certain that the workpiece with clamped blocks on all sides. many jigs, fixtures and appliances could make 7 7 Then bore a 1 ⁄8"-diameter hole that is ⁄8" deep good use of it as well, and it does allow for wood and centered on the smaller block. movement. The only drawback is that some trash Sawing, planing, rasping and sanding the larger does fall through onto the tray below, but I can block is formed into a cylinder with a wall thick- live with that. 1 Two Tricks to Remove Splinters ness of about ⁄4". Turners could accomplish all Michael E. Siemsen these steps on the lathe. Mike Siemsen’s School of Woodworking (Editor’s note: We’ll do anything to remove stub- Next, apply a heavy coat of epoxy to the bottom schoolofwood.com born splinters, especially when the species of and inner walls of the holes in each piece and to wood under the skin is an irritant. These two the end-grain surface surrounding the rim of each tricks we harvested from the Internet. I’ve tried hole. This prevents oil from bleeding through the blood lancet trick, but not the bread trick. I’m the wood. After the epoxy has dried, flatten the saving that one for my next nasty splinter.) area around the rim of each hole with , Trick No. 1: The best way to remove splinters which gives it a non-sticky, matte finish. The outer (and ingrown hairs) is with a blood lancet. Only parts of each piece, where there is no epoxy, are diabetics and people with extreme hypoglycemia finished with two coats of . even know what those are, but they work magic. For the oil wick, tightly roll a cotton T-shirt Go to the pharmacy and pick some up. They are 1 and bind it with string. The bundle is about 2 ⁄2" extremely sharp and can get under the skin and 1 long to project about ⁄2" above the rim of the cup; pry up the splinter. it fits snugly in the cup. Trick No. 2: Have you ever heard of the moist Soak the cotton with camellia oil, repeating bread and bandage trick? Soak some bread then as the oil slowly permeates the bundle. The oiler bandage it to your splintered parts. Leave it on is stored upside down with the projecting cotton overnight or for a few hours; it softens up the skin fitting into the hole in the smaller block, with Stop and draws out the splinter. WM clearance around the sides and below. The cot- ton acts as a substantial reservoir for oil which is replenished as needed. A light swipe of the oiler over tool steel surfaces will leave a thin coating of SEND US YOUR SHORTCUT the oil. The design allows one-handed use. We will provide a complimentary one-year (Editor’s note: For photos of the construction subscription (or extend your current sub- process, visit: rpwoodwork.com/blog.) scription) for each Shortcut we print. Send Rob Porcaro your Shortcut via e-mail to shortcuts@ Medfield, Massachusetts fwmedia.com, or by post to Woodworking Magazine, Shortcuts, 4700 E. Galbraith Road, Cincinnati, OH 45236. Please include “It’s all very well in practice, but it will your complete mailing address and day- time phone number. All Shortcuts become never work in theory.” property of Woodworking Magazine. — French management saying

woodworking-magazine.com ■  Why Wood Warps

Most warp takes place as green wood dries, but the potential for movement remains after lumber is brought into your shop.

The quick answer to why wood warps is sim- ple: There’s a gain or loss of moisture content (water). We’ve all brought perfectly flat boards into our shops only to discover that, while sitting on the rack, some have warped. And we’ve been told to give lumber time to acclimate to our shop surroundings before operations begin. There are reasons for these woodworking words of wisdom. Predicting the movement of wood is not easy. For this, we need to examine a tree’s journey from freshly cut to dry and ready to use. And we need to know where in the tree the lumber existed prior to being slabbed into pieces. Fresh-cut or green wood is loaded with water. Moisture content, when the tree is felled, can vary anywhere from 30 percent to nearly 250 percent of the final dried weight, depending on the species and whether the wood is from near the center of the tree or located more toward the outside. Water within green wood is classified as either “free water” or “bound water.” Free water is lost quickly and bound water needs to be forced from aprrish al y the wood’s cells. When free water is totally dis- b o t

sipated, the wood has reached its “fiber saturation o point” (FSP). Drying beyond the FSP is when the ph wood begins to give up bound water. Cup, bow and twist are not welcome in your shop. Understand why and how wood warps and you’ll In “Understanding Wood” (Taunton), R. Bruce increase your woodworking abilities as well as add money to your pocket with better purchasing habits. Hoadley explains this phenomenon using a sponge to represent wood. A fully soaked sponge pulled from a bucket of water quickly gives off free water. passes below its FSP that the wood begins to rings) and tangential (movement perpendicular Even as the sponge is wrung out, additional free shrink and move. Conversely, wood will swell to the grain and parallel to the growth rings). water is released. But when no additional water as moisture is added or absorbed. This is why you can be wrung from the sponge, the sponge has need to allow the wood to acclimate. Three Typical Movements reached its FSP. Moisture still in the sponge is As wood moves below its FSP and begins to Longitudinal movement in normal wood is negli- bound water. It is only with the removal of bound shrink, three typical directions of movement are gible. When going from green to dry, movement water that the sponge begins to shrink and harden. possible: longitudinal (movement along the grain), along the grain averages less than 0.1 percent – a 1 It’s the same with wood. It is only after the board radial (movement perpendicular to the growth 10' piece of green wood shrinks about ⁄8" along

 ■ woodworking magazine Summer 2009 its length. This movement is so small it has almost no impact on our woodworking techniques. If, however, the is juvenile wood (less longitudinal than 20 years from the tree’s center) the shrink- movement age can be upward of 2 percent or some 20 times greater.

Radial movement is shrinkage that occurs as g lan you move outward from the center of the tree. . tangential In flat-sawn lumber, radial movement affects w movement bert

thickness. This shrinkage is intermediate to the o r y

other two kinds of movement and is generally, b

n radial in North American species, stated to be between o movement 4 percent and 6 percent. On a flat-cut, 2"-thick piece of hardwood, movement could be as much

1 illustrati as ⁄8" in thickness. typical wood movement Lee Valley Tools has compiled an easy-to-use The third movement, and the one that is most guide that’s used to calculate wood’s potential substantial, is tangential movement. This is move- movement and to determine which woods are ment across the grain and should always be con- with the guide coefficient at .0037, we can expect more prone to warp (leevalley.com). sidered when building projects. Wood movement an overall movement of .0666", or just more than 1 across the grain, again based on North American ⁄16" (6" x 3 x .0037 = .0666"). 3 species, can be from a low of 6 percent to a high This number is far different from the ⁄4" figure that we glue up, and any wide boards used in of around 12 percent. A flat-sawn 6"-wide board given earlier and that illustrates the difference our projects, are generally not one type of cut. 3 could move up to ⁄4" from the green to the dry in working with lumber that is dry and is simply Most are a combination of quartersawn and flat- stage. As you can see, tangential movement is fluctuating with changes in humidity, and lumber sawn, and some may be rift-sawn (the face of the nearly double that of radial movement. that is moving from green to dry. board meets the growth rings at angles between It’s important to note that each example given Most woodworkers use this guide to confirm 30 degrees and 60 degrees). With different grain to this point is for flat-sawn stock. Quartersawn what they are already doing. We know wood patterns involved, to use the charts requires us to stock – where the width of the lumber is perpen- moves. We know you need to allow for move- make judgment calls – a potential for error. dicular to the growth rings – reacts differently. ment. If you do the calculations, you begin to It’s better to keep in mind which woods have Quartersawn lumber is more stable because the understand just how much wood moves. a higher potential to move, cup or twist. Armed faces of the boards react to radial movement For me that’s a bit more information than nec- with that information, we can make calls that instead of tangential movement. essary and too exacting. Besides, most panels affect the way we work in the shop. If you know Any of the movements or shrinkages discussed thus far are natural, normal reactions to . These are expected and accounted for by those who cut or dry wood. For most of us these Types of Cuts movements are not as severe. We’re not moving from a felled tree to dried lumber, but we do need flat-sawn to consider movement due to humidity changes cut (be they extreme changes or not) and exposure.

Movement by the Numbers The Department of Agriculture’s Forest Products Laboratory has established a set of numbers that indicates the amount of movement you can expect quartersawn within a given species for flat-sawn (tangential) cut and quartersawn (radial) boards. These numbers, which represent the amount of movement that rift-sawn occurs per unit of width given a 1-percent change cut in moisture content, can be found in their infor- mation-packed “Wood Handbook.” To determine what amount of movement to expect, measure the width of your board, establish the average yearly change in moisture content for your area, find the appropriate coefficient for your wood and do the calculation. (For more The type of cut (flat-sawn, information see Woodworking Magazine Autumn quartersawn or rift-sawn) 2005, Issue 4.) and from where in the tree Let’s work an example: If we have a 6"-wide, the piece is cut, both play fully flat-sawn piece of red oak (a species with a vital roles in the potential high propensity for movement), and we experi- for cup, twist and bow. ence a moisture-content change of 3 percent, and

woodworking-magazine.com ■  “Like age on a man, water makes soft maple (T/R = 2.2) or Eastern white with wood softer, heavier and fatter – a T/R ratio at 2.9. but not taller.” What is Warp? — Roy Underhill (1950 - ) Warp is comprised of a few different movement author, educator and host of the PBS television series issues. The three major movement issues we con- “The Woodwright’s Shop” sider in woodworking are cup, bow and twist. Of the three, the most common warp is cup. A board cups when one face shrinks more in width than the opposite face. The rule of thumb that Eastern white pine moves more than poplar, is that boards cup toward the bark side. An easy and you are assembling drawer bottoms in either way to visualize this is to imagine that the growth Knowing that boards generally cup toward the wood, you know whether to complete the process rings are trying to straighten. While this is most bark side of the tree is a quick indication of how that day or if you can allow the panels to sit until often the case, you will find boards that cup in the piece should be surface planed. the next time you’re in the shop. the opposite direction. Again, this is an issue in This information is available from the num- flat-sawn lumber. In quartersawn stock, it’s not bers supplied by the Forest Products Labora- so much of a problem due to quartersawn stock side of each board to the cabinet, then if the board tory. To get a general assessment of wood warp, being cut across the growth rings. were to cup, the movement would force the edges divide the number given for tangential move- Information about cup in stock is important of each board tight to your case. ment (T) by the radial movement number (R). for a couple reasons. First, if you know that in all Occasionally, although it is rare, boards have This figure, expressed as a ratio (T/R), is the likelihood the cup is facing the bark side, you can enough moisture variation along the grain to cause tendency for wood to distort while drying. The quickly ascertain the face that should be milled excessive movement. One face of a board shrinks closer this ratio is to 1, the less warp you have to first at the jointer. Additionally, if you’re planning more than the opposing face. Wood movement of worry about. and walnut, each with a project you may choose to position the bark this kind is referred to as “bow” and it happens in a 1.4 T/R ratio, are more stable and less prone to side of the stock in a particular manner. Attach- both flat-sawn and quartersawn lumber. Quarter- warp with changes in humidity than red oak or ing backboards is an example. Position the bark sawn lumber also experiences “crook.” Crook is movement along one edge of the lumber. Boards almost always bow in one direction, toward the center of the tree. Bow and crook are found most often in lumber Types of Warp cut near the center of the tree. This lumber is gen- erally designated as a lower grade of stock.

point of greatest deflection crook

opposite corners g lan

rise . w bert

bow o r and n

point of greatest o deflection cup hutchins hn

twist jo y b ns o illustrati Checking a piece of lumber for bow is something cup crook twist bow you shouldn’t have to become good at because bowing should seldom be an issue.

 ■ woodworking magazine Summer 2009 Twist is where the opposing pairs of diagonal corners of a board are not in the same plane. If Casehardening: Wood you position a twisted board flat on your jointer Movement as You Cut or flattened benchtop, the opposing corners on opposite ends touch the surface and the two other ou’ve selected the material for your proj- corners do not. Place pressure on one of the cor- Yect. Everything looks great. Your grain ners that is held off the surface and the board and color match are just what you were rocks to that side. Remove the pressure and the after. The next step is to rip your material to piece rocks back. size, and as you make your cut, the board If you have to flatten twisted material, trim twists more than Chubby Checker in his the high corners of the piece until you eventually prime. Wonder why? It’s stress in the wood plane the entire face. If you’re using handplanes, known as casehardening. the process is simplified. If machines are your Casehardening is a symptom of improper method for milling, position the piece at your kiln drying. The wood was rushed through jointer with pressure on the trailing end’s corner a kiln too quickly. Moisture pulls from the that’s hovering above the table to secure it to the outside surface of a board first, then as the surface, then begin your pass over the knives. outer surface begins to shrink, that shrink- As the board reaches the middle of its length, age is restricted by the moist inside of the switch the pressure off the trailing corner and wood, which adds stress to the lumber. onto the leading corner that is now off the table. As the process continues, the inner wood This change causes the knives to trim the trail- begins to dry, but is restrained by the dry ing high corner. After you flatten one face, use outer wood. This also adds stress or tension standard procedures to get your workpiece ready Twist is the most difficult warpage to work with, to the wood. to be surfaced on all four sides. as there are specific maneuvers needed to flatten As you make a cut through stressed the material. If your twist is excessive, you’ll make lumber, you free the tension and your board Follow the Basics veneer before the board is thicknessed. moves; wood on one side of the cut moves After discovering why wood warps, types of warp toward or away from the blade, or one side and how to predict potential movement, you real- pushes down as the opposite side lifts off ize how important a couple basic steps are to make your rough-cut size and you reduce the overall the tabletop. milling lumber easier. warp in your stock. There is no reason to walk Some species are more prone to case- 1 You should always allow lumber to acclimate away from an 8" board that’s cupped ⁄2" at the hardening. I’ve noticed walnut has this pro- to your shop – a period of seven to 10 days should center if you can rip that piece at 4" and greatly pensity and that fact was supported by my do the trick. Any movement prior to surfacing reduce that warp. The same methodology holds supplier, especially in quartersawn walnut. stock is much better than boards moving after true with bow and twist. To detect stress in wood use a prong test. you have reached your final dimensions. And it’s Of course, the best advice is to buy properly Cut a defect-free cross section of your board best to trim your material to rough-cut sizes prior cut and properly dried lumber – then cup, twist that’s about 1" in width – somewhere away to milling operations. I suggest 1" of additional and bow will seldom visit your shop. WM from an original end. Saw out the center 1 length and ⁄4" extra width. Reduce the pieces to — Glen D. Huey section leaving a prong on each edge, as shown below. Upon cutting, if the board is stress free, the two prongs remain relatively straight or bow outward slightly. If the prongs exhibit severe inward cup, the piece is under stress. In time, the prongs may move due to loss of moisture. — GH g lan . w bert o

End r y

grain b n o illustrati

To allow your boards to acclimate to your shop environment is a sage piece of advice. Small changes in stress- case- humidity can translate into movement. To make the process move along more quickly, rough cut your free hardened pieces slightly oversized.

woodworking-magazine.com ■  Stickley Sideboard

The hardest part of building this Arts & Crafts classic is choosing just the right piece of wood for each component.

My grandmother – who always wore skirts, never pants – was too polite and proper to roll thor her eyes when I became enthralled with Arts & u a Crafts furniture. the Jean West was a die-hard student of antiques. y Her library was filled with books about period

American, English and Asian furniture. Her home photosb

was decorated with these pieces. Her taste in step objects, I now realize, was excellent. ; When I started collecting and building Arts parrish

& Crafts pieces about 17 years ago, she and I al would go antique hunting in her haunts in Con- y necticut and Rhode Island. When I raved about photob a signed Stickley armchair, she would just shake d her head. lea “Oh Christopher,” was all she’d say. The Stickley No. 802 server is one of the most graceful pieces from the era. Despite its heavy legs, the When Jean was growing up, the Arts & Crafts piece has a lightness thanks to tapers and a curve. style was on its way down. All of the cult objects that celebrities now pay thousands of dollars for were – to her – the stuff in student ghettos, beach and-tenon joint. Once you get through that, you’re houses and servant quarters. It was clunky, life- just about home. less and dark. You can build the drawers any way you please. Though Jean and I never saw eye-to-eye on I dovetailed mine by hand because Jean always antiques, I hope she would have approved of (or poo-pooed anything with machine-cut dovetails. at least tolerated) this version of Gustav Stickley’s Some family traits are too strong to overcome. No. 802 server. Thanks to the pen of Harvey Ellis, this server has a bold curve that pulls the eye The Heart is in the Extremities upward. The double taper on the legs lightens its Though the top of this server always commands overall structure. And the choice of cherry (my attention (that’s where the food is), the heart of this only addition to the soup) also reduces the sever- piece’s design is in its legs. Paying close attention ity of the original’s dark oak finish. when selecting the wood for your legs makes an Construction of this piece is surprisingly quick enormous difference. The grain on the legs should be rift-sawn. See how and easy for a major case piece. Like all Arts & While you’re at the lumberyard, look for wide the growth rings run diagonally across the end Crafts projects, it is a mortising marathon. The 8/4 cherry with rift grain on its edges and cathe- grain? This ensures your legs will look good from aprons, stretchers and web frame all use a mortise- dral grain in the center. You’ll rip off the rift all angles of the room.

10 ■ woodworking magazine Summer 2009 grain from the edges to claim your legs – save the cathedral in the center for another project. The other critical thing to consider is the direction of the grain lines on the front faces of your legs. Because the legs taper at the top and the foot, I look for grain lines that have a gentle curve that mimics this shape. While this sounds artsy-fartsy to beginners, it’s something that good woodworkers eventually do on instinct. Develop gospel is that you shouldn’t use the After you have cut all the cheeks, raise the your instincts now. rip and miter in tandem. This is the and form the edge shoulders. The trick here is to Prepare your legs with care. I get mine to both grand exception for me. This cut is safe because ensure your fence is 90° to your table. If it’s not, their final thickness and width using the planer. there is no wood trapped between the blades and your shoulders will be mis-cut and ill-fitting. Then I remove the milling marks with a jointer the rip fence. plane and get ready to cut my joinery.

Tips on Tenons The tenon for the back apron is too wide for a your actual tenoned parts to lay out the locations The back apron and all the stretchers are con- single tenon. The resulting mortise wall from a of your mortises. There’s no need to measure nected to the legs with mortise-and-tenon joints. single tenon would be significantly weakened. So – that encourages error. Selecting your stock for these parts also requires you need to split the tenon. Yes, you could rig up Cut all your mortises. Make them a shade 1 some thought. For the back apron, pick something some on your table saw. Or you could handsaw deeper than 1 ⁄4". This gives you a little room for ugly and sappy but straight. No one will see it. the 1"-wide waste out and be done with it. excess glue, plus the tenons are easier to fit if they For the two bottom stretchers, pick pieces with Now bundle your legs together and mark out don’t hit bottom. quartered or rift grain. You want straight lines, where all the stretchers and apron go. Then use not curves, down there. And for the curved front A Bit Crazy on the Curve stretcher you want to be a little picky. You can use The curve on the front stretcher has to be perfect. quartered or flat stock here, but I’d look for some- If it’s not centered and smooth, it will bug you thing that mimics the curve. Remember: People for the rest of your life. Normally for a broad and are going to be looking at this part a lot. shallow curve I’ll lay it out using a flexible scrap 1 1 All the tenons on this piece are 1 ⁄4" long, ⁄4" bent between nails. But for this curve, I built a 7 thick and have ⁄16"-wide edge shoulders. Because trammel from a scrap to get a smooth swoop. of the consistency and quantity of the tenons on this server, I like to cut them using a dado stack in the table saw. The key to accuracy with this method is to use lots of downward pressure during the cut – the blades push your work up. And test each tenon in a sample mortise. If it doesn’t fit, run it over the Use a dovetail saw or other rip-tooth saw to first blades a second time. define the edge cheeks of your twin tenons. This is a good way to warm up your sawing skills.

Clean up the waste that you couldn’t get with your saw by using a chisel. I prefer a narrow tool for this operation because it requires less effort to push forward than a wide chisel.

I mark out my mortise locations using my com- pleted tenons. When I mortise the legs, I remove the pencil line with my chisel. That gives the Remove the waste between with some sort of frame saw. This is a bowsaw. You also could use a tenon a little bit of room to move during assembly saw – or just bash the waste out with a chisel. so I can line things up.

woodworking-magazine.com ■ 11 This is quick to do. And it’s accurate if you follow these steps. Find a stick long enough for 1 your trammel. Drill a ⁄4" hole at one end for the pencil. Whittle the pencil just a bit until it fits snugly in the hole. From the tip of the pencil, measure your 7 curve’s radius (45 ⁄8"), and mark that length on your trammel. Drive a screw through the tram- mel at that point. Clamp your stretcher to your benchtop and scribe a centerline across its width. The next step is critical: Use a to shift the stretcher so it is exactly 90° to your benchtop’s front edge. Now position the screw’s tip so it’s in line with the centerline and the pencil’s lead is on your centerline. Strike your arc.

Dovetail the Rail The thin rail above the drawers is joined to the legs with a single dovetail at each end. The dovetails are 1" long and are rabbeted on the underside to make it easy to lay out the mating socket. First cut the sloped edges (I used a 1:6 slope). 1 Saw the edge shoulders. Then saw a ⁄8" on the underside. This should be no problem for If you’ve measured your radius correctly there should be a small flat remaining at the ends of your curve. any fine-tooth Western saw or dozuki. This is intentional. It strengthens the end of the curve, which can be fragile. Then lay out the socket on the legs. The rab- bet on your rail will allow you to easily hold the piece in position as you trace around it with a knife and pencil. Mark the depth of the socket then saw out its extents. Stickley No. 802 Server

Clamp the leg down to your benchtop and No. part sizes (inches) material Notes brace the foot of the leg against a bench dog or a T W l stop. Then chisel out the waste, working down. Base Pop the waste out by driving the chisel into the ❑ 4 Legs 13⁄4 21⁄4 351⁄8 Cherry 2" wide at top; 15⁄8" at foot end grain. ❑ 2 Side panels 3⁄4 131⁄2 13 Cherry Glued to legs ❑ 1 Back apron 3⁄4 63⁄4 361⁄2 Cherry 11⁄4" TBE; inset 1⁄8" from legs ❑ 1 Drawer divider 3⁄4 153⁄4 5 Cherry Screwed to web frame & top rail “If you can’t saw a straight line at an ❑ 1 Top front rail 1⁄2 11⁄2 36 Cherry 1"-long dovetail, both ends angle, then you shouldn’t be practicing ❑ 1 Curved stretcher 3⁄4 413⁄16 361⁄2 Cherry 11⁄4" TBE; inset 1⁄4" from front ❑ 2 Bottom stretchers 7⁄8 35⁄8 16 Cherry 11⁄4" TBE; inset 1⁄2" inside of legs cutting dovetails – you should be ❑ 1 Shelf 3⁄4 121⁄2 35 Cherry Supported by cleats practicing sawing.” ❑ 4 Cleats 3⁄4 3⁄4 11 Cherry Support for shelf, web frame 1 1 3 — Jim Kingshott (1932 - 2002) ❑ 2 Top attachment cleats ⁄2 2 ⁄2 16 ⁄4 Wood Glued to back apron “Dovetails” DVD Top ❑ 1 Top 7⁄8 18 42 Cherry Optional on underside 3 3 Assemble the Base ❑ 1 Backsplash ⁄4 3 ⁄4 38 Cherry Glued to top The end assemblies on this server are odd. The Web frame bottom stretchers are tenoned into the legs, but 3 ❑ 2 Stiles ⁄4 2 33 Pine the side panels at the top are not. The grain on ❑ 2 Rails 3⁄4 2 131⁄2 Pine 11⁄4" TBE these side panels runs vertical, so tenons aren’t ❑ 1 Midrail 3⁄4 43⁄4 131⁄2 Pine 11⁄4" TBE advised. I joined my side panels to the legs with glue alone. It was easy. Drawers Picking the stock for your side panels isn’t ❑ 2 Fronts 3⁄4 41⁄2 165⁄8 Cherry as critical as it is for some other parts, but there 1 1 ❑ 4 Sides ⁄2 4 ⁄2 15 Pine are some details to think about. On the proto- ❑ 2 Backs 1⁄2 4 165⁄8 Pine type I built, I glued up each side panel from two ❑ 2 Bottoms 1⁄2 143⁄4 161⁄8 Pine narrower boards and went for a bookmatched look. On the second version I built, I found some TBE = Tenon on both ends 14"-wide lumber and made the side panels from

12 ■ woodworking magazine Summer 2009 Many woodworkers will saw over the line on the end grain on purpose. It makes chiseling out the waste a tad easier. If you This is more good sawing practice (and the results Here’s what the joint looks like before you do this, be sure to mark the location of will never show). Keep it up, and you’ll want to hand-dovetail the mark out the socket. And people think hand- the leg’s taper. You don’t want to cross drawer, too. sawing is sloppier than machine work. that line.

Here I’ve clamped a piece of scrap at my 38" socket’s scribe line. 34" It helps prevent me from crossing the 1œ" scribe line when chopping. It’s not foolproof, but it is 18" 13ø" fool-resistant.

1" 1œ" 16π" œ" 2" 2" 42" section, plan

42" 42" 2" 2" œ" Rœ" 2" 3œ"

4ø" 6œ" ý" 13" 15ø" 4˙" 1œ" 34" 2¬" 2¬" R45ý" œ" 36" lang . w

25¬" ert b ro

19ƒ" y œ"

5∫" u strationsb ill 1š" 34" ®" 1π" section, elevation elevation Stickley No. 802 sideboard

woodworking-magazine.com ■ 13 The point is to make all the legs look the same, not to obey some measure- I use a fence on my planes when every shaving has to be perfect. Usually when ment. You can please your eyes or you can please your ruler. I go for the eyes. you joint long edges for a tabletop, you have some extra wood that allows you to correct an off-kilter edge. Not so here.

Any sort of soft secondary wood is good for a web frame. I used pine with some blue stain. Here I’m one edge of a stile right before assembly.

Here I’m looking for squeeze-out at my seams. Too much squeeze-out will be Glue up a panel for the drawer divider. I use yellow glue for these joints a nightmare to clean up in this corner. Glue judiciously. because it’s easy to set up these panels quickly.

14 ■ woodworking magazine Summer 2009 that. On the second version, I cut my panels so a cathedral was terminating near the top of the panel. Both servers look good. Once you have your side panels selected and sized, you can taper your legs. Again, you can make all manner of jigs to make this double taper. Or you can keep it simple. I marked out the tapers on one leg. I cut them on the band saw and cleaned up the results with a . Then I used that as a template for the other legs. If you’ve gotten this far in the story, you’re probably wondering right now if this project is a bomb waiting to go off. I mean, look at those end assemblies. The grain runs horizontal in the bottom stretchers and vertical in the side panels. Won’t this piece tear itself apart? Wood movement aside, it hasn’t been a prob- lem in the historical pieces or in the prototype I built two years ago. My guess: The legs bend a bit. Before you assemble the ends, ensure that the side panels are the exact same size as the distance between the shoulders of your bottom stretchers. A plane is a good tool for this sort of work. Glue up each end assembly. I used liquid hide glue to give myself plenty of time to shift my parts around just so. After the glue has dried in both end assem- blies, glue up the remainder of the base. You can Once I get my web frame squared up, I’ll fit it to Then I plane down to the line. Just make sure you use the tapered offcuts from your band saw as the base. Here I’m tracing how much waste I need don’t make the web frame into a parallelogram clamping cauls, but I didn’t find it necessary.D o to remove to get the frame to fit. when you do this. Keep it square. not glue in the dovetailed top rail yet. Drive it in dry during assembly. You’ll need to remove it to fit the guts inside the server.

The Guts of It A web frame supports the drawers and squares up the base. Measure the inside of your base and make the web frame so it fills that space exactly, perhaps even a little too tight. The web frame is built using the same-size mortise-and-tenon joints as the rest of the server. Cut your joints, assemble the frame, then level all the joints (I used a jointer plane). The oddest thing about the guts of this server is the divider between the drawers. It is very wide but not very tall – that’s because you want it to move in the same direction as your side panels. So glue up a panel for the drawer divider and get the sucker dead flat. Any bow or twist will bind your drawers.

Fine Fitting for Squareness The web frame and drawer divider are the oft- forgotten culprits with ill-fitting drawers. If the web frame racks the carcase, it’s going to be hard to fit your drawers. And if the drawer divider is warped or is installed cockeyed, you are making work for yourself when fitting your drawers. 1 Once you get the web frame to fit, take ⁄8" off one long stile to allow for wood movement at the I think it’s helpful to clean up as much glue squeeze-out here as possible. This seam is just a tough place to rear of the base. work once everything is glued up.

woodworking-magazine.com ■ 15 Reamed hole for screw

Some woodworkers go to a lot of trouble to make holes that allow screws to Rather than measure the notch you need, use the actual rail to mark your cut. move (router jigs!). Here’s all you need to do: Drive your bit through the cleat. Remember to cut next to the line, not on it. 1 1 With the bit spinning, thrust up ⁄8"; thrust down ⁄8". Done.

When planing across the grain, you can easily blow out your corners. With such a visible joint, I don’t take chances. I shave the corner with a chisel. Then I work the chamfer from the ends This is another place I like to work off centerlines. Strike a centerline across the cleat. Strike a centerline on and into the middle. This eliminates any chance of the stretcher. Line them up and things in place. a mishap.

Install the web frame by gluing it to the curved ness of the drawer divider. Line them up and that’s The top is a little more involved, but not much. 3 3 stretcher. Use liquid hide glue if you’re skittish where the part goes. I planed a ⁄16" x ⁄16" chamfer on the underside of about getting this joint just right. You don’t want Lay the top front rail in position and mark the top. This is not an authentic detail, but it does things misaligned, because problems will be a where it overlaps the drawer divider. Cut a notch lighten the appearance of the top a bit. tricky fix. in the drawer divider, then glue the rail in its dove- To complete the top, glue the splash in place. Once the glue is dry, reinforce the web frame tails and drive a screw through the rail and into You can use some sort of mechanical fastener to 3 3 from below with some ⁄4" x ⁄4" cleats. Glue and the drawer divider. align the parts, but I don’t think it’s necessary. nail the cleats to the web frame. Screw the cleats Apply glue to the bottom edge of the splash and to the side panels. To allow some wood move- Hold the Food; Hold the Napkins clamp it to the top. ment, use pan-head screws and ream out your The shelf and top are the easiest parts to install. The final detail for attaching the top is to cre- clearance holes. However, you should spend extra time selecting ate a way to attach the top to the base. At the front Now you need to get the drawer divider and and preparing the stock for them. They are quite of the server, you can screw up through the front the top front rail to mesh together to create square visible on the finished product. rail and into the top. At the rear of the case, you openings for your drawers. To position the drawer Install the shelf with cleats using the same have a couple options. You can use pocket screws divider, I like to work using centerlines. Strike technique you used to install the cleats below the through the back apron (which I used on the pro- the centerline between the legs on the curved web frame. Glue and nail the cleats to the bottom totype) or you can glue in a cleat to the rear and stretcher. Then strike the centerline on the thick- stretcher. Screw the shelf in place. screw through that.

16 ■ woodworking magazine Summer 2009 Supplies

Lee Valley Tools 800-871-8158 or leevalley.com 2 ■ 50mm ring pulls #01A61.50, $4.20/ea. Price correct at time of publication.

Two important details: Apply most of the glue toward the rear of the top. This will reduce squeeze-out at the front of the splash. Second, I think it’s a good idea to clamp this assembly to your bench. Adding your bench’s thickness into the equation spreads the clamping pressure along your joint line.

I use a moving fillister plane to cut the shallow rab- bet on the inside of the drawer sides. Each joint takes about 15 seconds to make. Each joint saves me several minutes of fussing around with my tail board to line it up with my pin boards.

the project and allowed things to bask in the sun for a day. A little UV goes a long way. The temptation is to glue the cleats to the sides so they will act as kickers for the drawers. You’ll run into After the oil cured for a couple weeks, I applied some wood-movement problems if you do that. If you are going to install drawer kickers, I’d nail them to a protective topcoat. A wiping varnish or a lacquer the underside of the top once the case is together. finish are both good choices for a server. This piece will take some abuse from heat and mois- ture, though nothing like your dining table. And the Drawers The one non-traditional thing I do is that I After I finished the prototype, I was torn about 1 1 Every woodworker builds drawers differently, so I make a shallow ⁄8" x ⁄2" rabbet on the tail boards. the hardware. I had planned on using some hand- won’t waste too much ink describing my process. This helps me register the tail board against the hammered copper stuff that looked straight out I build traditional American dovetailed drawers pin board when I am transferring my layout. I of 1907. But the more I thought of it, the more I 1 with sides and bottoms that are ⁄2" thick. have found that this is worth the time it takes me thought I needed something lighter. A trip through The sides are dovetailed into the drawer’s to cut the rabbet (by hand). my grandmother Jean’s books (yes, I inherited front and back. I use through-dovetails at the some of them) convinced me that some Asian- rear and half-blinds at the front. The drawer’s A Finish as Simple as the Piece inspired ring pulls would be just right. 1 1 bottom slips into a ⁄4" x ⁄4" in the sides Cherry makes its own stain. Sunlight and oxygen Though I don’t think she was right about Arts and the drawer front. The bottom, which is bev- do a better job of coloring cherry than a pigment & Crafts furniture, Jean was always right about eled on three edges, slips under the drawer’s back or dye could. To jump-start the natural coloring drawers. wm into its groove. process, I applied a coat of boiled linseed oil to — Christopher Schwarz

woodworking-magazine.com ■ 17 Modern Wave-form Mouldings

A new method for making an old moulding, and techniques for making multiple cuts quickly.

Wave-form mouldings look like a product of the machine age, but this decorative style goes back much further. Joseph Moxon describes a “waving engine” in his “Mechanick Exercises,” a device that required one worker to pull the mould- ing through a device dozens of times to scrape the profile to its finished shape. I wanted to replicate the look with contempo- rary tools, and while the results aren’t quite as intricate as some historic examples, I was able to use my router table to generate some interest- ing patterns in what was otherwise some bland- looking wood. The patterns are a combination of clean and precise cuts made repeatedly in the face of the material. There is a randomness present that is a key part of the finished piece. This variation in the spacing of the cuts keeps the finished mould- ing from appearing too mechanical. I prepared several more pieces of stock than I needed to allow for some experimentation with my setups and processes. If you follow my process, I would recommend preparing twice as much stock as you think you’ll need. This type of moulding is typically used in small pieces, such as frames sh or boxes, so it’s is a great way to use small pieces arri

and stuff with not-so-attractive grain. p l Running the modern-day “waving engine” a

is a basic process with several steps. None of the otoby steps is very demanding, but a momentary lapse ph can mean starting over unless you have some These intricate-appearing mouldings were made with common tools and aligned by eye to a marked extra pieces to use. After selecting a cutter and layout. A complicated jig could have been made to space the cuts precisely, but that would have taken determining the spacing, the face of the stock is several times longer and destroyed the random character of the moulding. pushed into a spinning cutter at the router table, then moved off the cutter. Two sets of guide lines are made on the router offset from its neighbor by about half the length able in a number of sizes. These could be used to table fence and with each cut, the end of the board of the individual cut. The effect is a pattern that is make the finished surface more varied, and there is moved down one mark. The hard part is remem- reminiscent of brickwork or basket weaving, and are also cutters available that stack or adjust to bering which set of marks to use. If you look at this semi-regular irregularity makes producing make varied widths. the pictures, you will find that each row of cuts is these mouldings more art than science. The round-ended slots were made with one half of a set that is normally used to make match- Cutters for Scooping ing hollow and round edges for strip-built canoes. “The only thing that interferes with my I used router bits that are typically used for cut- Of course, both the square and round-edge cuts ting slots. The square-ended cuts were made with could be combined, as can cuts of different 1 learning is my education.” a ⁄4"-wide slot-cutter. These are available from widths, if you’re willing to change bits in the 1 7 — Albert Einstein (1879 - 1955) most suppliers in diameters of 1 ⁄2"-1 ⁄8". In addi- midst of production. physicist tion to the width I used, similar cutters are avail- For your first attempt, I recommend keeping

18 ■ woodworking magazine Summer 2009 things simple by making all the cuts the same wrong with non-uniform spacing between the You can measure the distance and multiply if width until you are familiar with the process. rows, but leave enough room for at least a heavy you are a glutton for numbers, but it is far easier to 1 After deciding on a router bit and the width of ⁄16" between them. Anything less than that will use a stick, hold it to the fence and mark the length cut to make, the depth and length of the cut are likely be too fragile. directly. Cut several pieces to that length, and you determined. Each of these dimensions is a func- After routing one complete row, the board are ready to begin milling. Choose your ugliest 1 tion of the other. I decided on a depth of about ⁄4", is flipped end for end, and the matching row is piece of material for the first cuts. It will take a try and after setting the fence of the router table to cut. These cuts will come close to lining up pro- or two to develop a feel for the technique. achieve that depth, I measured the length of the vided that the overall length of the workpiece is Practice the motion you will make before turn- cut with dividers. an increment of the distance between the pencil ing on the router. Line up the far end of a board On a project such as this, numbers become marks on the fence. with the last mark on the fence. Place the fingers a cumbersome and time-consuming method of measuring. Setting the dividers by eye and step- ping off increments is far faster. Each cut is sepa- 1 rated from the next by a flat space of about ⁄4" long. This dimension is, of course, a matter of taste, so decide what looks right and set the divid- ers to the actual length of cut, plus the amount of space in between cuts. I placed a strip of painter’s tape on the fence to protect the surface, and rotated the cutter until the edge of the bit was in line with the fence. I then placed the dividers with one point on the end of the cutter, and drew a mark where the other leg met the fence. I continued marking along the fence until I reached the end. Make at least one mark on the The easy way to set the depth of cut is with a com- Dividers make measuring and marking number- fence on the other side of the bit, working from bination square. Set the blade at the desired incre- less. Set the points to what looks right and step off ment and when the bit kisses the blade, it’s right. the spaces. the point where the face of the fence aligns with the edge of the bit as before. I made a second set of marks working from the middle of the first set. I made the first set of marks in pencil and the second set with a red pen so that it would be easy to differentiate between the two.

Built for Speed If the moulding is designed with an even num- ber of rows, pairs of rows can be milled with the same height setting of the cutter. An odd number of rows can be used, but one row will need to be perfectly centered in the width of the stock. Cut your stock to a width that allows for all the rows, and the spaces in between. There is nothing The first mark is made from the point in the cut- Continue stepping off the marks with the dividers ting arc that intersects with the plane of the fence. until you reach the end of the fence.

Swing for the fence

To ensure that the rows are cut in matching pairs, the length of the mate- Cuts are made by swinging the work into the fence; gripping the wood to rial should be a multiple of the wavelength (the cut itself and the space in prevent lateral movement gives good control. between).

woodworking-magazine.com ■ 19 Keep track of where you are by using two stacks of material as you work through the progression of cuts.

Bear in mind that the cutter needs to travel vertically the width of the cutter, plus the width of the desired gap, to change height settings for the next row. It is helpful to draw the row layout somewhere before you start, and compare that to the cutter height as you change settings. Mis-set- ting the cutter will have dire consequences; the risk is wiping out the space between rows of cuts or at the edge of the material. After making a few rows of cuts, you’ll likely establish a rhythm of cutting. This helps to speed Begin each cut by placing the end of the board Complete the cut by swinging the other end gen- the work, but it also can be hypnotic. Focus on against one of the marks on the fence. tly against the fence. Swing it back out and move where your hands are at all times and pay atten- to the next mark. tion to make certain you haven’t left a piece out or missed a cut within a row. It is possible, but not easy, to go back and correct missed cuts. At the end of each round of cuts, check your work. ¬" 1ø" 1ø" ¬" Going back and resetting the height adjustment or 1¬"

h of the bit is time-consuming. t u

a The condition of the bit is crucial to the qual- e h

t ity of cuts. If you are using a bit that has some miles on it, clean off the crud and touch up the face of the carbide with a diamond hone, mak-

tration by Layout is simple and minimal. The distance ing an equal number of strokes on each cutter. If between the end of one cut and the next is equal llus you experience any burning, speed needs to be i to the center-to-center distance. adjusted somewhere in the process – either the rotation speed of the bit or the speed at which you move the material. of your right hand around the end of the board to Get Rhythm Some species of wood may be prone to tear- keep it from moving laterally to the right. With As you near the end of the first row of cuts, change out as half the cut is made with the bit entering your other hand, swing the board into the fence. your end reference to the left-hand end of the the wood, and the other half with the bit exiting. When you do this for real, stop briefly when the board, and use the marks on the left-hand fence. And within a given species, tight, straight-grained face of the board meets the face of the fence, then The motion will be the reverse of the cuts made wood will work the best. For this article, I used swing it back. so far. Place the left end of the board against the walnut, and with sharp bits and moderate rpms, It may seem strange to be working with the fence and swing the right end in and out. Keep tear-out was insignificant. board on its edge, but the cut being made is very your fingers a safe distance from the spinning I used this material to make the picture frames light, and it’s easy to maintain control. But if this cutter at all times. for the article on the following pages. Because I makes you nervous in any way, you can temporar- Cut one row, flip the board end for end to cut knew there would be some sanding after assem- ily attach a couple thick blocks of wood to the back the second row and repeat this process for all of bly, I didn’t do anything to the surface until then. of the workpiece. This will give you a surer grip the pieces being milled at one time. I found it When I did sand, I found that hand sanding with a and will prevent the piece from tipping back on helpful to stack uncut material on one side of the sanding sponge worked well both for smoothing edge, but it will slow down the process consider- table, and place it in a stack on the other side as the flat areas between the cuts, and for breaking ably. If you have a variable-speed router, throttle the cuts were completed. When both rows of slots the edges at the perimeter of the cuts. For the back the speed about halfway. This will reduce have been milled in the entire stack, it’s time to areas below the surface, I decided to leave well any burning and the chance of losing control of adjust the height setting of the router bit for the enough alone. WM the work. next run of cuts. ­—Robert W. Lang

20 ■ woodworking magazine Summer 2009 Making Frames

Sooner or later, someone will ask you to make a picture frame. Here is how to get it right the first time.

Picture frames are one of those woodwork- ing projects that we all assume we know how to make. After all, a frame is only four pieces of wood mitered together – isn’t it? And there’s a piece of glass of course, along with the mat and something behind it. is actually a spe- cialty within woodworking, and the people who do it all the time have it pretty well figured out. This article will review the basics so you don’t need to reinvent the wheel. The drawing below at right shows the parts of a standard frame. The glass fits within a rabbet on the inside edges of the wood frame members. Behind the glass are, in order, the mat, the image ISH

and a piece of foam board. These should all fit rr easily in the opening without being forced; gla- PA AL

zier points driven into the wood from behind the BY o T foam board hold everything together. o If you want to take do-it-yourself to an PH extreme, you can cut your own glass and mat. Tight corners and clean joints are the hallmarks of a quality frame. Deceptively simple in concept, yet But to get good results, you will need some spe- demanding in execution, it is only simple to assemble a frame if all the parts are near perfection. cialized tools. So unless you plan on making lots of frames, you are better off simply buying precut mat and glass. You can purchase these either at a The foam board that goes behind everything Glass frame shop (pricey) or a large crafts store (pretty is sold in pieces, and the common size found in reasonable). I made two frames for this article, stores is 20" x 30". It isn’t expensive, and you and I started with 8" x 10" printed photos. The can easily cut it with a table saw. Without a table glass, mat, foam board and hardware cost about saw, it can be cut with a straightedge and a utility mat $10 per frame. knife by making repeated passes alongside the or

There is a good reason to stay with standard straightedge. TH

image u A

image sizes if you can. Most sources, such as Most woodworkers assume that the rabbet in e

Michael’s or Hobby Lobby, stock glass and mats the frame needs to be both wide and deep. Picture TH precut to fit 5" x 7", 8" x 10" and 11" x 14" images. realize that you only need enough width BY foam board on 1

I saved time and money by pulling precut glass to keep things from falling out; ⁄4" is plenty. In the ATI and mat board from a bin, instead of having them other direction, you want to keep the image close r u ST custom cut at an odd size. to the outer face of the frame. I cut my components of a frame ILL

woodworking-magazine.com ■ 21 1 1 in the frame stock ⁄2" deep, leaving about ⁄4" of material at the show face of the frame.

Be Consistent If the profile of your frame material isn’t con- sistent, it will create problems at some point in cutting and assembling the frame. Square stock, such as the wave-form mouldings I used, should be as straight, flat and square as possible. If you’re making a frame with a shaped profile, use featherboards on the router table when you mill the profiles. Variations may not be notice- able in a stick of frame material, but they will be screaming for attention when two parts meet at a mitered corner. The miter cuts also need to be as close to per- fect as you can make them. A fraction of a degree may not seem worthy of concern in one cut, but there are eight edges in a mitered frame to put The rabbet in the back of the frame material doesn’t need to be wide, but it must be deep enough to fit against each other. “Close enough” times eight the glass, mat and foam board. becomes an ugly gap when you try to close the last corner. Make some test cuts and check them with a reliable square. When you think your saw is cut- ting a good 45˚ angle, place two pieces together on a flat surface, such as the table of your table saw. Check the assembly with a good square. You can catch a variation you may have missed because the error will be doubled at the corner. 1 If your saw setting is ⁄64" off the correct angle, 1 you might miss it. A ⁄32" gap in the corner will be easier to see. If you don’t fix that tiny error before 1 you cut all of the pieces, you will have ⁄8" of space to deal with at the last corner of the frame. The length of the individual pieces is as impor- An accurate cut is essential. Check with a good Check an assembled corner to be certain it is tant as the angle. Parts on opposite sides need to square, holding the angled piece up to a source square. Place the material on a flat surface and use be exactly the same length to avoid gaps. You of light. a reliable square.

Calculating the length you need can be confusing. Mark your stock directly A on the will keep your parts at a consistent length. from what will fit within the frame.

22 ■ woodworking magazine Summer 2009 can try to force them together at the end, but the “The truth is more important than When the glue has dried, you can sand the chances of success are slim. Closing a gap on one frame and finish it. On flat stock, use a plane or corner opens another one at a different corner. the facts.” a flat sanding block to level the surfaces at the Instead of measuring, place the mat in the rabbet, — Frank Lloyd Wright (1867 - 1959) joints. On a moulded edge, you can roll a piece of and mark the stock directly. Make the 45˚ mark architect sandpaper into a tube, or wrap it over a sponge or 1 from this point, and leave ⁄16" or so of extra room. piece of foam. Work carefully to bring the higher Set up a stop on the miter saw so you can repeat surface down to the level of the lower surface. the exact length. I like to keep the glass, mat board and image It’s fashionable among handplane aficionados pressure is applied. It isn’t the same situation as out of the shop until the frame is completely to make a shooting board to fit the miters. With a gluing a square end to a straight surface. Special finished and I’m ready to assemble it. Dust or a decent blade in the miter saw, you can set a stop clamps, such as the spring clamps shown in the greasy fingerprint on the image or the inside of for the length. If you make sloppy cuts and try to photo below, pull the faces of the joint toward one the glass will mean taking the assembly apart. shoot the miters, you will need to reference one another, and are more effective than the clamps Put a pad on your bench and lay the frame piece off another to make them equal lengths, then you use every day. facedown on the pad. Next, drop in the glass, mat adjust the rabbet with a . Glass- Some framing clamps hold the pieces at a board, image and foam board. Glazier points are smooth surfaces on the miters may be impressive, right angle, but don’t exert any pressure across the preferred way to hold everything in the frame. but they won’t show in the finished frame. Gaps the joint. These are fine if a fastener, such as a Place them flat on top of the foam board and push from varying lengths will. nail or brad, is used to pull the joint tight. With- them into the wood. There is a special driver for out a fastener, they are good only for positioning these points, but if you don’t want to buy a tool You Need to Have Some Pull – they can’t press the parts against each other as a for one task, you can push in the points with the Unless the frame is extraordinarily large, glued clamp should. Don’t be afraid or ashamed if you end of a common screwdriver. butt-miter joints will have sufficient strength. Get- decide to use nails. Drive them in from the top A hanging loop is screwed to each of the ver- ting a good glue joint requires some extra care as and bottom rather than the sides of the frame and tical frame parts, and a length of braided wire the nature of the wood cut at an angle introduces a they won’t be obviously visible. goes between the loops. Twist the ends of the problem. The gluing surface is mostly end grain, The glue joints should be given ample time to wire around the loops to secure it. If the frame is and glue tends to wick into the wood and away dry. Wood glues dry in stages; you may be able to large or heavy, add a third loop in the middle of from the joint. Coat the surfaces with glue and remove the clamps within an hour, but the bond the bottom frame member and run the wire in a leave them alone for five or 10 minutes. won’t achieve full strength for a much longer triangle around all three loops. This will take the This sizing coat will allow a second coat of period. If you use good old yellow glue, let it sit weight of the frame off the joints at the bottom glue, applied just before jointing, to do its job. The overnight before doing anything to the frame that and transfer it to the wire. WM angled cuts also tend to slip and slide as clamp might stress the joints. — Robert W. Lang

Size the joints by The right clamps brushing on a coat will make a world of glue and walking of difference. These away for five or 10 spring clamps pull minutes. Apply a the pieces toward second, thin coat one another, so the just before you joints are tight and clamp. the pieces don’t slide around.

There is a special Braided wire is driver made for twisted around the glazier points, but loop in the hanger, they can also be and the hanger is pressed into the held in place with wood with the a screw. tip of a common screwdriver.

woodworking-magazine.com ■ 23 Tuning Tenons

Before you can make your tenons fit ‘just so,’ you need to understand the strengths and weaknesses of the joint so you can exploit them.

When it comes to tenons, there are reams of rules and scientific data that will tell you exactly how big each tenon should be for every applica- tion, glue and wood species. If you try to follow these rules, however, you’ll be doing so many calculations that you’ll never

get any woodworking done. So let me boil down h is

the last 60 years of research for you: rr a

1. With tenons, wider and longer is stronger. p l a 2. Never cheat the face cheeks.

3. Shoulders add strength. otoby While these might sound obvious, there are ph a lot of things you can do with these three rules A tightly fit tenon is key to lasting strength. How you get there is a matter of choice, and all our choices when making and fitting tenons that result in the involve hand tools: a shoulder plane, a Shinto rasp, a chisel or a (not pictured). strongest joint possible and the absolute tightest fit at your shoulder. So let’s look at exactly what gives the tenon concluded that you could get significant strength its strength so we can take away any unnecessary when your tenon was undersized by as much as wood that might be interfering with the joint .008" and oversized by as much as .012". closing properly. That range covers a wide spectrum. When I prepared tenons that were .008" undersized and A Brief Dip in the Data showed them to the staff, everyone declared they We’re not a peer-reviewed scientific journal, so I were “too loose.” And .012" oversized tenons won’t take up your time with citations and foot- would go together only with heavy blows notes, but here is the current thinking on tenons, (if at all). Most research favors tenons that are based on research that goes back to 1949 and no more than .002" oversized or undersized. The involves the testing and destruction of hundreds joint should hang together without glue. of sample joints by researchers. When deciding on your tenon size, both its Studies done in 1949 and 1986 concluded that length and width matter. Of course, this makes the strongest joints happened when there was a sense when you think about it because adding This tenon’s face cheeks are about .008" thinner close fit between the tenon and its mortise. While length and width increases the gluing surface than its mortise. Though government research this might not sound like headline-grabbing news, of the tenon’s cheek, which is the joint’s most says this joint will develop sufficient strength there is some interesting data here. The 1986 study important bonding surface. when glued, it seemed too loose to the staff.

24 ■ woodworking magazine Summer 2009 Tenons: The Critical Details make mortise Ð" deeper than the length of the tenon

tenon length 5 x tenon end thickness tenon thickness 1/3 of stock thickness

edge cheek Research shows that gluing both surfaces is supe- rior to gluing just the mortise. face cheek edge ideal mortise depth shoulder So you might think: Why should I add edge non-critical shoulders? Wouldn’t tenons without edge shoul- face surfaces ders be the strongest of all? Nope. A 2005 study shoulder critical from Forest Products Journal concluded that gluing tenons with edge shoulders were 20 percent stiffer surface than tenons that were without shoulders but were g AN the same length. l . W T

One more fact about tenons: The joint is r E b stronger if you glue both surfaces, according to O stock research from the 1960s published in Furniture th ickn ess œ" Design and Manufacturing Magazine. Applying by r by ATIONS glue to both surfaces ensures – without a doubt r – that both surfaces have absorbed the glue, which anatomy of a tenon critical tenon parts llu ST is the key to good adhesion. Many woodworkers I (including this one) have skimped on this detail to avoid squeeze-out. you can undercut these shoulders with a the tenon going where it needs to go. So chisel off How to Bend the Rules chisel – as long as your cuts don’t extend to the a shaving from the edge cheek – that area doesn’t Now that we know what makes a strong tenon (big visible part of the shoulder. I usually stay about contribute significantly to the joint’s strength. 1 face cheeks), we also know what doesn’t affect ⁄16" away from the visible edge. plunge in with 1 the strength of the joint (all the other parts). So a chisel and remove a triangular chip that is ⁄16" Fixing Those Cheeks we can shave at those parts to improve the fit of at its thickest. however, most of the tenon tuning happens on our joints if need be. Another problem you’ll encounter when fitting the joint’s face cheeks – that’s where the toler- Take a look at the diagram at right and you a tenon is that its rail won’t go where it needs to ances are close and the stakes are high. There are can see you have a lot of options. If a joint won’t go in your finished assembly. A good example is a variety of tools and techniques to use. Most of close, there are two places to begin your investi- when you cannot get the rail flush to the end of these tweaks are hand-powered. Even if you cut gation. look in the bottom of the mortise. Many the stiles of a door. The problem is usually that your tenons with power equipment, we think your mortising techniques leave a ragged mortise floor the edge cheek is too beefy and is interfering with joints can benefit from some hand-tuning. that is a nest for loose chips. root around in there with an awl and clean out the corners. (If you have glue open, the emergency fix is to cut your 1 tenons ⁄8" shorter.) better yet, avoid the problem next time. Make 1 your mortise ⁄8" deeper so that your joint will close, even if your mortise looks like a frat house 1 on Monday morning. This ⁄8" space is also handy if you’ve used too much glue – the glue will fill the bottom of the mortise instead of squirting (yes, squirting) out of the joint at the shoulder. The second place to investigate is your face and edge shoulders. look for unintentional humps or try to determine if your shoulders are angled. I use a chisel that is sharpened dead square for Your cutting tools can be measuring tools as well. I like to use a narrow chisel to undercut my shoul- this. The cutting edge and one long edge make The tip and long edge of a chisel makes a good ders because it’s easier to plunge into end grain. an effective square. The long edge alone makes square. The long edge alone makes an effective If you think this cheating, remember that your an effective straightedge. straightedge. Note the undercut shoulder. ancestors were consummate cheaters.

woodworking-magazine.com ■ 25 One common tool used for this process is a shoulder plane. (Though this tool’s name sug- gests it is used for tenon shoulders – and it is – the sucker also excels at tuning the cheeks.) For this reason, we recommend most woodworkers purchase the large shoulder plane. These tools 1 are 1 ⁄4" wide, which means they will shave the 1 standard 1 ⁄4"-long tenon in one pass. Plus, these large tools have more mass, which makes them easier to keep in the cut. Set your tool to remove a predictable amount of material. We think .001" is a good target. Be sure to count your strokes when you work a face Put all your pressure on the toe and above the The Shinto saw rasp is a bundle of 10 hacksaw cheek and remove the same amount of material on cutter. As you push the tool forward, pivot this blades that can shape a cabriole leg or tune up a the opposite face (unless you are trying to offset weight so you end up with the pressure over the tenon cheek with ease. your tenon’s face). cutter and the rear of the plane. The ergonomics of a shoulder plane are similar to that of any handplane. You need to shift your hand pressure as you plane or you will make a wedge-shaped tenon. There are many less-expensive ways to tune a tenon effectively. Senior Editor Glen D. Huey uses a replacement blade for a Shinto saw rasp ($16 from Highland Hardware, highlandwood working.com). This clever device is 10 hacksaw blades riveted together. One side has a grid of 11 points-per-inch (ppi) teeth. The other side is a grid of 32 ppi teeth. Glen orients the tool so the coarse teeth are on the cheek and the tool cuts on the pull stroke. He uses almost no downward pressure. The tool 1 is 1 ⁄8" wide, so he has to shift the tool in and out Here you can see the teeth. Orient them so they A two-handed grip ensures you won’t round over 1 to surface the entire length of an 1 ⁄4"-long tenon. cut on the pull stroke. the face cheek of your tenon. Push forward firmly One more detail: If you are doing a lot of tenons in – and don’t forget to clear the teeth occasionally. a day, Glen recommends you wear gloves. For fine-tuning a fit, he’ll sometimes switch to the fine side of the rasp. The tool is ideal for works ($60, lie-nielsen.com). He tuned up his cheeks because it won’t cut the shoulder as you float by stroking the teeth with a triangular saw- work – like a traditional rasp will. sharpening file. The float cuts on the push stroke. To improve his control, Bob uses two hands: One on the han- dle and one at the toe. As a result, he needs to keep “A home workshop can be a cheap the work clamped firmly to the benchtop. Bob says he thinks the float cuts faster than psychiatrist, especially if we let go of a shoulder plane and offers more control. The our grim purposefulness and just enjoy downside to the float is that it’s 1" wide, so it can- 1 not handle a 1 ⁄4"-long tenon in one pass. Floats have wide, saw-like teeth. There are a vari- what we are doing.” ety of shapes and sizes available for many shaping — Gene Schnaser Final Thoughts and cleaning tasks. from “The Home Workshop Planner” The funny thing about traditional rules and tools is that sometimes there is no reasonable explana- tion for why they exist. (Why do woodworkers In other words, absolutely nothing has changed Another tool you can adapt for trimming a who don’t cut dovetails use -edge chisels?) since the first English instructions for the joint tenon cheek is a float. Floats are traditional tools But sometimes, the traditional rules are ingrained were written down in 1678 by Joseph Moxon: that were commonly used in planemaking or in a craft because of centuries of trial and error. “You must take care in mortising and tenoning, in cleaning out through-mortises. They are, in When a tenon gets longer than 1" and before that as near as you can equalize the strength of the 1 essence, like a saw with a very wide sawplate. it reaches 1 ⁄2" in length, it gets incredibly strong sides of the mortise to the strength of the tenon,” Like the Shinto saw rasp, a float is superior – it can withstand about 4,000 in./lbs. of pressure. he writes. “(B)ut because no rule is extant to do it to a traditional rasp in that it won’t damage the And the tenon reaches a point where it becomes as by, nor can … a rule be made, therefore this equal- critical shoulder of the tenon because it has a stout as the stile it’s attached to. But every piece izing of strength must be referred to the judgment “safe edge.” Senior Editor Robert W. Lang likes of work is different. There isn’t one single hard- of the operator. Now to the work.” WM 3 to use the ⁄16" bed float fromL ie-Nielsen Tool- and-fast rule in this sort of work. — Christopher Schwarz

26 ■ woodworking magazine Summer 2009 New Drawbore Pins

We review four new examples of a very old tool. They’re all a little different. Here’s how to pick the one that’s right for your work.

There are some days when a quick séance with a departed cabinetmaker would make our wood- working lives a lot easier. If any of you have any special powers, let me know. We need to ask Eng- lish woodworker A. J. Goddard about his set of boxwood-handled drawbore pins. After purchasing a matched pair of antique drawbore pins with his name stamped on them, I’ve used them to assemble many mortise-and- tenon joints, but I still don’t fully understand why they are the way they are. Both tools have tapered octagonal handles, which make them great for twisting in and out of a joint. Both have the same metal bolster. But the tapered metal shank of each tool is different. On one of them, the shank is a simple taper – it’s a 6"-long cone of steel that tapers from .165" at its tip to .430" at the bolster. On the other tool’s shank, the raw measurements are the same, but the taper is different. Instead of being a simple cone, the shank appears to be in the shape of an h “eccentric cone.” arris

What’s an eccentric cone? That’s when the tip p l a y of the cone is offset from the center. The result is b

that the shank has one area that is a flat, straight oto line – no taper. ph Both tools work well, albeit they work a little Drawbore pins make the job easier. They test the fit of your joint and ease the path of the wooden peg. differently. Their different shapes make me won- der: Was this difference intentional? Or has one of the tools been bent during its years of service, see if we could find meaningful differences that (“Drawboring Resurrected”), and the article is which turned the standard cone into an eccen- you should consider when you purchase drawbore now available for free on our web site. tric one? pins or make your own. In essence, drawboring is where you bore a Many woodworkers are asking themselves hole through your disassembled mortise. Then these same questions now because four tool manu- A Bit About the Joint you drill the same-size hole through the tenon, facturers have started making drawbore pins for The process of drawboring is used in many trades, but you locate that hole a little bit closer to the cabinetmaking operations. Some of these tools from woodworking to bridge building to automo- shoulder. The result is that the two holes are offset use a standard cone; some use an eccentric one. tive repair and restoration. We wrote an article when the joint is assembled. We decided to take a look at all four brands to explaining the process in our Spring 2005 issue Insert the steel drawbore pin through both

woodworking-magazine.com ■ 27 holes to tighten the joint and to slightly deform Different handles for different hands. the hole in the tenon. Check the fit of your com- From left: Ray Iles, ponents, remove the steel pin, then drive in a Blue , Lie- tapered wooden peg through the hole. The peg Nielsen, my vintage locks the joint together, reducing your need to rely handle and the Lee on clamps or glue to keep things tight. Valley pin. It’s a useful technique. And though you don’t have to own a drawbore pin to do the operation, the steel pin helps ensure the process will go smoothly with fewer catastrophic failures.

The Center of Eccentricity English toolmaker Ray Iles makes his drawbore pins in two sizes, and both have eccentric shanks. The smaller tool is best for furniture. The shank is 1 7 ⁄2" long and tapers from .160" to .365". I found 1 5 it ideal for pegs that are ⁄4" and ⁄16" in diameter. His bigger tool is better suited for making the big stuff – , sash and entry doors come to 1 mind. Its shaft is about 8 ⁄2" long and tapers from 3 .210" to .475". It’s ideal for ⁄8"-diameter pegs. So how do you use the eccentric shank? After 5 making about 20 joints with the small Ray Iles points are the surfaces of the hole in the mortise ⁄16" hole and peg. The tools have an extremely tool, here’s what I found. When your tenon is that are close to the joint’s shoulder. well-finished maple handle and a brass ferrule. inside its mortise and your holes are offset, there When I inserted an eccentric-cone shaft and Unlike the Ray Iles, they do not have a bolster. are three points of contact for the drawbore pin. twisted the tool down, the joint tightened up The shaft is a simple cone, so the procedure One point is the rim of the hole in the tenon that when the flat side of the cone was against the to use this tool is a little different than using an is closest to the end of the tenon. The other two two points in the mortise, and the tapered section eccentric one. You push the tool into your off- of the cone was against the rim of the tenon. The set holes and tip the tool slightly away from the nice thing about the eccentric cone was that when tenon’s shoulder as you push it down. This causes you pushed straight down, the pin didn’t deform the tool’s shaft to contact the mortise at two points the hole in the mortise, which is visible when the and the tenon at one point. If you drive the tool joint is assembled and pegged. straight down without tipping, there is a risk of The handles are beefy, which makes deforming the hole in the mortise so that you’ll them easy to grab and twist. The fit and finish is have a sliver of a gap in your now-oblong hole 1" good, though not as nice as the other tools in this when you drive the wooden peg in. review. The one thing I didn’t like about the tool is It’s not hard to learn to tip and twist. You’ll be µ" that it had a tendency to roll off the bench with the an expert after a few joints.

ang slightest knock – I prefer octagonal handles. My only complaint about the Lie-Nielsen tool ¬" hole l . w is the round handle. Like the Ray Iles, it rolls all œ" One Size; Simple Taper over (and off) the benchtop. Perhaps Lie-Nielsen robert

y The Lie-Nielsen drawbore pins come in one size. would consider putting the excellent octagonal ç" b 1 The shaft is 8 ⁄4" long and tapers from .155" at the handle from its mortise float on this tool. a typical tip up to .435" at the ferrule. It works best with a drawbore Blue Spruce Toolworks ustrations ll i Like every tool that comes from Blue Spruce Toolworks, the fit and finish are off the charts. Toolmaker Dave Jeske has perfected the art of turning and finishing hardwood handles. Blue Spruce drawbore pins come in three sizes drawbore pin 1 5 3 contacts here designed to handle ⁄4", , ⁄16" and ⁄8" holes. The handles come in curly maple, African blackwood straight side and . As with the other round-handled offset tools, these had a tendency to roll around. But the and here unusual shape of the handle is surprisingly good hole in eccentric tenon drawbore pin for drawboring. The hollow in the handle is ideal for pushing the tool into the joint and pulling it up. tapered The finish on all Blue Spruce tools is tactile and side grabby – these tools are unlikely to slip. The Blue Spruce tools use a straight taper, so it’s a simple matter of twisting and tipping to how a drawbore pin works tighten things up.

28 ■ woodworking magazine Summer 2009 Now you see it, now you don’t. The shaft of the Ray Iles tool is in the shape of an eccentric cone. One edge is straight (top); the other is tapered (bottom).

The drawbore pin from Lee Valley has the best Here’s an eccentric-cone pin from Ray Iles being Part of the role of any drawbore pin is to slightly handle. Its octagonal shape makes it easy to twist inserted into the joint. The flat side of the cone is elongate the hole through the tenon. This makes and it doesn’t roll off the bench. against the left wall of the hole. The tapered part it easier for the wooden peg to be inserted. of the cone is against the tenon’s hole, which is hidden inside the joint. Sources

5 3 The Shopmade Taper .120" to .445". It worked well with ⁄16" and ⁄8" Tools for Working Wood The drawbore pins from Lee Valley are consid- holes. Its shaft is a simple cone. 800-426-4613 or erably different than the other two brands. The This tool had my favorite handle. Though it toolsforworkingwood.com shafts are stainless steel and pass entirely through is smaller than the others, its octagonal shape ■ Ray Iles drawbore pins the wooden handle. They’re capped on top with a makes it easy to grip, twist, insert and remove. Small pins, $89.95/pair button you could strike if you wanted. The handle isn’t finished quite as well as theL ie- Large pins, $99.95/pair 1 There are two sizes. The small pin has a 6 ⁄4"- Nielsen or Blue Spruce, but it is very good. long shaft that tapers from .092" to .310". Accord- But why does the small tool have an eccentric Lie-Nielsen Toolworks ing to my ruler, its shaft is an eccentric cone. It cone and the larger one has a simple cone? I asked 800-327-2520 or 1 works very well with ⁄4"-diameter holes. The the officials at Veritas, the manufacturing arm of lie-nielsen.com 7 larger tool has a 7 ⁄8"-long shaft that tapers from Lee Valley. Their answer? ■ Drawbore pins, $90/pair It doesn’t. I had bent the tool in use. And after examining an unused drawbore pin from Lee Val- Blue Spruce Toolworks ley I confirmed that what looked like an eccen- bluesprucetoolworks.com 1 “Literature is nothing but tric cone was really just a bend in the shaft. My ■ Pins for ⁄4" holes, $75/pair 5 guess is that I caused it when I twisted and tipped Pins for ⁄16" holes, $75/pair 3 …. Both are very hard work. With both the tool. The slight bend doesn’t affect the tool’s Pins for ⁄8" holes, $80/pair you are working with reality, a material performance at all (in fact, some people would Lee Valley Tools argue that it helps it). just as hard as wood …. I have never 800-871-8158 or And this makes me look at my antique tools leevalley.com done any carpentry, but it’s the job I differently. What appeared to be a mystery now appears to be a simple case of a tool that saw some ■ Small pins, $59/pair or $29.50/ea. admire most.” real action, was a bit soft or was handled by one Large pins, $59/pair or $29.50/ea. — Gabriel Garcia Marquez (1928 - ) of my gorilla-handed ancestors. WM Prices correct at time of publication. Columbian novelist — Christopher Schwarz

woodworking-magazine.com ■ 29 Finish the Insides – Or Not

There’s no mechanical need to finish the inside of drawers or casework – to which antiques bear witness. But aesthetic choices are harder to debunk.

A quick peek inside the drawers of just about any piece of antique furniture will show that our forebears didn’t finish the insides of drawers (or the backs, bottoms and inside surfaces of case pieces, for that matter). After all, there are extant pieces of furniture with far more than a century of wear that are still holding strong. So why does contemporary conventional wisdom seem to dic- tate that the insides of drawers, and non-show surfaces in general, be finished? An Internet search reveals the most prevalent h

argument for finishing the insides of drawers is rr

and other furniture parts, such as tabletops, is a l p l

to equalize moisture loss. In other words, if you a y apply a finish to only one side of the workpiece, b

moisture will escape more quickly from the unfin- otos ished side, which will result in warping. ph While this seems like a logical assumption, These antique drawers bear evidence that our forebears rarely (if ever) finished surfaces that wouldn’t well, you know what they say about assumptions. show – nor were they always careful to avoid runs and drips onto interior surfaces. Finishing expert Bob Flexner investigated this myth in “Finish Both Sides: It’s Not Necessary” for Popular Woodworking (issue #143), and as he And the way in which a board is sawn doesn’t shape. The top surface thus shrinks, pulling the points out, finish only slows moisture exchange, account for warpage, either. Boards that see con- board concave.” and both sides of a board will adjust fairly rapidly stant soaking and drying, such as the boards on a The best bet for avoiding this problem is to whether they’re finished or not. Old tabletops deck or cutting boards, will cup in the direction ensure that all exposed surfaces have a good film serve as a case in point. Usually, tabletops lift of the abuse, regardless of the wood grain. finish (see “Watersafe Finishes,” Issue 13). up on the edges, forming a shallow bowl shape; So what, then, accounts for warpage, if the they cup in the direction of the finished side rather finish has little to do with it? Compression shrink- No Interior Finishes on Period Pieces than shrink (bow) toward the unfinished side, age (also known as compression set). Flexner Don Williams, senior furniture conservator at the from which more moisture might presumably explains that a tabletop (and by extrapolation Smithsonian’s Museum Conservation Institute, be lost. the outside of a case piece) is more likely to be says that the equalization argument is simply a Moisture exchange doesn’t necessarily mean exposed to moisture than a bottom (or that which misunderstanding of the relationship between that wood will warp. Wide panels and tabletops lives inside a case, such as a drawer). When mois- moisture and wood, that “the unfinished wood can expand and contract while remaining flat. ture enters the surface, the wood swells and tries would serve as a more efficient microclimate This is the way wood behaves. If a board warps to expand, “but the wood’s thickness remains buffer than would the varnished wood.” after drying and milling, it is most often the result stable and prevents this,” writes Flexner. “As a The historical argument against finishing the of one side being subjected to extreme conditions result, the cells at the top surface are compressed insides boils down to money. “We have no idea that the other side never sees. from their original cylindrical shape to an oval from our age of technological adequacy and his-

30 ■ woodworking magazine Summer 2009 torically incomprehensible wealth, to imagine Many woodworkers who do finish the insides what it was like to be one step ahead of the grim of drawers and casework choose shellac, because reaper,” Williams says. “And except for a few it seals the wood and leaves no bad smell. Another idiosyncratic moments in craft history, (wood- common argument in favor of interior finishing is working) was not a religious expression; it was that the piece simply looks more complete, more a means of staying alive.” Finishing the inside polished – and hence of higher quality. While of a cabinet and drawers – surfaces that would extant high-end antique pieces categorically rarely, if ever, show – would have taken a couple debunk this approach, it’s hard to argue with extra days. “That would have been a couple extra aesthetics – or the customer if he or she likes the days that you spent time doing something non- look of a fully finished drawer. productive.” In his book “The Art of Cabinetmaking,” Williams has looked closely at tens of thou- James Krenov suggests four to five layers of a very sands of American and European pieces; he has thin shellac polish which, when bleached shellac yet to see one on which the non-presentation is used, leaves wood almost unchanged in color surfaces were finished. “Looking at pre-1850s while imparting a nice luster and smooth surface, woodworking, the next piece of furniture I look and no offensive odor. Flexner, too, often uses at with the inside finished would be the first,” a of just a coat or two of thinned he says. shellac for the same reasons, or a simple coat of So, if you’re involved in reproduction work, wax over a smooth sanded surface. don’t finish the insides; it will simply look wrong – and may cause trouble. Senior Editor Glen D. Silky Smooth Interiors Huey came to this realization in a hard way. In his On this drawer front, you can see the stain bleed Splinters are another argument in favor of apply- early days as a professional maker of reproduction at the corners – and that the sides are unfinished. ing an interior finish. If you add a layer of any furniture, he religiously finished all surfaces of film-building finish on the surface, it will help his pieces, assuming that’s the way it was done. keep splinters attached to the wood, rather than One customer, however, didn’t have air condition- Ease of Cleanup to your fingers. We find this spurious, however. ing, and Glen neglected to allow extra room for Another argument in favor of finishing the inside If you use your plane or sandpaper correctly, summer expansion. – even if not using a spray gun – is that it makes this shouldn’t be an issue. Not applying a finish The drawers swelled up and the lacquer on the cleanup easier for the end user, which is particu- to the inside of drawers shouldn’t be taken as an drawer sides fused with the lacquer on the inside larly useful in drawers that are likely to experience excuse to not prepare the surface of the wood. of the cabinet. Even after the humidity dropped, messes, such as in the kitchen, bathroom or shop. The person who gets miffed at you when his silk the drawers stayed locked to the case side. A few It’s hard to argue with that logic, actually. After boxer shorts smell like lacquer will also be upset mallet blows later and an afternoon of sanding all, a spill will wipe up more easily and completely if his undies gets snagged on a tear that should off the lacquer, had the drawers in working order off of a finish than from raw wood. But one have been sanded. – and had Glen looking closely at lots of period of the dangers of finishing the inside of drawers pieces. Now, his reproductions follow the finish- is the possibility of lingering odor – especially if A Pleasing Scent ing practices of his forebears. you use an oil-based product or lacquer. Even if your work tends toward the contempo- If you choose the traditional route, however, Because drawers are usually closed, the fin- rary and you like the aesthetics of a completely add a little paste wax or paraffin to the areas where ish odor can get trapped in the interior, and even finished drawer, there are some cases where you wood rubs on wood – this time-honored approach if the drawers are left out for weeks to dry and should simply let the wood alone – and that’s when will keep things sliding smoothly. off-gas, you’re likely to get whiffs of the finish a finish would defeat the purpose of the wood for years to come when you open the drawers. So you’ve chosen. Let’s face it – one of the reasons Spray Finishes are Harder to Localize if you must use polyurethane because you swear most of us like woodworking is the evocative scent In the modern era, production finishing tech- by its damage-defying properties, you’re better of fresh-cut wood. And some woods smell so good niques can actually make it harder to not finish off choosing a water-based product. it would simply be a crime to cover them up. the insides. If you’re spraying a finish, it may take I still use the Victorian dresser that was in my Eastern white pine and Port Orford cedar, more time to mask off what you don’t want to hit childhood bedroom. The drawers are unfinished, for example, impart a perfume. And when these than it does to simply spray everywhere. and the bottoms are nowhere near smooth. So woods are used on the inside of drawers, that If you are using a stain, and spraying on your every time I open a drawer, I’m reminded of the perfume infuses the drawers’ contents – in this topcoat, you could finish the drawer fronts before wallpaper I hated at age 8 – offcuts of it still line case, a good thing. And cedar is a prime example. assembly (after taping off the glue surfaces), but the drawer bottoms. Shelf paper is a traditional We’ve all seen (or built) blanket chests lined with there’s a risk of marring the show surface when means of protecting both the wood and a drawer’s cedar, for the wood naturally repels many of the you knock everything together, so be very careful. contents – and it’s easy to clean or replace. pests that enjoy chomping on blankets. If you put This is a time-consuming method and the risks a finish over the cedar, you’ve defeated its purpose are usually greater than the rewards. (and it may turn black and gunky). You could, of course, do the finishing work Editor Christopher Schwarz owns the best on the drawer front by hand with the drawer “Perhaps the sketch of a work is so argument I’ve heard for not finishing the interior assembled, but if you’re persnickety about runs pleasing because everyone can finish it of drawers – the joke factor. He has a carved and and feathering onto the drawer sides, make sure painted skunk from artist John Nelson; in its pos- to tape off everything you don’t want finish to as he chooses.” terior is hidden a small, unfinished cedar drawer. touch – otherwise your drawers will look like — Eugene Delacroix (1798 - 1863) It is one sweet-smelling skunk butt. WM the antique examples pictured above. French Romantic artist — Megan Fitzpatrick

woodworking-magazine.com ■ 31 End Grain photograph from the archives of, and used with permission of, the craftsman Farms foundation, parsippany, nj Lessons from Craftsman Farms Stickley offered a different path to achieve success in life.

Thirty miles outside New York City, in the roll- ing New Jersey hills near Parsippany (back in the day this was the first train stop outside the wealthy area known as Morris Plains), sits 26 acres of ground that played an important part in furniture history. In today’s hustle, I doubt many people realize the property is even there. I didn’t until a friend suggested we stop in for a visit. The land, once part of a 650-acre parcel, was at one time the home of Gustav Stickley, the man responsible for major growth in the Arts & Crafts movement throughout the United States. Stickley wasn’t just a furniture maker; he fan- cied himself a designer and architect as well. And others agreed. I picture this man as strong-willed and very opinionated. In The Craftsman, a magazine he began in 1901 and published until 1916, Stickley wrote not only about how people should decorate their homes, but also on how to shape their entire life- styles around this new Arts & Crafts movement. And Stickley gained credibility with each publi- were losing interest in school, discontented with portions of the farm were sold off. The family cation. His publishing business grew as quickly the typical classroom education. Obviously these eventually sold the home and moved on. as his furniture sales. youngsters were not ready to venture into the While there are different reasons for ceasing In 1905, Stickley moved his headquarters world and earn a living. Understanding the issue educational studies today, I wonder if we have from Syracuse to New York City. (This city was and with the ability to influence actions through reached a similar plateau. In the early 1900s, the heart of business then, as many feel it is today.) The Craftsman, Stickley rationalized that if these Stickley understood that school wasn’t for every- In 1912, he opened a lavish, multi-floor show- children, mainly boys, were not going to stay in one and learning a trade would be beneficial to room that displayed most of the products one school, they should be taught a trade. those who didn’t continue their academic educa- would need to adopt an Arts & Crafts style. On Craftsman Farms would be a self-supporting tions. Yet today, 100 years later, we continue to each floor a different home-decorating element organization that would teach many different believe that higher education is the best bet for was shown. Everything from rugs to pottery to life skills to the youngsters who either dropped success in life. lighting and – lest we forget – furniture was on out of school or floundered without any interest. As tuition continues to escalate, many young display. A restaurant occupied the top floor. Building, farming, animal husbandry and many people are not able to attend a university or col- To be close to his business, Stickley took an more skills could be taught and the farm would lege. And perhaps not everyone even wants to. apartment in the city while his family stayed in flourish as the children benefited. Maybe it’s time we look back to the 18th-century Syracuse. To relax, Stickley would travel outside We’ll never know if Craftsman Farms would apprenticeship programs or take another look the city. After a visit to the Morris Plains area, have made a difference. As Stickley’s idea devel- at vocational programs. It’s time we teach folks Stickley decided to purchase ground near there oped, the desire for Arts & Crafts furniture and to become plumbers, furniture makers or auto and he began to develop the idea of Craftsman the Craftsman way of life slowly spiraled down- mechanics via actual work experience. It turns Farms. Craftsman Farms was to eventually be the ward. The Stickley family moved to the farm, but out there is another path to life success. We family home. And it was to be much more. they had to adapt the main building, originally simply need someone like Stickley to point it Stickley, also an astute philosopher, noticed planned as the clubhouse, to be their home as just out to us. WM that a number of children around the age of 13 a few other buildings were completed. Slowly, — Glen D. Huey

32 ■ woodworking magazine Summer 2009 “Our remedies oft in ourselves do lie.” Extras — William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616), English playwright and poet

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Here’s a look at some yof-to-us the ehighlights on this eas ou’ll fi nd y 2008 A NNUAL Furniture Projects e features 8 f Woodworking Magazine Every issue o an attractive cover project that is easy to build,ols yet has an impressive historical pedigree. Even Copyright ©2009 F+W Med ia, Inc IMPORTANT CONTACT USwoodworkers with only basic ne skillspieces and of furnitureto WWC802 . will be able to construct fi plete plans and clear instructions with our com WM_2008_CD label.ind d 1 Forgotten Techniquese, we explore the d the At Woodworking Magazineques – an SAFETY NOTE est techni hop to We welcome letters fromd breadersll in our s with newest an hem a e 1/30/09 11:22:11 AM hat use th forgotten ones. We test t hods t fi nd the most accuratel smet. ber of too

Safety is your responsibility. Manufacturers comments about this magazine,fewest num or about ia Better Tool Reviews her d that no ot (And No Advertising)ntial tools ew the esse place safety devices on their equipment for a woodworking in general.We revi We try to respond ■

magazine discusses – sliding , screws and ISSUES 9-12 t 2009 F+W Me F+W 2009 t

you. h saddle squares to nameg a. Wefew. work And forwe do it all

y advertisin 2008 ANNUAL without an Copyrig reason. In many photos you see in Wood- to all correspondence. To send us a letter: 1/30/09 11:18:21 AM working Magazine, these have been removed ■ E-mail: [email protected] to provide clarity. In some cases we’ll use ■ Fax: 513-891-7196 WM_2008_CD case.indd 1 an awkward body position so you can bet- ■ Mail carrier: Number 14, Summer 2009. Woodworking Magazine (ISSN 1941-5834) is published 4 ter see what’s being demonstrated. Don’t Letters • Woodworking Magazine times a year in March, May, August and December by F+W Media, Inc. Editorial of fices copy us. Think about each procedure you’re 4700 E. Galbraith Road are located at 4700 E. Galbraith Road, Cincinnati, Ohio 45236; tel.: 513-531-2222. Unsolicited manuscripts are not accepted. Subscription rates: A year’s subscription going to perform beforehand. Safety First! Cincinnati, OH 45236 (4 issues) is $19.9 6 in the U.S., $24.9 6 in Canada, and $2 9.9 6 elsewhere. Produced and printed in the U.S.A. Gauges Summer 2009

Anatomy of a Typical Thumbscrew

Face

Stem or beam Pin

Head or fence Brass wear plate

How to Sharpen the Pin on a Marking Gauge The factory-supplied First round over Then use your file to pin in a marking gauge Original tip the sharp point of create a notch in the does more scratching the pin to more of pin as shown. and gouging than cut- a domed shape. This surface should always face the ting. You can easily fix part of the work you want to keep. it with a small, fine file. We first picked up this tip from James Krenov and David Charlesworth. It works quite well. This surface should always face the waste.

Other Common Forms of Gauges

Mortising Gauge Cutting Gauge Tite-Mark Gauge Panel Gauge The modern mortise gauge has The traditional cutting Technically a cutting gauge, A panel gauge has a long two pins.:one is fixed and the gauge has a small knife the Tite-Mark uses a round stem that is used to mark other is adjustable. Set the instead of a pin. The knife single-bevel cutter that is boards to width before rip- distance between the pins to severs the grain instead of fixed (it does not roll). Avoid ping. It Can use a pin or a match the width of your mor- scratching it. It’s excellent gauges with rolling cutters knife to make its mark. tise chisel. for marks across the grain. and two bevels.

Illustrations by Mary Jane Favorite