Though my wife might disagree, I am definitely a leg man.

Whenever I'm going to great lengths in the shop, it's usually because I'm preparing a set of legs for a table or a chair. I will sort through hundreds of board feet of lumber to find the right thick planks that have the grain pattern I like.

I will gladly band saw boards at odd angles to create the bastard grain that will produce a leg that looks good from all sides. Today I spent a long time (too long, actually) finding stock that had the right curve to work with a double taper on a Stickley 802 sideboard I'm working on.

And when it comes to prepping my stock, I always do the legs (and any panels) separately from the rest of the carcase stock so I can focus on getting the legs dead square.

Like any red-blooded American woodworker, I also like a really nice top. And I go the extra mile to make a top that gets admiring glances. But I think tops are easier because ultimately they just have to look good. Accuracy can take a back seat – except at the edges.

Legs have to be accurate on certain faces, otherwise the whole assembly will be cock-eyed, have gappy joints or both.

I don't know any woodworkers who obsess about bottoms in furniture. Perhaps James Krenov? He puts a whole lot of effort into the base when he builds a chest-on-stand.

And don't get me started on those nutjob woodworkers who obsess about feet.

— Christopher Schwarz

Let’s play a game I call “Stupid or Ethical?”

The first time I interviewed Robin Lee, president of Lee Valley Tools, I asked him a few questions that readers had been asking me for years. Robin’s answers are paraphrased below, though I’ve heard him say them so many times in the last decade I could almost quote him verbatim.

Q: Why doesn’t Veritas come out with an inexpensive Bed Rock plane to compete with Lie-Nielsen?

A: That wouldn’t be fair to Tom Lie-Nielsen. We’d rather produce our own line of planes instead of copying his.

Q: Why doesn’t Veritas come out with a line of less expensive Stanley 750 chisels to compete with Lie-Nielsen?

A: That wouldn’t be fair. Besides, we have our own line of chisels already and might do something different in the future.

Q: Why doesn’t Veritas make an infill plane to compete with all these makers who charge thousands of dollars for a plane?

A: That’s their market. We’d rather build our own planes than copy someone else’s.

Q: Why doesn’t Veritas produce a less-expensive brass-back dovetail saw….

Well, you get the idea.

On the other side of that fence, Lie-Nielsen has stayed out of Veritas’s back yard on a number of occasions. During one visit to the Lie-Nielsen Toolworks, I saw a prototype of a bullnose plane. When Veritas came out with its bullnose shortly thereafter, Lie-Nielsen shelved its plans.

The question isn’t about the legality of copying tools. It’s much more important than that. Some might contend that this sort of behavior is stupid. Shouldn’t these companies be out to grab as much market share as possible? Or is it somehow ethical to steer clear of your competitors’ ideas and instead push your own ideas (assuming you have any) forward?

My bias is obvious. My work gets ripped off everyday. People copy my articles, put them on CDs and sell them on eBay. They post them for free download on Russian sites. They place my copyrighted text whole cloth on their foreign web sites and claim it for their own.

Just because something is legal doesn’t mean it’s right.

For me, copying tools is a simple issue. Ask yourself one question: Will the copy confuse the reasonable consumer? If the copy looks so much like a competitor’s that it is going to confuse buyers, then it’s dishonest.

I’m not saying you can’t do it. Or that you’re violating laws. I’m just saying that I won’t support you with my dollars.

— Christopher Schwarz

P.S. For those who haven't been reading WoodNet and the debates on copied tools, try this link. Or (if you have four hours of your life to spare) this.

We call them "tool pushers" in the collecting world. People who find out what sort of stuff you are interested in and feed you a steady stream of it until your wallet is dry.

One of the worst tool pushers is Slav Jelesijevich, a Chicago area tool collector, cabinetmaker and cat-loving wild man. Get to know Slav just a bit and you'll receive photos of his cats (some of them in attack mode) and you'll get leads on old tools that are new in the box. That's his specialty. I bought a 1970s-era Rockwell band saw from him. In the box. A Work-Mate (in the box). Hammers with 1970s-era Super Bowl tags on them. And too many rasps and files to mention (I guess I just did mention them).

At Woodworking in America, Slav sold a lot of stuff. And a lot of it went home with the other toolmakers on the selling floor with him.

While I was yakking with someone (Harrelson Stanley?) Slav walked by and dropped something in my pocket. Then he disappeared. I knew that whatever it was, it was going to cost me.

It turned out to be something I've always wanted: A never-used Millers Falls bench stop. It is the height of gizmo-cool. Sure a simple block of wood can be your planing stop – you Philistine. Or you can get this remarkably sophisticated spring-loaded, quadra-sided piece of tool engineering awesomeness.

Here's how you install it: Drill two holes in your bench – a 1" hole inside a 2" hole. Screw the stop in. You're done.

Here's how it works: Loosen the screw and the stop goes loosey and bouncy on a spring. Rotate the head until you have the type of stop you want. There's a flat stop, a V-shaped slot, one with four big teeth and one with 10 little teeth.

Set the stop at the height you want – anything up to 1-1/8" and then turn the screw to lock it. Done.

I've seen these in old catalogs, but I've never seen one in person. And now I own one that's never been used. But that last part is going to change.

— Christopher Schwarz

The T-shirt slogan contest was great fun. I eventually had to stop checking the entries while I was at work, however, because I was worried that human resources was going to nail me for some of the stuff scrolling across my screen.

The three winning slogans are:

“Trying Stuff Since 1678” from Mike Siemsen. Lucy, my spouse and a writer, called out this one as the most clever of all the entries.

“We Nail, We Screw, We Bolt” from Ben Davis. When I insisted on this one, Lucy rolled her eyes as if to say “You wish.”

I let Lucy pick the third winner, which turned out to be quite disturbing on a personal level.

“Inch-prickt Since 1678” by Dave Fisher.

Ben and Dave: Drop me a line at christopher.schwarz@fuse.net. My blog software ate your e-mail addresses.

The winners will all receive the Pin-Eez sawnut tool and one of the T-shirts with the current slogan. As soon as we sell out of those, we’ll use one of these new ones.

Thanks to everyone who entered.

— Christopher Schwarz

When I was in high school, my father gave me a great gift: a leather vest.

I wore the snot out of that thing. I wore it when I dated my future wife in college. I wore it when Steve Shanesy interviewed me for my job here at Popular Woodworking. I have – quite literally – worn the buttons off the thing.

Last year, I realized that my beloved cow covering was a catastrophe. Frayed. A bit smelly. Unusually soiled.

So after 20 years of faithful service, I retired that vest and decided to buy myself a new one. My new vest is well made, but it’s shiny and stiff. I am neither.

So I sought out some way to age the finish on the vest. I found a lot of advice out there: Drag it behind my car. Put it in the clothes dryer with some rocks. Sand it. Wad it up, stuff it under the bed and sleep on it over and over.

As I considered all this advice I noticed something about the givers. None of these advisers had actually done this to their precious skin-based garments. They were just repeating things they had heard or were making up things that “should work.”

So I dug deeper until I found the stagehands. According to these people, they used denatured alcohol to age leather costumes for plays about pirates, bikers and S&M-loving citizens. Their instructions were specific and consistent: Put alcohol in a spray bottle. Spray a large surface and then wipe it down. Instant age.

It sounded like wood finishing advice, so I was instantly skeptical. So I decided to do what any wary woodworker would do: I tried it on a hidden area of a non-essential garment.

It worked. So I went to town on my new vest with a squirt bottle and a rag.

Now I have a vest I’m more comfortable in, and a new appreciation for how-to information. You see, whenever I write something about woodworking, I strive never to repeat things as gospel that I haven’t tried. If my name is on it, I’ve done it. Or I’m quoting someone I trust.

This isn’t always the case in any journalism (including knitting journalism and ferret-training journalism). I have read enough garbage in my lifetime to know that some people just repeat other people’s garbage because it has been repeated enough times that it has to be true.

This is the long way of saying that we should do what Virgil (70 B.C. - 19 B.C.) recommended: “Believe one who has tried it.”

— Christopher Schwarz

If you write hilarious T-shirt slogans and have some hand saws with loose nuts (and who doesn't) then read on.

We're giving away three custom split-nut drivers made using the Pin-Eez tool. (If it doesn't sound like I'm typing English here, read this blog entry and it will all make sense.) The manufacturer of the Pin-Eez gave me these three tools last week to thank me for my blog entry.

So what do you have to do to win this fabulous split-nut driver? Be hilarious. We're trolling around for the next slogan to put on the back of our Lost Art Press T-shirts. We sold out of the ones that read "Rude Mechanicks Since 1678." Our latest T-shirt features the slogan "Boring Since 1678." Click here to see that shirt.

The slogan has to be short – six words or less. And it has to relate (obviously) to woodworking, hand tools, beer drinking, Joseph Moxon, Andre Roubo – or preferably all of those at once.

Here is how you enter: Simply post your slogan as a comment at the end of this blog entry before midnight, Friday, Feb. 6. Be sure to include an e-mail address so we can contact you. (This isn't a scam to collect your e-mail addresses; we're not that sophisticated.)

We'll pick our three favorite slogans and announce the three winners on Feb. 7. Each winner will receive a split-nut driver and a T-shirt with the current slogan.  

— Christopher Schwarz

As mentioned in my last post, I set my tools at the proper angle in my honing guides by sighting the tools against a little block of wood that is marked with the various angles I use.

As I prepared to sharpen my smoothing plane iron this morning, I took some photos so you could see how I do this quickly, accurately and without getting sliced open like a hog's jugular.

First, a word about honing guides. In addition to the small Kell honing guide I use for chisels, I use an Eclipse 36 guide for plane irons. The Eclipse 36 was the DNA for the $10 to $15 Taiwanese honing guides in every catalog today. But like a photocopy, the Taiwanese versions aren't as sharp as the original.

In general, the paint on the Taiwanese guides is too thick and pools where you don't want it to (especially in the dovetailed ways that are designed to hold chisels). Plus, the copies don't hold tools as firmly because things just don't line up like they do on the Eclipse.

As I've seen hundreds of honing guides in my 13 years at Popular Woodworking; and my opinion on this is as firm as my love for Belgian ales.

Here's the part where you hate me. It appears the Eclipse 36 is no longer made. (If I'm wrong here, give me a shout.) I bought mine from Highland Hardware, but that catalog no longer carries it. All my other searches for a U.S. supplier have turned up naught.

If you're a little cracked (like me), then I recommend you search eBay's United Kingdom site. They turn up there frequently, even guides that are new in the box.

Setting the Tool in the Guide
The first step is to position your little block of wood perfectly flush to the end of your bench. Use your fingertips – this will get you within a thousandth of an inch.

Now secure the tool in the guide but clamp its jaws loosely on the tool. You want to be able to shift the guide forward and back on the tool with finger pressure. But you don't want the guide to fall off.

Place the guide on your benchtop and roll the edge up to the end of your bench. Place the fingers of your right hand on top of the tool and press down. Move the edge of the tool to the end of the benchtop as shown in the photo. I have never cut myself through three (now four) presidential administrations.

With your left hand, push the honing guide forward (or back) until the tool lines up with the angled line on your block. For plane irons, I grind the bevel at 25° and sharpen a 35° secondary bevel. So I'm lining up the tool with the 35° line.

Now take your left hand and tighten the guide enough to lock your setting. Then use a screwdriver to really lock the sucker down. Then get to sharpening.

— Christopher Schwarz

As mentioned in another blog I have been trying to get productive. I am working on the legs of two Welsh Stick chairs with a "Lord of the Rings" touch. I made the legs out of very dry white oak and tapered them on the band saw. I did this before, so I know that I want to be approximately 1-3/4" wide a the bottom of the leg and 1-1/8" at a point that is 3" down from the top of the leg. The length of the leg is 19-1/2".

OK, here is the deal. I am using a tapered reamer and a tapered tenon maker from Lee Valley. You can see the tapered tenon maker in the picture above. They are sized to work with each other, i.e. the tenon will fit into the tapered mortise. This is the ideal chair joint. As chairmaker David Fleming pointed out (and I am sure others did as well), when you sit in the chair it makes the joint tighter. The opening of the taper tool is 1-1/4" it is 3" long. If the wood won't clear the opening it won't make it to the cutter and the thing won't work.

Tapering to 1-1/4" on the band saw was not a problem for four sides. The problem came in on the diagonal which of course was not 1-1/4" and jamming up the works. So, I did what every hand tool enthusiast does, grabbed a jack plane, set it to take a huge cut and worked up a sweat! After leg three I had a Jethro moment.  Like the time he told Uncle Jed how hard it was carrying heavy sacks from the back of the house to the truck which was at the front of the house. Uncle Jed asked him, “Why don’t you drive the truck around back?” I made a jig. There is masking tape on the jig because, as I now know, the jig needed to be tapered. I learned this after I made it....

OK, the picture above is what I am trying to get to. Make a tapered square into a tapered hexagon.

Here is the tapered tenon cutter in action. It is like a pencil sharpener. 

- John Hoffman

 

My day job at a woodworking magazine forces me to try out new sharpening equipment all the time, which drives me bonkers. No matter how long you have been sharpening, it takes some time to get tuned into a new stone or guide or system.

However, sometimes all this agony results in some ecstasy.

For example, I've become fond of the small Kell honing guide for chisels. No honing guide I've ever used can produce such accurate edges. Why? Two reasons. The jig clamps from the sides, which prevents your chisel from shifting. However, my old Eclipse-style guide also clamps from the sides. So what's the big deal?

Where the Kell excels is that you can secure the chisel with its unbeveled face against the Kell's guide bars. Brilliant. While my Eclipse guide tends to make my chisels twist, the Kell does not. As a result, it's far easier to hone a straight secondary bevel on chisels (and on straight irons for joinery planes).

The irony about the Kell is that I was introduced to the guide by Joel Moskowitz, the owner of Tools for Working Wood. Joel is an advocate of freehand sharpening. But now I've even more attached to my honing guides because of him. Thanks Joel!

My other favorite bit of sharpening equipment is the little block of wood shown in the photo. I mark common honing angles on it using my daughter's protractor. Then I set it on the end of my bench and use it to set the chisel to the proper angle for sharpening in the guide.

I have tried myriad devices and techniques for setting angles. I have marked up my workbench with dozens of lines for setting a wide variety of irons to a wide variety of angles. Nothing works as simple and brilliantly as a direct reading from my block of wood. And it's portable and I never – ever – have to compensate for the thickness of a tool or its taper.

I had to make up this new block of wood recently because I lost my old one at Kelly Mehler's School of Woodworking. My old one was fancier – it had the radius of my fore plane's blade shaped into the back end. That way I could just trace the shape onto a fore plane blade and grind to the line.

— Christopher Schwarz

Ok I am getting caught up on some woodworking projects.  I have been closing the books for Lost Art Press and getting ready for tax filings…It is surprising how much non-woodworking tasks there are to do in a woodworking business.  I digress.

As promised here is a pic of the Veritas Skew Rabbet plane aka moving fillister, in action.  A Rabbet is a recess with two open sides that is cut with the grain.  A fillister is a cross grain rabbet.  Just like a groove is with the grain and a dado is across the grain.  The moving fillister has a fence to allow for adjustment of the fillister. 

Anyway, the plane works great as you can see.  The wood is figured maple and I didn’t even have the nicker (the blade that slices the wood fibers ahead of the blade) in place.  It was adjusted out of the way when I put the plane back into the cabinet and forgot to set it when I started planing for this picture.

The next pic is an attachment I made for the shooting board so I could fine tune the miter cuts on some boxes I am making.  I took a couple of pieces of a pine 2x12 left over from the trestle table I built.  I band sawed them to shape, glued them together and added a fence. Crude but it works.  I just clamp it onto the shooting board and have at it.  The bar of the clamp is a bit in the way but I will try another clamp or something.

My to do list includes replacing a number of wooden pieces for my brother’s parquet floor, legging up a chair, and trying to get a jewelry box done.  I also got called from a friend who wants help framing his basement and build  a bar and a co-worker who wants shelves built for her new house.  What I want to do is build the Massachusetts Block Front Chest that Glen Huey made.  Don’t we all get grabbed when someone finds out we woodwork?  Yes, I would like to help out but I still have a lot of painting to do in my house not to mention installing a hardwood floor and winning the super bowl on my Xbox 360.  Heck, that doesn’t take into account all the hi-def cable channels and the new blue ray player!  But I digress again…Back to work!

-John Hoffman