I finished this small chest yesterday…almost! (I’ll do the last bit today, in between questions.)
It’s Open Wire time, where you can pose your woodworking questions in the comments section below and we’ll do our best to answer them.
Chris is also getting ready for a class that starts Monday, and I’m getting the class pages ready for the July-December 2024 classes (they’ll be announced soon!)…and finishing one last thing I forgot about on the chest interior shown above: a plane cubby. One simply must have a plane cubby. So there may be lag between your question and our answer.
For two decades, Nancy made a living by turning limitations into creative, lively and livable kitchens for her clients. This, her final how-to book, is an invitation to learn from both her completed kitchen designs (plus kitchens from a few others) and from the way she worked.
Unlike most kitchen design books, “Kitchen Think” is a woodworker’s guide to designing and furnishing the kitchen, from a down-to-the-studs renovation to refacing existing cabinets. And Nancy shows you how it can be done without spending a fortune or adding significantly to your local landfill.
Whether you’re planning a kitchen for a newly built house or remodeling an existing kitchen, there are some basic steps to getting started. The first step is to break what may feel like an overwhelming task into manageable components.
Here are a few examples of kitchen remodeling scenarios:
Gut the kitchen. Whether you’re gutting the space to beef up structural elements, enhance insulation or simply to get the ceiling, walls and floor level, flat and plumb, a hardcore gut usually entails new cabinets. This doesn’t necessarily mean cabinets that are newly built; some complete remodels incorporate salvaged cabinets, modified to work in their new space. But the idea here is that you’re starting from scratch.
Partial remodel: Keep the best of what you have and add to it. This scenario encompasses kitchens that have a few original cabinets that are charming and perfectly fit the character of the house, but there are too few of them (or they have impractical counters, or they need to be refinished and have various parts tuned up etc.).
Refacing existing cabinets in cases where the existing cabinets are in good shape and were well made, but you want to change the aesthetic of the kitchen.
Modify existing cabinets to make them more functional, as when old drawers were poorly made and slid on wooden runners, and you decide to replace them with newly made drawers that are easy to clean and mounted on full-extension slides.
Assess the Situation Think about how you use the kitchen and what you would like to change. Do you live alone, or are you the only one who cooks? Do you work with someone else in the kitchen – i.e. do you need space for more than one cook? Your answers will have a bearing on considerations such as the space you need between cabinets or appliances and central features such as tables or islands.
Do you have children in your kitchen, whether they live with you or visit often? If so, think about how you can avoid creating sharp corners, especially those at children’s eye level. Also choose hardware without tight spring closures that can hurt little fingers, and plan to keep poison or alcohol out of reach.
Do you really cook or do you just want a nice-looking kitchen? How much do you really want to spend on appliances and fixtures marketed as “professional” or “high performance?”
Now list the best features of your existing space. These may include:
Proportions and shape of the room
Natural light from windows or skylights
The view through windows
Existing cabinetry, counters or other elements, such as a lovely old wooden floor. Make a wish-list of elements you’d like to add.
If only it were this simple. This 1936 advertisement for “Porta-Bilt” furniture from the Mutschler cabinet company attempts to make kitchen planning as easy as child’s play.
Now list the things you consider detractions. Examples may include:
The room is dark
There’s no window over the sink (nor is adding one an option)
The room feels cold
The room is tiny and has too many doorways
Next note any constraints imposed by the existing space. While some may be able to be changed, time and budget permitting, others may not be. Instead of viewing what you can’t change as an obstacle, think of how it could be an opportunity with the benefit of some creative thinking. For example, if your kitchen is tiny, as architect Christine Matheu’s was (see pages 342-345), take note of that – then think about whether there are ways to make it feel lighter and more spacious. In Christine’s case, the answer was to add new skylights, enlarge the window on the exterior wall and install a large window on an interior wall that overlooks the entryway to her house. But the ultimate genius move by Christine was to open up one portion of the wall between the kitchen and dining room to create a space for the cook to converse with family and friends while preserving a clear distinction between the work and public spaces.
The goal of this exercise is to begin defining priorities.
Now move on to looks.
The steps above are general; they make no mention of your kitchen’s aesthetic. Think about how your kitchen looks now and how you want it to look. Do you want it to feel more in sync with other rooms? If so, you may take your design cues from those. But if you’re leaning toward a period style, keep some caveats in mind (see pages 295-301); also, if you want a period kitchen to be convincing, you need to bone up on some kitchen history, bearing in mind that kitchens of yore were not public spaces, but the servants’ domain.
Order of Work Kitchens are complex rooms with many working parts. For the best job, you should think carefully about how these different parts will go together before you start building. A typical order of work is as follows:
Demolition.
If you’ve gutted to the studs, joists and rafters, take this opportunity to add blocking for cabinet installation. Trim or shim framing lumber to make the walls, ceiling and floor flat and level. Insulate exterior walls as appropriate.
Rough plumbing (sink supplies and drainage, gas for stove) and electrical wiring (lighting, appliances, dishwasher, fridge, stove, undercabinet lighting, switches etc.).
Patch or replace ceiling, walls and subfloor as necessary. Tape and finish joints.
Prime and paint at least one coat of color.
Finish floors (lay tile or sheet flooring; sand wood floor and finish).
Install cabinets.
Measure and make templates for counters.
Fit doors and drawers (if fitting on site).
Remove doors and drawers for finishing in shop (ditto).
Install counters.
Install backsplash or tile.
Install sink and faucet.
Replace doors and drawers, install set screws and final hardware.
Final painting.
Finish electrical – install the light fixtures, disposal, appliances, switches etc.
The first book ever published by Lost Art Press (left) and the revised version from a few years later.
In a nod to Christopher Schwarz’s talks this weekend at Colonial Williamsburg’s Working Wood in the 18th Century Conference, below is an excerpt from “The Art of Joinery,” the first book Lost Art Press published – itself an excerpt from Joseph Moxon’s “Mechanick Exersises,” which was the first English-language book that discussed woodworking, with modern commentary from Chris on every one of Moxon’s sections on tools and techniques.
When we published Moxon’s “Mechanick Exercises” in full, we took the excerpted version out of print – but if you want Chris’ commentary, you can still get it: “The Art of Joinery” is yours to download, free simply by clicking here (and we don’t ask for your email, first-born or phone number).
S. 10. Of chisels of several sorts. And first of formers [firmers].
Formerly called a former. The rectangular shape of the blade identifies this as a former (or firmer) chisel. Once common, these tools are now scarce in modern catalogs.
Formers [firmers] marked C 1. C 3. are of several sizes. They are called formers because they are used before the paring chisel, even as the fore plane is used before the smoothing plane. The stuff you are to work upon being first scribed {as I shall show in its proper place}, you must set the edge of the former a little without [away from] the scribed stroke with its bevel outwards, that it may break and shoulder off the chips from your work as the edge cuts it. And you must bear the helve [handle] of the former a little inwards over the stuff, [so] that the former do[es] not first cut straight down, but a little outwards [instead]. For, should you venture to cut straight down at the first, you might with a negligent or unlucky knock with the mallet, drive the edge of the former under the work and so cut, before you are aware, more off the underside than the upper side of your work, and so {perchance} spoil it. Therefore, you may make several cuttings to cut it straight down by little and little until your work is made ready for the paring chisel. When it [the former chisel] is used, the helve [handle] of it is knocked upon with a mallet to drive the edge into the stuff.
Analysis This section introduces an error in numbering. This is “Section 10,” and so is the section above.
Firmer chisels are now uncommon, but they were the standard for many years. They were rectangular in cross-section and lacked the bevels on the two long edges that are on modern garden-variety chisels.
The term that Moxon uses for them, “formers,” suggests the tools were used for forming or roughing out joinery or shapes. And then the formers were followed by the paring chisel to clean things up. Moxon also describes a fact of chiseling that bedevils every woodworker – that they don’t travel down in a straight line that follows the face (some call it the back) of the tool. Instead, they tend to undercut your joints, which is frustrating. The solution in the 17th century is the same as today: Take smaller bites. Tip the handle back a little toward the face of the chisel so the tool won’t undercut your work.
S. 11. Of the paring chisel.
Moxon’s paring chisel.
The paring chisel marked C 2. must have a very fine and smooth edge. Its office is to follow the former and to pare off and smoothen the irregularities [that] the former made.
It is not knocked upon with the mallet, but the blade is clasped upon the outside of the hindermost joints of the fore and little fingers, by the clutched inside of the middle and third fingers of the right hand. And so its edge being set upon the scribed line and the top of the helve [handle] placed against the hollow of the inside of the right shoulder. With [the workman] pressing the shoulder hard upon the handle, the edge cuts and pares away the irregularities.
This way of handling may seem a preposterous posture to manage an iron tool in, and yet the reason of the original contriver of this posture is to be approved.
For should workmen hold the blade of the paring chisel in their whole hand, they must either hold their hand pretty near the helve [handle], where they cannot well manage the tool, or they must hold it pretty near the edge, where the outside of the fingers will hide the scribed line they are to pare in[to]. But this posture all workmen are at first taught; and [their] practice doth so inure them to it, that if they would, they could not well leave it.
Finishing chisel. The paring chisel, whether old or new, is a finesse tool in the right hands. Keep it sharp and with a low bevel angle on its edge and you will be able to work magic.
Analysis The paring chisel is used to clean up the junk left behind by the former, and the way that Moxon describes it in use seems a bit unusual: The blade is woven between the fingers and pressed with the shoulder into the work. This grip gets your hand near the bevel (which increases control) but also allows you to see the scribe line you are working to (a good thing). If you try this, I think you’ll be hooked. It is an effective way to drive a paring chisel, assuming the height of your bench allows it. A bench that is too high or too low makes this motion awkward.
S. 12. Of the skew former.
Moxon’s skew former (left). Moxon says this isn’t used much by joiners, who fit houses with moulding, doors, windows and cabinets. It might be more useful to a cabinetmaker who would use it for dovetails. Brutes of the chisel world (right). Mortise chisels are even stouter than former chisels and are beefy so they won’t easily snap in deep mortises, which I have seen happen during the quite violent process of mortising.
The skew former marked C 4. is seldom used by joiners but for cleansing acute angles with its acute angle on its edge, where the angles of other chisels will not so well come.
Analysis This skew chisel is great for cleaning out all sorts of dovetail sockets. Though it is a “former” chisel, it is generally not struck with a mallet today, but it is driven by hand.
S. 13. Of the mortise chisel. The mortise chisel marked C 5. is a narrow chisel, but hath its blade much thicker and consequently stronger {that it may endure the heavier blows with the mallet} than other chisels have, so that in grinding it to an edge, it is ground to a very broad bevel as you may see in the figure. Its office is to cut deep, square holes, called mortises, in a piece of wood. Joiners use them in several breadths according[ly] as the breadths of their mortises may require.
Analysis The mortise chisel of the 17th century is a bit different than modern forms, but it is used the same way. The biggest difference is in the blade. The old form swells in thickness at the tip (this saves steel) and modern chisels don’t. They are thick along their entire length.
S. 14. Of the gouge.
Not for carving. A gouge like this, sometimes called a firmer gouge, will be used to remove large chips without splintering the grain, like a firmer chisel might.
The gouge marked C 6. is a chisel having a round edge for the cutting [of] such wood as is to be rounded or hollowed.
These several sorts of chisels joiners have in several sizes [so] that they may be accommodated to do several sizes of work.
Analysis This is presumably a firmer gouge, not a carving tool. These remove material in a localized area, such as removing waste from a very large tenon or breadboard end on a tabletop. You can follow this tool with finer tools if the work requires it.
Update: Thank you to Andy for handling today’s Open Wire! Comments are now closed.
Today, we are delighted to have Andy Glenn, author of “Backwoods Chairmakers,” here to answer your woodworking questions – particularly those relating to post-and-rung chairs of the Appalachian region, as that’s the core of his new book. But, he’s a long-time woodworking teacher who trained at North Bennet Street School, so he’s certainly qualified to answer on many woodworking topics (ask him about his CNC*). And in case you have questions about any of our books, videos, tools etc., I’ll be checking in from time to time to answer as needed. As always, there will sometimes be a lag between your asking and our answering.
And I thought this might be of interest: If you want to make a greenwood ladderback chair (aka post-and-rung chair) but have no access to appropriate logs, or the simply don’t have the time to split out your own stock, Andy sells chair kits on his site. And, here’s a link to his teaching schedule for 2024.
But you can learn from him now: simply post your woodworking questions below. Comments will close at around 5 p.m.
Truly one of the best values in woodworking. This 16-ounce can, which should last a decade (even with students using it in every one of my classes to fill inconsequential gaps in dovetails), cost $2.39.
None of us likes accidents, but they are sometimes unavoidable. When possible, we’ll disguise workshop oopsies with wood – a plug, shim, wedge or dutchman. Sometimes we’ll add a metal plate (a decorative one if it shows) to keep a split from getting larger (and even when we know it won’t get larger, to add peace of mind for a future owner). But sometimes, we have to resort to wood filler. And for that, we most often reach for Durham’s Rock Hard Water Putty.
On a recent chair build, Chris experienced a little non-structural blow-out on the underside of the armbow, and it showed when the chair was viewed from the front. Patching it with wood could be done, but it would be a right royal pain in the posterior, and it would still show. That made the repair decision and thus the finish decision easy: paint.
This is a close-up from underneath of the damage to be repaired. It looks extreme only because of the macro lens – that stick is 5/8″ diameter. (And yes, I would typically effect the repair before painting…but I forgot. Glad this chair needed a second coat of paint anyway!)
Why paint? Because Durham’s dries darn-near white, shows under a clear finish and doesn’t take stain. (Neither does any other filler I’ve tried, and that includes glue and sawdust,) But Durham’s doesn’t shrink or fall out, it dries fast, is easy to use and takes paint beautifully. And the packaging is fantastic!
Simply put a small amount of the powder in a Dixie cup (I usually scoop no more than a teaspoon, a) because I rarely need more, and b) it dries so quickly that by the time you’ve used that amount, anything left in the cup is probably too dry to use). Now add water – sparingly – and stir it up. The mixed putty should be about the consistency of creamy peanut butter to use on a flat surface, and a little thicker if you need a mold an edge. A small scoop of the powder will need only two to three drops of water.
A common mistake is to put water in a cup then add powder – that almost always results in far too much product, because two to three drops of water in a cup looks too lonely and you inevitably put in more than that. Then you have to add a lot of powder to soak it up, so you end up with too much putty and have to throw lots away. Not a big deal given the cost, but I hate wasting things.
If you’re filling a deep crater or damage on an edge, you don’t typically want to do it all in one go; it will take too long to dry. Fill it below the surface (I use a flexible metal putty knife), as I’ve done in the photo below, and let it dry completely before adding more on top to create the show surface(s). That means mixing another, even smaller amount for the second application.
Wow – that looks terrible! But it won’t when I’m done. This is the first application – note that it’s not quite flush with the surface on the front of the armbow – that’s where I’ll add more after I sand the dried first coat.
After the putty turns from tan to near-white, sand as needed. If you’re working on a shallow repair on a flat surface, sand it flat using a block so that it ends up perfectly flush. If you’re working on a deeper repair, sand flush any product that landed outside your work area (as on the armbow above), mix another batch of putty – and in this case, my second mix was thicker, so I could mold the corner without it sagging. Work quickly and don’t overwork it. You likely won’t be able to make a perfectly crisp corner with the wet putty. But you can sand away the excess after it dries for a perfect (or near-enough-perfect) repair.
Had I waited for the touch-up of paint to dry on the repair, I perhaps flatter myself that you wouldn’t be able to spot it.
