Category: Personal Favorites

When I teach beginning woodworkers, there are three comforting things I want to tell them.

1. All woodworkers have bad days. I’ve seen the uber-awesome magazine-cover superstars fumble to adjust a plane, I’ve seen them split a mortise, cut their dovetails the wrong way, you name it. I won’t name names because it is everyone.

2. My second dovetail teacher said the following thing to me in 1996. Remember this:  Woodworkers have been hiding gaps in dovetails from rich people for hundreds of years. Here’s how I do it….

3. In my shop, putty is not a bad word, especially with painted works.

Ever since I’ve been woodworking I’ve been using Durham’s Rock Hard Water Putty for many things in the craft. It puts all of the lame-o putties in tubes to shame — all pre-mixed putties dry out, crack, shrink (in my experience) and generally are a waste of material.

Durham’s is a white powder, a lot like plaster of Paris. You mix it with water (and other things) to make a small or large amount of material, depending on the job. A 16 oz. can will last for more than a decade, unless you really suck eggs as a woodworker.

When you mix it with water, it makes a yellowish putty that is perfect for pine or maple. It dries quickly and, as advertised, rock hard. No cracks. You can make the putty any consistency you like – thin to wick into cracks. Thick to repair a large knot.

Mix it with Titebond II or Titebond III, and you can make a water-resistant or waterproof putty. No lie.

Add some dye (even food color) and you can tone the putty to whatever color you like.

When do I use it? Mostly with painted work. If a piece get banged up in the shop, and I cannot steam out the dents, Durham’s is an excellent solution. I’ll use it to fill voids from knots. And – very important – it is a great glazier’s putty for securing glass in a divided-light door in an authentic way (thanks to Glen Huey for showing me this).

But despite my love for Rocky – the muscle-bound character on the label – I don’t use Durham’s to hide gaps in dovetails. That’s because I haven’t ever had a gap in a dovetail (a bald-face lie). Instead, I use different strategies. Next time I dovetail a carcase together, I’ll shoot some photos. I have a toolbox to build in a couple weeks.

In the meantime, get yourself a can of Durham’s Rock Hard Water Putty – it’s a shop staple.

— Christopher Schwarz

It’s true (I eat eggs).

OK, actually I just gave myself an early Christmas gift and deleted my web browser’s links to a couple woodworking forums.

— Christopher Schwarz

Comparing marking knives is akin to comparing wives. It is ill-advised.

But what the heck. I use a spear-point marking knife for almost everything relating to marking out handwork. I settled on this knife after using lots of knives, both bought and borrowed.

The primary reason I like it is its shape. The thin profile gets me inside joints when transferring layout. The flat back of the tool allows me to register it against my work. And if I’m attacked in the shop, it’s good for plucking out eyeballs.

The two primary criticisms of the knife are as follows.

1. It’s not traditional. Well, neither is air conditioning, but it’s a modern invention that makes Kentucky livable. While I usually prefer traditional shapes, I have compared them to this knife and prefer the spear-point. I have room in my heart for progress.

2. The spear tip becomes rounded over in use, rendering it useless until you re-sharpen. When you see this criticism you should translate it as, “Blah, blah, blah, I don’t have much experience with spear-points.” Dude, you want a rounded tip. You should desire it. You should even create it using your stones. A rounded-over tip (see below) makes the knife track better, especially when working along the grain. And it doesn’t affect its ability to make a line. It just doesn’t.

If you want to try out a spear-point knife without plopping down a sizable payment on a Blue Spruce or Czeck Edge knife, here are two recommendations: Make one from a 1/4” spade bit. I’ve done this many times on a grinder. Cost: $1.

Buy one of the new plastic-handled marking knives from Lee Valley. These are less than $10. The Lee Valley knife is the perfect thickness and shape for handwork. Its only demerit in my book is the plastic. But you cannot beat the price and it functions just as well at the bench.

— Christopher Schwarz

See the Lost Art Press statement of ethics here if you haven’t read it already.

Here’s a quick update on things that are not happening in the shop at Lost Art Press.

I know this is a weird topic for a blog entry. But I was asked these five questions dozens of times during Woodworking in America and recently via e-mail.

We Are Not Opening a School
While we are looking for a large building for our inventory that will have a shop, a loading dock, living quarters and space for experimentation, we have no plans to open a school. I enjoy teaching, writing and building furniture. But running a school is a huge administrative task.

When we get our building, I hope we’ll have the space to allow other woodworkers to come there and collaborate with us on book projects. But it won’t be a school.

We Aren’t Hiring Employees
So who the heck is Ty Black, my so-called “shop assistant?” I never want to manage people. I’m done with that. But I am happy to work with others. Ty is a local software engineer and woodworker who works with me three days a week. He helps me with my projects. I help him with his. Some days I teach him something about handwork. Other days he teaches me something about improving my shop processes. He is definitely not an employee. I don’t pay him. I don’t tell him what to do. From henceforth I shall call him “helper monkey.”

We Aren’t Starting a Hand-tool Magazine
I’m done with running magazines and newspapers. They are crazy businesses that I have lived and breathed since 1990. I want to make things that in 100 years will still be used daily.

We Aren’t Becoming a Custom Furniture Business
I’m building a lot of furniture and selling it, but it is all in service to the writing and the publishing. After building 10 Roorkhee chairs for customers, I know a ton more about this unusual form. And I have campaign chests in mahogany and teak that I’ll be selling as the campaign furniture book progresses. And a buttload of boarded chests for “The Furniture of Necessity.”

But I’m not in the business of making (especially) workbenches and tool chests. I’d probably starve.

We Aren’t Exploring Other Crafts
Yup, blacksmithing, weaving and other traditional crafts are interesting. But we won’t be publishing books on them because we aren’t tuned in to them. We know traditional woodworking. We eat, sleep and breathe it. We know what needs to be published for other woodworkers. I couldn’t say what a blacksmith needs.

— Christopher Schwarz