Among the classes on sale at 10 a.m. is Chris Williams’ Welsh Stick Chair Class – we’ll have to dig out our Y Ddraig Goch.
The following Covington Mechanicals classes go on sale today at 10 a.m. Eastern. They will likely sell out quickly – some in seconds – so be ready to register. (But before you do, please check your calendar to make sure you can attend the class for which you want to register).
If you don’t get into your desired class, do sign up for the waitlist – because I can’t remember a class in which we didn’t have to fill at least one slot.
Some righteous fried chicken from Libby’s, a Covington staple.
We are thrilled to host Lie-Nielsen Toolworks this weekend for a Hand Tool Event at our storefront at 837 Willard St. in Covington, Ky. (Details here.)
If this is your first trip to Covington, or you haven’t been here since the pandemic, there is a lot to chat about.
During the last five years, the city has blossomed in many ways (not our doing), and there are somehow even more places to eat and drink within a 5-minute walk of our front door. Here is an updated list of places close by that we recommend and love.
Breakfast
The Anchor Grill: Cash-only diner that is open 24 hours. No yuppies or hipsters. Pike Street diner: Upscale diner for fancier lads and lasses. Cedar: Still fancier breakfast spot for brunchers. Coppin’s: The fanciest breakfast. It’s at the Hotel Covington. Dang good. (Also great for lunch and dinner.) North South Baking: Great pastries, breakfast sandwiches and coffee. Point Perk Coffee: All manner of coffee. Left Bank Coffee: Also good coffee.
Lunch Olla: Best Mexican food in town. (Also great for dinner.) Guiterrez: Mexican deli run by the same family that runs Olla. Empanada’s Box: Fantastic selection of delicious empanadas. Gyros on Main: Just like it says. Kung Food: Good Chinese with good beer. (Also good for dinner.) Thai Pavilion: Good Thai with decent beer. The Standard: Burgers and fries in a converted gas station. Kealoha: Healthy and delicious Hawaiian food. Lorenzo’s: Good sandwich spot.
Dinner Otto’s: Southern classics. Libby’s: Fried chicken and other Southern specialties. Frida 602: Very good gringo Mexican. Mama’s on Main: Sturdy Italian food. Larry’s: Our fave dive bar with tater-tot-based cuisine Dewey’s: Excellent pizza. You can get it at the stand-alone restaurant, or order it from inside Braxton Brewing, the city brewery. Juniper’s: Gin bar with a great rotating tapas menu. Zola’s: Straight-ahead, no-apologies bar food. Riverside Korean: A Covington staple for 20 years.
Drinks Crafts & Vines: Our local. Great people and good small bites, too. OKBB: Probably the best bourbon bar in the world. Vintage: A wild place that sells vintage bourbon. Braxton Brewing: Solid beer, with a great pizza place inside. Rooftop bar. Knowledge or Coppin’s: The multiple bars at the Hotel Covington are all excellent. Second Story Bar: Very nice bar above the Flying Axes bar on Sixth Street.
Fun Stuff Earth to Kentucky: Toy store on our street. Amazing selection of cartoon-based stuff. Hail Records and Oddities: If you need vinyl, weird taxidermy, occult stuff, stickers etc., go see Neil. Hierophany & Hedge: A city landmark and magic shop. Not to be missed.
And then there’s Cincinnati – a whole other world of good food and drink. It is no wonder that it’s difficult to stay thin here.
Olivia and I, checking out the marvelous construction of one of the interactive pages in “The Dream of the Joiner.”
Last summer, a mysterious package arrived for me in the mail. It was from Suzanne Ellison, whom you know better as Suzo, our indefatigable researcher, aka The Saucy Indexer. Inside was an incredible handmade book, written and illustrated by Suzo, “The Dream of the Joiner.” And it was furoshiki-wrapped (see below). Oh, that I had a quarter of Suzo’s imagination – and a scintilla of her amazing ability to construct pop-up books (for lack of a better descriptor for the interactivity…though “pop-up book” seems insufficient for this handmade delight.). Suzo is the best! And I meant to share this long before now. But today, it was quiet enough in the shop that I could record it.
I felt bad about opening this gorgeous package.
With apologies for my attempt at character voices (I fear I forgot which voice went with which character from time to time) I give you “The Dream of the Joiner” in a video reading (and do read the left-hand pages, with information about the illustrations – I did not include that text, because it’s not part of the narrative). The folding/moving/turning parts of this book are even more impressive in person, but I hope this will suffice.
Thank you again, Suzanne, for this amazing gift (which lives on a shelf well out of reach of the cats)!
About 2012, Ty Black and I developed some leather pockets for the inside of tool chests that would hold important stuff. One held a block plane. The other held pencils, pens, knives, 6” rule and other skinny things that could get lost in a tool chest.
We never intended to make them for sale, but after more than a decade of using them in our shop, I realized that other woodworkers would find them as useful as we do.
We enlisted our clothing designer, Tom Bonamici, to create canvas versions. And we had Sew Valley (here in Cincinnati) stitch them for us. They are made of the same great canvas we use for our waist apron and tool roll. (So you can be all matchy-matchy.)
We have just received our first shipment, and they are available in our store. They are sold individually, or as a set with a modest discount.
The following is excerpted from “The Essential Woodworker,” by Robert Wearing. In our opinion, “The Essential Woodworker” is one of the best books on hand-tool usage written in the post-Charles Hayward era. Wearing was classically trained in England as a woodworker and embraced both power and hand tools in his shop and in his teaching. The book is filled with more than 500 hand-drawn illustrations by Wearing that explain every operation in a hand-tool shop. His illustrations are properly drafted, drawn in perspective and masterfully clear.
Wood is porous and, depending on the atmosphere, will absorb or give out moisture causing it to expand or contract (Fig 215). This cannot be prevented, and allowance must be made for this movement in the construction of the table top. The amount of movement in length is negligible.
Fig 215b. Making shrinkage buttons. (Top) Traditional method using short-grain offcuts. (Bottom) Using long-grain offcuts.
If the top is screwed directly to the frame it will either split due to contraction or bow due to expansion. This is the most common cause of split table tops. The problem is overcome using shrinkage buttons to secure the top. The mortices for these were discussed on p. 76. Buttons on the long sides must have room to move in and out so their mortices need to be only slightly longer than the buttons. Buttons on the short sides or ends need room to move sideways in the mortices which must therefore be longer.
To make the shrinkage buttons there are two possible methods (Fig 215b). The traditional method is to use short grain offcuts. Produce to thickness and remove a rebate. Then saw off the button. Repeat the process as required.
Fig 216.
Using the more common long grain offcuts is the second method. Produce to width and thickness, bevel or round corners, saw out a rebate and then saw off the button.
Fig 217.
Having made the required number of buttons, lay the table top flat and cramp the frame onto it. Check that the overlap on all four sides is correct. Make an improvised depth gauge and carefully drill into the table top.
Fig 218. Metallic buttons that allow wood movement.
The thickness of the buttons should be such that, when withdrawn sharply from the mortice, they will snap down against the table top. In other words, the length X on the button must be very slightly less than the length Y on the rail in order to obtain the vice-like grip (Fig 219).
