Many readers of “The Joiner and Cabinet Maker” are naughty and skip the first project in the book: building a packing box.
The packing box is a fantastic little project because it teaches you some things about handwork that are infrequently discussed, including how to make a square box without shooting the ends of every board before assembly. Oh, and clinching nails.
It is an introduction to mindset of handwork.
So as punishment for not building the packing box, I am uploading an entire chapter from “The Practical Woodworker, Vol. 1” (Waverly Book Co.) on building boxes and packing crates. It’s interesting reading and discusses the many methods for building things with simple nail joinery that have to withstand rough use. I recommend you look it over before you start making those secret mitered dovetails you’ve been considering.
By the by, “The Practical Woodworker” is a four-volume set of English woodworking books edited by Bernard E. Jones and written by a panel of experts in the field of woodwork. If you ever stumble on some copies for sale, I recommend them over the poorly scanned and printed version from 10 Speed Press, which edited down the four volumes into something less than magnificent.
Download the pdf here and get nailing. Don’t make me sic Megan on you.
I’ll be driving up to Chicago on Thursday to participate in the Lie-Nielsen Hand Tool Event at Jeff Miller’s shop April 20-21. This is one of my favorite shows because of the city itself and the people who exhibit and attend.
This year we will be bringing one of Peter Follansbee’s joint stools – it’s actually the one shown on the cover of “Make a Joint Stool from a Tree.” We will also be bringing copies of the book. Once you see the stool in person we think you’ll want to make one. Trees beware.
I’ll also be traveling with the traveling version of “The Anarchist’s Tool Chest.” It’s small but packs everything you need.
As always, the Chicago venue gets some top-shelf talent in addition to the Lie-Nielsen folks. The Abraham boys from Benchcrafted will be there. I have heard that they will be bringing a device that will change the world of leg vises. I cannot say more without Father John giving me a withering look. But let me say this: The show will be worth the drive just to see what they are bringing.
In other tempting news, Raney Nelson from Daed Toolworks will be exhibiting his fantastic miter planes (bought one) and smoothers (bought one). Raney does excellent, excellent work and you can play with his tools all day if you like.
Also coming: Kevin Drake, the maker of the Tite-Mark – hands down the best cutting gauge ever made in the history of human civilization. I own three. I wish I had 10. Plus the nice folks from Elkhead Tools, who make some bad-a$$ screwdrivers.
Oh, and don’t forget the host: Jeff Miller, one of my favorite contemporary furniture makers and an all-around nice guy. Goad him into talking about his new book project – there’s never been a book published like it (I wish we were the publishers….).
I’m also told that Megan Fitzpatrick from Popular Woodworking Magazine will be there to chat up the magazine and hassle me. And Andy Brownell will represent Gorilla Glue. Right?
As always, the show is free and open to the public.
One of the first curiosities encountered in Andre Roubo’s discussion of the finishing component of fine furniture making is this weird whisk broom in Plate 296, Figures 8 & 9. On one hand it makes sense: The finishing room and the workpiece must be kept clean and tidy for work to proceed skillfully and flawlessly. But you have to admit that is a weird looking whisk broom.
Of course it isn’t a whisk broom.
It is instead a tool that was completely unknown to me at the start of this project: a corn straw burnisher. Roubo offers fewer than 100 words describing the tool and its use. Yet that tool has fundamentally changed the way I work. As the last tool to touch the surface prior to the application of finish, or in some instances the tool that actually applies the finish, vigorously scouring the surface with it imparts a radiance to the substrate that cannot be adequately described, it must be experienced.
At the opening of the “finishing” section of the chapter I inserted the following commentary.
In the English language craft lexicon, the word “polish” can mean three distinct processes. First is the smoothing of the surface with scrapers and abrasives. In the time of Roubo, these abrasives would include sandpaper and shagreen (sharkskin or ray skin) pumice, or vegetable reeds and fibers. The second usage of the word “polish” involves the application of a resinous varnish or some other film forming “finish” applied to the prepared surface. Finally comes the application of a maintenance coating such as wax furniture polish or something similar whose purpose is to impart a degree of high gloss, usually temporary. In addition Roubo uses the word “polisher” to mean a variety of tools, including abrasives, burnishers, and applicators. Since Roubo is not explicit in his syntax, I will attempt to distinguish amongst these many concepts in the edited translation and make the distinction readily apparent to the reader.
This obscure, rude little tool fits all three descriptions, and it has made me a better finisher. I have found it so valuable that I have made several (the process is described in detail in “To Make As Perfectly As Possible – Roubo on Marquetry”), and have recently found a craft broom-maker with whom I am working to make as many as I or anyone else wants.
Whenever I show it to a fellow craftsman and demonstrate, as I did during one of the Dinners With Roubo at WIA, light bulbs go off. My students have shown me the results of their work using it. Unanimously they declare it was a missing link, a tool to bring their finishing to perfection.
We have ordered the second printing of “The Joiner and Cabinet Maker” to replenish our depleted supplies of this book. So if you are one of those people who really likes first editions of books, I recommend you act soon.
You can buy it from us here and it will be signed by me. Or you can order it from Tools for Working Wood and it will be autographed by Joel Moskowitz, my co-author. Either way, we are down to about 100 copies of this book.
The second printing will have a few minor typos corrected – nothing even worth issuing an errata sheet for. The cover will be the same color. The paper will be the same.
While that sounds quite boring, we have some exciting news about this book.
First, we will be offering it in Kindle and ePub versions in the next few weeks. The price for either will be $17, and it will be DRM-free – so you’ll be able to enjoy it on all your readers without any pesky security hassles. Stay tuned here for the release announcement on this electronic edition for Kindle, iPads and other readers.
And next month we are recording an audiobook version of the original text, with voices, sound effects and the like. It will be available as an mp3 for your iPod or iPhone, or a CD for your car. Sorry, we will not be issuing it on cassette or 8-track.
Finally, if you are curious about this book, check out Rob Campbell’s great blog. He has been basically living the “Joiner and Cabinet Maker” lifestyle for some time now, building the projects using the traditional techniques. It is both awesome and inspiring to see someone who has actually built more copies of the Schoolbox than I have.
I have written periodically about the effect this project is having on me as a person and craftsman. I am finding that even in the areas where my knowledge is less shallow than others, Andre Roubo’s observations and instructions are bringing new insights to my work.
Take, for example, the working of a surface in preparation for the application of the presentation coating, whether varnish or paint. Being a child of the 20th century experience-wise (but of the 17th and 18th centuries philosophy-wise) I was often at odds with a finishing trade replete with sandpaper and power tools, spray guns and catalyzed this or two-part that, where polyurinate was the standard for many finishing enterprises. No wonder so many woodworkers look at finishing as not only a Lost Art, but a Dark Lost Art!
I recall my first encounter with “serious” woodworking in the flesh at an Ian Kirby workshop around 1978 or so. As we introduced ourselves around the room – believe I was the only person under the age of 50 – I introduced myself as a finisher. It made sense because even though I engaged in a broad range of activities in the shop, finishing was where I felt most at home and where I flourished. Had I introduced myself as the head of a bat-head-eating cult I might have garnered less response. Every eye in the hall grew wide and mouths hung part way open, fearful trembling apparent at the thought of someone who actually enjoyed doing this most dreaded part of a project. It was almost as if the other students would have drawn back except the chairs were bolted to the floor.
Flash forward to my current review of the manuscript and building many of the tools and exercises in the book. In his description of Plate 296, discussing the topic “The Way to Finish Veneer Work, and Some Different Types of Polish,” the first thing Roubo does is pick up a plane. A toothing plane. Yes indeed, the finishing process begins long before the varnish pot is even in the picture. I expand the concept even further. Woodworkers, your attention to finishing a piece of furniture properly begins basically as soon as you conceive the project.
Yet the tools and materials of the finishing enterprise are fairly simple, according to Roubo.
The proper tools for finishing and polishing cabinetry in general, are the scrapers of all kinds with soft English steel blades files, the pumice stone, dog-fish skin [sharkskin, shagreen], horsetail rushes, polishers, simple and elaborate wood sticks for burnishing and applying polish, and rubbing cloths. Other ingredients are wax, lac, colophony, rotten stone, charcoal, olive oil and whiting.
Simple, huh? But sometimes the simplest things are the hardest to get right. But when we do, the results are simply spectacular. And that is my goal for you.
