Lost Art Press

Here are pics of the completed Plane cabinet. I haven’t forgot the issue that was raised in the comments section related to “ramping” the mortis I will get back to that when I have something intelligent to say. Here are some “learning points” I got from finishing this project.

I had a problem installing the molding around the lid. The problem started when I discovered that the lid was a hair too narrow in width, meaning the molding would not go over the box. As with most of my mistakes I have no idea how this happened. No problem, I figured I would plane a shallow rabbet into the area of the molding that went over the box. This worked. Great, on my way to my next mistake.

When making the molding for the lid of the plane cabinet, I thought it would look cool to angle the outside edge of the molding. Not a big deal, just run a plane on half of the molding along it’s length. The result, the molding is thick where it is nailed to the lid and tapered where it covers the box. Being very proud of my use of my planes I cut the mitres for the corners and put my new shooting board to work.

That’s when my next mistake appeared. When trying to plane the mitre I could not get a perfect 45 degree joint. I would run the plane on the mitre and it made a nice cut. I put the two pieces together which did not result in a tight joint. I continued to repeat this process getting the same result. As much as I tried to get a straight mitre, and as much as I checked and rechecked the trueness of the shooting board I could not get the damn thing right! Then I realized that I had created a compound mitre by tapering the molding before making the mitres. The molding sat on the shooting board at a non 45 degree angle causing the problem.I am sure there are a number ofpeople saying “no kidding” or some variation… I should have waited until the molding was attached to the box then used the plane to taper. Once again a time consuming mistake but lesson learned. And once again, it wasn’t the tools.

I got cast iron handles from Lee Valley that came with wood screws. I was concerned that the weight of the cabinet full of planes could be too much for the screws. I consulted Chris who said “since they are not my planes…Go for it!” I chose instead to use brass machine bolts with nuts and washers.

Oh, one last thing. The raised panel moved inside the lid frame. To solve this issue, I shot a brad into the center bottom area of the inside side of the lid, stopping this movement. I put a coat of oil onto the walnut then took 600 grit sandpaper and sanded a second coat of oil into the walnut. This leaves a touch-ably smooth surface. When the oil is completely dry I will add two coats of varnish.

-John

No matter how much (or little) money you have, if you are clever enough you can score an exquisite chisel for about $1.

I was reminded this week when I picked up some items on eBay and had to take a few extra unwanted items in the lot, including three plastic-handled chisels. Two of them were Craftsman chisels that were dead ringers for my grandfather’s 1970s-era tools.

The third was a Stanley 1-1/4”-wide 720 chisel with a translucent yellow handle and steel striking button on its end. Normally chisels like this wouldn’t warrant a second look in a flea market box. But if you take a close look at these 720s, you could end up with an excellent worker.

The trick is to know what’s important and what’s not. Here’s my short list of the key features:

1. The handle has to be comfortable for paring or chopping. The 720 passes this test with flying colors. Its vague Coke-bottle-shaped grip falls right into your fingers in both positions. In fact, when gripping it for chopping, the chisel is comfortable only when your index finger is out of the way of the striking button. The only disadvantage of the 720’s handle is that it gets a little slippery when your hands get sweaty.

2. The chisel has to be balanced when you grip the tip of the blade like a pencil (this is the grip for holding the tool for positioning it for light chopping). The 720 is a tad top-heavy for this operation. It’s not unusable, but it’s not perfect.

3. The steel should be easy to sharpen and keep a decent edge. Chisels that are too hard take too long to hone. The 720s are good steel. I bought a couple of these early on in the craft and have also sharpened those belonging to students. They’re good steel.

4. The long edges should be narrow. Very narrow. This is where most mid-priced chisels fail. The narrow side-bevels allow you to sneak into the acute corners of the tail portion of dovetail joints. The 720s are generally very good about this. The one I just bough has side bevels smaller than 1/16”. Nice.

Oh, and there’s one more important characteristic: The chisel has to be fairly rust-free (especially on the unbeveled face side). This particular example is a miserable failure as it probably spent a few years in the bottom of a chum bucket. I cleaned the scaling off with a Klingspor Sandflex block and took a look. Craters everywhere.

Oh well, what do you want for $1?

— Christopher Schwarz

John is working on completing the Trestle Table

I used my tax stimulus money to buy a flat screen TV. The problem is that I have to walk past the TV to get to the shop. So I was enjoying TV in all it flatness when I saw the end of the table sticking out of the shop. It seemed to beckon me as it lay there cupped and in need of work. But, I am a man, so I grabbed the remote and ignored it. Now I am back at it and dealing with the cup across the width of the table.

The trestle table top (say that three times fast!) is made from two book matched cherry boards. They finished out at 103 inches long and 13 inches wide. I added a middle board to the two book matched pieces to get a final width of 31 inches. This was going to be a kitchen table but with the length, it goes into the living room. I could have cut the top…only kidding, I would never cut boards like that. Would you?

The thickness of the top is just under ¾ inch so it flattens when forced without that nasty cracking noise that indicates you just learned another lesson. The cup, which you can see in the picture, is a ¼ inch. For the picture I clamped on side of the table flat so you can see the total cup that I needed to flatten.

Now the bread board ends create a cross grain situation and wood movement becomes an issue. I like wood movement! There I said it. I like feeling the non flush edges that arrive with the seasons. My friend has a table from the great Christian Becksvoort and he insisted on bread board ends. He can feel with his fingers that the top has moved. I like these oddities and have added divots and ridges under the arms of chairs for a person to finger when sitting. These subtle aspects humanize a piece.

First thing to do was to determine the size and layout of the tennons. Since we have a cross grain situation I am only going to glue the middle tennon,. I decided on three tennons because it gives me a middle. I think five tennons would work if the width would accommodate it.I also used a stub tennon on the entire width of the top. This stub is 3/8 inch in length. The thickness of all tennons is a ¼ inch. A rule of thumb in deciding the widths of the tennons is the have all of them equal ½ the total width of the table. For me, I made them 5 inches for a total tennon width of 15 inches. It is also important to have enough wood at the ends of the bread boards so I started the tennons ¾ inch in from the edge. I marked the mortis locations from the tennons.I increased the mortis for the end tennons by 1/8 inch on each side to allow for movement.

One thing about mortis and tennons that is finally sinking in is that they are related. What you do to one has an effect on the other. For example, my first idea was a tennon that looked like the tongue from the Rolling Stones symbol. From the tennons’ perspective I was right, but what about the mortis? Chris pointed out that the walls of the mortis are just as important as the tennon. If the walls are too thin, the tennon will crack them and that old sinking feeling arrives.At least this time I learned a lesson without cutting wood!

Regards John