This year I am returning to hand-cut mortise-and-tenon joinery for my new book “The American Peasant” (I have a whole substack going about the book). All the parts for the projects in this book are processed, joined and finished by hand (using split stock when possible).
Why? Because now I can.
When I left Popular Woodworking in 2011, Lost Art Press (LAP) was just me and John. The company didn’t provide much income, so I built furniture on commission for eight years (I now only build on spec). That meant I needed to use machines to process stock, and the joinery was a mixed bag. Lots of hand-cut dovetails. But also lots of Domino joinery (after I got rid of my hollow-chisel mortiser).
Today Megan Fitzpatrick is the editor here at LAP, and I have a little breathing room. I still need to sell furniture to make ends meet, but I’m going to fill any extra time with work I enjoy.
These handles have seen a lot of beatings and remain strong.
The Ray Iles, which I have written about many times, are perfect things. Their oval handles allow you to orient the tool properly and steer the cut. The shape of the blade allows you to scrape the walls of the mortise without getting stuck. They are tough mothers. (My only quibble is the steel. The D2 really needs diamond media to sharpen it right. Good thing we have a couple diamond stones.)
You don’t really need to buy a whole set of the mortisers (I know Joel, who sells them, disagrees – wink). I do about 90 percent of my work with the 1/4″ and 5/16″.
Anyway, these chisels still have my highest recommendation. I’ve used a lot of other mortising chisels, and they pale in comparison to the Ray Iles.
What I like about the Blue Spruce mallet in particular is the resin-infused head. The resin makes it nearly indestructible. I also love its leather-covered face, which helps prevent dents in nearly finished work. I’ve had this mallet for at least 12 years and use it every day. In fact, today I decided to be nice to it, and I scraped 12 years of glue and grime off the handle.
And let me repeat myself once more: I paid full retail for all these tools. No one asked me to write this review. If they did ask, I would probably tell them to “get bent” and refuse to write anything. (That’s the kind of weirdo I am.)
In celebration of Black History Month, Whitney Miller is sharing interesting facts she learned while researching, writing and illustrating “Henry Boyd’s Freedom Bed” throughout the month on Instagram, @whitneyontv.
Several years ago, Lost Art Press hired Suzanne Ellison to spend several months looking through public archives for anything she could find related to Boyd’s life. She uncovered a fascinating life story, dispelled myths and uncovered some important truths. Suzanne’s work is always nothing short of impressive. As Suzanne wrote in this post:
Using historical documents and contemporaneous accounts we can reconstruct much of what Boyd did in his life and we can extrapolate ideas that were important to him. He was, however, always living in two worlds. At his birth, his white father owned him and his mother was enslaved; he received an education likely denied to others. He could start a successful business, prosper and be well-regarded, but his public life was proscribed by state Black Laws and threats of violence. He had a law-abiding public life countered by a dangerous hidden life of illegal acts to help escaped slaves. We can try to imagine how he felt to truly be a citizen and cast his first vote, but we can’t even get close. About his suffering while enslaved, or once he was free, we will never know.
We’ve shared Suzanne’s research with local museums, and it was the foundation upon which the Cincinnati History Museum created its installation on Boyd. This research also served as the foundation for Whitney’s wonderful picture book, “Henry Boyd’s Freedom Bed.”
If you don’t already follow Whitney on Instagram, you should. Her account is one of our favorites to follow. Check it out all month long as she shares facts about Boyd both in the book and not. These clips, suitable for all ages, serve as a great way for children to learn more about Boyd’s life too.
With the Star-M bits and many other similar bits in short supply (in the chairmaking sizes), I had to switch back to spade bits for all my chairmaking activities.
This is not a horrible thing. In many ways I prefer the spade bits. They’re cheaper, they are easier for beginners to steer (because there are no side flutes that cut) and they are more readily available.
I’m still not a fan of the new Irwin Speedbor spades. They removed the bit’s rim cutters so now they cut slowly. Too slowly in hardwoods. Why is slow-cutting bad? They cut so slowly that they heat up and soften in no time. You can cook a bit in just a couple holes in oak.
So I’ve been looking for alternatives to recommend. The WoodOwl spades are good, as I’ve mentioned before. But they are sometimes in short supply. So I’ve been buying a lot of bits from various suppliers and testing them. Most are quite poor. They cut slowly and lose their edge quickly.
I am happy to report that the spade bits from Benchmark Abrasives are very good. The 5/8″ spade is made in the USA (I don’t know who makes it). It cuts as fast as the old Irwins and seem to hold a good edge. And the price is right: $2.59 per.
Please don’t be a Greedy Gus and order 20 or 30 bits. I get about four or five chairs out of a spade bit (when it’s treated properly).
The following is excerpted from “Volume II: The Woodworker: The Charles H. Hayward Years: Techniques.” As editor of The Woodworker magazine from 1939 to 1967, Hayward oversaw the transformation of the craft from one that was almost entirely hand-tool based to a time where machines were common, inexpensive and had displaced the handplanes, chisels and backsaws of Hayward’s training and youth.
This massive project – five volumes in all – seeks to reprint a small part of the information Hayward published in The Woodworker during his time as editor in chief. This is information that hasn’t been seen or read in decades. No matter where you are in the craft, from a complete novice to a professional, you will find information here you cannot get anywhere else.
– Fitz
A kerf is a cut made by a saw, and a number of kerfs cut in a piece of wood will enable it to be bent to shape without steaming. This process is known as kerfing and can usefully be employed in all types of construction.
The principle of kerfing is simple. A number of slots cut part way through a section of wood, as in Fig. 1, reduces the resistance of the whole to bending. When a solid beam is bent the inner fibres are subjected to compression and the outer fibres to tension (Fig. 2). In the case of a solid beam this limits the amount of deflection possible without failure of the section, unless the fibre stresses are relieved, such as by steaming. In the case of a kerfed beam, however, these stresses are diminished and the beam will deflect fairly readily until the individual kerfs are closed up as in Fig. 3. Obviously the extent of the bending possible will depend on both the depth and spacing of the kerfs, and also on the material itself, which is still subjected to compressive and tensile stresses, although to a lesser degree.
Kerf Width and Spacing. Broadly speaking, kerf spacing and the width of individual kerfs is more important than the depth of the kerfs. The greater the depth the more readily will the material bend, up to the limit where the kerfs close. At the same time, however, excessive depth of kerfing will weaken the completed work.
Taking a semi-circular bend as typical (Fig. 6) there are three possible arrangements. (A) employs a large number of closely spaced kerfs of fine width. These close up completely with the bend and provide a smooth finish on both sides of the bend. (B) also employs a large number of closely spaced kerfs, but of slightly greater thickness. Bending is somewhat easier and there is less risk of the wood splitting, but the kerfs do not close completely and, if the inside of the bend is to be visible, the surface will require facing. Both of these methods, it will be noted, employ deep kerfs and thus the over-all strength is not high. (A) is stronger than (B).
(C) shows even wider kerfs spaced farther apart. This is a more difficult bend to make, but has the advantage of greater strength. The outside curve, however, will not be smooth and will require sanding down. Partly to allow for this the depth of the kerfs is reduced.
In both (A) and (C) where the kerfs are closed on completing the bend there is an additional advantage in that glue may be run into the cuts before bending. When this has set the curved form will be capable of holding its own shape.
In considering the design of a part to be kerf-bent, the three main factors are the radius of the bend, the actual widths of the kerfs and the spacing of the cuts. The depth of the cuts can be considered as an independent variable which can be adjusted to give the degree of flexibility required. Normally a minimum value of at least three-quarters of the thickness of the material is chosen, provided the thickness of uncut wood is not reduced below 1∕16 in. minimum (Fig. 4). Kerfing, therefore, is only logically applicable to wood thicknesses of from 1∕4 in. upwards. Best thickness for good results appears to range between 5∕8 and 1 in.
A simple test bend on a spare length of material can be used to determine kerf spacing. Make a single saw-cut in the wood and from this mark off the radius of bend required. Lift the material up as shown in Fig. 5 and measure the amount of deflection that can be achieved before the kerf closes or the wood shows signs of fracture near the kerf. This distance will give you the spacing required for the kerfs for that particular radius of bend in that material.
Limits of Bend. It is important to note which limits the amount of bend—the kerf closing or the wood splitting. If the latter, another test bend should be made with a deeper kerf to give greater flexibility. If the former, it is possible that a wider kerf can be used and greater deflection obtained, so that the kerfs may be spaced out more widely. This will depend to a large extent on which of the three original types of bends is required (Fig. 6). If the kerfs are not too close on the final work then this fact must be allowed for on the test bend, when naturally the required spacing will be closer.
Tables can, and have, been prepared giving data on kerf widths and spacings for different radii of bends, but these as a general rule have their limitations. Each thickness of wood demands a separate table and practical variations may also be introduced by the mechanical properties of the wood itself. Hence the test bend method is generally preferable.
Uniformity. In cutting the kerfs, great care is necessary to ensure uniformity. Width is controlled by the thickness of the saw blade, or rather, its set, but correct and uniform depth is of considerable importance. Any individual kerf which is either too deep or too shallow will result in corresponding weakness or excessive resistance to bending at that point and deform the finished curve.
Kerfing by means of a handsaw, therefore, is an intricate business and must be carried out with extreme care and patience. With machine tools suitable stops can be arranged to ensure uniformity.
For equal curves, equal spacing is required, but where compound curves are attempted, such as a large radius curve rounding into a small radius curve (Fig. 7), spacing should become progressively closer. Ideally, of course, spacing should be directly related to the curve radius, as with the test bend. It is usually sufficient, however, to design for the smallest radius bend and open out the kerf spacing uniformly on either side of this bend. Alternatively, the problem can be dealt with more scientifically by reducing the whole bend to a series of adjoining circular arcs and determining the appropriate spacing for each radius. There is yet another method where the same spacing is retained throughout, but on the shallower curve the depth of the kerfs is reduced.
Normally once the kerfs have been cut the curve can be bent “dry,” In the case of acute curves, however, bending should be tackled in stages, bending first to say twice the required radius and clamping the work in that position for an hour or so. It also helps to sponge the wood down with warm water to prevent splitting.
There is also another form of lengthwise kerfing which is sometimes used where the kerfs are cut endwise in the wood (Fig. 8). The sawcuts are filled with veneer or similar material, the whole steamed or soaked in hot water and bent around a suitable former and clamped in position until dry. It can then be unclamped, the slots and veneer glued up and re-clamped.
A chair made by Jennie Alexander, author of “Make a Chair from a Tree.”
We’re proud to offer two resources for making Jennie Alexander-style chairs: The third edition of “Make a Chair from a Tree” and the how-to video Jennie recorded in 1999. We’re also fans of a new video from one of Jennie’s long-time collaborators and friend, Peter Follansbee.
MACFAT: The Book In 2014, Jennie Alexander somewhat reluctantly agreed to a third edition of her 1978 seminal book on green woodworking, “Make a Chair From a Tree” (MACFAT) – a book that launched the careers of thousands of woodworkers and helped ignite a green woodworking movement in this country.
Her reluctance wasn’t due to a lack of passion for the book’s subject – the simple but gorgeous object that we now call a Jennie Chair had been an obsession of hers for decades. She simply didn’t know if she was physically and mentally up to the task of essentially starting from scratch on a new book – she had learned so much since the first two editions were published that this is an almost entirely new book.
Thus, “Make a Chair From a Tree: Third Edition” is the culmination of a lifetime’s work on post-and-rung chairs, covering in detail every step of the green-wood chairmaking process – from splitting and riving parts to making graceful cuts with a drawknife and spokeshave, to brace-and-bit boring for the solid joinery, to hickory-bark seat weaving.
With the help of Larry Barrett, one of her devoted students, she worked on this new version of the book until just weeks before her 2018 death. Larry polished Jennie’s final manuscript, then built a chair in Jennie’s shop using her techniques and tools as we took many of the photographs for this book. Nathaniel Krause (another of Jennie’s devoted students), wove the hickory seat for this book. Longtime friend and collaborator Peter Follansbee helped to edit the text into the intensely technical (but easy to understand) and personal (but not maudlin) words that ended up in this third edition.
We know Jennie would be delighted by the contributions from the people she taught and who, in turn, inspired her. (Though we also suspect she’d say we should just start rewriting the book at the beginning…. again.)
MACFAT: The Video The 1999 video “Make a Chair from a Tree” is based on Jennie’s book and the courses that she taught. Jennie taught post-and-rung chairmaking for 25 years at her shop in Baltimore and around the country. During that time she refined and simplified the process, and those improvements are incorporated into this video. The construction of the chair incorporates wet and dry mortise-and-tenon joinery and interlocking joints that result in an elegant but simple chair that will last for years.
This two-hour video, produced by Jennie, Anatol Polillo and ALP Productions, takes the viewer through the entire chairmaking process, beginning with a log, then riving and shaving the posts, rungs and slats. You will see all of the techniques and methods needed to create a chair, including steam bending, horizontal boring and seat weaving. The entire chair is built using only hand tools and traditional techniques.
It also comes with a pdf (delivered at checkout) that shows many of the jigs and part sizes discussed. Lost Art Press offer the video via streaming; a DVD is available through ALP Productions.
‘Making a Jennie Alexander Chair with Peter Follansbee’ Video In his new video, “Making a Jennie Alexander Chair with Peter Follansbee,” Peter takes a deep dive into all the details of making a Jennie Chair, and shares some of his personal history with Jennie. Peter has been making and teaching these chairs for decades, and has developed his own approaches and touches to the form Jennie popularized, including some improved techniques. Plus he shows how both how to harvest and process hickory bark, and how to use it to weave the seat. It’s almost nine hours of detailed video instruction.
