When I first started harvesting green wood for my workshop, I was worried about bringing wood-boring insects into my workshop. It would be like letting loose 1,000 raccoons into a Golden Corral restaurant.
So I got some advice from fellow woodworkers. All of the advice involved pesticides. And some of it sounded reckless. (Put the wood in a garbage bag with an aerosol bug bomb. Be sure to tie up the bag really quick!)
Years ago, I found this short article by Michael F. Potter, an extension entomologist at the University of Kentucky College of Agriculture, and it was exactly what I wanted. Potter recommends eliminating insects from the wood using your fridge or your oven.
I’ve been using his freezing method for several years, and it has worked brilliantly.
In short: Put the wood in your freezer and set it for -4° F. Let the wood stay there for seven days. Remove it. Done.
Potter recommends using a plastic bag to protect the wood, but he’s mostly concerned about finished household items. I haven’t found it necessary when freezing raw wood.
The article also discusses how to kill bugs with your oven and gentle heat. I haven’t tried this method yet. I want to experiment first with some test pieces that are green because the method might rapidly dry out the stock and check the ends. (Potter does recommend adding a pan of water to the oven to keep the humidity high. I am interested in this technique; I just haven’t had time to give it a go.)
Another bonus with the freezing method: If you keep the green wood in the freezer it won’t dry out and will stay green as long as it’s frozen.
All this is just another excuse to add a beer fridge insect deinfestation device to your workshop.
Cutting patterns and symbols in wood, and enhancing them with vibrant color, are folk traditions kept alive in the slöjd craft. Through decorations imbued with meaning, chip carving has given soul to slöjd woodcraft throughout history. Even today, chip carving offers a natural complement to an artfully crafted spoon, cutting board or shrink box – and it provides the opportunity to develop your own creativity and meaningful patterns.
This book teaches you techniques for cutting triangle chips, fingernail cuts, lines and letters — plus you’ll learn what kind of wood, knives and tools you need to get started, and techniques for painting your finished work. You’ll find 15 projects, from simple decorations on knife handles and signs to more demanding objects such as boxes and combs.
A good way to practice cutting patterns is to make a bunch of key fobs. The main purpose of a key fob is to indicate which lock the key is for. It should also be handy enough to fit in your pocket, but large enough to prevent the key from being lost. Some hotel key fobs are large and heavy so that the traveler won’t forget it in their pocket. The color and shape should be distinct, so that you don’t have to read the carved text every time you are looking for a key.
Material: Straight-grained birch, alder, willow or aspen. Metal wire or a small staple.
The blank should be 20-25cm (~8″) long. This makes it easier to quickly carve it smooth with a knife or in a shaving horse.
Choose the width and final length of your key fob. A standard size to start from is 6 x 30 x 80mm (1/4″ x 1-1/4″ x 3-1/8″).
METHOD From straight-grained, knot-free material, split out a blank and thin it down to a thickness of about 5-6mm (~1/4″). Carve it smooth with a drawknife or a long sheath knife on both sides.
Start by making a few sketches that you are happy with. Keep in mind that the letters should not be too small, otherwise they will be difficult to cut. Between 12 and 15mm (1/2″-9/16″ )is a good place to start.
There are different ways to attach the key. You can drill a 4mm (3/16″) hole for a string or strap, or you can insert a 19mm (3/4″) long staple into two 1.5mm (~1/16″) holes drilled into the end-grain wood.
Draw the outer contours onto the blank and saw it out a little roughly. Carve the sides and chamfer all the edges. Cut any concave surfaces with a gouge, such as grooves and shallow relief carvings.
Draw the text and any decorations as carefully as you can. Strop your chip carving knife, find good lighting and start cutting your pattern using the chip carving techniques.
When you are happy with the pattern, you can paint your key ring; see the chapter on painting.
Editor’s note: Our Mind Upon Mind series is a nod to a 1937 Chips from the Chisel column (also featured in “Honest Labour: The Charles H. Hayward Years”), in which Hayward wrote, “The influence of mind upon mind is extraordinary.” The idea being there’s often room for improvement.To that end, we’ve asked you what else you have thought of, tried out and improved upon after building projects from our books.
Send us your own ideas! Email [email protected]. You can read more about the submission process here.
Today’s pick is courtesy of Adam Chevalier. Thanks, Adam!
— Kara Gebhart Uhl
I believe Chris has moved from his planing cradle to his carver’s vise for holding legs and sticks [while planing them] because it can be tricky to keep the work from sliding around in a planing cradle.
I tried this, but it raised the work too high for me to keep good pressure on my plane. Instead, I fastened the planing cradle to the bench as if it was a wide board with a stop and doe’s foot.
To keep the work from sliding, I just put some painter’s tape on the inside of the cradle and attached a block with CA (cyanoacrylate) glue to keep the work stationary.
There is little as an editor I dislike more than cutlists; I wish we could do away with them. No matter how many times and how many people check them, there are always cutlist errors. I always feel like a crap editor when readers point them out … as I should. (I offered to throw myself upon my mortise chisel this morning in shame, but thankfully, Chris dissuaded me.)
On the Pipe Box, which begins on page 63, we left out the shelf /divider between the top of the box and the drawer at the bottom. It is 3/8″ thick (though 1/4″ thick would work, too), 2-1/4″ wide and 3-1/4″ long. It is shown in the drawing though; hopefully, the cutlist omission won’t throw anyone off. (You do know to never blindly rely on cutlists…right?)
And on the Cat-ear Box, which begins on page 83, I added a x … for EXTREME CAT EARS, I guess. (I’d like to blame my cat Toby, who loves stepping on the keyboard while I’m working … but I did not work on this book at home, so I must take full and sole responsibility.)
The following is excerpted from “Doormaking & Window-Making,” and refers to frames for exterior doors. (The book instructs that interior “doors are usually hung in “jamb linings,” instead of door frames, these being fixed in the walls after the house is built.”)
A handbook on doors would hardly be complete without some reference to door frames, and in this chapter we propose to give a short description of the various kinds of frames in general use, and to show how to set out and make them.
Fig. 102 is the elevation of an ordinary frame, consisting of two posts or jambs, sill and head: a rebate is formed in the posts and head; to correspond with the thickness of the door, and the other edge is usually chamfered or beaded in some way, as shown in Figs. 103 to 105. The standard size for the scantlings used for door frames is 4-1/2 ins. by 3 ins., although in special cases these are varied as circumstances demand. The rebate should always be made so that the widest way of the stuff takes the thrust of the door, as shown in the above-mentioned drawings. Fig. 106 shows the rebate made the opposite way, as usual in some parts of the country, but this is a very faulty style, the posts yielding every time the door is slammed.
In facing up the timber, the face (or rebate) edge, should be the outside of the tree as it was grown : this can be ascertained by the grain at the end, the correct form being as in Fig. 107, incorrect as Fig. 108. Attention to this apparently unimportant matter makes all the difference to the springing of the posts, as, if formed as in Fig. 107, the wall keeps them straight and the door will not require easing; whereas if made as Fig. 108, the posts will spring into the doorway, and the door will require frequent easing to make it work freely.
Fig. 109 shows the setting out of the posts : at the sill end the two shoulders are straight across as on the right; but at the head the shoulders at the face side must be 1/2 in. longer, to fit up into the rebate, as at A, this shoulder being made to the height of the door. The above setting out applies to the section of frame as Fig. 103, where the chamfers are made on the posts only, and the head left square, as in Fig. no, or to any other section where the ornamentation is on the posts only. If the section as Fig. 104 is used, the bead is usually taken round the head, as in Fig. 111, and then both shoulders will be of an equal length, the bead being mitred at the intersection.
This also applies to Fig. 105, where an extra length must be allowed beyond the height of the door, to allow for the bead on the edge of the rebate; both this and the large chamfer running round the head, as in Fig. 112. This latter should not be mitred at the angles, but the posts should be scribed to fit the head, as in section Fig. 113. Should it be preferred to stop the chamfers, as Fig. 114, the first setting out will be the correct one.
The setting out of the head and sill is shown in Fig. 115. The mortise lines are not affected in any way by the section of the frame, provided that the tenons are kept to the square portion, the rebate coming to one side, as in the section (dotted lines), Figs. 103 to 105. Sufficient length must be left on the head and sill to allow them to project at least 1-1/2 ins. beyond the jambs, when the frame is together, and slot mortises should always be used. The projecting horns of the head and sill are cut as Fig. 116, A or B, according to the thickness of the wall they stand in, and also according to the position they occupy in the wall ; the bricks, being cut to fit the horns, hold the frame tightly.
Fig. 117 shows the upper end of a door jamb after the tenon is cut, section as Fig. 103. In some parts of the country the sills of outside door frames – that is , the frames which are fixed in the outer walls of house or building of any kind-are made wider than the jambs, and are bevelled, as Fig. 118, the bevel starting at the rebate line. This is a very good idea, the wet having a better chance of getting away; but in these days of cheapness it is too often considered that the extra work of bevelling the sill and cutting the shoulders to fit takes too long; it is, however, the proper thing to do.
