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This is a picture that my wife told me to get or not come home! Nice to have that kind of support. I don’t know how the kids would feel about her statement since my youngest is the only one that has ever said “no mommy, don’t kick daddy out!” Why tempt fate? So I made sure I got the photo.

This picture is of the second night at the Woodworking in America conference. I was un-stressing from the day. My first assignment was to introduce Mr. Michael Dunbar. Yes, that Mr. Dunbar. A person of legend whom I have never met. I hope I didn’t mess it up. On Sunday, I was slotted to introduce Mr. Frank Klausz another legend I have never met. After hearing him answer a question with “because that is stupid!” I was glad I called him “Mr.” Klausz.

One of the great benefits of being Chris’s apprentice is being able to help out and go to these events. WIA was spot-on fantastic. It was hard to pick which seminar to go to. On day two, I was privileged to introduce Brian Boggs. Wow! I had no idea of how much there is know about wood. I sat in awe as he explained things about wood that I had never heard before. Hearing the meticulous way he monitors wood moisture and applies hide glue twice, it is no wonder his chairs don’t come apart. In fact one of the people asked him about joint failure on his chairs, to wit he said with sincere humility, I don’t know because I have never had a chair come back.

I got to hear about 18th century chisels from Adam Cherubini and watch him use his four-foot plus bowsaw. He had to look behind him before sawing so he didn’t take someone out. I watched an attendee from Idaho round the corner and spy Adam. Her mouth opened and her camera came out. I bet that picture was a keeper.

Last but not least is my new international drinking partner, Phil from Phillyplanes in the UK, which reminds me of the only downside to the event. The 8 a.m. starting time.…

— John Hoffman

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

John is at it again. We just finished a brutal month of traveling and teaching and John has got back in the shop!

There is a certain order or Karma to life, and when you violate this flow events let you know.Like the time I saw this woman and said “when are you due” to wit she said, “I am not pregnant!” Now the natural order would have flowed thus, a woman appears pregnant, you keep your mouth shut until she admits being pregnant, at which time you hesitantly congratulate her.

Anyway, I am hard at the Trestle Table and got the top supports fitted to the leg via a bridle joint.When all looked great and fit perfectly I took the assembly apart and put the final touches to it with the jointer and smoother plane. Can you guess what I wound up with? Yep, my final touches with the jointer and smoother caused the perfect fit to become a 1/16^th gap! I went out of order. I should have made the leg complete then laid out the bridle joint. Oh well, out of the Karma flow and back to plan B.

I learn through mistakes.I could be in the minority here but when I mess something up, I remember why and am less likely to repeat it.Like cutting on the wrong side of a line or jamming a perfectly sharp Barr chisel into my hand and cutting a tendon.Chris and I have been on the road a lot last month and I have not been in the shop much. The project shows my “learning” and I hope someday to make something without learning anything.

To fix the problem I re-sawed a ¼ inch piece of wood and glued it to the full length of one side of the leg. After the glue up was dry, I snuck up on the fit. It now looks like this.

Can you guess which side has the wood glued to it? If you can, I will say that there is another learning experience in here. If you see a small glue line it is a result of that part of the piece not being clamped down to the leg. It could be that the piece was not flat or maybe the clamp is a bit off.Nonetheless, next time I will ensure the “show” side has a seamless glue joint, and yes I am already fixing that nice nick off the bottom edge. Fortunately this will be painted!

-John

This is another entry from John who is referring to his previous post Titled “First Class Practice”

As you recall I am making the base of the Trestle Table and am in the process of making notches in two members so when they are glued together I will have a mortise. After sawing into the waste a number of times, I removed it by hitting it with a hammer. A good Maydole hammer no doubt, but any hammer will do. Here is what the joint looked like. Not only doesn’t this look nice but I don’t think I am going to get a good glue joint.

So I took out my Stanley vintage router plane and went to work. Here is the result!

See how much tearout there is on the near-right side? And this was one of the best examples. I was planing directly across the grain and boy did I make a mess. I learned that I could avoid this by canting the plane and paying close attention to the wood that made contact with the iron. It was kind of like saddling an Elm chair seat with an Inshave. If I continued to make angle adjustments I could get a good result. I also used the two top sides of the work as a reference for the sole of the router plane.

I had to adjust the depth a bit deeper than intended but this is the final result. You can still see where big area of tearout was, but this will make a good glue joint.

For explanation purposes here is how I used the sole of the router plane on the work.

John