Below are two handplaning techniques from Robert Wearing’s “The Solution at Hand.” Wearing was one of the foremost experts on woodworking appliances; he wrote extensively about them for Woodworker magazine and published a number of books on the topic. In 2019, we approached Wearing about collecting the best of the appliances for handwork into one new book, and he agreed.
The result is “The Solution at Hand: Jigs & Fixtures to Make Benchwork Easier,” a hardbound book of our favorite jigs from Wearing’s career. The book covers a wide swath of material, from building workbench appliances for planing, to making handscrews (and many other ingenious clamps), some simple tools that you cannot buy anywhere else, to marking devices that make complex tasks easier.
– Fitz
Thin strips of identical thickness, such as may be required for laminating, can be accurately produced by handplaning by means of a simple jig. This consists of a base-block, A, and two rebated side members, B. The space between the two rebates must just allow free movement of the chosen jack plane. A projects below B, to be held in the vice.
The sides are glued and pinned in place using an assembly block with a true face in the plane position and a piece of ply, card or suitable spacing material of the required thickness. The illustration makes this clear. When complete, an end stop, C, is fitted.
Modifications: For the making of stringings for inlaying or musical instrument making, grooves are ploughed or cut on the circular saw in the baseblock A. In this case there is no need for rebated sides. Very thin pieces will tend to buckle when planed against a stop. This is overcome by cutting away some of the baseblock and pinning on the workpiece below the level of the blade. In this case, of course, the components and the jig must be made extra long.
An adjustable model can be made by slotting and screwing on the sides. The adjustment is made using the same method as when gluing on the sides to the simple model. Solid wood keys for reinforcing mitre joints can be produced in this manner.
Handplaning Very Small Components
Very small components can best be planed by holding a plane upside down in the vice and pushing the workpiece over the blade. As this method gives every chance of shaving off the fingertips, a push stick is an advantage. Even better is this simple planing device. It consists of a hardwood base with a firmly secured handle. Guide pieces, thinner than the finished job, can be pinned or glued on so that they can be changed when the aid is used for another job.
In today’s look at a smallish section of the loosely organized Covington Mechanical Library (it becomes looser every time I look at a shelf and bemoan the mis-shelving), we’ll travel to the United Kingdom and a few of her former colonies, as well as France, Estonia (via the CIA), and Sweden. And yes, I took the picture below after rearranging a bit from the lead image – so now this shelf is at least slightly more organized. (Why such a small section? I have a class that starts Monday, I’m writing this on Saturday, and I’m not quite done with stock prep. I’ll cover the rest of this shelf in my next library post.)
England The first grouping is English furniture, starting (appropriately) with Edward T. Joy’s “English Furniture: 1800-1851” (Sotheby Parke Bernet, 1977), which includes the influence of Hepplewhite and Sheraton at the start of the period, the Regency period to the Great Exhibition/Victorian. That’s followed by our friend Charles H. Hayward’s “English Period Furniture Designs” (Arco, 1968). As far as I can tell, these are drawings he did for The Woodworker Magazine that were compiled by the publisher, and include measured drawings and select details for pieces ranging from the late 15th century through the Regency. In the back are one-page illustrations of various forms through the ages (chairs, chests, etc.). Next is Margaret Jourdain’s expanded edition of John C. Rogers’ “English Furniture” (Sterling, 1950). It’s divided into broad historical periods, and includes nice drawings select details and how they changed over time (drawers, cabriole legs), as well as a few tricky joints – stuff you can’t see from the outside.
From Rogers’ “English Furniture.”
David Knell’s “English Country Furniture: 1500-1900” second edition (Antique Collectors’ Club, 2000) will come as no surprise to those who know its owners love of all things vernacular – though Chris prefers Gilbert and Chinnery – both of whom are well represented in our collection…though not all on this shelf. Next is one of those favorites: Christopher Gilbert’s “English Vernacular Furniture: 1750-1900” (Yale UP, 1991), which Chris says is both excellent writing and research. Then it’s Mark P. McGrail’s “Furniture Brasses: A Short History of English Furniture Fittings (Armac Manufacturing, 1997). This one is published by a maker of hardware, so it of course shows their wares – but it’s also an invaluable education of what hardware is appropriate to the various periods in English furniture. Next up is an saddle-stitched exhibition catalog, “A Exhibition of Common Furniture” from the Stable Court Exhibition Galleries in Leeds, 1982. Our researcher extraordinaire Suzanne Ellison sent this one to Chris. It’s where he got the idea for his dearly departed dugout chair, and it has the story of his favorite “creepie” (see below).
The last book English Furniture book (in this grouping) is Christopher Gilbert’s “Selected Writings on Vernacular Furniture: 1966-98” (The Regional Furniture Society, 1991). The title alone should reveal its appeal.
Wales & Ireland I am quite sure we have more books on both Welsh and Irish Furniture; they must be upstairs on Chris’ bedside reading stack or elsewhere on these shelves. They’ll turn up on this blog series eventually. Here, however, we have one lone Welsh offering: Richard Bebb’s “Welsh Country Furniture,” (Shire, 1994). It’s a short treatment of forms and attribution. Then it’s across the Irish Sea with Nicholas Loughnan’s “Irish Country Furniture” (Easton & Son, 1984) and John Teahan’s “Irish Furniture & Woodcraft”(Town House and Country House, 1994). Both are slim volumes that offer but a glimpse of work from the Emerald Isle. David Shaw-Smith’s “Ireland’s Traditional Crafts” (Thames & Hundson, 1984) looks at handicraft beyond furniture, from willow and straw work to other woodwork (coopering, pipes) to textiles to stonework and more. Then we have the first edition of Claudia Kinmonth’s “Irish Country Furniture 1700-1950” (Yale UP 1993). You can read more about Kinmonth in Nancy Hiller’s profile of her.
Canada & New Zealand Howard Pain’s “The Heritage of Upper Canadian Furniture: A Study in the Survival of Formal and Vernacular Styles from Britain, America and Europe, 1780-1900” second edition (Key Porter, 1984). Publisher Steve Shanesy had this book at Popular Woodworking, and Chris always loved it. So he bought a copy. It’s an interesting look at furniture that hasn’t gotten a lot of coverage – pieces based on the traditional furniture of those who emigrated to Canada from all over the world, but produced in very different conditions. And there are a fair number of stick chairs. S. Northcote-Bade’s “Colonial Furniture in New Zealand” (Reed, 1971), a gift from a reader when Chris was working on “Campaign Furniture.” It shows some portable furniture, suitable for use on a ship and at home in the owner’s final destination.
From “Colonial Furniture in New Zealand.”
France, Estonia & Sweden. (Together Why?) For some reason, we’ve a single book on the crafts of France in this section (there are many more to come): “The Handicrafts of France: As Recorded in the Descriptions des Arts et Métiers 1761-1788,” (by Arthur Cole and George Watts, published by Augusts Kelley, 1952). That’s followed by Ants Viires’ revised edition of what we call “Woodworking in Estonia” – the one on which our translation is based. Alongside it is the 1969 translation into English, which has one of the craziest book stories I’ve read. Part 1 of said story is here; part 2 is here.
Last on today’s world tour is Hans Keijser, Lars Sjöberg and R. Willick’s “Making Swedish Country Furniture & Household Things” (Cloudburst Press, 1976). This was liberated from, er, a former employer, by…someone. This isn’t slöjd work; rather it’s the vernacular furniture than informs much of Chris’ work. In this book is the “Skansen Bench,” which was built as as “I Can Do That” project for Popular Woodworking, and has since been repurposed as a low workbench.
Bean and our low Swedish bench.
— Fitz
This is the ninth post in the Covington Mechanical Library tour. To see the earlier ones, click on “Categories” on the right rail, and drop down to “Mechanical Library.” Or click here.
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.
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.
