I hesitate to talk much about tools from other makers (Anarchist’s Gift Guide excepted). It doesn’t seem fair because of my work with Crucible. But occasionally I break my rule when I find something interesting or well done.
As always, my opinions are unsolicited. I pay full price for my tools. I have no relationship with either of these manufacturers.
Accu-Burr Burnisher
The Accu-Burr is one of those tools that makes you wonder why it has never been made before. It’s a carbide burnisher that turns two hooks on a card scraper in one motion.
The burnisher has three grooves for three different hooks – 5°, 10° and 15°. After stoning the edge (and face if you like) you place one of the three burnisher’s grooves on the edge of the card scraper. Plus a drop of oil to make life easier. Then you run the Accu-Burr over the edge with moderate downward pressure.
And then you are done – both corners of the card scraper are deformed with a nice hook.
It worked for me the very first time (I’ve been sharpening card scrapers almost daily for 26 years). But there are detailed instructions and a video to guide you.
The burnisher works on both straight and curved scrapers with ease. You can buy an Accu-Burr (patent pending) from Heartwood Tools. It’s quite clever and well-made in the USA.
Benchmark 6” Rule in Black
Months ago I discussed our efforts to make a black satin rule that had only 8ths and 16ths (no 32nds or 64ths). Well Benchmark beat us to it.
The company offers a 6” and 12” in black with white markings, which are nice for old eyes. And the price is excellent: $5.99 for the 6” rule and $7.99 for the 12”. Based on a close inspection, I suspect these rules are made in the same factory (or use the same manufacturing process) as the SPI black rules that I recommended last year. The Benchmark has the same bloom pattern on the rule’s finish.
I’ve been using the Benchmark 6” rule for a few weeks and like it. I wish it were made in the USA, but if it were, it sure wouldn’t be this price.
“The Belligerent Finisher” is a hands-on, no-secrets finishing book that details how John Porritt adds years of age and patina to a piece. John is a life-long furniture restorer and chairmaker in Upstate New York. In his book he shows the simple processes and common chemicals he uses to make beautiful, tactile surfaces.
In my 24 years of working with woodworking authors, I have never met anyone as generous as John is with finishing information. Most professional finishers and restorers keep their techniques to themselves.
We are thrilled to offer this book – our first title devoted to finishing.
The Stick Chair Journal No. 1 is a personal project. After 10 years of being out of the magazine business, I realized that I missed it. The Journal is the publication that I wished existed when I first became interested in chairmaking. It’s about techniques, tools and what we call “big thoughts” related to chairmaking. And there is a complete plan for a chair that you can build and even sell if you like.
Plus no ads. No “advertorials.” No sponsored “stories” masquerading as editorial.
Even the way we print the Journal is unlike any magazine I know of. Many magazines are bound by staples, called “saddle stitching”. Others are sheets of paper that are glued at the spine, called “perfect binding.” Both methods make an object that I consider temporary.
We print the Journal in signatures. Then sew and glue them together – just like our books.
The Journal is an annual publication – I’m already deep into working on issue No. 2.
Another difference: When you buy the printed Journal, you also get the pdf for free. Plus a download of the full-size patterns for the chair featured in that issue.
One last detail: We have printed 4,000 and will not reprint the issue. Once the printed copies are gone, they are gone for good. We are making this available to all our retailers worldwide. But it is up to them as to whether they carry it.
Diving back into the world of periodicals might be a financial mistake – but it makes me endlessly happy. So let’s see what happens.
Join author (and Lost Art Press copy editor) Kara Gebhart Uhl at noon on Sept. 10 at Blue Marble Books for a book reading, related activities for kids and book signing.
Kara will be discussing her book “Cadi & the Cursed Oak,” as well as “the importance of stories – your favorites, the ones that are passed down in your family, the ones you hope to write, the sad ones you don’t know what to do with, the silly ones you share all the time,” she says.
Blue Marble Books – a beloved Greater Cincinnati bookstore founded in 1979 – is located at 1356 S. Ft. Thomas Ave., Ft. Thomas, Kentucky 41075.
Chris and I will be there to celebrate with Kara – hope to see you there!
This six-stick comb-back chair continues my exploration of this form. It’s based on an antique Welsh chair in my collection and is made in American black walnut.
The chair is one of the four shown during the filming of our new video about how to build stick chairs, so you will see your chair a few times as it comes together in the background of the video.
I am selling this chair via a silent auction. Instructions on purchasing the chair can be found near the bottom of this blog entry. Here are some more details about its design and construction.
This particular chair is set up for general use. The back is fairly upright at 12° off the seat. And the seat tilts at 4°, giving the chair an overall tilt of 16°. The seat is 16-3/4” off the floor to accommodate both short and tall sitters, and the chair is 38-3/4” high overall.
All the straight components of this chair were sawn or split out to be as strong as possible. The arms are made from four pieces of black walnut. All of the chair’s major joints were assembled using hide glue, so repairs in the (far) future will be easy. The chair is finished with a non-toxic soft wax, a blend of beeswax and raw linseed oil that my daughter cooks up here in our shop. The wax is an ideal chair finish. It is not terribly durable, but it is easily renewed or repaired.
How to Purchase This Chair
This chair is being sold via a silent auction. If you wish to buy the chair, send an email to lapdrawing@lostartpress.com before 3 p.m. (Eastern) on Friday, Aug. 26. In the email please use the subject line “Chair Sale” and include your:
First name and last name
U.S. shipping address
Daytime phone number (this is for the trucking quote only)
Your bid
After all the emails have arrived on Aug. 26, we will pick a winner that evening.
If you are the “winner,” the chair can be picked up at our storefront for free. Or we can ship it to you via common carrier. The crate is included in the price of the chair. Shipping a chair usually costs about $250 to $300, depending on your location. (I’m sorry but the chair cannot be shipped outside the U.S.)
Figure 14.27. Normal wood, left, breaks across the grain with ragged tearing of the longitudinal fibres; this piece of oak was very difficult to break requiring great physical effort, clamps, benches and bearers to clamp against. At right, the brashy oak snapped like a “carrot” in my hands with little effort.
Jones has spent his entire life as a professional woodworker and has dedicated himself to researching the technical details of wood in great depth, this material being the woodworker’s most important resource. The result is “Cut & Dried: A Woodworker’s Guide to Timber Technology.” In this book, Jones explores every aspect of the tree and its wood, from how it grows to how it is then cut, dried and delivered to your workshop.
Jones also explores many of the things that can go right or wrong in the delicate process of felling trees, converting them into boards, and drying those boards ready to make fine furniture and other wooden structures. He helps you identify problems you might be having with your lumber and – when possible – the ways to fix the problem or avoid it in the future.
“Cut & Dried” is a massive text that covers the big picture (is forestry good?) and the tiniest details (what is that fungus attacking my stock?). And Jones offers precise descriptions throughout that demanding woodworkers need to know in order to do demanding work.
For the first year or two of working wood in the 1970s, I didn’t come across the term brash wood because the craftsmen I worked with called the condition “carroty” or “carrot wood” and I assumed, being young and naïve, this was the normal name. The woodworkers around me, on finding some particularly weak stick would say things like, “It’s rubbish; the stuff just carrots off in your hands.” It was an apt description because a brash break in wood is visually slightly similar to a carrot broken into two half-lengths.
Brash wood has a variety of related names including brashy, brashness and brashiness. Other names for this condition are brittle heart, carrot heart, spongy heart, brash heart and soft heart. Natural brashness or brittleness develops in the living tree caused by the way a tree grows and the stresses it experiences in life. In every case brash wood is weak wood and it unexpectedly snaps across the grain under a load normal wood of the same species would carry with ease.
Brashness often develops in association with cross shakes discussed in section 13.3.3. In another instance, it develops in exceptionally slow-grown ring-porous species where the tree lays down a high proportion of soft spongy and weak spring growth, and a low proportion of denser stronger summer-growth wood. Ring-porous species with unusually narrow year-on-year growth rings are one possible feature to look for to identify brashness; the result of this growth pattern is the wood is also likely to be exceptionally light for its species, and this may indicate potential brashness. Fast-grown conifers tend to lay down a much greater proportion than normal of weaker, lighter spring wood than they lay down in denser and stronger summer wood, and this, too, is brashy. Juvenile wood is frequently brashy, especially if it has grown fast with widely spaced growth rings. Unusually dense reaction wood in coniferous trees, known as compression wood, is often brash, and this type of wood should not be used in furniture, but carvers and turners may find uses for it (Hoadley1, 2000, p 99-100). Shield (2005, p 133) discusses brittle heart or brashness being the result of growing stresses within plantation-grown Eucalypts. He notes that growth increments develop tensile stresses in their length with each successive new growth increment developing slightly more tensile stress than the previous year’s growth. To compensate for this the tree develops longitudinal compression stresses toward the tree’s core. Finally, an artificial cause of brashness is induced when wooden artefacts are subjected over time to high heat “such as wood ladders used in boiler rooms.” (Rossnagel, Higgins and MacDonald, 1988, pp, 43-44.)
The lesson for woodworkers is brash or brittle wood is not appropriate for load-bearing structures, e.g., floor joists, floorboards, table or chair legs and rails etc. The safest thing is to not use it at all except perhaps for purely decorative items such as small carvings or other non-critical parts. Secondly, materials other than wood might be better choices for shelving, steps, ladders and so on in high-heat environments including forges, boiler rooms, certain areas within commercial kitchens, glass-blowing workshops etc.
