My Forp I Bench

At the first French Oak Roubo Project I was a participant but initially I decided not to build a bench. I really did not have a lot of room in my schedule and I knew I would not be able to spend an entire week out of the shop. I also didn't think I had enough room for a second bench, especially not a massive French Oak bench.

As the week went on and I was able to spend more and more time at the Wyatt Childs shop I changed my mind. I began to gather materials to build my own FORP 1 bench. I based my design on the 7 foot long bench configuration.

During the year following this event myself, and the other participants would get emails with pictures of completed FORP 1 benches while mine languished unfinished. I actually had completed about 90 percent of the work but my schedule just wouldn't allow me enough time to get the bench finished and usable.

As FORP 2 week approached I was dismayed that my bench sat unfinished and another batch of FORP benches were about to be built. Fortunately Jameel Abraham came in a fews day early for FORP 2 and we were able to spend a couple days together in my shop. When Jameel asked for something to do I was more than happy to suggest that he put the finishing touches on my bench. Literally all it lacked was completing the planing stop, leveling all the joints, and making the legs even. A good half a day in shop and he had put my bench right.

Because I procrastinated about building my bench, no wooden screw or tapped leg was ordered for my bench so I opted to make my own and designed it to be similar to the BenchCrafted Classic leg vise.

I really didn't want to go into FORP 2 week with my FORP 1 bench still incomplete. Thanks to Jameel I didn't have to face the embarrassment of terrible procrastination.

That reminds me. At the first Woodworking in America event in Berea Kentucky I was involved in a conversation with Gary Blum and Mike Dunbar. I will always remember Mike Dunbar telling us that "procrastinator" was just another word for woodworker. He went on to say that woodworkers were the worst procrastinators ever. He was convinced that many woodworkers would much rather talk about projects than to actually get busy and build them. I have to admit I've known many of those kind of woodworkers and at times I have resembled that remark.

As my friend Jon Fiant would say," anytime you finish something, that's one less thing."

Wesley Tanner makes nice labels to be attached to all the FORP benches. It looks as though I've had a poster size label printed for my bench but that is not the case. If you picked up on the scale of the grain, or figured it out otherwise, my bench is bit smaller than the other benches made at that event.

I mentioned that I based my design on the 7 foot long bench, however I made my bench at 3/16 scale. You'll see the 6" scale across the top of my bench in the pic above. I did in fact have room for this bench and I also have a very nice memento from the FORP I event. The material for my bench was acquired while I was helping Jameel clean up the Wyatt Childs shop the morning after FORP 1 had officially ended. It was either a miniature bench or fuel for the wood stove.

Making this miniature bench was great fun and making things at a smaller scale was harder than I imagined.

Ron

Clock is Finished, Best Way to Complicate a Simple Piece of Casework? Add a Clock Movement

Today I finished the clock. If this had just been a wall cupboard I would have been finished many days ago. Adding the glass in the door and a clock movement complicated things a great deal.

These additions added so many processes and required several more individual parts. So next time you tell yourself, "it's just a cabinet with a clock movement," think again. A frame for attaching the dial board is required, and oh yeah, you have to make the dial board and drill it accurately. You'll also need 2 cleats and a shelf board to mount on the cleats that makes a place for the coil going to fasten and this will have to be notched around the space for the clock movement.

Couple other things. You'll need to glue the dial to the dial board quite accurately. Attach the clock movement to the back of the dial board, once again, quite accurately. Cut a piece of glass to fit the door (antique glass does not break reliably on the score line) and then mount the glass into the door with small bead moulding. We still haven't assembled and adjusted the clock movement, in this case a pendulum driven, 14 day Hermele movement that strikes out the hours and strikes once on the half hour on a coil gong.

Don't misunderstand, I'm not complaining. I've made this clock before and I went into this project, as they say, "with my eyes wide open". I say all this because woodworkers are notorious for downplaying everything that is really involved in the making of a functional piece of furniture. This usually occurs when you're convincing your spouse it would be way cheaper to make said item than to buy it. Sometimes our egos cause us a lot of work.

 When I made the pine version of this clock, I also made a key storage block that was fastened to the interior of the bottom panel. As I went to do the final assembly of the door it occurred to me that one of the door battens would make a good place for the key to reside and only required that I drill a hole. Much better than creating an additional part.

One of the nerve wracking things about this clock construction was driving these pyramid head nails thru the top and into the case side. After all the work of creating, fitting all the parts and then finishing all the parts, the last thing I wanted was to have any of the parts split from the penetration of the nails. I pre-drilled the holes and enlarged the pre-drilled holes slightly thru the top panel where the largest diameter of the nail would pass.

Nothing split, I breathed a sigh of relief.

So you've finish making the case and your spouse has asked, "how long will it take to apply the finish?" And you replied, "oh, about a day". YEAH RIGHT!

If you're good with a hand plane then you'll probably spend half of a good day just sanding all the surfaces. That is, if you're good with a hand plane. If not, then it will require most of a very dusty day.

As long as we're talking about finishing I may as well give you the run down on the finishing schedule for this piece. After the sanding, I applied Transtint medium brown dye, I followed that with an application of Provincial stain. Admittedly the Provincial stain made the piece darker than I had actually intended. If I had it to do again I would probably use something more like a fruitwood color, however when all is said and done I liked the end result. Unlike other woods that get darker with time the walnut will actually lighten a bit.

I then applied two coats of lacquer. I let the lacquer cure for 3 days and then started the rub out process. First I sanded all the surfaces with 400 grit sand paper. Next was a rub down with a Maroon Scotchbrite pad, followed by a rub with #0000 steel wool. I cleaned away the sanding and rubbing residue  with Old English scratch cover for dark woods. This cleans the white residue out of the pores and the residue that is left in corners and crevices is darkened by this material to a dark brown color so it doesn't show. The final step was a thorough rub with paper towels. The paper towels remove the excess scratch cover liquid and burnishes the surface to a nice soft sheen.

I did not apply stain or lacquer to the interior of the case sides. Instead I painted them with an ochre colored paint. This lighter color keeps the interior of the piece from looking like a dark cave when the door is opened.

I spent a good day just performing the rub out of the finish. So much for applying the finish in a day. In fact I probably spent as much time finishing this pieces as I did on the woodworking/construction aspects of this pursuit.

I enjoyed this project but I'm glad it's completed. I think I've satisfied my clock building needs/wants for a while.

Ron

"The five second rule does not apply if you have a 2 second dog", unknown

P.S. Many of the comments made above were meant "tongue in cheek".
                                                                                                                    

Christmas Break, Another Clock and Rain, Rain, Rain

I arranged my holiday schedule in order to actually have some time off this year. I completed my last plane of the year about mid December. I really wanted some time to pursue some woodworking projects that have been on the list. The idea of projects in the plural may have been ambitious on my part so I decided I would be happy to complete one project.

As a tool maker I find it hard to make time for actual woodworking that is not tool related. This is too bad because I miss this type of woodworking. Frankly after you spend a great deal of time in the shop making tools the idea of going back into the shop for any reason is not really an attractive idea. It's really better to create time to pursue one thing at a time so the week before Christmas and this week were set aside for personal work.

Of course I immediately begin thinking thru all the house maintenance items that needed to be accomplished but I was resolute to make this an enjoyable time to pursue a project that's been on my mind for a while and one that I actually started a while back and left unfinished.

I had roughed out some walnut boards for another clock like the pine version I made a year or so ago. Each time I walked thru my lumber shed, going and coming from the shop there those pieces were, leaning against some mahogany boards in one of my lumber racks. I felt as though they were mocking me. It was like an unanswered question...."when will you finish me?"

And then it started raining...........and raining, and raining and then it rained some more. It seemed we were experiencing a near Biblical event. As you can see in the picture above, the lake on my neighbors property was over flowing on one corner of the damn. A lot of water can flow thru a 10" diameter over flow pipe. You can just imagine the shear volume of water that was coming into this lake that resulted in more water than the drain could possibly dispense below the dam.

Of course this did not interrupt my woodworking project in the shop, however it did necessitate running the dehumidifier to keep the moisture content of the air in my shop at an acceptable level. The unseasonable tropical type weather we experienced created a situation we've never encountered. Never have we needed to run our air conditioning system while there was a Christmas tree in the house. This was a first.

Back Boards

Lots of people use 1/4" plywood for back boards these days and there's really nothing wrong with that. I've chosen to use pine back boards on my last couple of projects. They are a more authentic detail and they add visual interest when the case is opened. Leaving them a light color also has the functional advantage of creating a better lit interior.

I cut 3/8" deep rabbits in the back of the case to accept the backboards so I re-sawed the back boards to 5/16" out of 3/4" thick stock. Pine is very stable and the pieces came from the bandsaw quite accurate in thickness, and stayed quite flat. I had planed smooth the show face of these boards prior to the re-saw operation and I left the backs of these boards rough right off the bandsaw. I would much rather spend my efforts on the show surfaces of this piece in lieu of refining surfaces that will never be seen when the piece is placed where it will reside.

I used a business card cut into pieces and folded to double thickness to space the back boards. This leaves plenty of room for wood movement. To join the boards together I simply sawed a slot gauging from the face that would show on the interior surface of the clock case, then cut and planed splines to fit into these slots. This is easy, fast and the end result is much more interesting than a ply panel.

I broke the corners slightly to accentuate the join between the back boards. I had some waterborne lacquer that needed to be used while it was still viable. I added a bit of amber Transtint to this material so the finish would not have the cool look associated with waterborne finishes. Two brushed on coats then sanded with 400 grit paper and then rubbed down with some steel wool finished these up quite nicely. This may have been a bit over kill for back boards and a well prepared then waxed suface would have also worked well.

Board and Batten Doors

Board and Batten doors are under used in fine cabinetry in favor of frame and panel doors. I think in some context they are very suitable. In this instance the case construction is quite simple and so should be the door.

Most of my recent furniture making pursuits have been in the idea of simplifying construction to make the build aspects more enjoyable and less taxing. The construction method can be quite simple until you decide to include a cut out that will retain glass, then the method becomes somewhat complicated and the sequence of building up the door requires considerably more work. Housing a clock works always complicates case construction.

Some would say it may be hard to control wood movement in this style of door and that is why they prefer a frame and panel door. I disagree. This door is pre-assembled using pyramid head screws. I will remove the battens to refine the surfaces for finish. When I re-assemble the door I will actually put a bit of glue under the batten at the outer edges of the door and will enlarge the large the holes for the screw at the center of the door battens which effectively makes all the movement occur in the center of the door. This is the same thing that occurs in a frame and panel door and the doors I've made with this method are doing quite well and enduring seasonal changes without issue.

You could subsequently add cut nails driven thru the front face of the door and clinched over into the battens, thus eliminating the need for the screws in the backs of the battens. Or you could do both. I'm using the black pyramid head screws so the front of the door is cleaner with no fasteners.

The clock dial cutout with stopped chamfer detail around the opening

There are plenty of ways to add visual interest to these type doors. The simple chamfer where the boards come together at the center along with the stopped chamfers around the door opening are ways to create visual detail.

The assembled case with back boards installed

As you can see the board and batten door allows your eye to flow around this piece easily and is most probably a more attractive choice in the context of this piece.

In a general summary of the construction of this piece I should mention that it is basically assembled using pyramid head screws and nails. In fact the top of the case will not be permanently joined to the case sides and front stiles until after the finishing process. At that point it will be fastened by driving pyramid headed nails thru the top panel into the sides and the top of the front stiles. I will pre-drill holes for the nails to avoid splitting the finished pieces. At least that's the way I have it planned in theory.

We'll see,

Ron

T Shirts Back in Time for the Holidays

The Brese Plane "Just a Plane T-Shirt" is once again available. After the Handworks event our inventory of shirts was near none, but we've re-stocked just in time for the Holidays.

We have restocked them in the Old Gold color and decided to offer them once again. These are heavy weight t-shirts of very nice quality.

Available on this blog page, see buy buttons below, and on the Brese Plane Web site Apparel page.

 1 ea. for $20.95 shipping included in the conus or anywhere a flat rate USPS package goes

Qty 1 Select Size Below Sizes small medium large X large XX large XXX large

2 ea. for $36.95 Shipping included in the Conus or anywhere a flat rate USPS package goes
Qty 2 Select Size Below

Sizes

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Ron

"The two most important days of your life is the day you are born, and the day you find out why",        Mark Twain

As the Days Go By So Do Some Really Good People

With the passing of Carl Bilderback this past week I took some time to think about the people we've lost from the hand tool community. It's inevitable given the median age of the people that were the majority of the first people that joined the hand tool renaissance. Fortunately the average age of people that are active participants in hand tool woodworking is younger than it was at the beginning.

I first met Carl Bilderback at a Lie-Nielsen Hand Tool Event at Jeff Miller's shop in Chicago in the early years of my being a full time plane maker. At our first introduction I didn't quite know what to make of Carl. I observed him heckling Chris Schwarz that weekend about the sawing techniques he was demonstrating. Before that weekend was over I figured out that Carl Bilderback was the best kind of guy.

This was about the time I started attending the Midwest Tool Collectors Meet in Madison, GA. This event is referred to as the Peach Meet and it happens the first weekend in February every year. I began to see Carl there most every year. I would always engage Carl in conversation and I never walked away from one of those conversations without having learned something. It may have not been an astounding bit of information, or a piece of knowledge that caused an epiphany but an accumulation of knowledge is known as experience. Guys like Carl are a great source of that kind of experience. These meetings meant a lot to me even though Carl would always look at me in a inquisitive way and asked "you're that plane maker, right?".

There are several reasons I try to attend the Peach Meet every year.

(1) I sometimes see tools that inspire an idea. Seeing a Chaplin Patent plane in person inspired the creation of the Winter Series of planes.

(2) It's a chance to spend a day out of the shop with like minded people that appreciate tools.

Third and most importantly is that I get to see the Carl Bilderbacks of the world. You never know what year will be the last year you will see some of those guys. For this reason I always make an effort to attend. Like Carl, many of these people are a pleasure to know and I get precious little time to spend with them.

Almost 3 years ago the first Handworks event was held in Amana, Iowa. On Saturday morning prior to the presentation about the Studley tool chest, the Emcee, Brian Buckner announced that Carl Bilderback would start the festivities by singing our national anthem. The crowd sort of snickered and laughed a bit thinking this was just a joke on Carl. But then Carl started singing and except for Carl's voice the place went silent. Who knew that Carl Bilderback had a golden voice? If my memory serves me correct he received a standing ovation for his performance.

Last year at the Peach Meet in Madison I saw Carl but I could tell immediately something was different. When the long term MWTCA guys show up with their most coveted tools for sale something is up. I was informed by a another friend attending that event that Carl was terminally ill.

I guess Carl singing our national anthem at Handworks became a tradition. At the second Handworks this past spring just before Roy Underhill's presentation on Saturday morning Carl once again sang our national anthem to a very appreciative crowd. I was sitting on my workbench along side George Walker and when the applause subsided George and I looked at each other and both said "that's the last time we'll see that". I'm sure we both hoped we would be wrong but there is an inevitable end to life. At the next Handworks I wonder what will fill the void of Carl's singing? Maybe it will present the opportunity to remember Carl and some of the other mentors and patrons of the hand tool community.

Ron

FIrst of the "JR" planes

In a recent post titled, "A Plane for Bond...........James Bond", the subject was an all brass plane that was to be engraved.

Then the customer had an idea of a kit of planes that would be made of brass and engraved on the interior and exterior and in many places that would only reveal themselves as a surprise when some parts of the plane, like the iron, would be removed.

This was a very intriguing idea for myself and engraver Catharine Kennedy and so we set about work on the first of these three planes.

First order of business was to make all the component parts of the plane body so that I could send them to Catharine for the interior engraving. I also masked some areas to indicate the mating surfaces of the plane body parts that could not be engraved.

Catharine returned the parts to me and I then made bright all the surfaces with Scotchbrite pads and applied True Oil to the interior surfaces of the plane body parts. This gives the parts an aged gold color and protects somewhat from hand oils that leave handling prints on the surfaces.

I then assembled the plane paying particular attention so as not to mar the refined interior surfaces of the plane. This was tedious at best because there was no going back once the final refinement and finish was attained on these surfaces.

This is that part of plane making where your mind has to stay in the moment at every moment. If your thoughts wander from the immediate task you just have to stop and re-establish your concentration. The cost of a mental lapse at this point in the process is enormous. Is this a bit stressful? Yes, but it's also very challenging and rewarding.

A more contrasting wood for the tote and knob would have looked very nice in this predominantly brass plane body, however the Olive wood has a classic look that works quite well with the color of the oiled brass.  If you look closely you'll see that I used a stainless steel knob seat just to create a bit more contrast in the colors of the metals used.

If you compare the lever cap in the pictures of the components parts above you will notice quite a difference as compared to the lever cap used in the assembled plane.

When I received the parts from Catharine with the interior engraving completed I knew having only my brand stamp on this plane was not right or proper. Catharine's work is just too much a part of this plane. On my suggestions we decided on a brand mark that included both initials of our last names(B & K) set in an oval on the lever cap.

This entire project originated from the imagination of our customer John Rexroad, therefore you'll see the initials "JR" on the side of the plane and planes of this type will now be known as the "JR" line of planes.

Not many times in your life do you have a patron that gives you the leeway to express yourself in this manner. When it happens you must seize the day.

Ron

Coming together is a beginning; keeping together is progress; working together is success.

Henry Ford

FORP II, Work Progresses and The Sun Comes Out............FINALLY!!!

Work Progresses at the French Oak Roubo Project II. After several days of cold drizzly rain the Sun finally emerged on Tuesday afternoon.

Ted Lolley (far side) checks the fit on his bench top joint. Jeff Miller and Pete Krupowicz  are looking on.

The glue is spread and the clamps go on.

With timbers this large you get squeeze out even before you tighten the clamps.

As you will see in the attached video these are big pieces of French Oak timbers and require quite large machines and plenty of people power for safe and efficient handling.

All the attendees at this event have worked together so well and cooperatively I thought it appropriate to attach a quote about friendship.

Ron

The greatest gift of life is friendship, and I have received it.

Hubert H. Humphrey