Welcome to the March addition of Tool of the Month, this month it's the spokeshave! The spokeshave has been in use in one form or another for centuries, it's design is descended from the traditional drawknife. Originally these were used by bodgers, coopers and wheelwrights to shape curved parts of chairs, barrels and cart wheels. The spokeshave is still widely used today for chair making, furniture and joinery. There are a variety of different designs in production including spokeshaves for special purposes (some of these will feature in a future blog post). The most common spokeshaves are the two in the photographs above and below, with flat and round soles. In the above photo you can see the soles of the spokeshaves, the round sole on the left and flat on the right. Round soled spokeshaves are used to shape inside curves (concave) whereas flat soles are used on convex curves and straight pieces of timber such as Windsor chair spindles and arrow shafts. They require a sharp blade and careful set up to avoid chatter whilst cutting into the wood. For someone new to the tool a flat soled spokeshave is a good starting point! In the above photo I have been using a round soled spokeshave made by Canadian company Veritas, to clean up curved details on two laminated oak arms for a Morris chair. The completed chair can be seen below. Thats all for March, look out for next month's Tool of the Month in April!
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Welcome to Februarys Tool of the Month blog post! This month it's the dovetail saw! The dovetail saw only has one job to do, and that's to cut the tails and pins of dovetail joints. Accuracy and tool quality is very important for stress free handcut dovetails. There are many different makes of dovetail saw available so it's always best to try several to find one which has the comfort and balance that fits you. This saw is made by Canadian company Veritas, its teeth are filed for a rip cut with 14 tpi (teeth per inch) spacing this allows for a fairly fast cut and leaves a fine finish ideal for joints that need minimal cleaning up with a chisel. You should never try and rush a saw cut as you'll loose the accuracy and end up with a rough finish cut requiring more tidying up. Start the cut and let the saw go at its own pace, this will vary depending on how the teeth have been set and how sharp the tool is. Wiping a little candle wax on the blade also helps. Last month i mentioned that I was making a pair of bespoke dovetailed walnut amplifier cases. Here's a few photographs of the finished cases! That's all for this month, look out for the next post in March!
Welcome to the first tool of the month blog post of 2016! This month's tool is the Moxon Vice! The Moxon vice is quite different to your typical vice, and its uses are slightly more specialized in comparison. Having quite a narrow clamping capacity (just over 50mm) the main task this vice excels at is clamping wide boards for cutting dovetail joints. There is enough space to fit a 600mm wide board between the two screws. I made mine using the hardware and plans (which I modified) from American company Benchcrafted. Here's a short gallery showing construction of my vice. In the Workshop I am currently making a pair of bespoke dovetailed walnut amplifier cases. The moxon vice has been extremely useful while preparing, marking out and cutting all of the 40 through dovetails. Here are a few photos of the vice in use. Thats it for January, look out for February's Tool of the month blog post!
Welcome to the final Tool of the Month blog of 2015! This month's tool is the Lie Nielsen 102! The 102 is a small low angle block plane, often referred to as an apron plane due to its small pocket friendly size. It's probably the most used block plane I own due to its versatility. Planing thin stock flat, planing endgrain, shaping curves, adding bevels to edges and smoothing dovetail joints flush are the main uses for this little plane. The difference between standard and low angle planes will be covered in a future post.
That's it for December and for 2015! Look out for the next Tool of the Month in January 2016. Happy New Year! Welcome to Novembers Tool of the month! Ok it's a few days late... Never mind! This month it's the wood rasp! The rasp is a tool used to shape timber, such as Windsor chair seats, carvings and sculptures. Unlike a file the rasp is much corser and therefore cuts a lot faster. Mine are made in France by a company called Auriou. They are 'hand stitched' meaning each cutting tooth is formed individually using a hammer and a pick. This more random tooth patten gives a much better cut than a machine made rasp would. The following link will take you to the companies website where you can see how these rasps are made, it's a fascinating process! Auriou Rasp making That's it for November, look out for Decembers tool of the month!
Octobers tool of the month is.... The number 7 jointer plane! This is a big plane! Measuring 22 inches in length and also quite heavy. But despite this it's an incredibly capable tool.... Being able to flatten a large table top at one end of the scale, yet perfectly balanced to produce very fine shavings on small components at the other. The no 7 is also an excellent plane to use with a shooting board to accurately 'shoot' (trim) edges of components square and straight. Of course it's perfect for planing long straight boards to form a strong glue joint hence the name 'jointer plane'. I have two of these planes, the first is a 1960's Stanley Bailey no7 which is my day to day go to plane for general use at the bench and for rare trips on site. The other plane is a very well built Clifton No7 made in Sheffield. This is an even heavier plane than the Stanley, matched with a thick blade this plane is used for finer and more accurate work. That's it for October, look out for Novembers tool of the month.
Happy Halloween! Welcome to a new monthly blog post, intended to give a short insight into some of the many tools I use to design and make bespoke fine furniture. To kick off here is this months tool. This is a Starrett adjustable square, it's small but very accurately made, which is very important for making fine furniture! Marking out joints, saw cuts and squaring machinery are the main uses. Over the past week this tool has been in constant use while making a pair of porch doors and frame. That's it for September, look out in October for the next Tool of the month. |
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Welcome to my blog! Here you can see what I have been up to in the workshop, gain an insight into my work and some of the many tools I use to make each piece of bespoke furniture. Archives
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