Mules and Adzes

According to Roger B. Ulrich's book Roman Woodworking, adzes have been around since the Copper Age and are one of the earliest woodworking tools.

Those with flat and curved blades were used in Roman times for hollowing logs, flattening boards, and shaping both furniture elements and ribs for boat hulls, and more.

I bought mine, a curved bowl adze, from Drew Langsner of Country Workshops.

Drew teaches classes at his facility on carving bowls and spoons based on Scandinavian techniques. He also describes the process in his book Country Woodcraft.

You can shape bowls on a chopping block or low bench and use the adze for roughing out the inside. A hewing hatchet is effective in shaping the outside, while spokeshaves, drawknives, and gouges clean up the choppy surfaces.

Other resources for learning about spoon and bowl carving: Wille Sundqvist's book Swedish Carving Techniques (yes, I did pay that much) and youtube videos (there are scads).

So what about mules? My other purchase from Country Workshops was plans to build a Shaving Mule—a smaller version of a shaving horse that uses elements from two different designs.

Although the compact size appealed to me, the main selling feature was the wide, adjustable, upholstered seat.

I'm not saying that I'm a prima donna who demands comfort in all her activities, but if Barcalounger ever develops a line of bicycles, I might be more inclined to exercise.

Getting Crafty

You don't have to be a clean freak to want to keep your assembly areas glue and stain free.

I saw this in a friend's shop and decided to add it to the outfeed table on my table saw.

It's just a roll of craft paper suspended on a dowel beneath the work surface but it saves clean up time whenever I glue up a project.

A small dowel pin keeps the large dowel, which can only be removed from one side, from falling out of the shallow hole in the opposite leg of the outfeed table.

And it's inexpensive, because I reuse the same area of paper until it becomes badly tattered from too many glue ups that turned into sticky situations.

FrankenBench

I bought this workbench a few years ago from a family that had been using it as a kitchen island. I told the owner, who was clearly unimpressed, that I was going to use it in my woodworking shop.

And up until now, it still hadn't been put to the use for which it was built. Instead, it was a flat surface on which to dump everything that was cluttering up my main workbench.

But with all the storage units I've been building lately, it's finally cleared off.

This is not an ideal workbench. It's not easy to use clamps along the front edge and the backsplash is an obstruction. Presumably, the recessed section on the work surface is a tool tray (or in my shop, a shavings and sawdust reservoir), which I find unnecessary.

And by the looks of the disparate drawer fronts, it's had a few cosmetic repairs. I don't know how many different wood species complete this bench, but it's a patchwork of patterns.

There is plenty of storage, with sliding tool trays in the main drawers and a set of cubbies and small drawers on one end.

Two things I love about this bench: the near-perfect condition of the top and the design of the vises. The rectangular wooden arms provide a flat, non-marring surface on which to place your workpiece when you tighten the vise. And wooden screws are just cool.

The three metal screw-arms that work each vise on my main bench will leave indentations if they touch your workpiece.

The first thing I did was remove the backsplash. And since the workbench had to be placed with the left side close to the wall, I removed the door that enclosed the little cubbies so they could still be accessed. Finally, I added a piece of old chestnut to cover the tool tray—a species similar in appearance to one of the woods used in the drawer fronts.

Some might not approve of a bench being altered, but I did save the two pieces that were removed, and the chestnut is only tacked down with small nails in case the next owner wants to restore it to its original condition.

It's been patched up, pulled apart, and rebuilt over the years, but it's once again experiencing the joy of being covered in plane shavings; it smells like sawdust instead of tarragon; and instead of wearing pizza stains, its patina will continue to darken naturally. As it should.

Lathe Storage

Martha was at it again this past week and turned her attention to the mess beneath my lathe.

I'm fascinated with old tool chests that have sliding trays so I decided to build a simple plywood and pine version of one.

The two trays are sized so that they completely bypass one another which allows me to reach for a tool in either one at the same time. They are also removable and can sit on top of the box while the lathe is in use. Beneath these trays are three open bins.

I used spacer blocks in positioning the runners that support the trays to ensure that they ran parallel to one another.

Two handles were added to the top so the lid would slide without racking.

The handles themselves are a simple design made with a moulding plane and block plane. I first plowed a groove to create a track in which the moulding plane could more easily be navigated.

A rat tail file was used to produce the concave recess on the ends of the handles and a sandpaper-wrapped dowel was used to clean up the profile.

It's a super simple storage box, or if you think like my partner, a 19th c. coffin. That's what she says it looks like. meh.












On another note: sorry to have to use word verification with the comment application for a while. I've been getting a plethora of comments from an asian spammer that links back to asian porn sites. And that doesn't make the cut for my PG rating.

StickFast

In routing the grooves for some shallow tool trays, I ran into a problem with the edge of the board tipping off the workbench due to the downward pressure of the plane. Because I was working with wood that was thinner than the depth of the plane's fence, the edge of the board had to extend beyond the edge of the workbench.

Using a holdfast was not an option (without some finagling) because it would get in the way of the fence rods, and my dog holes are not lined up in such a way that I could use the end vise.

Geez, if only there were a way to secure the board from underneath.

Aha! Carpet tape (which has adhesive on both sides) to the rescue. It worked great. The only potential problem is leaving the workpiece stuck for too long. That would give the tape more time to latch onto the fibers which might tear when you remove the board. So don't leave for vacation mid-routing.

It worked so well, in fact, that I intend to try this trick when planing really thin boards.

In short: carpet tape now has a permanent place in my shop.

Making Martha Proud

Let's face it: the more storage units you build, the more surface areas you have on which to work.

At least that's the way it is in my shop, where any flat surface becomes cluttered with tools and other items which have no designated cubby or drawer to call home. This can make woodworking frustrating when you're constantly shifting piles from one surface to another.

Not only that, but if you're wasting time searching for a tool because it's buried under a stack of sandpaper, you're not doing what you want to be doing—building stuff.

This spring marks the 5th anniversary of having my shop built and I've decided to release my inner-Martha Stewart and get more organized.

So I opened a can of Martha on an eyesore masquerading as a light duty sharpening bench. Without shelves, the area was cluttered, inefficient, potentially hazardous, and downright unsightly.

I used some of the pile of pine to create a small cabinet, with one shelf, and four bins that effectively hold everything from the jumbled mess that had previously inhabited the space.

Storage units don't have to award-winning and can be made relatively quickly using simple joinery. But the time you invest in constructing them will make building your show-and-tell projects more enjoyable.

Now if only I could develop the same desire to tidy up my house.

Track II Spokeshave

A brand new tool company mailed one of their products to me to try out. It's not on the market yet; they are just testing it with focus groups.

It's called a Track II Spokeshave and it operates the same as a regular spokeshave, but with the twin blades, it works even better.

The front blade is designed to lift the fibers from the beard, I mean board, while the second blade trims them clean for a baby smooth finish.

Not only that, but it comes with a spray can of foaming wood conditioner that you first apply to the surface. This helps lubricate the fibers so they're not chafed by the shearing action of the twin blades.

It's a remarkable bit of ingenuity. I give it two thumbs up!

Curb Your Enthusiasm

Woodworkers Safety Week isn't for another few weeks, but it's never too early to talk about shop mishaps.

You know how it is when you buy a new tool—you want to try it out right away.

Such was the case with the antique handsaw I bought from Tom Law and the sloyd knife I bought from Del Stubbs.

My jeans took the hit from the knife and saved my thigh from what surely would have been a cavernous gash in my leg requiring a freakishly huge number of stitches.  And the poor little 5 board stool that I absconded from the house to use as a sawbench bravely endured the cold bite from the wickedly sharp crosscut saw.

Friends, tragic events like this can be avoided.  Before you use your new tool, inhale 10 deep breaths, play an Air Supply CD, maybe take a candlelit bath with rose-scented bath salts and loofah.  

Do whatever is necessary to quell your I-just-bought-a-new-tool-and-have-to-try-it-out-NOW! hysteria.