Cupboard Progress

Spent some more time in the shop tonight and worked on the Ephrata Cloister cupboard. Handplaned the boards, chopped the half lap joints and cut all the boards to size except for the rails (the pieces above and below the door) and the door itself. What a great way to spend a Friday evening!

Ephrata Cloister Cupboard

Work has been stressful lately, so I did myself a favor and went out to my shop last night to start a new project. I chose something simple, something that I can pick away at as I find a spare 30 minutes, and something which requires a lot of handtools. Using handtools is instant therapy.

I have visited the Ephrata Cloister 3 times, and each time, I can't take my eyes off this hanging cupboard*. I find it very charming with its rough joinery, wooden hinges, and unfinished wood. It looks a bit like something you might find in Bilbo Baggins' house. You aren't allowed to take pictures at the Cloister so I found an image of it, along with outside dimensions, in a book.

I've been saving some pieces of wormy chestnut for just the right project and this seemed like a perfect match. I milled all the lumber and started on rough dimensions for the door, which required the use of handplanes, spokeshave and pocket knife. I'm trying to be as authentic as possible to try to make it look like the original. What a fun project! I can feel the knots in my neck subsiding already.

*Hanging cupboard built c. 1750-1760.

Rosehead Dowel

You can easily replicate the look of a rosehead nail using a wood dowel, thereby adding another visual element to your project. Rosehead nail photo is top left.

Tap your dowel into a predrilled hole of matching diameter and leave about 1/8" protruding. Put a piece of paper next to the dowel (the paper serves to protect your work surface) and hold your chisel bevel down while starting at the base and chiseling upwards. It's sort of a scraping technique. Work your way around and don't try to remove an entire side with one swipe so you can make subtle changes in the size of each facet. The rosehead nails I've seen all have 3 facets but maybe you've seen others. At any rate, it's an easy technique and instantly gives an aged look to your piece.

Woodworking Carol

A friend emailed this to me:

(Sung to the tune of Joy to the World)

Joy in the shop
The dovetails fit
Was it luck
or this new saw?
Let every tool prepare some room
and I'll get on the net and I'll get on the net
and order and order some more new tools!

Merry Christmas!

May you find a new set of Lie Nielsen chisels in your stocking

and lots of time in the new year to use them!

3 Ways to Make Dowels

You can buy wood dowels in common species like walnut, cherry, and pine, but if you need a dowel in an uncommon species, or if you're making authentic reproductions, or you just like to try different techniques, here are three ways to make them.

One: Use a beading plane to round over both sides of a board, then snap off the dowel. Shave the rough, snapped-off edge with a block plane or chisel. Match the thickness of wood with the diameter of the bead so the dowel is perfectly round.

Two: Use a block plane to round over a square blank and eyeball it as you go. This works great if you like that imperfect, handmade look, like you find in PA German furniture. (If you take your time, though, you can make very precise dowels with this technique.)

















Three: Use a dowel plate (mine is from Lie-Nielsen). Make sure you cut your blank very close in size to the final dowel diameter, otherwise, it's likely to split as you tap it through. Use a chisel to taper the leading end. Dowel plates work best with short pieces of wood.

Two Turtle Dogs

Daisy and Rosie in their Christmas frocks.

Shellac Gone Bad

Shellac is an excellent finish, not necessarily for table tops (because it's not very protective), but for other projects that won't see too much traffic. A couple of things that make shellac so great are its ease of application and the speed at which it dries. However, shellac does have a relatively short shelf life. If you mix your own, you have at most 6 months until it goes bad. If you use premixed shellac, like Zinsser, you have about one year to use it once you open the lid.

I found out the hard way not to push my luck.

I was asked to build some decorative boxes for my church that needed to be ready in time for a very important day. Knowing I was going to use shellac for the finish, I allowed only one day to apply the finish—the day before the important event. After applying 3 coats, I wondered where all the blotchy, shiny spots were coming from. They would rub out momentarily with steel wool, only to reappear a short time later.

Ugh. All that careful construction and the finish made the boxes look horrible. I took them to the Woodcraft Store to consult my buddy, Dan the Finishing Guru, who immediately deduced that I had used old shellac. Friends, old shellac will never, ever, ever dry. It will always have blotchy, shiny spots and will completely undermine your meticulous craftsmanship.

Fortunately, there's another great thing about shellac—it's easy to remove! A little denatured alcohol dissolved all of it. So I mixed a fresh batch, applied several coats, rubbed out the finish the next morning, and had a whole 15 minutes to spare before the big event. Whew!

So how do you determine if your shellac has crossed over to the dark side? Brush some on a piece of wood. If, after 15 minutes, it's not completely dry and looks blotchy....throw-it-out!*

Do you see all of the tell-tale shiny spots at the top of my tool cabinet door?

Yeah, I'll fix that someday.

*Dan, the finishing guru, says to put a dollup of shellac on a piece of glass, let it sit overnight, and if you can press your fingernail into it the next day, mix up a fresh batch.