Spill Plane: Finished

To finish the Spill Plane (progress posts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5), I first had to make the wedge pretty. You can shape it any way you like. I cut mine to length, marked off a flat area at the top & back end of the wedge with a combination square, removed the waste with a block plane, and sliced the corners off with a chisel.





For the remaining pieces, I chamfered all the edges with a block plane and file, both to protect the edges from getting damaged and to add another facet to catch the light, applied 4 coats of one of my favorite finishes, Watco Wipe-On Poly, exchanged the steel screws for brass ones, and decided the Spill Plane is sufficiently gussied up and ready for its new home.

You can make a Spill Plane any size you like. I believe many Spill Planes were user-made (someone correct me if I'm wrong) and that's why so many of the antique ones you come across all look so different from one another. Mine was made with just 4 pieces of wood and a blade, but as far as I'm concerned, the side escapement piece isn't necessary for the plane to work. You do, however, have to plow a channel below the cutting edge of the blade so the shaved wood has a place to peel off.

Here are the sizes of the pieces of this plane.
Body (Ambrosia Maple): 3 x 12 x 1.75
Top (Walnut): 1.875 x 12 x .625
Side Escapement (Walnut): 2.3125 x 12 x .75
Wedge (Ambrosia Maple): 2 x 4.9375 x .875
Blade: 2 x 6 x .125

Recently, I attended an antique tool auction where a Spill Plane went for $180! I made this one for about $15. To think that the user-made planes were built with few tools but lots of ingenuity just amazes me. Because they were made by people who didn't have the arsenal of tools many of us hobbyists have today, and because they were probably made in a hurry (to serve a purpose), antique user-made Spill Planes aren't typically as clean cut as the one I built....but they most certainly have more character.

Interview with Bess Naylor

Bess Naylor, owner of Olde Mill Cabinet Shoppe in York, PA, is a woodworker and instructor in period American furniture, particularly in the Queen Anne, Chippendale and Pennsylvania German styles, and constructs her pieces with the same kind of tools used in the 18th century.

Bess is also a master finisher and can make a newly made piece look 300 years old. Some museum curators have suggested that she needs to start signing her furniture because in 50 years it may be difficult to distinguish her pieces from an original antique.

VC: How did you get started in making period furniture?
Bess: Probably the fault of my mother and grandmother, developing in me at an early age, the love of old pieces, particularly family pieces. They taught me a lot about finishes and how to re-finish. As I pursued my professional degrees, I still came back to old furniture or old family pieces that were in need of repair and re-finishing. When my kids were very young, we decided to try a woodworking business so I "retired" from the faculty at the University of Maryland and became a business woman. My love of chemistry and colorants started it all, as well as a love and committment to teaching (and learning) every facet of wood, especially antiques. I always tried to go up the food chain to whomever seemed to know more. They were the people I wanted to hang out with.

VC: You use authentic tools & techniques as well as hardware made specifically for each of the pieces you build. What drives your desire to be so historically accurate?
Bess: I have always been taught that if something is worth doing, then do it right. Right, to me, means being authentic to the period in tools, hardware and finishes. Perhaps I am just bonkers.

VC: Do you have a favorite tool or set of tools?
Bess: Probably my Barr bench chisels and my norris shoulder plane. Some of Tod Herrli's planes are high on that list as well. And my dovetail saw. I might take them with me when I go—you never know what is around the next bend!

VC: Of the pieces you have built, do you have a favorite?
Bess: Right now the Evans Escrutoire (top photo). It does not have any carving on it, but a real challenge in the joinery department (VC adds: the tricky joinery is due at least in part to the 7 secret drawers, one of which is the entire front piece of crown molding!). And to realize the original of this piece was built in a shop with very few tools, at a time when substinence living was all there was—it is really humbling at how creative and hardworking our ancestors were. A close second is a miniature William and Mary high chest/spice chest—a beaut!! (VC concurs...I have seen this piece!)

VC: What do you love most about period furniture?
Bess: A sense of where the originals came from, the time period, the builders. The tools and materials available to them. A true sense of history—and survival!!

VC: What is your advice for someone who would like to start building period furniture?
Bess: Pick up a tool and try! And most of all—do not be intimidated to make a mistake. Make them—make lots of them. Then learn how to correct them all and then train yourself not to repeat them. Move on to new mistakes! And new fix-its! Read, read, read. Study collections in museums and private collections whenever available. And study whenever possible with someone who knows more than you do. Don't be egotistical—you can learn lots from unexpected places and people.

VC: Can you recommend resource material?
Bess: Auction catalogs and good, solid publications from reputable museums. There is lots of information available, but some is more misleading than really helpful, especially regarding true period furniture. Be cautious of your sources.

VC: What is the one question you wished I had asked and how would you answer it?
Bess: Probably why?? Why be driven to reproduce with careful accuracy and authenticity?? Not sure other than it is a lifelong disease. The more I learn and do, the more I want to learn and do. I want to get better, faster, smarter....there are truly too many pieces that I would love to make and finish, like a fabulous japanned high chest. But right now, I am not building for myself, so that will have to wait for another day.

Be sure to check out Bess's website—www.oldmill.com—to see the classes she is offering this year. There are some amazing projects!

Nature vs. Nurture

There have never been woodworkers in my family. My hobby as a kid was drawing, and as a teenager, I built an easel so I could start painting. I remember getting enormous satisfaction in figuring out how to build that easel and, simple as it was, it worked well (and it was adjustable!). In college (school of the arts) I remember having more fun building and stretching canvasses than applying paint to them. (Should have been a clue, maybe?)

At 28, I moved into my current home which had, and still has, a chunky, heavily-used workbench, with machinist vise, in the basement. My desire to accessorize my home exceeded my budget, so it occurred to me that I might be able to use that bench to build some of the simpler things. So, with hammer, jigsaw, and drill in hand, I started building.

Wanting to build more complex things, but having no idea how, I bought this book....and that's when I had a watershed moment. This book changed my life. I pored over every page, studied every tool, every cut, every detail. And in it, my passion for woodworking was uncovered.

I saved for an entire year to buy my first major tool: a contractor-style table saw. During that year, I carried in my purse a folded-up article and picture of that saw, studying it frequently and thinking about all of the things I wanted to build.

That was over 15 years ago.

I wonder if I would have discovered my passion if there hadn't been a workbench in my basement or if there had been other turns of events that prevented me from having the time and space to learn. Are we born with a passion that waits for an event that triggers it or is it molded through experiences, events, and interactions with others? Is a passion simply "there" or is it created?

I can still recall how it felt to first learn about woodworking. It's the same feeling, when as a six year old, I first started to learn to read. It went beyond excitement.

That last photo is one of the first things I built. I no longer decorate in the "9 year old boy, c. 1962, with fixation on the Lone Ranger" style.

It's a Small [Blogging] World

A friend we met through blogging while he was stationed in Iraq recently came home. On his way from North Carolina to Wisconsin, he made a zigzag to meet us for dinner in Pennsylvania last night. Welcome home, Wyldth1ng! Pictured are Presbyfruit, me, Wyld, and Ladyburg : 4 blogging addicts....and here's a cute picture of my dog.

Ultra-Secret Drawer

If you want to add the ultimate secret drawer to a piece of furniture, construct it so that even YOU can't reveal its contents!

While working on the PA German Hanging Cupboard, whose photo is shown in the sidebar, I decided to add a hidden drawer above one of the top two drawers, since both had so much empty space above them inside the cupboard. Carefully measuring for size from the back of the cupboard (since I hadn't yet added the boards for the back) I painstakingly handcut the dovetailed secret drawer, handcut dadoes for drawer runners, installed the runners so the hidden drawer would hang suspended above the top drawer, and inserted the drawer (still working from the back of the cupboard).

Walking around front to admire my handiwork, I reached in to remove the drawer. Uh oh. Forgot all about the faceframe that makes the drawer opening smaller in the front than in the back of the cupboard. That drawer will never come out once the back is installed. (Insert expletive here.)

Question is, should I fix it or leave it as is? If I leave it, perhaps some 22nd century person will come across the cupboard at a flea market, take it home, discover the secret drawer, and become mightily irritated in trying to remove it....(Insert bad inner child giggle here.)

Photos top to bottom:
1) View from the back of the cupboard. The secret drawer rests on drawer runners above the top drawer.
2) The secret drawer.
3) View from the front of the cupboard with secret drawer in place and top drawer removed.
4) ¡@?!!X#!

Plug Cutter

Steve Latta taught me how to make a plug cutter from a piece of brass tubing in a class he taught on line & berry string inlay. Use a triangular file and file rip cut teeth on the end of the brass tube. I did a quick and crummy job on mine and it still cuts like a champ. One thing to remember is the tube will burn easily so wipe it down with a damp paper towel frequently.

Don't cut all the way through your wood because the plug might get stuck in the tube. Instead, cut part way through, put a piece of tape on top of the plugs and saw them off at the bandsaw. The tape keeps the plugs from falling out onto the floor and into the black hole that exists underneath all of our shop storage units.

Spill Plane Progress

I noticed that the face of the spill plane was way out of square to the sides. Here is one way to remedy the problem. Use your marking gauge to set the width of the shallow side, then referencing the fence off the same flat surface, run the gauge along the thicker side and both ends. This shows you how much to remove with a handplane. Check your progress until it's square.

To make the wedge, lay a scrap piece, along with the plane iron, in the bed of the plane blank and mark it with a pencil. Leave extra length on the wedge until you're ready for final fitting. I roughed the shape out on a band saw and then planed it smooth.

To drill the escapement hole, I made a simple jig to hold the plane blank. The angle of the jig needs to match the angle of the cutting edge of the blade as it's resting in the bed*. I clamped the blank to a piece of scrapwood to support the forstner bit as it drills the hole.

Two pieces of walnut, one to sandwich the wedge and iron in the blank and the other for the escapement hole, are attached with screws. Once you attach the first piece, you can final-fit the wedge. Tap the wedge in, along with the plane iron, and wiggle it a bit to see if it is providing even pressure along the blade. If it wiggles, that means the wedge is not properly seated and is rubbing on a high spot. When you pull the wedge out, you will see shiny spots on the wood. That's where it's rubbing. Plane, scrape, sand, or file that off and keep re-checking the fit until the wedge secures the blade in place solidly.

Before final shaping of the plane, I just had to check to see if it works...it does! Now I have to make it look pretty by squaring up the ends, chamfering the edges, shaping the wedge, and giving it a shellac finish.


*This article was used extensively in making this plane. It provides construction details and photos that are a terrific reference.

Huh?

I handcarved this phrase into the shelf of my tool cabinet in the hopes that one day, some 22nd century woodworker will find my cabinet at a dusty flea market and, thinking that there is some meaningful phrase chiseled into it, will take his new-found treasure home to find out what the puzzling, yet undoubtedly profound message says. After some research, he will discover that it's Latin for: How did you get your hair to do that?