Joel Moskowitz at CJWA

Joel Moskowitz from Tools for Working Wood gave an excellent presentation on basic hand tool techniques at our September meeting.

He had some interesting new and upcoming products to talk about.  There is a saw vise that is nearly ready for production.  He brought along a sample of an aluminum bar clamp that he recently started selling on his website.  This clamp has the advantage of being strong and light, so that you can position it easily with one hand, which is a huge advantage when you are working by yourself.

Finally, there is a book that will be coming out this fall called “The Joiner and Cabinet Maker”,  which follows Thomas, a young teenager in rural England who becomes a woodworking apprentice.  Through Thomas’ story, the book describes the construction of various woodworking projects, starting with a packing box, a dovetailed schoolbox and a veneered mahogany chest of drawers, all with hand tools.  From Joel’s description of this book, the details of the making of these projects will be of use to any woodworker, even if you aren’t a hand tool aficionado.

The meat of Joel’s presentation was on the use of marking gauges, rasps, and saws in your work, which we’ll report on later.

Fun with a bandsaw

Here’s a fun video showing what you can make with a bandsaw in just under 2 minutes.

Christopher Schwarz: Hand Tool Boot Camp

We were lucky enough to convince Christopher Schwarz, editor of Popular Woodworking and Woodworking Magazine, to come out and give a talk that he called “Hand Tool Boot Camp”. His talk was designed to show how hand tools can make your life easier, even if you live and die by your router and tablesaw.

Chris was able to cover a wide range of material in one day, including sharpening, planes, chisels, and saws. Most of what he spoke about is going to be familiar to avid hand tool users, but there were definitely some things that I learned, so I thought I’d pass them along.

1. Eclipse sharpening jig copies. If you have one of the $10 Eclipse style jigs that are made in Taiwan, the one thing that makes them work less well is that the paint on them is too thick. The original Eclipse jigs had very thin paint. Chris suggested to take a file and flatten out the flat part where the plane blade sits, and to take a triangular file and get rid of the paint that is in the little dovetailed recesses that hold the blade. Or go to eBay and find a real one.

2. Block planes. He like to put a little camber on a block plane blade.

3. Sawing. Using a chisel to get your saw cut started really works well, much better than I thought it would. I’ve read about the three classes of saw cuts, but I always thought that taking the time to chisel a notch to get the cut started would be an interruption in my workflow, and, to be honest, less “manly” than just cutting to the line. Boy, was I wrong.

4. Sawing, part 2: His two starter saws would be (1) some kind of dovetail saw, and his cheapest recommendation would be a dozuki, and the rip vs. crosscut dozuki issue doesn’t matter, and (2) a big rip joinery saw of some sort. He had the 16” Lie-Nielsen tenon saw, filed rip. Since you can use a chisel to start a shoulder cut, you can get away without a crosscut saw.

Anyway, it was a lot of fun.

June 2009 Meeting: 8 board feet of wood contest, raised panel doors

The 8 Board Feet of Wood competition was judged this evening with about 12 entries, which represented the largest number of entries to our challenge thus far.  First place was awarded to Steve Altman with a very detailed and exacting jewelry case made of common pine, which is a species very out of character for Mr. Altman, yet the workmanship was excellent and his finish was that of very old wood.  Steve received a $50.00 gift certificate that was generously donated by Monteath Lumber for our contest. Kudos to Steve! 

Bob Masterson demonstrated an easy method of making raised panel doors. He made a cherry door for a vanity using only 3 cutters and a router table. The purpose was to show that if Bob can do it, anybody can do it (his words) and he hopes some were inspired to try. He also says that the vanity has yet to be completed.

The passing of Sam Maloof and his work and kindness was mentioned.

May 2009 meeting: Tool swap

This meeting was our swap meet. Although not as many articles were for sale as last year, it was still a successful swap meet.

Next meeting's 8 Board Feet of Wood competition was discussed in detail. The most notable change in our rules this year: instead of receiving identical stacks of wood to make a project, contestants may use up to 8 board feet of a single species of wood of their own choice.  All other rules apply.

Matt Greco acquired a $50 gift certificate from Monteath Lumber for the winner. Thanks Matt!