Sheffield Tony
Ghost of the disenchanted
I started this project at the end of August last year ... but I have been distracted from it a few times. I really only got the stock planed to size then. I'll spare you pictures of hours of sweaty hand planing ... but since someone was asking over in general woodworking if anyone worked entirely by hand tools I thought I'd dig out some pictures. Entirely hand tools, from rough sawn oak. It is English oak, kiln dried. I have, whilst working with it, come to appreciate how much more pleasant working with air-dried timber is. This is very hard, brittle stuff.
I have been watching with interest AndyT's project here. Managed to glean a few tips ...
Anyway, it is a small bookcase for my son. I decided to use it as dovetail practice - I mentioned in a thread in the Hand tools section that I have been struggling to appreciate my Veritas dovetail saw, but I thought I'd give it a go. I decided to go for pretty exposed joinery.
Top attached to the sides using lapped dovetails. I chopped out the waste between the pins by chisel, no sawing. Seemed easy and accurate (but annoyed my neighbour
)
I have scoffed at the "need" for skew chisels in the past, but I have to admit I found my homemade fishtail chisel useful for cleaning out the corners.
Glued up:
I think I still need a bit of practice, the glue lines are thicker than I'd like in places, and I had to fix a minor cock-up - the groove for the back panel clipped into one of the pins, and I had to fill the gap with a little sliver of carefully matched wood. I can't find the repair myself now, so it goes to show what you can recover from.
The bottom and middle shelf are held together with sliding dovetails- because I've never done them before so thought I should give it a go. I think I'd leave the shelves slightly wide next time, it is a bit too easy to knock a chip off the front of the tails when planing away the waste.
Here's where I've got to:
The glue up was stressful. I don't know how it is possible to juggle two sash clamps and a pair of clamping cauls with just the one pair of hands - I had to call in help from the kitchen ! Any tips on making this easier much appreciated.
There is quite a bit of colour variation in the oak; is seems to have come from quite modest sized trees so I've had to joint together 2-3 pieces to make up the width (it's 320mm deep). Some bits were rather dark, but I've tried to hide the worst mismatch at the back of the vertical dividers where hopefully nobody will notice.
Today's job has been resawing and planing up the wood for the back, hence the piles of shavings. I'm planning on tongue and grooved boards, with a little side bead so that I can play with some moulding planes. So far I've sawn the 28mm boards down the hard way to give me 2 x 3/8" pieces each (I love mixing my units). I first plowed a 1/8" groove on both sides to help guide the cut, then sawed down with my Thomas Flinn hand saw. I need to rest for a day or two now ...
I have been watching with interest AndyT's project here. Managed to glean a few tips ...
Anyway, it is a small bookcase for my son. I decided to use it as dovetail practice - I mentioned in a thread in the Hand tools section that I have been struggling to appreciate my Veritas dovetail saw, but I thought I'd give it a go. I decided to go for pretty exposed joinery.
Top attached to the sides using lapped dovetails. I chopped out the waste between the pins by chisel, no sawing. Seemed easy and accurate (but annoyed my neighbour
)
I have scoffed at the "need" for skew chisels in the past, but I have to admit I found my homemade fishtail chisel useful for cleaning out the corners.
Glued up:
I think I still need a bit of practice, the glue lines are thicker than I'd like in places, and I had to fix a minor cock-up - the groove for the back panel clipped into one of the pins, and I had to fill the gap with a little sliver of carefully matched wood. I can't find the repair myself now, so it goes to show what you can recover from.
The bottom and middle shelf are held together with sliding dovetails- because I've never done them before so thought I should give it a go. I think I'd leave the shelves slightly wide next time, it is a bit too easy to knock a chip off the front of the tails when planing away the waste.
Here's where I've got to:
The glue up was stressful. I don't know how it is possible to juggle two sash clamps and a pair of clamping cauls with just the one pair of hands - I had to call in help from the kitchen ! Any tips on making this easier much appreciated.
There is quite a bit of colour variation in the oak; is seems to have come from quite modest sized trees so I've had to joint together 2-3 pieces to make up the width (it's 320mm deep). Some bits were rather dark, but I've tried to hide the worst mismatch at the back of the vertical dividers where hopefully nobody will notice.
Today's job has been resawing and planing up the wood for the back, hence the piles of shavings. I'm planning on tongue and grooved boards, with a little side bead so that I can play with some moulding planes. So far I've sawn the 28mm boards down the hard way to give me 2 x 3/8" pieces each (I love mixing my units). I first plowed a 1/8" groove on both sides to help guide the cut, then sawed down with my Thomas Flinn hand saw. I need to rest for a day or two now ...
