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Hello, There are 2 things to avoid when steam bending. There are others, but to simplify, if you want a high success rate, avoid softwoods, of which that frame is, and do not use kiln dried wood, of which you are almost certainly going to get. However, glue lams will work very well with...

Hello, Glued laminations. If you have a bandsaw, slice lots of veneers, glue on a former of mdf or similar. You'll need loads of clamps. It definitely won't be steam bent. If you haven't the means to gluelam the arches, redesign to make use of straight lengths joined into a many sided polygon...

Hello, I think often, long and hard about the diminishing timber resources and still cannot make my mind up as to what is best to do about the problem. Sometimes I think we shouldn't touch exotics with a barge pole, and then I get confused about why. Would the small amount of timber used by...

Hello, It is interesting that you think this; until you brought it up, I'd never considered 'man 'hours' as a reason for making a thing. Do you really think the lace makers have that criterion in their minds when they make lace? You are certainly courting Grayson Perry's notion that the hand...

Hello, Funny thing, taste; I think that rippled olive ash is drop dead gorgeous! I think the joinery for the mitred end/leg joint would be more of a concern then joining the acrylic leg on. I'm not sure I'd trust biscuits, a plywood spline might be better, but could only be in quite a shallow...

Hello, For there to be any cap iron effect, the leading edge has to be set 0.3 mm from the cutting edge, certainly not more than 0.5 mm. If the camber is greater than this, either the cap iron is set back more than will yield any effect, or the cap iron is set over the edge of the iron near the...

Hello, If you gently camber your plane iron, and want a cap iron to actually give a cap iron effect, of course it should conform to the radius. But the camber should only be slight, most people tend to put far too much camber on their irons. For a smoother it is almost imperceptible. So a cap...

Hello, That's cheating, custard! It is not that all quartered timber is boring, nor is the boring stuff not attractive in its place, it is just some exciting wood is from the crown cut stuff, and not being able to re-saw it would be frustrating. I like to use a mixture of cuts in my work...

Hello, The thing with quarter sawn black walnut is, it is sooo boring. Useful for frame members, but a nice, re-sawn crown cut board, book matched for a panel looks great. I have always re-sawn such boards and also sawn it into veneers. I have always been patient and fastidiously put the newly...

Hello, When re-sawing, it is best to place the cut boards immediately in stick, with weights on top to keep them flat. They must remain like this until they have equalised, as the inside will be wetter than the outside when newly cut. It usually takes a few days, or a week. Longer if the boards...

Hello, Erm, no it won't, which is why I bothered saying so. Nor will it do tusk tenons or barefaced tenons, birds mouth tenons. These all have to be worked from the solid. They are all things that have to be designed out, to accommodate the domino. Proportion has to be designed around the...

Hello, Cheeses, you have a Sedgwick morticer and you think there is any need for a domino? Wow. The versatility of a morticer is not the fact you can use it as another machine, I.e. A drill, but the versatility of the joinery it will do. Dominos will not do through mortices, haunched mortices...

Hello, Who would that be? I suspect he is talking for effect, or he is an *****; no one can look at a plane and tell if it is flat enough. What is certain, if there is a lack of flatness in specific important areas, the plane is useless, and it is not possible to see the difference from a...

Hello, There are other ways of making mortise and tenon joints by machine. I don't agree that a domino is essential for a professional maker. It may be for some, depends on what you do, but I'd not spend over a grand for one, when a decent hollow chisel morticer is obtainable for that sort of...

Hello, I believe this is for softwoods and the wedges set into saw kerfs is for hardwoods. I have another variation on wedging in saw kerfs, which is slightly different to the one Custard has superbly described. In fact I used to use that method pretty much exactly for years, until I found...

Hello, Was just about to say the same, but Custard beat me too it! Alternatively, you can set the wedges across the diagonal. This way, gaps are taken up on all four faces of the tenon. Mike.

Hello, Of course there are areas on a planes sole that are acceptable being hollow. But how do we know if this is the case, unless we start the flatting process and reveal where the coplanar areas and hollow areas are. Then when you've started..... In my experience, I've not had a Stanley or...

Hello, Which people say it is unnecessary? Those who have never done it out of ignorance or laziness,perhaps. Those who have used a plane with a truly flat sole never say it is unnecessary, as you have discovered. Mike.

Hello, Slightly off the thread, but this is not entirely true. If a piece of walnut sapwood, without any brown heartwood included, is steamed, it will turn brown. It is more due to the heat, I guess it works like torrification. Regarding the original question, many species, black walnut being...

Hello, I see, though you dont need to worry about offsets with a bush guided tee square. Just run the cutter through the tee part and that shows you exactly where to line up the guide against your layout marks. Since router cutters only come in (many) fixed sizes, you always have to size your...