Happy Halloween!!
Just a little Happy Halloween from everyone at TheWoodWhisperer.com. A few goofy pictures for your enjoyment:
Thanks to Kelly, Andy Hobbs (and Angela), and Sean Wisniewski for their respective Photoshop and pumpkin-carving skills!
If you like these, perhaps you’ll enjoy some of the other photos in our Goofy Gallery!
105 – Oh For Keepsake!
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Its that time of year again: HOLIDAY PROJECT TIME! So this year, I decided to make a few little keepsake boxes, thanks to some advice from The Great WOODini. I also took inspiration from a box Nicole keeps on her nightstand and developed a new design that is much more practical for the average woodworker to make. The boxes feature a secret locking pin. Once removed, the lid slides off on a sliding dovetail. And as always with these holiday gift projects, you can modify them by trying different sizes, shapes, and wood species to make your own one-of-a-kind box. And since they are so easy to make, its no problem batching out a bunch of them in a single weekend. If you decide to make some, please send me pics of your variations.
Topics Covered:
- Creating sliding dovetails
- Using a dowel-centering pin to locate holes
- Cutting a recess with a pattern bit
- Sanding end-grain
And here are a few pictures of the final boxes:
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Circle Templates – $32.99 This template set has been incredibly useful for numerous projects including these keepsake boxes and the Contemporary Clock Project from last year. |
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GRR-Ripper™ Adjustable Push Block – $59.99 The GRR-Ripper is the fancy push block you see me using in this video. Incredibly useful and gives you ultimate control of the workpiece! |
Maple Bunk Bed – Viewer Project
This project comes to us from Jeff in Massachusetts. Let’s check it out:
Here are a few photos of a project I completed in April of 09. It is basically modified from Rockler’s Bunk Bed Plan, made from Maple with a few coats of water-based poly, for my youngest daughter. She has the smaller bedroom and uses the top bunk as a loft space for hanging out and reading (loves to read).
It is mostly to plan but I substituted hardwood dowels for the turned spindles (yankee thrift) and left out a few of the curves. I don’t own a bandsaw so curves are roughed out with a handheld jigsaw and then completed with a pattern bit and my router. The top loft got quickly loaded with her ’stuff’ including stuffed animals. The photos show the ‘backside’ view too (which is kind of funny, at least I think so).
That’s a Funny Looking Chisel – Viewer Question
This question comes from Adam B. He asks:
Marc, I am watching your Entertainment Center Video (Pt 1) and noticed something odd with your large chisel. How did you flatten the back of it? It looks like there are three channels cut into it.
The chisels I use on the show (most times) are Fujihiro Japanese chisels. In general, Japanese chisels are made with harder steel than their Western cousins, which means it can take a lot longer to flatten their backs. And a flat back is an absolutely critical component to any chisel you actually intend to use! So to speed up the flattening process, a good amount of steel is removed from the back of the chisel. And as you can see in the picture, wider chisels can have multiple hollows. So now the actual amount of steel that needs to be removed in the flattening process is significantly reduced. Which means you are going to spend less time at the sharpening stone, and more time at the workbench.
This is the same concept behind creating a hollow bevel. Many folks prefer hollow bevels because they can be easier to sharpen, not just because of speed, but because its easier to balance with two points of contact. FYI, some may disagree with me on this but this is just my opinion from my experience. So the hollows are a little unusual-looking, but they do serve a purpose.
I borrowed the image to the right from a great article on FineWoodworking.com called “Speedy Freehand Sharpening” by Hendrik Varjhu.
Check it Out!
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