Indholdsfortegnelse for March - April 2023 i Quercus

When it comes to measurements in the workshop I often hear woodworkers raving over the latest tape rule or antique boxwood folding rules, but how often do we consider the accuracy any particular measurement requires, or the method in which we use any of our rules? For example, when striking a distance with an etched steel rule, do we abut the end of the rule and the component suitably to achieve an accurate starting point (Pic.1), and do we engage the marking knife in the engraved scale mark as we transfer the measurement to the wood (Pic.2)? Sometimes we should, especially if we wish to repeat the measurement at some future time. Some measurements are only important for comparison, for example checking the length of components that can’t be brought…

Having a practical knowledge of using just a simple knife goes far beyond making a noisy whistle, but as a starting project it is a good choice. If finished accurately and correctly it gives you not just an object to look at, but a real working and noisy instrument; lethal to adults in the hands of unsuper vised kids. There is a gem in whittling whistles because the end result is always objectively obvious: either it works or it does not. Since it is hard to be satisfied with a silent whistle, every practitioner knows when the acceptable result is achieved. It this is not the first whistle, don’t worry, but it might just be the next one. You need no special tools to make whistles: a pocket knife will…

It is always heartening to hear of crafts being saved through the passion and commitment of just one or two individuals. Take the once-dominant Leicester rattan industry. While the product itself comes from the South East Asian jungle, it was so plentiful in the nineteenth century that it was used as a packing material for US-bound goods. In the 1840s, Cyril Wakefield saw a Boston dock nearly buried in rattan packing and recognized the potential of a material that is both solid and flexible. He established a factory in Massachusetts, making lightweight rattan furniture and baby carriages. In 1907, inspired by fine Austrian and German willow and cane work, Harry Hardy Peach and his friend Benjamin Fletcher (who was head of Leicester School of Art) formed Dryad Furniture near Leicester.…

Based usually on size, the terms coping saw and fret saw are often applied incorrectly. The distinction is however, more about the blade type and use. Fretsaws are also referred to as jeweller’s saws and are often smaller than coping saws. They tend to use shorter unpinned blades that are intended for fast turns and manoeuvrability, and using the correct blade type they can be used for metalwork or woodwork. Knew Concepts’ fret and coping saws have been around for a little while now and there are various marks/models. They are made in the USA and were developed by Lee Marshall and Brian Meek. Their challenging goal was to improve the design of an iconic tool that had previously remained largely unchanged for around a century. The first Knew Concepts…

People mostly use their edge-trimming planes for the final trimming cuts on joined boards. Just one pass or two will get the machine marks removed and edge squared at the same time -- almost effortlessly. It is a useful but uncommon plane because many woodworkers are unaware of its many other uses. The edge-trimming plane can actually do a lot more than just trimming edges. In the past, I have used the versatile plane to trim, shoot, bevel and more. Let me share a few tips on some of its other uses. For starters, you can shoot end-grain with an edge-trimming plane in two easy steps. First, chamfer the exit end to prevent blow-out (Pic.1). Then hold the fence against the face, and shoot the end-grain in multiple passes (Pic.2).…

It’s a delicate confession by the editor of a magazine for readers who love working wood by hand. Even though we claim the content to be ‘mostly’ hair-shirtish, permitting the use of a bandsaw, a planer-thicknesser, a cordless drill, perhaps even some other useful bits of kit like the chainsaw and the mobile sawmill. But it is at the router and router table that we draw the line, and that is how I’ve always cut dovetails, often with the brilliant Gifkins jigs. Martin Godfrey designed the Woodrat to replicate hand-cut joints, but it’s still not hand-cut so as Deneb Puchalski comments elsewhere this issue: “To me it loses a bit of its appeal and the aesthetic isn’t quite there. I’ve found that when you go by your eye, when you…

Centuries before Stanley standardised plane blade angles at 45° (with a few exceptions) many additional blade angles were commonly in use, the result of the experience of generations of crafters that suggested the best angle to be used for certain woods or certain procedures. Those of us who grew up in the generations since Stanley first dominated the market rarely stopped to question “Why only 45°?” Why use different blade angles? While one blade angle certainly does plane all woods; and perhaps 45° is the best compromise angle, but it is just that: a compromise. It does not work as well for all woods. While most of us put up with it or just work around it, when supported by a correct mouth opening and chipbreaker setting, an appropriate blade…

People who know me or have trained with me are quite well aware that I tend to bang on about hand skills and not over-complicating things. What I’m really on about is balance and being pragmatic, there are no prizes in life for being a destitute Luddite, but maintaining traditional skills in amongst the machinery and modern technology can in my opinion actually increase productivity and enhance that general sense of achievement that making things with wood can give. Securing a bit of wood while shaping it in some way is a basic woodworking requirement, but the technique of hanging onto the wood with one hand while attacking it with a sharp implement held in the other is just a recipe for you or the wood getting damaged. The rather…

You don’t often hear a woodworker say he probably has enough tools, but… I’ll say it. As far as general woodworking goes, I’m pretty sure I could do most anything I need to do with the existing set of tools I have. I likely have the right tools for a number of woodworking paths, if you must know. So then why do I still swing by estate sales and salvage shops? And why do I head for the workbench area and search the rafters and walls instead of running for the vintage hand planes? It’s simple, really. Screws. I’m looking for screws. Specifically, I’m looking for vintage or older slotted wood screws. At first, I was only interested in steel screws, and I had a clean Union Mfg Co small…

The ‘Anarchist Woodworker’, that sounds all quite complicated. Nah, I just do what I feel like! For some years I had a longing to re-read some of those treasured John Brown articles, as I remembered them from Good Woodworking. Those old mags were foolishly chucked out, because they were taking up too much space. I respected John Brown simply on the strength of his beautiful chairs. Otherwise, I remember raising my eyebrows sometimes. In the first issue of Quercus two new books on John Brown were brought to my attention. And so, about a month ago I ordered the ‘Good Work’ title from Classic Hand Tools. Now I’d be able to re-read some of those long-lost columns. I realise that there are things in John’s philosophy which I cannot really…

Sash clamps are used for holding and clamping work together during assembly or when being glued. They generally consist of a long bar with two jaws. The first jaw is permanently attached to the bar and has a mechanical device that enable pressure to be applied to the work being assembled. The second jaw, called the shoe, can be fixed at one of a number of points along the bar. This is an essential tool for clamping up joints in furniture and joinery products such as doors and window frames. Small workshops usually have at least one. Usual practice is to glue and assemble the frame then clamp up and dowel or nail one pair of joints at a time. All industrially-made clamps make use of a metal screw to…

Decisions on which tools to carry and how depend on what we are setting out to do, and when. Two hundred years ago the questing journeyman travelling from one workshop to another was obliged to carry every tool they possessed, which is why an early task in their apprenticeship was making a sturdy tool chest. Equipped with sliding trays and drawers, guarded by lock and key, such a Fort Knox of a chest packed a ton of tools into relatively small volume and kept them safe. While on the road the chest was transported by stagecoach or railway, thence by a local carrier’s horse and cart to the new workshop, there to be assisted in the lifting by a fellow worker taking one end. But for those of us of…

Anyone can make a saw vice. Find a few scraps of plywood, connect them with an old hinge, and add some hardwood jaws. These cheap and cheer ful DIY vices help lots of woodworkers get their saws in order. I’ve made a few and they work. But the homemade saw-vice is no match for a vintage vice made from beefy cast iron. These hefty antiques have the mass to absorb vibration and hold your saw rigid as you file away on the teeth. Most of these vises have clever quick-release levers that get you in and out in a snap. Some of them even have nifty features like a ball-and-socket that pivots to any angle you desire. I own several of these old vises, but my favorite is the Disston…

The Edge My first woodwork exercise at secondary school in September 1969 was to make a coat peg using two pieces of pine assembled by mortise-and-tenon joint. Attired in white cotton aprons we 30 pasty-faced pupils gathered at the blackboard while the teacher drew diagrams and passed a peg around the group for study. Then it was off to the benches (of the regular sort made by EMIR of Kent, a face vice each side, cupboards underneath) for a half-century journey of marking, sawing, planing and chiselling to begin, and what fun it has been! Inevitably I have broken the pencil, sawed on the wrong side of the line, planed too far and chiselled in the wrong spot but every so often a mortise-and-tenon joint has gone together as soundly…