Indholdsfortegnelse for Issue 164 i Australian Woodsmith

Oak trees have historically provided a food source for ancient peoples, charcoal for the Romans to make iron, and the timbers required to build boats and navies. MAKING NAVIES It was while visiting the National Mari-time Museum in Falmouth, Cornwall that I saw my first logboat. As you can see on the opposite page, it is more like a canoe than a boat and uses Bronze Age technology to create a mode of transport that tamed the waterways. I spent some time counting the growth rings on this boat and decided that the tree was about 200 years old when it was felled and carved into its present form. A visit to the Portsmouth Historic Dockyard had me in awe admiring the wreck of the Mary Rose and the majestic…

The length of your jig is determined by a combination of the longest mortise, and the base of your router (upper left drawing). To control the length of the mortises, move the position of the short stop as needed. To make the narrower mortise for the mullions, adjust the fence and the short stop. The Router Set-up. A plunge router and a roughing end mill bit (detail ‘a’) is what I used here. Due to the depth of the mortises on the stiles and rails, it’s best to rout them in multiple passes. Before moving on, I squared up all the mortises with a chisel at the end of the milling session.…

Most of the kumiko I make is intended to be hung on the wall as decorative art, but I do sometimes incorporate it into the boxes and furniture I make. When I first began to do this, I would make the box, for example, then make and fit the kumiko to it. But that’s the wrong way to do it, because often you are left planing the kumiko frame down to fit the opening you have. That’s undesirable for a few reasons. First, it weakens the frame. Second, you end up with the outer frame pieces thinner than the interior ones and the infill pieces. The panel begins to look unbalanced. Finally, it’s just plain tedious and difficult to plane the outer frame parts of a kumiko panel. So, I…

SURCARE Surcare has a list of Q&As on their website that is sure to answer any question you have about their excellent sanders. Surcare recommends that hook and loop abrasive discs without holes should be used on the clover platten. If you use the more common discs with holes, the hooks on the platten will wear out. The Sandpaper Man is the place to go to get any and every abrasive product you may need. At a pinch you can cut down 178mm-dia flexOvit sanding discs from Bunnings. They come in packs of 5. STANLEY 10½ Carbatec now stocks a neat hand tool maintenance kit that includes three grades of Klingspor Schleiffix flexible rubber abrasive blocks (60-, 120- and 240-grit) and a bottle of camellia oil. Schleiffix blocks are the…

You may be wondering if you need to measure the moisture in kiln-dried timber that you purchase from a dealer. The short answer is yes. When commercial timber producers are drying timber, they monitor the moisture content of an entire stack of timber. The goal is to have the average moisture in the 6-9% range. But, as you can see in the graph to the right, that average leaves some timber still slightly wet, or overly dry. So it’s still a good idea to verify kiln-dried timber’s moisture content.…

Louis Pasteur said “A bottle of wine contains more philosophy than all the books in the world.” If that’s the case, then you’ll have quite the library at the ready with this project. Not because of its size, it’s more due to good design. The parts for the rack, back and dividers are all made from 12mm plywood. This was a perfect compromise when designing the look of the rack. Using 19mm material just felt and looked unnecessarily thick. Plus, using the 12mm ply for the back added a lot of rigidity to the case. To keep the scale properly proportioned, the drawer is made of 9mm material. But let’s start with the rack that stores the bottles first. That means sizing the case parts. MITRES. The sides, top and…

Back in the day, there was a wrist watch made by a company named Timex. The main selling point of the watch was its modest price and toughness. The slogan was “It takes a licking and keeps on ticking.” True to its word, I had several of those watches that served me faithfully for decades. Well, the bench you’re looking at here easily meets and surpasses those qualities. The modest-sized bench might lead you to think that it could be pushed around if you attempt any aggressive joinery work on it. Not so, the thick top planks and massive aprons that are let into the base with half-laps (and angled on the ends) means this bench won’t budge no matter what you throw at it. Those aprons have more going…

Birch (Betula pendula) trees will thrive in a very wide variety of habitats and are fast growing, but relatively short lived – around 60–90 years, although some may survive to almost twice that age. They are well known as ‘pioneer’ trees and are often found on the outer fringes of more mixed woodland, colonising open ground left behind by retreating glaciers or the effects of bushfires. They are able to survive in poor soil because their deep roots find nutrients and they improve the soil when their leaves decompose into humus. In this way birch trees prepare the ground for the later growth of other species. Birch is a prolific deciduous hardwood that spans the northern climes of Europe, Russia and North America. Many different species thrive in these inhospitable…

BEAVERCRAFT COMFORT BIRD CARVING KIT This new carving kit introduces the novice to the art of whittling. The comfort part of the kit is the fact that carving wood can be a relaxing exercise. It takes your mind off any stress that you might otherwise be feeling and allows you to focus on the challenge at hand. The end result is a tactile wooden bird, sanded smooth and waxed to bring out the grain. Fondling the bird relaxes the hands and releases the aroma of the bee’s wax and pine turpentine finish. What you get in the kit is a razor-sharp whittling knife, a leather strop and the honing compound to charge it. As you can see, the kit also comes with two 43 x 43 x 120mm blocks of…

The Stanley Tool Company manufactured carriage maker’s rebate planes from 1869 to 1964. As you can see, the mouth of the plane spans the width of the sole. The scallops cast into the sides of the body allow the blade and cap iron assembly to be removed for sharpening and adjustment. These scallops create a weak point in the design and, if the plane slips off the bench, is where the casting will crack. The Stanley No 10 series of planes (there is a 14" No 10 and a 12" No 10¼ in the same stable) are collectable and relatively hard to find. The plane is designed to shave flush to an edge and is used to clean out housing joints, shave tenons and lap joints, as well as cutting…

When Bjorn Jacobsen from Nordic Edge invited me to spend a day with master blacksmith Jamie "Sausage Man" Bishop forging a chef’s knife I had to say yes. A bit of background first. Bjorn was born in Norway and has grown up in a culture that carries knives and whittles pieces of wood at a moment’s notice. Making knives from scratch and from kits is a Nordic tradition. Bjorn knows the "creator’s joy" you experience when you make something with your own hands is infectious and addictive! In 2015 Bjorn set up Creative Man and started to import cutler’s hardware and knife kits. He recently changed the name of the company (women hold up half the sky!) and is keen to get more Australians involved in this rewarding hobby. Nordic…

Of all the architectural styles to choose from for your home, the look that arose from the Arts & Crafts movement is one of the most enduring. The entryways of these homes were often adorned with the no-nonsense elegance of what’s known as the Federation style. The well-proportioned parts that make up the door you see here are a perfect example of the whole being greater than the sum of its parts. You know — less is more. But you can’t live on understated looks alone. A lot of thought and planning has gone into making this solid-wood door. So outfitting it for a graceful life in the outdoors, as well as indoors, is the next concern. You have to keep in mind the stress and temperature trauma that this…

1 Large Trenches. A straight edge combined with a router and pattern bit takes all the stress out of making the trenches in the apron that mate with the base. 2 Angled Notch. The notches that lock the aprons to the base are made with a combination of two saws. A back saw for the shoulder, and a jigsaw for the angle. 3 Guide Opening. A combination of drill bits are needed to rough out the opening in the apron for the parallel guide. Then use a router and pattern bit to clean up. 4 Tidying Up. To clean up the opening, your router and pattern bit are called for. The template gets you started, then the walls of the opening guide the bit.…

In Issue 92 we profiled the Hegner Finger Joint machine you see to the right. Sadly this excellent machine is no longer being manufactured by Hegner. Lots of schools in New South Wales and Queensland bought the machine (from Wood Works Books & Tool Co Sydney) and have been incorporating it into their woodworking programs ever since. The machine quickly and accurately cuts finger joints in stock up to 16mm thick. The clever design keeps little fingers away from the cutters, making it a safe machine to use with students. Not only is the machine no longer being made, the Kress motor that powers it is also no longer in production. Fortunately Metabo makes a die grinder that shares the same 43mm-dia collar as the Kress. As you can see,…