Indholdsfortegnelse for Issue 169 i Australian Woodsmith

It was a delight to be invited to the opening of “Beyond Ordinary” at the Sturt Gallery in Mittagong and to hear the introductions delivered by the Head of Sturt, Kristie Phelan and Lucy Turnbull AO. Both spoke eloquently about elevating the profile of women makers in wood and the non-linear paths that we follow these days. Most of the makers whose work was on exhibition had morphed themselves from one profession to another. Looking back, I can count on one hand the makers I know who had direct paths to becoming professional woodworkers and toolmakers. Most of us make a living and dive into woodwork as a release for our creative drives. Evan Dunstone was a pilot before he put his flying gloves in the drawer and took up…

Two years ago I apprenticed myself to Mitch Ainsley for a day and helped him upgrade the Davden 20" thicknesser above and bring it into the 21st century (see Issue 159). It took a day to replace the old three-bladed cutting head and install a six-spiralled CTS cutter head with 126 tungsten inserts. Last month I dropped into Mosman High School to catch up with Mark Jones (our Technical Editor) and get an update on how the machine was going. I was amazed that only one insert was chipped and that the rest felt sharp and were still producing an excellent surface finish (the chipped insert left no evidence on the boards and was only noticed when we inspected the cutting head). As you can see bottom left, each insert…

KNIFE MAKING Nordic Edge and Gameco Artisan Supplies can supply all you need to build knives on your balcony. If you have a shed they can supply forges, anvils and every other blacksmithing item you need. Knife making as a hobby started for me when I spent a Saturday with the guys at Nordic Edge. Knife Engineering by Dr Larrin Thomas is available on Amazon. TTTG The Traditional Tools Group website has a trove of information about old tools and techniques that will keep you entertained for at least a month (click on the resources menu tab). If you want to become a member, check online and come to a meeting. KITCHEN TOOLS The 304 Grade stainless steel and the 3.8 x 16mm brass rivets used in the dough knife…

SQUEEZEOUT-FREE GLUING I’ve always struggled with cleaning up the squeezeout from gluing mitre joints. When I was working on a mitred box recently though, I was struck with an idea. Once I was ready to make the mitre cuts, I took some painters tape and laid it on the edges of my workpeices, overhanging where I was going to make the cut. After making the mitres on the table saw, I had a perfect “zero-clearance” tape right up to the edge of that board. To keep the squeezeout off all of your pieces, make sure you do this for all edges that are going to be glued. I did the glue-up as normal and clamped everything in place. I came back once the glue had dried and peeled the tape…

Making my own woodworking tools offers a new level of enjoyment of practising this craft. I also love to cook. So why not bring those two concepts together by making some kitchen tools? Here are four options that would make an ideal set or to mix and match. Cutting boards use up scrap pieces most of us have squirrelled away. A small one like this serves as an ideal extra prep surface in the kitchen or on display as a serving board for cheese, charcuterie or fruit and vegies. A scraper comes in handy for scooping chopped food into a larger bowl or cooking pot. Sometimes called a dough knife, it also divides dough cleanly. Speaking of dough, a rolling pin can be simple or complex. Our version is inspired…

Over the years, we’ve featured a number of different mitre saw stations, some of them taking up an entire wall. The one shown here hits what I consider a sweet spot in terms of size and features. The drop-down wings on either side of the cabinet open out to provide over 2.4m of workpiece support. Below the saw is a compartment for a dedicated workshop vacuum. And the whole thing is mounted on castors, so it can easily be tucked away when not in use. START WITH THE CASE. With the exception of a couple of parts, this mitre saw station is built entirely out of 19mm plywood. The case is an open, plywood box. To build it, I started by cutting the panels for the sides, back and bottom…

Dale Dryden and Ruth Thompson deserve high praise for the fabulous exhibition they curated at Sturt Gallery in Mittagong this year. Dale and Ruth are aware that female makers are underrepresented in gallery exhibitions, hence an all-female tour de force of creativity and cooperation, inspiring younger women to break free of gender stereotypes and follow their own creative star. It is appropriate that Sturt Gallery hosted the exhibition. In the opening address Head of Sturt Kristie Phelan praised the vision of the founder of Sturt in 1941, Winifred West, and went on to detail how the school has evolved over time to become a place of excellence in design and the art of making. Lucy Turnbull AO was then introduced and spoke about how we live in non-linear times and…

Having made a box with angled dovetails, I decided to have a go at making one with curved dovetails. I’ve seen lots of boxes where the dovetails have been cut square and then the sides rounded; although this is a simple method it leaves the dovetails much thicker at the middle as the baseline does not follow the curve of the sides. It does, however, give you square sides to the inside of the box, which is desirable for lining. So I decided to go for evenly curveddovetailswhileretaining square sides on the inside of the box. Construction Overview OVERALL DIMENSIONS: 280 x 114 x 66 Marking the TAIL BOARDS At this stage it’s best to mark everything clearly out on both ends of each tail board. I used one edge…

Are you able to stretch your timber to make it go further? The answer is no, well not at the moment, anyway. It’s all down to how you cut the length up. It’s not magic. If you like more straight-sided bowls this will not work for you, but it will work for bowls that have more sloping sides. If you cut bowls at 150mm square out of a piece of timber 608mm long – with a 8mm cut allowance – you can only manage four bowls from this length, but cutting every other bowl upside down with a 75mm base allows you to cut five from the same length of timber. This means you now get five bowls instead of four. How many extra you will get using this method…