Roorkey Chair – Part One

I don’t own a lathe so, when possible I’ve been going up to Pratt Fine Arts and getting lessons from whomever will teach me .. so it’s going very slowly.  I tried speeding up the stretchers by the octagon method on the table saw, but I’m a serious novice when it comes to turning.

Anne of All Trades giving excellent instruction.
Stretchers pre-shaped on the table saw.

I started wondering if I could use my shave horse and draw knife to move things along.  I spent 6 days in my Windsor chair class shaping spindles so I might be able to pull it off.

Here’s what I did and you can be the judge.  I’ll put up more photos as things progress.  Oh, and by the way, I think this was really Jason Thigpen’s (@txheritage) idea.

First I created stop cuts on the table saw. See far right leg.
Then, after careful lay out and lots of pencil lines, I trimmed with a sharp draw knife.
Trimming to the stop cuts.
Once most of the waste was gone I went to the spoke shaves and did , finally, finish cuts with my small Lee Valley concave spoke shave.
This is me using pencil lines to make sure I even things up.
Then I trimmed the feet the same way.
And finally I made the rounded top with draw knife and rasps. See next picture for work in progress.

More photos to come.

 

Bowl Carving Tool Chest

Here’s a quick picture summary on my Carving Tool Chest .. enjoy!

Finished cabinet using spray Minwax polyurethane.
I cut the dovetails with a mitered front dovetail.
I installed the back in a plowed groove.
First dry assembly.
Using the LN 48, I cut tongue and groove for the back boards.
Vertical grained doug fir for the back panel.
Internals and battens installed with Lee Valley Diamond-Head Forged Nails from Clouterie Rivierre.
Tool storage.
Finished cabinet with Black Bear forge handles.
Back French cleat using threaded inserts. Chest can be hung but also, after removing the cleat, used as a chest.
Bottom rail to support the chest with saw storage.

More glam shots.

Also, I used Burnheart sector for this project and here’s a quick clip on how to use it.

Mark Harrell – Bad Axe Tool Works

I’m sure that I’ve blabbed on about Mark and his awesome saws on my blog before, but I’m going to do it again.  All my backsaws are made by Mark except for the old dovetail saw I inherited and he re-plated that one.  He makes amazing saws and provides a truck load of free information about how to keep your work at top speed.

JasonBayonet.jpg

Mark has always been an amazing supporter of women woodworkers.  For International Women’s Day he posted this video:

International Women’s Day Video

Mark sure you check out his site: Bad Axe Toolworks

Progress on Carving Tool Chest

This is how I laid out the dovetails and the mitered shouldered dovetail for the bottom edge.

First I marked out the area that needs to be dovetailed and measured that with my dividers.
I wanted four tails, so I laid out the sector to fit the dividers at 8 ..
.. and then set the second set of dividers to 2 to be able to produce 4 tails.
Then I walked out the 4 tails adding a tiny bit to allow for pin spacing.
Ta da! 4 tails and pins.
This is how I cut the mitered dovetail to cover the slot that will hold the bottom of the cabinet.
And behold the mitered dovetail.

PS.  Wanna know where to get a sector?  Go here ->

CABINETMAKER’S SECTOR

Wanna know how to use a sector?? Or make a cheap one?  Go here -> http://www.burn-heart.com/sector