The Rest of the Beginning

You may remember the front of this cabinet from my post The Beginning from way back in December in which I created the door with a cherry tree motif using a bolection inlay technique which left the branches and blossoms lightly proud of the surface.

I started the rest of the cabinet by designing it using SketchUp, I continued the wood combination from the door, cherry for the sides, walnut for the shelves and the top/bottom, curly maple for the drawer and the back.

The box is joined with finger joints to highlight the contrasting woods, the shelves are let into the sides with dadoes. The back is 1/4 inch birch plywood with curly maple veneer. The drawer is curly maple with a 1 inch hole for a pull.

I used a 1/2 inch quarter round bit on the inside edge of the hinge side of the door then used a 1/4 inch brass rod attached from the top and the bottom as a pivot hinge. I used a cove bit to route a handle into the free side to keep the lines clean and simple. The door rests inside the edge of the top and bottom letting the walnut frame the door.

The finish is as simple as it comes, a few coats of Watco Danish Oil, Natural, followed by a rubbing with paste wax. I installed a french cleat to the back of the cabinet and attached it to the wall that way. I've very happy with the way this came out. I enjoy making Stickley, Limbert, and Greene & Green reproductions but sometimes it's really nice to design something yourself and see it come to life.

It's a job that's never started that takes the longest to finish.
J. R. R. Tolkien

Maloof Inspired Rocker, Finale

Well friends and neighbors, here it is, the complete and finished rocker. After many weekends of work, some re-work, lots of shaping and lots and lots of sanding it's finally finished. Quite a few of you have asked, and yes, it is very comfortable. The seat feels great, the back slats curve just right to support my back, the arm rests are just the right curve to fit, well at least to fit me. Last but not least, it looks great in my living room.

The rockers came out great, and with the chair upside down I was able to run sandpaper along the whole underside creating a smooth gentle curve to rock on. One of my favorite details is the transition from the back legs to the rockers, take a second to enlarge the picture and take a look at it, but pictures don't do it justice, come over and run your fingers along the curves.


The organic shape of this style of rocker is what draws people to it, and it's true, they just can't help but touch it.

I tried very hard to make the arms match and to edge each one with a nice sharp hard line. The smooth transition from the front legs into the arm is something people that have seen it coment on, it really wasn't that difficult thanks to the instruction on the DVD and book.

Shaping the front leg into the seat smoothly was challenging but the joint itself was easy and it fit perfectly with the two matching router bits that Mr. Brock recommends.

The crestrail is the most visible part of the chair and therefore the part I wanted the most srtiking grain on, when I unpacked my walnut the very first day I set this piece aside for the crestrail. I think I made the right choice.




I have commented on Mr. Brock's DVD/Book throughout the process of building this rocking chair only in a positive way, please be assured that I have no connections with Mr. Brock other than a nice Email he sent me after my first blog post. I was given the DVD/Book as a Christmas gift. I found the instruction and plans to be spot on, the templates and jigs described in the book are not overly complicated and very useful, I would not attempt a rocker of this complexity without them. I do have one criticism of the DVD though, there is alot of time spent watching Mr. Brock work with accompaning guitar music, while the music is good, I feel that I would have been better served by voice over description of the process. I do realize that this is Mr. Brock's first DVD and I haven't viewd his DVD on building a Maloof low back dining chair, maybe you won't agree with me, it is after all just my opinion, but yeah, less music, more naration please. Mr. Brock is a professional woodworker and instructor, I could not have even attempted this project without his product, thank you Charles, you helped push this woodworker to a new level.

"Little by little, one travels far." - J.R.R. Tolkien

Limbert #366 Bookcase Finished

The last couple of weekends I spent most of my time finishing the Limbert bookcase, if you're not familiar with my finishing process check out my post on it here. It takes a few days to complete with drying time in between, so while I was waiting I was working on my Shaker table for The Woodwhisperer Guild March Woodworkers Fighting Cancer build. It was kind of nice having two projects going on at the same time, if I got bored with sanding I could switch over to tapering the legs of the table, if I didn't have much time I could work on the drawer. I decided to go with a medium brown finish for the bookcase so I started with medium brown dye and I used brown Mahogany gel stain for the over stain. I took the time to finish the backing plywood prior to attaching it to the back of the case with 1/2 inch staples to allow for any wood movement.
Once the dark wax was mostly dry I had a friend help me carry it into the house, all that quartersawn white oak is heavy. After letting the wax cure overnight I couldn't wait to set up my vintage Kodak camera collection on the top and fill the bookcase with my woodworking and photography books that have been piled on my dining room table for months. Then I decompressed some of my other bookcases leaving me with a whole empty shelf to expand in to.
I was very happy with the way this project came together, I started with just some pictures and measurements, used Sketchup to make them into a workable plan and went on from there. One detail that I didn't cover in my
previous posts is the bevel on the edge of the adjustable shelves, its a nice little touch that you can see in the pictures or some of the antiques. I created the bevel the same way I did on the top of the Shaker table, I adjusted the angle of my tablesaw to 12.5 degrees and set the fence 1/2 inch away from the blade. Using a tall fence and a magnetic featherboard I carefully moved the shelves vertically past the blade. Cuts like this almost always leave burn marks so a little clean up with a low angle smoothing plane was in order. Every time I make something I learn something new, sometimes something big, sometimes something small, I noticed with this bookcase sitting near my last one that my sanding and finishing have improved. I learned on this one that it is easier to finish a bookcase with the back not attached, a lot easier.

"Happiness is not something ready made. It comes from your own actions."

- His Holiness the Dalai Lama

Music Stand part 3

This weekend I started out by sanding all the flat surfaces of the mahogany ribs and then taking to the edges and curves off everything with a folded piece of sandpaper . There are no pictures of this because I don't like getting dust all over my camera. Once I started to assemble the music stand I didn't think that I would need to clamp the ribs into the stand because the fit was tight enough that the last they took a gentle rap with a deadblow hammer to drive each one that final smidge, but I decided to err on the safe side and clamped each rib in place just in case the glue would piston one of the ribs out as it set up.

After a little more hand sanding and the first two coats of Watco Natural Danish Oil I decided to take the stand out onto the lawn for a better shot. I think it turned out great so far, with many more coats of Danish Oil and a coat of wax this stand will glow.

“Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don’t matter and those who matter don’t mind.” ~Dr. Seuss

Dragonfly Inlayed Jewelrybox

This is my second inlaid jewelry box and like the first one it is also a gift. The box is made from one board of Bolivian Rosewood planed to 5/8 inches thick. I cut the miters so that the grain would appear to wrap around the box.

The background for the image is curly maple with an interesting knot feature and some dark streaks. The wings are quartersawn mahogany with ebony tips. The main body is wenge and the tail is zebra wood. The eyes are padauk outlined by ebony and the legs are ebony. The branch is walnut, click on the image and view it larger to get a better idea of the inlay. The inlay is attached to 1/4 inch thick Baltic birch plywood, the bottom is also Baltic birch plywood.

After sanding I cut the top off on the tablesaw leaving a very thin piece of wood to be removed with a handsaw. I cleaned up the remaining wood with a block plane and some sanding. One this box I used a couple of 10mm barrel hinges, they worked out better than the hinges I used on the previous one. The box is finished with multiple coats of Danish Oil followed by two coats or paste wax, the inside is top and bottom is covered with wine colored flocking.

This is the first small box that I am completely happy with the way it turned out. As with anything, practice makes better, not perfect, but still better.

What matters is the value we've created in our lives, the people we've made happy & how much we've grown as people. ~D. Ikeda

Hummingbird Inlayed Jewelrybox

I've been practicing lately with double bevel marquetry because like many woodworking techniques you need to work on it to have any kind of success with it. One of my favorite subjects to work on is hummingbirds, they are very colorful and have an interesting shape. This image you see at the left is one I made for this jewelry box, its set into a nice piece of Walnut veneer that I cut. I used Mahagony, Maple, Wenge, Lignum Vitae, Cherry, and Zebrawood. I cut some of the Mahagony along the endgrain to get the figure that I used in the flower.

After all the marquetry was complete I flattened it with a hand scraper and then applied a few coats of Watco Danish oil to bring out the grain of the different woods. I glued the veneer onto a substrate of 1/4 inch Baltic Birch plywood.

The box is made out of Bolivian Rosewood milled to 1/2 inch thick and simply mitered with a few 23 guage pins to reinforce the corners. After sanding I cut the top off on the tablesaw leaving a very thin piece of wood to be removed with a handsaw. I cleaned up the remaining wood with a block plane and some sanding. I then went on to route in the hinges and attach them. A few coats of Danish oil and some dark wax finished off the outside of the box.

Inside the box I used a wine colored flocking to cover the plywood inside the top and bottom of the box, leaving the sides uncovered. I've made a few little boxes but they are not my strong suit, the tollerances are much higher and any little defect shows right up, but this was a gift and I think it turned out great.

"The child is in me still...and sometimes not so still." ~Mr. Rogers

Arched Aurora End Table finished!

Over the past week I put the finishing touches on my Aurora End Table from Darrell Peart's class. I used the finish recipe that Darrell recommended in his blog, that is General Finishes Water based Dye, 7 parts orange, 4 parts medium brown, followed by many coats of General Finishes Arm-r-Seal all hand rubbed. I used one coat of the dye followed by a light hand sanding to get rid of any raised grain. I also did a very light sanding between every few coats of Arm-r-seal. When I was happy with the build up on the finish I completed the project with a coat of Watco light liquid wax. I was torn on wether to use the light wax or the dark wax, but I wanted to keep the look as light as possible so I went with the light wax. The table was originally going to be a bedside table for my guest room but it was so beautiful I wanted it somewhere where it would be seen often and appreciated. Thanks again to Darrell for all his teaching on this project and to Marc for some great company and finishing advice. This was my first true Greene and Greene style project, I don't think that it will be the last.

"Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work." - Thomas A. Edison

Mistakes made

When I first embarked on this wonderful hobby I was so very excited to start making pieces of furniture for my home. I checked out every book on furniture plans I could find at our library, I obsessively poured over all the magazines for articles on projects that I liked. I started to buy books of plans as I purchased tools. I immediately began building furniture, I couldn't wait to finish projects and have them to use.

That was the big problem and it took me a few years to realize it. I was rushing through the process. I was making things, but something was lacking in my understanding of what it meant to be a woodworker. I had some decent power tools, I had alot of books and magazines. I had a nice selection of wood to use, and plans to use it on. I didn't have alot of hand tools, and now that I look back, I didn't have alot of skills.

In the picture above you can see scratches in the door panel left from the planer that I failed to remove. And in the picture to the left you can see where I relied too much on my power planer and since I didn't know how, and didn't have a scraper or a low angle plane I ended up with tearout on the curly maple that I wouldn't tolerate today.

If you look closely in this picture you'll notice saw marks from trimming the door down with my tablesaw, now, I'd take a sharp, well tuned plane and with a few nice swipes I would have had the door with an exact fit and no ugly saw marks. You will also notice that the bridle joint is offset to the front instead of being centered even though the rails were inset by 1/8th of an inch, what I had done was cut the joint before I planed down the stiles to 5/8ths and the rails to 1/2, I don't even know why I did this.

This picture makes me cringe, yes, this cabinet is dovetailed, and pretty well too, but it is done wrong. The pins should be on the vertical surfaces and the tails should be on the horizontal surfaces.
Lack of understanding, but a really nice Leigh D1600 dovetail jig, gave me nice tight dovetails that were completely wrong. All in all its a nice little cabinet that lives by my back door and holds keys, a coupe of flashlights and bug spray, people see it and love it, but I see it and hang my head in shame. Granted, now I do have a shop, and I have alot of really nice tools, heck, I have handplanes that cost more than the tablesaw I had when I made this cabinet. I also have the knowledge and skills to use those handtools and to not only make a piece, but to make it right. I've learned a great deal from my online friends, I've taken a few courses and I've focused on technique, not just the final object. I've watched others and I've learned a great deal, but the most important thing I've learned is that it is the process that makes the final product something of value.

"The quieter you become, the more you can hear." ~Baba Ram Dass

Limbert Fern Stand, Felicia's table.

Here is the completed Limbert Fern Stand for my friend Felicia. Its all glued up and sanded and ready for the finishing to begin.

But before I start finsihing its time for a little branding, I like to put my logo in a place that doesn't show unless you really look, this one is under the top. My brand is heated up with a propane torch and tested on scrap pieces of oak, once its hot enough I carefully place it and press firmly, there is no second chance here.

My finish process for an authentic Arts and Crafts look isn't simple and it isn't fast, but it looks great compared to original period pieces and it really "pops" the ray flecks in the quartersawn white oak.

Sand piece to 150 grit and clean with tack rag or vacuum.

Wipe a good coat of dye on, for this piece I chose Transtint Medium Brown dye in water, be sure to cover all sides and keep dye from puddling in corners and at base. Leave to dry for at least 24 hours.
Lightly sand to remove raised grain with 220 grit, avoid oversanding especially at corners and edges.
Pad on a 1LB cut of amber shellac or sanding sealer.
Using a 320 grit sanding pad gently rub surface, clean with tack cloth or vacuum.

Apply Brown Mahagony Gel stain being careful to not cover too large of an area because once dry its very hard to wipe off. Once the gel starts to haze rub it off with a clean lint free cloth, I prefer old T-shirts. This gives you a warm rubbed in look. Let dry overnight.

Pad on 2-3 2LB cut coats of amber shellac, I tightly fold a square of T-shirt material, then soak it in the shellac and squeeze out excess, rub it in until it starts to drag then let dry. The coat of shellac should dry in 30 minutes or less. Repeat until you get the build you want.
Again, using 320 grit sanding pad gently rub surface, clean with a tack cloth or vacuum.
Take a few minutes to go over the whole piece with your clean hand, checking the surface for any rough areas or holidays.
Using a clean square of T-shirt rub in a thick coat of Watco Dark Liquid wax. Avoid plain or light colored waxes as these may leave white residue in the pores of the oak. When the wax is dry buff it out with a clean square of T-shirt.

Let the wax sit and "harden" for a few days then its ready to take in the house or in this case, ready to be shipped across country. Hope you enjoy the table Felicia, it should fit right in with your old house.

"True art expressed in its simplest formula is merely use made beautiful" - Charles Limbert

Stickley Coat Rack, Part 3, the end.

Today I completed the Stickley Coat Rack and took it over to my neighbor so that she could take it to her office. It turned out very nice and it was fun to make.

I installed some nice large antiqued bronze coat hooks, three on each side just like the original.

I used my favorite finishing recipe for arts and crafts furniture.

Sand piece to 150 grit and clean with tack rag or vacuum.
Wipe a good coat of dye on, be sure to cover all sides and keep dye from puddling in corners and at base. Leave to dry for at least 24 hours.
Lightly sand to remove raised grain with 220 grit, avoid oversanding especially at corners and edges.
Pad on a 1LB cut of amber shellac or sanding sealer.
Using a 320 grit sanding pad gently rub surface, clean with tack cloth or vacuum.
Apply Brown Mahogany Gel stain being careful to not cover too large of an area because once dry its very hard to wipe off. Once the gel starts to haze rub it off with a clean lint free cloth, I prefer old T-shirts. This gives you a warm rubbed in look. Let dry overnight.
Pad on 2-3 2LB cut coats of amber shellac, I tightly fold a square of T-shirt material, then soak it in the shellac and squeeze out excess, rub it in until it starts to drag then let dry. The coat of shellac should dry in 30 minutes or less. Repeat until you get the build you want.
Again, using 320 grit sanding pad gently rub surface, clean with a tack cloth or vacuum.
Take a few minutes to go over the whole piece with your clean hand, checking the surface for any rough areas or holidays.
Using a clean square of T-shirt rub in a thick coat of Watco Dark Liquid wax. Avoid plain or light colored waxes as these may leave white residue in the pores of the oak. When the wax is dry buff it out with a clean square of T-shirt.

I posted this in February but I wanted to revisit it because its been a while and people in the Woodwhisperer chat room have been asking me about it recently. As a reward for myself I picked up a L-N low angle block plane when I visited Woodcraft today, I've been wanting one for a while now.

Byrdcliffe Wall Cabinet, Pt. 3

The Byrdcliffe wall cabinet completed with three coats of Watco Danish Oil Natural and one coat of Watco Liguid wax Light. The oil darkens the poplar and highlights the contrast in the grain.









My logo branded onto the inside of the door.








The inside of the cabinet with a stop block on the lower left corner.











The rare earth magnet inside the upper hinge.












A good view of the purple, black, and green colors of the poplar.












The complete project ready to be hung on a wall.









Another shot of the relief carved iris, hand colored and blended. This being my first hand carved project I think it came out really well. In the original the iris was just carved around the outline, I tried this at first using a small round burr on my dremel tool but I was not happy with the results so I decided to outline the flower and carve away the background leaving the flower and leaves flat.

The true secret of happiness lies in taking a genuine interest in all the details of daily life. William Morris

Fuming White Oak

Well I've fumed the sample pieces of quartersawn white oak and finished them I have to say that it was cool to see how much the oak really did change color with the fuming, but man that ammonia stinks. I did go out and get a respirator, you have to be careful and find one that works for ammonia, and it worked great, but the wood after being fumed continues to smell for a few days. That first day just standing over my bench and handling the wood my eyes and nose started burning. I set them outside to air, I opened the shop door and turned on the fans.

I placed a few samples of white oak in an airtight rubbermade container with a small plastic dish of aqueous ammonia, I left this to sit for 6 hours then removed one piece. I removed another piece after 12 hours but noticed very little difference in the color so I replaced it and left the rest for another 12 hours, 24 in total. You can see the difference here, with no fuming, 6, and 24 hours with not additional finish.

This is the same samples, no fuming, 6 hours and 24 hours with an intial coat of 1lb cut of shellac. You can see that the color looks warmer and less grey on the fumed peices.

These are the peices finished with a coat of Brown Mahagony Gel stain, two coats of 2lb cut amber shellac, and finished with a coat of dark wax. I liked the results but I have to say that I like the way the dye/stain combination contrasts the ray flake as opposed to the fuming that tones the differences down. You can see in the 24 hour sample that the ray flakes are almost invisible.

One of the problems with fuming white oak is that the sapwood will not turn as dark as the heart wood, whereas dying lets you equalize the differences. If you look at the picture on the left you can see how much lighter the sapwood is in the left and middle picture compared to the sample on the right with no sapwood.

I think after this experiment I've found that fuming is no easier than dying wood and the toxicity of the ammonia makes me want to stick with the water based dyes. While I do have to sand the raised grain after dying and I wouldn't have to after fuming I think that the tradeoff of having to time the exposure to the ammonia is more inconvenient. My method may be less authentic but its also less toxic and easier to control the color. From what I've been able to find out I don't think that the Stickley factory uses fuming today to color their furniture either. Fuming may have been the state of the art in coloring wood in the 1900's but today we have other choices.

The true secret of happiness lies in taking a genuine interest in all the details of daily life.

William Morris

Inlays for your Arts and Crafts Furniture made easy

Inlays were used extensively in the Glasgow School of Arts and Crafts but did not make a huge impact into the American Arts and Crafts movement until the addition of Harvey Ellis to Gustav Stickley's Craftsman Furniture company. Stickley saw Ellis's work at the an exhibition of arts and crafts decorative arts at Rochester's Mechanics Institute. Ellis was a founding member and president of the Rochester Arts & Crafts Society, one of the earliest such organizations in the country. In 1894 he helped organize the Society's first exhibition, a display of Japanese prints and modern French posters.
In 1903 Harvey Ellis made the arrangements to display an extensive exhibition of arts and crafts decorative arts. The display was organized by Gustav Stickely and first shown the previous year in Syracuse. Following the exhibition Harvey Ellis moved to Syracuse at the invitation of Stickley to write for The Craftsman. Ellis published several articles that included his designs for arts and crafts homes and interiors. Ellis's use of curves and inlays brought a more elegant and lighter style to Stickley's "mission" furniture. Ellis died in 1904 from complications of alcoholism.

Inlays of this detail are beyond the scope of many craftsmen making arts and crafts furniture. But luckily for all of us inlay challenged individuals Mitchell Andrus is producing inlay veneers and furniture parts available through his website, http://www.missionfurnishings.com/ . You can find complete finished pieces, and several pre-assembled veneers all taken from the original Ellis and Stickley designs. You can even find pre inlayed chair backslats ready to make a Stickley Rocker.

The website gives a very nice example of the process, the veneer arrives complete as you see here. These pictures come from the website.

One extremely nice thing that you can get with these inlays is a staining stencil, its a precut vinyl mask that shields the inlay from stain while you finish the piece.

You can see that you carefully align the mask over the inlay and thanks to the clear backing sheet you can get easily do this.

You then roll it flat so that no voids are left to allow stain to seep in.

Then you can remove the backing sheet leaving your inlay completely masked.

The surrounding veneer can be carefully stained and once dry the overlay removed leaving the inlay unstained and ready for finishing. What you are left with is a very impressive inlay that is period correct and ready to decorate your next arts and crafts piece. Now, if you are more ambitious and want to make your own inlays you can find shop drawings complete with instructions in Robert Lang's book Shop Drawings for Craftsman Inlays & Hardware: Original Designs by Gustav Stickley and Harvey Ellis .

A little thought and a little kindness are often worth more than a great deal of money.

John Ruskin