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

Limbert #366 Bookcase, Part 2

Last weekend I cut and routed the dadoes and grooves in the sides of the Limbert #366 bookcase. During the week I took a few hours and, using the template I marked out the cutouts and the bottom lift. After drilling a few access holes and cutting the waste out with a jigsaw I used the template and a 3/4 inch pattern cutting bit to clean up the cuts. I also cut the adjustable shelves to size and added the bevel on the front of each shelf.

Saturday I cut and glued up the top for my cherry Shaker table for the Woodwhisperer Guild Woodworkers Fighting Cancer build, then I moved on to sanding the bookcase. I ran the complete sanding schedule I use for white oak, starting with 60 grit, then 80, 120 and finally 180 grit. Between 120 and 180 grit on the inside of the sides I drilled the shelf pin holes for the adjustable shelves. I don't use a fancy template for this, I have a section of pegboard with two lines of holes 8 inches apart marked every 2 inches. With this I use a 1/4 inch brad point drill bit with a stop collar in place to drill 1/2 inch deep holes. I've used this on many projects and have never had problems with it, its simple, its cheap and I can make custom templates for any project.

The final dryfit was done after hand fitting each part, a few clamps were used to hold everything together and tight while I took measurements to insure that everything was square. I took the rest of the afternoon to make a taper cutting jig for the tablesaw inspired by Marc's live Guild event as I would need to cut long tapers for the Shaker table.
Today I had to run to Lowes to get some oak ply for the back of the bookcase, all of the pictures of the original that I could find show a plywood back so why not? I gathered my long clamps and glue bottle and completed the glueup. After a couple of hours of drying I flipped the bookcase onto its face and measured for the plywood back. After cutting and sanding the plywood I placed it and attached it with some blue tape for the pictures leaving it unattached to make finishing easier.

I took the rest of the day to cut the mortises in the Shaker table and taper the legs. Also I took the top for the table out of the clamps and rough sanded it.

One of the features that attracted me to this particular bookcase is the detail on top of the piece. The small fixed shelf and the cutouts along with the solid wood back and the large fixed top shelf are very nice and would make a perfect place for me to keep part of my vintage Kodak camera collection. I can't wait to complete the finish and get this bookcase in the house.

"Take everything you like seriously, except yourselves."

Rudyard Kipling

Limbert #366 Bookcase

When I started my journey into Arts and Crafts furniture I was of course drawn to Stickley's designs, his being the most common in the literature. As I got further along I discovered Charles Limbert and his unique take on furniture. Limbert was a student of European designers, particularly Charles Rennie Mackintosh of the Glasgow school, his designs are noted by cutouts and curves. I've made many Limbert pieces and blogged about them here. I found this bookcase in a reprint of an early 1900's Limbert catalog and searched online auction catalogs until I found this one.

Limbert produced this model with and without a door, and in a double wide version. The single door version fits the size that I want, its 64 inches tall, 12 inches deep and 30 inches wide. I'm not sure if I will add the door or not, but for now I'm proceeding with the assumption that I won't have a door. I took the photo into Google Sketchup and with the know dimensions produced a plan that I've uploaded in The Wood Whisperer Community.

From this model I produced a cutlist and exploded details of the parts. Saturday was spent preparing the Quartersawn White Oak stock and gluing up the parts, I also created a template for the rectangular cutouts at the top of the bookcase and the small lift at the bottom. Sunday I took everything out of the clamps and cleaned off the boards. I trimmed each piece down to the correct size and cut the 3/8th inch dado along the back of the sides and on the top and bottom shelves. Using a T-square guide and a plunge router I cut the dadoes for the top and bottom shelves and for the small shelf. I switched to the router guide and a 3/8th inch bit and cut the mortises for the top and bottom aprons. After squaring up the end of the small shelf dado with a chisel I cut the tenons on the aprons using the dado blade still in the tablesaw.

After doing a little fitting of the pieces with a routerplane and chisel I was able to complete an initial dryfit before calling it a day. I wanted to get a good start on this build because starting next weekend I'll be beginning the Guild March Shaker table project as part of Woodworker's fighting cancer. I'll be recording my progress of the Shaker table and continuing on with this project so look for updates.

"First things first, but not neccessarily in that order." - Dr. Who

Limbert #234 Tabourette, Part 1

My neighbor asked me to make her an end table and a coffee table in the arts and crafts style to go in her bungalow. I showed her some of the completed pieces in my house and she was drawn more to the Limbert style. I did some more research in my books and online and came up with this little tabourette as an end table, I showed her the pictures and described my idea for a coffee table that would compliment the design of the end table. Coffee tables weren't a part of American homes in the 1900's but I took a Limbert cocktail table and lowered it and changed it some to make it a coffee table, more on that in a later post.

In previous posts I have described my method of scaling plans from pictures but luckily I was able to find descriptions of this table along with dimensions, which are 16"x16"x18" tall. These relate to the widest measurements, the top which will be square. From this and the photos I came up with the dimensions in the picture at the left.

Using Google Sketchup I created a model of the table along with dimensioned elevations, I was also able to look at the components and come up with construction details such as how to connect the sides.

After removing the stock from the clamps and trimming it to size I took this template I made up from the plan above and marked out the areas to be cut out. After removing the bulk of the waste with a jigsaw for the cut outs and the bandsaw for the bottom I carefully aligned the template to the inside of each side piece and screwed it in place. Using a template like this for routing is always good, you can attach it with double sided tape or if piece has a hidden side you can just screw the template to the stock. I used a 1/2 inch pattern cutting bit in the router table to give the cutouts the proper radius at the corners. After this I cut a 45 degree miter on each side of the side pieces.

What followed was some sanding and a little hand work on the cutouts then I glued the miters together using the miter cutoffs as glue blocks a little time cooking in the clamps while I sanded the top. A final sanding on everything inside and out and attaching the top with figure 8 table irons, a little more touch up sanding and a cleaning finished up this project for the weekend and now all that is left if finishing. My neighbor looked at the finish samples that I keep and picked the middle range of the five I have so when I start on the finish I just turn over the sample and the "recipe" is written on the back. For more on my arts and crafts finish and a look at the samples see this post.

" Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don't matter, and those that matter don't mind." Dr. Seuss

Limbert #240 Lamp Table part 1

This weekend I started a reproduction of a Charles Limbert design #240 Lamp Table, the original was produced circa 1903. Unlike Gustav Stickley, Limbert was not concerned with humble simplicity of design, his furniture borrows heavily from the prairie style of Frank Lloyd Wright and the designs of Charles Renee MacKintosh.

I really like Limbert's designs, I've made one of his large tables, the Double Oval Table, and two of his smaller tables, the #244, and the #238. I previously made this table for a friend, but I have always wanted to have one for myself and luckily, I had just enough quartersawn white oak to complete this table. When I was done with the rough cuts I only had 2 feet of 4/4 quartersawn white oak left.

The plan for this project came out of Robert Lang's More Shop Drawings for Craftsman Furniture , these books are a great resource for anyone interested in making authentic Arts and Crafts style furniture. Robert includes a drawing of the sides with their irregular shapes in a grid that can be reproduced by creating a 1 inch by 1 inch grid on a sheet of posterboard and transferring the drawing to that. I used this posterboard pattern to create a template out of plywood for both the sides and the shelf.

Taking the panels out of the clamps this morning and scraping off the excess glue the first thing I did was to trace the patterns onto the panels. I then cut proud of the line on the bandsaw for both the shelf and the side panels.

I attched the pattern to the cut our of the shelf using a couple of screws making sure to attach it to the underside of the shelf. This lets me pattern route it on the router table without worrying about the pattern slipping as can happen using double sided tape.

I make sure to label all my templates, jigs, and patterns with not only the name, but any directions and dimensions for the project. The sides call for a taper on both sides and a bevel cut at just under 45 degrees. The trick to this, which Mr. Lang does not describe in his book, is to create two jigs to enable you to easily repeat the cuts on the table saw.

I created these jigs using the template for the side. For the first jig I placed the template top up on the plywood and aligned the right side with the edge. I then attached blocks to hold the stock in place around the template. I adjusted the fence so that the bevel cut would be at the correct location and ran the stock through for all four sides. I labeled the jig with the name and the stock dimensions as well as the settings for the blade angle and the fence.

The second jig is made by placing the top of the template to the other end and aligning the edge of the template with the edge of the plywood. Again attaching blocks to hold the stock in place. Adjusting the fence so the the width of the bottom of the side is 15 inches, I run the stock through, and repeated for the other sides. I labeled this jig just as I did the first one. When I was done I trimmed off the excess plywood at the bottom of both jigs to make future cuts easier.
With the cuts complete I traced the cutouts on the stock and using the bandsaw roughed them out. They will be finished on the router table like the shelf.

When routing a template make sure that you use a starter pin to keep from getting kickback when the stock comes in contact with the spinning bit. When possible router with the grain and not against it. If that is not possible, try to sneak up on the cuts against the grain and not cut into it all at once.

One trick I use if I have to cut against the grain is to take little bites out of the stock with the bit to create breaks so that the spinning bit will not cause too much tearout. I still find that I am left with tearout, but its contained and rather than ruin the piece I'm left with a small defect that can be cleaned up using a spokeshave and some sandpaper.

With the sides beveled and shaped I like to do my first dryfit before I get too far into sanding and trimming in case I need to make any changes. Luckily everything fit nicely.

I used a Ryoba saw and a chisel to clean up the round corners left by the router bit. I then sanded the shelf and sides down to 100 grit. I tilted the blade on the tablesaw 3 degrees and cut a bevel on the bottom of the sides so that they would sit flush on the bottom. I then did a second dryfit, this time including the shelf. I cut the top to its final size, 19 inches square and called it a day.

"If you spend your whole life waiting for the storm, you'll never enjoy the sunshine." ~Morris West

Craftsman Tool Cabinet.

So I started out with just one block plane, of course, it was a POS home center Stanley, the one in the picture with the red palm rest. I added to that with a better block plane, then a pretty good made in England Stanley No. 4. This was followed up by a couple of small shoulder planes and a Stanley No. 80 scraper plane. I picked up a couple of antique Stanley planes, cleaned them up and sharpened the blades and they cut okay. But then, I made the mistake of trying out a well tuned Lie-Nielsen block plane, I finally realised what a high quality plane could do. That started my downfall, a low angle L-N block plane, a L-N block shoulder plane, these planes rocked. I made my first wooden plane last spring and with a nice blade it cut surprizingly well. At IWF this year I ordered a Lee Valley low angle smoothing plane and a scraping plane, both of which are awesone right out of the box. Well the downside of all this is that now I have nowhere to keep all these tools except a drawer that is now too crouded and I'm afraid that they will be damaged. So now I'm making a cabinet to hold all my prized hand planes.

I'm using Chris Schwarz's plan from Popular Woodworking's Arts and Crafts Furniture Projects book but changing it some. My Lee Valley scraper plane is wider than the cubbies that he called for so I adjusted them so two cubbies are 4 inches wide and I made up for it with two smaller cubbies that will fit my No. 4 plane and my L-N block planes. I also used quartersawn white oak instead of Cherry because thats what I have plenty of in my wood supply. I haven't decided yet how the doors will look but I think that I'm going to change the look of the top.

I glued up the stock yesterday after planing it to the appropriate thickness. Today I unclamped the stock and used the smoothing plane to flush the panels. I then cut the panels to size and started on the dado's for the cubbies and dividers. At the end of the day today I had my first dry fit, you'll notice that the cubbies on the left are wider than the ones on the right. Below the plane cubbies will be 4 small drawers and 2 larger drawers. I plan to add a rack for my fine chisels inside one of the doors and a holder for my Gent's saw on the other. The drawers will hold my marking guages and knives, my files and rasps, and other tools that are banging around in the one large drawer now.

I've learned that hand tools are an important addition to a powertool shop and that quality tools make the difference. What I'm trying to teach myself, and this is hard, is to slow down and take my time. I've always worked quickly and I think that sometimes what I need to do is to not rush through a project, but slow down and work more on precision. My projects come out looking great but there are pieces and parts that could be better, probably no one knows this but me, but it does bother me. So now, for me, I want to slow down and take my time with each and every part of a project.

The important thing is not to stop questioning. Albert Einstein

Stickley Coat Rack, Part 1

This weekend began the Stickley Coat Rack from the previous post. I spent a lot of time milling the lumber, the 8/4 Quartersawn White Oak that I had on hand was a little twisted and cupped so it began with a lot of work on the Joiner and with a Jack plane. Once it was close I ripped the stock down to just over 2 inches wide then let it sit flat on my workbench over night. The next day started with more passes on the joiner and to my surprise I ended up with two true square boards 1 3/4 x 1 3/4 x 72 inches.

I also milled some stock 1 1/2 inches thick for the feet and two pieces of 5/4 for the stretchers.

I made templates for the feet and the taper at the top of the posts out of some 1/2 MDF. I transferred the shapes onto the stock so that after the joinery I can cut out the shapes on the bandsaw.

The stretchers are through tenons so after cutting mortises through the uprights I cut long tenons on the crosspieces.

Here you can see how I cut the the shoulders off the tenons using the bandsaw.

After a little clean up using a shoulder plane for the tenons and a wide chisel for the mortises I did a dry fit of the stretchers.










Here are the through tenons in place, I marked each one so that I can trim the ends once I take it aparts and sand down the cross pieces.

Here is the dry fit of the of the uprights all done and waiting for me to come back next weekend. I need to decide how I'm going to join the feet to the uprights, shape and sand the feet and the cross stretchers.

"It's not what you look at that matters, it's what you see"

Henry David Thoreau

My Favorite Little Table

If I was going to teach a course on basic furniture making this is the project I'd choose, it is a Stickley #602 small table. I've made several copies of this table and everyone that has one of them loves it. I have one next to my Morris chair with a pile of woodworking magazines on it, another one over by the wall that my laptop lives on when its not in my lap, and a couple more upstairs that I can use for anything I want. I have a #604 table that's 26 inches tall and 20 inches across the top that sits next to the prairie sofa at just the right height. The #602 table is 18 inches tall, it has a 16 inch round top, 2 assemblies of cross stretchers, and 4 legs 1 3/8 square. You can make it with 2BF of 8/4 quartersawn white oak, 3 BF of 4/4 quartersawn white oak, and about 6 inches of 1/4 inch dowel. That comes out to about $25 in wood, not a bad materials cost for a class.

You can learn every step of making furniture short of case work with this project. You have to flatten and square the stock, rough cut and finish cut the stock. Prepare and glue up a top, cut through mortises in the legs, cut captured dovetails in the top of the legs for the top stretchers. You have to cut half lap joints for the top stretchers, you need to pattern cut the bottom stretchers then cut a half lap, vertically oriented joint. You will cut tenons for the through mortises on the lower stretchers. You also will have to cut a circle for the top.

One of the best reasons for using this table for teaching is that it can be made with any combination of hand/power tools that your students have access to. You can make a pattern and trim the bottom stretchers on a router table, after you trim them on a band saw, or you can cut them with a jigsaw and finish them on a oscillating spindle sander, or if you really wanted you could cut them with a coping saw and using rasps, files, and sandpaper shape them all by hand.

The half lap joints on the top stretchers could be cut using a dado blade on the tablesaw, could be routed, or could be cut with a handsaw and a chisel. The trapped dovetail joints at the top of the legs could be cut using the same varieties of tools.

The mortises for the through tenons could be cut using a mortising machine, it could be cut using a plunge router and squared with a chisel, it could be drilled out on a drill press and cleaned up with a chisel, or you could go old school and drill it out with a brace and bit and clean it with a chisel, or even, mortise the whole thing with a mortising chisel. The tenons could easily be cut by hand and trimmed with a shoulder plane, or you could use a tenoning jig on a tablesaw.

Once the glue up for the top is dry you have to cut a circle, the rough cut could be done with a jigsaw, a bandsaw or a handsaw. It then has to be shaped to a perfect circle, you can use a pattern and a router, a circle cutting jig with a router or on a router table, you can also shape it on a disc sander with a jig, or you could shape it by hand with planes or spokeshaves.

Every piece must be sanded to 150-180 grit, you could use a random orbit sander, or even just a block of wood with sandpaper wrapped around it. You have to finish the table and doing this you could teach methods as simple as a stain and poly finish, or you could go all out and use the multi step arts and crafts finish I've previously described, or you could fume it with ammonia and finish it that way. Along the way you've used multiple methods to accomplish several tasks and depending on what tools you have and what you techniques you feel comfortable with you've completed it your way.But regardless of which techniques you use, you should end up with the same thing in the end, a nice little table that is perfect next to a chair to hold a drink and a book.

He has achieved success who has worked well, laughed often, and loved much.

Elbert Hubbard

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

More thoughts on an Arts and Crafts Finish, My Recipes

I have received many emails about how I finish my furniture. As part of the "fuming oak v. dyes" series that I'm working on I'm going to give you my favorite "recipes" for finishing quartersawn white oak. Now I can't claim to have devised these recipes or techniques on my own, I think I've read every woodworking book on Arts and Crafts techniques, and If I find a magazine with anything "mission" or arts and crafts in it, I buy it. I've also searched through the forums and websites for good ideas. Some of the best that I've found are Jeff Jewitt's article at woodcentral, and his article at Fine Woodworking. There are many articles in magazines and books, some I've seen invlove roofing tar, some as simple as a single stain. Taking ideas from all these sources I've come up with a method that works for me and gives me a finish that, to my eye, compares to that of antique Arts and Crafts furniture that I've seen.

These are my color sample pieces, I recommend making some of your own so you can experiment with different dyes and stains and then have a good idea of the finished product. I write the steps on the back of each so that I can reproduce it. From left ot right the base colors are undyed wood, honey amber, golden brown, medium brown, and dark mission brown. I use transtint concentrated dyes as my base coat, I disolve these in pint bottles of spring water. A lot of articles recommend distilled water, I've never had any problems with spring water and the bottles are very convenient but I would avoid tap water as any chemicals in it could change the color. You could also use denatured alcohol as a base, this would eliminate the grain raising effect of the water, but many sources say that the color will be more likely to fade. I've never tried using alcohol as a base, mainly because of the lack of fumes when using water as a base.

Here's my recipe, it works for me, and I've changed it over the years, and if I come across with a better idea I will change it again so please feel free to comment if you have a different technique.

• 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 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.

Once the wax is dry you are done. This is my favorite time of a project, when you carry it in the house and place it in just the right spot, stand back, enjoy the view and accolades from a grateful family, and go start something else.

Quality is never an accident. It is always the result of intelligent effort. - John Ruskin

Some thoughts on an Arts and Crafts Finish

Most of the recipes for the "authentic" Arts and Crafts finish that I've found in the modern literature are concerned with making the medular rays in the Quartersawn White Oak "pop", that is, highlight the flakes. During my reading of "The Craftsman" at the digital archive I came across this passage by Stickley.

In my experiments, however, I decided that a far more pleasing and beautiful result would be obtained by softening rather than heightening the distinctiveness of the flake. So for months I persisted in my endeavor to discover a way by which I could "bring together," harmonize, as it were, these two markedly contrasting features in the same piece of wood. This was finally effected by the use of ammonia, either by direct application or by fumes. The ammonia combines with the tannic acid in the oak to produce a chemical change, and thus "tone down" and color the flake to the desired shade. As far as I know this is the only practically successful method yet discovered to cope with the difficulties offered by the ray flake. Pigment applied to the surface of the flake has no appreciable result, as it is almost as hard and impenetrable as glass. In what I have written above I would not have it thought, because of this somewhat lengthy description of my own experiments, that I make any claim to the discovery of the use of ammonia. Many others have used it, and still do so, and others may have produced the same results on oak, but in my case it was the outcome of personal experimentation.

Now this leaves me in kind of a dilema, my favorite finishing recipe are all centered around making the flakes "pop". I think that part of the beauty of the Arts and Crafts style if they distinctive look of the quartersawn oak. The method I prefer is dying the wood with a concentrate disolved in water, to give the base color for the wood, followed by a coat of shellac, a darker gel stain, more shellac, and finally a dark wax. But from the reading and talking to a few professionals I've found that the most authentic way to achieve an authentic Arts and Crafts Finish is by fuming the quartersawn white oak with aqueous ammonia (NH4OH), this is the method that Gustav Stickley popularized.

The fuming is not an especially difficult process, but it requires a good deal of care, for the piece must be put into an air-tight box or closet, on the floor of which has been placed shallow dishes containing aqua ammonia (26 per cent). The length of time required to fume oak to a good color depends largely upon the tightness of the compartment, but as a rule forty eight hours is enough. When fuming is not practicable, as in the case of a piece too large for any available compartment or one that is built into the room, a fairly good result may be obtained by applying the strong ammonia directly to the wood with a sponge or brush. In either case the wood must be in its natural condition when treated, as any previous application of oil or stain would keep the ammonia from taking effect. After the wood so treated is thoroughly dry from the first application it should be sandpapered carefully with fine sandpaper, then a second coat of ammonia applied, followed by a second careful sandpapering

.

Some pieces fume much darker than others, according to the amount of tannin left free to attract the ammonia after the wood has been kiln dried. Where any sap wood has been left on, that part will be found unaffected by the fumes. There is apt also to be a slight difference in tone when the piece is not all made from the same log, because some trees contain more tannic acid than others.

So with this in mind I'm going to attemp an experiment, I've obtained some aqueous ammonia from a local blueprint supply house and after consulting with my friends that us it, I'm going to fume some samples to different darknesses and finish them, then I'm going to compare them to my samples of the recipes I have been following and decide which is more, a. authentic, and b. more visually pleasing to the modern eye. Stay tuned for the process, details of each recipe, and the results.

Fine art is that in which the hand, the head, and the heart of man go together.

John Ruskin

The Through Tenon

The through tenon is probably the most important joint in the Arts and Crafts Style. One of the hallmarks of the style is that structural elements are used as decoration since the use of non-essential applied element are not used. Hence the use of of joinery elements to add a detail of interest to the piece of furniture. The through tenon can be cut flush with the surface and wedged, it can be left long and tusked, or in this example, camfered. The mortise is extended completely through the piece and the tenon is extended to protrude and then camfered to soften the edges. You will find this joint on everything from Morris Chairs to small cabinets, the example I'm working with here is from a Stickley small tabouret #603.

I am learning to use Google Sketch-Up, its a free 3-D design and drafting tool you can find here, http://sketchup.google.com/, so I thought I'd give drawing up this joint.

The first thing I did was to draw the leg, 20" tall, 1 1/2"x1 1/2" square. I added the Mortise 4" from the bottom, 1/2"x2".

I made the stretcher 16 1/2" long, 2 1/2"x1", with tenons 1 3/4"x1/2", this done I added an 1/8" chamfer around the end of the tenon.

I combined the two pieces and put a peg through to hold the tenon in place. Now, this seems pretty easy and straight forward, but I have to admit that it took me longer to draw this out in Sketch-Up than it did to make the real through mortise. I spent many hours watching videos on the design, click, build blog at fine woodworking, and reading the posts there, I also spent a lot time at the Google Sketch-Up site.

Today it was time to make some sawdust and really make a trough tenon and mortise, I broke out my plan for the Stickley small tabouret and gathered some 8/4 quartersawn white oak and some 5/4 quartersawn white oak, luckily I had some cut-offs from previous projects so I didn't get into my inventory. As many of you know I build almost everything in quartersawn white oak so I keep a couple of hundred boardfeet of the stuff around.

The first thing I did was to plane the 8/4 stock down to 1 1/2", next I ripped 1 1/2" legs and cut them to 20". After marking the location of the mortises on the best faces of the legs I used my wheel marking gauge to mark the sides of the mortises and also to score a line into the face to help minimize tear out. You could also use a marking gauge or just a square and a knife.

Whatever method you use, the goal is to define the edges of the mortise on the outside face so you can start the cut from here instead of from the inside face like you would in a ordinary mortise.

There are many methods and techniques used to cut mortises, I'm not going to go into each one, just tell you the method that I have learned to be the most efficient for me. I use a hollow chisel mortiser to cut the mortises first, then I will fit the tenons to the mortises. I line up the marked location with the chisel in my mortiser and run a test cut in some of the cut-off from the leg stock. Once I'm happy with the set-up I can quickly and easily knock out the mortises on all four legs.

You can see in this picture that the chisel travelled all the way through the leg, I use a sacrificial scrap under the leg to protect it from blow-out. This leaves you with a pretty good mortise, but you still need to take it to the bench and smooth it out with a sharp chisel, this shouldn't take much more than a little paring and smoothing.

I took a few minutes to mark out the tenon on a cross stretcher so that I could set up the table saw. I raised the blade to pass through the line of the tenon and used the miter gauge's stop so that the blade would pass right at the shoulder line. I cut the shoulders on all four sides of all four legs.

Next I used the cheek cut to adjust the blade so that the blade passes just inside the cut without hitting the shoulder. I adjust the tenon jig by eye, close to, but not on the line. I know that this cut will be fat, but close, after cutting both sides I test it in the mortise. By eye I decide how much over the tenon is and adjusted the jig accordingly. I find that I can get dead on using this method in just a few cuts. This way is much more accurate and less likely to leave you with a skinny tenon than trying to measure it and setting the jig right off.

With the correct width set I cut all of the tenons and take them to the bandsaw to make the edge cheek cut, I set the fence at the correct distance and run all the stretchers through.

I like to leave my tenons a hair wide then take a couple of swipes off each side of the face cheeks with a shoulder plane this lets me get a fit that's snug, but not so tight that you have to force the tenon through the mortise.

Once the tenon is in place I like to check the extra length and mark it at the face of the leg so that the chamfer doesn't protrude into the leg.

I like to remove the material on the disk sander with the table tilted down to 45 degrees. You could use a block plane but be careful as this tends to have a little blowout since you are planing end grain.

The complete through mortise and tenon with chamfer, this is just a dry fit of course. When the cuts are finished for the table and everything is sanded I'll spread glue on the inside half of the tenon and on the shoulders and knock them in place. Once the glue is dry I'll drill a 3/8" hole through the center, careful not to blow out the other side of the leg and hammer a walnut dowel through with a little glue inside the hole. I'll cut the dowels flush and sand them smooth. The dowel adds another decorative element to the joint and helps to hold the joint tight if you have any shrinkage in the stretcher. I will complete the table in future posts and have more posts that focus on the joinery that is used in Arts and Crafts furniture.