Online Extras for the December 2010 issue include a video tour of this 1740′s Pennsylvania piece, the free 3D SketchUp model of this chest of drawers, the 3D Google SketchUp Model of the G&G frame, shop Drawings for Greene & Greene Furniture, the 3D Google SketchUp Model of Moxon’s Ingenious Bench Vise and more. Read more
December 2010 #187
The cover project of Popular Woodworking December 2010 is a Line & Berry Chest of Drawers. It’s a traditional design from Chester County, Pennsylvania. The inlay on the drawer is made simpler with router patterns and a good straight bit.
Allan Turner teaches you cross-grain solutions to defeat splitting in solid wood construction.
In part three of a series, Marc Adams shows you simple patterns in veneer using only mirrors, a cheap knife and a straightedge.
You’ll create a useful English layout square that is easy to make, easy on the eyes and awesome to use.
Details shaped by hand and eye help to define the style of a Greene & Greene frame. In the second part of his Aging Furniture story, Michael Dunar shows you furniture’s battle scars and teaches you how to create this “incidental” wear on your projects.
Bob Rozaieski teaches you to soup up your sawing savvy through practicing proper techniques.
The I Can Do That project is a Victorian side table.
You’ll also learn to build Moxon’s Ingenious Bench Vise in the Jig Journal column.
George R. Walker reveals how great legs are essential to proportioning a piece of furniture.
Bob Flexner gives you the essential details when it comes to staining wood.
Detailed article previews are below. Online Extras (downloads, etc.) for this issue are found inside each article.
[description]Articles from the December 2010 issue of Popular Woodworking Magazine[/description][keywords]Popular Woodworking Magazine, Magazine Articles, Technique Articles, Project Articles, Tool Reviews, Finishing[/keywords]
I Can Do That: Victorian Side Table
Pattern routing makes quick and easy work of these urn-shaped sides. By Megan Fitzpatrick Pages: 30-31 From the December 2010 issue # 187 Buy this issue now While vacuuming a few weeks back, I was thinking about what to build for this issue’s “I Can Do That” project when it hit me … actually, when … Read more
End Grain: Too Delicate A Touch
The hands are the tools that mean the most.
By Brad Graham
Page: 72
From the December 2010 issue # 187
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When I was a professional woodworker, I experienced a satisfying fascination looking at my hands at the end of the day. As a full-time cabinetmaker, I thought about them as I made specialty cuts on the saw, my fingers gliding within a hairsbreadth of the hungry blade. At the end of each shift, I was, of course, relieved that they were still there, that some stupid oversight of fund amental safety on my part hadn’t compromised them.
Though I was always glad they were intact, it was the appearance of my hands that appealed to me. They looked worn and used, like a good woodworker’s hands should. Skin-like strips of dried glue leprously peeled from the tips of my fingers. Dark crusty islands of wood putty decorated my digits. Cracked, dry and calloused, these were the hands of someone who knew how to get the job done, who knew that a meticulous eye and talented hands could produce something truly exciting from a rough-hewn length of wood. I felt my hands were more impressive than other tools found in the shop.
In Our Store: James Krenov’s “The Impractical Cabinetmaker” and “A Cabinetmakers’s Notebook.” Read more
Moxon’s Ingenious Bench Vise
17th-century design saves your 21st-century back.
By Christopher Schwarz
Pages: 64-66
From the December 2010 issue # 187
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If you cut dovetails by hand, then I’m sure you’re aware of the other part of your anatomy that is involved: your back.
Bending over rows of tails and pins all day is murder when you try to stand up straight. Several people have come up with solutions, including a cute mini-bench that you park on your full-size bench to raise your work. Other woodworkers have built benches with higher benchtops that are designed just for hand-joinery.
Of course, like most things in woodworking, someone had already come up with the solution several centuries ago.
Video: See the video of the author threading and tapping the wooden components.
Article: We have dozens of free plans for jigs on our web site.
Web site: Read about how the prototype was developed on our blog.
To buy: Find links to buy the manual wood-threading kit for this project.
In our store: New “The Workbench Design Book.” Read more
Flexner on Finishing: Staining Wood
A primer on coloring.
By Bob Flexner
Pages: 60-62
From the December 2010 issue # 187
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A wood stain is a colorant (pigment or dye) and a binder (some sort of finish) with a lot of thinner added so the excess stain is easy to wipe off. This leaves some color in or on the wood.
A stain can also be just dye and thinner with no binder added.
Pigment is ground earth or colored synthetic particles, so it requires a binder to glue it to the wood. Pigment settles to the bottom of the can and has to be stirred into suspension before use.
Dye is a colorant dissolved in a liquid, so dye penetrates along with the liquid and doesn’t need a binder. Coffee and tea are examples of weak dyes.
Article: Learn how to properly sand to prepare your wood for stain.
To buy: Bob’s new book, “Flexner on Finishing,” includes 12 years’ worth of updated finishing columns.
Web site: Read more of our finishing articles. Read more
Furniture’s Battle Scars
Part 2: Fictional ‘incidents’ give a piece a believable back story.
By Michael Dunbar
Pages: 54-59
From the December 2010 issue # 187
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In Part 1 of “Aging Your Projects Gracefully” (November 2010, issue #186), I gave an overview of creating an aged look for new pieces of furniture, and discussed mechanical wear.
The second prevalent type of wear is incidental. “Incidental” means wear that did not result from ordinary use. Incidental wear is what happens to a piece of furniture when it spends time around human beings. Incidental wear might happen while the piece is experiencing ordinary use. However, it is not the result of that use. It is caused by something else. In writing your plausible fiction for a piece you made, ordinary wear is the day-to-day stuff of life. Incidental wear is the events that make life interesting.
Below are a bunch of twists and turns you can include in the plot of the story you are telling as you artificially age a piece of furniture.
Blog: Read Mike Dunbar’s blog.
Web site: Visit the web site of The Windsor Institute, where Mike teaches.
Blog: Read about Editor Christopher Schwarz’s class at The Windsor Institute.
In our store: “Chairmaking Simplified.” Read more
Greene & Greene Frame
By Robert W. Lang
Pages: 52-53
From the December 2010 issue # 187
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It’s easy to get caught in the trap of design by formula. But if art were simply a matter of ratios, a paint-by-number Mona Lisa would be just as good as the one hanging in the Louvre Museum. The curves and lifts that exemplify the work of Charles and Henry Greene are a good example of this.
I made this frame for a class to show how to lay out and shape typical details. The term “typical,” however, doesn’t really apply to Greene & Greene; each house and the furniture within share elements, but subtle differences separate them from one another. Within the style are variations.
Article: For a review and video of the punches used for plugs, visit our blog.
In our store: Bob is the author of “Shop Drawings for Greene & Greene Furniture.”
In our store: “Greene & Greene Furniture: Poems of Wood and Light,” a new book on the Greene brothers, by David Mathias. Read more