Tag Archives: December 2010

Simple Patterns in Veneer

Part 3: Make a 4-way match panel in veneer using mirrors, a knife and a straightedge.
By Marc Adams
Pages: 48-51

From the December 2010 issue # 187
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Veneer can be used to embellish any project. For furniture making, veneer offers three advantages: Panels can be made to any size or shape, exotic woods can be incorporated into your work, and veneer offers great design potentials. If a specific style of furniture, such as Shaker or Arts & Crafts, gives a piece of furniture a voice, then adding veneer can give that same piece of furniture a story to tell. Veneer can create strong visual elements with smooth surfaces that can make any furniture piece a showcase. The bonus to working with veneer is it’s fun and easy to do.

Veneer panels can be cut to look just like boards glued up edge to edge or matched in ways to create mirror images that reflect the figure in the wood. What might seem to be more advanced veneering techniques include arranging pieces of veneer to create geometric arrangements known as parquetry, or to make recognizable images known as marquetry. Both parquetry and marquetry are relatively simple cutting techniques. Ian Kirby once said that “(F)urniture making with solid wood is like whittling: You chip away at the tree until you end up with the pieces you need. Working with veneer is just the reverse: You stick the bits together to build up furniture elements of the exact size and shape you want.”

Sometimes it’s more fun (and educational) to do woodworking projects that are practice pieces. You know, those projects, samples or test cuts that end up as showcase pieces that hang on the wall in your shop. This veneering project will be one of those. This simple wall panel involves the entire process of veneering from edging to pressing.

Video: Visit the David R. Webb veneer mill with Marc Adams.
Blog: Executive Editor Robert W. Lang takes you on a detailed trip through the Atlantic Veneer slicing operation and the Veneer Tech splicing plant.
Web site: Explore Veneering classes at the Marc Adams School of Woodworking.
To buy: Purchase excellent veneers from Certainly Wood.
In our store: ” A Woodworker’s Guide to Veneering & Inlay: Techniques, Projects & advise for Fine Furniture” by Jonathon Benson. Read more »

English Layout Square

This useful tool is easy to make, easy on the eyes and awesome to use.
By Christopher Schwarz
Pages: 46-47

From the December 2010 issue # 187
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Wooden layout tools usually are superior to metal ones in my opinion. They are lightweight, inexpensive and as accurate as woodworking requires. Period.

A 36″-long wooden straightedge can easily be trued to be as accurate as a metal machinist’s straightedge, which can cost as much as a good handplane. And you don’t have to treat the wooden straightedge like a holy relic. If the straightedge is dropped or run through a wood chipper, you can make another in short order.

In May, I destroyed one of our shop’s large wooden squares that we use for marking out the joints for large carcases. I was about to build a replacement square when I received Patrick Leach’s monthly tool newsletter.

Leach’s electronic list of tools for sale has always been more dangerous for me than opening an e-mail virus. (Sign up for his free newsletter at supertool.com – if you dare.) Leach has good taste in vintage tools and manages to find fine stuff, month after month.

In a recent newsletter he listed a gorgeous English layout square in mahogany that I couldn’t afford. So I did the next-best thing – I built one (actually two) using photographs and details from Leach.

My square looks like the original, but I changed the joinery to suit me. I joined the center brace with a mitered half-lap instead of a mortise and tenon. And instead of mahogany, I used curly white maple I salvaged from a 19th-century dresser that was headed for the dumpster.

Web site: Download a free SketchUp drawing of this square.
Blog: See the original square on Chris’s blog.
Web site: Visit Patrick Leach’s amazing Stanley reference site.
To buy: Plans for André Roubo’s try square, a beautiful companion to this tool.
In our store: “Hand Tool Essentials.” Read more »

Cross-grain Solutions

Methods to prevent cross-grain splits in traditional solid wood case construction.
By Alan Turner
Pages: 42-45

From the December 2010 issue # 187
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What is obvious to the seasoned furniture maker often escapes the attention of the newer, aspiring maker. This is especially true when it comes to recognizing and avoiding cross-grain wood movement problems. Wood moves seasonally due to the ability of warm summer air to hold a far greater amount of moisture than cold winter air.

In Philadelphia, we are 60 miles from the ocean and we see the equilibrium moisture content (EMC) of wood at about 6 percent in February and approximately 12 percent in early September. This change from winter to summer causes wood to swell across the grain, and this can easily cause splitting in solid wood parts.

Several trips to the Philadelphia Museum of Art to examine pieces in storage, and in its furniture conservation lab, revealed a number that had experienced some level of failure due to cross-grain construction methods, inelegant crossgrain solutions, or had fallen victim to modern systems of climate control.

Museum conservator Christopher Storb argues that the 18th-century furniture we examined was built well for its time, but that the advent of dry, centrally heated buildings, coupled with poorly conceived repairs, are at least as much at fault as original design flaws.

WEB SITE: Visit Alan Turner’s web site to see his work and learn about his school.
ARTICLE: “Massachusetts Block Front Chest.”
WEB SITE: Discover the Society of American Period Furniture Makers (SAPFM).
VISIT: Philadelphia Museum of Art.
IN OUR STORE: “Illustrated Guide to Building Period Furniture” by Glen D. Huey. Read more »

Line & Berry Chest of Drawers

IThough not traditional, router patterns make quick work of the inlay.
By Glen D. Huey
Pages: 32-41

From the December 2010 issue # 187
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In southeastern Pennsylvania, just northwest of Philadelphia, is Chester County. It was one of the original three counties formed by William Penn in 1682, under a charter signed by King Charles II. In 1729, a large portion of the western county was split off to become Lancaster County, and in 1789, the southeastern townships closest to Philadelphia were organized as Delaware County. That left Chester County as we find it today.

Throughout the 1700s, Chester County furniture makers produced pieces with unique surface decoration, such as the line and berry inlay shown on this chest. Furniture makers of the period scribed inter-connected half-circles into the surface. The design was scratched using a compass, which is why the process is often referred to as “compass inlay.” Sometimes, at the termination of those circles, small groupings of round berries completed the design. This decoration reached a popularity peak in the 1740s.

ARTICLE: A router makes quick work of the door inlay for a spice box Glen built in 2001-2002.
WEB SITE: Discover more about Chester County furniture.
IN OUR STORE: November 2008 Popular Woodworking (#172).
TO BUY: Ready-made string and other inlay supplies.
IN OUR STORE: Steve Latta’s DVDs on traditional methods to make line and berry inlay. Read more »

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
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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 I hit it with my vacuum. I’ve had a small Victorian table/bookshelf in my guest room for years, tucked away in a corner where I rarely see it. It’s suffered from a broken foot for as long as I’ve had it. I decided the time had come to fix the problem so that I could put the table where it belongs – next to my favorite reading chair.
Plan: Download the free SketchUp plan for this project.
Articles: All the “I Can Do That” articles are free online.
In our store: Online and DVD video instruction on woodworking basics.
Read more »

Arts & Mysteries: Soup up Your Sawing Savvy

Good practice makes perfect – or at least better.
By Bob Rozaieski
Pages: 28-29

From the December 2010 issue # 187
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When it comes to using hand tools, good technique is everything. We can spend hours sawing, chopping and planing, but if we don’t practice good technique, all we are doing is getting good at bad habits. To really become proficient with our hand tools, the secret isn’t more practice, it’s practicing better technique.

Nowhere is this more true than when using a handsaw. So often, the struggles that we have making accurate crosscuts and rips, and sawing joinery, can be attributed to difficulty tracking a straight line. So we buy better saws and practice more, hoping to cut that perfect dovetail. But often, the improvement is only marginal.

It can be frustrating when your skills seem to hit a plateau. But it may not be your fault. You may simply be practicing old, bad habits. Just like anything else, sawing by hand takes practice. But to do it well, it takes proper practice of good technique.

WEB SITE: Visit Bob Rozaieski’s web site and read his hand tool blog.
ARTICLE: Read Editor Christopher Schwarz’s article on the three classes of sawcuts.
BLOG: Read Adam Cherubini’s Art & Mysteries blog.
ARTICLES: Read our articles on making a sawbench.
IN OUR STORE: “Sawing Fundamentals,” a DVD from Editor Christopher Schwarz. Read more »

Design Matters: Great Legs

Play with proportion to achieve pleasing design.
By George R. Walker
Pages: 26-27

From the December 2010 issue # 187
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The black stallion’s name was Step. Marvin, the only man I ever saw ride him, called him simply “the horse,” his raspy Southern voice pausing for emphasis. I was 5 years old the first time I laid eyes on Step. He was the scariest and most wonderful thing I’d ever seen. A force of nature, his frame all rough and muscled as though a master sculptor had chiseled him out in a hurry. His ebony coat reflected blue and purple in the sunlight, and the turf shook when he stomped his hoof. Perhaps the thing about Step that set him apart was that everything about him was perfectly proportioned. His massive ironlike legs would have been out of place on a lesser horse, but they fit perfectly with his body and muscular neck.

There’s a lesson there. When proportioning legs to a furniture design the legs need to reflect and connect with the overall mass they support. A workbench uses sturdy tree-trunk-like legs not just for structural support, but also because the hefty timbers visually support the massive top.

I’ve been looking at legs on furniture and studying how they are proportioned. Because they play a key role in such a wide variety of forms, there are few rules that apply across the board. A light side table calls for a much thinner leg than a dining table, even though they are similar in height. Sounds easy, but it can be challenging to design a leg that’s sturdy enough and still looks like it belongs with the overall mass of the piece. I tend to make legs too stocky and have learned through my mistakes to scale them back. Make it a point to closely examine how the legs are proportioned in a variety of built work. Regardless of style, this can help you develop a good eye for proportions.