debor054

After much research and deliberation I have finally got myself a shiny new and very large Tenon Saw.  For 'ages' I have felt like I have needed something bigger than my Lie Nielson Carcass & Dovetail Saws , but I couldn't decide on the size or whether it should be sharpened Crosscut or Rip.  As far as size goes, it seems the wood working superstars recommend something at least 14" and preferably larger. Most of my cutting is to length and therefore requires a Crosscut sharpened saw but larger tenons require a Rip sharpened saw and my Dovetail saw blade is only 1-5/8" (4.12cm) deep. I certainly didn't want to buy another two saws, so which saw would provide the best coverage and compliment my existing joinery saws?  I came to the conclusion that I should get a Rip sharpened saw which could also be used across the grain if required and decided on the Lie Nielson 16" (400mm) 11ppi Tenon saw  (reviewed here ).  As I found previously, I had to spend a whil...

A week or so ago I decided to try my hand at making something that wasn't Pine. I have a crate full of small pieces of Mahogany, Oak and various other hard woods, none of which are large enough to make furniture. While most of the pieces are small they are however quite thick, around 19mm (3/4"). I therefore decided to try my hand at re-sawing a piece of Mahogany and White Oak to make a simple Jewellery box. The only saw I had at the time (my panel saws were away being sharpened) was my Irwin pull saw which allowed me to get a semi decent cut on each piece.  I did have to plane the cut surfaces quite heavily to remove the saw marks that resulted from constantly turning the piece while sawing and sometimes correcting my inaccuracy. Also, almost immediately after being cut both the Mahogany and the Oak cupped quite badly.  I removed most of this cupping with a plane and ended up with my two long and two short  sides of the box all of which wer...

Another quick and small but satisfying project ...   A simple Pine Dinner Tray which I have made for my girlfriend's mum as a 'thankyou' for the tools  she gave me a while ago. I am starting to feel a lot more comfortable simply 'knocking together' these small projects on request.  The simple joinery for the side pieces was cut mostly by eye with very minimal measuring and mark up. I need to be careful that I don't get too lazy! Another first for me was the Edge to Edge joint I used to make the base board from two pieces of 15mm thick by 145mm wide Pine. The longest and most tiring part of this project was reducing the thickness of the base board to minimise the overall weight of the tray, while retaining flatness. Lastly, a quick coat of Boiled Linseed oil to highlight the grain a little and I called it done. I hope she likes it ...

It's a happy day! After waiting for over 3 weeks, I finally have my saws back from being sharpened. As mentioned previously  I have been given some saws (1,3 and 4) which I promptly de-rusted, cleaned and oiled and sent off for sharpening as follows: 1. Warranted Superior 26" - 5ppi RIP 2. Sandvik 22" - 10ppi RIP 3. NoName 21.5" - 8ppi Crosscut 4. Warranted Superior 20" - 10ppi Crosscut All saws have been jointed flat and resharpened and set, each costing £10.50. I will get myself some files and a saw  set to learn to do it myself eventually but for now, for just over £40 I should be able to cover most of my larger sawing requirements - bargain!  Unfortunately, the guy who normally does the sharpening has been on holiday, hence the delay, the service normally only takes a week. If anyone in the Surrey area is interested, the company who carried out the sharpening is Winsor Saw Ltd of Windsor 01753 862029, but you can also drop off and collect saws from  Village ...

As a none practical, handyman, DIY type person learning woodwork as a hobby, here are a few things I have realised during my steep learning curve over the last month or so since beginning working with wood.  Most of these points you read about and are common sense, but I still had to go through the learning process myself before I got that 'ah now I get it' moment of realisation ... Like most physical activities the process of building something can be subdivided down into smaller components. For example the thought of building a complete table to a beginner can be quite daunting (remember I am talking about someone who has never built a thing out of wood in their life), but by considering the tables components almost as separate projects things seem to become easier.  A tables components might be table top, table legs and table skirt. Building each component can also be subdivided down into smaller processes such as marking out and cutting to size . By making each small sub p...

My latest creation - a Pine Coffee Table. I am quite happy with how this project has turned out as it does actually look like a piece of furniture.  The whole thing was 'designed' around the Pine (although it looks a bit like Spruce) top which was salvaged from a crappy bolted together IKEA type piece of office furniture that was being thrown away at the local dump. This same piece of furniture also provided the base to my Cutlery Tray  - recycling at its finest. As the top had four dowels and holes already in it, I decided to reuse them and measured the remaining table frame based on their spacing. The frame is made from 50mm x 50mm Pine from the local wood yard . I decided to try and make the table without any lower bracing and therefore used big 'chunky' Mortise & Tenon joints for maximum rigidity. The tenons were so big, they had to be mitred inside the Mortise and I was quite impressed with myself for cutting quite a complex joint completely by ha...

At the request of my girlfriend, I have been 'busy' making a wooden cutlery tray out of Pine - my first 'commissioned' piece! As with the small toolbox I used box joints for the sides and chopped mortises with a chisel for the dividers to fit into. This time I made sure I used an aesthetically pleasing number of fingers for each side of the corner joint. Unfortunately, my clamps were not big enough for glue-up, so another online trip to Axminster tools was in order to buy three Sash Clamps . Also 'unfortunately', the three clamps and some glue I was buying didn't come to the £50 required for free postage. Soooo ... I was 'forced' to purchase one of these. I have a feeling that I will be using this little shoulder plane a lot, it will definitely be handy for my next intended project - a Coffee Table using Mortise & Tenon joints. The major lesson learn't from this project is not to use too much glue. The squeeze out stuck the wooden blocks I ...