This blog will be a collection of technique notes, news and stories. I am hoping to persuade some woodworking friends to post articles, from time to time. Hoping that you will enjoy the content. best wishes, David

Photo taken at the Marc Adams School courtesy of Marc Adams.



I am very pleased to see my hand planing article featured on the front cover of the October issue of Popular Woodworking.

It seems to have created some splendid discussion on the Woodnet Forum, demonstrating the many varied approaches which people choose to apply to their woodworking.

Woodnet Forum

Best wishes,
David

I am excited about the latest DVD as it concentrates on techniques for chisel use.

Chopping and paring are demonstrated; with single lap dovetail work, a hand cut mortice, using the method shown by Bob Wearing in "The Essential Woodworker" and tennon shoulders.

I feel that chisels are massively underated as tools for precision work. Accurate sawing was the speciality of the piece worker in a large shop, but we do not all have those skills, particularly in harder non compressible timbers.

My chopping method for shoulder lines, works very well indeed and is far more straightforward than some of the cumbersome paring techniques which I have seen described.

"The Essential Woodworker" is a classic book by Robert Wearing and I was pleased to discover that GMC have it in stock in paperback. Can't remember seeing it on their publicity recently......

best wishes,
David

I have just sent off an article on wood movement to Colin for the January edition of F&C.

He informs me that Robert Ingham has also sent in an article on wood movement.

Then we open our new copy of Fine Woodworking magazine and there is an excellent article on the same subject by Chris Becksvoort.

This article includes a formula for working out the precise height clearance needed for drawers of different heights. This clearance is essential to avoid the drawers from swelling and sticking in humid hot weather. Deep bottom drawers migh need as much as 4mm or an eigth of an inch of clearance.

We had been discussing this type of formula in the workshop on the same day, as I have always had a little difficulty with the ones published in Bruce Hoadley's excellent book Understanding Wood.

It will be fascinating to compare these articles. We ignore the facts of timber expansion and contraction at our peril and I'm sure none of us want to build self destroying furniture.

The back cover has a full page glossy picture of Richard Williams' fantastic, Macassar Ebony writing desk and chair. This as a modern take on the Carlton House design. Richard's workshop produces some of the finest modern cabinetmaking in the country.

The weather has been fantastic and unseasonal here, sun, low winds and clear air. I picked up 261 Cowrie shells from the low tide pools on a local beach on Saturday. It felt just like spring. I wonder if we will have a rare cold winter.

best wishes,
David

Start with a perfectly straight edge on a shortish board, say 15 to 20 inches long.

Take 10 full length, reasonably fine, through shavings, with a bench plane such as a 5, 6 or 7.

Test the edge carefully with a precision straight edge such as a Starrett (No.386-24 available from Lie-Nielsen) and I predict a small bump, or falling away of the ends, will have ocurred! The errors will be small, just a few thousandths of an inch, but they will be there. The longer you plane the worse the error will be.

This effect is not necessarily caused by faulty planing technique, though this is one possibility. I believe that the geometry of a bench plane, i.e. a flat sole with a blade protruding by a few thousandth's of an inch, is not correct for maintaining or producing a straight surface without some technique.

The classic technique used to counteract this fact, is the use of 'stop' shavings, where the beginning and end of the surface are not planed, to induce a slight hollow in the length.

On work of the size specified, one simply takes 'stop' shavings till the plane no longer cuts, and follows with one or two 'through' shavings. The edge/surface will now be virtually perfectly straight. I find that with care my surfaces remain minutely hollow. Perhaps one thou" over 15 ". Since we can never achieve perfection, this seems like a good result to me. I would much rather have a one thou" hollow than a one thou" bump!

Longer surfaces are a different kettle of fish and one really needs a longer straight edge, though the flexibility of timber becomes more of an issue, and less precision is needed.

Edge joints can be tested by offering up and test clamping.

I would like to thank all those who contributed to this discussion recently on www.woodcentral.com forum, particularly those who took the time and trouble to have a go.

To sum up; Even the best planes won't do it for you automatically, 'Technique' is an absolute necessity.

My planing techniques for precision component preparation are described fully on my second DVD. (Face/Datum side, face edge, thicknessing and square ends).