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Michael T Collins makes an easily adjustable lectern. Dale Carnegie once said ‘there are always…
In honour of our much missed and respected former Editor Mark Baker, we have launched…
Dave Western creates from scrapwood a killer whale that is based heavily on a dramatic form…
Ian Woodford shares some ideas for designing and making a nutcracker. Since the early days,…
John Lloyd looks at a 15th-century technique that revolutionised furniture making. No, this has nothing…
Michael T Collins makes a beautiful rustic-looking coffee table. I have long been a proponent of…
Paul Purnell makes a lye-shaped thumbstick. Following on from last month’s article on joining a…
Gerald is a well-established professional carver, who remains as devoted as ever to his craft. But it hasn’t all been plain sailing, as he tells Catherine Kielthy Pirates, Prince Charles, Pret A Manger. What do they all have in common, apart from the obvious alliteration? Gerald Adams. The Norwich-born carver, who set up his own business back in 1986, certainly has an intriguing roll call of commissions, but the demands of working to client deadlines year in, year out, have perhaps given him a slightly different perspective on the craft he so loves. ‘Working always on commission, for the trade, [with your] work going all round the world means long hours, while meeting harsh deadlines is very stressful,’ he reveals. ‘And there is also the loneliness of working on your own eight hours a day, rarely getting out of the workshop.’ At one point, Gerald trained and employed three people
We show details of the essential housing jig that you will need in your collection. You can use a router with a fence for lengthwise routing operations. Working perpendicular to that requires either a router T-square, which gives guidance along one side or the extra control possible with a slotted housing jig. This simple device confers control when routing, making a lot more things possible and more accurately than without it. For this you need a guidebush big enough to accommodate the right size of cutter. Not only can you make housings – it is a good way to trim the ends of boards square. The jig can be made as long or as short as you desire. You can use a straight cutter for plain housings. Diameters can vary from small to reasonably large, but the guidebush will dictate how large – usually no more than 19mm diameter. Dovetail cutters
Cedar is a catch-all name for many different species of often unrelated tree – we show you a few of them In this series we have looked at a very few species of tree in each article. There cannot be a single, named tree in the world that isn’t related to others or, in some cases such as cedar, frequently ‘unrelated’. It does get very complicated – so much so that we thought it might be better to take several different ‘cedars’ as examples because they have such diverse properties that are useful to the woodworker. Pinaceae family (Cedrus or Cedar) Cedar of Lebanon There are five species in this group, but Cedar of Lebanon (Cedrus libani) is well known and liked as workable timber. Location Over the centuries, extensive deforestation has occurred, with only small remnants of the original forests surviving. Deforestation has been particularly severe in Lebanon and
Johan Roudy shows two different ways to carve a Louis XVI Rosette. To illustrate Louis XVI style, I propose to carve a rosette in two different ways from the same design. The first one can be carved directly on a piece of furniture or woodwork, while the second can be freely glued as an appliqué. It is interesting to see the similarities and differences of the work from one technique to another. That will also give you more versatility to use this pattern at your convenience. In order to help you, the drawing includes a sectional view of a median and diagonal cut of both rosettes. The rosette is a very usual motif under Louis XVI. There are countless different patterns, from the simplest to the most sophisticated, most of the time inscribed in a circle or a square. They can be found on a lot of panels or furniture,
We’re going to go back to southeastern Germany and the Erzgebirge Mountain area, famed for the craftsmen and toy making. This project focuses on a personal favourite – the German smoker or incense burner. Otherwise known as Rauchermen, these wonderful little characters send out plumes of Christmassy smelling incense. Incense has been used for centuries in religious ceremonies. It is seen as a way to cleanse the air of evil spirits. In Germany, the 12th night of Christmas is a celebration of the gifts of the three wise men, and people light incense to mark the end of the Christmas season. I think the smoking men were likely given as a good luck charm to keep away the nasty spirits. Unlike the nutcrackers that portray figures of authority like kings, queens and soldiers, our smokers are the opposite. They represent the working man, like builders, carpenters, and in my case,
Could your workshop use a bit of a tidy up? Well, the Editor talks us through small, but effective changes to maximise efficiency and safety. No doubt this is a wonderfully productive workshop, but if your workshop and workshop practices resemble this, then maybe a bit of a rethink is necessary. Workshops are personal to us all. They are our space that reflects our needs, likes and what we want to do in them. It is, however, a truism that no matter how big the workshop we have, we will always find things to fill it, and thereby need an even bigger workshop. We can dream of bigger workshops, but the reality is, we must all look at utilising space well. But it isn’t just space in a workshop that affects how we work – there are other things we need to consider that directly affect how well we can
Oliver Waters and Jim Cooper share a few techniques for establishing reliable layout lines for crisp joints Students on a one-year course at Waters & Acland spend the first few weeks mainly focusing on tool preparation and their respective use in combination with a variety of measuring and marking equipment. To develop their skills they are required to build a Chinese puzzle as a precursor to tackling a host of decorative dovetail joints. In this article we’ll be looking at why stock preparation is key to establishing lines you can trust and why measurements alone aren’t always the best indication of size. Stage 1 The students are provided with a length of stock machined to a 20mm square cross-section. Their remit is to use the supplied stock to produce all the components necessary to make the Chinese puzzle. Accurate marking-out, cutting and chiselling are essential in order to produce a
Peter Benson looks at selecting the perfect carving knife. The most common questions I am asked are – what knives to choose, and how to sharpen tools and keep them sharp. Many of those who are of my generation can remember a time when almost every schoolboy would have a knife in his pocket or in a sheath on his belt. Sticks were cut into bows, arrows, swords and daggers for all our games, as well as made into aircraft and model guns by those with a little more imagination. Knives in today’s society I can’t remember anyone ever using a knife in a threatening manner. The most dangerous activity for which they were used was to throw them at any available tree to see if they would stick in. In these days of protecting young children from anything remotely dangerous, and the incidence of knife crime, it is rare for any
Using pencil and paper to sketch out patterns or designs can be a great expression of your creativity. But now that you’ve drawn a design, how do you enlarge it to a full-size pattern to use for your project? Randy Maxey steps you through the process of using a grid to enlarge your sketched pattern and create a full-size template.
There are a number of methods of transferring a printed pattern to wood. You can use graphite paper, but it’s messy. You can use a heated transfer tool to transfer a laser-printed pattern, but it’s sketchy at best. Randy Maxey talks about a surefire, clean, and easy method of transferring a pattern using vinyl film. The film he uses is 3mil thick and features an adhesive backing. Use a light spritz of spray adhesive to attach the pattern to the face of the vinyl. Peel off the backing, and apply it to the wood. After you finish cutting the pattern in the wood, the vinyl peels off cleanly. Give it a try!
Making a small box is a good exercise for any woodworker. You get to choose the type of joinery used at each corner. And you can decide how best to create that joinery to bring the box together. Randy Maxey shows how he used hand tools to cut rabbet (rebate) joints that join the ends with the sides of the box. With this method, you’ll see how to use a saw and shooting board to true up the pieces of a box. Lay out the rabbet joints using a marking gauge. Use saws and chisels to remove the waste. Finally, fine-tune the fit of the joints using chisels or a shoulder plane.
As a woodworker, you’re sure to come across some hand planes with a bevel-up configuration for the plane iron versus the traditional bevel-down design of a conventional hand plane. Randy Maxey explains the differences
Are you confused by all the different types of saws you see at the hardware store or home center? Are those saws suitable for fine woodworking? What are the differences between traditional carpentry saws and modern saws? How do western-style hand saws differ from Japanese-style hand saws? What hand saws are better suited for cutting joinery by hand? Randy Maxey provides the answers in this video overview.
Randy Maxey provides a quick overview of the major components of a woodworking hand plane and their function.
