Three-Legged Stool from Paul Sellers book Working Wood 1 & 2

Posted by forbeskm

Next up from the Paul Sellers book, the three legged stool. Starting with a 8′ long 2×12 of douglas fir I cut out two squares. One I cut out on the bandsaw, the other with a chisel. The one on the right in the following photo was with the bandsaw. It was quick an easy, I could have also used my router with the circle cutting jig, or used a circle cutting jig on the bandsaw. I see no problems with how its cut out, the end goal is a circular piece of wood.

Figuring the point of the book was also to try new techniques, I made a second seat. Chiseling a circle is actually remarkably easy. The grain was pretty straight so it split of quite nicely. So if you don’t have a bandsaw, don’t fret a chisel works just fine.

I did have to be careful as I got very close to my line.

All done, not so bad, next round I’ll stick closer to the line all the way around You’ll notice the coping saw in that picture, I did use it to take care of some of the cross grain on the ends, easier than the chisel.

Marking the seat with pencil to help guide the spokeshave rounding over of the seat. The first seat I forgot to do the guidelines and my experience with the spokeshave made for ok results. The guidelines on the second seat made things go much faster and more uniform than without. The Record 151 Spokeshave made yet another appearance here.

Both seats ready to go.

Next up was drilling the holes. I used a brace and bit. The first seat I used an adjustable sized bit to drill the holes as I did not have a 1″ bit. The adjustable did not cut cleanly through when I switched sides. As soon as it broke through it was off center and you are done. This left me to have to clean the rest out with a rasp.

So I ordered up some old “vintage” bits from Ebay, maybe I’ll show them in another post as I am missing the photos but it included a 1 inch bit. The 1 inch bit worked better than the adjustable as it stayed self centered when drilling from both sides.

Marking the centers of three legs preparing them to round over. I ripped these on my wood bandsaw.

Rounding the legs over with the #4 Bailey plane. Notice the bar clamp, this one from Tools For Working Wood, made by Dubuque Clamp Works. Heavier duty than what you can find at harbor freight and super light (cheaper than my steal clamps and way lighter, happy to get them from an American company). As Paul says the bar clamp in the bench vise makes for a great way to work without a tail vise and placed the work up where it is easy to handle. I worked one at a time and test fitted as I went. Be sure to mark which ones go where once you start fitting.

Three legs fit and ready to assemble. The ones in this photo still need the bottom of the legs rounded over.

Ready for slots to be cut for the wedges. I used Oak on one and Walnut on the other.

Both stools are complete. Bandsaw version and the chiseled version. Spokeshave didn’t care 🙂 It was nice to build them without a lathe as I have not room for one at this time.

Lightly sanded with my festool sander/vac combo and given two coats of shellac with a light hand sanding between coats. These will be shipped of as a gift for friends who just had twins. Since they are 12 inches tall they should be a perfect fit in a year :).

Working Wood 1&2 Hand Carved Spoons

Posted by forbeskm

After making the spatulas from Paul Sellers book I decided to try my hand at making a wooden spoons. I broke the last wooden spoon I had and figured I could give this a shot and make some new ones with larger handles. I stopped into Paxton Lumber in Denver and founds some maple cutoffs in the 50c per board foot box. Score!

I had a set of two plastic spoons that I do like that I used for a template. I would go with bigger handles to make them easier to hold and harder to break.

Tools used:

Band Saw (trimming down blanks)
Record 151 Flat Bottom Spokeshave
Record 151 Round Bottom Spokeshave (optional)
Two Cherries Carving Gouge 7/20
180 Sandpaper
Record Vise
Mallet

First step, trace out the spoons. You can see I fit 5 on this board. 2 small ones and 3 large.

Using a Two Cherries 7/20 gouge I started to carve out the spoons.

I got lots of practice as I had 6 to work on. Much easier to get it all out of the way while the board clamps solidly in the vise. I used the smaller spoon as the inside template for the large spoon. For the two small spoons I just moved the small spoon I was using as a template and retraced it a few times until I had a good 1/4″ boarder. The gouge laughed at the maple and cut through it without much trouble. I have not learned how to sharpen the gouge yet, it made it through the spoons without dulling.

The first 5 spoons carved out ready for the bandsaw to trim them out. 2 blanks that are ready for the spokeshave.

The other board was extra thick so I made a deeper spoon.

Roughed out and ready to go. I did take this one back to the bandsaw to trim the top as maple is hard wood and that is mainly end grain. The large spoon I trimmed the handle as well since this one would be a flat handle unlike the others which are round.

Let the trimming begin. Sharpened the Record 151 flat bottomed spokeshave and got to work. First starting with a thick cut and then fine tuning for the finish work. Maple is not the softest of woods but this sharp spokeshave made quick work of it. Grain direction was elusive sometimes, I was changing directions regularly until I figured things out to minimize the tear-out.

I started with the spoon part first, doing one side then the other. I would occasionally use the round bottom Record 151 spokeshave for the tight curves where the spoon met the handle. The round bottom was much harder to use but I am starting to get used to it.

Once all the trimming was done I would finish each spoon off with a scraper to remove any tear-out and spokeshave lines. Made for a pretty good looking spoon.

The final set of 6 ready for finish, most likely mineral oil.

Are they perfect, no. I could have sanded the ends of the handles on the belt sander for a nice slick round end. I chose to round them instead with the super sharp spokeshave and leave them uneven. The Record 151 did quite well on the end grain. I have seen places recommend a low angle version for end grain. Maybe down the road I’ll try a low angle spokeshave or get a kit like this one from Tools for Working Wood. In the mean time, a very sharp 151 works just fine.

The spoons got better with each one I did. I did a rough pass and then a fine finish pass to clean things up. Multiple rounds with the scrapers and putting them in the sun to see marks. Maple is quite hard and did not make things easy but the results are well worth the work.

I did sharpen 3 times I think throughout the process. Maybe overkill but I am just getting used to both the tools and the sharpening process. Each honing took about 3 minutes, just enough to bring em back on the water stones, 1000/4000/8000. Possibly a strop is in order next time I get to Tandy to bring back the edge a bit without honing.

Wood Spatulas a project from Working Wood 1&2

Posted by forbeskm

Paul Sellers has a project on learning how to carve wood. I cannot say I am a sculptor by any definition but some things can be learned. I started by using a coping saw to cut out the rough shape. I did this on piece of oak as well but I do not have a picture of that one. I simply sketched out something that looked like a spatula resembling the shape in Paul’s book. I cut out the rough shape with a coping saw. Coping saws work….slowly, I’ll look at more course blade for next time.

With the rough shape, I had to thin it down a bit. Now the spokeshave did a great job on the oak. It made quick work of things. When it came to the maple, not so quick. Sharp is key for maple, so I honed up the spokeshave blades and got to it.

The final Oak version

Maple, well there was a casualty. While using the brace and bit to drill the hole I made a mistake. I felt the bit getting tight, should have have reacted to the wood. Instead I went a little further and it split. Well this is supposed to be a learning experience and an hours work knocking down the 3/4″ maple out the window when I went to drill the final hole. Before and after:

So round 3 entered the wood bandsaw. Maple is hard wood to cut much less plane down to spatula thickness. Since I have that wood bandsaw shown in an earlier post I decided to use it to re-saw the 3/4″ maple giving me stock for 2 spatulas instead of 1. I also used it to trim close to the lines for less work with the spokeshave. To the purist hand tool worker out there, I don’t have unlimited time and well its my time so I went down the hard road twice and well enough of that.

Notice I drilled first this round before I re-sawed so as not to split the maple.

First one starts to take shape very quickly thanks to the bandsaw doing the worst of the stock removal. I used a Record 151 spokeshave. I picked it up the flat bottom spokeshave from Jim Bode Tools for a good price, the blade was full and a perfect user. I also picked up a round bottom, much more difficult to use I noticed but I was able to make it work for the tight curve.

The final collection all treated with mineral oil. You can see I did not really use a template, something for next round. Onto spoons!

mike of all things

Chocolate, Pilates, Shoe Making, Woodworker, Jeeper, Coffee, all around jack of all trades.

record 151 spokeshave

Three-Legged Stool from Paul Sellers book Working Wood 1 & 2

Working Wood 1&2 Hand Carved Spoons

Wood Spatulas a project from Working Wood 1&2