Woodworks by John

It’s been said that a picture is worth a thousand words so I’ll save you reading and just share some pictures of my latest valet. Zebrawood and Black Walnut, my design featuring hand cut, houndstooth dovetails. The tray and dividers are European Beech, and lined with pigskin.

This was a piece of wood that really caught my eye when I went to Woodworkers Source here in Phoenix — just went there to pick up some finishing material and it just jumped out at me and I couldn’t resist! The hinges are solid brass stop hinges from Horton Brasses and accent this project nicely. The finish is platinum shellac and wax.

For me, woodworking is all about the process and as I was working on this project couldn’t help but think about the time required to create this when compared to the relative ease and automated process used in commercial endeavors. As an example, I wanted to elevate how the dividers in the bottom of the box are inserted. When I was a carpenter doing roof framing there is a joint called a “birds mouth“. I thought that would add some interest even knowing many won’t even notice. I began by cutting a V-groove in the side piece. This was more than wide enough for both sides and fit snugly. It was cut to required width and marked so the V-grooves would have the right orientation. Next I needed to make a new “donkey ears” fixture to plane a matching V for the dividers. It was a long and probably boring process to read about so I’ll do a slide show to illustrate it. I enjoy the process and I’m curious to know how many of you fellow woodworkers feel the same way. Do you enjoy the process of figuring something out or do you just want to get it done the quickest way?

If you’re not familiar with shooting boards you may wonder what the heck a Donkey Ear shooting board is! For hand tool woodworkers a shooting board is something used with a handplane to true up miters, ends, and edges after they have been sawn with either a power or hand saw. In my work they are used for moldings and boxes so I generally only need a block plane with them. My original is shown on the left and it wasn’t very accurate. I had heard of Donkey Ears and found this video by Bob Rozaieski on YouTube I decided to make one for my work and share it on my blog. The only change I made was to make it so that it could be held on the workbench between dogs, his design had a cleat that clamped into the vise. I had some of the Bamboo left from the kitchen island project so that’s what I used. He stressed that getting the 45° exact on the base piece is critical. Admittedly, pre-drilling the screw holes and holding it all in place was a bit of a challenge. The big advantage to this style is that you’re able to work moldings in both directions which is critical when working around a corner. For this blog though the goal was simply making dividers for the inside of a box.

The picture at the left shows the inside of the Valet box, notice the pieces that are inserted. They’re about 1 1/4″ wide but were made from a wider piece so that any tear out from shooting the miters on the ends could be planed off when they cut to final size. After they fit, I used a V-bit in a small router to cut the slots for the dividers. After that they were ripped to the 1 1/4″ width. Other than dividing the bottom of the box there will also be a sliding tray that sits on top of them. The next step was fitting the dividers.

This began by taking a long piece of the Beech and using the Donkey Ear shooting board to create a V that would fit snugly between the side pieces. The depth of the V slot was marked on the end of the board which was then mitered. This piece was long enough to make both dividers. The extra length makes it easier to hold.

Some things I’d like to point out here. With this style of Donkey Ears it was much easier to hold the wood while mitering the ends. I used a practice slot from the router to check the fit. The next hurdle was measuring the length needed. Too small for even a 6″ ruler so thought to use an inside caliper and then laying that out on the wood. The piece was then cut to length and the ‘V’ was mitered on the opposite end. I think the technical term is “fiddle fart around” until the fit was what I wanted! I “eyeballed” that to get it as even as possible. It’s a snug fit so no glue will be needed once the valet is complete.

Using my left hand to guide the plane and my right hand to hold the wood gave me good control. The only odd thing, probably caused by the way my hand contacted the plane, is that the depth of cut changed. Seems as if the palm of my hand loosened the depth adjustment and until I figured that out is drove me crazy! Sure, a CNC machine or a matched set of router bits could accomplish this task in minutes rather than half a day but there no challenge in that so why bother?

So there you have it; to my eye, the ‘V’ has more appeal than a simple dado and butted divider. Once the box is completely finished I may put a spot of glue on the longer side pieces before fitting in these dividers. Hope it made sense to you, if not feel free to ask me a question in the comment section.

After living in our house for 5+ years we thought the kitchen could use some changes, although functional it felt as if it were a dark area even though there is a window above the sink. When you walk in the front door the darkness is what you’d notice first. The cabinets are dark and the black granite; well, it goes without saying is positively dark!

We use the island as our place to eat breakfast, use computers, and also food preparation. Although beautiful, granite is a very cold surface to work on while using computers so that was another slight negative. Replacing all of the counters wasn’t an option, from experience if you attempt to remove them chances of damaging the cabinets is a possibility and I really wasn’t planning on a complete kitchen remodel. So enter Bamboo, Woodworkers Source here in Phoenix has been advertising it so thought it was worth looking into.

It’s available in 8′ pieces measuring about 9″ and 12″ wide. It’s also offered as a 4’x8′ sheet. My first step was to buy a 9″ wide piece and make a mock-up. The plan was to simply make the L-shaped piece to fit over the top of the granite. I used Osmo Polyx in a satin for the finish. I was happy with the method, finish, and color of the finished mock-up so the project was a go. We purchased one 4’x8′ sheet and 2 of the 12″ wide boards. One purpose of my blog is to share what I’ve learned and the 4’x8′ sheet needs to be kept flat!! I’d leaned it on edge against the wall, when I was ready to start (about 1 1/2 weeks later) I cut it to approximate length and Diane and I brought it into the house and laid it on top of the island.

It warped big time!! I called Woodworkers Source and they were willing to exchange the sheet but since I’d already cut it that wasn’t an option. Decided to let it lay to see if it would relax flat on its own but also sprayed water on it and clamped a straight edge across both edges. The parallel clamps were put on without a lot of pressure and I’d tighten them every couple of hours. I did hear some cracking but nothing major. It makes sense, if you look at the right hand picture think of a round piece of Bamboo being sliced into “planks”. Some of them will be more of a C shape and only make contact on the outer edges. I wasn’t concerned about the piece bowing once it was installed because of my plan for building it.

Construction was typical so I won’t bore you with the details. The granite wasn’t square so I scribed it in place and used a small trim saw with a straight edge to cut it. Jointer planed to smooth the cut and then edged it with 1 5/8″ wide strips of the Bamboo. This was glued and screwed into place.

The first step was to cut the banding and pre-drilling and countersink for the screws. Pieces were clamped in place and a screw was inserted into the hole, tapped with a small hammer to locate it, then pre-drilled before applying the glue. To guarantee a good joint it they were also clamped, old school style!

Before flipping the piece over the bottom was prepared by using a cabinet scraper to remove the glue and surface the joint, sanded, and a small round over was done to the outer edge. Two coats of shellac were then brushed on so that both surfaces will be sealed and not absorb moisture — want to prevent any warping since the plan is to simply lay this over the granite.

To finish the top the process was the same as the bottom — scrape off glue lines, sand, and round over the edge. Three coats of the Osmo Polyx satin finish were hand rubbed into the wood using a white, nylon scrubby. I allowed 24 hours drying time between each coat. My neighbor helped bring it in and my fingers were crossed. I’d broken that rule of dry fitting, this piece was much to large and awkward for Diane and I to do that! Thankfully, it dropped right on and fits like a glove. There is no movement and if a future owner prefers to have matching granite it’ll simply lift off!

The subject of making a custom cigar humidor recently came up when I was talking with the owner of Creative Gateway Gallery. They have galleries in Scottsdale, Phoenix, and Sedona. He mentioned that cigar art was popular and suggested that perhaps designing and building a humidor based on my box technique may be a good addition for the gallery. This led to me to doing some research, online and talking to owners of cigar lounges. A requirement for a humidor is that it’s lined with Spanish Cedar which is the best material to control the humidity requirements of cigars and also that the box has a good seal. It’s up to the owner of the humidor to “season” the inside and maintain the humidity. What you see in these pictures is the result of that, my interpretation of that traditional humidor. I used a piece of Curly Maple for the top, front, and back and ribbon grain Sapele for the sides. Hand cut dovetails are both decorative and allow for strong box construction.

My typical construction for this is to first cut a rabbet on the ends of the front and back piece which matches the thickness of the side pieces. Generally this will be 1/4″ which allows me to cut a 3/16″ groove without cutting into the tails, that groove is to inset the bottom. Tools used for this joinery is a skewed rabbet plane (on left) and a small plow plane (on right). Besides being safer than power tools, woodworking with hand tools is much more satisfying than using power tools. The dovetails are then laid out and cut using a combination of dovetail saws, chisels, and a mallet.

After the dovetails are fitted it’s time for assembly. A plywood bottom is inserted into the grooves prior to glue up with Old Brown Glue, my glue of choice for this type of work. Setting the bottom into grooves helps create an airtight space. A cedar panel will be added. After planing and some light sanding the box is ready for shellac, about 8 coats. Notice that in the right hand picture the inside of the box as well as the underside of the lid have been taped off to prevent getting any shellac on the inside of the humidor. Although it’s a relatively benign odor which shouldn’t linger I didn’t want to take any chances that it could affect the cigars. Traditionally the Spanish Cedar lining is left unfinished. The lining is mitered in the corners which locks it in place. After cutting the pieces slightly oversized with a saw they are mitered using a shooting board and plane as shown in the picture on the left.

I found a piece of Spanish Cedar at Woodworkers Source that caught my eye because it seemed to have what’s referred to as a “fiddleback” pattern. It was 4/4 so after resawing it I was able to get 5/16″ thick pieces for the sides and laminate them for the top and bottom. No finish on these but look at the beautiful grain pattern after using my smooth plane on it — stunning!

To complement this humidor only the best hardware would suffice. That would be the brass stop hinges recently offered by Horton Brasses. These are small stop hinges and seemed to be the perfect choice for the way I designed this project. The latch I chose was a ball type that will secure the lid and create the airtight space a fine cigar needs. After adding a Hygrometer to the inside of the lid this humidor is now ready for seasoning by whoever buys it, I think it’ll look great on their desk.

Here’s a picture of our door as it originally was. As you can see, the Arizona heat hasn’t been kind to it. Because of all the clavos and corner hardware attempting to sand/remove the finish while the door was in place wasn’t an option. Diane and I explored the possibility of having the door replaced but that ran into the thousands of dollars — not an option! We both like doing projects so our choice was to do it ourselves. From start to finish was about a week’s time but the results are well worth it.

Here’s the installed door after our DIY skills gave it a do-over; now it’s a definite focal point for our house. We used Jasco’s Premium Epoxy and Paint Remover and as you may guess, the claim that it’ll remove up to 15 layers of paint is a bit of an exaggeration! The first coat only removed whatever top layer had been previously applied. Diane and I each worked on the panels at the center first. We let subsequent coats of the paint remover sit longer than the recommended 15 minutes which helped. The first tools we used were plastic putty knives/scrapers followed by a brush with brass bristles. Didn’t take long to round over the edges on the scrapers and completely clog up the brushes. Thankfully those are relatively inexpensive and well worth replacing as needed. Once they got dull or clogged they weren’t very effective.

The door was placed on a pair of sawhorses in the garage which made it easy to work on. The front door was secured by cutting a piece of OSB plywood to size and then running long carriage bolts through some 2×2’s inside of the door frame. After removing all of the hardware and clavos it was time to tackle removing the finish. As recommended, we began the process on the inner panels. Brushed on the paint remover in one direction, let it sit for 15 minutes, then begin to scrap. Look at the before picture, notice how the lower 2/3’s of the door has really been beaten up by the sun? That area was only slightly easier to get clean. After scraping off as much as possible we used a brass, wire brush to remove as much of the old finish as possible. This process was repeated 3-4 times, the inside was tougher to remove since it hadn’t been out in the weather like the front of the door. Here’s a short slideshow of the project, I’ll describe what you’re seeing in the paragraph under it.

The first picture shows how the house was secured with a piece of OSB plywood using long carriage bolts that go through the 2×2’s and tightened against the door frame. Needed to create a temporary weatherstrip at the bottom out of some rolled up paper towel! The next two pictures give you an idea of the stripping process. I did some experimental sanding to see how that would look and judge how many times the stripper would need to be applied. Using brass brushes after getting most of the “goop” off with the scrapers worked really well. Most of the surfaces needed 4 applications of the paint remover. The final picture is of the hardware which was cleaned with steel wool and denatured alcohol and then sprayed with Rustoleum flat black.

Next up was sanding and yes, my furniture work rarely sees sandpaper since I prefer a hand planed surface but this project is different. When using an oil finish you don’t want to go to a super fine grits like 320 which I saw someone do on a video. That polishes the surface too much and the oil won’t penetrate very well. For this project, 150 grit was perfect. I’ve never been a fan of surface coatings and a project like this that’s exposed to the desert weather that can range from below freezing to 120° plus a surface coating is lucky to last a year! For that reason I chose General Finishes Exterior Oil. Application is to apply a fairly thick coat with a brush, allow it to penetrate for 10-15 minutes and then wipe it completely dry. Very important that the surface is completely wiped dry. We’d let one side dry a few hours, flip the door to do the other side, and then repeat the next day for a total of 3 coats.

After re-installing the clavos, corner braces, and hinges my neighbor helped me re-install it. Also re-hung the “speakeasy” door using a piano hinge. The original hinges were pretty chintzy! The door handle and lock had a dark, antique finish that was pretty much destroyed by the sun. It was replaced with a brushed nickel set from Schlage which gives the door a contemporary flair. I’m sure the door will need to be refreshed every year or two but it will be as simple as wiping on a coat of oil with either a rag or nylon scrubby then wiping completely dry. It won’t stick to the hardware, won’t need to be sanded, and can easily be done with the door in place.

Safety Note: If you’ve never worked with an oil based finish it is very important that you put your rags in either an airtight container (which you probably don’t have) or do like I do and soak them in a bucket of water. After soaking lay them out to dry and discard in the trash. Spontaneous Combustion is real, I know from personal experience!

Once I published a picture of this project the messages started coming in: “what in the world is Roasted Oak?” Allow me to answer that first before I blog about this frame and painting by Diane Eugster. Roasted Oak is wood that has been placed in a kiln for an extended period of time so that all of the sap and sugars caramelize the wood and essentially turn it a dark brown. I’ve also used poplar for a frame that was treated the same way. It was purchased from Woodworkers Source here in Phoenix, here’s a LINK explaining the process. When you are cutting this wood it smells like you’re cleaning out a fireplace! The color goes completely through and if you look closely at the finished product there is a very slight hint of brown in the grain of the wood which warms it up nicely. The finish is Osmo Polyx Oil #3054 which is wet sanded into the surface. It’s the same product I use for my furniture work.

I added these pictures to illustrate how the wood works and finishes. At left is a piece of the raw wood next to an oiled one. The center shows it being planed which it does nicely. At right you can see how the grain shows through and how (IMHO) how beautiful it is!

A question I’ve been asked quite often deals with how I make a Floater style frame. Many commercial moldings available are a simple L-shaped piece which presets the distance for the canvas to be mounted below the edge of the molding. My method is to cut a dado (groove) in the side of the frame located at whatever distance I need to accommodate the artwork. I’ll glue a piece of Baltic Birch plywood into that to mount the canvas or panel. You can see that in the photo at the left. Another advantage to this method is that the plywood piece reinforces the corner of the frame.

A few notes on the assembly. I was advised to use a polyurethane glue so Gorilla Glue is my go to for that. Each corner is also reinforced with a biscuit. During the dry clamping step the Birch plywood was cut to the correct size. Gorilla glue applied to the corners, assembled and then clamped, next the plywood pieces are glued into their place and left to dry overnight. The next step was cutting a slight chamfer on the inner and outer edge with a router. The inside chamfer was squared off with a chisel. The Osmo finish is applied with a brush and allowed to soak in completely before wiping dry. I used 320 wet/dry paper to complete the process and as you can see, it gave very nice results! Notice in the corner detail how that chamfer has a gleam to it depending on how the light hits it or the vantage point of the viewer.

One thing I noticed during the wet sanding process is that the resulting slurry is dark. Many times I’ll use splines of contrasting wood at each corner of the frame and this slurry would probably color the contrasting color of the spline — guess that’ll be the next experiment!! By the way, the size of Diane’s painting is 24″ x 30″ and it is oil on canvas and the size of the molding is approximately 1+” thick by 2+” wide. That size was determined by the width of the stock I was able to get.

After posting some pictures of this project on Instagram and Facebook a number of followers asked for details so here’s a post explaining the process. Here’s a visual so you can see the before and after side by side:

As you can see, pretty obvious why I wanted to replace the saggy, draggy, peeling one!! The size is approximately 5′ square and commercial gates of that size priced out at $800-1100.00. All things included (welding frame and materials) there’s less than $450.00 invested — we don’t worry about time. Lowe’s had kiln dried, 1×4 redwood pieces which were used for the shiplap and I selected the lightest weight and straightest premium Redwood I could find.

Work began with the frame which is mortise and tenon construction. All pieces were first surfaced to 1 3/8″. The tenons go the full width (5 1/2″) and haunched to prevent any cupping. The haunch is 3/4″ and 1 1/2″ long on each side. That leaves a tenon 2 1/2″ wide and 1 1/2″ long. I always cut the mortise first, to get a consistent depth for the haunch you can use a gage block to limit the depth. The left picture shows the sequence; the 3/4″ x 1 1/2″ mortise was cut for the haunch then the gauge block (pointed to with pencil) is removed and the remaining 2 1/2″ was cut to full depth.

The next step is cutting the tenons which was done on the tablesaw with a tenoning jig.

Once they were all cut the haunch needed to be laid out and cut, again I used the gauge block to mark it out then a Japanese razor saw for cutting. I generally cut the tenon slightly over-sized and then use a rabbet block plane to fine tune the fit. I learned though that Redwood doesn’t plane well.

After cutting grooves for the shiplap pieces (dado on tablesaw) it was time to create the shiplap pieces. I purchased 8′ stock and cut each into 2′ pieces. Then one edge has a 1/2″ rabbet cut, flip the board and cut a 3/4″ rabbet on the opposite edge which will give you a uniform 1/4″ space between each board. The final step was fitting them to the crosspiece to calculate how much the end pieces needed to be trimmed to fit the space and leave a bit of room between each piece for expansion.

A patio table I did some time ago was constructed similar to this. The process is to clamp the entire assembly together but only apply glue to one side. After that dries overnight, loosen the clamps and remove the side that was assembled dry. Now each of the shiplapped pieces are inserted before applying glue to the other mortise and tenons and once again clamping overnight. A coat of Thompsons Waterseal was applied to them before assembly.

The picture on the left shows inserting the shiplap pieces after half of the panel was glued together, on the right is the completed assembly. Sure glad I’ve been dragging those 6′ Jorgensen bar clamps around for the past 30 years or so!

Here’s a view of the back of the gate, notice there are two pieces of Redwood at the top of the panel. The top one was glued/screwed to the top of the panel and rests on the metal framework. The bottom one is screwed to the top and essentially wraps around the metal frame. The entire panel was finished with Thompson’s waterseal first. The back of the hinged side needed to have mortises chiseled out to clear the hinges and nuts. Screws through the metal framework of the gate secure the overlay to it.

All in all, this was a very rewarding project. I was a bit concerned about the weight and added a wheel for support. I’m able to span 5′ with my arms and easily carried it from the shop to its location. Diane helped hoist it onto the metal framework and it’s done. Let me know if you have any questions or thoughts about this project — they’re always welcome.

I doubt anyone would disagree if I said 2020 was an unusual and challenging year. It’s very easy to be discouraged, I need to discipline myself to create challenges even with the setbacks. Most art shows have gone virtual which means artists don’t have the need for as many frames. Galleries are seeing less traffic which obviously effects their sales as well. The gallery that carries some of my furniture and boxes (Anticus) has seen a drop in their business. The co-op I belong to (Mesa Art Center) has decided to close its doors until September! So what’s a craftsman to do — push through and take on any challenge that comes my way and set goals to hone my skills.

Here’s a wrap up of 2020, first off the frame for Diane’s painting “Going in Circles” is done. Great challenge to learn how to layout and carve the gulliochs. Here’s a link to that process and a couple of pictures of the completed work.

Another interesting project to wind down the year was creating a circular frame for a local artist. I have used solid wood for round tables which involves gluing together angled segments, routing or bandsawing the circle, then refining it. I knew the time required for that was too costly for this frame so decided to see how MDF would work and — it did! Oh boy, the dust with MDF is awful so I did the fabrication outside. A 2’x4′ piece was all that was needed for the project. The outer edge was doubled to get enough space for the 16″ stretched canvas panel. Several coats of primer followed by satin black gave an acceptable finish. Good challenge for sure and here’s the results.

The final frame of the year was another one for Diane, her work Through the Looking Glass inspired me to use the technique of oil gilding directly onto Red Oak for this frame. This is a technique I wrote about for a Picture Framing Magazine in August of 2011. The texture of the paint and feeling of Diane’s work seems to mimic the gold leaf sparkling in the open pores of the Oak. The profile I made for this I’ll call a “faux floater”. After the frame has been gilded with composition gold a slurry of denatured alcohol and whiting is used to rub the finish back — this is somewhat unpredictable. My goal was to create a sense of light to compliment her painting.

One thing I’ve learned about paintings is that we, as the viewer can have our own interpretation. For example, what I see in this painting is a woman seeking refuge in a bombed out church, probably in Europe during WWII. You probably see something totally different but that’s what good art is all about — the viewer fills in the gaps and creates the story.

On to the new year, every day is a new one so keep on challenging yourselves — John

In my latest blog I mentioned that I would write up the process I used to get the Guilloche design onto Frame #205 and here it is! Although it does seem rather complicated once you figure out your pattern and concentrate on the work it’s not too bad. When I first began carving I’d look at other carvers work benches and marvel at how many chisels they had. When you do a relief carving you can usually do the majority of your work using a V-tool. I soon learned though that if the design calls for repeating arcs or circles it’s really important to have the proper sweep and width of chisel/gouge to accomplish that. Quick review; the sweep refers to the arc of the chisel where #1 is flat and as the arc increases the numbers go up (#11 is almost a U shape). The width is expressed in millimeters. I’ll explain the process I used with pictures and captions, there may be other ways to go about it but this worked well for me. First work was done on paper. After drawing lines that represented the space available I drew a circle in the center that space based on the size of the gouge I would use. That was a #8/13 which yielded a 11/16″ circle. A compass was then set from the center of that circle to the outer edge of the space available to draw the outer circle. Next, another 11/16″ circle was drawn; it is located on the center line and just touches the outer circle drawn with the complass. At this point I set a divider from the center points of the 11/16″ circles. This measurement is referred to as a unit. Sounds confusing but I believe the pictures will clarify it for you!

So there it is, everyone always asks how much time did that take and each side of the frame took just under an hour and a half; so about 6 hours total time. For me though, I try not to be overly concerned with how long a project takes; rather my goal is to meet the challenge I’ve set for myself. Not having this be my “day job” allows me the freedom to have that mindset. I’m always happy to share what I’ve learned so if you have any questions feel free to contact me. Next will be finishing the frame which will probably be several coats of black Casein followed by shellac and wax. I’ll share the results of that as well.