Blog Woods

I have discovered that the quiet shop and the whisk and sweat of a handplane can be good for doing a lot of thinking. Thinking is a dangerous thing and I believe you should try to avoid it as much as possible. It will generally only lead you to trouble and dilemma, exactly where I find myself sitting tonight. Though I think in setting myself up for this blog entry I have seen some rays of sunshine.

Often it is better to be lucky than good, and luck for me this time means that I am building a small workbench / joinery bench for use at traveling hand tool demonstrations at the same time that a rather good size discussion about period workbenches has popped up about the woodworking blogs, importantly involving a couple of woodworkers who I happen to really look up to, and maybe quietly hero worship a little, Chris Schwarz and Peter Follansbee. The discussion related to the twin screw face vise depicted by Joseph Moxon in his 1678 work titled "Mechanick Exercises."

Most involved in the discussion speak about how the face vice cannot be actually part of the bench, and I have to agree it looks out of place and bulky, and it would obviously be very much in the way of the harder to see, planing wedge vise on the front left of the bench. The alternative thought is that this vise is an accessory piece that can be added or removed from the bench, like a bench hook.

I admit I am a simple man and would probably just accept the picture as it has been accepted for a while, as gospel. I was kind of excited to finally create one of these vises for my new joinery bench. Then I got to reading. (sigh)

First it was Peter Follansbees entry about 17th century holding techniques. He talks about how he uses hold fasts for the lions share of his holding, but he admits he does not do a lot of dovetail work. Something I very much enjoy and something a twin screw vise excels at. This posting was I think, inspired by Chris Schwarz posting about adding a planing wedge vise or bench screw, to his new Roubo workbench (read it here), This article got me excited about the style and I was trying to play with how I could also add this vise to the joinery bench, and perhaps to my bigger Nicholson Bench (along with accompanying deadman of course).

Then, last night I read Chris Schwarzs follow up on the twin screw, and I knew things had changed for me. He showed a very viable, and believable way to construct the vise as a separate accessory and attach it to the top of the bench when needed, (I do not want to just pirate the pictures of the set up and post them here, I walk a already walk a tightrope when it comes to that practice, just follow the link and read his post, once you see it it makes so much sense) Now I had some decisions to make, and none to soon as I was moving towards starting on the vise soon.

These posts have made me do some rethinking on the design of the project. If I remove the twin screw vise then I remove a major design element and I feel more free to change some of the rest of the design to. I spent the whole day dwelling on the issue and I have came to some decisions. I am basing these decisions on the fact that I am using this bench to do demos of Medieval woodworking, so I want my bench to be as old and document-able as possible, therefore I am doing away with the attached twin screw vise, and instead constructing it as an accessory that will attach to the top of the bench for when I need to do that kind of joinery. I will instead install a planing wedge or bench screw style vise. With this I can go most of what I desire anyway. built well enough I could probably even do some dovetailing with it . . . well see. I am going to drop the height by several inches to better accommodate that additional height of adding the twin vise to the top of the bench when in use.

I am also going to change the geometry of the legs. I very much like the "X" pattern used by Tim Williams (whom I borrowed the original joinery bench idea from) but with it I cannot utilize holdfasts as additional upright fastening systems like Mr. Follansbee shows in his post (see here) so I am  going to rethink those as well, probably to a more straight leg design on what faces me and a canted out angle on the backside of the bench.

I was playing with all these ideas when I started getting this post together and I found something that helped me make up my mind. In early 2009 I was not involved in blogs at all, I didnt write one and I didnt read them. So unfortunately I missed a post by Mr. Schwarz on an early 17th century Swedish joiners bench, recovered from a shipwreck. A reader called " J Rayner" posted it in the comments section of Mr. Follansbees blog. (Thank you J Rayner for posting this so I could find it!)

Carrying my Norse heritage with me on this medieval adventure I was instantly intrigued, and once I saw the picture, I knew that was the way I had to go. So a few more shop drawings to do tomorrow, and this weekend I can get working on making a huge dent in this piece. provided I can ever get this top flat, but that is another travesty for another day, until then

Cheers

Oldwolf

In a past post I asked if anyone had a vintage tool made by H. E. Mitchell. I mentioned that I would be either willing to buy it, but if it wasnt for sale, I would be grateful for a photograph of it. Someone was kind enough to follow through with that request.

I woke up a few weeks ago to find the following two images in my InBox...


The sender didnt include his or her name, nor was there any text at all accompanying the images. Just the photographs.

After a quick look I knew this saw was made by ol Henry, so I quickly replied with a "thank you" and asked if it was for sale. I didnt receive a response, which was disappointing, but at least I now have an image of an elusive saw made by H. E. Mitchell.

This is huge for me - really huge.

In all the years I have been searching for H. E. Mitchell tools, I have never seen a saw of his, even though he stated in all his advertising that he was just a "saw maker". I saw an outdated listing for one that sold in an auction back in 2005, but it didnt include a picture of it. All this time I had no evidence that the man ever made one. Then these showed up. Wow.

The makers stamp on the saw dates it from 1865 or 1866. I say this for two reasons. First, it has the "Eastbourne" address and ol Henry only worked out of Eastbourne from 1865 until he went bankrupt in February of 1868. He then moved to North Road in Brighton and started again. The other reason for dating it from these two years is that the stamp only says, "Mitchell". Henry realized that his stamp could be confused with other tool makers named Mitchell so in the later half of 1866, he added the "H. E." to it.

Whoever sent me these photos, I thank you very much. You really made my day - week - month. I may not have the actual saw, but at least I have photos of one to show that the man actually made them.

Thank you.

Peace,

Mitchell

invariably, after the question how much does a slab top table cost?, the next question is, are there other kinds of table bases i should consider?  there are.  the legs shown above are our most popular style.  based on a shaker design, below, they are cut (wastefully, i admit), from a slab of 1.5" thick steel on a waterjet, at a local steel fabricators shop.  the process is extremely accurate, but slow going through the thick, solid steel, so the individual cut pieces are expensive even before we grind, polish, drill, tap and assemble them.  they are beautiful though, and extremely rigid, and give the heavy slabs a lighter, sort of floating, familiar, yet contemporary look.  click the photos to enlarge them. 
each section consists of the main vertical, a 10" wing for stability and a 2.375 x .375 bar  to tie the whole thing together.  we offer natural, top and below, rainbow, a dark browny, bronzy, patina, and black.  these finishes are then top coated to stabilize them.


we also offer fabricated metal bases in a variety of styles.  above and below are our trapezoid bases.  also offered in various finishes, they can be fabricated in any size and can accommodate a design change to allow for a drawer.







with the square or rectangular tubing, we can offer a variety of shapes, including squares and xs, shown below.  these bases can be polished and patinated, or left more or less as is, like above, for a sort of industrial look.

the restaurant tables below we re fun.  randomly space 5/8ths rebar was welded between two steel plates, randomly painted and randomly rusted.  given that these were 42" high, tghey were bolted to the wood floor, but shortened to traditional dining table height, im sure they would make for an interesting look.




we also use plasma cut tapered legs on some of our dining and console tables.
or, our bridges base could also be adapted somehow to a larger, taller scale table.









and your imagination .. were open and happy to discuss your designs, either for a slab top you already own, or for a whole table we can design and build for you.  in general, prices for custom steel bases start around $1000. for the welded tubing designs and go up to $3500. to $4000. for the waterjet cut, thick, patinated steel bases.

Heres how I make simple but decorative boxes - I am making two that will be Christmas gifts this year.
I am using a piece of cherry, and have prestained it to make the whole process a little easier. Ive run it through the router on both sides to make a 1/4" dado joint that will receive the top and bottom panels.
Ive made two blocks, one short and one long. These marking blocks represent the sides and front and back lengths of the box, and make it easy to not have to measure for my lengths.
I cut all the sides in a continuous series out of the wood, so that the grain pattern will follow around - matching up the grain on the corners looks pretty cool!
Then, I located and cut biscuit slots with the biscuit jointer. Ive glued the corners and inserted the top and bottom panels, and secured the box with a strap clamp, making sure it is square.
After this dries, I will cut the lid off on the table saw, and secure the top to the lid...