Hey everyone nice to get back into some cabinet work and leave the spoons and hatchet on the ole choppin’ stump this time!
Between the hurricane hitting…then the snow storm post sandy, my bench and pine planks got a bit ignored.
This project is more based around something fun and really useful as well as getting more exercise with hand chisels in regarding chamfering edges. Basically I have found that if you can go to a work bench and hand chamfer with skill using a chisel then it’s a pretty nice badge to wear on your flannel shirt..lol.
I do not posses any badges….lmao! This is greenhorn chisel work here folks and my hats off to those fantastic craftsmen like the great Mac Headly that keep fueling the engines for people like me that want to improve.
The joinery on this whole affair is rather simple bare bones but the open canvas for chamfer work is a real playground on these pine pieces to take on new obstacles and learn.
I did like many others when I started, I used to take the file route for chamfering. Just angle your file on some soft pine and chamfer those blues right away and that’s a fine technique but it really does not work with the grain plus it leaves the file teeth tracks. It think at some part of your regimen it is healthy to get familiar with your chisels for creating stronger skill sets regarding craftsmanship.
I can humbly say…this ain’t no router bit party friends…this is almost like the delicacy of watching an old school pinstripe artist work. This requires practice, patience and patience….lol.
My effort will be a bit carved looking…but some sand paper will pretty her up and we have to start somewhere. Better to have made some bumps on the road than just stay at home dreaming about it.
So let’s take a look!
WARNING....It seems on my end of the technology super highway Photobucket has overjoyed me with updating its entire look and performance! Yes this is a sarcastic paragraph. I really do not know why these applications constantly have to update things making additional hardship to what seems to me to be a really simple idea….sharing photos…lol. So….I have tried flickr hoping anyone who cares will see the pictures of the latest work. So for the current time I have been informed that photobucket is under maintenance….let’s hope when it’s up and running again it will be more manageable than yesterday when it decided to add my photos …..alllll the way at the end of my album sending me on a wild goose chase for what should be a minimal and simple click and go. So I appreciate your patience if this blog has no pics although it should.
Pic 1-2: Since the last installment I decided to ad lib a bottom skirt piece to frame in the bottom section of my ittle library. I cut out with my coping saw then preceded to tune my chisel chamfer skills. I also took out the middle of the back boards top to play with positive and negative spaces.
Pic 3-5: Put some good old friends to work here to make the drill holes and counter bore the areas for the attaching screws. It never ceases to amaze me just how much hard work can be done with these simplistic and yet brilliant hand tools.
Pic 6: Time for some spokeshave work. Using this method of jogging and ganging the pieces in the vice serves for matching the old style way…...by eye, feel and learning skill.
Pic 7: No easy rodeo to ride these chisels bevel down to make accurate chamfers but it is a very fun and wonderful skill builder for this and future builds. Isn’t sand paper awesome?.....lmao!
Pic 8-9: Some mock ups to let the audience view how the design is coming together.
It’s been a free form jazz session really. I have even made a pretty funny mistake which I am happy to say invites an idea I hopefully will share in the next installment.
Crafting these things really prompts our minds for finalized satisfaction although we all recognize thats not always the verdict. We want the joinery to puzzle piece in and allow our family and friends to admire those areas that they never even see or pay much attention to…...but we do.
For me I enjoy projects that almost take us back somewhere…I suppose this is why the tools I use follow the same suit. There is some additional soul to using and making things for my personal tastes that look like they already have had life to them. Maybe that is my fired enthusiasum. To get out there and try and recreate that spirit bringing these old styles and ideas to life again with my own way of doing so.
I love that everytime we approach that work bench there is that crossroads we must compromise. North? South? Dovetails? Handtools? It’s your map, your writing with your own script for success and surprises.
It’s an exercise of the muscles, a challenge of the creative mind, and hopefully a love and reverence for those giants in the forest that sway and stand keeping the earths time in proper pace.
I hope all your paces are full of great times,
Be well and have fun, more to come!
Joe
Crafty Puzzles
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