My first "real" project...

[JohnMorgan of Lititz]

Hi folks,

Well, it's completed, and just in time for valentine's day! This is my first real attempt at woodworking and I really enjoyed the process (which is good, given all the money i've put into tools!) The design comes from an old Popular woodworking magazine article (I think it was a CSchwartz article).

Silverware tray, Cherry (common), hand-cut dovetails (Cosman method):

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The finish recipe was one I found a few years back and saved it since it looked like a good one. It's 1 part Turpentine, 1 part bee's wax, and 1 part boiled linseed oil. Rub it on, "massage" it in, wipe off the excess and let it dry. Apply as many coats as necessary.

I'm posting in Neanderthal because of the handcut DT's and handplaned final surface. I admit to using a power J&P for finishing down the 4/4 cherry.

It was a good exercise for a first project - glued up panel bottom, rabbet edges, dado sides of the tray, dovetails, and the finish. You don't have to look too close for the mistakes, etc., but I learned quite a bit from the whole process.

I've already begun the next project...a shaker style end table.

Thanks again to the creek for input on past questions, etc. You guys are a great, valuable source of information!

[Billy Chambless]

John,

That's one nice piece of work. The turps/BLO/beeswax finish is just right for that cherry, imo.

[Phillip Pattee]

Mistakes!!:eek: No, no, I believe you mean "tool marks" the things that give the project character. It looks really nice--I can't see any tool marks. Nice job.

[David Keller NC]

"I admit to using a power J&P for finishing down the 4/4 cherry."

Aha! Gotcha - your bonafides for neanderthal working are now revoked. :D

Really nice result, and some pretty nice cherry that went into it. Now all you have to do is throw it off of the back deck a few times, bury it in the garden for a month, dig it up, knock it off, and sell it to an antique dealer for several thousand dollars (that you can use to buy a Lie-Nielsen #8 to take care of that "powered jointer" problem. ;))

[Dave Lehnert]

His first project and he uses hand cut dovetails. I think we should revoke his membership. Makes us all look bad LOL!!!!:D

Looks GREAT!

[JohnMorgan of Lititz]

"I admit to using a power J&P for finishing down the 4/4 cherry."

Aha! Gotcha - your bonafides for neanderthal working are now revoked. :D

Really nice result, and some pretty nice cherry that went into it. Now all you have to do is throw it off of the back deck a few times, bury it in the garden for a month, dig it up, knock it off, and sell it to an antique dealer for several thousand dollars (that you can use to buy a Lie-Nielsen #8 to take care of that "powered jointer" problem. ;))

LOL. Now that's funny, David. But you're probably right. Nothing sells better than that "distressed" look! I own the LN #7 and still used the power jointer...it was just quick and strangely fun. I did use the LN 5 1/2 to "spring" the joints for the bottom before glue up. And I hogged out the rabbets on the TS, but used the LN 73 large shoulder plane to adjust it and take it down to thickness for the dado. I used the 1/4" LN Mortise chisel to refine the ends of the dado and square them up. The lovely LN 4.5 did all the final smoothing. Quite happy with that not-so-little little plane.

I'll step right up to the plate and admit to being a LN junkie. But alas, I've just acquired a power J&P last month and now call myself a "hybrid hand-tool woodworker" :)

Question for the Neanders: That arched top on the two ends of my tray, how would you go about making that cut? I drew the line that I needed, but when I hogged off the waste I was unsure what to use other than sandpaper to refine and smooth out the arch. Would a spokeshave solve that problem? There's got to be a tool for that type of cut.

[JohnMorgan of Lititz]

John,

That's one nice piece of work. The turps/BLO/beeswax finish is just right for that cherry, imo.

I'm real happy with that mixture on cherry. Its really popped the grain pretty nice. Yet, it didn't enhance some of the toolmarks like I had feared. All in all, I'm real happy with it. I may go for one final third coat tomorrow.

[gary Zimmel]

You got to love the feeling of using hand tools.

Great job John.
Can't wait to see the progress of the shaker style end table.
Nice to know there are more LN junkies out there.....

[Dewey Torres]

Nice work!!!

There are pros on here who have never done hand cut DT's!:)

[Henk Marais]

Hi John

In the bigining of december I also saw the article and decided that will be a great little holiday project. It is also my first real hand tool project and it has been a massive learning exsperiance. I did it all by hand - thicknessing, shaping, dovetails the works.

I however is still busy and is now shaping the handles with rasps and spokeshaves.

I am enjoying the project and make sure that I enjoy and learn with each little part of the project. The trick is to not want to hurry just so that the project can be over but to enjoy what you are doing now!

[JohnMorgan of Lititz]

Hi John

In the bigining of december I also saw the article and decided that will be a great little holiday project. It is also my first real hand tool project and it has been a massive learning exsperiance. I did it all by hand - thicknessing, shaping, dovetails the works.

I however is still busy and is now shaping the handles with rasps and spokeshaves.

I am enjoying the project and make sure that I enjoy and learn with each little part of the project. The trick is to not want to hurry just so that the project can be over but to enjoy what you are doing now!

Anxious to see your pics of the completed project, Henk! You are right in not hurrying a project. I tend to get to a point and am somehow driven by the end goal and start to rush - just for the sake of completing a task. So, yes, it is very important to work steady and not rush anything.

[Bill White]

LOL. Now that's funny, David. But you're probably right. Nothing sells better than that "distressed" look! I own the LN #7 and still used the power jointer...it was just quick and strangely fun. I did use the LN 5 1/2 to "spring" the joints for the bottom before glue up. And I hogged out the rabbets on the TS, but used the LN 73 large shoulder plane to adjust it and take it down to thickness for the dado. I used the 1/4" LN Mortise chisel to refine the ends of the dado and square them up. The lovely LN 4.5 did all the final smoothing. Quite happy with that not-so-little little plane.

I'll step right up to the plate and admit to being a LN junkie. But alas, I've just acquired a power J&P last month and now call myself a "hybrid hand-tool woodworker" :)

Question for the Neanders: That arched top on the two ends of my tray, how would you go about making that cut? I drew the line that I needed, but when I hogged off the waste I was unsure what to use other than sandpaper to refine and smooth out the arch. Would a spokeshave solve that problem? There's got to be a tool for that type of cut.

If I'm not too far gone, I think that the radius would be formed (final cuts) with a compass plane. Has a flex sole, reverse direction so you will be cutting "downhill" on each end of the arch. Someone correct me if I'm wrong about the terminology.
Bill:rolleyes:

[David Keller NC]

"Question for the Neanders: That arched top on the two ends of my tray, how would you go about making that cut? I drew the line that I needed, but when I hogged off the waste I was unsure what to use other than sandpaper to refine and smooth out the arch. Would a spokeshave solve that problem? There's got to be a tool for that type of cut."

Bill's right, but you're also right - there's a ton of tools that can be used to make that cut, and to smooth it out afterwards. Taking a hand-tool only approach, the way I'd do it in my shop would be to trace it out with a template, saw it close to the line with a bowsaw, then use either the L-N Bogg's flat-bottomed spokeshave, or possibly the L-N small, flat-bottomed bronze spokeshave to smooth out the saw marks and chamfer/round over the edges.

Another method would be to saw it out, then finish it with a small block plane, whose sole is short enough to allow you to get all of the curve.

Finally, a real knuckle-dragging method would be to use a heavy, flat chisel to knock off wood to get close to the line, then a back-bent #3 carving gouge to get a finished surface. I actually use this method fairly frequently - it's extremely quick, and as long as the grain's well behaved, there's no danger of splitting off a an ugly splinter right next to your line the way you can with a bowsaw.

[Phillip Pattee]

And yet another way to form the curves: I would use a coping/fret/bow saw to cut close to the line. Same thing for the hand holds. Use rasps to get to final shape and put the finished edge on with files.

[JohnMorgan of Lititz]

And yet another way to form the curves: I would use a coping/fret/bow saw to cut close to the line. Same thing for the hand holds. Use rasps to get to final shape and put the finished edge on with files.

I was going to use the coping saw, but Mr. Festooly Jigsaw looked tempting - i gave into its wiley tempting ways.

However, to be safe, I only cut close to the line and still needed to clean it up. I never thought about using my low angle block plane for that...probably would have worked well. Now I'll know for next time.

I'll be heading to Maine the first weekend of March for a weekend get-away...I'll probably be driving right through Warren on Rt.1. I think there is a decent tool shop there that sells spokeshaves - if i get one of those, it would increase my arsenal in fighting the curved wood.

[David Keller NC]

"However, to be safe, I only cut close to the line and still needed to clean it up. I never thought about using my low angle block plane for that...probably would have worked well. Now I'll know for next time."

John - I think this goes without saying, but while using a block plane to do this is very fast, you can't start at one corner and end at the other - the block plane (or spokeshave) has to go "downhill" - that is, start at the middle, and plane/shave in both directions to get down to the corners.

[JohnMorgan of Lititz]

"However, to be safe, I only cut close to the line and still needed to clean it up. I never thought about using my low angle block plane for that...probably would have worked well. Now I'll know for next time."

John - I think this goes without saying, but while using a block plane to do this is very fast, you can't start at one corner and end at the other - the block plane (or spokeshave) has to go "downhill" - that is, start at the middle, and plane/shave in both directions to get down to the corners.


Well, you thought wrong. :) I guarantee I would have tried going from end to end w/ a block plane. When I say I'm green, I'm talking bright, blazing, lime green. :)

Thank you for pointing that out...that does make sense after thinking about it a little.

[David Keller NC]

"Well, you thought wrong. :) I guarantee I would have tried going from end to end w/ a block plane. When I say I'm green, I'm talking bright, blazing, lime green. :)

Thank you for pointing that out...that does make sense after thinking about it a little."

Believe me, you'd have figured this out very quickly - the plane would either stall and dig as soon as you started to go "uphill", or would've torn out big, honking pieces of the profile. By the way, while you can use a rasp "uphill" to the grain, you generally get a much smoother surface going "downhill" as with an edge tool.