Marc Hills
08-08-2003, 6:39 AM
Hi Everyone:
I alluded to this project in my "Argh! I hate power tools!" post. You'll forgive me for posing the subject to hide the results of my heavy-handed routing. After marring the first rocker with a power tool, I contoured the second using a spokeshave and wood file. Wouldn't you know it; it came out better and was just as fast. You live and learn.
My wife and daughter have introduced me to more modern aesthetic sensibilities. Lots of things with stylized lizards, stars and Kokipelli. Just as an aside, it's really funny to hear a 3 year old use the word "kokipelli" in a sentence.
So hence the inlaid silver spiral. Otherwise it's strictly traditional dovetailed and M&T construction. That sort of joinery isn't strictly necessary on a four year old's doll cradle, although it will please me immensely if she one day grows to appreciate it. But I went that route because everything I read on handcut dovetails says, "Practice, practice, practice." For some reason it's hard for me to practice dovetails on throw-away scraps, so I tend to incorporate them in my projects, even though they never come out perfectly (someday, sigh).
For example, the wooden box that holds my measuring and marking tools has some pretty rude-looking dovetails, but hey, it is a box, instead of more wood in the burn pile.
I alluded to this project in my "Argh! I hate power tools!" post. You'll forgive me for posing the subject to hide the results of my heavy-handed routing. After marring the first rocker with a power tool, I contoured the second using a spokeshave and wood file. Wouldn't you know it; it came out better and was just as fast. You live and learn.
My wife and daughter have introduced me to more modern aesthetic sensibilities. Lots of things with stylized lizards, stars and Kokipelli. Just as an aside, it's really funny to hear a 3 year old use the word "kokipelli" in a sentence.
So hence the inlaid silver spiral. Otherwise it's strictly traditional dovetailed and M&T construction. That sort of joinery isn't strictly necessary on a four year old's doll cradle, although it will please me immensely if she one day grows to appreciate it. But I went that route because everything I read on handcut dovetails says, "Practice, practice, practice." For some reason it's hard for me to practice dovetails on throw-away scraps, so I tend to incorporate them in my projects, even though they never come out perfectly (someday, sigh).
For example, the wooden box that holds my measuring and marking tools has some pretty rude-looking dovetails, but hey, it is a box, instead of more wood in the burn pile.