Back in Atlanta Doing Neanderthal Stuff

[Thomas Wilson]

We have been hiding out at the cabin at Norris Lake since this time last year, but we made a run for it last Sunday to avoid the ice and snow in Tennessee. It is cold (relatively speaking) in Atlanta and therefore dry in the Cave of the Modern Neanderthal. This is after taking a couple of showers and running the small room humidifier.
RelativeHumidity.jpg
The consequence was that the bolts for the stretchers on the workbench needed to be tightened. And all the handles of the chisels needed to be seated.

StretcherBolts.jpgLooseHandles.jpg
Because we departed in a hurry, I did not come prepared for anything in particular so I just started on a wild hair idea I had for a chisel rack. The idea is that the rack will look like a Queen Anne style tea table from the end. I drew a pattern for a cabriole leg and traced it onto scrap of 2x2 on all four sides. I also drew saw lines every 1/4 inch or so.
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I sawed down to the outline on all sides, then knocked out most of the waste with a chisel.
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I finished up sculpting the shape with some rasps.
The end result was two reasonable similar cabriole legs.
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Now, I need to make the table top and aprons. To get the scale of the top right for thickness, I think will need to plane down some 3/4" stock to 1/2". In true Neanderthal fashion I will be using a scrub plane and then some finishing planes. I have never done this before by hand. Should be fun or at least a good workout.

[Todd Trebuna]

Looks great. I appreciate your work flow. They look very similar. In Neanderthal world, we are not looking for interchangeability.

[Mike Allen1010]

Way to go Thomas! I very much admire your "full Neander" approach to the cabriole legs. I confess I use the bandsaw to rough out primary curves, but your "no electrons" approach looks great! What kind of wood are you using is that Poplar?

Can't wait to see the rest of the build. Thanks for posting I look forward to seeing more of your work.

Cheers, Mike

[Thomas Wilson]

Construction grade yellow pine, not a friendly carving wood. This is just for funsies. I will be finishing this up this week. I will post it. Thank you.

[Joe Tilson]

Have done a lot of fishing on Norris Lake. We liked it, but got tired of the snow and ice during winter. We moved to S.C. 44 years ago and have never looked back. 55 degrees here today, and 66 tomorrow.
Looks like you have some nice work going on. Good job.

[Thomas Wilson]

Have done a lot of fishing on Norris Lake. We liked it, but got tired of the snow and ice during winter. We moved to S.C. 44 years ago and have never looked back. 55 degrees here today, and 66 tomorrow.
Looks like you have some nice work going on. Good job.

We love Norris lake but we also have a condo in Atlanta. We have daughters and grandchildren in Atlanta. Norris is so quiet after Labor Day. It is nice to be there. The winters are not terrible. Most years, there is at least one weekend a month from December to March that you can take the pontoon boat out. Many years ago we set out to spend spring and summers at the lake and fall and winter in Atlanta when I retired. So far, it has not worked out that way. We spend all our time on I-75. We are normally the back-up plan for child care for all the grandchildren. This year we have been banished from the city to near total isolation at the lake. We have had extended stays at the lake, much longer intervals than ever in the past. We have stayed healthy but have missed the grandchildren. They are only young once. We have appointments for our first vaccine shot on Thursday, so I expect the travel to resume.

I have a really nice power tool woodworking shop at Norris. I have hand tools only in Atlanta just to make the woodworking quiet for the neighbors. I am not a Neanderthal purist. If there is a quiet power tool for a job, I use it even in Atlanta. I have bench top mortising machine because it is quieter than pounding a chisel. My current project in Atlanta is a tool board with whimsical designs for the tool holders. Most involve some classic decorative design element in hand tool furniture work.. At the Norris shop, I am making fancy handrails for the porch and for the interior stairs and balcony. About the only hand tool I use there is sandpaper.

[Thomas Wilson]

Neanderthalling is slow work. I have the legs, aprons, and top cut. I scrapped a design with two staggered rows of chisels. I could not reach between the front chisels the reach the back ones. I went to a single row. I have to round over the table top, add the floor and back apron, and do a lot of sanding
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[Jim Koepke]

Nice looking chisel rack. Is it going to have legs in the back?

jtk

[Thomas Wilson]

No back legs. I was just going to mount it permanently to a tool board.

[Tom Bender]

I like your level of planning, just the way I work.

Did you assemble before sanding? More work that way.

[Thomas Wilson]

I like your level of planning, just the way I work.

Did you assemble before sanding? More work that way.

This is just a dry fit of the parts so far. I will sand the legs smooth before glue up. That is a fair amount of work. The other parts are planed smooth now. I will sand off any pencils marks on them before assembling. Final sanding after assembly. Wiping off excess glue with a wet rag raises the grain. I will need to fix that. The legs still have some waste attached that I use for clamping. That will make holding the piece while sanding easier. That waste has to be cut off before glue up. I will be in Atlanta on Saturday through Tuesday. I might be able to finish it.