Please, please spirit, let me rest!

I awoke this morning at 3:30 a.m.  Covered with sweat and concerned with my high pulse rate.  I was shocked when my wife told me that my muffled screaming had awakened her.  Then, as the trigger releases the hammer, my memory became clear and I was full of dread.  I had been pursued by a spectre.  Garbed in an apron, pencil in a tiny pocket and with spectacles pulled low, now sitting on the tops of flaring nostrils, well below the normal nasal bridge position, the spectre shreiked at me (though the shreik was in the softest of voices).  With clenched fist raised, this spectre demanded to know “what in the name of hell’s fury are you doing?”.  “Is this your first day on the job?  Maybe we should put a broom back in your hand, you were always adequate with that tool!”.  “YOU CAN’T BUILD DRAWERS THAT WAY!  WHAT ARE YOU THINKING?  OH, AYE, THAT’S IT, YOU’RE NOT THINKING!”  Wait a minute, do I know this spectre?  Well now that he’s scared the bejasus out of me, he seems strangely familiar.  Gramps, is that you?

“NO!”  It’s the bloody ghost of Christmas Past!”  Boyo, you’ve been at this for more than fifty years now, what are you thinkin’?”  If you build those drawers the way you discussed in yesterdays post, you’re going to make them trapezoidal, and trapezoidal in the wrong direction!  You’ll not be able to get a good fit on the drawer bottom, and it matters not how hard you’ll try.”  Back to the bench or back to the broom.  That was my choice.  I chose the bench.

So disregard yesterday’s post.  (Everything except the bit about the man behind the curtain.  You’ll find that notion has many applications as you saunter down the road of life.)  The drawer front pins are proud and taper, if required, will be planed in – as it should be!   A little glue, a little filing and sanding and add the cockbead; the world will once again resume it’s natural orbit.

We are all students, no matter the level of our mastery.  The ‘prentice boy is always there.  Only a fool wills the boy away.

Alright, alright, I’ll sweep up!  Didn’t you tell me that you don’t make any money cleaning the shop?  Yes, yes, I know “it’s a poor workman what blames his tools”.  You know, I’m glad that you’re never very far away.  Thanks for catchin’ this “screw’up”.  I wish we could have a beer.  But I’ll see you soon enough.

Every drawer is it’s own project

I’m not going to say anything about hand cut dovetails. (There are plenty of places in the cloud that you can fiddle with this balony, ad nauseum.  Most of you know my position on this anyway.  It’s a helluva strong  joint, end of story.)  I’m not going to say anything about the fact that the addition of drawers to any project adds to the to the required work, exponentially.  All I am going to do is present my reasoning for my approach on the drawers for the lowboy I’m building.

I want them to be a little, tiny bit tapered.  So, I’ve left the sides just a little proud at the drawer face and left the pins a little proud at the rear.  After the drawers are glued up and finish planing is complete, there should be about a 16th to a 32nd  taper.  Ultimately, a rebate (rabbet) will be cut around the perimeter of the drawer front and a cockbead will be glued in place.  The drawer bottom will be constructed from solid wood, with the grain running from side to side to minimize expansion.  There’ll be no requirement to “hammer” drawers into or out of position (at least that’s the plan).

In anticipation of someone observing the burn marks on the drawer fronts and saying “what kind of handsaw did you use for that?  Was your bench hook askew?”.  Remember when the Great Oz told the pilgrims from Kansas to “pay no attention to the man behind the curtain”?.  Verily, I say the same to you.  And I must admit that the temptation of electricity is, sometimes, just to difficult to deny.  Shame, shame…

The Lowboy’s Progress

Wow, the Lowboy’s Progress!  That sounds like something that should have been written by an author with a name like Christopher Marlowe or some other very anglo, puritanical sounding kind of handle.  But this is just about a piece of furniture.

Over the years I’ve noticed that clients and spouses, alike, always seem to think that I should be able to produce things much more quickly than I do.  There are times that I begin to doubt myself and think that, perhaps, they’re right.  This phenomena takes hold at times like when I quoting a project.  Maybe I am too slow.  Maybe I’m just not organized enough.  Maybe I should be able to make this piece for the same price that it can be purchased from Ikea.  Then I come back to reality.  Very few spouses or clients know all the stuff that goes into making a piece of fine furniture.  Here’s an example;

This is just part of the supporting structure for the drawers in the lowboy.  It’s all mortised and tenoned together, then fit and re-fit.  It all takes time and it usually goes unnoticed.  In fact many times I forget about it.  Whoops, there goes the profit.

This is why it takes time.  But this is why traditionally built, fine furniture will last hundreds of years.