Handtools – the joy of using them

Handtools are slow.  Handtools need to be sharpened frequently.  Handtools, in amateur hands, are inaccurate at best, incredibly frustrating and potentially incomprehesible, at worse.  Horsepower, horsepower is the answer, isn’t it?

A 26" Jointer - 100 years old and "as good as new"

Fifty years ago, everyone (who went to public school) was introduced to the use of handtools.  Of course trademen were using power tools in order to make work easier and boost profitability.  And there was enough of the old apprentice system in place that many of us used handtools on a daily basis.  My Grandfather was insistent that I learn the trade with handtools.  He believed that mastery of handtools would make any tradesman better and I agree with him completely. 

Over the years, I’ve recognized several other distinct advantages that come from using handtools. 

First, handtools (specifically handsaws, planes and scrapers) generate considerably less dust than their motorized counterparts.  There is, of course, the benefit of not coating everything in you shop with a layer of fine dust that takes up precious time to remove.  And in recent years, medical scientists have demonstrated that wood dust can be responsible for a number of serious health problems.

Second, using handtools to dimension and shape lumber typically offers better yield than power tools.  Snipe is not a factor when using handplanes and scrapers.  One should note that it isn’t uncommon to loose as much as six (6) linear inches to snipe on a planer.  If you’re planing a twelve inch wide board you’ve just added one half of a board foot to your lumber requirement.  This isn’t a catastrophe is you’re planing red oak or ash, but if you’re planing old growth mahogany or fiddleback maple, it could get to be rather expersive in short order.  Handtools may enable us to use wood that would be considered too difficult to work with power tools due to “high figure”.

Third, Quiet!  No, not be quiet.  Listen to the quiet.  I like to hear what’s going on when I’m working.  As a consequence, I may not be as careful about hearing protection when operating power tools, as I should be.  Hearing loss is a large problem amongst woodworkers.  Stand next to a planer, shaper, large joiner or any number of other bits of woodworking machinery for several minutes and it becomes evident that many power tools excede the recommendations for safe noise levels.  Many of us live in urban areas where neighborly consideration may require operation of power tools to be limited to certain hours.  Using handtools can actually lengthen your workday (something that I no longer attempt to do).

Four, Skill.  Simply put, using handtools successfully requires more skill.  For me this is the most important reason to use tools without plugs.  I achieve my very best work with handtools.  Carve a “ball and claw” foot or an acanthus leaf  - gotta use handtools.  Shape the rear posts on a bentwood chair- gotta use’ em.  Do I need to belabor this point?  I don’t think so.  And we all know that if a woodworker wants to be recognized as “worth his salt”, he better know how to cut dovetails by hand.  (See my earlier article for a contrarian point of view.)

I finish a project.  I’ve worked hard and recieve compliments for my efforts.  I thank both the unitiated and those who know and love the mysteries of the craft.  And then, disinterested, I walk away from the completed thing, the manifestation of my creativity.  It is the process I love, not the product.  I’m in good company.  Proponents of the craft like Roy Underhill and Peter Follansbee have demonstrated to nationwide audiences that handtool use retains its importance to all of us who seek to maintain the highest levels of workmanship.

I polish up the iron of a long jointer and clamp up a bit in the vise.  Drop in the iron, tap the wedge, a few lateral adjustments and the plane is ready.  Straight ahead, not down.  The iron is sharp and produces a shaving that rolls out of the throat in a tight curly-kew.  I straighten out the shaving.  It is the thickness of onion skin and in this shaving I can read much of the history of the tree that gave me this board.  Another stroke and the “whisk” of the plane.  I am surrounded by those who before were entrusted with the gifts that they have passed to me.

There is no plug here, no circuit breaker.  The power source is deep within us, the harmony of the universe around us.  This is the joy, the Zen, the moment of being one with all that you have been given, all that you have learned and all that you know.  This is reason enough.

Understanding Handplanes – Part One – Benchplanes

Sweeping, sharpening, sawing to the line, planing – the first four lessons of the traditional apprenticeship.  So why do I meet so many experienced woodworkers who do not understand and enjoy handplaning?  The simple answer is that power tools allow us to “cut to the line” and “square up” our workpieces with ease and speed.  That being said, it must be asked why we should know how to use handplanes?  There are a number of reasons why handplaning is a “gateway” skill that all of us should possess.  Let’s take a look at them:

1.  Snipe is the enemy.  On both power joiners and planers, snipe, or the undercutting at entry to and exit from the machine, wastes as much as 6 to 8 linear inches on each board processed.  Scarcity and/or high cost of a particular species may make such waste unacceptable.  Handplaning is the obvious solution to this problem.

2.  Some workpieces are simply too large or too small to process with available power tools and must be planed using handplanes.

3.  Some workpieces are highly figured and cannot be processed with power tools, other than sanders, because of tear-out.

4.  Handplaning creates a surface that requires little or no further work before final finishing.

5.  Therapeutic value; there’s simply no more satisfying task in woodworking than tuning a handplane, running it over the wood’s surface then seeing long, even, continuous shavings spill out, onto the bench, then to the floor below.  It is an elemental experience.

L-R: 26" Wooden Jointer; Stanley No.8 Jointer; 22" Wooden Tryplane; Long Jack; English pattern Jack, Stanley No.5 1/2

Smooth plane – used for polishing and smoothing.  Double iron may be ground with very slight crown (1/64 to 1/128 of an inch) to prevent lap marks on finished surface.  Bedding angles range from 40 to 60 degrees.  Stanley smoothing planes bedded at 45 degrees.  English smoothers like Norris and Spiers are usually bedded at 50 degrees (York pitch) or 55 degrees (Middle pitch).  This allows for more control while working figured wood.  However it severely limits the thickness of the chip that can be removed, really forcing them to dedicated use as a smoothing or polishing tool.  While most English and American wooden bodied planes are bedded at 45 degrees, many continental planes were set at 50 degrees.  English and American coffin patterned planes are often bedded at 50 degrees, as well.  (Stanley numbers 3,4,4 1/2)

Smoothing plane - Swiss pear wood

Jack plane – the “jack of all trades” plane, can be used for heavier stock removal, truing up datums, joining shorter boards and smoothing.  Usually a double iron setup with the cutter being crowned from 1/64 to as much as 1/16 of an inch (depending on use).  It is an “all around” tool that would have been in the toolkit of all carpenters and joiners.  Typically between 11 and 17 inches in length, 1 3/4 to 2 1/2″ in width and bedded at 45 degrees.  (Stanley numbers 5, 5 1/4, 5 1/2)

Panel plane – a subdivision of the jackplane category, the Panel plane was used to true and smooth panels used in frame and panel joinery.  Spiers, Norris and other regionalized English planemakers are famous for their infilled panel planes which today can cost thousands of dollars.  Most panel planes are set at 50 degrees, with the exception of the Stanley 5 1/2 which is set at 45.  Lie-Nielsen company offers a choice of frogs that provide bedding at York (50 degrees) or Middle (55 degrees) for their 5 1/2, making it a true panel plane in every sense of the word.

Norris Infill Panel Plane - England

Try plane -  A much misunderstood plane.  Some folks percieve it to be a long jack plane others think of it as a short jointer.  The tryplane was used to create the first datum or flat surface when planing.  The “trysquare” was used to indicate squareness of two intersecting surfaces.  The tryplane was used to insure that the initial datum was flat and without twist or “wind”.  “Winding sticks” would have been used by the craftsman to insure that there was no twist in the surface.  Tryplanes typically are between 17 and 22 inches in length and between 2 and 2 1/2 inches wide.  Irons could be single (wooden planes) or double (iron planes) and are well crowned (radiused), usually between a 1/16 and 3/32.  This crowning explains the gently undulating grooves that be felt on the non-visible surfaces of many pieces of antique furniture.  Tryplanes were popular for truing the edges of tongue and groove or butted flooring in the days before power planers and floor sanders.  (Stanley No. 6)

Tryplane - Maple & Amboyna burl

 Jointer Plane – The biggest of the handheld benchplanes.  So it must be used for taking off the biggest of chips, right?  Wrong!  The jointer is made long to provide a base that allows the craftsman to create the straightest edge possible thereby allowing two pieces to be “jointed” together with a nearly invisible “seam”.  The other important use for Jointers is to smooth critical surfaces after they were initially flattened with a tryplane.  Jointers range in length from 20 – 36 inches, with some wooden jointers having irons well over 3″ wide.  Single iron plans are not uncommon.  Irons are honed dead straight and mouths are kept as tight as possible.  (Stanley Numbers 7 & 8 )

Dovetails – The master’s signature joint? Hmm…….

It is right to praise the dovetail.  It is probably the most used and most appreciated joint in all of woodworking joinery.  It comes in many types; blind, half-blind, through, sliding and rising.  And nowadays, this joint has taken on an aura of craft arcanery that craftsmen from past generations would have never assigned to it.

In an era of hide glues, the dovetail joint was used for its structural value.  Carcasses were held together with dovetails because of their inherent ability to help square up surfaces being mated and to provide increased contact area to be glued.

In recent years, a popular myth has been promoted, the notion that somehow the handcut dovetail is the signature joint of a master woodworker.  This, simply put, is a completely wrongheaded notion.  Remember, that the handcut dovetail joint was a common method of joining large carcass segments.  The idea of the master of the shop, or even a journeyman joiner cutting and chiseling dovetails for days on end is simply preposterous (remember this was a time before routers, jigs and fixtures).  The master was worried about creating design details and finding new customers. The journeyman was carving fans and applying cockbeading.  If truth be told it was the apprentice who cut and chiseled the overwhelming  majority of dovetails.  All one has to do is recognize that traditional designs  invariably utilized moldings to cover structural dovetails and, more often than not, when these moldings are removed the quality of the dovetails beneath them were obviously not done with artistic compentency in mind.

Exposed dovetails being utilized as an artistic design element in fine furniture joinery is a fairly recent phenomenom (after 1900).  And as Porter-Cable, Leigh and Keller put carcass dovetailing within most every woodworker’s capability, the popularity of the artistically displayed dovetail has grown exponentially.

But to give credit where credit is due, remember that the handcut dovetail was the almost exclusive property of the apprentice.  Sweeping, sharpening, planing (‘ere lad, square this up an’ then bring it back to me) and then the simplest joinery – this would have been the apprentice’s curriculum.  Laying out and cutting well fit dovetails would have been very much considered to be a core or gateway skill.  A good skill for all woodworkers to possess, then and now.

A gift of art – a gift of craft

Imagine giving either one of these spalty white oak splits to a friend or acquaintance  and calling them a gift; gift of what?  Firewood?  Well hold on there!  With a little imagination, sharp tools and some time, you’d be surprised what that gift might turn out to be.

Natural edge bowls are great fun to turn.  You can turn the wood while it’s green, so long as the wall of the bowl is thin enough that deformation, not checking will take place as the bowl dries.  This deformation can add to the already unique shape of the bowl.  When complete, this style bowl can be used or simply put on a shelf to be admired.  The bowl in the photos has been finished with several coats of Waterlox Medium Sheen tung oil, then waxed.

To further emphasize the “curviness” of the natural edge bowl, I decided to mount it on a very linear base.  The base was made from several bits of scrap cherry.  It was simply nailed and glued.  In fact several of the nail holes are still very visible (whoops).  I wanted to pick up the dark highlights in the spalted sapwood so I decided that the base should be black.  I opted to ebonize (cherry ebonizes very well) the wood and finish it with Waterlox and wax, as I had done to the bowl.

I’m not sure where craft ends and art begins.  There’s that whole discussion about form following function and vice versa.  But, I think that it has an awful lot to do with “the eye of the beholder”.

Next time you’re invited to a friend’s for dinner, give them a gift of art, your art (or craft, if you prefer).  They’ll love it.

Spring pole lathe. Why would anyone want to build one?

CHAPTER 1

Well that is the question?  Why would anyone at age sixty-three and supposedly in his right mind want to build a springpole lathe and actually use it to turn something?  Well there are several obvious answers:

1. Should a nuclear halocaust, extraordinary civil unrest or the arrival of space invaders disrupt the power supply, I could still work on the lathe;

2.  I could get a fair amount of low impact, anaerobic excercise while I was turning;

3.  I could demonstrate how turning used to be done;

4.  I could replicate 16th, 17th, 18th and 19th century furniture and architectural pieces with complete authencity.

Well number 4 was the real deciding factor.  But the others certainly came into the decision making process and don’t be fooled, thinking that I was just having some fun with you about number 1….hey, you just never know.

So I began an exhaustive search for all of the information about springpole lathes on the internet.  Surprisingly, there’s a lot of information out there. 

First, what is a springpole lathe?  Well, it’s a reciprocating lathe, meaning that there is a cutting or down stroke and a return stroke.  The power for the cutting stroke is furnished by the turner depressing a treadle.  The power for the return stroke comes from the “springpole” which has been energized during the cutting stroke.  A line is used to connect the treadle and the springpole.  Right between the treadle and springpole sits the workpiece, with the slacked line wrapped aroung, waiting to be trimmed to size, so to speak. 

Springpole lathes come in all sorts of sizes, shapes and configurations.  Just Google any of the words highlighted in the text and you’ll see what I mean.  But it’s interesting that the actual technology employed certainly predates recorded history.  And springpole lathes were used commercially much more recently than you might think.  Bodgers (chair parts makers) took them to the woodlots in England where they turned parts and left the shorts and chips on the forest floor well into the period just before World War II.

Historic re-inactors, restorers and ancient industries devotees are renewing the interest in this simplest of woodworking tools.  And, it’s important to note that some of the most ornate and technically challenging turnings ever made were produced before the discovery of electricity on springpole (reciprocal), continuous (treadle & flywheel) or great wheel (turned by your apprentice) lathes.  Some of these turnings have never been duplicated on modern power lathes. 

Some noteworthy contemporary springpole turners are Peter Follansbee, Don Weber, Roy Underhill, Drew Langsner and Robin Wood. Much more information on springpole lathes is to be found at The Association of Springpole Turners. And for more general history on the art and craft of Woodturning, be sure to visit the Worshipful Company of Turners of London.

CHAPTER 2

Chapter 2 is all about what style of springpole lathe did I want to build?  So I set about creating some parameters for my decision making process.  First, this was a lathe that I wanted to use in the shop.  I had no visions of tramping through the woods with this thing strapped to my back.  Second, I wanted to be able to turn 48″ between centers as I invisioned doing some formal bannister back chairs.  Third, I wanted enough swing that I could do some bowl turning (after seeing Robin Wood turning bowls at his home in England).

Ultimately, I settled on a design that Roy Underhill has used for a number of years, with a few modifications, of course.  The lathe is a double springpole design.  This simply means that there is a primary and secondary springpole linked to one another by means of a bridle device.  This design offers infinitely variable torque and resistance control.  The springpole is linked to an overhead crossarm via a connecting rod (1/4″ hot rolled steel rod).  The line connects the crossarm to the treadle.

Roy’s lathe seemed a little small for my purposes.  So I set about to build a large, heavier duty unit.  Also, it seemed that the work height was quite low.  So I designed a lathe with a 20″ swing, 52″ center width and a 44″ working height (at 6’3″ and with a bad back, I need the height).  The ways and stretchers were beefed up considerably to create a very stable platform.  Lastly, I found that I just wasn’t as lithe as Roy and decided to build a full treadle that would allow me to use either foot at any workpiece position to power the lathe.  This has paid huge dividends, although it has caused me to redesign the primary springpole.  The original springpole, prior to the addition of the permanent treadle, was 1″ diameter yellow pine.  But after the placement of the treadle, it was necessary to go to something stiffer and more durable.  Option 1 was to increase the diameter of the springpole which would have been easy enough.  But I opted to make a laminated springpole by simply gluing two pieces of hickory together then rounding them on my shavehorse.

MATERIAL OF CONSTRUCTION

For the frame of the lathe I selected Yellow Pine.  My northern friends might say why in the world would you choose pine, it’s so soft.  Well my friends, yellow pine ain’t soft, no way, no how.  Yellow pine was the most popular framing lumber in the eastern half of the US for generations, prior to the advent of the pneumatic nailer.  Yellow pine is prone to splitting unless the craftsman takes precautions to prevent the nailed fastner from acting like a wedge, splitting occurs.  One only need imagine an enthusiastic young carpenter shooting nail after nail after nail into a YP 2×4 and it becomes clear why beautiful, strong, stable yellow pine has been replaced by “white wood”.  In any event YP was available, it was cost effective, strong and, doggone it….that’s what Roy built his lathe from- enough said.The cross arm is white oak (scrap), treadle is ash and YP and, parts of the toolrest are cherry and, as I mention earlier, the springpoles are hickory.

The torque and subsequent energy requirement to operate the lathe are infinitely adjustable due to the variable connection between springpole and crossarm, bridle adjustment between springpoles and extendable treadle arm which allows for increase in rotational stroke.

 

Another consideration was the toolrest.  Due to my height, I tend to work “over center”, a lot.  So I wanted a toolrest that would allow for some vertical adjustment.  Also I wanted to be able to angle the rest in relationship to the ways.  What I came up with was, essentially, a wooden banjo.  The toolrest has a steel wear strip.  All in all, the banjo and rest work great and I’ve had numerous compliments stating that the rest looks sculpted.  Pretty? maybe…but it works and works well.

Centers were simply made from 1/2 x 3 1/2″ carriage bolts, ground to a conical end.  Weld nuts and handle nuts were used to support and clamp the centers tight.  Both are available from McMaster.

When all is said and done, this is what it’s all about, legs for a joynt stool.  But, to those of you who are already proficient turners, making four duplicates of anything on a springpole lathe will test your skill.  But make no mistake, you’ll be a better turner for your tribulations.

If you have any more questions about why anyone would want to build and use a springpole lathe,  just look at the picture of the guy at the beginning of this post.  Is there any question as to why SOCCER (futbol) is the most popular sport in Europe?  Just look at that guy’s calves.  But then…take a look at that face – is that a happy craftsman?

Turning Large Diameters

As most of my woodturning is done to support either furniture building or architectural restoration projects, it tends to be between centers, in other words spindle  work.  Oh, occasionally I’ll turn a fairly large bowl for a gift.  But recently I turned a Doric column base, from walnut, that measured twenty inches in diameter and the blank weighed in at thirty-five pounds.  Clearly it was one of the largest I’ve done and it quickly reminded me that are some points to consider when you’re doing large face work that don’t come into play while turning the average table leg.

The first consideration was a mounting method that would minimize deflection, as the large diameter of the work forced me to turn over the side of the lathe bed.  My lathe has a 1 1/4 x 8 spindle.  Oneway and several other highend lathe builders provide excellent faceplates with super reinforced webs.  Unfortunately, I did not have one.  However I did have a five inch face ring which mounts on the 100 mm jaws on my Nova chuck.  This provided a secure method of holding the work.  Further I mounted the workpiece to a piece of 3/4″ particle board which was substantially stiffer than any other material that I had available.  I was still concerned about deflection created while working the surface perpendicular to the axis so I placed a heavy steady-rest  opposite of the tool-rest.

The second consideration was tool selection.  The diagram below shows the difference in tool positioning while turning a small (2″) diameter and a large (20″) diameter.  Sheer cuts that would be the norm on a small diameter become more difficult to accomplish on the larger.  Heavy scraping tools may be a better choice.

The third consideration has to do with speed.  I tend to do most spindle work at about 1440 rpm.  At that speed a 2″ workpiece is presenting approximately 9050 surface inches per minute.  At 200 rpm, a 20″ diameter workpiece is presenting approximately 12566 surface inches per minute.  (dia x 3.1417 = sipm)

There are a number of calculations that can be used to determine safe operating speed ranges, but the goal is to find a speed range that eliminates vibration while allowing for clean cutting and control.

Skill

Excellence in woodworking requires skill.  Skill cannot be purchased.  Skill can’t be plugged in.  The acquisition of skill requires an investment of time and hard work.  There’s simply no other way.  More than fifty years ago I began a lifelong jouney of skills building as my Grandfather’s “unpaid” apprentice.  That journey continues to this day and I am at my happiest when I learn something new and believe me, there’s always something new to learn (or as you get older, something “new” to remember).

There are certain core skills that must be learned.  They are absolute requirements if the woodworking practitioner wants to practice the craft at its highest level.  The old style apprenticeship was designed to teach those core skills and here’s the way it went:

First came SWEEPING.  This was not so much a skill but a strength or perhaps a test of the apprentice’s determination.  But, in any event, it helped to keep the shop clean and it proved to the master that the initiate could take direction.  It’s still a very good strength to possess.

Second came SHARPENING.  Gramps was insistent that I learn to sharpen everything that we used in our woodworking; plane irons, chisels, gouges, drills and saws.  You simply cannot do your best work (or anything close to it) using dull tools.  I see people every day who have been hobbyists for years who still don’t know how to keep their tools sharp.  It’s essential that you understand the cutting geometry of each tool and the techniques required to create and maintain the appropriate edge.

Third was LANGUAGE or how to communicate the information needed to build something.  A mastery of drawing, geometry and architectural history provide a tremendous advantage to the practice of any craft.  I’ve spent hours consulting with Vitruvius about cymas, toruses and ovolos.  The artist and the mechanic both benefit from the ability to see and describe the shapes around them.  Perhaps the most important part of the “language” skill set is the ability to measure.  Believe it or not this is a skill, a learned behavior that can be improved.  And it improves dramatically when the master requires that the apprentice learns that the work must be completed to the tolerance or 1/64 of an inch.  For those who think in decimal terms that is .015625″.

You’ll hear me talk, time and again, about the importance of core and gateway skills.  You can’t get to your ultimate woodworking goal without them.  So take the time, learn and improve.  It’s the only way.