Woodworking Magazine Weblog

Truth is, I barely remember our Woodworking in America conference in Berea, Ky. The whole thing is a blur. And that has nothing – nothing – to do with all the beverages that people thoughtfully brought to me (one bottle of whisky, two cases of Canadian beer and very special bottle of Belgian ale – thanks Blaine).

All of us were working hard to keep the conference running smoothly that we had little time to sit down and listen to all the fantastic instructors we'd assembled there. Thank goodness for all the bloggers who brought their video cameras. I've been watching every filmed seminar (except mine, ugh) during the evenings.

If you want a list of links to people who are blogging about their experience in Berea, jump on over to our special page for that event. We're updating it regularly.

Today I actually got a chance to review the 500 or so photos we took during the conference. Associate editor Drew DePenning has whittled them down (how many photos do you really need to see of Managing Editor Megan Fitzpatrick with a drink in her hand?) and assembled them into a slideshow on Flickr. Jump here to take a look.

It's an interesting tour of the events of that long weekend, and it made me wish I had been an attendee instead of a staff member. Oh well; maybe next year. At least I have my St. Bernardus as a souvenir.

— Christopher Schwarz

Looking for More Woodworking Information?
• Sign up for our newsletters to get free plans, techniques and reviews HERE.
• Looking for free articles from Woodworking Magazine? Click HERE.
• Like hand tools? Read all our online articles on hand work HERE.
• Want to subscribe to Woodworking Magazine? It's $19.96/year. Click HERE.

For the last few weeks I've been joking around that our woodshop has turned into a sweatshop. As of this morning, I don't think that joke is funny any more.

For the last few weeks the staff, lead by Senior Editor Robert W. Lang, has been building all the appliances and jigs that the instructors need for the hands-on clinics at our Woodworking in America conference next week. Oh, and we've also been milling the lumber that the attendees will be sawing, chopping, paring and planing.

There are bench hooks, planing boards, saw-filing vises and myriad other jiggery piled up everywhere in the shop. The jigs were built using poplar we had in the wood rack, ash left over from Lang's "21st Century Workbench" and even some cherry buried in the bottom of the rack that I'd bought to build my wall-hung tool chest.

I'm glad to see that cherry go, actually. As part of the deal I struck with the seller years ago, I bought 90 board feet of low-quality stuff to buy a load of amazingly wide, clear and beautiful black cherry.

We've enlisted everyone, from Publisher Steve Shanesy on down to Drew DePenning, our associate editor for the web, to help screw, nail and glue parts together. Thanks to all the help, I'm sure we're going to make our deadline. That is, as soon as I get my hinder away from the computer and screw together about 38 saw-filing vises.

Or maybe we're not done yet. This morning 250 board feet of poplar arrived at our loading dock. Maybe there are more jigs to build.

— Christopher Schwarz

Looking for More Woodworking Information?
• Sign up for our newsletters to get free plans, techniques and reviews HERE.
• Looking for free articles from Woodworking Magazine? Click HERE.
• Like hand tools? Read all our online articles on hand work HERE.
• Want to subscribe to Woodworking Magazine? It's $19.96/year. Click HERE.

The Hand Tool Events put on by Lie-Nielsen Toolworks are a great place to pick up new skills, learn about hand tools and test drive a wide variety of serious ductile and bronze beauties.

I've attended a good number of these events and have met some great people and learned quite a few things myself. I got to watch Michel Auriou make a hand-stitched rasp. I saw how Steve Latta makes stringing. I test drove Konrad Sauer's infill planes. And I lost a sawing contest with John Economaki of Bridge City Tools.

What I quite like about these free weekend events is that they are not just about hawking merchandise. There's no guy trying to sell you a magic broom or hustle you to buy some $4 router bits. The events are low-key – it's more like attending the opening of an art show than buying a used car.

This year, Lie-Nielsen has expanded the show schedule, including an event at our offices at Popular Woodworking in May. We'll also be exhibiting and demonstrating at the Chicago show. The Lie-Nielsen folks are still lining up the demonstrators for each show, so check in with the company's web site for details from time to time.

This weekend, the first event of the season will be at Fine Woodworking magazine in western Connecticut. If you go, be sure to stop by Mike Pekovich's bench and check out his demonstration on dovetail joinery – he's got some really interesting things to say about stance that I think you'll find interesting. Also, Matt Kenney, also from Fine Woodworking, will demonstrate shooting boards and miter jacks. Bob Van Dyke, director of the Connecticut Valley School of Woodworking, will demonstrate saws and chisels. Chris Becksvoort will demonstrate at the Hand Planing Interactive Station. And John Economaki, the founder of Bridge City Toolworks, will have a display of tools to try.

Here's the schedule for the rest of 2008 and 2009. We hope to see you this spring.

2008
Newtown, Conn., Oct. 3-4, Taunton Press
Lancaster, Pa., Oct. 24-25, Thadeus Stevens College
Sturbridge, Mass., Dec. 5-6, Sturbridge Host Hotel

2009
Austin, Texas, Jan. 9-10, TBD
Costa Mesa, Calif., Jan. 23-24, Orange Coast College
Oakland, Calif., Feb. 13-14, The Crucible (Date may change)
Calgary, Canada, March 6-7, TBD
Vancouver, Canada, March 27-28, TBD
Toronto, Canada, April 17-18, TBD
Chicago, May 1-2, Jeff Miller Handcrafted Furniture
Cincinnati, May 16-17, Popular Woodworking magazine

— Christopher Schwarz

This fall, our magazine is sponsoring the first-ever weekend conference devoted to hand tools and learning to use them.

We're calling it the Woodworking in America conference, and we'll be bringing together the country's best hand-tool woodworkers and manufacturers for a symposium in Berea, Ky., on Nov. 14-16.

There will be more than 40 short classes on tools and techniques during the long weekend, plus a marketplace where toolmakers can display (and sell) their wares, social events with the demonstrators and toolmakers and more.

So who is going to be there? Here's the list of people who have agreed to teach seminars during Woodworking in America as of this date (with more to come):

Roy Underhill: Known as "St. Roy" to the legion of fans who watch "The Woodwright's Shop" on PBS, Roy worked at Colonial Williamsburg and then launched his show about traditional hand tools.

Frank Klausz: One of the country's consummate craftsmen, Frank is a professional New Jersey cabinetmaker who trained in Hungary and has a lifetime of experience with the full range of handwork.

Michael Dunbar: Founder of The Windsor Institute, Michael has single handedly revived the craft of building Windsor chairs, has trained thousands of woodworkers and is a passionate student of the art and history of handcraft.

Adam Cherubini: The author of Popular Woodworking's popular "Arts & Mysteries" column, Adam is a devoted 18th-century woodworker who builds period pieces using period tools.

James Blauvelt: A Connecticut cabinetmaker, joiner and carpenter, James owns Bluefield Joiners and is a student and teacher of Japanese tools and traditions.

Robin Lee: The president of Lee Valley Tools in Ottawa, Ontario, Robin has been a driving force behind the expansion of the Veritas line of premium handplanes and a caretaker of the company's immense tool collection.

Thomas Lie-Nielsen: The founder of Lie-Nielsen Toolworks in Warren, Me., Thomas has been making and selling premium traditional hand tools for 27 years. Thomas's company was the trailblazer in reviving many traditional forms of tools that had been lost.

Larry Williams and Don McConnell: Two of the principals behind Clark & Williams in Eureka Springs, Ark., Larry and Don are bottomless wells of information about traditional tools and their workings. Both are accomplished woodworkers, planemakers and tool historians.

John Economaki: The founder of Bridge City Tool Works in Portland, Ore., John has long been a pioneer in developing new (and very beautiful) forms of hand tools for woodworkers.

Konrad Sauer: The owner of Sauer & Steiner Toolworks in Ontario, Konrad is one of the leading makers of custom infill handplanes.

Wayne Anderson: Wayne specializes in designing and building custom infill handplanes that are deeply rooted in the past but are each a completely original work of art.

Ron Hock: One of the earliest and most important players in the revival of handtools, Ron makes high-quality replacement plane irons, chipbreakers and marking knives in Ft. Bragg, Calif.

Mike Wenzloff: The founder of Wenzloff & Sons sawmakers in Forest Grove, Ore., Mike is a long-time woodworker and expert in saws and saw sharpening. His premium saw business has exploded in the last two years.

Joel Moskowitz: The founder of Tools for Working Wood and an expert on woodworking history, Joel has recently been making many traditional hand tools, as well as selling them through his catalog and web site.

Clarence Blanchard: The publisher of "The Fine Tool Journal" and the president of Brown Auction Services, Clarence sees more old tools in a week than most of us see in a lifetime.

Kevin Drake: After studying under James Krenov at the College of the Redwoods, Kevin founded Glen-Drake Toolworks, where he combines woodworking, toolmaking and education. His innovative tools have received numerous awards; we named his Tite-Mark one of the "Best 12 Tools Ever." 

If you are interested in attending, please visit the web site that is dedicated to this conference at WoodworkinginAmerica.com and sign up for the conference's newsletter (the sign-up box is on the top right of the page). You'll then be the first to be notified of when registration will open (it will be before July 1) and the pricing for this event.

Attendance will be limited to a few hundred people (we want to keep the event intimate and manageable), so be sure to register as soon as slots become available. We are expecting the conference to sell out.

There are more announcements and surprises ahead that I cannot share with you right now, so please stay tuned to the blog and the conference's newsletter.

— Christopher Schwarz

A few years ago, I attended the Woodworkers Showcase show in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., and I was amazed. It was the most perfect woodworking show I had ever attended. Why? Because of four things.

1. The free classes and seminars were extraordinary. That year I learned more about cold-bending from Jere Osgood and furniture design from Garrett Hack in a single day than I'd learned by reading (too many) books.

2. An amazing display of furniture, turnings and other objects (even a canoe!) that were built by the members of the club who put on the show, the Northeastern Woodworker's Association.

3. Hands-on displays and demonstrations of jigs, fixtures, carving and sash-making that were ongoing the entire weekend.

4. And, of course, booths and booths of vendors selling new equipment and vintage tools.

And amazingly, admission for all this was just $7 for adults.

This year, I was asked to demonstrate at the Woodworkers Showcase – a huge honor – on April 5 and 6. It's this coming weekend at the Saratoga Springs City Center. Click here for information on the event.

I'll be demonstrating the scraper sharpening technique I developed after plumbing the historical record, and I'll be showing off the three kinds of handsaw cuts that I discuss in the newest issue of Woodworking Magazine.

In addition to my demonstrations, you can also catch demos from chip-carver Wayne Barton, box-maker and instructor Doug Stowe (ask him about Sloyd if you see him) and Peter Korn, who runs the Center for Furniture Craftsmanship and is a talented woodworker. Plus, there will be demonstrations from members of the club on every topic imaginable, from marquetry to miniatures to turning to rustic furniture construction.

When I'm not teaching, I'll be in a booth selling a few books, magazines and DVDs. If you're at the show, do stop by and say hello.

If you live anywhere in the northeast, this is a show that shouldn't be missed. People drive from all over the eastern seaboard to attend the Woodworkers Showcase. It's worth it (heck – I flew up from Cincinnati when I first attended).

Hope to see you there.

— Christopher Schwarz

There are still spaces left for a week-long summer course in handsawing at the Northwest Woodworking School in Portland, Ore. It is the only class I'm teaching this year that has not sold out.

During the five days of instruction I'll be diving deeply into saws and joinery – weaving together the historical facts about the art that I've dug up with the hands-on exercises I've been practicing since I picked up my first handsaw at age 8.

Unlike my other weekend classes on sawing, I'll be covering the entire gamut of the craft, from breaking down rough stock with an 8-point crosscut handsaw to cutting dovetails that are tight and made with a minimum of fuss. (I've actually just posted a blog entry on dovetail cutting angles on my personal blog that you might find interesting.)

The other interesting aspect of this course is we explore the joinery planes that are used in conjunction with handsaws to make perfect – and I mean perfect – hand-cut tenons, half-laps, dados, notches and sliding dovetails. (In other words, you'll finally learn what your router plane is really good for.)

Plus, we'll be building two projects: a traditional English sawbench for your shop and a hand-dovetailed silverware tray for your family.

The class runs from July 14 to 18 and costs $725 plus the materials for the sawbench and silverware tray. You can read more information about the class at the Northwest Woodworking Studio's web site. Or you can drop me a line via e-mail if you have any questions.

Hope you can join us. If you'd like to see photos of past classes I've taught on sawing, check out this link to a weekend class I taught recently at Kelly Mehler's School of Woodworking and a one-day seminar at the Woodcraft in Sterling Heights, Mich. Also, there's a short podcast about the class at Matt's Basement Workshop you can listen to. Matt Vanderlist, the host of the shop, was one of the students in the Woodcraft show. (He made some wicked-tight half-laps.)

— Christopher Schwarz

Thanks to the maturing of my two daughters (and the waning of the “Days of Dark Diapers”), I’ve decided to teach two more rounds of handsawing classes in 2008 – two one-day classes in Sterling Heights, Mich.; and a one-week intensive class at the Northwest Woodworking Studio in Portland, Ore.

As of now, there are spaces available in all of these three classes. Here are the details and link to the schools where you can register:

Hand-cut Dovetails
Saturday, March 15
Woodcraft, Sterling Heights, Mich.
To register, send an email to: sterlingheights-retail@woodcraft.com or call 586-268-1919.

Learn to saw dovetails by hand while building a cherry Shaker silverware tray with through-dovetails. You'll learn to lay out your dovetails so they look nice, saw them accurately, chisel out the waste quickly, and fit them right the first time (plus, how to hide any mistakes). This is a great class for first-time dovetailers or anyone who has struggled to learn this classic hand-cut joint.

The Forgotten Art of Handsawing
Sunday, March 16
Woodcraft, Sterling Heights, Mich.
To register, send an email to: sterlingheights-retail@woodcraft.com or call 586-268-1919.

In this class, you'll learn to use handsaws and backsaws to track a line like a bloodhound. With a series of special exercises, you will learn to make the three different classes of sawcuts: rough cutting for dimensioning stock, standard cutting for final sizing of casework pieces and fine cutting for precision joinery. You'll learn the proper stance, grip and body motion for accurate sawcuts and receive the instant feedback and corrections from an instructor that will make you develop your skills quickly. You will also build a basic sawbench - the most important workshop appliance for handsaws.

Handsawing, Handsaws and Sawbenches
July 14-18
Northwest Woodworking Studio, Portland, Ore.

In a traditional shop, sawing was reserved for the most skilled cabinetmakers on the floor. Most anyone could use a plane or chisel, but it was the sawyers who transformed the timber into furniture with rips, crosscuts and joinery.

And though we now have accurate power equipment in our workshops, sawing by hand is still a tremendous skill that – when done properly -- can save time and effort. That’s because handsawing can be done without jigs or guides and without regard to the angle of the cut or its bevel. In short, if you can see the line, you can cut the line with a handsaw.

Honing this simple skill allows you to easily cut compound angles, angled joinery and cuts that might take hours of jig-building and test-cutting on a table saw. And, as a bonus, learning basic sawing trains your hand, eye and mind to cut any sort of dovetail joint you can imagine.

In this class, you’ll learn to use handsaws and backsaws to cut joints as precisely as any power tool. With a series of special exercises, you will learn to make the three different classes of sawcuts: rough cutting for dimensioning stock, standard cutting for final sizing of casework pieces and fine cutting for precision joinery.

You’ll learn the proper stance, grip and body motions for accurate sawcuts and receive the instant feedback and corrections that will make you develop your skills quickly. During the first part of the class you will build a basic sawbench – the most important workshop appliance for handsaws – and a bench hook – the most important appliance for wielding a backsaw.

With your appliances built and your handsaw skills in place, we’ll dive into dovetails during the second half of the week. We’ll explore both English and Continental styles of making this joint (both are valid) so you can find the approach that is right for your work. And at the end of the week we’ll build a simple dovetailed Shaker silverware tray.

— Christopher Schwarz

Kelly Mehler has opened the registration for his 2008 classes, including three classes that I’ll be teaching on precision handsawing, planecraft and building the Holtzapffel workbench from Issue 8 of Woodworking Magazine.

There are still spots available (as of this posting). If the classes fill up, I encourage you to sign up for the waiting list. People’s schedules change and so many of the people on the waiting list get in.

Before I drone on about the classes I’m teaching, I also want to point out that Larry Williams and Don McConnell of Clark & Williams will be teaching a class on making wooden moulding planes at Kelly Mehler’s school on Feb. 25-29. I would take this class if I had the time in my schedule available. These two gentlemen are a living treasure, and the way they build these tools is without compromise or shortcut.

OK, now for the self-serving part of the entry that helps keep my children in Nikes.

Precision Handsawing: March 1-2
This is one of my favorite weekend classes to teach because I think there is so much to learn about sawing and sawtooth technology. During the weekend, we’ll be learning all about an English-style of sawing (though you don’t have to use Western saws to do it). And we’ll be building a traditional sawbench. That’s a good thing, because I keep giving my sawbenches away to woodworkers as gifts.

Building Furniture With Handplanes: June 14-15
This is a new weekend class that I’ve developed based on requests from other woodworkers. Many handplane classes focus on the bench planes but they ignore the joinery planes and how to actually use the tools to build furniture. In this class, we’ll learn a bit about sharpening and a great deal about using both bench planes and joinery planes, such as rabbet planes, plow planes, router planes and shoulder planes. And we’re going to use all these planes to build a Shaker silverware tray.

Build the Holtzapffel Workbench: Sept. 8-13
This six-day class is going to be the highlight of my fall. We’re going to build the Holtzapffel Cabinetmaker’s Workbench, the bench on the cover of Issue 8 and the bench I use in my shop at home. I’ve modified the construction process slightly so we’ll be building benches that can be knocked down and shipped back to your home when we’re done. You’ll be able to build the bench in ash, yellow pine or maple. We’re going to source all the wood for you and do the brutal machining before you arrive so the first day we’ll be gluing up the top.

If you have any questions about the classes, feel free to drop me a line. Also, I’ll soon be posting my schedule with the Marc Adams School of Woodworking as well.

— Christopher Schwarz

During the last few years I’ve begun to teach classes at schools that I really like, such as the Marc Adams School of Woodworking in Franklin, Ind., and Kelly Mehler’s School of Woodworking in Berea, Ky. But the funny thing is that just because I’m now a teacher, I also really like to take woodworking classes.

In fact, if it weren’t for woodworking classes, I might not be the editor of this magazine.

In 1992, a close friend and I started building furniture in his basement. We were really, really serious about it, but we really, really stank at it. No matter how many books or magazines or TV shows we consumed, our cutting boards, side tables and umbrella stands looked like dogmeat.

Then my buddy, Chris Poore, twisted my arm to take a night class in woodworking at the University of Kentucky. Taught by Lynn Sweet in a big industrial building (probably a converted tobacco warehouse), the class was a completely intimidating idea. But Chris can be persuasive. He even talked his wife, Lee, into taking the class with us.

After one week, I knew that this was going to be my life’s work.

Classes are a fantastic way to learn. You can ask questions. You aren’t interrupted by life. You can focus on the task at hand and get immediate feedback. So I’ve continued to take classes, including a couple chairmaking classes, a class in advanced dovetails and a class in boat-building. In 2008, I really, really want to take a class at Mike Dunbar’s Windsor Institute.

If you’ve ever wanted to get a small taste of what a class is like, I highly recommend you check out a weekend seminar at a local woodworking store, or (at the least) take a gander at this slideshow Kelly Mehler posted on his site from our class last week. Good stuff.

— Christopher Schwarz

Most woodworkers I know aspire to cut their dovetails by hand. It is, for many of us, a self-imposed rite of passage to good craftsmanship. I’ve always tried not to encourage this attitude, because I think most woodworkers go about learning dovetails all wrong.

I’m not talking about cutting pins-first or tails-first, I’m talking about tenons-first. Or how about cutting straight lines first? Then maybe cutting some slanted lines? Instead most woodworkers buy a dovetail saw, read a magazine article (or 10,000 magazine articles) and try to cut them – typically with miserable results. It’s no wonder that there are hundreds of jigs out there today that help our power tools duplicate joints that could be cut simply with a good sharp backsaw.

This week I wrapped up teaching a class on the fundamentals of hand work at Kelly Mehler’s School of Woodworking in Berea, Ky. And though we spent an entire day learning about handsaws and two days cutting joints, we didn’t cut a single dovetail. Heck we barely discussed them.

Instead, we worked on learning the historical tricks and techniques for cutting straight and true. And on the second day of sawing we held a little contest: The students had 30 minutes to cut a perfect tenon and put it on my bench. (The best tenon won its sawyer a cutting gauge.) Most of them had never cut a tenon by hand, but after 30 minutes, almost ever student placed a tenon on my bench that any router woodworker would be proud of. I put the dial caliper on them and found them all consistent within a few thousandths of an inch.

So how can you learn to saw? I’ve written an article for Lee Valley Tool’s newsletter that will introduce you to the three classes of sawcuts and how to accomplish them. Most woodworkers make it difficult on themselves to cut perfect tenon shoulders and cheeks. Your knife and a chisel can make things much easier. Lee Valley has archived the article on its web site.

I’ve also developed a list of nine rules for sawing that might also help. These are tricks that other people have taught me or ones I’ve found in books.

Nine Rules of Sawing
1. Use a relaxed grip on the tote. Clenching the handle will push you off your line. Pretend you are holding a baby bird and that you are trying to keep it in your hand without crushing it. That’s about right.

2. Extend your index finger out on the tote. The handle was built for a three-fingered grip, and extending your index finger is good to do with any user-guided tool.

3. Always work so your sawing elbow swings free like a steam locomotive. Don’t work with your arm rubbing your body or move it at an angle to the back of your saw.

4. Whenever possible, work so you can see your line. Try not to let the blade of the saw obscure the line.

5. Use minimal downward pressure. Allow the saw’s weight to carry the cut.

6. Always imagine the saw is longer than it really is. This will fool you into using longer strokes, which will allow you to saw faster and wear your teeth evenly.

7. Whenever possible, advance on two lines (tenons, crosscutting, dovetailing at times). This increases your accuracy.

8. Always work right against a line. Never saw a certain distance away from a line.

9. Lifting the saw a tad on the return stroke clears your line of sawdust.

I was excited to see the results of the 11 students when they obeyed these rules. Even more exciting was that Kelly Mehler agreed to let me teach a weekend course this spring dedicated to sawing. More details to follow.

— Christopher Schwarz

One of the best and worst pieces of advice in woodworking goes something like this: Do the very best job that you possibly can.

On the one hand, you get just one shot to build your project. And then you (plus your family or customer) has to live with the furniture until it goes into a museum or the city dump. Of course, when you are first starting out in the craft, getting things perfect can be paralyzing.

This last week I spent a week teaching 18 students at the Marc Adams School of Woodworking the fundamentals of handplanes, saws and chisels. It began, like all classes on hand work, with a day of sharpening. And the sharpening continued all five days as we worked our way through the basic steps.

As a result, I got to observe dozens of edges of chisels, scrapers and plane irons from (mostly) beginning sharpeners. All day long, students would hand me tools and ask: “Is this edge good enough?”

The edges weren’t perfect. There would be a few coarse scratches running through the polished bevels. The edges looked like the ones I’d sharpened during my first class on hand work 14 years ago. So I’d point out the scratches to them to help them train their eyes to spot them. But then I’d almost always tell them to stop sharpening and put the edge to work.

“Really?” they would say. “That’s a decent edge?”

They answered their own question when they went to work. Modern waterstones make it easy to get a good edge with just a handful of stokes. The edge might not look like a mirror, but it will cut great.

I write all this not to be boastful about my sharpening skills. I’ve seen edges from other woodworkers, such as Harrelson Stanley of JapaneseTools.com, that are in the same neighborhood where perfection lives (I think I might live in the same state). Instead I write all this to show how it has absolutely terrified me as I assemble a sideboard in my shop in my basement.

Tonight I’m going to glue up the carcase, and so I’m examining the project with care, looking for imperfections that I should remedy before glue gets involved. Everything looks perfect. The joints are airtight. The surfaces are gleaming – nay, luminous – from my smoothing plane. But after a week of teaching I know that the case has problems somewhere, but that I simply cannot see them.

So I have to take my own advice: Get out the glue bottle and go to work. The carcase might not be as perfect as the ones I’ve seen in the galleries and museums, but it is perfect today.

— Christopher Schwarz

Mr. Peel was shaped exactly like one of the Fisher-Price Little People, he jangled his keys in his pockets nonstop and he had a reputation as a tyrannical shop teacher at Chaffin Junior High School in Fort Smith, Ark.

My friends would talk in the school's lunchroom about how every student had to get a single board straight, square and flat using hand tools before they could proceed to building anything in shop class. Creating this "perfect board" was daunting for most students, and I was glad at the time that I was exempt from shop class (and Spanish class – whew) because I was in the journalism program.

Since junior high, I've heard about other shop class teachers who had a similar exercise, and the "perfect board" is part of the teaching at The College of the Redwoods and Rosewood Studios. During the last few months, I've added this exercise to the classes I teach on handplaning and it has been illuminating for me – and I hope for the students.

We don't start with rough wood (these are one- or two-day seminars). Instead I start with pieces of mild cherry or walnut that is ¾" x 6" x 14" and has been accurately jointed and planed on both faces. I quite like using machined wood for the exercise because it points out how machining a board might not make it flat enough for some work.

I instruct the students how to plane a true face using a cambered iron in a jointer plane and then how to use the camber to true both edges to the true face without creating a big hump in the middle. They don't have to smooth the faces and edges to perfection (though extra points are awarded for those who do) – so it's a good exercise even if you have only a jointer or jack plane.

Then the students submit the board to my straightedge and ruler. I show them the problem areas – where the light is leaking under the measuring equipment– I mark the high spots in chalk and send them back to the bench. It usually takes them a few attempts, but I'm always amazed that they manage to correct the problems once they can see them marked in chalk on the board.

If you've never tried this exercise, I think you should. Give it a shot and report back here on the Comments section below.

Now I'm not yet shaped like Mr. Peel; though after pizza last night and the endless web site coding of the last two months I am heavier and balder. And I hope never to twitch like he does, which was why he kept his hand on his keys I suppose. But I am entirely sympathetic to his "perfect board" exercise.

I just hope my students aren't talking about me in the lunchroom.

— Christopher Schwarz

Designing or purchasing a good workbench is one of the most vexing problems facing woodworkers. The correct combination of materials, overall dimensions and vises is the difference between a workbench that will add speed and fluidity to your work and one that will stand in your way of doing anything with ease.

For the last 10 years, I've been studying workbench design, construction and use; and I've built more than 10 different workbenches to test the theories and historical research. I've written a book on the topic that will be published in late 2007, but you can get a preview of the work at a seminar devoted to workbenches at 10 a.m. July 14 at the Lie-Nielsen Toolworks in Warren, Maine.

During this four-hour seminar, I'll present the findings using a combination of historical photos and modern recreations of centuries-old workbench designs. I’ll be demonstrating my latest workbench endeavor, a late 19th-century design from Charles Holtzapffel. And I’ll be critiquing workbench designs from attendees at the seminar – so please bring photographs of your current workbench or drawings of the bench you plan to build. I'll try to show you how to improve your existing bench or alter your design to make it ideal for working with power tools, hand tools or a combination of the two.

In addition to the personalized critiques, all attendees will receive a complete printed plan and drawings for the Holtzapffel bench, which won’t be available to the public until the fall.

If you’ve ever been stymied by the vast number of workbench designs available, this seminar will help you understand workbenches in the simplest terms possible so that the next bench you build (or buy) will be your last bench.

To register or for more details, visit the Lie-Nielsen web site.

— Christopher Schwarz

Last year I got to spend a couple days in the tool collection of John Sindelar, an Edwardsburg, Mich., tool collector and professional woodworker. It's one of the most unusual tool collections I've ever seen – the sheer number of world-class one-of-a-kind tools in the collection is staggering.

You know those drool-inducing books on fine tools by Sandor Nagyszalanczy? Well Sindelar owns a lot of those tools and tens of thousands more like them. I've written an article on his collection for the August 2007 issue of Popular Woodworking, but you don't have to wait that long to see it for yourself.

Sindelar is opening his doors to the public for two-day complete and utter blowout June 9-10 at his shop in southwest Michigan – a very beautiful patch of the world near Lake Michigan. I'm going to be there showing off my latest workbench (and no, it's not the English Workbench – but more on that later) and doing hand joinery demonstrations.

But I'm just an insignificant sideshow compared to what else is going on. Konrad Sauer, the infill maker, will be there showing off his planes and doing sharpening demos, as will legendary plow plane maker Jim Leamy (Sindelar probably has more Leamy planes than anyone on the planet). Dexter Adams from ChemCraft will be doing demonstrations on finishing. Plus there will be tailgating. Not "eat a bratwurst" tailgating. I'm talking about tool tailgating. Where you can buy hand tools for better-than-eBay prices from dealers who know what they are talking about.

All this hullabaloo is part of Sindelar's effort to open up a tool museum for his collection, which could be located in Virginia, North Carolina or Pennsylvania. He's raising money and interest for the museum right now.

This is a fantastic vacation idea (I'm hoping to bring my family). That area of Michigan has lots of nice beaches for the family to enjoy while you are knee-deep in brass and rosewood. And Chicago is just right around the corner for a day trip. And if you are really into old tools, then you'll want to head up to the Mid-West Tool Collectors Association meeting June 14-16 in Milwaukee.

Below, you can download a flyer with more information and instructions on how to register (there's a measly $10 fee for the whole event).

Tool Meet Flyer 2007.pdf (592.13 KB)

— Christopher Schwarz

Last year Lie-Nielsen Toolworks held a different kind of woodworking show outside Boston. Instead of being held in a big convention hall, this show was more personal. In addition to Lie-Nielsen Toolworks, attendees got to hang out with Konrad Sauer of Sauer & Steiner, Peter Korn from the Center for Furniture Craftsmanship, Harrelson Stanley with his Shapton stones and Michel Auriou who makes the excellent Auriou rasps.

I also was asked to demonstrate at the show and sharpened up about 50 card scrapers using the technique I explained in the February 2007 issue. It was a great show, both for the people who attended and the demonstrators. There was lots of one-on-one time, no admission charge and a relaxed atmosphere. These shows are a great way to get your hands on some hand tools and get some tips on set-up and use.

Now Lie-Nielsen Toolworks is taking its show to the West Coast. The first show will take place May 11 and 12 outside Portland, Ore., at Chehalem Winery and Vineyards.  The show is being hosted in collaboration with Bridge City Tool Works and will feature John Economaki, Konrad Sauer, Mike Wenzloff (Wenzloff & Sons Saws), Michel Auriou, Kevin Drake (Glen-Drake Toolworks), David Jeske (Blue Spruce Toolworks) and Tom Lie-Nielsen.

The following weekend Lie-Nielsen will have a show at the Joseph Filippi Winery in Rancho Cucamonga, Calif., (May 18 and19). Guest demonstrators there will include John Economaki, Konrad Sauer, Mike Wenzloff, Larry Williams (of Clark & Williams), Michel Auriou, Kevin Drake, chairmaker Brian Boggs and Tom Lie-Nielsen.

In the fall Lie-Nielsen plans to host similar events in Napa, Calif., (mid-October), New Jersey/Philadelphia (mid-November) and Arlington, Mass., in collaboration with the North Bennett Street School (Nov. 30-Dec. 1st).

For more information, contact Lie-Nielsen at 800-327-2520.

I won't be able to attend the shows in May (I'm teaching that month at Marc Adams School of Woodworking and have an occasional magazine to publish), but I'll be at the Napa show in the fall, and possibly the others.

— Christopher Schwarz

One of my favorite things to do is teach basic hand skills. Unlike some other aspects of the craft, face-to-face instruction is the fastest way to teach sharpening, planing, sawing and chiseling. That's most certainly the way I learned it. After reading extensively about all of these skills and trying them in my own shop at home, I always seemed to be missing something critical, and my success was always limited.   

What was missing? Immediate feedback from someone who knows what they are doing. Hand skills rely on body position, grip and subtle tool adjustment far more than routers or table saws do. Don't get me wrong, table saws can be used in an extremely subtle way, but the basic operations are easily learned by reading a manual or a book.

Not so with a hand saw. How tight is your grip? Where is your thumb and index finger? How much downward pressure are you using? Can you see your cut line? Where is your elbow? Your right foot? Your left eye? Those are just a few of the important details you must tend to in order to make a straight cut. Once you are shown the basic steps, however, you get it, and your skills start to rocket forward at a breathless clip.

When I taught at the Marc Adams School of Woodworking earlier this year, even I was astonished at how quickly the students (many of whom had never picked up a tenon saw) could cut tenons that were world class. Their success had nothing to do with their previous woodworking experience. I had one student who had been building highboys before I was born and another student who was just getting started in the craft that week. Both succeeded brilliantly.

This year I am teaching three classes that will focus on these basic skills with planes, saws and chisels. Two of the classes are at the Marc Adams School of Woodworking in the spring of 2007 and one is at Kelly Mehler's School of Woodworking in the fall. All of the classes are a little different. The class with Thomas Lie-Nielsen focuses on handplanes.

• Hand Planes and Their Uses With Thomas Lie-Nielsen
May 5-6
Marc Adams School of Woodworking
I helped teach this class with Tom in 2006 and it was an intense and challenging experience. While Thomas and I see eye-to-eye on a lot of issues, we are different plane users and both bring different perspectives to sharpening, setup and use. During the weekend class, we go deep into the topic of plane setup. We deal with sharpening angles, back bevels, sole flatness, chipbreakers, you name it. We also discuss what each plane is good for in the shop. I think that some planes are kind of useless for the majority of us, and it's always interesting to hear that debate and decide for yourself. The students bring their tools and we help them tune and sharpen them during the two long days. This year David Charlesworth will be in a classroom next door teaching a class on dovetails and I expect that he will be involved in some discussions. By the way, it's easy to tell me and David apart (despite the teasings of Robin Lee, wink). He's the one with the British accent that makes our female editors swoon.

As to the other two calsses: "Hand Tool Fundamentals" at Marc Adams explores planes, chisels and saws with a very special emphasis on the workbench. And "Hand Tools: Saws, Chisels, Handplanes and Scrapers" deals with the tools in handwork and in building the appliances that make it far more accurate. For detailed class information, you can visit each school's web site or read all about it here at WKFineTools.com.

Whenever I teach classes, I do everything I can to make sure the students get a complete education. I am the first one in the classroom in the morning and the last one to turn out the lights at day's end. Plus, I am always up for a beer after class if you have more questions about anything in the realm of woodworking. If you have any questions about the classes, please feel free to drop me a line.

— Christopher Schwarz

One of the first projects I built for Popular Woodworking was an adaptation of Benjamin Seaton's tool chest. The chest is most notable because of what its owner did not do, which was to use the tools in the cabinetmaking trade. After completing the chest in 1797 and filling it with a nice kit of tools purchased a year earlier, Seaton turned his attention to other areas of business and worked as an upholsterer, auctioneer and undertaker.

Thanks to luck and a prosperous family, the chest and its contents now reside in the Guildhall Museum in Rochester, England, and are likely the best surviving example of what a kit of 18th century tools looked like.

There have always been some tools in the chest that have fascinated and confused me. The most vexing was the tenon saw, made by John Kenyon. The saw's blade is a whopping 19" long, yet the sawplate is quite thin: .026" in many places. By way of comparison, Lie-Nielsen's small dovetail saw has a sawplate of .020". The largest Lie-Nielsen saw, a 14" tenon saw, is .032" thick.

And this huge saw wasn't likely a custom job, either. The Sheffield Key, a catalog of English tools published a few years after Seaton built his chest, lists tenon saws as 16" or 19" long.

For years I assumed that a 19"-long saw would be difficult to use. It would weigh quite a bit, and the wide and long blade would be difficult to balance on the work and steer straight. And the thin sawplate would likely buckle if pushed too hard. Perhaps that is why modern tenon saws are smaller and thicker.

The last week or so has caused me to re-evaluate all that.

I asked sawmaker Mike Wenzloff to make me a copy of the Seaton tenon saw, as close a copy as we could manage. We had nice photographs of the saw, plus additional photos of another early Kenyon saw from an eBay auction. Another help was that The Tools and Trades Society took lots of measurements of the saws for the book "The Tool Chest of Benjamin Seaton" (which is now out of print in the United States as far as I can tell).

When the saw first arrived I cut a half-dozen tenons with it, both big and small. The saw was remarkably well-behaved. It was easy to start. And the weight of the tool did most of the work – I just had to steer the thing. But the real revelation came last week while teaching a class on hand-tool fundamentals at the Marc Adams School of Woodworking. None of the students was comfortable with hand-sawing, and so I gently encouraged some of them to give the Seaton saw a try to cut some of the joints we were working on. After all, they didn't know it was a freakishly huge saw.

To my surprise, every student that tried it took a shine to it. Each student got the tool to start easily, and had no difficulty tracking a line dead-on, despite its weight and size. Some of these students had never even attempted hand-sawn joinery. The sawplate did heat up in heavy use (these tenon cheeks were 2-1/2" x 2-1/2"). But the plate stayed true even in the hands of these beginners with less-than-perfect sawing skills. I did keep the saw lubricated with a little oil just in case.

So tonight I have my copy of "The Tool Chest of Benjamin Seaton" out on my desk and am looking through it for other clues and revelations. I think I found another one: string.

—Christopher Schwarz

Everything I know that is worth a darn was taught to me by someone else who knew their stuff – planing, sawing and all my machine skills came from other woodworkers to whom I owe a huge debt. I try pass this knowledge on to our readers in the magazine, but sometimes it's quite frustrating because of the limited space and the format – words and still photos. Showing someone face-to-face how to shoot an edge square is simple; telling them about it in words and pictures is a challenge.

That's why I'm particularly pleased to tell you that I'll be teaching a class May 8-12 at the Marc Adams School of Woodworking outside Indianapolis. In this five-day class we'll be exploring how to blend hand and power tools to add accuracy and speed to many woodworking operations. These techniques work. The cabinet on the cover of the newest issue was built in less than 20 hours of shop time. And I was proud to sign the work as my own.

Despite the bravado of my sentences above, I'm a bit humbled by this teaching job. If you browse around the list of instructors that Marc Adams hand picks, you'll see what I mean. Heck, there are about a dozen class at the school in 2006 that I want to enroll in. But I'm going to give this my all. I've put a lot of thought into a curriculum that ties together many of the threads and themes you've seen in Woodworking Magazine. For information about the details of the class, visit this page about the curriculum.

As a preview, here are objectives of the course. If you have any questions, you know that you can of course email or call me. I'll be happy to chat with you about it.

Course Goals & Objectives
Wielded correctly, hand tools can make your work faster, your joints tighter and your sanding chores almost non-existent. The key is to select the right tool for the job, set it up correctly and use it properly. In this class you will learn to blend hand tool and machine operations in a way that fully exploits the strengths of every tool and machine. During the five days we are going to focus heavily on the bench plane system, mortise-and-tenon joints, drawboring, wedging, nailing and some curved work. To learn all of the principles of this system, you'll build a traditional sawbench/mortising stool from longleaf pine that will – at the end of the class – unlock yet another frontier of woodworking for you to explore in your shop at home.

Woodworkers of all skill levels are welcome; the only prerequisite I ask is that you have very basic sharpening skills. In a nutshell, here is what we will be covering during our five days together:

• Understanding bench planes. How to set up a fore plane, jointer plane and smoothing plane properly. We'll cover proper blade shapes, how to use the tools in the correct order, when to switch from one tool to the next and the proper strokes to develop flat stock. You'll learn how to incorporate machine jointers and planers into our work with bench planes so that your stock is flatter than most machines can make it, and it does not require power sanding. We'll also cover sharpening and using card scrapers and the politics of hand sanding.

• Advanced bench plane techniques. You'll learn to flatten glued-up panels, plane frame-and-panel assembles in a smart manner (no need to learn to plane around corners), fine-fit cabinet components with your bench planes, make tapered cuts for door and drawer fitting, lengthen moulding, planing identical widths/thicknesses, edge-jointing and springing joints.

• Forgotten tools. You'll make your own drawbore pins and wedge-cutting sled, which will unlock two of the hot-rodding tricks used by traditional woodworkers that virtually eliminate the need for a shop full of clamps and downtime waiting for glue to dry. Plus, these two techniques produce joints that are mechanically superior.

• Mortise-and-tenon joinery. We explore the most fundamental joint in woodworking and learn to blend hand and power tools to make these joints extremely fast, fit like a glove and stronger than necessary. We'll explore five traditional methods for making mortises by hand and two that incorporate machinery.

• Sawing. With your sawbench complete, you'll learn to properly use a Western saw, which will unlock the next phase of your journey.

— Christopher Schwarz