Featured Content

So the good thing that came out of my trip to Ohio was getting to poke around and find a few antique Disston saws.
Started working on the oldest of them today.  This is a 26”, 7 TPI Curved-Back saw.  The curve is similar to a D-8 but the blade isn’t as tall.
Saw is cleaned, straightened, and tensioned.  Waiting on files and a set tool to finish this up and put it back into use.
 
 

East Wood Tools sponsored a fund raiser to help Combat Veterans through Wood turning. I purchased one of the shirts as veterans causes are close to my heart. While I am a veteran, by God's grace I never saw combat. It happens, this past weekend we were at the Springfield OH, Extravaganza, a huge antique show and flea market. It also happens I was wearing the shirt from the EWT fund raiser. I walked into a booth hosted by a bee farm and the lady noticed my shirt and asked if i were a veteran. I told her I was and she replied that we like to gift a jar of honey to a veteran at every show we do and would I like a jar? The only condition was that she take a picture for their FB page. I said sure so here are the pictures she took.      

It has been a while since I last posted the progress on my Mission style nightstand.  It was designed to allow the side subs, bottom shelf, drawer rail sub, and upper rail sub to be finished prior to assembly.

A selection of recent projects to keep me busy.

It has been a while since I last posted the progress on my Mission style nightstand.  It was designed to allow the side subs, bottom shelf, drawer rail sub, and upper rail sub to be finished prior to assembly.  Finish is (1) coat med brown trans tint dye stain, (1) coat seal coat, (1) coat GF gel stain, (1) coat seal coat, and/or (2/3) coats of SW Kem Aqua Plus clear dull rubbed  (WB lacquer).  The receipt is a Jeff Jewitt schedule which closely resembles the Stickley look.  I’m now working on door panel mother-of-pearl inlay and dovetail drawer.  .  I have started on the bed.  All (4) post/legs have been sized and the rails have been planed to rough dimn.  I have a need to build a mockup for the leg to rail interfaces.  The side rails will be attached using a double mortise , loose tenon, hidden bolt & nut assemble.  I also plan to make my dovetails using the TS method.  It may be a while before I post again.  I have been volunteered to remodel my son’s home bathroom, starting Oct.1    More to follow.   Thanks for looking.  Danl       

The garden center where my wife worked wanted a fireplace for a Christmas display some years back. Some left-over lumber, left-over floor laminate, paint, stain, and VOILA! Still in use, year-round, to this day.    

So as I move a bit more down the handtool woodworking path, there are a number of things that I am going to need to make. Today’s entry into this category is winding sticks. Made a set for me and a set for my father in law out in Ohio (because the bench took too long to build and I couldn’t get to his mallets in time)   These are beech because I seem to have quite a bit of that left over, and it is nice to work with. Dimensioning, milling, and everything but sanding was done with hand tools on the new bench and I am pretty happy with the results. The half-moon style of these seem to work better for me than the inlay style but I will probably make a set of inlay style ones eventually as well.      

Cherry Rocker Rear

So as I move a bit more down the handtool woodworking path, there are a number of things that I am going to need to make.
Today’s entry into this category is winding sticks.
Made a set for me and a set for my father in law out in Ohio (because the bench took too long to build and I couldn’t get to his mallets in time)
 
These are beech because I seem to have quite a bit of that left over, and it is nice to work with.
Dimensioning, milling, and everything but sanding was done with hand tools on the new bench and I am pretty happy with the results.

The half-moon style of these seem to work better for me than the inlay style but I will probably make a set of inlay style ones eventually as well.
 

 
 

Projects from the near and distant past

A collection of wood-centric images for use as lock & home screen wallpaper on our cellphones. All images ©ThePatriotWoodworker

I hope it’s ok to ask a couple dumb questions.  
 
1.  (dont laugh) do the teeth face up or down on the scroll saw?  I think it’s down, but not sure.
2.  How do I know if I am doing the tension correctly?  I got a Wen 21 inch scroll saw and it has a tension knob with numbers from 1 through 5, but the manual doesn’t help me.
3.  Finally the correct speed for the tension/wood type..?
Thanks for any help

Been working on a wedding cross for our oldest daughter @Cynthia Morris and her fiancé Nathan. What an honor to be a part of this preparation and to have this task assigned to me, so I set to doing a little research and found the appropriate dimensions and acquired some Black Walnut and here we go

Well I was assigned the duty of Wedding Cross Maker, our oldest girl is tying the knot with her fiance on October 1st. And being the woodworker of the two clans, of course folks would be expecting me to step up! It's a fun project, basic, simple, I'll sand to 800 then 1200 abralon, and a wipe on finish, the cross will have a base, and they are going to wrap a garland of flowers over half the cross, it'll be beautiful. Thanks for looking!  

I'm making an inside out cat blocking window box for the wife so she can keep things on the window sill without Velcro the cat knocking everything down to the floor. I got to the part about hinges and decided I didn't want store bought hinges. I started scratching my head and making a few mental notes then proceeded to make a prototype to see if I was on the right track or not. The hinges need 90° of travel.   Prototype #2 was a success.   Trying to figure out how to drill the hinge holes without buying some fancy jig I came up with this. A piece of aluminum angle with sharp inside corner and a piece of 1/2" square aluminum with a hole down the center (I cheated and drilled the hole on my lathe).   In position for drilling minus the clamp to hold the jig in place. I drilled this end first to a depth of 3 X the width of the pin then put the two parts together and drilled the center pin.   JT

Something I have wanted to try since I saw it done in Ozark village in Arkansas is coloring copper with torch. I tried propane but not hot enough. Got this acetylene torch from a turners estate the club helped clean up.    found several videos but no substitute for practice. It is not a matter of holding the torch in one spot but kinda like flashing it to get color. Different colors come from various temperatures. A friend got some 28G copper and gave me some. As we are thinking inserts for box tops as another use.    I turned a plate and cut a grove to place the copper. Colored the grove black. Cutting the copper round on outside was easy but used sander to create inside curves. Had to trim each piece as inserted to get close joints. Used drop of CA to hold in place.Now the last thing will be to get casting resin to seal this in  

 

Quote Designed and built especially for Workbench readers, keeping in mind those of you who will receive a portable or "component" stereo set as a Christmas gift (and for those who already have one), this project will transform that unit into a handsome console Home Entertainment Center and  valued piece of furniture. Source: Workbench Magazine Sept-Oct 1967  

I set it to an inch deep and drilled multiple holes in poplar, nice and clean, and the same depth, it just takes a little practice to see when it hits, because you really can't feel it hit.

well here is the shop, daughter #2 showed me how, my my its so simple, lol, hope i don't forget how. pic one is from south side, you can see the re  located chop saw, gonna build base cabinets in length of about 10 ft and a few uppers above. #2 is from in front of lathes, you can see the baker racks we use for parts and drying racks. also above the clean room (8x20) you can see the mezanine where i store a lot of exotic lumber.  #3, is a shot from table saw to rear door, orange cabinet holds a mini mill, and to the left you can hardly see is a grill covering a metal lathe, ( i dable making old, old gun parts) #4 corner where the band saws, drill presses, you can see a groove jig , this one i got right, worked out. #5  shot from by the orange cabinet  jointer, 15 inch planer and table sw in pictures #6 see old router table attached to a mech box, its gonna go away later this week, and general work space,  #7  The new router able, hope to have up and running later this week   now that i know how to post pics, i'll throw some up once in a while rj in az  

On February 16, 23-year-old U.S. Army Lieutenant Cameron Kerr of Stow, Ohio ran to help an Afghan National Army soldier who had just stepped on a small IED (improvised explosive device). On his way, he trod on a larger IED, which exploded on impact.
The Afghan soldier sustained a broken foot, but Kerr was more severely wounded, resulting in amputation of his left foot and lower leg, and severe lacerations and burns to his left arm. Four days later, he was recovering at the U.S. Army's Walter Reed Medical Center near Washington, D.C.
Seen here Lt. Kerr is holding a Patriot Woodworker challenge coin display.

Select hand tools from the archives, current projects, and into the future.

I heard awhile back that this staple of America was going to be discontinued as early as last year, but I also read articles that it was an urban myth, and the discontinuation only effects some retailers, but still can be found virtually anywhere in the US. Anyone have any insight on this? Granted, even if it were discontinued, there are many alternatives out there, for specific uses and purposes, but it would be sad if this legendary wax was discontinued, what would our young soldiers, sailor's and airmen use for buffing the barracks floors during those long CQ hours! EDIT: This topic borrowed from a Facebook group, Unplugged Woodworker's.  

Over the past several weeks I have been slowly working on a new workbench for hand tool woodworking. 

Over the past several weeks I have been slowly working on a new workbench for hand tool woodworking.  This is a learning project for me and I am learning a lot.  At the heart of things I am finding that I really enjoy hand tool woodworking. I am also finding out that I am not particularly good at it which doesn’t surprise me much as I have never really dedicated any time to it or learned the proper ways to do things with hand tools.  My saw skills definitely need work as I have never done anything with hand saws but rough carpentry and this is a whole new ball of wax.   That said, progress is being made and I was able to dry fit the left and right leg assemblies today.  They are square and the hand cut mortises and tenons are well fit for the most part.  I discovered that i NEED a shoulder plane to really finish these up properly.  That said, the little gaps from my lousy saw skills won’t impact the functionality of this workbench in the slightest. Especially after everything is drawbored, pinned, and glued in place. As I work my way through this build I will continue to post updates on the overall progress.