The great thing about writing for the blog (as opposed to for the magazine) is that there isn't any time lag for reader reaction. For the magazine, we're trying to wrap up our October issue before leaving for fabulous Las Vegas for the AWFS show. I won't know for another month and a half what anybody thinks of my work in that issue. On the other hand, I knew right away how people felt about last week's blog entry.With all the favorable comments and e-mails requesting more, I thought I should continue.

Below is an upper drawer on a Gustav Stickley #814 sideboard. I took some heat for not including drawer details in my two books of Craftsman furniture drawings. My reasoning was two-fold — the small scale necessary for the book pages would make the drawings cluttered, and most people will build drawers the way they want to anyway. Here is my take on the real thing.

In the early 1900s when this piece was made, people didn't have the same attitude that we have about dovetails. We tend to hold dovetails in awe, and for all the attention they get, you might think that this joint is the most important part of the entire piece. It's there to hold the drawer front on, and it doesn't have to be pretty to do that. Normal people will take a quick glance, notice that dovetails are there and get on with their lives. Woodworkers, on the other hand will get down on their hands and knees, pull out a magnifying glass and start an endless session of speculation and debate.

What I think is interesting is that this is a hand-cut dovetail in a piece of factory-made furniture. Dovetail machines were invented in the late 1800s and were likely commonplace by the 1920s. Stickley's factory was well-equipped for the time, but we don't have much information about specific machines or operations. I think this is an example of a hand-tool solution in a production environment. The typical Gus Stickley drawer is inset, with small, even gaps and smooth operation — even after 100 years.

The only pictures that exist of the inside of Stickley's Craftsman Workshops show cabinetmakers fitting doors and drawers to nearly completed pieces. It's easy to adopt a romantic point of view and think these guys made each piece one at a time. But that just doesn't fit with a factory setting and the volume of work produced. My best guess is that carcases and drawers were assembled up the line, and at a final workstation were fit together. The way the drawers were made and hung supports this scenario.

The little ear sticking out of the end of the drawer front gives a lot of leeway for fitting the front to the opening. A less-skilled worker could make drawers in batches, and the thin amount of end grain could be quickly trimmed without the need to shave the entire side of the drawer box. A few swipes with a block plane by a seasoned hand and the drawer is fit end to end. Likewise, the top and bottom can be shaved quickly to fit the opening. If the front is made a bit wider than the sides of the drawers, this is fast and easy.

Here is a look from below. The center guide screwed to the drawer bottom makes the adjustments to the drawer front possible without affecting how the drawer box slides or fits. This guide fits between two similar pieces on the inside of the case. This controls how the drawer moves in and out, not the fit of the drawer box to the case.

We will be posting next week from the show, here on the blog, in our e-mail newsletter (to which you can sign on the Popular Woodworking home page) and on this special page devoted to our trip to the AWFS. When we're back, we will be on the lookout for more details to share.

— Bob Lang

Reader Brady Fretland writes:

I'm tired of drooling over the designs in your employer's publications and want to get to work. However, here is my situation: My tools consist of a framing hammer, a ball peen hammer head with a broken handle, a Delta compound miter saw that hasn't even made it out of the box yet, and a little Black and Decker multi-purpose drill-screwdriver tool.

No chisels, no clamps, definitely no spokeshave, 17 different wooden mallets, or pi-angle truffle planes designed and manufactured by the Elves of Middle Earth. My experience consists of several month-long forays into and out of frame and finish carpentry, before seasonal layoffs and thus, reality, intervened.

My completed projects include some restored floors and mouldings in a huge Victorian in South Minneapolis, and a letter holder made of a clothespin screwed onto a piece of 1 x 2 and stained with linseed oil for a 4th grade 4-H project.

I've read Woodworking Magazine for almost two years now, and have taken note of the required reading lists from your blog and from the Autumn 2006 issue, though I haven't made any purchases. I also haven't bought any of the recommended tools, because while it would be nice to own and eventually use a Lie-Nielsen jointer plane, I shy strongly from dropping $300 on one until I know that I'll need it and have a damned good use for it.

So, from the recommendations in your reading materials and the projects they suggest, can you name for me: Two books to start with, four must-have tools, and a good couple projects to keep me busy this summer? I realize that you're busy and I just dropped a tall and unbelievably generalized order on you, but just remember when you started, and shoot for something off the top of your head. Any advice you can give is much appreciated.


Editor Chris Schwarz responds:

I've been woodworking a long time, but I can still taste the frustration at getting started that you are experiencing. Right after college I was cursed with a burning desire to build furniture but had almost no tools. No shop. No money. And I wasn't smart enough to have any good books (and I'm a writer -- how dumb is that).

But I sat down at the kitchen table one night and sketched out a bench we needed for our kitchen. I went to the lumberyard and bought some pine. And I built the entire project with a circular saw (1960s vintage), a cheap drill, a block plane and a hammer. I keep the piece around to remind me (see above).

I built four or five more projects this way, and then the path became clearer. I could see better what tools I needed and the next steps on the path.

So here's my advice: We have a special section of our web site called "I Can Do That," that shows you how to assemble a very low-cost toolkit for building furniture. There's a free digital eBook you can download there that shows you how to use these tools. And we have a few basic projects there built using these tools. (We feature one of these projects in every issue of Popular Woodworking).

Here's where you can get started:

http://popularwoodworking.com/icandothat

After that, I would buy a good book on hand work. Either Aldren A Watson's "Hand Tools" or Robert Wearing's "The Essential Woodworker."

And readers: If you have further advice for Brady, please post it in the Comments section. Any tips on getting started are appreciated. The hardest part of starting in woodworking is starting.

— Christopher Schwarz

If you've ever struggled with sharpening a card scraper or using your handplanes while building furniture, there are two new DVDs on these topics you should find useful.

"Hand Scrapers: Understanding, Preparing and Using the Ultimate Finishing Tool" and "Building Furniture with Hand Planes" were produced by Lie-Nielsen Toolworks and hosted by Popular Woodworking editor Christopher Schwarz (that's me).

The DVD on scrapers is based on my research into all the conflicting advice given on sharpening scrapers. I went through every one of my woodworking books and found 14 distinctly different methods explained for preparing this simple rectangle of steel. Using each of these techniques, I then prepared 14 scrapers and we compared the results in our shop here at Popular Woodworking.

And, as is our way, we took the best details from all the techniques to create a 15th way to sharpen card scrapers that is fast and makes a hook that is far more durable than those on any other scraper I've used. This 30-minute DVD shows you, step-by-step, how to prepare a scraper using these methods and how to properly use the tool.

Now, I generally am the harshest critic of own work (just ask Lucy, my spouse), but this DVD and the technique shown is one of the things I'm most proud of in my 11 years here at the magazine. It really was one of those few "a-ha" moments of my career. I hope you'll agree.

The other DVD, "Building Furniture with Hand Planes," explores a realm of hand-tool instruction that gets little ink. While there are endless articles on how to set up a plane (I should know, I've written some of them), there is precious little advice out there on how to actually use the tools on furniture. After all, we don't make shavings, we make furniture.

This 60-minute DVD shows you how to use a jointer plane, smoothing plane and block plane when building furniture. I offer my method for setting up all three planes with slightly curved cutting edges and how to use those curved edges to your advantage when making furniture.

With the jointer plane (one of my all-time favorite tools), I discuss:
• How to work on edges to produce square, straight edges and spring joints.
• How to work on assembled panels and case sides to flatten them using cross-grain and diagonal strokes.
• How to turn your tail vise into a huge shooting board (an old French trick).
• How to gang-plane your boards to identical thickness.
• How to cut tapers to fit an inset door.
• Match-planing, the pros and cons.

With the smoothing plane, I discuss:
• How to set up the tool to take a very fine shaving.
• How to use your smoother as little as possible (and why)
• How to smooth assemblies.

And for the block plane, I discuss:
• Why a curved iron is sometimes desirable.
• How to trim end grain without blowing out the ends of your work.
• How to use the tool for chamfering and in conjunction with your jointer plane to eliminate the splintering of edges.

The DVD on scrapers costs $20; the DVD on using planes in furniture work is $25. Both are in stock and available from Lie-Nielsen Toolworks. Also, all Chris's proceeds from these two DVDs go to the Roger Cliffe Memorial Fund, a charity that provides tuition assistance to students in need at the Marc Adams School of Woodworking. So your purchase will help other woodworkers.

— Christopher Schwarz

Have you checked out the article on the Erastus Rude Shaker Clock in the current issue of Popular Woodworking magazine? I had a great time working with Bob Casey on building our interpretation of the clock. I think it turned out great. The best part is that the clock – in all its finished glory – sits directly behind me here in the office.
    
If you studied the article and looked at the plans, you’re probably wondering about the hood columns. Here they are. It’s a simple turning project. The front two columns are made according to the plan, tenons and all. The actual turning part is a 10-minute job per column.

The back columns are half columns that are split from one turning. That profile doesn’t have the tenons at the top or bottom, but the balance of the turning matches the plan. How do you get those half columns looking like the front columns? That’s the subject of the video we have on our web site. Check it out, too.

Click to download the PDF of the column plan. Shaker Clock Column.pdf (26.79 KB)

Click to view the video.

– Glen D. Huey