Boxwood and Beech

These days I am working on a new cabinet. The past few weeks I spent selecting material, slowly milling stock down to final dimensions, edge jointing, turning pieces over and over, looking for parts... it has been quite the trip already, though I am just getting going.

It really started with a rather large piece of spalted Chestnut that Robert spotted on our last wood run. With one look I was hooked on the delicate, psychedelic spalting, cream dappled with purplish brown and greyish blues. Though it was mostly too decayed to use, soft and full of bug holes, I clung onto this piece out of pure attraction, convinced that I would find a use for it, knowing at the very least I would simply admire it.

As I approached the completion of my second chair, I felt a bit tired. Unsure if I wanted to take on the complexity of a cabinet right away, I thought about some small simple projects, making some tools. Maybe a practice cabinet to refresh my memory. But my hesitation dissolved upon John starting his Composing piece this session, which reminded me of some of the most fun parts of our work: looking at wood, envisioning, finding clues in the grain as to what it could be.

So I declared, life is short, I want to a piece. 

It came together one evening after a week of deep indecision over what to make. Robert pointed out a cabinet by JK which I had been talking about for some time, out of ash with glass and spalted maple in the two frame and panel doors. I could use the spalted Chestnut that I so adored for the door panels, and I had been wanting to practice frame and panel construction... it seemed like the right thing. I just needed something that would go well with the Chestnut, with its lovely matte texture and creamy tones.

Robert suggested Boxwood, something clicked, we knew it would be a perfect match. He brought out a plank from his shop and there it was, decided. Delighted and overwhelmed by the amazing wood in front of me, I had the beginnings of my cabinet in European Boxwood. 

European Boxwood

The pictures go a little way in showing how glorious this plank of wood is, so graciously gifted by my teacher. Four and half feet of wonderfully straight grain, three inches thick and ten inches wide, of a species rare in large sizes... dreamy! The colour is rich and warm, the smell like butter. I have noticed that insects passing through the shop love to stop by on the freshly milled pieces.

Life is good

I took slices from the edge of the flat sawn board, giving me mostly quartered pieces. What a blessing to have thick stock. And just one knot to be worked around. I rejoiced in my good fortune, there would be enough wood to keep things full size. It would be tight, but just enough.

Then, disappointment when I resawed my piece of Chestnut. The graphics of spalting on the inside of the plank were unexciting, hardly as spectacular as I had imagined from the outside. As hard as I tried, it was difficult to find two pleasing sections while avoiding the extremely punky areas. 

Robert and I started talking other options, though I would not give up on the Chestnut just yet. We looked at a couple of different woods from his shop and I pulled pieces from the wood collection at school. Nothing fit the cabinet I had in mind. Determined, I resawed a piece of spalted maple with similar tones. It could have worked, maybe, and in fact quite beautiful in itself, but did not quite match up to the Boxwood...

Spalted Maple

Robert perhaps sensed my discouragement, and told me he had one more option. I returned to the school after lunch to find this piece of spalted Beech sitting on my bench, recognising it to be wood from JK's shop.

Well, I cannot describe the feeling of receiving such a thing. In fact it is hard to talk about at all so I will keep it close to the chest.

What I can share is that this gift resulted in the most enjoyable hour I have experienced in the shop to date - slowly and gently flattening this piece of wood by hand. 

Advice not taken - finding my way

The year I left California to return to Canada, with the hopes of finding a place to teach the craft that was so dear to me. A dear friend gave me a piece of advice, suggesting that I build one piece every year. The If I could add to this I would say build it from your heart. Since leaving the College of the Redwoods fourteen years ago, I regret I did not do this. This advice, came from one of the most soulful men I know. I had the good fortune of having Michael Burns as a teacher, and I regret not doing anything and everything to make it happen. Since setting up my shop at home, and taking on the book, I have struggled to find my way back to the craft that inspired me all those years ago. Since first reading A Cabinetmakers Notebook by James Krenov in 1987, our lives have followed a road less traveled, for which I am so grateful. It was that book, and the conversations between Jim and I in the years that lead to the opening of our school in the spring of 2004. I realize now, that while I have gained the passion for teaching, somewhere along the way, I lost something more important. I have recently discovered the importance of working daily from the heart. 

Sunday morning

In working in my shop a few hours each morning before heading into the school to teach, I do not really feel I have enough to update every week, but will do my best. Since my last entry, I have completed the drawer pocket joinery, mortised for the hinges in the cabinet, cut a few curves and made a new bottom. I have moved onto fitting the door and running the rabbet and lip where they meet. Heart Hand & Eye is progressing well after taking some very good advice from my editor. Every day at the same time.
Be well and enjoy your work,
Robert

Relationships

At the beginning of the week, I submitted the first chapter of Heart Hand & Eye to my editor. It had been a lot of work, and as of late had occupied much of my shop time. This weekend would be different, I returned to my cabinet. 

Saturday afternoon I spent milling the stock for my drawer pocket. A few days ago, I realized that table saw was double cutting on the sliding table side of the saw. I began dialling it in, while I finished dimensioning the parts for my drawer pocket on Jim’s fine old thick planer on Saturday afternoon.

dimensioning stock on Jim's fine old Stenbergs jointer

Sunday mourning I finished up with the saw ensuring that the blade’s relationship to the sliding table and the rip fence were consistent, and that it was cutting square in both planes. I often remind our students that fine cabinetmaking is really all about relationships. The relationship that exists between the wood, the tools and the maker, yes, but in many of the facets of our work. This past week, the students and I explored dovetail joinery. When you think about it, the cutting and fitting of a dovetailed joint, is really about the relationships. Between the hand and the eye, the hand and the tool, the tool and the wood, the wood and compression, the wood and the cutting angle, the tool and the stone, the pin and the tail, and on it goes. I enjoy cutting dovetails, and find it almost therapeutic, it serves as a fine example of the relationship we share with our work. 

In dimensioning my stock, I left things a bit oversized, and kept this in mind when I laid for the dowel joinery, allowing for some dimensioning and shaping to be done after the joinery was cut. An example of this is, I kept enough thickness on the top spacer, so that I can fit it to the slight cup in the bottom side of the top that developed through careless storage on my part and recent spikes in the humidity this past summer. It really is all about relationships. 

I finished cross cutting the parts to final dimension and laid out the doweling jigs. In this case, I use the other side of a the doweling jigs previously used for the carcass. I then drilled them on Jim’s fine old mortiser.

drilling on Jim's fine Stenbergs table saw and mortiser

I cut and planed a bit of taper into my drawer template, that would leave my pocket slightly wider at the back. I removed the jigs from the ends of the vertical partitions, and transferred the jigs to the corresponding parts. I drilled those with and electric hand drill, fitted with a simple shop made wooden stop. When doing the top, I drilled with the spacer in place, which will allow the drawer to run just below the wooden latch on the underside of the top. At the end of the day, I dry fit the pocket into the carcass and began to adjust adjust the dimensions. Be well and enjoy your work, I know I am.
​Robert

Sunday afternoon in the shop

Dovetails and Tool Making

Gary once described cutting dovetails by hand as a meditation, and I find this to be true.

It's a personal undertaking within the craft - everyone has their own way of doing even as they follow in the same techniques and steps, and there are many different methods to work. The experience is always a little different depending on the wood, the size, the number, the day, the mood... but always requires patience and focus. 

This week our students began their practice of this ancient way of joining wood.

Jake pares pins

Jill checks her fit

Alberto cleans up his tails

Alberto has been cutting dovetails in Garry Oak - British Columbia's only native oak species and a super beautiful wood. Now in his Upward Spiral, he is working on a reproduction of JK's pipe cabinet. This week he put his carcass together. Nice work Alberto! 

Pipe cabinet takes shape in Garry Oak

On Thursday I showed the students how I do it, a little differently from Robert. This demo brought my own attention to how my way has evolved with experience, a nice insight. My familiarity with my tools has grown and my connection to them is natural joy... the satisfaction of a sweet fit still a great pleasure!

Lovely shop-made tools

The students continued their toolmaking journeys with a set of tools specific to dovetailing. Each one made a small wooden bevel gauge for laying out dovetails, a small brass hammer, diagonal sticks, a paring chisel, and a single bevel knife. They learned to anneal hardened steel so that it can be repurposed and shaped easily, then to harden and temper it to hold an edge.

Mike hardening his chisel 

Jake uses his paring chisel and single bevel knife

Thank you all for a wonderful week of dovetails. 

Robert saws