Day 4 and 5 – Handsawing class with Christopher Schwarz

My last post really went into a lot of detail on what cuts I used on which joints, to demonstrate where the different classes cuts can be used. I won't bore you with that kind of detail in this post. Instead I just give a general overview of what we did for our final project in the class.

Out final project was a Shaker Silverware Tray. It's a "simple" and clean design, as you would expect from the Shakers. Clean and simple can be hard to pull off. Everything has to be just right, from the design to the execution. Otherwise it will look like someone just through it together. This tray is simple in design, but the proportions and slight curve in the handle give a pleasing look. Whenever I walk by it, I just want to pick it up and look at it and feel the shape. I try not to let my wife catch me fondling my projects :).

As you might have guessed, this tray was made with using only hand tools. Well, only after the lumber was given to us. The wood was prepared beforehand by the school. There wasn't time in the class for us to prep the wood ourselves using only hand tools. This was a handsawing and cutting class, not a rough to ready hand planing class.

Before this class I think I might have cut 10 practice sets of dovetails. The first sets weren't the prettiest, but I kept trying. I can say it does get easier with practice. The more time you spend with saw in hand the better you will get. During the first part of the week we did have a lot practice sawing, which helped prepare for the hand-cut dovetails.

Let me also put in a plug for Rob Cosman here. Before I took this class, I watched a couple DVDs by Rob Cosman on hand-cutting dovetails. Rob has some very nice DVDs covering a few topics on hand tools. They are very informative and walk you through all of the steps in cutting dovetails. The DVDs are so good I can watch them over and over again. I can't say that about a lot of woodworking DVDs. Rob has even come out with a shop manual you can take with into your shop. It covers cutting dovetails step-by-step. Also, Chris mentioned that he took a class from Rob, years ago when he (Chris) was starting out in woodworking. Rob will give you the confidence that you can do this, and it's within everyone's reach.

The curved end pieces were marked out from a template Chris had. I then used a chisel to chop away the excess wood. You could use a coping saw or some other method here, but a chisel does quick work of it too. I refined the curve with a rasp and then a spokeshave. I haven't used a spokeshave that much, but I was really impressed with the clean smooth surface I got with. As with most hand planes, no sanding was needed after I was done.

The holes for the handles were made using a brace and bit. We drilled overlapping holes, with the brace and bit. The cherry we used was only 1/2" think and a little brittle. One of my ends did crack, because I didn't have it well supported. A little cyanoacrylate glue, fixed it right up. You can't hardly see the crack.

After few pass with a Smoothing plane, I applied a few coast of Tung Oil. The dovetails came out pretty well. It's hard to see in the pictures, but there a few small gaps. I'm making process but also realize that these are suppose to look handcut and not machine cut. I'm not saying they have to imperfect or gappy to be hand-cut, but that absolute perfection is not needed. I know I will get better overtime and my cuts will get tighter. Until then I'm not going to beat myself up over it.

Day 2 and 3 – Handsawing class with Christopher Schwarz

In this post, I'm going to go into some detail on how we built our sawbenchs. I'm going to explain the types of cuts (1st, 2nd, and 3rd-class) we used. This should give you and idea of when to use the different types of cuts and why.

The next 2 days of the class were spent making our sawbench. A sawbench turns out to be an essential tool for the sawyer. When using a handsaw (crosscut) or large rip saw, the sawbench allows you to work with the lumber at the proper height and angle for the saw. For a crosscut saw that is 45 degrees, and for a rip saw that is 60 degrees. If you tried to use these larger saws at your regular workbench, you will find the cutting action very uncomfortable and awkward. I found this out on the first couple of cuts we made.

We didn't have our sawbenchs yet and I think no one wanted to go up and try Chris's, out for fear of putting a cut into it! Luckily most of the other cuts we we had to make were made with backsaws, which work well at the bench.

The first task was to cut the legs to rough length, and at a 10 degree angle. This really was a rough cut, as the legs would be cut to final length after the bench was completed. We also worked on the shoulder cut at the top of the legs. The legs are set into the top of the bench, and the top rest on these shoulders. It was a fun challenge, seeing that everything was cut at 10 degrees. I started out with the cheek cuts, and used a 2nd-class cut for these. I then moved on to the shoulder cut, which were 1st-class cuts. I did pretty well, seeing that I still didn't have much sawing experience under my belt yet. The cheeks and shoulders were cleaned up using my large Lie-Nielsen shoulder plane. It was pretty easy to clean up the cuts to the gauge lines.

One thing I learned during the class, once you get enough sawing under your belt, it won't matter if the cut is at 90 degrees or 10 degrees. As in most everything, experience breads confidence. Also, as I got more experience sawing, the amount of clean up I had to do was less and less. The closer you can get with your cut, the less work you will have to do with some other tool.

Out next task was to start on the large stretchers. They had to be cut to length and the ends needed to be squared up. I used a benchhook and my Lie-Nielsen 5 1/2 bench plane to shoot the ends. Our next challenging joint was the half-dovetail on the stretches. A half-dovetail is a very traditional joint in bench construction. It's a little easier to to cut than a full tail, and a half tail gives adequate support and anti-racking strength.

These dovetail joints are also lap joints and are let into the legs. The angle cut on the dovetail and vertical lap/cheek cuts were treated as 2nd-class cuts. They needed to be flat and square, but the finished surface wasn't critical. Both of these surfaces are concealed inside the joint. The cheeks were also cleaned up using a router plane. The router leave a pretty nice surface, but if you have some tearout it's not that critical.

The shoulder cut on the on the other hand is a 1st-class cut. This cut needs to be dead on. The shoulder can be seen, and must be tight. My cuts weren't perfect, so I had to spend some time with shoulder plane to get them nice and flat.

Then the challenge was to half-tail cut in the legs. Use the stretches as your templates. I clamped a stretcher to a pair of legs and marked out the joint with a marking knife. I then used my marking gauge to mark the depth of the lap joint. I made the depth of the lap joint about an 1/8" of less the thickness of the half-tail on the stretcher. This makes the stretch sit proud of the leg, which can hide any slight imperfections you might have in your joint.

Now that everything was marked it was time to cut. These cuts were all 1st-class cuts. These cuts will be seen and need to straight and square. There was a lot of material that needed to be removed. There are a few strategies that you can use. You can use a chisel to pare away the material. You can also make multiple saw cuts across the area and take the material out with a chisel. I tried both and they both worked well. To use a chisel alone, I think you need a large chisel, at least 1" or more. I tried it with my 3/4" chisel and it took awhile to pare away all of the material. Whichever method you use, you will most likely finish up with a router plane. The router plane does a very nice job of flattening and cleaning up the surface.

After all of the joints were cut and cleaned up, the large stretchers were glued to the legs. Glue should be enough, but some students chose to screw them also. I just glued mine. If you screw them, you can screw from the backside of the legs so that the screws aren't as noticeable.

Now came time to attach the leg assemblies to the top! As mention earlier, the legs are inset into the top. This meant laying out those cuts and removing the material. I clamped a leg assembly to the top and used a marking knife to markout the joints. I think we set the legs in about 5/8" of an inch. I treated these cuts as 1st-class cut. I used the multiple saw cuts technique to remove the waste. Then used the router plane to flatten up the bottom of the cut. When attaching the legs to the top, we used screws. It needs a little more support than the glue can give.

The small stretchers were the last pieces that needed to be cut and fitted. By this time, the simple half laps on the stretchers were a piece of cake. Again, the shoulders were 1st-class cuts and the cheeks were 2nd-class cuts. The cuts were cleaned up using a shoulder plane and now one of my favorite tools the router plane.

The slot cut into the top is a ripping slot. It's used when ripping smaller pieces. It allows the bench to give support to the cut while allowing the saw to travel a few inches into the cut. You then move the board forward and proceed with the cut. If needed you can flip the board around and start cutting from the other end.

The final step in the process is to cut the legs to the proper height, for you. The top should be just at the knee or slightly below. For me that ended up being around 20".

The holdfast you see on the bench is used to hold boards in place while chopping mortises. Chris told that these benches were also commonly used as mortising benches. The holdfast is positioned so that it can hold the workpiece over one of the legs. This give you a lot support while chopping the mortise. Also, if you flip the holdfast around knock it onto the top, it functions as a handle :).

For those who would like to make one of these benches, Chris did post some plans on his Lost Art Press Blog. The plans are pretty close to what you see here, but there are some slight differences. For instance, the plan doesn't include the half-dovetail in the long stretcher. It wouldn't be that difficult to add it if you want that feature.

Day 1 – Handsawing class with Christopher Schwarz

It was my intention to post updates each evening, but that just didn’t happen. Several of the evenings were spent doing other activities. The first night Chris went out to dinner with a group of us. The second night I was just too tired. The night Gary Rogowski had a Bar-B-Q potluck at the shop. The fourth night we went on a field trip to Mike Wenzloff’s shop, which I already wrote about. So, I will try and recap what went on during the week I was there.

My wife will attest to this, I’m a planner and I like to know what we are going to do and when. She is much more spontaneous than me, but she puts up with me and I with her J. I’m not obsessive over this, but I just like to know what’s going to happen. So, the first day of any class is always exciting and anxious for me. I generally settle in pretty quick, but those first few hours can be nerve-wracking for me.

The first half of the day was spent in a lecture on the different types of saws and the different “classes” of cuts. This was the longest lecture Chris did, the rest were short talks and demos as we moved from one stage of a project to another. It was a long lecture but it was full of good information. I think I will save the information on saws for another post. He gave us a lot of information, and it could take a few posts to through it all. He covered the different types of saws, tooth configuration, pitch, rake, fleam, ppi/tpi and much more. The cool thing about this lecture was that Mike Wenzloff happened to be in the shop that morning and he hung around and gave his view on the topic of saws.

The other part of the lecture that morning was on the 3 Classes of saw cuts. These classes breakdown into Third-class (Course), Second-class (Medium) and First-class (Fine). I like how this also fits into Chris’s approach to hand tool use. If you haven’t see or read about how we views hand tools, Chris has a great DVD called Course, Medium and Fine. The DVD covers the progression you should take as you move through the preparation of stock. This idea works for hand tools and power tools. It’s not a new concept, Chris frequently references older woodworking books and articles. The same hold true for the concept of the different Classes of saw cuts. This isn’t a new concept, it’s a very European approach to woodworking.

Third-Class saw cut
Third-class saw cuts are used for rough cutting boards to length or width. When using a cross-cut handsaw or a large rip saw, these saws can leave a rough surface and can cause some splintering. You should account for this in your rough sizes. Because a third-class is rough cut, you only use a pencil line to mark you board. No need for marking knife or anything like that.

Second-Class saw cut
Second-class saw cuts need to be accurate but the resulting surface doesn’t need to be perfectly clean. These cut are generally buried inside a joint, where the surface is not seen. These cuts can/will be cleaned up by shooting, using a Router plane, or by some other means. These cuts are used on: the ends of rails or stiles, or for tenon or lap joint cheeks. The cuts are also marked out with a marking knife or marking gauge. The marking knife helps establish the precise location of the cut.

You will also use a chisel to make a small cut on your knife line, to help start your cut. This is generally done on a corner where two knife lines meet. Place your chisel in the knife line and give it small amount of pressure to deepen the knife line. A question you might have, should the bevel of the chisel be towards the waste or away from the waste? The wedging action of the chisel will push the chisel away from the bevel. If the bevel is facing the waste the chisel could get pushed back across your knife line. If the bevel is facing away from the waste, your cut could be a little fat. Many articles say you should put the bevel towards the waste. I tried it both ways while in class, and I prefer the bevel facing away from the waste for this type of cut. When I did it the other way, the chisel kept moving over my knife line. I will continue to play with both styles and see if they behave differently in different woods.

First-Class saw cut
First-class cuts are cuts that will be visible. Examples of these are: the shoulders on lap joints or tenons, and different parts of a dovetail joint. It is possible to get clean perfect cuts from the saw, although it isn’t uncommon to clean these cuts up with a shoulder plane or chisel. These cuts are also marked out with a marking knife or marking gauge.

In the example of cutting the shoulder on a tenon, you will need to use your chisel again deepen and establish the knife line. Using a wide chisel, and for me have the bevel facing away from the waste, lightly tap the chisel to deepen the knife line all the way around the joint. Then secure the piece and pare away a shallow trough, on the waste side of the line. The depth and width of the trough needs to accommodate the width and set of your saw. This will be something you will workout over time, for the saws you use. This trough will help you start your cut right on the knife line. Without this little trough your cut can wonder and can turn into a third-class cut really fast.

An evening with Wenzloff and Sons

I spent last week in Portland, OR at the Handsawing class with Chris Schwarz. I will write more about that experience in the coming days. Besides meeting Chris for the first time and spending 5 long exciting days doing nothing but woodworking, we had a field trip out to Mike Wenzloff's shop. This was one of the highlights of the trip, although there were many highlights. I forgot to take my camera with me on the trip, but Chris has just written about the visit on his blog. Chris did a great write-up on our trip and has a few pictures.

Mike and his sons are some of the nicest people you'll ever want to meet. Mike is a wealth of knowledge when it comes to handsaws and their history. We were there for a couple hours but it only felt like a few minutes. Mike gave us a detailed tour of the shop/production and explained every step in making his saws. They just moved into this new shop and it is modest in size. Mike told us their original shop was only a couple hundred square-feet. So, this new shop is huge in comparison.

You get a real sense that all of them enjoy their work, and that quality is number one. They will not sacrifice quality for speed. Although, they are working hard to streamline their processes, so that they can get through the mountain of orders they have waiting.

Mike will be at the Woodworking in America conference, in November. If you are going, stop by and see Mike you will not be disappointed.

In the coming days I will write about the class itself. It was 5 of the best days I've spent woodworking so far.

Woodworking Vacation

The week of July 14 I will be attending a class at the Northwest Woodworking Studio in Portland, Or. I'll be attending the Handsawing, Handsaws and Saw benches with Christopher Schwarz. This is the first time I've taken a week long woodworking class (woodworking vacation if you will). The other classes I've taken have been short half or full day classes at the local Woodcraft store. I did learn things in these classes, but the time was too short to really explore the given topic. It will be interesting to see what a week long class on handsawing will be like.

I've always enjoyed Chris Schwarz's writing in Popular Woodworking and Woodworking Magazine. His blogs are also very entertaining and educational over at Woodworking Magazine and Lost Art Press. It will be exciting to finally meet Chris. He has always been friendly and helpful when I have emailed him questions about woodworking and tools. I'm sure he will be just as pleasant in-person.

This brings up an interesting topic, Hobby Vacations. At least in my family this type of vacation is starting to become "common". I've already found a few other woodworking schools I would love to attend, on future vacations. My wife is a stamper and scrapbooker, and she has found a few places/schools she wants to do on a vacation. By brother is gold prospector and he is signed up for a gold prospecting class. My sisters are great cooks and they have already attended several cooking conferences. How many other people are combining their hobbies and passions into vacations?