Troy Kitch - Troy Kitch

Bench Build, The Flattening

So I went on vacation after my last post about the bench build, and this weekend I finally got around to flattening the funky boards. I used my scrub plane for the rough work, which made it bearable. Next step: come up with an actual plan to make a bench…

→ 7:24 PM, Jul 5

Strawberry moon over Frederick, Maryland.

→ 10:19 PM, Jun 24

Bench Build, Phase One

I’m starting a new project to do something interesting with two warped and oddly cut walnut slabs I acquired … of unknown age and provenance. They must have been rejects from some long ago project and then shelved in a barn?

Here’s an edge-view:

And laid flat to get a sense of how NOT FLAT these boards are:

I have never worked with wood that is this funky, so it’s going to be a challenge to flatten them. So far, I have cut each to length, getting rid of the worst (most warped) parts of each slab. I have started flattening one of them. It’s going to take time, clearly.

I started with a scrub plane to get rid of the worst of the peaks:

And moved on to a #6 fore plane:

That’s as far as I got this evening. Time to sharpen blades before I continue. I plan to have two flattened boards and a plan to make a bench within the next couple of days. Details are still being worked out.

→ 9:19 PM, Jun 18

I am often amazed with the image quality that a casual photographer like myself can get from a pocket computer. This was shot with a 12 mini. The bee and echinacea reside in Frederick, Maryland.

→ 8:49 PM, Jun 18

200+ board feet of sapele and cherry and I’m ready for some new projects. First up: a new end table.

→ 7:52 AM, Jun 18

Our sour cherry tree really produced this year.

→ 3:35 PM, Jun 14

Look at all of these nice cicadas a friend gave to me. Looking forward to trying them out.

→ 6:48 PM, Jun 7

Split Keyboard Base with Trackpad Rest

My new keyboard set-up:

Here's a weird little project that took only a few hours and solved a unique problem. Here's what my computer keyboard set-up looked like before my project:

Backstory: I use an ErgoDox EZ split keyboard with an Apple trackpad in between (yes ... I use a trackpad and a mouse, for reasons). One problem: I'm pretty particular about my keyboard layout, so I like to have the angle of each side of the keyboard and the wrist rests just so. But each wrist rest and each keyboard half are free floating so they are always moving around. This is especially annoying when I need to move this stuff out of the way to clean underneath, or to use my secondary mechanical keyboard. Another problem: the trackpad in the center is too low, weirdly placed, and is just not great. So I came up with this odd thing:

This was an interesting little challenge to create using hand tools. But it was worth the effort. Now when I need to move my rather elaborate keyboard set up out of the way to clean underneath, or when I want more desk space for a non-computer task, or to switch keyboards, I can quickly set things back up with the exact spacing and angling I want. I start by placing the wrist rests:

And then place each keyboard half against the wrist rests:

And then place the trackpad on the raised, angled stand in the middle. The cable that connects the two keyboard parts tucks neatly under the trackpad. I wanted to keep this as minimalist as possible, so I made it so that the trackpad front edge rests on the stand, but it's angled so that the trackpad back edge rests perfectly on the keyboard edges. This is the minimal width to fit the trackpad and the spacing is just right (for me) for typing. It is very stable and feels solid.

So I'm going to use this for a few days and make sure I like it, then I'll finalize everything, glue it up, give it a coat of Osmo. Based on a few hours of usage, I think this will be a good solution. Everything lines up just so and it just takes a few seconds to get all assembled. It also looks much neater.

→ 8:47 PM, Jun 5

Kerfing Plane

So I purchased the metal hardware to build a frame saw and kerfing plane from Bad Axe Tool Works. This was, for me, an intimidating project to build these tools using only hand tools. The plans I used are from Tom Fidgen's The Unplugged Workshop. The plane, in particular. Here's how that went.

I started with a small slab of Koa. It’s a special plane, so I decided to use some of the special wood I had bought when I had lived in Hawaii. I printed out the plan for the plane body at actual size and traced it out. I placed the plane blade here so I could better visualize what I was doing.

Here’s what it looks like all penciled out.

I cut out part of the body with a Carcase saw and my bow saw. Then came the scary part: carefully drilling out the holes for the special screws (forget the name of these) that would hold the blade in place.

You have to drill two holes on each side so that these screws sit flush. Not easy to do with with a hand drill, I discovered.

Here’s a View of cutting the inside handle hold with my bow saw.

And then some heavy and tedious filing to get everything down to the lines and smoothed out.

The threads in the plane body and the threads for the bolts are created with a thread cutter.

And here is how the screws are made for the arms. I used walnut because it’s pretty easy to work with, relatively speaking.

Rough cut for each wooden bolt. Then file them out to round them.

The completed arms with the bolts. These fit into the plane body like so, using the threads I created.

The most terrifying part of the plane build was cutting the kerf to fit the blade. It had to be perfect, so I created a jig to guide my saw and went really, really slow.

So I created this fence for the plane and glued it up, then realized I had made a terrible mistake. It’s way too thick. It needs to rest against the blade, but this fence hits the plane body and was a total fail. Not sure how I got to this point, but there it is. So what to do?

I could have started all over with the plane fence, but I decided to salvage it. So that’s why you see these interesting light colored things that look like joints that don’t joint anything. I installed a proper smaller fence arm. I tried to make the mistake look like a feature and not a bug. Here, you can see the blade is installed.

A view of the final plane from the another angle.

Here it is in action, cutting the kerf on a board that I’m going to resew with the frame saw. The wooden bolts lock the fence in place to get the desired line.

And that kerf gives you a good line all around the board to help keep the frame saw cutting true.

The result is resawed boards that are far better than I’d get than without using the Kerfing Plane.

→ 8:20 PM, Jun 5

Frame Saw

So I purchased the metal hardware to build a frame saw and kerfing plane from Bad Axe Tool Works. The plans I used are from Tom Fidgen’s The Unplugged Workshop.

Here’s the finished saw in use.

Here’s my documentation for the frame saw build.

The starting point.

The ends of the frame saw are bubinga. The arms are hard maple.

Here are the rough cuts.

This is how I created the angled arm for the saw handle: cuts with my big tenon saw and then chisel it out.

It was slow going to remove all this wood.

Once the angle was set, I cut the handles.

And then I rounded the handles using a spokeshave and files.

Here’s one completed handle. I smoothed the middle part with a card scraper. the squared off area where the handles meet are cut with a carcase saw and chisels.

The completed handle (the ‘front’ of the saw).

The maple arms are tenoned.

I cut the tenons using Sloyd bench hooks to hold the long arms stable.

After the arms are prepared, I tackled the back of the saw. These holes are decorative but also reduce weight.

I then drilled out the holes for the mortises in the back piece and squared off with mortise chisels.

And then did the same for the front of the saw: cutting out mortises.

Here is the saw dry fit.

For the back arm, cut out a small mortise to inset the hardware where the big pin goes to tighten the blade.

Then I completed the back end of the saw with files to round it off.

Here it is ready to assemble.

And here it is all put together with the hardware. Lots of filing and smoothing with card scrapers and some fine sandpaper.

A close-up of a handle.

And the back end of the saw.

A nice resaw … was a delight this saw is to use. I still need practice on resawing longer pieces, as I’m having trouble with drift. Thats where the kerfing plane comes in: to help keep on the lines.

→ 8:14 PM, Jun 5

Small Display Box

Here’s a small project designed to hold a utility knife, presented as a going-away gift for a work colleague. It’s the smallest box I’ve ever made and was an interesting challenge.

Here’s the documentation:

I started with some ¼ inch walnut I had leftover from other projects. I used my combination plane to rabbit an edge, which will hold the base and the lid.

I cut the pieces to size with my carcass saw and then squared up the cut edges.

The dimensioning was all done by sight, using the knife case as a guide.

While I used the combo plane where I could, I still ended up doing a lot of fine chiseling, especially on the crossgrain little pieces.

Using the combo plane on such a small piece was a real challenge for figuring out how to hold the work. Here, I use the birds mouth and holdfasts.

Here are all the sides of the box. I didn’t do any fancy joinery, just rabbets and grooves.

The sliding lid of the box has an inset NOAA pin, where we work. This is a lapel pin, so I snipped off the back and removed the frog.

Creating the inset hole for the pin was a slow process, using carving tools and a ¼ chisel. I used a similar process to create a small thumb-sized divet on the other side of the box lid.

The glue up. Again, this is just grooves and rabbets. I figured it was a display box and wouldn’t be subjected to a lot of stress, so the glue would be adequate.

Here is the final box. The lid slides out. I tried to keep it a bit tight on the lid so there was a bit of tension, and then waxed the inside grooves. The walnut box is finished off with Osmo. Some of the edges are a bit rough, but I thought that was OK as it matches the rustic or rugged feel of a box that holds a utility knife.

→ 8:09 PM, Jun 5

Serving Tray

I made a small serving tray to hold my teapot and cup. The design is from Fine Woodworking, which I adapted to use only hand tools. I also made a few other minor design choices that altered from the plan.

The completed tray.

Here's an overview of the build process:

The frame of the tray is simple, as you can see here. The colored dots are used to keep track of what goes where.

Another view of the rough cut. The plans call for an 18 or 20 inch long tray, but I reduced the size to 16 inches so it is a perfect fit for my teapot and cup.

Here is a detail of the cuts. Once the lines are sawed, I use a chisel to pare down to the lines and square off.

In order to clear out the joint, I sawed a bunch of lines so it’s easy to chisel out the waste.

And this is the rough fit for the top cross pieces.

I used my combination plane to cut 1/8 inch grooves in each side, which is where the panels will fit. The grooves are cut quite deep so that the panels have room to shrink and expand freely.

Each side is angled from top to bottom, which gives an elegant look. I did this with a jack plane.

To cut out the handles on each side, I used a dovetail saw to make a series of cuts and then chiseled them out.

A detail showing the chisel work.

Here are the completed handles.

Each handle is wrapped with blue waxed cord I got from the Maine Thread Company. I’ve only recently discovered how easy it is to wrap cord and I’ve been wrapping things all over the house!

Then I fit the panels. The ends of the ¼ inch panels are rabbeted to fit in the side grooves and shiplapped for the inside edges so no gaps will show with expansion or contraction.

Here’s the dry fit. The plan called for grooves on each end board, as well, for the panels to fit into. I didn’t do that. My panels just butt up against the ends, which I think will work just fine for my needs. This alleviated the need to do a really tiny 1/8 inch stopped groove in each end.

And the glue up.

Now for the scary part: for strength and appearance, small brass pins (1/8 inch diameter and ¾ inch long) are set into each corner of the tray. Here, I’m preparing to drill. It was tricky to figure out how to hold the tray firm.

And then I drilled 16 holes to fit the pins: 8 on the top and 8 on the bottom.

Here is the detail showing the pins in place. I applied three coats of Osmo satin clear TopOil.

And it’s done!

→ 7:44 PM, Jun 5

Where the Gunpowder tailwater begins — at Prettyboy Reservoir in Baltimore County, Maryland — it’s ranked in the top 100 trout streams in the nation by Trout Unlimited and is a joy to fish (on weekdays when not crowded). Visited the reservoir dam today and it was just beautiful. The swallows own this place.

→ 8:11 PM, May 31

The mountain laurel is blooming in Gambrill State Park near Frederick, Maryland. And this is my first post on micro.blog after migrating my website.

→ 8:07 AM, May 29

Shaving Horse Build
The completed shaving horse. I had a large black walnut fall in my yard, so I wanted to create some spoons from the Greenwood. I needed a shaving horse to hold the limbs for the carving work, hence this project. In a nutshell, you site on one side and push against the bottom bar to hold the work piece. The top where the work piece goes has a sheet of leather to keep the wood from moving around.
Here’s the complete project.
Holes are drilled to fit the adjustable arms.
A view of the base in assembly.
The block is used as a wedge.
Each leg has a recessed mortise to fit the cross bar.
Here’s what the underside of a leg looks like, attached.
A finished leg.
The mortise set-up.
Each leg, assembled.
Cutting the cheeks.
The hardest part was probably getting the feet angle correct.
Planing with the #7.
Preparing the stock.
A lot of sawing…
The start point.
→ 9:23 PM, May 6

Japanese Joinery Square Build

Here was a challenging project from a few years back that I neglected to post. It involves some difficult joinery.

It looks great from the side.

But the joinery in the back is not so nice. It’s functional as a square, though, so I’ll take it.

The project was mostly an exercise in chisel work to clear out the wood.

The arm of the square showing the joinery. The curved handle was cut with a bow saw and smoothed out, no big deal.

The handle after cutting out the mortise and dovetail, with the completed arm in the background.

→ 1:23 PM, May 6

Duck Head Business Card Holder

This is a weird little item, created from a bit of walnut I had no idea how to use: I friend gave me some duck body and head blanks. As I’m not a carver, I’m still figuring out how to use these. For one duck head, however, I decided it was a nice shape for a business card holder. I made this for a colleague who transferred to a new job. As we work for NOAA’s National Ocean Service, it occurred to me that the duck head shape had a bit of an ocean wave flare to it. So that’s what I hope it evokes.

Here’s the starting point: a duck head blank. In the background, you can see the bodies I have yet to decide what I should do with.

The duckhead was a bit too thin for a stable card holder, I reckoned. So I added walnut strips to the front and back. It adds a bit of complexity, but I was determined to make this work.

Cutting the notch for the cards was just a matter of eyeballing it.

And cleaning it up with some chisel work.

I added a nice bottom wavy curve.

And sawed it out. The final shaping was with my files.

Here’s a view of the final card holder. I got ahold of a lapel pin from the place where we work, cut off the back, then cut out a hole to fit it nicely.

Here’s the front view with some sample cards. I think it turned out quite well!

→ 11:39 AM, Aug 2

Simple Ulu Handle

Woodcraft sells a simple Ulu knife kit. A while back, I picked up five of them because they were on sale for something like half off. Not much to these. Just a blade and some optional rivets. The only mildly difficult part is creating the tiny little mortises where the handle will sit.

I neglected to take a photo when creating the 3/64” deep mortises, but it’s pretty easy to do with a tiny chisel. I could have used a tiny router plane. Someday, I may pick up on of those.

After I rough cut the shape I wanted with a bow saw, I switched to my miracle files from Auriou (as I call them) to shape it well. These files are expensive because they are handmade in France. They are worth every penny.

Nothing fancy, but functional. This handle is from a scrap of bubinga. I made it extra thick and nicely rounded, as it was a gift for a person with large hands.

→ 7:13 AM, Aug 2

Sector Build

Completed Sector

What is a Sector? Here’s an excerpt from Lost Art Press, where free instructions and template are available to download:

If you haven’t heard of the sector, it probably means you aren’t an artillery officer or a ship’s navigator working in the 17th century. An invention attributed to the great astronomer Galileo, the sector was a calculation instrument comprised of a pair of hinged plates engraved with a variety of scales that – coupled with a pair of dividers – enabled the operator to calculate proportions, polygons, trigonometric and numerous other table functions.
— Lost Art Press

While I could have made one out of paper and laminated it, I decided to make one out of scraps of poplar.

I started with a print-out of the template from Lost Art Press and used it to transfer the shape of the tool to the wood.

I used a Japanese saw to slice it up.

A bow saw and some file work made quick work out of shaping it.

For the rounded top where the two sides of the sector are attached, I used some carving tools to carefully reduce the width. Then I drilled a hole through each piece to fit a brass screw I had on hand.

With the paper template as a guide, it was pretty easy to map out the lines and points on the wood. Then I used a punch to mark the points. These points are where the compass registers to make calculations. The markings are done with sharpies.

That’s it. Not much to it, really. But what an incredible tool for laying out stock and accomplishing other dimensioning. Someday, I may splurge and get a professional model. I found this beautiful Sector from Acer-Ferrous Toolworks that is both pricey and beautiful. Here’s another lovely Sector from burnHeart.

→ 7:48 AM, Aug 1

Linux on an iPad

Pop! OS on an iPad

I recently “upgraded” an old 2009 Macbook Pro with Elementary OS, a fantastic Linux distribution. This led me down the distro hopping path, exploring way too many different Linux distros on my primary 2013 Macbook Pro using Parallels.

Then it occurred to me that to try out Linux on my iPad, just for kicks. Turns out it works great, provided you have a tool to run virtual machines and a Luna Display adapter. Above is a screenshot of my iPad displaying Pop! OS via my Macbook. Maybe this isn’t the most useful thing in the world, but it’s pretty cool to use my Apple pencil on Linux.

As an aside, my forays into Linux have been so enjoyable that I’m strongly considering switching to a System76 machine when my Macbook Pro kicks the bucket. I hope to hold out until System76 launches their first in-house designed laptops.

→ 12:10 PM, Feb 1

Ergodox EZ and Arrow Keys

I bought an Ergodox EZ Glow ergonomic mechanical keyboard in 2019 and I’ve grown to love it. It took me some time to adjust to a split keyboard, and even more time to nail down my personalized layout across three different programmed layers. The unmarked keys on the board did not take as much time to adjust to as I thought they would. I purchased the black model with Cherry MX Brown switches, and upgraded to Blue Zilent switches and gray/blue keycaps. Dreamy.

But after months of using this keyboard, there was one thing I could just not get used to: switching layers to get to the arrow keys. I never realized how often I use arrow keys until they weren’t easily accessible. My solution was to get a tiny six key customizable keyboard from TechKeys. It fits perfectly in between the two keyboard halves. In addition to the arrow keys, I programmed the top left and right keys with an extra shift and space, because it’s often quicker to tap the tiny board when arrowing around. I think it’s an amazing set-up.

Now I just need to get some custom keycaps for the tiny board. I’m currently using leftover keys from my Vortex Race 3. Why two mechanical keyboards? I have a standing desk station and a sitting desk station. I use the Vortex while sitting, the Ergodox while standing. Excessive? Perhaps. But the Ergodox is not the easiest keyboard to move around, so this works for me. Plus … I just love mechanical keyboards. It’s a bit of an addiction.

→ 12:43 PM, Jan 26

Sloyd Bench Hooks

I made some handy bench hooks based upon the teachings of Sloyd (which I don’t know much about, but discovered is quite an interesting thing). Actually, learning about Sloyd may be the most interesting thing about this project. Anyways, these bench hooks are really useful to hold wood of different lengths on the bench for, say, cutting dadoes, or to hold up long pieces level when crosscutting on the hook I use for sawing, or for holding wood for paring.

I started out with a scrap of hard maple. Bad choice. This made a quick project into a several day project, because the wood was like granite.

I cut out 12” blocks and surfaced all the edges with a hand plane. Then measured 2” from each end, marking the center points, then drew a line from that point to the far corner as seen here. Once I had the layout, I sawed in a bunch of relief cuts with a carcass saw.

Here’s a shot of the two hooks, with the surfaces ready to be chiseled out.

Here is one finished surface. To get to this point, I chopped out the sawed parts with a bevel-down chisel, then pared down to my line with chisel and block plane. You can see the unfinished bottom surface here. This is a rinse, repeat operation for the other surfaces.

To finish off the hooks, I rounded the corners with rasps, so it’s easy to hold with the hand. I also used a card scraper to get the show surfaces as flat and smooth as possible.

The hooks seemed a bit slippery, so I lined the bottoms with cork (secured with hide glue). Now they’re ready for use.

→ 9:14 PM, Oct 27

Fly Rod/Reel Case Build

Over the past few months (July-September 2018), I created a display case to hold a fly rod and reel for the Potomac Valley Fly Fisher club, of which I’m a member. The fly rod/reel this case is designed to display is raffled off once a year. The person who wins the raffle gets to use it for one year. The prize comes with a small book to log fishing experiences. At the club’s annual banquet, the person who used it for a year gives a short presentation of his or her experiences.

To get me started on this rod/reel case, I was provided with some photos of a similar box from a fly club in Pennsylvania. That rod case has been in circulation since 1963! I like to think that the display case I made will also be in circulation for many decades to come.

Before: I started out with a stack of tongue and groove walnut panels. These are offcuts and rejects donated by a neighbor used in an 80s project to panel a living room in walnut.

After: this is the completed case, showing the interior.

And here is the completed case, showing the interior.

The following is a log of how I made the case. What this doesn’t show is how much trial-and-error was involved in the process. I spent a lot of time testing out different ways to hold the rod and reel in place, in particular. It also doesn’t show how much help, guidance, and inspiration I received from fellow woodworking members from the Hand Tool School.

I used a 5tpi rip saw to cut the boards in half and to cut off the tongue and grooves. Then I used a #7 plane to get the panels to proper thickness.

I used a crosscut carcass saw to cut the boards to length.

The bottom of the case was lined with cork, which I glued on.

Once the cork liner was in place, I measured the total thickness of the bottom panel. I then used a plane to get the total thickness to 5/16”. This is the size of the blade I used to cut the grooves for the side panels. To cut the grooves, I used a Veritas combination plane.

I sketched out the dovetails on paper before I started cutting. I decided to go with half-blind dovetails. I used two dividers because one is set to step across the end grain and the other was set to mark the distance from the edges.

I marked out the tails first, then cut them out with a dovetail saw and ¼” chisel.

Once I had the tails cut, I marked out the pins using a dovetail knife. I secured the bottom panel here in a Moxon vise.

This is a shot of cutting out the pins. For half-blind, I cut at a steep angle down to my lines.

Then I chopped out the pins with a ¼” chisel. It was a delicate, time-consuming affair.

Here’s one corner completed, showing the half-blind dovetail up close. I color code each part of the project so I can keep track of how the different pieces fit together. Note that I also cut my grooves through because it’s just so much easier. I plug the groove holes at the end of the project and they are barely visible.

This shot shows all the dovetailed corners connected up, without the bottom panel inserted so the bottom grooves are visible.

Next, I started working on the lid for the box. I used sapele for the mitered frame of the box lid, mainly because I ran out of strips of walnut! I cut the strips of sapele to size with a rip saw.

I used a miter box I made in 2017 to cut the mitered corners for the box lid frame. Here, I’m using a Bad Axe tenon saw.

This is the inside panel of the box lid, which will be framed with sapele using mitered corners. Here, I’m using my #7 to finish up the long edges.

Squaring up the edges of my panel using a shooting board.

And here is the box with everything dry fit, showing the completed box lid with the miter frame in sapele and the panel in walnut.

Next up, I had to figure out how to secure the rod in the box. Here, I’m laying out the rod sections on scrap wood to see where to place the inserts in the box that will hold it in place. I used sapele for the inserts (to match the mitered frame of the box lid) because I thought it balanced it out nicely with the contrasting walnut.

And here are the inserts that will hold the rod. I used double-sided tape to hold the rod pieces in place on these blanks, then used a pencil to mark out the lines. I used a marking gauge to figure out how deep to make each groove.

I used Auriou rasps to file out the grooves to hold the rod in place. These rasps are expensive, but they are so worth it.

For the center insert that goes in the box, I threaded the wood. Why I did this will be apparent in the next photo.

This is the center insert with the threaded hole. I used a brass thumb screw here from McMaster-Carr to attach a small swinging arm. This arm keeps the four rod sections held firm when locked down.

Next, I made a ¼” dowel, which is used to hold the reel in place in the box.

Here is the dowel attached to the inside panel of the box. I glued a small rare earth magnet to the end of the dowel. For the reel, I’m holding it with a reel seat blank, in which I also glued a magnet. When the reel seat is slid down onto the dowel, it locks in place with the magnets so to hold it securely in place.

Here’s what it looks like when it’s all put together, with the rod and reel locked in place.

Now all that’s left i installing the hardware. Here, I’m cutting a mortise for a butt hinge. I used Brusso hinges for this project and they are worth the money. I started out with some gentle chisel cuts. The depth of the hinge mortise is set with a marking gauge.

Then I used my router plane to smooth the bottom of the hinge mortise after I chiseled out most of the waste. I slowly crept up on my lines and dry fit the hinges many times to ensure a tight fit.

This is one of the butt hinges in place after the mortise was completed.

And here is the box with all the hardware attached. In addition to the butt hinges, I installed small box ball clasps from Woodcraft to hold the box closed. The chain support is from Rockler.

I finished the box with two coats of Osmo wood wax.

→ 10:23 AM, Oct 27

Making some Sloyd hooks today. My mistake was choosing a scrap of hard Maple. I’m getting a workout. #handtoolschool
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→ 3:29 PM, Oct 21