handtools on troykitch.com

Wed, 04 Mar 2026 12:47:34 -0500

I stepped away from posting (and woodworking) for a couple of months, but I’m back with a simple project. This is a barebones bed frame to hold a tatami mat, creating useful storage space underneath. Total lumber cost was $50. I made it in a day with hand tools, except for the screw assembly — I splurged and used a power drill for that!

Sat, 15 Nov 2025 07:57:06 -0500

Final wood box with removable bottom drawer. Mistakes were made, but made it work. I planned to dovetail the sides, but grain directions were wrong. So I went with mortise/tenons, but they were shallow so I worried about strength. So I did something I rarely do: use hardware. I reinforced the corners with screws. Not my best work, but it will do the job! I’m happy with the curved corners, mostly (made with bow saw and my prized Auriou rasps from France).

Fri, 07 Nov 2025 11:39:00 -0500

I decided to add a pullout bottom to the firewood box so it’s easy to clean. When it’s closed up, you don’t notice it’s there (unless you’re looking closely). It’s pretty much done, except for the hours of card scraping and finishing.

Thu, 30 Oct 2025 06:34:23 -0500

Started working on a small cherry firewood box for the home. Almost ready to start with the joinery after completing the prep of the panels. I’m going to go with mortises and tenons for this one. I thought about through tenons, but think I’ll just go with hidden joints here. This will have curved sides, which will be fun to make.

Mon, 20 Oct 2025 18:44:15 -0500

I’m on a bench modding kick. Years ago, I installed a small vise on the left end of my Nicholson bench, reclaimed from a discarded Harbor Freight small workbench. I use it to hold small things.

This evening, I replaced the arm with a cast iron wheel I’ve been holding on to for years, looking for something to do with it. They just don’t make good parts like this these days. I save everything… This wheel comes from a Pfaff sewing machine I took apart about ten years ago. I think it’s a nice upgrade to the vise.

As an aside, I turned the base of the old sewing machine table to a cabinet to hold all of my network stuff (Synology, hubs, switch, etc.) about a year ago. I documented that in an earlier post.

Mon, 20 Oct 2025 06:35:23 -0500

This weekend I mounted a Moxon vise to the end of my workbench, which is a big upgrade for my work and only looks a little weird.

I had mainly been using this old vise I picked up when we lived in Europe, but one of the wooden screws started to fail.

But I also had this benchtop Moxon vise I made many years ago. I rarely used this because it wasn’t very sturdy (I made it too small). So I took it apart and re-used the face and hardware and mounted it on the bench. The back is now a sturdy piece of Ash attached to the bench with eight inch heavy-duty wood screws.

Thu, 16 Oct 2025 15:01:48 -0500

Completed the outdoor shoe rack, looks much nicer than the plastic tray we were using before — and finally thought of something interesting to do with the small piece of teak taking up room in my shop.

Thu, 16 Oct 2025 07:41:05 -0500

Taking on a smaller, fun project: using a small slab of teak I picked up at an offcut sale many years ago to make an outdoor mat for shoes and boots.

Wed, 15 Oct 2025 13:44:28 -0500

Completed the hallway linen closet door. The top and bottom are open for airflow, as it’s used for bedding. Most interesting parts to me are the repurposed chair top used for the curve, embedded magnets to keep it closed, and I cut the grooves in the frame to house the cherry plywood panels by hand with as small as a lip as possible (about 1/8th of an inch).

Fri, 10 Oct 2025 10:26:29 -0500

Cutting the mortises for the hinges to hang the closest door I’m making. I always find this process a bit frightening.

Wed, 08 Oct 2025 15:09:26 -0500

Working on a long, narrow door to cover a narrow closet in our house where we keep sheets for bedding. The closet has a curved top. I’m using parts of a chair I got at a thrift store that perfectly matches this curve and plan to veneer it. We want to allow for air flow so this seems like a good solution.

Sat, 04 Oct 2025 05:44:38 -0500

This was a fun, quick project: I used offcuts from the midcentury cabinet I just completed to make a small first aid station in the bathroom. This replaces an old, broken wall heater that came with the house. I made it removable in case I ever need to get to the electrical wiring I hid away in the wall. The frame of the cabinet has tiny little walnut splines for strength and it’s attached to the 1/4 inch box with glue and four dowels (made from toothpicks).

Mon, 29 Sep 2025 15:27:08 -0500

I completed my midcentury cherry cabinet, made with zero power tools. Here it is in place. The top sides are half blind dovetails, the base full dovetails. The door panels are 3/8 inch thick and slide along grooves. I’m pleased with how it turned out.

Wed, 17 Sep 2025 06:20:27 -0500

One of the sliding doors are fit in the mid-century cabinet project, one more to go and then on to the feet.

Mon, 15 Sep 2025 05:35:49 -0500

Years ago, a friend gave me an old wooden filing cabinet that was missing one of its side panels. Yesterday, I finally got around to converting it into a mobile tool caddy I can easily move around the shop.

Wed, 10 Sep 2025 16:09:43 -0500

I finished resawing the boards for one of the doors for the cabinet - I’m guessing this would take less than an hour or so with a bandsaw? It took me most of the day. I used a ryoba saw and had excellent results. My arm is spent.

Mon, 08 Sep 2025 15:47:45 -0500

Finished all the dovetail work for the mid-century cabinet and leaving it dry fit until I take apart to cut the grooves for the front sliding doors.

Mon, 01 Sep 2025 10:41:41 -0500

Finally back to work in the shop. I decided to start with a warm-up project: a cherry tea tray with walnut dowels and wax cord wraps for the handles.

Wed, 02 Jul 2025 18:52:24 -0500

Three corners completed, one to go, then on to the cabinet doors. I’ve never cut so many dovetails at once in my life.

Sat, 28 Jun 2025 17:22:52 -0500

Sharpening some bits and want to share an interesting tool I picked up many years ago: a Millers-Falls “Buck Rogers” brace. A range of Buck Rogers tools were an interesting historical blip.

thevalleywoodworker.blogspot.com/2015/04/b…

Sat, 28 Jun 2025 13:46:54 -0500

Two corners done for my cabinet build, two to go. I did through dovetails for the base, the top will be half blind dovetails. Sketching out plans for feet and sliding doors now.

Wed, 25 Jun 2025 08:17:57 -0500

My solution for transferring pins to tails on a 50x25 inch panel. It’s not pretty, but it’ll do the job.

Sun, 22 Jun 2025 18:45:03 -0500

Making some wooden nails with scraps (with a dowel plate) while I wait for glue to dry on panels, which are just tiny dowels shaped to a point with a chisel. They work great for small box projects and are a good use of small hardwood scrap.

Fri, 20 Jun 2025 11:42:48 -0500

Gluing up the bottom of my cabinet project with my random assortment of clamps. Project is going well so far. Going to attempt half blind dovetails across 25 inches.

Sun, 15 Jun 2025 08:41:27 -0500

The hardest part of a workshop with no power tools: resawing. I’m not very good at holding my line, but getting better with time. Also, good exercise.

Fri, 13 Jun 2025 19:06:10 -0500

Starting a new project: a cabinet with sliding doors in (more or less) mid-century style. Spent several hours with a bunch of cherry deciding what would be used where.

Sun, 02 Mar 2025 13:54:53 -0500

Made a new shooting board to go with a new shooting plane I picked up as a factory second a while back from Lee Valley. First time I’ve ever used a dedicated shooting plane with a track. What a pleasure to use.

Making a huge 1920s cabinet small

Mon, 09 Dec 2024 10:21:23 -0500

We acquired a massive cabinet from a friend when we lived in Germany. It was circa 1920s and is what I’d call “proto-IKEA,” in that it was designed to be disassembled, presumably because it was so huge and heavy. We grew attached to it over the years, but the problem we faced is that it didn’t fit in our new small home. So this project entailed converting the full size monster into something much smaller by removing the center section and building a new base and top. I had three goals for the build: (1) make a new cabinet using the sides and doors of the old cabinet that could also be easily disassembled; (2) make the new cabinet stronger; (3) only use hand tools. The main challenge: nothing was square in the old cabinet. Each door was a different width, the sides were not square, and the existing wood was warped.

Here’s what the full-sized cabinet looked like in our previous home. It was about seven feet wide.

Here’s the completed “mini cabinet” in our new home:

Here’s a brief-ish overview of the process.

I made the four legs out of some sapele I had on hand. I cut each leg in an L shape to match up with the doors to give it a more seamless look. Then used mortise and tenons to build the frame with cherry.

Here’s the base support, dry fit. I used cherry for the show faces of the project.

For the floor of the cabinet, I used poplar. On each end that would be supporting one of the cabinet walls, I decided to use dovetailed boards for added stability to keep it all together nicely.

For the legs, I used chisels and a saw to slowly shape them out to fit the dovetailed poplar.

Here’s the completed right side of the base.

It ended up having quite complex joinery, but it all worked out. These end pieces of the base frame will support each cabinet side.

Here’s the base dry fit, each poplar board is shiplapped.

The trickiest part of the project was figuring out how to support each wall. The original cabinet has only a single center pin on each side holding the side in place, but these pins were just slotted in and didn’t offer any support. It was basically held together just by the weight of the top. Each side also slots into the base and top with a what is basically a long mortise and tenon. So I had to come up with a plan for the base and top to fit these long “tenons” and also to strengthen how each side attached to the base.

That’s what the following shot shows. The center hole fits the pre-existing pin. Then I added two new holes on each side and inserted a thread in each so I could bolt it in place with a hex wrench. Each side piece also slots into the base.

The top was a much simpler affair. I first cut and shaped the top front.

I went with dovetails for the top frame to keep it all together nicely. I closed up the top with a 1/2 inch plywood insert that is removable so if we need to take it apart again it’ll be easy to move.

This is the completed cabinet showing the interior. The back is 1/2 plywood. The shelf was re-used from the old cabinet and just had to be cut to size. The nice thing about the design is that base, top, sides, doors, and back are all removable, so it can be knocked down if needed to transport easily. I took the rosette from the old cabinet and placed in on the new top (it was just a nailed-on affair, this was not a high-end cabinet). I’m happy with how it turned out.

Sewing Machine Table Conversion, Part Two

Sat, 30 Mar 2024 06:28:56 -0500

I recently completed my project to turn an early 20th century sewing station into a 21st century internet station. I used sapele for this build (second only to walnut as my favorite handtool wood to work with). Here is some documentation so I don’t forget what I did.

Securing the cabinet to the cast iron base

I made a simple base from a scrap piece of bubinga I had laying around. It’s held in place by two walnut dowels I hand cut (pounded out with a dowel plate) to fit through the existing cast iron screw holes where the base of the old treadle was held in place with big screws. These dowels go through the screw holes and into the wood where I drilled some holes. My aim for this project was to complete it without any screws or other hardware, so these two dowels and two top dowels I document later are what keep in solidly locked in place.

Building the cabinet

I had to join two boards to have the width I needed for the base and sides.

Each side was cut at angles to match the angle of the cast iron sewing machine table base.

The base of the cabinet was a simple square, thankfully no angles.

The sides were joined to the base with dovetails, I used a variable width just because I had never tried to do differing widths before. Turned out well.

This cabinet is for computer bits that get warm, so I wanted to maximize airflow, so I left the top open, held in place with two dovetailed arms in the front and back to keep it mechanically solid.

Here’s the first dry fit of the cabinet frame.

The innards

My design was for two shelfs to hold a wi-fi router, a 5-port ethernet switch, a Hue hub, a Synology, an outlet extender, and a big ol’ UPS power supply (I have 9 total items to plug in, including some equipment that will be placed on top of the table and on the floor next to this table), but I did not want to see a crapload of cables. So I decided to make an angled back panel to hide the UPS and cabling. Here’s what the inside of each side looked like before the cuts.

The shelf dadoes were easy enough to saw, chisel, and router out, but the angled grooves were a challenge. I couldn’t saw the edges of this groove given the length and angle (at least I couldn’t figure out how to do that), so I slowly and carefully cut out these angled grooves with my hand router. The angled grooves are cut to fit a 1/4 plywood back with some wiggle room (a bit wide).

I used the offcuts from the overhang of the shelfs shown here to use as supports in the back. These thin pieces are used to give me a place to attach ties to keep cables tied nicely up. I liked this solution because there was is no waste and the bars on back will serve a useful function.

Here’s a view of the back to see those offcuts in place.

I decided to use 1/4 plywood for the back angled panel — used mainly to hide cables. So I needed to make holes to pass the cables through. The first attempt at my plywood back failed. I hand chiseled out openings to run cables through. It came out nice, but after I completed it, I tripped after removing it and it snapped in half. Oof. So my second iteration was done using the only power tool in the project: I used a cordless drill and a Forstner bit to cut out six holes to run cables. This was a better solution, overall.

Putting it together

I drilled holes in the top of the cabinet so I could attach walnut dowels to hold the top in place, using the existing openings in the cast iron frame to keep each dowel locked in.

Here’s the dry fit. The medallion on the top shelf you can see below on the top shelf was mounted to the cast iron sewing machine; I was able to delicately remove it and place it here.

A close-up of the medallion, just because I think it’s cool. We lived in Kaiserslautern, Germany, for seven years (where we picked up this sewing machine table at a flea market), so this is a touch of something special for us to see this mounted here. We’ve been lugging this table around for about two decades, but never had space for it. I was about to give it away, when this project idea came into mind. I’m happy that I found a way to turn it into useful furniture.

I finished the cabinet with Osmo top-oil, because I’m lazy with finishing and like that I can just rub it on, it looks nice, and it dries fast.

The back of the cabinet, showing the slide-in 1/4 panel with holes for cables. I left this panel unglued so I can easily slide it in and out. This was a critical decision, as I aligned the holes so they were hidden behind the shelves, and a few of the cables I had to fit through were too fat to get past the shelves, so this made it easy to move it around to get cabling set up. The holes are also good to promote airflow, I figure, as well as the open top. I also may someday need to add more holes, so now that’s easy to do.

Finished build

Here’s what it looked like in place, without anything in it.

And here is the back that goes against a wall, with all the cabling hooked up. It ain’t pretty, but I don’t have to look at any of this, it’s all nicely hidden behind the panel.

And here is the finished piece in place and in use with all the gear hooked up and running. There are only two visible cables: (1) the power plugged into the wall that goes to the big UPS and a black ethernet cable that runs to my desktop computer so I can be hardwired. The ONT for my new fiber network enters the house and is mounted on the wall directly behind the sewing machine table. The cast iron well where the sewing machine was mounted on the top of the table is covered by the printer, but it’s holding a hidden Anker 5-port USB hub with the cables poking out behind the printer for charging various things. The shredder and a corner light behind the shredder on the floor, along with a HomePod on the desktop, are also all connected up here behind the table without any visible cables. I’m pleased with how it turned out.

Sewing Machine Table Conversion, Part One

Sat, 02 Mar 2024 20:35:29 -0500

I am embarking on a quest of sorts to “recycle” an old sewing machine table I’ve carted around from move to move and held in storage for something like 15 years. My goal is to turn it into a hub in my computer room to store a UPS, a laser printer, a Synology, several hubs, a modem, a router, a 5-port switch … While tastefully arranging lots and lots of cables and power cords and allowing for good air flow. This will sit next to my computer desk at the point where I’m having fiber installed in a couple of weeks, so I’ll be able to hardwire my computer and keep all the associated network and associated gear neatly in place next to it.

Not sure how this is going to turn out, I’m designing it on the fly and relying on a sketch. Today, I got things started.

I began by disassembling the sewing machine table, which was quite an effort. I’m keeping the parts I don’t use in the hopes that I can use them elsewhere. There is some very interesting hardware here that I’m certain I find a use for in future projects. I’m thinking of mounting the foot pedal as part of the back cabinet “wall” for air flow, maybe to route some cables, and because I think it will look cool.

The first step is to create a lower bar to hold the eventual shelf that is going to be housed inside the iron frame. This is a scrap of bubinga. I will hold this in place with two dowels inserted into the lower screw holes of the iron frame.

The next step is to make the dowels. I’m using walnut here, pounded through a 1/2 inch dowel jig. Turns out 1/2 was a bit too large so I had to shave them down to a proper millimeter size to fit the screw holes.

Next, I drilled holes in each end of the bubinga bar to house the dowels.

Here’s what it looks like rough assembled.

Here’s a front view. The cabinet I’m going to build will be mounted on this bubinga bar at the bottom. At the top, the cabinet will be held in the frame by two wedged tenons.

Next up I needed to join two 8 foot lengths of sapele so I have boards wide enough for the project. This is an image of joining the edges.

And I glued them up so I’m ready to start cutting out the cabinet pieces tomorrow.

I sketched out a rough plan. I think this is the right kind of project to sketch out the basic idea but figure out the finer details as I go along. This sketch shows a side and front view. The cabinet will taper to fit the shape of the table. One thing I haven’t figured out: I want the UPS to sit on a shelf that faces the back wall. No idea how I’m going to do that at this point.

Wenge Pencil Box

Sat, 17 Feb 2024 13:33:39 -0500

I finished up a gift pencil box for a friend. I have a bunch of lapel pins that I use for these projects. I cut off the back of the pin and then carve out a place to inset the pin into the box. Makes for a nice keepsake.

For this project, I used wenge for the sides and walnut for the bottom. I challenged myself to cut the smallest dovetails I’ve ever attempted and it was indeed a challenge. I almost scrapped this project to start over because I had so many problems. This is the completed box from the front:

And from the top, showing the walnut bottom:

I was originally going to make a sliding lid for this project, but that didn’t work out. I cut grooves for lid, but I cut them too close to the top of the box, so the top edge split the first time I tried to slide in a lid. So I improvised and shaved off the top grove to make it an open box. For the box top corners, I used a chisel to make little bevel edges so it looks like I planned it that way. I also had a heck of a time with the tiny dovetails. When I started this, I was thinking “I wonder how small I can go with dovetails?” Well, this is apparently as small as I can go with my experience level.

A few items of note for this project:

I used a Raamtang vise made many years ago. As I do many smaller projects, I find myself turning to this tabletop vise quite often. It’s a very useful appliance.

Planing the thin pieces took some creative work holding on my Nicholson bench.

This is the setup I used to mark the tails. The hardest part about working with this wood: I could not see the lines, the wood is so dark.

When I was cutting the dovetails to the line, I used blue tape to mark where to stop since I had so much trouble seeing my lines. I used a Dozuki saw to cut the dovetails and it worked very well. I think I prefer using this saw over my western dovetail saw.

A few holidays ago, I got this set of very tiny little chisels because my wife thought they were cute. I’ve never had occasion to use them until now! I felt ridiculous, but I couldn’t otherwise get at some of the places with my smallest regular-sized chisel.

Fun project, but looking forward to the large bookshelf I’ll be building next.

Sat, 20 Jan 2024 07:29:55 -0500

Utility room shelves complete.

Adjustable Cat Feeder

Sat, 01 Jan 2022 12:25:53 -0500

This one is odd, but it serves a purpose. We have an elderly cat who has bad joints so has trouble eating. I set out to create an adjustable tray so he didn’t have to bend down to eat. Here’s what I came up with. I made it tall enough to plan for the future (in case we end up getting a really large cat or a small dog someday in the future). Our cat can now comfortably eat while seated. The trays easily move up or down depending on the size of the bowl.

The inspiration for this: I had two Harbor Freight bar clamps in my shop, shown below, which I never use because I don’t like to use them for work holding. But the one thing I like about these is that the bottom clamp ratchet is very easy to move up and down. So I thought, what if I cut these clamps up and used the parts to make a cat feeder that could be adjusted?

This is the end result, with a touch of decorative cord wrapping. This was all made with wood scraps and it’s mostly poplar. I’m happy with how it came out and I believe it a one-of-kind design. I mean, really who is going to make something this weird?

Each tray is attached with four screws (and glued) to the aluminum clamp ratchets. I framed the trays so each has a lip so the cat can’t push the bowl off the edge.

I added bumper feet on the bottom of the stand to keep it off the ground a bit in case a water bowl is tipped. I made the top removable so each tray can be removed and cleaned. The tops are capped with scrap leather just to ensure we don’t cut ourselves on the cut aluminum edges. Each bar is set in the poplar base with deep mortises, glued, and screwed in. Also, I added wood inserts to the inner part of the bars for more sturdiness.

The top is shaped so it’s easy to lift off. I cut tiny mortises to fit these bits from the bar clamps and they just rest on top of the aluminum arms. I glued them in.

And here is the final. The apparatus is sized to fit nicely on a standard cat mat. I finished all the wood parts with three coats of Osmo TopOil High Solid.

My First Kumiko

Sat, 01 Jan 2022 12:01:47 -0500

I decided to try my hand at making a small Kumiko ornament for the tree, as a first step in learning this process for later larger projects. This one took way more time than expected, because I needed to first create the jigs to cut tiny Kumiko strips. I figured out what I needed to do with an excellent book, Shoji and Kumiko Design: Book 1 The Basics by Desmond King, and very helpful YouTube videos from Adrian Preda. So I bought a big chunk of 5’‘W x 36’‘L x 1-1/16’’ basswood from Rockler and went to work. Here’s the finished piece.

And here are the basic steps, starting with some pics of getting the basswood cut down to size. I started by cutting the board into thirds.

And then cutting those boards into thirds.

And then resawing all of those thirds.

I used two-sided tape to hold the wood while I cut the small strips out of the resulting boards, after planing them down.

Here are the jigs I made, which took the most time in this project by far. The first one in the image below is for cutting the angles needed. I made this design up and I’m proud of it because it is all self-contained and can hang on a wall. You’ll see how it’s used shortly. The second jig is for planing the basswood down to uniform strips of 1/2" by 1/8"

Here’s the planing stop in action. The stop is 1/2" and two inserts are added as needed, one is 1/4" and one is 1/8". The side piece of MDF is used to cut the strips to length, after removing the inserts. So it does double duty.

Here’s how the angle-cutting jig works. The two short pieces of hard maple can be flipped around so each has two angles available. These fit into the jig with an adjustable stop for longer pieces. I hope to make larger Kumiko projects later on, so this gives flexibility. I can just cut new maple blocks if I need other angles to make other Kumiko patterns.

And here is my first Kumiko pattern (in the classic asa-no-ha shape). It is not perfect, but I’m happy how it turned out. I stuck it in the Christmas tree. Next year, I aim to batch produce a number of these for gifts. It was fun to learn how these work and was a challenge for hand tools only. Learning to do this with buttery basswood is a good way to go. I may next try one with walnut.

Pencil Box

Sat, 01 Jan 2022 11:33:33 -0500

This is another going-away gift for a work colleague who left for another job. I’m incorporating a lapel pin in the project from my place of work, as I’ve found that cutting off the back pin part and insetting the small metal logo looks really nice. The box is poplar with a bubinga top and bottom. The gift is for someone who appreciates quality pencils, so this project was a great fit. The instructions for this box come from Renaissance Woodworking. This is a great, easy-to-do project. The pencils I bought for the box are Mitsubushi 9850. As an aside, I’ve found Mitsubishi 9800 pencils to be perfect for woodworking because the graphite is strong and makes dark lines.

Herb Drying Rack

Sat, 01 Jan 2022 11:15:45 -0500

Here’s a project using scrap walnut tongue-and-groove boards I was given by friend, which I used to create a small tray to dry herbs — my wife does a lot with herbal tinctures and such and needed a rack to dry some of the plants and mushrooms she collects while foraging.

This is the final drying rack:

The biggest challenge in creating this was the small size. Here is the walnut board I started with:

I used a holding tool I previously made called a Raamtang to keep all the small bits held firmly while I worked on them. This small wooden vise has proven invaluable over the years and is worth the time and effort to build if you create a lot of smaller projects.

I decided to make this a simple mitered box, but will add splines for strength. I cut the angles free hand and then dialed them in with this 45 degree shooting board I made. The final pieces are shown here resting on top of the shooting board.

I added a fancy curve to the four edges of the tray. I drew the curve on paper then traced it onto the wood. I used a backsaw to cut the to lines of the curve.

Then used a coping saw to get near my lines.

Then cleaned it all up with files and a spokeshave.

Here are the final curved edges.

After glueing up the frame, I added the splines with a contrasting wood (scraps of oak). I cut out the corners, cut the splines, then planed them flush with a block plane.

Then the final step was adding the chicken wire, for which I used some mesh from a big box store. The wire mesh is attached to the underside of the frame with wood strips half-lapped, glued and strengthened with small screws. That’s it.

Studley Mallet

Sun, 24 Oct 2021 18:57:29 -0500

A short article in the September/October 2021 issue of Popular Woodworking called attention to retired pattern maker Bill Martley’s project to reproduce the bronze head of the classic Studley Mallet, named after Henry O. Studley (1838-1925) that many woodworkers know from his famous and mind-blowing tool chest.

A member of my woodworking group spotted this article and suggested we embark on a group build. The bronze casting for the mallet cost $69 with shipping included. What an amazing opportunity and bargain! I received my bronze mallet head in the mail a couple of weeks ago and here’s the mallet I made with it using bubinga, bocote wedges, and a handle with inset waxed cord. I just love how this came out and I’m so grateful that Martley made this possible.

Here’s the mallet I made with the casting:

And I’ll briefly document the steps I took to make it.

First off, here’s the bronze casting as it arrived in the mail, along with the wood I selected to make the infill and handle. I went with bubinga.

Here’s the infill block sized to fit through the hole in the bronze head.

Next I chop out the through-mortise to match up with the hole where the handle will fit.

Here’s a view of the wooden insert with the mortise completed, mostly to show what the top and bottom of the casting looked like before I polished it up.

Now I began to shape handle, drawing out what I wanted in pencil.

Here’s a view of the handle, where I’ve cut out the slot to fit into the bronze casting. I used my large tenon saw for this. I squared it all up with chisels.

Here it is all rough fit together. Looking like a mallet now.

Next, I shined it all up using a Dremel. Wow, what a difference. I left it rough, because I liked the look of it.

Now, onto the handle. I cut it out roughly with saw work, then filed down with my beloved Auriou rasps.

Here’s the handle, showing the cuts for the wedged tenons that’ll go in the top to splay the wood out and hold it firm. The infill wood has not yet been cut to length.

Next, I decided to go with a wax cord wrap for the handle. I wanted it to sit flush, so I chiseled out the beginning and the end so it slopes inward from each side, so when I wrap the cord it’ll gently slope upward. This will form a nice place to hold it.

This image shows the beginning of the cord wrap, using tape to hold the ends in place. I wrapped the cord so tight, my hands cramped up.

And here a few glamour shots of the completed mallet, which I finished with boiled linseed oil. Oh, and I forgot to mention, I’ve added the wedges here. The two top wedges are tiny slices of bocote, which I think contrasts nicely with the bubinga. It was a fun project, and now I have a small mallet with a lot of mass. It’ll be a useful shop tool that I hope will still be in use by someone long after I’m gone.

Final Bench Build!

Sun, 12 Sep 2021 17:53:14 -0500

The small bench is complete. We’re going to use this for putting on / taking off shoes in the mudroom. It’s been an interesting hand tool project, and I’m happy with how it came out. The main issues I had with assembly were some small joinery gaps, but I fixed these with hide glue and matching sawdust, and those gaps are not noticeable in the end. I have to say I’m not crazy with the sapele choice for the aprons, in retrospect. In the right light, the sapele looks kind of orange, so I think that’s what is bugging me. But it will mellow with time and I think it will age nicely.

I’m really happy with how the grain shows in the walnut, and the top of the bench really in particular shows some interesting light/dark contrasts with strong gray streaks. I also added a slight bow to each long side of the bench top, which gives the top a gentle tapered (subtle) curve at each end. I finished it with Osmo Polyx-Oil.

Here are some final assembly shots:

Here’s a shot documenting the tenon cuts for the legs.

And the mortises for the bench top.

I tapered the legs on the inside to help give the bench a slimmer profile from the front.

I locked in the knots on the bench top with some 5-min epoxy and it worked well. Since I just needed a little bit, I used the epoxy that I use for fly tying. I did this so that the knots don’t crumble over time.

Here’s the dry fit of the frame.

And here’s some shots of the final bench after glue-up and finishing:

And here’s what I started with for reference: some old, incredbily warped slabs of walnut … and a new sapele board for the aprons. This transformation of chunks of wood to useable furniture is just magical to me. With some simple tool work and a plan, amorphous slabs can transform into something useful and beautiful.

Shoe Horn with Hand Tools

Sun, 29 Aug 2021 18:50:22 -0500

My wife asked if I could make an extra-long shoehorn because she’s having some knee trouble. So I knocked out this project in an evening and it was a lot of fun.

I grabbed a scrap of cherry and roughly cut it to size using a rip saw and a spokeshave. Then it was mostly an exercise in filing.

I had a small shoehorn (store bought) to use as a reference. It occurred to me that this is kind of like spoon carving, but easier because there is no “front spoon edge” (so to speak) to a shoe horn, so I could just file it right down to get the desired shape. I had my significant other test it out several times to ensure I got the shape just right. The hardest part was ensuring it was as thin as possible at the edges of the “spoon,” but still strong.

I shaped the handle with block plane.

And finished it off with some Osmo wood wax, then wrapped the handle with blue waxed cord. I also added a loop to the end to hang it up out of the way. The lovely cherry wood grain was a happy accident. I had no idea that beautiful grain was hidden in that scrap of wood.

Kerfing Plane

Sat, 05 Jun 2021 19:20:36 -0500

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.

Sloyd Bench Hooks

Sat, 27 Oct 2018 20:14:26 -0500

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.

Fly Rod/Reel Case Build

Sat, 27 Oct 2018 09:23:10 -0500

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 1/4" 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 1/4" 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 1/4" 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.

Tue, 20 Feb 2018 21:17:50 -0500

Completed a new shelf: top and bottom shelves with sliding dovetails, two middle shelves with stopped dadoes. Shiplap back panels. This was quite a challenge for me using only #handtools and happy with how it came out. #handtoolschool

[gallery size=full columns=1]

Cheap Scrub Plane

Sat, 22 Jul 2017 19:54:01 -0500

Here’s an example of a really cheap scrub plane. I made it with a $5 old hybrid I picked up from an antique store. The hardest part of this was grinding the iron into a concave shape using a (you guessed it) grinder. I had some trouble getting mine evenly ground, but it worked great after I sharpened it up on my stone. I did have to widen the hole in the bottom up so it didn’t get all clogged up.

Here’s a pic of it in use on a slab of maple.

Here’s the iron after I ground it with a grinder and sharpened it up on a stone.

And here’s the mouth I opened up with a chisel so shavings don’t get stuck.

One of these days, I’m going to pick up a weightier plane for a few bucks to make another one with more mass.

New Ladle Handle

Tue, 18 Jul 2017 12:21:35 -0500

Here’s a small project to replace a handle on a Chinese-style ladle. The handle I had to replace was a cheap bit of pine pushed in to the metal part of the ladle. Instead of trying to replicate that, I decided to make a handle that would house the ladle. So I grabbed a scrap of walnut, cut it down to size with my rip saw, and then scratched my head for a while figuring out how to secure it.

My solution was to first drill the hole that would house the ladle. I locked it in my vise and used a brace I recently picked up for a few bucks to drill the hole. I also got an auger file recently and had just sharpened up some bits I had also picked up at the local flea market … so I was eager to try it out. It worked surprisingly well.

Then I took a length of 3/4" oak dowel and used a spokeshave to shave it down a bit so I could mount the new handle on the face of my workbench to work on it. I shaped the handle with spokeshave, chisels, and a file.

This is the handle in rough form mounted on a dowel. I used a chisel to slim it down.

Then I worked on it with the spokeshave.

I tapered it with the spokeshave, then smoothed out the rough edges with a file and chamfered the edges with a chisel. I finished it off with some flexible sand paper.

And here it is attached the to ladle.

Moxon benchtop vise

Fri, 14 Jul 2017 20:57:51 -0500

I recently completed a new vise Moxon benchtop vise. The hardware and a good portion of the design inspiration is from Tools for Working Wood. It’s hard maple, 23" between the screws, cork lined, and finished with Danish oil. It was made with hand tools only, as part of my online apprenticeship with the Hand Tool School.

Drilling the Holes

The holes in the front and back jaw were easy to drill, but the right side was just a tad off when I put the screws in and tested the alignment and it was causing it to stick. So the second shot is a dowel with sandpaper I used to open up the rear jaw hole just a bit so there was no rubbing or sticking on the wood.

Hidden Mortises on the bottom

Here are the mortises on the underside of the vise that house the nuts. These were chopped out, of course, with mortise chisels.

Rabbets

Since I didn’t own a rabbet plane when I made this, I used a saw to cut the top and bottom rabbets. This took forever. I had to a lot of clean up work with the router plane to them square.

Angle on front jaw

I made a 45 degree guide for the cut, but it was only really useful to eyeball things to ensure I was at the same angle all the way across. Since I wanted a lip at the top of the front jaw, I couldn’t cut all the way to the angle guide in the back and it was too much of a hassle to get the guide at the right height in back to match up with cut I was making. So I really just relied on cutting down to the top and bottom lines marking the angle on the front jaw. Then I just planed it down. I figured I didn’t really care if it was exactly 45 degrees, anyways…as long as it was uniform and about 45 degrees, I was good. The angle is there so there’s room to angle saw cuts without cutting into the vise wood.

And here's the final product

Front:

Side: (the cork is to keep the vice jaws from damaging wood)

Back: (the top piece is so that there’s a flat surface for dovetail joinery)