Walkabout

As some readers may have guessed, I've been a big fan of the late Jim Krenov for many years; I have all of his books, some very early editions in hardback and I even have one of Jim's smoothing planes, made by his own fair hand, complete with his test shavings, box, packing and paperwork and autographed 'JK'...and no Pickard, you still can't have it😆. He wasn't the easiest bloke to get along with; martinet is a word that springs readily to mind, but over the decades he produced a folio of highly desirable and unique pieces, made to commission or for galleries and all of which have never been offered for sale since they were first snapped up.

Some would say, with an element of truth, that many of his floor standing pieces are simply 'boxes on sticks' but it's only when you try to make (as I've done) a 'box on sticks' do you realise that some of them are fiendishly difficult to build.

Apart floor standing pieces, JK also did many, many wall hung cabinets and I have several interpretations in the house, one of which is shown below:

This one has a slightly convex door and is made in English 'pippy' Oak; there was just enough left over from a previous project to make it, having a couple of centre hung internal drawers:

...with a solid oak, panelled back. The drawers have very rare Cuban Mahogany sides; my grandad gave me the material when I first started this wood mangling lark in the early 70's.  It came from the then Westminster Bank in Colchester, Essex, ripped out when the original fittings and fixtures were 'modernised' in the early 60's:

As the door has no handle, it needs one of Jk's unique little 'invisible' openers; it can't be seen from the front or the underside, but simply moving the lever:

...nudges the door forward a few mm. If anyone would like to know how to make them (not difficult once you get your head round it) I'm quite willing to do a post or two to explain in further detail.

It looks really quite special, hanging as it does on the spare bedroom wall and did for about a month until I glanced at it one day as I was passing and thought it looked a bit strange, something not quite 'right'.  The reason was soon evident:

The wood was bought as air dried 30mm thick planks and had been secondary conditioning in my nice warm 'shop for at least two years, but within three weeks of hanging the finished cabinet indoors, the bloody door had warped about 3mm at the top! The upshot is that when time permits and I have another suitable bit of oak, I'll make another door and hopefully, this one won't go walkabout.

Canada, the 51st State?

 Those of the current readership who dip into this verbal tosh from time to time will no doubt be convinced that the recent resurrection of 'The Blokeblog' has sadly been neglected, withering by the wayside as no profound witterings have been produced for the last few weeks.

There's a very good reason though as I've been on my travels, namely to Canada; more specifically to British Columbia and the Canadian Rockies. SWIMBO  and I set off at the end of May to partake in a driving tour of a smallish section of BC/Alberta which included several well known towns and cities (Vancouver, Victoria, Tofino, Whistler, Jasper, Banff etc) at the same time passing through a couple of truly spectacular chunks of of the Rockies.

To say Canada is large is a gross understatement; the country is vast with a capital 'V' and even on our very moderate three week tour, we managed to clock up a respectable 1780 miles. Unlike Europe, there's no comprehensive passenger rail network which means that you need to drive everywhere so that every other day, I was behind the wheel for hundreds of Km, the longest distance being 489 Km (304 miles) from Banff to Kelowna.

The title though, of this entry is one that in any self-respecting Canadian's viewpoint is liable to earn me a damned good flogging, if not at least a severe online admonishment! Over the course of the trip, I thought long and hard about it and to my mind, the influence of the USA in this part of Canada is almost overwhelming. It would be churlish to offer a figure but I'd say 80% isn't far off.

Here's a few examples. In the above image, the hotel in Lillooet (where we stopped for lunch), with a line up of Harley Davidson motor cycles parked up outside could be anywhere in the mid-west of the USA.  The language spoken, to this British ear, is almost identical with perhaps subtle nuances that can be detected.  The road system follows the same pattern as the USA (this of course is to be expected) and the vehicles on the roads being identical to those across the border. There's a huge preponderance of enormously powerful 'trucks', many with four driving wheels on the rear axle.  I'm six foot tall and the bonnets (hood) of these things came up to my shoulder level; one I saw with a raised suspension had a bonnet level with the top of my head!  It's very disconcerting as you're pootling along and some good ol' red necked boy in  a 5.7 litre Dodge Ram comes tearing past on the inside lane!  One last example is the food; it's almost entirely how you'd expect to dine in the USA with ubiquitous fast food eateries being the norm.  That said, it's not dissimilar now to the UK. 

To look at the reverse side of the coin, what makes the visitor aware that he's in Canada? The most striking example is the French influence, even in BC.  All road signage (and it's not nearly as good as the UK, even if the road surfaces are generally much better) is in English and French.  Another example is the traditional Canadian fare of 'poutine' (chips, gravy and cheese curds)...

...which I studiously avoided, much to the derision of my son.  The pic above shows a typical eatery in Sun Peaks, a little skiing resort where we stayed for a couple of days. As a side note, I visited the eastern side of Canada in the early 70's and I found the influence of 'la belle France' far greater.

The Canadian Rockies have been well documented with articles and photographs beyond number; any casual search on t'interweb will bring up an avalanche of information, but one of the highlights for me was seeing a bear ambling across the four lane highway whilst driving to Banff. With some cunning driving which was entirely unintentional, I managed to get to within 2 metres of this bad boy.... 

...munching his lunch of dandelions in a gully by the side of the road. This was one of many pics taken by Alyson with the car window rolled down and you can clearly see a flower in his jaws.

A controversial post without doubt and one which might earn me severe criticism, if not a damned good flogging as previously mentioned! 

Did I enjoy Canada and BC though? Absolutely. 

Would I do the driving again?

Absolutely not.

Parsimonious writ wrong...

 I tend, whenever possible, to be a little with careful material and consumables so I thought I'd be extremely clever the other day when I glued together the four sections of Bog Oak panels.  It was imperative that there was no 'squeeze out' in the long, black tunnel of the interior as first and foremost, it would have been almost impossible to remove it. Second and foremost, that's where the drawers were eventually going to run smoothly; any lumps and bumps and they wouldn't.

I got every set up and it all glued together perfectly with the minimum of glue...or so I thought. It appears though, that I was being just a mite too parsimonious and didn't apply quite enough.  As the box was subjected to the stresses and strains of sawing in half and cleaning up, the joints on the underside started to come adrift!

Sacre bleu! 

Panic mode then set in until I realised that I could screw the offending sections together:

In addition, I'd rather usefully collected a 'baccy tin of Bog Oak sawdust:

...which I intended to use to fill all the blemishes, cracks and tiny bits of 'break out'; if you haven't used it, Bog Oak is extremely brittle.  Mixing the sawdust with a little CA adhesive forms a filler which matches the wood exactly and sets rock solid, so that once applied and sanded smooth...

...it becomes almost impossible to see where the 'fill' is located.  As a Brucie Bonus, all the fills will be completely covered by the two plinths, so will never be seen.

I can see you wondering though, what on earth is a 'Brucie Bonus'? Those resident in the UK and of a certain age like Andy Pickard will immediately know; for those unfortunates living in distant climes, Google is your friend😂 

Dangerous Territory!

 For many years, my 'shop door has sported a very usual sign, bought in the Falklands when I visited in 2008.  Not for me the very boring 'Man Cave', or even 'Bloke Cave' nor the very twee 'Dad's Workshop' but one that simply says....

...which somehow implies that dangerous territory lies within and the wary enter at their peril. Not so, but the subject of this blog is one that arouses the hackles on most woodmangerler's necks; sharpening or more specifically, stropping! The Schwarz mentions that 'sharp fixes most things' and he's correct...mostly.
 

I've been doing this woodwork lark since the early 70's and like most people who indulge, I've been chasing that elusive 'perfect' edge for most of the last fifty odd years.  We can never hope to achieve the perfect edge or even as so many pundits say, an edge 'like a razor' because it don't happen.

However, for woodwork and cabinet making purposes, you or I can get pretty damned close!

We all have our preferred methods of obtaining a respectable edge on our hand tools.  Over the decades, I've used most of them and am currently using Shapton Pro ceramic stones (2000 and 8000g) as well as a Veritas honing guide which results in a pretty good, workable edge.

Here's the thing though....believe it or not, you can get it much sharper with a strop!

 For years, I've played around with various strops and have had mixed results; perceived wisdom recommends adding some sort of gloopy, abrasive paste to the leather which is mostly green Chromium Dioxide and up to a point, this works quite well, but it soon breaks down, forming a disgusting, slimy, ineffective mess in and on the leather which doesn't work...so you have to keep on adding yet more gloop!

 A while back, I was perusing the Axminster web site, which as many know can make a severe dent on the wallet, when I came across their 'Rider' strop system:

...so I thought, as you do, 'in for a penny etc' and hit the 'submit' button on the 'puter. The whole system is eye wateringly expensive (it could be made in the 'shop much more economically) but it actually works superbly.

Surprisingly, the rather good info sheet that comes with it mentions that a gloopy abrasive paste is NOT REQUIRED although if applied, it does speed up the process.

Only light pressure is needed, both on the back and bevel; I give each around half a dozen passes on each of the three grades of strop, the last being English Bridal leather.  Cleaning is achieved by simply using a decent suede brush on the napped strop and a really good, proprietary leather cream on the other ones:

The edge achieved is perceptibly far sharper and if you wisely invest in the system, you're ill advised to test it in the time honoured way by shaving a few hairs of your arm!  

The 'Glue-Up' and after.....

 Some stuff has been done of late on the Suda Kenji box, or is it a cabinet? It was glued up recently in stages as it's too complex to do it in one 'hit', so the image below shows the central shelf glued into the sides and even that was done in two steps to make sure it was dead square:

I'm always a bit wary of the 'open time' of modern adhesives, much as I like them as they're just too short in warm weather.  Titebond III which I've now reverted to 'grabs' almost instantly and you've got about ten minutes before it starts to set, which for a complex glue up is just too damn short! In my wisdom, I thought I'd try out some epoxy adhesive with a 30 minute 'open time'...

...which really is excellent as it takes all (or most of) the stress out of the operation. The main box or cabinet was glued in two stages without mishap:

The top and bottom were glued on separately with the job being very cunningly elevated off the assembly table by using a couple of bits of 6mm ply. If that isn't cunning I don't know what is! 

Once all was set hard, the entire box was sawn in half using a Japanese cross-cut saw; not easy in Bog Oak but even harder was to plane the end grain surfaces of each of the two boxes to a mating fit. If I mention that Bog Oak has a density of around 60lbs p.cu' you'll be able to appreciate just what an ordeal it was.

You can't see much detail from the picture above as it's like looking into the Black Hole of Calcutta, but there's roughly a 97% match, so all that's required with a very sharp, very finely set block plane is to take some very skimpy shavings to remove the last 3% for a 100% mating fit.

Accident & Emergency

A strange title I fear for the rejuvenation of this long neglected blog, but all will shortly be revealed.  I quite often have a natter with my mate Andy Pickard, shown on the left sans Tilley hat for which he was on the short end of of some considerable verbal abuse.  Being a true Yorkshireman, it would be easier for Andy to get the proverbial blood out of a stone than part with any cash!

I diverge though.  We both share an interest in not only woodwork (he's a bit of a half decent wood spinner) but also in Japan and those who've delved into these meanderings in the past may recollect a few entries from 2012, in which I detailed at some length my initial thoughts on the country.  Andy read the Blokeblog when I first published it and immensely sad though it is, subsequently as well though the following years; even more to his detriment, he re-read the whole lot a few days ago! 

The outcome was that he suggested that it would be a 'good thing' if I were to start it again and such was the pressure that he used to twist my arm that I ended up in A&E (ER to those in distant climes across the 'big wet') so I'm struggling away typing with just one hand.  Those who've had the misfortune to read this sorry missive in the past will realise that I have a tendancy to slightly exaggerate😅

To cut a long story sideways though, I've decided to re-vamp the Blokeblog, with a view to producing a weekly instalment giving some insights as to what's been happening in the 'shop, or not as the case may be as those past distant readers will realise that the cock-up fairy is a frequent visitor.  Even though I try my utmost, she comes a calling when I'm not expecting her and the blog in many instances has been about ways to mitigate or repair her unwarranted intrusions. 

Much has been produced (reasonably well) in the last few years and it can be viewed on my FB 'Wilton Woodwork' page, which I use as an online photographic record. The same can be said of my current Instagram account, which is Rob Stoakley (woodbloke 52) and I usually make an entry every week or so, which is then automatically shared with Facebook.

I was initially a little sceptical about re-starting the blog, as it's nearly a decade since it was last published.  Things have moved apace in the online world though, with the preponderance of Utoobers (some of whom are excellent, the caveat being 'some'), Vloggers (whatever they are) also including TV woodworking programmes which for the most part are truly abysmal as well as a multitude of different social media platforms. A blog then, might seem a bit 'old hat', but if you feel otherwise, I'd be very grateful for a measure of reassurance in the comments.

So, you may ask...what's currently happening in the 'shop? Last November, we had the chance to see 'up close and personal' in Japan an exquisite cabinet by Suda Kenji, not dissimilar to the one in the British Museum: 

To say that his work fabulous is somewhat of an understatement. I was able to visually examine one of his pieces and my nose was less than 100mm from it; it was not exhibited (as were all the other items on show) behind any glass!  Seeing this little cabinet was like an itch that needed to be scratched; the four quarter sawn pine, veneered panels shown below in Bog Oak:

 ...form the basis of the cabinet, but dear reader, if you want to find out more you'll have to keep tuned for the next exiting instalment! 

Drawer Dilema.

I've been to several very well known and highly esteemed training schools in the last couple of years, where young (or even not so young) makers were encouraged to produce so called 'piston fit' drawers.
There's nothing inherently wrong with the practise as it encourages absolute precision in the making and fitting of parts. A drawer thus made and fitted, by anyone, is an achievement to be naturally chuffed about...and quite rightly so.

But I've always been faced by a slight niggle about this sort of thing, for example, I saw a well made piece recently where one drawer was just about sliding in and out, but the other one by it's side had seized solid!

The one that moved was obviously a perfectly fitted drawer...but is it a good drawer?

A 'piston' fit drawer will only ever be a piston fit on the day it's fitted or on a day when the weather conditions are identical. Even the slightest change in the temperature or humidity on any of the  following days, weeks or months will play havoc with the fit. Moving a piece from the workshop to the house...

...as I did with this bow fronted cabinet was enough to jam the drawers and...

... I had to return to it at least six times with a block plane to ease them before they fitted comfortably.

The late Edward Barnsley is reputed to have toured the country with a block plane in his jacket pocket to see clients with similar afflictions. If a piece were ever to go to the West Indies, then a 'piston fit' drawer would be on a hiding to nothing.

A drawer can be classified as a perfect fit (not necessarily a 'piston' fit) when it slides smoothly in and out, with the minimum of finger pressure, under all atmospheric conditions.

And that's probably even harder to do.

As one very good maker replied to my question some years ago about fitting drawers...

"Make 'em baggy, Rob...make the bloody things baggy!" which makes perfect commercial sense.

I rest my case, M'Lud.