Half Blind Dovetail Kerfing Tool Extender Taylor Tools Review

Roy Underhill, principal woodworker and showman, displays one of the frame-and-panel doors we'll be making at Lie-Nielsen Toolworks in Warren, ME.

This weekend I got to run across i of my true heroes of woodworking. Thursday evening a tweet showed up in my Twitter feed announcing that Prevarication-Nielsen still had a couple of spots open up in their weekend class with Roy Underhill. Aye, Roy of the long-running PBS show The Woodwright'south Shop.

What?!? Roy was going to be inside 3 and a half hours driving distance? I had to exercise that. Showtime thing Friday morn I chosen and signed up. This was only not an opportunity to be missed. Roy's show and books accept been among my primary resource in learning hand tool techniques. Popular Woodworking Magazine is at present in the procedure of releasing the entire thirty years of The Woodwright'due south Store on DVD.

Roy has steadfastly kept manus tool woodworking alive in the public eye for that entire time, playing a major role in its current resurgence. Those few who kept it alive with him, derisively branded Neanderthals and galoots for their throwback methods, at present conduct those names as badges of honor. They've become symbols of skill and self-reliance. Nosotros new converts gleefully join in greasing the slippery slope.

(click on any of the book covers below to buy)

Now, simply try and find a place to stay on a Friday before a midsummer weekend in midcoast Maine. I finally got i of the last rooms available at the Cod Cove Inn in Edgecomb, where Rt. 27 heads south from Rt. 1. We've been driving past at that place for 10 years because nosotros were ever either heading down to Boothbay or further up the coast. Information technology turned out to be a real jewel. This was possibly the cleanest hotel room I have ever been in, equally nifty and trim as any sailing ship of the Royal Navy ready to receive the Admiral of the Blue. And their homemade lemon poppy seed muffins were fabulous.

The topic was joinery, primarily mortise-and-tenon frame-and-panel doors, with half-blind dovetails and the famous "impossi-tail" rise dovetail. Virtually all of this information is bachelor in his books (and now DVDs as they come out). I know because I had brought all his books except his very latest (which I forgot) for him to sign, along with the first four DVDs to exist released.

It was great to meet him and spend time with him, and at that place's a real practical benefit to having him assist troubleshoot the problems that inevitably crop up. Nothing beats hands-on teaching. Information technology's all about the subtleties that are and so easily overlooked in books or on screen.

The experience was just like beingness there in the workshop during his show. What you come across on TV is what you make it person, full of knowledge and enthusiasm and a desire to share it all. He as well had a video camera hooked upwardly to a projector then he could testify everything in closeup on the wall.

The classroom at LN with 28 students on a hot, humid day.

It's also bully to accept a class at Lie-Nielsen, because every tool they make is available for apply. Plus Kirsten Prevarication-Nielsen is downstairs in the showroom for any emergency purchases. It's like being in the candy store and the toy store at the same time. They also had two sharpening stations with waterstones set. Deneb Puchalski, LN show coordinator, and his banana Jay were busy the unabridged weekend keeping the tools abrupt and helping people out with them.

The starting time item we worked on Sabbatum was non an actual joint, only a benchtop appliance used for joinery, a pair of demote hooks. These were the traditional style Roy said you lot would brand as your first project in a Sloyd class. We made ours out of maple, though y'all could make some more easily out of pine or cerise, they simply may non last as long.

A maple block marked up for the claw shape.

Rather than ripping downwardly the waste, Roy had usa kerf it out...

...then rough it down with a chisel, bevel down. Boy, yous forget how hard maple is to piece of work!

Roy demonstrates dent a rounded end.

Here I'm smoothing the face downwards with a #4. Photo past Roy Underhill (OK, that's the coolest photograph credit ever).

My small shoulder plane was very useful cleaning up the claw end where the demote plane couldn't attain.

Trying out another tool: LN chisel aeroplane. As Deneb said, this is a tool for flushing downwardly to match a flat surface, not for general flattening. Photograph by Sean McClory.

Hither we come to one of the slap-up lessons of the weekend for me. Those subtleties, remember? I was having trouble getting my paring chisel to piece of work well. I asked Roy for his advice, and he initially suggested a trivial more flattening of the back before honing. I tried that, but even so no luck. He gave information technology a try, then looked closer at information technology. It was sharpened at about 30 degrees. He suggested taking it downward to nigh 20 degrees. He said a paring chisel not only needs to be dead sharp, it also needs to be a very fine bevel. This is not a chopping bevel.

That was function one of this little lesson. Part 2 came when I went upward to the sharpening stones to reshape information technology. I had brought my portable sharpening station with oilstones, but I figured I'd requite their setup a try. They too had an extra-actress coarse DMT Dia-Flat lapping plate for flattening the stones, and an extra-coarse DMT Dia-Sharp plate for crude sharpening, then I quickly footing the bevel down nigh 10 more degrees freehand on the Dia-Abrupt. Then I honed the edge on the 2 waterstones, nigh 30 seconds each on a 1,000, so a 10,000; information technology measured out to 22 degrees on the protractor.

When I turned information technology over to remove the burr on the back, I was amazed. The ten,000 stone had given it the same polish I get with a strop and compound. That was impressive. I asked Deneb, and he said these were new Ohishi waterstones that didn't need to be pre-soaked, just requite them a spray of water. That really defenseless my attention. He said they're like Shaptons, just with more media. I generally adopt oilstones, because while I like the results that waterstones requite, I find them rather messy and the pre-soaking inconvenient. Merely this was plenty to convince me to requite them a try. The slurry is even so messy.

Then I paid a visit to Kirsten and bought a pair of stones, along with a DMT Dia-Flat lapping plate (which was half the total buy). I already have a Dia-Sharp extra-extra coarse, the same dust, but the Dia-Flat has a harder, more durable coating to stand upwardly to lapping. Hither'due south a writeup Chris Schwarz did on them. Note that he says you can also apply them for flattening oilstones, which a few people have asked me near.

For the waterstones, Deneb told me to flatten the ane,000 first, and so apply that slurry to flatten the 10,000. Don't exercise them in the opposite order, because the finer slurry of the x,000 can clog the pores of the 1,000. Every bit of this writing, the stones are not yet listed on the LN website, only y'all tin telephone call and lodge them, with several intermediate grits also available.

The results? The paring chisel was transformed. It took crisp singing curls with hardly whatsoever attempt. This was in fact a totally new experience for me, so I'll have to work on my paring skills. And I need to regrind all my paring chisels and gouges.

Paring downwards the corner of the hook with my newly transformed chisel.

Complete and incomplete hooks. The rear one is at to the lowest degree functional for now.

The next item for the day was making the grooved, mortise-and-tenon frame for the frame-and-panel door. This was the offset use of the bench hooks, for cutting the frame stock to length, and as a hold-down in the vise.

Roy mortising a pine stile.

Using a bench hook in the vise as an auxiliary hold-downward for mortising (non a hold-fast, listen yous).

Grooving the mortised stile with a Stanley 45 (purportedly the only worthwhile office of a 45).

Trimming the shoulder of a tenon, holding the rail in the paired demote hooks.

Plowing a groove with my wooden wedge-arm turn plane. Photo by Sean McClory.

By the end of the day, I had my frame all made upwardly and dry-fitted together. However, it was not very flat. Roy promised to work on tuning the next day.

People bring some gorgeous toolboxes to things like this. This ane was made past J. Wesley Sunderland, who was working at the bench backside me. He had the finest drove of Millers Falls planes I've always seen, likewise as a beautiful contumely-bodied eggbeater drill.

By the mode, if you're in the region of West Baldwin, ME, Wesley makes 18th Century furniture reproductions, and is also available for demonstrations and lessons. As you can see from the photo of his toolbox, he's quite skilled (as was borne out by his projects during the class). Yous tin can reach him at oww.wes@myfairpoint.cyberspace.

Sunday, Roy started off with tuning of the frames, showing how to make clean up the tenon cheeks with a router aeroplane. This goes a long way to taking any twist out the frames, with the panel helping to provide additional flattening. He said do not attempt to make clean up the mortises. Then he went through raising the console and fitting information technology to the frame. He completed the project by drawboring the joints and trimming the horns off earlier planing upward all effectually.

Roy uses a router plane to clean up the tenon cheeks. I don't know where he got that strange shirt.

There were two students in the course who told me they've read the blog here. Chris, the first one, really lives only ii towns away from me. I'd briefly met the other gentleman, JP, at the LN Mitt Tool Event at the Piece of furniture Establish of Massachusetts, where I had demonstrated making cabriole legs entirely by manus.

Chris trimming his panel to length on his bench hooks. That'south Sean behind him, sharing my bench.

JP marking out the field of the panel.

Roy used a very nice wooden panel-raising plane on his panel, besides as an LN 610 which he institute to his liking. I used my wooden badger plane, though I'g still not very skilful with information technology. The corner tends to tear up the edge of the raised field if I don't pay very shut attending. So I also used my modest shoulder plane to define the field, and took downwardly the chamfer with a depression-angle block plane. I used ane of the grooved rails equally a mullet to check the fit.

I was able to significantly better the overall flatness of my frame by cleaning upward the tenon cheeks with my router aeroplane, though it resulted in looser joints. With the panel fitted in place, information technology was fifty-fifty meliorate. The coup de grace that finally tamed it completely was the drawboring with rived and chiseled scarlet pins. This pulled everything up tight and solid (I'll just note that you couldn't take a much more than humid day than this one). The corner of the door wasn't more a 32nd out of flat on the benchtop. This door will concur together for two centuries, no mucilage required.

My glamor shot with Roy and my badger plane. Photograph by Sean McClory.

Final cleanup of the door face.

Roy's mark of approval on my completed door. Now I just need to build a cabinet to hang it on!

Next: half-blind dovetails, the dovetails "blind of ane eye". Roy makes the tail cuts, but leaves the waste material in place. He sets the tail board on the terminate of the pin board and sets the saw back in the kerfs, drawing information technology dorsum to marker the pins. So he removes the tail waste material with a couple of quick chisel blows, and saws down at an bending as much every bit possible in the pin lath, without cut through the front face. To remove the waste product from the tail pockets in the pin board, he alternately cuts downwards beyond the grain, and so flat in with the grain, a bit at a fourth dimension. He says it'south working first with edge, then with wedge.

He also says not to utilise a dovetail marker. Instead, use a bevel estimate, and space things out co-ordinate to the chisel yous're using. That manner, you have consequent dovetails on a single piece, merely from ane slice to the side by side, they'll all exist slightly different. This distinguishes your trunk of work from that fabricated with rigidly uniform machine-fabricated dovetails.

Sawing down the tails.

My completed joint. Not the tightest, simply certainly functional.

The final project for the weekend was the rising dovetail. While the layout looks a bit wild, it's non all that complicated once he explains information technology. The real trick in all this is the sawing out. These are odd chemical compound angles that crave the utmost care. One person likened it to cutting diamonds. Equally Roy said, this is forming an oblique department of a prism. Y'all remember conic section from math class, correct? What about prismatic sections? Or phantasmagorical tesseractic sections? But rotate that in iii dimensions in your heed'south middle! Yous can read more near this articulation at Popular Woodworking Mag.

Carefully paring out the waste in the ramped socket.

Ripping down the sides of the sliding tail.

Sliding it dwelling.

Again, a little gappy, simply functional.

This weekend class was crawly. I'one thousand so glad I was able to make it. If yous ever get the take a chance, take information technology! I look frontwards to the next time I become to take a class from him, when I'll have that final book and a new stack of DVDs for him to sign.

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Source: http://www.closegrain.com/2012/08/taking-roy-underhills-joinery-class.html

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