You could use paints and wood stains, but controlling them to get a natural look is difficult. Fortunately, there’s a way to create the graceful blending of a fine watercolor painting with the ease of filling in a coloring book. The trick is a two-step process using watercolor pencils.

What are Watercolor Pencils?

Watercolor pencils look and sharpen like any other colored art pencils, but they are water-soluble. Brush on water after coloring and the colors dissolve and flow into one another. They allow you to obtain the beauty of watercolor art with the ease of using a pencil.

Because the color goes on dry, it’s very simple to put exactly what color you want exactly where you want it. Once the water is added, the individual pencil marks go away and blur, and you get a soft pool of color that mimics nature.

Why watercolor pencils in particular? Most regular colored pencils contain wax or oils, which means they are more difficult to blend, and might not be compatible under some finishes. Watercolor pencils do not contain waxes or oils, so they flow readily and are Left to right: Pencil work, starting to blend with water, final result. compatible under almost all finishes once they are dry. You’ll find them at art supply stores. Good ones, which have softer, richer colored “lead,” are rather expensive but worth it.

Step-by-step

Make sure your wood is smoothly sanded. For very dense woods, like hard maple, you can apply the pencil directly to the raw wood. Softer woods, like poplar, will grab the color and absorb more of it into the pores. To gain more control, seal softer woods first by flooding on some thin dewaxed shellac, then wiping it all off immediately. That will seal the wood enough so the pencil doesn’t soak in too deeply, but it will still give you a surface that feels and works like raw wood.

You’ll find that with lighter colors, such as yellows, oranges and even some reds, you’ll need to color more intensely with the pencil than with darker greens, blues and browns. Use black only with caution, as it tends to muddy colors quickly.

Dipping the tip of the pencil in water will make it add more color, but may gum up the sharpener if you don’t wait until the pencil is dry before sharpening the tip.

Apply the colors any way you like, and overlap as much or as little as you choose, but once you start adding water it’s a good idea to work from lightest colors to darkest. The brush will pick up and transfer some of the color, and it’s easy to get your light areas too dark if you begin at the dark areas.

I like to use a small, wellformed brush, like a sable or watercolor brush rather than a big, soft oxhair mop. The fine end lets me blend as much or as little as I want by selectively putting more or less water in any given spot. Just flowing water over the whole thing leaves it a bit too much to chance. Try it on scrap and you’ll see what I mean.

A Few Ideas

Carvings are a natural, but if you don’t carve, simply start with an outline and color it in. Draw it yourself, find a nice laser cut pattern, or use an iron-on transfer.

Find a clip art line drawing online, resize it to fit your work, then print it onto iron-on transfer paper, which you can find at any office supply store. Lay it face-down on the wood, set an iron on the cotton setting, and press the image right onto the wood. Remember, the art will be a mirror image. If that matters, flip the image on your computer or printer before printing it onto the transfer paper.

One of the nice things you can do with pencils is create fake inlays of other woods right onto the wood itself. You’ll want to mask so that your artwork appears only where you want it, for instance as a stringer or pattern inlay. In these samples, I simply let them blend to the wood so you could see clearly how they were done.

Rosewood, for instance, has a surprising array of colors in it that blend into a much more subtle figure. With bird’s-eye maple, I was a bit more careful and dryer with the water so the bird’s-eyes would soften but not get obliterated.

Spalted wood requires at least one extra step. First, apply your background colors to create the puddles of hue. Then blend those with water and let the wood dry before you apply the black lines. You can leave them as is, soften them with water, or only soften some areas where the line gets thicker or less distinct.

Don’t be afraid to experiment. What you see here is just a jumping-off spot. There’s no limit to what you can create.

Topcoating

Once you are done with your artwork, seal it with shellac, varnish, Danish oil, lacquer or whatever you chose. Avoid water-based finish since a wet coat of it can flow the colors together more than you planned. If you must use water-based finish, seal the colored area first with dewaxed shellac.

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In my lifetime, I have witnessed some groundbreaking advances in sharpening of turning tools. In my boyhood, many turners sharpened their tools on oilstones, not owning a grinder at all. It was slow and fussy. Fortunately, my father’s shop had several grinders, but we did all of our grinding of turning tools freehand. As I have often stated, freehand sharpening is turning turned inside out: turning’s evil twin, so to speak.

Compounding matters, we only had carbon steel tools, which required constant quenching in water, or they overheated and lost their temper. (So did my father.)

In 1982, Jerry Glaser introduced the first turning tool sharpening jig, which separated turning from its evil twin. It positioned the turning tool perfectly against the grinding wheel so that the turner only had to sweep the edge smoothly against the wheel. There was a minimal learning curve and now anyone could sharpen a tool. Tim Clay based his Wolverine and Vari-Grind jigs on Glaser’s design.

With all this development, the only weak point in the system these days is the grinding wheels themselves. Grinding wheels are akin to pottery with sharp grinding particles mixed in. A new grinding wheel is not round and has to be trued once mounted on the grinder. I’ve addressed this previously in my video on bench grinders (below).

VIDEO: Sharpening Turning Tools with a Bench Grinder

CBN Wheels: The Next Step

Now we have the final step in the evolution of sharpening turning tools. It is cubic boron nitride grinding wheels — CBN for short. A CBN wheel differs greatly from a standard grinding wheel: it is a machined disk of metal, either steel or aluminum, that is coated with cubic boron nitride crystals. The resulting wheel is perfectly round because it was turned from metal, unbreakable (it cannot explode) and very well-balanced. Many are dynamically balanced; you will see drill holes on the side that bring the wheel into balance. The result is that the wheel runs absolutely true with no vibration whatsoever.

Boron nitride is a compound of boron and nitrogen with a chemical formula of BN. When its crystalline structure is cubic, its abrasive cutting qualities are analogs to diamonds. The only harder abrasive particle is diamonds, but CBN will hold its integrity at higher temperatures than diamonds. The really juicy plum in the CBN pudding is thermal conductivity. The most common material used in grinding wheels for tool sharpening is aluminum oxide, which is not a good thermal conductor. Because of this, 90% of the heat from grinding with aluminum oxide ends up in the workpiece. CBN is a good conductor of heat, so only 40% of the heat goes into the tool being ground. The rest goes into the wheel, which, being metal, is a good conductor of heat. Thermal properties are so good that there is very little sparking when grinding with CBM and the tool is usually cool enough to touch. Because of this superior thermal conductivity, CBN will dry grind tool steel where diamond wheels will be ruined if used dry.

Pros and Cons

There are some drawbacks to CBN wheels, the first being expense. The typical 6″ or 8″ wheel costs between $150 and $250. The other drawback is that they will only grind hardened tool steel: mild steel will ruin them. They really work best on high-speed steel but will do fine on carbon tool steel that is Rockwell C scale 55 or above. I feel the expense for even one wheel is justified by the fact that most people will never need to replace it and a good aluminum oxide wheel costs between $50 and $75 and wears out. A solid compromise is to keep a 46-grit aluminum oxide wheel on the left side of your grinder and mount an 80-grit CBN wheel on the right. Do your mild steel and rough tool grinding on the aluminum oxide and final tool grinding on the CBN.

Because there is no danger of the wheel exploding, you can mount CBN wheels at a higher level, giving better visual acuity. If you are also running an aluminum oxide wheel I would not do this, however.

Using CBN wheels is quite a different experience. There is no vibration, there is no shower of sparks and there is not even really loud noise. Only light pressure against the wheel is required. It is all very sedate, and the finished grind is performance art. On scrapers the burr is uniform, working as well as, or better than, one raised on an aluminum oxide wheel. I even grind carving tools on the 80-grit CBN without burning them.

The final problem with CBN wheels is that most will not fit inside the grinder’s guards. Most turners are simply removing all guarding on the side that has the CBN wheel. This may be OK because there is no danger of it exploding. Being cautious, I was able to use the guards on my 8″ Baldor by putting some washers between the two halves. This leaves a small opening but is still safer than no guards at all. It also allows me to use the rests that came with the grinder in addition to the Wolverine and Vari-Grind supports.

If you use a CBN wheel, you’ll appreciate the amazing quantum leap forward that it is.

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When you study the Drawing, you’ll see how simple this jig is to build from plywood and scrap. It’s just a base with a long guide block on top that pins workpieces down and provides a square backup fence for chisel. An adjustable fence in front and two backstops further immobilize workpieces during chiseling. All of the parts secure to the base with T-nuts and either cap screws or threaded knobs.

Suggestions for Building the Jig

Here are some general suggestions for building yours. The jig can accommodate thin parts or thick. For really thick parts, I use longer cap screws to hold the main guide block down. Also, the jig works with narrow parts, such as for small drawers, or with panels up to 24″ wide. So chopping dovetails on the panels of a blanket chest is no problem at all. I have drilled many holes for the cap screws with various spacings for a wide range of possibilities. Just choose two holes a little bit farther apart than the width of your workpiece. If they are too far apart, the guide block will bend and dig into your workpiece at the outer corners.

Tighten the guide block exactly on the shoulder line, placing a square behind the block and against one edge of the workpiece. Then secure the slotted front positioning fence tightly against the end of the panel. That way, when you flip the workpiece over, you can reposition it exactly in the same plane again. Your chisel cuts will line up beautifully from both sides.

When drilling the holes for the guide block’s cap screws, size them just barely large enough for the screws to fit through without slop. If there is slop, then when you loosen them to flip the workpiece and retighten, the guide block might randomly move forward or back, or even at some slight angle. I decided to add two back stops behind the guide block to further prevent this.

After positioning the guide block on the first side of the workpiece, clamp the back stops to the guide block and then tighten their cap screws. When you flip the workpiece to work on the second side, clamp the guide block to the back stops again before tightening the cap screws. It’ll end up in the same plane every time. Since the back stops never have to move forward or backward any appreciable distance, I didn’t elongate the cap screw clearance holes. I just drilled the holes a little oversized.

When chopping tails or pins on the second side of the workpiece, you can move the positioning fence away or even remove it completely. This is especially helpful when cutting the bottom portion of a half-blind pin board. But be sure to secure the fence back where it started before removing the workpiece if you have other identical parts to chop. There’s no point in resetting the guide block manually every time.

Hardware Option

You can use jig handles instead of cap screws if you like, but I decided that using a hex key is a small price to pay for rigidity. You’d be surprised how much force is needed to keep the guide block from moving. When you pound on a chisel, the guide block wants to move backwards from the wedging action. The back stops help prevent this.

I can’t emphasize enough how useful this jig is for cutting dovetails by hand. While I still need to saw the pin and tail boards manually (I use Japanese Dozuki saws), the jig helps enormously with the chisel work. And when it comes to making

Click Here to download a PDF of the related drawings.

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I drilled an entry hole inside the inner cutting line, inserted a #7 Polar blade, and cut out the center of the box. I removed the pattern from the center waste to save for the lid and lid liner.

I smoothed the cut area with my spindle sander, and hand sanded the lower edge to remove “fuzzies.” I glued the body to the wood for the bottom, and clamped it in a press. After 10 minutes, I removed the piece, cleaned up squeeze-out, and re-clamped it. When dry, I cut the box perimeter.

Next, I attached a copy of the box pattern to the wood for the top, aligning it as for the box body. I drilled a hole inside the smallest circle, inserted a #3 blade, and cut the opening.

I then cut the outer profile. To smooth the piece, I used both spindle and detail sanders. I brushed a sealer coat of shellac on the box interior and lid underside, avoiding gluing surfaces, and sanded the pieces smooth when dry. I then glued on the top and clamped the assembly until dry.

To rough-sand the sides of the box, I used a 3/4″ spindle for the in-curving spaces and a belt sander for flatter areas.

I then used a detail sander for the top, bottom and the flat sides of the petals, and a small pneumatic drum between the petals, working through the grits to 220.

The same drum softened the box edges, and was followed by hand sanding. I applied a sealer coat of shellac to the outside of the box, then sanded smooth.

Making the Lid

To make the lid, attach the reserved pattern to the purple heart and mark the center with an awl. Cut the perimeter with a #3 blade; remove and save the remainder of the pattern for the lid liner.

Sand the edges smooth with the belt sander, and use a pneumatic drum to curve the upper edge. I sanded both faces to 220-grit and softened the lower edge by hand.

To minimize the tendency of very thin lids to cup, I made a thicker lid liner from two squares of wood cut into segments and re-glued so that all sides were either face or end grain. First, I cut each square on the diagonal, jointed the cut edges, inverted one half, and re-glued the pieces to create a chevron.

I cut each re-glued piece in half on the diagonal and exchanged halves so that when glued, each new blank would have either face grain or end grain on all edges. blank, cut the lid liner, and sanded the piece smooth. To check the fit, I attached a loop of tape to one side of the lid liner and held it in the top opening to check the clearance when rotated. I sanded any high spots lightly with the belt sander.

To position the liner so that the lid is centered, attach it to the underside of the lid with a loop of masking tape, and hold the pieces firmly together. Insert the lid into the box, grains aligned, and measure the distance from each indentation to the lid’s outer edge. If there are deviations, move the liner and remeasure. When the lid is centered, make alignment marks on the lid and liner, and separate them.

I applied drops of Nexabond glue across the liner surface, placed it on the lid using the alignment marks, and held the pieces firmly until just set. I used a makeshift clamp to ensure a good bond, then let the pieces set fully. I masked a 2-1⁄2″ area in the center with blue painter’s tape and applied a sealer coat of shellac to both sides of the piece. When dry, the tape was removed and the lid sanded smooth.

Forming the Petals

The contoured flower petals are what really bring this box to life. I attached each petal pattern to its corresponding blank, allowing for one extra of each type, and switched to a zero-clearance insert. For the yellowheart and aspen petals, I sandwiched the blank on edge between blocks of wood, using small clamps for stability, and cut the side profiles with a #7 Polar blade for the yellowheart and #5 for the aspen.

After cutting the sides, remove the blocks and tape the pieces together. Place the blank on its back, and cut the petal outline, then remove the petal from the blank. For the purpleheart petals, I used the #5 blade and clamps without support blocks, cutting two petals from each blank.

A belt sander worked well for smoothing the petal’s edges and flat surfaces, then my spindle sander for the curved areas. I sanded them to about 3/32″ thickness, and finished up with a small pneumatic drum and 220-grit sleeve, thinning the petal to about 1/16″, and rounding over the top edge. I masked the gluing surfaces and applied a sealer coat of shellac. When the petals were dry, I sanded the finish smooth.

Before gluing on the yellowheart petals, I did a “dry run” by attaching a loop of masking tape to the underside of each petal and pressing it into place on the lid. The gluing area of each petal should be flat, the bottom tips should meet at the center, and their outer points should alternate with those of the box.

Sand the bottoms and sides of the petals as needed. Glue the petals on, one at a time, using Nexabond, and hold them firmly until set. Repeat this process with the aspen petals, placing them between the yellow heart petals, tips meeting at the center. Do not attach the purpleheart petals yet.

Making the Stamens

Clamp the lid to the drill press table and drill a 3/16″-deep hole at the center with a 1/4″ bit. Tape the purpleheart petals into place. Their tips will overlap the drilled hole. Mark the overlap, remove the petals, and sand the tips to meet the edge of the hole.

Reposition the petals and glue them into place. To make the stamens, place the strip of yellow veneer on scrap wood and use a razor knife blade to cut thin strips along the grain, tapping with a hammer to cut the strip. Cut about 25 stamens and gather them for a dry fit.

They should fill the hole and flare out slightly. Remove the stamens and hold them together at the top. Place two drops of Nexabond into the hole, push the stamens in firmly, and adjust them as you’d like. Use a tweezers to remove any that break. If you prefer, you can use commercial stamens made for cake decorators.

Making the Butterfly

To make the butterfly, stack the two pieces of purpleheart together and secure their edges with masking tape. Attach the butterfly pattern and cut along the outside of each wing with a small blade. Select the best two pieces and sand their edges and faces. Tape the four pieces of yellow veneer in the same manner, but sandwich them between thin wood for stability. Attach the butterfly pattern and cut the inner wing pieces. Select the four best pieces of each shape and glue them to both sides of the wings. Sand the wings smooth and the gluing edges flat. Sand a slight bevel where the wing will attach to the body.

Now cut a 1/8″-wide strip from one long side of the ebony and cut the strip in half to make two bodies. Choose one, and flatten the sides and round the ends. Apply Nexabond to the beveled edge of one wing, using a toothpick to spread it evenly. Place the body on a nonstick surface, hold it firmly in place with a toothpick, and attach the wing.

Use a small wedge to hold it at the desired angle until the glue is dry. Repeat with the other wing and let set until firm. Apply a coat of shellac to both sides of the wings and the top of the body. Decide where you want the butterfly to land and sand that area of the petal. Attach the butterfly with Nexabond and hold until set. Apply several coats of spray lacquer to the lid assembly and box exterior, rubbing between coats with 0000 steel wool as needed.

Now you have a nice-looking box that you can use for your own storage needs, or it will make a great gift. If all of your butterfly wings came out looking great when you were stack-cutting them, you can even let your fancy take flight into another project.

Click Here to download a PDF of the related drawings.

The post Compound Cut Flower Box Project appeared first on Woodworking | Blog | Videos | Plans | How To.

The three-legged design and slender back of an old Irish Tuam, or Sligo, chair provided the inspiration for this version. Although primarily a decorative or hallway chair, it is fully functional. The legs angle outward for stability. The oar blade, slanted at 5˚, supports your back, and the deeply sculpted seat is very comfortable.

Like a Windsor chair, the seat is the main structural element. Round tapered tenons attach the front legs. The rear leg/back assembly is attached using a built-up construction I call a Maloof joint: a feature of Sam Maloof’s iconic rocking chair. An optional marquetry panel decorates the chair back.

Getting Started: The Legs

The oar needs to be at least 6′ 6″ long and 1-1/2″ to 1-3/4″ in diameter. From this length, you can cut the chair back and two front legs as shown in the Drawings.

I turn a 1-3/4″-diameter back leg from an additional straight-grained 2″ x 2″ blank about 20″ long. If you have an 8′ oar, you will be able to cut all four of the main pieces: two front legs, the back leg and the seat back.

Once cut from the oar, turn an “oar handle” on the second leg to match the handle on the first leg. Some oars taper in diameter along their length. If this is what you have, turn both pieces to a consistent diameter. Finally, rough out a tapered 6° tenon on the front legs. You will return later to finalize the tenons.

Fabricating the Angled Back

The chair back and back leg are joined together with their tenons encased within laminated blocks of wood. Those blocks also provide the additional material to cut the three-sided dado for the Maloof joint.

To get started, I used a shop-made angle block to guide the angles and mark out the two 1″ x 1-1/4″ tenons. On each face of the block, mark the vertical centerline of the hole. One-half inch on either side, mark two additional lines that define the tenon cheeks. It is important that the tenon cheeks on the chair back are cut at 90° to the face of the oar blade. Otherwise, when the chair is assembled, the face will look twisted.

Add a spacer block underneath the blade so that the oar is parallel to the workbench top andm insert the other end into the angled layout block using the 5° face. Clamp the oar blade parallel to the benchtop. Once positioned, clamp the angle block to the bench. With a flush-trim saw, cut the face at 5° and then use the reference lines to mark the tenon cheeks.

Without loosening the clamp on the oar blade, slightly loosen the holdfast on the angle block and slide it back 2-1/2″. Secure it again and then extend the cheek layout lines back from the front face. The tenon shoulders can be cut with a flush-trim saw using the angle block as a guide. I saw the cheeks by hand, taking care to ensure that the cheeks are cut parallel to the axis of the back.

Use the 20° face of the angle block to lay out and cut the tenon for the back leg and form the tenon in the same way. The next step is to sandwich the tenons within blocks of wood for the Maloof joint. I used ash for the added blocks and back leg because of its strength.

Clamp the back leg tenon to the first block. Then butt the seatback tenon in place and test for a tight fit. The ends of tenons should touch and the shoulders should fit tightly to the edges of the block. Trim the block or tenon length as needed.

Before gluing the tenons, clamp them in place and visually check that the assembly is straight and plumb. If not, one of the cheeks is tapered or skewed. Plane the cheek as needed to make it parallel to the vertical axis of the back and leg.

Begin by gluing the back leg tenon to the first block. Once dry, position the seat back tenon and glue it in place.

To fill in the center section, cut two filler pieces from the second block, and fit and glue them in place. Next, plane the top face surface of the glue-up to remove any unevenness between the tenons and filler pieces.

Glue on the third block to complete the sandwich. Finally, check that the front face and sides of the block are square to one another. Make any needed adjustments with a hand plane.

Making the Seat

Glue up enough 2″-thick boards to make up your seat blank. Cherry provided a good color match for the oars that I acquired. Take some time to arrange the boards in order to create a pleasing grain pattern.

Once the seat blank is cut to size and squared, it’s time to form the seat portion of the Maloof joint. This joint is incredibly strong, and once sculpted it is also very attractive.

Use a crosscut sled to make a series of kerf cuts to form a notch into the seat blank. The notch is 1-1/4″ deep. Cut the notch 1″ narrower than the width of the built-up wooden blocks. I cut the notch 1-15/16″ wide.

Smooth the saw kerfs in the notch by paring with a chisel. Finally, rout the top and bottom of the notch with a 1/2″ rabbeting bit that has a 1-1/2″-diameter cutter. Rout a 1/2″-deep rabbet on the top and bottom of the notch, leaving 1″ of material between the rabbets.

Test-fit the built-up leg component of the Maloof joint in the seat opening. If it is too tight, adjust the thickness with a hand plane so that it slips into the opening of the seat joint.

To complete the Maloof joint, cut a 1″-wide dado on each side and the front face of the leg component. I use my crosscut sled to make this cut. I set the blade at just shy of 1/2″ high. Then I used a narrow shoulder plane to clean up the kerf marks and bring the dado to its 1/2″ final depth. Plane away just enough for the back to fit snugly into the seat joint.

To complete the block portion of the joint, rout the edges with a 3/4″-radius roundover bit.

Insert the back onto the seat, tapping it into place with a mallet. Adjust the fit by planing, sanding or using a rasp. Mark the high spots and remove the material that is keeping the joint from seating properly.

Drilling Holes for the Legs

To begin, locate the center point of the leg sockets on the underside of the seat. Then mark the site line measuring back 11-1/2″ from the front edge of the seat and joining this point to the socket center point. The leg is slanted 18° from vertical along the site line.

I use a 5/8″ spade bit to drill the socket in the seat from the bottom.

Bore the hole in stages, periodically checking the angle. I use a 5/8″ dowel inserted in the hole to check the angle. Adjust accordingly, if you stray.

Once the holes have been drilled, use a reamer to taper the inside of the hole to a 6° angle.

To finalize the tapered tenon on each leg, I use a 5/8″ tapered tenon cutter. As you shape the tenon’s end, periodically insert the leg into the tapered mortise and check the height. Continue turning the taper until the height from the top of the seat to the bottom of the leg is slightly more than 17″. (Once the legs are glued in place, it’s easy enough to make final height adjustments by sanding away some material from the bottoms of the legs.) Editor’s Note: If you do not have a reamer and a tapered tenon cutter, you can modify the leg mounting technique.

Shaping the Seat

Now that the seat joinery is complete, it’s time to sculpt the seat. Use the Drawings to mark the seat shape on the face and sides of the seat. Then cut the outer shape of the seat at the band saw. Sand away any saw marks and fair the curves.

I like to set the contour depths at various places on the seat by drilling a series of depth holes. These will provide reference points as you carve the shape of the seat.

There are many ways to sculpt seat contours, and all of them work well enough. I prefer to rough-carve the seat using an angle grinder and a Kutzall® Dish Wheel. Hog out material to the depth holes, leaving the point of the hole still visible. Grind close, but not to, your layout lines.

Once the seat has been rough-ground, use a 30-grit sanding disk to bring the seat to its final shape. Be cautious here: remove a minimal amount of material from around the leg mortises. You want to leave as much seat thickness in these areas as possible, for strength. The best way to judge the seat’s transition and fairness of curves is with your fingers. By feeling across the seat, you discover any high or low spots and are able to check the symmetry between the two halves of the seat.

Next, form the bevels on the top and bottom of the seat using your layout lines as a guide. Thinning the edge gives the illusion of lightness to what is otherwise a thick seat.

Flip the seat over and round over the front edge with a rasp to create the “smile” on the underside of the seat that accentuates the pommel. I fine-tune the shaping with a rasp and my random orbit sander using 80- or 100-grit disks. Then, with the sander and by hand, I progress through the higher grits until I achieve a scratch-free surface.

Carving the Maloof Joint

It s time to sculpt the back leg joint. Begin by marking the transition curves on the leg block, and rough-cut them at the band saw. Refine the joint curves with a rasp. Shape as much as you can with the back assembly off the seat. Then temporarily install it to finalize the shape, fair the curves and blend the joint seamlessly into the seat. Once you are satisfied, drill a pilot hole through the back and into the seat for a 3″-long, #12 wood screw.

Do a final sanding of the seat, legs and back in preparation for assembly and finishing. Hold off on final assembly until you have decorated the oar blade (if that’s what you plan to do).

Decorating the Back

I inlaid a marquetry scene into the blade of the oar. There is more information about that in the “More on the Web” content online. A painted or wood burned decoration would be as suitable if the thought of marquetry might be a bit overwhelming. You can also leave it plain.

Installing the Legs

Assembling the chair is straightforward, but it’s a good idea to do a dry run, making sure you have all the clamps and cauls you will need. Apply glue to the Maloof joint, tap it in place and then use a clamp to draw it tight. Install the screw and cover it with a wood plug.

Orient the front legs with the straight grain facing forward. Mark a line across the top of the tenon, perpendicular to the grain direction, and cut a slot in the tapered tenon to accommodate a wedge.

Apply glue and hammer the legs into the seat. Glue and drive the wood wedges in to lock the legs in place. Then trim and sand the tenons flush with the seat.

Applying a Finish

I left much of the original color and patina of the oar. After applying a spit-coat of shellac, I stained the new parts and those areas where the original finish was removed. Several coats of wipe-on poly were applied to the whole chair, rubbed out with 0000 steel wool and waxed. I was happy with the results.

Conclusion

If you like the look of this project, keep your eyes peeled for used oars. You might find them at a garage sale, in online classified ads, or when taking a trip to the seashore. Then go ahead and make a chair from an oar.

Click Here to download a PDF of the related drawings.

The post Building an Oar Chair appeared first on Woodworking | Blog | Videos | Plans | How To.

We got so many responses to that question that we couldn’t fit them all into the print magazine, so we’re sharing some more here.

A couple of things to remember:

1) Almost all of these uses were cited by multiple survey responders. However unique you think you are … you aren’t.

2) Woodworker’s Journal is not advocating these uses, merely reporting. For many of them, the sane advice would be: “Don’t try this at home!”

And now, to how survey respondents have used their cordless drills …

… the perfect accessory for any holiday.

“Winding Christmas lights”

“Carve a pumpkin”

“Spinning sparklers for kids on 4th of July”

… or a visual aid.

“As a flashlight when a screw I was drilling hit a live wire, tripped the breaker and inevitably I lost all basement lights”

“As a flashlight to find my keys in the dark”

“I have used the LED light to find an item in the bottom of my purse”

Pet supplies.

“Grinding my dog’s claws.”

“Using the light to play with the dog.”

“Scaring the cat.”

“Used a variable speed drill to massage my dog’s hip and comb his coat.”

Or kitchen supplies/cooking utensils/a way to liven up a party.

“Stirring chili at a BBQ”

“Mixing frozen orange juice”

“Took the handle off of a countertop snow cone maker and chucked the spindle for the ice shaver into my drill to crank out shaved ice quickly for a party”

“Peeling apples”

“Turn an ice cream freezer”

“Making mashed potatoes when mixer broke at Thanksgiving”

“Crushing grains for brewing beer”

“Making watermelon cooler drinks”

“Making whipped cream”

“Mix five-gallon batch of barbecue sauce”

“Peeling potatoes”

“Attaching a new toilet brush and filling a pail full of water, place muddy potatoes in the pail, then turn on the drill to scrub the spuds!”

“Stir cake mix at camp site”

“Shelling peas”

“Removing sweet corn kernels from the cob”

“Pull a cork out of a wine bottle”

“Mixing gingerbread for my wife. Mixer broke, put beater in the chuck. It worked great.”

In looking at the previous uses, and then looking at this next batch – thank goodness that the majority of woodworkers in our survey have more than one cordless drill. You do not want to know where that thing has been.

“Drilling small hole in toenail to relieve pressure after smashing toe with truck tire rim”

“Killing flies in my truck with a sponge wheel buffer. (RAID works better.)”

“Doctor. Used it in the OR.”

“Removing a large hairball from the bathroom sink drain”

“Drilling holes in deer skull mount”

“Using it to scrape a bird skin for taxidermy”

“Fleshing animal hides for tanning”

“Keeping an aerobic septic tank aerated during a six-day power outage”

Cordless drills also come seem to come in useful in the gardening and outdoor pursuits.

“Drilling holes for planting flower”

“Put in a paint mixer attachment to remove string algae from my pond”

“Power a take-up reel on a clothesline”

“Winding weed whacker line”

“Clean BBQ grates”

“Digging grass out of the sidewalk cracks”

Pursuing hobbies like fishing, or automotive restoration.

“Rewind my fishing line when reel broke — with fish on the line”

“Spinning monofilament for making fly-fishing leaders.”

“Polishing headlights on my car”

“Starting a car”

Or more playful pursuits.

“Blowing bubbles out of a large bubble maker”

“Helping my daughter build a catapult”

“Spinning wheels on a Pinewood Derby car”

“Start my remote control boat”

“Launching a toy helicopter”

“Winding up a huge ball of kite string”

“Flying a kite!”

“To power a rock tumbler”

“Cleaning gourds”

“Powering a lacrosse ball cleaner”

“Wind yarn for wife’s knitting”

“Power a go-cart my son made”

“Running a Van de Graaff generator for kid’s science project”

“A buddy and I once put a pencil in the end and tried to draw pictures”

“To spin a bicycle generator to test the lights on the bike because I had a short that was intermittent and I couldn’t pedal the bike and wiggle wires and bounce lights so it kept it spinning for me”

And just generally coming in handy.

“To advance the calendar on my watch”

“As a doorstop”

“Used one to step on so I could reach the extra two inches to get something out of the attic”

“My oldest is dedicated for cranking open the skylight”

“A crutch, to help this fat old man up off the floor”

In summary …

“What is unusual? I use them for any- and everything.”

The post More Unusual Uses for Your Cordless Drill appeared first on Woodworking | Blog | Videos | Plans | How To.

As for traditional grinding, Ernie Conover shows off some of the jigs he uses with his workshop grinder to keep his turning tools sharp, as well as how to use a buffing machine to create a razor edges.

The post Sharpening Tools with CBN Grinding Wheels appeared first on Woodworking | Blog | Videos | Plans | How To.

The post Best Sanders and Techniques for Contoured Surfaces appeared first on Woodworking | Blog | Videos | Plans | How To.

Devices to hand cut marquetry can be as simple as a board with a V-notch to a more elaborate and traditional marquetry chevalet (or donkey). The marquetry cutting table I used was made from a leftover piece of laminate countertop; 12” wide and 18” long.

Midway on the tabletop, cut a slot about 6” long. Drill a ½” hole, then countersink to accommodate a 1” outside diameter washer. Cut a slot in a 1” OD and epoxy the washer in place so that it is flush with the tabletop. A second 1” diameter hole can be used to hold the fret saw. A V-notch at the front makes it easier the slide the fret saw into to table.

The cutting table clamps to any tabletop surface using an F-Clamp. The base for the table was built up from three layers of ¾” plywood with an opening in the middle to accommodate the F-Clamp.

Download the drawing of Peter’s Fret Saw Cutting Table here.

The post Beginning Marquetry Techniques and Fret Saw Table Drawing appeared first on Woodworking | Blog | Videos | Plans | How To.

The post Jig for Easier Drawer and Door Pull Installation appeared first on Woodworking | Blog | Videos | Plans | How To.