The overall dimensions are readily adapted to different sizes and heights, according to how the table is to be used and where you plan to place it. My first version was for the end of a couch, to support a reading lamp with a shelf below to accommodate magazines. It had not the hint of a curve anywhere in sight — probably an overreaction to having spent the last half-dozen years building boats and dealing with complex, winding surfaces. I liked the table well enough, but soon reverted to old habits and made a second version with curved sides, convex for the top and concave for the shelf below. This is not only more elegant but also gives a little more room on the top surface.

Placing the legs at the outside corners with no overhang makes this table very stable. The overall height depends on how you plan to use it — beside a chair, couch, bed or otherwise. I’d be wary of making the height more than about one and a half times the width. A 16″ x 16″ table, for example, should not be more than 23 to 24 inches high. The placement of the lower shelf depends on what you plan to keep on it — magazines, nighttime reading, or whatever. For stability, the heavier the item, the lower the shelf should be placed, but you’ll find that somewhere within the middle third looks right. This shelf is an essential part of the structure, so don’t be tempted to omit it to save time and material.

To keep such unsupported surfaces flat, you need to select well-seasoned wood in a species not prone to excessive shrinkage or warping. The grain lines run diagonally, from corner to corner, not parallel to a side, so they intersect each of the four edges at an angle closer to 45° than 90°. This minimizes seasonal movement, reducing the risk of glue failure and the edging strips parting company with the top. Note that the grain direction of the top is at right angles to that in the lower shelf, providing a pleasing asymmetry.

The rosewood edging has two functions: it both covers the end grain and defines the horizontal planes. The edge is raised a fraction above the top surface to act as a stop (sailors call them “fiddles”) to prevent things sliding off. This may seem an unnecessary detail, but for those of us living in earthquake country, it makes sense. I used the profile shown to avoid making a 90° corner where dust and dirt are sure to collect.

Selecting Your Table Species

I used teak for my table, but you could also use any close-grained wood such as cherry, walnut or maple, or a harder variety of softwood such as Douglas fir, preferably vertical grain or close to it. Avoid using wide, flatsawn boards because they are more likely to warp. If that is all you have, cut the boards into 5- or 6-inch widths and glue them up with alternating grain patterns.

Constructing the Top, Shelf

The first step is to make accurate patterns in thin plywood of the top and lower shelf, including the cutouts for each leg. Because the upper and lower shelves are different shapes, you need to make a pattern for each one. Make sure the square cutouts for the four legs match exactly in both patterns — otherwise the table will be hard to assemble and the legs may be skewed out of line.

Since I was using 11-inch-wide boards and wanted the grain to run diagonally, I cut four triangular pieces and one rectangular piece and planed them to the finished thickness of 13/16″. I then hand-planed the long edges (I have no jointer in my island workshop) and glued them to a center board to make a square. You can make a plywood jig or clamp them diagonally, so you can apply enough pressure to get a good glue joint.

After gluing them up, I finished smoothing the boards with a cabinet scraper and a random-orbit sander.

The next step is to cut the two pieces to exact squares (the top is larger than the shelf because it is convex; the lower, concave). Draw a diagonal line, corner to corner, then pencil in the square and trace the patterns. The square shapes will make the leg cutouts easier to register for sawing, next. Use a knife, rather than a pencil, to accurately scribe the leg cuts.

It is much quicker and more accurate to cut the notches for the legs on a table saw before band sawing the curves. With a sharp crosscut blade installed, set the rip fence and use it as an index so the notches will be identically sized. You will need to change this setup for the shelf. Keep in mind that the structural integrity of this table is dependent on the fit of these eight joints. Ill-bred people have been known to put their feet up on low tables — or even sit on them.

Detailing the Top and Shelf

Cut the curves for the top and shelf (pieces 1 and 2) on a band saw, then smooth the sawn edges so they are ready for gluing. A disc sander is a quick way to clean up the convex curves, but for the concave edges, a spokeshave and contoured sanding block is your best bet. Be sure to keep the offcuts; they will come in handy as clamping pads when gluing on the edging strips.

When using an expensive, exotic wood such as rosewood, ebony, or teak for edge strips (pieces 3), I plane one edge of a wide board smooth, clean it up with sandpaper, then cut the strip free on the table saw using a thin-kerf, carbide-tipped blade. A lightly set featherboard helps to keep the work against the fence. Plane the sawn edge of the original stock again and make another rip cut to produce anotherstrip. Repeat until you have sufficient edging.

Glue the edging strips to the tabletop and shelf blanks and let them run past an inch or so at each end. It’s an easy matter to trim them flush on a disc sander when fitting the legs at a later stage. Before applying glue, have a dry run by clamping up a pair of strips, smooth face out, using the appropriate offcuts as backing blocks Raising the edge around the top surface is a nice detail but adds more work. You may want to make the strips flush with the top surfaces instead.

When the glue has cured, trim the edging roughly to length and glue the second pair of strips on in the same way. Do exactly the same with the lower shelf, letting the strips run by the leg cutouts to be trimmed later.

There is some unavoidable squeeze-out, so if you are using raised edging, pick a glue that’s easily removed.

Making the Legs

Since the legs (pieces 4) have no taper, they can be sawn out on the table saw directly and then planed to their finished size. Saw one corner to 45° as shown on the Drawing and clean it up with a hand plane. If you have a disc sander, this is a good time to finish-sand the top and bottom of each leg.

Drilling for Screws

You can attach the legs using 2-1/2″ brass or stainless-steel wood screws (pieces 5) or threaded inserts and bronze machine screws. Running wood screws into end grain can be a bit risky, so the machine screw option could be a very good idea, even though it’s considerably more work. You’ll need inserts with a #10-20 thread, preferably stainless steel, because the brass ones tend to strip and then there is no getting them in or out.

Whichever type of fastening you choose, you’ll need to make yourself the simple cradle jig. Clamp it to the drill press table so the bit is exactly centered on the “V” cutout. Mark the location of the tabletop and shelf screw holes in one leg, then set stops so each leg will be identical. Drill holes for the screws and then, with the leg still cradled, bore a countersink for the screw heads in each of the legs.

Fastening the Legs

First, make a 3/8″ gauge block to ensure uniformity and then lay a leg across the top of the bench. Clamp the tabletop vertically in the vise. Position both parts so the leg projects the thickness of the gauge block and clamp the leg down to the benchtop. Drill a pilot hole into the tabletop for the size of screw you are using. If using a threaded insert, remove the leg and drill a shallow hole of appropriate diameter and screw the insert in place. Replace the leg, install the screw and rotate the top, repeating the procedure with the other legs.

To fasten the shelf, place the table upside down on the bench and cut four strips to support the shelf at the correct height. Wrap a few loops of sturdy string around the legs, insert a short stick and wind the stick end over end to tighten the string until the shelf is securely locked in place. (This ancient device is known as a Spanish windlass.) Drill pilot holes as you did before, and drive the attachment screws. Or, remove the shelf and install the threaded inserts if you’re using them instead of wood screws.

The final step for threaded inserts is to lay the table sideways on the floor, one leg resting horizontally on a piece of carpet, and drive the machine screws home. I use a brace and screwdriver bit for the final tightening because it gives more control. With a bit of luck (and practice) one can usually stop before the screw shears off or the threaded insert pulls out.

Finishing

Before applying finish, I gave the top surface a final hand sanding in the direction of the grain. I used Watco® oil penetrating sealer, which must be wiped off with a cotton rag while wet. A day or two later, I applied a second coat, wiping it off as before. It’s a durable finish, proof against most spills, and it’s easily renewed as necessary. The final step is a thorough waxing and polishing.

Click Here to Download the Drawings and Materials List.

The post PROJECT: Occasional Table appeared first on Woodworking | Blog | Videos | Plans | How To.

I did not intend this, but it was one of those designs that just evolved on its own. Anyway, the lady was pleased, which was just as well since we share an apartment in San Francisco.

I used mahogany for the desk, with ebony inlay, but other combinations would be equally suitable — walnut with maple inlay, for example, or cherry with rosewood. Cutting slots for the inlay is tricky…one slip of the router and you’ll have to start over.

But I feel adding inlay to the top and carrying that theme over onto the drawer faces and legs adds elegance to this project. If you work carefully, guiding your router against a straightedge or a curved template, you’ll have good success here.

Beginning with the Top

Start by gluing up stock for the desk top and rough-finishing it so there is a level surface for the router, then lay out the curves at the two ends. I initially set a beam compass to a radius of 52″ — the same length as the desk — intending to cut it on the band saw using a pivot. However, the curve looked wrong…too mechanical and simple-minded. So I picked a straight-grained batten and put pressure on the ends with a long bar clamp.

By changing the clamp pressure, I could adjust the amount of curvature very precisely. I don’t know if the curve so generated has any mathematical pedigree, but I suspect it belongs to the same family as suspension bridges. Anyway, it looked right for this desk, so I marked the curve with a felt-tipped pen and then sawed it by hand with a 300mm Japanese saw. The flexible blade is ideal for cutting shallow curves such as this one.

I used the offcut as a sanding block to smooth the ends of the desk top, then traced the curve onto scrap and sawed it out as a template guide for the router. By clamping this guide to the desk top, I could rout out a groove for the inlay with confidence. If you are not comfortable making this cut with a router, I suggest you practice on scrap wood until you are. Use a straight 3/16″ carbide bit and be sure to go against the direction of the bit rotation. Otherwise, the bit can take charge and run away with you.

Cut the groove in the curved ends first and then, using a straightedge as a guide, cut slots along the long sides. Doing it this way minimizes tear-out where the two grooves intersect. When done, use the router again with the same depth setting to cut the shallow notches at each corner for squares of inlay that join the strips where they meet.

When cutting a precious wood such as ebony into inlay strips, I minimize waste by clamping a fence to the band saw instead of using the table saw. This works best with a 3/8″- or 1/2″-wide blade, because it’s less likely to wander in the cut.

After cutting sufficient strips of inlay — you can butt them end to end if necessary — glue them into their slots. Start at the curved ends using a piece of hardwood scrap with wax paper in between so you can apply even pressure with clamps. Glue the long sides next. Now cut the small squares of ebony for each corner and glue them into place. Clean the top up with a block plane and scraper, sand it up to 120-grit, and set it aside to work on the base.

Assembling the Legs and Aprons

The legs are square in section and are tapered below the ebony bands. Cut them to size, and taper their ends. Slots for the leg inlays are best cut against a miter gauge on the table saw using the rip fence as a stop. It’s a simple procedure. With the legs done, make up the front, back and side aprons. Use the flexible batten to form the bottom curves on these parts before shaping them at the band saw. Mark the location of the three drawer faces on one of the long aprons, but don’t cut them out yet.

Before final assembly, mill a shallow slot for the wooden buttons on the inside of the aprons at your table saw or router table. These will connect the top to the base and allow for seasonal wood movement. Be careful to stop the slot cuts short of the drawer fronts on the front apron (see Drawings). With that work behind you, join the legs and four aprons together with pairs of 1/2″ dowel pegs and glue. As you clamp the assembly up, be sure that the legs are parallel to each other (or even toe out slightly) by adjusting the placement and pressure of the clamps.

After the glue dries, mark out and cut the three drawer fronts free with a thin, fine-tooth saw. Label them clearly so you can reassemble them in the same sequence. This gives a consistency of grain and color — important in a delicate piece of furniture such as this desk. Make four crisscross cuts on each drawer face with a thin-kerf blade at the table saw to fit the 1/16″-wide inlay strips. Then cut slots across the ends of the “stub” apron pieces of the front apron for inlay here, too. Glue the inlay strips in place and then plane or sand them flush. Notice in the Drawings that I added a single dowel near the cut ends of the front stub apron in order to lock them in place underneath the desk top. They also will receive a wooden button and screw.

Speaking of which, use some scrap stock to make the nine wood buttons now, and drive a countersunk wood screw through each to fasten the desk top to the leg base. Be sure to position the buttons on the side aprons in a little bit from the legs so the top can expand widthwise with the seasons.

Adding the Runners and Drawers

The desk drawers are suspended from the desk top and slide along pairs of drawer runners with supports dadoed into them. Use scrap stock to make the runners and supports. Then turn your attention to the drawer boxes. You can construct these drawers with any joinery you prefer, but the parts are sized in the Material List to accommodate rabbet-and-dado joints. Cut the joinery, make slots for the drawer bottoms and assemble the three drawers with glue and clamps. When the joints cure, cut 1/8″-deep, 3/8″-wide slots along the drawer sides for the runners.

Then flip the desk over and set the three drawers and their runners in place. Use 2″ countersunk screws in elongated holes to attach the drawer runners to the desk top. Only after the drawer boxes have been fitted and slide in and out smoothly should you attach the drawer faces. I didn’t do this, and aligning the bands of inlay on the drawer faces after the drawers were in place was a tedious, time-consuming business. You can use short pieces of double-sided tape to position and hold the drawer faces in place temporarily, before fixing them permanently with screws driven from inside the drawer boxes.

There is no functional need for pulls with drawers this small since they are easily opened with a hand beneath the front edge. If you prefer the look of pulls, make a set using the same wood as the inlay in a style that suits your taste.

Click Here to Download the Materials List and Drawings.

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Since it’s impractical to drill 48″-long holes, I made the stem in two halves, after cutting a shallow groove down the center of each piece. Ideally, if you have the stock on hand, you should cut a 2″-thick section in half, rout or saw the slot for the wiring, then glue it back together. This makes an almost invisible joint, and you’ll have the added benefit that it is much easier to plane if the two halves have a consistent grain pattern.

Any reasonably stable hardwood will do for this project, as strength and durability are not crucial considerations. I’d suggest matching the wood to the environment that the lamp will be used in — it’s one of the benefits of building your own furniture. In this case, I used mahogany since I had some narrow 1″ boards that could be ripped in half and then glued up. It’s also a reasonably affable wood to plane by hand — my preferred method of machining wood.

Getting Started

It may be hard for some woodworkers to believe, but I don’t have a router — nor a dado blade for the table saw — in my Nova Scotia workshop, so I just made three or four adjacent cuts with a regular rip blade to form the matching grooves in the stem.

How you form the long channel is up to you, but it needs to be sized to take a six-inch length of 3/8″ threaded tubing — which is a standard size for most bulb sockets. I recommend getting your hardware before you begin the project; it will avoid unpleasant surprises down the road if you can test fit the parts as you make them.

Put the tube in place when you clamp up the stem, but it’s important to leave enough of the tube projecting so you can secure the shade support (called a harp) with a second nut as well as the bulb socket.

If you look closely at the photos, it is clear that I used epoxy to glue the two pieces together. The reason is that I predominantly build boats in my Nova Scotia shop, and that is the adhesive I had on hand.

You could use any good quality woodworking glue to make the stem. To glue the metal tube in place, technically epoxy or polyurethane glue would be best, but even white glue will likely hold the tube well enough. To avoid glue squeeze-out from blocking the internal passage, lay a piece of thick string in the channel, work it back and forth a few times to pick up the glue, then pull it clear.

Six Sides from Four

After the stem is glued up, machine plane it to an exact square and drive temporary plugs in the square holes at one end. Lay out an accurate hexagon by first drawing a circle and then, using the same compass setting, divide the circumference into six equal segments.

Join the segments with straight lines, making the hexagon symmetrical about the glue line. You’ll find this faint line a convenient guide when planing the stem to its finished size. Set a marking gauge and scribe lines along the length of the stem to indicate the four flats.

I recommend making a half-template in thin cardboard so you can check the shape of the stem at various points while shaping it to a hexagon. Plane these flats by hand, but if you’re using some “spiteful” wood (such as red oak), set a table saw blade to 30 degrees and rough them out on the table saw.

Finish with a low-angle block plane and scraper or, if the grain is really difficult, a disc sander will do a quick job.

Cutting the Feet

Cut out the three feet on the band saw, making sure that the grain runs parallel to the long axis, not across it — see the Drawings and the photo for details. After cleaning up the curved edges with a spokeshave and sandpaper block, mark the position of the 3/8″ dowels, a pair for each foot. Use a doweling jig so you can be sure the holes are centered. A quick, accurate way to transfer the centers of each hole to alternate faces of the stem is to use 3/8″ doweling points. Clearly mark which foot goes where with a letter or number as they are unlikely to be interchangeable.

Before gluing the feet, try running the electric wire up the channel inside the stem to see that it is clear. If it’s blocked by glue squeeze-out (and you don’t have a super-long drill bit), straighten a heavy-duty wire clothes hanger, beat one end flat and grind it to a spade-shaped point. Chuck it in an electric drill and run it down the hole, working from both ends alternately, until clear. Drill a 3/8″ hole diagonally for the wire to exit at the base of the lamp. The closer to the floor, the less chance of people tripping over it.

Clamping up the feet is awkward because of the shape. I found it best to clamp a foot firmly in a bench vise with the dowel pins facing up, as shown in the photo at bottom right. I then used a small bar clamp to force the stem down until it was a snug fit. I left it clamped long enough for the glue to set, then did the same with the next one. When done, you’ll need to clear the channel of glue and projecting dowels with a 3/8″ bit. With that done, I used three coats of Danish oil to finish the piece.

The shade in the photo measures 13″ from top to bottom, 9″ in diameter tapering to 13″, and came from IKEA. It cost less than $15. You’ll find 12 feet of #12 lamp cord about right.

When you’ve got the wiring done, set it up near a comfortable chair and find a good book — or woodworking magazine — and enjoy the light and the read!

Click Here to Download the Materials List and Drawings.

Click Here to Download Full-size Drawings of the Feet from this Project.

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You can adapt the basic structure of this bench to make one of practically any size, but I think the one at the top of the opposite page looks about right. With a 44″-long top, 11″ wide, it seats two comfortably. The overhang is only 8-1/2″ long, so there is little chance of flipping it by sitting on the end.

The only “tricky” joint is a sliding slip joint between the apron and the two supports. You can make this on the table saw or cut it by hand — if you trust yourself to hand saw to a line accurately. I used local white ash (I’d just bought a butt log from our local sawyer), but any reasonably hard wood such as maple, oak, walnut, cherry or even fir would do equally well.

Bench

For children, you could very well reduce the overall size of this bench 80%, 75% or even 50%. It’s best not to reduce the thickness of the supports by the same amount, or it will begin to look frail. The bench in the photo above is reduced 50% from the adult version, so it is only 22″ long and 8″ high. Instead of reducing the width of the top in proportion, I left it a little wider for stability — 7-1/2″ instead of 5-1/2″.

The first step is to make an accurate, full-size, half-pattern of the hourglass-shaped vertical supports. I use the 1/8″ plywood known as doorskin, which makes excellent pattern stock. Use the pattern to mark out the two end supports, but leave these as rectangular blanks until after sawing the slip joints. That way, you can use the table saw fence to make accurate, identical cuts. Clamp a stop block to it, as shown below, so you don’t oversaw. Complete the cut by chiseling out the waste or using a coping saw. Finish cutting out the supports by band sawing just clear of the curved lines, then clean up the sawn edges with an inside spokeshave that has a convex sole. Finish with a 2″ drum sander mounted either in a drill press or a handheld electric drill.

Cut out the stretcher, then notch it on the table saw to fit the slots already cut in the verticals. These must be a close, sliding fit: too snug and you are likely to split the ends of the stretcher; too loose, and you’ll end up with a bench that wobbles. A Japanese Shinto saw file, which has both a coarse and a medium side, is the best tool for fitting end grain joints such as these.

Now cut the stretcher to length and, with the aid of a doweling jig, drill two holes in each end for 3/8″ dowels. Use doweling points to transfer the hole centers to the two supports. Glue the stretcher in place and adjust the clamps so the two supports toe out slightly — not more than 1/8″ or 3/16″. This helps compensate for the optical illusion of parallel lines appearing to converge when seen from above.

The top of this bench is best attached to the base with 1/2″ dowels. To facilitate dismantling for moving or storage, glue the dowels into the base only, not the top.

Instead of rounding the sharp edges with a wood file or sandpaper, I think it looks better to plane a neat 45˚ chamfer. This makes a crisper impression than the blunted look of a soft, rounded edge. Chamfer the inside curves — both sides, inside and out — and be consistent: make a uniform 1/8″ or 3/32″ flat.

The child’s bench is made in exactly the same way, but you may need to use smaller dowel pins.

Finishing

If you plan on using the bench indoors, you can finish with Watco® oil: two applications, with a light sanding in between, using #600-grit wet/dry abrasive paper and oil as the lubricant. Be sure to wipe off the surplus within 30 minutes, or you’ll be contending with a nasty, yellow, wrinkled finish. Remember to treat the oily rags as incendiary bombs — douse them in water or put them outside on a safe surface to dry.

If the bench is going to live outdoors, consider using a wood that weathers well: teak would be my first choice, mahogany second and any of the cedars third. If you use a wood such as red oak, which is prone to check severely in rain and sun, treat it with Epifanes®, a penetrating outdoor sealer widely used on boats. Of course, the lowest maintenance finish of all is a couple of coats of good paint — you might even acquire the almost forgotten skills of painting and graining it to look like teak!

Click Here to download a PDF of the related drawings.

The post Easy-to-Build Benches appeared first on Woodworking | Blog | Videos | Plans | How To.

Click here for the Lamp Foot Project Drawing

The post Elegant Floor Lamp Feet Pattern appeared first on Woodworking | Blog | Videos | Plans | How To.

Gavin Atkin: Ultrasimple Boatbuilding,
International Marine/McGraw-Hill, Camden, Maine
234 pages. $24.95, ISBN 9780071477925

This is a good book for the raw beginner because it assumes no previous experience. All you need in the way of tools is a hammer, handsaw, drill and tape measure. Since the time involved is short—a couple of weekends—and the boats small, they could very well be built in a living room (or even a bedroom) if no other covered space is available.

The author designed each of the 17 hulls to be built with plywood using solid wood only for trim, chines and rubbing strips. Dimensioned diagrams are provided (inches and metric) for each part so it’s easy to make full-size patterns before laying them out on plywood.

Atkin suggests making a scale model of the boat you plan to build so you get a preview of the inside shape and the amount of bend in the plywood.

These boats make no claim to elegance–-in fact some could double as a sandbox—but it’s a good place to start and will get you out on the water soonest.  As your skills (and ambitions) develop you can take on more challenging projects.

Recommended.

Harold Payson: Instant Boatbuilding.
International Marine/McGraw-Hill, Camden, Maine
193 pages, $19.95, ISBN 9780071472647

Mr. Payson is best known for popularizing the ‘stitch and glue’ method of building plywood boats. This system involves joining plywood panels edge to edge with wire ties (the ‘stitches’) and then reinforcing the Connection with fiberglass tape and epoxy. This skips the tedious step of attaching the plywood to solid wood strips known as ‘chine logs’.

Payson teamed up with the distinguished designer Phil Bolger to produce plans for 15 boats. These range from an 8-foot pram dinghy to a 15-foot sail boat with another dozen boats–sail, motor and oar–in-between. All are made of plywood and can be car-topped.

As in Atkins’ book the plywood shapes are shown fully dimensioned so there is no need to loft the boat (enlarging the plans to full-size). Payson encourages the novice builder to build a scale model first and I would do the same.

Phil Bolger’s drawings are, of course, excellent but have been reduced in size so the figures are barely legible to the naked eye. My first step would be to enlarge the chosen plans 200% on a copier. The photos are small and somewhat muddy but mostly help clarify the text.

Well recommended.

Gary Dierking. Building Outrigger Sailing Canoes.
International Marine/McGraw-Hill, Camden, Maine
170 pages, $22.95, ISBN 9780071487917

We are greatly indebted to native builders around the globe for the elegant, practical workboats they have developed over the centuries. The ancient traditions of the Eskimo kayak, the birch bark canoe and
the Viking Faering have all continued their evolution into the 21st century albeit using modern materials and techniques. Outrigger sailing canoes are less familiar to us in North America but have also evolved through several millennia into fast, seaworthy craft able to navigate long distances and pass safely through the surf-girt islands of the Pacific.

Gary Dierking’s new book is an excellent way to get acquainted with these unique craft. He presents three of his designs based on Hawaiian traditions: the Ulua, Tamara 2, both 17′-9″ and the Wa’apa which is 23′-8″ long.

Dierking offers a choice of building methods: plywood, fiberglass, a foam-core sandwich and strip planking. Fastenings can vary from the traditional rope or synthetic lashings to metal or wooden pegs and pins. There are also several different styles of rig to choose from according to where and how the boat is to be used. Dierking suggests the builder adjusts the overall length of the hull to suit local conditions and available transport.

I found the book readable, well organized and the many drawings and diagrams are clear and complete. These are complicated and demanding craft which handle quite differently from monohulls. I would take the time to fully educate myself before undertaking to build one.

Well recommended.

These next two books cover a great deal of ground and I wish they had been around when I built my first boat 40 years ago.

Greg Rössel: Building Small Boats.
International Marine/McGraw-Hill, Camden, Maine
278 pages, $39.95, ISBN 9780937822500

Building Small Boats takes the reader through all the steps in building a boat planked in solid wood, lapstrake or carvel. Rössel writes for the eager, intelligent woodworker but assumes little or no previous experience. He treats the anatomy of a bench plane, sharpening techniques, even the intricacies of lofting with the same concise, easy-to-read style. The text is supplemented by excellent drawings and photos.

Of particular interest is chapter 23–‘What looks good’ the aesthetics of boatbuilding. Why some craft have a natural elegance and others look like ‘varnished milk cartoons’ to use Gregg’s phrase. Sheerlines, placement of fastenings and fittings, tapering risers, beading and cambers are all discussed with experience and perception. If you are planning to build a small, traditional, solid-wood boat this is the only book you will need.

Highly recommended.

Greg Rössel: The Boatbuilders Apprentice.
International Marine/McGraw-Hill, Camden, Maine
342 pages, $39.95, ISBN 9780071464055

The core of this book is a collection of 16 articles previously published in major boating magazines in the U.S. and the U.K. They have been brought together in this book, with minor editing but inevitably there is some duplication. Also the quality and style of drawings varies greatly and the photos range from excellent, clear and sharp to marginally useful.

Rössel covers all the major construction techniques (except cement!) solid wood lapstrake and carvel, batten seam construction, strip planking, plywood, stitch and glue, glued plywood lapstrake and cold-molding. The last two are only a couple of pages long so serve as brief introductions. He also has sections on organizing the shop, lofting, tools and much more. Section (4) Boats to Build, has much sensible advice for the novice boatbuilder on choosing the right boat.

There is a lot of useful information in this book and I would keep it in the shop for reference when needing to inform myself on some specific subject. Oarlocks, for example, lofting, bending with steam or whatever. The book has a comprehensive index (page numbers in bold indicate illustrations) and also a glossary.

Well recommended.

Pete Culler: Pete Culler on Wooden Boats
International Marine/McGraw-Hill, Camden, Maine
386 Pages, $29.95, ISBN 9780071489799

Pete Culler was among the last generation to acquire the inherited skills of generations of shipwrights. In 1929, while still an apprentice at the Alonzo Conley shipyard in Maryland, he began building a replica of Joshua Slocum’s famous yawl ‘Spray’. In 1951 he sold Spray and a acquired a larger vessel, Rigadoon, for his growing charter business. The vessel was wrecked in the 1954 hurricane and Culler turned his attention to boat design. By the mid 1960s he had become one of the foremost designers of wooden boats, everything from 14 foot skiffs to an 82 foot schooner. His design philosophy –simplicity, economy and ease of use–never changed and by the time of his death in 1978 he had produced several hundred designs, most of which are still available and many still being built.

Pete Culler was that rare combination that not only knows his subject inside out but can write about it with grace and humour. The present book is a collection of his writings including excerpts from his two books, Skiffs and Schooners and Boats Oars and Rowing, as well as a dozen articles and design commentaries.
This is a book not just for the wooden boat crowd but for anyone interested in an ancient, traditional craft that is right on the fringe of living memory. There is a wealth of sometimes arcane but always fascinating information in this book–where else could you get a recipe for making tallow (mutton fat is preferable to beef) or the mysteries of pine tar? Pete Culler is not shy about epressing his opinions but it’s always informed, relevant and considered.

I can’t recommend this book too highly.

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First, draw out the joint, full-size, on thin cardboard and cut it out with a razor knife so you have the exact profile of both parts of the joint. Cut each piece to length, square the ends, and make the first cut (A). the put the work on edge and make the second cut (B). You may need to attach a higher fence for stability to the one that came with your table saw.

Make cuts (C) and (D) in the matching board, but be sure to cut some scrap pieces of the same thickness. Then you can adjust the joint by that woodworkers’ friend, Mr. Trial and Error, until you have a snug, push fit.

When assembling the joints, use small-headed nails to secure the sides until the glue sets. Be sure to square the box (or drawer) by adjusting the diagonals with a clamp.

If you are making drawers, especially if they are large ones, be sure that the drawer fronts are attached as shown in diagram (E). They are then mechanically locked, and you are less likely to pull the front off if the drawer sticks on some hot, humid summer day.

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Boat builders often find that a plank might have so much shape that they must start with unreasonably wide boards, which is wasteful. If a plank is too banana-shaped, the short grain at each end weakens it. (A) A common solution is to cut the plank in half, (B) then scarf the two halves back together at a slight angle — 10 degrees or less (C).

I always cut and glue scarf joints first and plane the plank to its finished thickness only after the glue has cured. This trick is useful with solid wood but is not an option when scarfing plywood.

The usual formula for the length/thickness ration (slope) is 8 to 1. Making the scarf longer adds little strength, but short scarfs will fail — especially when subject to bending. With only a few scarfs to make it’s just as quick to plane them by hand. (E-G) With a dozen or so, it’s worth making up a jig and cutting the scarfs with a router.

If you plan to plane the finished join — either by hand or machine — make sure that the grain direction is consistent from one end of the board to the other. The glue I prefer is Balcotan — a Swiss-made version of Gorilla Glue.

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Drift pins or drift folds are the same idea as wooden dowels, but are made of bronze, copper or other non-corroding metal. Iron drift pins were once widely used by boatbuilders to join up rudders, leeboards and other free hanging surfaces before the advent of modern glues. Drift pins made of iron will eventually rust, swelling as they do so and are likely to split the wood.

I use a dowelling jig or dowelling centers to drill 5/16 or 3/8 holes in the edges of the boards to be joined. These holes must be about 1/64 inch smaller than the diameter of the pin so a twist bit is about your only option — unless you want to custom grind a spade or other type of bit. Whatever you use, be sure to experiment with hardwood scrap before drilling the tabletop.

Cut the pins to length — twice the thickness of the table top is a good guide — then drive them in one side only with hammer and hardwood block. Check with a bridging piece until they are a uniform depth.

Clamp up the top dry — no glue — putting wooden spacers adjacent to each pin so the gap will be uniform the whole length of the board. A light sanding to take the sharpness off the corners and you’re done.

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I’ve tried a lot of different makes of Japanese saws and my favorite is the Zeta brand. You can buy a dozen different blades that all fit into the same comfortable, rattan-covered handle.

I find the most useful to be the 300 mm. Alpha saw, a cross-cut blade, slightly convex, so you can start a cut in the middle of a board.

In addition, there are the much heavier timber blades, dovetail saws, a metal cutting blade and one for cutting circles and shallow curves. Also a powerful rip saw, with graduated teeth, and flush-cutting blades with zero set on one side — right or left.

There are various outlets for the Zeta saws, but I get mine mail order from Frank Tashiro in Washington state.

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