24 July
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In Desk Shelf, Stringing, Woodworking
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Big parcel arrived in the post… Mind you, it felt light, but still, I think this might be overpacking 😀 Inlay binding. Interesting to watch it being made if you ever get the chance. It’s supposed to be a purely decorative element, and it costs so much less than the shipping that I got a few different bands, but I’m only interested in one… And the point of this pattern isn’t normal decoration… Cut to width, knife in lines, chisel and #722 router plane down to depth (the depth being the thickness of the binding), and chisel it just a hair too wide, so addRead More →

14 July
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In New Toys!, Tools, Woodworking
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Funny thing about DIY, it gets all the Tim-the-Toolman-Taylor jokes and all the Daddy-Pig jokes, but at the core it’s a repeat of the Arts-and-Crafts movement of the late 1800s and early 1900s which led to things like this: I mean, it’s not to everyone’s tastes (I don’t like it much personally) but you can’t really argue it’s incompetent or that it’s inferior because it wasn’t just an aesthetic, it was a philosophy – one of using more traditional craftsmanship rather than industrial processes and moving away from the previous mass produced furniture (sorry Henry, but Ford didn’t invent mass production, High Wycombe got thereRead More →

07 July
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In Desk Shelf, Stringing, Woodworking
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Finally back in the shed after a few weeks of long work days, and it’s time to try to get the stringing finished.  First up, prepping some material, cutting the strings and planing the edges reasonably straight, then thicknessing them with the scraper tool which I’ve tweaked slightly.  Still needs a lot more tweaking though, it’s still rather rough.  Straight lines first, then on to heat-bending the stringing for the curves… And after letting the glue set a bit, out with the chisel and lop off the excess and take the stringing down to a few thou over the surface (the final smoothing pass willRead More →

12 May
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In Desk Shelf, Stringing, Tools, Woodworking
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So the box is now done (bar a branding that I somehow forgot and will be trying to do on the roof of the office tomorrow), there was a surprisingly short clean-down and then back to the desk.  That’s the actual desk itself and my box of education to the left (as in, “why would anyone want furniture built in cherry, it’s so awful and orange” followed by opening the box and seeing what nice cherry looks like and then going “why do we use any other kind of wood?” 😀 Thanks again custard! 😀 ) I have a very basic idea in my head for whatRead More →

06 May
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In Baby blanket chest, Woodcarving, Woodworking
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Adding the hinges actually worked this time. I have no idea why. I morticed them the same way I usually do, though I did take more time with the fitting to the lid and setting up for workholding with shims and such. I still think I have particularly cheap hardware to work with though – one set of Brusso hinges probably costs more than my entire little stock of hinges and hardware. And I think they’re all too shiny as well; a 17thC style oak box should have black or at most bronze hardware; and really a forged or cast iron set would be ideal.Read More →