Roubo Frame Saw - Part 3 Stretchers and Finishing

In prior posts (April 2021), I talked about how I made the arms.  I started with them because I thought they would be a bit harder to do and when possible I like to try and do the harder stuff first.  Now, it feel like the rest of the work would be relatively easier to finish this project.  

The one remaining unpleasant task was going to be ripping out the stretchers from the rough sawn 2"ish thick ash.  Some day I will own a band saw and it will come in hand for this kind of work.  Till then, I need to do things by hand.  To make this less drudge work, what I do is break the task into smaller parts.  I set a timer for 10 minutes and saw for 10 minutes and then take a break.  Repeat as needed.  It is also a great task to do in between other things such as house chores.  Little by little I finished it.

From there, it was "just" a matter of getting the stock twist free, square and to final dimensions.  Though it isn't a piece of fine furniture, I still want to make it as nicely as I can.  The ash gave no ground in the planeing either.  It was "hard" work to plane it relative to other woods I have used in the past.  I did sharpen the blades of each hand plane I tried.  Usually, I prefer vintage planes because they are lighter.  It still felt difficult.  I went to a wooden hand made hand plane (even lighter) and that didn't seem to help.  Finally, I went the other direction and broke out the "battle ship" a heavy No 8 metal hand plane.  Surprisingly it seemed a bit easier to use than the others.  If I had to guess, the momentum in the cut.  First time in 5 years of woodworking I have found an advantage to using a heavier plane.  Lighter has always been better for me.  I like it when I discover new things.  In other hobbies and my professional career, much of the "best" choice/tool is very situational.  I guess I have found one situation where my heavy plane has an advantage.  It is a rare situation though as I don't plane on routinely using ash.

Cutting the tenons was easy work.  I forgot to take photos of this.  I am not going to glue this up.  I want to be able to disassemble it should I need to transport it somewhere to work.  As such, I made the tenons a bit looser than I would normally do.  Before slipping on the hardware from Blackburn tools, I removed the burrs and arris on the steel with a file.  Everything assembled easily.

For the finish, I considered two options:  linseed oil or shellac.  Since I had some blond shellac left over from a prior project, I decided to go that route.  No photos either (maybe phone ate them).  I then finished up with wax.  It came out nice and I am happy.  I don't have an immediate need for it but am looking forward to using it.  There is a nice feeling of building ones tools.  I will probably seek out other opportunities to build tools.  I have a spoke shave kit I bought two years ago so I will do that next.

How I am Keep Track of Pieces I Might Want to Build

 I have furniture in my house that I need, but what I am doing with my 5 year journey in woodworking is making the furniture I want.  I had a revelation 20 years ago.  A friend of mine (with some help/teaching me how to woodwork) built a desk that was in a Tauton Press book on Desks.  I think I spent some about $200 on the wood and the money I paid him probably was spent on my feeding me dinners.  This desk solidified my interest in wood working.  Sadly it took me 15 more years before I started (moved for a new job and lived in a condo until I moved back into a condo 7 years ago).  Also, I saw the exact same desk just after I built mine being sold for $5,000 at a high end wood working shop in Pioneer Square in Seattle, WA.  It was a revelation that I could use sweat equity to make nice things that I couldn't easily afford otherwise.

Now, I feel that my skill is up to the challenge to start building these items though I consider myself still very much a beginner.  The challenge I have been facing is how do keep track of the potential items I want to build.  I could certainly do this electronically.  I just prefer something more simple that doesn't rely upon a computer.  What I have found that works is that when I see things I like, I make a copy of the article or passage from a book and put it in one of those simple accordion style folders.  I keep this with my woodworking books.  That way, when I start to look for future projects, I have an easy way of sorting through things I thought interesting in the past.  It's simple and low tech and it helps me from stressing out that I will forget something I really liked and want to build.  Do you have a system you use?

My Favorite Tools

 As Covid shelter in place is starting to diminish and vaccinations are now fairly widespread, I have been starting to see my dad again.  Last year, I built two sized portable tool chests (medium and small).  Part of the reason was to be able to take tools to my dad's shop (an hour away) and woodwork there.  He is getting older and can't do as much as he used to but enjoys watching me wood work.  It also allows us to chat while doing something other than watch tv.

I had started purchasing tools to fill these chests thinking I would just having an independent set to take to my dad's place.  Lately, my thinking has changed.  It turns out the my favorite tools are the ones I use daily and has nothing to do with if they are premium or plain.  

For example, I have some premium and some inexpensive vintage hand planes.  My Craftsman brand No 4 hand plane gets used probably more than the others.  It gets used first to remove the bulk of the wood; then I used another hand plane to finish.  This approach (used by many craftsmen) stretches out the sharpness of the blades you finish with a bit longer.  As such, my favorite hand plane is my No 4 Craftsman without a doubt.  Why?  As I mentioned before, it gest the most use and feels like a good friend in my hand.  

I am not going to sell my extras as the collection hasn't gotten out of control.  However, when I travel, I will be packing up the tools I use daily used tools.  I am pleasantly surprised by this conclusion.  I didn't think this would be the case.  Curious if I am alone in this or not.  Looks like I will need another tool chest after all.

Woodworking But Not Blogging

Blogging is a way for me to document what I do.  Ideally, I try and write one blog a week. The woodworking gets done and the photos get taken but then uploading the photos and thinking what to write and personal life can slow down the the updates.  I am quite back logged.  As such, this blog is just an overview of work I've done and finished.  Future blogs will have the details of the various projects.

Breadbox

My wife wanted me to make a breadbox.  She wanted it to be able to fit both French bread and normal loaf bread at the same time.  Technically, its' my own design but it was heavily influenced by a mission style nightstand I had finished a few years ago from a set of plans I purchased.  The floating bottom came from a box design I saw online but I don't recall whose it was.  It's made out of cherry and maple and finished with shellac (garnet on cherry; blond on maple).  I've very happy with it.

Roubo Frame Saw

At some point I really want to purchase a bandsaw, mostly because I dislike resawing wood by hand though I do it if needed.  This saw was a stop gap (or maybe it will be enough and I won't get a bandsaw).  The saw hardware was from Blackburn tools and was a Christmas gift from my wife two years ago.  I used spalted ash for the frame that was basically a four foot long 2 x 8.  It took a lot of work to make it by hand but I am very proud with how it turned out.  Still need to find an excuse to resaw something with it.

Bench dogs

My workbench has square bench dogs.  I purchased three sets when I bought the bench.  I don't need any more really but I wanted to fill all the holes.  Turned out I had a bunch of small scrap cherry that was destined to be used a BBQ wood.  As such, I made the remaining bench dogs.  I even made a bench dog and fashioned in onto the end of a magnifying lamp light I had received as a gift a few years ago.  Happy with how the bench dogs came out and I was upcycling wood I would have used in a BBQ.

Wooden Spokeshave

A little over two years ago I was at a hand tool show.  Ron Hock was there.  Very nice gentlemen.  Enjoyed talking to him.  Fort Bragg is close to where I live and the show was close to him.  As such, I bought the bubinga spokeshave kit he sells.  Using his plans, as well as looking online for designs, I made a spokeshave.  I was quite happy with the way it turned out.  It cuts really well.  I'm mostly used to working with a Stanley 151 style so this will make a nice addition to my tools.  Also, I think there is something special about making your own tools.

Small Father's Day Box

For my dad, I often will make a small box to house the gift.  He loves the boxes and it brings me great joy to see him happy.  I try and make each box open up differently.  For this one, I have the box open on a pivot.  The lid didn't work quite like I had imagined (screw should have gone on the end and not in the center; live and learn) it in my mind and I had an ugly gap hence the maple on top.  As for the "gift", I found a mini brass anvil that looks to be nickel plated.  I've been giving him miniature tools as gifts and he loves them.  Box is made from cherry and finished with shellac.

Modification to a new Speak & Jackson Saw

I consider Paul Sellers to be my primary teacher.  I have learned so much from him and will be forever grateful for what I learned in his online classes.  One of the saws he advocates is the new Speak and Jackson saw that is resharpenable.  The saw handle that comes it with it is typical of new saws - ugly and uncomfortable.  Paul Sellers has outlined in a few blogs how he modified one of them.  Using what he showed, I modified the handle.  I am very happy with how it came up.

Speaking of confident.  Carefully reading Paul Seller's Essential Handtools book, I resharpened this saw from cross cut to rip cut.  Paul did an excellent job of providing the step by step process in the book as well as some simple "jigs" to help beginners.  I ended up doing this saw and two others and am starting to feel confident about my personal ability to sharpen my own saw.  Thank you Paul for teaching me this skill.

Shaker Chimney Cabinet

Before I even started woodworking, I had been reading Fine Woodworking.  I fell in love with Mike Pekovich's rendition of the classic Shaker chimney cupboard cabinet (Fine Woodworking Issue #232, Mar/Apr 2013).  I just started cutting the cherry wood to dimension.  This will keep me busy for many months.  I've very excited to make this.  It's my most ambitious project to date.

Limbert Bookcase #355

This one is in the batter box.  Planning to order the wood in a month or two (have to save up).  Likely will make in mahogany but walnut is another possibility.  Leaning towards mahogany as I haven't worked with it so it's an opportunity to try a different wood with my had tools.