This is not Paul Simons Door

Well I’m busy as hell and goin’ crazy like a bag of hammers…chopping out the mortises these last few days I don’t have time for a full blog so I thought I’d post a video with a few minutes of real time working. The quality is ‘Blair Witch’ shaky and the audio track is my old record player in the corner…I was listening to Graceland-Paul Simon’s wonderful album from way back when? How old am I now? This is one of the best parts of a hand tool shop, being able to work and listen to records. Bet you can’t say that over the deafening drone of a table saw!
In this clip I’m chopping the haunched portion of the mortise using a massive Hirsch Mortise Chisel,(by the size of these things I can only assume they’re manufactured in the magical land of Giants where everyone has hands like silver back gorillas.) Then I establish the depth of the haunched portion with my Veritas Large Router plane. I clean out the waste with a swan neck chisel from Henry Taylor in England and some paring with a large Japanese bench chisel. I think that covers it…sorry for the rushed post but I’ve gotta keep going on this.
Cheers.
***Once again I’m having problems uploading video to this blog…

you can see the entire clip at www.tomfidgen.blogspot.com

Fine Wooden Planes made in England

I’m getting geared up to start production of an Exterior Wooden Door for a client here in Toronto. The house is located in the historic neighbourhood of Cabbagetown and is declared a Heritage Property.
The existing door was put on about 25 years ago, so I’m building a replica of the original. It will be made of 8/4 Quarter-Sawn White Oak and to keep it true to the local history when it was originally made a century ago, I’m building it using only hand tools.
The carcass is a straight forward frame and panel design with some interesting moulding details. In order to reproduce these mouldings I’ve ordered four pairs of hollows and rounds from Phil Edwards in Broadstone, Dorset.
Phil is craftsman, musician and clearly a hand tool enthusiast; during his process of manufacturing my planes he’s sent me a photo of the progress. I’m looking forward to getting my hands on them and taking some fine shavings…
Stay tuned.

What Lies Within?

I just finished up another project for my book and wanted to share a bit of the details. The piece is a simple enough form, 2″ square legs with a kind of post and panel design for the sides. One door and six drawers make a total of 32 sticks to build the frame. Sounds straight forward enough right.? What lies within? A simple form like this can be quite deceiving to the untrained eye; here’s how. The 32 frame components require 128 joints; nothing crazy but a simple mortise and tenon sharing the width with a bridal joint…so far so good but if you stop to consider that each one of these joints requires up to 12 separate saw cuts, some chiseling and fine fitting that brings us to a neighborhood of 1536 scribe lines! Not so much the simple cabinet it appeared to be after all?
The hardest part for me when building a piece like this is keeping the pieces labeled and orientated properly. This is probably the most challenging piece from my book but for the reader and home woodworker who builds they’re own, I can promise you this; by the time it’s complete you’ll be a whole lot closer in perfecting your lay out, marking and sawing techniques!
Cheers.