Bob Easton

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This Eagle Walks

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photo of eagle head walking caneHistory claims that mankind started in the nearly tropical Garden of Eden. Later, some men moved northward and ended up in places where there is sometimes ice upon the ground. {Why?} One man recently made an unplanned maneuver on the ice and ended up with spiral fractures in both the lower bones of one leg. That will be a long time mending. He’s still not allowed to put any weight on that leg, but at some point will be able to set aside the knee scooter and crutches in favor of a simple walking cane. Maybe this one will help.

The cane is made from American Walnut. The head and the shaft both came from the same 7/8″ thick piece of lumber. The shaft is 1-7/8″ at the top tapering to 7/8″ at the bottom.

The primary concern for any walking cane is that it be safe enough to support a person without failing. The shaft on this one is easily strong enough for most adults. My biggest concern when making it was to ensure that the handle is so well affixed as to not come loose.  It is of tenon and mortise construction, but not a complete through tenon. I didn’t want a tenon sticking through the top of the eagle’s head.

photo of fox wedged tenon about to enter the mortiseThrough tenons are often tightened considerably using wedges. I tightened this tenon with “fox wedging.” No, I don’t know what a fox has to do with it, but that’s what it is called.

Wedges are inserted into slots in the tenon and driven home as the tenon enters the mortise. It’s a self-completing joint that had better be right when it is put together. I’ve never made one of these, but spent a lot of time ensuring enough room inside the mortise for expansion, but not so much as to make the wedging ineffective. (What is half of the wiggle room and how thick do those wedges need to be? Have I tapered the 3″ deep mortise enough? What is “plan B” if this thing gets stuck half way in? What’s “plan C” if it’s too loose, yet to tight to extract and refit?)

It worked on the first try.

The finish is several coats of “Tru-Oil gun stock finish.” That’s a very durable oil / varnish combination that brings out the natural walnut coloring. A coat of furniture wax and a rubber tip complete the cane.

I hope the recipient likes the Art-Deco style.

Chinese Seal Box

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the mark of the Chinese sealA thin photo of Chinese seal box - closedsliver of red teases from the back edge of the lid, like the sole of a Christian Louboutin shoe.

Eva, my wife, is a linguist and language fanatic. One of her language partners, who lives near Beijing, bestowed on her an honorary Chinese name. It is the pseudonym of a premier Chinese poet he admires, Yi’an Jushi. A reasonable translation is “Amiable Calm.” He also sent a Chinese “seal,” a stamp that embodies the two characters of the name in a traditional form.

Something as nice as that Chinese seal deserves a nice box to live in. And of course, it wants to have a traditional black and red Chinese lacquer finish.

Cherry with mitered dovetails and flip lid,
“French fitted” interior,
Dimensions: 6 3/4 inches (L), 5 1/4 inches (W), 2 5/8 inch deep,
Bottom: 1/8 inch mahogany,
Finish: Red lacquer interior, Black lacquer exterior.

This box includes a “French fitted” interior to hold a seal and dish containing an ink pad.

The mitered dovetailed corner, as shown in an older post, offers the traditional dovetail join, but with miters on the ends which provide a much nicer finished appearance when seen from the top or bottom of the box. The miters also allow the groove for the floor to be routed straight through but also be concealed.

Unlike my other boxes, there’s no external carving on this box. The only thing that can be considered carving is hollowing out some spaces in an interior block to create the French fitting. By the way, the fabric for the fitting is simple red felt attached with rubber cement adhesive. The porcelain dish is an “upgrade” from the plastic box that originally held the stamp pad.

Beware! – Lacquer Lessons

It’s called “tuition.”

Finishing this box was an adventure. I really wanted a lacquer finish, and eventually got one. The first challenge was finding actual lacquer. Thanks (mostly) to California regulators, we no longer have true, hard, extremely durable lacquer made of nitrocellulose. There’s a close substitute in the auto industry, but I wasn’t ready to buy auto finish in gallon quantities, and I don’t have a professional spray booth to use it in. I settled for some rattle-can pseudo lacquers meant for model cars. The one trait these pseudo lacquers share with the real stuff is sensitivity to humidity … and New York summers have plenty of that. I was constantly checking weather charts to find afternoons with less than 50% humidity.

The bigger lessons weren’t about humidity, but…

  • As hard as lacquer seems, it is still susceptible until very well cured. I painted the inside, red, parts first and then the black outside. (Yes, I used the usual blue painter’s tape.)  After painting both, I let the parts sit for about a week. I parked the lid, which at most weigh no more than two ounces on a group of painters’ points, those nice little plastic pyramids. At the time, the red paint was probably a week old. Coming back at the end of week resting on the points, I found dimples in the red finish. Most would “rub out,” but there were other reasons for redoing the red. …
  • Somewhere way down the page about 3M’s blue painters’ tape is mention that the adhesive in that tape sometimes interacts with lacquer. I found out after removing blue tape masking and finding a residue that could not be removed. None of the magic potions I tried touched the stuff. Scraping was the only thing that worked, and of course did enough damage to require re-painting the red. 3M’s suggested prevention is to use their Green painters’ tape, product #2060, and to remove tape as quickly as possible. The #2060 product recommends 3 days max.

After those lessons, completing the finish was a matter of hand rubbing. I found that either of these processes worked equally well:

  • let the last coat cure until the distinctive lacquer smell disappears (about 1 week)
  • gently sand with 400 to remove nibs
  • work through the abrasive pads 500, 1000, 2000, 4000
  • wax and buff

OR…

  • let the last coat cure until the distinctive lacquer smell disappears (about 1 week)
  • gently sand with 400 to remove nibs
  • rub with a pumice slurry, down to an even satin sheen (abt 500 grit)
  • rub with rottenstone slurry until shiny (abt 2000 grit)
  • buff clean
  • wax and buff

Click any of these images for a larger view.

photo of Chinese seal box - closed photo of the Chinese seal box - lid open photo of the Chinese seal box - open and in use photo of inside of Chinese seal box photo of french fitting inside Chinese seal box bottom of Chinese seal box

This is Box #18

The Sandpaper Rack (aka Spoon Rack)

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First, as I’ve said many times, I hate sanding. Consequently, the sandpaper bin has never been well organized. a mishmosh of new and used sandpaper of all grades and sizes. No more … at least no more mishmosh. Still can’t stand sanding.

photo of sand paper rack“I certainly don’t need a rack to put my spoons in. But, I saw this lovely old piece…” says Richard Maguire in the first video of the “Spoon Rack”
series at The English Woodworker’s site. Richard and Helen Fisher, longtime proprietors of a business that created top quality woodworking benches, have recently changed direction and begun offering video lessons. If you don’t know of them, go visit. You’re in for a real treat.

My spoons don’t need a rack either, but I saw this project as a chance to organize the sandpaper bin. I’m not big on step by step guides, so what you see here are results. … very satisfying results from my point of view. Richard packed a lot of woodworking techniques into this project:

  • Through “Duvtail” joinery for the cabinet frame. (you’ll enjoy his UK accent)
  • Half blind and through dovetail joinery for the drawer.
  • Drawer bottom fitted into a hidden groove.
  • Dado / housing joinery for the shelf.
  • Ship-lap joinery for the back pieces.
  • Tongue and groove joinery for the upper back.
  • Mouldings accomplished in several ways.

photo of stuff in the drawerSome of the work also “goes to the dogs.” Richard shows an unexpected way of using pinch dogs, and Jeremy the shop dog shows up too.

My version of the rack is as described in the videos. My only addition was a simple divider that I placed inside the shelf to offer 3 compartments for different grades of sandpaper.

As Richards says, the drawer is a very odd size, almost taller than it is deep. Yet, it’s just fine for a few other finishing supplies and tools.

And of course, the drawer wanted some carving.

Finish is the usual shellac and wax.

Richard has a very entertaining colloquial style of teaching and Helen has done a superb job of videography. The series consists of 6 videos totalling a bit over 3 hours. A few PDF files bring concise drawings. There are also a couple of video “rants” about thicknessing timbers and managing fillister planes. Richard at his best!

I thoroughly enjoyed the series. In the end, I have only two complaints.

  1. Jeremy, the shop dog didn’t really do much work.
  2. Days in the U.K. must be very much longer than days here in the U.S. Richard described this as a one-day project. That can’t possibly be right. 🙂

sp-cutter-1600

The series is a real bargain at £26, currently $38.30 US. The quality of the teaching, the quality of the presentation, and the overall value delivered is easily worth a lot more in my mind.

Lastly, kudos to Greg Merrit for helping organize the sandpaper. His sandpaper cutting jig makes it easy to stock the rack.

P.S. New rule in the shop: NO used sandpaper goes back into the rack. It’s expendable. Don’t clutter things up with partially used junk.