Its been a hectic few weeks here. While I cant say its been busier than usual, my holiday schedule has been a lot less predictable.
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| The caddies and my messy bench. |
Thankfully, Ive been able to sneak in a bit of shop time. After finishing my wifes Tin Can Caddies & the Wand Racks, I had a clean(ish) bench and it was time to get back to work on the shop.
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| The insulation it coming. |
I didnt get too much done, but I did get the rigid polyisocyanurate aboard up. Hopefully Ill also get the spray foam done to air seal it before I have to go back to work.
One schedule I did keep during the holidays was our regularly scheduled MWA podcast. For the audio, check out iTunes or the MWA page.
I hope all my fellow woodworkers had an enjoyable and productive holiday season.
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Kari Hultman was one of the world’s best woodworking bloggers until September 10, 2013 when she ended her blog at villagecarpenter.blogspot.com.
I’m lucky enough to call Kari my friend. She was the first blogger I met in person when I was just joining the online woodworking community. Even though at the time I couldn’t claim to be any more than an voyeur, watching from the outskirts of the community, Kari was nice enough to let me tour her shop and write about it. After we discussed the shop, she started showing me the tools she was just beginning to make for herself. As I would learn, this was Kari. She’s never stopped sharing her passion for the craft and love of learning and sharing out how to do it.
Since that first meeting my admiration for Kari has only grown - based both on the support she’s alchoices shown me and the stunning items to come out of her shop. Have you seen her homemade level, Sven, the Meditation Benches or the Pennsylvania German Sawbuck Table? I saw the table in person during the finishing process, and the photos don’t do it justice.
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| The Pensylvania German Sawbuck Table as I saw it, during the finishing process. |
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| Karis photo of her beautiful table and the original. |
Kari’s had The Village Carpenter for six (6) years. In that time she’s put out 538 posts, publishing three (3) per week during her most prolific period. If you’ve not read every one - even if you have - you owe yourself to go back and read them. From the first day, Kari put more thought and care into each post than may put into their entire blog. She’s discussed tool makers, toured museums and taken readers through the process of building projects and tools in an informative, illustrated, step-by-step manner that only Kari can.
I’m struggling not to say goodbye too much here, as Kari will continue to woodwork. Now she’ll get to do it at her own pace and for no one’s satisfaction but her own.
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| Well miss your post, Kari. |
To Kari, I’ll miss reading The Village Carpenter. Thank you for all the posts, all the projects, welcoming everyone to the community and - most importantly - showing how we can all make what we want. I wish you and your family only the best. Thank you for the friendship you’ve shown me and my family. Thank you for the mouse poop covered wood. I can’t wait to see you again.
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| Thank you, Kari. |
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With the entire step stool now glued up I realized I hadn’t cut feet yet. I took my Lee Valley Drawing Bow and marked out a subtle curve in the middle of each leg. Once I cut out the curve with a jig saw, it left two (2) feet on each leg.
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| All ready for feet. |
Now with feet I took the step stool over to my router table. After the nasty incident with my neighbor during this stage of my last project, I setup my router table inside this time.
I removed the fence and used a bearing guided ¼” radius roundover bit, I ran every reachable edge of the stool (except the bottom) over it. This method took a bit of getting used too. With a bit of practice I soon found it easy as the stool is not so big as to hang completely off the router table yet is big enough to provide plenty of reference and holding surface.
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| Its starting to look curved. |
Fresh off the router table the stool (or any piece having this roundover method used) is rounded, but not done. The routed curves on the edges are hard, disjointed and where they do flow into each other they have a shallow, machine cut look. I only use the router to hog off most of the waste, not to provide my final edges. After routing it is time for rasping.
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| My arsenal (and some additional). |
As I’ve grown to enjoy the process and results of using rasps, my collection of rasps has grown. As I’ve used them more and more, favorites have emerged and others have fallen out of use. On Stephen’s Step Stool I did all my initial rasping using my Shinto 9” rasp. Though amazingly cheap, the woven blade is exceptional at coarse and medium rasping with efficient chip removal. Unlike other cheap rasps I’ve used, the Shinto does not leave tooth tracks (due to the woven blade).
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| The Shinto is wonderful at coarse work. |
Next I used my Auriou #9 Cabinet Makers rasp. The Auriou further refines the curves while taking the coarse surface left by the Shinto and smoothing it to a much more consistent surface. Finally I used my new Gramercy 5” 25 tpi cabinet makers rasp. This Gramercy is delightfully light and leaves a very smooth surface (for a rasp).
With all the rasp work I do my goal is to further refine and flair the curves. I want them be organic, flowing and invite touch.
