Dresser. Not.

Right, so I meant to surprise you all with a fully completed dresser, all beautifully fitted and sprayed in time for the holidays. What happened in reality was a partially completed dresser, and some bits hanging about waiting to dry.

So what you get instead are some musings on wood. Now that I've been doing this for a grand total of 4 months, I've had the opportunity now to work with several different types of wood and to get a feel for the different textures and characteristics that come with the territory. We've been working mostly with wood that's indigenous to the British Isles (mostly because I think the principal gets it for free - he is Scottish after all!), and I've decided to rank them all - some of these observations may prove incorrect with time, but here's an uneducated beginner's take:

1. Sycamore - this is a joy to work with. Its a very hard, close-grained wood which cuts easily and gives a great finish as its easily sanded up to a nice pretty polish. The only downside is the colour, which is fine if you like a milky/white/light wood. But me, I grew up in the tropics, and if its not dark its not right.

2. Walnut - a dark, dense, hard wood which is pretty easy to hand finish if your tools are sharp. We've only used small bits of this because its so expensive, but what little I've seen of it so far has been pretty good. If I'd have had a chance to work with it more, it might have overtaken sycamore, but will have to just settle in second place for now.

3. Yew - a really pretty wood. I would say the queen of the lot. With lovely grain and beautiful purple streaks running through it, this is certainly the wood to turn too when you're looking for that little something that grabs attention. Sometimes a bit too hard (and the grain's a bit too wild) to work with properly, especially if you're using handtools.

4. Sweet chestnut - known as poor man's oak. This to me is a much nicer wood than oak as it feels pretty much the same to work with but has a much lovelier grain. Plus, as a bonus for you stingy Scots out there - its cheaper and stains up to a nice pretend ebony if you try hard enough (just ask John).

5.Wych elm - another pretty wood with some lovely green streaks running through it if you get it right. Unfortunately the grain is rather wild and crazy and its quite hard, which makes it difficult to work with sometimes.

6. Beech - the ugly step-sister of the lot. Its very strong and good for structural work (which is why its used to make domino bits), and is quite a stable hardwood as its dense and close grained. However, its quite an unattractive colour (a horrible reddy salmon) and I would rather not use it if I had a choice! Its ranked higher than oak or olive ash though, just because of how useful it is.

7. Oak - this is a bit of a pain to work with despite its popularity with the masses. Its too hard and chips/splinters relatively easily, especially when compared to sycamore or walnut. Bloody heavy to boot (just check Stumpy out, will probably need 4 Poles to move it).

8. Olive ash - I must confess that I haven't used this much at all. From what I have seen so far though, its quite soft for a hardwood and chips easily, although its got a very pretty grain (white with grey/brown streaks). Another wood which is generally too light for me too.

9. Cherry - must have got a stinker in the small plank I used but I just did not like this at all. It chipped easily and has what to me is an unattractive red hew to it.

Extreme woodworking

Last but not least, we had a bit of a chuckle in the workshop today when we discovered the parting gift which 'no hands' Hamish left behind on Friday. No prizes for guessing why he's called that. And on that note, see you next term.

End of Term 2.

Its funny how quickly time flies by when you're not paying close attention. And even more so when you're desperately trying to complete something for a deadline. I've spent the last 10 days spraying, sanding and re-spraying my dresser, trying my damndest to get rid of those annoying dents and runs which insisted on marring the finish. Just in time its finally all sprayed up and just waiting for final assembly on Monday. I can safely say that despite all the time I've spent sanding, I appear to be pretty shit at it. I can spend 4 hours sanding and come away thinking I've managed to get the blasted thing all smooth and lo and behold, when its sprayed every little imperfection just shouts out at you (black is not a forgiving colour to work in!).

A home for precious things

My army of chisels

Despite these trials and tribulations, I can now breathe a huge sigh of release and enjoy the holidays in peace (prematurely assuming that Monday's fitting will go hassle free!). Indeed I appear to have surpassed my expectations by (a) re-fitting all my chisels with pretty new handles and (b) making another jewellery tree.

Home stretch.

Phew. Its been a busy and hard week, what with the end of term looming and everyone (again) rushing to complete their projects. Despite the fact that I seem to be taking 2 steps backwards for every crawl forward, the dresser is near completion and should be all sprayed up by the end of term (I hope anyway). The annoying thing about working with wood is it never really quite behaves how it should, and so a drawer you've fitted perfectly one day will simply decide not to slide home the next after you've glued the bloody thing up. Its just one of those mysteries of life. Everything requires constant working and reworking, with the occasional prayer and offering to the Gods of Warp.

Here's a couple of handy tips I've learnt from this week though:
1. Just made a tiny mitred drawer? Add some veneer mitre keys going across the grain for strength. Pretty and functional.

2. Having trouble tracing out a difficult shape? Use a washer and run this along the shape and then just cut out on the bandsaw. Job done.

Tracing out difficult shapes

Mitre keys

Funky little sewing thingamabob from a house visit this week

Last but not least, I've had some questions about our Jonathan, and more particularly, how large a measure of volume one really takes up? I know some of you have been thinking about converting to this unit of measurement (metric schmetric), so to give you a better idea, here's a Jonathan in a normal sized chair. Enjoy.

A Jonathan is not just for Christmas

Week 8. Term Two.

The happy Chippendale family with Scott Grove

This week we got a visiting tutor from across the pond to teach us advance veneering skills. The man certainly knows what he's doing and has imparted some handy tips around the workshop. I'm rather glad that I'm not actually doing a veneering project this term, as there has been more than one muttered curse around me now that we've come to the realisation that some of the techniques we've been taught are, well, let's just say not the best ones to use. Don't get me wrong, I like our tutors - especially Sandy, without whom I would never be able to get anything done, and its certainly the case with woodworking, as with all else, that one can't be an expert in everything. And as everyone keeps saying, there is more than one way to skin a cat. But Scott has certainly shown the team up in this field, and in fact reminds me of the short time I spent with John Lloyd (except that Scott is slightly annoying in that super-enthusiastic, can-do, all-American way).

Jonathan supervising the veneer conditioning.

Jonathan works well as a weight, clamp or press. Just don't feed him too much.

Work on my project is still ongoing, in case anyone is keeping track

This week has been a little up and down. The bad news is that I've been struggling some more with routers, and am a little worried that I may never be a professional woodworker because of my fear of routers. I just can't use the bloody things. My encounter with end grain routering on the table router last term damn near broke me, and then this term the handheld router jumps up and tries to stab me in the stomach, not once, but twice! Hmm, fashion anyone?

The good news is that we've found more uses for our Jonathan. Not only is he a handy measuring tool, but he also comes in a little portable size suitable for use as a weight, clamp or press.

Bursts.

In woodworking, things seem to happen in bursts. Like activity - when you go through frantic spurts of busy-ness one day and in the next, seem to spend most of your time drinking lots of tea. Furniture also seems to build itself in short growth bursts, and each time this happens to me, I never cease to be amazed. All you will have to show for three odd weeks of work will be cut pieces of wood in different sizes lying about and then suddenly in the space of an hour, a miracle happens and you have a dresser. Or at least the beginnings of one. It makes a nice change.

Dresser front in the style of a jester

Two working drawers and the start of a third.

Is my plane too plain?

On top of all that, we've done some exciting marquetry this week with the help of a fret saw and some smelly animal glue. The end result is the top that will go on our apprentice boxes. The tricky bit is picking one. The tool of the week for me has certainly been the pyrography pen. That's right, fire. That comes in an itty bitty 5mm tip and works like a biro. Magic. I'm definitely getting one of those in my workshop. I just have to curtail the urge to burn my name into everything now.