[mafe]

Boards, shape and fingers

Caddy for tools, gardening, drawing, painting…
boards, shape and fingers / taps

I wanted to give my girlfriend something made with my hands for Christmas, as one of the gifts and since she is a Jacqueline of many trades, I decided a caddy / tote to bring her stuff, would be a thing that can bring joy in many situations. If she will use it for gardening, drawing stuff, painting gear, tools, garden tools, flowers or even perhaps at her job as a doctor, that must be up to her, for now I just need to get it done, before too long.
Smiles.

This was the last picture I took today with my cell phone, before leaving the workshop, the caddy in it's current step on the way.

But lets start from the beginning.
As most of my projects we start with some reclaimed wood, pine, from some old bed slats.
Bed slats are usually quite good and strong wood, with few knots.

Here they have had a tour through a lunch box planner, one side jointed and now glued and clamped.

After gluing, Yeli (my gf) helped with deciding the shape and we went for the same as my good old tool tote.
Here sawing to shape on the band saw.

Sanding the sides.

The sides were held together with double sided tape, to save some time.

Finally at the workbench, had enough of power tools.
I'll use my little benchtop bench for a good work position and please notice the new LED light over the bench, this old chap is a happy monkey as I said.

Well, we need a pipe of tobacco and a coffee also.

Ok and a small smoked whiskey, it was a Christmas present from my mother, so I guess I have her blessing…

But it's single malt Scotch, so one need no blessing!

Not that a tool caddy need to be perfect, but I was a wee unhappy with the lines my planer left, I guess I need to buy some new knifes soon.

Easy job with one of my favourite tools, the card scraper.

Look how the surface of the wood stands out, amazing what a little scraping can do.

Time to match up and mark the pieces.
Find out witch one you want, where and what side in and down.
Sometimes the grain will decide it, but here I go mainly by the look, so we get beauty for the beautiful one back home.
Cheers, it's a dam good whiskey btw.

Let's get to work.
Marking up and cutting the layout lines, for the hand cut fingers / box joints / slot joints or what ever you call them… (in Denmark we call them fingers, I'll stay on that route), I will use fingers on the tote this time, as I think the doves will be too fancy. KISS for my gf - Keep It Simple Stupid. (S - me).
Here the thickness of the boards, are marked up on the sides, with a marking gauge.
I do love the Veritas gauge, used it quite a few years now and smile each time I bring it to use.

Dividing it into a fitting number of fingers.
I want to have the fingers starting and ending on the ends of the tote, this will give the most beautiful curves I think.
Also I cant make them too thin, since the ends will be quite weak, due to the grain direction.
So five it is.

Now they can be marked up with a knife.
This one is a Korean marking knife.

I always mark what is waste, you only make the mistake of not doing that once…
(Yes I did that some years back and cut on the wrong side of the finger).

When I hand cut fingers or dovetails, that I want to look nice, I always take the time to make these little 45° side cuts.

Like this the saw have a side guide.
As you can see the saw runs perfectly down the side of the cut.
You will discover, that anyone can make beautiful cuts if they do this, even if you are not a trained woodworker with 35 years of sawing in your hand.
Yes it really is that easy and you can use it on all cuts, you need to make with a hand saw!

Here on the end finger, I do the same.
First a vertical cut, flat side of chisel, facing the line.

And the 45° cut, with the chisel turned.

You get it?
Then do the other side also.

Saw.
But don't start flat like this, tilt the saw down, to start the cut in the 45° cut, do this from both sides first, before going flat on longer cuts.

Then your cut will be sharp and the good side intact.

Is it the whiskey or do you also see a unicorn that pooped?

The cut out's between the fingers can be sawed out, with a turning saw, or cut with a chisel, I prefer the last.
Just bang the bucker…
Ok, I should have done it in two parts, it made some small marks on the good side of the line.
(The good side of the line, is on the part you want to keep, the other side is the waste side).

With chisel and pine we usually end up with this.
It does not really matter, as it will not be visible and gluing on end grain, gives almost no strength any way.

Don't remember why I took this picture…

So we got fingers on the four sides, let's move on.

Time to transfer the fingers to the end pieces of the tote.
Put the side piece flat and square on top of the end you want marked.
When using the side fingers as marking tool, you have no risk of marking mistakes and if you made a mistake before, it will be transferred, to give a correct match here.
In other words, don't ever just mark up both pieces and cut them, it hardly never fits perfectly.

Check they line up.

With a knife, mark up, use the side of the fingers as guide and use a knife with a flat side..
On this picture I have offset it a wee to show you the marking after it was done.

Mark the waste part.

Hmmmm, the knot here are moving, I could not get around it, when marking up the end, so I had to accept it.

No problem, it can be glued back in, with some gel CA glue.
Woodworking is also about fixing mistakes.

Finally we can get to the end fingers, here marking up the thickness of the boards.
I stop the cuts, because I would otherwise make the end weaker and risk it will break down the line, as it is in the grain direction.

Basically we never want to cut fingers or doves like this, they will not be as strong as if two end grains meet up. Here it's a choice between the black death or the cholera here, as we want the grain to run all the way up to the handle on the end pieces and we then have no other choice here, than to cut fingers from meeting end and cross grain.

In my last tool tote blog, I made this sketch to explain the situation, the red force arrows show where the strength is.

Cutting down the sides.

Yes I like the cuts to overlap and become visual, for me it gives this hand made expression afterwards

Try to fixate the wood always when marking, then your angle will not slip.

Yes you know by now what I'm doing, yes?

A few strokes with the saw later and we are there.
The sawing takes no time, especially when you made a good marking and the guiding cuts.

When going cross grain, I like to use a 20 tpi dovetail saw, these fine teeth's almost makes dust and makes an extremely fine cut. When I saw the rip part, I use a 14 tpi saw, since it's faster.
(If I should have only one dovetail saw, it would be 12-14 tpi).
tpi= teeth's pr inch.

You can see the lines are sharp on the good side and the tear out are on the waste side of the backside of the cut.

Front side.

Time to kick ass, or chew bubble gum and I'm all out of gum…
(Have you been there too?).

Here an interesting fact.
When you bang out the wast, the chisel will follow the grain, so it will look like this.

It can be a wee dangerous, so you should start less aggressive, as I did in the second go.
(Yes I make plenty of mistakes).

Here you see why. On the fist cut, I went all the way to the marked line, I was lucky, it could have gone a little passed and then I would be in trouble. On the other one I still have wood to work with on this side.

So here on the back I cut half way down now.

Turn the board and it looks like this.

Cut again, you can do this by hand.
Be care full, that the chisel stays with in the waste part, otherwoise you risk breaking off a finger.

I believe it's called parring.

Let's see what we got.

Matching hand cut fingers!

Since I'm not all done, I'll stop the blog here and continue with a part two once I'm done, in part two I will tell about fitting and fixing fingers, hand planing / table saw cutting the grooves for the bottom of the caddy and making a branch from the forest into a handle, perhaps some pimping up the caddy, before I wax it up, wrap it up and give it to my dear gf Yeli.

Hope it can be to some inspiration, perhaps that you learned something, or at least that you enjoyed the read.

Best thoughts,

MaFe

 

[pottz]

Boards, shape and fingers

Caddy for tools, gardening, drawing, painting…
boards, shape and fingers / taps

I wanted to give my girlfriend something made with my hands for Christmas, as one of the gifts and since she is a Jacqueline of many trades, I decided a caddy / tote to bring her stuff, would be a thing that can bring joy in many situations. If she will use it for gardening, drawing stuff, painting gear, tools, garden tools, flowers or even perhaps at her job as a doctor, that must be up to her, for now I just need to get it done, before too long.
Smiles.

This was the last picture I took today with my cell phone, before leaving the workshop, the caddy in it's current step on the way.

But lets start from the beginning.
As most of my projects we start with some reclaimed wood, pine, from some old bed slats.
Bed slats are usually quite good and strong wood, with few knots.

Here they have had a tour through a lunch box planner, one side jointed and now glued and clamped.

After gluing, Yeli (my gf) helped with deciding the shape and we went for the same as my good old tool tote.
Here sawing to shape on the band saw.

Sanding the sides.

The sides were held together with double sided tape, to save some time.

Finally at the workbench, had enough of power tools.
I'll use my little benchtop bench for a good work position and please notice the new LED light over the bench, this old chap is a happy monkey as I said.

Well, we need a pipe of tobacco and a coffee also.

Ok and a small smoked whiskey, it was a Christmas present from my mother, so I guess I have her blessing…

But it's single malt Scotch, so one need no blessing!

Not that a tool caddy need to be perfect, but I was a wee unhappy with the lines my planer left, I guess I need to buy some new knifes soon.

Easy job with one of my favourite tools, the card scraper.

Look how the surface of the wood stands out, amazing what a little scraping can do.

Time to match up and mark the pieces.
Find out witch one you want, where and what side in and down.
Sometimes the grain will decide it, but here I go mainly by the look, so we get beauty for the beautiful one back home.
Cheers, it's a dam good whiskey btw.

Let's get to work.
Marking up and cutting the layout lines, for the hand cut fingers / box joints / slot joints or what ever you call them… (in Denmark we call them fingers, I'll stay on that route), I will use fingers on the tote this time, as I think the doves will be too fancy. KISS for my gf - Keep It Simple Stupid. (S - me).
Here the thickness of the boards, are marked up on the sides, with a marking gauge.
I do love the Veritas gauge, used it quite a few years now and smile each time I bring it to use.

Dividing it into a fitting number of fingers.
I want to have the fingers starting and ending on the ends of the tote, this will give the most beautiful curves I think.
Also I cant make them too thin, since the ends will be quite weak, due to the grain direction.
So five it is.

Now they can be marked up with a knife.
This one is a Korean marking knife.

I always mark what is waste, you only make the mistake of not doing that once…
(Yes I did that some years back and cut on the wrong side of the finger).

When I hand cut fingers or dovetails, that I want to look nice, I always take the time to make these little 45° side cuts.

Like this the saw have a side guide.
As you can see the saw runs perfectly down the side of the cut.
You will discover, that anyone can make beautiful cuts if they do this, even if you are not a trained woodworker with 35 years of sawing in your hand.
Yes it really is that easy and you can use it on all cuts, you need to make with a hand saw!

Here on the end finger, I do the same.
First a vertical cut, flat side of chisel, facing the line.

And the 45° cut, with the chisel turned.

You get it?
Then do the other side also.

Saw.
But don't start flat like this, tilt the saw down, to start the cut in the 45° cut, do this from both sides first, before going flat on longer cuts.

Then your cut will be sharp and the good side intact.

Is it the whiskey or do you also see a unicorn that pooped?

The cut out's between the fingers can be sawed out, with a turning saw, or cut with a chisel, I prefer the last.
Just bang the bucker…
Ok, I should have done it in two parts, it made some small marks on the good side of the line.
(The good side of the line, is on the part you want to keep, the other side is the waste side).

With chisel and pine we usually end up with this.
It does not really matter, as it will not be visible and gluing on end grain, gives almost no strength any way.

Don't remember why I took this picture…

So we got fingers on the four sides, let's move on.

Time to transfer the fingers to the end pieces of the tote.
Put the side piece flat and square on top of the end you want marked.
When using the side fingers as marking tool, you have no risk of marking mistakes and if you made a mistake before, it will be transferred, to give a correct match here.
In other words, don't ever just mark up both pieces and cut them, it hardly never fits perfectly.

Check they line up.

With a knife, mark up, use the side of the fingers as guide and use a knife with a flat side..
On this picture I have offset it a wee to show you the marking after it was done.

Mark the waste part.

Hmmmm, the knot here are moving, I could not get around it, when marking up the end, so I had to accept it.

No problem, it can be glued back in, with some gel CA glue.
Woodworking is also about fixing mistakes.

Finally we can get to the end fingers, here marking up the thickness of the boards.
I stop the cuts, because I would otherwise make the end weaker and risk it will break down the line, as it is in the grain direction.

Basically we never want to cut fingers or doves like this, they will not be as strong as if two end grains meet up. Here it's a choice between the black death or the cholera here, as we want the grain to run all the way up to the handle on the end pieces and we then have no other choice here, than to cut fingers from meeting end and cross grain.

In my last tool tote blog, I made this sketch to explain the situation, the red force arrows show where the strength is.

Cutting down the sides.

Yes I like the cuts to overlap and become visual, for me it gives this hand made expression afterwards

Try to fixate the wood always when marking, then your angle will not slip.

Yes you know by now what I'm doing, yes?

A few strokes with the saw later and we are there.
The sawing takes no time, especially when you made a good marking and the guiding cuts.

When going cross grain, I like to use a 20 tpi dovetail saw, these fine teeth's almost makes dust and makes an extremely fine cut. When I saw the rip part, I use a 14 tpi saw, since it's faster.
(If I should have only one dovetail saw, it would be 12-14 tpi).
tpi= teeth's pr inch.

You can see the lines are sharp on the good side and the tear out are on the waste side of the backside of the cut.

Front side.

Time to kick ass, or chew bubble gum and I'm all out of gum…
(Have you been there too?).

Here an interesting fact.
When you bang out the wast, the chisel will follow the grain, so it will look like this.

It can be a wee dangerous, so you should start less aggressive, as I did in the second go.
(Yes I make plenty of mistakes).

Here you see why. On the fist cut, I went all the way to the marked line, I was lucky, it could have gone a little passed and then I would be in trouble. On the other one I still have wood to work with on this side.

So here on the back I cut half way down now.

Turn the board and it looks like this.

Cut again, you can do this by hand.
Be care full, that the chisel stays with in the waste part, otherwoise you risk breaking off a finger.

I believe it's called parring.

Let's see what we got.

Matching hand cut fingers!

Since I'm not all done, I'll stop the blog here and continue with a part two once I'm done, in part two I will tell about fitting and fixing fingers, hand planing / table saw cutting the grooves for the bottom of the caddy and making a branch from the forest into a handle, perhaps some pimping up the caddy, before I wax it up, wrap it up and give it to my dear gf Yeli.

Hope it can be to some inspiration, perhaps that you learned something, or at least that you enjoyed the read.

Best thoughts,

MaFe

wow another beautiful trip through the woodshop,always a spiritual journey that never dissappoints.looking forward to part two,thanks my friend.

 

[lew]

Boards, shape and fingers

Caddy for tools, gardening, drawing, painting…
boards, shape and fingers / taps

I wanted to give my girlfriend something made with my hands for Christmas, as one of the gifts and since she is a Jacqueline of many trades, I decided a caddy / tote to bring her stuff, would be a thing that can bring joy in many situations. If she will use it for gardening, drawing stuff, painting gear, tools, garden tools, flowers or even perhaps at her job as a doctor, that must be up to her, for now I just need to get it done, before too long.
Smiles.

This was the last picture I took today with my cell phone, before leaving the workshop, the caddy in it's current step on the way.

But lets start from the beginning.
As most of my projects we start with some reclaimed wood, pine, from some old bed slats.
Bed slats are usually quite good and strong wood, with few knots.

Here they have had a tour through a lunch box planner, one side jointed and now glued and clamped.

After gluing, Yeli (my gf) helped with deciding the shape and we went for the same as my good old tool tote.
Here sawing to shape on the band saw.

Sanding the sides.

The sides were held together with double sided tape, to save some time.

Finally at the workbench, had enough of power tools.
I'll use my little benchtop bench for a good work position and please notice the new LED light over the bench, this old chap is a happy monkey as I said.

Well, we need a pipe of tobacco and a coffee also.

Ok and a small smoked whiskey, it was a Christmas present from my mother, so I guess I have her blessing…

But it's single malt Scotch, so one need no blessing!

Not that a tool caddy need to be perfect, but I was a wee unhappy with the lines my planer left, I guess I need to buy some new knifes soon.

Easy job with one of my favourite tools, the card scraper.

Look how the surface of the wood stands out, amazing what a little scraping can do.

Time to match up and mark the pieces.
Find out witch one you want, where and what side in and down.
Sometimes the grain will decide it, but here I go mainly by the look, so we get beauty for the beautiful one back home.
Cheers, it's a dam good whiskey btw.

Let's get to work.
Marking up and cutting the layout lines, for the hand cut fingers / box joints / slot joints or what ever you call them… (in Denmark we call them fingers, I'll stay on that route), I will use fingers on the tote this time, as I think the doves will be too fancy. KISS for my gf - Keep It Simple Stupid. (S - me).
Here the thickness of the boards, are marked up on the sides, with a marking gauge.
I do love the Veritas gauge, used it quite a few years now and smile each time I bring it to use.

Dividing it into a fitting number of fingers.
I want to have the fingers starting and ending on the ends of the tote, this will give the most beautiful curves I think.
Also I cant make them too thin, since the ends will be quite weak, due to the grain direction.
So five it is.

Now they can be marked up with a knife.
This one is a Korean marking knife.

I always mark what is waste, you only make the mistake of not doing that once…
(Yes I did that some years back and cut on the wrong side of the finger).

When I hand cut fingers or dovetails, that I want to look nice, I always take the time to make these little 45° side cuts.

Like this the saw have a side guide.
As you can see the saw runs perfectly down the side of the cut.
You will discover, that anyone can make beautiful cuts if they do this, even if you are not a trained woodworker with 35 years of sawing in your hand.
Yes it really is that easy and you can use it on all cuts, you need to make with a hand saw!

Here on the end finger, I do the same.
First a vertical cut, flat side of chisel, facing the line.

And the 45° cut, with the chisel turned.

You get it?
Then do the other side also.

Saw.
But don't start flat like this, tilt the saw down, to start the cut in the 45° cut, do this from both sides first, before going flat on longer cuts.

Then your cut will be sharp and the good side intact.

Is it the whiskey or do you also see a unicorn that pooped?

The cut out's between the fingers can be sawed out, with a turning saw, or cut with a chisel, I prefer the last.
Just bang the bucker…
Ok, I should have done it in two parts, it made some small marks on the good side of the line.
(The good side of the line, is on the part you want to keep, the other side is the waste side).

With chisel and pine we usually end up with this.
It does not really matter, as it will not be visible and gluing on end grain, gives almost no strength any way.

Don't remember why I took this picture…

So we got fingers on the four sides, let's move on.

Time to transfer the fingers to the end pieces of the tote.
Put the side piece flat and square on top of the end you want marked.
When using the side fingers as marking tool, you have no risk of marking mistakes and if you made a mistake before, it will be transferred, to give a correct match here.
In other words, don't ever just mark up both pieces and cut them, it hardly never fits perfectly.

Check they line up.

With a knife, mark up, use the side of the fingers as guide and use a knife with a flat side..
On this picture I have offset it a wee to show you the marking after it was done.

Mark the waste part.

Hmmmm, the knot here are moving, I could not get around it, when marking up the end, so I had to accept it.

No problem, it can be glued back in, with some gel CA glue.
Woodworking is also about fixing mistakes.

Finally we can get to the end fingers, here marking up the thickness of the boards.
I stop the cuts, because I would otherwise make the end weaker and risk it will break down the line, as it is in the grain direction.

Basically we never want to cut fingers or doves like this, they will not be as strong as if two end grains meet up. Here it's a choice between the black death or the cholera here, as we want the grain to run all the way up to the handle on the end pieces and we then have no other choice here, than to cut fingers from meeting end and cross grain.

In my last tool tote blog, I made this sketch to explain the situation, the red force arrows show where the strength is.

Cutting down the sides.

Yes I like the cuts to overlap and become visual, for me it gives this hand made expression afterwards

Try to fixate the wood always when marking, then your angle will not slip.

Yes you know by now what I'm doing, yes?

A few strokes with the saw later and we are there.
The sawing takes no time, especially when you made a good marking and the guiding cuts.

When going cross grain, I like to use a 20 tpi dovetail saw, these fine teeth's almost makes dust and makes an extremely fine cut. When I saw the rip part, I use a 14 tpi saw, since it's faster.
(If I should have only one dovetail saw, it would be 12-14 tpi).
tpi= teeth's pr inch.

You can see the lines are sharp on the good side and the tear out are on the waste side of the backside of the cut.

Front side.

Time to kick ass, or chew bubble gum and I'm all out of gum…
(Have you been there too?).

Here an interesting fact.
When you bang out the wast, the chisel will follow the grain, so it will look like this.

It can be a wee dangerous, so you should start less aggressive, as I did in the second go.
(Yes I make plenty of mistakes).

Here you see why. On the fist cut, I went all the way to the marked line, I was lucky, it could have gone a little passed and then I would be in trouble. On the other one I still have wood to work with on this side.

So here on the back I cut half way down now.

Turn the board and it looks like this.

Cut again, you can do this by hand.
Be care full, that the chisel stays with in the waste part, otherwoise you risk breaking off a finger.

I believe it's called parring.

Let's see what we got.

Matching hand cut fingers!

Since I'm not all done, I'll stop the blog here and continue with a part two once I'm done, in part two I will tell about fitting and fixing fingers, hand planing / table saw cutting the grooves for the bottom of the caddy and making a branch from the forest into a handle, perhaps some pimping up the caddy, before I wax it up, wrap it up and give it to my dear gf Yeli.

Hope it can be to some inspiration, perhaps that you learned something, or at least that you enjoyed the read.

Best thoughts,

MaFe

Thai you, Mads, for the tip on using the chisel to nick the wood as a starting point for the saw.

 

[doubleDD]

Boards, shape and fingers

Caddy for tools, gardening, drawing, painting…
boards, shape and fingers / taps

I wanted to give my girlfriend something made with my hands for Christmas, as one of the gifts and since she is a Jacqueline of many trades, I decided a caddy / tote to bring her stuff, would be a thing that can bring joy in many situations. If she will use it for gardening, drawing stuff, painting gear, tools, garden tools, flowers or even perhaps at her job as a doctor, that must be up to her, for now I just need to get it done, before too long.
Smiles.

This was the last picture I took today with my cell phone, before leaving the workshop, the caddy in it's current step on the way.

But lets start from the beginning.
As most of my projects we start with some reclaimed wood, pine, from some old bed slats.
Bed slats are usually quite good and strong wood, with few knots.

Here they have had a tour through a lunch box planner, one side jointed and now glued and clamped.

After gluing, Yeli (my gf) helped with deciding the shape and we went for the same as my good old tool tote.
Here sawing to shape on the band saw.

Sanding the sides.

The sides were held together with double sided tape, to save some time.

Finally at the workbench, had enough of power tools.
I'll use my little benchtop bench for a good work position and please notice the new LED light over the bench, this old chap is a happy monkey as I said.

Well, we need a pipe of tobacco and a coffee also.

Ok and a small smoked whiskey, it was a Christmas present from my mother, so I guess I have her blessing…

But it's single malt Scotch, so one need no blessing!

Not that a tool caddy need to be perfect, but I was a wee unhappy with the lines my planer left, I guess I need to buy some new knifes soon.

Easy job with one of my favourite tools, the card scraper.

Look how the surface of the wood stands out, amazing what a little scraping can do.

Time to match up and mark the pieces.
Find out witch one you want, where and what side in and down.
Sometimes the grain will decide it, but here I go mainly by the look, so we get beauty for the beautiful one back home.
Cheers, it's a dam good whiskey btw.

Let's get to work.
Marking up and cutting the layout lines, for the hand cut fingers / box joints / slot joints or what ever you call them… (in Denmark we call them fingers, I'll stay on that route), I will use fingers on the tote this time, as I think the doves will be too fancy. KISS for my gf - Keep It Simple Stupid. (S - me).
Here the thickness of the boards, are marked up on the sides, with a marking gauge.
I do love the Veritas gauge, used it quite a few years now and smile each time I bring it to use.

Dividing it into a fitting number of fingers.
I want to have the fingers starting and ending on the ends of the tote, this will give the most beautiful curves I think.
Also I cant make them too thin, since the ends will be quite weak, due to the grain direction.
So five it is.

Now they can be marked up with a knife.
This one is a Korean marking knife.

I always mark what is waste, you only make the mistake of not doing that once…
(Yes I did that some years back and cut on the wrong side of the finger).

When I hand cut fingers or dovetails, that I want to look nice, I always take the time to make these little 45° side cuts.

Like this the saw have a side guide.
As you can see the saw runs perfectly down the side of the cut.
You will discover, that anyone can make beautiful cuts if they do this, even if you are not a trained woodworker with 35 years of sawing in your hand.
Yes it really is that easy and you can use it on all cuts, you need to make with a hand saw!

Here on the end finger, I do the same.
First a vertical cut, flat side of chisel, facing the line.

And the 45° cut, with the chisel turned.

You get it?
Then do the other side also.

Saw.
But don't start flat like this, tilt the saw down, to start the cut in the 45° cut, do this from both sides first, before going flat on longer cuts.

Then your cut will be sharp and the good side intact.

Is it the whiskey or do you also see a unicorn that pooped?

The cut out's between the fingers can be sawed out, with a turning saw, or cut with a chisel, I prefer the last.
Just bang the bucker…
Ok, I should have done it in two parts, it made some small marks on the good side of the line.
(The good side of the line, is on the part you want to keep, the other side is the waste side).

With chisel and pine we usually end up with this.
It does not really matter, as it will not be visible and gluing on end grain, gives almost no strength any way.

Don't remember why I took this picture…

So we got fingers on the four sides, let's move on.

Time to transfer the fingers to the end pieces of the tote.
Put the side piece flat and square on top of the end you want marked.
When using the side fingers as marking tool, you have no risk of marking mistakes and if you made a mistake before, it will be transferred, to give a correct match here.
In other words, don't ever just mark up both pieces and cut them, it hardly never fits perfectly.

Check they line up.

With a knife, mark up, use the side of the fingers as guide and use a knife with a flat side..
On this picture I have offset it a wee to show you the marking after it was done.

Mark the waste part.

Hmmmm, the knot here are moving, I could not get around it, when marking up the end, so I had to accept it.

No problem, it can be glued back in, with some gel CA glue.
Woodworking is also about fixing mistakes.

Finally we can get to the end fingers, here marking up the thickness of the boards.
I stop the cuts, because I would otherwise make the end weaker and risk it will break down the line, as it is in the grain direction.

Basically we never want to cut fingers or doves like this, they will not be as strong as if two end grains meet up. Here it's a choice between the black death or the cholera here, as we want the grain to run all the way up to the handle on the end pieces and we then have no other choice here, than to cut fingers from meeting end and cross grain.

In my last tool tote blog, I made this sketch to explain the situation, the red force arrows show where the strength is.

Cutting down the sides.

Yes I like the cuts to overlap and become visual, for me it gives this hand made expression afterwards

Try to fixate the wood always when marking, then your angle will not slip.

Yes you know by now what I'm doing, yes?

A few strokes with the saw later and we are there.
The sawing takes no time, especially when you made a good marking and the guiding cuts.

When going cross grain, I like to use a 20 tpi dovetail saw, these fine teeth's almost makes dust and makes an extremely fine cut. When I saw the rip part, I use a 14 tpi saw, since it's faster.
(If I should have only one dovetail saw, it would be 12-14 tpi).
tpi= teeth's pr inch.

You can see the lines are sharp on the good side and the tear out are on the waste side of the backside of the cut.

Front side.

Time to kick ass, or chew bubble gum and I'm all out of gum…
(Have you been there too?).

Here an interesting fact.
When you bang out the wast, the chisel will follow the grain, so it will look like this.

It can be a wee dangerous, so you should start less aggressive, as I did in the second go.
(Yes I make plenty of mistakes).

Here you see why. On the fist cut, I went all the way to the marked line, I was lucky, it could have gone a little passed and then I would be in trouble. On the other one I still have wood to work with on this side.

So here on the back I cut half way down now.

Turn the board and it looks like this.

Cut again, you can do this by hand.
Be care full, that the chisel stays with in the waste part, otherwoise you risk breaking off a finger.

I believe it's called parring.

Let's see what we got.

Matching hand cut fingers!

Since I'm not all done, I'll stop the blog here and continue with a part two once I'm done, in part two I will tell about fitting and fixing fingers, hand planing / table saw cutting the grooves for the bottom of the caddy and making a branch from the forest into a handle, perhaps some pimping up the caddy, before I wax it up, wrap it up and give it to my dear gf Yeli.

Hope it can be to some inspiration, perhaps that you learned something, or at least that you enjoyed the read.

Best thoughts,

MaFe

Always making it look easy with your process of steps. If I pay attention here I can learn something. LOL.
Waiting to see how you bring the project home.

 

[JoeLyddon]

Boards, shape and fingers

Caddy for tools, gardening, drawing, painting…
boards, shape and fingers / taps

I wanted to give my girlfriend something made with my hands for Christmas, as one of the gifts and since she is a Jacqueline of many trades, I decided a caddy / tote to bring her stuff, would be a thing that can bring joy in many situations. If she will use it for gardening, drawing stuff, painting gear, tools, garden tools, flowers or even perhaps at her job as a doctor, that must be up to her, for now I just need to get it done, before too long.
Smiles.

This was the last picture I took today with my cell phone, before leaving the workshop, the caddy in it's current step on the way.

But lets start from the beginning.
As most of my projects we start with some reclaimed wood, pine, from some old bed slats.
Bed slats are usually quite good and strong wood, with few knots.

Here they have had a tour through a lunch box planner, one side jointed and now glued and clamped.

After gluing, Yeli (my gf) helped with deciding the shape and we went for the same as my good old tool tote.
Here sawing to shape on the band saw.

Sanding the sides.

The sides were held together with double sided tape, to save some time.

Finally at the workbench, had enough of power tools.
I'll use my little benchtop bench for a good work position and please notice the new LED light over the bench, this old chap is a happy monkey as I said.

Well, we need a pipe of tobacco and a coffee also.

Ok and a small smoked whiskey, it was a Christmas present from my mother, so I guess I have her blessing…

But it's single malt Scotch, so one need no blessing!

Not that a tool caddy need to be perfect, but I was a wee unhappy with the lines my planer left, I guess I need to buy some new knifes soon.

Easy job with one of my favourite tools, the card scraper.

Look how the surface of the wood stands out, amazing what a little scraping can do.

Time to match up and mark the pieces.
Find out witch one you want, where and what side in and down.
Sometimes the grain will decide it, but here I go mainly by the look, so we get beauty for the beautiful one back home.
Cheers, it's a dam good whiskey btw.

Let's get to work.
Marking up and cutting the layout lines, for the hand cut fingers / box joints / slot joints or what ever you call them… (in Denmark we call them fingers, I'll stay on that route), I will use fingers on the tote this time, as I think the doves will be too fancy. KISS for my gf - Keep It Simple Stupid. (S - me).
Here the thickness of the boards, are marked up on the sides, with a marking gauge.
I do love the Veritas gauge, used it quite a few years now and smile each time I bring it to use.

Dividing it into a fitting number of fingers.
I want to have the fingers starting and ending on the ends of the tote, this will give the most beautiful curves I think.
Also I cant make them too thin, since the ends will be quite weak, due to the grain direction.
So five it is.

Now they can be marked up with a knife.
This one is a Korean marking knife.

I always mark what is waste, you only make the mistake of not doing that once…
(Yes I did that some years back and cut on the wrong side of the finger).

When I hand cut fingers or dovetails, that I want to look nice, I always take the time to make these little 45° side cuts.

Like this the saw have a side guide.
As you can see the saw runs perfectly down the side of the cut.
You will discover, that anyone can make beautiful cuts if they do this, even if you are not a trained woodworker with 35 years of sawing in your hand.
Yes it really is that easy and you can use it on all cuts, you need to make with a hand saw!

Here on the end finger, I do the same.
First a vertical cut, flat side of chisel, facing the line.

And the 45° cut, with the chisel turned.

You get it?
Then do the other side also.

Saw.
But don't start flat like this, tilt the saw down, to start the cut in the 45° cut, do this from both sides first, before going flat on longer cuts.

Then your cut will be sharp and the good side intact.

Is it the whiskey or do you also see a unicorn that pooped?

The cut out's between the fingers can be sawed out, with a turning saw, or cut with a chisel, I prefer the last.
Just bang the bucker…
Ok, I should have done it in two parts, it made some small marks on the good side of the line.
(The good side of the line, is on the part you want to keep, the other side is the waste side).

With chisel and pine we usually end up with this.
It does not really matter, as it will not be visible and gluing on end grain, gives almost no strength any way.

Don't remember why I took this picture…

So we got fingers on the four sides, let's move on.

Time to transfer the fingers to the end pieces of the tote.
Put the side piece flat and square on top of the end you want marked.
When using the side fingers as marking tool, you have no risk of marking mistakes and if you made a mistake before, it will be transferred, to give a correct match here.
In other words, don't ever just mark up both pieces and cut them, it hardly never fits perfectly.

Check they line up.

With a knife, mark up, use the side of the fingers as guide and use a knife with a flat side..
On this picture I have offset it a wee to show you the marking after it was done.

Mark the waste part.

Hmmmm, the knot here are moving, I could not get around it, when marking up the end, so I had to accept it.

No problem, it can be glued back in, with some gel CA glue.
Woodworking is also about fixing mistakes.

Finally we can get to the end fingers, here marking up the thickness of the boards.
I stop the cuts, because I would otherwise make the end weaker and risk it will break down the line, as it is in the grain direction.

Basically we never want to cut fingers or doves like this, they will not be as strong as if two end grains meet up. Here it's a choice between the black death or the cholera here, as we want the grain to run all the way up to the handle on the end pieces and we then have no other choice here, than to cut fingers from meeting end and cross grain.

In my last tool tote blog, I made this sketch to explain the situation, the red force arrows show where the strength is.

Cutting down the sides.

Yes I like the cuts to overlap and become visual, for me it gives this hand made expression afterwards

Try to fixate the wood always when marking, then your angle will not slip.

Yes you know by now what I'm doing, yes?

A few strokes with the saw later and we are there.
The sawing takes no time, especially when you made a good marking and the guiding cuts.

When going cross grain, I like to use a 20 tpi dovetail saw, these fine teeth's almost makes dust and makes an extremely fine cut. When I saw the rip part, I use a 14 tpi saw, since it's faster.
(If I should have only one dovetail saw, it would be 12-14 tpi).
tpi= teeth's pr inch.

You can see the lines are sharp on the good side and the tear out are on the waste side of the backside of the cut.

Front side.

Time to kick ass, or chew bubble gum and I'm all out of gum…
(Have you been there too?).

Here an interesting fact.
When you bang out the wast, the chisel will follow the grain, so it will look like this.

It can be a wee dangerous, so you should start less aggressive, as I did in the second go.
(Yes I make plenty of mistakes).

Here you see why. On the fist cut, I went all the way to the marked line, I was lucky, it could have gone a little passed and then I would be in trouble. On the other one I still have wood to work with on this side.

So here on the back I cut half way down now.

Turn the board and it looks like this.

Cut again, you can do this by hand.
Be care full, that the chisel stays with in the waste part, otherwoise you risk breaking off a finger.

I believe it's called parring.

Let's see what we got.

Matching hand cut fingers!

Since I'm not all done, I'll stop the blog here and continue with a part two once I'm done, in part two I will tell about fitting and fixing fingers, hand planing / table saw cutting the grooves for the bottom of the caddy and making a branch from the forest into a handle, perhaps some pimping up the caddy, before I wax it up, wrap it up and give it to my dear gf Yeli.

Hope it can be to some inspiration, perhaps that you learned something, or at least that you enjoyed the read.

Best thoughts,

MaFe

WOW!

 

[Ken90712]

Boards, shape and fingers

Caddy for tools, gardening, drawing, painting…
boards, shape and fingers / taps

I wanted to give my girlfriend something made with my hands for Christmas, as one of the gifts and since she is a Jacqueline of many trades, I decided a caddy / tote to bring her stuff, would be a thing that can bring joy in many situations. If she will use it for gardening, drawing stuff, painting gear, tools, garden tools, flowers or even perhaps at her job as a doctor, that must be up to her, for now I just need to get it done, before too long.
Smiles.

This was the last picture I took today with my cell phone, before leaving the workshop, the caddy in it's current step on the way.

But lets start from the beginning.
As most of my projects we start with some reclaimed wood, pine, from some old bed slats.
Bed slats are usually quite good and strong wood, with few knots.

Here they have had a tour through a lunch box planner, one side jointed and now glued and clamped.

After gluing, Yeli (my gf) helped with deciding the shape and we went for the same as my good old tool tote.
Here sawing to shape on the band saw.

Sanding the sides.

The sides were held together with double sided tape, to save some time.

Finally at the workbench, had enough of power tools.
I'll use my little benchtop bench for a good work position and please notice the new LED light over the bench, this old chap is a happy monkey as I said.

Well, we need a pipe of tobacco and a coffee also.

Ok and a small smoked whiskey, it was a Christmas present from my mother, so I guess I have her blessing…

But it's single malt Scotch, so one need no blessing!

Not that a tool caddy need to be perfect, but I was a wee unhappy with the lines my planer left, I guess I need to buy some new knifes soon.

Easy job with one of my favourite tools, the card scraper.

Look how the surface of the wood stands out, amazing what a little scraping can do.

Time to match up and mark the pieces.
Find out witch one you want, where and what side in and down.
Sometimes the grain will decide it, but here I go mainly by the look, so we get beauty for the beautiful one back home.
Cheers, it's a dam good whiskey btw.

Let's get to work.
Marking up and cutting the layout lines, for the hand cut fingers / box joints / slot joints or what ever you call them… (in Denmark we call them fingers, I'll stay on that route), I will use fingers on the tote this time, as I think the doves will be too fancy. KISS for my gf - Keep It Simple Stupid. (S - me).
Here the thickness of the boards, are marked up on the sides, with a marking gauge.
I do love the Veritas gauge, used it quite a few years now and smile each time I bring it to use.

Dividing it into a fitting number of fingers.
I want to have the fingers starting and ending on the ends of the tote, this will give the most beautiful curves I think.
Also I cant make them too thin, since the ends will be quite weak, due to the grain direction.
So five it is.

Now they can be marked up with a knife.
This one is a Korean marking knife.

I always mark what is waste, you only make the mistake of not doing that once…
(Yes I did that some years back and cut on the wrong side of the finger).

When I hand cut fingers or dovetails, that I want to look nice, I always take the time to make these little 45° side cuts.

Like this the saw have a side guide.
As you can see the saw runs perfectly down the side of the cut.
You will discover, that anyone can make beautiful cuts if they do this, even if you are not a trained woodworker with 35 years of sawing in your hand.
Yes it really is that easy and you can use it on all cuts, you need to make with a hand saw!

Here on the end finger, I do the same.
First a vertical cut, flat side of chisel, facing the line.

And the 45° cut, with the chisel turned.

You get it?
Then do the other side also.

Saw.
But don't start flat like this, tilt the saw down, to start the cut in the 45° cut, do this from both sides first, before going flat on longer cuts.

Then your cut will be sharp and the good side intact.

Is it the whiskey or do you also see a unicorn that pooped?

The cut out's between the fingers can be sawed out, with a turning saw, or cut with a chisel, I prefer the last.
Just bang the bucker…
Ok, I should have done it in two parts, it made some small marks on the good side of the line.
(The good side of the line, is on the part you want to keep, the other side is the waste side).

With chisel and pine we usually end up with this.
It does not really matter, as it will not be visible and gluing on end grain, gives almost no strength any way.

Don't remember why I took this picture…

So we got fingers on the four sides, let's move on.

Time to transfer the fingers to the end pieces of the tote.
Put the side piece flat and square on top of the end you want marked.
When using the side fingers as marking tool, you have no risk of marking mistakes and if you made a mistake before, it will be transferred, to give a correct match here.
In other words, don't ever just mark up both pieces and cut them, it hardly never fits perfectly.

Check they line up.

With a knife, mark up, use the side of the fingers as guide and use a knife with a flat side..
On this picture I have offset it a wee to show you the marking after it was done.

Mark the waste part.

Hmmmm, the knot here are moving, I could not get around it, when marking up the end, so I had to accept it.

No problem, it can be glued back in, with some gel CA glue.
Woodworking is also about fixing mistakes.

Finally we can get to the end fingers, here marking up the thickness of the boards.
I stop the cuts, because I would otherwise make the end weaker and risk it will break down the line, as it is in the grain direction.

Basically we never want to cut fingers or doves like this, they will not be as strong as if two end grains meet up. Here it's a choice between the black death or the cholera here, as we want the grain to run all the way up to the handle on the end pieces and we then have no other choice here, than to cut fingers from meeting end and cross grain.

In my last tool tote blog, I made this sketch to explain the situation, the red force arrows show where the strength is.

Cutting down the sides.

Yes I like the cuts to overlap and become visual, for me it gives this hand made expression afterwards

Try to fixate the wood always when marking, then your angle will not slip.

Yes you know by now what I'm doing, yes?

A few strokes with the saw later and we are there.
The sawing takes no time, especially when you made a good marking and the guiding cuts.

When going cross grain, I like to use a 20 tpi dovetail saw, these fine teeth's almost makes dust and makes an extremely fine cut. When I saw the rip part, I use a 14 tpi saw, since it's faster.
(If I should have only one dovetail saw, it would be 12-14 tpi).
tpi= teeth's pr inch.

You can see the lines are sharp on the good side and the tear out are on the waste side of the backside of the cut.

Front side.

Time to kick ass, or chew bubble gum and I'm all out of gum…
(Have you been there too?).

Here an interesting fact.
When you bang out the wast, the chisel will follow the grain, so it will look like this.

It can be a wee dangerous, so you should start less aggressive, as I did in the second go.
(Yes I make plenty of mistakes).

Here you see why. On the fist cut, I went all the way to the marked line, I was lucky, it could have gone a little passed and then I would be in trouble. On the other one I still have wood to work with on this side.

So here on the back I cut half way down now.

Turn the board and it looks like this.

Cut again, you can do this by hand.
Be care full, that the chisel stays with in the waste part, otherwoise you risk breaking off a finger.

I believe it's called parring.

Let's see what we got.

Matching hand cut fingers!

Since I'm not all done, I'll stop the blog here and continue with a part two once I'm done, in part two I will tell about fitting and fixing fingers, hand planing / table saw cutting the grooves for the bottom of the caddy and making a branch from the forest into a handle, perhaps some pimping up the caddy, before I wax it up, wrap it up and give it to my dear gf Yeli.

Hope it can be to some inspiration, perhaps that you learned something, or at least that you enjoyed the read.

Best thoughts,

MaFe

That's cool buddy, I wish I had the patience for a mostly hand tool build like that. Great job, cheers

 

[stefang]

Boards, shape and fingers

Caddy for tools, gardening, drawing, painting…
boards, shape and fingers / taps

I wanted to give my girlfriend something made with my hands for Christmas, as one of the gifts and since she is a Jacqueline of many trades, I decided a caddy / tote to bring her stuff, would be a thing that can bring joy in many situations. If she will use it for gardening, drawing stuff, painting gear, tools, garden tools, flowers or even perhaps at her job as a doctor, that must be up to her, for now I just need to get it done, before too long.
Smiles.

This was the last picture I took today with my cell phone, before leaving the workshop, the caddy in it's current step on the way.

But lets start from the beginning.
As most of my projects we start with some reclaimed wood, pine, from some old bed slats.
Bed slats are usually quite good and strong wood, with few knots.

Here they have had a tour through a lunch box planner, one side jointed and now glued and clamped.

After gluing, Yeli (my gf) helped with deciding the shape and we went for the same as my good old tool tote.
Here sawing to shape on the band saw.

Sanding the sides.

The sides were held together with double sided tape, to save some time.

Finally at the workbench, had enough of power tools.
I'll use my little benchtop bench for a good work position and please notice the new LED light over the bench, this old chap is a happy monkey as I said.

Well, we need a pipe of tobacco and a coffee also.

Ok and a small smoked whiskey, it was a Christmas present from my mother, so I guess I have her blessing…

But it's single malt Scotch, so one need no blessing!

Not that a tool caddy need to be perfect, but I was a wee unhappy with the lines my planer left, I guess I need to buy some new knifes soon.

Easy job with one of my favourite tools, the card scraper.

Look how the surface of the wood stands out, amazing what a little scraping can do.

Time to match up and mark the pieces.
Find out witch one you want, where and what side in and down.
Sometimes the grain will decide it, but here I go mainly by the look, so we get beauty for the beautiful one back home.
Cheers, it's a dam good whiskey btw.

Let's get to work.
Marking up and cutting the layout lines, for the hand cut fingers / box joints / slot joints or what ever you call them… (in Denmark we call them fingers, I'll stay on that route), I will use fingers on the tote this time, as I think the doves will be too fancy. KISS for my gf - Keep It Simple Stupid. (S - me).
Here the thickness of the boards, are marked up on the sides, with a marking gauge.
I do love the Veritas gauge, used it quite a few years now and smile each time I bring it to use.

Dividing it into a fitting number of fingers.
I want to have the fingers starting and ending on the ends of the tote, this will give the most beautiful curves I think.
Also I cant make them too thin, since the ends will be quite weak, due to the grain direction.
So five it is.

Now they can be marked up with a knife.
This one is a Korean marking knife.

I always mark what is waste, you only make the mistake of not doing that once…
(Yes I did that some years back and cut on the wrong side of the finger).

When I hand cut fingers or dovetails, that I want to look nice, I always take the time to make these little 45° side cuts.

Like this the saw have a side guide.
As you can see the saw runs perfectly down the side of the cut.
You will discover, that anyone can make beautiful cuts if they do this, even if you are not a trained woodworker with 35 years of sawing in your hand.
Yes it really is that easy and you can use it on all cuts, you need to make with a hand saw!

Here on the end finger, I do the same.
First a vertical cut, flat side of chisel, facing the line.

And the 45° cut, with the chisel turned.

You get it?
Then do the other side also.

Saw.
But don't start flat like this, tilt the saw down, to start the cut in the 45° cut, do this from both sides first, before going flat on longer cuts.

Then your cut will be sharp and the good side intact.

Is it the whiskey or do you also see a unicorn that pooped?

The cut out's between the fingers can be sawed out, with a turning saw, or cut with a chisel, I prefer the last.
Just bang the bucker…
Ok, I should have done it in two parts, it made some small marks on the good side of the line.
(The good side of the line, is on the part you want to keep, the other side is the waste side).

With chisel and pine we usually end up with this.
It does not really matter, as it will not be visible and gluing on end grain, gives almost no strength any way.

Don't remember why I took this picture…

So we got fingers on the four sides, let's move on.

Time to transfer the fingers to the end pieces of the tote.
Put the side piece flat and square on top of the end you want marked.
When using the side fingers as marking tool, you have no risk of marking mistakes and if you made a mistake before, it will be transferred, to give a correct match here.
In other words, don't ever just mark up both pieces and cut them, it hardly never fits perfectly.

Check they line up.

With a knife, mark up, use the side of the fingers as guide and use a knife with a flat side..
On this picture I have offset it a wee to show you the marking after it was done.

Mark the waste part.

Hmmmm, the knot here are moving, I could not get around it, when marking up the end, so I had to accept it.

No problem, it can be glued back in, with some gel CA glue.
Woodworking is also about fixing mistakes.

Finally we can get to the end fingers, here marking up the thickness of the boards.
I stop the cuts, because I would otherwise make the end weaker and risk it will break down the line, as it is in the grain direction.

Basically we never want to cut fingers or doves like this, they will not be as strong as if two end grains meet up. Here it's a choice between the black death or the cholera here, as we want the grain to run all the way up to the handle on the end pieces and we then have no other choice here, than to cut fingers from meeting end and cross grain.

In my last tool tote blog, I made this sketch to explain the situation, the red force arrows show where the strength is.

Cutting down the sides.

Yes I like the cuts to overlap and become visual, for me it gives this hand made expression afterwards

Try to fixate the wood always when marking, then your angle will not slip.

Yes you know by now what I'm doing, yes?

A few strokes with the saw later and we are there.
The sawing takes no time, especially when you made a good marking and the guiding cuts.

When going cross grain, I like to use a 20 tpi dovetail saw, these fine teeth's almost makes dust and makes an extremely fine cut. When I saw the rip part, I use a 14 tpi saw, since it's faster.
(If I should have only one dovetail saw, it would be 12-14 tpi).
tpi= teeth's pr inch.

You can see the lines are sharp on the good side and the tear out are on the waste side of the backside of the cut.

Front side.

Time to kick ass, or chew bubble gum and I'm all out of gum…
(Have you been there too?).

Here an interesting fact.
When you bang out the wast, the chisel will follow the grain, so it will look like this.

It can be a wee dangerous, so you should start less aggressive, as I did in the second go.
(Yes I make plenty of mistakes).

Here you see why. On the fist cut, I went all the way to the marked line, I was lucky, it could have gone a little passed and then I would be in trouble. On the other one I still have wood to work with on this side.

So here on the back I cut half way down now.

Turn the board and it looks like this.

Cut again, you can do this by hand.
Be care full, that the chisel stays with in the waste part, otherwoise you risk breaking off a finger.

I believe it's called parring.

Let's see what we got.

Matching hand cut fingers!

Since I'm not all done, I'll stop the blog here and continue with a part two once I'm done, in part two I will tell about fitting and fixing fingers, hand planing / table saw cutting the grooves for the bottom of the caddy and making a branch from the forest into a handle, perhaps some pimping up the caddy, before I wax it up, wrap it up and give it to my dear gf Yeli.

Hope it can be to some inspiration, perhaps that you learned something, or at least that you enjoyed the read.

Best thoughts,

MaFe

Nice work Mads. Always enjoy seeing (and doing) handwork. Great gift item too.

 

[woodshaver]

Boards, shape and fingers

Caddy for tools, gardening, drawing, painting…
boards, shape and fingers / taps

I wanted to give my girlfriend something made with my hands for Christmas, as one of the gifts and since she is a Jacqueline of many trades, I decided a caddy / tote to bring her stuff, would be a thing that can bring joy in many situations. If she will use it for gardening, drawing stuff, painting gear, tools, garden tools, flowers or even perhaps at her job as a doctor, that must be up to her, for now I just need to get it done, before too long.
Smiles.

This was the last picture I took today with my cell phone, before leaving the workshop, the caddy in it's current step on the way.

But lets start from the beginning.
As most of my projects we start with some reclaimed wood, pine, from some old bed slats.
Bed slats are usually quite good and strong wood, with few knots.

Here they have had a tour through a lunch box planner, one side jointed and now glued and clamped.

After gluing, Yeli (my gf) helped with deciding the shape and we went for the same as my good old tool tote.
Here sawing to shape on the band saw.

Sanding the sides.

The sides were held together with double sided tape, to save some time.

Finally at the workbench, had enough of power tools.
I'll use my little benchtop bench for a good work position and please notice the new LED light over the bench, this old chap is a happy monkey as I said.

Well, we need a pipe of tobacco and a coffee also.

Ok and a small smoked whiskey, it was a Christmas present from my mother, so I guess I have her blessing…

But it's single malt Scotch, so one need no blessing!

Not that a tool caddy need to be perfect, but I was a wee unhappy with the lines my planer left, I guess I need to buy some new knifes soon.

Easy job with one of my favourite tools, the card scraper.

Look how the surface of the wood stands out, amazing what a little scraping can do.

Time to match up and mark the pieces.
Find out witch one you want, where and what side in and down.
Sometimes the grain will decide it, but here I go mainly by the look, so we get beauty for the beautiful one back home.
Cheers, it's a dam good whiskey btw.

Let's get to work.
Marking up and cutting the layout lines, for the hand cut fingers / box joints / slot joints or what ever you call them… (in Denmark we call them fingers, I'll stay on that route), I will use fingers on the tote this time, as I think the doves will be too fancy. KISS for my gf - Keep It Simple Stupid. (S - me).
Here the thickness of the boards, are marked up on the sides, with a marking gauge.
I do love the Veritas gauge, used it quite a few years now and smile each time I bring it to use.

Dividing it into a fitting number of fingers.
I want to have the fingers starting and ending on the ends of the tote, this will give the most beautiful curves I think.
Also I cant make them too thin, since the ends will be quite weak, due to the grain direction.
So five it is.

Now they can be marked up with a knife.
This one is a Korean marking knife.

I always mark what is waste, you only make the mistake of not doing that once…
(Yes I did that some years back and cut on the wrong side of the finger).

When I hand cut fingers or dovetails, that I want to look nice, I always take the time to make these little 45° side cuts.

Like this the saw have a side guide.
As you can see the saw runs perfectly down the side of the cut.
You will discover, that anyone can make beautiful cuts if they do this, even if you are not a trained woodworker with 35 years of sawing in your hand.
Yes it really is that easy and you can use it on all cuts, you need to make with a hand saw!

Here on the end finger, I do the same.
First a vertical cut, flat side of chisel, facing the line.

And the 45° cut, with the chisel turned.

You get it?
Then do the other side also.

Saw.
But don't start flat like this, tilt the saw down, to start the cut in the 45° cut, do this from both sides first, before going flat on longer cuts.

Then your cut will be sharp and the good side intact.

Is it the whiskey or do you also see a unicorn that pooped?

The cut out's between the fingers can be sawed out, with a turning saw, or cut with a chisel, I prefer the last.
Just bang the bucker…
Ok, I should have done it in two parts, it made some small marks on the good side of the line.
(The good side of the line, is on the part you want to keep, the other side is the waste side).

With chisel and pine we usually end up with this.
It does not really matter, as it will not be visible and gluing on end grain, gives almost no strength any way.

Don't remember why I took this picture…

So we got fingers on the four sides, let's move on.

Time to transfer the fingers to the end pieces of the tote.
Put the side piece flat and square on top of the end you want marked.
When using the side fingers as marking tool, you have no risk of marking mistakes and if you made a mistake before, it will be transferred, to give a correct match here.
In other words, don't ever just mark up both pieces and cut them, it hardly never fits perfectly.

Check they line up.

With a knife, mark up, use the side of the fingers as guide and use a knife with a flat side..
On this picture I have offset it a wee to show you the marking after it was done.

Mark the waste part.

Hmmmm, the knot here are moving, I could not get around it, when marking up the end, so I had to accept it.

No problem, it can be glued back in, with some gel CA glue.
Woodworking is also about fixing mistakes.

Finally we can get to the end fingers, here marking up the thickness of the boards.
I stop the cuts, because I would otherwise make the end weaker and risk it will break down the line, as it is in the grain direction.

Basically we never want to cut fingers or doves like this, they will not be as strong as if two end grains meet up. Here it's a choice between the black death or the cholera here, as we want the grain to run all the way up to the handle on the end pieces and we then have no other choice here, than to cut fingers from meeting end and cross grain.

In my last tool tote blog, I made this sketch to explain the situation, the red force arrows show where the strength is.

Cutting down the sides.

Yes I like the cuts to overlap and become visual, for me it gives this hand made expression afterwards

Try to fixate the wood always when marking, then your angle will not slip.

Yes you know by now what I'm doing, yes?

A few strokes with the saw later and we are there.
The sawing takes no time, especially when you made a good marking and the guiding cuts.

When going cross grain, I like to use a 20 tpi dovetail saw, these fine teeth's almost makes dust and makes an extremely fine cut. When I saw the rip part, I use a 14 tpi saw, since it's faster.
(If I should have only one dovetail saw, it would be 12-14 tpi).
tpi= teeth's pr inch.

You can see the lines are sharp on the good side and the tear out are on the waste side of the backside of the cut.

Front side.

Time to kick ass, or chew bubble gum and I'm all out of gum…
(Have you been there too?).

Here an interesting fact.
When you bang out the wast, the chisel will follow the grain, so it will look like this.

It can be a wee dangerous, so you should start less aggressive, as I did in the second go.
(Yes I make plenty of mistakes).

Here you see why. On the fist cut, I went all the way to the marked line, I was lucky, it could have gone a little passed and then I would be in trouble. On the other one I still have wood to work with on this side.

So here on the back I cut half way down now.

Turn the board and it looks like this.

Cut again, you can do this by hand.
Be care full, that the chisel stays with in the waste part, otherwoise you risk breaking off a finger.

I believe it's called parring.

Let's see what we got.

Matching hand cut fingers!

Since I'm not all done, I'll stop the blog here and continue with a part two once I'm done, in part two I will tell about fitting and fixing fingers, hand planing / table saw cutting the grooves for the bottom of the caddy and making a branch from the forest into a handle, perhaps some pimping up the caddy, before I wax it up, wrap it up and give it to my dear gf Yeli.

Hope it can be to some inspiration, perhaps that you learned something, or at least that you enjoyed the read.

Best thoughts,

MaFe

Great blog! Love the walk through all the steps in photos! Makes a nice gift!

 

[mafe]

Boards, shape and fingers

Caddy for tools, gardening, drawing, painting…
boards, shape and fingers / taps

I wanted to give my girlfriend something made with my hands for Christmas, as one of the gifts and since she is a Jacqueline of many trades, I decided a caddy / tote to bring her stuff, would be a thing that can bring joy in many situations. If she will use it for gardening, drawing stuff, painting gear, tools, garden tools, flowers or even perhaps at her job as a doctor, that must be up to her, for now I just need to get it done, before too long.
Smiles.

This was the last picture I took today with my cell phone, before leaving the workshop, the caddy in it's current step on the way.

But lets start from the beginning.
As most of my projects we start with some reclaimed wood, pine, from some old bed slats.
Bed slats are usually quite good and strong wood, with few knots.

Here they have had a tour through a lunch box planner, one side jointed and now glued and clamped.

After gluing, Yeli (my gf) helped with deciding the shape and we went for the same as my good old tool tote.
Here sawing to shape on the band saw.

Sanding the sides.

The sides were held together with double sided tape, to save some time.

Finally at the workbench, had enough of power tools.
I'll use my little benchtop bench for a good work position and please notice the new LED light over the bench, this old chap is a happy monkey as I said.

Well, we need a pipe of tobacco and a coffee also.

Ok and a small smoked whiskey, it was a Christmas present from my mother, so I guess I have her blessing…

But it's single malt Scotch, so one need no blessing!

Not that a tool caddy need to be perfect, but I was a wee unhappy with the lines my planer left, I guess I need to buy some new knifes soon.

Easy job with one of my favourite tools, the card scraper.

Look how the surface of the wood stands out, amazing what a little scraping can do.

Time to match up and mark the pieces.
Find out witch one you want, where and what side in and down.
Sometimes the grain will decide it, but here I go mainly by the look, so we get beauty for the beautiful one back home.
Cheers, it's a dam good whiskey btw.

Let's get to work.
Marking up and cutting the layout lines, for the hand cut fingers / box joints / slot joints or what ever you call them… (in Denmark we call them fingers, I'll stay on that route), I will use fingers on the tote this time, as I think the doves will be too fancy. KISS for my gf - Keep It Simple Stupid. (S - me).
Here the thickness of the boards, are marked up on the sides, with a marking gauge.
I do love the Veritas gauge, used it quite a few years now and smile each time I bring it to use.

Dividing it into a fitting number of fingers.
I want to have the fingers starting and ending on the ends of the tote, this will give the most beautiful curves I think.
Also I cant make them too thin, since the ends will be quite weak, due to the grain direction.
So five it is.

Now they can be marked up with a knife.
This one is a Korean marking knife.

I always mark what is waste, you only make the mistake of not doing that once…
(Yes I did that some years back and cut on the wrong side of the finger).

When I hand cut fingers or dovetails, that I want to look nice, I always take the time to make these little 45° side cuts.

Like this the saw have a side guide.
As you can see the saw runs perfectly down the side of the cut.
You will discover, that anyone can make beautiful cuts if they do this, even if you are not a trained woodworker with 35 years of sawing in your hand.
Yes it really is that easy and you can use it on all cuts, you need to make with a hand saw!

Here on the end finger, I do the same.
First a vertical cut, flat side of chisel, facing the line.

And the 45° cut, with the chisel turned.

You get it?
Then do the other side also.

Saw.
But don't start flat like this, tilt the saw down, to start the cut in the 45° cut, do this from both sides first, before going flat on longer cuts.

Then your cut will be sharp and the good side intact.

Is it the whiskey or do you also see a unicorn that pooped?

The cut out's between the fingers can be sawed out, with a turning saw, or cut with a chisel, I prefer the last.
Just bang the bucker…
Ok, I should have done it in two parts, it made some small marks on the good side of the line.
(The good side of the line, is on the part you want to keep, the other side is the waste side).

With chisel and pine we usually end up with this.
It does not really matter, as it will not be visible and gluing on end grain, gives almost no strength any way.

Don't remember why I took this picture…

So we got fingers on the four sides, let's move on.

Time to transfer the fingers to the end pieces of the tote.
Put the side piece flat and square on top of the end you want marked.
When using the side fingers as marking tool, you have no risk of marking mistakes and if you made a mistake before, it will be transferred, to give a correct match here.
In other words, don't ever just mark up both pieces and cut them, it hardly never fits perfectly.

Check they line up.

With a knife, mark up, use the side of the fingers as guide and use a knife with a flat side..
On this picture I have offset it a wee to show you the marking after it was done.

Mark the waste part.

Hmmmm, the knot here are moving, I could not get around it, when marking up the end, so I had to accept it.

No problem, it can be glued back in, with some gel CA glue.
Woodworking is also about fixing mistakes.

Finally we can get to the end fingers, here marking up the thickness of the boards.
I stop the cuts, because I would otherwise make the end weaker and risk it will break down the line, as it is in the grain direction.

Basically we never want to cut fingers or doves like this, they will not be as strong as if two end grains meet up. Here it's a choice between the black death or the cholera here, as we want the grain to run all the way up to the handle on the end pieces and we then have no other choice here, than to cut fingers from meeting end and cross grain.

In my last tool tote blog, I made this sketch to explain the situation, the red force arrows show where the strength is.

Cutting down the sides.

Yes I like the cuts to overlap and become visual, for me it gives this hand made expression afterwards

Try to fixate the wood always when marking, then your angle will not slip.

Yes you know by now what I'm doing, yes?

A few strokes with the saw later and we are there.
The sawing takes no time, especially when you made a good marking and the guiding cuts.

When going cross grain, I like to use a 20 tpi dovetail saw, these fine teeth's almost makes dust and makes an extremely fine cut. When I saw the rip part, I use a 14 tpi saw, since it's faster.
(If I should have only one dovetail saw, it would be 12-14 tpi).
tpi= teeth's pr inch.

You can see the lines are sharp on the good side and the tear out are on the waste side of the backside of the cut.

Front side.

Time to kick ass, or chew bubble gum and I'm all out of gum…
(Have you been there too?).

Here an interesting fact.
When you bang out the wast, the chisel will follow the grain, so it will look like this.

It can be a wee dangerous, so you should start less aggressive, as I did in the second go.
(Yes I make plenty of mistakes).

Here you see why. On the fist cut, I went all the way to the marked line, I was lucky, it could have gone a little passed and then I would be in trouble. On the other one I still have wood to work with on this side.

So here on the back I cut half way down now.

Turn the board and it looks like this.

Cut again, you can do this by hand.
Be care full, that the chisel stays with in the waste part, otherwoise you risk breaking off a finger.

I believe it's called parring.

Let's see what we got.

Matching hand cut fingers!

Since I'm not all done, I'll stop the blog here and continue with a part two once I'm done, in part two I will tell about fitting and fixing fingers, hand planing / table saw cutting the grooves for the bottom of the caddy and making a branch from the forest into a handle, perhaps some pimping up the caddy, before I wax it up, wrap it up and give it to my dear gf Yeli.

Hope it can be to some inspiration, perhaps that you learned something, or at least that you enjoyed the read.

Best thoughts,

MaFe

Hi guys,
pottz, lovely to take you along, thank you, I do love to work there.
Lew, I use that method always, it takes a few extra seconds, but I almost always end up with a good cut and no tear out, so I really think it's worth it. Sometimes when lazy, I just precut, the whole way around and make a single V cut to start the saw (sometimes I regret).
doubleDD, laugh, yes keep a sharp eye open. Trust me, it easy. Thanks.
Joe, SMILES.
Ken, I actually never thought I had the patience, but I find it so joyful that it just happens. My nerves are stuck in my neck, that's why its not all hand made, I need to find a balance and making the boards with a lunch box planner and sawing some on a band saw helps me from getting tension. My rule is, I have to know how and to have made some, then I can use the power tools. Thank you.
stefang, always a joy to do hand work, I hope to do this more in the future, green wood working also, but being in the city life and a workshop away from home, sets some limitations. Thank you Mike.
woodshaver Tony C, Thank you Tony, I really tried this time to show all the steps, so I'm happy you enjoyed it.
Thank you all.
Best thoughts,
Mads

 

[madts]

Boards, shape and fingers

Caddy for tools, gardening, drawing, painting…
boards, shape and fingers / taps

I wanted to give my girlfriend something made with my hands for Christmas, as one of the gifts and since she is a Jacqueline of many trades, I decided a caddy / tote to bring her stuff, would be a thing that can bring joy in many situations. If she will use it for gardening, drawing stuff, painting gear, tools, garden tools, flowers or even perhaps at her job as a doctor, that must be up to her, for now I just need to get it done, before too long.
Smiles.

This was the last picture I took today with my cell phone, before leaving the workshop, the caddy in it's current step on the way.

But lets start from the beginning.
As most of my projects we start with some reclaimed wood, pine, from some old bed slats.
Bed slats are usually quite good and strong wood, with few knots.

Here they have had a tour through a lunch box planner, one side jointed and now glued and clamped.

After gluing, Yeli (my gf) helped with deciding the shape and we went for the same as my good old tool tote.
Here sawing to shape on the band saw.

Sanding the sides.

The sides were held together with double sided tape, to save some time.

Finally at the workbench, had enough of power tools.
I'll use my little benchtop bench for a good work position and please notice the new LED light over the bench, this old chap is a happy monkey as I said.

Well, we need a pipe of tobacco and a coffee also.

Ok and a small smoked whiskey, it was a Christmas present from my mother, so I guess I have her blessing…

But it's single malt Scotch, so one need no blessing!

Not that a tool caddy need to be perfect, but I was a wee unhappy with the lines my planer left, I guess I need to buy some new knifes soon.

Easy job with one of my favourite tools, the card scraper.

Look how the surface of the wood stands out, amazing what a little scraping can do.

Time to match up and mark the pieces.
Find out witch one you want, where and what side in and down.
Sometimes the grain will decide it, but here I go mainly by the look, so we get beauty for the beautiful one back home.
Cheers, it's a dam good whiskey btw.

Let's get to work.
Marking up and cutting the layout lines, for the hand cut fingers / box joints / slot joints or what ever you call them… (in Denmark we call them fingers, I'll stay on that route), I will use fingers on the tote this time, as I think the doves will be too fancy. KISS for my gf - Keep It Simple Stupid. (S - me).
Here the thickness of the boards, are marked up on the sides, with a marking gauge.
I do love the Veritas gauge, used it quite a few years now and smile each time I bring it to use.

Dividing it into a fitting number of fingers.
I want to have the fingers starting and ending on the ends of the tote, this will give the most beautiful curves I think.
Also I cant make them too thin, since the ends will be quite weak, due to the grain direction.
So five it is.

Now they can be marked up with a knife.
This one is a Korean marking knife.

I always mark what is waste, you only make the mistake of not doing that once…
(Yes I did that some years back and cut on the wrong side of the finger).

When I hand cut fingers or dovetails, that I want to look nice, I always take the time to make these little 45° side cuts.

Like this the saw have a side guide.
As you can see the saw runs perfectly down the side of the cut.
You will discover, that anyone can make beautiful cuts if they do this, even if you are not a trained woodworker with 35 years of sawing in your hand.
Yes it really is that easy and you can use it on all cuts, you need to make with a hand saw!

Here on the end finger, I do the same.
First a vertical cut, flat side of chisel, facing the line.

And the 45° cut, with the chisel turned.

You get it?
Then do the other side also.

Saw.
But don't start flat like this, tilt the saw down, to start the cut in the 45° cut, do this from both sides first, before going flat on longer cuts.

Then your cut will be sharp and the good side intact.

Is it the whiskey or do you also see a unicorn that pooped?

The cut out's between the fingers can be sawed out, with a turning saw, or cut with a chisel, I prefer the last.
Just bang the bucker…
Ok, I should have done it in two parts, it made some small marks on the good side of the line.
(The good side of the line, is on the part you want to keep, the other side is the waste side).

With chisel and pine we usually end up with this.
It does not really matter, as it will not be visible and gluing on end grain, gives almost no strength any way.

Don't remember why I took this picture…

So we got fingers on the four sides, let's move on.

Time to transfer the fingers to the end pieces of the tote.
Put the side piece flat and square on top of the end you want marked.
When using the side fingers as marking tool, you have no risk of marking mistakes and if you made a mistake before, it will be transferred, to give a correct match here.
In other words, don't ever just mark up both pieces and cut them, it hardly never fits perfectly.

Check they line up.

With a knife, mark up, use the side of the fingers as guide and use a knife with a flat side..
On this picture I have offset it a wee to show you the marking after it was done.

Mark the waste part.

Hmmmm, the knot here are moving, I could not get around it, when marking up the end, so I had to accept it.

No problem, it can be glued back in, with some gel CA glue.
Woodworking is also about fixing mistakes.

Finally we can get to the end fingers, here marking up the thickness of the boards.
I stop the cuts, because I would otherwise make the end weaker and risk it will break down the line, as it is in the grain direction.

Basically we never want to cut fingers or doves like this, they will not be as strong as if two end grains meet up. Here it's a choice between the black death or the cholera here, as we want the grain to run all the way up to the handle on the end pieces and we then have no other choice here, than to cut fingers from meeting end and cross grain.

In my last tool tote blog, I made this sketch to explain the situation, the red force arrows show where the strength is.

Cutting down the sides.

Yes I like the cuts to overlap and become visual, for me it gives this hand made expression afterwards

Try to fixate the wood always when marking, then your angle will not slip.

Yes you know by now what I'm doing, yes?

A few strokes with the saw later and we are there.
The sawing takes no time, especially when you made a good marking and the guiding cuts.

When going cross grain, I like to use a 20 tpi dovetail saw, these fine teeth's almost makes dust and makes an extremely fine cut. When I saw the rip part, I use a 14 tpi saw, since it's faster.
(If I should have only one dovetail saw, it would be 12-14 tpi).
tpi= teeth's pr inch.

You can see the lines are sharp on the good side and the tear out are on the waste side of the backside of the cut.

Front side.

Time to kick ass, or chew bubble gum and I'm all out of gum…
(Have you been there too?).

Here an interesting fact.
When you bang out the wast, the chisel will follow the grain, so it will look like this.

It can be a wee dangerous, so you should start less aggressive, as I did in the second go.
(Yes I make plenty of mistakes).

Here you see why. On the fist cut, I went all the way to the marked line, I was lucky, it could have gone a little passed and then I would be in trouble. On the other one I still have wood to work with on this side.

So here on the back I cut half way down now.

Turn the board and it looks like this.

Cut again, you can do this by hand.
Be care full, that the chisel stays with in the waste part, otherwoise you risk breaking off a finger.

I believe it's called parring.

Let's see what we got.

Matching hand cut fingers!

Since I'm not all done, I'll stop the blog here and continue with a part two once I'm done, in part two I will tell about fitting and fixing fingers, hand planing / table saw cutting the grooves for the bottom of the caddy and making a branch from the forest into a handle, perhaps some pimping up the caddy, before I wax it up, wrap it up and give it to my dear gf Yeli.

Hope it can be to some inspiration, perhaps that you learned something, or at least that you enjoyed the read.

Best thoughts,

MaFe

Nice caddy Mads. You have been busy as of late so things must be good for you. Have never thought that a shot of whiskey at the end of the day, was a bad thing.

Keep up the good stuff. I enjoy your blogs.

-Madts.

 

[mafe]

Boards, shape and fingers

Caddy for tools, gardening, drawing, painting…
boards, shape and fingers / taps

I wanted to give my girlfriend something made with my hands for Christmas, as one of the gifts and since she is a Jacqueline of many trades, I decided a caddy / tote to bring her stuff, would be a thing that can bring joy in many situations. If she will use it for gardening, drawing stuff, painting gear, tools, garden tools, flowers or even perhaps at her job as a doctor, that must be up to her, for now I just need to get it done, before too long.
Smiles.

This was the last picture I took today with my cell phone, before leaving the workshop, the caddy in it's current step on the way.

But lets start from the beginning.
As most of my projects we start with some reclaimed wood, pine, from some old bed slats.
Bed slats are usually quite good and strong wood, with few knots.

Here they have had a tour through a lunch box planner, one side jointed and now glued and clamped.

After gluing, Yeli (my gf) helped with deciding the shape and we went for the same as my good old tool tote.
Here sawing to shape on the band saw.

Sanding the sides.

The sides were held together with double sided tape, to save some time.

Finally at the workbench, had enough of power tools.
I'll use my little benchtop bench for a good work position and please notice the new LED light over the bench, this old chap is a happy monkey as I said.

Well, we need a pipe of tobacco and a coffee also.

Ok and a small smoked whiskey, it was a Christmas present from my mother, so I guess I have her blessing…

But it's single malt Scotch, so one need no blessing!

Not that a tool caddy need to be perfect, but I was a wee unhappy with the lines my planer left, I guess I need to buy some new knifes soon.

Easy job with one of my favourite tools, the card scraper.

Look how the surface of the wood stands out, amazing what a little scraping can do.

Time to match up and mark the pieces.
Find out witch one you want, where and what side in and down.
Sometimes the grain will decide it, but here I go mainly by the look, so we get beauty for the beautiful one back home.
Cheers, it's a dam good whiskey btw.

Let's get to work.
Marking up and cutting the layout lines, for the hand cut fingers / box joints / slot joints or what ever you call them… (in Denmark we call them fingers, I'll stay on that route), I will use fingers on the tote this time, as I think the doves will be too fancy. KISS for my gf - Keep It Simple Stupid. (S - me).
Here the thickness of the boards, are marked up on the sides, with a marking gauge.
I do love the Veritas gauge, used it quite a few years now and smile each time I bring it to use.

Dividing it into a fitting number of fingers.
I want to have the fingers starting and ending on the ends of the tote, this will give the most beautiful curves I think.
Also I cant make them too thin, since the ends will be quite weak, due to the grain direction.
So five it is.

Now they can be marked up with a knife.
This one is a Korean marking knife.

I always mark what is waste, you only make the mistake of not doing that once…
(Yes I did that some years back and cut on the wrong side of the finger).

When I hand cut fingers or dovetails, that I want to look nice, I always take the time to make these little 45° side cuts.

Like this the saw have a side guide.
As you can see the saw runs perfectly down the side of the cut.
You will discover, that anyone can make beautiful cuts if they do this, even if you are not a trained woodworker with 35 years of sawing in your hand.
Yes it really is that easy and you can use it on all cuts, you need to make with a hand saw!

Here on the end finger, I do the same.
First a vertical cut, flat side of chisel, facing the line.

And the 45° cut, with the chisel turned.

You get it?
Then do the other side also.

Saw.
But don't start flat like this, tilt the saw down, to start the cut in the 45° cut, do this from both sides first, before going flat on longer cuts.

Then your cut will be sharp and the good side intact.

Is it the whiskey or do you also see a unicorn that pooped?

The cut out's between the fingers can be sawed out, with a turning saw, or cut with a chisel, I prefer the last.
Just bang the bucker…
Ok, I should have done it in two parts, it made some small marks on the good side of the line.
(The good side of the line, is on the part you want to keep, the other side is the waste side).

With chisel and pine we usually end up with this.
It does not really matter, as it will not be visible and gluing on end grain, gives almost no strength any way.

Don't remember why I took this picture…

So we got fingers on the four sides, let's move on.

Time to transfer the fingers to the end pieces of the tote.
Put the side piece flat and square on top of the end you want marked.
When using the side fingers as marking tool, you have no risk of marking mistakes and if you made a mistake before, it will be transferred, to give a correct match here.
In other words, don't ever just mark up both pieces and cut them, it hardly never fits perfectly.

Check they line up.

With a knife, mark up, use the side of the fingers as guide and use a knife with a flat side..
On this picture I have offset it a wee to show you the marking after it was done.

Mark the waste part.

Hmmmm, the knot here are moving, I could not get around it, when marking up the end, so I had to accept it.

No problem, it can be glued back in, with some gel CA glue.
Woodworking is also about fixing mistakes.

Finally we can get to the end fingers, here marking up the thickness of the boards.
I stop the cuts, because I would otherwise make the end weaker and risk it will break down the line, as it is in the grain direction.

Basically we never want to cut fingers or doves like this, they will not be as strong as if two end grains meet up. Here it's a choice between the black death or the cholera here, as we want the grain to run all the way up to the handle on the end pieces and we then have no other choice here, than to cut fingers from meeting end and cross grain.

In my last tool tote blog, I made this sketch to explain the situation, the red force arrows show where the strength is.

Cutting down the sides.

Yes I like the cuts to overlap and become visual, for me it gives this hand made expression afterwards

Try to fixate the wood always when marking, then your angle will not slip.

Yes you know by now what I'm doing, yes?

A few strokes with the saw later and we are there.
The sawing takes no time, especially when you made a good marking and the guiding cuts.

When going cross grain, I like to use a 20 tpi dovetail saw, these fine teeth's almost makes dust and makes an extremely fine cut. When I saw the rip part, I use a 14 tpi saw, since it's faster.
(If I should have only one dovetail saw, it would be 12-14 tpi).
tpi= teeth's pr inch.

You can see the lines are sharp on the good side and the tear out are on the waste side of the backside of the cut.

Front side.

Time to kick ass, or chew bubble gum and I'm all out of gum…
(Have you been there too?).

Here an interesting fact.
When you bang out the wast, the chisel will follow the grain, so it will look like this.

It can be a wee dangerous, so you should start less aggressive, as I did in the second go.
(Yes I make plenty of mistakes).

Here you see why. On the fist cut, I went all the way to the marked line, I was lucky, it could have gone a little passed and then I would be in trouble. On the other one I still have wood to work with on this side.

So here on the back I cut half way down now.

Turn the board and it looks like this.

Cut again, you can do this by hand.
Be care full, that the chisel stays with in the waste part, otherwoise you risk breaking off a finger.

I believe it's called parring.

Let's see what we got.

Matching hand cut fingers!

Since I'm not all done, I'll stop the blog here and continue with a part two once I'm done, in part two I will tell about fitting and fixing fingers, hand planing / table saw cutting the grooves for the bottom of the caddy and making a branch from the forest into a handle, perhaps some pimping up the caddy, before I wax it up, wrap it up and give it to my dear gf Yeli.

Hope it can be to some inspiration, perhaps that you learned something, or at least that you enjoyed the read.

Best thoughts,

MaFe

Hi Madts,
Thank you for your kind words.
Yes I'm trying to get more to the workshop this winter, as I know I will come there less in the summer, now I have the allotment house.
A shot of whiskey is a good thing in my book.
I have a rule for alcohol at the workshop, I can have a beer for lunch and a beer when I have swiped the floor or a whiskey at special occasions, otherwise I fall in the hole, think it's because I had too much when I was a young man. In average I only have a on beer a day and one or two pipes of tobacco, this keeps me full of joy when I get it, smiles.
Best thoughts,
Mads

 

[Brit]

Boards, shape and fingers

Caddy for tools, gardening, drawing, painting…
boards, shape and fingers / taps

I wanted to give my girlfriend something made with my hands for Christmas, as one of the gifts and since she is a Jacqueline of many trades, I decided a caddy / tote to bring her stuff, would be a thing that can bring joy in many situations. If she will use it for gardening, drawing stuff, painting gear, tools, garden tools, flowers or even perhaps at her job as a doctor, that must be up to her, for now I just need to get it done, before too long.
Smiles.

This was the last picture I took today with my cell phone, before leaving the workshop, the caddy in it's current step on the way.

But lets start from the beginning.
As most of my projects we start with some reclaimed wood, pine, from some old bed slats.
Bed slats are usually quite good and strong wood, with few knots.

Here they have had a tour through a lunch box planner, one side jointed and now glued and clamped.

After gluing, Yeli (my gf) helped with deciding the shape and we went for the same as my good old tool tote.
Here sawing to shape on the band saw.

Sanding the sides.

The sides were held together with double sided tape, to save some time.

Finally at the workbench, had enough of power tools.
I'll use my little benchtop bench for a good work position and please notice the new LED light over the bench, this old chap is a happy monkey as I said.

Well, we need a pipe of tobacco and a coffee also.

Ok and a small smoked whiskey, it was a Christmas present from my mother, so I guess I have her blessing…

But it's single malt Scotch, so one need no blessing!

Not that a tool caddy need to be perfect, but I was a wee unhappy with the lines my planer left, I guess I need to buy some new knifes soon.

Easy job with one of my favourite tools, the card scraper.

Look how the surface of the wood stands out, amazing what a little scraping can do.

Time to match up and mark the pieces.
Find out witch one you want, where and what side in and down.
Sometimes the grain will decide it, but here I go mainly by the look, so we get beauty for the beautiful one back home.
Cheers, it's a dam good whiskey btw.

Let's get to work.
Marking up and cutting the layout lines, for the hand cut fingers / box joints / slot joints or what ever you call them… (in Denmark we call them fingers, I'll stay on that route), I will use fingers on the tote this time, as I think the doves will be too fancy. KISS for my gf - Keep It Simple Stupid. (S - me).
Here the thickness of the boards, are marked up on the sides, with a marking gauge.
I do love the Veritas gauge, used it quite a few years now and smile each time I bring it to use.

Dividing it into a fitting number of fingers.
I want to have the fingers starting and ending on the ends of the tote, this will give the most beautiful curves I think.
Also I cant make them too thin, since the ends will be quite weak, due to the grain direction.
So five it is.

Now they can be marked up with a knife.
This one is a Korean marking knife.

I always mark what is waste, you only make the mistake of not doing that once…
(Yes I did that some years back and cut on the wrong side of the finger).

When I hand cut fingers or dovetails, that I want to look nice, I always take the time to make these little 45° side cuts.

Like this the saw have a side guide.
As you can see the saw runs perfectly down the side of the cut.
You will discover, that anyone can make beautiful cuts if they do this, even if you are not a trained woodworker with 35 years of sawing in your hand.
Yes it really is that easy and you can use it on all cuts, you need to make with a hand saw!

Here on the end finger, I do the same.
First a vertical cut, flat side of chisel, facing the line.

And the 45° cut, with the chisel turned.

You get it?
Then do the other side also.

Saw.
But don't start flat like this, tilt the saw down, to start the cut in the 45° cut, do this from both sides first, before going flat on longer cuts.

Then your cut will be sharp and the good side intact.

Is it the whiskey or do you also see a unicorn that pooped?

The cut out's between the fingers can be sawed out, with a turning saw, or cut with a chisel, I prefer the last.
Just bang the bucker…
Ok, I should have done it in two parts, it made some small marks on the good side of the line.
(The good side of the line, is on the part you want to keep, the other side is the waste side).

With chisel and pine we usually end up with this.
It does not really matter, as it will not be visible and gluing on end grain, gives almost no strength any way.

Don't remember why I took this picture…

So we got fingers on the four sides, let's move on.

Time to transfer the fingers to the end pieces of the tote.
Put the side piece flat and square on top of the end you want marked.
When using the side fingers as marking tool, you have no risk of marking mistakes and if you made a mistake before, it will be transferred, to give a correct match here.
In other words, don't ever just mark up both pieces and cut them, it hardly never fits perfectly.

Check they line up.

With a knife, mark up, use the side of the fingers as guide and use a knife with a flat side..
On this picture I have offset it a wee to show you the marking after it was done.

Mark the waste part.

Hmmmm, the knot here are moving, I could not get around it, when marking up the end, so I had to accept it.

No problem, it can be glued back in, with some gel CA glue.
Woodworking is also about fixing mistakes.

Finally we can get to the end fingers, here marking up the thickness of the boards.
I stop the cuts, because I would otherwise make the end weaker and risk it will break down the line, as it is in the grain direction.

Basically we never want to cut fingers or doves like this, they will not be as strong as if two end grains meet up. Here it's a choice between the black death or the cholera here, as we want the grain to run all the way up to the handle on the end pieces and we then have no other choice here, than to cut fingers from meeting end and cross grain.

In my last tool tote blog, I made this sketch to explain the situation, the red force arrows show where the strength is.

Cutting down the sides.

Yes I like the cuts to overlap and become visual, for me it gives this hand made expression afterwards

Try to fixate the wood always when marking, then your angle will not slip.

Yes you know by now what I'm doing, yes?

A few strokes with the saw later and we are there.
The sawing takes no time, especially when you made a good marking and the guiding cuts.

When going cross grain, I like to use a 20 tpi dovetail saw, these fine teeth's almost makes dust and makes an extremely fine cut. When I saw the rip part, I use a 14 tpi saw, since it's faster.
(If I should have only one dovetail saw, it would be 12-14 tpi).
tpi= teeth's pr inch.

You can see the lines are sharp on the good side and the tear out are on the waste side of the backside of the cut.

Front side.

Time to kick ass, or chew bubble gum and I'm all out of gum…
(Have you been there too?).

Here an interesting fact.
When you bang out the wast, the chisel will follow the grain, so it will look like this.

It can be a wee dangerous, so you should start less aggressive, as I did in the second go.
(Yes I make plenty of mistakes).

Here you see why. On the fist cut, I went all the way to the marked line, I was lucky, it could have gone a little passed and then I would be in trouble. On the other one I still have wood to work with on this side.

So here on the back I cut half way down now.

Turn the board and it looks like this.

Cut again, you can do this by hand.
Be care full, that the chisel stays with in the waste part, otherwoise you risk breaking off a finger.

I believe it's called parring.

Let's see what we got.

Matching hand cut fingers!

Since I'm not all done, I'll stop the blog here and continue with a part two once I'm done, in part two I will tell about fitting and fixing fingers, hand planing / table saw cutting the grooves for the bottom of the caddy and making a branch from the forest into a handle, perhaps some pimping up the caddy, before I wax it up, wrap it up and give it to my dear gf Yeli.

Hope it can be to some inspiration, perhaps that you learned something, or at least that you enjoyed the read.

Best thoughts,

MaFe

What a lovely gift you're making there Mads. I must get myself a whiskey though because I couldn't see any unicorn poop.

 

[mafe]

Boards, shape and fingers

Caddy for tools, gardening, drawing, painting…
boards, shape and fingers / taps

I wanted to give my girlfriend something made with my hands for Christmas, as one of the gifts and since she is a Jacqueline of many trades, I decided a caddy / tote to bring her stuff, would be a thing that can bring joy in many situations. If she will use it for gardening, drawing stuff, painting gear, tools, garden tools, flowers or even perhaps at her job as a doctor, that must be up to her, for now I just need to get it done, before too long.
Smiles.

This was the last picture I took today with my cell phone, before leaving the workshop, the caddy in it's current step on the way.

But lets start from the beginning.
As most of my projects we start with some reclaimed wood, pine, from some old bed slats.
Bed slats are usually quite good and strong wood, with few knots.

Here they have had a tour through a lunch box planner, one side jointed and now glued and clamped.

After gluing, Yeli (my gf) helped with deciding the shape and we went for the same as my good old tool tote.
Here sawing to shape on the band saw.

Sanding the sides.

The sides were held together with double sided tape, to save some time.

Finally at the workbench, had enough of power tools.
I'll use my little benchtop bench for a good work position and please notice the new LED light over the bench, this old chap is a happy monkey as I said.

Well, we need a pipe of tobacco and a coffee also.

Ok and a small smoked whiskey, it was a Christmas present from my mother, so I guess I have her blessing…

But it's single malt Scotch, so one need no blessing!

Not that a tool caddy need to be perfect, but I was a wee unhappy with the lines my planer left, I guess I need to buy some new knifes soon.

Easy job with one of my favourite tools, the card scraper.

Look how the surface of the wood stands out, amazing what a little scraping can do.

Time to match up and mark the pieces.
Find out witch one you want, where and what side in and down.
Sometimes the grain will decide it, but here I go mainly by the look, so we get beauty for the beautiful one back home.
Cheers, it's a dam good whiskey btw.

Let's get to work.
Marking up and cutting the layout lines, for the hand cut fingers / box joints / slot joints or what ever you call them… (in Denmark we call them fingers, I'll stay on that route), I will use fingers on the tote this time, as I think the doves will be too fancy. KISS for my gf - Keep It Simple Stupid. (S - me).
Here the thickness of the boards, are marked up on the sides, with a marking gauge.
I do love the Veritas gauge, used it quite a few years now and smile each time I bring it to use.

Dividing it into a fitting number of fingers.
I want to have the fingers starting and ending on the ends of the tote, this will give the most beautiful curves I think.
Also I cant make them too thin, since the ends will be quite weak, due to the grain direction.
So five it is.

Now they can be marked up with a knife.
This one is a Korean marking knife.

I always mark what is waste, you only make the mistake of not doing that once…
(Yes I did that some years back and cut on the wrong side of the finger).

When I hand cut fingers or dovetails, that I want to look nice, I always take the time to make these little 45° side cuts.

Like this the saw have a side guide.
As you can see the saw runs perfectly down the side of the cut.
You will discover, that anyone can make beautiful cuts if they do this, even if you are not a trained woodworker with 35 years of sawing in your hand.
Yes it really is that easy and you can use it on all cuts, you need to make with a hand saw!

Here on the end finger, I do the same.
First a vertical cut, flat side of chisel, facing the line.

And the 45° cut, with the chisel turned.

You get it?
Then do the other side also.

Saw.
But don't start flat like this, tilt the saw down, to start the cut in the 45° cut, do this from both sides first, before going flat on longer cuts.

Then your cut will be sharp and the good side intact.

Is it the whiskey or do you also see a unicorn that pooped?

The cut out's between the fingers can be sawed out, with a turning saw, or cut with a chisel, I prefer the last.
Just bang the bucker…
Ok, I should have done it in two parts, it made some small marks on the good side of the line.
(The good side of the line, is on the part you want to keep, the other side is the waste side).

With chisel and pine we usually end up with this.
It does not really matter, as it will not be visible and gluing on end grain, gives almost no strength any way.

Don't remember why I took this picture…

So we got fingers on the four sides, let's move on.

Time to transfer the fingers to the end pieces of the tote.
Put the side piece flat and square on top of the end you want marked.
When using the side fingers as marking tool, you have no risk of marking mistakes and if you made a mistake before, it will be transferred, to give a correct match here.
In other words, don't ever just mark up both pieces and cut them, it hardly never fits perfectly.

Check they line up.

With a knife, mark up, use the side of the fingers as guide and use a knife with a flat side..
On this picture I have offset it a wee to show you the marking after it was done.

Mark the waste part.

Hmmmm, the knot here are moving, I could not get around it, when marking up the end, so I had to accept it.

No problem, it can be glued back in, with some gel CA glue.
Woodworking is also about fixing mistakes.

Finally we can get to the end fingers, here marking up the thickness of the boards.
I stop the cuts, because I would otherwise make the end weaker and risk it will break down the line, as it is in the grain direction.

Basically we never want to cut fingers or doves like this, they will not be as strong as if two end grains meet up. Here it's a choice between the black death or the cholera here, as we want the grain to run all the way up to the handle on the end pieces and we then have no other choice here, than to cut fingers from meeting end and cross grain.

In my last tool tote blog, I made this sketch to explain the situation, the red force arrows show where the strength is.

Cutting down the sides.

Yes I like the cuts to overlap and become visual, for me it gives this hand made expression afterwards

Try to fixate the wood always when marking, then your angle will not slip.

Yes you know by now what I'm doing, yes?

A few strokes with the saw later and we are there.
The sawing takes no time, especially when you made a good marking and the guiding cuts.

When going cross grain, I like to use a 20 tpi dovetail saw, these fine teeth's almost makes dust and makes an extremely fine cut. When I saw the rip part, I use a 14 tpi saw, since it's faster.
(If I should have only one dovetail saw, it would be 12-14 tpi).
tpi= teeth's pr inch.

You can see the lines are sharp on the good side and the tear out are on the waste side of the backside of the cut.

Front side.

Time to kick ass, or chew bubble gum and I'm all out of gum…
(Have you been there too?).

Here an interesting fact.
When you bang out the wast, the chisel will follow the grain, so it will look like this.

It can be a wee dangerous, so you should start less aggressive, as I did in the second go.
(Yes I make plenty of mistakes).

Here you see why. On the fist cut, I went all the way to the marked line, I was lucky, it could have gone a little passed and then I would be in trouble. On the other one I still have wood to work with on this side.

So here on the back I cut half way down now.

Turn the board and it looks like this.

Cut again, you can do this by hand.
Be care full, that the chisel stays with in the waste part, otherwoise you risk breaking off a finger.

I believe it's called parring.

Let's see what we got.

Matching hand cut fingers!

Since I'm not all done, I'll stop the blog here and continue with a part two once I'm done, in part two I will tell about fitting and fixing fingers, hand planing / table saw cutting the grooves for the bottom of the caddy and making a branch from the forest into a handle, perhaps some pimping up the caddy, before I wax it up, wrap it up and give it to my dear gf Yeli.

Hope it can be to some inspiration, perhaps that you learned something, or at least that you enjoyed the read.

Best thoughts,

MaFe

Andy, big laugh. You should do that, but still look carefully. We always deserve a whiskey. ;-)
MAD

 

[mafe]

fixing mistakes, improvising and getting it done

Caddy for tools, gardening, drawing, painting…
fixing mistakes, improvising and getting it done

Here we are at part two of the caddy build, a Christmas gift for my girlfriend, as I thought she should have something, made with my hands.

Last blog ended here, where the fingers were cut and we have a frame.

Took these pictures after the whiskey was enjoyed and I then left the shop for the day.

But let's go back to where we finished.
Let's talk about the mistakes we make and how to fix them.
Sometimes the fingers or dovetails might not be tight enough, this will mean that there are no glue surface and it might not look as you wished for…

But don't worry, we can fix that and the solution is often in the waste…
When it's just a wee bit, you can cut a slice of a finger off cut.

Then slice it in, for a perfect match.

Next we will look at fingers that are too wide.
For this we need a super sharp chisel, so I always start by stopping it.

We want that mirror, to reflect our mistakes.
After all this is the best way to learn, smiles.

It's clear to see, that my saw cut slipped a little here and since we have these forbidden fingers, we have to cut in end grain - that's why it important to have a super sharp chisel.

But with a sharp chisel, it is no problem.

Now we have a tight fit.

I'm happy with this.

The fingers are so tight, that the can hold the box together, without glue.
We want tight a fit, but not that you need violence to put them together.
So yes actually rather a tiny bit loose, than too tight.

Ok, so we are there finally, fingers done.

Time for tobacco.

Let's pick up a plane so we can cut the groove for the bottom.

My little favourite for that job.

But first I like to cut, so the plane have a guide, like this the grain direction will also not mean too much.
We don't want tear out do we? Smiles.
If the cut will be a success through a knot… that will take more tan luck, but it's why I put this on a not visible place.

With a sharp 43, it takes just a few passes.

I set it at quite aggressive, if you don't make a pre cut, then you should start less aggressive.

How can you not smile, looking at this!

I call this crisp!

Hmmmmmmmmm… Huston we got a problem!
Cutting cross grain…
I mark as I think, how the f… do I manage this.
If this should have been done, I would have needed a much wide piece at the bottom, if I cut with a rabbet plane here, it will almost certainly tear out and parts of it break off.

So I take a drastic choice here.
A motor plane…

Like this the edge can be crisp.
(It was not my plan, so I'm a wee annoyed, but a crisp edge brought my smile back).

The board for the bottom can now be measured.

A piece of thin plywood - took this choice to keep the weight down, as it's a caddy.

Slides right in.
As you can see the knot did not not make it, when I planed the rabbet.
No problem, since it's not visible.

I'll stick to the stick handle…
I fine branch from a Danish forest.

Using the knife that was a part of Dave's and mine project together, the SPRAD knifes.
Lovely knife Dave, thank you with a big smile.

After a wee time with a knife, I finish up with a scraper and feel pleased for the beauty and simplicity that nature brings this project.

Hmmmmmm…

Drilling holes for the handle, two sizes.
Always drill almost through with Forstner bits, then turn and use the hole as pilot, to drill the last part from other side, so you don't get tear out.

Fixing a problem again…
Yes wood working is a lot about that also, especially when we make things without a plan.
Here I cut some thin strips, the size of the rabbet.

Sawing off a wee bit.

To fix the holes I decided was needed at the end pieces, as I could not make stopped cuts on the table saw…
This is where the rabbet ends.

But first let's put this caddy together for good.
Gluing the fingers.

When putting it together, if a finger are too tight, try using a clamp, to slowly press it together.
A hammer might make the wood crack.
(My fingers were almost too tight, so I had a struggle, since the wood expanded a wee, once the glue was applyed).

Now the bottom are glued in and the other side can be glued in place.

Drilling for wooden nails, to hold the handle in place.

A bamboo skewer and a beech wood nail.

The repair can be done, I don't try to make it invisible here, it's something that can show a story on the caddy after.

Glue it in and cut flush.

Since the fingers a quite fragile on the ends, I decide to give the box some wood nails, so I feel sure it will never come apart, but also because I like the look of them.

Now not only the fingers are holding them together.
Should I also give the other fingers a wood nail? In that case it should perhaps be from the same side…

Sharp chisel again.

Cut flush.

Fixing the mistakes again!
I did exactly what I warned against, I used a mallet to bang the corner of this end in to place - and the finger broke off…
But it's not a problem that can't be fixed, so some glue and a wood nail and we are back in business. Ironically this will be stronger now.

Ok here we have a new fix.
One of the fingers had a wee gap and after the glue up, it was even worse.
Look at the rabbet fix and wood nail now, these just adds to the character now.
I use the small scraper to clean up the gap.

Here a few thin strips.

Glue on the thin strip that fits and push it in.
Then beak or cut it off.

Yes it's thin.

Once the surface is scraped or sanded, no one will ever see that fix.

Time to clean up the surface and give the extra finish on the fingers.
A low angle plane held skewed (30° sideways as you move it straight forward), this will prevent tear out and you will get a beautiful surface.
Never go outwards, then you will break the edges.

Look how the fingers get more crisp and flush.

This is what I'm looking for.

Ends after clean up.
After this I just use a card scraper on the hole tote, to make that clean closed surface, that sand paper can't do.

So here we are, the tool caddy is done.

With painting tools in it.

The end…

The blog ends here.
Now the blog is a wrap, I can go and wrap up the caddy and give it to Yeli.

Could not resist, to take a picture with my own tote, I think they are such a fine pair now.

I enjoyed this little project for many reasons, first off all because it is a gift for my gf, second because it was an improvised project based on an older project of mine, third, because I could use it to show some methods of working and even more important, how to fix our mistakes.

Thank you for watching, especially you Yeli, I was really happy, that you liked it and could appreciate the work of my hands.

Hope it can be to some inspiration, perhaps that you learned something, or at least that you enjoyed the read.

Best thoughts,

MaFe

 

[DavePolaschek]

fixing mistakes, improvising and getting it done

Caddy for tools, gardening, drawing, painting…
fixing mistakes, improvising and getting it done

Here we are at part two of the caddy build, a Christmas gift for my girlfriend, as I thought she should have something, made with my hands.

Last blog ended here, where the fingers were cut and we have a frame.

Took these pictures after the whiskey was enjoyed and I then left the shop for the day.

But let's go back to where we finished.
Let's talk about the mistakes we make and how to fix them.
Sometimes the fingers or dovetails might not be tight enough, this will mean that there are no glue surface and it might not look as you wished for…

But don't worry, we can fix that and the solution is often in the waste…
When it's just a wee bit, you can cut a slice of a finger off cut.

Then slice it in, for a perfect match.

Next we will look at fingers that are too wide.
For this we need a super sharp chisel, so I always start by stopping it.

We want that mirror, to reflect our mistakes.
After all this is the best way to learn, smiles.

It's clear to see, that my saw cut slipped a little here and since we have these forbidden fingers, we have to cut in end grain - that's why it important to have a super sharp chisel.

But with a sharp chisel, it is no problem.

Now we have a tight fit.

I'm happy with this.

The fingers are so tight, that the can hold the box together, without glue.
We want tight a fit, but not that you need violence to put them together.
So yes actually rather a tiny bit loose, than too tight.

Ok, so we are there finally, fingers done.

Time for tobacco.

Let's pick up a plane so we can cut the groove for the bottom.

My little favourite for that job.

But first I like to cut, so the plane have a guide, like this the grain direction will also not mean too much.
We don't want tear out do we? Smiles.
If the cut will be a success through a knot… that will take more tan luck, but it's why I put this on a not visible place.

With a sharp 43, it takes just a few passes.

I set it at quite aggressive, if you don't make a pre cut, then you should start less aggressive.

How can you not smile, looking at this!

I call this crisp!

Hmmmmmmmmm… Huston we got a problem!
Cutting cross grain…
I mark as I think, how the f… do I manage this.
If this should have been done, I would have needed a much wide piece at the bottom, if I cut with a rabbet plane here, it will almost certainly tear out and parts of it break off.

So I take a drastic choice here.
A motor plane…

Like this the edge can be crisp.
(It was not my plan, so I'm a wee annoyed, but a crisp edge brought my smile back).

The board for the bottom can now be measured.

A piece of thin plywood - took this choice to keep the weight down, as it's a caddy.

Slides right in.
As you can see the knot did not not make it, when I planed the rabbet.
No problem, since it's not visible.

I'll stick to the stick handle…
I fine branch from a Danish forest.

Using the knife that was a part of Dave's and mine project together, the SPRAD knifes.
Lovely knife Dave, thank you with a big smile.

After a wee time with a knife, I finish up with a scraper and feel pleased for the beauty and simplicity that nature brings this project.

Hmmmmmm…

Drilling holes for the handle, two sizes.
Always drill almost through with Forstner bits, then turn and use the hole as pilot, to drill the last part from other side, so you don't get tear out.

Fixing a problem again…
Yes wood working is a lot about that also, especially when we make things without a plan.
Here I cut some thin strips, the size of the rabbet.

Sawing off a wee bit.

To fix the holes I decided was needed at the end pieces, as I could not make stopped cuts on the table saw…
This is where the rabbet ends.

But first let's put this caddy together for good.
Gluing the fingers.

When putting it together, if a finger are too tight, try using a clamp, to slowly press it together.
A hammer might make the wood crack.
(My fingers were almost too tight, so I had a struggle, since the wood expanded a wee, once the glue was applyed).

Now the bottom are glued in and the other side can be glued in place.

Drilling for wooden nails, to hold the handle in place.

A bamboo skewer and a beech wood nail.

The repair can be done, I don't try to make it invisible here, it's something that can show a story on the caddy after.

Glue it in and cut flush.

Since the fingers a quite fragile on the ends, I decide to give the box some wood nails, so I feel sure it will never come apart, but also because I like the look of them.

Now not only the fingers are holding them together.
Should I also give the other fingers a wood nail? In that case it should perhaps be from the same side…

Sharp chisel again.

Cut flush.

Fixing the mistakes again!
I did exactly what I warned against, I used a mallet to bang the corner of this end in to place - and the finger broke off…
But it's not a problem that can't be fixed, so some glue and a wood nail and we are back in business. Ironically this will be stronger now.

Ok here we have a new fix.
One of the fingers had a wee gap and after the glue up, it was even worse.
Look at the rabbet fix and wood nail now, these just adds to the character now.
I use the small scraper to clean up the gap.

Here a few thin strips.

Glue on the thin strip that fits and push it in.
Then beak or cut it off.

Yes it's thin.

Once the surface is scraped or sanded, no one will ever see that fix.

Time to clean up the surface and give the extra finish on the fingers.
A low angle plane held skewed (30° sideways as you move it straight forward), this will prevent tear out and you will get a beautiful surface.
Never go outwards, then you will break the edges.

Look how the fingers get more crisp and flush.

This is what I'm looking for.

Ends after clean up.
After this I just use a card scraper on the hole tote, to make that clean closed surface, that sand paper can't do.

So here we are, the tool caddy is done.

With painting tools in it.

The end…

The blog ends here.
Now the blog is a wrap, I can go and wrap up the caddy and give it to Yeli.

Could not resist, to take a picture with my own tote, I think they are such a fine pair now.

I enjoyed this little project for many reasons, first off all because it is a gift for my gf, second because it was an improvised project based on an older project of mine, third, because I could use it to show some methods of working and even more important, how to fix our mistakes.

Thank you for watching, especially you Yeli, I was really happy, that you liked it and could appreciate the work of my hands.

Hope it can be to some inspiration, perhaps that you learned something, or at least that you enjoyed the read.

Best thoughts,

MaFe

It's a nice tote, and I'm glad to see the knife is serving you well. Mine is being used on my project for the surprise swap, but I have to wait to post photos, since it is supposed to be a surprise.

Thanks for showing the mistakes along the way, and how you corrected them. It's interesting to see someone else's approach to some problems I've had in the past.

 

[lew]

fixing mistakes, improvising and getting it done

Caddy for tools, gardening, drawing, painting…
fixing mistakes, improvising and getting it done

Here we are at part two of the caddy build, a Christmas gift for my girlfriend, as I thought she should have something, made with my hands.

Last blog ended here, where the fingers were cut and we have a frame.

Took these pictures after the whiskey was enjoyed and I then left the shop for the day.

But let's go back to where we finished.
Let's talk about the mistakes we make and how to fix them.
Sometimes the fingers or dovetails might not be tight enough, this will mean that there are no glue surface and it might not look as you wished for…

But don't worry, we can fix that and the solution is often in the waste…
When it's just a wee bit, you can cut a slice of a finger off cut.

Then slice it in, for a perfect match.

Next we will look at fingers that are too wide.
For this we need a super sharp chisel, so I always start by stopping it.

We want that mirror, to reflect our mistakes.
After all this is the best way to learn, smiles.

It's clear to see, that my saw cut slipped a little here and since we have these forbidden fingers, we have to cut in end grain - that's why it important to have a super sharp chisel.

But with a sharp chisel, it is no problem.

Now we have a tight fit.

I'm happy with this.

The fingers are so tight, that the can hold the box together, without glue.
We want tight a fit, but not that you need violence to put them together.
So yes actually rather a tiny bit loose, than too tight.

Ok, so we are there finally, fingers done.

Time for tobacco.

Let's pick up a plane so we can cut the groove for the bottom.

My little favourite for that job.

But first I like to cut, so the plane have a guide, like this the grain direction will also not mean too much.
We don't want tear out do we? Smiles.
If the cut will be a success through a knot… that will take more tan luck, but it's why I put this on a not visible place.

With a sharp 43, it takes just a few passes.

I set it at quite aggressive, if you don't make a pre cut, then you should start less aggressive.

How can you not smile, looking at this!

I call this crisp!

Hmmmmmmmmm… Huston we got a problem!
Cutting cross grain…
I mark as I think, how the f… do I manage this.
If this should have been done, I would have needed a much wide piece at the bottom, if I cut with a rabbet plane here, it will almost certainly tear out and parts of it break off.

So I take a drastic choice here.
A motor plane…

Like this the edge can be crisp.
(It was not my plan, so I'm a wee annoyed, but a crisp edge brought my smile back).

The board for the bottom can now be measured.

A piece of thin plywood - took this choice to keep the weight down, as it's a caddy.

Slides right in.
As you can see the knot did not not make it, when I planed the rabbet.
No problem, since it's not visible.

I'll stick to the stick handle…
I fine branch from a Danish forest.

Using the knife that was a part of Dave's and mine project together, the SPRAD knifes.
Lovely knife Dave, thank you with a big smile.

After a wee time with a knife, I finish up with a scraper and feel pleased for the beauty and simplicity that nature brings this project.

Hmmmmmm…

Drilling holes for the handle, two sizes.
Always drill almost through with Forstner bits, then turn and use the hole as pilot, to drill the last part from other side, so you don't get tear out.

Fixing a problem again…
Yes wood working is a lot about that also, especially when we make things without a plan.
Here I cut some thin strips, the size of the rabbet.

Sawing off a wee bit.

To fix the holes I decided was needed at the end pieces, as I could not make stopped cuts on the table saw…
This is where the rabbet ends.

But first let's put this caddy together for good.
Gluing the fingers.

When putting it together, if a finger are too tight, try using a clamp, to slowly press it together.
A hammer might make the wood crack.
(My fingers were almost too tight, so I had a struggle, since the wood expanded a wee, once the glue was applyed).

Now the bottom are glued in and the other side can be glued in place.

Drilling for wooden nails, to hold the handle in place.

A bamboo skewer and a beech wood nail.

The repair can be done, I don't try to make it invisible here, it's something that can show a story on the caddy after.

Glue it in and cut flush.

Since the fingers a quite fragile on the ends, I decide to give the box some wood nails, so I feel sure it will never come apart, but also because I like the look of them.

Now not only the fingers are holding them together.
Should I also give the other fingers a wood nail? In that case it should perhaps be from the same side…

Sharp chisel again.

Cut flush.

Fixing the mistakes again!
I did exactly what I warned against, I used a mallet to bang the corner of this end in to place - and the finger broke off…
But it's not a problem that can't be fixed, so some glue and a wood nail and we are back in business. Ironically this will be stronger now.

Ok here we have a new fix.
One of the fingers had a wee gap and after the glue up, it was even worse.
Look at the rabbet fix and wood nail now, these just adds to the character now.
I use the small scraper to clean up the gap.

Here a few thin strips.

Glue on the thin strip that fits and push it in.
Then beak or cut it off.

Yes it's thin.

Once the surface is scraped or sanded, no one will ever see that fix.

Time to clean up the surface and give the extra finish on the fingers.
A low angle plane held skewed (30° sideways as you move it straight forward), this will prevent tear out and you will get a beautiful surface.
Never go outwards, then you will break the edges.

Look how the fingers get more crisp and flush.

This is what I'm looking for.

Ends after clean up.
After this I just use a card scraper on the hole tote, to make that clean closed surface, that sand paper can't do.

So here we are, the tool caddy is done.

With painting tools in it.

The end…

The blog ends here.
Now the blog is a wrap, I can go and wrap up the caddy and give it to Yeli.

Could not resist, to take a picture with my own tote, I think they are such a fine pair now.

I enjoyed this little project for many reasons, first off all because it is a gift for my gf, second because it was an improvised project based on an older project of mine, third, because I could use it to show some methods of working and even more important, how to fix our mistakes.

Thank you for watching, especially you Yeli, I was really happy, that you liked it and could appreciate the work of my hands.

Hope it can be to some inspiration, perhaps that you learned something, or at least that you enjoyed the read.

Best thoughts,

MaFe

Thank, Mads, for sharing your remedies for some of the things that can go wrong.

Those totes are really nice!

 

[mafe]

fixing mistakes, improvising and getting it done

Caddy for tools, gardening, drawing, painting…
fixing mistakes, improvising and getting it done

Here we are at part two of the caddy build, a Christmas gift for my girlfriend, as I thought she should have something, made with my hands.

Last blog ended here, where the fingers were cut and we have a frame.

Took these pictures after the whiskey was enjoyed and I then left the shop for the day.

But let's go back to where we finished.
Let's talk about the mistakes we make and how to fix them.
Sometimes the fingers or dovetails might not be tight enough, this will mean that there are no glue surface and it might not look as you wished for…

But don't worry, we can fix that and the solution is often in the waste…
When it's just a wee bit, you can cut a slice of a finger off cut.

Then slice it in, for a perfect match.

Next we will look at fingers that are too wide.
For this we need a super sharp chisel, so I always start by stopping it.

We want that mirror, to reflect our mistakes.
After all this is the best way to learn, smiles.

It's clear to see, that my saw cut slipped a little here and since we have these forbidden fingers, we have to cut in end grain - that's why it important to have a super sharp chisel.

But with a sharp chisel, it is no problem.

Now we have a tight fit.

I'm happy with this.

The fingers are so tight, that the can hold the box together, without glue.
We want tight a fit, but not that you need violence to put them together.
So yes actually rather a tiny bit loose, than too tight.

Ok, so we are there finally, fingers done.

Time for tobacco.

Let's pick up a plane so we can cut the groove for the bottom.

My little favourite for that job.

But first I like to cut, so the plane have a guide, like this the grain direction will also not mean too much.
We don't want tear out do we? Smiles.
If the cut will be a success through a knot… that will take more tan luck, but it's why I put this on a not visible place.

With a sharp 43, it takes just a few passes.

I set it at quite aggressive, if you don't make a pre cut, then you should start less aggressive.

How can you not smile, looking at this!

I call this crisp!

Hmmmmmmmmm… Huston we got a problem!
Cutting cross grain…
I mark as I think, how the f… do I manage this.
If this should have been done, I would have needed a much wide piece at the bottom, if I cut with a rabbet plane here, it will almost certainly tear out and parts of it break off.

So I take a drastic choice here.
A motor plane…

Like this the edge can be crisp.
(It was not my plan, so I'm a wee annoyed, but a crisp edge brought my smile back).

The board for the bottom can now be measured.

A piece of thin plywood - took this choice to keep the weight down, as it's a caddy.

Slides right in.
As you can see the knot did not not make it, when I planed the rabbet.
No problem, since it's not visible.

I'll stick to the stick handle…
I fine branch from a Danish forest.

Using the knife that was a part of Dave's and mine project together, the SPRAD knifes.
Lovely knife Dave, thank you with a big smile.

After a wee time with a knife, I finish up with a scraper and feel pleased for the beauty and simplicity that nature brings this project.

Hmmmmmm…

Drilling holes for the handle, two sizes.
Always drill almost through with Forstner bits, then turn and use the hole as pilot, to drill the last part from other side, so you don't get tear out.

Fixing a problem again…
Yes wood working is a lot about that also, especially when we make things without a plan.
Here I cut some thin strips, the size of the rabbet.

Sawing off a wee bit.

To fix the holes I decided was needed at the end pieces, as I could not make stopped cuts on the table saw…
This is where the rabbet ends.

But first let's put this caddy together for good.
Gluing the fingers.

When putting it together, if a finger are too tight, try using a clamp, to slowly press it together.
A hammer might make the wood crack.
(My fingers were almost too tight, so I had a struggle, since the wood expanded a wee, once the glue was applyed).

Now the bottom are glued in and the other side can be glued in place.

Drilling for wooden nails, to hold the handle in place.

A bamboo skewer and a beech wood nail.

The repair can be done, I don't try to make it invisible here, it's something that can show a story on the caddy after.

Glue it in and cut flush.

Since the fingers a quite fragile on the ends, I decide to give the box some wood nails, so I feel sure it will never come apart, but also because I like the look of them.

Now not only the fingers are holding them together.
Should I also give the other fingers a wood nail? In that case it should perhaps be from the same side…

Sharp chisel again.

Cut flush.

Fixing the mistakes again!
I did exactly what I warned against, I used a mallet to bang the corner of this end in to place - and the finger broke off…
But it's not a problem that can't be fixed, so some glue and a wood nail and we are back in business. Ironically this will be stronger now.

Ok here we have a new fix.
One of the fingers had a wee gap and after the glue up, it was even worse.
Look at the rabbet fix and wood nail now, these just adds to the character now.
I use the small scraper to clean up the gap.

Here a few thin strips.

Glue on the thin strip that fits and push it in.
Then beak or cut it off.

Yes it's thin.

Once the surface is scraped or sanded, no one will ever see that fix.

Time to clean up the surface and give the extra finish on the fingers.
A low angle