Benchcrafted Moxon vice

I took my new bench, fitted with the Benchcrafted Moxon vice, to the Yandles show and gave it it's first real workout. This vice is ideal for dovetailing and I very quickly got used to spinning the wheels. For anyone interested in seeing it in more depth please visit http://benchcrafted.com/MoxonVise.html

You can see how it can accommodate a wide range of boards without any guide bars getting in the way. I've made this bench with the bar for the undershelf low enough to provide a comfortable foot rest whilst I'm seated. There is no top bar so that I can tuck my legs under and work as if it were a desk, the wheels are spaced 2' apart so they don't get in the way. This is great for close up, delicate work such as chopping back to the gauge line on dovetails.

Here's one of my demo dovetails showing my magnetic dovetail guide attached to the saw.

A shot of me cutting the pins in a nice relaxed seated position.

 Banging another joint together whilst enjoying a joke with the on lookers. I let some of them have a go themselves just to show how easy it was with the magnetic guide.

Part of a days work, each joint takes about 5 minutes and is assembled straight from the saw. I was very please with the performance of the bench and vice and this will be the one I will use for all my shows.

Yandles Show

A couple of years ago I did a whole series of articles on the making of my tools in Furniture and Cabinetmaking magazine and it's always nice to see the results of other peoples efforts. This plane didn't follow my shaping with a dropped front which was surprisingly comfortable.

The mouth opening was very tight and the plane worked very well with its Ron Hock blade. He looks proud and deservedly so!

This is Andy a good customer and friend. He wanted a jointer plane and chose this very nice one in Concalo Alves from my latest batch.
Overall it was a good day for sales, just a shame I missed out on the wonderful weather!

Yandles Woodworking Show

This afternoon I set my stand up at the Yandles Autumn show. I always get here in plenty of time as they put out the stocks for the show and it gives me a chance to have a look before the rush.
 No wonder I'm smiling these two slabs of brown oak are wonderful and will give me numerous panels or box lids.
The wood has not been seasoned and to avoid excessive cracking and speed up the drying process I will resaw them into 1 1/4" thick boards. They will inevitably warp especially the outer boards but on balance it's definitely worth it to achieve the minimum of surface degradation.
Last year I bought some equally stunning burr walnut slabs and I'll be using these on a project shortly, watch this space!

Timberline wood yard

Today I called in to Timberline wood yard in Tonbridge. This is one of my favourite yard and I've bought some wonderful timber from Bob over the years. He specialises in exoctic timbers but does also stock home grown wood.

Since the arrival of Hamish (see below) it is now the most tidy and well organised wood yard I've ever seen.

Here is the machine shop, they supply a lot of fine instrument making blanks.

I came to buy some dark timber for the slab legs of a bench I'm making. The legs needed to have a finished size of 13" wide and 1 3/4" thick and this board of Wenge was perfect.

I knew Bob had some Anderman Padouk which came from Alan Peters workshop and I bought  a board last time I was here. This is rare stuff and very expensive but I couldn't resist buying this lovely plank which was bang on quarter sawn and ideal for making boxes or wall cabinets. James Krenov made some beautiful pieces from this fine timber.

High Angle Smoothers

Here is the last of the batch in Indian Rosewood, this one has lovely lighter streaks reminiscent of Brazilian Rosewood.

A pretty backside!

This plane was saved to last as the mouth turned out a touch too wide to sell. Adding a dovetailed brass insert  sorted  it out. The mouth is now extremely narrow and suitable for the finest work on the most figured woods.

Here is one of the batch of Rose Bubinga planes just completed, they all have Rosewood cross pins and brown oak wedges just to add a touch of contrast. They turned out very nicely.

Wood Storage

My wood store is a mess! I have about 200 cube of timber (about 2,500 board feet for those in the US)

Wood piled upon wood, I wonder what's at the back.

This was not a very safe place, I think this shelf and it's support are at their limit!

The following pictures are some of the wood that resurfaced, above is a board of figured Cuban mahogany.

A thick plank of rippled olive wood, without any cracks.

More olive wood, imagine what this would look like book matched.

Zirocote transitioning from the sap to the heartwood.

Some lovely brown oak, one of my favourite woods.

This piece of figured ash was bought from the Edward Barnsley workshops at the end of my two weeks there, this was the last piece of a whole butt of wonderful wood.

Madagascan rosewood at it's best, with black lines and varying shades.

Some rippled English walnut bought from the workshops of the late Alan Peters. With wood like this I must stop making so many tools and make more furniture.

After a days work things looked a bit more organised and safer!

I can now see the wood from the trees (sorry!)

During the tidy up I filled 26 sacks of wood for the fire, a combination of trimming up waney edged boards and getting rid of unpromising timber, I should be be this ruthless more often!

Jointers finished

After a few diversions the latest batch of jointers is finished. This one is for left handed use and is on its way to California. The fence is shaped and fitted to the right hand side of the plane.
As the Indian Rosewood was so dark I decided to make the knob and cross pin from Concalo Alves to give a nice contrast. The wedge is oak which has good spring for firmly gripping the blade.

The rosewood came up very nicely with 4 coats of Melamine Lacquer, an oil finish would have lost the definition of the grain.

Here is one in Bubinga, the heaviest plane in this batch. It's pictured with the fence attached ready for work.

Bubinga has a strong tendency to blotch with an oil finish, this is avoided if the wood is sealed with shellac or lacquer as I've done here.

The last wood I used was Concalo Alves and this turned out nicely as well. This responds very well to an oil finish and came up with a nice soft sheen.
It has a streak of brown so typical with this wood.