OldTools Archive

Recent Bios FAQ

151371 William Underwood <underwv@g...> 2005‑10‑18 sneaking back onto the porch
Galoots,

Greetings from deep in the heart of old tool hell, Notasulga, Alabama.
 After a long hiatus, I finally have found time to return to the
fellowship of the porch.  Academic commitments hijacked the majority
of my summer, but I emerged having passed my Ph.D. comprehensive
exams.  I think I see a light at the end of the academic tunnel.  I
did manage to sneak in some shop time over the last few months, and
thought I might share the results with the porch.  The following link
will take you to a few pictures of a recently completed shaker-style
sofa table that I built for my sister.     
http://www.auburn.edu/~underwv/woodworking.htm  The saga of this table
started about 4 years ago, when I decided that an Alaska Sawmill was
the answer to my lumber needs.  I picked out a nice fence-row black
cherry on my parents farm, about 35" dbh.  After felling the tree (OTC
...lots of old steel wedges and an old sledgehammer to make the tree
fall where I wanted it), I began in earnest to reduce the tree to
usable lumber with the Alaska mill.  After about three days, I emerged
with a big stack of flitchsawn cherry slabs about 2" thick, and a very
sore back.  I stacked and stickered the lumber in our old grain bin
(which I have found to be the perfect lumber storage area) and waited.
Fast forward to last winter when the construction finally began.  I
had always been told that cherry from the deep south was inferior to
northern grown trees because of the fast growth of the trees and our
long growing season, but I can find no reason to be disappointed with
this tree.  The grain is fantastic, probably due to the field-grown
nature of the tree.  I couldn't handle resawing the flitches on my
neanderbuddy, so I attacked them with a sharp Disston rip saw, which
gave me flashbacks to my sore back of 4 years ago.  I really need to
build a frame resaw.  I bookmatched the top, jointed with my Stanley
#8 and glued up using a rubbed glue joint.  I mortised the legs with a
Sorby registered mortise chisel, sawed the tenons with an old Disston
backsaw and cleaned them up with my Veritas medium shoulder plane
(which I really like).  I spent many hours taming the wild grain on
the top with a variety of card scrapers and scraper planes, and
attached it with wooden buttons.  The grain was just too wild for any
of my planes to handle.  I applied about 5 coats of tried and true
varnish oil (which by the way was badly maligned in a recent issue of
Fine Woodworking) and buffed it out with steel wool.  I'm just glad to
have a completed project to show to the porch.

On another note, fellow galoot and next door neighbor Roger (The
Tortoise Guy) Birkhead sends his best.  His wedding at the beginning
of the summer coupled with an overload of academic commitments has
forced him to take a break from the porch.  He is doing well promises
to make his return to the porch in the near future.

Thanks for listening.

Will Underwood
Notasulga, AL (where the cool nights are signaling a return to the shop)

------------------------------------------------------------------------


Recent Bios FAQ