I have a confession to make...

I really like Arts and Crafts style furniture (that's not the confession). It appeals to me in a way that I like most things in my life to be - simple and clean. It appeals to me even more since life with young boys is rarely ever simple or clean. We have a Morris style chair that might possibly be the most comfortable chair in our house (err... most comfortable chair in storage). My wife and I ooh and aah over mission style dining room furniture.

This blog post, and my confession, is the result of watching the Fine Woodworking video series on making an Arts and Crafts Glass Front Cabinet which has proved to be the tipping point of my pent up guilt. The design of FWW piece is beautiful and I am looking forward to someday building something with glass in its cabinet door, but I'm torn on the material used throughout much of the style.

Greetings from Siberia

Cramming my wife and two kids in with my mom hasn't been as bad as I anticipated and there's light at the end of this tunnel. It has already been one month since we invaded her home (aka the Siberia of woodworking) and it will be another month before we make it to our final destination. One of my favorite features of the new house is the clean, dry and unfinished basement and future home of my car-less workshop.

Since I'm not actively woodworking I've had time to plan out the new shop. I took pictures of the basement with the current owner's stuff in it with the intent of putting them in this post, but it was recommended against doing so. Damn wife and her probably-a-good-idea. This layout from Grizzly's tool will have to suffice.

Two chairs completed

The heavens are open and angels sing for on this day (a week or so ago, actually) two chairs were finished. AaAaAaAhhhhhhhh. I'm not going to go in to just how long it took to complete them, but let me say this, it feels good to be done-ish.

The chairs are finished, and done too.

Go west young man.

I haven't shared this personal tidbit on my blog yet, or anywhere online for that matter. I haven't wanted to jinx anything. My wife and I put our house on the market earlier this year. Our goal is to move one town away to where I grew up, where much of my family is, to get our kids in to a better school system and to where we should have bought a house when we bought this one six years ago.

Dovetail semi-frequently

The lure of hand work is seated deeply in my cheek and my most recent woodworking crush is on learning how to cut dovetails. But before I get to that, a little about how I got sucked in.

It all started with buying a #5 bench plane off ebay. Then I learned how to tune it up by watching +Christopher Schwarz's video on how to do so. For Christmas I received a basic set of chisels and a Lie Nielsen low angle block plane. Rob Cosman and Chris Becksvoort showed me how to cut dovetails. +Shannon Rogers showed me how to fix them. For my birthday, a Veritas dovetail saw. I am reading Garret Hack's The Handplane Book and Jim Tolpin's The New Traditional Woodworker. I pre-ordered +Marc Spagnuolo's Hybrid Woodworking. I have a hundred year old #4 and #7 waiting for some love. What's next, bluegrass playing in the shop? Oh wait, I already love bluegrass.

Ahh... sh*t

I had a couple of those moments in the shop last night. That moment when you realize that the stupidity that lays before you came from your own hand.

The first one I can chalk up to a learning experience. I don't know where you live, but chances are if you live eastern part of the US you've experienced prolonged, high humidity over the past couple of weeks. I know that humidity + metal tools = rust and I watch the weather forecasts. I knew the humidity was coming. I prepared the tools that are too big to move out of my garage with a fresh coating of wax.

Tonight, I moved some work pieces that I placed my table saw shortly after the waxing and found this.

My table saw had never experienced rust before this.

Kids' Table and Chairs - Planning the chair assembly

In my previous blog posts I vented my frustration with the shaping of the rear legs. Additionally, I gushed about the online woodworking community and the helpful guidance I received. I applied the advice that best fit my skills and tools and ended up with some nice looking legs. Eight out of eighteen isn't too bad, right?

Before... a torn out mess

After... butta

Kid's Table and Chairs - The legs have been a challenge

It has been two months since my last update, but that's not due to lack of shop time, it's due to lack of progress. I've spent a good amount of time trying to cut the rears legs of these chairs and as of this moment, they are still not done. Allow me to explain.

The rear legs are angled out from where they meet the apron to floor and to the chair back. So far in the small number of cuts I've made I have not yet cut any piece other than in a straight line and I am finding that cutting the inside angles is a challenge. My original plan was to rough out the shape on the bandsaw and then clean them up using a plywood template and the router.

Kid's table and chairs - I finally started making the chairs

Its been just over a month since completing the table and now the chairs are finally under way. The reason for the extended break? I dunno. It was not an intended break as if I had gotten sick of this project, it was just how things worked out. Life. Regardless, the chairs are now progressing at the glacial pace I am becoming accustomed to.