Making A Boat Paddle Tenor Ukulele - Part 1 - Timber and Template

It is over a year since I last built a ukulele and it is time to address the building of a second.
It will be a different design this time - a boat paddle tenor, with a cutaway for the left hand.

Wood Selection
My last ukulele was made from sassafras with a western red cedar soundboard.  It resonated very well and had tons of volume.  This time, I am going to attempt to tone down the volume with a smaller body and a different selection of timbers.
I have been fortunate to have heard and played a couple of ukuleles made from mango during the year, and the sound was sweet.

I have sourced a few pieces that will serve  for the back and the soundboard, as well as some for the sides.  The piece that I will cut the sides from is a little wild in its grain pattern and I am unsure how well it will take to the bending required.

 In case it is a disaster I have a piece of camphor laurel that I will hold in reserve ...... fingers crossed.

Making a Template

I have used an existing ukulele as a model for the one that I will build.  Simply by sketching around its base onto a piece of craftwood, I'll have the basis for the back and the soundboard.
This is cut out and carefully sanded to make all edges as close to the curves of the finished product as possible.

Making the Mould

Once the template is finished, it is time to create the mould that will hold the body during shaping and assembly.  Since I want this to be able to open up along its mid-line when the body is finished, I'll make it in two halves that can be clamped together and separated as needed.
The template does the work now and the mould cut out and built up to thickness.

It needs to be deep enough to house the sides of the ukulele body, but not quite as deep as the sides, so that the top and then the bottom can be clamped on without fouling on the sides of the mould.  I'll get to that later.

I would normally use craftwood or mdf for the mould, but I am out of it so a couple of pieces of re-cycled meranti will serve nicely.

Cutting the Sheets for the Back and the Sound-Board

The pieces of mango that I have are only just going to be large enough to fashion the top and bottom of the ukulele, so I'll be most careful when I cut not to waste any.

I use my bandsaw for this and cut veneers around 4mm thick.  I leave plenty on these veneers as they will have to have the bandsaw marks planed and sanded out, and be brought back to their final thickness of 2mm.

Both the front and the back of the body will be made up of two book-matched pieces of mango that will be glued down their centre lines.
The sides will be made from a book-matched pair of rippings from a separate mango board.

That's enough for now.
Next time I'll finish off the mould and start the shaping process on the sides to fit them into the outline of the body inside the mould.  This is time consuming, but worth every minute of care in the process.

Bouncing Bowls and Other Catastrophes

Oh my, it's been a while.
Family, commitments, school holidays and babysitting, roadtrips ......... did I mention family .......
Life - what happens while we are making other plans .............
Anyhoo, here we are again with another warts and all woodie adventure.

Almost all of my woodwork has involved a minimum of woodturning, and almost all of that has been spindle work.

Time to try my hand at bowl making.

A lump of firewood looked promising - dull and grey though it was, it held hints of potential grain surprise.

Round out on the bandsaw.

Drill a hole in the face to house the chuck.

Mount on lathe and gently round out before forming the back of the bowl.

I turned a foot on the base to support the chuck when it was reversed

 

I decided to finish the outside of the bowl now as it would not be possible later.  So a range of sandpaper grits down to 320 were used followed by the application of some friction wax and polish.

 

Take it off the chuck and reverse it to hollow out the inside.  What could be easier!
This bowl making is a breeze!
Here is the last picture of the masterpiece before IT happened ................

Yep, you guessed it.
Just as the hollowing was proceeding beautifully, the bowl gouge encountered a point where the irresistible force met the immovable object, and .................. the bowl disappeared over my left shoulder.

Taking shape nicely it was ........

Here is the point where the bowl impacted with the concrete floor ........

Here's what's left of the lovingly crafted foot and chuck support on the base ........

And here is the point where a bowl became a flying saucer .....

Not to worry.
I'll get back to the lathe when I find some time and re-mount the bowl to re-form the outside and the base.  All that lovely finishing will have to be repeated and the bowl profile will change.
Then it will be a more cautious wood turner that will attempt to complete the inside of the bowl once more.
That is coming up in part two ............

Woodworking - Feel the Burn!

Any woodworker who has been pursuing their craft for a long time can reach a point when things seem repetitive or boring.  This feeling is, of course, not restricted to woodworking - but it is in this context that I write.
I have seen passionate woodworkers lose their muse from time to time, and drift off into a kind of woodworking limbo where both inspiration and motivation begin to flag.
This kind of malaise is seldom found among members of groups who share their interests with each other. 

As a member of the Hastings Woodworkers Guild,  I see - every day - the benefits of belonging to a  community of like minded souls.   Techniques are shared, efforts are encouraged, successes are acknowledged, ways to improve are suggested.
Moreover there is available in the collective wisdom of the group, answers to problems and different ways of approaching thorny assignments.

Members with expertise often give of their time to demonstrate and teach technique.

Here, John demonstrates how easy it is to cut and re-join bandsaw blades.
These blades are cast offs from the local butcher shop.  They are discarded when they no longer are able to cut bone.  Interestingly, they are still sharp enough to easily slice through timber, and we get more than 6 months out of a re-sized throw-away blade before it needs replacing.
The re-sizing is necessary to reduce the blade in length to fit our standard 14 inch bandsaws.

Groups like ours often hold "Show and Tell" times where members' work can be displayed.

Most importantly, members are acknowledged, their work valued, and their presence appreciated.

And then, of course, there are the conundrums........................

................. the impossible dovetail ..........................
 and ..........
 ................... the impossible housing joint ................

On top of this, the icing on the cake is the sense of community and belonging that members feel, as well as friendships that grow through contact and shared experiences.

If you ever find your woodworking spirits starting to sag, and your inspiration beginning to shrink - maybe a group like this one, can turn things around.

Happy trails pardners.................

Absence Makes The Heart Grow Fonder

I have been away for the last month or so, and in traveling the outback, there isn't much in the way of internet coverage.
It was a wonderful trip in the company of my sister, her friend Judy and the LOML.

Woodworking has had to take a back seat for the immediate past, but I am thrilled to be back.

The trip home again from Brisbane mandated another visit to Bangalow, and Heath's Old Wares.

Yes - I know - I'm weak.
I dug around the saws bin again for another bargain, and came up with two saws that were exceptional.

One was a little 10 point Disston panel saw in rusting condition, but otherwise excellent.  The handle was superb.  Sadly, when I tried to buy it, I was given the third degree on where did I find it ............
Turns out it was Heath's own saw, that his wife had mistakenly "put away" in the sales bin. Ho-hum.
No sale there - lucky for Heath and unlucky for me....................

Sandvik Hand Saws - Woodworking's Best Kept Secret
.................the other saw is a lovely little Sandvik.

While woodworkers all value Disston, Atkins, Simmonds, Tyzack, Spear & Jackson and other well known hand saw marques, few acknowledge the excellence of the Sandvik offerings.

This one is a 23 inch 8PPI panel saw, cross cut of course.
Sandviks also come with a blue handle, and they are often dismissed as not as good as other handsaws because they are judged on their handles alone.  For this reason, they are almost always cheap - really cheap for what they are.

I am not a fan of plastic handles as they can become slippery when sweated upon, in the course of cutting, and they don't accommodate my three fingered grip very well - but this one is at least tolerable in its ergonomics.
What Sandviks miss out on in the handle department, is more than made up for everywhere else.

It's Sandvik's blades that make them special.  The steel is exceptional, and they cut like a hot knife through butter.
This one is breasted - the slight convex curve that runs the length of the cutting edge.  The rust is only on the surface, with no pitting to contend with.
This saw will clean up beautifully, and make a great general-purpose cross cut saw for small projects.  It will also be a suitable stable mate to its bigger brother - used in the last post (see below).

Sandvik Saws were made in Sweden and the blades are taper ground.  They are renowned for their edge keeping qualities among those who know of their worth.

Prior to rust removal here is a comparison of sizes with my current X-cut saw:

First step - remove the handle:

One obvious sign of the quality of these saws is the use of heavy duty brass handle screws.  It is easy to dismiss these saws on first appearance because of their plastic handle.  It's only when we look a little deeper that the quality appears.

Easy to see here what the original saw blade looked like, and the accuracy of the mating holes in the saw plate.

When I rust-clean, I use a wire brush on my old Makita grinder.  It doesn't hurt the sawplate - the steel is much too hard for that.  I do it outside, as there is a fair bit of rust-dust generated, and it is a dirty job.

Once the steel has had its rust and grime removed, it's time to wipe off the black detritus generated by the cleaning process.  I oil the blade at the same time with camelia tea oil.  The old rag shows how dirty the remaining residue can be.

Next step will be off to the saw doc to have the teeth sharpened and set.
The teeth need setting only at the point and not from the base - there is an etch from a Sandvik saw here that explains it.
The steel in these old Sandviks is harder than the Disstons that I am used to, and the teeth are prone to snapping unless the blade is warmed first before setting. I'll leave that step to Dr. John.

Here are the two saws together. Nice couple aren't they.
Can't wait to use them again.
So if you ever see one of these in the wild, and you don't mind using a saw with one of these handles, you will be rewarded with the joy of a premium tool for  the price of McValue meal.
They really are that good.

For now - it's just so good to be back........ 
Adios Amigos................

Small Projects - A Mobile TV Table

Part One - Layout, Cutting and Preparing Joints 

Yes, I know that I am a hand tool neanderthal, and I really love using them.  I also still have a yen for manually focused SLR lenses too, but that is another story.  Folks are sometimes surprised to find that I occasionally watch television, and yes there is a small TV in the back room so that the grand-kids can watch Kung-Fu Panda and the Ice Age series.

Thing is, the back room is used for so many tasks - sewing, spare bedroom in a pinch,  the retreat that provides a quantum of solace when the house is hectic, as well as that place that all the lego can be left out for days while imaginative building projects take shape and form - and games are invented around the masterpieces of construction.

So the TV has to be movable - and it should be small enough to push out of the way when the kingdoms of imagination need room to grow.


A low be-castored table is my answer to this conundrum.

The LOML wants timber that is light in colour, so no rosewood or Australian cedar thanks very much.  I love working with camphor laurel, but no, something more plain this time. 

I have found a plank of tea tree that will serve well.  I've never worked with this timber before, and I am interested to see how it responds to my tools and my patience.

This plank is straight from Mal Ward's Botique Timbers, and is still fairly rough.

First step is to mark out what will be the various parts of this simple construction.


 The plank is far too large to be cut with my power tools, and anyway I love a chance to use a good handsaw.

This is a lovely "old" Sandvik, so beloved of my cousin David, who swears by them.  I am not too fussed on the plastic handle, but he is right about the saw - it went through this hard timber like a hot knife through butter. Note the kerfs from both edges meeting in the middle - to stop the weight of the plank splintering the edge.

Next step is to true up one edge as a reference for all the further cutting that will be necessary.  First - the trusty Carter number 5 jack plane to remove all the rough and unruly parts of the edge.  Finish up with a Lie Nielsen low angle jack.  If the pieces were longer I would have reached for the Stanley number 7 or 8, but this time a number 5 will suffice.  Lie Nielsen uses American cherry for their handles - it is amazing how dark this timber can become as it ages.  Compare mine to a new plane handle here.

This little table will have an open front, two sides, a shelf and a top - all braced by a partial back that leaves room for the cables and power cord. Joints between the various parts will be partially housed and will have through tenons, to add a touch of Greene and Greene to the design.

The top is a straight rectangle.  Both sides, the back and the shelf will all have tenons cut which will project through the panel that each will interface with.  Sounds complicated, but it's not.

Here is the shelf.  It will have two through tenons at each end, and a short (3/16") stub tenon between them that will sit in a shallow housing.  The stub tenon can be seen marked in this image and the first picture below.

The second image above shows the cut after the corner of the shelf has been removed.  I cut just inside the line and will pare back to the line with a paring chisel.
I did this, as this edge sits flush with the side and I wanted to avoid saw splintering here, and there is no housing at the front (or the back) to spoil the line of the front edge of each side panel. Hope that makes sense - if not, keep watching and you'll see what I mean.

Before cutting down the grain, I often line up the workpiece so that it is square to the vice - helps keep the saw cut straight.
Since the cut is essentially a ripping cut along the grain, a rip dovetail saw works best.  This is a little Lie Nielsen 15PPI that works very well.

Paring the endgrain back to the scribed line takes a sharp chisel.  This one does the trick.

Cutting out the waste between the two through tenons can be done easily with a coping saw.  A jigsaw or a bandsaw would be quicker, but we're not in a hurry today.  Notice that I am only cutting down to the level of the stubby tenon that will sit inside the housing.  Not too fussed on cleaning this up with a paring chisel, as this will not be seen.

Cutting out the corners means sawing across the grain. I was lazy and tried the dovetail saw, which sometimes works OK.  Not this time.  The timber has all sorts of swirling grain and the rip dovetail saw kicked and bucked like a mule.  The tenon saw handled it easily. This is a Tyzack.

Here is the finished shelf.  Notice the through-tenons at each end.
The back will look almost the same - just smaller.
The two sides will have through tenons only at the top..

I'll get those done next time, as well as cutting the through-mortices and the housings.

Happy shavings to all.

Backsaws For Woodworking - A Practical Introduction

Backsaws are particularly useful in the workshop, especially in furniture making and fine woodworking. Of all of the various types of backsaw, the most useful for me is the humble tenon saw.
These are usually filed so that the teeth are a cross-cut pattern, and they get used for much more than cutting tenons.

I find them indispensable in box making and carcass work as well.

Here are two of my favourite old tenon saws.  At the top is a Colver Brosler 14 inch 12 PPI, and below it a Taylor Brothers 14 inch 11 PPI.

The handles are works of art, and fit the hand beautifully - decades of being handled have smoothed these, and added the patina that sweat and workshop dust combined to form in use.  The blades are better than they look - there is dried tea-oil across them as a rust deterrent, and it looks a little patchy in pictures.

Of course tenon saws are initially designed for cutting tenons, but they are even more versatile than just that.

Sometimes they come in canted blade versions like this smaller 12 inch Taylor Brothers brass backed saw.  This one has 12PPI.  The canted blade allows me easier sighting to the end of the cut, and is especially useful when cutting dados.

I'll include a picture of my much more recent Spear and Jackson cutting dados - I haven't one handy using the Taylor.

Tenon saws are the workhorses of the woodshop, and I find it useful to have more than one.  The most common sizes that I use the most, have 11 or 12 PPI.

Less commonly used - by me, at any rate - is a dovetail saw.  I don't cut a lot of dovetails, and if there are a lot to do, I will use a router and a jig to save time.  However, small projects like boxes, small cabinets and trays etc warrant hand cutting, as the dovetails can be finished by the time the jig is set up and tested.

This lovely example was made by Ian Wilkie and has a walnut handle.  Ian has written a  wonderful article on backsaws in this month's - issue 78 - Australian Wood Review.
It is a 10 inch saw with 15 PPI and a fine kerf, and being a dovetail saw, is filed rip - for cutting along the grain.  Ian's work is stunning.

It is also useful for fine work and doubles as a crosscut saw in a pinch.

The standard go-to handsaw for panel work in my workshop is a 10 PPI Disston.  The blade on mine has some spotting, but it is well away from the cutting edge.  In spite of its looks this is a sweet little saw, and a joy to use.

In the past, when long dados were to be cut, I have used the 10 point panel saw, as I had nothing else.  Recently I found a Spear and Jackson 10 point large tenon saw - for the odd occasion that large dados present.  It has an 18 inch blade, and is so much easier to use and keep straight in the cut, than was the panel saw in this case.   The number of times I cut long housings is infrequent, so this saw will outlast me and my grandchildren I expect.  It has certainly seen little use over its life.

Not, technically a backsaw - (of course not - DOH!), but so useful none-the-less, is a little flush cut saw.  I use this a lot in repairs to furniture, and it is superb at trimming broken dowels and fractured tenons.  These are made with one flat side on the blade and a set on the teeth of the other.  It leaves a smooth surface on the face of the timber, and cuts off the offending projection, flush with the surface.
The blade is flexible so that the handle can clear the surface when cutting.

Finally, I should mention a long backsaw, for cross cutting mitres and other angles.  These are used in a mitre box, and are much safer for cutting short pieces than using an electric dropsaw or SCMS.

This saw is long at 24 inches, and is an 11 PPI saw for general work. Even though it is a long back saw, it uses a lot of its length just staying in the mitre box, leaving not too much to do the cutting.  An even longer saw would be ever more useful here in my opinion.
This one is a Warranted Superior - probably by Disston.

 For fine work, a smaller saw - around 15 PPI - and a wooden mitre jig are more useful.

Backsaws are real joinery workhorses, and a necessity for fine work.  The fact that they are a pleasure to use is an added bonus.

Happy shavings to all .........................