Andrew

Wood: Framing Up

Well, I’m back from my planned travel of the last weekend… and back from the unplanned travel of the past week. Which means, it’s time to finish the saw-bent that goes with the sawbench I’d already built.

I had this idea of writing a short piece about each of the operations: marking out the lines, chopping mortises, cutting and shaving tenons to match them, gluing up the pieces — but the reality is, I’m trying for Chris Schwarz’s dictum in American Peasant right now… Good Work, At Speed. And the other piece of it is that marking, mortising, tenon-cutting… all that’s left are dadoes and dovetails. Those are the only operations that I haven’t written about lately.

There’s also the weather. My “woodworking shop” (ha!) is outdoors… under the upstairs porch and somewhat sheltered, but still outdoors. Today the high was 52°F. Winter is coming on fast, especially at my elevation/altitude. I want this finished and useable before the end of the weekend. I have other projects I’d like to do before bad weather sets in for sure. That means gluing this up and declaring it “done” before the end of today, I guess. And now I feel like I can always build a second one if this one comes apart.

A silverpoint photograph of some boards clamped to a bench. One of the boards has a tenon (or tongue) cut out of one end, and the implication is that the other board has a mortise (or hole) cut in it for the tenon to fit into.
Fitting tenons
A silverpoint photo of a mortise (or hole cut through) in a wooden board, laid out with pencil lines and partially drilled through with holes to remove waste wood.
Through mortise2
a silverpoint image of a wooden mallet, a 1/4" chisel, a wooden board with a mortise partially chopped through it, and a framing square, all standing on a gravel ground.
Through mortise
A silverpoint photograph of a quartet of wooden parts being fitted together at a couple of mortise and tenon joints, to build a three-dimensional frame called a saw-bent (usually paired with a saw-bench for sawing up boards of wood).
Fitting
A partially assembled saw-bent on a gravel 'ground', with a saw-bench in the background.
Dry-fit
silverpoint photograph of an assembled saw-bent (a little wooden frame paired with a saw bench for hand-sawing boards of wood)
Not bad

Was it good work at speed?

Mmm.

I’m going to have to say that it was my best work at speed to date. I could have slowed down more, and I’d have finished later. But it wasn’t bad work. I concentrated more on the at speed part than on the good work part, and there’s a balance to be struck there in the future. But I think I’m getting the hang of what the correct mix of good work, and at speed, should be.

This project is in Vic Tesolin’s book Minimalist Woodworker: Essential Tools & Smart Shop Ideas for Building With Less, on p. 61-91. I like this book particularly because all of its projects are designed to teach you how to use hand-tools well, and also build out the necessary equipment of your workshop (a saw bench, a saw-bent, a shooting board, a workbench, and a hanging cabinet).

For all sorts of woodworking advice, I tend to look to:

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