Handrail

I had to add some handrail above some stairs today.
A nice job to do but I had to notch the newel post into the stairs to make it strong enough. I know I've said it before but I always make sure the newel has a good fixing.

Mortise and tenon cut by hand

 The handrail was mortised and tenoned into the top for strength then the hole thing fixed into place as one. I then added the spindles and any beading it needed before sanding it up.

Spindles in



Newel notched into staircase

The finished article

A nice job for a Wednesday afternoon

Vanity Unit

Started to build a vanity unit this week.
A fairly simple design, I just building a desk type unit in an alcove (which I'll later add doors to) and a shelving unit above.
 

Routing the housings to hold the shelves

 For the shelving unit I housed in all the shelves using the little Bosch router. This was the only way of doing it as the unit had to be assembled in it final place, as things like architrave being in the way prevented me from lifting it in as one. Also housing the shelves in makes the unit much stronger than just being screwed.

There will be doors fitted on the bottom section

 This was all made out of sapele again. Still not my favourite wood in the world, but it's a strong hardwood and ideal if it's going to be painted like this is.

A solid set of shelves

Hanging A Large Oak Door

Yesterday I hung a 3'3" wide oak door delivered by the joiner.

 I think this is the widest single door I've hung. But there's a 3'5" one to do yet.

It's nice to work with some oak again as we seem to be using lots of sapele lately - which is not my favourite by any stretch of the imagination! I've got to glaze it yet and add the ironmongery but it's a smart looking door leading to the orangery, I hope the customer likes it.

An Old Wall Hidden

Not the most interesting post, but I always like to show what sometimes has to happen behind  a blank wall.

Pipework and rough uneven plaster work ment something had to be done about this wall

 The wall in this old house was out of level, the old plasterwork wouldn't provided a key to new plaster and there was pipework to box in.

The timber stud built around the pipework

I decided that the best course of action would be to stud the wall out. This would mean that the new wall would be level and it would also hide all the pipework and the new plasterboard would give the plasterer a much easier job to get a good finish.

All hidden!

Once all this stud work was installed it was time to plasterboard it so hopefully it's never seen again!

I've still quite a bit of work to do in this bathroom but it's only being done on the weekends so not as fast as some of my other jobs.

Lead Tools

I stumbled across this trio of tools the other day.
Lead beating tools I made back in 2005.

Homemade lead working tools

I made these so I could work on fitting lead roll mops to a flat roof on an old property we were working on in the Teme Valley.

Somehow buying these tools didn't enter my head. Instead I found some beech I had in my store and knocked them up in a night so they were ready for the next day. The bossing mallet was a little big (I only had a picture to go on) but it was still useful to "pull" the lead round corners, whereas the chasing chisel was great to get the lead tight into corners and edges - the ferule is a bit of 28m copper pipe to save the end from splitting.

I've Got 99 Problems...

And the van is one. In fact it's more than one. It's pretty much my only problem(s) at the moment.

Half a wing mirror anyone? Last seen going into orbit at around 7.30 in the morning?

Since coming back to work since Christmas it's broke down 4 times, with different problems. The gears, the alternator and the power.

The trouble is I'm not the only one with these problems. There are four of us at work with transits and we've all been going through the same things. What happens to one seems to happen to the others.

When some idiot knocked my wing mirror off on Thursday I joked it would happen to the others. Friday came and the one lad pulled up in his transit not smiling, he was also minus the glass from his drivers side mirror. If one of us crashes I'm staying at home!

 The only advantage has been that everything has been relatively easy to fix but it still costs time, money and a lot of hassle.

The old transit advert used to say transits were the backbone of Britain, if this were true I think we'd be paraplegic. Can't say I'm not a little disappointed with it's performance so far.

Death Of A Thousand Cuts

Well 2208 actually.

Glass going in

 I'm starting to fit the double glazed units, all 276 of them.

Each piece of glass needs 4 beads (that's 1104 in total) and each bead needs at least 2 cuts (assuming I get it right first time) making 2208 cuts. That means quite a bit of time spent at the saw with a very simple jig!

A simple jig

 I measured all the glass as well so if it's wrong it's on my head. There's 14 different sizes and so far everything fits perfectly.

A lot of beads cut ready

It is a little repetitive though, one set of windows needed two lots of 112 beads at the same size - not something you want to be cutting again! Anyone else done a repetitive jobs lately?

Axe WorkShop

I've just come back from a great weekend away camping up in a wood in staffordshire learning how to use axes. It was snowing when we got there but that only added to the fun!

We also made charcoal over the weekend and you can read about that here.

A very snowy tent

 

First lesson - learning not to embed the axe in your leg - an important lesson!



Splitting wood safely



Chopping down some small trees that needed to be removed



Learning to tie faggots using a woodmans clamp



Base camp for the weekend



Jonny showing a method of sharpening an axe



A extra safe and precise way of splitting wood - good for blanks for tent pegs



Some rough tent pegs



Dan making a mallet



Some spoon carving lessons



A rough shaped mallet

The group stood with our measured "cord" of wood

It was a great weekend, I learnt some new skills and practised old one. I also got to spend quality time with my brother doing what we both love.

This was our second axe course (find a link to our first one here) run by different firms and they were for completely different things so it would be unfair to compare the two. This one was from a bush craft point of view where the other was more to practise the traditional skills of the men that used to fell trees with axes for a living. 

This was our third course with Survival school and we weren't disappointed. It was nice to be outside and dedicate yourself to learning bush craft skills for the weekend with no other distractions. Going back to basics is great fun and although some of the things you can make straight off the axe are a little rough round the edges its a great skill to develop and learn and one I hope I'll be using more in the future (even if it's just to split fire wood) and I'll use the knowledge I've picked up to help me. The instructor were great making the whole weekend fun as well as some good company from the other students. I love weekends like this!

Fitting A Loft Hatch

The advantage of being self employed this morning was when I looked outside and saw six inches of snow I decided not to go to work, the disadvantage is that I wont be getting paid!

Our original loft hatch

I decided instead to get some jobs done at home. Putting the Christmas decorations away a couple of weeks ago set me thinking. Our loft hatch is barely big enough for me to squeeze through, let alone massive boxes of decorations - I kind of adopted the open and shove method of loft storage, so I decided to do something about it.

Assembling the loft hatch

Last year, at the big house I've been working at, I fitted five ready made loft hatches with fold down ladders (it is a big house1). These hatches are great as they're ready insulated, sprung loaded and come complete with a ladder so no having to go to the shed first!

Hole cut ready - this is where you hope your measurements were right!

They're fairly simple to fit - well after having done five I think they are. I first went into the loft and found where the ceiling joist ran, I wanted the hatch to be tight on one joist over the door, so I made a hole in two corners and then went below to mark out where the hatch was to go. Checking it was square I then cut out this hatch out of the plasterboard ceiling.

trimming out the ceiling joists

I then cut the ceiling joist running in the middle of where I wanted the hatch to go. I cut this 45mm back from the front edge of the newly made hole to acept the noggins. I trimmed out the hatch by adding timbers fixed with 100mm screws (not too much hammering up here as the artex on the ceiling isn't the best!).

Then the tricky bit, getting the hatch into position on my own! Although they're not that heavy they are awkward (very awkward) and sprung loaded. To make things easier I removed the bottom two sections of the ladder and I also screwed a batten to the one edge of the hole, this was to carry the weight of one side. With some none health and safety endorsed lifting I had the hatch in position, squared up and then fixed.

No more going out to the shed to get the step ladder

It was then just a matter of fixing on the rest of the ladder (and cutting it to length), and trimming round the hole with architrave. Nice way to spend a snowy afternoon. I even used my old Nobex mitre saw as I didn't want to run any leads outside to cut the architrave.

Once I get it painted you won't notice it so much

The old loft hatch will have to stay as it is for now but I plan to get it plastered over fairly soon. This new one should make putting the decorations away easier!

Anyone else done any jobs at home lately?



Some Blogs You May Like

This is just a post picking out a few of the woodworking blogs I like to read on a regular basis, there are many others (I'm sorry if I haven't mentioned someone) as I spend far too long reading blogs.

 

David Alviti Tree services and Rustic Creations

 This is my brothers blog, a top notch tree surgeon who loves his trade. I always enjoy seeing what he's been upto during the week.

 

Talk From The Timber

 I love Brian's blog, a nice mix of lovely photos and natural styled projects using beautiful wood.

 

Clavos y Aserrin

Micheals is a fairly new blog but it's got some great stuff on there and I feel that he's very much a like minded person. His blog is a nice of woodwork/carpentry and some of his hobbies like cooking/baking and flying. I really look forward to his updates.

 

Beer and Lathing

 This blog wasn't updated for ages last year but now Dans back and since Christmas he put some great posts on his restoration projects in America. I think there's a lot I could learn off this man.

 

The Penultimate Woodshop

 Dyami Plotke runs this great blog where as well as great project (like an amazing tree house) he is also trying to make woodworkers connect on different social media.

 

Robin Wood

 A man who needs no introduction, this blog is full of great projects and some though provoking posts about how we see crafts and our life balance.

 

Olly Parry-Jones

A really well written blog with lots of projects and some great design ideas for the workshop.

 

Lost Art Press

This is just brilliant. If your interested in hand tools and how to use them, or even if you're not, go to this blog

 

And just a few for non wood working -

 

An English Homestead

Shameless self plug for my other blog, all about how we live on our little smallholding in Herefordshire.

 

The lazy Farmer

Might offend some but amuse many more, I find him funny and I think we'd get on well over a beer or three. Just the ponderings of a man with too much time on his hands (well he hasn't really he should be working).

 

A Hippo On the Lawn

This blog I found last week, the post are long but they are so well written and so witty I can't stop reading them . This man need to write a book he writes that well (he might have to to finish what he's trying to build!) I really recommend having a look at this (The last post about me made me cry with laughter!)

 

There are so many other blogs I read (many on gardening and living the good life) so I'm sorry if yours isn't here but drop me a comment and I'll try to include it in another post later in the year if I do this again.

Make Your Own Slate Rip

This was something I was meaning to post ages ago but forgot! I was stripping a section of roof before Christmas to add a new back gutter to a chimney when I realised I had forgotten my slate rip.

I managed to make a temporary one out of an old disposable hand saw. Cutting the to the side of the hanging hole on the saw to make a notch.

It's then just a case of slipping the "rip" between the slates and over the nail, hitting the handle downwards to pull the nail out (or snap the head off).

This doesn't last for too many slates, as the plastic on the handle can only take so many hits, but it meant that I could carry on working and strip an area big enough to carry on.

Anyone else made a temporary tool lately?

Karesuando Bushcraft Knife

My wife was struggling with what to buy me for Christmas this year so I asked for a good bush craft knife. I got a 4" Karesuando Boar knife, I asked for this one as it's not too expensive, has a good quality blade and should last me a long time for camping, hunting, whittling, etc.

Karesuando Boar Knife

The only downside to this knife is the fact it's been sharpened with a slight micro bevel . I decided to touch up the edge myself (in a break in the rain) using a water stone, something I've never used before - I'm more of an oil stone man!

New sharpening method to try

 I bought this water stone about 3 years ago and I've never got round to trying it so I though this would be the perfect thing to test it on. I only used the fine side of the stone (1000 grit) as it didn't need reshaping just continuing the main bevel to a point.

Using the whetstone

 The stone worked well and produced a polished edge, double sided tools are always much harden to sharpen than double edged and it took me quite a while, I could probably do with an even finer stone to get a sharper edge.

birch polypore strop 

 I stropped it using a little strop my brother made for me a few years ago out of birch polypore fungus.

A well balanced knife

I'm look forward to using this knife and with a bush craft course coming up it won't be long until I do.
Hope everyone has a good new year!

Throwing Axe!

I've been spoilt again this year (like always) and got loads of presents - far more than I probably deserve.
One of the wood related presents I got was a throwing axe, along with other things I'll blog about later. This was from my brother who also got himself one so we could have a bit of fun together.

Light weight Tomahawk

 On boxing day we went out into the orchard and threw them at a large poplar butt Dave had felled earlier in the year. To say it took us a little while to get our eye in would be an understatement -put it this way I wouldn't have wanted to stand behind the target! But once we did we were managing to get them to stick into the wood quite often.

Couldn't hit a barn door at... Oh wait you did!

Tomahawk - bit of fun

I feel that there will be many brotherly competitions coming up!

We're also both booked to attend an axe course (not throwing axes though) towards the end of January with Survival School (who we've done bush craft courses with in the past) and I'm really looking forward to it, although we're camping so I hope we have some dry weather. It should be a great opportunity to learn more about axes and how to use them.

Now I just need to make a target big enough so I can't miss it!

What wood related presents did everyone else get? (I'm sure Brian must have something...)

Merry Christmas

Another year of work over with and it's been a great year.

Merry Christmas!

I've worked on some interesting projects, from a hotel to a prison to a big old farm house and more. Each has brought a new set of challenges and helped develop my skills as a carpenter.

I've missed not having my workshop this year but with a new baby in my life my hands have been pretty full anyway and luckily the jobs I've been on have kept my brain working.

Next year is looking pretty good with quite a few months already booked up.

Thank you to anyone who has followed me, commented on, or read this blog - it makes what I do so much more interesting to me if I have people to share it with, and it helps fuel my passion with wood even further.

Merry Christmas to you all!

Repairing Old Doors

Some low quality photos on this post sorry! 

Last week was pretty cold, not getting above freezing for most of it and I had the pleasure of being out in it everyday except Friday where it hammered down with rain all day. Installing gutter in the rain is a job even I draw the line at, so I went on to repairing some doors that the other carpenter and I had hung previously.

These door weren't the easiest thing to hang in the first place with big cast hinges to remove & fill and frames where the wood seems too thin to hold the new screws needing splicing. On top of that some have got panels that are split and need replacing.

I first removed the beads from one side of the panel, on doing this I discovered that the panels are also fitted into a grove in the door. There is no way I could split the door apart and expect it to go back together (things would fall apart), instead I had to cut right round the panel (the multimaster came in handy again here) to remove it.

I then planed some boards to 10mm thick and fitted then in the door and replaced the beads I saved.

Now the painters fun starts - they're going to need quite a bit of prep work before they're ready to paint! Still doing this work preserves some of the character of the house rather than just buying new doors.