IMG_0467 – The Neighborhood Joiner

The Neighborhood Joiner

Qui non operatur instrumentum est / Use tools, don't be one

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David Walbert

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Tools and externalities
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Introducing “David Walbert Hand Tool Woodworking”

theneighborhoodjoiner

Same milking stool, new color combo: bayberry gree

Same milking stool, new color combo: bayberry green over Salem red (thanks to @eric.meyer.maker for the inspiration). I really just needed a place to set down my apple while I took the photo but it looked pretty good, so... #woodworking #handmade #handtoolwoodworking #stakedfurniture #stakedstool #stool #milkingstool #milkpaint #oldfashionedmilkpaint #furniture

Apparently I missed #handtoolweek2021 but every we

Apparently I missed #handtoolweek2021 but every week is hand tool week around here... so here are two favorites that come out every time I make a stool or a chair. Both come to me from my great grandfather, who, the story goes, would truck the parts for a barn unlabeled to the site and order its assembly from memory. First, a Stanley level, which they definitely don’t make like this anymore. Second, a 5/8” Irwin auger bit... ditto. Note the deeply engraved size in 16ths, which I can see without my reading glasses. Two survivors. #handtools #handtoolwoodworking #woodworking #stanleytools #level #auger #tools #antiquetools

What my bench actually looks like at any given mom

What my bench actually looks like at any given moment. In defiance of the modrun age I am not going for photogenenicity. #workshop #workbench #woodworking #handtoolwoodworking

One more stool: a little footstool using some love

One more stool: a little footstool using some lovely 6/4 walnut I found last spring. I had intended to ebonize the legs, but the white oak and walnut contrasted so well I left them natural. The arched underbevel is a detail I used on a full size bench awhile back and thought was worthy of being added to the repertoire. #stool #stakedfurniture #woodworking #handtoolwoodworking #furniture

Another carved-edge stool, this time the tradition

Another carved-edge stool, this time the traditional three-legged “milking stool” (cow not included) in neo-traditional black over red. #stakedfurniture #furniture #woodworking #handtoolwoodworking #stool #milkingstool #milkpaint

Such a beautiful piece of poplar I almost hate to

Such a beautiful piece of poplar I almost hate to paint it... almost. The purple is always interesting to see. #wood #woodgrain #woodworking #poplar

Carved edge stool. The two-later milk paint and th

Carved edge stool. The two-later milk paint and the facets work well together, I think. (Normally I would not add stretchers to a stool this short, but I hadn’t done stretchers in awhile and wanted the practice.) #furniture #stool #stakedfurniture #woodworking #handtoolwoodworking

I left my drawknives alone in a drawer over the ho

I left my drawknives alone in a drawer over the holidays, and look—they had a baby! I wonder if he’ll grow up to be a Ray Iles like his daddy?
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Ok, it’s a spoon maker’s drawknife I got for Christmas from Gramercy Tools, which is, as advertised, wonderful for working in tight spaces on small projects. I’m looking forward to carving more spoons with it. But I reserve the right to refer to it as Lil’ Ray.
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#tools #handtools #woodworking #handtoolwoodworking #spoonmaking #spooncarving #drawknife

My daughter @starfishpaints drew this pen and ink

My daughter @starfishpaints drew this pen and ink rendition of my version of John Brown’s library chair. I think it is pretty awesome. #chairmaking #stickchair #welshstickchair #chair #drawing #penandink

I split six sticks. (Well, and planed them too.) N

I split six sticks. (Well, and planed them too.) Now if I can just get @starfishpaints to do it for me next time, I’ll have a real tongue twister. #woodworking #handtoolwoodworking #froe #hickory #chairmaking #stickchair #handtools

And now for something completely different... The

And now for something completely different... The nightstand I built my daughter last winter, in a very 18th-century style. The mouldings are cut with hollow and round planes, my first serious attempt at designing and making custom complex moulding profiles. Full dust panels and a tongue-and-grooved back (because I'd gotten a Lie-Nielsen T&G plane for Christmas). Because I made it from leftover odds and ends of maple that didn't match so well, I painted it—soldier blue Old Fashioned Milk Paint with wiping varnish, which sets off the chased brass hardware from Whitechapel.
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This was supposed to be a dry run for the linen cupboard, but I decided to go another direction. So two pieces there about as different from the inside out as hand-tool-built casework can be!
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#furniture #finefurniture #nightstand #chestofdrawers #woodworking #handtoolwoodworking #molding

Wood Is Weird, Part 386: Each side of the linen cu

Wood Is Weird, Part 386: Each side of the linen cupboard, as well as each door, is a single continuous piece of 5/4 cherry, cut into lengths, resawn (by hand), bookmatched, and glued into panels. The result is that where the two pieces of each panel join, the cells of the wood were already practically touching each other, and so you should, in theory, scarcely be able to see the join. The doors look about as I'd hoped. The (proper) left side, though... one half looks like a photonegative of the other half! I don't think it looks bad at all; I like the salmon and green, which will probably fade to some sort of uniform brown in time anyhow—and where from six feet away you think you see the join is not actually quite where the boards are joined. I would not have been surprised to find one side reflecting light differently; I've seen that in maple. But the photonegative effect was entirely surprising. As I said, wood is weird. Delightful, but weird.
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While I'm on the topic, let me add that resawing wood by hand is indeed a good deal of work, but not as much work as you probably think. Just sharpen your ripsaw first, and play some good resawing music. I usually find that Renaissance dance music keeps me moving quite nicely in the workshop, but this task demanded classic rock. Your results may vary.
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#woodworking #handtoolwoodworking #furniture #finefurniture #cupboard #artsandcrafts #cherry #resawing #ripsaw

Finished a batch of wooden spreaders and some chop

Finished a batch of wooden spreaders and some chopsticks... in a fit of optimism that I will be able to sell them this spring at a craft market. Some scrap cherry from the linen cupboard and some exotic samples just for fun. (This is the view from my basement, where I have a folding table covered with used wrapping paper. Pardon the mess.) #woodenspoons #woodenware #handtoolwoodworking #woodworking #madebyhand

Here at last is the finished linen cupboard... fin

Here at last is the finished linen cupboard... finished back in November but I am just getting around to posting now. Cherry with walnut accents, pine and poplar secondary woods, finished with the usual oil-varnish blend and wax. The hinges are hand-forged iron from @hortonbrasses and the knobs are black iron from @whitechapel.ltd. The design is my own, which means it looks like a lot of other people's work... but I do want to tip my hat to @nrhiller, whose kitchen remodel photos inspired me to paint the inside that somewhat surprising green.
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#woodworking #handtoolwoodworking #furniture #finefurniture #cupboard #artsandcrafts #cherry #mortiseandtenon

Happy new year everyone! For my last work of 2020,

Happy new year everyone! For my last work of 2020, I had a mis-bored chair seat, a crest that blew out a little when I bent it, and some rejected sticks... and hating to throw away that much work it dawned on me that I could add a seat to the shaving horse. It is so much more comfortable than the old flat seat that I am kicking myself for not doing this sooner. (Two words: lumbar support.) Since the parts all came from the trash bin, it still fits the make-do spirit of the “thirty dollar” shaving horse I built almost ten years ago, but I feel like it’s starting to get pretensions. I may have to paint it or something. #shavinghorse #woodworking #handtoolwoodworking #chairmaking

Saturday the frame came together for the linen pre

Saturday the frame came together for the linen press cupboard I have been building (and promising to build for 18 months before that!). Hard to see well against the clutter, but this is 42 mortise and tenon joints (some doubles, most haunched), all by hand, so that is one thing I have had about enough practice with. All it needs now are panels, shelves, bottom, top... little stuff like that. Give me a day or two. 😀
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#woodworking #handtoolwoodworking #mortiseandtenon #furniture #presscupboard

After a summer of misadventures in steam bending I

After a summer of misadventures in steam bending I finally got this chair glued up last week. It is obviously a close child of the @lostartpress staked chair but I think arching the crest and tapering the sticks adds some... elegance? Without detracting from the essential simplicity of the design. (I tried giving the seat a double scoop, and that looked silly. You can go too far.)
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I can’t tell yet if the puppy likes it. .
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#chairs #chairmaking #stakedfurniture #stakedchair #woodworking #handtoolwoodworking

Now that summer is well over I’ll declare the ch

Now that summer is well over I’ll declare the cherry tomato experiment a success. This was my first time growing tomatoes from seed (six heirloom varieties). Fifteen plants makes a lot of fruit... the first photo is three days’ harvest from early August, and I’m still getting a few here and there. It called for some creativity in the kitchen!
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#garden #gardening #tomatoes #cherrytomatoes #fromseed

Sometimes the better part of wisdom is anticipatin

Sometimes the better part of wisdom is anticipating stupidity. This is my reminder that the grooves have to be stopped. As you can see, it worked. Unfortunately it did not stop me from nicking my finger on the freshly sharpened mortise chisel and bleeding on the wood. 🙄 #woodworking #handtoolwoodworking #mortiseandtenon #mortise #oops

Making small stuff when it’s too hot to make big

Making small stuff when it’s too hot to make big stuff.... and trying to reduce the scrap pile a little. #carving #woodworking #handtoolwoodworking #spokeshave #spoons #woodenspoons

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