I like the fact that you don't try to hide any imperfections, unlike most other channels, which make me feel like I am too bad and my pieces are not worth. But, when I see your works, I feel encouraged as great people like you have imperfection then who am I to be the perfect. Thanks for keeping many woodworker motivated.
Love your channel! First time watcher. Let me guess: Briton living in the States for…what, 40 years? Anyway, look forward to many visits to your channel.
The Toledo Museun of Art has a large standup walnut chest/cabinet about 6 or so feet tall made during the mid 1500s. It is quite something, ornate, and has lattice woodwork crisscrossing glass in various door panels. It is a wonderful piece. A guard allowed me to examine it very closely. I noticed it has numerous dutchmen, splices, and gap filler pieces literally everywhere. Then it struck me that the artisan who built it screwed up a lot more than I do----either that or every other board he used was too short. Walnut stain hid many defects, too. After that I never thought too much about making "mistakes" in my projects.
Thank you for this video! Purchased your book ( vol 3, furniture making) which highly recommend when building this box. I, too, appreciate your approach. For years, I had worried about my own mistakes. No matter how hard I tried, every piece had at least one error -- usually more. Then one day my boss tasked a coworker, a retired master carpenter who had properly built many houses from foundation to beautiful interior finishing, to make a store display using an old shipping pallet. The pallet was in terrible shape -- uneven, cheap wood, broken slats, etc. After many hours, my coworker had managed to put together a amateurish-looking display with uprights badly out of plumb, gaps in joints 1/2" or more , etc. "I knew I should have told her ( our boss ) this pallet wouldn't work" he grumbled as he disgustedly pointed out how the display reflected the specific pallet flaws. ( Mr. Blackburn discusses the flaw magnification problem at paragraph 2, page 3, Vol. 3, Fundamentals of Woodworking.) I walked away, thinking he would simply throw the display in the dumpster. How could a master carpenter / woodworker publicly display something like that ? Returning a few hours later, though, the pallet was still there, but looked completely different -- it now appeared to be an expertly made, custom display by an experienced professional designed to showcase the store merchandise. He then explained his secrets of carefully and artfully using our store's extensive moulding selection and finishing products to cover gaps, straighten uprights, paint over flaws, etc. To a professional, I realized, the mistakes were an annoyance but creative finishing turned a disaster into a success.
Hi Graham, I have been watching your videos since Rex Krueger mentioned you a few months back. I want to say you are doing a great job. Every video is better than the last. Audio is better and better, and the set lighting is getting better and better. Your camera man does a good job of responding to your movements and focusing on thing at the right time. And that is just video quality. It seems clear to me that you are creating these videos like writing a book. Every video either introduces a new concept or combines previous concepts into practical projects. I see what you are doing. I love what you are doing, keep being awesome.
I truly enjoy your videos, Mr. Blackburn. I think I learn as much from watching your economy of motion and simplification of the process as I do from the skills you are teaching.
We see a lot of. Videos at intermediate to expert level but its refreshing to start from the basics and this is building on the fundamentals delivered from previous videos. Very structured. Keep up the great work!
It's very nice that you've started with simple construction that is perfectly suitable for a lot of uses rather than showing off with half blind dovetails.
It's a high point of my week, when I see that a new video from you is premiering. Thank you for a great video. We shan't forget the simple things on the way to the more complicated. They are what make the complex cabinetry make sense for beginners who ask "how is it even possible?" Well, by learning to do the simple things. Leaning to use a saw correctly, to relax and not push. "Relax and don't push" should be the mantra. Whenever I do something and realize I'm forcing it, I try to relax. It makes my work better and it makes the process more enjoyable.
Mr. Blackburn, your setting the smoothing plane down in that just completed box and closing the lid caused a light to go on in my skull. My four ductile iron bench planes and several Japanese planes and I are in a constant battle with corrosion in the very damp climate where I live on the south coast of Honshu. A box of freshly planed, fragrant hinoki quickly nailed up for each plane should make fighting off corrosion easier--a quick and simple solution to a vexing problem. Might want to cut a rebate in the edges of the bottom board and fit the rim into an inset dado round the inside, particularly for the heavier planes. The same goes for my Japanese planes, to better protect their irons. Thank you, Mr. Blackburn.
This video is surprisingly relevant to me today. My very first woodworking project was a butt-joint box, which my father .helped” me make for a merit badge in Cub Scouts… I was 8 or 9 years old. I am putting together some utility boxes for wood shop this week, just for odds and ends, and I don’t really want to make a big fuss doing so. I was going to make them with pocket holes, but now you’ve challenged me to go back to the “lowly” butt joint, and see if I can make something as good as you did here in this video!
loving this channel Graham, the calmness and brevity is refreshing. I (and probably others) would be fascinated to learn your journey into woodwork, did you serve your time as an apprentice, or come to woodwork later in life?, a little interview style video would be great 😊
This is what I love about your channel - you show basic techniques that anyone can do and provides a lot of great tips that will improve my work, even though I use a mix of power and hand tools. I've been doing more hand tool work where I used to grab a power tool, largely because of what I've learned here. Also a shout out to Rex Kruger who mentioned you in the first place - I noticed someone else also came here because of Rex.
Just fiund your channel a few days ago. Love the practicality, love the references to already did that, and that there are times when a butt joint box is fine for holding a smoothing plane.
I'd like to thank you sir for your simplifying and explanations to include all skill levels . You have a wonderful way of including anyone and encouraging them to try their hands at a most rewarding hobby . Blessings to you sir .
Thank you, sir. As always, I really enjoyed this video. Going to make a few simple boxes for a few of my planes this evening. I haven't made a box just for the fun of it in a long time. You have inspired me.
Thank you for this. I am a trained luthier, and I'm going to school for cabinet making, but traditional handtool woodworking is still intimidating. So is creating something on your own without instructions and a teacher. I will be making this box today just to get back into my shop and building again.
I can see how one might think that the case. What’s taking place is that initial entry into the wood surface is crushed by the blunt end. This, on a macro level, punches a hole into the wood for the shaft of the nail to follow into. A sharply pointed nail, will rive into the grain likely initiating a split which, as the shaft is further driven will “run away”/worsen.
A nice simple project, demonstrated very clearly. That is something deceptively difficult to do. I like how you put your plane in at the conclusion. Recently I made a wall mounted holder for my set of 4 Marples chisels inherited from my father. The little plastic tip protectors were lost a long time ago and I always felt guilty about them knocking about in a cardboard box. I used two pieces of the same dimensioned board you used here. Using each size chisel, I cut out channels, mirror imaged on the face of each board, and glued and screwed them, sandwich style. A bit of chamfering, branding in size markings with a soldering iron and a boiled linseed oil finish. It looks great and now my heirloom chisels are protected.
This reminds me if the tool box I made for my son when he was much younger then he is now. He still has it and the old tools I put in it for him. That was close to forty years ago. I have a feeling that my grandson will inherit that box. 😊
Thank you Graham - Great Video. Blunting the nail head has me curious now to try, and understand why it help reduce splitting. Recieved my Woodworking Handtools Vol 1 & 2 yesterday - beautifully collated and presented. Thank you.
Blunting the nail makes it push a hole through instead of acting as a 4 sided wedge, if you're real keen run the nail through your hair to add a little bit of Oil, learnt that from changing nappies with safety pins, sound crazy but it works 😀
Great video, just the right length, showing all the essentials! I would’ve loved to see a couple more clips that briefly showed the chamfering approaches you took for the different edges. Thank you for the amazing content!
I’m currently working my way through your book ‘Illustrated Furniture Making’ in which this is the first project. It’s been a great help in my first forays into hand-tool only woodworking, am about to saw the lid from my box, which is a bit nerve-wracking…
Hi Graham enjoying your videos. For those of us who struggle at cutting straight and perpendicular, how would we recover from a cut that's off? I would think the hand plane ? Thanks Frank.
The shooting board and plane, Rex Kruger did an excellent video of a simple one, it's where people were "sign posted" to Graham's channel, another good method is to clamp a good straight piece of timber along the cut line to guide your saw.
Hi Graham....thank you..l really enjoy your tutorials, now reaching for my wooden planes with there enjoyable sound of a swish when sharp. I have planes...some going back to 1870. A real privilage to own them, thinking of all those before me. Can l ask please how I get back to your first videos and be able to follow on numerically. Thank you once again... Regards John ...78
Also thinking the same. For now, I assume he’s not going so much for an accurate ruler measurement as he is just making sure that all respective components end up being the same size. This I assume is achieved simply by shooting them until they match. I hope he responds to clarify.
@@mercoid To be fair I just happened upon his video. I got the impression this video is in a series so the truing up of dimensions could have been previously demonstrated.
Basically measure carefully, leaving the shortest amount extra for trimming (if necessary) on the shooting board. But of course final trimming when all is assembled can also be done.
With all these conversations about "traditional way of doing things" and after pouring over every little detail of every manual operation - can't we do something better than a butt jointed box out of standard construction grade 1x stock? Idk, it could have been at least rabbeted and grooved for a bottom. 'Cos it really hard to imagine someone into woodworking who can't nail square pieces together.
I think it's a lot more important to show the techniques. What the woodworker does with those is limitless. There are plenty of 'project' sites on YT, but, it's refreshing to see a site concentrate on taking a complex craft and dividing it into manageable chunks. Besides, the experienced woodworkers can always pick up a new trick!
may be you´re a much better woodworker than me, but, I do not agree with the method you´re teaching in this video: 1 - you should not mark the length of all the pieces in sequence along the board, since you´re "loosing" length in each cut due to the saw kerf... 2 - you the use the plane to ensure the squareness of the pieces, but you do not check that they should have matching lengths... 3 - just 3 nails per side without glue won´t hold the box ... 4 - when you then cut the top off, to make the lid, there only one nail per side holding the wood! If you intend to teach for beginners, then, this is not the propper way...
Of course you're correct, but the purpose of the videos is to demonstrate the basic procedures. beginners need an overview first, not necessarily the complete 'propper' way... Thanks for your comments; much appreciated!
