Loved the "finessing" processes. After nearly 50 years as a woodworker, I finally retired. But, if a friend, neighbor, relative, etc. wants a custom made piece, I will help them design and build it. Educating folks is very satisfying. One of the hardest lessons is teaching folks to cut-to-fit/finesse final joinery and not measure everything. My last project was an octagon poker table with my neighbor. He showed up with a tape measure hooked onto his belt. He tried to measure everything and would proudly exclaim, "This 19.235 inches." I kept telling him it doesn't matter as long as it fits. Finally, after a couple weeks, his wife told to stop bringing the tape measure. By the time we finished the table (which turned out gorgeous) he had learned the lesson. Thanks.
retired furniture maker here also. yep the only time i ever used a measure was on the first piece of wood i cut. after that all measurements came from the piece itself.
@@TaylerMade Exactly. I measured to get the approximate height, width, etc. Then everything else is cut to fit within those measurements. Thanks for agreeing. PS-great name.
I thought you were in the program, after hearing some familiar oneliners here and there. That makes this journey even more valuable. I'm coming up on 5 years now, and woodworking, making in general, played a large part in my recovery.. Nice work!
I don’t often write commentary on woodworking videos since I view videos in this category as tutorials, sort of. And in doing so I have to assume or give the benefit of the”he must know more than I do to create this video” and so like a good student, I absorb information, be it technique, machinery use, or whatever. This was my first video you’ve produced and for the first time I don’t feel stupid or under skilled because you shared a couple of your fails such as cutting by hand and the router taking a chunk out of a tenon. What made me press the subscribe button is your way of explaining and the calm in your voice. You don’t dictate, talk down or “teach”. Instead you experience along with your audience, or at least that’s how I perceive your style. I loved how you highlighted a mistake in the making in the offset of a board and showed how to correct it and why. Highly effective. I’m sorry if I’m gushing. If I am it’s because I’ve watched many, many, MANY, oh so many videos by so many makers with differing styles of presentation and almost all of them, regardless of how humble they present themselves to be, they still sound like total douches, and the bags they came in! You offer no pretense. You didn’t show off fancy chisel work or insist one technique over another as being true woodworking vs cheating. That was a reason I hit the subscribe button, along with I found myself attracted to you as well. No not in a sexual way, silly man. You come across as someone with whom a cup of coffee would become an unbridled deep dive into any topic we decide to pursue. I mean, we do share woodworking in common, right? Granted you work in a real life scale and I in the miniature. I make tiny boxes containing hundreds and hundreds or individual pieces of different colored exotics such as Purple Heart, canary wood, black walnut and curly maple. Anyway, sorry for the fanboy style of this comment. My philosophy in life is if you see someone beautiful, tell them. They may not see themselves as such and you’ll give them needed confidence and a better outlook. Paying it forward isn’t too hard and paying a compliment to someone who has improved your life in any way, well, it can only do good. If they’re not receptive immediately and reject you, that’s ok, because quietly they will appreciate your words. And in that spirit, thank you. This video has helped me gain insight into my own work in philosophy and in the understanding that anyone and everyone can and do make mistakes. How you deal with it is what makes you a good woodworker and a good designer. One question I have is near the end while you summarize the video, you say something about sobriety. What do you mean by that? Is it a reference to a former life of substance abuse you’ve overcome or are you using it as an analogy? If literal, then congratulations on your continued success in sobriety. I wouldn’t have judged you if you still used though I suspect you wouldn’t be making videos of such a high standard. If as analogy, then it’s brilliant. Giving your audience a reference for being focused on the moment and to enjoy the process rather than getting through it. That alone will help so many find success in all facets of life if they’re smart enough to apply it as such. Thank you once again. You are a great presenter, I’m sure a good guy, humble, down to earth, and I’m sure a master of your craft though you try to not sound superior. Great job. May you find the success you seek in all ventures. May God bless, Peace Oh, PS, my name is Saro, I live in New Jersey (it’s not as bad as media would have you believe. It’s actually pretty great) and I work out of my garage. Figure you should know where your fans are.
Thank you Saro. You are a very kind person yourself. I think you hit the nail on the head, I definitely try to share the experiences rather thaknowledgeable. alone. So I'm happy that came across. As long as your shop and your amazing boxes give you joy, then you have exactly what you need. Yes I'm in sobriety and I meant everything quite literally. I'll see you on the next one!
Your patience, presence, and enthusiasm are just the inspiration I need to get busy, and I admire your focus on, well, focus--a skill and value in wide decline. There are times I regret not making more art in my day to day, but your approach to this project reminds me just about anything I do can be an artistic journey, including raising children, making my bed, or writing a meaningful thank you letter. My first video of yours, and I'm a new subscriber. Also walking the path of sobriety, which was the start of everything good in my life, today, so I'm happy for you.
Your channel is one of the most educational and entertaining that I know and follow on RU-vid. Your voice is perfect and your humor is intelligent and witty :)... I'm not a woodworker but I really enjoy carpentry videos. You are one of the few who doesn't hide your mistakes, which is commendable. Accept a hug from the other side of the Atlantic, Lisbon, Portugal, EU
I enjoyed your shelf project using with hickory. I completed a 8Q hickory bench (6' long X 19" wide). All total, it probably weighed proximately 240 lbs. At nearly 80, this was my first-time using hickory on such a large project. Lost's of lessons learned. I had no problem cut the joints with my track saw. However, without a jointer, I used my 1960's Craftsman 4" belt sander to get the surface flat.
Awesome video, hope to get there someday. Woodworking has been a help in my sobriety also, helps me slow down and focus on the task at hand. Great job!
Looks beautiful. I love simple design. You're brave using the router on the last part of the tenon. I've had too many catastrophic mishaps with the handheld router to trust it like that. A chisel may take more time, but redoing a piece because you caught some weird grain or your wrist twitched a little and router jumped would take longer.
It was very simple. It slid into place, some finish (small head) screws were driven into the pony wall and side wall, then wax filler filled the holes. Thanks for watching!
I'm kinda glad I only recently found your channel cause it was so enjoyable to marathon through every single video you've uploaded. Now I've got the bell on so I can follow along with every new video. 💜🔔 Thank you for sharing all the details and insights about woodworking and life in general. Ths piece looks so amazing installed. Really suits the space.
beautifully executed. i love hickory. I work it mainly with hand tools and it is one of those woods that I go with impulse hardened hard-point saws for. way too much saw sharpening otherwise and good files aren't cheap. definitely gotta figure in the wear on tools when working woods like hickory and mesquite. both of them do a number on tools.
Wow. That build is fantastic. I only recently subscribed after stumbling upon your channel a few weeks ago. Your skill at woodworking and story telling are awesome way beyond your subscriber count. You truly deserve way more subscribers. Kudos.
I've loved this style of functional partition wall design for a long time, now, and your execution is beautiful! A lot of unique little takes on the concept, especially leaving a few shelves open and unsupported on the ends; not something I usually see, I think because hickory is such a challenge to work with, and it's the only thing strong enough to leave unsupported. Thank you for the inspiration, both in materials, and general outlook on life! I think I'm going to slow myself down this weekend, and also consider hickory for an upcoming project. :)
Beautiful work !! It looks very 'at home' in that space. Love your [video] production as well - the music at the end was spot on! Thanks for the presentation.
Beautiful piece, man! Nice work! I particularly like seeing woodworkers using hand tools for fine work - I’m a tech junkie and I get lazy often and throw money at expensive tools when I could just take the time to get more proficient at the craft of using hand tools. I feel like you got the balance pretty well with this project. Really enjoyed the video. 👍
"Well, perfection is a figment of my imaginatio..." Well I got news for you. It came out perfect to me. And it should, with all that "finessing" you do. You may not see it that way but I think you have already bacome a master of your craft. Looking forward to more!
Seeing B roll of the piece in situ is a nice touch. So often I wonder what the intended result is, and it's so satisfying to see. It also shows the choice for why to design like that given the geometric tiles, thicker spout on the kitchen sink, and lampshade shapes.
I thoroughly enjoyed watching the video and learnt a lot from the minute details as I watched an artist create a very intricate craft. An authentic craftsman 💚🤍❤💯💯💯💚🤍❤
I am getting value and good laughs from your videos! Sorry, no mean comments from me! Another stellar video and a beautiful shelf/room divider. Has that 70's vibe to it and I love it.
Your execution and design are just awesome. I can't help but notice the tear out on the faces from the tenon joinery. I have never worked with hickory, but I'm wondering if you would have used a marking gauge and a sharp knife prior to cutting this if that would have help eliminate the tear out. I love the look of this, it looks very much like white oak and nothing like my parents hickory cabinets. I may consider using the species down the road.
Honestly the micro bits of tearout were really only noticeable on camera because I'm using a zoom lens. In real life, it's crisp and nice. But yes, precutting the shoulder would probably help
Another great video, thanks! For that small cut with the router, you can build a jig that creates a plaform to keep the router level, it doesn't have to be near the cutter. Then the guide jig you already have will only maintain the dimensions, not carry the whole router
@@FortressFineWoodworks I think hes implying that you can make a jig that clamped "around" your template, with the top flush with the top of your little rounding pattern but also left room for you bit to flow around, the jig would take the weight of the router cause it would be fully flush with the top plane of the pattern piece you are templating out.
Congratulations. Producing a piece with patience and thought is a luxury it seems but shows ethics. If you want to be remembered in life, not a bad way to go. 😊
yeah, built a couple cabinmate doors with this a few months ago using nothing but hand tools, really really hard!! high carbon content is hard on blades, I had to sharpen after every other stroke.
@@FortressFineWoodworks tea is hard on blades too, thank god i just bought a cbn wheel, makes quick work of hand sharpened blades sharpened by a beginner hand sharpener lol.
I had to look up more about wood movement in joinery, and once I understood you were strengthening the side with the mortises by reducing stress on that side of the joint as well as limiting the movement w two tenons, it clicked better :)
Love love the use of hickory!!! I’m so glad you demonstrated how to using this joinery, in fact I want to build my sister and Mom a hickory blanket ladder and didn’t want to go the route of using dowels again. They work fine but I want to challenge myself using mortise and tenon basically as you just did without the double tenons because it’s a small blanket ladder and no room for two so thank you for this! I’ll absolutely use your methods for the hickory ladders. My most recent build (not professional just love building things that I love and others love although I have a goal to sell at some point) I built a beautiful bath vanity out of mostly solid hickory and it is hard wood, even harder if you use fasteners so I don’t recommend fast building! It is wonderful for traditional joinery with glue, not at all screws and nails. It’s certainly tough to push through a tablesaw but idc it’s worth it! I’ve worked with it in making my Alm inspired Alpine pattern for a natural ombré effect using Alms pattern with all hardwoods (started with purple poplar that turned the coolest green at the bottom because it was the darkest, then mahogany, alder, hickory and at the top maple) rather than plywood and it turned out stunning but the 45° rips with that hickory were trickier than the maple, but it worked out. That’s when I went with it for my mid mod style bath vanity and I’m thrilled I used it but installing the toilet paper dispenser on the side ate up 5-6 screws because they weren’t tough enough screws and I didn’t think to use wax. Also a beautiful finish on hickory is Osmo in Raw Matte, it pulled out the depths of color in the striations of the grain perfectly and will only use that finish with hickory and lighter woods from now on! It kept the naturalness and yet also brought out hidden colors and tones. And it’s easy to sand a spot of missed glue and reapply without any obvious signs you messed up! Love hickory and I love Osmo in Raw!!!
It looks awesome! Hickory is my favorite wood. It is difficult to work with and heavy but worth it in my opinion. Currently making all my cabinets, doors, and window trim from Hickory for my house. Keep up the great work!
Tip for future projects is to keep lengths longer for dressing and dimensioning and cut to length later. Helps to keep dimensions more consistent, far less ends to have snipes and a hell of a lot safer on the jointer. Working with hard timbers is a whole other process. Here in Aus we are always battling with heavy and hard timbers and the endless risk of splintering and checks breaking when routering, chiseling and planing. As for cutting, sharp and clean blades and router cutters are a must to reduce burning. Also the table saw fence must be dialed in perfectly, or slightly open up through the cut, or you get burns.
If you really wanna slow down and enjoy the moment and the final result, try doing wedged, thru mortises with the wedges being a darker contrasting wood. Would probably double the time but the end result would be a eye catcher for generations. Of course the client would have the final say on the extra cost.
Very nice build. So many mortises. I'm wondering if you did it again, would you go to a Domino? And finding that zone where you can be "in the moment" makes woodworking really amazing. Not sure if doing the video set ups was part of that process, but the shelf AND the video were terrific. It works if you work it, so work it, you're worth it.
Very nice indeed, one question: how did you end up installing it? Did you just press fit into place, did you use screws or glue, maybe super powerful magnets?
Dude that Hickory is… so beautiful. You made a tough would to work with seem like a buttery experience. ( not a woodworker, don’t have the requisite adjectives 😅 )
Hickory extremely hard , Hickory is like Balsa wood it only has a hardness of 1,820 lbf (8,100 N), come work with some of our local Australian timbers if you want to see hard, such as Spotted Gum 2,473 lbf (11,000 N), Turpentine 2,697 lbf (12,000 N), Grey Ironbark 3,664 lbf (16,300 N), Australian Buloke 5,060 lbf (22,500 N), lets see if your machine can cope with these
*laughs in Iroko* *giggles in camelthorn* My tools were screaming. Surprisingly, my Stanley No80 with a Ron Hock blade did most of the finishing without a need for sanding though. Nice work though mate. Result speaks for itself.
And then you're watching HGTV and a designer says, "And we're going to remove this shelving unit to open up the space!" Great job on the piece; it's beautiful.
Thanks so much! The dewalt pin nailer gave me a lot of jamming problems early on, but I sprayed the inside clip (that holds the pins) with WD40 and it fixed it. Now it works like a charm
