2018-04-30T14-16-13

While the second coat of finish cures on the saw till, it is time to plan the next project: a tote for Linda’s knitting project; it is based on a small tote by Jim Tolpin that I really liked. The challenge is that both sides and ends are splayed out, so cutting the dovetails is not going to be obvious. Here I am using a method described by Charles Hayward to figure out the angles for my pieces based on front, side, and top views. #KnittingTote #Tote #HandToolsOnly #Woodworking

2018-04-30T16-33-50

I have never cut dovetails at sloping angles, so I thought I would try it on a scrap piece of Poplar before risking ruining a carefully dimensioned part. I was pretty sloppy, but the angles worked out fine and the inner arrises of the two pieces aligned well (the edges are not coplanar because they still need to be beveled). #KnittingTote #Tote #HandToolsOnly #Woodworking #Poplar

2018-05-01T12-35-45

A thin shim of cardboard was all it took to adjust my kerfing plane to cut a groove through the center of my piece so I could resaw it into the two sides of the knitting tote. Maybe interchangeable fences are not as flexible as a fully adjustable fence, but I am still very happy with this simple solution. #KnittingTote #Tote #HandToolsOnly #Woodworking #Canarywood

2018-05-01T14-35-41

Just finished resawing the ends and sides of the knitting tote from 4/4 stock. I was very tempted to finish dimensioning the parts with my hand plane, but I know they are going to move, so I am holding my horses and waiting at least until tomorrow. Dimensioning Canarywood has been more pleasant than I expected; given the wood’s hardness I was pretty worried, but it actually planes easily. And I ended up with a bonus sheet of 1/8” veneer for the future :-) #KnittingTote #Tote #HandToolsOnly #Woodworking #Canarywood

2018-05-02T15-25-22

In order to be consistent with the angled edges of the sides and ends of the knitting tote, I decided to use a guide. I made myself a wedge out of Poplar, with a slope of 1” : 8-1/16” (so the pieces lean out in a 1:8 ratio) and used it to mark, cut, and shoot the ends of each piece. It made the whole process quick and stress-free. #KnittingTote #Tote #HandToolsOnly #Woodworking #Canarywood

2018-05-02T16-17-15

In order to be consistent with the angled edges of the sides and ends of the knitting tote, I decided to use a guide. I made myself a wedge out of Poplar, with a slope of 1” : 8-1/16” (so the pieces lean out in a 1:8 ratio) and used it to mark, cut, and shoot the ends of each piece. It made the whole process quick and stress-free. #KnittingTote #Tote #HandToolsOnly #Woodworking #Canarywood

2018-05-03T11-14-31

Am I glad I decided to clamp up the pieces of the knitting tote to check their fit after shooting all the ends! Once assembled, I noticed that although the fit was perfect on the outside, all the inside corners had a tiny gap; that is because I shot the end to 90°, but for compound angles, you need a bit of a bevel. So I added a shim to the base of the shooting board and everything came out great; but you have to be careful which side to put the shim on to make sure that both ends of each piece are beveled in the right direction. #KnittingTote #Tote #HandToolsOnly #Woodworking #Canarywood

2018-05-03T14-59-29

Am I glad I decided to clamp up the pieces of the knitting tote to check their fit after shooting all the ends! Once assembled, I noticed that although the fit was perfect on the outside, all the inside corners had a tiny gap; that is because I shot the end to 90°, but for compound angles, you need a bit of a bevel. So I added a shim to the base of the shooting board and everything came out great; but you have to be careful which side to put the shim on to make sure that both ends of each piece are beveled in the right direction. #KnittingTote #Tote #HandToolsOnly #Woodworking #Canarywood

2018-05-03T15-16-48

Am I glad I decided to clamp up the pieces of the knitting tote to check their fit after shooting all the ends! Once assembled, I noticed that although the fit was perfect on the outside, all the inside corners had a tiny gap; that is because I shot the end to 90°, but for compound angles, you need a bit of a bevel. So I added a shim to the base of the shooting board and everything came out great; but you have to be careful which side to put the shim on to make sure that both ends of each piece are beveled in the right direction. #KnittingTote #Tote #HandToolsOnly #Woodworking #Canarywood

2018-05-03T15-18-50

Am I glad I decided to clamp up the pieces of the knitting tote to check their fit after shooting all the ends! Once assembled, I noticed that although the fit was perfect on the outside, all the inside corners had a tiny gap; that is because I shot the end to 90°, but for compound angles, you need a bit of a bevel. So I added a shim to the base of the shooting board and everything came out great; but you have to be careful which side to put the shim on to make sure that both ends of each piece are beveled in the right direction. #KnittingTote #Tote #HandToolsOnly #Woodworking #Canarywood

2018-05-04T09-33-58

Marking double bevel dovetails is only slightly more complicated than regular dovetails. You cannot use a dovetail template on the slanted end of the piece, but you can just push a square against a bevel gauge held against the bottom edge of your piece. I set my bevel gauge to about 1:6 for the dovetails of the knitting tote. #KnittingTote #Tote #HandToolsOnly #Woodworking #Canarywood

2018-05-04T15-26-00

The mitered dovetails are ready. All these angles really keep me on my toes. This is the first time I work with Canarywood; it is fairly easy to work, although I find it a bit brittle. #KnittingTote #Tote #HandToolsOnly #Woodworking #Canarywood

2018-05-08T12-59-27

Now that the joinery is done, it is time to plane a bevel on the bottom edges of the sides and ends of the knitting tote so the edges are parallel to the ground. Luckily this is easy to do with my jointer plane since I can register it on the short sides while planing the long ones. #KnittingTote #Tote #HandToolsOnly #Woodworking #Canarywood

2018-05-08T14-46-46

Everything is at an odd angle on this project, even the grooves holding the bottom of the tote must compensate for the splay in the side pieces. The trick here was to bevel the bottom edge of the sides to the final angle before plowing the groove so the fence of the plane could follow the correct reference. #KnittingTote #Tote #HandToolsOnly #Woodworking #Canarywood

2018-05-09T12-33-32

To make the handle of the knitting tote, I started by drawing an arc of a circle on a piece of Yellowheart and cut close to the bottom line with a bow saw; then I got down to the line using a half-round rasp and a spokeshave. For the top curve, I changed strategy and went with a few straight saw cuts followed by mallet and chisel, and smoothed with the spokeshave. Finally, I rounded all the corners with a spokeshave and removed the cut marks with sandpaper. I will wait to cut the handle to its final length until after the joinery that attaches it to the tote is ready. #KnittingTote #Tote #HandToolsOnly #Woodworking #Yellowheart

2018-05-09T14-20-33

To make the handle of the knitting tote, I started by drawing an arc of a circle on a piece of Yellowheart and cut close to the bottom line with a bow saw; then I got down to the line using a half-round rasp and a spokeshave. For the top curve, I changed strategy and went with a few straight saw cuts followed by mallet and chisel, and smoothed with the spokeshave. Finally, I rounded all the corners with a spokeshave and removed the cut marks with sandpaper. I will wait to cut the handle to its final length until after the joinery that attaches it to the tote is ready. #KnittingTote #Tote #HandToolsOnly #Woodworking #Yellowheart

2018-05-09T15-12-16

To make the handle of the knitting tote, I started by drawing an arc of a circle on a piece of Yellowheart and cut close to the bottom line with a bow saw; then I got down to the line using a half-round rasp and a spokeshave. For the top curve, I changed strategy and went with a few straight saw cuts followed by mallet and chisel, and smoothed with the spokeshave. Finally, I rounded all the corners with a spokeshave and removed the cut marks with sandpaper. I will wait to cut the handle to its final length until after the joinery that attaches it to the tote is ready. #KnittingTote #Tote #HandToolsOnly #Woodworking #Yellowheart

2018-05-10T13-06-45

Yes, ok, it is ridiculous; but I wanted to put a curve on the upper edge of the sides of the knitting tote and I wanted that curve to be an arc of a circle. I had no idea the profile I liked the most would be given by a 7-foot radius! #KnittingTote #Tote #HandToolsOnly #Woodworking #Canarywood

2018-05-10T14-23-08

Once I drew the curve on the upper edge of one of the side pieces, I sawed a few relief cuts, chiseled out most of the waste, and finished with a spokeshave; then I used the result to draw the curve on the second side piece and went at it again. #KnittingTote #Tote #HandToolsOnly #Woodworking #Yellowheart #Canarywood

2018-05-10T14-37-56

Once I drew the curve on the upper edge of one of the side pieces, I sawed a few relief cuts, chiseled out most of the waste, and finished with a spokeshave; then I used the result to draw the curve on the second side piece and went at it again. #KnittingTote #Tote #HandToolsOnly #Woodworking #Yellowheart #Canarywood

2018-05-11T11-51-28

Just finished rough shaping of the end parts and taking a look at the overall shape of the knitting tote; I suspect it is going to take quite a bit of patient work to get all the curves to blend in nicely. #KnittingTote #Tote #HandToolsOnly #Woodworking #Yellowheart #Canarywood

2018-05-14T10-05-48

Time to plug the ends of the grooves in the sides of the kitting tote. I had kept the offcuts so I could try to make plugs matching the end-grain of my pieces, but was a bit worried about how to work on plugs this small; in the end, mounting my block plane upside-down in the front vice made the task pretty trivial. #KnittingTote #Tote #HandToolsOnly #Woodworking #Canarywood

2018-05-15T14-20-26

Maybe an excess of clamps is not going to improve less-then-perfect joinery, but I am giving it a shot anyway. Because the pins are a bit proud, I made some clamping cauls so pressure can go to the face of the tails and not be blocked by the ends of the pins. The angles of my cauls were not perfect, but a business card here and there quickly fixed that problem :-) #KnittingTote #Tote #HandToolsOnly #Woodworking #Canarywood #Hemlock #WesternHemlock

2018-05-16T10-26-10

Time to trim the protruding ends of the dovetails and pins on the knitting tote. I used both my block and miter planes; I found the latter faster, but had to be extra careful when getting close to done. #KnittingTote #Tote #HandToolsOnly #Woodworking #Canarywood