Chisels: the most important woodworking hand tool.

Every skilled woodworker knows the importance of a high quality, well-tuned chisel. Fine hand work requires a very sharp chisel, and we spend a lot of time honing chisels to get an edge sharp enough to shave hair. So what qualities should you look for when buying your first set of good chisels?

#1 is quality of the tool steel. Quality of steel equates to how long the cutting edge will hold out as it cuts through dense wood. Since there is no way to test the alloy content of a tool or how it was tempered, we can only go by the hardness rating and the reputation of the manufacturer, which can change over time. The most common scale used for hardness is Rockwell C, and good chisels are usually in the Rc 58 to 62 range. Those chisels that you can buy at the big box hardware store are a much softer steel because most people will use them in situations where they can run into a nail and other non-wood materials. The softer steel won’t chip and break so easily, it will bend and deform first. Unfortunately, that softer steel that can bend will also not be able to hold a really sharp edge, it will roll right over in anything harder than soft pine. Manufacturers can change their sources and methods as well. I bought my chisels about 35 years ago from Marples, which was a good quality brand made in England using “Sheffield steel”. They also have other great qualities that I’ll mention later. Later on, the Marples brand was bought by Irwin, and the quality of the steel went way down. In the last 7 years, Irwin has made an effort to improve the steel somewhat but it is not like the old stuff. Best quality steel that I’ve seen recently is from Ashley iles and Two Cherries.

#2 is the shape of the bevels and the edges on the sides of the chisel. All chisels except mortising chisels have a bevel running down the length of each side. The bevel does not come all the way down to the back of the chisel, so there is a 90 degree flat edge along the sides of the chisel. I have seen that edge be as wide as 1/8”. Ashley iles American pattern chisels come to only 1/32’ at the tip of the chisel. This smaller edge is useful for cutting dovetails because the cutting corner of the chisel can fit into the acute angle of the dovetail cut-out. The Two Cherries chisels are nice steel, but the edges are pretty wide. I have known people to buy Two Cherries and then grind the bevels down to get a great chisel. They do this because it is hard to find firmer chisels anymore, most manufacturers are making butt chisels. What are those terms you ask?

#3 is the length of the chisel blade. Firmer chisels are long, and butt chisels are short. Both can be struck with a mallet because the blade is fairly thick, and both are usually sharpened at an angle of 25 to 27 degrees. Both work well for cutting dovetails, and firmer chisels will withstand more sharpenings, but mainly it is easier to sight down the length of the firmer chisel blade when eyeing the angle of the blade as it enters the wood. There are also paring chisels which are typically long and thin and sharpened to a lower angle of about 20 degrees. They are not designed to be struck with a mallet, rather they are made for taking very thin shavings off with just the pressure of the hand.

#4 is the shape of the handle. Some handles have a cylindrical shape with a ferrule (a metal ring) around the end which keeps the wooden handle from splitting but are not very comfortable to hold in the hand. Some have an oval shaped profile which makes it easy to tell where the flat of the blade is just by feel, and they fit the shape of the hand better.

#5 is cost. we would all love to buy the most expensive, beautiful chisels but that is not possible for many people, especially when you are first starting out and are not even sure that woodworking is the thing for you. It will be necessary to spend a good amount of time sharpening your chisels so it doesn’t make a lot of sense to invest all of that time on a set of cheap chisels that won’t hold an edge. However, there have been numerous articles published comparing chisels and their cost-to-quality ratio. Narex are the least expensive but a little bit more money brings a much better tool called Wood River sold by woodcraft. If I had to buy a new set of chisels it would be hands down the Ashley iles firmer chisels.

Next blog entry will be on sharpening chisels. ALL chisels have to be sharpened, no matter how nice they look straight out of the box.

Woodworking; The hand tool vs. the machine

For those who are just starting out as woodworkers, there may seem to be a dichotomy between hand tools and machines. Once, a hand tool enthusiast labeled me when I was a custom cabinet maker as just a “wood machinist” and he wasn’t completely wrong. I must admit that I was a little hurt because I started out in woodworking with a firm background in hand tools, but to make a living and support my family, most of my work at the time was just using machines.

So why are hand tools important? When I was the staff instructor at the Center for Furniture Craftsmanship in Rockport, Maine, all of the longer courses began with a two week segment on hand tools and learning to cut dovetails by hand. The reason for this is that it teaches you to see straight, square and level, and it forces you to pay attention to minute detail. It teaches your hands to connect with your brain so that your brain can direct your hands in detailed, accurate movements. It also begins the connection between the hands and the creative parts of the brain.

That connection between the hands and the creative part of the brain is absolutely essential. When I have an inspiration for a piece of furniture or sculpture, the next thing that has to happen is the process of design, and that process begins with sketches. Here is where the hand to brain connection is so important. As I sketch, new ideas constantly flow out of my brain and into my hands. You don’t even have to be good at sketching or formally trained in drawing. I can always tell when a student has skipped this step and has designed directly on the computer. I myself am fairly skilled at the most powerful 3D design program, Solidworks, but I don’t use it until a design is fairly well fleshed out by the process of sketching, making samples, scale mock-ups and full size models. I once worked for an engineer who wanted to design everything in CAD first and then make prototypes based on it, so then all changes would have a record in CAD. It may seem to make sense, but it is antithetical to the creative process.

Machines make all of that time-consuming labor required to prepare wood so much faster and easier. It can be fun to square up a board using all hand tools maybe once or twice, but if you want to make more than a few pieces of furniture in your lifetime, a jointer, planer and table saw are essential. So every tool has its place; there are times when hand tools are what you need, and times when machines are what you need. The dictum should be whatever it takes to make the most expertly designed and crafted piece of furniture in the most efficient way.

Making Butsudans, a personal history

In 1984 I built some bookcases for Mrs. (Fumiko) Snelling, the first person to practice Nichiren Buddhism in the Washington, DC area. It was part of some other remodeling work that I was doing. Mrs. Snelling was kind of like a second mom to me, I often received guidance from her. After building the bookcases, I guess she thought that I had some talent in building things out of wood so she said to me, “ We need someone in the Washington area to make Butsudans, and you are it” I did not know that larger, tokubetsu Gohonzons were to be given out to senior members, and that many of them had smaller butsudans that would not hold the larger Gohonzon. Soon I had many people calling me up saying that Mrs. Snelling had told them to come to me. This was the start of my career in making Butsudans, and as things would turn out, my career in furniture design.

I had to hit the ground running. I possessed only limited woodworking skills, knowledge, and tools, but I got books from the public library, and I managed to get a Sears credit card so that I could buy some basic tools and machines. I slid along by the seat of my pants, learning new techniques as each project called for them. It was my great good fortune that one of the books that I got out of the library was “The Impractical Cabinetmaker” by James Krenov and also his book “The fine art of Cabinetmaking”. These books not only taught me the “how” of woodworking but also the “why”. He advocated the idea that one could practice a craft that accessed deeper parts of the human psyche, and that the result would be objects that held meaning in them, not just function. It took me a long time to learn the skills that would enable me to be able to express myself through my work, but it slowly came about.

Some of the guidances that Mrs. Snelling gave me about making Butsudans are:

1. Never build a Butsudan for someone and be paid at a later date. That person’s Gohonzon would be in a Butsudan that I essentially owned, and therefore I would be taking responsibility fo their Gohonzon. They need to take responsibility for their own Gohonzon, and therefore their own life.

2. The person who builds Butsudans must be actively practicing Buddhism. When possible chant daimoku so that it flows from my hands into the wood.

3. Surfaces for offerings should be in front of the Gohonzon, not to the side. Offerings should be able to be “seen” by the Gohonzon, they are not just decoration for us to see.

4. The steps or levels leading up to the Gohonzon should be an odd number, preferably 3 or 5. This is based on an asian tradition that odd numbers are positive energy. All pagodas follow this rule.

5. The part immediately surrounding the Gohonzon is called an ozushi. It can be a simple frame, or it can have doors. The Butsudan is the outer cabinet that houses the ozushi. All of my Butsudans at least have that ozushi frame in them. Very small beginner butsudans are technically just ozushi, but the common usage in english has become Butsudan for all Japanese Buddhist altars.

6. One should always look up at the Gohonzon, never down. In general, I try to make the bottom wooden dowel of the Gohonzon be positioned at about eye level for someone sitting in a chair. This allows some variation in the size of human beings without straining the neck looking too high up.

7. Here are a few other bits of nomenclature for those who are interested: The cabinet or table that the Butsudan sits on is called the kyodai, kyo meaning teaching and dai meaning big, or base. If there is an additional altar table in front of the kyodai, it is called the kyozukue, kyo meaning teaching, and zukue meaning writing. The kyozukue is a traditional writing table in Japan, and it is used to hold candles, incense, and other offerings when part of an altar. A Butsudan maker is called me-i-daiko. I was told this means “temple builder”

Made it to San Diego!

Judi and i drove cross country from New York to California on an epic trip through the south. The last time we did something like that was in 1992 when we drove a big loop around the whole country. Our son, Andy was born in 1993 so that was the end of that kind of trip.

We first drove to Maryland where we had a birthday party for Judi with friends and family, then to Shenandoah Virginia where we drove down Skyline drive. It brought back a lot of memories from my bachelor days backpacking all over Shenandoah to all the waterfalls in the park.

Then on to Monticello, Thomas Jefferson’s home, and Wilmington, NC to visit my sister and all of her family. A short drive brought us to Charleston, SC. The most memorable thing about Charleston was the Magnolia Gardens, Highly recommend it you are in the area.

Atlanta Next to visit Judi’s relatives and then on to Smokey mountains national park. It is very beautiful but as soon as you get out of the park you are in Gatlinburg, TN, the most ticky tacky, commercialized fake town that I have ever seen. We stayed at a nice airbnb in the next town over and the next day went tubing down a shallow mountain stream, absolutely beautiful and relaxing.

Next stop was nashville, had a blast at a club with a band playing a mix of rock and country, fantastic fiddle player. Memphis highlights were an evening at BB king’s house of Blues on Beale Street, really good house band, and the next day at the National Civil Rights Museum. Located in the Lorraine motel where Martin Luther KIng was shot, they have preserved the outer facade of the motel and the Rooms where he was staying , but the rest has been converted to an amazing museum on the entire history of slavery in the US up through the civil rightsmovement of the 60’s. A must for everyone to see.

New Orleans is always charming, the architecture, music, food, are all wonderful, I could go back again and again. We took a history tour that included the 9th ward that was the most devastated by Hurricane Katrina, and we stayed in a section of town called the Maringy, which is walking distance to the french quarter; not as expensive but with the same charm.

Next was San Antonio, which is a strange place. thee is a beautiful river running through it and there are walks along the side called the river walk, lots of restaurants, bars, shops and an amazing museum of the west called the Briscoe that includes as much Native American artifacts as European. beyond the downtown riverwalk area the rest ofthe inner city is burned out with lots of businesses closed and homeless every where. Most people live in the massive suburban sprawl out side the city where all of the houses look the same; 3 bedroom ranches.

Spend a night in El Paso at a very nice airbnb casita but we were just trying to get to Tucson. In Tucson we stayed two nights at a very nice airbnb and what a difference from San Antonio! The highlight is the Arizona Sonoran Desert museum, which includes walking trails of this amazingly alive desert ecosystem, and a very nice zoo, they had a beautiful Mountain lion that you can see up close.

Last day was the drive to San Diego!