Disappearing Act

Two of my blog posts disappeared into the ether when I tried to upload them! Man! Blogging with dial-up is not so easy, I guess. One was about sharpening (Simplify! Simplify!) and the other was about acquiring a smooth plane for $20 from a man with a personalized bass pond (think personalized license plates and excavators gone wild).

I'm working on these drawer dividers for the chest. Here's two photos of cutting the grooves with a Record 044, the best plane in the world to do this job. Thank you, sweet lady, for giving me this plane:

Whole Lotta Dados - the Chest of Drawers Project

The first project I'd like to blog is this chest of drawers project from American Woodworker, March /April 1988. This issue:

Black and white - Back in the good old days before the magazine was bought by Reader's Digest or whoever took it over. Here's the project (BTW, I'd like to make those shaker rockers on the cover, too):



Lotta drawers. Part of the reason I'm doing this is learning to trim and fit drawers.



The magazine explains the project as if you were using machines. Except for ripping to dimension with the tablesaw, and resawing the drawer sides with a bandsaw, I'm doing it all with hand tools. More fun that way.


Now I've already started, and the first job was to cut all those dados in the sides for the drawer dividers. Like this:

Rabbets along the back side to accept the back of the case.

I did the dados with a handsaw and a Stanley 39 3/8, bought from Patrick Leach at www.supertool.com - a great tool and a great tool dealer.

Here's two photos that show the basics of the process:

Enough for today. Blogging is hard work! I'm working on drawer dividers today and there is a lot more that I'd like to share. See ya!

A previous project

This is a keepsake box I did for my sister's birthday. It is designed to hold 4 by 6 inch photos. White oak, mostly all hand tool work, and the wood was free. Pallet lumber given away by our town's newspaper. Free hardwood is a really good thing. Really good. But you are usually limited to small projects like this with pallet wood.

Yes, you're right,...I could have photographed this box with a better background. Photographing woodworking projects the right way is something I'm going to have to learn as I go.

The First Post

Why "Woodworking Meridian?"

Well I currently live in a sleepy little town in Mississippi named Meridian. There's also a Meridian, Idaho - slightly smaller than us, according to the 2001 Oxford American Dictionary, but they're probably growing and I know we are shrinking, so maybe they are bigger by now.

In Chinese accupuncture meridians are sets of pathways in the body along which energy is said to flow.

In Astronomy meridians connect you to the poles of the earth.

This is a blog about woodworking by traditional means,...mostly hand tools,....and the projects that I create. Why hand tools? Well machines are fine, and quite useful for production work, but hand tools just have soul. I love them. I have collected enough to last a lifetime. Now let's go make something with them,...