• Saturday, October 11th, 2008
Trees, equipment, and a plan. That sounds a lot like woodworking but also applies to hiking in New Hampshire’s White Mountains, seen here. One of the great satisfactions of woodworking is the clear linkage through planning, tools, technique, and very evident results. The woodworker knows and controls what he does and takes responsibility for the outcome, which lies in plain view. A virtuous universe.
The shop, and the mountains, are good places to be.
Category: Ideas
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• Friday, October 03rd, 2008
The Forest Products Laboratory is the best source of information on that wonderful stuff that we woodworkers cherish so dearly – wood. As I graze the woodworking literature in print and online, it seems the FPL does not get the attention it warrants. It is an authoritative and amazingly extensive source.
From the FPL website the entire Wood Handbook, all 15 MB and 508 pages, can be downloaded. I keep the pdf copy on my hard drive. This book is a treasure chest of wood information – structure, physical properties of various species, grading, fasteners, gluing, finishing, etc. It does not spell out woodworking technique but it provides the kind of hard data that can form the basis for rational woodworking methodology. Making a frame and panel and want to know the shrinkage values for butternut? Page 59. Hmm…about like cherry, I’m familiar with cherry, so ok …
Look up the Tech Sheet for a species and you will get to a Technology Transfer Fact Sheet with more information than you may ever want about that species.
And on and on, there’s a ton of useful and interesting information here. (Did I mention that it’s free?)
