![\"woodworking](\"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/IMG_4216_edited-2.jpg\")
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Wendell Castle once commented that often not enough <\/em>time is spent designing a piece. The same can be said of researching a piece.<\/p>\n Unless you have previously executed something very similar, neglecting adequate research can lead to a lot of wasted effort building a disappointment. The research phase of a project should be enjoyable as the possibilities unfold<\/strong> and your woodworking knowledge expands.<\/p>\n Here are four categories that require attention.<\/strong> To illustrate the breadth of research sometimes required, I have used the example of a wedding wine box that I recently completed. This piece had very special significance and I wanted to approach it fully prepared.<\/p>\n 1. Function<\/strong><\/p>\n Almost all woodwork is functional. You do not want the beauty of a piece to belie an inability to do its job. Think of it this way:<\/strong> making a bat requires more than understanding wood and turning; you have to understand baseball.<\/p>\n I researched all the dimensions of the wide variety of standard Bordeaux and burgundy bottles to design a versatile cradle that would accommodate a range of bottles. I also had to learn about how wine should be stored long term.<\/p>\n 2. Materials<\/strong><\/p>\n This is not an area for guessing or shortcuts. Processes that are routine in one wood can be fraught with surprises in another species<\/a>. What’s more, nearly every project involves several non-wood materials that woodworkers have to understand.<\/p>\n A few boards of gorgeous curly ovangkol (shedua) caught my eye. I had not worked with this species before, so I needed to explore the range of figure it had to offer to be able to choose top quality stock. I looked at objective data on its physical properties and movement characteristics. Most important, I did some practice<\/strong> sawing, chiseling, and planing to appreciate its working properties. It was surprisingly incompressible and somewhat brittle so there was very little margin for error in the joinery.<\/p>\n I considered lots of options for secondary woods, settling on wenge and a billet of killer figured redheart big-leaf maple. I trialed finishes, tested glues for special situations, and also researched leathers.<\/p>\n Then there’s hardware<\/strong>. Ugh. There are always oodles of options here, though often I am not happy with any of them and end up modifying or at least fine-tuning the best available materials.<\/p>\n 3. Constructions<\/strong><\/p>\n Almost every piece I make involves at least one modified or non-standard construction technique. It really helps to consider solutions that other woodworkers have used, though it is important to use sound principles and experience to distinguish good information<\/strong> from bad.<\/p>\n If you never venture from the conventional<\/strong>, you miss out on a lot of fun in woodworking, but you must build right, so do your research.<\/p>\n In this project, I could not find a satisfactory solution for a cradle that would snugly hold a range of wine bottle sizes. What I worked out is no marvel of engineering but I did have to sit at the drawing board for a long time scratching my head, and make mock ups, before settling on a solution.<\/p>\n 4. Techniques and Tools<\/strong><\/p>\n Similarly, every project is an opportunity<\/strong> to develop as a woodworker by learning new techniques and reinforcing skills that you have used before. A good woodworker should never be too proud to practice even those skills that were acquired some time ago.<\/p>\n And yes, there is also the excuse \u2013 oops I mean perfectly valid reason \u2013 to buy a new tool, which, by the way, has to be studied and tuned. In this project, because I did not do enough<\/em> research, I needed the excellent Lie-Nielsen drawer lock chisels to bail me out, as mentioned in an earlier post<\/a>.<\/p>\n In summary,<\/strong> researching function, materials, constructions, and techniques\/tools<\/strong> is smart woodworking. Note to self: don’t cheat on your homework.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Wendell Castle once commented that often not enough time is spent designing a piece. The same can be said of researching a piece. Unless you have previously executed something very similar, neglecting adequate research can lead to a lot of wasted effort building a disappointment. The research phase of a project should be enjoyable as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4405","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-techniques"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4405","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4405"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4405\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4537,"href":"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4405\/revisions\/4537"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4405"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4405"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4405"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"woodworking](\"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/IMG_4217_edited-2.jpg\")
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