– Marvin Wachs
Joplin, Missouri

One of the great myths of outdoor woodworking is that the “right” finish will add the properties you really want the wood to have. It won’t. Thus, I would have started by choosing a wood with high natural resistance to rot and bugs. Old-growth red cedar fits that category, but the cedar we buy today does not. Whatever you do in terms of finish will not change the essential nature of the wood and will provide only very short-term protection, if that.

I haven’t seen any lab tests confirming it, but I’d suspect that of all the finishes you listed — and all of them are certainly acceptable exterior finishes — I’d guess that burning, either with or without oil, will offer the most protection, as it creates a layer of carbon atop the wood.

Personally, I’d line the inside of the planter with an inert gardening plastic, something made to be in constant contact with water and soil. If you use a plastic liner to isolate the soil from the wood, there’s no reason you can’t substitute pressure-treated wood (yes, there is pressure-treated cedar) for more longevity. And, yes, I see the irony in pressure treating new-growth cedar to make it behave the way old-growth cedar does naturally.

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Building my first wooden hand plane alongside an expert like Paul really made the whole process less intimidating and fun! He gave our class a lot of good information about hand planes, and he thoroughly explained each step in the making process. After the two-day workshop, we all left with a deeper appreciation and affinity for these tools. On the following pages, you’ll see the basic plane-making process we followed in the class. With a few adjustments, there are many types of hand planes that can be made: smoothing, coopering, hollowing and so forth. Paul told us, “I believe that part of the fun of making your own planes is that you can design them to do whatever you want, and then call them whatever you want.”

Preparing Stock for the Plane Body

After hearing Paul talk about the different types of planes, I chose to make a scrub plane that I will mostly use for texturing. Paul milled our stock ahead of time, since the class was short. We started with blanks of ash or oak measuring approximately 2-3/4″ x 2-3/4″ x 11″, which will accommodate a 1-1/2″-wide plane blade (also called an iron). Once the blank is square, head to the band saw to resaw 3/8″ off of two opposing sides. These sides and the middle lamination will then need to be re-flattened. The important dimension is that the width of the middle piece is 1/16″ wider than the blade’s width. (For my plane, it was 1-9/16″.) You can use another hand plane to flatten these faces or opt for modern machinery to do it instead. If you use a surface planer or jointer, be sure to take extra precautions for safety’s sake, because these three laminations are quite small. I recommend milling larger wood, then cutting it down. Now, set the pieces back together again to line up the grain pattern along the seams, and mark their position with a registration triangle on top of the blank. If you choose, you can drill small holes for the registration dowels shown above.

Laying out and Creating the Throat

Decide which end will be the front of the plane, based on grain direction. Remove one side piece and mark where the bed will be for the blade. The bed is created by marking and making a 45° cut across the thicker center lamination, approximately 5/9ths of the way to the front, which divides it into two pieces.

I did this at a miter saw, then used a plane iron as a spacer to mark the width of the throat opening. Don’t make the throat opening too wide.

You can always go back later and file more material away to improve its fit. Create the rest of the throat opening on the other piece of the center lamination by marking and cutting a curve on the band saw that leaves plenty of room for chips to escape.

The throat that I’m marking is rather large because scrub planes remove quite a bit of material at one time. Leave some thickness at the bottom of the curve so the short grain here won’t break off during use (see the Drawing above).

Installing the Cross Pin, Gluing Up the Body

There’s a wooden cross pin that holds the plane’s wedge and iron in place. I’m marking where this 3/8″-dia. dowel pin will go. Measuring perpendicular from the bed, locate the pin’s center 9/16″ away from the angled face of the blade bed and centered from top to bottom on the plane body. Clamp the thin outer laminations together, and drill a hole through them both for this pin.

Cut a length of pin and dry assemble the plane body with the pin in place. Then, in what will be the waste areas of the plane body, mark for a pair of 1/4″-diameter holes on each thinner lamination so you can install more short pieces of dowel to help keep the laminations aligned during gluing and clamping.

With the pin in place and the plane laminations clamped together, drill the registration dowel holes 1/2″ deep. Then, go ahead and glue up the plane body. Use clamping cauls and enough glue for good squeeze-out.

When the glue dries, it’s time to re-flatten the sole of your plane using a coarse-grit sandpaper on a flat surface like your jointer bed or a piece of granite.

Be sure to keep the sides of the body square to the sole as you flatten it. Then, glue the pin for the plane iron into place.

Customizing the Plane Body to Fit Your Hand

Now you’re ready to draw the profile of the plane that you want onto the plane body. Cut it out on the band saw. Decide how you want to shape the hand plane, or follow my basic shape in the illustration. At this point, it’s time to turn your roughly shaped plane body into something more comfortable to grip and use.

So, that will require some shaping tools. I put a sharp drawknife, spokeshave, block plane and sandpaper to work to shape my plane body. Soften the sharp edges, and keep removing material from the back end of the body until it fits your palm well.

The last wooden piece to make is the wedge, which fits in front of the plane iron and behind the pin. I cut the wedge to shape on the band saw, then used a block plane to clean up its angled face.

The goals when fitting the wedge include (by using only thumb pressure): a snug fit between the dowel and the plane iron and about 1/4″ space between the bottom end of the wedge and the sharpened end of the blade.

You may need to shorten the wedge or make it thinner, depending on how it fits. Finally, ease the long sharp edges of the sole by chamfering them with a block plane.

Making the Plane Iron

During our two-day class, I not only got to build the wooden plane body but also learned some blacksmithing skills. Starting with O1 steel bar stock, we shaped the cutting edges of our blades and hardened them in a forge so the steel would retain a cutting edge longer. As you can see here, the North House Folk School’s shop is well-equipped for metalworking! To learn the step-by-step process for making a plane iron, see my “More on the Web” article.

Finishing Up the Body

Traditionally, wooden hand planes have no finish. The oil of your hands will create a nice patina over time. Some users prefer to wax the body. If you do this, make sure not to wax the wedge and the pin, because you don’t want them to slip out of position during use.

That’s a quick overview of my process for making the wooden body. In the sidebar below, you can see that we also made the iron for our planes.

While I’ve made other tools, this was the most in-depth build so far. What a sense of satisfaction it was to try out my new plane for the first time! Paul Linden and North House Folk School made the whole experience so rewarding!

Click Here to Download the Drawing of the Plane Body Layout.

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Making the Blade

The class used O1 steel bar stock for making the blades. The first step is to color the end of the piece of steel which will become your blade with either a Sharpie® marker or some steel blue layout fluid. You will also need to mark the center line of the steel.

Next, you will need to scribe a curve on the blade end with a marking knife and then grind the metal at 90° to the line. I chose to make the radius on my blade 6″.

At North House, we used a belt sander to grind the curve onto the blade (photo 2). You will also want to camber the corners on the top of the blade so that they aren’t sharp.

Our North House class instructor had set up a jig at 45° for us to grind the bevel along the entire radius of the plane blade.

As participants in the class, we hardened the steel by heating it in a forge and then quenching it in oil at the beautiful blacksmith shop at North House — but there are many ways to create a small forge for home use, too.

You want to heat the steel a couple of inches up from the blade end to its critical temperature, where the chemical compounds change.

That means you will first look for the red glow to begin as the steel heats up. You will also want to use a magnet to check its magnetism.

When the steel reaches a bright orange color, and no longer has magnetism, it has reached its critical temperature.

After our steel reached this point, we quenched it in oil. The “O” of O1 steel indicates that it is oil hardening: immersing the steel in the oil causes the steel to become hard.

Next, you will need to temper the steel by bringing it to a consistency that will maintain hardness, but still be workable (less brittle) for sharpening. You can achieve this by placing the metal in an oven (a toaster oven works just fine) at 350° for at least half an hour.

We used a bench grinder with 6″ diameter wheels to put a 25° hollow grind bevel along the radius of the blade (photo 7).

Creating this hollow grind along the radius will make it easier to sharpen and resharpen the edge. Next, we moved on to a Tormek sharpening system to refine the edge.

The Tormek features a 10″ diameter wheel which is larger than the 6″ bench grinder wheel used to create the hollow grind. This means the Tormek will not have to remove much material because it only makes contact along the front and back edges of the bevel. Set the Tormek tool-rest to 25°. Starting at one corner, pivot the bevel across the wheel to get a nice, even grind across the blade.

Finish sharpening the edge on sharpening stones or sandpaper. In this case, we used wet/dry sandpaper, 220 grit through 2,500-grit. Start by flattening the back of the blade with the sandpaper on a flat surface, like your jointer bed, or a flat piece of stone or glass.

You only need to flatten the first couple of inches of the blade. As you move through the grits, getting finer and finer, the back of the blade will get shinier and shinier, like a mirror. You want to hold the blade so that it is completely flat; don’t rock it back and forth.

Next, hold the ground edge on the sandpaper and find the spot where you are resting on the front and back edges of the blade. Using sweeping motions, create a flat on the front and back edges of the bevel. This should develop a mirror-like shine across those edges.

Finishing Up

To help prevent rust when your plane is not in use, apply a thin coating of a protective oil, such as camellia oil, on the blade.

And, at last, you are ready to install the iron into your wooden plane body. Place the blade, with the bevel down, along with the wedge into the plane body so that the tip of the iron is about to come out the bottom. Using only thumb pressure, press the wedge in tight, making the blade protrude no more than 1/16″.

It was so exciting trying my hand plane and having it cut beautifully the first time! I am using my scrub plane to add texture to projects: starting with freshly milled wood and leaving little rounded grooves. My plane can also be used to make 45° passes across a board in one direction and then the other to take out any high spots to begin the process of flattening a board.

I’ve made other tools, but this was the most in-depth start to finish process I’ve experienced. I find learning old-school ways of working to be invaluable. That knowledge provides a base for innovation.

I had a blast with my class, and I really appreciate the attention to detail and wealth of knowledge our instructor, Paul Linden, shared. North House Folk School is a very special place for me, and I believe many of the other students feel the same way. It has become place where I cross paths with new and old friends. There is always something to learn. With the diversity of craft-based classes that are offered, there is something for everyone. The mission of NHFS, “to enrich lives and build community by teaching traditional Northern crafts,” is being accomplished with flying colors.

Click Here to Download a Printable Version of this Article.

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In this video, I’m going to show you how to build one of these chairs. You can also find the measured drawings and a complete build article in the April 2019 issue of Woodworker’s Journal. This spring, Rockler will also be selling the published plans, a set of templates for the curved parts and a hardware kit at Rockler.com.

We’ll start the process by building the seat assembly, so cut a couple of blanks for these back legs from 1-1/2″-thick stock.

Here I’m plotting points on a grid of 1″ squares on one of the leg blanks, then connecting the points with straight lines and a French curve to draw the first leg. When that’s done, cut out the leg and sand the cut edges flat and smooth.

Now go ahead and trace the first leg onto the second leg blank and cut it to rough shape, just outside of your layout lines. Then, attach the two legs together, face to face, with double-sided tape. Trim the second leg to match the first leg using a long bearing-guided flush-trim bit in your handheld router or on a router table.

Mark both back legs for these bolts here that will attach the front legs and allow these parts to pivot. Drill these 5/16″-dia. through bolt holes at a drill press, if possible, so these holes will be square to the leg faces.

Next up, we’re going to head to the table saw to cut dadoes into the back legs for these three parts: a rear seat stretcher, these backrest pivots and these backrest stops.

I’ve got one of the legs dadoed already so we can take a closer look. The whole dadoed area is 6” wide, and I start by cutting all of it 1/4” deep. Then I raise the blade to 3/4” to cut this 3”-wide center dado.

I make all of these cuts with my leg workpieces held against a long, stiff fence on my saw’s miter gauge for stability. And, this bottom “seat portion” of the leg goes against the miter gauge fence for every cut so these dadoes remain square to this front bottom edge. I’ve got it identified with a piece of tape here so I don’t forget which of these two bottom edges needs to stay against the fence.

When the dadoing is finished, file or sand the sharp back corners of the legs round, ease the long sharp edges and finish-sand the legs to 180 grit.

And now we can connect the legs with a couple of seat stretchers — a wider one in back that fits into the front-most dado we just cut, and this one, right here. So, go ahead and make up these parts. Then fasten the legs to the two stretchers with pairs of 3″ counterbored exterior screws to form the seat framework. Install the rear seat stretcher in the narrow, front-most leg dadoes.

We’ll fill the other wide and narrow dadoes in the legs with these two parts: a backrest pivot and a backrest stop. These backrest pivots have a 4-1/2″-wide lapped area here, milled 3/4″ deep into their outside faces. When these lap fits into the leg dadoes, it enables the pivots to install flush with the faces of the legs, like this

Cut these laps on a band saw, with a wide dado blade or a straight bit in the router table. Now cut the top ends of the pivots into 1-1/2″ radii and smooth the curves. Then bore a 7/8″-dia. counterbore, 3/8″ deep, into the outside face of each pivot at the centerpoint of the curves you just cut, followed by a 5/16″ bolt hole centered in the counterbore.

Sand the two pivots, ease their sharp edges and attach them to the legs like I’m doing here with waterproof wood glue and four counterbored screws. Then make up these backrest stops and install them in their dadoes so their top rounded end is are flush with the top edges of the legs.

We can wrap up work on our seat base by installing these seat slats. I want to point out a couple of things about them, so let’s take a closer look. As you can see here, I first rounded the corners of my seat slats and knocked off the sharp top edges with a 1/4” roundover bit in my router. And that will help prevent splinters.

I also drilled these pairs of screw pilot holes at my drill press, before installing the slats, to keep the screw patterns evenly spaced and straight. Counterbore these holes so you can cover the screw heads with wood plugs.

To install them, butt the rearmost slat against the backrest pivots, and space the slats about 5/16″ apart — some dowels or wood scraps can make this easy to do. Then extend the screw pilot holes from the slats into the legs, and fasten the slats with 2″ exterior screws.

That takes care of the seat portion of this project, so now we can move on to the fold-down backrest. We’ll start with these two long backrest supports here, so make up those blanks. Each one requires a long slot near the bottom so the backrest can slide up, like this, to set the chair up or fold it down. We’ll cut these slots at the router table with a 5/16”-dia. straight or spiral bit.

Now I’ve got my router table set up to make these slot cuts, with the bit’s cutting limits marked with tape on the table. I’ve already got one slot cut on these backrest supports to show you what we’re doing. Clearly, it’s a centered slot, and it goes all the way through the thick workpiece. Now, these supports are pretty thick at 1-1/2 in., but you don’t need an overly long bit to make these cuts. Here’s the trick!

For each bit height setting, make two passes instead of just one, flipping the workpiece end for end and keeping the same edge against the fence. This way, you can cut the slot in from both faces to speed the process along. But remember, make sure to keep the same edge against the fence. As long as your bit can cut to at least half the thickness of the workpiece, you can cut these centered slots without buying an overly long bit.

This is also a good time to drill a bolt hole in each support for attaching the back ends of the arms, later. Complete the supports by rounding their bottom corners with 5/8″ radii to provide clearance for pivoting.

The backrest of the chair also requires these two horizontal crosspieces. And they’re curved along this front edge to make the chair back more comfortable to lean against. So, make up one, then template-rout the second one to match it, just like you did for the back legs.

Here at the bench, I’ve got the backrest framework clamped together so I can check its fit on the seat assembly. You want this framework to slide in between the leg pivots without binding. If the fit is too tight, trim the crosspieces a little bit shorter, clamp it up and try the fit again. When the framework fits correctly, finish-sand the parts and fasten the crosspieces between the supports with 3″-long counterbored exterior screws.

With the seatback framework assembled, we can move on to making the back slats. Now, you can see that there are two narrow ones on the outside and five wider ones in between. So make up blanks for them all, and cut the top ends of these narrower slats round. These five wide slats share a 10″-radius, and here’s how to lay that out.

Here, I’ve got all seven slats clamped together and up against this clamped, flat scrap to keep the bottom ends lined up. I’ve also got 1/4″ spacers in between each slat. I’ve drawn a center line down the middle slat, and marked a pivot point 10″ in from the top end. That way, I can use a large compass or these trammel points set for 10 inches to draw that curve.

Cut the slat curves at the band saw, then ease their sharp corners. Round over the front edges to prevent splinters, and sand them smooth.

Here I’ve got my back slats ready to install on the backrest framework. You can see that I’ve got the spacers in place between them again, and a couple of layout lines here and here so the screws will be centered on the crosspieces. And I’ve pre-drilled counterbores for the installation screws. I’ve also got a couple of scraps clamped together down here so that all of the slats will line up along the bottom evenly. And you’ve got a pin or brad nailer, I’ve found it helpful to tack all of the slats to keep them from moving around as you’re driving the attachment screws.

Fasten the slats with 2” exterior screws. Notice that the hole positions are offset on the narrow slats in order to avoid the screw locations where the backrest supports and crosspieces connect.

Well, we’re making great progress on this chair, and there’s only a few more parts to make before this chair will be ready for finish! So, next up: the front legs. Notice on the bottom ends that they have a centered slot so the seat can move up or down for setup. Go ahead and rout these slots, just like you did for the backrest supports.

Here I’ve got one of the legs already completed so I can point out a few important details, and the first one is this 3/4”-dia. counterbore right here. This counterbore is a safety feature: it locks these knobs from Rockler into the top of the slot so the seat can’t fall down if the knobs loosen up a little bit. If this were just a slot, all that would hold the seat up is the knob and bolt tension, but this recess provides an important mechanical stop. Bore these knob recesses 1/4″ deep at the drill press, centering the counterbore on the radius of the slot’s top curve.

Another point of note on the front legs are these 1-1/2” radii curves at the top back corners. They enable the legs to pivot backwards for folding up or setting up the chair. But this square corner prevents them from rotating forwards. Lay these curves — one for the left leg, like this, and one for the right leg, like this — and band saw them to shape.

Now switch to 7/8” bit and drill a 5/8”-deep counterbore and a through bolt hole near the top of each leg where the legs will connect to the chair’s arms. Then, round over the bottom corners of the legs with 5/8” radii. Sand all the leg curves smooth, and ease their sharp edges.

If you buy Rockler’s templates for this project, you’ll get one to draw these shapes. Or, you can lay it out on your own, using our gridded drawings in our published plans in Woodworker’s Journal magazine. Whichever route you take, saw one arm to shape, and template-rout the second one to match the first.

The arms of the chair require two of these pivot blocks apiece to attach them to the chair and allow for rotation. I’ve got this pair shaped, counterbored, drilled and ready to cut to final length. I find that it’s often easer and safer to make small parts like these from a longer workpiece, to start with.

Both pivot blocks for each arm are located along this inside flat edge, but their counterbores face in opposite directions. The rear pivot block’s counterbore faces the outside, curved edge of the arm, and the front pivot block’s counterbore faces inward. Install the pivot blocks on the arms with pairs of 2″ counterbored exterior screws. Then ease the top sharp edges of both arms with a 1/4” roundover bit.

All that’s left to do now is bolt the chair together, plug the screw holes and apply some finish! Start by installing carriage bolts, big fender washers and knobs to attach the backrest to the seat assembly. Then attach an arm to each leg with a carriage bolt, a washer and nylon lock nut in the top leg counterbores. Don’t overtighten these nuts. Just snug them up lightly. You want the parts to rotate freely. Now slip these front leg assemblies onto long carriage bolts in the back legs here, and thread a knob into that recess at the top of the front leg slots. Finally, attach the rear ends of the arms to the backrest with more carriage bolts, washers and nylon lock nuts.

Go ahead and check the folding action of the chair. If it functions properly, it’s time to fill all of these counterbores with wood plugs, so you can move on to finishing.

I’m keeping the finish on this chair as simple and easy to refinish as possible! I’m just applying a coat of semi-transparent, oil-based deck and siding stain with UV inhibitors added. And when the stain dries, I’ll bolt the chair back together, and it will be ready for use.

I hope this video will encourage you to build a couple of these chairs for your yard! It’s a fun project to build, and at the end of the season, they’ll be a whole lot easier to store! Remember, you can find this project in our April 2019 issue of Woodworker’s Journal Magazine. Or, buy the project plans, templates and hardware from rockler.com. I’m Chris Marshall with Woodworker’s Journal, and thanks for watching!

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